The three of them continued their trek. The night air was growing colder. It would have been much worse if none of them had Ux to keep themselves warm, but that fact only made Dreiki worry more.
If you have time to worry about something, you’ve got time to do something about it.
But what could he do? Thus far, he had been nearly useless in fighting the Malaki. Even if Tadios said that he’d saved them, all he had done was sniff out their trap. In the end, if Tadios and Arik fell, he could not do anything about it. He was more reliant on them, than they were of him.
Why had the Malaki ignored him? Was it to drive home that he was weak? Dreiki pushed those thoughts from his mind. He had to consider other things. His own self doubt was getting in the way. But what else could it have been? What did he have that the others did not?
At first, Dreiki thought it might have been because he could see them, but if anything that should have made him more of a target, not less. He could feel their anger and discomfort at being seen. Yet no matter how much he looked at them, they did not bother to attack him.
Not to mention, Arik and Tadios could see them too, so that wasn’t it.
Was it Ux?
Even if Dreiki considered fully awakened Ux to be the cause, Tadios was still being attacked. In fact, the Oskuutor had tried to ambush him first every time. It was as if the Oskuutor knew who they were. How long had these monsters been watching them to know which of them was strongest?
Not only that, but they had made use of the people Arik and Tadios knew in order to lure them. To make them rush in recklessly and fall straight into a trap. Ux was not the reason, but it felt close to the answer.
What if the Osazi’s mark was what protected him? It would make sense. The Osazi would not want their target to die prematurely. However, there was plenty the Oskuutor could have done to him without killing him. They could cut his legs off, or keep him alive through torture like they had done with Corvio. Would the Osazi stop that from happening? It did not sound likely.
What if they feared him for some reason? What if they avoided him because something was making him invisible to them? It didn’t make sense, since his presence did not deter the Oskuutor.
Perhaps the answer was hidden within the Tibur’s story about the Silver Reaper?
“Arik, can you recall any more of what happens in that Silver Reaper story? Like some sort of summary or something?”
“Oh yeah. I don’t know if it’d be helpful, though. From what I remember, there’s a newly established town out in the Altix. It thrives and flourishes, but one day there’s a wounded xio who shows up to the town. Since the village is new, they don’t have a lot of food or medicine to go around, so there’s some argument as to whether or not to let the xio in. There is a kind hearted person who manages to convince the others to accept the wounded xio and make him repay his debt with labor. The village agrees to this, and accepts the xio into the village to nurse him back to health. One thing leads to another, and people start to notice disappearances happening all over the village after they take him in. Not only that, but some of the villagers start to claim they see the disappeared villagers walking at night and repeating the same phrases over and over. Those who investigate end up disappearing too.”
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“Definitely sounds a lot like Oskuutor.” Dreiki said, “What about the part with the Silver Reaper specifically?”
“Long story short, they end up blaming the wounded xio for all of it, but the kind hearted person from before defends the wounded xio. At some point in the story the villagers find out that the root of the disappearances is the Oskuutor, and they try to fight back. Unfortunately for them, though, they can’t kill them. Their magic becomes useless, and the villagers blame the outsider for this misfortune. The outsider, who has recovered, decides to reveal his identity as The Silver Reaper. He thanks the kind person who helped him, and walks out to face the Oskuutor. Now that I talk about it, I remember a phrase along the lines of ‘A blade of quickened silver and a bell of hardened bronze’ or something like that.”
A bell of bronze? So it was a physical bell.
“And then comes the whole ‘Twas chilled and sharpened blades’ part. The Silver Reaper slays the Oskuutor, and frees the villagers. Those villagers, however, decide to follow him. There’s a weird bit that mentions the Silver Reaper being followed by thousands of people, but that never made sense to me cuz the village was supposed to be a small village.”
“Not unless you remember that the people he ‘freed’ were likely already dead.” Sancta chimed in, “I can put together that much, just by your poor summary. It’s obvious when the story says the Reaper ‘freed’ them, it’s talking about their souls.”
“Yeah? But I aint never seen a soul before. And I didn’t think they could walk with someone either.”
“There’s something called a ‘metaphor’. The orator was probably embellishing the tale to convey some sort of unspoken truth about the situation.”
“That aside, it sounds like they’re describing the way Ux functions.” Dreiki said.
Arik raised an eyebrow, “How do you mean?”
“I mean, the Ux of others can follow those they knew in life and grant them strength. The story was probably trying to convey that the Silver Reaper had a lot of Ux.”
“And then there’s the matter of a blade of quickened silver and a bell of hardened bronze,” Sancta added, “It’s obvious to me they mean ‘quicksilver’ which is also known as mercury. From a literary sense, it’s often used to symbolize speed and mobility. Unsurprising if he was fighting the Oskuutor. As for the bronze, that could symbolize strength, or stability. While a bell can symbolize ‘the end’ of something. A ‘bronze bell’ would therefore be symbolizing the hero’s strength to kill the Oskuutor.”
Arik sighed, “Well that’s still useless because it looks like we have neither the strength, nor speed to kill them. How much more do we need to do other than reducing them to ash?”
“That’s because the answer to killing them isn’t magic.” Dreiki said, “It’s Ux.”