by Andrew Rowe
That made sense to me. In fact, it was probably similar to what the spirit gateway crystal had offered me as one of the options for a boon — access to spirit magic.
If I’d taken that boon, maybe I could have helped here…
I quickly dismissed that line of thought. I’d saved that spirit version of Lydia, and I wouldn’t trade her for someone else. Moreover, even if I’d picked up spirit magic, I’d have the same problems Reika did with not knowing how to use it for healing purposes. I needed to focus on what we could do, not what we couldn’t. “Okay, so you can make a contract and feed him mana, and that might help speed up his healing. What are the downsides?”
“Two problems. One, he’s not conscious, so I don’t know if he can accept. Two, I don’t know how it’ll work on a forest spirit. Contracts are usually between a monster and a human, not two monsters. Contracts between monsters aren’t impossible, but I don’t know if our mana types are compatible.”
“What would happen if they’re not?”
“…Our mana would be poisoning each other continuously for as long as the contract lasts.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “…That’s a pretty big risk. How quickly would you know if his mana is poisoning you?”
“Almost immediately, I think, but breaking the contract could also hurt us.”
I tightened my jaw. “…Maybe you should just take him back to the forest.”
“…There’s no time. If I’d gone straight there instead of here, maybe…” She shook her head. “He’s dying. We need to do something. Do you have a better plan?”
I couldn’t think of any better plans. It simply wasn’t my area of expertise.
Dawn, anything?
I shook my head.
“Then I’m doing this.” She put a hand on his chest. “Catch me if I fall.”
I moved behind her.
“Spirit of the forest, I offer you this bond.” Reika’s hand began to glow with a soft white aura, and mist trailed off of it toward the sky.
The spirit’s eyes flickered open, searching. Then his form rapidly shifted, changing back to Raizo, then…to someone completely unfamiliar to me.
A tall, broad-shouldered man with half-black, half-white hair. His eyes were stark white, with a scar across his face around them.
“…F…father?” Reika muttered. “No, I’m not afraid of…”
His head turned toward Reika, his eyes narrowing. “Reika…you came back for me.” He drew in a shuddering breath. “I…accept your contract.”
There was a brilliant flash of white light — which, unfortunately, probably served as a signal for anyone looking for us for miles. Then a glowing mark appeared on Reika’s right hand, and a matching symbol appeared on the exposed portion of center of Frienemy’s chest.
When the light cleared, Reika closed her eyes. “Hold still.”
More mist welled up around Reika’s hand, then flowed downward, vanishing as it came in contact with Frienemy’s body. As I watched, the wounds around his shoulder and chest began to close.
He shuddered, drawing in a deep breath. “…Th…thank you.”
She leaned down, tears welling in her eyes, and pulled him tight. “You saved us from Zenkichi. We’re the ones that should be thanking you.”
“…I…think I want to go home now.” Frienemy’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper.
“Okay. It’s okay now. I’ll take you home.”
With Reika showing no signs of collapsing, I sat down next to the two of them. “I owe you one, too. I don’t know if we would have survived fighting Zenkichi without you.”
He cracked a pained smile, his form flickering briefly to Landen’s. “You…gave me something new. I learned. I grew.” He patted Reika on the back of the head, then pulled away. “You have my gratitude…but I need to go now. I have been gone too long, and home calls to me. The old man will be angry.” He turned back to Reika. “I can make my way alone.”
Reika’s expression sunk. “You’re sure? I could…”
“You are hurt, and you have given me enough of your strength for the journey home.” He turned his eyes to me, then back to Reika. “Goodbye my…friends.”
He pulled Reika tight for one last moment, then glowed and changed.
When the light cleared, there was no human body — just a shimmering sphere of light.
“G…goodbye.” Reika raised a hand, waving it sorrowfully.
The ball of light shot off into the forest, away from us.
Toward home.
***
Crossing into Edria through the Unclaimed Lands wasn’t exactly common. There was no line of wagons or civilians like I might have expected during a border crossing, nor was the border fort anywhere near large enough to cover the entire way into the nation. We could have easily gone around it, but we felt it would be better to get ourselves some form of identification.
We approached the fortress with our hands raised to show we weren’t aggressive. Given that there were only two of us (three, if you counted Dawn), we probably wouldn’t have looked like a threat, but the last thing we needed was another fight when we were still in awful shape.
The fortress gate opened as we approached, and a half-dozen soldiers came out to greet us. They didn’t look particularly threatening — in fact, most of them looked excited to see us. I didn’t understand why at first, but I couldn’t complain.
The first problem came up immediately, and it was a predictable one. They greeted us in the Edrian tongue, which I didn’t speak. That was tricky, but I once again felt fortunate that Reika and I shared a language. I still didn’t know why the Valian language was the same as the Velthryn tongue from my own continent, but I had some suspicions from the little bits I’d heard about Valian culture.
Reika understood enough of the Edrian language to offer a basic greeting in reply. I found out later that her accent and pronunciation were atrocious, but some linguistic knowledge was better than none.
After she exchanged a few lines I couldn’t understand, one of the soldiers came forward. “I spent a few years in Valia, I speak the language. What do you want?”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Reika continued speaking for us, which was good, since I was still wearing a weird mask. I probably should have taken it off, but I was waiting until we got inside the borders of the nation first. Her split-colored hair was probably a little odd, but she looked somewhat more normal than I did. “We’re visiting Edria for the Tournament of the Sacred Sword. We heard we could get travel papers here?”
The guard’s eyes narrowed. “For the tournament...? I suppose that might be possible. Keep your weapons sheathed and your hands where we can see them. I’ll have to take you to our commander and see what he says.”
I found that a little frustrating, but we complied. I’ll spare you a detailed description of our time spent at the border fort.
Most of the soldiers were a little friendlier, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why — we were the most exciting thing that had happened to them in weeks. The fortress we’d come through wasn’t really meant for immigration; it was there to watch for large-scale monster invasions, and those were years (if not decades) apart.
Basically, these soldiers were stuck guarding a fort where nothing ever happened. They didn’t say it was some sort of punishment duty, but I got that impression.
A lot of them spoke at least some Valian, but not as fluently as the person who’d talked to us first. Apparently, Valian was the liturgical language used in the sacred scriptures, so a lot of them learned it in order to read the holy books (or at least understand religious services when spoken out loud). The Valian language was taught in public schools as an elective class, but not a mandatory one.
I was pleased to know that even though I would have to deal with a bit of a language barrier while in Edria, it wouldn’t be an insurmountable one. I planned to try to pick up some Edrian if I could — I didn’t want to have t
o rely on making others speak my own language — but I knew that would take some time.
The soldiers helped us fill out the necessary paperwork (since the documents were written in Edrian) and collected our fees. I didn’t quite catch all the details due to the language barrier, but I got the impression that we’d lucked out by coming in during the tournament, which was a period of time when Edria relaxed their border policies significantly.
We still weren’t going to be able to stay as permanent residents; our travel papers would allow us to remain in Edria up until three months after the tournament, but no longer. If we wanted permanent residency, that would require getting a different form of identification.
I figured that we’d probably be heading elsewhere to track down the other sacred swords after we were done with the tournament, so I wasn’t too worried about it.
Aside from our identification, we also bought a map and got a bit of information.
The closest major city was Zunyi, the former capitol of Kelridge (which was now called East Edria). That wasn’t our destination, though.
The tournament was being held in Kassel, the home of the Hydra Spire. That was about five hundred and fifty miles away, and the tournament started in twenty days.
That’s almost twenty-eight miles a day. We’re probably going to have to fly for at least part of it if we want to get there in time.
After finishing the papers, we stayed a little while to trade stories with the soldiers. We stayed for a meal, and afterward, the soldiers seemed sad to see us go. (Probably sadder to see Reika go, in truth. I saw more than one of them eyeing her with obvious interest.)
With that resolved, we departed the fortress and set foot in Edria for the first time.
***
Reika and I stood on the other side of the border fort. I started walking along the road toward the nearest town. Reika wasn’t following, so I turned back around.
“Something wrong?”
She frowned. “This is...just like the Unclaimed Lands. There’s nothing here.”
I pointed at a nearby sign. “There’s a sign here. And a road. It’s completely different.”
I would have mentioned what the sign said, but I couldn’t read it.
“I just thought...”
I walked back and put a hand on her shoulder. I’d picked the uninjured shoulder, fortunately. “That we’d arrive in a giant city as soon as we crossed into Edria?”
“...It didn’t have to be a giant city...” She frowned. “But yeah, I wanted there to be people.”
I chuckled. “That was just an obscure border fort. We’re probably miles from Edria proper, maybe days. Don’t worry, you’ll get to see the big cities and crowds soon enough. You’ll probably be sick of them within about three hours after that.”
“I doubt it. I’m much more of a people person than you are.”
I gave her a wounded look. “You literally grew up in a cave.”
She glowered at me. “Not by choice. And I had plenty of friends when I lived in that town for a little while.”
“Fine, fine. We’ll see if you’re right soon enough. Come on.”
We traveled onward to the south. The road I’d mentioned was dirt, rather than stone, but that was still a tremendous improvement over some of the sections of the Unclaimed Lands. We’d stuck to flat plains as much as possible when we were heading here, but even those weren’t always easy to navigate.
It took us about half a day to reach the first town, and Reika was visibly excited when we got there. She practically bounced over to the closest people, asking questions in Edrian.
“There’s a tavern over this way! A tavern! I bet there are all sorts of adventurers planning their next escapades!”
There were no adventurers in the taverns. There were drunks. Mostly bored drunks.
We were still in the middle of nowhere.
Still, I couldn’t help but smile at Reika’s enthusiasm. She ordered us drinks and asked the barkeep an absurd number of questions in Edrian. When I asked her what they were talking about, she only clarified that, “Barkeeps know everything. Trust me.”
She was disappointed to find that the tavern was only a place to buy and drink alcohol, not a place where one could rent lodgings for the night. There apparently was an inn “nearby”, but it was another ten or so miles down the road.
We probably would have gotten there if Reika hadn’t gotten very, very drunk.
“I shink I’m a-munne to alcohol,” she explained to me. “Because...,” she whispered in a voice that was loud enough for everyone to hear, “I’ma dragon.”
For the sake of avoiding embarrassing my friend, I’m going to skip some of the details that followed. Suffice to say that I eventually cut her off, half-carried her a few minutes south of town, and spent most of the rest of the night feeding her water and holding her hair while she got rid of the alcohol.
I cleaned her up after that and we found a pleasant grove of trees well off the road to sleep in.
The next morning, Reika woke before I did.
“...Dying...”
I woke with a start, scanning for enemies.
“...Poisoned...”
I’ll save you from the panic that I felt when I heard her. Reika was not, in fact, dying. She was just badly hungover.
I’d hoped that feeding her water would help, but she still got hit pretty bad. Neither of us had known how much alcohol she could tolerate, and the answer was “not a lot on her first try”.
I spent the morning taking care of her, then we headed south.
Ten miles was a lot less progress than we usually made in a day, but we stopped at the inn when we got there.
They had a bath.
We ended up staying there for two days.
***
By the time we left the inn, Reika and I were both doing considerably better. I was still worried that we hadn’t done enough to treat her burns, but she seemed to be recovering pretty well. Her arm, chest, and shoulder were still healing where the first globe of acid had hit her, but she’d fought off the infection.
I expected she’d probably have some long-term scars, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know enough about how dragon physiology worked; her specific connection with the plane of spirits seemed like the type that might help with more complete recovery.
My own injuries were mostly healed by that point, at least as much as they were going to be without magic. I had some new scars on my left arm and all over my right shoulder, but the tunic and healing potion had done wonders to help me recover more quickly.
I still felt some stiffness and occasional jolts of pain when I moved my right arm, but I didn’t think it had suffered permanent damage.
We’d been very fortunate.
I was determined to make sure we wouldn’t have to rely on fortune so heavily in the future.
One of my first priorities upon getting to Kassel was going to be buying better healing supplies. I still planned to visit a healer to treat our existing wounds more completely, but buying a few healing potions and other medical supplies was the first thing on my list.
Beyond that, I desperately needed to increase my fighting ability.
When I’d been on my home continent, I’d only rarely encountered enemies that could threaten me in a straight fight. Some of them, like the Children of the Tyrant, were terrifyingly formidable — but I’d only encountered them on a couple occasions in my life.
On Kaldwyn, I’d been beaten nearly senseless three or four times in the first couple months I’d been there.
My existing skills were a solid foundation, but I needed to build on them further.
Reika didn’t need any convincing to work on her own skills. She had a clear goal in mind, and after fighting Zenkichi, we both understood how far we were from reaching the level of people like him or Raizo.
So, as Reika and I exited the inn and traveled further south, we stopped several times a day to practice.
And by “practice”, I mean occ
asionally attack each other without warning.
***
I ducked, and Reika’s punch flew over me.
I kicked backward, but I caught only air. She’d already turned into her spirit state.
That was tricky to counter, but I knew she couldn’t maintain it for very long.
I spun around, drawing Dawnbringer.
Thanks for the warning.
Dawnbringer didn’t have an ordinary sense of sight, but she did have an omnidirectional mana sense. After some testing, we’d determined that it currently had a range of about sixty feet.
So, when Reika and I had agreed to practice ambushing each other, Dawn had conspired to help me cheat.
Reika was floating backward, still in her humanoid form, but incorporeal. Something like mist was leaking all around her, as it always did when she was in her spirit form. It was probably some kind of raw essence from the plane of spirits, but at the moment, I wasn’t worried about that.
I pointed Dawnbringer straight toward Reika. “Be ready, Dawn.”
Reika solidified, her hands shifting into claws as she lunged forward.
“Luminous Arc!”
Dawnbringer’s blade shined brighter and brighter before releasing a tremendous surge of light.
Normally, Reika dodged that attack. It was easy enough to do when you knew exactly what the sword’s abilities were, and I telegraphed it deliberately so she could avoid it.
This time, she folded her arms in front of her and ran straight into it.
I had a moment of panic. Just one moment, because that was all it took for her to burst through the beam and slam a fist into my chest.
I stumbled backward, the last few moments of the beam cutting a wide gouge into the nearby ground.
Reika and I paused to stare at the blackened and smoking line the attack had left on the ground. “Awkward,” I mumbled.
Then she punched me again.
This time, I managed to side-step to avoid most of the force of the impact, and I responded with a quick kick toward her front knee.
