The warden and I stopped in the center of the dirt trail, the sound of rustling and snorting coming from somewhere nearby to our left.“Sounds like a monster…” She smiled at me and nodded in the direction of the noise.After learning how the Forest of Embers was sacred to Passion and her followers, a new worry wormed its way into my brain at the prospect of killing anything while we were here. “You’re sure it’s okay to kill stuff here? Like, Passion won’t care, right?”She shook her head. “No, in fact, as long as one doesn’t overhunt the local creatures, fighting monsters is actually encouraged here. As the heated emotions that come with battle are seen as an offering to Passion.”“Makes sense…” My heart quickened after hearing her answer as my uncertainty transformed into a cocktail of anticipation, nerves, and excitement. It was finally time to fight a monster.She playfully slapped my ass. “Lead the way,” she said in a giddy whisper.The warden used her magic as a shadow primal to
With only six feet between us, I fired off a soundless shot at the charging torchboar and hit it between its furious flame-colored eyes. It collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, hitting the fiery grass and tumbling forward until the raging momentum it had built in life was spent. I trained my gun on the other torchboar as it came at me like a bull. Because it was still a few dozen feet from me, I took an extra moment to line up a headshot. Thunder shook through my arms as I squeezed off a round. It grazed the monster’s head, leaving behind a hideous trench of a wound, but not killing it.“Fuck!” My snarl mingled with the torchboar’s howling squeals as I fired my final bullet at the charging creature less than ten feet away. Red dirt puffed up into the air as my final shot went wide and buried itself into the carpet of vibrant, orange grass. “Scriii!” The stampeding torchboar leapt over its fallen mate, pointing its razor-tipped tusks at me as it sailed through the air to
Even if the gash just above my shin wasn’t life-threatening, it still hurt like a bitch. So, when the warden knelt next to me in the fiery grass of the glade and started talking about healing myself, I had to stuff down the urge to remain calm and collected… And not beg for the sweet healing relief of a briotonic.“Yeah, I remember you said I didn’t have enough spirit to heal myself at all,” I said.She nodded. “Yes, but now I believe you have enough to heal a minor injury like this one.” Grass rustled beneath her knees as she scooted over to be next to my legs. She reached towards the tear and tore the rip in my pant leg wider to further expose the wound, wincing with sympathy when she saw the nasty cut more clearly. “As you may have guessed, all you need to do to mend one of your wounds is make a conscious effort of will. Try doing this to heal your wound, but ensure you have the spirit to do so first.” I stared at the nasty mess of blood and torn skin and considered what it would
I hopped to my feet and accepted the breacher from the warden, eager to learn how to use the dagger as more than just a weapon. “What do I do? Do I just poke it and will for the breacher to do its thing?” “Essentially, yes. All you need to do is pierce the exterior of the remains and will a whisper of your spirit into the blade. Once you do this, the body of the slain will disperse and a portion of the spirit it had in life will crystalize.” “Why only a ‘portion’?” I asked, recalling not getting a satisfying answer the last time we talked about this. Disinterest shaded her expression. “Do you truly wish to know? It honestly isn’t very important…” “Think you can’t summarize it quickly? I said teasingly, grinning at her. Interest flickered to life in her eyes at my challenge and she quirked her mouth to the side in consideration. “Hmm… Well, assuming they had one, when something dies their soul and spirit fuse into one before passing to the next life, leaving only the body. “So, w
Crouching next to me in the fiery grass of the grove, the warden considered my question about whether or not she’d ever gotten over the ‘ghoulish’ feeling of absorbing crystalized spirit made from the dead bodies of creatures. “Mostly… In the case of monsters, I view the act of taking in their spirit similar to eating food. Their crystalized spirit is not their soul, it is just their body in a different form… It also helps that most of them are mindless beasts who’d just as soon gore you than cuddle with you,” she said with a light giggle. “What about in the case of non-monsters?” I asked. Her specific wording and the implication of taking in crystalized spirit being like eating made the question impossible to ignore. Her voice darkened with unease. “Consuming the crystalized spirit of a person is considered taboo of the greatest severity in most places.” “Right…” I said, deciding not to point out how she didn’t really answer the question and instead focused on punching throug
Not looking back or speaking, the warden led me by the hand through the trees of the Forest of Embers. Her pale fingers gripped my hand tighter with mounting nerves as we drew closer to Lysandra’s home. After about ten minutes, we emerged into an open space at least three times larger than the half basketball court-sized grove I’d fought the torchboars in. Ringed by trees, a lush carpet of flame-colored grass covered the glade. With no obstructing canopy, sunlight streamed down into the clearing from the blue skies overhead. Made from the wood of the forest, a solitary single story cabin stood in the center of the glade. At least large enough to comfortably house four people, the structure was wellbuilt and solid. A porch and a pair of windows faced us. In the shade provided by the roof over the porch, there was a closed front door. I whistled in appreciation, recognizing from my brief stint studying to be an architect that whoever had built this knew what they were doing. “Damn
The early afternoon sun showered the silent glade in light. In front of her cabin, Lysandra and the warden squared off in the fiery grass. No more than two feet apart, they glared at one another. Like volcanoes on the verge of erupting, their postures screamed that both women were primed and ready for the other to explode. Rooted to the spot, I stared anxiously at the scene from near the treeline. Even the surrounding forest seemed to be holding its breath, as there wasn’t so much as a rustle of leaves or snapping of a twig to be heard. My stomach clenched with tense anticipation. They’d already exchanged punches and it didn’t look like they were cooling off. Seeing how Lysandra was probably about as strong as the warden, if things escalated to a full-on fight, I’d just get in the way if I tried anything. Maybe I could support the warden from a distance with my gun? I frowned at the thought, knowing I wasn’t even close to being confident enough in my aim to attempt something li
My boots clunked against the hardwood as I stepped into the cabin through the front door. Sunlight streamed in through windows on either side of the entryway and along the wall to my right, illuminating a spacious main room with an open floor plan. Lysandra was nowhere to be seen, but as I looked around, I spotted a door on the other side of the room, and another set into the left-hand wall. If I had to guess, she was probably behind one of those doors. The combination of not having been introduced to her, being in her house, and having her out of sight, but nearby, made me feel a touch uneasy as I made my way deeper into the angelic woman’s home. In one corner of the spacious main room, there was a cozy kitchen area with an odd combination of sink, island countertop, and an iron cookpot sitting in a small stone recess embedded in the wall. Next to this was a doorless threshold that looked to lead to a pantry of some kind. Three chairs were slid beneath a dining table pushed up