104 - The Witching Road

Poor Egil. Poor Christa. Poor Thock. Ah hells, why the devil did I come here? Hells . . hells . . I didn't even think of home until after I crossed the Stor, did I? Didn't even think of coming back home . . why did I bother?

There was hope - wasn't there? Right . . a little festering pustule of hope in the back of my mind - a hope that Pa Lund and Uncle Willis would be alive . . a hope that not everything would be lost . . yeah . . hells . .

I shouldn't have come, I shouldn't have come . .

The dead streets of Kloster bathed in pale moonlight, Magnus went down the main street and stopped outside the ruined hall of Sea Maidens - the cavernous tavern, made much bigger to accommodate all the giants - entirely collapsed in on itself.

There sat Harkness, didn't he? And here used to sit Ingrid . . and there Gus, and Fenig, and Harry . . the bar used to be right here, I'd sit on the left and Rolf would sit on the right and we'd watch the giants all night - drinking, singing, feasting . .

Now - in the streets and in the ruins all that was left were the twisted bodies of the black things and a few giant bones.

The giants who'd gone across to Doohama had all been poisoned by Festus - it seemed that that was the fate of all the giant creatures in Kloster. There wasn't a single giant still living - certainly not any human, and not any sheep or pig or any of the giant cows - every last creature that Festus touched had died.

And after . . yeah . . those that were not poisoned or slaughtered by the black skins - the Witching Road had come, hadn't it? Come and 'tidied up', just like they had the hunters of the horn.

All gone, all dead . . . is there nothing I can do? Nothing? With all the things I know - with all the powers I have? I'm a bloody Celestial, ain't I? All this . . all these abilities and powers and what's the bloody use?

What can I do? Why did I bother coming?

Magnus sat in the middle of the road outside the ruins of Sea Maidens, his shoulder sloped, his head hung low.

With all the bloody things I know . . with all the knowledge of the Alchemists and Seers and Cultivators - is there really nothing I can do?

Well . . there are plenty of things, aren't there, Magnus?

Hob? That you?

Right, right - who else is gonna be speaking in your head?

There is something I can do? As a Celestial, I mean - but . . ain't it too late? Don't they, I mean, can't I only use my Vigour on living things?

Yeah - but think about it, that's the thing, right - see, I've been in the Sleeping Forest for a bit now . . Kujata, she didn't tell you half of what a Celestial can do.

And you know?

Of course I know! So do you! Think about it for a moment Magnus - think about it, everything you've been told - the Logos, the five coloured strands - hells, devouring people and having them appear in the forest - what does it add up to?

Add up to?

Yeah - think, remember - she showed you at the first, the vision - the giant bull with countless eyes, remember that? Just after she stomped the shit out of you back in the shrine - Kujata, the thousand eyed bull - standing above the world, with a single breath boiling the oceans, with a single stomp of her hoof cracking the earth asunder - think!

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Yeah . . yeah! I remember! She said . . Kujata said, that was the true form of a Celestial - that was me! But . . but . . ah!

You're getting it. That's her true form - what about you?

What about me? My true form? I'm . . I'm just me, ain't I? I . . I don't think I've got anything like a giant bull inside of me Hob.

Don't be daft - think it through, you've awakened, right? Right after the Griffon - before you got in that whole mess with Soo and Min and all that . .

All that . . .

All that . .

Magnus closed his eyes, feeling a deep tiredness - a sudden urge to sleep

Inside of Magnus churned a thousand thoughts all at once - inside him something stirred, as if waking from a thousand year sleep - shaking off the cobwebs, every bone cracking and popping, from the tips of the hairs on his head down to the innermost marrow of his bones - Magnus felt it tremble and shake.

Awakened . . awake . . awwwakeeennn . .

Slow . .

Slow, Magnus opened his eyes - slow, the world came into focus - a slow spiral motion, a slow turn and slow blink - here, slow the red eye turns and looks - here, slow it blinks back at Magnus - blinks and is - before and after become one, the same - I am looking, I am me - through the red eye I see me sat looking, a slow blink . .

A yawn - the jaws of the earth opened and breathed out hot fiery air - a tremendous rush of energy filled the space - only the red eye and Magnus - around, filling the air are a thousand colours rushing up from beneath, the empty air around the red eye filling with lights - a shape taking form.

The shape . . the red eye - Magnus looked out of it, looking at it - was it and was outside it all at once - around them a thousand strands of light coalesced into a single shape - that of a giant man, the red eye imprinted on the palm of its hand.

Magnus stood - it stood - from the formless void the giant man of many colours grew a thousand feet taller, ten thousand feet, taller than any tree, taller than any man made thing - so massive that his head was amongst the clouds - so big that Magnus knew he could reach out and pluck the stars from the heavens if he so wished.

Around him the world lay, all of Kloster, all of Jute beneath his feet - the whole town, all the valleys and forests and mountains and beaches he had wandered and he had lived - they all fit beneath his foot.

This was a giant!

This is what it meant to be big!

All of Festus' experiments . . they couldn't even reach the tips of his toes!

Magnus breathed in - the sky and clouds for a hundred miles rushed into his lungs - he breathed out - a hundred whirlwinds and hot currents of air tore through the atmosphere.

This is me!

This is Magnus Lund!

To the south . . more than two hundred miles away - the lights of a city.

Juteheim . . The Witching Road . .

Festus!

Alchemist bastards!

I'm coming for you!