Inside the jelly-like creature, partially digested skeletons of man and beast were suspended in its body. A silhouette of a skull with a long tongue sat eclipsing the blurred sun. Kichi struggled against the vile entombment and panicked as she realized that she couldn’t breathe. She would dissolve after she suffocated, but she stuck her shirt over her mouth and got a fraction of breath.
She still had the sword in her hand. The weight against her was crushing, but she moved the blade up, cutting into the mass of the glank. She made a slit that allowed a pocket of air, and she sat and gasped. Well, that bought her a little time.
But the stench made her want to empty her stomach, and she had to fight back bile.
A hole appeared in the glank, torn by the tiny claws of Bin. Bin! You beautiful squirrel cat!
The hole was enough to push wider and wiggle through. She spilled out like a birthed calf, and she sucked in fresh air—well, fresher than within that stinking mass.
She rolled over, almost too tired to do so, just in time to see the glank reel back from a green crescent of air. Whitebeard struck it again and again with the long green sword, and it had reared up to meet him higher in the air, and so when it fell, it toppled like a tree. She scrambled to her feet and threw herself before it crushed her.
The town square shook as the glank crashed as a mountainous splat.
Whitebeard landed softly, turned to her, and offered a hand. “It is defeated. Now, thrust your sword into it so that the spirits can cleanse and release it.“
She walked beside the glank, pinched her nose, and poked her sword into it. She would rather get away from the thing. And she needed to sit down. Her legs felt noodly, barely holding her up.
He also thrust his sword into it so that both pure swords were in the unclean spirit. A high hum filled the air. “Kichi, the brigand was right about the kingdom. It’s fallen into a state of decay. These spirits would never have grown so corrupted when the King was in good health. I fear the rot has crept into many of his subjects.”
Kichi felt a tingle. “Why don’t you know what’s been happening? I thought everyone knew that things were getting worse.”
“I’ve been gone a long time. I was in a land beyond the sea, and before I sailed forth, the people were happy with the new kingdom. The king was strong, and the orders of knights stood in solidarity. The land was merry with spirits and animals. Now a shadow has laid itself on the realm.”
She felt the tingle turn into pain as energy surged through her sword and into her. Jolts racked her arm and punched her breath away. Soon, she let out a groan as the pain exceeded her ability to hide it.
Under white, bushy eyebrows, Whitebeard looked at her squinted eyes and barred teeth. “Let go.”
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She knew she should, but this is why she trained, and it was thrilling. The power filled her like a mug overbrimming.
He repeated more forcefully. “Let go, now.”
Forking bolts flashed through her mind, and she screamed. It was as if her whole body had been set aflame. A moment later, she realized she was alive when she opened an eyelid, and the sky was beside her—no, above her. She was on her back on the cobbles.
Whitebeard stood over her. “Silly girl. Release if you feel pain. If you’d been alone, you’d be dead.”
“What happened?”
“You drew too much. Your power level expands around you in rings. Think of the power in packets that you have to store. The ring closest to you can’t hold as much because it’s smaller in circumference. When your pure sword drank from the glank, it quickly exceeded the smallest rings about yourself.”
“How many rings do I have now?”
“Only a sorcerer can tell you.”
The mayor peeked from his door, flinched at the mess, and let his mouth stay open at the sight of the knight over the fallen girl. “Are you okay? Are they gone?”
Whitebeard nodded. “I’m going to come inside and have a bath. Well, both of us.”
Bin landed on the mayor’s shoulder. Bits of waste dripped onto his clean blue shirt. His nose wrinkled, and he tried shooing the animal away. “Of course, yes, come in.”
She’d never been inside a fancy home. It had an upper floor with a balustrade and servants who drew her a bath in a cast iron tub and gave her clean clothes. They held her soiled ones at arm's length to wash. Afterward, they gave her an ivory comb, and she sat looking at herself in a mirror. She’d never brushed herself such a perfect reflection of her whole body. She’d always used a small polished metal thing. She came out of the manor feeling like a mountain of gold.
Whitebeard cut a dashing figure, though maybe a little too tall and lanky. He looked like a true knight, save for the long white hair, which they usually cropped short. His clothes weren’t rumpled, and the silver embroidery against the black cloth stood in high contrast. And he didn’t smell.
The festival had begun, and throngs of people packed the town square. They played games and held contests. People raced around the square with their legs in sacks. The farmers showed off melons they’d grown to a ridiculous size.
Kichi and Whitebeard ate fried bread with honey and went straight to the fortune teller afterward.
The tent was a purple canvas with moon and star patterns. The woman inside looked like a crinkled piece of parchment. She read their palms and then laid out cards, but she kept coming up with no answers. She thrummed her fingers on the table, reshuffled, and sighed.
Whitebeard gave Kichi a knowing look.
The fortune teller brought out a crystal ball and looked into it until smoke filled the interior. It looked like a fireworks show in the clouded orb, and the strange light played on her face. “I have something. I was getting worried I’d lost my touch. Anyway, I see you in a castle, and you will find something of a horrible nature. Some evil power will try to destroy you, and I see it strike you down, Lord Knight.”
Kichi felt Bin tremble in her arms. She stroked the poor squirrel cat, looked up, and found Whitebeard grinning. The woman had said he’d be struck down, and he found it amusing.
Kichi
Level: 4
Focus: Prescience
Secondary focus: Lava
Weapons: pure sword - 3% pure