“I hear you saved someone’s life yesterday.” Narlin spoke over the chess board, “That why you choose to ignore me?”

“I just couldn’t deal with everyone.”

Narlin laughed, “Just teasing you boy. You should be proud of yourself.”

Joren didn’t really have anything to say in response to that. Fortunately Narlin didn’t mind. They both focused on the chess pieces, and Jorun moved one of his pawns trying to put pressure on Narlin. Narlin responded quickly taking another piece that Jorun had lost track of.

He proceeded to crush Joren’s attempts at beating him.

“Head’s not in the game. You will lose every time if you can’t keep your focus.”

Jorun didn’t say anything.

Narlin slammed the table, startling Jorun, “Why are you here if you are just going to sit there and sulk? Snap out of it and play the game, or go slink back to your house. Everyone you loved died. I get that. You just saved someone’s life. If you could go back, could you help the people you knew? Possibly, but they are dead and gone. There isn’t anything you can do about that. If you think you are the only person with regrets, then you are very mistaken.”

He paused catching his breath, “Now beat me for once.”

Jorun reset the board and he began thinking about the next moves.

He had been thinking that he missed his opportunity to harvest a soul, and then he realized that everyone would notice how badly he reacted to being a hero. If Narlin thought he was dealing with past failures and the frustration of loss, then he might have a chance to use that as an excuse. It sounded perfectly reasonable.

Now all he needed to do was beat Narlin.

It was a hard fought game. Jorun forced himself to do the best that he could do, and he slowly worked through all of the Narlin’s pieces.

He lost, but it was close.

Narlin leaned back, and smiled.

“That was a lot better. Now get off of your butt and go check on your patient. That man’s life belongs to you.”

Jorun stopped and looked at Narlin, “What did you say?”

“His life belongs to you?” Narlin looked puzzled, “You do realize everyone is counting on you to keep him alive. He would be dead if you hadn’t helped. If you don’t go back, he could still die.”

“Really? They just need to keep the wound clean at this point.”

Narlin laughed, “Go check on him yourself. These are miners. They don’t have the sense to stay still and recover.”

They sat in silence as Jorun considered what Narlin had said.

“Do you want him to die?” Narlin spoke softly.

Jorun looked down, unable to meet the old man’s gaze.

“These people have nothing. They have no hope, power, or opportunities. If anyone can understand your pain, they can. Do you really want his daughters to grow up without a dad?”

Jorun’s strong father, tall and proud, appeared in his mind. Something wet dripped down his face.

“I’m angry at them.” Someone spoke using his voice.

No one replied, so the voice continued, “Mother, father, they knew something. Neither told me what was really happening.”

A crooked hand rested itself on his head, all Jorun could do was stare at the ground.

“I don’t know what they were thinking. I know that they wanted the best for you though.”

Jorun looked up, his face covered in tears, “How can you say that? They treated me like a child. They lied to me and they are dead now!”

“You are a child. No, you were a child. Anyone who can cross the uncrossable isn’t a child, but you are still incredibly young. You have a lot to learn about the world. Here, how about I go with you to see your patient. I promise no pesky people will bother you with me around.”

Somehting sparkled in Narlin’s eye, “They are all afraid of me.”

So they went together. It felt strange to walk with someone beside him that wasn’t a ghost. They didn’t talk as they moved along the path to the village.

When they got to the village, no one came out to greet them. The village, normally bustling with activity, was completely empty.

“I have that effect on the villagers,” Narlin spoke softly.

“Why does everyone hate you?”

“It’s a bit complicated. Just go and check on your patient.”

Jorun went inside to see that the man’s bandages had gone from white to red, to brown, and maybe some other colors. He pulled them off and the flesh was turning angrily red.

“I told you to rest,” Jorun snapped at the man twice his size.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He flinched away from Jorun and tried to apologize.

“We need clean bandages, and I need some more alcohol.” He spotted the jug, picked it up and discovered it was empty.

“You might lose your leg if you aren’t careful,” Jorun threw all the bandages on the floor. He leaned in and examined the stitches. They weren’t doing bad, but one of them looked like it had torn the flesh a little.

He did his best to clean it up without any of the necessities. Eventually he got freshly cleaned cloth and alcohol. He looked at the the man as he explained the consequences of getting his wound dirty.

Once he had left, he discovered the old man had wandered off to his home. He looked around and was pleasantly surprised to see the people of the village behaving normally. They all smiled at him and waved as they passed by, but they left him alone.

It had been a while, so he went to see Betty.

She was outside the house, working on her laundry. Betty glanced up as he came closer.

“Hello Jorun, how are you doing today?”

“Fine enough. I had a good talk with Narlin and I think I have realized some things that I hadn’t been thinking about.”

She pulled a wet shirt from the bucket and began to wring it out, “You have been through a lot. There is no need to push yourself to hard. Take time to figure things out.”

“I think I should say thank you.”

She looked up at him, blocking her eyes from the sun, “We wouldn’t abandon someone in need.”

“Thank you anyway. I can’t say it enough.”

She stood up and lay out the shirt. Then she turned to give him a hug.

She wasn’t built exactly like his mother, but he didn’t really notice. It felt nice. His eyes started to tingle and he stepped away to clean them a little.

“Don’t mind it,” Betty spoke softly, “There has been quite a lot of dust blowing around in the wind today.”

“Yeah, it’s really annoying.” Jorun wiped his face, “I wasn’t planning on staying any longer than to check on the injury.”

“Don’t be a stranger.”

“I won’t.” Jorun replied and realized he actually meant it.

These people had done nothing but show him kindness, and he wasn’t going to do anything to change that.

He looked around at the village and realized that they deserved as much as his own hometown.

A chance at life.

He thought about the men that had attacked the Hodges. They were different. He waved and started down the street, “I just thought of something I want to do. I gotta get moving!”

With that finished he started to run.

It was still early, but he needed to prepare several things. He had never done anything like what he was thinking about, and he knew that he needed to move quickly if he wanted to finish before the daylight was gone.

He started making a checklist of all the different things that he needed to gather together.

It was getting dark, when he finally finished preparing.

He looked at it. Several of the pieces where crude and unwieldy, but they would have to make do. He proceeded to pack the set of flat stones into his bag and head into the night.

“Latty, I need you to find the Bandits that attacked the villagers yesterday. Can you do that for me?”

She flickered into existence next to him as he called to her and vanished as soon as he had finished asking the question. He didn’t need to ask her for general directions, but simply headed for the one path that left the village.

It was difficult counting out the time as he traveled, but it was enough for him to be able to estimate the distance.

“Where are they Latty?” he spoke softly. His voice sounded unusually loud in the cool dark night air.

“Turn to your left. It’s hard to see, but there is a small trail there. Follow it and you will get to where they are.”

“Are they sleeping?”

“Not yet, but they are discussing who will stay up tonight.”

“How many are going to be watching?”

“Just one from the sound of it. There are only three there right now.”

“Should there be more?” Jorun paused, realizing he knew nothing about Bandits and how they operated.

“My guess is that there are many more than these three. They mostly try to steal the shipments of ore out of the village. Another shipment isn’t due for a while, so most of the people aren’t here.”

She paused, “I think.”

“You think?” Jorun almost shouted it out loud, “Latty, I really need to know this stuff, and I can’t work with guesses.”

She held up her hands, “There are only three here, they talked about some others, but I don’t know where they are.”

“Get me close to the camp, and then look around for any other groups of Bandits.”

She led him to the perfect place to set up. He had a decent view of the fie, and the three forms near it. Two were laying down and one was poking at the fire with a stick.

Jorun pulled out the flat stones. Each of them had parts of the ritual on them. The thin flakes weren’t the strongest, but it was better to use something portable. If he had spent the time drawing it here, they would have easily spotted him. He arranged them carefully on the ground. He didn’t want the area to cover too much ground, but he wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.

Once he was done, he broke a stick.

The guy standing guard turned around. He had been staring at the fire, and Jorun knew that he couldn’t see anything.

That didn’t make him feel better as the man slowly unfolded, drawing a metal sword from it’s scabbard. The guy was enormous, easily towering over Jorun. If it came down to a fight, Jorun would die.

He had studied the process of harvesting, but he had never tried it before this moment. The circle glowed into life with it’s venomous dark green energy. The man stood uselessly looking at the dark energy surrounding him.

Bring the victim to the circle. Once they are in it, the circle will activate. Take what is yours.

Jorun reached out his hand, and the man’s eyes snapped to where Jorun was. His eyes were wide open, his mouth dropped open. Drool dribbled from it.

Jorun pulled something to himself. A small strangely shaped bead of energy. It was extremely different from the vessel soul he had created to practice making the ghost. There were only a few plants within the circle, but they immediately began to wither and die. For a moment, the drooling bandit was untouched; but then he began to dry out. His body twisted and contorted as it grew smaller and smaller.

His clothes, armor, and weapon all resisted the effect better; but they too began to show the signs of aging.

Jorun let go and the energy of the circle flashed into the soul, filling it with a bright energy that almost hurt to see.

He waved the glowing soul towards his own stone and it slipped into the gem.

“One down” he muttered to himself.

He examined the contents of the circle. It definitely looked unnatural, but there weren’t that many plants in the spot. So all he would need to do was dispose of the body, and most people wouldn’t be able to tell anything had happened at all.

He hoisted the flat stones back into his pack, regretting how heavy they were, but it had worked at least one time. Any other material would have probably tarnished under the effect of the spell.

With a shrug, he hefted the pack into place and moved down to the two sleeping men.

He could feel the warmth of the fire as he drew closer, and realized that the area was relatively clear of vegetation. So he began to carefully arrange the circle around both men, rather than one at a time. He expected the spell to active, once he got the last stones down, but nothing happened.

So he spent another few minutes arranging things. It looked like several of the pieces were in the wrong place. He felt the energy snap into life, snuffing out the tiny little spark that was the once roaring campfire.

With a quick sidestep, Jorun moved out of the circle and held up his hand.

As the two bodies convulsed, their souls drifted over to float above Jorun’s outstretched palm. He pulled everything. The wood, plants, men and many of their garments slowly melted away. Jorun let the energy flash back into the souls before it ate too much of the remaining victims.

The souls cracked.

It was the only way that could describe the spattering power of energy. When it was done, Jorun held a strange fusion of the original two globes. The normally smooth shells had indeed cracked and twisted together in spots. In other spots they exhibited strange protrusions that reminded Jorun of cacti needles.

He slipped it into his gem.

He glanced at the bodies, and then got to work. He dragged the first bandit back to the camp. It was so desiccated that it weighed almost nothing to move. The equipment was more of a bother, as a piece would fall off from time to time as he moved it to the others.

He sifted through the gear and found a piece of metal with a decent shape. Tool in hand, he set to digging.

It was harder, longer and more frustrating than killing the men had been. Eventually the hole was big enough and he dragged the bodies in.