“Teeeeerrance? Where are yooooouuu?” I recognized Eric’s taunting voice, but didn’t recognize where I was. Everything was covered in a dense fog, and I could barely see a few feet in front of me. The fog was also distorting the location of Eric’s voice, causing strange echoes from random directions. I tried to take a step, but had to fight a sucking sensation. Looking down, I could see I was about ankle deep in some muck. There was a fraction of an inch of water sitting on top of a grey clay that was doing its best to cling to my feet with every step.
Nonetheless, I had to do something to get rid of Eric. A few steps with about a pound of that clay on each foot convinced me that I wasn’t going anywhere physically. Could I do anything magically? Normally I would be saying no, but what were dreams but visualizations of things? What the hell, I had nothing to lose. I took a deep breath, then let my spirit mana coat my body. I didn’t want to use death mana because there was a small chance it was mirrored in the real world, but also because if there really was a connection the death mana could use it to invade me. It would break the connection, but it could also kill me in the process.
It didn’t even take full coverage for me to locate the tether. Coming out of my chest right where my corescape felt like it was located was a strand heading off into the distance. It looked to be almost pure spirit mana with just a hint of undeath mana mixed in. Whatever, it didn’t matter what it was made of, it had to go. I didn’t have any actual spells for spirit mana, but I could manipulate it. Forming a blade along the outside of my hand, I took a swipe at the cord.
Mistake! Oh god that was a mistake! The pain was instantaneous and so blinding I didn’t have a chance to cry out, I simply fell to my hands and knees and started panting.
“Ooooh, was that you Terrance? The tracker flickered a bit. I don’t know how you managed to hide your location before, but that little bit gave it away! Don’t you worry, we’ll be there soon!”
I looked at the cord coming out of my chest, and swore. I hadn’t ever really had the chance to work with tracking magic, but most of them required some sort of physical connection. Hair, blood, skin. Things like that. This felt much stronger. Otherwise it wouldn’t have rebounded back through the bond so strongly. How was he….Argos.
“Oh you bastard. Is there nothing you won’t stoop to?” I growled as I figured it out. Even if he had made a tracker from my blood left behind in my prison, running that much magic through it for so long would have long since burned it away. No, he was using Argos. I had long forgotten about it, but the day we got our guardians to raise, we underwent a ceremony where we implanted a small sliver of our own soul. This not only influenced the creature to bond with us, but it created a much stronger guardian when it was resurrected. That portion of our soul was alive and connected to us, giving the undead what they craved the most.
Only now that sliver of my soul was giving Eric an arrow that would always point in my direction. The only reason he hadn’t used it to send a nasty spell my way was because he needed me to unlock the inheritance for him. I paled as that thought settled in my mind, and I knew that I would have to absolutely destroy Argos and reclaim my soul sliver if I ever wanted peace again. Grabbing the cord, I debated my choice.
Option one: Send a spear of death mana back along the cord and hope that it destroyed my soul sliver that had been removed from Argos and used to make the tracker. It would forever break the connection, but could also lead to rather scary consequences. Destroying even a part of one’s soul was a taboo that even the most depraved of necromancers thought twice about. That’s why the humanoid abominations always used human souls as the base and grafted on extra bits rather than the other way around. Not only that, but it would be a gaping wound in my spirit that would never heal. Who knew how it would affect me?
Option two was to sever the cord every time I had one of these dreams. It wouldn’t stop Eric, as he would still have my soul and could re-establish the connection, but it would slow him down. And slowing him down was what I needed. I could figure out how to take care of him on my own.
Course set, I coated just the inside of my fist with death mana and let it slowly corrode the connection.
“Terrance! TERRANCE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TERR”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
I opened my eyes to see a familiar ceiling above me. “Ung.” I couldn’t help but groan at the spike of pain in the middle of my forehead.
“Finally awake dear?” I heard Ellie ask, and I turned to see her sitting in a chair next to my bed, knitting a scarf.
“Finally?” I asked with a raspy voice that sent me into a coughing fit. “What.”
“Stop.” She ordered, handing me a mug of water. I fought the urge to drain it as fast as possible, taking slow sips so that the water could flow over my throat. “Better?”
“Much better.” I said, getting a few last coughs out. “What happened?”
“We were hoping you would tell us. Two days ago you were out in the field and according to Sheila and little Nicky you cried out and fell over.”
“Two days? TWO DAYS?” I sat up as quickly as I could and immediately regretted it. “Oh god it hurts.”
“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry.” Ellie said, putting away her knitting. “I’ll be right back, you just lay there for a minute.”
She shuffled off to the kitchen where I heard some dishes clanking about. While she was off doing whatever, I laid there thinking about what happened. I remembered the pain from trying to clear my channels with spirit mana. Then Sheila lectured me for a bit, then I was. What was I doing? Oh, trying to connect with Dax! That’s right! I had managed to get a connection with him, enough that I could see what he wanted me to do. Then I tried to create my own version of the detect life spell and passed out.
“Here you go.” Ellie said, shuffling in with a steaming cup of tea for me. I took a sip and widened my eyes in shock.
“Willowbark tea?”
“Of course. It’s the best for aches and pains.” She said, stealing a glance at her hands.
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“I know that, but how did you get it here? There aren’t any willow trees, they wouldn’t survive.”
“Oh, we get a few shipments a year with the caravans. No need to worry.” She waved me off, but I still felt uncomfortable. I might not be a merchant prince, but I had studied a bit in Necropolis. You actually had to boil the bark, which made it heavier to haul than the leaves. It also wasn’t very rare, so the chance of a caravan taking it along was small as the profit margins weren’t worth it. So they likely had to special order it, and here they were giving me their limited stock. Doubly so since from what Tomas hinted at, there wouldn’t be another caravan until the spring. I downed the glass as soon as I could, not wanting to waste any of it. Even if I had a massive lump in my stomach from what they were willing to sacrifice for me. Slipping a hand under the cover, I channeled a bit of spirit mana despite the spike in pain it gave me. With the lightest touch I could manage, I sent a wisp in Ellie’s direction as she was finishing up the scarf.
I cut the connection as quickly as I could, but the fraction of a second we were connected was more than enough for me. It was like a collage of all the best things I had ever felt in my life. The joy of Argos meeting me after being separated. The relaxing warmth of a sunny fall day. One where the temperature was absolutely perfect, and there was just a hint of a cooling breeze. The contentment of having just finished a warm bowl of soup after walking through the snow, where the fullness of your stomach lulled you into a gentle sleep and the heat from the soup warmed you from the inside out. And there was one that I hadn’t really felt before, or at least not nearly in the intensity she had. The love of a family gathered around a fire. And all of it was directed at me.
No matter how I looked at things, I had to accept that this lady just wanted the best for me. Not only that, but she was willing to sacrifice her own comfort for my well-being, just because I was young and reminded her of her son. Buried beneath all of that I had felt the agony in her fingers, along with her determination to finish this scarf to go with the gloves she had already finished for me. How she knew she wouldn’t have enough tea to make it through the winter, as she was already going through it faster than the previous years as her disease progressed.
“What’s with the tears? Do you need anything?” She asked, and I was shocked to feel tears slowly sliding down my cheeks as I stared at her.
“Nah.” I forced out before my voice could break. “I’m good.”
“NANNA ELLIE! WE’RE HERE!” An exuberant voice screamed from the front door, and I couldn’t help but smile with Ellie at the sheer joy it contained.
“Excuse me.” She said, getting up and heading that way. I could hear the bustle of conversation from the front part of the house, but it wasn’t quite loud enough to make out the words. That didn’t really bother me this time, and I just sunk back into the bed and relaxed.
The conversation was still going when I felt like I was being watched. Looking at the foot of the bed, I could barely see a pair of eyes peeking over the footboard. They blinked at me several times before climbing up into the bed and sitting cross legged.
“You’re Mr. Terrance.” The voice said.
“I am.” I agreed, curious. I recognized one of the twins, but I had no idea which one.
“Papa Tomas says that you did something you shouldn’t have.”
“He’s right.” I nodded.
“Why did you do it?”
“That’s a good question.” I said, thinking about it. How do you explain hubris to a three year old? “Have you ever been so sure you could do something that you didn’t wait for anyone to help you?” I asked in return.
“Hmmmm. Yeah. Mommy said to wait to make bread, but we had watched her a lots. I tried to get the flour and it spilled all over me. Mommy was mad.”
“Well, I did something like that except I was using magic. It hurt me so bad I didn’t wake up for two days. I still have a bit of a headache.” His eyes got real big at that, and he stared at me. After an increasingly uncomfortable time, he tilted his head and kept staring at me. I had no idea what was going through his little head, but he finally came to a decision.
“Not waiting for help doesn’t make you bad.”
“Thanks?”
“And Papa Tomas is always saying we need to help people who aren’t bad. Espescifically if they got hurt.” Nodding at his own logic, he waddled up toward my head. “I’ll help the hurts go bye bye.” I froze as a pair of chubby hands reached for my forehead. I really hoped he was going to give me a massage.
Note to self: NEVER LET A SMALL CHILD GIVE YOU A HEAD MASSAGE! I sat through the torture from the demon spawn as his chubby hands tried to force their way through my forehead and scramble my brain. He couldn’t have weighed more than thirty pounds soaking wet, but he managed to put all of that into the palms of his hands as they made random shapes on my forehead. And by random shapes, it could have been circles or it could have been a 23-point star. I wasn’t really sure, and didn’t care at this point. I just wanted the pain to end.
“Now you’re ok. Don’t do the bad thing again.” The kid said while patting my cheeks.
“That’s some sage advice.” Came a chuckle from the doorway, and the kid turned.
“Papa Tomas!” I groaned as the kid managed to kick me in the liver and the crotch in his hurry to get off the bed and see Father Tomas.
“Hey Kellen, Nana Ellie has some honey treats for you.”
“HONEY TREATS!” The kid shrieked, bolting out the door like Dax after a squirrel.
“Thanks for saving me.” I nodded at Tomas.
“I didn’t save you, that was all Nick. He carried you up here.”
“Not for that, for saving me from more massages.”
“Huh? Oh. OOOH! Ha, yeah. Kellen just wants to help, so thanks for letting him do his thing. Your head ok?”
“It’s feeling a bit better, though it was probably the tea.” I motioned to the cup on the nightstand.
“Yeah, probably. So, I feel bad doing this but since it is up to me for your magical training I have to ask. What have we learned?”
“Wait to learn how to do a spell properly before trying to cast one of your own.” I immediately replied. “Sorry about that, and sorry for worrying everyone.”
“So long as you learned your lesson, its fine.” Tomas said, patting my shin through the blankets. “It always seems that no matter how much you warn the kids, some of the first years always make a mistake like this.”
“Our hunts master said pain was one of the best teachers. He might be right, cuz I’m not about to make that mistake again.” I chuckled, wincing at the end.
“I think weapons masters throughout the world read the same book, because I haven’t met one yet that didn’t agree.” Tomas chuckled as he sat down in Ellie’s chair. “Now, how are you really feeling?”
“Woke up in pain, but that’s obvious.” I said. “I can reach for my mana, but any movement from it increases the pain.”
“And your muscles? I heard about your first accident too.”
“Legs are just fine.” I said, wiggling my feet back and forth. “No pain there at all.”
“Ok, that’s great news.” Tomas sighed in relief. “I’d like to be there when you start to clear your mana channels again just to make sure, but you should be ok. Witch Hazel had a look at you and is brewing a recovery potion for you. Should be done in a few hours.”
“I’ll have to thank her.” I nodded.
“Heh, do it before taking the potion then. I guarantee you won’t be after you taste it.”
“Oh gods, she isn’t one of those people that think medicine has to taste bad so that kids don’t get addicted to it, is she?”
“Nope. Even worse.” Tomas said, getting a weird look from me. “She doesn’t care about taste at all. She only cares about how effective it is.” I shuddered at that, getting a chuckle from Tomas. “Now you can officially be welcomed to Crownhill. If you can down one of her medicines without throwing it back up, then you are officially one of us.”
“You’re horrible, you know.” I said, looking right at him. At his confused look, I explained, “You just set me up to be worried about this nasty recovery potion for the next few hours.”
“Yep!” He said with a smile. “I’ll leave you to your recovery, and I’ll keep Kellen out as well. You should try and get some actual sleep. Being unconscious doesn’t count.”