She spotted a branch that looked large enough and tugged out a rune of destruction. Jerrick had given her a saw, but that would take nearly half the day. Closing her eyes, she poured a small amount of magic into the rune. Too much, and it would blow up in her face; too little, and the magic would be little better than the saw.
She opened her eyes and directed the swirling magic over the branch. The magic arced out of it and with a loud snap, the branch fell to the earth below. Sade smiled and climbed up another branch when her foot slipped. She tried to grab onto the branch, but it shifted away from her, and she fell to the ground.
She pulled her magic tight around her. Using an air rune she formed a gust of air, cushioning her fall.
“Stupid tree,” she muttered. She knew some plants became angry if magic was used on them. Now it was clear the death tree was one of them.
The branch that she had cut lay on the ground with sap gushing out of it. Much to her horror, the branch dissolved into a pile of goop.
“Gods, you must be joking!” Sade yelled into the forest. She tugged the saw from her pack, a loud bang echoed through the forest. The trees around her shriveled into themselves as a gust of magic flew around Sade. The magic itself felt like a combination of destruction and air runes.
Grasping a rune of seeking, she used the magic to follow it back to the source. As she walked the forest became dense with dead underbrush, even the trees became scraggly. Magic hung in the air like an invisible fog.
What remained of a meadow came into view when Sade pushed aside a dead bush. In the center of the meadow stood Marius; his back was facing her, the runes on his cloak glowing almost as bright as the sun above. His anger was woven in tightly with the magic that permeated the meadow. She shifted so she could see what he was looking at.
Attrius was standing in front of a statue of the God of Justice. The statue was missing its scroll and was only holding a sword. Either the scroll had been lost, or Attrius was one of those who disregarded the teachings of mercy and was only concerned with justice. Behind the statue stood a small group of about ten people, one of whom was the mysterious cloaked man.
Wild magic flowed around Attrius like a shield; it glowed blue where Marius’s magic tried to break through. Sade shielded her face when a flurry of pebbles bounced off Attrius’s magic and flew around the outskirts of the meadow.
“Let us go!” Attrius screamed. “We have done nothing wrong!”
“That statue has been marked for destruction, and you dare try to save it?” Marius yelled back; their voices were amplified by the magic that flew around them. Sade saw a flash of yellow as Marius tugged out a rune of breaking, the magic formed into twelve glowing arrows. As the arrows struck Attrius’s shield magic, they hung in the air and Attrius did his best to destroy them.
But then a gust of fire magic suddenly shattered Attrius’s shield; the sound was like a thousand glass windows breaking at once. Attrius screamed and covered his ears. The raw magic he was using was consuming him.
“Attrius, I do not wish to harm you,” Marius said while a rune of healing danced in front of him. The runes on his cloak faded back to a dull silver.
“No, but you wish to snuff out all remnants of the God of Justice!”
“The God of Justice and Mercy, which I am offering you now,” Marius said and pointed at the group standing behind the statue. “If you continue to flout the will of the High Vestrals and the Gods themselves, you will be responsible for their deaths.”
“Hang on!” Sade shouted, running over to Attrius. “It’s a statue of a dead God! What harm is there in-”
“Silence! I know who you are, Sade of Plainspire,” Marius spat and Sade’s eyes widened. “I felt that blasted divine rune in your pouch the moment you arrived, and your runes are too precise to be that of a mere runesmith. I let it slide, seeing as you have exhibited no magic use and have not tried to interfere in my work. However, if you get involved in this, I will have no choice but to report you to the Council of High Vestrals for punishment.”
“This involves me as Vestral to the God of Jus-”
“You are no longer a Vestral! This is my domain, and I am duty-bound to ensure all the shrines in my domain are destroyed!” Marius shouted. Sade frowned when she noticed the glow hadn’t returned to his cloak, nor did his eyes glow with the presence of the divine.
“Your Goddess has left you, Marius,” Sade said dryly and the Vestral looked down at the runes with a shocked expression. “Perhaps she does not agree with what the High Vestrals have concluded. Perhaps she doesn’t agree with you disrupting prayers to the Gods, dead or not.”
“How dare you speak such blasphemy! You spent your life in service to a God who never answered your petitions! How would you know what the presence of the divine feels like?” Marius snapped; Sade felt his magic spin around him searching for any hint of his Goddess’s presence.
“Vestral Marius, please be assured that no one will cause harm to anyone. We wish to be left alone and be able to pray in peace,” Attrius said in between coughs. Blood dripped off his hand as he wiped it against his leg. If he continued to use his magic like this, he would die.
“How many times must I tell you? The answer is no!” Marius shoved Attrius to the side; the old man fell to the ground with a yelp. Sade stepped away before he could touch her. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a rune of protection. She cast the magic over the statue while Marius used a rune to tug a large rock from the earth. He slammed it into the statue and ducked when the rock was sent hurtling into the forest behind him. Screaming with rage he pulled up more rocks from the ground and flung them toward the statue.
Sade wanted to scream as the magic inside of her strained with effort. The rune in her hands was cracking due to the amount of magic she was channeling through it. She called up an earth rune, and when she caught it in her hand, she slammed it down onto the ground. Magic poured out of the rune. She imagined the dirt around them becoming like an unmovable piece of metal. Marius tried to use his magic to lift a stone, but it didn’t budge as Sade’s magic pushed his away.
“What are you doing? Do you want to die?” he screamed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Attrius rise. She shook her head.
“If you continue, it will burn you from the inside out,” she said before turning her attention back to Marius. She felt the first tinges of fire magic beginning to form. She pulled the magic shielding the statue and wove it around her and Attrius. Sweat dripped from her brow as the flames roared past them. The protection magic wasn’t strong enough to shield them from the heat.
Marius’s rune must have reached its limits, since the fire flickered out after a few moments.
Marius bowed his head and pulled out his divine rune for the Goddess of Marriage. The swirls of light purple magic in the rune did not leave their etchings as Marius begged the Goddess for her help.
“I have never seen a Vestral for the Goddess of Marriage engage in any kind of combat. Save for a brawl or two at a wedding with too many drunks,” Sade taunted. The small group of people had grabbed the statue and were now slowly backing into the forest. She needed to keep Marius distracted until they were safe.
“Shut up you pretentious witch! I am trying to do what I was-”
“Gods damn it!” a man from the group yelled. He had dropped the statue onto his foot. Sade bit her tongue, these fools were going to be the death of her.
Marius stared at the group, the muscles in his back quivered and Sade felt another surge of anger in his magic.
“Stop this right now!” he screamed. The heat of a fire rune swirled in the air.
Without thinking, she grabbed the bow and poured magic into it; the rune for straight shooting shone like a miniature star.
“Marius!” she screamed as she nocked an arrow and aimed at him. “You overstep your bounds! That fire magic will kill every single one of those people if you unleash it!”
“They will not obey the direct order of the High Vestral.
They defy the will of the Gods and Goddesses themselves!” Marius exclaimed while he gathered his magic around him. A fireball was starting to form.
She let the first arrow fly.
Then she fired arrow after arrow at him. The first one struck him in the shoulder and the remaining struck him in the back. She continued until Marius was pierced with all nine arrows.
A startled cry escaped his lips and he fell to the ground, a light purple haze of magic flared around him before it dissolved into the earth.
Her stomached heaving, she dropped the bow and ran over. She grabbed his healing rune and poured magic into it, pink swirls danced around his body, but it was too late. His soul was no longer in the realm of the living. Bile rose in her throat, but she could not tear her eyes away.
She backed away from Marius’s body; blood seeped out of the arrow wounds in his back. A firm hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up to see the cloaked man staring down at her. A pair of green eyes stared at her from the shadows of the cloak.
“I hope you understand, we didn’t want it to come to this. Vestral Marius was a good man,” he said and looked over at Marius’s corpse.
“I murdered him,” Sade whispered while someone removed the arrows from Marius’s body.
“No, you dispensed justice against one who was willing to harm the innocent,” the man said, lowering his hood. He had dark auburn hair cropped short and unlike most of the men she had seen in these parts he had no beard. “You protected the believers from harm and upheld your oaths.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m no one important, but you may call me Corin”.
A woman walked over with the arrows still dripping with Marius’s blood. She had the stocky build of a Western Marshlander and her gray-blonde hair had been swept into a bun.
“We’ll make it look like a boar attacked him,” she said as a man dragged a dead boar out from the woods. “My name is Leida. And you are?”
“Sade,” Sade said. Bile once again rose in her throat when she took the arrows from Leida.
She pulled out a rune for cleansing and used the magic to clean the blood off the arrows. Once she was sure not a drop remained, she returned the arrows to the quiver. When she was finished, she saw Attrius had joined them.
“Thank you for saving my life,” he said. A young man handed him a cloth that he pressed to his bleeding nose.
“If you keep using magic like that you will die!” Sade snapped.
“Sade,” Corin said, drawing out the sound of her name, “we have quite a few unrefined amongst us and... well, we need someone like you who can teach them.”
Sade had spent most of her life alone. She wasn’t a teacher.
“No, I cannot teach them. I am helping Jerrick with his order and-” she trailed off when another wave of nausea swept through her. She had just destroyed Jerricks livelihood.
“In time, another Vestral will be sent to the village,” Corin said, his voice tinged with annoyance.
“Oh, they won’t know that unless...” Sade eyes widened and she ran over to Marius’s body, shoving away the couple that was using a boar tusk to carve deep wounds. She tore off his rune pouch. Marius’s runes tumbled to the ground as she pulled the fabric inside-out.
“What are you looking for?” Leida asked.
Sade’s fingers traced along the leather searching for the small embroidery that was in all rune pouches. The runes that spelled out Marius’s name had turned blood red.
“What in the names of the Gods is that?” Attrius asked.
“This is a mark every Vestral has in their pouch. It is magically bound to each Vestral and tied to a scroll of the living in each major temple in the area. When the magic in the pouch detects the Vestral is dead, it will send a message to the scroll of tracking and the Vestral who watches over it,” Sade said. Her hands began to shake, causing her to drop the pouch.
“Is your name still attached to this scroll?” Leida asked and Sade shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Then we should kill her to be safe,” Leida held out a dagger and eyed Corin, who gave her a slight shake of his head.
“How accurate is the tracking?” he asked Sade.
“It can only give you an estimated area of their location.”
She didn’t add there were Vestrals who specialized in tracking others down. If there was any suspicion about Marius’s death, Sade was doomed.
“Then you have no need to worry.”
His words did not bring her any comfort. Sade would live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder. Marius’s death was another stressor.
“You saved their lives Sade,” Corin said firmly, “and for that we owe you a debt. We will take care of Marius and you must go finish your task.”
“I...”
“Sade, if we wanted to report you. I would’ve done so by now. The last Vestral who served in this town was killed by a bear. Wild animal attacks are not uncommon around here. No one will suspect this.”
Sade reached into her rune pouch and clutched her divine rune. She had no choice but to trust these people.
“Swear to me you will not reveal my identity.”
Corin waved over the people who were holding the God of Justice’s statue. He placed a hand on the statue.
“I swear, I nor anyone else will reveal your identity.”
“Thank you, I will go finish my tasks.”
“Excellent. Now if you’ll excuse us, we will deliver Marius’s body after you’ve gotten back to Oddlehill,” Corin said.
“I have to get some death tree wood for Jerrick. It would be odd if I returned with nothing,” Sade said and Corin nodded. He signaled for a couple youths to join him.
“This is John and Sam. They’ll help you get the wood you need.”
THE SUN WAS NEARLY set by the time Sade had returned to the village. Her body ached from clutching the large bundle of wood. Guilt plagued her thoughts with every step she took, and she wondered if Marius’s ghost would visit her in her dreams tonight.
As she entered the workshop, she placed the bundle of wood on the floor and flopped onto her small bed in the corner. Tears threatened to stream out of her. The sound of footsteps caused her to sit upright. She sighed with relief when she saw Jerrick standing at the door.
“I see you’ve got quite the bounty! We were wondering if you had taken a drink from the trees again,” he said. Sade handed him Esmelda’s bow and quiver.
“I got lost and spent a lot of time backtracking,” Sade said, shoving the image of Marius’s lifeless eyes from her mind.
“I’m sorry lass. I would’ve gone, but I started teaching my new apprentice how to read. The good news is he’s a smart lad!”
Sade smiled and stood. “I suppose I should get started on those runes.”
“Don’t you want to eat supper first?” Jerrick asked as she sorted through the wood.
“I brought some dried meat with me,” Sade said a little sharper than she would have liked. If he noticed, Jerrick didn’t say. He merely nodded and left without another word. As she watched him leave, she noticed his shoulder bones were showing through the fabric.
Sade gripped the table while images of Marius’s dead body and the thinning bodies of everyone around her swirled in her mind. She had doomed an entire family.
THE SUN HAD FULLY SET when Sade heard the shouts of alarm from the village watch. When she heard Esmelda and Jerrick run out to see the commotion, she quickly followed.
The group had wrapped Marius’s body in a burlap sack. One of them carried the dead boar. Corin and Leida were not among them.
“What happened!” a villager cried.
“Boar got him. I did my best to save him, but these old bones are not as strong as they used to be.” Attrius’s shoulders sagged and Esmelda rushed forward to embrace him.
“Oh hush, we never know the God of Death’s timing.”
“I’ll get started on prepping the funeral pyre,” a weary villag
er said, trudging into the dark.
“And I will get in touch with the Vestrals at the Temple of Rottinglen,” Jerrick said.
The rest of the crowd dispersed, following Marius’s body up to the small temple. Sade could not stop the nagging guilt from arising within her and she wondered if she’d done the right thing.
10
The Rite of Choosing
EMIRA STARED OUT THE window of the carriage, trying not to let the bumps in the road jostle her off her seat and into the laps of her companions. She’d just finished hours of study with Lord Greensdale on how to read and the recent history of the realm. She spent most of her time studying. The Royal Council wanted her to at least be able to read aloud a potential peace treaty and sign her name.
“Are you all right?” Lady Janel asked, her hazel eyes filled with concern. She was the first of Emira’s ladies-in-waiting to be approved. The council had run out of time to choose the others because of the preparation needed for the King of the Western Marshes. They would resume their selections after the coronation.
“I’m fine,” Emira said, giving her a small smile. She glanced at Lady Ethelbright, who was looking out the window with a bored expression.
“Tell me, what exactly am I doing at this Rite of Choosing?”
Both women’s eyes widened, and Lady Janel could not stop her mouth from dropping open.
“This is the ceremony to choose your griffin, of course,” Lady Janel said before Lady Ethelbright could reply.
“Why in the names of the Gods would you choose a griffin?” Emira asked. “Griffins are dangerous. They eat people!”
“To ride it into battle and seek glory for our kingdom!” Lady Janel exclaimed.
“I thought that was a silly bards tale meant to make griffins less like monsters!” Emira shot back, looking over at Lady Ethelbright who shrugged.
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