Helianna forced herself to her feet moments later, ignoring the pain coursing from her whole body. She ignored Isela, who remained on the ground as she slowly stumbled back to her home. Not seeing anyone outside the house, she moved to look inside the collapsing building when by the yell of her little brother.
“Sister!” She turned around as he barrelled towards her and tackled her in a hug. She fell back to the ground with him on top of her and she groaned in pain. He barely noticed as he cried into her shoulder.
“Tanelex. Where’s mom and dad?”
“Mama’s helping. D-d-d-da-” he stuttered as his words devolved into cries. Helianna’s face hardened as she looked around, certain she already knew the answer. And now that she knew what to look for, she saw him. Her fathers body lay a couple dozen feet away from her in a small pool of blood. Even from where she lay, she could see that his clothes were torn to shreds and cuts lined his body.
The wounds were instantly recognizable, similar to the wounds criss-crossing her own body. It had been the mysterious sixth ithrax that didn’t show up till the end. He must have killed her father before targeting her
She felt a small flare of anger, but she immediately suppressed it as grief took over. The killer had already been maimed for life, thanks to respawning off the null. Grief flooded her mind and tears pricked her eyes, threatening to overwhelm her as she thunked her head back to the ground. She took several painful breaths, trying to center herself.
Tanelex’s body shook as he cried and with him on top of her, it forced the dagger in her back to shift. She gasped from the pain, which pulled her out of her grief-stricken thoughts. Taking advantage of the pain to distract her from her grief, she slowly sat up, barely noticing her brother still crying in her arms.
She saw a few people gathering outside of town and she slowly stood up, grateful for the pain that kept her mind clear. She softly pulled Tanelex along as she approached the crowd. Seeing her mom corralling them, Helianna called out.
“Mom?”
Her mother whipped her head around and rushed towards Helianna. But as Jana got close, she saw the arrow in Helianna’s shoulder and gasped. Before reaching Helianna, she turned and called back to someone in the group.
“Althus! We need you!” A small man popped his head out and seeing Helianna’s injuries, immediately rushed over, his absurdly large backpack bobbing behind his head.
“Wait,” Helianna interrupted. “I don’t need you to completely heal me. I can just respawn.” At his flabbergasted look, she rolled her eyes. “I’m an ithrax. I just need to be up long enough to do the death rites for my father.”
She spoke in such an emotionless manner that the man recoiled. Althus looked towards Helianna’s mother, who had tears in her eyes, barely holding it together. Jana turned towards the rest of the group and started shouting orders. Althus turned back to Helianna and quickly found the knife sticking out of her back, prompting a string of curses.
“Holy... I don’t have the right equipment, so this is going to be difficult… and painful.” He pulled his backpack out from behind his back. “I’m glad I realized that the village was being attacked quickly. I managed to pack some essentials. But considering how little I have compared to the demand, I’m going to leave the arrow alone. I’m going to make sure you don’t die from that stabbing though.”
He moved behind her and she heard him rummaging about his pack.
“Lay down on your stomach for me.” She obeyed, wincing as the tip of the broken arrow shaft brushed against the dirt, aggravating the wound. She was quickly distracted from the arrow by a burning feeling surrounding the wound in her back. She suppressed a curse as the burning got more painful while Althus poured something on it. She heard him call out.
“Oi! Someone get her something to bite on! I don’t want her shattering her teeth!”
She saw her brother appear before her, handing her something wrapped in cloth, which she quickly determined to be a simple stick. Ignoring where he got it from, she put it in her mouth right as the man pulled the knife out. She bit down, hearing a quiet crack from the stick as Althus started to work on her wound. It didn’t take long for him to work, but it seemed to last forever. By the time he was finally done, sweat was pouring off of her.
“There. Your brother can take care of you. Other people have injuries as well.”
The man quickly disappeared and she turned onto her uninjured side, spitting out the stick. She saw her brother looking at her in horror and she smiled, which appeared more like a grimace.
“Welcome to the fun.” He shook his head, speechless. She opened her mouth to speak again, but was distracted by something bumping against her leg. There stood the doll which she had imbued with magic just before the fight. It was partially burnt, but otherwise intact and waving at her. She let out a small laugh and immediately regretted it, wincing in pain. She spoke to the doll, unsure if it could understand her but hoping so since the magic had ‘talked’ to her before.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Come here. I don’t want to deal with this now.” It immediately obeyed and trundled towards where her upper body was laying. She put a hand on it and the magic almost seemed to jump into her with no effort. Grateful, she laid back and groaned in pain as her wound brushed the ground. She shifted back to her side and lay there for a few moments, gathering any motivation she could.
Fueled entirely by lingering adrenaline from the impromptu surgery, she stood up. She did her best to help deal with the aftermath, but was quickly sidelined due to how weak she was. She did her best to watch however, not warning to fall asleep and possibly die of shock.
Bodies were taken out of the buildings when possible and any more survivors that they found were treated. Apparently, another group had fled the opposite side of the town and they were doing much better. Of the over 300 people in the town however, slightly over a hundred had died or been grievously injured.
Among the dead was Isela, who had died of internal bleeding. When she crashed, her ribs had collapsed inwards and pierced several internal organs, creating a personalized deathcage of her own. Sylas was the best out of the three, suffering a minor graze on his thigh and a laser thin hole in his shoulder that caused far more pain than damage. What did cause damage was his magic overuse, which would likely take a couple weeks to recover and prevented him from using his magic in the meantime.
The surviving townspeople banded together and identified the parts of the town that still survived. For those whose homes were destroyed, temporary shelters were built at the edge of town. Once that was done, they prepared the bodies for their death rituals. Sylas was horrified, but managed to hold in his comments, too shell-shocked to protest.
The townspeople stripped the dead of their flesh, separating the bones from the muscle. Each body created its own pile, which was then burned to ash. Unfortunately, the kinuze that normally dealt with said ash had died as a part of the attack and someone new would need to be brought in. For now, the ashes were put into a jar per person. The bones were then separated and cracked appropriately, Sylas watching on in confusion. When the preparations were finally done, Helianna’s mother came up to Sylas.
“Sylas. I know you think this is insane, barbaric, and horrifying. But I want you to be there and participate in my husband’s ritual.”
“Why? What makes you think that?” he asked incredulously.
“You’re not good at hiding it. And to show you that while it seems insane to you, it is valid to the gods.” She sighed. “And I also know that the gods are not worshiped much down in Alaric, but they are here. So please. This matters a lot to Helianna and all of us and I want you to see it. I understand you two may not get along, but just take a chance here.” He pursed his lips and his flame-like eyes dimmed for a moment before he responded.
“The gods? Fine. What am I supposed to do?”
She guided him through the steps and before long, she led him towards the remains of her house and into the basement. He stopped at the steps however, immediately creeped out by what he saw. Helianna stood in the center of the basement, seven colored candles surrounding her. In front was a normal colored candle, followed by a green, a somehow black flamed candle, a blue, a red, a pure white candle, and finally, a purple candle. Without needing an explanation, he knew they represented the color of each magic affinity. There was no other light in the room, resulting in a positively eerie atmosphere.
He recognized Helianna’s mother and little brother, but four unknown people were in the room. They all stood next to a candle on the outside of the circle, leaving only one space for Sylas. It was the purple candle, the color of space. That was his affinity and it felt too perfect to be a coincidence. He looked at the others, but they were focused on Helianna. He nervously took his place as he also looked at Helianna, the creepiest part of the ritual.
As he looked, it took all of his effort to not reel away in horror. She was wearing the bones of her father. His mandible was attached to the bottom of her own and the face of his skull was covering hers. Helianna’s eyes looked through the sockets of her father’s skull, her dichromatic eyes barely visible. The rest of his skull was separated into two pieces and placed over her head. The pelvic bone had also been split in two and was attached around her own hips. She was wearing his arms and legs as well, the only bones obviously missing being the vertebra, of which there were none.
When he finally looked away, he noticed Helianna’s mother staring at him from the head of the circle behind the only normal candle. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to collect himself. Despite being freaked out, he wouldn’t dare mess up a death rite. He had to assume it was a valid rite and would do his best to avoid screwing it up. If he was right and it was just a bunch of insanity, he would wait to say something until afterwards.
“I witness,” Helianna’s mother declared in wuuvish and a chill ran up Sylas’ spine.
“I witness,” declared the next person, ripping Sylas’ eyes away from Jana.
“I witness,” declared the third, an old man with a raspy voice. Sylas couldn’t hold back a shiver, feeling like he was joining a cult.
“I witness,” declared the fourth. Sylas couldn’t see this one, his vision blocked by Helianna and he accidentally locked eyes with her through her mask of bone.
“I witness,” declared the fifth, but Sylas barely heard. He had to force himself to breathe, the eerie sight of Helianna coupled with the cultish ritual robbing him of breath.
“I witness,” declared the sixth, the young voice startling Sylas. It was then that he recognized Tanelex’s voice and realized he was next.
“I witness,” Sylas declared roughly, his pronunciation terrible. He looked around and stepped towards Helianna in unison with the others and everyone spoke together.
“We witness.”
Helianna spoke for the first time and there was an edge in her voice that surprised him.
“We call you to witness, o great gods above. We know you watch us and we call upon your grace. Let us pass on his soul, his wisdom, and his love. As the bones are our foundation, our strength, and our safety, we call upon them to release their hold over my father’s spirit, letting it pass through me and onto you. Divert their path and let them bestow their essence upon me and empower my future. We call upon you! Let their death serve a purpose. Let their death provide. Let their death serve us forever as it shall serve you. We call upon you Alsur. Command these bones through me!”
Everyone reached out their hands towards Helianna, Sylas a little belatedly. Magic poured in towards her, the color incongruent with the candles below them. The magic coursed into the bones, but a significant portion was absorbed by Helianna’s nullifation. Only the outer edges of the bones glowed with magic, but they still lit up the room. The magic was uneven, Tanelex and Sylas both unable to release any, but the ritual continued regardless and everyone felt a powerful tugging sensation. A few final wisps of magic were pulled from everybody, including Tanelex and Sylas.
A moment later, all sound and magic vanished in tandem, and everyone stumbled. A voice rumbled, quiet but simultaneously suffusing every corner of the room.
“The gods are watching you.”