The Path of Destruction (Rune Breaker)

by Porter, Landon

  “It's like the purifying basins at the stone house.” Taylin recalled the permanent magic structures employed in the halfling way stations.

  “Except this creates the water.” Ru agreed, “That is part of the standard arrays already inside the house. I added something else to make baths, tea and coffee easier to have.” Again, he cupped a hand over the prongs. “Flaer ni Akua.” The sparks turned red and now as the water fell, it threw up a cloud of steam.

  Taylin's eyes lit with delight and she immediately put her hand under the scalding spray. “Ru, that's wonderful!” What remained of her emergent scales receded completely.

  Ru spoke another short command to shut off the flow and looked around the empty room, a light in his eyes that Taylin knew well from whenever the promise of spellcraft presented itself to Ru. “I have not even begun. This room, individual rooms, a proper spellcrafter's laboratory, a library... there is much to do.”

  Still relaxed from the water's heat, Taylin frowned lightly in sympathy. “There is. But not now.”

  “What?” He glared.

  “We have to catch up to the others.” She explained, making sure he could feel her sympathy as well as hear it. “You'll have plenty of time to work while Brin purifies the enclave.”

  Ru conceded silently, but groused aloud, “Or turn on us all there.”

  “I asked that we not talk about this. Any of it.” Taylin said firmly.

  “What I need is for you to promise me that you won't let 'any of this’ get in the way of our bringing a lifetime of pain to Immurai.” he said.

  A resolute nod, and Taylin straightened herself up to her full height. “He still has Motsey. That's what's important to me. Whatever might happen with Brin, and whatever I might have felt for Issacor won't change that I need to rescue my nephew, find Immurai, and make sure that demon can never hurt my family again.”

  Ru floated around the counter as she started back to the main room. “The link enforces my loyalty. But from here until Immurai is burned from this world, Miss Taylin, you now have my cooperation.”

  Chapter 4 – Idarian Homestead

  Kaiel did his best to maintain eye contact with the beast wrapped around his right forearm. Whenever the koshi orm tried to turn its attention elsewhere, he moved his head in the same direction and redirected it back to him with a low, resonant hum.

  It might have reeked with the scent of bug ichor thanks to its diet, but up close, the creature was beautiful, with jewel-like, green scales, shifting to black under just the right light. The tiny claws on its wings, which dug into the sleeve of the chronicler's coat, were opalescent, and its four eyes (two smaller and set forward with two larger ones on either side of its head), a vivid gold. What was beautiful to the sentient races were a warning sign in nature, broadcasting that this little beast was poisonous and not to be handled lightly.

  “So you're a mesmer now too.” Rai was sitting facing him, outside of lunging range of the orm. Very few things actually attacked halfling caravans in groups, (as rumor had it, this was the result of deep history with both Pandemos and Sylph) but that protection didn't extend to accidents brought about by a foolish lack of caution.

  Not breaking his gaze with the orm, Kaiel said, “I'll tell you a bit of a secret—but neither of you can ever, ever let Ru know.” He included Brin even though he knew her mind was elsewhere. There was no need to look up, he knew she was still at the top of the hill, watching what was on the other side. Nothing to do for it at the moment, they'd all agreed to wait on Taylin and Ru before deciding what to do about it.

  “Deal.” Rai said without stopping to think. She had no personal grudge with Ru, but there was nothing more than an acquaintanceship between the two.

  Kaiel chose to take Brin's agreement as implicit. Unlike Rai, she bluntly hated Ru. “Alright, the secret,” he paused to draw the orm's attention back to him. It wouldn't be long now, the creature was growing less willful by the minute. “Is that there are many specialties in the Bardic tradition. Pure bards just use the Song; they have songbooks and lyrical tomes full of magical music that taps the Well of Souls to have varying effects. Storyspinners—real ones, not just storytellers—use just the Word. They make up or embellish stories and weave it with power from the Well. All of them are different; you can't copy a person's stories exactly. Chroniclers like me don't have a magical tradition of our own; we study the past and the lessons that can be taken from it and might dabble in magic.”

  He was interrupted as the orm started to get restless and had to take a few moments to wrangle it back into his control and settle it comfortably on his arm. It was a surprisingly willful little creature, but that was expected when one knew that they were supposedly to dragons what apes were to humanity, and the races derived from their stock.

  “And that's just the edge of the blade when it comes to the paths the College offers, but to make a long story short, you then have the Loreman path. You start it after your fourth year and it might take a lifetime to get your first knot. That's the path I'm on now, and we need to know a bit of everything even if I'll always be a better chronicler than bard. And there's a benefit to that approach: we can use the Word and the Song, and the knowledge of centuries, from Saint's Landing to the lost secrets of the dragons. It lets us take advantage of one simple truth: the world is built on the Well of Souls and everything is based on it. So the power discarnate, if you know how to use it correctly, with the Word and Song, can do anything the other energies can.”

  He locked eyes with the orm and felt a spark leap between them. The hum he'd been maintaining, even under his speech, was rapidly changing, expanding into a pattern of discarnate energy on its own. No longer afraid of a deadly bite, he reached out and brushed his fingertips across the creature's brow.

  “Give me your will.” He whispered and closed one eye. Instead of darkness, he found himself looking back up into his own face. After a moment of making sure that the orm looked in the directions he wanted it to look, he turned back to Rai.

  “That's why back in the old days, before the College was formed, and Loremen were just people who stumbled into this strange ability to mimic the abilities of your average middling wizard, no matter what energies were in ebb or flow in the area; the real wizards took to calling them charlatans.”

  Rai took only a handful of seconds to staring at him as he jostled the orm on his arm, testing the strength of command before bursting into laughter. “Gods above! You mean Ru was right?”

  Rather than rise to the bait, Kaiel instead concentrated on the orm. “Technically. But the term hasn't been dusted off in anywhere but the most isolated backwaters in centuries. It's as much of an antique as he i—“ He stopped and turned an eye toward Brin, hoping she hadn't heard that.

  He really wished Taylin would just take the time to explain the situation to the elven woman, but she hadn't and it wouldn't be right for him to.

  Even if she might have cared about his slip, Rai continued to laugh uproariously, temporarily transformed into the image traditionally held in cities where few halflings were in evidence, that they were all mirthful and mischievous. It made him feel better for a bit, seeing her in good spirits, even at his expense. They all needed those moments, especially if the endgame was to have them pitted against one of the most prominent demons of the Threefold Moon.

  A great thud sounded behind them, heralding Taylin's return. There wasn't a second thud; Ru didn't touch the ground if he didn't have to.

  “Why are you all here? I thought you were continuing on to Idarian.” Taylin looked on edge and it showed in the fact that she'd offered no greeting. “And why is the army stopped? There's still a few hours of light left.”

  Kaiel rose, as did Rai. Their lightness dissolved as they were forced to return to the matter at hand. “You should take a second look for yourself.”

  Together, the group gained the top of the hill, where Brin was holding her vigil. Below was a wide river valley, thick with verdant splendor up and down the
floodplain. The Nya Rynthian river formed a broad slash that flowed west and south from the craggy and broken mountains far to the east in Taunaun.

  Brin's gaze was fixed on the eastern side of the valley where a swathe of the plain was cut off by a stand of trees too dense and too broad to be natural. A rough, dirt road wound out of a split in that grove, where a fortified, wooden gate once spanned from one tree's thick bole to another. Only now, that gate was battered flat from the outside, the magically grown wall of wood was slowly dying, and in places, boughs had broken off, revealing glimpses of similarly atrophied farmland and village buildings.

  The blight was no more natural than the wall was, but the more immediate problem stood directly ahead of the party, to the southwest. There, the army assembled to avenge King Solgrum was spread out and beginning to put up camp for the night, partially in the shadow of an ancient bridge tower.

  The tower itself had seen far better days. It was riddled with moss and slime from proximity to the damp. Some stones had tumbled down despite still-active magic in place to maintain its integrity. Even in that shape, however, it should have withstood many more years, barring outside interference.

  Outside interference had found it, however. Just mere yards beyond the arch in the tower meant to allow passage onto the bridge, the bridge ended in a blackened mess of scorched, melted and splintered stone. A powerful magical attack had blasted the bridge apart, and that breech had started a cascading failure of the magic holding the span up over the river. The entire thing had collapsed into the swift waters of the Nya Rynthian.

  “Looks like that monster destroyed the bridge after him to stop pursuit.” Rai said, drawing upon her knowledge as a scout. “A bridge that big, over a river that fast—they'll never be able to rebuild it strong enough to carry those ceratos without sending back to the city for some architectural spellcrafters. Military engineers wouldn't be enough even if they had them.”

  “And with Daire now in a succession crisis, an army loyal to the old king will be decidedly disfavored in terms of funding and favors.” Kaiel added. Then he pointed to where lines of soldiers were busy digging an expansive hole in the rich soil. “Percival means business though; they're digging for stone to build a smaller bridge for the lighter mounts.”

  Taylin frowned at what looked to her own experienced eye like an inefficient set of actions. “Why not have the mages dig if they have them? They need those shovels for latrines and defensive works.”

  “Same reason they can't just raise the old bridge.” Said Kaiel. “The river. All that akua moving along with it scatters ere-a and makes it harder to gather and use spells that require it—like all stone manipulations for example. It would be too much of a strain on their mages to dig down to usable rock and build a bridge out of it. The bridge is going to be a near enough thing.”

  Taylin nodded slowly. “They'll be here a long time then. I guess this is where we go on our own—after Brin visits the homestead.”

  “We'd be heading on alone along the path we know a demon took.” Kaiel pointed out.

  Rai folded her arms and looked down with some misplaced disdain at the army. “There's nothing for it though. We have to get to Rivenport and get to Motsey. There's no time to waste, demon or no demon.”

  “Heh.” Ru got everyone's attention with his usual cruel vocalization. He'd summoned his scythe and was balancing the weapon on the flats of both hands in front of him as he surveyed the scene below them. “If we cross the river, there will be no demon before us at all.”

  “What are you talking about, Ru?” Taylin asked, “The bridge—”

  “—was not destroyed to avoid pursuit.” Ru cut her off.

  “Blood turn to flame, stop being smug and tell us what you know.” Kaiel said with a glower.

  Ru smirked and waved his hand to indicate the length and breadth of the valley. “This place is a terrible place for your average spellcrafter. As Raiteria and Arunsteadeles already noted, the river stunts ere-a. Not only ere-a, but that favorite of battlemagi: flaer. Meanwhile, the floodplain is normally a cradle of life, inviting vast amounts of vitae. Except, and she,” He shot a venomous glare at Brin, “can attest to the fact as well, that the violent deaths and moldering corpses of so many minor beasts of the Threefold Moon have left that homestead a festering pit of nekras, and by extension, this entire valley anima-neutral: a perfect brew for abnormally weak spellcraft—unless like me you possess a robust natural capacity, or like this dog of Immurai, you possess a conduit to an outside source of power.”

  He watched their faces when he was done. It didn't need to be said because even Taylin, who knew nothing of magic, knew much of tactics and the laws of advantage. The demon hadn't destroyed the bridge to escape the army, it had done so to keep them from escaping.

  “Yes.” He said casually, “They're all going to die.”

  “No.” Taylin said before the words were even completely out of his mouth. “They're not. Look at how many there are of them, how many mages. It only works if they're taken by surprise. We can warn them, help them mount a defense.”

  “To what end?” Ru swung the scythe up onto his shoulder. “We owe them nothing. It might even be a kindness: I've seen the fates of hundreds of armies left without a nation. Death at the claw, or death from starvation and neglect.”

  Rai started to say something, but stopped. Percival had worked with Grandmother to find her to bring news of Motsey's kidnapping when he had much larger problems before him. But on the other hand, she wanted to move on, to close the gap between her and her son as quickly as possible.

  As Ru and Taylin continued to argue the pros and cons, Kaiel went to stand with Brin, facing Idarian Homestead. Without a word, he raised his arm and ordered the orm into flight in that direction.

  Brin glanced over at him and instantly knew why. “There's only one place the demon could be hiding on this side of the river.” She said quietly.

  “Unless he knows how to hold his breath or go invisible.” Kaiel agreed. Then he held out his hand to her. “I can see through the orm's eyes and control its movement—at least for a while. And I can let you see too... if you want to.”

  A soft sigh escaped Brin, but not in the romantic sense. “I don't really want to. Just seeing how the wall is dying tells me that the place is poisoned by nekras, far more than just the deaths of the farmers can account for. They must have died in pain. Terrified. I'm not sure I want to see them in the light of day.”

  “It might not be that bad.” said Kaiel. “Those creatures you fought weren't spirit beasts; they were lesser minions of the Threefold Moon, demons not so much grown, or even created as roughly cobbled together with a massive infusion of nekras to animate them. When they're killed, they dissipate gouts of it, so you can imagine how terrible the contamination would be from a swarm of them.”

  Brin nodded. “I suppose, but in the end it doesn't matter either. I'm a spirit docent, and I have a responsibility to the dead. My discomfort doesn't mean a lot in the face of that.” Slowly, with great care, she took his hand.

  “Good.” Kaiel said quietly, carefully picking his tone and inflection so as to weave the pattern between them to share the information coming from the orm. “Now just close your left eye...”

  Through the orm's eyes, the world was brighter and the pallet of colors shifted toward yellow. Four eyes provided a sprawling panorama below without losing depth perception. They saw almost the whole of the valley and beyond.

  Most importantly, the homestead began to slip into view below. It was an average enclave for that part of the world: two lots of three fields each inside the initial wall. Where some enclaves built stone walls or palisades, this one was fortunate enough to have someone skilled enough with vitae to throw up and maintain the living wall of trees. As they'd seen before, the fields and the tree wall were dying and decaying at an accelerated rate from nekras contamination.

  “There should be bodies.” Brin told Kaiel, her voice low and reverent. “Not villager
s, but monsters. I met at least seven on the road out, after I found Layaka. I killed them there and they should still be there: spidery things with six legs and faces like bulls with long, lolling tongues. I assumed a divinity spark had hit an ant nest.”

  Kaiel guided the orm forward with a stern expression on his face. “I have theories, but I don't want to say anything until I'm sure...”

  Past the fields and outbuildings, including coops and a pig pen, there was a second wall, traditionally built from stone, but only some seven feet tall or so. The slanted roofs of the houses were visible above it. They were arranged in a horseshoe shape with the open end facing the now ruined gate with storehouses, a stable, and various craft houses toward the back. There was no well, but there was a cistern visible through the gate before the orm passed through it.

  The cistern held the first corpse. It was a demon Kaiel had never encountered before in his studies; a twisted mass of reddish brown limbs covered with stiff hairs. Its bloated belly had been pierced again and again before it finally collapsed back into the summoned water in the cistern and went still.

  Weeks had passed and there was no rot or sign of scavengers. Demons didn't rot and nothing natural would take the meat. Direct sunlight broke down the nekras most of the time, but the miasma of the stuff present in the homestead preserved the bodies, and there were many of them.

  “How many did you kill.” Kaiel said with hushed awe as the orm's flight revealed more and more impaled, slashed, and broken demonic bodies. There wasn't much left of the inhabitants, their bones picked clean by creatures that turned away from the demons, but the place was a veritable demonic graveyard.

  Brin shifted uncomfortably. “They swarmed us. I merged with Reflair and... I didn't count. We were just trying to get ourselves and Layaka out and—wait. What was that?”

  “What was what?” Kaiel wheeled the orm back around and this time, he saw it too: one of the demons was moving, but not in the sense that it was up and walking, or even crawling.