The marshals stripped both of us down, confiscating our weapons and decks, including the spare the old man had strapped beneath his left arm. Once they were certain we were unarmed, they tossed us our clothes back–minus the marshal coats and hats–and led us back into the town. I left the wave horror and shockfloater behind, presumably to be corralled into cages. I wasn’t too worried about that; I was fairly sure the wave horror’s Acid Flower could eat through a metal cage in a few minutes, or at least weaken it enough for the creature to break free, but I didn’t think that I was going to win this through brute force.
They took us to the large building I’d sensed Chomai in earlier, which I assumed was Kamath’s home and the local equivalent of the sheriff’s office rolled into one. One man dragged Ramka roughly down a hallway, in the direction I sensed Chomai, while the two holding my arms took me to a small room devoid of all furnishings but a single solid, wooden chair and an unlit lamp burning overhead. The chair, I noticed, was nailed to the floor so it wouldn’t move, and dark stains mottled the wooden surface as well as the floor below it. The entire room stank of old blood, vomit, and urine, leaving little doubt as to what it was used for. The fact that Kamath needed a designated torture room probably told me all I really needed to know about him.
The marshals shoved me roughly into the chair and proceeded to tie me to it with rough ropes. They bound my wrists to the chair’s arms, my ankles to its legs, and my chest to its back, pulling the ropes tight as they did. I shifted my arms sideways, took a deep breath, and tensed my muscles as they bound me, creating some slack to work with just in case I needed it.
“The marshal’ll be here to chat with you a in bit, boy,” one of the marshals said flatly as they finished and stepped back. “I suggest you answer his questions quick.”
“I hope he don’t,” the other man snarled. “I heard what he did to all them marshals down south, Nakla. I hope he’s stubborn as hell about it–and that I get to help.”
The two men walked out and slammed the door, plunging the room into darkness. I wondered if they’d done that purposefully or if they were just lazy, but the fact was, it was a powerful psychological tool for interrogation. Humans are sight-driven creatures, and depriving us of that sense makes us anxious and heightens our fears. Most of us aren’t great at decoding the world around us through hearing alone, so as our fears grow, we start to imagine sounds that aren’t there or assign insidious meanings to the sounds we do hear. Normally, the key to combatting that strategy is to relax, focus on your breathing, and keep your thoughts under control, but I had another way to deal with it.
In fact, I was glad for the darkness and quiet. My plan had to change now that I’d learned more. I didn’t know what the purpose of the rune drawn on the ground was, but I had my suspicions. Initially, I’d meant to draw Kamath out into an ambush by destroying parts of the town, but if my guess was right, that wasn’t going to work. That meant I had some work to do.
First, I shifted my right arm back and forth a bit, using the slack I’d given myself to create more until I could slip my hand free. It was painful, but I was pretty sure it was going to be necessary. I touched my pants leg and channeled a bit of magic; a moment later, a hard cylinder dropped into my hand. I lifted the pen and fumbled with it for a moment before finding the right grip for it.
“Sara, I might need some help for this,” I thought silently.
“Of course, John. Here you go.” The room around me suddenly lit up with a ghostly image of what it looked like before I’d been plunged into darkness. The chair arm where my right hand had been glowed with a golden light, and I placed my pen on it and began to draw. It was an odd feeling; part of me knew that I couldn’t see what I was doing, but it felt like I could, and the strange double sight was mildly distracting. I pushed the distraction aside, though, and carefully finished the rune I wanted and that I was certain I was going to need. A moment later, I drew another on the left arm, this one a healing rune I had a feeling might come in handy. When I finished, I returned the pen to my clothing’s storage, slipped my hand under the bindings again, and closed my eyes.
I hurled my thoughts into my cloudhunter, drifting high above the town, concealed in the scattered cloud cover. I guided it over the rune and examined it carefully.
“Am I right, Sara?” I asked silently.
“It’s possible, John. Assuming that it’s what you think, though, it’s not done yet. That’s not the final layer.”
“What about my idea? Is that possible?”
“It should be, but…” She hesitated. “You’d need ink. A lot of it.”
“Which I don’t have. Is there any other way?”
“You need something that can carry the energy. Blood might work.”
“Blood?” I asked, a little startled.
“Yes. To be specific, monster blood from a bonded monster. Regular monsters don’t have enough energy in them for it to work, not with something like this.”
I grimaced, then smiled as an idea occurred to me. “What about another rune? Would that work?”
“Actually, it might, if the rune were powerful enough,” she said thoughtfully. “It would probably also destroy the rune in the process, though. And you’d have to modify it a bit.”
“I might be able to manage that. Where’s the best place to do it?”
“Right here.” A spot on the ground lit up, glowing in my altered vision. “Assuming that the rune is the same or reasonably close, this spot will do.”
I watched the scene as the marshals gathered their own pets and departed, then issued new orders to mine. As I expected, the wave horror broke free of its cage in minutes, releasing the shockfloater as well, then set about weakening the rest of the cages. I didn’t want them open; I just wanted them to be able to be opened quickly if needed. The moonstalker and mistfreezer both slipped out onto the field and set to work, their movements hidden by the darkness and the ground fog the mistfreezer created. I watched carefully, making sure that none of their efforts were immediately visible.
My eyes snapped open as the door crashed inward, revealing a figure backlit by the light outside. I squinted as that light stabbed at my eyes and turned my face away from the door to let my vision adjust.
“Now, did my boys leave you here in the dark?” Kamath laughed, identifying the figure in the doorway for me. “How rude of them!” I felt a surge of magic ripple in the room, and a golden glow shone from overhead as the marshal magically lit the lamp above me. “There, that’s better.”
I closed my eyes for a moment to give them a chance to adjust, then opened them back up and looked at the marshal looming before me. A man and a woman stood beside him, both grinning cruelly at me, and both large and heavily muscled. The man’s knuckles, I noticed, were heavily scarred, while the woman tapped a small club that was probably filled with lead in the palm of her hand. I glanced at both of them, then looked back at Kamath, whose friendly smile was deeply at odds with his cold, flat eyes.
A thought popped into my head, and I shifted my sight to detect world energy and examined the trio. The two lesser marshals looked more or less how I’d expected; the same hard, red haze surrounded them as it did Ramka and Chomai, but there were differences. Theirs seemed more complete, somehow, as if something had been missing from the others’ auras that theirs held. Kamath’s, though, blazed with golden power, shining so brightly that I could barely look at him without squinting. The lattice surrounding him was totally different from the ones I’d seen before, and I got the impression that if the other marshals’ auras were dim copies of some greater construct, his was close to the original.
“I think you’re right, John,” Sara said quietly. “His looks a lot like a true SARA’s energy signature–but not quite. It’s almost as if someone did their best to make a copy of one and got really close.”
As she said that, pieces fell into place in my mind, and I suddenly understood what was happening. Just to confirm, I analyzed him and had to force my face to remain neutral as I read the information.
Kamath
Paths: Hunter, Tamer, Shaper, Herder, Trainer, Bender, Generalist, Pantologist, Factotum, Grandmaster
Rank: Epic
Affinities: Vermin, Predator, Metal, Fire, Earth
Pets: Bloodfly (Simple, 1)
Dominia: 96.0 Personia: 96.2 Arcania: 100.9
Threat Level: Extreme
I carefully schooled my face to a calm expression. Chotu and Ishar had been right; Kamath wasn’t just another handler. I understood now why his bloodfly was able to kill so easily and quickly. With his Epic path and enormous bonuses, a Simple creature like that would probably be equal to a High or Paragon one in stats. If it came down to a fight between the two of us, I was going to lose, no contest. I let no trace of that knowledge show on my face, though.
“Is this the part where you torture me for information?” I asked calmly.
“Information?” the man chuckled. “You don’t really know much that I care about, Kaatla.”
“That’s a good name,” I admitted. “Personally, I prefer Charita.”
“No-face?” he asked with a laugh. “Actually, that’s even better since nobody seems to be able to get any decent information about you, and whatever I get turns out to be wrong. For example, I heard you had a shellsnapper. Turns out, you’ve got a wave horror. How did that happen?”
“I’ve been busy,” I shrugged. “Man’s gotta occupy his time.”
“That he does, boy. That he does. Of course, if I’d known you had something like that, I’d have invited you here a long time ago.”
“Isn’t that more or less what you did?” I asked wryly.
“Whatever do you mean?”
“I mean, you sent a bunch of marshals down to try and capture me and bring me here, and when that didn’t work, you basically left open your front door and asked me to come inside.” I chuckled. “What, you think I didn’t realize that you deliberately left gaps in your sentries and patrols for me to slip through?”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Clever of you to figure that out,” he nodded. “That’s the one thing all the reports on you agree on, Kaatla. You’re smart and dangerous. So, knowing that, why’d you still come?”
“Because I’m also arrogant,” I sighed. “I thought I could slip in and out without you realizing it.” I eyed him curiously. “How did you track me, anyway?”
“I didn’t,” he laughed. “I had someone else doing it. I was planning on introducing you eventually. Might as well do it now.” He stepped back and leaned into the hallway. “Govand, come on in here.”
The name was familiar, but it didn’t click until an unassuming man dressed in brown with a green vest appeared in the doorway. A five-lobed silver leaf gleamed on his chest, and that put it together in my head.
“Ranger Govand,” I sighed. “You’ve been following me since we met in the Devada, haven’t you?”
“Yep,” he said simply. “After I saw you bond that moonstalker, I gave up on trying to bring you in and just followed you.” The man looked at Kamath. “And we still need to discuss my payment.”
“I have your money, Govand,” Kamath sighed, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small stack of papers. “Here. Twenty sonats, as agreed, plus twenty more for your losses.”
“Much obliged,” the man nodded, flipping through the papers before slipping them into his own pocket. “You mind putting me up for a day before I head out?”
“Head to the barracks, and they’ll find you a spot,” Kamath said a little irritably. “I’m a bit busy right now.” The ranger nodded and vanished from the doorway, and the female marshal closed it behind him.
Kamath looked at me and rolled his eyes. “Mercenaries,” he said in a resigned voice. “I hate working with them. All they care about is money.” He gestured toward the other marshals. “Give me men and women who serve out of loyalty any day, right?” I remained silent, but I didn’t think he really expected me to answer the question as he squatted before me.
“So, Kaatla. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them. Understand?”
“And what if I’m not feeling particularly chatty?” I asked wryly.
“Then I’m gonna let Mohun and Salani, here, have some fun with you until you are.” He stepped back, and the man–who I assumed was Mohun–lunged forward, crashing his fist into the side of my head. I used what slack I’d given myself to ride the blow as much as possible, but it still rang my bell and made my cheek throb for a moment. Mohun stepped back, and Salani slipped forward, crashing her truncheon down on my fingers. That hurt a lot more, and without my bond, I’d probably have had some broken fingers, but I simply absorbed the pain and took a deep breath.
“You’re tough,” Kamath said approvingly. “Tough and smart, a good combination. It won’t help you, though. See, that’s the bad part about being a handler. Your bonds keep you from harm, but they don’t protect you from pain. That means that in a situation like this, I can spend a lot more time giving you pain without having to worry about getting blood on myself or having you die on me.”
He leaned forward again. “Let’s start simple. Tell me your name–your real name.”
“Charita,” I smiled at him. “Pleased to meet you.”
He sighed and stepped back, and Mohun’s fist crashed into my face again. A moment later, Sahani’s club cracked into my kneecap, and I hissed in pain. Mohun slammed a fist into my stomach, and I tensed it just in time to keep my dinner down and air in my lungs. After a minute or so of pounding on me, the pair stepped back, and Kamath knelt before me again.
“Your name,” he said. “Tell me your name.”
I grinned and spat directly into his face. “What, you think that hurt?” I chuckled. “I’ve lived through tortures you can’t even imagine, marshal, and those without having a bond to protect me. That was like a gentle tickle to me. I can take this for days.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged, wiping my spit from his cheek. “But why go through that? Why spend hours each day being beaten, burned, electrocuted, drowned, and frozen?”
“Maybe because I like pissing you off,” I suggested. “I’ve been doing a good job of it so far.”
“That you have, I have to admit. But that’s over, now.”
“Is it?” I grinned at him. “See, Marshal, I know what you’re doing here, what you’ve been doing this whole time.”
“Do you, now?” he asked curiously.
“Yep. And I know that you’re lying to your followers.” I glanced at them. “You want me to tell them about it?”
Kamath stared dubiously at me, then looked over his shoulder. “Give us a minute,” he said tersely.
“Marshal, you sure?” Salani asked hesitantly. “We can get him to talk…”
“Not that way. It’ll take too long. I’ll handle it.”
She shrugged, and the pair exited the room, leaving us alone. Kamath turned back to me with a wintry smile.
“So, No-face. What is it you think you know?”
“That rune you’re making; it’s a Mythic copy of the ones you used in Whitestone and Shadewood,” I said. “Isn’t it?”
“It is,” he nodded. “I’m not surprised you worked that out, though.”
“That rune has been the point all along,” I continued. “You don’t care about the Gistal or the Empire. This was all a way for you to make that rune. You’re hoping to raise a Mythic beast–and then, you’re going to try and bond it.”
His eyes narrowed. “Go on.”
“I admit, this whole time, I really thought you were trying to take over the Gistal,” I chuckled. “But you don’t care about it in the slightest, do you? This is all about raising this beast and bonding it. Everything else is just a means to that end.”
I shifted a bit in the chair as I spoke. “I recovered the rune you used in Whitestone,” I said. “And I was there in Shadewood when Daksh activated it. I’ve had a chance to deconstruct it, and I know more or less how it works. It’s like a super-powered calling rune; the Epic version draws in energy from all around–shaking the ground as it sucks in earth energy from beneath it–and uses it to wake up the nearest Epic beast and draw it toward the rune. It only partially worked in Whitestone before the shaking that I don’t think anticipated collapsed the mine and buried the Epic beast I’m assuming was beneath it. I drove off Old Sena in Shadewood before it could destroy the town, but that wasn’t the point. It proved the concept worked, and if it worked on an Epic scale, it could work on a Mythic one.”
I nodded to myself thoughtfully. “The problem is, a Mythic one must draw, what, ten times the power that an Epic one does? A hundred? Enough that it’s too much energy. The Epic rune took a fair bit of power to activate; a Mythic one would suck the magic right out of someone, even someone as strong as you, and it would drain all the magic for miles, probably collapse every town and city nearby, and that might still not be enough. You needed a better power source, and there’s no better one than bonded pets, is there?
“That’s what this is all about. You needed powerful pets, High and Paragon ones. Out east, those are all bonded to powerful people, so you couldn’t get our hands on them. Same problem in the Ohr Valley. Out in the Gistal, though, the sheriffs had plenty of pets just ripe for the taking, and there’s really no organization to protest out here. You could sever them and take those pets, and they’d provide the power you need for your rune.
I laughed and shook my head. “And the best part is, the severing rune makes them easier to tap, doesn’t it? It’s like half the bond is just hanging there, waiting to reconnect to something, and I’m guessing you’ve figured out a way to make that something the power intake of your rune. And if it works one way, on the pet, it probably works the other, on the marshals.”
I fixed him with a steady gaze. “That’s the plan, right? That rune isn’t just a calling rune; the Severing rune’s hidden in there, too. You’re going to sever your followers, drain the magic from them and their pets, plus all the ones you’ve got captured–and you’re going to sever yourself, because once you’re severed, it’s easier to bond with something else that’s severed, too. The rune will sever everyone, suck in all that power, and feed it into the Mythic beast, which makes it vulnerable to being bonded by someone who’s been severed before. You’ll be unstoppable. You can take over the Gistal, the Valley, and Na Jhauta, create a whole new Empire with you as its ruler. Or you can just head down to Pala and take over the existing Empire.” I shook my head. “And if that rune works, there’s no force on this planet that could stop you.”
He stared at me for a moment, then began slowly clapping his hands. “Damn, you really are good,” he said appreciatively. “You’re right, too, at least for the most part. Close enough that the differences don’t really matter.”
“There are some things I don’t understand,” I admitted. “Like how you can find these Epic and Mythic creatures, or how you created the Epic calling rune in the first place.”
“Simple. I found Ujali’s final resting place.” The man laughed easily. “Everyone thinks that the First Queen ascended and became a god–or something close to it–but the truth is, she died, just like everyone does. I spent two decades looking for her, traveling the world, talking to every scholar and academic who’s ever researched her. At last, I found the tomb she built for herself way out in the middle of the Paschig Ocean. Inside, I found the secret to her power.”
He opened his shirt, and my eyes widened as I saw the glowing tattoo pulsing on his chest.
“He’s an Inquisitor!” I thought in amazement and alarm.
“No,” Sara said instantly. “That seal–it’s wrong. It’s been altered or damaged somehow, and it’s not linked to any power.”
“Ujali’s body had survived all these years,” he continued. “And she had this on her chest. I could feel the power coming off it, and I knew that it was the secret to her strength.”
He closed his shirt. “I also found a bunch of Epic runes stored in a chest. I spent years studying them, working them out, until I understood how Epic runes work. And then, I made my own–one that transferred her power to me.” His eyes went distant. “And it worked. I know how Ujali got so strong, so fast. With this, I get stronger ten times faster than I did without it. I can analyze things without needing a rune, and I can walk every path without suffering penalties for it. It even lets me add strength to my pets so they rank up a hundred times faster than they should.”
He shook his head. “But only to a point. I couldn’t rank any up past Paragon level. So, instead, I decided to try and call an Epic beast myself. It took months to figure out the rune and how to power it, but with my new power, I learn a hell of a lot faster than I used to. It worked, but even though I called an Epic creature, I couldn’t bond it. Its mind was too much for me. It seems like the only way to bond an Epic beast is to rank it there, and that would take years, even for me.”
He flashed me a grin. “At least, so I thought until I remembered Ujali’s Severing rune. It was one of the things I found in her tomb, a way to strip the pets from a handler without fighting them. It was damaged, but I worked it out, and I found that while a severed handler can’t bond anything but another severed pet, a severed pet is so easy to bond that practically anyone can do it. You don’t need to be a handler; you don’t even need the stats for it. The severing gives you control without letting them in your head.
“So, I thought, if severing makes it so that a damn farmer from the middle of nowhere can bond a High creature, why can’t it let me bond a Mythic one?” He shrugged. “And here we are. I’m going to call and bond the Mythic beast that’s slumbering down in the ground beneath us. I don’t know what it is, but thanks to one of Ujali’s runes, I know it’s there and that I’ve got the affinities for it. Once I bond it, I’ll be invincible. Ujali will be just another figure from history; after this, everyone will talk about Kamath’s Rising.”
He squatted down in front of me again. “You know, once I bond this thing, I’m going to need a lieutenant, someone to handle the day-to-day problems that are beneath me. You’re smart, tough, and dangerous. Join me, and I’ll find you an Epic beast to bond, one that matches your affinities. You’ll be as strong as Ujali was, the strongest handler ever–next to me, that is.”
“And if I say no?” I asked.
“Then you’ll be the first thing my new pet eats,” he shrugged. “No, make that one of the first things. First, I’ll make you watch it devour your two friends and every person in this valley. Then, I’ll have it eat you nice and slow.”
He rose to his feet and pulled out a card that I instantly recognized. “The choice is yours. However, just to make that decision easier for you.” Power flared from the severing rune, and I winced as it slammed into me. The rune’s magic crawled into my skull, digging at my bonds and trying to drag them out of me.
I pushed aside the pain and focused on the rune beneath my right hand, the first one I’d drawn. I trickled power into it slowly, fighting to hold my bonds against the terrible force yanking on them. I couldn’t let the rune activate too quickly, or I’d give myself away. Agony built in my skull, but I ignored it, gritting my teeth and letting magic flow into the rune beneath my hand. The pulse of power that finally flowed from it was small, hidden beneath the overwhelming force of the Severing rune, but the moment it washed over me, the ephemeral talons gripping my bonds vanished. I felt a flare of heat beneath my palm, burning it as the card in Kamath’s hand began to smoke. A tendril of flame erupted from the middle of it, and the man tossed the card down with an expression of regret, apparently unaware of the wisp of smoke that drifted up from beneath my palm. I let my head drop forward and my body go limp as the energy faded from the room, and Kamath stepped up to me, grabbing my hair and pulling my face up to look at his.
“Now, the only way you’ll ever get another pet is through me,” he said viciously. “You got two days to think it over, boy. Join me, or watch everyone die.”
I feigned barely clinging to consciousness as he summoned Mohun and Salani back into the room. They cut me loose and dragged me down the hallway. I kept a triumphant grin off my face–I’d managed to keep from being severed, which was the biggest weakness to my plan. Keeping my face distraught became even harder when Sara’s voice spoke in my ear again.
“John, I think I’ve got it,” she said slowly, her voice hesitant.
“Got what?” I asked silently.
“I think I know a way to reverse the Severing rune–and to protect you from having it used on you again!”