“So.” Aymiae started, “That means this whole situation isn’t as impossible as we first thought. A dragon wish would neatly explain most of the problems they ran into way back when. Normally when someone opens up the void, Aeinar leaves residue, but no one could find that when they checked out the area. The void is also not a strong enough vacuum to literally pull living people into it, usually it’s just any unbound souls in the area that would get trapped.”
I nodded, remembering the disintegrating forms of the soldiers and commanders. “I still don’t know why she did it, if I wasn’t sure that Xien would kill me on sight I would track her down for a little chat.”
Aymiae paused, “You…don’t know?”
“...What don’t I know?” Sparks, did it always have to be one disaster after another these days?
“Xien is dead. There was a scandal about it a few years back, dragonslayers got her. Her kids destroyed three cities in retribution.”
I stared at Aymi for a long moment before I couldn’t take it any longer. I laughed. Long and hard, the release of tension that I’d been ignoring poured over my muscles. “That’s…Sparks really?! She’s dead?”
“Yeah, her daughter is in charge of the Aulous Dragons now. They’ve been a lot less aggressive ever since then, I was even able to go over there and track down some artifacts without drawing any ire.”
“Oh wow. I didn’t think I’d live to see the day.” I basked in the feeling of freedom for a while, the thought that I’d outlived my killer. “That’s so strange to think about.”
“Hmmm, yeah. Anyway considering the present situation, I wouldn’t tell Queen Steris you’re alive for now, she’ll probably want to either publicly thank you or imprison you. She’s got to know that the whole battle was mostly up to chance and she has no idea where your allegiances really lay. She would worry that you’re going to topple the kingdom again.”
I glanced out the window, “I don’t really know, part of me wants to see what the world would do if they knew. It just feels so dangerous to be at the center of it.”
“Yeah.”
I sighed, “Yeah.”
Aymiae nodded, thinking over something. Part of her cross bearing seemed to leak back through as she began to speak. “I know that some nobles pay to wear temporary illusions when they want to pretend to be normal for a while.”
I gazed at her in shock, suddenly feeling rather excited, “Are you offering?!” Aymiae had been a sparking good illusionist back in her 20s and there was no way that time had lessened those abilities any.
Aymiae tapped her chin in thought, examining me for a moment, “It would be a tad bit tricky, but I could bind an illusion to a necklace or something to make you look older. Old enough that people would recognise you as her, and hopefully that no one would guess Eliax and Foralen are the same person.”
I wasn’t sure why, but I really liked this idea. “Do you need payment or anything? I’ll pay. How long would it last? Do I need to charge it or anything?”
Aymiae smiled, a strange expression for her, “It’ll be free, just give me a couple days to set it up. I’ll give you instructions once I’ve finished it.”
“Oh thank you so much Aymi. When should I come pick it up?!”
She laughed, “The day after tomorrow, Fari.”
--
I left the city early in the morning.
It’s a little-known fact, but sandfrost doesn’t keep well in the daylight. It releases spores when the sun sets and the more sunlight it’s subjected to the less potent the spores are. Once a spore is dead it’s practically dust. Completely harmless.
To the north of Reiaran, around a three hour walk from Alsen’s inn, there was a nondescript beach. This beach was peaceful and generally ignored by people unless one was looking for a particularly picturesque sunset.
But, if one was perceptive enough, they would notice the round shapes half buried in the cold sand, the strange tendency of the rocks to frost over every night, and the slight glow to the sand itself. If one was perceptive enough, they would realize that this place could be deadly under the right circumstances.
That’s what I’d realized the first time I’d gone here, but my foolish self just kept coming back. Until the day I decided to kill a king and found myself conveniently within reach of a perfect poison for the job. I had a whole confusing history with these spores, the assassination, the fight with Xien, and then waking up in a desert filled with them.
But I had to come here now, to check on Jeref. The dimwitted hound who loved its master more than anything.
I inhaled the stench of rot and the more subtle odor of the spores in the air. Immediately I found myself coughing, my lungs remembered what this stuff was and they were violently opposed to the idea of meeting it again. I was fairly sure that after an hour of sunlight, most of them were dead, but my lungs didn’t really care about that fact.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Sparks, I’d forgotten again that I was still Eliax. That wasn’t a good thing.
Moving forward regardless, I pulled the front of my dress over my face, shielding it from most of the spores. “Hey, Jeref! Are you here….uh…are you here, boy?”
There was silence across the beach. I felt the crunch of seashells under my boots and cringed as the softer squish of one of the mushrooms made from beneath me. I hopped to the side and quickly buried the thing in sand before it could kill me or something. Who knew, maybe it was some weird breed that didn’t need to be eaten in order to come after you.
Too jumpy. I was way too jumpy. “Jeref?” I tried again, opening a bag of dead things. I’d read up on undead and apparently they didn’t need to eat, but they liked it anyway.
I glanced around the beach, frowning at the emptiness of it. I scanned over the rocks and clumps of mushrooms, finally examining the shoreline. It still smelled like rot so he had to be around there somewhere…right?
I felt myself stiffen instinctively as a crashing noise sounded behind me. Something was running at me. I managed to force myself to turn around, just in time to see Jeref barreling toward me in a way that was almost too happy.
I squeaked in a distinctly un-ladylike fashion and threw the sack of probably-edible things at the zombie before it could plow into me. Besides, it was for him anyway!
The thing stopped, growling in annoyance and clawing at the sack before giving up and looking back at me with an alert posture, black smoke puffed out of the cracks in its wood. Jeref seemed still wary though, almost too wary.
I felt bile rise into my throat as I noticed its eyes. Where before there had been black pits of nothingness where the bark was scratched away, now there was a white coat on everything. The eyes were practically glowing. I dimly noticed that all the dead leaves had fallen away, the creature looked almost skeletal without them.
In their place were…mushrooms. Small white ones that seemed to be bioluminescent in the morning air.
Sparks sparks sparks. Sandfrost shouldn’t infect undead! It didn’t even do this to living creatures! Was it just growing on him because it could find food there? The spores taking root in the zombie’s rotting wood?
“Jeref?” I asked hesitantly, stepping backwards and watching the creature with wide, worried eyes.
The zombie smoothly looked towards me. Too smooth. Before it had been jerky and confused. Now that I’d noticed it, I could see the way its gait was different, more natural, less dead.
I swallowed the bile in my throat, “Niun told me to uh…check on you?” I said hesitantly, gesturing to the sack by its feet that it had finally stopped tearing at. “I brought food just in case, I don’t think he would let me live it down if you did something stupid on my watch.”
Jeref glanced back at the sack and then looked at me, “Al…ner~ah?” It growled, but the noises sounded vaguely like they could be a word.
I stared at the canine creature, “What?”
It stared back at me, jaw working silently for several moments. “…Ala~ner-” The keening wail of a sea Reasle sounded from nearby and Jeref’s single ear rose up to catch the sound. The shadow of the other ear mirrored the movement and the creature glanced around as if searching for the source.
The sounds of the waves crashed on.
Jeref snarled and paced in a circle around the sack, occasionally twitching uncontrollably. “Ala~nere~ah?”
I shook my head, “Sorry, I don’t understand.”
He stopped and growled slowly, “Tu-uvei.” The creature rumbled in a disconcerting way and after a moment it shook itself out, black smoke puffing from the cracks in its wooden form. The white mushrooms glowed brighter for a moment as it paced around the sack and eventually sat down with a growl of annoyance.
I watched it for several more minutes, but Jeref didn’t seem inclined to do anything besides growl at me every couple seconds. Occasionally the creature whined in a pained way, and once it creeped closer to me and bumped its head against my hands. It let me rub at the back of its head for a bit, but before long it was simply growling at me again.
After a while of this, I simply gave up, Jeref seemed to get that I was leaving somehow and didn’t try to follow me. The sound of its growls echoed in the back of my mind for hours afterward.
--
“So! How’s Raendus!?” I asked cheerfully, holding out a basket filled with various treats I’d gathered from people who were worried about him. Alsen had provided some cookies that had to be straight from Orien itself, Illila and Hivren had each handed me something, it was hard to remember what considering how much there was packed into that basket.
Niun stared at the basket uncomprehendingly, tiredly blinking at the contents, “He’s ah…he’s fine. They have a couple healers on him at all times to keep him stable and they keep having to cleanse the oils from his blood. They’re pretty sure he’s not going to be in top shape for a year or so. Mom wants to never let him on the field again but I guess we’ll see…”
“Oh, do you need to talk about it?”
Niun grunted and I handed him the basket, trying to ease him into the ah…Jeref situation. “Not really.” He finally said.
I nodded. “Alright, how have you been? You getting enough sleep?”
Niun shrugged and examined the basket of foods, “I’ll be alright. Did you check on Jeref?”
Oh dear…ah… “Yes.” I ventured.
“Anything off?”
I sighed, “He’s covered in mushrooms and wouldn’t stop growling at me, but I think he’s probably fine?”
Niun paused, giving me the most bewildered look I’d ever gotten out of him. Sparks I’d forgotten how interesting some expressions could get. “What? Is it Sandfrost?”
I nodded, “As far as I could tell it just sort of started growing on him?”
Niun frowned, “That’s…probably not going to hurt him. I guess I’ll look into how much it breaks down wood. We can try cutting it off or something…”
I gave him a bewildered look, “You can’t just cut off sandfrost.”
“What? Why not, does it grow back?”
“Of course, how can you-” I sighed, having forgotten that most folks hadn’t spent any real time in Aubinere where every second rock and brick was covered in deadly mushrooms. “Sandfrost takes nutrients straight from the between realm, you have to exterminate it with fire or it acts like a sparking hydra.”
Niun went pale, “and Jeref wouldn’t like that, even if he could last through the fire.”
I nodded, “It doesn’t hurt wood very much, plus he’s an undead so I don’t think anything it does will last long.”
The necromancer sighed, “Alright then, thanks for checking up on him, could you do it again next week? I don’t think I can sneak out of the city properly with all this.”
I nodded easily, “I’ll let you know if it’s worse next time.”
“Thank you, Eliax.”
I smiled, but that name somehow felt wrong.