Rieren had been preparing for something to go wrong. What she hadn’t been getting ready for was their subject turning into a literal blood bomb.
The more frightening thing was that she might not have survived it had she been by herself. Maybe that was the point. For all that Rieren knew how to fight and survive—and win—encounters that involved actual combat, a surprise explosion of this kind was out of her league. Especially when she was still distant from the true peaks of her power.
It was a good thing she had Oromin to keep her company.
Where Rieren’s basic defending might not have been enough—even Earthfall Blade wouldn’t be able to deflect away a continuous burst of such incredible fury and power—Oromin had a much better solution.
His techniques that used reflective mist were excellent at defence simply by their virtue of being a mirror. All the sparking and combusting blood that shattered at a speed far, far faster than even Rieren’s increased Mind stat could attain were stopped by the silvery mist. Oromin had been quick enough to ensure it shrouded Rieren as well as himself.
So when the old woman exploded and blood burst outwards, it was rebuffed. Even the lightning it turned into flashed across the mist’s face without ever getting past it.
But the supply of blood seemed endless in that instant. The barrier Oromin had erected caused all the ejected blood to bunch up right in front of Rieren and her companion. With continued force, it started expanding outwards in every other direction available.
This resulted in the massive detonation claiming the rest of their surroundings. Blood fountained upwards to pillar towards the heavens. It clawed out and ate away the ground, eradicating solid soil and rock to smithereens in a fraction of a second. Behind the spot where the woman stood, it ate away all space to become a gargantuan, twisted construction that turned into explosive lightning.
Rieren had closed her eyes before the whole explosion finished, of course. She didn’t get to see its pure destruction occurring all around her. Though, she could certainly feel it.
For all that Oromin’s misty barrier prevented the Essence-fuelled power from reaching them, it certainly didn’t stop them from sensing its effects. The shaking ground, the deafening sound, the sheer brightness of the lightning, the very space around them warping under the sudden reality-bending powers, all of it hammered into them with incalculable fury.
“It’s done,” Oromin finally said.
It hadn’t taken long, of course. An instantaneous detonation that would have wiped out anyone unprepared in the fraction of an eye’s blink. Albeit, Rieren’s soul did feel as though it had been rooted to this spot for a while.
She finally allowed herself to look around. Everything around them was simply gone. No hovel, no barren field, not even the local rise. Nothing at all.
In all their place was just a crater that could have housed half of Falstrom quite easily.
Rieren and Oromin were standing on a small spar of rock jutting out from the crater’s floor. The mist had been strong enough to seep down and protect their platform, ensuring they didn’t fall.
“Do you smell that?” Oromin asked.
Rieren wrinkled her nose. “Blood.”
“This trap…” He glanced sidelong at her. “And you said the Banishedborn weren’t cruel.”
“Not heedlessly so. But they are intelligent. Calculating.”
“We should not have survived this. Strong as I like to think myself, even I wouldn’t be able to stop a Banishedborn’s true power.”
Rieren shook her head. Now that the immediate panic and terror of the explosion was fading, now that her mind was reasserting itself since she had survived, she was starting to understand. “A combination of things led to this, I believe. Well, I surmise, at least. But we survived, which is all that matters. Where to next? This crossroads?”
Oromin stared at her. “Yes, the crossroads. But what do you mean about this combination of things?”
Rieren considered explaining along the way, but the truth was that she suspected that the Banishedborn were long gone. There was no harm in lingering here a little longer and letting their souls properly reassert themselves back into their corporeal forms after being nearly shocked out of it.
“The trap was set a long time ago,” she said. “Three years since her husband died, as the woman said. As such, the lingering Essence left behind must have diluted away from her.”
“Yet we sensed nothing of it.”
“The Banishedborn are masters of suppressing their auras. They have some techniques that even I have no experience in. I would not be surprised.”
“Hmm. What else, then?”
Rieren laughed, though it was a little sardonic. “Their kindness. Or perhaps, their lack of cruelty. I do not know if they are one and the same.”
“Are you suggesting they decreased the intensity of this trap so that the old woman could live peacefully enough until someone came in and triggered it?”
“Yes. It was set so that no one could activate it easily, not until they had forced the woman to divulge important information, which I suspect was the trigger.”
“So, crossroads.” Oromin tensed, but there were no further traps. The world was serene. For now. “These enemies of our are strange.”
“Is it surprising that not all who oppose us are monsters in any and every way possible?”
“No, but it would certainly make things a lot easier if they had been.”
Rieren wasn’t certain she could debate that. On the one hand, non-monstrous foes meant there might be solutions to their conflicts that didn’t end up requiring them to kill each other. On the other hand, monstrous foes made things simple and straightforward.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Hey!” They both turned back to see the investigator, Ved, standing at the distant edge of the enormous crater. “Are you two alright?”
Oromin peered at the distant speck of the man. “You don’t suspect he’s…”
“I cannot say for certain. But I do not believe so.”
Oromin sighed. Then he raised his voice. “We’re alright. Please bring my Spirit Beast here. We must leave soon.”
Ved’s relief was palpable from even that distance. He hurried away.
When he returned with El in tow, it was finally time to set off. With nothing else here to take note or make use of, they soon left. It was time to see if the crone’s dying words had any lasting importance in truth.
----------------------------------------
Their journey back to Falstrom was slower. Both Rieren and Oromin were certain they wouldn’t find an actual Banishedborn awaiting them. Especially not after the trap had been triggered. The blast would likely have been visible for leagues. Besides, the Banishedborn had their own ways of sensing when their Essence had been interacted with.
Nevertheless, it wouldn’t hurt them to take precautions. As such, they had informed the Clanmistress of their experience. Avathene had been rather alarmed by their experience at the distant corner of the Shatterlands, and so, she had taken steps to ensure something of the kind didn’t happen again.
“I do not know if we should have truly come here,” Rieren said.
Oromin looked at her with an eyebrow raised. “I assume the reason isn’t fear.”
“No. The reason is because we are probably expected and have walked into either another trap, or as is more likely, absolutely nothing.”
There were too many reasons this wasn’t going to be fruitful. For one, Rieren saw no logic that dictated why a Banishedborn would linger at a location he had met with some old couple to take over their tavern. This was just a random spot a few leagues outside of Falstrom, so close to potentially being caught.
Nevertheless, they were making sure they wouldn’t suffer the same type of surprise as before. Avathene had made sure of it.
In the distance, Rieren could sense other blots of Essence being channeled. Closer at hand, she had to focus not to let her eyes stray to where she knew some reinforcements were hiding. They were ready to act a moment’s notice if anything came up. They were all ready to subdue a Banishedborn.
“As I suspected,” Rieren said after a while. “No Banishedborn here.”
Like before, there was no trace of any Essence having been channelled here either. That could be just another trap. Perhaps something coming up from the ground or landing upon them from far above.
The Clanmistress had ensured there would be no such thing. She had sent some special cultivators whose job it had been to root out any sort of Essence-fuelled trap or anything of the kind. They had found nothing, and since they had a reputation of being thorough and accurate, they could rest assured they wouldn’t have a similar incident as at the hovel.
Rieren wasn’t so certain. After all, they were potentially dealing with a Banishedborn. Those beings were several levels above all of them both in terms of strength and expertise in Essence matters.
Oromin tapped the wooden signboard marking the crossroad’s direction with a finger. “Do you think you can use your cat?”
Rieren had been formulating the same idea. They had been unlikely from the beginning to spot anything now that it had been a few years.
She pulled the kitten off her head. “You heard him, cat. Seek the memories buried in this crossroad, please.”
Batcat looked a little miffed at being given an order, but it scampered forward all the same. Rieren and Oromin waited, as did all the others who were hidden near and far. All the little kitten did was run up to a tree and start eating it. That it could pull off the bark with its little teeth made Rieren blink in surprise. Those were some strong little teeth.
“Is it always this weird?” Oromin asked in a whisper, as though afraid of offending Batcat.
Rieren frowned at him. “It is odd for cats to eat trees?”
“…yes.”
“Hmm.” She decided not to tell him of the time Batcat had eaten some grave markers for a different incident that required temporal surveillance. “We shan’t have to wait long.”
Rieren was right. Batcat came padding back to them soon, though it did eat a good chunk of the bark. Perhaps the fact that it needed to go back a few years meant it needed more tree to consume.
She knelt on her haunches and offered her arm to the kitten, which then immediately proceeded to bite down. Rieren winced but was then lost in the memories.
The images flashed by rather quickly. An old couple—Rieren recognized the old woman—burdened by many bags and packs, though they had a donkey with them. The animal wasn’t carrying much, however. It was odd.
As they passed by the crossroad marker, they were met by the tavern owner. Rieren could feel her lips tightening in her corporeal form, even though she didn’t have it in these visions. That was the other Banishedborn. How she had failed to spot it when she had first seen the man seemed so impossible. But then, even now, he seemed so unassuming and simple.
“You do not burden your mule?” the Banishedborn asked with curiosity sparkling in his eyes.
“It’s a donkey, lord,” the old man said.
“Forgive me. I am not well versed in pack animals. But tell me, are you truly satisfied?”
“Course. We’ve been wanting to sell for a while now, like we said.”
“Hmm, I see. My companion can be a little too convincing at times. I will let him know that you are at peace. Please make sure you speak to no one about this.”
“Oh, we won’t. You don’t got to worry ‘bout that.”
“Our lips be sealed from now on,” the crone assured the Banishedborn.
He stood aside to let them pass, wishing them good fortune in the customary way. It was… highly odd seeing him treat them so calmly. So respectfully. Rieren would have to ask Batcat to show the vision to Oromin.
All of a sudden, she was pulled back to reality. Her companion’s hand was on her arm, his grip tight and tense.
“What is it?” she asked, looking around. He pulled his arm back now that she was back in reality. “I have not been able to acquire useful information yet.”
“No matter.” Oromin’s gaze was focused on the road leading to the west. Someone was walking towards them. Someone channelling Essence. “We have an interesting visitor.”
It took only a moment for Rieren to recognize who it was. A Masked Avatar had arrived.
She gritted her teeth. Where had this Avatar appeared from? No one had warned them. Even if the ceramic-masked figure had been able to infiltrate the greater Shatterlands without difficulty, it shouldn’t have been possible to arrive unannounced at this specific location.
The Clanmistress had all those eyes and ears, all those other cultivators and guards nearby.
“Hail, Avatar,” Oromin said, stepping forward. “You are a long way from Vanharron, are you not?”
The Avatar didn’t answer immediately. Rieren began pulling in Essence as well. If a fight broke out, she could rely on Batcat’s Call of the Past. Though, she might not need it. She had learned just how strong Oromin actually was after all. The kitten hissed as the Avatar arrived.
“I come bearing a message from the imperial court,” the Avatar said when he was about twenty paces from them. His voice was gravelly. This had to be one of the oldest Avatars Rieren had met. “Will you take me to the Clanmistress who rules over these lands?”
Oromin’s face twisted momentarily. Rieren could feel his frustration. There were too many questions they ought to ask of the Avatar but fat chance of getting any of them answered. But Oromin was smart enough to ask the unexpected one to throw the Avatar off.
“What will happen to this message once you are dead?” Oromin asked.
The Avatar had stopped. “Do you intend to refuse my request?”
Sparkling mist came to life around Oromin, wrapping him even tighter than it was already doing. “I have no intention of allowing you anywhere near the Clanmistress until a proper procedure has been established.”
“How do you think I have made it this far?”
Rieren gripped her sword tightly, refusing to let it go. Refusing to believe that even after swearing her allegiance to Kalvia, even after firmly setting herself against the Forborne Emperor, she was still willing to allow the Avatars within the Shatterlands.
“I have received no word of this,” Oromin said.
The Avatar allowed the smallest of shrugs to escape through his shoulders. “Then perhaps you are not important enough to be informed.”
Before Oromin could react in anger, a glowing little rabbit ran up to them from behind. Rieren sensed its Essence as it rushed at them. A messenger Spirit Beast.
It came to a stop at Oromin’s feet, nudging him to take the note attached to its back. He picked it up and went over it in a few heartbeats. Then he closed his eyes and sighed.
Rieren heard the words she had been dreading as soon as she saw the Avatar.
“Come, then,” Oromin said.