As it turned out, we both looked very dirty and shabby after having spent three days underground. Vaozey in particular looked very raggedy because of her missing sleeve and exposed burns. Later in the day, despite washing ourselves off, when we passed by a small caravan that was headed to Kuhtehsh the members seemed caught between feelings of suspicion and sympathy. I had seen the look before, it was one that richer people often gave to those living in slums. There were no words exchanged, but the message was clear regardless.
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“Help me out here,” Vaozey called from across the campfire.
“What?” I asked, taking another bite of the squirrel I had caught for dinner.
“There’s no way they’ll let us into the city looking like this,” Vaozey replied. “Help me cut these sleeves off so it looks like they’re supposed to be short.” That’s not a bad idea, I thought, standing up and drawing my knife. It only took about a minute to adjust Vaozey’s shirt, but doing so revealed another problem.
“Your burn scars,” I said, looking at Vaozey’s forearms.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Let’s just cut them off, I’ll try to keep from cooking my hands until we’re there.” I expected more argument, I thought.
“Okay,” I nodded. “Pick an arm. This will take a little while, your skin is fused to the tissue below in some places, so it won’t come off smoothly like regular skin would.”
“I know,” Vaozey grunted, holding out her left arm first. “I tried it a few times early on and found that out.” Since I couldn’t just incise and then peel the skin away, I started by cutting along her bicep, taking out a ring of mostly-detached scar tissue and forming a starting point of healthy skin to work back from. Vaozey’s healing rate was incredibly fast, even for someone with magic, so her skin was reappearing almost as quickly as I was removing it.
“Why wouldn’t you have done this yourself, years ago?” I asked. “Obviously it’s not as easy as it should be, but given time, you could have achieved a satisfactory result.”
“Didn’t feel right,” Vaozey replied, frowning. She didn’t elaborate, so I didn’t press any further, not wanting to get into a long discussion. As I worked toward her left elbow, the skin became thinner, and the pieces that I was managing to cut away became smaller. Could I use the force magic blade? I wondered, It would probably be able to cut this without much issue. “What?” Vaozey asked, sensing that I was thinking.
“I’m going to try something,” I replied, forming the structure in my mind. With some effort, I cut into Vaozey’s arm, sectioning off a square of skin that I simultaneously pulled out and levitated in midair.
“I barely even felt that,” Vaozey commented.
“I’m not sure how viable this will be on the forearms, but for your hands, it should help,” I replied, dropping the skin. Vaozey used her right hand to grab her roasted squirrel and take a bite, then set it back down near the fire.
“Either way, let’s go faster,” she said. “I don’t care if it’s perfect, it just needs to be good enough to not draw attention.”
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“They don’t see us,” I whispered.
“I’m telling you, that one saw us,” Vaozey whispered back, pointing at a soldier at the back of the formation. The other fifty or so men were marching with spears in hand, looking forward, but the soldier Vaozey was indicating was looking roughly in our direction.
“He’s just watching the bushes,” I whispered. “Look at his eyes, he’s scanning slowly. If he was suspicious, they’d be darting all over.”
“How can you even see where he’s looking?” Vaozey hissed.
“Just watch the whites,” I muttered. “See, now he’s looking away.”
“Seyt…” Vaozey sighed.
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As I held the coin between my fingers, eyes closed, I formed a mental image of an electric field. With my body as the source and my arms as wires, I extended the field outward to reach the coin. Some of the mental image wasn’t covered by my magic range, but I suspected that it didn’t matter, given that the actual enemy would be transferring from a point inside my magic range to another point inside my range. Slowly, so that I didn’t overdraw on my power, I began to make current flow out of my right hand, through the coin, and into my left hand.
“Is something supposed to be happening?” Vaozey asked.
“Not something visible,” I replied, upping the power in the circuit. “If we had some steel wool or something, I could burn it with this.” I could feel a slight tingle in my fingers, a sign that my electrical circuit was probably working.
“You could burn it with heat magic,” Vaozey replied dismissively. Okay, now in the opposite direction, I thought, reversing the current. The tingling feeling of nerve stimulation left my fingers for a moment, then came back once my mental image was reversed. Again, I thought, flipping the current direction at will.
“This is a very odd sensation,” I thought aloud. I was familiar with how alternating current felt from being shocked by Rehvites, but I had never felt it at levels that weren’t intended to harm before. At extremely low frequencies, it simply appeared to be a pulsing sensation that extended up my fingers and into my hands as the voltage peaked. As I increased the frequency, the pulses faded into noise, then tension. My muscles started to convulse slightly, not enough to hurt, but enough to lessen my control over them.
“I’m sure it is,” Vaozey replied. “Now can you help me with force magic already?” Finally opening my eyes, I saw her standing near a large rock with only the cloth around her chest on her upper body. In the light of the campfire, I couldn’t quite tell if her skin was shiny from sweat, or the burns.
“I told you already, just try to lift it,” I instructed.
“Yeah, I tried, doesn’t work,” Vaozey scoffed. With a sigh, I put the coin away, then walked over to the boulder. It was probably about three hundred kilograms of mass in total, assuming its composition was average for a rock, well within the range of movable for a human with force magic but quite difficult to even shift around without it. Just to confirm my suspicions, I squatted down, then attempted to lift the boulder, getting it about thirty centimeters off of the ground before stopping and dropping it.
“So what’s the problem?” I asked.
“I can’t seytoydh lift it, obviously,” Vaozey replied flippantly. “This isn’t working for me, I think I need a different method.”
“You could try breaking wood with your bare hands,” I suggested.
“I need to fight,” Vaozey said. “Magic always comes out easier for me in a fight. Did you realize that I figured out how to avoid burning myself with heat magic while we were fighting those ants? I’m not perfect at it, but it just sort of popped into my head when we were down there and trying to get the allied ones into the nest. Something about fighting just makes magic easier for me.” It’s the same for me, actually, I realized in a flash of memories.
“Fine, what did you have in mind?” I asked. Vaozey walked to one side, drew a line in the ground, then walked to the opposite side and drew another line about four meters away.
“Grappling, you try to push me back from here past this line, I try to push you past that one,” she said, pointing to one line and then the other. “No magic from you, I already know you can beat me at this. The point is for me to try to beat you.” Even if she managed to trigger internal force magic, I’m not sure it would help much in this case, I thought, I’m also heavier than her, so I have an inherent advantage. Still…
“Alright,” I replied, taking up a position beside Vaozey, “let’s see how this goes.”
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“That’s twenty-seven,” I declared as Vaozey slammed into the ground. “I thought the purpose of this was to try to overpower me, not find a tactic to overcome my weight.”
“Damn it all,” Vaozey swore, impotently punching the ground.
“I need to go to sleep, but you can stay up if you want,” I said. “Just make sure you can stay alert tomorrow.”
“You’re sure you weren’t using any magic?” Vaozey asked.
“This again?” I asked back.
“No, I mean, by accident,” she clarified. “I don’t know, I just… I don’t know. It feels like it should have worked, but it didn’t.”
“We can try again tomorrow night,” I said.
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“Well I hate t’admit it but when I saw yeh I thought yeh were bandits!” the old man laughed, slapping the side of his pack beast.
“We’ve been getting that a lot,” Vaozey said, raising her vocal pitch a bit and smiling back at him.
“What even happened t’yeh?” he asked. “I think I got some shirts and pants back here that’ll fit, regardless of if yeh wanna tell me.”
“We fell down a ravine,” I said. “We were chasing a deer, trying to get a meal, and it turned out there was a section of ground that was overgrown with grass and had nothing underneath. Took three days to climb out.”
“Ah, yeah, yer lucky yeh didn’t die,” the old man nodded, pulling out a pile of old clothes. “We got a few’a those ‘round here, ravines and sinkholes. Whole east coast is pretty hole-y if yeh know what I mean. Hey, try this on.” he tossed me a shirt which I caught, then stretched out across my body. Even when held flat, it was thinner than my torso was. The old man, watching me examine it, grinned sheepishly. “Ah, yeah, little bigger then,” he joked as I tossed it back.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“We saw some soldiers yesterday,” Vaozey said. “It’s a bit unusual, right?”
“Ah, yeah, somethin’s got the nobles all riled up in Awrehrehzha,” the old man commented. “Not sure what it is, just rumors and such. Excuse my language, but it’s probably some Zihzehshesk ngiyvdoym.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Only thing that makes sense,” the old man shrugged. “Pehrink’s been buttin’ heads with them for years now, maybe war is brewin’. Hope not, last civil war was before my time thankfully. My father used to talk about it, real nasty.”
“I can imagine,” I replied.
“You, young lady, try this shirt,” the old man said, tossing Vaozey a garment. “We’ll just go behind the cart over here and give yeh some privacy.”
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“Twelve,” I declared, shoving Vaozey back over the line. “You’re getting better at this but I think it’s just tactics, not magic. Your foot position is improving and you’re leveraging your weight better.”
“Not magic though,” Vaozey grunted, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck as we walked back to the center of the lines.
“Probably not,” I said. “It could be very minimal, but with that posture, any significant increase in your strength would be detectable from my side.”
“Alright, how about this?” Vaozey said. “I punch you in the face, you punch me in the face, we go back and forth until one of us goes down.”
“You stand no chance of winning that sort of contest with me,” I said.
“Let’s do it anyway,” Vaozey smiled. “I need a change of pace. I go first though.”
“Okay,” I replied, standing up and planting my feet. “Go first, let’s see what you’ve got.” A moment later, Vaozey’s fist slammed into my face, and my head was snapped to the right. Considering these people don’t even train in hand-to-hand combat, that wasn’t too bad, I thought.
“Has anyone ever told you that your head is as solid as a rock?” Vaozey asked, cracking her knuckles.
“Pretty sure Koyl said those exact words one time,” I replied. “You ready?”
“Just do it,” Vaozey replied, and before she could tense up I hit her with a right hook. She stumbled a few steps, losing her balance, then shook her head and blinked a few times before getting back into position.
“Okay, I’m going to try to hit you even harder now,” she said.
“That is the point,” I replied, and the fist came at me. It did strike harder than before, hard enough to fracture my cheekbone where it impacted and momentarily knock me off balance, but it still wasn’t very good.
“Now you,” I said, swinging at Vaozey. Though I used the same amount of force, she took the hit better the second time, only needing to slightly change her foot position instead of stumbling. She returned the blow in kind, breaking her fingers on my jaw, and then managed to stand entirely in place for my next strike.
“Just needed some time to get used to it,” Vaozey grinned, showing some blood on her teeth and punching me back.
“I’ll hit a bit harder too then,” I replied, and instead of using a moderate-force hook, I punched her straight in the forehead. Vaozey, caught off guard by the change in tactics, fell backward. However, both of her feet refused to move, and her ankles snapped as she fell onto her rear and winded herself.
“Seyt,” she coughed. “What the-”
“You’re gripping the ground,” I said, pointing at her feet. Vaozey looked at her feet, then tried to move them, failing to dislodge them from their position.
“How am I doing this?” she asked.
“No idea,” I shrugged. “I’m surprised you’re still doing it.”
“I don’t know how to stop,” Vaozey replied, a slight bit of panic slipping into her voice. Slowly, and awkwardly, she pushed herself back to her feet and let her ankles heal, then stood back up. “This is seytoydh bizarre,” she muttered.
“Your feet are still stuck?” I asked. In response, Vaozey tried to pull her right foot up, showing that it was being held in place. “You should be able to break the grip if you pull hard enough,” I advised. “External force magic generally isn’t much stronger than an arm, especially not for someone who hasn’t trained in it.” Again, Vaozey pulled up on her foot, and all of a sudden it came loose, throwing her back again and snapping her left ankle.
“Gods, why must you test me,” she grumbled as she lay on her back. “I think my seytoydh right foot is stuck in another spot now.” Sure enough, when Vaozey tried to move her right leg, it was clear that her right foot had stuck to the ground again. Even though I wasn’t particularly amused, I still had to choke back an impulse snort, clearing my throat instead. “Go ahead, laugh,” Vaozey sighed.
“I just don’t understand why you can’t let go,” I said, chortling once by accident. Actually, how is her hold even working? I wondered, trying to form a mental image of its structure. I really must have the underlying mechanics of force magic all wrong, even though they work for me.
“How long would it take for me to run out of ‘magic fuel’ or whatever?” Vaozey asked.
“A while, and you don’t want that,” I replied. “I could knock you out, that would probably deactivate it.”
“Yeah, and knowing my luck, it’ll come right back when I wake up,” Vaozey sighed again, letting out a long groan. “Seyt, I’ll just figure it out.”
For the next thirty minutes, Vaozey sat in place, awkwardly tugging at her feet until they finally came loose from the ground. Meanwhile, I worked on my alternating current technique, perfecting quick activation for weaponized use. It was actually much easier to use than I thought it would be, requiring significantly less energy than static charging to produce a similar stunning effect. The only real disadvantage was that it couldn’t be used in conjunction with projectiles. Maybe I can try to make a railgun with direct current, I thought, that would need a few specialized parts though, so it’s probably impractical.
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Three more days passed quickly after that. Vaozey didn’t manage to replicate her feat of force magic on the first day despite working herself to exhaustion. On the second day, however, she activated internal force magic for a moment while once again trying to lift a large rock. It didn’t last long though, so I had to help her free her hands from underneath it when they became trapped under it. It seemed that, much like with her heat magic, the ability to control it came and went whenever it pleased since she wasn’t yet used to its presence. Given a week or two, she’ll probably have the internal technique under control enough to use in combat, I thought as I tried to get to sleep.
On the fourth day after Vaozey’s initial use of force magic, we saw Awrehrehzha in the distance. In some ways, it looked a lot like Owsahlk, but the shape of the city was different. Instead of being a rough circle like Owsahlk, Awrehrehzha was more of an oblong shape that stretched out along the coastline, allowing it to have more dock space. I suppose that makes sense, with this being one of the largest cities in the east, I thought. There were also some fields for farming nearby, but assuming the population density was similar to Owsahlk, there was no way they were enough to feed the entire city.
“Looks like about three more hours of walking,” I said.
“What if the guards stop us?” Vaozey asked. “The Rehvites were looking for us just a few days ago, it’s possible they’ll identify us at the gate.”
“Look there,” I said, pointing to what appeared to be the main gate into the city. “Even from here, I can see the crowds. There’s no way they’re going to identify us when there’s that level of inflow and outflow, they don’t have the proper tools for it. You don’t look at all like your description from Owsahlk, and I’m guessing there are plenty of tall and darker-skinned people in the city.”
“Okay, yeah, but what if?” Vaozey repeated.
“Well we’re not doing what we did in Towrkah, that’s for sure,” I said. “Maybe we take a few days and you can learn how to climb with force magic or something.”
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“You were a victim of a bandit attack?” the guard, a particularly sarcastic woman who was nearly Vaozey’s size asked. We had so many people ask us if we were robbed while waiting to enter the city that we both decided to just make that our working story. Also as I had suspected, there were several non-Luwahriy of various sizes and descriptions moving about, lessening how much attention I drew.
“They ambushed us,” I repeated. “I was the first one to go down, and my partner took a bolt to the throat right after. I’m guessing they thought we were both going to die anyway because they just left us out there.”
“What company?” she asked, noting something down on a pad of paper.
“Dkehpmz Mercantile,” I replied. She probably doesn’t know it, I thought, I haven’t seen any offices for them outside of Pehrink and Owsahlk.
“That from out west?” she asked.
“Based in Owsahlk as far as I know,” I lied. “They’re looking to expand out here, I think. I’m not really a businessman.” The guard glanced at my scars, then raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t say?” she remarked. “Well look mister…”
“S’shesk,” I repeated for her, using my fake Gwahlaob name.
“S’shesk,” the guard echoed. “We haven’t had any caravans from your company come in, so I’m guessing that they’ve been lost. It seems like you two were actually the lucky ones in this situation, sadly. There’s a post office near the docks where you can send a message by courier to Owsahlk if you need to, but it will cost you money. For emergencies, they may lend you the fee and expect repayment later. Other than that, I’ll be making a note to look into this a bit since it seems like fairly major bandit activity, so expect a visit or two for follow-ups.”
“I’d be happy to help in any way I can,” I lied with a small smile. The guard curled her lips in, making me think I tipped my hand somehow for a moment.
“I don’t suppose your companion is a follower of Rehv, is she?” the guard asked.
“I am, but I don’t have any identification,” Vaozey replied, successfully concealing any disgust so well that even I couldn’t hear it.
“Oh, okay, that makes this a lot easier either way,” the guard smiled. “If you two would just follow me, I can get you some forms, and we’ll have you inside in half an hour.”
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“Seytoydh disgusting,” Vaozey spat once we were out of earshot of the guard post. She clearly wasn’t referring to the city, because Awrehrehzha was cleaner than almost any other human city I had seen besides maybe Kuhtehsh. The normal stink of waste and sweat was faint, and the cobbled streets had been recently swept. This area does look wealthy though, I thought.
“Would you rather have not gotten in?” I asked.
“No, I’m glad it worked,” Vaozey sighed. “I just realized halfway through that I wasn’t even angry with her anymore. I was sitting there, in a room full of Rehvites, and I wasn’t even thinking about killing any of them.”
“It’s better to be in control,” I said.
“What if I wake up one day and I can’t kill them anymore?” Vaozey asked. “What if I forget what they did, and why I hate them?”
“That’s highly unlikely,” I replied. “Unless someone cut out several pieces of your brain without killing you, your memories will remain for the rest of your life.”
“That’s not…” Vaozey sighed again, rubbing her eyes with one hand.
“Do you think I hate every person I kill?” I asked.
“Have we had this conversation before?” Vaozey asked back.
“Maybe,” I replied.
“No, you obviously don’t,” Vaozey finally answered. “I don’t think you hate anyone, I’m not sure you’re capable of it.”
“Yet, I can still kill them,” I said. “If I have a reason to kill, I can kill. You can do the same. You don’t need to hate to be able to kill.”
“Yeah, well, it makes it a lot easier,” Vaozey muttered. “Let’s find an inn or something, I’m really feeling a need to sleep in a bed tonight.”
“Yuwniht?” a familiar voice called out from my left. Hearing my name sent a spurt of tension down my spine before my brain recognized who had spoken, and my eyes drifted over to their location. The last time I had seen him he looked very different, but the man standing just across the street was definitely Koyl. He was skinnier, his facial bones sticking out more than before, and he had a trimmed beard around his mouth, but everything else as the same.
“Koyl,” I responded, stepping back and making space for him. “I was expecting to have to find you.”
“Oh, yeah,” Koyl said, awkwardly pulling at his expensive clothing. “I was thinking it would take you at least another week to get here, honestly.”
“You look like shit,” Vaozey said, disguising her voice by changing its pitch.
“And who are you?” Koyl asked, raising an eyebrow. Vaozey did the same, then slowly began to laugh, her voice growing deeper as she did so. “Gods, is that Vaozey?” Koyl asked me, looking nervous.
“Yes, but keep your voice down,” I replied.
“Right,” Koyl said quickly. “Let me bring you two back to where I’m staying, you don’t want to be out around here after dark, trust me.”