IV.

Calamon

Before the Rejoining

A large, hulking man covered in silver fur stirred. His pointed ears twitched as his golden feline eyes closed and tensed.

"Vyncis…" he growled. "Vyncis!"

"Yes, sir." A man with a black topknot bowed before him, opposite the engraved wooden desk in the office's center.

"Did you feel that… that power…?"

"No. An artefact?"

He shook his head. "By the land… full-bodied and fierce was what it was. Not something. Someone. Mind, matter, and all."

"Where-to?" Vyncis rattled the broadsword at his hip.

"He's nearby. Dreslon. We'll head to Cromer." he said as he threw a heavy leather coat over his already heavy fur.

"Cromer? How do you know we'll make it in time?"

The cat turned to the bulletin board behind him, where he had drawn a route across Kylinstrom's map, with a dagger stuck in to hold it up. "We won't. Rouse Faunia. She'll need to see this, too."

"What… is this?" Silver-haired and silver-plated Faunia Vleren gasped from atop the church's belltower. The rain still poured down on them, growing heavier with every passing minute, but it did not do much to mask the blood and the bodies in the streets below. It did not mask the blue lights of Hunters making their patrols around the city. It did not mask the perpetual terror now ingrained in the citizens of a once prosperous city.

"An Etherian." the cat said.

"A what?"

Vyncis spoke up as he climbed atop the tower, "Faunia, there are wounded below. Might I request that you lend succor?"

"Y-yes." She hesitated and stuttered. And then with another glance to the town below, she climbed back down the shoddy wooden ladder.

"A poor choice of words, Akvum."

The cat sighed. "I did not think we would be in the midst of one of the distracted. I had hopes that Kasian would have kept us close-knit to Calamon's people."

"Then we do not tell her. Anything."

"I wonder how long we could get away with that." He looked up to the constellations in the dark sky above. "The old gods yet watch our struggle. Iori."

"God of ensnarement and traps?"

"Capture him."

Vyncis took a deep bow. "It will be done."

At the bottom of the ladder, things were no better. And as the hours passed, they only worsened. The conditions travelling through the blizzard were arduous and deadly. Some did not make it. It took Freiya'kara's support to even pass the iced-over villages and towns that blocked the path, when the white-coated and masked guardians of the frost came to guide them.

And then the sky opened up: vibrant colors, howling winds, and cracks as if the sky itself had shattered, or lightning had become ensnared within it… Their world was collapsing.

But they carried forth, and as they neared the epicenter of that sight, they found the boy.

And she approached with her rapier drawn.

Two Months After The Rejoining

A trip to Caloria from Dreslon should take an insurmountable duration by foot, and three treacherous months by carriage. The wildlife in the woods beyond Kylinstrom was different. There were large beastial creatures of all sorts; spiked, furred, scaled, hidden until the right prey had stumbled by… it was nothing like the predictable, worn out fauna of Kylinstrom, where ogres and Sylvet had hunted everything near to extinction. This place was thriving, alive, and the singing and howling of exotic birds made that more than apparent.

The foliage, too, was different. It was almost jungle-like in some places, though Cedric didn't know the word, revealing bright colors of venomous plants and dark vines that crept overtop. It was foreign, and enchanting in a sense, especially the trees that seemed to span upward endlessly into the clouds. It was a different kind of magic, one that Cedric could not understand the machinations of. A natural magic, perhaps the same magic worshiped by the naturist cults who once grazed western Kylinstrom.

How convenient that Serkukan could still teleport him some distances. How convenient, else he would have been lost and slaughtered by one of those crawling daemon-animals that he had no way to identify, or eaten by a tree with fangs and a stomach.

He sat atop the thick branches of one of many dark trees, sweltering in the unexpected heat. His dark brown hair was overgrown and messy, to the point that his face was hidden, and he looked completely unlike himself.

But that will make it no easier to hide from gold-eyes.

Akvum's shimmering golden eyes flashed in his mind. Then the eyes of that Hunter who died in Dreslon so long ago, the one who Serkukan assured him was an Etherian named Albion.

A rustling from below caught his attention. He looked down to see the Calamoni soldiers patrolling the woodland, their swords and spears held carefully in rest. They had stopped receiving contact from their westward squads some time ago. Their men had never returned from Dreslon. They would soon discover why.

He dropped from the tree as the last soldier passed.

Five of them—they're either running a small operation, or they're stronger than I'm expecting.

The rear van spun to face him. They dropped their spears into defense.

He reached out a hand and their polearms snapped in half. Then he stepped in.

Slash!

The front three spun in alarm.

They wear the same steel as all the rest. It's my luxury that I know where those plates are least overlaid.

This time it was his speed—Serkukan let him rush forward in a burst.

Shiish!

Two down in one swing of that Calamoni blade.

The one at the very front raised a small crossbow from his leg bandolier.

He threw his sword. Like a bolt, it pierced the man's face and punctured through the back of the helm where it became lodged. The man dropped.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Cedric wiped his hands as though they were dirty.

"This task brings me no joy... They're only following orders."

"Then something has changed within Calamon since last you arrived."

He shuffled his hand through their packs. He could hold a few rations in his own bandolier, enough to last a few days before he'd need to loot again. It was all he could do to avoid the nearby villages, and he was no chef, else he'd be hunting the wildlife and chancing his life on whether they were poison or not.

He took a swig from one of the mens' waterskins, drank it until it was empty and flung it to the mud.

The only thing he lacked was sleep—and a bath, though neither was particularly common for any traveler.

"I'm assuming we didn't fare that badly in our last fight with Rykaedi."

A deep voice spoke from nearby, "Truth be told, I do not remember it well either."

Cedric looked to see the red-plated Serkukan leaned against one of those thick and dark trees. He approached as though the figure was a comfortable friend.

"So it wasn't a head injury that damaged my memory."

Serkukan shook his head.

"Some kind of leyline effect?"

"There are many things it could be. I have no interest in guessing."

"Of course you don't. You just care about blood, death... And Algirak."

"Algirak is dead."

"Is he?" Cedric raised an eyebrow.

Serkukan stood upright at that. He stared intently at Cedric, let that memory of Akvum's conversation overflow in his mind. "When did this happen?"

"He visited me after I fainted. I thought you could read my thoughts?"

"If I read every mundane thought you ever had I would drive myself insane. Do not overestimate the value of your mind."

"So that's why you’ve stopped interrupting me."

"If Algirak lives, we've erred somewhere. I destroyed him undoubtedly."

"Perhaps he's still yet to reveal his true form."

Serkukan shuffled in thought. "Then you think the Algirak we fought was merely a proxy from which he could kill us? He wouldn't give Dyosius to a mere pawn."

"He was overcome by his own ego."

"His hubris was not that great."

Cedric thought about it for a moment. Why? Why would he do something so foolish?

Then Serkukan turned his head in alarm.

Cedric turned to the forest behind himself.

The leaves erupted. Something was approaching—fast. Fast enough to dislodge the birds from their hiding spots, and to make the fauna cry out in fear.

The bush ahead jostled.

Cedric spun a kick at the air.

Ploosh!

Water sprayed out around his leg, then wrapped around and clung to him like a bubble, locked his leg in midair.

"Wha—"

It twisted him backward and slammed him down to the ground, then leapt back to become a blob of humanoid water once again.

"You're kidding me—water?"

"A pawn that's not a man? If only I could have been so lucky…" Cedric came to his feet and summoned his black Sylvet blade once again.

Will the Calamonians notice? Or do only the Hunters mind the Sylvet's interaction with the leylines?

He stepped forward.

The water hovered backward away from him.

"What, getting shy? I don't have time to waste on this—"

A large ball shot out at him like an arrow.

He lifted his blade and held it vertically, slicing the blob in half.

But the water stretched and wrapped around his body—and what came next, he knew he wouldn't enjoy.

"Serkukan!"

Flames erupted over his skin and burst outward. The water evaporated.

"That was close." He wiped the sweat from his brow. "How do I kill it? Incineration?"

"Could just do what we did to those soldiers in Dreslon."

"But my blade won't cut it either. Any more bright ideas?"

The water bubbled and shifted as though it recognized his hesitation. It began to approach.

"Serkukan—"

He turned and bolted.

"Hells, am I supposed to turn—" glancing back, the thing was close behind. "—around!?"

Blink!

He was still running, but this time away from the sun.

"Not enough blood for…"

"Very weeeeeell—" He came to a sudden halt over a massive sheer precipice which ran all the way down to another forest, at the center of which lay a gargantuan city of stone like he'd never seen, pyred in eight sections like a flower. Atop a pyre in the center, impossibly tall, was inlaid a bright amber gemstone.

Then the water hit him. It engulfed him, began drowning him as it launched them both over the cliff.

Serkukan shot out the same flame blast, knocked the watery creature off as they fell.

When he could breathe, he screamed, "Now what!?"

A tearing sound—his leather armor ripped as red wings tore through and flexed outward from his shoulders.

The water fell past him, though some droplets hovered behind as though trying to reach him.

Then, after a moment of freefall:

Splat!

The water burst against the ground below and soaked it. Only a moment later did it grab into the grass and dirt and erupt it into itself, becoming mud and suffocating.

"Quick thinking."

"But that won't be the last of them."

He sighed and turned his gaze back to that brilliant city. Even from afar, it was gorgeous. The architecture was unmatched by anything he'd ever seen, and even the villages and towns visible between the trees paled in comparison to the astounding achievement of civilization before him.

The main gate was packed with all sorts, indistinguishable from the distance. And the roads, too, were packed and busy, unlike the quiet, frightened roads in Kylinstrom.

"We're in Calamon."

Cedric took a deep breath. Indeed, this was nothing like the dead, dry air of Siln. This air was pleasant, warm and light. It smelled of spices and flavors and things he'd never dreamt of. It smelled of a world unknown to him.

Vanilla was one that he never knew the name of.

Ginger too, and honey.

He smiled as they hovered down.

"This is a place I would not mind calling home."