57

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No erotic content this post

Thank you all for reading along with me so far.

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I've stopped responding to comments on Lit because of the delays in posting them. There's just such a long delay that I feel awkward attempting to offer replies. If you'd like a response then you can find me elsewhere, if not, just know that I see you.

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Chapter 55

Our ambush was executed with precision, our fighters bursting from their hiding places the instant the Pure began to raise the alarm. Myta swept their group from the rear, cutting off easy escape, while Jito's squad launched themselves into the fray from the front. I focused my attention on maintaining my veil, with Sati's assistance, but I still caught glimpses of the ugly skirmish.

My flame wasn't visible to me with the Pure monks, and then our own forces in the way. I could feel her through our bond, and sense the pulse and thrum of her mana. She wasn't letting out any blasts of flame, and though we'd confirmed that she could still summon and use her glaive, she didn't call it for this fight. Instead, she relied on pure physical enhancement, flickering into striking range and hammering her fist into the side of one monk's head.

In front of me, Jito and Kari flowed into combat. I knew that they were working on a unique form of sorcery, one well suited to our current aim. They threw no spears of mana, and showed no flashy displays of light. Instead, they moved with graceful perfection, seeming more present, more real than anything else around them. The two of them faced off against one Pure monk, while his companion was shrugging out of the leading cart's harness. Both monks were channeling solar mana, and reacting even faster than Myta.

The lead monk drew his two paired swords, their heavy, chopping blades shining with deadly intent. Jito seemed to drift though the air, moving like cold honey in comparison, but somehow his glaive blocked every strike aimed at him. It barely even seemed intentional, as the momentum from one parry would pivot the polearm into the next.

Kari inserted her own glaive into the battle. She didn't strike out, instead she allowed the monk to bring his wrist down on her blade. His own strike severed his hand at the wrist, leaving the man blinking in disbelief. Jito disarmed the monk's other weapon, letting another two of our warriors bear the man to the ground.

Other fights did not go as smoothly. We attacked with overwhelming force, but he monks all bore the solar aspect. Their speed and destructive potential was high. One monk blackened a warrior's chest with focused heat, turning his skin to charcoal even through his armor. She fell shortly thereafter, as others in our company launched too many blows for her to dodge. In the end we were only able to take three of the monks alive, and my spirit was already far more strained than I preferred From containing the chaotic mana.

The monk with the missing hand was stabilized with a tourniquet. I didn't want to waste my mana stopping his bleeding. One was concussed, but stable enough to be useful. Not Myta's first target, that man had died before I got to him, as her blow sent bone fragments through his brain. Our final survivor I did need to spend mana on, as she had taken a blade through her lung.

"You can get what you need from them as they are?"

Sati nodded in answer to my question, her face a mask of suppressed nausea. She hadn't often been exposed to such carnage so closely, and it clearly strained her. When we'd fought her companions, when she was still working with the Pure, her spirit had suffered a shock that likely distracted her. In our following battles she was mostly removed from the thick of the fighting.

Myta came over, her hands a little smudged with ash. She'd clearly burned away the signs of battle as quick and dirty means of cleaning herself, but I kept that thought away from Sati as the other woman hugged her.

"It's alright, little flower." Sati relaxed as Myta used our pet name for her. "Just take a breath, take a moment, and focus on your next step. Just one step at a time."

"Right, one step." My apsara stepped toward one of our captives, and I nudged her toward the woman with the lung injury. I didn't want to spend more effort keeping her alive. Taking my suggestion, she knelt by the barely-aware monk, resting her hand on the the other woman's forehead.

I had experience searching the minds and souls of others, but Sati was on another level altogether. Within moments she had the monk in a daydream, imagining what the return to the ruins would be like. I couldn't follow it all, she was too fast about it, but I could tell that she reviewed a great deal of detail about the 'foraging' party, and the ruin.

When she finished with that monk, she moved onto the next, and then the last. I could feel her revulsion at some of what she'd uncovered, and I waited patiently as she sat and shivered, with Myta and I each taking one of her hands.

"So you need to end things here?" I asked her. "We can still try to find another way."

"No," she shook her head in refusal, though I could tell that she was tempted "if we tried to turn back now then things will only become that much harder.

"Better a harder path than a failed one," Myta offered, squeezing the hand she held. Sati took a deep breath, letting it out with a shuddering exhale, firming her resolve.

"I can get us in," she declared. "But there are nearly two score shifters in there, many on the verge of corruption, some already corrupted but unbound. They are being tortured and abused. The sooner we move, the better."

I nodded. This wasn't any kind of a surprise, but seeing it had clearly shaken Sati badly. I was concerned about the numbers, however. If the Pure became desperate enough then they might set the uncontrolled corrupted free as a final attempt at revenge. An unleashed demon would treat all of us as foes.

"If you are sure, then we'd best get moving." I didn't want her to dwell too much on what she'd seen, my hand ached just thinking about it. Together, my vas and I began manifesting our domain, while Kari disposed of our prisoners, and the rest of the company attended to the corpses and carts.

Myta, Sati, and I were all joining the infiltration team by default. Fortunately we matched the body types of three of the monks closely enough. We donned their soiled robes, and I couldn't stop the strange mix of nostalgia and distaste that rose in me. The style of the robes had evolved little in the past fifty years, and they had originally been modeled on Mithali robes, adjusted for colder climes.

Aside from us, Jito and Kari were joining the team, which I was glad of. Unfortunately our last member would be Oisten. With Hati unavailable, he was the only person with nearly the bulk to match one of our defeated foes. I don't have anything against the blacksmith druid, but it would have been easier on Sati if all of us were members of my court, and I would have preferred another fighter from the company at our back.

Myta and I lent our apsara our support, and I carefully kept my intent in check as shimmering mist rose around us. I could feel the bones in my face squirming under my skin as my features shifted to match the monk whose robes I wore.

"That's a horrible sensation." Oisten spoke without his normal accent, or his terse demeanor. "I'll be glad to break open some skulls, just to drive the feeling from my mind"

"Move, quickly," I barked, taking up my place at the front of the group. apparently I had been matched with the band's leader. The memory of losing my hand blended strangely with the old, remembered ache of crushed fingers, and I reflexively ran mana through my bones.

"Don't do that!" Sati's voice was thick with strain, and I immediately suppressed the urge, cutting off my mana.

"Sorry," I grunted, having to fight to get out that modicum of an apology. "Let's get back to the temple, double time!"

We all set out, breaking into a measured jog. None of us had an issue maintaining the pace, even those who were pulling the two-wheeled carts. The benefits of an awakened spirit on a body could not be overstated. The rest of the company followed, but remained well back for the same reason Sati had already created her illusion. We weren't that far from the ruin, and while our enemies couldn't hear what was happening, there were windows they could look out, even if we couldn't see in.

The monolith, as I'd dubbed this ruin years ago, was a fascinating puzzle. One that I would have been delighted to spend a more peaceful lifetime exploring. Its interior didn't match its exterior in nearly any respect, and some of its features utterly baffled me. The windows that only appeared from the inside, and the alien sky in the courtyard, were just some of the most blatant examples.

We trotted to where I knew the 'front' entrance of the monolith was, and I pounded on the wall, before holding up my hands in a series of odd gestures. Minutes ticked by as I waited for a response, feeling Sati's strain as she held our disguise. Our domain let us rewrite nearly any aspect of reality within its area. We'd practiced and tested the extent of this power many times. But including other awakened beings in our domain put a great strain on the spirit.

Right now Sati was bearing all of that burden, and doing so while someone not even of my court was with us. even my vasra were a weight, and those who were not bonded to me at all were far worse. My spirit was still too damaged to hold up under this kind of pressure, in fact I had been depending on her and Myta's strength to help me to heal, while my flame needed to conserve her strength for the battle ahead. So here was our little flower, rolling this boulder uphill all by herself.

I knocked on the wall again, with a thankfully appropriate level of impatience. Again I made the hand signals, while Sati let out a soft groan of effort. I could feel my vision begin to blur, or rather, the edges of the illusion were beginning to blur. Myta threw her will behind Sati just in time for the illusion to snap fully back into place, preventing its collapse.

Now, tiny subtle threads of flame were crawling over my skin. Myta had no experience in forming illusions, another reason Sati had been holding the effect on her own. In our tests she'd held out longer, but either the strain of the situation, or something about imitating the party of monks had strained my apsara sooner. I was just about to knock again when I finally heard the hissing noise of the door beginning to open.

Chapter 56

A large section of the gray stone wall in front of us began to dissolve. First it crumbled to sand, and then the sand flowed back into the gargantuan stone cube, revealing the antechamber. I'd seen the phenomenon before, albeit not for a long time. The facade of the pure monk I was wearing allowed me to keep my bored, annoyed expression in place as I stepped into the room beyond.

Inside, the antechamber was strange. Its aesthetic was nothing I was familiar with from any other place in the Shattered Lands. The walls were seemingly composed of metal, even the door as it reformed looked to be made of the same dull gray metal on the inside, and it looked as though it had flowed like liquid and then frozen into shape. Only the work of woodweavers, who grew living plants to their design, looked even vaguely similar.

"About time," I growled aloud, knowing the watchers inside the monolith could hear me. Their response was predictable, their irate tones sounding loud, but somehow distant. As though they were shouting from inside a cave, which caused their voices to echo slightly.

"You're late Arkaith, not our fault you can't keep a schedule."

"Just open the door," I snarled. "I'll break your nose, again, if you keep me waiting." I didn't even try to explain, or throw a clever barb. I wondered how anyone as boring and petty as the monk I was imitating had come to lead anything, much less something as vital as supply retrieval inside hostile territory.

Despite my internal critique, the inner door began to open as soon as the outer door had closed. This was our moment of greatest vulnerability, as those inside would be able to sense our mana before we could physically pass inside. Sati was maintaining our disguise still, including showing false aspects, but Myta's support was less skilled.

"Did you eat something you shouldn't have? Your whole group feels contaminated."

The personality I was mimicking couldn't provide an answer for this question. It wasn't routine, and it wasn't like Sati had replicated the man's entire mind, just some basic knowledge and mannerisms. It couldn't tell me what to say here, just how to say it.

"Some fucking savage came at us with a flame rod," I improvised. "Not that he could hurt us, but our gear got tarnished by his filthy mana."

It wasn't a terribly plausible explanation, but the uses and effects of mana were incredibly varied. Not terribly plausible was a long step from impossible, and I was betting these monks weren't scholars in any case.

"We'll call the examination team," came the swift reply. I just nodded, which the illusion told me was the only acceptable response.

Sati was sweating at this point, and even with Myta's support she was steadily losing her grip on the edges of the illusion. Fortunately the 'examination team' was prompt. After only a couple of extra minutes a trio of sorcerers approached, and the inner door resumed opening.

The presence of the new arrivals swept over us, testing the boundaries of our domain. One of them furrowed his brow, opening his mouth to say something I could see the alarm rising on his face. We didn't have much time, and the door wasn't open quite far enough for us to get through, it crumbled away from the top down, and as matters stood only I could get through it.

Without thinking I lashed out with my lancet, splitting the monk's throat node. I hadn't had the time or energy to reinforce it however, not with some of my central nodes still compromised. The monk gagged silently, clutching his throat, but his companions were slow to react, and the one who was controlling the door was watching us, not his fellows. I'd bought us a few moments, but my fractured anima shattered apart under the strain.

I managed to restrain my scream as the guard cried out in confusion, and the two uninjured members of the inspection team peppered the third with questions. My action had been too swift for them to follow, and my broken anima was rapidly disssolving into mana, fouling their senses like smoke in the air. Fortunately the guard's first reaction was not to close the door, as it should have been. Instead, he took a few steps toward the injured man, as though to somehow offer aid.

That was it, it was all the time our ruse could buy us. Sati's concentration finally failed, and the illusion fell apart, but it had been just enough. Jito and Kari were able to launch themselves through the gap at the top of the door, their nearly perfect bodily control allowing them to slip through the gap. They cut down the door guard before he had a chance to return to the controls, then fended off the assault of the other guards as the door opened enough for the rest of us to follow.

I was next to useless, nearly crippled with spiritual pain. My lancet was gone, as well as the flexible channel that it was attached to, and it took all the concentration I could muster to keep from bleeding all of my mana out. Our domain had collapsed completely, or I would have had a far easier time, but Sati and I were both too strained to try reforming it.

Even Myta was in less than perfect condition, but my injury and Sati's vulnerability had stoked her fire. My first vas hit the Pure guards like a lightning strike, an angry lightning strike, moving with lethal intent. We didn't want or need to take these Pure alive, and so her summoned glaive moved with deadly efficiency. With one thrust she pierced a monk's heart, then she cut out of his chest and into the arm of another, severing her second target's arm near the elbow.

I couldn't focus longer on her dance of carnage. Everyone had gotten out of the antechamber. Oisten's large frame had been the last to exit, and he rapidly shoved the carts out ahead of him. I sent the druid a silent thanks as I slapped at the controls for the door, a sort of runic tablet attached to a he wall.

Now that I knew more about runes, the urge to study this ancient sorcery was nearly overwhelming, but that had to wait. What was important was that I knew how to work the door. My own presence was sluggish and difficult to control, like numbed fingers, but I fed my mana into the rune that would close the inner door.

"Oistin, shove those carts into the corridor and break the wheels! Jito, Kari, flank the door!" Myta's voice was terse, not quite shouting as she barked out her orders, and even the Druid hopped to her command. I wanted to laugh, but couldn't quite catch my breath enough to do so.

"Your bleeding, badly." Sati's voice almost interrupted my concentration on the door and its controls, and I ignored her at first. But when her hands grabbed my face to turn it towards her, I blinked owlishly into her worried gaze.

"I didn't get hit, I'm fine." I tried to turn back to the runes, but she shook me gently.

"Not your body, you're bleeding mana. We need to stop it now, or you won't live long enough to get he others inside."

My thoughts were fuzzy and slow, but Sati's calm insistence managed to pierce my mental fog. I had an injury, a bad one, I knew that. The first thing I needed to do was stabilize myself. First rule of triage, heal yourself.

"Myta, I need you!" My voice slurred the words, but I got them out. My flame was at my side in a moment, though she shot glances back over her shoulder to the hall.

"I need you to cauterize my spirit." I said to her. "I can't close this wound now, but you should be able to. Focus on stopping my bleeding, making scar tissue, that's your intent."

Myta nodded with fear in her eyes. She didn't speak, or hesitate, just gathered up her presence and pushed, her ruddy mana turning golden as she altered her aspect. I had known what it felt like to have a branding iron pressed to your flesh. First the heat of proximity, followed by the weird cold shock of contact as your flesh refuses to acknowledge the damage, and then the searing, all-consuming pain. Myta showed me what it was like to have a branding iron pressed to my spirit.

All the air left my body, and I couldn't even scream as my muscles locked up in a rictus of agony. Some part of my mind detached and observed, unable to think or act, as my anima bubbled and warped. The lancet had been linked to my core node, and I was fortunate in that, as I had already reforged that node. The thicker, harder anima was able to survive the process of twisting into a puckered mess of golden-stained ruin. It was ugly, and would need to be fixed later, but I wouldn't die in the next few minutes.

"Whatever lets you tolerate the pain of me working on your spirits, I don't think I have it." I let out a coughing laugh as I regained control of my lungs. "That you Myta, go."

I nodded my head at the hall, where more shouts heralded hehe arrival of Pure reinforcements, and my flame slipped on a mask of stoic resolve before nodding. Even as she left, I was turning back to the tablet. My mana was extremely weak and my control was shaky, but I had a task to perform. Sati fed me what little trickles of mana that she could spare, bolstering my flagging reserves as I began opening the outer doors.