[Mkguild] Loosening Cursed Bonds (2/?)

[Nathan Pfaunmiller]

This will probably end up being a much shorter episode than the last
two Lois stories...

-LurkingWolf

___________________

	Lucy sat quietly to one side of the room.  After Julian’s collapse,
they had been too worried to move him.  Although he stabilized soon
after the episode, his heartbeat and breathing were extremely weak.
Coe had been called in, but he had been unable to tell them much.

	“I would have to consider myself the only expert on our unique blend
of bodies,” he had said, “but I have never seen anything like this.
It’s beyond my help.”

	So now they sat, unable to do anything but wait.  The Duke had been
forced to leave due to conflicts of schedule, but he had wished them
good success in their endeavors to save Julian before leaving.  It
would have been easy to look on such an unsettling thing as a moondog
Keeper and wish ill on him, but the Duke had been sincere with his
wishes.

	Misha and Andwyn had been called away to their duties at other times,
but they left quietly, leaving Lucy, Coe, and an attending nurse to
help the stricken Keeper.

	Lucy’s right cheek was red, and she continued to scratch it every few
moments.  It was a tic she succumbed to whenever she was nervous or
scared, and she was very definitely both at this point.  Coe had seen
her a few times, but he was now growing certain that she would
actually hurt herself if he let her continue.  He decided to try to
stop it before it happened.  He walked over and sat beside her,
although he kept his eyes on the moondog.

	“Can’t you do anything with your magic?” he asked.

	She shook her head, turning to face him.  “That’s what’s killing
him,” she replied.

	He turned to look at the moondog again, considering.  “I’m not sure I
understand what you mean,” he admitted.

	Lucy considered for a moment before turning to take a few cords out
of the pack she had left by the door on her entrance.  “I’m a
trapper’s daughter,” she explained to the healer.  He nodded, and she
began to lay the cords out across her hand.  She looped one cord
around the other and tied a loose slipknot.

	“In this case, we have two spells interacting.  The one is the
Curse,” she indicated the cord which still lay straight against her
palm.  “The other is part of being a moondog.  It takes magical energy
and either converts it into the fear aura universal to moondogs, or
holds it for future use.  Somehow, the two got tangled; the second one
is bound around the first.  Under the knot is the section that effects
Julian right now.”  She began to pull the two ends of the “aura” cord,
tightening the knot.  “The more magic the second spell absorbs, the
tighter it gets pulled.  It causes the spell it is binding, the Curse,
to be pulled closer to the core, Julian.  When I was examining the
spells, I tried to pry the fear spell back a little bit.  The problem
is that the spell absorbed the mana I was using to use my mage sight.
What I didn’t realize was that I was essentially trying to undo a
slipknot while still pulling both ends.”  She demonstrated, slipping
one finger between the two cords and prying it up, while pulling the
second cord in both directions.  When she stopped and pulled her
finger free, all she had accomplished was making her finger red from
the constriction.

	“So you cannot even use your Sight to examine him?”

	She sighed.  “Perhaps, but I would always run the risk of pulling the
spell tighter around him again.  I don’t know how much more he can
take.  The tighter the spells are pulled together, the more powerful
the Curse’s effects on him.  It’s only part of the Curse, though.”
She shook her head, discouraged.  “Of course it’s a part that will
kill him if it pulls too tightly.”

	“Like a dog’s heart in a man’s body,” Coe mused.

	Lucy nodded.  “The marvel of the Curse and its counterpart is that,
for all of these years, all of the parts stayed in balance well enough
for even the strangest combinations of creatures to survive.  All it
takes, though, is one little slip…”

	“How do you know him?” Coe asked, changing the subject before Lucy
could think herself into a rut.

	“I don’t, not really,” she admitted.  “I met him in the forest when
he was trying to make contact with the Keep.  I was the only one in
the area, so he found me.”  She sighed.  “I don’t feel like it,
though.  I don’t know if it’s pity, or guilt, or fear…  I just know
that I don’t want to sit here and watch while he dies.”

	Coe nodded slowly.  “Do you have any idea what might help him?” he asked.

	Lucy shook her head slowly.  “If there is a way to remove the magic
that is pulling the second spell tight, then we could save him.  I
just can’t think of a way to do it.  Based on what I saw, I do not
think that he is able to tap into it, even if he were a mage.  It’s a
closed loop.  Except for the magic that it draws in by its nature, no
magic goes into or leaves that spell binding.”

	Coe nodded slowly.  “It draws in more than it puts out, then?  You
said that it contributes to his aura of fear, correct?”

	Lucy nodded.  “Yes, it does draw more than it puts out.  Perhaps…”
She scratched her cheek again.  “No…  I do not think he would be able
to increase the aura willingly.  Everything I’ve heard of it seems to
indicate that it is only an instinct.”

	“Would it be worth a try?” Coe asked.

	Lucy shrugged.  “Everything is worth a try,” she responded.  “For
now, though, all we can do is wait.”
	For several more minutes they did just that.  At times, either one or
the other of them tried to start a conversation again, but they always
ended quickly.  Lucy waited while time past; what felt like hours
ticked by as she sat there, occasionally scratching at her cheek as
she thought to herself.  Coe noticed every now and again, but his
focus was on the patient.  He knew that he would have to return to his
work soon, but he wasn’t yet ready to leave Julian where he was in his
current state, even when there was a nurse available to help in
emergencies.

	It had been nearly another hour when a sudden cry made them both turn
quickly to look at the unfortunate moondog.  Julian was shaking on the
ground, spasms rocking him one after the other.  Both Coe and Lucy
scrambled to Julian’s side, and Coe began to try to discover the
problem while Lucy spoke to him, trying to get him to respond.

	“Julian?  Come on Julian, stay with me!  Wake up, we need to fight this!”

	The moondog’s eyes settled on her, but he didn’t stop shaking.
“What’s happening?” he asked, his voice a strange growling tone.

	“I thought you said he couldn’t speak,” Coe said quietly as he
checked Julian’s vitals.

	“The Curse must have slipped slightly when I tried to pull his fear
aura loose.  Julian, the Curse is increasing steadily around your
heart.  We need to find a way to stop it, or it will kill you.”
Honestly, Lucy had been trying to think of some way to sugar-coat what
she was saying, but she knew she had to say it quickly.  There was no
telling how long he might last.  He was awake, but it could only mean
that his body was trying to combat the changes with one final burst of
energy.

	“Listen, I need you to try something.  Try to find some way to
increase your fear aura.  Don’t worry about us; this might be the only
way to stop it.”

	Julian managed to nod.  His spasms were becoming smaller and less
common, but his heartbeat was fluttering unpredictably.  He tried to
concentrate, but after a few moments of trying he began to shake his
head.  “I can’t.  It just happens, it’s like it’s out of my control.”

	Lucy whispered a few words that were completely inappropriate for her
apparent age.  “We have to think of something else…  Can you use
magic?”

	The moondog shook his head again.  “Not since the Curse,” he replied.
 He wasn’t spasming anymore, but he was struggling to catch his
breath.

	Lucy tried to think of something, anything else, but ideas eluded
her.  Julian seemed to be stabilizing slightly, at least.  His
heartbeat was erratic, but it did not seem to be failing yet.
Suddenly, just as Coe was beginning to relax, Lucy’s eyes widened.
She had remembered something important.

	“Julian, you’re a moondog!”  He looked at her like she was insane,
but she continued before he could interrupt.  “You’re a moondog, but
they’re never found living in the wild.  To survive they have to bond
with a mage.  It’s the only way for a moondog to survive past a
certain point!”

	Julian was still confused for a moment, but his eyes widened just
afterwards.  “I have to bond with someone to survive?” he asked.

	Lucy nodded.  “The mage keeps the spell from killing the moondog by
using the magic it pulls in as a mana well for their own use.  If we
bond—”

	She stopped when she realized what she was saying, and Julian’s eyes
widened as well.  “If we bond?” he repeated incredulously.  “What does
that mean for me?  Will I be your slave, your pet until I die
someday?”

	Lucy shook her head adamantly.  “The bond is symbiotic, both parties
have different responsibilities in it and neither of them is more
important than the other.”  She looked at the moondog again,
disbelieving what she was saying.  Did she really intend to bond with
this man?  She had hardly met him, and their meetings had passed
briefly with little personal information given in either direction.
They hardly knew each other, how could she consider this?

	Julian’s own thoughts followed a similar path.  While he was thankful
for Lucy’s help, he didn’t know her at all.  She had just been the
messenger between him and the Keep for the past few weeks.  Could he
trust someone he knew so little about?

	He suddenly gasped and grasped his side.  Coe was quick to check him
again, and he shook his head as he looked between them.  “You had
better do whatever you need to do quickly.  Julian’s heart isn’t
holding a steady beat.  It could simply stop at any moment.”

	Lucy glanced to the healer and then back to Julian.  “I’m willing to
try,” she insisted.  That sudden admission surprised her as much as it
surprised anyone else in the room, but she knew she meant it.  She
didn’t know this man, but she did know that she would not ever forgive
herself if she just let him die when she could have done something.

	The moondog looked almost afraid at the admission from the girl
before him.  He looked to Coe, who just gave him a grave shake of the
head.  For a few moments, his mind was filled with all of the things
that might go wrong if they did attempt to bond.  He knew, though,
that refusing to try would assure him of failure.  They would simply
have to pray that all went well.  He nodded once, resigning himself to
facing whatever might lie ahead.  “Do you know how to perform the
bond?” he asked.

	Lucy grimaced.  “I don’t know this particular spell,” she admitted.
“I do know some things about lutin ritual magic...”  She thought for a
few moments, trying to come by a reasonable approximation of the sort
of spell they would need.  She scrambled to her pack and pulled out a
few things.  Returning to the moondog’s side, she began to work as
quickly as she could.

	With surprising precision, she began to carve a single rune in the
basin of a wooden bowl she had retrieved from her pack using one of
her daggers.  She took time every few minutes to blow the splinters
free, and she was soon satisfied with the result.  Coe helped Julian
to sit up as Lucy poured some water from her water skin into the
bottom of the bowl.  Finally, she sat up and took a deep breath.

	“We’ll need blood from both of us,” she said quietly.  Julian looked
skeptical, but he nodded and presented his hand.  Lucy took it
carefully and, holding it over the water in the bowl, carefully cut
enough so that enough blood fell into the bowl.  As Julian drew back
and waited, Lucy did the same to herself, mingling their blood in the
bowl.

	“All right.  If this works, you should survive.  If not—”

	Julian nodded and interrupted.  “Just do it.”

	Closing her eyes, Lucy called on her magic.  She took a moment to
steel herself, and then she channeled her magic into the bowl, using
the blood’s power and the power of the rune in the bowl together to
create the desired effect.  She could see the bowl beginning to glow,
the liquid becoming an even deeper red while the rune stood out as a
series of shimmering lines beneath the water’s surface.  She spoke the
last words of the incantation, and the power of the spell washed over
both of them.

	It seemed as though she had been struck by a thunderbolt.  Every
nerve in Lucy’s body cried out that something had gone wrong, and her
vision snapped to white.  If she could hear anything but the sudden
ringing that had surrounded her, she was certain that she would have
been screaming.  This strange oblivion surrounded her for only a
moment, and then the more familiar oblivion of unconsciousness washed
over her.