image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1049139125908930620/1196524340506791976/249.png?ex=65d3a0a1&is=65c12ba1&hm=caf8dfdd649ee813f2fc719930b49950b4db874020eaf8474dcc78d2253a86be&]
“Are you serious?” Maiya said. “It’s been that long already!?”
Two hours had passed in the blink of an eye as Vir and Maiya chatted, and soon the sun was setting in Maiya’s Realm.
As much as Vir wanted to stay up long into the ‘night’, Maiya could not. After becoming the Blessed Prophet—a development that Vir still couldn’t believe—Maiya’s free time had become exceedingly precious.
After her experience in the chamber with the vine tree—a chamber that sounded identical to the one Vir had experienced—her status within the organization had soared sky-high. Vir believed that with her newfound power, she was close to realizing Princess Ira’s goal for her within the Children, though Maiya was less certain, thanks in part to the botched assassination attempt on her life.
She seemed convinced there was a secret to the Children of Ash. Something deep and buried, and until she unveiled the truth, she believed that overthrowing the Blessed Chosen was unlikely. And without doing that, she had no chance of taking over the cult.
Vir didn’t care about the Childrens’ secrets as much as he worried for her safety.
Despite his worries, however, these chats remained the highlight of Vir’s day. He only wished Maiya were with him, so they could explore the Demon Realm together. Verbal descriptions left so much to be desired.
Although saddened that their call only lasted a couple of hours, it meant there was enough charge within the communications orb for another call.
“Talk to you tomorrow?” Maiya asked.
“Sure, but my orb’s running out of charge,” Vir replied. “Might be a couple of days before I can get it working again.”
“I see,” Maiya said, obviously disappointed. Saying goodbye every day was almost as hard as not seeing each other.
As far along as he’d come, powering human orbs was still impossible. Perhaps the limitation would be overcome one day, but for now, he had to make do. Luckily, Cirayus had proven that demons could charge them, and so once Vir arrived at Samar Patag, all he’d need was a helper. Someone trustworthy.
“Stay safe, yeah?”
“You too, Mai.”
Maiya’s face winked out, leaving Vir alone in his camping bed.
There was still some time to kill before Darsh and Hetal woke up, leaving Vir at a loss for what to do. After spending so many sleepless nights fighting off beasts in the Ashen Realm, he’d thought he’d look forward to a full eight hours of sleep, but that was nearly impossible for him now. After just two, he awoke fully rested, courtesy of all the prana that coursed within his body.
And so, for the first time in a very long time, he had the luxury of engaging in a hobby. Luckily for him, there just so happened to be a convenient hobby readily accessible.
Vir rummaged through his black Imperium rucksack and retrieved Saunak’s thick tome of Thaumaturgy.
He started on page one.
----------------------------------------
Six hours later, Vir wondered if he’d made a terrible mistake. Though his mind should only have needed two hours of sleep, after struggling to make heads or tails of the book, Vir felt like he could use another nap.
I thought hobbies were supposed to be relaxing…
The tome itself was bad enough—using jargon such as pathway conductivity, elemental synergy, and loads of other names Vir had a hard time understanding—but Saunak’s notes made it even worse.
In some places, the demon had crossed out the underlying text entirely, replacing it with his own nonsensical ramblings. That was bad both because it prevented Vir from reading what had originally been written, and because Saunak’s knowledge was far beyond that of the book’s author. Half of his notes were insults hurled at the writer.
From what little Vir had gleaned, inscriptions allowed prana to circulate in a very particular pattern or cycle, at a fast rate, efficiently. Far more efficiently than a demon could manage without the tattoo, and with less mastery required.
In fact, for most demons, creating any type of magical effect at all was nearly impossible, given the prana control it required.
Vir was the exception. Whether it was a primordial ability, or because his predecessors had done the legwork, Vir’s control had always been exceptional, allowing him to reverse engineer Dance of the Shadow Demon even without the tattoo.
Granted, it still wasn’t as good as the original, so Vir looked forward to the day when he could inscribe the real deal on his body. He wondered how much his manipulation mastery would strengthen the tattoos.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Vir also learned that tattoos were simply one application of an inscription. Somewhat like human orbs, these patterns could be inscribed on a variety of objects, though said objects had to have specific prana conduction properties for there to be any hope of success.
Demonic tablets to tell time and perform a slew of other tasks—essentially the demonic analog of human utility orbs—required such a material. Crystals were ideal but expensive. The next best thing was a particular type of ore.
This random bit of knowledge came from one of Saunak’s many notes.
Feeling spent, Vir closed the tome and sunk into his mindscape for an hour. It was a shame he couldn’t bring Saunak’s tome with him there, though perhaps it was for the better. Spending even more time with the book would have the opposite effect. Besides, he had a sinking feeling that he'd need to train under a thaumaturge if he wanted to make any real headway.
Just as Saunak had intended.
Vir opened the Foundation Chakra and sunk into his mindscape, allowing calming peace to wash over him. The gentle breeze, the chirping birds, and the croaking crickets all aided him, and soon the tangle of thoughts that plagued him unwound, leaving his mind as calm as a placid ocean.
Mentally restored, Vir exited his mental construct. He found that in its current form, the mindscape granted him a two-to-one time advantage versus reality. Every hour spent in there was a half hour in reality. Cirayus had mentioned that this scaling factor would increase as Vir opened more Chakras. Of course, his body remained where it was—it was only his mind that traveled.
Eager to expand his mindscape, Vir had started working on opening the Life Chakra but found it slow going, especially without Cirayus to help guide the process. The giant had told him to concentrate on the presence of people around him—even when he wasn’t actively meditating. Right now, the only people around him were Darsh and Hetal, and they were some distance away.
Vir expected to have a better time of it in Samar Patag.
It was a departure from how he trained the Foundation Chakra, but it made sense that each would have its own unique way of training it.
The initial Chakras were said to be the easiest, but given how long it took him to open the Foundation Chakra, Vir braced himself for the long haul. And while Shardul had mentioned he could commune with his predecessors upon opening his Chakra, Vir wasn’t sure if he wanted to confront Ekanai so soon after the events of the cavern. He wasn’t sure how much the demon would be able to help him.
Vir had come to peace with the demon being a part of him… But that didn’t mean he and the warrior would get along. Of concern was whether the true Ekanai would appear, or the distorted version that had taken possession of Vir’s body on multiple occasions.
“Ready to go?” Darsh asked as Vir approached. The boy had arisen some minutes prior and was tending to their Ash’va. His bleary-eyed sister, however, had only just sat herself up.
“We should arrive at Samar Patag before the day’s out,” Darsh announced. “We’d best get moving.”
Vir nodded. Today was the day he finally saw the city that bore so much of his past. The city his father had died protecting.
“Let’s go.”
----------------------------------------
Vir had kept his expectations to a minimum. A city that had fallen from its height, that had been conquered and driven to the ground by despotic leadership… Vir had seen Daha. He’d seen what effect it had.
Still, this was his city. The land of his parents. His clan. Vir couldn’t quell his excitement.
They approached from the east, and Vir took note of the terrain along the way. The desert had given way to a desert forest. Tall trees soared nearly as tall as the Godshollow, but these were spindly and thin. And seemingly half-dead. They bore few leaves at all, and the ground under them, instead of being the rich fertile soil Vir expected from a forest, was sandy, red, and similar to the desert they’d traversed until now.
Vir wiped a bead of sweat from his brow—the incessant humidity might’ve abated somewhat, but the heat remained.
Then the enormous inland Gargan Sea came into view, and they followed its coast to the walls of Samar Patag. Ramshackle walls. The stonework had been patched haphazardly after the Chitrans had sacked it. Several sections of the wall were discolored, and if Vir wasn’t wrong, they’d been patched with clay instead of stone. A cost-saving measure, no doubt.
That wall wouldn’t stand a chance against a half-decent army.
Then again, what army would attack the Chitrans? They’d been the ones to unite the tribes, after all. Ironic, since that was exactly the goal Cirayus wished for. The Chits simply used less-than-desirable means to attain it.
For all Vir knew, the demon clans might love the Chitrans. It could very well be a time of prosperity for the realm.
One can always hope…
It was a fool’s hope, Vir knew. He’d seen a village already, and the sorry state of the travelers who wished to enter the city spoke volumes.
For one, there were only two or three people ahead of them at the checkpoint wishing to enter. About an equal number departed from the city while they waited. That didn’t bode well. Even Daha had dozens lining up to enter at all hours of the day, and there was always enough traffic along its roads to cause congestion.
Avi was on another level beyond that. Its ports were bursting with activity.
The lack of traffic spoke volumes about the trade and travel between Samar Patag and the other strongholds—little to nonexistent.
“This is where we part ways,” Vir said, before adding, “for now…” when he saw the crestfallen look on the siblings’ faces.
“Y-You sure?” Darsh asked.
“I’ve got my own ways of entering the city,” Vir said with a placating smile. “Don’t worry about me. Get your tasks done, then hurry home, alright?”
The siblings nodded obediently.
“It was fun, Neel! Let’s meet up again soon!”
Vir waved as he walked away from the gate. When he was far enough, he began Leaping parallel to the wall, right below it, though he kept his jumps shorter to conserve prana.
The design of Samar Patag’s walls had the ramparts overhang slightly above the wall itself. This helped to attack enemies right at the wall, but it also obscured the land directly underneath—unless someone happened to look straight down through a rampart murder hole.
And while the ramparts were patrolled, there weren’t nearly as many guards as Daha had had. As rundown as that country was, they at least maintained their defenses.
Likely because King Rayid constantly feared invasion. The Chitrans have grown complacent.
Thanks to the few guards, Vir had no issue remaining undetected.
Inserting spies into the city would be trivial, even if the gates were guarded vigilantly. Which they really weren’t. Anyone with a Chitran Calling badge could get through.
Using the wall’s own shadow, Vir invoked Dance of the Shadow Demon and slipped through. He’d briefly considered conserving prana and entering some other way, but with Prana Current, it wouldn't take long at all to restore what he’d lost.
He was in. After a journey across three realms, he was home.