“You and I haven't been given much of a chance to speak.” Rafael said, not quite soberly. “But I remain impressed at your performance, both here and in the guild. It's really too bad about what happened, or is about to happen – I suppose. Never would've thought I'd be standing in front of a primus speaking to him so casually, either.”
“Life is funny like that. But what do you mean?” Tyr asked. This drink that Rafael loved so much, 'whiskey', was a dark brown liquor from the western republic and quite popular all over the world. Harani drank ale and wine, hard spirits weren't so common. If there was a national liquor of Haran, it'd have to be eastern gin, which was incredibly disgusting in Tyr's opinion. “I haven't heard anything.”
“Hunter's are getting disbanded.” Rafael slumped in his chair. He was always such a proud knight and devout believer in the primus', but after all their training together, the time in the astral space – and then the matches... Their relationship had evolved beyond the professional, and he'd eventually learned to relax and stop calling Tyr 'primus' so respectfully. It wasn't the familiarity, either, Tyr was for the most part an idiot, and while Rafael would love to tell him that, there was something in the blatant psychopath that made him so likable. Everyone wanted to be his friend, it was magnetic. “I spent my entire career in that guild, you know? A shame to see it go.”
“Indeed.” Tyr said. “But can they do that, disband your guild? I thought your authority as guild masters lay outside the senate?”
“Sure it does, on paper. But there are rules for membership count and the like, and since the nation pays most of our utilities, they'll always have a say in what we do. If not, another guild will come for what we have in an attempt to forcibly absorb us in a guild war.”
“Shit happens.” Tyr said, he didn't know what else to really say, and had no idea what he'd even do after the trials were done. He wasn't one to plan ahead, but he doubted he'd join another guild. “Or you can ask, and I can tell Alexandros to fuck off. I'm still terrified of that guy, but that just makes me want to do it even more.”
Rafael looked lost for a moment before regaining some of his cheer. It was just them in this 'bar', a small cart drawn stand dedicated solely to 'fine whiskey'.
Fine whiskey, Tyr thought with a shake of his head. It tasted like wood chips marinated in the oil used for quenching steel. It too was disgusting, none of the crisp refreshing taste of a nice beer. “You know what, you're right! I'm not that old, and my career isn't over by a long shot! Maybe I'll go to the Krieg, I heard there's some action there. Lots of open contracts.” He smiled. “Like the good old days! Road men, you and I are two peas in a pod, born noble but bred for a rougher way in life. Thanks, Tyr! I can always count on you!”
“...I didn't say anything. Wait, are you asleep...?” The man was, Rafael had said his piece before abruptly slamming his head on the table and dozing off. Tyr adjusted the man, letting his life attuned fire kiss at his forehead and remove the reddened mark present on it, ensuring he was a little more comfortable seemed like the right thing to do. “What the hell? That's some talent...”
The right thing...? Tyr frowned, his mouth souring a bit as he observed the fact that he was treating this practical stranger like a friend. Maybe he'd grown soft, being around all of these people for too long. Perhaps it was time to find some honest solitude again.
“It happens.” The patron said, a grizzled old man with a shock of white hair and a red-gray goatee. “We only make the heavy stuff, brewed for hill folk. Fine and proper knights like your partner there seem to love it, even if they can't handle it. Want another?”
Tyr stared passively at the mouthful remaining in his tumbler before downing it. From a complexity standpoint, it was probably a masterwork, perhaps it was the best whiskey in the world – but it still didn't suit his taste. “Bring me something stronger.”
The barkeep chuckled fatherly, winking at the lad seated at his humble stand. “Aye. Only the best of mine kin for the White Wolf himself. And thanks.”
“Thanks?” Tyr raised an eyebrow. “For what?”
“Saved my village, you did. My grandchildren along with it, I'll never forget watching you take to the wall and drag those who refused to leave out by force. Was a good turn you did us, we clan men remember these things.” He tapped his head with a gnarled finger. “Even if ye broke me arm in the process. Ha! I'll miss that place.”
“Ah...” Tyr grimaced, again. Not only the curses followed him, but also the blessings. Near all of them borne from misunderstanding, but he didn't hate it so much anymore. “You're welcome, old man, but I'll have that drink if you wouldn't mind.”
The old man laughed again, smiling widely. “Comin' right up.”
Tyr finished, sitting there at the stand in quiet contemplation. The man kept topping him off, and it still wasn't very good, but the discomfort of him swallowing it seemed to help him focus. There was mana in this alcohol, too, serving to make it slightly more palatable.
“Dear gods, my boy, but you can really put em down! How was it? Excellent, right? 60 year aged, finest of me clan!”
“Not tonight.” Tyr grunted, snorting once again at his evolving character. It wasn't for him, at least not the specific action he was about to take. He slammed a fat sack of coins on the bar, he didn't know how much was in there, but it was probably a lot.
“What's this then?” The man observing the bag, full of something clinking and metallic.
“Buy a new village, elder. Congratulations, you're now wealthy.”
But before the elder could reply, Tyr, with Rafael slumped over his shoulder and giggling like a child, was gone. It was there again, that feeling, the heat and light inside of him. Another chain to add to all the others.
–
The night was cool and fair, given the climes. On the eastern continent, the climate didn't follow any clear rules.
Haran was relatively temperate, the Republic was largely windy and wet on most days, the successor states were mostly arid, and Varia was temperate again. South of Varia was a vast stretch of continent spanning forest where Saorsa lay, riding up the mountains to become pines again before the lowlands opened up into a large jungle. Occupied by a race known as ashkaari who killed humans on sight.
Or so he'd been told, few explorers ever made it through Saorsa, and even less had seen the lands of the ashkaari and lived to tell the tale. South of that was a stretch of sea, and tropical Agoron. Warm, hot, cold, warm, cold, hot, hot. Perhaps it was the mana, or the currents of the sea as some people claimed.
Lina was good for something after all, and it had nothing to do with the weather.
Tyr had seen how talented and refined she was, even before. She was a good mage, and a better fighter – but she hadn't batted an eye when he'd called her to see that Rafael found a bed. Appearing out of thin air in a handful of minutes with a happy smile.
And that was something worth appreciating.
Lina, who had to be aware that he was the one who awakened the mycelians that killed her fellow knights. Tyr knew, Alexandros had made sure of that, in that emotionless way of his. Not blaming, just telling. Lina had never once mentioned it, blamed him, or shown him any kind of aggression beyond a well earned slap when he got too lippy. He didn't know why, was she just a good person? If someone had done that to him, even inadvertently, he wasn't sure what he'd do personally. Kill them, most assuredly.
He was a primus, though. And to Lina, there was something oddly calming about his presence at times, at least when he shut his mouth. She did know, but she couldn't bring herself to blame him. Primus' never made sense, not even to the gods, the proof being that the churches did not understand them.
Tyr sat alone in the dead of the night, restless and a bit lonely. Empty, perhaps, was the better word to use. He didn't want to be near another person right now, it was a difficult sensation to describe, like wanting and also not wanting.
His feet were dipped in the roadway spanning pools of the aptly name industrial quarter. Ocean avenue again, he liked this place. It reminded him of an old friend. The streets were quiet, the silver sliver of the moon reflecting off the surface of the water. So bright tonight, but it had been a full moon for an entire month by now. Some magic, they said.
Nothing ever made sense, sometimes Tyr felt like he was in some fever dream that he couldn't possibly escape from. He knew it was real, because spira was real, it made up the fabric and form of all reality. Couldn't put his finger on why it all managed to feel so fake. Like an illusion that a tapping fingernail could easily shatter. Everything was so temporary and glassy and gray. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
“Did you ever find anything stronger?” Someone asked. Again... Even in the dead of night they still hounded him, but he also wasn't disappointed at the arrival...
“I didn't.” Tyr replied. “And I'd appreciate it if you would stop watching me without announcing yourself. It's weird, you know very well that I'd be fine with you coming to sit with me.”
The woman laughed heartily. “I am too deeply smitten with my little pup to do anything but keep an eye on him as long as he's in my vicinity. It took a while to find you, after all.”
“Hush.” Tyr sighed. “I'm not in the mood right now.”
“Suit yourself.” Nala replied, seating herself beside him without invitation and placing her bare feet in the pool with an exaggerated sigh. Tyr had warmed it, all of it, hundreds of meters of pool heated to the point where it was steaming in the night... “You'll have to give your respects to my father. Did you know that they wanted to exile me from the city? Something about a 'magical beast isn't allowed to participate' – the gal of these humans. A beast they called me.”
“Tell him yourself.” Tyr shrugged. “He's got better eyes and ears than you do. Jartor always knows, I am sure he is watching us by the same token.”
“Ah.” Nala replied, Tyr could only make her out in his peripheral vision, but she looked as she always did. In her white dress and robes, thick eyebrows and pointed canines revealed in her bright smile. “Do not be cross with me, I said what I said for a reason. Always alone, my little pup, seeking solitude when you've so many mates to warm your bed, it's depressing. This is not the natural way, to flee from the bonds we build.”
“I got the point of what you were trying to do, but I'm not one to hold grudges in any case, unless someone really deserves it.” Tyr exhaled calmly, ignoring the rest of what she'd said. “Why, though?”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Why, what?”
“Why do you want to push me so hard?” Tyr asked. “I've been thinking about it, thinking about that and what I thought I knew about you. For what purpose was all of that for?”
Nala leaned back, staring up at the moon wistfully. “Suffice it to say that I can smell the origin in you and I want to taste it. There's more, but... I couldn't articulate, I just feel it, like I said before.”
“...Taste it.” Tyr repeated uncomfortably with a scrunched brow.
“Chimera are creatures of an origin – that being anima. Not that we possess that origin, as I doubt there even is one, but we feed on magic. I could live a thousand years without consuming flesh or prey, if only there was sufficient mana. With an origin... Perhaps I could figure out how to give my kind a soul, or live forever so we never disappear.” Nala said. “Origin elements are very rare. I thought to come here knowing that the primus' would be in attendance, and they were – but not one of them possesses an origin. Now, you have two.”
“Two?” Tyr raised an eyebrow. “I understand that an origin is a stronger albeit more difficult to manipulate source of an element. But what do you mean, two?”
“I'm not sure.” Nala shrugged. “I can feel them thrumming, I could never properly identify what they were unless you told me. Obviously, fire is one of them, but I only know that because you used it against me. The other... It's anyone's guess, elements aren't so simple as 'fire, earth, water, air', etc. There are more, fusions or combination reactions. Ice, mud, lightning, everything starts somewhere so they all have an origin. Six, however, the prime elements as we know them – exist at the very peak.”
“Mmm, well.” Tyr chuckled. “I think I'll just stick to big fire go boom make thing explode die quick.”
Nala gave him an odd look at that, shaking her head at the fact that Tyr seemed so singularly unique among all of the high humans she'd ever met. “You've gathered that my interest in you was never sincere. I suppose I should apologize for such a dishonest approach, it's truly not my way.”
“I don't care.” Tyr said. “If you want something from me, ask for it. If I can, I will give it to you. Whether you wanted to use me or not is irrelevant. Everyone uses everything, or they'd have no interest in it. My heart remains steady in this knowledge, I am not wounded by your confession.”
Nala smiled, petting the back of his head as if he were some kind of hound. “You've no need to give me anything. I just need to taste it, to feed on it – and you. Why do we not engage in an even trade as your kind is wont to do, as was my intention in the first place? I do enjoy you, and I wouldn't hurt you even if I could.”
“And what kind of trade would this be?” Tyr sighed, he was already losing interest in the conversation. The nails were burning again and he wanted some peace and quiet. He didn't dislike Nala, but he knew that his brief sense of infatuation with her had been a lie. Just a lie he'd told himself, not some sort of unjust manipulation on her part. Obeying a baser instinct to lay with a more mature woman, though he'd never acted on it and never would.
“My body.” She replied. “For unadulterated access to your mana upon the awakening of one or both of your origins. And just in case you thought to play deaf and dumb to the offer, I quite literally mean that you can have me. After all, that's a benefit to me as well, I quite enjoy the act of intercourse, all my kind do. And as discussed previously, I won't give birth. It's the perfect arrangement.”
“No thanks.” Tyr responded flatly, unfazed as he would've been in the past, and he could tell this troubled her a great deal. He was a man, and as equally fallible to their failings. Love and bright emotion might be alien to his mind... Maybe, but he was well aware of lust and had felt it so many times that it was a part of him. These sins and vices were something he could smell, taste in his mouth, he saw a tavern made with a nice body and he mulled it, enjoying a pretty thing for what it was before feeling it go cold, and he moved on.
Tyr lusted for many things, and he accepted that. Even now, he thought about what Jura was wearing, wishing he could smell her. But he wasn't a leech to use her as some kind of balm to sooth his troubled mind. All he felt now was anger and frustration, he'd been so close to feeling the real thing again, and that chance had been taken from him through little fault of his own.
“I can be anything you could ever want.” She purred directly into his ear. In her voice, and then others, alternating forms as fast as his sidelong eye could track until settling on three in particular. “With me, you'd never need the trouble of--”
Tyr's hand locked like a vice around her throat, pinning her to the ground. Nala laughed, if she wanted to stop him – she obviously could have. It was so sudden, so bold.
Nala was a chimera, but she was a woman just as Tyr was a man, and he tasted of pure pleasure. Mana like his was rare, and he was either the only person with the weaknesses enough to allow her to take it, or the one who wouldn't wilt and die when she did. She never took those early flowers. She wasn't a monster to kill a living thing for a taste, and he couldn't die. It was a win-win.
“Never do that again, or I will erase you. I don't care how strong you are, I will find a way, this isn't right.”
He wasn't using the command, and he never had despite being aware of it. Something that interested her just like everything else about him, someone who was not wholly human. A product of that disgusting eugenics project the primus' had been discussing for centuries now.
“Do you really think you can?” Nala laughed again, completely unthreatened by the posturing of the boy. But it wasn't in his words or voice, it was his eyes. So completely confident, the epitome of a truth, pinning her against the ground still, his splayed fingers wrapped around her neck.
“Yes.” Tyr's voice was even and his face flat. As angry as he was at her adopting the face of those she should not, she would see it. That truth. “I am everything, eternal. Somewhere, somehow, I will always exist. Forever. As weak as I am now, I am immutable. A force of nature. Do you remember my words to Hastur?”
“I do, Tyr. And I was just playing, I did not mean to--”
“Then don't do that, I like you more than enough as is. Taking another persons face is a monstrous act, especially theirs.” Tyr said, before relaxing. Perhaps realizing what he'd done – how ridiculous the words leaving his mouth sounded, a monstrous act? From Tyr?
He released her, raising her up gently and... He didn't know what to do with his hands, but Nala was far more articulate in action than he was. She pushed him away playfully and yawned very much like the cat she was. Leaning against him affectionately, not offended in the slightest.
“Fine, fine. Maybe you have a point, you are apparently immortal... But I must admit at my curiosity, seeing as I cleared it with your mating partner. Your wife... You have no interest in my body?” She frowned. “There are few women superior to me, as you can see I can change form to fit even your wildest desires. I can even become a man. Why?”
“Because you are you, and not somebody else. And I do desire you as any another man would.” Tyr answered. “We spent some time together and I still consider you a friend, but you're also a trickster and a bit fiendish. I told you to ask for that which you want, and I'd give it to you. There is not a cost. I will count on you to settle any bond between us when it matters, or not. I never levied a toll in the first place. If you want to feed, feed, but it'll be a one time thing and not an arrangement. I need more of so many things, but women is not one of them.”
“You're serious?” Nala asked. “That is very... Not... Human?”
“I'm not human.” Tyr said. “I'm Tyr. And I've already awakened my origin flame, quite some time ago. But it hurts when I use it, I am absolutely sure I didn't use it on you. Not a physical pain either, it makes my mind scream, if you saw what I saw when I used it – you wouldn't be asking me to show it to you.”
“I think I can help you with that.” Nala said. “But first, you must know that this is going to hurt. Quite a lot. May I?” Her canines extended even longer, their pointed tips shining in the moonlight. Nala had no need for blood, and he instinctively knew that, this was more a primal reaction to knowing that he had what she wanted, and possessed it all along.
“Ah. Fuck it.” Tyr nodded. “Don't melt like the last guy.”
She took his arm and feasted to her hearts content. It didn't feel so bad, in Tyr's opinion. The wriggling of her body and soft groans as the blueish mana leaped from his veins were suggestive enough to cause him some wild thoughts, though. He was very interested in her, but throwing himself into another relationship was not what he should be doing. Especially not with someone who could never love him, giving him what he truly wanted. Not love, in the romantic sense, he wanted... Something else. Something more wholesome.
“So...?” Tyr asked when she was finished, biting her thumb and breathing hard. In his younger days, perhaps this would've embarrassed him. Now...? Just a minor tinge of discomfort, Jura had shown him how ridiculous shame was. Making him wish he could meet the orcs and live among them, they seemed an amazing people, full of culture. “Was it everything you wished for?”
“Fine enough.” Her words didn't seem the match the shiver of delight rolling up her back. “I thought if I'd tasted the mana of an origin element, that perhaps I would awaken again. But it does not seem to be that easy.” Nala frowned, suddenly contemplative. “How do you feel? Are you weak, hurt, engorged?”
“Actually...” Tyr focused inward, he didn't feel much different than before. All she'd taken was about a fifth of his mana capacity and in such a mana rich environment it was bound to refill quickly. He'd be full again in another hour at most. “I'm fine, but when you say awaken... It's not that I don't understand what it feels like to do so. What does it mean to 'awaken'? Will you tell me that? I've already awakened, and I am getting confused at the difference, as if it's some catch all term but everyone uses it so often.”
“It's the shedding of inorganic compounds and toxic impurities that riddle the body of every living thing. As we grow in strength, we take in more of these impurities, until we hit a breaking point where we are expelling more than absorbing. It's waste stripped from the energy that empowers us. This is the wall that many beings face, as these things exist inside of us and cannot be removed without proper stimuli.” She said. “One of which is access to an origin wellspring, but I am aware of no such remaining fonts of magic on this continent. Hence...”
“Can I make it happen?” Tyr asked, suddenly very interested in the conversation. He knew exactly what she was talking about, those little bits of tar inside of him that were stubborn and difficult to remove. The primus' addressed that term, awakening, like they'd only done it once – but Tyr had felt it dozens of times in his life. “What is the process for doing so?”
“If you were one of my kind, I'd say yes. There are many ways for magical beasts of all shapes and size to hasten the process.” Nala mused. “But you are not, you have a relatively similar biological structure to a human, and that is what is holding you back. Humans absorb power much quicker than other races, but an awakening amongst your kind is far rarer in comparison. It does happen, as I'm sure you are aware, but your structure... You see...”
She continued. “It's hard to articulate. Your kind have devolved over time through a simplification of your magic system. Adapted to it, allowing far less to flow through your bodies naturally. It's passable enough, but it's predicated by a science that could not possibly define the finer minutia of mana. All it is, is easier, and more convenient. Because of this, your mana circuits follow your circulatory system, stemming from your core. To summarize, your impurities are too close to your major organs to force an awakening without significant threat to your life. And your body knows this, even if you cannot die it will always stand as an obstacle in your path.”
“I think I see what you're saying.” Tyr said. “So...?”
“We could give it a shot.” Nala frowned, eyes flickering with some vague resemblance of concern. “I don't think we'll see any progress unless I suck up all your mana, though. And you have a match tomorrow...”
“Ah...” Tyr chuckled. “That does pose a bit of a conundrum. A rain check, then?”
“Maybe. Or maybe I'll change my mind and leave you high and dry like you left me.”
“Whatever it is.” Tyr snorted in amusement, feeling a bit lighter after being drained. “Let's spend a bit more time together, if you wouldn't mind. Just shut your damn mouth.”
“It would be my pleasure.”