“Ra…ven?” Giralldo said, in a distorted voice full of disbelief.
The Raven turned his attention back to the mercenary. “Ah, you never considered why I never appeared behind the barrier? Though when I think about it, I suppose it was an easy assumption to make that I simply wouldn’t want to be seen. You hoped I would simply hide away and elect to not use any magic powerful enough to destabilize the barrier from the inside, with my forced proximity to the ruin and the danger that I might accidentally disrupt the carefully prepared ritual we spent so much time researching. You gambled with the possibility that I would consider my studies more important than the lives of people. Fortunately you’ll never get to see the results, but it was a gamble you would have lost.”
A deep growl rose in Giralldo’s throat, but the Raven, unfazed, continued. “I did enjoy your company, Giralldo. I’m aware you were smart, but not smart enough to come up with a plan like this, and certainly not as well equipped to use some of my own research against me with those rift-spawning orbs. I’ll spare the rest of your company from the worst of the backlash, but could you humor me for a moment, and tell me who exactly you’re so afraid of that you’d put your soul at risk in such a way?” Instead of giving a response, Giralldo roared, and ran toward the Raven with claws outstretched. The raven sighed, and held a hand out to his side. “I suppose this was always how it was going to end.”
Tahir felt the powerful vibration, the trembling of the earth that signified epic magic coming from the Raven, as magic coalesced into a thin shape so black it seemed to absorb all light around it. In a deceptively quick movement, he dodged out of the way of Giralldo when the mercenary tried to grab and crush him, and he gave a swipe with this conjured weapon. The Raven continued walking past him, toward the barrier, not even sparing the mercenary a second glance as he collapsed into a pool of blood, a deep cut across his chest.
Finally seeing the end of the fight, a wave of lethargy seemed to hit Tahir all at once, and he nearly collapsed. Shukri managed to grab him before he could, helping to keep him aloft. “What a powerful blade.” She said, watching along with Tahir as the Raven walked with it. “Do you think you could create something like that?”
Tahir watched in disbelief as the scene played out in front of him. He’d become far more sensitive to matters of planar rifts and teleportation since his initial bond with the Traveler, so he could see, or rather feel the true effects of the spell. “That wasn’t a blade.” He said, with his eyes on the Raven. “That was a planar rift, in the shape of a blade, that he just conjured in his hand.”
“You have a good eye.” The Raven said, without turning around as he reached the barrier. “Hmm I spied a number of poorly covered burials when I flew around the perimeter. If I’m accurate, the lynchpin to this barrier should be…around here.” He stabbed into the ground just before the barrier, around where Giralldo stood when Tahir and Shukri originally found him. The planar blade sank through the ground easily, and seemed to hit something. Tahir felt a magic pulse radiate out from that point, and the barrier began to fade. The Raven let go of the ‘blade’, and it collapsed in on itself, and disappeared.
Almost immediately, the Blade of Frost stepped past the Raven and started walking toward Tahir.
“Oh, hells, we might have another problem.” Tahir said, trying to move to stand on his own, but faltering when pain shot through his legs. He probably couldn’t even stand without Shukri holding him up.
“Hey you.” She said, bringing a hand to her sword but not drawing it quite yet. A wave of cold radiated out from her. “I have some questions. That technique you used to kill those three stooges, and when you fought Giralldo, where did you learn it? And where did you get that blade?”
Murabi told them to not use techniques in front of people from Shinevi when he wasn’t around, but he never told them what to do or say if a situation occurred where he couldn’t avoid using them. Tahir didn’t know if Murabi wanted to keep his identity hidden from them or not, since he left, but either way, Tahir wasn’t about to sell out his mentor.
“The sword’s custom made by a close personal friend of mine.” Tahir said. He also found himself curious where Meti learned how to make swords like this, but he’d never taken the time to ask. “The techniques, well, that’s not something I’m willing to tell you.” The temperature seemed to drop several degrees as the words left his mouth.
“I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in.” She took a step forward, and frost spread out across the ground at her feet. Mikharma moved to stand in front of Tahir and Shukri.
“Miss Otsumo.” The Raven spoke. The mages from his guild had gathered around him, but he turned to look back toward them. “I will have to ask that you refrain from taking any actions that may cause harm to those individuals. Our relations with the nomads will already be severely strained as it is.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“This is a matter that involves Shinevi personally, so I am unable to comply with that request unless you are willing to sour your relationship with the isle.” The Blade of Frost called back.
“Unfortunately for you, young Tahir and his companions are associates of one of a few people of the continent that I would choose over the whole of Shinevi, so I will have to reassert myself in this matter.” The Raven fully turned to face her. “If it frustrates you, perhaps you can take your anger out on the fire that Giralldo and company started to make sure it doesn’t reach the Grove.”
The Blade of Frost looked between Tahir and the Raven, and cursed, taking a hand off of her sword and storming past Tahir, Shukri, and Mikharma. She gave Tahir a look, one that silently said ‘this isn’t over’, and one that caused Tahir to swallow hard as she passed by.
“Don’t worry about her too much.” The Raven said, once she’d gotten out of earshot. “She won’t harm you while you’re here, at least. I can’t speak to when you leave, however.”
“That’s fine, thank you.” Tahir said. This had to be the worst possible time for her to confront him about it. With everyone else, they could probably fend her off. They’d just have to be wary of her whenever they left the Grove.
With a word from the Raven, the mages from the guild started moving past him, toward the fire. “The fire should be out shortly. Hopefully we’ve managed to minimize any damage.” He said to Tahir, Shukri, and Mikharma. “I’ll be presenting one formally to the people of the Grove as a whole soon, but I would like to give my sincerest apologies.” He gave a bow, and stayed down for several seconds.
“We care little for empty apologies.” Mikharma replied, crossing her arms.
“Rest assured.” The Raven said, when he finally rose. “The apology will not be empty. I’ll use my capacity as a guildmaster to make sure we leave the Grove better than we found it. You have my word.”
“Very well. I will be watching.” She turned, and started moving back toward Tahir and Shukri. “I believe the two of you need to rest. You can’t even stand, and you have barely enough to carry him.” She told them.
“I’ll take you to your tent.” Shukri said to Tahir, and he winced as they started to walk, pain shooting up his leg. “Are you alright?”
“I’m great, just…everything’s broken, or strained, or fractured. My body couldn’t really handle the aura I was using.” Tahir shrugged, but even that hurt somewhat. “I’ll deal with it, though. Small price to pay for actually being able to fight someone who was as strong as a Mithral Redcloud. Even if I could only consider it one versus two at best.”
“Surely you jest.” Shukri pulled him along without warning, picking him up and putting him on her back. Once Tahir realized what she was doing, he gave a mental thanks and sent away the earth spirit to reduce his weight. “I’d never fight with someone I just met the way I did with you. You fought with us as if you’d been hunting with us for years.”
“She is right. We were effectively a single unit, and I know you felt it.” Mikharma said. Shukri began to walk away, and Tahir glanced back and gave one last shaky wave to the Raven. He gave a nod and a smile in return.
“Part of that was your affinity, but you do have a point.” Tahir said.
“Of course I do. Affinity is one thing, but any hunter can know what they need to do but struggle in the midst of a confrontation. We all made mistakes, but the one thing I never saw you do was hesitate. Well, except at the end.”
“Right.” He had a sense that they could have simply ended the fight instead of letting Giralldo merge with his spirit, but Tahir wanted to give him one last chance to surrender. He wasn’t like the maligno or the cairn lord. “And thank you, Mikharma. I feel like you wanted to go for the throat back there, but you didn’t.”
“I had a feeling it would end the way it did, but I could tell you had something else in mind.” The spirit brought a hand up to run through his hair. “‘Twas a well executed hunt, regardless, from both of you.”
Tahir felt Shukri’s tail brushing against his back, all the way back to the tent. Mikharma wanted to go see what she could make of the fire and the progress with putting it out, and Shukri elected to stay with Tahir in case the Blade of Frost tried anything. Soon enough, Theo, Hasio and Meti made their way to the tent, concerned after they’d returned to the Raven and heard from him that Tahir had to be carried back. At this point, Theo noted that Tahir looked very similar to Shukri, and he was finally able to look in a mirror. Sure enough, his eyes had gained the same catlike shape and color, and his hair had taken on a similar red tint. His fingernails had shifted into claws as well, which must have happened during the shift from tier two to tier three, because he didn’t notice that when he first summoned Mikharma.
They could then share what had happened to each of them. Tahir and Shukri’s fight at the barrier, and Theo, Hasio, Meti’s fight in the woods and the aftermath. Theo managed to take a kind of ‘core’ and some magma samples from the elemental, and found that the man that it crushed had a spare storage bag, among other things. They made their way back to the fire line to help put out the fire, and it went smoothly, ending pretty dramatically when the Blade of Frost showed up and practically froze the entire fire line.
The hunters would fan out to make sure there weren’t any more elementals at Theo’s warning, and the mages were otherwise cleaning up as best they could. Now, with Tahir’s experience with the Blade of Frost, they’d all know to avoid her for the time being. Whatever the case, it had been a very long day. Deciding to go visit the Raven again to talk more about things in the morning, they moved all of their bedrolls together and slept in a pile.