“What'cha doing?”Ashley asked.
“I’m trying to figure out how they walk on water. These just look like normal spider legs,” Chess observed. “Thin, relative to their bodies, and taper to an end with a single claw. It makes no sense."
“Probably magic,” Ashley said.
“But the Pyths they gave had nothing to do with walking on water. Lots of different kinds of silk though,” Chess said, nodding at the small pile of bags Ashley had harvested from the spiders. It’s crazy how many different types there are, she thought, mentally ticking off each type and amount of Pyth they’d gotten from the spiders. She was beginning to see the real value in Ashley's harvest Pyth.
Waterweaver Structural Silk Pyth: 38 doses
Waterweaver Dragline Silk Pyth: 31 doses
Swathing Silk Pyth: 56 doses
Waterweaver Egg Sac Silk Pyth: 23 doses
Waterweaver Net-Silk Pyth: 27 doses
Sticky Silk Pyth: 12 doses
Inventory Pyth: 46 doses
Weaving Pyth: 15 doses
Harvest Pyth: 11 doses
The over four dozen spiders had yielded quite the haul, but the entire cluster of fish had only given 2 doses of swim Pyth.
Lynn had explained that most fish only gave Pyth if they lived more than a handful of years. Insects were generally the same, but she figured these spiders may live a long time or mature quickly like other large magical insects tended to.
Lynn had been more excited by the fact they didn't have venom. Making them less dangerous to kill, if you came prepared, unlike their recent encounter.
“It’s likely innate and developed in the limbs," Lynn said.
"The basic silk Pyths are valuable to many different tradespeople. A new source for textile Pyth could be a great boon to the Heel’s economy,” Lynn explained while just stopping short of rubbing her hands together.
“Now, quit procrastinating and finish your drink. We need you to have more space to store all this stuff. You’ll have room to take some spider feet with you to explore later,” Lynn gestured at the various items they’d collected and processed so far. They had loaded most of it into new square pails that Chess had fashioned from wood taken from the ghoul's refuse.
“But cilantro,” Chess fake-gagged and stuck her bottom lip out in a pout. Snorting the inventory Pyth hadn't turned out well, making the taste stick to the back of her throat and linger.
“Stop acting like a child,” Lynn admonished with a sigh. “It won't kill you.” She tapped a foot impatiently while shifting her gaze between Chess and Mikel.
Chess sighed and raised the drink in salute before taking another gagging sip of the foul concoction. Like the worst kale smoothie ever invented, she lamented.
“I want to know what the Net-Silk Pyth will get. You said it’s a new one,” Ashley said happily.
“I’m interested in all the Waterweaver Pyths. Water is usually a big problem for silk without proper treatments and processing. But these spiders actually hunt underwater. Although the rarity of niche Pyths can often turn away buyers; everyone wants something they can improve,” Lynn cautioned Chess’ excited daughter. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you acting the same as your mother. You need to drink up too.”
“Fine, but it tastes like straw,” Ashley let her tongue flop out showing its thin coarse surface.
"This place is a true mithril mine," Lynn said as she sorted through various spider parts that they’d harvested.
She's been saying that a lot lately, Chess thought while turning away. She caught Mikel watching her with an odd expression as she hesitantly drank the remaining dissolved crystal concoction.
Chess wrinkled her brow. Does he not know about Pyths? No, that can’t be right, they all had at least a few.
“Hey?” She turned back to Lynn. “Do you think that he somehow doesn’t know about Pyths? I mean he seems to really relish the spider legs but made no effort to harvest the Pyths and hasn’t even indicated he wanted any of them.”
“He may not know it’s an option,” Lynn reasoned. "Or he realizes we'll say no. Or is grateful for being saved from the Ghoul."
“Okay, okay, but that makes no sense. What else would they be for? They are called Pyths on the screen and when you look at the powder,” Chess argued.
“The status screen only appears that way for people that can read. For everyone else it's a vague feeling about what it all means and does,” Ashley explained. “That's why my mother was so crazy about teaching me my letters.”
Chess noticed that, that was one of the first times Ashley had been able to mention her dead mother and not grow quiet immediately.
“Crafting? Especially for their totems and charms,” Lynn said. “I’ve heard of remote rift tribes that had only one or two members, usually the leader and their family, that knew about taking the powders to get powers. Instead, they rely on whatever they develop naturally.”
“Wait. You mean to say if you don’t have an inheritance, you get something anyway?”
“Sometimes. You can end up with up to three Pyths. One or two based on your developed skills and another based on your nature if you focus doggedly on a few skills,” Lynn said.
Chess turned to find Ashley nodding along with Lynn’s words.
“So?” Chess left the word hanging.
“The downside, other than getting nothing, is getting stuck progressing naturally, because if it’s something specific or uncommon like these Waterweaver Pyths, then you can’t use more outside Pyths to increase its rank. There are various human and other intelligent species named Pyths. You'd need to kill a lot of people to level them otherwise."
"Most people can't or won't do that—outside of war. Instead, they improve them through repetitive practice and the consumption of magical plants and creatures. Which is slow and very expensive,” Lynn explained. “Also, it is almost always weaker Pyths, and I’ve never heard of a Core developing this way. Most people don’t like the lack of control if they can afford to choose. It's common to have them harvested out if they get an opportunity to replace them with another inheritance."
“It’s the same as how most creatures develop magic,” Ashley added.
“So, people can do the same thing? Huh,” Chess clarified.
“Exactly. Another downside is they start at rank one, but it is common for the poor and many slaves to ‘go with the gods’ choice’ as they say,” Lynn said. “It doesn’t affect what you do with your open slots and you can still get inheritances from dying ancestors later to fill in the rest or even replace the Gods' given ones.”
“So, the parents are just not giving up anything when their child awakens?” Chess frowned again.
“That choice is largely cultural or economic,” Lynn said. “A lot of people don’t have the luxury to suddenly get worse at an ability they use to feed their families.”
“But if your parents leave you even one, you get nothing ‘from the gods’, as you said,” Chess wondered.
“Yeah, the same is also true if you get an inheritance from a parent or grandparent before awakening,” Lynn said. “You also can’t inherit something that an ancestor only had a single rank in because most inheritances lose a rank when transferred after death unless you’re talking about Gems but only royalty and the very rich have those. A lot of people can’t afford to rank their seldom-used Pyths up.”
“I just thought because he took the heads of his friends it was... No, that would be for inheritance wouldn’t it?” Chess reasoned out.
“Likely,” Lynn confirmed. “Now stop delaying, and Drink.”
“Fine,” Chess grumbled and with a grimace forced herself to swallow the remaining dregs in one tongue punishing go. She coughed and pounded her chest for a bit before the prompt for her improved skill popped up in her vision.
“So, gross." She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.
"But worth it,” Chess admitted getting the improvement prompt. I'm not looking forward to next time. 8 doses are a lot in one go. Maybe I'll be able to spread it out next time. Disguise it with something. Hot sauce? Or thump Pyth.
The two-foot bump in every direction is a huge boost; it more than tripled my space. Still, 6 feet cubed isn't ridiculous. I wonder how big Sholer's was? She didn't bat an eye at taking those bodies.
“Finally. Now get this all packed so we can continue and maybe, just maybe, see a sun again,” Lynn said.
A sun, huh? Chess noted as she got to work filling her newly enlarged space with goods. She even stored Mikel's bundles along with a few pouches when he held them out to her. He did keep the heads of his friends tied to his belt though.
The Pyths were added to the group’s now enlarged collection box and she contemplated filling her last slot with one. But which? I wonder if the dragline silk would let me be like spiderman? Shoot the stuff out to swing from the rooftops... No that's silly.
Chess glanced again at Mikel where he worked diligently to process the remaining few spiders. Every few minutes he would check what Lynn was doing before returning to his task. He'd gotten the point of Lynn's chastisement in the end, regardless of her earlier doubts about her ability to get it across.
Ashley had started a game with the young muskrat where she would summon a random item from her amber and either give him a questioning look which he would answer with a word in his language. Or she would summon something she'd done before and try to remember the right word.
It was funny when occasionally the kin boy wouldn't have an answer, obviously never having encountered the item before, and Ashley would always have a fit of exasperation when this happened.
"She's getting good at that," Lynn observed.
"It's an ingenious way to learn his language," Chess agreed.
"No. That too, but I meant her summoning spell. She's almost doing it instinctively now. Her little game is great practice, but I fear she'll get sick if she doesn't stop soon," Lynn said, then spoke up so Ashley would hear. "That's enough for now, Ash, we don't need you getting mana sickness."
"Okay," Chess's daughter pouted before leaning back to watch Mikel finish his task instead.
Lynn turned back to Chess. "She's starting to take on your manner. You should be careful; such habits won't serve her in proper society. She doesn't have your musical talents as a deflection, and she already comes from peasant stock."
Chess smiled at the Kin woman thinly and went back to packing and resorting her vault. A little spunk never hurt anyone, she reasoned. I need to practice my own summon spell more. It's by no means instinctive for me yet.
Chess glancing at Lynn after a long minute of work-punctuated silence. In which the skunk kin woman stood idle beside her. "It's called confidence and it suits her, Sister," Chess said.
Lynn didn't say anything. Instead, moving to help Mikel complete his task.
Chess shook the exchange from her head and contemplated the back of her vault where everything was out of reach. I mean my arm goes in and out without a problem, Chess reasoned.
She slowly stuck the corner of her skull through the opening after first trying a foot and sighed in relief when nothing happened. Turning her hesitance into a confident stride into the center of the room.
The new rank had made it so she could store or retrieve 2 items or containers at a time but she tested it by grabbing three. Nothing happened at first and she frowned before realizing she had to step out and did so. Only the first two Items she had grabbed remained with her. At least I can organize it to my heart's content, she shrugged.
----------------------------------------
Once Chess had finished packing, taking as many spider parts as they thought practical, they set out again.
This time Mikel led with renewed caution and frequent cautious looks Lynn's way.
Hours passed in which they only encountered more of the smooth and occasionally stalactite-filled tunnels inundated with water, broken by the odd dry stretch but little else. The gardens of previous caverns were nowhere to be found.
Chess let her mind drift as she swam. The monotonous movement of the breaststroke eventually drew her into her thoughts.
I should pick a last Pyth for now. One of the silks could be useful for crafting. But Totem sounds potentially awesome. Hmm, what are my choices? Chess ticked them off mentally. Two measures of Minor Totem, three of Buffet and Rock-Claw, four of Water breathing, and 5 measures of Swift-Swim plus all of the different silks and weaving.
Weaving is out, because bleh. Same with water-breathing unless it’s necessary to get out of here alive. She looked at the water stretching out before her.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Chess’s musings were interrupted by a familiar anxiety and tension building in her neck.
"Lynn," she said.
"Yeah." The kin woman acknowledged before dipping her head below the surface for a moment.
"I can't see anything below a fathom with the current light," she said when she surfaced.
Mikel had stopped short where he led them and looked around then below warily before glancing back at the stopped group.
Ashley had dropped back to the others and frowned before slowly stringing a few words together in Mikel’s language.
He nodded his understanding and mimicked Lynn in disappearing below for a handful of seconds, taking Lynn’s light with him.
When he surfaced, he pointed ahead and down at a sharp angle before shrugging and firing a few words Ashley’s way.
“I think he said too deep?” Ashley wondered aloud.
“Okay,” Lynn said after a moment's thought. “We leave it. There is no sense in a dangerous fight we can easily avoid.”
“What if it has some valuable items?” Chess asked.
“Do you want to fight it underwater?”
“Point,” Chess conceded, thinking about the logistics of the fight. Yeah, that would suck. Unless the silk net? No, too convoluted.
Lynn waved Mikel ahead and the group did their best to ignore the creature's aura until it passed.
However, the problem continued to percolate in the back of Chess's mind as they swam.
----------------------------------------
They weren't as lucky with the next encounter. They were wading through water that caressed Chess and Lynn's waists and came up to mid-chest on Ashley; who'd chosen to continue swimming instead of walking, when they felt its aura start to build.
"Illuminate it," Lynn cursed while looking about. She moved to one side then the next but didn't raise any from the water.
"Ashley, get up here. Tell Mikel to hang back with Chess. Chess can you make some longer polearms so we can keep it back? I fear these short spears won't be enough." Lynn took charge bringing her shield around and standing shoulder to shoulder with Ashley.
Chess, thoughts collated into an idea and she pulled out a large block of wood. Being in waist-deep water would make the task awkward so she plunked the block into the water below her and stood on it before pulling out a smaller one. This one was made from the heavy wood from the clubs and staves of the muskrats in the ghoul's cave.
She gave the tunnel ahead the odd glance as she worked. All she saw was water to the edge of Ashley's light. The lack of an enemy in view and the steadiness of the still mild terror aura let her relax into the work.
Next, she pulled out a length of the thicker spider's silk line and formed her block into a long, roughly 8ft, hollow tube then carefully threaded the line through the center before adding a thin ribbon of ironwood which she folded around the silk to reinforce each other. She then fed the end of the new cord into a hole she made a few inches from the end of the pole, securing it by forming the wood of the pole around it.
She tested out her new catchpole by pulling the loop back and forth at one end, smiling, before she quickly created two more.
"What's this?" Lynn asked, drawing her head back when Chess presented her and Ashley the items.
"Pole snares," Chess said while showing the pair how they worked. "I figured if it's unarmed like most of the skeletons we've fought so far, we can snare it and take it apart safely from a distance. Hell, we may be able to pull it apart. They don't have much mass, even Ashley should be able to manhandle them."
Lynn frowned at the item before slinging her shield behind her and handing her spear to Ashley. She tried the loop, pulling and pushing it out before turning on Chess and slinging it over her head.
"Hey!" Chess protested barely getting her arm into the loop before Lynn cinched hers tight around her neck.
"I'm not using a new item in battle without trying it first," Lynn said, emphasizing the last few words by pushing Chess backward a few steps before reversing suddenly and pulling the unbalanced Chess from her feet and face-first into the water with a flat slap. The skunk-kin woman held her under for a few seconds before dragging her out sputtering and spitting water. Damn, she’s a lot stronger than I thought!
"Hey!" Chess managed before Lynn pushed her backward again. This time Chess managed to set her feet and grab the pole with her free-hand. With a quick flex of her wood magic Chess willed the pole to lose its rigidity before tugging hard on the line pulling Lynn off her feet and under.
The kin woman stood and smiled, shaking water from her fur like a dog before handing Chess her end of the mess that was left of the catchpole.
"Now, that is something we'll have to have you work on," Lynn said, still grinning.
"What is?" Chess asked, scowling at Lynn.
"Manipulating wood in combat. I knew you were efficient at making things from wood, but I thought it took you far more concentration than it evidently does," Lynn explained. "Now fix that. Your idea has merit." She waved at the mess in Chess’s hands.
She turned to Ashley. "Give it a try on me." She indicated the pole in Ashley's hands and held out her arm.
Chess rebuilt Lynn's pole and stored her materials while the two practiced.
“You too,” Lynn said once she had her pole back, holding it out to the quiet Muskrat that watched them.
He tentatively approached, took it from Lynn, and slowly but with increasing confidence worked it around Lynn’s outstretched limb.
Chess turned her attention to making the boy a pole too before the group headed out again.
Each of the three women held a catchpole in one hand and a shield tied to the other arm with their maces free on their loops as they left.
Mikel paced the group to the side carrying his new pole. Chess gave the Muskrat-Kin a few glances but his gaze was fixed ahead.
The feel of the aura continued to increase, but they had yet to find the thing, and it began to worry Chess. According to Lynn, the older and more powerful the undead the worse its aura, and the oppression of this one was forcing her to grind her molars to continue forwards.
She opened her mouth to voice her concerns when Lynn held up a hand indicating they should hold.
It took only a moment for Chess to hear the splashing of their approaching foe once they stopped. She tensed further in anticipation.
She didn’t have long to wait before the lone skeleton broke the pool of radiance cast from Ashley’s armor and the stone still held by Mikel.
This one was considerably wider and taller than many of the previous skeletons they’d faced but was very much humanoid. It had a large tarnished pot helm on its bleached bone head with a huge dent in the side and a surprisingly well-preserved chainmail tunic made of some sort of glistening metal. But what worried Chess most of all was the wicked looking weapon held in two boney hands before it. The darkened hammerhead on the three-foot metal pole wasn’t huge, a little larger than a framing hammer, but the footlong tapered spike on its reverse looked brutally sharp and menacing.
She knew how much a framing hammer could hurt when you missed, and this weapon had considerably more mass.
“Ashley,” Lynn said tersely, and both she and Chess’s daughter dropped their catch-poles into the pool with a plop. They popped back up to gently bob on the surface of the water beside them before the pair took up their maces and approached the skeleton in lockstep. Propelling themselves through the water with confident strides.
Chess felt a small smile creasing the corners of her lips at the growing confidence she saw in Ashley. If only I could say the same thing about myself. The more I learn the more overwhelmed I feel. She sighed, hoisting her catchpole and moving to Ashley’s open side but back a few steps. Fake it till you make it, bro. The thought turned her expression into a full-blown smile at the slip, and a small laugh escaped. Girl?
Mikel gave her a peculiar look then mimicked her, holding his pole high and flanking Lynn.
“I think I know how he died,” Chess quipped nervously when their foe stopped a few paces from them before moving to the side, forcing the group to adjust to keep the skeleton in front of them. Chess was a little disappointed when no one said ‘shut up captain obvious’ but realized she’d never used the reference before.
Focus! She admonished herself just as the skeleton raised its weapon with a quick jerk before bringing it down at Ashley, hammer first.
“Shield,” Ashley said, all business, and Chess felt the slight electric zing of the spell as it enfolded her and the other two women in its golden glow.
Chess’s grip tightened on the loop of her pole as she waited for an opportunity.
The blow plowed into Ashley’s shield with a tree splitting cracking sound, setting all three women onto their back foot.
“Oh fuck!” Chess said while they all reset themselves. The blow had left pins and needles coursing up her entire left arm and shoulder.
Ashley whimpered and shook her shield arm up and down.
Lynn swung for the skeleton's side as it stepped back, managing to, instead, graze its arm and take a few chips from its ulna.
She would’ve missed completely if not for the water, Chess noted. But the advantage was a double-edged sword as the party had to fight against greater resistance than the bones and chainmail presented it.
“Power Attack,” Lynn warned. “Can’t be used again for at least a minute.”
The skeleton seemed to be studying them, backing up when Lynn and Ashley stepped forwards to engage it. It had plenty of room to retreat.
“This isn’t good,” Lynn muttered under her breath.
“So, this isn't normal?” Chess asked nervously as long seconds passed where their foe only took cautious steps to the side or back, its weapon in an unwavering two-handed grip.
“No,” Lynn said, the grinding of her teeth audible in the word. She raised her shield to catch a blow as the skeleton surged forwards bringing its weapon across towards the Kin-woman's head.
Lynn got her water streaming shield high enough to catch the blow, deflecting much of its force to her left before still grunting and stepping backward under its weight. The backstep turned to a slip and the skunk kin fell sideways with a splash into the crystal-clear water on her right, nearly clipping Ashley as she fell.
Ashley took the opening presented to smash her mace into a mail covered shoulder to no noticeable effect before it could push its attack on the submerged Lynn.
Chess tried to use its distraction to get her loop over its head but it ducked back a few steps again to regard them as Lynn regained her footing.
“Luminous take you!” Lynn swore as she took her place beside Ashley again.
Chess felt her uncertainty growing as the standoff continued. Its oppressive aura fraying her nerves. It knows it can wait us out. That we will tire. She gulped as the growing fear threatened to drown her.
She forced her eyes from their foe and looked around for something that might help. Just water and smooth tunnel walls with stone underfoot.
Mikel was gone. Only a small expanding ripple indicating he’d ducked into the water.
Now! Do something! Chess chided herself gritting her teeth against the effects of the aura.
Taking two sliding steps forwards Chess thrust her pole at the skeleton's head to distract it.
Again, it stepped back out of range before the loop could get over its helmeted head.
“Damnit!” Chess swore when it followed its retreat by ducking forwards, under the end of her pole, and slammed a quick short blow into the armored side of Chess’ upper thigh just under the bottom lip of her shield, which she raised, expecting a headshot, before stepping back out of range again. The water had barely slowed the blow.
“Unn!” Chess gasped tears of pain filling her eyes as she danced back while Ashley stepped between her and their foe.
When Chess looked back up from her leg, she swore the bloody thing was smiling at her. Its bony jaw hanging loose from its upper.
She tentatively tried to put weight on her leg again, and a spike of white-hot pain hit.
“Motherfucker,” Chess swore as she forced herself to put weight on it regardless, her teeth creaking with the pressure she put them under as she half hopped forward a step.
Ashley’s spell fell.
Again, the skeleton surged forward. This time it brought the spike down lightning quick on Ashley who crouched behind her shield.
There was a loud double crack followed by a thump as the spike split the weakened wood of her shield before cracking into her vambrace, forcing her arm and shield into Ashley’s armored head.
Ashely screamed in agony after a heartbeat delay and fell back. Her voice was quickly cut off by the water. Her weight pulled the skeleton's stuck fast weapon with her.
The skeleton jerked on the hammer once, trying to free it and pulling Ashley above the surface again, before letting go and stepping back. Its helmet head turned side to side to keep the now spread out Lynn and Chess in view.
Chess fought the urge to go to the floundering Ashley but knew they had to finish this first. She took a step forward, her own pain forgotten in her anger, and thrust her pole at its head.
The skeleton backed off again. This time when it tried to step back it instead stumbled and fell forward at Lynn’s feet.
Lynn pounced. Falling atop their foe with her knees. It bucked below her, but even with the buoyancy of the water, it didn’t have the proper leverage to dislodge the skunk woman.
Mikel stood from the water smiling broadly holding his pole snare. The end in the water near the kneeling Lynn. He looked about; his gaze eventually fell on Ashley turning his smile into a frown, but he remained where he was holding his snare.
After a couple of seconds to make sure the pair had it subdued, Chess took the opportunity to help steady Ashley who’d regained her feet and stood staring at the weapon pinning her shield to her arm tears streaming down her water streaked face while sobbing.
“Now what?” Chess heard Lynn mumble behind her accompanied by splashing.
Chess gently grabbed the head of the hammer right where it entered the shield.
“Hey,” she said, catching her daughter's attention by wiping the tears from below her eyes with a thumb. “You're going to be fine, but I need to pull this out so that you can heal it,” she said softly.
Ashley nodded.
Chess first grabbed the shield with her free hand, being sure to keep the hammer steady, she willed the wood of the shield away from the spike and split it all the way up before letting it fall to the water between them.
“You still okay? One more then it’s coming out,” Chess asked again.
Ashley nodded again, this time meeting her eyes.
Chess used another surge of magic to split the wooden bracer and let it drop between them, revealing the spike bisecting Ashley’s arm much like her own had been.
“See, you’re stronger than me. I passed out when I had a similar wound,” Chess joked while willing some amber sap to form around the embedded weapon.
Ashley gave her a tearstained half-smile between sobs.
“Start your spell now so it’s healed before you pass out, there is no reasonable way to stitch it here, just hold it together,” Lynn yelled from behind them still struggling with their foe. “And hurry the thirteen hells up!”
Chess held up a finger forestalling Ashley.
“Can you still use all your fingers?” Chess asked, keeping her voice soft.
“Yeah,” Ashley croaked, showing Chess that, indeed, she could.
“Okay, on three, I’ll pull it out. Start your spell,” Chess said.
The spell started to form around Ashley’s free hand.
“One,” Chess said, taking a firm grip on the hammers head and on Ashley’s arm.
“Two,” Chess said and yanked the tapered spiked hammer from her daughter's flesh with a squelching sound and let it drop to the side before forcing the wound together the best she could with her fingers pressed on either side of her daughter’s arm.
Ashley screamed again but her spell finished, quickly scabbing over the wound. Chess held her up as the girl went limp.
Chess activated Thump and holding Ashley to her chest snapped her fingers a few times. On the third snap, Ashley’s eyes opened again. Oh, thank Freya that worked.
Chess held her for a moment before Ashley took a step back, and the pair stood there staring at the wound for a moment. She could see as the intensity of the pain diminished in her daughter’s eyes. That’s gonna leave a nasty scar, Chess thought before Lynn interrupted the moment.
“A little help?” Lynn complained. “You keep watch,” she added firmly.
“Will you be fine for a minute?” Chess asked Ashley.
Ashley nodded again, wiping at her tears with her uninjured arm. Her gaze had shifted from her arm to the water around her where she picked out the halves of her vambrace before Chess turned to help Lynn.
“The water prevents us from using our maces to destroy it and its magic will make cutting its head off with a blade near impossible. Unless you make a big saw?” Lynn explained the problem, shifting as it tried to buck her again when Chess moved to stand over her shoulder.
“Maybe Ashley can just bind it?” Chess asked. “Or just stab at its neck with spears?”
“It’s unlikely to work. And if it does, it will only be able to follow very basic commands, until or unless she gets a better class skill for controlling undead,” Lynn warned. “The armor will present a problem for the spears, it has a gorget, but sure. It will just take time.”
“So, binding is worth a shot?” Chess asked.
Lynn nodded reluctantly.
“Ashley,” Chess called her daughter over.
Ashley approached still holding the halves of her shield bracer.
“We want you to try binding it,” Chess explained pointing at the skeleton under Lynn while taking the halves from her daughter. “I’ll fix this while you try, alright?”
Ashley met her gaze again before nodding.
The kaleidoscope of color that indicated the binding spell encompassed Ashley as she carefully knelt beside Lynn and placed a hand on the skeleton. Her eyes glazed over, and she stared blankly at Chess where she stood bracer forgotten in her hands.
The colors circled for long seconds that dragged into a minute, undulating between Ashley and the figure pinned by Lynn.
“Uh?” Chess inquired looking at Lynn.
“It’s closer than I thought it would be,” Lynn observed dryly.
Another colorful minute passed before Ashley shook her head like she was dislodging cobwebs
“It worked!” Ashley said with a grin, looking between Lynn and Chess. “And I got another willpower!”
“Do you know the basic commands?” Lynn asked, not moving from her perch atop the now still skeleton.
“Yeah,” Ashley said, then looked below Lynn. “Hold!” she said in a commanding voice, and Lynn sighed, standing and shaking the water from her fur once more.
Ashley turned to Mikel and said a few halting words, and he unfastened his pole from the skeleton's legs.
Remembering her promise, Chess started working on fixing the item in her hands. About halfway through the task, she started sweating and the pain in her leg came crashing back to the forefront of her mind halting her task with a deep groan.
Carefully she lowered herself into the water and let herself float, removing all immediate strain from her leg.
She simply floated for a bit tuning out the others while they talked about basic binding commands and their very limited ability, doing her best to ignore the pain.
“What are you gonna call him?” Chess asked wearily looking over from where she floated, bracer held up before her as she worked on it. “And can you turn his aura off?”
“Dent?” Ashley asked, looking at her new binding. “And I don’t know?”
“You can,” Lynn said and fell into an explanation of how.
“We should’ve tried this sooner,” Chess observed once they grew silent again. The now repaired bracer rested on her chest.
“Basic bindings on undead are nearly useless in combat,” Lynn said.
“Just nearly?” Chess asked.
Lynn remained mum.