Chapter 34
Over the next few days we performed the spirit tempering ritual several more times, while moving within striking range of the Pure camps. Ket hadn't located any more of them, giving us three targets. I was concerned about the lack of activity, however. The spirit should have seen more men moving out by now, to forage if nothing else. Instead there was nothing, which meant we were missing some important piece of information. Tarun would have made it into the city of Bani by now, and I hoped he'd been able to successfully alert them to the danger.
We delayed long enough to put each person through the ritual at least once, with varying degrees of success. Hati's new clarity of anima turned out to be the exception, rather than the rule. Only Denu, the caravaneer's daughter, matched her gains. That girl also displayed a natural aspect, one of air. It was no coincidence that those who had made the greatest gains, were those with the strongest personalities. Jito was the only one to not undergo the ritual so far.
"It is a difficult thing to judge," I sighed, looking at Myta over my streaming mug of tea. "Yes, it's possible to restore his eye, but the risks are great. For the same reason that I cannot work to strengthen their spirits directly, I would need to use your mana to perform the operation. Even then, he might find himself changed. His personality, even his goals or memories might be altered. And there are plenty of fighters who make due with only one eye."
"It's what he wants," she insisted, meeting my gaze. "Retraining will take him far too much time to be useful in our current conflict, and even afterward his potential will be damaged. We've already been over the risks, talk to him yourself if you doubt it. I know you've been avoiding him. Why else haven't we strengthened his spirit already? For that matter, why not strengthen him first, to reduce the risk?"
"I've been avoiding strengthening him, with this in mind." I admitted. "As wary as I am now, if his anima hardens while his eye is destroyed it becomes far more difficult to restore. His spirit still holds the meridians that would support it right now. If we performed the ritual on him, even without touching that part of his spirit, it's likely they would be absorbed."
Myta raised an eyebrow at me, letting my words hang in the air. I wasn't a fool, I was well aware that I had just made the argument for performing this healing sooner, rather than later. In truth the tempering ritual would only accelerate a process that had already begun, Jito was already beginning to absorb those meridians. I had checked earlier, and the man's spirit was vigorous. And the more vigorous a spirit, the faster it would adjust to an injury of this kind. I just hated being pressured into this kind of risk, especially when my earlier haste had caused this issue in the first place.
"Fine," I finally grunted. "As long as he's clear on the risks, we'll do it this afternoon, and then perform the ritual for him right after. If we begin with his crown and third eye, it will even help the healing take. The day after tomorrow we should strike the first camp. I do not like that they're so quiet."
"Agreed," she nodded. "We're doing Tarun no favors by waiting any longer. Something is rotten about this situation, and there's only one way for us to figure out what. Even if Jito isn't ready, we need to act."
"Can we send scouts to look the area over?" I asked. "Ket can't perceive anything past the ward, but we should be able to."
"Already done," she smirked at me. "I set Denu to look over one camp, already, and the other hunters to visit the next closest. I gave them the instructions before breakfast. She'll be back before nightfall, and the two men sometime tomorrow. I've been needing to split them up. Those men aren't taking kindly to being shown up by a girl. She took to the ritual better than anyone but Hati, earned the respect of the fighters with her skill against the mana beasts, and now she's bringing in as much food as both of them together."
"Maybe you can use that to motivate them," I shrugged. "I'm not really sure how else to handle that kind of envy. If they don't step up, she'll continue to do better, it's simple to see. Either they need to work harder to compensate, or accept it. I suppose keeping them separated is for the best."
Our conversation trailed off, and I left the management of the camp and men to my vas. After nearly two weeks leading them in the forest, she was far more comfortable in the role. We hadn't faced too much more in the way of combat on our trip, having adjusted the tempering ritual to avoid drawing more surprise visitors. I had directed us toward a few large and dangerous creatures deliberately, however. Killing them had given Myta, and the men, more practice working together. Not to mention the valuable resources harvested from their corpses.
I busied myself checking on the health of the men, my goats, and our supplies. We were doing as well as could be expected. Foraging and hunting had been kind, stretching our packed rations and supplies farther than I'd dared to hope. Our long pauses in traveling had given us plenty of time to gather resources. Between that, and the addition of mana beast meat, we were perhaps even better provisioned than when we'd left Tarun's estate. Water wasn't exactly an issue either. The jungle boasted plenty of small waterways safe enough to drink from, though I could purify it easily in any case. Only our medical supplies had suffered, the numerous lacerations I'd treated had caused my supplies of clean wound dressings to dwindle. At least I needn't depend on antiseptics. I could cleanse a wound as easily as water.
After lunch, I sat with Myta, examining her spirit carefully. Back in Nesratin I had crudely forged a tool from her anima, similar in some ways to my own lancet. At the time, it had been an act of desperation, and I hadn't spent that much thought on it. But in the weeks between then and now I'd realized that tool had not degraded, and worked with her to refine it. A fine needle, with a bladed flange, the tool was designed to split meridians and spill a person's mana as efficiently as possible. My flame was half way to being a soul sorcerer herself now. She had a spirit tool for directly interacting with another's spirit, and could generate an aspect that could alter them. What she lacked now was the expertise to use them effectively.
Satisfied with her progress, I called over Jito, reviewing the dangers with him. Not that I doubted Myta's words or intentions, but sometimes saying things in different ways just sparks comprehension. I wanted to avoid any misunderstandings with the squad leader. He was taking a great risk to his soul with this treatment, and while I understood his reasons, there would be little chance of undoing any side effects.
With my due diligence completed, we settled in for the treatment. We had been setting up a simple tarp pavilion to house the rituals, now that the issues with it had been resolved. It was still erected from last night, as we hadn't planned on moving our camp yet in any case. In moments Myta, Jito, and myself were all settled comfortably beneath. I spared him some of my lesser herbs to soften his anima, nothing like I'd given my flame for her spiritual expansion, but at least a little extra to help ease his way.
At this point, taking control of my vas' mana was becoming second nature, her anima needle responded to my will better than it did her own. Though that was in large part a result of my experience. So I was the one who pierced Jito's third eye with the needle, while Myta transitioned her aspect to her transformative flame. As gently as I could, I forced his meridians back into a shape that would support a healthy eye, noting the silver streaks we were leaving in his anima. They weren't the jagged, contrasting intrusions that would indicate a violent rejection or conflict, however. Instead they looked almost exactly like the marks I had left all through my vas' anima. Blended soft streaks, like highlights, rather than intrusions.
I fed a bit of Myta's mana into him, focusing it around his ravaged eye, and binding it with my intent to restore him. Normally, this is where I would end the spell and make a graceful exit, but my experiences with my vas had revealed a better way. While our spirits twined, I pushed all our minds into Jito's inner world. There was nothing solid here, of course, just a hazy gray space littered with colorful fragments of half-remembered dreams. The squad leader was no sorcerer, he had no defined sanctum to visit. I could have rummaged about in the flotsam of his unconscious with impunity, the very core of the reason my skills were so feared. But I had a very specific purpose in coming here.
"Jito, show yourself," I commanded, putting a little will to my words. And just like that, he appeared. Tall and lanky, with skin just on the darker side for natives of Ramana, with curly black hair that was longer than he kept it in real life. The right side of his face was hazy and indistinct, his self image already uncertain in the face of his injury. But, if what I had observed with Myta was accurate, perfecting his image here was essential to his restoration.
"Jito, I want you to think back to your past. Imagine a time in your life when you were most comfortable with you body. When you were the most familiar with, and proud of, your physique." He nodded at my words, not really seeing me. His expression was vague in the way all those brought forcefully to their inner worlds were. Myta made a small noise behind me, some desire I didn't recognize rising in her as our patient followed my instructions. His lanky limbs filled out with well toned muscle, and his body showed signs of recent exertion. I couldn't help a small spike of uncertain jealousy. Was she being attracted to the squad leader for his superior physical attributes compared to mine? That didn't quite seem to match what I was sensing from her though. I kept my thoughts and feelings from leaking out, as they weren't relevant right now.
"Good, your body is perfect, ideal. You are in prime physical condition. Imagine looking into a mirror now, you see your face, staring back at you, confident and relaxed. You features are perfect, ideal." I kept walking the man through his self image, making his form in the inner world as solid, distinct, and idealized as we could manage. Through it all, my vas had an increasingly visceral reaction, first of deep yearning, and then of lust. It was far out of proportion to what was happening. When I finished, I drew us all out of Jito's inner world, and separated our spirits. I needed to speak with her, but later. We still had work to do.
Chapter 35
The spirit tempering ritual for Jito went without issue, once he had been awakened. None of us had been strained by the effort to heal him, not in terms of mana at least. My mind was a little tired, and Myta's thoughts seemed restless. She didn't share them, however, and I didn't push.
Jito picked up the trick of moving his own mana fairly quickly, and Myta applied pressure to his spirit. I veiled the area in my presence, catching the degraded anima he shed. My vas and I were well practiced at this point, with the only variation being that she began with the squad leader's crown node, working downward to his third eye and throat. The reformed meridians that would support his healing eye were hardened and strengthened. Now only time would reveal if our efforts bore fruit. With Myta's catalyzing aspect to aid his healing, we would begin to see our success or failure within days.
Denu returned before we were finished, and she brought strange news.
"Nothing." I muttered in confusion. "There's absolutely nothing there?"
"There was plenty of signs that people passed through, but it's all to old for me to tell much. I even went in to check." Seeing my disapproval she hasten to elaborate. "Only after I watched a bit! But I wasn't learning anything. So I went into the area and poked around. No one has been there since the last big rainstorm."
*Are you sure the men came from this point?* I sent to Ket. I wasn't sure what to make of this development.
