“RAYALE!”

Silver winced as his brother bellowed his name in that jarring many-voice. “Mahale!” he shouted back.

The materializing humanoid swirling-colored shape seemed to freeze a moment, as if processing. “Months have gone by.”

Silver felt himself very near losing his temper. He wanted to retort so many angry things all at once that it felt that they all got stuck in his chest. I hate you. I hate your murderous streak. I hate your tendency to destroy. What did you think would happen when you killed her liana just like that? For a dumb rule? I am trying to save a forest full of mystics and look what you have done. He took a deep breath in, forcing himself to reply calmly, “It takes time to mourn.”

The semi-human sounding growl became completely hair-raising in that many-toned voice. “Defiant little monsters like her need to know their place.”

Silver resisted pointing out that nearly a year had passed since he had gotten into a battle of wills with their pawn, but thought that he would just lose Rosalea outright if he antagonized Bane too much. “It takes time for them to learn it, then.”

An angry many-voiced grunt. “Impure magic has taken hold in the forest.”

“I know. I am trying to fix it.”

“Fix it faster, or…”

“Or what?” Silver challenged just a little. I have only seen you be able to do two things… kill and try to control minds… You can only pull the strings we put in everyone, I think.

“I will kill indiscriminately.”

“Because more death will purify the magic?”

Silver flew back in his chair as the formless human rushed him and reached out with a too-many-fingered hand reached out where Silver’s neck had been. Silver’s heart pounded wildly. “You are my brother,” he croaked out. “Would you really harm me?”

“Do not break my world,” he growled before disappearing.

Silver’s mouth was dry. I can only think of two things to do to get her back in action, he thought, but he wished he had not thought it.

For the good of the many, I may have to hurt the few.

***

Rosalea no longer had Nauru on a lead when they went outside together. He stuck to her like a faithful shadow everywhere she went. It made the last two weeks tolerable since Amalia was rarely home. Even Mere was often gone and Miri was with her. The little wolf had finally started showing some aptitude for magic.

“What do you think, Nauru, shall we start a garden? Do you think I am going to live here until brewing war turns into nothing but constant pitched battle?” Her tone was upbeat, but it felt weird to her to be left out of the action. Or… maybe nostalgic? She supposed the Ieshans and Uryans had been at war her whole life, and that was why Ulric had locked her into the castle and panicked every time she went on unsupervised excursions.

But the war was as meaningless to her then as this one was. She knew of it happening. She knew of it straining people; she didn’t actually have anything happening to her.

Rosalea was anxious though, enough so that Nauru came up to her and whined. She bent down and scooped him up. “You are getting a little heavier and bigger already,” she said as she pressed him to her body. He pressed his nose beneath her hair and laid his cheek against her neck. Rosalea closed her eyes and squeezed him. “I really miss my family. I miss Lio. Both you and Miri remind me of her. And… I miss Fen,” she said, pressing him closer.

He puppy-grunted at her, and she smiled. She carried him around as she wandered the forest immediately near the den. “Well, I guess when I see Amalia again, I will suggest I start a garden or something. We need more to do around here.”

He grumbled, and she smiled. I hope they all come back from today’s patrol without any harm done to them. Even Raisa has become nicer, and I have grown attached to all of them. They kept me together through the worst events of my life. Yet, I cannot do anything to repay any of them. I have to wait, for some unseen purpose to show itself.

Rosalea jumped as she heard a sound in the trees above them. She looked up. There was a very large blue bird above them, that had rainbow tipping on his wings and a plume of white feathers upon his head.

“Oh, hello!” he said very casually, in a way that made Rosalea feel it wasn’t casual at all. He seemed to read her faint frown, “I was curious about the human that lives like a wolf!”

Rosalea squeezed Nauru closer, and perhaps as he sensed her becoming tense, he would growl at the bird. “My name is Rosalea, what is yours?”

“I am called Kartowen! You seem pretty nice!”

It reminds me of Briar a little. It is hard to be suspicious of upbeat people, but it was all skills he learned as part of being a thief. So, what is the little bird looking for, I wonder? Rosalea made herself smile. “Thank you. This is Nauru. Can I help you with anything else? Were you curious about anything in particular?”

“No…” and then he shifted back and forth. “A little, yes, actually. I heard a rumor that the poison getting used to change mystics into demons comes from some plants. So, I was wondering if Mere knew more about them.”

“Do you know what plants they are?” Rosalea asked with a head tilt.

“N0! I cannot get close enough to the greenhouse they have in the town. But, maybe someone knows. If we can figure out the plants, I wonder if we can figure out a remedy?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Rosalea still felt something was off. Mere was knowledgeable, it was not that, but… “Have you not been to the Moryshin?”

“Oh… no one is allowed to see him anymore. He says he cannot bare to look at us. He can do nothing.”

I know what seems familiar to me about you, she thought of the elven lady with the twisting trees in the forest the night she had run away from the Ieshans for… whatever time number that was since her memory had been tampered with. “I have heard,” Rosalea decided to do some counter-fishing on whoever this was, “that the Moryshin needed an heir. Can one not be found?”

“You are very perceptive! It is like you are more attuned with that dark magic than people think! I am sure the heir is in these very woods, but no one knows it yet! We just have to have faith!” He put out his wings, “I have to go! It was a pleasure meeting you, silver-haired girl!”

And off he flew. Nauru growled a little. Rosalea patted him and felt the same. Dark magic, huh?

***

Spring came to the camp, and although the consensus of the liana was that they could attempt to cross into the North; the snow was slow to melt on even the valleys of the mountains. There was talk of whether a griffin ally could be made that could take them, but for now, no action was taken.

It was a quiet morning as Taigan went to draw water for his father and himself from the river. My mother taught me to swim in a place like this, he thought, looking at the cold rushing water, when it was much warmer.

“Taigan! You must get to somewhere high! Did you bring your bow?”

Taigan left the buckets of water and immediately doubled back to a taller oak tree, climbing his way up into it. “Of course, I did. I would hate to run into an enemy unarmed,” he thought back to his liana with a frown.

“A monster is coming. I am getting word to the other liana.”

A monster? What could that possibly mean? Then, he saw what it meant.

It brought with it death. Plants withered where the black flames on its body reached out to touch things. It looked like darkness, or perhaps ash? The creature was all gray and black, and when it looked at him, he felt it. Taigan took out his bow and nocked an arrow.

Your fault! You filthy humans have cursed me with your poison, there was no voice, no talking, but Taigan felt the words all the same. The creature put its head back and bugled like an elk, but the antlers were lost in the flames.

It charged. He was faintly aware of Taj warning him to kill it if he could, but he was focused on the shot, making sure his upper body was lined up.

His arrow flew true; he was a practiced hunter, and truthfully, he had drilled since Rosalea had shown off how much better she was at it than he was. She had all that magic to spare, and he was just a changer. She had saved him by stabbing a man in the foot with his own sword, and he had struggled to get armed.

The arrow twanged from his bow, going almost halfway up the shaft it drove so deep into the creature’s chest, hopefully piercing its lungs and heart.

It didn’t flinch. It kept stumbling forward as if it was inflicted with Madness disease. Coldness swept through him, It is bigger than any horse. Twice as big. I might as well be shooting a dragon. He hurried and nocked another arrow, firing again at it, this arrow landing near the other one.

It didn’t stop it, it was so close now, he could see the blood-filled eyes that had cried many streaks of it down its face. It charged at him like a runaway bull, smashing into the tree he was in and knocking it over.

“Taigan!” shrieked Taj in a panic, diving at the monstrous creature and going right for its eyes with his talons.

The creature was trying to stomp Taigan to death, and Taigan was struggling to stay out of the way. This distraction gave him time to pull his short sword from his side, and he stabbed upwards from beneath the beast.

Pain. So much pain. He was on fire. Black fire curled off his face and arms, and he was aware of Taj screaming with him. The creature fell next to him. Taj grabbed Tagain by the shoulder, dragging him with violently flapping wings to the river… and they both went into the water.

Men from the camp arrived, running and in various liana shapes. His father pulled him from the river as a bear. The elk he had stopped, bugled and shrieked rage, and his people raised arrows to fire at it.

Taigan was coughing up river water and struggling with the pain. Even so, he heard the creature’s final words before it turned to black sludge that soaked into the earth. Wretched human… waste and die as pointlessly as I have.

Taigan’s skin burned afresh everywhere the fire had been on him and the pain became too much for him as it reverberated between Taj and himself.

When he awoke, he was in his bed, his father sitting next to him. He lifted his hand, and looked at it. Everywhere the fire had been on him there was a faint yellow-green marking. Something felt… wrong. “Taj?”

The pain radiating from his liana to him felt uncomfortable.

His father was studying his face, reading it. “The Neesa has come and gone. You have been cursed, apparently, by a creature called a forest god. You and Taj both.”

Taigan felt a sinking feeling. Taj was sitting on a perch near the floor, but he hopped down, waddled over to Taigan, and let him hug him close. His liana seemed to have the worst of it.

His father had to clear his throat, his emotions trying to bubble up. “The Neesa says that only a stronger god can remove the curse from you both.” When Taigan heard his father’s voice catch, he felt like crying as well. “A creature called a Forest King, and there is supposed to be a forest to the east of here where it will live. Liana are forbidden to go there, but if you do not go there, you will slowly die… so the liana say.”

Taigan kept Taj close, petting along his back, “Is it true?”

“Yes. I am sorry. If I could have managed to not get this curse on me, we might have had some other path.”

Taigan smiled. His liana had fearlessly flown in to rake at the eyes of a monster and got them into a river to wash away flames, and he was sorry. It was Taigan’s fault for getting into the middle of it.

His father took his hand, squeezing it. “You were very brave. You probably saved a lot of lives all by yourself. The liana have said that it had a sort of Madness, but because it was a forest god, it was much worse than when a regular animal gets it.”

Taigan smiled up at him, deciding that the best thing he could do was put on a brave face. “So, I just have to follow its trail back to its home, right? Then, I am sure they will help me.”

His father did his best to smile back. “I am sure they will.”

Taigan wished that it was not so obvious that his father did not really believe it.

***

The Moryshin could not stand. His strength failed him. No relief will come. The Gods have forgotten us all.

The burned woods had hurt him. But, now, he could feel a darkness in the land reaching out for him. Ignoble deaths, magic that had turned against the mystic who held it. My children would be safer if they were no longer wise, he thought about the mystics.

He wanted to break his word. He wanted to take back the treaty. He wanted them to go as a group, and even if many died, to kill that dragon. What right did dragons have to take their future? Why did the Gods not right it?

But he knew why. They were broken. The Gods had once been one God, and now they were many. They fell apart, and now his world slowly but surely slipped into darkness.

I have no physical strength left, he thought. But if I take the poison, I will become strong while I destroy.

He did not have the courage to act on it yet. But the dark blotch of the fallen rabbit’s blood feeding his trees and warping them… called to him. If I cannot have this land, and if no one will save me, I will destroy it with my own might. My children will not be the subjects of a dragon.