-Confession of Gabric Tarn, on the eve of his execution
“Gods damned…mother of a whoring…Three Hells.” I am running out of curses. My hand throbs as I shake out the pain, tossing the embroidery down on the table in front of me. A bit of blood swelled a bubble on the tip of my thumb, suspended there for a moment before I wipe it off on a piece of paper already smeared with red marks. I sit back in my chair, reclining into the comfortable plushness of it, the momentary pain already a memory.
Time spent sitting with my mother in the common room of the house passes in front of my eyes, the familiar sting in my fingertips a link back to those days. I have never been good at embroidery or stitching; my fingers can’t figure out the knack of it. I need to get better though, at least at this one small thing.
The work sits on the table in front of me, a square patch of woven fabrics, the color made to match the gray coat I already have hung on a manikin in the corner. Gold fabric, uninfused medium, snake through the patch in one of the patterns I puzzled out of my armor before. It will be a warding constellation, one of the most basic enchantment constellations regularly made into anything that a magician might wear, its design meant to protect the greater piece from tear or puncture.
This design though, it is far more intricate than anything I have pulled out of the various books I purchased on enchanting. For one, it seems to be clearly meant to utilize six different affixes in its binding, where the most common practice uses only three. Working at deciphering the patterns over the last few weeks has given me an insight into the art of enchanting itself that I would never have gotten from simply reading books. The ancient fabric is like a teacher in that way, something I sorely need.
I sigh, leaning forward and picking up the steel needle once more, it itself a work of enchantment, made specifically to work with woven mediums. The keenness of its point is enough to slice through my flesh at the barest kiss, and no matter how delicately I have tried my weaving, I can’t help but feel that kiss at least once an hour. The patch lay bare in front of me, shining up as if it were begging me to finish it, to complete the weaving and begin the process of imbuing the mana. I have what I need for this, just for this one, simple piece. I can tell already from what I have figured out about the other constellations that very specific affixes will be required.
At my side, Galea spins into being. The spirit does not even have the time to say a thing before a blue line of light flashes into being in front of my face, trailing sideways through the vault, climbing up and out of the door.
“Follow it,” I command her as I jump to my feet, needlework forgotten. She salutes and flows away, up and out of the vault, racing just ahead of me.
My feet clap down onto the golden platform of my ship as I jump out of the vault. The line of light trails off away from me, pouring through the invisible wall and out into the clear-blue air, turning violently as Galea turns the ship to head in its direction. At the back of the ship, Jess, Dovik, and Jor’Mari look up from their game of cards at my sudden entrance.
“What’s wrong?” Jor’Mari asks, standing from his comfortable chair, tossing his hand of cards down onto the table.
“Nothing,” I say, moving to the throne at the center of the ship, feeling power thrum up through my fingers as I touch it. “We seem to have caught something.”
Before he can ask what, there is a slight pressure as the ship rockets straight upward, the blue line going through the ceiling. I stare up, bringing the others to do the same, and finally catch sight of my quarry.
Red Eagle
An entire flock of monsters race across the sky at an amazing pace, my golden ship moving to intercept them.
“We are going hunting in the sky?” Jess asks, joining me in the center of the ship.
“Why not? Apparently, that is where all the good treasure is.”
I do not exaggerate by much. Since claiming this ship as my own, a constant fear of some great beast of the air swooping down and crushing it has nagged at me. When we returned to Grim, I made it my mission to learn as much as I could about threats in the sky as possible. Nothing could have prepared me for what I ended up discovering.
For all my life, I had never once thought to ask just how far the sky went, for who could know such a thing. Apparently, many did, and they had known it for a long while.
The sky over the world climbs hundreds of miles, distinct parts riven through it and named. Monsters were the denizens of the heavens, praying upon one another in the unpopulated air, for the most part content to stay to the upper reaches where they were born. There even existed land in the sky, islands built upon solid clouds, masses of floating rock as large as oceans, more life than I could have ever expected. The more I learn of the world, the more I recognize how little I understand about it.
The ship finishes its ascent having climbed so far into the blue that the ground looks strange and round beneath us. I summon my staves and begin to charge them with mana.
“Right now?” Jess asks, looking around, finally spotting the approaching flock of birds.
“They are rank one monsters; this won’t be a challenge.” In my mind, I command Galea to lower the walls of the ship. At once, harsh wind crashes over the flying platform as the invisible walls surrounding us sink away. The cards laid out on the table spiral away into the air, and a single glass is knocked aside, rolling and plummeting over the edge. The furniture itself is tightly affixed to the floor for moments such as this.
I level the heads of my weapons at the approaching birds, magic thrumming up through them. “Feel free to join in,” I call over the blaring of the wind. “I’ll pay for each carcass.”
As I had predicted, the battle was not difficult, not really a battle at all. The most difficult part had been seeing how all of our individual soul presences interacted with one another for the first time. The result had predictably been chaotic. There is so much more I need to learn about the powers I have gained at this rank, more I need to learn about what my friends, now teammates, can do.
The most time-consuming part of the battles comes in the form of tracking down all of the bodies that plummeted to the ground. With the aid of my tracking spell, it isn’t difficult, but it does take some time as the monster carcasses are scattered over miles.
I stand on the ground, hands on my hips as I stare up at the oddest thing. Jor’Mari hits the ground next to me, landing a bit too close and knocking into one of my outstretched wings. I try to curl it back out of the way, but the damned things feel far more comfortable outstretched. Pulling and holding them to my sides feels too much like curling and holding a shaking fist.
“Well, that can’t be good,” Jor’Mari says, gesturing in front of us. The horns on his head, a sign of him having taken up one of his demonic forms to save him from the thirty-foot fall down from the ship, begin to recede back into his skin. He changes between his forms more liberally now, picking and shifting between them at a moment’s notice. I suppose all of his own abilities must have improved when he gained the second rank as well, much like mine had. “Seems like an omen.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“A bad one,” I agree.
“What are you looking at?” Jess calls down from the ship above our heads.
“Did you find the last ones?” Dovik calls after.
I pull my eyes away from the sight and stare back up at the ship. “Yes, I think.” Next to me, Jor’Mari shakes his head.
“What’s wrong?” Jess calls, trying to look to where we do, but the trees block sight of it from up there.
Dovik appears next to me, a snide comment dying on his lips as he catches sight of it. “Oh.”
“This can’t have happened naturally,” I say. “There’s no way.”
“I want to see,” Jess yells down.
“Jump down then,” Jor’Mari calls back up to her.
“Are you crazy?”
“I’ll catch you.” He laughs, only for his eyes to widen a second later. Jor’Mari steps to the side, almost knocking into me, a lizardkin woman falling into his arms a moment later. He manages to keep his feet, though barely.
“You actually did.”
“Yes,” Jor’Mari groans out, setting her down and stumbling back. “Was…there ever any doubt?”
“Now, what’s this omen?” But then she sees it, hanging there as plainly as anything ever has.
We came to find the bodies of the last three red eagles, my spell leading us to this spot, but I did not expect this. A wicked tree stands before us, the bottom-most limbs of it barren, the top half decorated with glinting red leaves. The bodies of the three last eagles hang from its branches, but in a way impossible to have happened by accident. The bodies form a triangle, the one at the apex stabbed through on the points of three branches that bowed terribly with the weight. A spot of red in the eagle’s neck showed the blow that had killed it, but some other attack had ripped open its stomach. The two other monsters dangled beneath the first, the entrails of the highest wrapped tightly around their necks.
“What could it mean,” I ask, but no one gives me an answer. I watch the grisly display creaking in the wind for a time before I force the strange spell of stillness to break. I start forward, ready to try and fly up to fetch the bodies.
“Wait,” Jor’Mari says, putting a hand on my shoulder.
“For what?”
“There is something to this,” he says. “I can feel it. Give me some time with this.”
I stare at him, but his eyes are transfixed by the sight ahead of us. We leave him to stare at the display for a time, returning up to the ship and having lunch, though it seems that I am the only one with an appetite. As we reach the end of it, I begin to retrieve parcels of paper wrapped meat that came from the previous red eagles we found.
“So,” Dovik says, rubbing his hands together as he looks over the parcels of meat, “what kind?”
“Sky affix,” I say, unable to keep my own enthusiasm from my voice. Keeping the tracking spell open for so long was a serious drain on my mana, and I could only do so for a few hours a day. This catch had been worth it.
“Sky affix.” Dovik smacks his lips. “Did you know that I have an affinity for sky?”
“No,” I say. Suddenly, I wish we had shot down more of the monsters. I was only really after finding enough to allow me to imprint the affix on my soul. I never had to consider sharing mana affixes before.
Jess looks between us. “What are you two talking about.”
“Eating monsters.” I turn, seeing Jor’Mari standing on the lip of the platform, hauling the bloody bodies of the three monsters behind him. “Humans need to eat monsters to fortify their affixes.”
Jess gasps, looking between us again. “That’s disgusting.”
“You have been cooking monsters for me for months now.” I point an accusing finger at her. “What is this?”
“I just thought you liked the taste,” she says.
“I do like the taste.” Especially now that my new mana senses have opened to the flavors of magic. “But I also do it to get stronger.”
“You make monsters part of your soul.” Jess stands up, pointing a finger back at me.
“Disgusting, I know.” Jor’Mari drops the carcasses at my feet. “Don’t try to make sense of it, Jess. It’s just how they were made, gross as it is.”
“We all can’t be suave and sophisticated celenials who find their power in merely experiencing new things,” Dovik says, looking up at him from his seat.
“That is certainly true,” Jor’Mari agrees.
I kick one of the bird’s bodies with my boot. “Did my gallant knight fetch these up for me?” At my touch, the bodies begin to change into pink smoke that floats away, filing in through the open door of the vault behind me.
Jor’Mari groans. “I left Grim. That name should die there.”
Jess pats his arm. “No, we are never going to let that die.”
I make my way back to the throne, letting the others snipe at each other as they settle into to start another game of cards. They tried to show it to me before, but I cannot follow it to save my life. For some reason, Dovik packed three decks with him leaving the city and no food. What a strange man,
With the hood of the ship firmly back in place, there is no rush of air as Galea glides us back onto our path. I pull out one of the eagle talons that my Disenchant ability claimed, feeling the magic swell inside, tasting the sweet breeze of it. I probably could have recovered more mana if I butchered the monsters by hand, but something tells me that would have been a step too far for one of the boys. Despite their pretense, they are both men of culture, likely with delicate sensibilities.
The talon melts away into dust as my power runs through it like a bolt of lightning, and I feel the mana inside flow into me, collecting in that reservoir I have made of my soul. Still, not enough, but I have more. I feed the dust most of a gold coin, changing it into the proper black sand, before continuing on.
Peace comes to me as I toy with the sand I collect from all of the burned treasures. The manipulations grow more controlled the more time I give to practice, to play. The drain on my mana grows as well, but the time that I lose in watching the twisting and turning of the sand as it roils and pools in on itself is too serene to give up.
Hours pass in that way, changing the sand into various shapes over my palm, before the eclipse of a red light pulls me from my reverie. I look up, finding Dovik standing at the front of the ship, hands clasped behind his back as he stares at a sky turned red. No, a giant sheet stands in front of us, stretching from horizon to horizon as far as the eye can see, the world dyed crimson by its curtain.
“What is that?” I ask, standing and joining him at the front. The wall of color is still miles off, but it stands higher than any mountain, climbing into the clouds and past where even my eyes can see.
“You can see it?” Dovik asks, looking at me. “Of course you can. You’ve missed the other ones, too busy playing in your vault.”
“Is it dangerous?” I prepare myself to tell Galea to halt the ship, but we are still a ways off.
“Oh, yes. It is terribly dangerous. That curtain there marks the border line between the Krass Kingdom, where we are currently, and the Empire. What we look at now, is the aura of the emperor, it stretches over his entire domain.”
“The emperor’s aura…” It baffles my mind to behold it, a boundary line that covers the land.
“Inside it, we will be in his power, just as we are in the King of Krass’ power now. Most will never perceive it. Even the powerful among our profession often only grow to vaguely perceive it, but I suppose that we are different. We will pass into it shortly.”
“Not too long,” I agree. I stand beside him, watching the oncoming wave of red for a long moment. The Empire, the place where I am from. Just over a week ago we left Grim, and we have already made it here. We’re so close now.
The wave of red ahead of the ship continues to swell until it becomes the entirety of the sky. Standing in the ship, its crimson light does not reach out to me, but I can feel the weight of its magnitude spread out before me, pressing on my skin like the palm of a god. The ship slips into the envelope, and the wave of light washes over me, through me, pressing gently against the soul housed inside of my chest. Then, it is gone, and the blue sky spreads out before me once more. I turn, seeing a wall of shining violet retreating away from us as we pass it by, the sight of the border from this side.
“Well, that should be the last national border,” Dovik says, shaking out his arms like he is recovering from a shiver. “The long and tedious journey nears its end. Welcome home, farm girl. Gale–.”
He trails off, narrowing his gaze at a figure moving in the air before us. It is a man, clad in a brilliant green armor, holding a hand toward our speeding ship. The whole of the sky around him seems to darken as light pools into the palm of his hand. He means to destroy us.
If you happen to be enjoying the story so far, you can support it by leaving a review, rating, following, or favoriting. Ratings help this story immensely. I have recently launched a for those that want to read ahead or support this work directly. Also, I have a fully released fantasy novel out for anyone that wants to read some more of my work.
Have a magical day!
Read ahead and get unique side-stories on
Amazon: Kindle Edition:
Apple Books:
Barnes & Noble: