The days passed quickly, and before I knew it we were a week into our journey. Much of the time I spent walking was also spent thinking and tinkering with my new magic techniques. Now that I could control how much magic was available in a given area of my body to a higher degree, working out how the Rehvites had been able to launch projectiles at such high speeds wasn’t overly difficult. The technique of the assassin in the Zae’ey’yaob mansion actually gave me the final piece of knowledge I needed to finally produce a viable technique: launching things quickly wasn’t just a matter of output in a single area, but a matter of continuous output across a limb.
In order to send a rock flying at anything faster than I could manage with my arm alone, what I had to do was hold the object in place somewhere along my forearm, concentrate my magic just behind it, then begin shoving it forward while simultaneously pushing the concentrated magic area forward as well. It was sort of like trying to make two different motions at once with each hand: tricky, but not prohibitively complex with practice. After a few days of practice, I could launch a rock of any graspable size at what felt like about seventy-five meters per second.
While shooting rocks into the air was fun, and shooting them at various small animals was a good way to gather food, the amount of power it used relative to its impact force was extreme; especially when compared to a simple enhanced throwing technique like I had created in Owsahlk with my knives. Throwing was slightly slower, but with under one-fifth of the power expenditure of launching a rock purely through magic, I could hit comparable projectile speeds and impact forces with equal accuracy. Additionally, I could juggle about four rocks in a ring around my forearm to allow for rapid follow-up shots, but I was nowhere near dexterous enough to create a dense ring like either of the Rehvite assassins I had seen. All in all, the advantages that the technique provided at my skill level weren’t enough to justify its use in combat, at least until I could get better at it.
Vaozey had also been busy over the first week, usually occupying her daytime walking with paranoid scanning of our woodland surroundings and asking to spar with me before bed. Unlike during our previous trip, she never got angry during the fights, and even accepted that fighting me with her mace while I was weaponless was an even matchup. I did use force magic to defend myself, using the sparring to work on my shielding reflexes, but she took it more as a challenge to her skill than an insult. As I got better at intercepting her attacks, she got better at slipping her mace past my ethereal grip, which was useful for both of us.
The one time she got upset with me was when she believed I was holding back my strength too much and demanded that I strike her with my full strength. After about two minutes of back and forth, I agreed to at least hit her in the torso with the intent to harm, and used a similar technique to the one that had buckled the mercenary’s armor in Kahvahrniydah. I aimed low, not wanting to rupture her heart by accident, but the impact still threw Vaozey a few meters back and probably tore her liver and intestines. We were both armorless, so no permanent damage was done to our equipment, but Vaozey ended the spar after recovering and didn’t ask to fight the next day.
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In the middle of the eighth night, we were woken up by the sounds of animals stalking nearby, and Ngvahp ordered us to get the caravan ready to move. I wanted to stay and simply fight them off, but as the leader she outranked us, so we only got half a night of sleep. Everyone was tired except for Vaozey, who was accustomed to having little sleep, so by mid-morning on the ninth day a few of the guards decided to nap in shifts in the backs of the wagons. I also decided to sleep, since I could feel the fatigue affecting my senses, and soon fell into a nondescript dream in the back of the rear wagon while it bumped and vibrated from the texture of the road.
The sounds of speech roused me a little bit, but since the wagon was already noisy they didn’t bring me back to full alertness. Some of the voices shouted at each other, but they were far enough away to not be loud, so my brain didn't register any threat and let me rest. It wasn’t until I felt my arms being moved that I started to come back to reality because being touched by hands was not something I could ignore. By that point, I had already heard a clunking metal noise, and when my eyes opened I saw that both of my forearms and elbows were covered in thick metal cuffs. My immediate instinct was to try to pull out of them, but even with magic, I wasn’t strong enough to rip apart well-forged steel with my bare hands.
“Try anything magical, lose your head,” a gruff voice that I didn’t recognize growled at me. Looking up, I saw a filthy man in a guard uniform of some kind pointing a sword at my face.
“Yuwniht, just relax for now,” Ngvahp said from behind him. “This is all a misunderstanding, let me talk to them and clear it up.” The noise from the wagon and caravan conditioned my ears to not wake me, and the sensation of movement and jostling kept me from noticing I was being restrained, I grimaced, I had no idea I could sleep so deeply.
“You listen to her, doymztoyl,” the gruff man added. My only response to the man was a glare, and after a second he pulled me out of the wagon and into the sunlight. All three of our wagons were stopped near a wooden fortification of some kind. It wasn’t big enough to be called a fortress but was too small for a simple watch post. Looks new, I noted, the wood is still dry and has no wear on it, like they just got finished assembling everything. From what I could see there were only six people in the group arresting me, two of whom were on the battlements of the structure aiming crossbows, but there were likely more inside.
“Glad you could seytoydh join us,” Vaozey snarled, kneeling on the ground with her hands tied behind her back and a guard standing over her. I was brought over to her, then shoved into a similar position to her right. Unlike me, she was covered in dirt and had some smears of blood on her face, which was uncovered.
“Only rope?” I asked. Glancing back at my own cuffs, I tried to figure out exactly how the locking mechanisms worked. It seemed like a simple ratchet design, but I wasn’t sure where the key was inserted to release it, and none of my quick attempts to disengage them magically had worked so far. I could force an arm out but it would take a few seconds, I thought.
“I’m a cripple, didn’t you know?” Vaozey scoffed back. “No need to use one of those on someone like me, they’re reserved for people who are actually dangerous.” Her tone and expression told me everything I needed to know about the situation in under a second. So they don’t know Vaozey can use magic, I thought, They know who we are, but possibly don’t have up-to-date information, and she's hoping I have something up my sleeve so we can escape. They’re not Rehvites though, or she’d be far angrier. They also didn't disarm us after cuffing us, so they might be quite stupid.
“They are in custody,” Ngvahp said, speaking to someone who looked like they were in charge. The leader of the people who had arrested us was a smaller man with a large belly and a shaven head, wearing the same manner of guard uniform as the others. “Now, will you please explain the situation to me? I am certain this is just a misunderstanding.”
“Yeah, that’s why that one-” the leader jabbed a thumb in the direction of Vaozey, “-nearly bit two of my fingers off while we were restraining her.”
“I’ll bite more than that off if you come back over here,” Vaozey taunted, clacking her teeth together menacingly. “That is, if it’s big enough to reach past my lips.”
“Shut up,” the gruff man growled, kicking her in the back of the head. The other guard on the ground, who had been standing near the rest of the caravan members, walked over to stand in front of us.
“They are criminals,” the leader replied. “The man is connected to a number of murders including a government official in Owsahlk, and the woman is a traitor to the nation who has been killing innocents for years. Both of them are also connected to organized crime in Kahvahrniydah. The rest of your caravan is free to leave, but we will be turning these two over to the proper authorities in Towrkah.”
“Wawjhjhaayjh liar,” Vaozey murmured, straining against the ropes binding her hands.
“Do I need to kick you again?” Vaozey’s guard asked threateningly while she looked over at me for some sign that we could break out. In return, I raised an eyebrow, then gestured with my hands to indicate that I wasn’t sure what she was expecting. If they’re going to bring us to Towrkah either way, why not just let them? I thought. We can break out once we’re closer to the city and not have to deal with the caravan being potential witnesses to us killing law enforcement. Weirdly, Vaozey seemed to get the gist of my thoughts.
“Look at their emblems and boots,” she whispered, so quietly that it was hard to understand. “Even their uniforms, are you stupid?”
“I don’t know what the emblems mean,” I whispered back.
“Idiot,” Vaozey hissed. “Do you know how much shit a provincial guard would be in looking like that? They’re filthy, it’s disrespect to the uniform. Their commander would beat them half to death for it.”
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“Shut your seytoydh mouth or I’ll cut your head off right here, ngoyth,” the guard behind Vaozey threatened.
“Oh, will you?” Vaozey cackled. “You brainless poymawpjh, you won’t do anything to me. It’s illegal to execute a captured prisoner unless there is a congressional order for it, and you’d still have to present it to me and declare it first. You know that, right?”
“What the seyt are you-” the leader began.
“Of course you do, because you’re real provincial guards, right?” Vaozey laughed. “You’re not allowed to kill me. Unless, of course, you’re not a real provincial guard, but then this whole situation would be very different, wouldn’t it? It would just be bandits trying to abduct people and collect on illegal bounties.” Her voice was loud enough that the rest of the caravan could hear her, and some of the caravan guards began to grow suspicious.
“You shut up!” the leader shouted, pointing at Vaozey.
“Can you show me some proof?” Ngvahp asked, stepping back from the leader and moving toward the wagons. “Not that I distrust you, but I’m sure it would help calm everyone down.” While the attention was on her, I began trying to force my right arm out of the cuffs, tearing the skin on my wrist and around my elbow joint as the bones below crunched painfully. Tighter than I thought, I grimaced.
“Stop that!” the bandit behind me yelled. “He’s trying to get out!” Immediately, the bandit in front of me drew his sword and began approaching, while Ngvahp broke into a run and her caravan guards drew weapons. I jumped to my feet and used the cuffs to deflect a slash aimed at my shoulder, then spun around and slammed the metal on my wrists into the bandit behind me, knocking him to the ground.
As I spun back to face the bandit in front of me, my peripheral vision warned me just in time to let me tilt my upper body out of the way of a stab. Unfortunately, since I didn’t see the blade clearly before I moved, it still impacted my left hand and tore off my outer two fingers before I managed to grip it with a combination of force magic and friction. Vaozey had also jumped to her feet around the same time I did, breaking out of her bindings by setting them ablaze, and was busy crushing the skull of the bandit who had been guarding her while I tried to wrench the weapon from my attacker’s grip.
The bandit leader, meanwhile, shouted something and retreated back to the structure, which opened up to let five more men out. The caravan guards charged them, engaging in a melee, while the two on the battlements shot down at them opportunistically. Ngvahp and the drivers were in the process of moving the wagons as far away from the fighting as possible, all while trying to make sure the beasts pulling them didn’t panic and run off.
Just as I managed to finally pull the sword out of the hands of the bandit in front of me, I heard a grunt from behind me and had to jump to my right to avoid being stabbed in the back. Enough screwing around, I thought, and I used force magic to help tear my right arm the rest of the way out of the cuffs, nearly pulling my thumb off in the process. With both arms now able to move independently again, I pulled out my sword and ducked my head to avoid being shot with a bolt.
The bandit who had been behind me, the one now to my left, was first to move, roaring and charging at me with his weapon above his head. Using the cuff that was still on my left arm as a shield, I blocked his clumsy attack and countered with a magic-enhanced downward diagonal chop to his left shoulder. The bandits weren’t wearing much in the way of armor, probably because whatever they had didn’t match well with their disguises, so there was nothing to stop my blade as it split apart the bandit’s soft flesh and brittle bone. To my surprise, my sword made it all the way through his body, completely bisecting him along the attack line and spewing blood everywhere.
The other bandit, to my right, froze in shock for a moment. I took advantage of his hesitation and kicked off the ground dashing towards him and chopping horizontally at his abdomen. He tried to block me, and nearly succeeded, but the sheer force of my attack snapped his weapon in half. Still, breaking the metal bled enough energy from the strike that he wasn’t cut entirely in half by it, though he was left completely unable to stop me from grabbing him with my left hand and splitting his skull in half with a follow-up attack.
“What are you doing?” one of the bandits in the wooden structure yelled, and I glanced over to see Vaozey walking by the wall, running her hand along it and leaving a trail of flames behind. Since the entire structure was dry, the tiny flames she was producing were rapidly expanding, and within ten seconds the first area she had touched looked like a bonfire. Panicked screams came from inside the structure, and three more men ran out with weapons, the leader and the two crossbowmen. I intercepted the crossbowmen, cutting them down on one strike each. The leader tried to fight Vaozey but died almost immediately as she bludgeoned him gleefully, then set about mulching the remains of his skull.
The caravan guards appeared to have won their fight with the bandits who headed their way, so after a final check to make sure there were no more hostiles, I squeezed my left arm out of the cuffs and began looking around for my fingers. They should still have some magic fuel in them, I thought when I found them, I can probably just re-attach them like I did with my arms in Vehrehr. Sheathing my sword and pulling out a throwing knife, I performed the same process I had with my arms, placing and holding the severed pieces in place with force magic and then cutting the healed-over stumps. Sure enough, with a little bit of manipulation to increase the magic fuel in my left hand, I saw my skin bridge over and secure my fingers in place, and a few seconds later I could feel sensation in them.
Vaozey, finally done inflicting post-mortem damage on her victims and dripping with gore, walked over to me and glanced at my left hand. It was only at that point that I felt just how much blood was smeared on my face and clothes. Great, I sighed, I hope there’s a river nearby, this is disgusting. The wooden building, now more than half enveloped in flames, crackled and snapped behind us, billowing white smoke and sparks into the air. Vaozey looked on, momentarily entranced, while I started walking over to the caravan to check on them.
“Stay back!” one of the caravan guards yelled as I approached, pointing his sword at me. The others behind him also looked nervous, even though I was almost ten meters away. Ngvahp, also in the group, had a crossbow pointed in my direction.
“What’s the problem?” I asked.
“Who the seyt are you?” the front guard demanded. “Are you jhoytoydh around with us? What have you gotten us involved in? Who do you work for?” He’s terrified, I realized, why is he so afraid?
“That thing isn’t human,” another guard behind him said. “Did you see what it did just now? With the fingers?”
“Who cares about the fingers!” another one snapped. “He seytoydh broke out of steel cuffs and cut a man in half with one arm! He’s probably a foreign kehpveht spy or something!”
“The fingers are just a magic technique,” I tried to explain. “It’s not special, really. I’m not going to attack-”
“Shut up,” Ngvahp croaked, lumbering up to the front of the group while keeping her crossbow trained on me. “You step back two steps or I’ll put a bolt right through your forehead, don’t you test me. I’m a crack shot with this thing.” I blinked, then stepped back two steps, showing the palms of my hands reflexively.
“What the seyt are you people doing?” Vaozey yelled from behind me, stomping over angrily. “We save your jheyyteylm asses from getting robbed and killed and this is the thanks we get?”
“I said shut up!” Ngvahp roared with a volume that I didn’t think such a small woman could produce. “Both of you shut up and get back or so help me I will order my guards to kill you.”
“You think they can?” Vaozey snarled back. “You try it, I’d love to crack some more skulls today you stupid ngoyth, starting with yours.”
“Vaozey-” I began.
“She’s a jhaayjh zaeternaaf,” the lead caravan guard said, “and I don’t know what he is. I don’t care how much you pay me, I’m not sleeping in the same camp as either of them. The hours of ‘sparring’ was bad enough, but this is just…”
“Did you see how she was looking at that fire?” someone else asked.
“You should have left them in Kahvahrniydah,” the bobcat-ranked driver chimed in. “That crazy ngoyth tried to start a fight with me even back there. That’s probably how she got all those burns. She’s not stable, and I knew there was something wrong with him from the start. Did you see his arm when he first-?”
“Everybody saw the arm Ngawngtaam! Shut up about it already!” Ngvahp snapped at the man before turning back to me. “You two, I don’t care what the Zae’ey’yaobs say, you’re not coming with us. I don’t know what you’re involved in, and I don’t want to know. You can tell them, if you see them, that I’m leaving their money with Zhawl Zhihteyng in Towrkah. They can have it back.”
“They work for the Zae-?” the ferret-ranked driver began.
“You slimy teylmpaam-” Vaozey snapped at the same time.
“Enough!” I growled, cutting them both off. “Vaozey, just let them go.”
“Are you just going to accept this?” Vaozey retorted, turning her piercing glare on me.
“Just let them go,” I repeated. “What else do you want to do, kill them all? Steal their wagons? How does that help us? Do you think the border guards would believe any story we make up?” Killing them would cause more problems than just leaving them alive, I thought, The worst they could do is lie about us, but she plans to return the money so I’m guessing that’s not what she’s intending to do. She just wants us to disappear from her life.
“Listen to him,” the lead guard said to Vaozey.
“We were never part of your caravan,” I declared, looking Ngvahp in the eyes. “You never saw us, this never happened.” The old woman trembled for a moment, and I worried she might accidentally shoot the crossbow.
“Agreed,” she finally replied.
“That goes for all of you,” I continued, sweeping my gaze across the group. “If any of you say anything to the contrary, what happened to these men will look merciful compared to what I will do to you and anyone who tries to protect you. Do you understand me? If any of you speaks about this, I will personally kill every one of you.” The gazes of the caravan guards were hard and malevolent, but as my eyes met each one, I saw them back down. Amazing that they'd believe me, I thought with a hint of amusement, that threat would be incredibly hard to follow through on.
“They want to leave us to die in the wilderness!” Vaozey shouted at me. “We are a week away from any proper settlement! We’re going to starve to death if they leave us out here!”
“We’ll be fine,” I assured her. “We did nothing wrong here. When we get to Towrkah, we’ll report the bandits, and that’ll be the end of it. Let them leave, stopping them isn’t worth the trouble so long as they hold up their end of this agreement.”