“Pleasure to formally make your acquaintance. I’m Metilia Manicus.”
“Same here. Small world I guess. I’m Tahir.”
Six days later, Tahir headed over to Callipho’s shop to meet up with Theo in the late morning, only for the iskarai he’d seen working at the mage’s collective to arrive around the same time. Theo looked pleased to not have to make a more involved introduction.
“So when Theo said you were swamped with work, she meant you’ve been working desk duty at the collective?”
“They’ve told me that they’re understaffed, but I just think I’m in the unfortunate position of having enough seniority to work the position, but not enough to push it onto someone else.” Metilia said. Instead of the collective robes Tahir saw her previously, she wore a thin but sturdy set of traveling gear for the summer heat, along with a thick pair of knee-high boots. Theo had a similar outfit, but both of theirs looked gently used compared to Tahir’s recently repaired armor. At a glance, Tahir thought he spotted a noble amount of muscle on her arms. Around her neck, she wore a necklace with what looked to be a hollow anvil. Iron at the edges but made of glass in the center. The symbol of the goddess Presia.
“Theo described a bit of your situation to me before. She said you were having a problem with your progress in aura - and magic, I caught that you were using both despite her glossing over it as quickly as she did.” Metilia sent a glance toward a sheepish Theo, before looking back to Tahir. “It would be rude of me to assume you couldn’t handle yourself well enough if Theo is also asking you to come along, but is that going to be an issue?”
“Theo also led me to a solution in a roundabout way. I should be fine.” He could already feel the heat bearing down on him, but he already had a solution in mind for that.
“Hey - it wasn’t ‘roundabout!’ I solved your problem!”
“Oh? I wasn’t aware you could just increase people’s energies at will. You should help me with my mana pool while you’re at it.” Metilia said. Theo’s head around to look at her, then back to Tahir when she heard his barely concealed laugh.
“I shouldn’t have brought both of you at the same time, should I?” The shared look between Tahir and Metilia answered her question without either of them having to speak.
As they left, Callipho waved them off. “Take care, you three. I most likely won’t be here when you get back, are you sure you have everything you need, Theoris?”
“Positive!” Theo gave an overly enthusiastic wave goodbye as they set off northward.
Once they were out of the city proper, Tahir told Metilia and Theo about the platinum mission he’d seen at the Redclouds. Once the conversation started, he called on his bond with the spirit of wind, causing a breeze to swirl around him. The amount of mana used didn’t exceed the amount he could regenerate, so even with the cost of calling forth the bond with the spirit, he still had most of his mana pool.
“Neat trick.” Metilia said, feeling the wind. “So you want to scout for the issue while we’re out foraging. Any idea what it is?”
“Not really. It drove boars to attack in a frenzy and drove a troll out of the woods, so some kind of magic is probably involved, and it’s probably strong. Other than that, the Redclouds consider it a priority if it’s a platinum mission. Anything they have to deal with stands a good chance of causing major problems for Balrech.”
“So we’ll all get a cut of the money right?” Theo chimed in, visibly enjoying the breeze as they traveled along a natural trail.
“Course.”
“You sure? Meti told me you could spend it all to get to the leyline crossing.”
“I think he’s making sure we get our ‘hazard pay’ if this ends up being more of an ordeal than he expects. You’re always welcome to donate your cut to his cause “
“Well I wouldn’t go that far. He’s making enough already right? I’m paying him for this! It’s more gold for everyone!” Theo ran her hands through her hair as she looked between Tahir and Metilia, who both smiled back at her. “I’m gonna just focus on gathering. How about that?”
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Days passed as the three of them tread deeper into the forest. They kept as brisk a pace as they could through heavy brush for the first couple of days, but slowed significantly the further they got from Balrech. Theo skipped the woodlands frequented by others and headed straight for the wild -- lands that weren’t already picked clean, but prone to danger from wild animals or monsters. Pleasantly, they encountered no trouble. Tahir kept alert for any frenzied beasts, but they found a relatively low amount of animals of any kind, something he found odd.
Tahir also kept track of any changes he felt from having his soul partially merged with his spirits for long periods of time. He didn’t seem to feel any adverse effects - only a reduction of his mana pool that went away when the bond ended. He found that he could even sleep while bound to the spirits, which allowed him to maintain the breeze while he slept. A couple of days in, he found that binding to the spirit worked better for the warm nights. His companions on their night watch didn’t have to worry about the constant rustling from the breeze, and the water spirit simply reduced his body heat passively. This did lead to its own problem, however.
“So what’s this about?” Tahir glanced over at Theo next to him. Once they settled down on the fourth night and set up camp, she’d sat down next to and leaned against Tahir.
“You’re cool.” She stated. “Cold, even. And you stopped the breeze. I was getting used to it.”
To Tahir, she did feel pretty warm by comparison. On his opposite side, Metilia sat down and leaned against him as well, while she sharpened a knife that Theo used for harvesting. “Theo’s right. It’s better for us at night that you are this way instead of the constant swirl around you, but I’m not sure she’ll get to sleep tonight in the heat.” She looked over at Theo briefly before bringing her attention back to the knife. “She might also be studying your aura to figure out how to do it herself, when she very well could have asked.”
“How-?” Tahir began to ask, but a notable increase in heat coming off of Theo made him whip his head across to look at her. She pulled a half- empty vial away from her lips and stashed it away in a pouch, giving him an apologetic look.
“Okay, okay, maybe I was, but I didn’t know how much you wanted to tell Meti about the whole spirit thing.”
Before anyone could respond, they heard the cracking and shifting of something moving through the forest with no regard to the foliage, moving toward them at a worrying speed. All three scrambled to their feet with their weapons. Tahir with his shortsword and wand, Metilia with a staff, and Theo with the knife quickly tossed back to her as a large shape burst through the undergrowth.
A bright glow from the tip of Metilia’s staff illuminated a walking tree that crashed through the underbrush. It stood nearly eight feet tall, had no leaves, and two claw-like branches midway that mimicked arms. Tahir also spotted an odd, dark blue growth along its side, like some kind of dimly growing moss.
It charged right into their camp, which sent the three scrambling out of the way. After a moment, it went after a target, Metilia, and brought its branch-arms to slam down onto her. A wave of her staff and a sharply spoken incantation brought up a blue shield of magical force that warded off the tree’s blow.
Theo scrambled for something in her bag, while Tahir used its distraction to swap spirits. During his experimentation, he found that he still had a moment of system shock when he swapped between spirits that he already invoked. In exchange for this pause, the sudden switch still proved faster than closing one bond and opening another, though he had all of his faculties during that process.
Fire and earth whirled to life inside his soul, and he immediately pointed his wand to fire off another fire bolt at his full power. The tree turned at the sound of the crack from Tahir’s magic, only to catch a direct hit from the flames. It stepped toward him, seemingly ignoring its now charred top half, to swing at Tahir with its claws.
Tahir braced himself, waiting for the swing and bringing up his shortsword to deflect the blows. His arm stung, but he diverted two claws to either side of him before carving a line across the bark with a downward swing of his shortsword. His aura shield held, and the earth spirit increasing his weight let him leverage it against the tree.
Tahir prepared to strike again, but backpedaled when the tree lurched forward. It turned, revealing multiple bolts made of raw magic jutting out of the trunk. Changing targets once again, it began to rush toward Metilia again, but something slammed into it, shattering against it and coating it in liquid before it could take five steps.
“Tahir! Light it up!” Theo shouted, her eyes widening as the tree turned to her. Tahir didn’t need to be told twice, he had another full power fire bolt flying toward the tree before it could take another step.
He had to turn his head soon after. The impact nearly blinded him as the tree lit up like fireworks, the oil coating it igniting faster than any Tahir had ever seen. The tree flailed in place and whipped around, making popping and cracking noises and some dreadful keening that almost sounded like screaming, And then it grew still and silent, but continued to burn.
Tahir, Metilia, and Theo stood quiet as the fire burned itself, and didn’t approach until it all but collapsed on the ground. “What was that about?” Tahir asked, looking to Theo. “And what was that…oil? Why’s it so strong?”
“Punice Oil.” Theo answered. “It grows around volcanoes and places that have frequent thunderstorms, since it uses fire to spread its seeds. I brought a couple bottles just in case it started raining and we needed to start a campfire.”
Metilia came closest, tapping the corpse with her staff and turning it over to the growth on its side. Still faintly glowing blue despite the burns. “This is void corruption.” She stated, turning back to look at Tahir and Theo. “Something is very wrong here.”