[Mkguild] "To Steal a Soul" -- Part 3

[Kendo Virmir]

Alas, future installments may be a tad shorter and/or more infrequent
since this part catches me up to what I have written so far.

Enjoy!

----

"To Steal a Soul"
Part 3



As I fell through the blackness, a cool and almost refreshing wind
blew through my fur.  I looked down, hoping to see where I might land,
but there was nothing.  So I reached downwards with tendrils of
levitation magic and felt something hard coming up fast.  Bracing
myself, I managed a decent landing on two feet and one hand.  At least
I didn't fall on my tail for once.

"Virmir?"  Vale's voice timidly called out through the darkness,
echoing as if it bounced off of hard walls.  Nothing at all was
visible.  And I mean nothing.  My excellent night vision failed me
utterly for the first time since I assumed this form.  It was like we
were shut in a coffin and buried deep beneath the earth...

I squinted in reaction to the blinding witchlight I cast above my
head.  We fell into some sort of cavern, the stone walls encircling us
painted in an orange-red hue by the fireball floating above.  Vale sat
amongst a pile of rocks, her black tail draped around her front.  She
was nursing her right footpaw with her hands.  Oh, blast it.

"Are you all right?"  I asked, letting disapproval drip into my voice
as I folded my arms under my cloak.

"Yeah... I'm fine."  She said as she stood.  She took a few tentative
steps with only a slight limp, so she was either a good faker or
mostly unharmed.

I glanced upward at the ceiling, watching the ripples in the stone
made by my passage fade away.  We did not actually pass through a
portal, but rather the spell served to shift the phase of the rock,
making it so we could move through it like air.  Considering the fall
took several seconds, we could have been hundreds of feet
underground...  Returning would be a challenge indeed.

"Well... let's get moving,"  Vale said as she pointed towards the only
exit-- a hole in the wall halfway closed up by fallen boulders.  I
found myself sniffing the air out of curiosity, and confirmed it was
the right way to go.  The remnants of another scent lingered in the
air.  Burning torches perhaps?  We certainly were not the first in the
cavern...

"Thank you," she said suddenly after we climbed the top.  The tunnel
beyond was relatively easy walking, though my light failed to
illuminate more than several feet beyond us.

"I was...  I was really scared..." she continued.  Wonderful.  Now she
was going to get emotional on me.  Thank the gods the curses did not
change me into a woman.

I did not look at her, instead merely angling an ear in her direction.
 The ears were difficult to control sometimes...  What was I to say?
You're welcome, moron?  An awkward silence followed, which eventually
lost its awkwardness as the minutes dragged on.

We continued onward through the twisting corridor for at least an
hour, though it was impossible to tell the passage of time with the
total absence of the sun or any indication of the world above.  The
dank air became difficult to breathe, and the passageway became
tighter and more rugged as we pressed on.  When we arrived in a larger
room my heart skipped a beat as I thought we had just walked in
circles, or perhaps backtracked somehow.  But I soon recognized the
room to be different than the one we first entered.

"Are you all right, Virmir?  You don't look so good..."

She caught me clutching my chest.  Blast it.  I wasn't.  The pain had
not subsided, and I was dead tired.

"I'm fine."

She knelt and tried to look me in the eye, but I averted my gaze.  Why
must she insist on doing that?  Her ruddy fur glowed vibrantly, cast
in the sheen from the sphere of flame bobbing above my head.  I tried
to look alert, but my drooping ears probably gave me away.

"Are you sure?  Maybe we should take a break.  I could use a rest
myself."  She pointed to one of the piles of boulders building up to
the walls on either side of the room.  "If we sat up there, then we'd
be able to get the jump if anyone walks by."

I nodded.  She was using logic for once.  "Very well."

I sluggishly followed her up the rocks and found a moderately
comfortable spot to sit in between two large slates.  Another boulder
jutted up in front of me which obstructed my view of the path below.
I rested my aching footpads on it.  Vale found a seat to my right.

"I'm going to disperse the witchlight and try to recover some of my
energy," I explained.  "I may become unresponsive for a while.  Don't
go anywhere by yourself.  Wake me in a half hour.  Or especially if
you hear anything."  Fancy wizard-speak for a nap.  They never figure
it out.

Vale nodded and I let the fireball fizzle away.  Much to my surprise,
the red-orange walls of the cavern melted into a dim blue, rather than
pitch black as I had expected.  All along the walls were faint cracks
which emanated a cerulean light, much like the crystals on the
surface.  They were simply too dim to be noticed under my witchlight,
but now they were almost enough to properly illuminate the cavern.
Interesting.  I turned to see the blue reflected in Vale's wide eyes
as she looked about.  I would ponder this after my nap.  I closed my
eyes, the pain still welling in my chest.  Sleep claimed me in a few
short minutes.

----

Vale waited until Virmir's breathing steadied before she began
rummaging around in her pack.  After his breaths became deep and even
she assumed he reached his meditative state.  Or he was asleep.
Whatever it was, she felt terribly guilty.  She'd pushed him so hard,
and he was too shy to complain.

Didn't mages get their magic from the gods?  She whispered a silent
prayer to Akkala that his energy would be restored.  Perhaps she
should ask Dokorath for strength as well?  It had been too long since
she'd attended services. She cursed herself again for always screwing
up.  Then she reminded herself that Virmir knew what he was doing, and
would handle it himself.

She pulled a bit of wrapped jerky from her pack-- trail rations meant
for a single quick meal.  She wondered how long she could draw it out.
 Rufus and Vincent's fate were entirely in his hands.  Her fate too...
 She could do nothing against those monsters, and she hated it.  She
hated being so helpless.  She curled her lush tail around her ankles
as she pinched the bridge of her snout.  Everything she had tried to
do on her own ended in disaster.  It was if the gods themselves were
punishing her for trying to escape her fate.  For trying to be
something different.  Maybe her parents were right... Oh, gods...

She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, feeling the moisture soak
into the fur on the back of her hand.  She turned to make sure Virmir
was still asleep.  It would have been horrible for him to see her like
this.  She needed to be strong for her squad.  Dignity was the only
thing she had left...  That and her name.  Her name was from her
parents, but she needed it.  Without her name she was just another
clod of dirt.

Kendo Virmir...  he was a mystery himself.  The odd lighting cast his
silver fur in a blue sheen as he slept.  She had never heard of anyone
afflicted with two of the three curses before.  But she had heard
tales of the Duke sentencing delinquent keepers to patrol duty.  Once
again she wondered what he had done.

She unwrapped her tail from her legs and let it softly tap the ground.
 It was so quiet.  She pulled her ears forward and back, trying to
pick up something, anything.  But all she could hear was the ringing
in her ears and the soft rasps of the fox's breaths.  Somehow sitting
next to him, she felt safe.  She hadn't felt that way in a long time.
It was like when her father cradled her in his arms, long before she
had fur and a tail.  Daddy the big strong general.  She clutched the
hilt of her sword.  Long before things went to hell.

She glanced at the mage once more.  He certainly was strong for being
so small.  Wait... was he... shrinking?  Vale sat up straight and
leaned over him, watching with wide eyes as Virmir's body grew
smaller. What was going on?  His folded arms straightened out and his
furry hands melted into paws.  He rolled over on his side, completely
tangled in his ill-fitting clothing and looking very much like a
simple juvenile fox.

Well that was strange.  She supposed it was possible to shift in one's
sleep, though she'd never done it before.  The only other time she'd
seen him fully an animal was that day he didn't show up at the bar.
She'd never been able to get him to go.  She wondered if he had
problems shifting, or if it was perhaps involuntary for him.  That
would be bad...  She watched his chest expand and contract.  He seemed
to be in a deeper sleep than before.  Maybe this was just part of his
magical rejuvenation process.

"He he he he he..."

Every muscle in her body tensed.  She slowly turned her eyes to the
right and spotted it about ten feet away, silhouetted in the dull blue
from the cracks on the wall.  It stood on a rock, bent over on all
fours as if ready to pounce.  Oh, gods...

"Virmir..."  she whispered through clenched teeth.  "Virmir!"

She couldn't stir him, as the fox's head was just out of reach.  She
was paralyzed-- too scared to move, lest she provoke the thing to
attack.  Its tail swayed back and forth and though the lighting
prevented her from seeing it, she knew it was smiling.

Then it leapt at her, clearing the entire distance with ease.  Vale
fell back on the rock and delivered a sound kick to the monster's
chest with her bare footpaw, causing her to yelp an animalistic cry of
pain.  Oh!  The same foot she twisted when she jumped though the
portal.  The pain had mostly gone away and she had forgotten about it
, but now it was back with a vengeance.  The impish creature tumbled
to the rocky floor before jumping to two feet and snarling.  Vale
sprung from her prone position and balanced on her left foot,
producing her mirror-like blade in the same fluid motion.  It seemed
to glow blue in the cerulean lights.  With a mighty cleave she brought
it down on the thing's head.

----

I stretched and yawned.  It was a pleasant nap.

Then something hard fell on me...

I rolled down the pile of rocks, caught in the tangled mess of my
clothing. Blast it!  As I peeked my head out from under my cloak, I
suddenly realized I had four paws.  Again.

Oh, confound it all! Ever since I tried to reverse the spell and ended
up changing myself completely into a fox instead, I found myself
shifting back to that state in my sleep.  Probably should get into the
habit of remembering that...  But it didn't make any sense!  I
constructed the spell so that it would fail after a set time!  A one
time casting! And then there was the matter that it did the exact
opposite of what I intended!

Never mind the embarrassment.  The clay creature that tumbled down the
pile of boulders with me leered down with a menacing grin upon its
draconic muzzle. I darted, leaving my clothing behind as its jagged
blade struck stone.  The thing was hot on my tail, and I leapt from
rock to rock to avoid its blows.  As a eight-pound fox I was much
faster, and soon I was looking down at the thing from a higher perch
as it struggled to catch up.

Vale slid down the rock pile and very nearly cleaved its head in half
if it weren't for the falling pebbles alerting the little monster.  It
turned and tried to dodge, her silver blade planting itself into the
creature's shoulder.  It shrieked once, and the two began a
tug-of-war.

Seeing my opening, I bore my fangs and growled.  I don't appreciate
being woken up.

I leapt off the boulder and bit the monster in its shin.  It tasted
like a mouthful of dirt.  The thing squealed, but before it could bury
its blade into my neck, I poured an ungainly amount of crimson energy
into its body.  It burst into flame like an oil-soaked rag.  The
cavern lit up in the fury of the fire.  I bit harder, scorching it
more and more until it withered and died, crumbling to lumps of
blackened soot.

I released what was left and sat on my haunches, trying to spit out
the vile ash.  Disgusting!  Vale stared at me with her mouth hanging
open.  What?

"Are you okay?  Can you change back?" she asked as she bent down,
balancing her weight on her blade.  She seemed much larger now.  Of
course I could.  I found I quickly had to master the art of shifting
back before patrols each morning.  I trotted back to my discarded
garments and sat, waiting for her to get the message.  "Oh," she
finally said, turning around. Clothing.  Every shapeshifter's bane.

Shifting back felt like stretching in bed after a long night's rest.
My body grew back to its vaguely human-like shape, and my mass
multiplied.  Of course I would never be able to grow as large as I was
when I was a man... It was only over a month ago, yet my true form
seemed like such a foggy memory.  After some ten seconds I once again
had hands and proceeded to don my pants, struggling to slip my tail
through that blasted hole.  Once I was decent, I cast a bright
witchlight above my head, replacing the dark blue tones of the
self-luminescent cavern room with a vibrant orange.

"How long was I out?"  I asked as I tried to figure out which end of
my tunic was up.

"A couple hours at least," she replied, turning back towards me.  I
paused, shooting her a narrow glance and she hastily explained.  "You
were... a little difficult to rouse, and I thought you needed the
rest."

I didn't say anything.  I actually felt good.  The pain was gone, and
my energy seemed restored.  I felt almost as rejuvenated as I did from
a full night's sleep, so I wondered exactly how long a 'couple of
hours' meant.  She twiddled her thumbs as she watched me struggle with
the tunic.

"Do you need help with--"

"No."  I do not need help getting dressed!  Like some child.  Blast
it.  I threw the thing over my head.

"I think it's inside out..."

"Blasting..."  I muttered under my breath, taking it off again.  "Did
you see any more of those... creatures?"  With the tunic on correctly,
I struggled to stuff errant strands of fur escaping from the neck back
under the fabric.

"Yes, actually..."  She pointed her blade to where she was formerly
sitting on the pile of stones.  My ears twitched up as I recognized
two of the creatures lying dead amongst the rocks.  She answered my
question before I could ask it.  "Their heads."  She held her blade
up.  "Decapitating them doesn't work.  The body will still move.  But
if you split the head down the middle, they die."

Interesting.  I threw my cloak over my shoulders, climbing halfway up
the rocks to the closest body.  It was the first corpse I had the
chance to examine that I didn't incinerate.

"They came down the tunnel, every half hour to an hour or so," she
explained as she climbed up after me.  "I can handle them so long as
they come one at a time."

She certainly could if I slept through all that.  The creature's
gargoyle-esque head was split, though there was no trace of blood or
any similar substance.  It simply looked like a shattered statue with
leafy vines crawling on it.  I took its limp forearm in my claw and
watched as it crumbled away, noting the root-like tubes that ran
through the middle of its arm.

"They're plants," I realized.  Vale leaned in closer.  "Animated
plants...  Look."  I began pulling the roots out of its dirt-like
flesh, following a cord all the way to the leafy vine-like protrusions
that stuck out of its chest.  "Their roots solidify the dirt, shaping
it into this body.  Then they pull it up out of the ground along with
them."  That explained why fire was so damaging.  I imagined extreme
cold would also be fatal.

Vale must have killed a core root or something when she split the head
down the middle.  I pulled the two halves of its head apart as they
crumbled to dust in my claws.  The roots were far more concentrated in
the head.  Sure enough, each half bore a large seed-like object from
which a main root emanated.  It was like a peach pit, sliced in two.
I snapped the root off the nearest half and removed it, holding it up
for Vale to see.

"And there's our culprit."

"A seed?"

I nodded.  The anchor point for the spell that animated them.
"They're grown from the ground."  How long that took was anyone's
guess. "Kill this and they die... You didn't let any escape, did you?"

She shook her head as she took her seat back on her rock. "No.  As I
said, they came one at a time every hour or so." That meant we had
some time before the next, at least. "The first one caught me by
surprise, but the second two I got the jump on... Do you still have
your rations?"

"Yes."

"Good.  I didn't know if we needed to split mine.  We should eat, then
get moving."

I wanted to continue on, as we'd already lost a fair amount of time,
but my stomach said the dhole was speaking sense.  I climbed back up
to my wedge between the rocks to retrieve my pack, which hadn't fallen
down with me, when I noticed a vein of blue running through the rocks
where I slept.  I tapped a claw against the pale crystal, felling a
warmth within.  Were these some sort of magic flows through the earth?
 I had heard Metamor was at a nexus of such underground streams of
magic.  Could this be why I recovered my strength so quickly?

I took a seat next to Vale and rummaged through my pack as my eyes
pondered the blue veins in the rocks.

"Virmir, can I ask you something?"

Blast it.  Rare is the traveling companion who will leave you alone to think.

"Yes?"  I pulled out bit of wrapped jerky.

"When you cast that spell..."

"Which spell?"  I'd cast at least a dozen that day alone, blast it.

"The explosion."  She seemed a little nervous.  I looked her in the
eye.  "The big one."

Ah, that one.

"When you touched the back of my neck--"

"That was my aura flowing through your body.  Had I not done that, you
would have burned with the rest of them.  I apologize."

"Oh, no.  It actually felt..." She rubbed her hands together. "...
warm... and well, it was a wonderful feeling.  I was just curious."

Well, obviously.  It feels great to the recipient.  That's how
vampires and magic leeches get off. "You've no experience with magic
at all, am I correct?"  I bit into the jerky.  Dried, salty meat.
Disgusting.

"No."

It never ceased to amaze me how few bother to learn magic.  It was
like not bothering to learn to read or write.  Like ignorant common
farmers, so single minded in tilling their fields their entire life.

"Hold out your hand."

She did so.  I dropped my jerky into my pack and held her wrist with
my right hand.  Her fur felt a bit courser than mine.  I extended my
pointer finger of my left hand and a wisp of flame burst to life upon
my black nail, no bigger than that of a candle.  I could feel her
tense.

"Relax."  I moved the flame over her open palm dropped it, where it
burned a mere half inch over her pad.  She smiled in wonderment,
intoxicated by the light of the dancing plume.

"Right now this is my spell, linked to my aura which I'm channeling
through your hand.  Once I let go, it will become yours.  It is real
fire, but it will be a part of you.  It will never hurt you so long as
it burns from your aura.  Are you ready?"

She nodded 'yes'.  I released her hand, and she flinched slightly,
probably noticing the draw from her spirit.  "If you feel tired or
dizzy, close your palm and it will go out."  She brought her palm
closer to her face, smiling widely as the flicker danced in her eyes.
"Go ahead.  Touch it."  She looked at me. By this time I drew a half
smirk.  She tentatively poked the flame with her nail, then started
running her fingers through it, amazed as the fire licked them.

"It feels... so warm, but it doesn't hurt at all."

"Uh huh."

I removed the jerky from my pack as she continued playing with the fire.

There.  THAT should shut her up for a while.  I turned away and
resumed my ponderings on the blue cracks in the walls.


-- 
- Virmir
http://virmir.com