--- NETUN ---
It was a lovely day beyond the reaches of humanity.
The sun was high above, there was just enough cloud cover to prevent heatstroke on the warm summer day, and he hadn’t met any other travelers all morning. Truly the stars had blessed him.
It was hot and stuffy in his twelve layers of fabric, but he wasn’t taking any chances with sunburn, his pale complexion and paler hair agreed with him. Netun was glad his eyes were working today, if only because he could see the beautiful formations of the silverside cliffs in the distance, he could hear the steady beat of ocean waves and he could smell the slightest scent of poison in the air.
Truly, it was a great day.
He stopped beside a nondescript beach, breathing in the sandfrost and examining the old growth of the fungus that seemed to have halted a few months ago. That could mean two things, one of them was very good and the other was very bad.
Netun tried to find the soul anyway, he wasn’t sure who it was, but this soul had been separated from everyone and everything, set upon a secluded beach that rarely even saw visitors, he would be surprised if they were even particularly sane. Stars, Netun hadn’t even been particularly sane.
He could see the slightest signs of a beast having been nearby, but he couldn’t smell anything particularly aggressive about the lingering odor. It had an undertone of sandfrost to it, but Netun couldn’t tell if it was simply exposure to the mushrooms or something more. Perhaps a mutation? That would be interesting.
In any case the beast was gone, whatever soul had been in the sandfrost was nowhere to be found. The old growth was completely severed and would die out without making new spores.
Netun shook his head sadly and dismissed the entire area from his senses. To his surprise there was a slightly weaker sandfrost signal to the south, it seemed to be near that city he’d seen at the edge of the silverside cliffs.
With a shrug, Netun made his way southward, finding a weak path that seemed to be right.
--
The guard stood outside the gate, watching him approach with a hostile expression. Netun had come to expect these from most mortals, since they tended to judge based on appearance.
His layered clothing and covered face spoke of someone with a disease, or someone from so far south that to them it seemed cold. It didn’t help that he wore a wide brimmed hat, shading his face from almost any light.
Finally the man spoke once Netun was close enough to hear clearly. “We aren’t letting people in unless it’s important right now, the wall guard is busy keeping the peace.”
Netun paused, tilting his head, when he spoke it was with a slight slur, his tongue was quite a bit slower than his thoughts and sometimes it refused to move in the way he expected. “I’m jussst…looking for an old friend.” Stars, he probably sounded drunk. Too bad he couldn’t get drunk anymore, he’d like to see what that would be like to his current body.
The guard’s face hardened further and any hesitations he’d had would have flown out the window. “Great, come back in a week once this whole thing has blown over.”
“My friend might be…a bit viooolent. Gotta…find him.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No.”
“Look, who even are you?”
“Niiiitun.”
The guard sighed and waved him closer. Netun followed his motions, curious. It seemed like it was working, he would be let inside and he could look for the sandfrost.
What he didn’t expect was for the guard to violently wrench the large hat from his head and to pull the mask from his face. Apparently he was expecting some kind of outlaw who was hiding his identity.
What he got instead was a corpse.
--
Netun woke up some time later in a new body. He’d grown it in what had seemed to him like a secluded area, but when he peeked out of the bushes around him, he’d somehow chosen what looked like a palace courtyard. The plants weren’t as cared for as they should be and the building itself was a bit rundown, but there were lights in most of the windows and he could smell a feast inside. Carriages were lined up along the road and he could see more of them coming.
Great.
Netun pulled himself from the bushes, glancing to the west where the sun had disappeared. It was still light out but the rays were sinking below the horizon and any damage to his body would be minimal. He’d kind of left his old one out of instinct, it would have died soon enough anyway with the sun right there and most of his sensitive organs within that light.
His practice of growing new streams of himself in the ground with every footstep had paid off, he’d easily had enough mass to produce a new body in just a few hours, though maybe it had been a few days, he wasn’t great at telling the passage of time without eyes or ears.
Netun raised his nose to the air and took in the scents around him, plant matter, the sharp scent of magic, the musky scent of anticipation from the partygoers, there were many things he could smell, but even when he moved around the gardens to gather scents upwind, he couldn’t find the sandfrost.
Stars, he’d been able to smell it clearly before he’d replaced his body, was it being shielded somehow?
He could detect the faintest bit of afterscent, but it was hiding underneath everything else. It didn’t help that his own mass was far more present, and that smelled too similar to not be confusing.
Netun shook his head sadly and moved off, walking through the gardens and occasionally peering at an unfamiliar plant.
In the back of his mind there was a smidgen of regret whenever he saw one. He remembered reading histories long ago in his youth, seeing depictions of trees as tall as mountains and legends of heroic warriors who’d protected them. He remembered that legacy and yet he’d still chosen to betray it along with the rest.
He regretted that, so he put his palm to a weak sapling and fed it some of his strength, as a sign again to Alner just like all the other plants and creatures he tried to help that he’d forgiven himself. Knowing that what he’d done in the past didn’t matter, only who he was now and who he was going to someday become.
Netun strode through the garden, giving of himself to the earth until he barely had enough energy to keep walking. It was a shame that this garden had been neglected, but hopefully this new growth would inspire someone else to aid it in the future.
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As the night grew late and the partygoers began to leave the celebration, Netun reflected on how beautiful this world was, glad that he’d made his mistakes so that he could know that now, this. This wasn’t a mistake.
--- FORA ---
I am the Hero of Melor, Floralen dei Imal, Eliax Lestwood, and the only daughter of a long deceased dye shop owner.
That, I found, was all I really knew.
I sat there on the path, recovering with a barfing Hivren beside me. I looked up at the sky from my back, feeling my heartbeat slowly calm, feeling the grass below my tired exoskeleton. I could feel the faintest breeze tossing my antennae from one side to the other.
I could hear my breathing, the ragged breaths of the human nearby, I could hear the faint sound of birdsong as the sun began to rise.
I could see the brilliant pinks and oranges of the dawn, the silhouette of unfamiliar mountains, the land around us that was worked into fields and ranches. I could see in the distance as the mountains gave way to white sand. I remembered this place vaguely. I’d lived in this village with Estin for a couple of weeks. I couldn’t even remember its name though, there had been so many villages to keep track of.
I could smell the distant scent of baking bread from one of the farmhouses. Slowly I sat up from the grass, feeling my stiff muscles protest. I let my magesight bleed into view and relaxed slightly at the runes drifting in the wind. At that I finally let myself examine my soul, looking inward and expecting to see a disaster.
I finally breathed out the anxiety as I saw nothing but the normal workings of my magic. I would be fine.
I knelt beside Hivren and started casting healing spells to help his body recover from the strain. His eyelids flickered and he looked up at me in confusion, “Eliax?” He coughed, but now that he was awake he wasn’t about to do something smart like stay put. He sat up and took stock of himself, “We’re alive.”
He somehow didn’t seem to believe that fact. He focused on me again as I pinched his arm to make him stop moving and continued the weak spells. “Yes, I’m just as surprised as you.”
I missed it.
I finished up the weak healing aids and helped him to his feet, looking out toward the sand I could see past those mountains.
“We almost made it…” Hivren seemed surprised, “I was half sure we would wake up and find we’d been going in circles the entire time.” Well, traveling with the Between did mess with one’s sense of direction something fierce. There was a reason I preferred teleportation instead of gates.
I examined the distance, finally able to see the land around us, I could easily teleport us the rest of the way. “Alright, let’s keep going then.”
Hivren winced but nodded, stretching his back with a strange popping sound.
I led him back to the path and drew a quick magic circle in the dirt. Hivren seemed confused at the lack of the gate spell, but he certainly wasn’t arguing about it. If we were lucky this could take us to the edge of the desert, which was roughly half the way from here if I was remembering my geography right.
--
It was two days before I managed to extricate myself from Aubinere. Hivren’s father died on the first day and it felt wrong to leave without at least attending the funeral. Hivren seemed grateful that I’d gotten him here, but he still tried to pelt me with questions whenever we saw each other.
I wanted to tell him everything, but I knew that doing that would give me nothing. No matter what he knew about me, he couldn’t get me an audience with the queen, and he couldn’t help me get to the dragonlands.
The journey back to Reiaran was much easier, Hivren stayed behind so I didn’t have to worry about him, and I was in a much better frame of mind than when I’d begun the journey. I’d contemplated popping over to Ceruleia to say hi to Estin, but that would have added at least a day to the whole trip.
Reiaran was just as I remembered it, a port city in a favorable location, big enough to give enemies pause but small enough not to be worth the effort of conquest. The palace shone above the whole thing, the magical lights floating innocently in the windows and the hundreds of guards milling about in an organized fashion.
The Ayfel stood near the palace, among the mansions and ornate gardens of the noble district. A festival flowed through the streets, weaving in and out of sleepy streets, merchant corridors, and back again. The sun was starting to set as I settled upon a roof near the Ayfel and examined the people surrounding it.
The Queen’s guards.
Were they there for me?
Aymiae was in there, so was Turste. Sparks, Turste, Aymi hadn’t been happy when I dumped him on her, if they found him I would be reported to the mage guild. I would probably be fine, most folks knew Foralen had a soul affinity, but Aymi was known for dabbling in any magic type that would let her. Even her elemental affinity couldn’t take her out of suspicion for a zombie being found in her house.
I teleported from the roof, trying to figure out where my illusion would have ended up. Sparks I’d put that assassination out of my mind already but there was at least one person in Reiaran that wanted me dead. With my luck it was probably a lot more.
I cast Geneseri and had my clone keep watch of the Ayfel before scouring the city for my illusion. First I checked the carriage I’d been assassinated in, but that wasn’t any help, then I tried some divination spells but it was probably behind wards or something. I even checked my room at Alsen’s inn, but it was nowhere to be found.
After hours of looking I ended up back on that rooftop, contemplating the Ayfel below. “The Queen herself went inside.” The clone sounded shaken as she stared down at the building with me. “She’s definitely behind this. Do you know why she’s there instead of at the festival like everyone else”
I nodded, having asked around about the festival. “The queen started the festival out of nowhere and decided it was in honor of the Hero. I think it was an attempt to get her to leave wherever she was hiding and face Steris. She seemed rather annoyed when she didn’t show up to the Ball and even ended it early.”
Both of us winced.
I dismissed the clone and let her memories flood into me, making sure there wasn’t anything else important she hadn’t realized. But no, just the presence of the Queen.
After contemplating my options, I dropped from the building and approached the Ayfel, holding myself as much like Fari as I could. The guards examined me and one of them slipped inside as I approached. He came back with Captain Larien of the wall guard. I realized that I hadn’t seen him in just over a week.
“Kid, the Ayfel’s closed right now, you can go enjoy the festival. Gium knows Reiaran needs more of those.”
I met his eyes and gave him the look. “The Queen has made it abundantly clear that she wants to chat with me.” For show I bent space and stepped closer through it, hopefully reminding him of the first time we’d met.
Larien blinked, “You’re-”
“Yes, I’m Foralen. Tell her I’m sorry for not going to the Ball, I was helping a friend get to Aubinere.”
Larien seemed taken aback, but he retreated into the Ayfel. The other guards watched me with guarded looks as we waited for something to happen.
Eventually one of them put a communication stone to his ear and stood up straighter. He gestured for me to go on ahead before falling in behind me as I stepped through into the place I’d grown up.
Aymiae was sitting in the front room looking rather frazzled but still a picture of ladylike decorum like Raia had taught us. She blinked when I entered the room and had a question in her eyes, where was my illusion.
I don’t know. I tried to inform her, I shrugged with an apologetic expression.
The Queen was standing on the other side of the room, examining the stained glass windows that portrayed the Hero. She eventually turned around, frowning at me, “So did Foralen never return? Have you been an imposter this entire time?”
I shook my head, “I am foralen.” For some reason I felt like it would be a monumentally stupid idea to tell her the whole truth. “In my travels I came across a field of wish-lilies on a night of the blue moon. I wished for my youth back. I wear an illusion for the public.”
Steris examined me curiously and glanced at Aymiae, “Is this true?”
Aymi nodded, “If you look in the records that Lady Raia kept when she was alive, You will find that the paintings of Foralen as a teen match up exactly with the young woman in front of you.”
Steris nodded slowly and waved for the guards to leave. Reluctantly they marched out the door. “Why did you do it? Why did you let me become Queen. I’ve wondered ever since that day. With such power as you displayed that day, you could have taken the title yourself. In some places it’s only right for the assassin to take the throne. Why did you not?”
I blinked at her, “Steris, I don’t want to be a Queen, I don’t want to even be a Noble. I don’t trust myself to make the right decisions for the people. You’ve been doing a lot better than I ever could.”
The Queen smiled, “Thank you, Foralen. Will you support me in the public?”
I nodded, “Of course. I will make it clear to everyone.”