Book 2

A Real Villain

CJ could barely stay conscious as they fled the invasion of Scaleback. At first he tried to struggle, tried to communicate with the Skymen carrying him. But the flight was not smooth, and eventually they were high enough in the air that CJ couldn’t make out the ground.

Occasionally there were brief glimpses of hills, rock, trees. It did nothing to comfort CJ as the Skymen holding him struggled to keep them in the air with the added weight of a full grown man.

Then the exhaustion caught up with him. He was on the edge of passing out even before their rescue. As soon as his body realized he wasn’t in any obvious danger besides altitude, his eyes became heavier by the moment. He started to nod off, woken up again and again when thundering winds tossed him and his carrier this way and that. The darkness made it all blend together. He would open his eyes long enough to catch a glimpse of another Skyman, to see a mountain lit up by lightning, to see a bonfire down along the ground.

Then they were descending. CJ snapped awake in time to flail his legs in panic as they were coming down in what looked like a grassy field next to a wooden shack. He ate dirt, and the Skymen that carried him stumbled a few steps past that in a storm of wings and stammered words. The others were landing all around him.

Wherever they were, it was windy, and he could feel the higher altitude. The air felt thinner, it was chilly. They were not dressed for this.

CJ rolled over onto his butt and collected himself. He didn’t feel rested, but he didn’t feel like he was going to pass out anymore. His body still felt tight, whatever it meant to ‘crack’, he wasn’t sure he fully escaped the consequences.

A Skyman walked over to talk to the one that dropped off CJ. It was Whitetune. Even with only scattered moonlight illuminating him, CJ recognized him. CJ waved, and Whitetune finished his conversation before walking over.

“The fliers need to rest,” Whitetune said. “This is a waypoint. We will start again in the morning.”

“We are just going to wait here?” CJ asked. “Is this place safe?”

Whitetune narrowed his eyes. “Difficult to reach here by foot.”

That was as good of a guarantee as CJ could ask for. So he nodded. “Thanks for showing up. We were dead without you.”

“I know.” Whitetune said. He looked over his shoulder, but CJ couldn’t see what he was looking at. It was over by where he came from, a group of people. “Sir Byr gave the order to find more Skymen.”

CJ got to his feet. He felt a little wobbly, but the ground was solid. “I thought I said to avoid flying, in case you gave away the whole trick.”

Whitetune chirped a yes, but left it at that. Byr’s orders were more important, it was probably given after CJ’s. That was fine.

“Well uh, thanks.”

Whitetune turned and walked off, motioning with his hands toward another Skyman.

CJ could see what Whitetune was looking at. Alyss was standing over Mae, hands on her shoulders as the woman knelt in the grass sobbing.

Sir Byr, he was gone. CJ felt a pang in his chest. The old man saved them twice that night, charging through danger and cutting down threats well beyond anything CJ ever saw. Now he was gone.

CJ got up and marched over there. The breeze meant CJ rubbed his arms for warmth as he approached.

Mae was past wailing. It seemed she had nothing left but dry sobbing. She held Byr’s sword in her lap, the blade still seeming to glow a dimming dark red as if all the heat was yet to leave it.

“Hey,” CJ said as he walked up.

Mae didn’t react. Alyss looked to him, and her eyes showed more surprise than he saw from her outside of combat. She got hold of herself quickly, then turned back to look down over Mae’s shoulder.

“Sorry Eastman, she is in mourning if you don’t mind.” Alyss said. Her voice was rough as well, as if she did some crying of her own.

“Yeah,” CJ whispered. “I just wanted to-“

“Later, please.” Alyss hissed. She nodded toward the hut. “There is room enough for everyone to sleep. Go rest.”

CJ watched Alyss for a moment. She didn’t look back at him, but he could see her eye flicker to him on her peripheral. There was a feeling in the air. At this state, he couldn’t tell exactly where feelings were coming from, but they weren’t disconnected completely.

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But the sadness was there, and real. He didn’t press the mystery. Instead there was another question he needed to answer. He couldn’t feel Larl.

He looked around the field. There were a few others rescued by the Skymen, and he saw a female soldier and a Skyman standing over someone on the ground. CJ walked over, and then started to jog when he saw Larl’s familiar hair on the laid out man.

“Larl!” CJ shouted as he got closer. The woman looked over, it was Welma. Half her face was covered in dark black bruising that almost blocked out her distinctive scars. The other one was Duskbreeze, Whitetune’s partner.

Welma held a hand up to calm CJ. But he still went to one knee to look down at Larl. The man was bleeding from the head, and it looked like Welma made a makeshift bandage to wrap around his head.

He was breathing, just barely. The bond was still there, but he wasn’t well. The energy coming from him was weak enough that CJ nearly lost track of him.

“Is he going to be okay?”

It seemed that Duskbreeze found Larl that way. In all the chaos, she didn’t know why he was bleeding. Hearing her describe the wound, it sounded like Larl was knocked down during the final moments of the fight with Greywind. He was bleeding when they fled, and went limp sometime during the flight.

They carried him into the hut all together. Inside of the building was like one giant room, divided by movable dividers made of thick dark wood that broke the space up into a main area and a sleeping area. They put Larl on a cot they had, and CJ sat next to him on a stool.

He was breathing, he was alive. But it didn’t seem like they had any real healers with the group. Welma and a guy CJ didn’t recognize did what they could. Someone brought water, and they used a cool rag to his forehead to fight off a high temperature.

CJ felt powerless. He checked his guide, hoping there was something he could do. The healers were under the Attunement of Wards, but no one there was attuned to wards but Larl himself.

When CJ checked Larl’s facets there was one useful ability, but there was a problem.

|Stay Death's Hand|

|Feature Facet|

|By imparting some of their own Soulflame to a person whose Soulflame is fading, this ability will put them into a slowed state where their remaining health fades at a sluggish pace. A person on their last breaths can last for nearly an hour, plenty of time to find stronger healing. But everything about the target is slowed, and any attempt to resist this effect will break it immediately.|

It was an ability Larl had, but without the full force of their bond it was impossible for CJ to make use of it. With how weak the priest was, CJ doubted he would survive them connecting again.

Then again, maybe the connection would make him resilient enough to survive the initial connection.

CJ looked at Larl, watched the man’s slow breathing. He was sweating, and his eyes were slightly open but had no focus. The idea of losing Larl too drove a stake into CJ’s heart. Losing Byr was devastating, losing Larl as well would be too much. He was the first person who treated CJ like a person, and was honest with him.

It was already late at night when they arrived, but the group of fleeing survivors used blankets to sleep on the floor in the large room. Soon CJ was surrounded by people lightly snoring.

He was being watched. He turned and saw Alyss walking toward him. Instead of letting her come to him, he raised a hand to stop her, and stood to meet her. His hopelessness was bleeding into frustration. He wanted to talk to her.

So when he passed by her he motioned for them to head outside. She paused, then nodded and followed. They ended up out in the wind. CJ wrapped his arms around himself and started walking away from the building.

“What are we talking out here for?” Alyss asked.

“It’s quiet in there, I don’t want to wake anyone up.” CJ said.

He got far enough away and turned back on her. She followed, but she was watching him. Her eyes were locked on him like he never really saw from her before.

“How is Larl doing?” She asked. “I heard he was hurt. Hopefully we get him to a priest as soon as we can.”

CJ nodded. “Yeah. I was wondering about that. I might ignite the bond. He has some facet that can stop people from dying for a while.”

Alyss perked up for a moment, then looked to the ground. “I think I know what you’re talking about. But a pillar can’t use that kind of facet ability.”

The feature part. CJ was afraid of that, but figured he would ask. “Damnit.” Just one more thing, one more obstacle, one more failure. CJ squeezed his eyes shut, ground his teeth against each other.

“Our best hope is to get him-“ Alyss began.

But CJ interrupted her. “Why did you call back Byr?”

Alyss stopped, mouth hanging open. “Say again?”

“Why did you call back Sir Byr, Alyss? He was going to win, he had them reeling. You had the flags call him back, why did you call him back?!” He was trying to control his volume, but he couldn’t. The thought bothered him since they arrived. So much fell apart because of that call. Greywind was able to follow Byr back, attacked them up on the wall, killed Byr and lost them the whole fight!

“I…” She started, but her quiet voice was eaten up by the wind until she turned her head away from him and cleared her throat. “It seems obvious to me.”

“Make it make sense to me,” CJ said, taking steps toward her. “Because from where I’m standing, we could have won that battle.”

“We couldn’t win…” Alyss said. She ran a hand through her hair at the side of her head. “We were never going to-“

“We had it!” CJ shouted. “I had a plan, and you fucked it all up, so I just want to understand exactly why!”

Despite the cold, he felt hot in the cheeks. He reached out for her, which he considered a stupid move as soon as he made it.

She snatched his wrist with a grip that made him flinch back. She held him tight and looked him in the eyes. “We were never going to win, CJ! We were outmatched from the start, understand?”

CJ shook his head, “No.”

She pulled him closer, her eyes narrowing. “Byr’s highest order was to protect the Duchess. That takes precedent over your attempts to save a dying city, with your strategies from games. She is always the highest priority, or none of it matters.”

He pulled again and she released him. “Killing Greywind would have saved everyone.”

“Greywind would have killed Byr on the field!” She said in a raspy tone, “he did it in front of us, what makes you think it would have been different out there?”

CJ squeezed his fists.

“We don’t know that. You didn’t know that.” CJ said.

“I made a call.” Alyss said. “I…”

Their anger, guilt, fear, it was swirling between them. His and her emotions intermingling.

“I’m sorry.” Alyss said, and she turned back toward the building.

“It isn’t some simple mistake.” CJ said. He was so angry that he sneered without a thought.

“No,” Alyss said. “I’m sorry I let you think you could do it. We should have found a way to fled, we never should have faced those abominations again.”

As she walked away, CJ felt a numbness overtake him. It was a dark dread that spiraled out of his core. This whole time, she felt his fear and knew. Maybe they all knew. He really was just a walking map, more trouble than he was worth.