Chapter 20 – An Impulse of Warmth

Adam’s lungs screamed for air as the giant squeezed his windpipe shut. He hit the huge brutish arm of the giant with all his strength, but it didn’t even budge a little. Even though everything around him got blurry, the green bolts of energy that gathered around the giant’s eye were clear. When the burn in Adam’s lungs became almost unbearable, a raw, primaeval rage woke inside of him.

“STAY ALIVE!” his left heart hissed, the voice clearer than ever.

All Adam saw was a blood-red haze. Heaving his fists above his head, he instinctively converged all the heat from his heart into his arms. When the green energy around the giant’s eye seemed ready to fire, Adam attacked. All or nothing. His fists, hot as burning magma, slammed into the giant’s arm with all the strength he had in him. Bones snapped like twigs; the iron grip was broken and sweet, sweet air filled Adam’s lungs again. He hastily rolled away now that he had the chance.

Howling with pain, the giant seemingly lost control of his electric Invocation. Instead of a clear arc reminding of a bolt of lightning, the energy split up into thin jolts that shot out in several random directions.

Adam quickly picked up his dagger, vaguely aware his arms were so hot that steam came off them. The giant’s broken arm came for him, but Adam slashed with his weapon and cut a grievous wound. Adam jumped up to his opponent, set his foot against the giant’s belly, and kicked off from it to jump even higher. With a final roar, Adam held his knife above his head with both hands and plunged it deep into the giant’s neck. Turquoise blood gushed out of the wound. Adam fell, hit his shoulder, and rolled over the ground. Everything spun around him as he lay panting on his back. His sluggish, tired head tried to wrap itself around what he had just done.

The Overgrowth vines that entangled the giant withered and died. The giant emitted a rumbling sigh, which seemed relieved. Along with the Overgrowth vines and the standard, Adam's opponent crumbled into the familiar dirt, bugs, and twigs. One of the mysterious green sprites flew out of its chest and quickly disappeared into the tunnel.

Exhausted beyond words, Adam turned over with a groan and crawled towards Emily. Her spasms had stopped, but she lay still in a foetal position. No, Emily, come on. Please don’t be… Slowly, gradually, he pulled himself nearer, but his vision was so blurry that he couldn’t tell whether she was breathing.

When he lay in front of her, she coughed softly. Adam sighed in sweet relief. He raised his heavy arm, held her gloved hand, and squeezed softly, not sure what he was doing. It occurred to him that he should say something, maybe, but his mind was too slow to find coherent words.

“Hey,” he finally managed to stammer.

“Hiya,” she whispered. Her eyes opened slightly and looked at him with a glassy expression. “You killed that thing.”

He nodded, trying not to let his head fall down.

“You tough bastard,” she said.

Adam blinked a couple of times, trying to get the gears in his head to start turning again. “You okay?” he mumbled.

“That first Invocation hit me square in the back so that kinda burns like an open fire. I don’t seem to have open wounds though. And I don’t have Corpiogenesis like you of course, so it’ll take some time. But I’ll be okay.”

Upon hearing that term, Adam shivered slightly. Something tensed in the middle of his head in a tugging sensation and released again. Somehow, he knew that Corpiogenesis was the healing effect the heat in his body could perform. How does she know about that? And… how do I recognize that term, I didn’t hear it before, did I?

Emily carefully tried to reposition a bit, but she hissed with pain and flopped down again. “Ugh… are you sure that resistance against Invocations of yours was worth it to develop? Can’t imagine when that would be useful.”

Adam chuckled softly. All was well, they were safe for now.

“Adam?” she asked vaguely.

“Hmm?”

“Do you always hold hands with people for this long, or are you just happy to see me?”

Adam’s eyes shot open and darted from their intertwined hands to her face. She smiled mischievously and raised an eyebrow at him. As if he was bitten by a snake, Adam quickly jerked back his hand. You idiot! What were you thinking?! He looked away from Emily, resisting the stupid reflex to check if anyone had seen this.

Emily laughed heartily. “Well, well, the hero saves the princess after all, eh?” she said with a raspy edge in her voice.

Adam stared stiffly at a bland rock beside him and swallowed. “Ahem, so, those illusions! They looked and sounded so realistic… how could the giant have known so much about us? Or about Oliver and Catherine?”

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“Lucky me that you know just the way to deal with... scary situations.” Her eyes twinkled as she smiled teasingly. “With your hands-on approach.”

Adam felt the blood rising to his cheeks and he frantically looked for a response.

A vague moan sounded from somewhere near them, a moan that sounded surprisingly human. Secretly grateful to whoever caused the distraction, Adam pressed a finger to his lips and carefully stood up to investigate. After stumbling around the enclosure for a bit, he noticed the vague lines of a hatch under the ground.

“Hmmph… mmm here!” a muffled voice sounded from beneath, a voice that Adam would recognize out of thousands. Grinning widely, like a child opening his birthday presents, Adam dug out the hatch and opened it.

Oliver lay on the ground of a dark cellar. Red-faced, gagged, and bound by arms and feet, he crawled towards the hatch like a caterpillar. “Fftop lauffing you baftard!” he managed to say.

Adam grinned from ear to ear. “Ah, no rush, I’ve got to check whether you’re an illusion, right? Let’s see. You smell like a thirty-year-old guy who’s been trapped in a cellar for a while, so that’s one…” Adam counted on his fingers.

Oliver’s face turned into a dark shade of purple; a blue vein on his forehead started to pulse. “I’ll ffet you for ffis!”

After teasing a bit more, Adam lowered himself into the cellar and released a particularly frustrated Oliver. Giddy with relief that Oliver was still in one piece, Adam brushed some dirt from the grey feathered cloak around his friend’s shoulders.

To tidy himself up a bit, Oliver padded the heavy black robes of his uniform of the Talons of Aves. He made sure the constellation on them was clearly visible and pinned the intricate badge of his rank over his right heart. Finally, Oliver carefully checked the silver rings on his fingers, with the religious symbols of the Starwing Order facing outwards. “Under no circumstance will you tell Emily I was tied up,” Oliver whispered with the grave sternness of a general talking to his troops. “Got that?”

Adam snickered. Ah, of course. Letting the Roots know what rank they’re dealing with before they pull our heads off is of the utmost importance. “Oh, come on, who cares?” Adam asked while Oliver climbed out of the hatch with solemn dignity. “I’ve been tied up as well.”

“You know why!” Oliver softly hissed as he stood up next to the hatch. “It doesn’t—ah, Emily!” His expression instantly switched into a broad smile.

“Oliver!” Emily smiled up at him, and tried to sit up a bit, but flopped down again. “Where’ve you been? Oh, by Aves, I’m so glad to see you’re okay!”

Oliver grinned and blushed boyishly. “Likewise! Grand to see you’ve shown that filthy giant who’s boss! It ambushed me with six comrades and locked me up after a fierce battle! I was just breaking the Invocations they’d placed to keep me imprisoned when—”

Emily raised an eyebrow. “Really? Without any gestures?”

The slightest crinkle appeared in Oliver’s radiant smile. “Gestures? What do you—”

Emily nodded towards his hands. “You still have red marks from the bindings all over your fingers and wrists, I’m afraid,” she said gently.

Oliver got red in the face. “Oh! Those are, eh… Well, you know…”

Adam casually walked by and sat down. “They had bound me like a sausage before they paraded me around in a chariot, so nothing to be ashamed of.”

Oliver glared at him as if all his life’s woes were Adam’s fault. “Jerk.”

Adam smiled broadly. “But I am the jerk who saved your ass, eh?” Adam padded the ground beside him. “Come on, relax, we deserve a bit of rest after all that happened.

Oliver muttered something and sat down in a cross-legged position, as traditional within the Starwing Order. Looking for the right words, Adam placed a hand on Oliver’s shoulder and squeezed a bit. Somehow, saying something heartfelt was always harder for him than banter. “I was worried, you know. When we couldn’t find you, I wasn’t sure if Caine brought you somewhere else, or if the Roots… err…” Adam coughed awkwardly. “I guess I’m just really glad you’re still in one piece.”

“Ugh… quit the mushy sobbing, will you?” Oliver shook his head like a tough guy, but his eyes betrayed other, suppressed emotions. “You’re sounding just like my mother, bah! Oh, all right, I’m glad you made it as well.” Oliver grinned and bumped Adam’s shoulder with a fist. “You too, Emily.” Oliver smiled and stretched out his hand towards her.

“Ah, sorry,” Emily said, shifting her position to lie on her side. “The giant hit me with a strange Invocation, so it’s kinda painful.”

Oliver’s brows furrowed with concern. “That bastard… where are you hurt? I can try and heal it!”

“Thanks, well, it’s on my back, but don’t worry about it.” She waved her hand as if shooing his offer away. “I’ll handle it myself, it’s some good practice for me.”

“Ah, yes, of course.” Oliver nodded, although Adam could almost see the gears turning in his head. All three of them knew that Oliver was better at healing than Emily. Moreover, using the Weaver gesture to heal not only required precise manipulation of the Meridians and the bodily tissue, knowledge of the way the body was damaged was important as well. Now that she was already hurt and couldn’t see what kind of damage had been done, healing it would be difficult indeed.

However, it was Emily’s choice. Oliver seemed to think so as well as he didn’t press the subject.

He cleared his throat. “So, nice of Caine that he sent us on an involuntary vacation to this lovely underground neighbourhood. Like, I knew Caine had an inflated ego, but making an entire civilization treat him like Aves himself is a tad much, don’t you think?”

Emily chuckled. “Just a tiny bit. I wonder how he managed to keep all of this a secret.”

“I wonder how sick in the head he must be to make a whole library about my wife,” Adam said monotonously.

Oliver scrunched up his face in confusion. “What, a library? You’re joking.”

With one hand, Adam massaged his painful neck. “Wish I was. He didn’t just have thousands of books about her in there, no. Apparently, that wouldn’t be creepy enough, so he crammed the place full of paintings and memorabilia like old shoes and necklaces as well.”

“Ah, a perfectly normal pastime, of course,” Oliver said absent-mindedly as he fiddled with his bottom lip, deep in thought. “He always could get a little, err… infatuated with women, but this…” After glancing at Adam with a pitying expression, he looked away for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what to say. “Must be tough for you, old dog. But don’t worry, we’ll get her back.” He gave Adam a playful punch on the shoulder. “I mean, with the way you smell right now, you could probably kill Caine by breathing in his face.”

Adam laughed heartily. “Oh really? As if you’re a bouquet of roses.” He grabbed Oliver by the shoulders and messed up his all-too-neat blonde curls.

“Stop it! Stop it!” Oliver flailed his arms in a futile attempt to end the relentless assault.