by Billy Wong
Celia hugged herself, feeling cold. There wasn't any reason to say that, she thought, but didn't say due to not wanting to look weak beside the healer. "I notice you criticize 'manly' things a lot. Do you hate men or something? I don't know if you've experienced something that made you feel this way, but not all men are bad."
"I don't hate men. I just find that a lot of foolhardy notions are associated with traditional 'male' pride and heroism. Women are capable of holding them too, such as our princess does or used to. You show signs of it."
She gave Lina a dubious look. "What? I'm a pragmatist. I don't challenge my opponents to honorable duels or engage them in silly pissing contests. I take my victories when and where I can."
"You are a girl who carries around a gigantic sword many men would consider excessive, and then put a man heavier than yourself on your back on top of that instead of thinking to procure a cart or ask for help."
"My choice of weapon is precisely to compensate for weaknesses I'm well aware of! And I only had a short ways to go with Jed, and figured I could handle it."
Lina flashed a wry grin. "Not sure I'm convinced, but you wanting to be a man or not isn't really my business. We should keep going."
"I don't want to be a man, I want to be a strong merchant," Celia grumbled under her breath. At least in her view, that included being able to defend her interests physically when need be like her father also could. "So how do we find these magic-augmenting stones?"
"Well, even though it was considered more glorious to fight toe to toe in the Age of Heroes, I figure at least some of them might have been magic users. The stones are thought to take incredibly long to break down, if they do at all, so we might find some among the gear."
"Some of them might be magic users? For how collected and smart you act, your plans aren't the most thought out."
"I am just an apprentice healer, you know. And you shouldn't hold a grudge over me wondering if you might be part man."
"I'm not," she said with a pout.
Lina described the stones as being light gray, very rough and light but strong, and often carried in the form of roughly palm-sized flakes. They had barely begun searching for such objects among the empty armor before they heard a moan from beyond their range of sight. "Was that a ghost?" Lina asked, her confident veneer wavering a bit with her voice.
"It sounded like a man... but I guess the ghosts of men might sound so too." Celia drew her sword. It might not help against a disembodied spirit, but if indeed they faced a more tangible threat... Another moan, then she made out a heavy footfall over the wind. "Do ghosts make footsteps?" More sounds, drawing closer. She looked in Lina's direction to see a hulking outline appear behind her. The girl's eyes widened as she turned towards the shape. "Lina, look out!"
A tremendous length of metal swept down from above. Lina twirled aside, spinning behind its wielder as the weapon thudded against the earth and cracked it. It was a sword easily larger and wider than even Celia's, whose tip flared out into an axe-like head. Its hilt rested in the hand—not hands, he had apparently swung it with just one—of a massive plate-armored figure, at least seven feet tall and seemingly almost as wide. Initially she thought him an older man, with his full beard and weather-beaten skin, but then realized he could have been as young as his mid thirties. A monstrous giant of a warrior, but she didn't understand why he attacked them.
"He sure is big," Lina commented. He swiped at her, and she jumped back. "You're the fighter, do something!"
He turned his attention to Celia. "You warrior," he said in a predictably booming voice. "Me Gunther. We fight!"
That wasn't normal speech... before she could decide whether he was addled or just accustomed to speaking a foreign language, he charged. She leaned back from an upward cut the wind of which tugged at her cheek, retaliated with her own slash. His mere parry sent her staggering back, almost tripping over her own feet. Her fingers hurt from the meeting of their blades. "He's much stronger than me!"
"Couldn't you tell just by looking?" Lina asked.
"Couldn't you help or at least think up a helpful idea?"
Gunther, if that was his name, ambled none too hurriedly after her. She dodged another big swing, but felt like he wasn't trying at all. Or maybe there was something wrong with him which slowed him down and made his attacks look lazy? She tried striking at him again, but three quick blows were all deflected with ease. He poked almost nonchalantly at her with the tip of his weapon, yet blocking it pushed her back off balance. "You're nothing more than a bully if you find this amusing," she growled, already growing desperate. Even though many men might be stronger than her, she had never felt remotely close to such strength, that the slightest contact between their weapons sent shockwaves through her frame. Would even fighting Elly be like this? It seemed as if just a trickle from his reservoir of power was enough to overwhelm her giving it all she had. And given how effortlessly he defended, it was doubtful she had any significant enough advantage such as speed which could make up for it.
"You warrior. Me Gunther. We fight, I kill!" Damn, it didn't look like he could be reasoned with.
She tried running away from him just to see if she could outpace him, but he sprang after her and immediately forced her to spin around into a block. The impact hurled her from her feet, bouncing painfully across the earth. "Lina, suggestions?" she asked as she struggled to push herself up, joints throbbing.
The healer stood behind Gunther, observing way too calmly. "He seems to be suffering from a mental affliction."
Celia traded more blows with him. Though each exchange jarred her bones excruciatingly, she managed to survive for the moment. She sidestepped a chop and made a mighty twisting cut at his exposed flank. He caught her blade in one gauntleted hand, jerked her around and then tossed her flipping through the air. Somehow she landed clumsily on her feet, but hopelessness threatened to swallow her at the futility of her offense. "Does it help to state the obvious?" she snapped.
Lina shook her head. "I thought you would infer since I said 'affliction' that I might be able to heal him."
Healing whatever condition caused him to act like this? Maybe he wouldn't try to kill them if he were in his right mind. "Shouldn't you try, then?"
"I have to touch him to do so. With his reflexes, he might just swat me away before I could."
She took a boot to the chest that sent her skidding back with pain flaring all through her front and clenched her jaw. "I guess I'll have to distract him."
"Look on the bright side, at least he isn't fighting too aggressively."
She supposed. If he was, she'd probably be dead several times over by now. She launched a barrage of jabs, not caring if any came close to getting through, just looking to distract him by sheer volume. He warded them like brushing off the fists of a child, nudged her sword to the side and punched forward. His armored knuckles slammed into her face, instantly rendering her unconscious.
She awakened with an immense pain in the back of her skull as well as her cheek. Must have hit the ground hard... The hazy world spun around her no matter how she squinted to try and fix her vision, but she could make out a strange figure like an ogre with an oversized head dancing madly before her. When her sight cleared a tad, she recognized it to be two figures, Gunther thrashing to dislodge Lina who clung to his shoulders, glowing hands pressed against his face. "Knocked out cold by one punch?" the healer said when she saw Celia attempting to rise up. "Some amazing warrior."
"He's pu-probably three times my weight!" she protested in a slurred voice. She rubbed her aching neck. "Besides, I woke up pretty fast... I think."
Just as she lurched wobbly to her feet, Gunther yanked Lina off himself and threw her at Celia. "Shit, it didn't-"
Celia caught the smaller girl, though she almost fell over doing so. "Are healers supposed to curse?" Before she even finished the sentence, she tossed Lina back at the giant.
"What are you doing?" Lina asked as Gunther caught her in turn.
While he was occupied with his burden, Celia dashed forward and kicked him in the groin as hard as she could. He bent slightly, and she kicked him again. Then she speared him in the eyes with her fingertips, making him half turn away. "Hurry, finish it!"
Gunther smashed her with a backhanded punch. Though she wasn't knocked out this time, it still sent her sprawling, and she didn't know if she could get up again. "You warrior. Me Gunther. Get insect off, I kill-" His words trailed off as he dropped to one knee, Lina's hands glowing brighter than before over his visage. He reached up weakly for her again—Celia hurled a dagger in desperation, not penetrating his gauntlet but making his fingers flinch back as it hit them. Finally his arms sank towards the ground. Lina let go and he toppled forward, face thumping into the dirt.
Celia sat groggily up. "D-did you kill him?"
"What sense would it make for me to say I was curing him, and then kill him?"
"Not much, but I wouldn't have expected him to fall over like that from having a mental condition healed."
Lina shrugged. "It's probably just shock. I imagine it was a temporary ailment too, not any kind of long term illness. A novice like me shouldn't be able to cure something like that."
"And you took a gamble on that with no idea to know either way?"
"We would've found another way if it didn't work."
"We almost got killed just trying this."
She shrugged again. "Want me to heal you as much as I can? You got knocked out, so your head probably hurts."
Not to mention feeling nausea, and continued dizziness. "Sure, go ahead."
Just as Lina reached her side, piercing laughter tore the air. "Good show, girls!" a gleeful voice said from near the valley entrance. "I thought you might die under the blade of that delirious hulk and save me the trouble of lifting a hand, but you did well to overcome. Unfortunately, your adventures still end here."
"Who in the world is that?" Lina demanded. "Do you know him?"
"I'm not sure, but he might be the assassin known as the Necromancer."
"That is correct! And for your prize, you can have the honor of meeting my new friends."
Metal rattled all around them, and Celia gaped to see empty suits of armor stir, drawing themselves upright with equally ancient weapons in hand. "What the hell? There are no corpses for you to control, how are you doing this?"
"There might be no corpses, but the echoes of warriors' souls which remain here are subject to my manipulation. These shadows may possess only a fraction of the skills they had in life, but there should be more than enough of them to kill you."
Celia looked around fearfully while the clanking crowd closed in. She staggered towards the nearest one to strike at it with her sword, knocking it to its back, but had to back away as more approached and it got up again with barely a dent in its chestplate. No... she was too weak, especially now, and also didn't know how to put these things down for good. Meanwhile Lina blocked a mace swing, slid between its wielder's legs and popped up behind it. She ducked an axe aimed at her head and ran past, a good ten or more armors in pursuit. "Your turn to figure something out Leia, I don't think I can stop these by healing them!"
She backed into the gap Lina's departure had made to not be surrounded on all sides, caught a lighter suit of armor which followed with a chop that split it down the torso. It fell and didn't move again. One down, but its fellows' forest of weapons poking and slashing at her limited her ability to go on the offense again. She downed three more with bold strikes that earned her stinging cuts to both forearms in return, but her chances of beating the odds seemed increasingly slim.
Metal shifted again nearby, and she cringed thinking more armors rose to replace those defeated. But then she heard a loud grunt, and looked to see Gunther standing up. "What happened?" he asked, rubbing his eyes as if sleepy—or they hurt from Celia poking them. "Wait, I remember now... after seeing the dead warriors' memories, I fell into their dream. I vaguely remember fighting you—you girls must have woken me up. Thanks!" He swung his odd axe-sword, cleaving through three armors. His backswing ripped apart a couple more. While still lightheaded from his punches, seeing Gunther join in revitalized Celia. She redoubled her efforts, though she could only bring down one foe at a time instead of several, and the enemy ranks rapidly thinned. Now more armors indeed came to life, stomping forth to join the fray, and Celia's pulse which had started to calm pounded again.
"If you take out the puppeteer," Lina yelled from somewhere out of sight, "maybe that'll stop them!"
Gunther swept his weapon across in a wide arc, disabling or driving back all in its path. "Where is he?"
Celia pointed towards the entrance, from which she had heard the mage's voice coming. "He might be that way!" The giant bellowed and rushed, knocking suit after suit out of the way.
"Uh oh," the Necromancer said, "looks like it might be time to cut my losses." As if their strings had been cut, the remaining armors crumpled in a cacophony of clanging. "Don't worry merchant girl, I'll kill you next time." Then there was silence, and she could almost sense his presence disappear.
"If you can," she muttered after him.
Gunther sheathed his blade. "I think he's gone."
Lina walked back into view. "You okay?" Celia asked.
"I'm fine. You let me get chased around like a chicken for a bit long, but it looks like you finally handled it." She gazed up Gunther's huge form. "With some unexpected help, I see."
He smiled broadly. "Just repaying you girls for giving my senses back. Besides, the old warriors shouldn't be used as tools like that. Now they can go back to their rest."
"I suppose that's one way to put it." Celia felt dizzy again. A lot had happened quickly, and her rattled brain struggled to process it. "Now what?"
"Now I leave this valley, to spread the wisdom of the Age of Heroes anew." He strode away, Celia blinking after him.
After a pause, Lina spoke. "The Age of Heroes, when there were constant bloody wars for stupid reasons like kings fighting over a woman or accusations of cheating in athletic competition?"
"I'm sure he meant some other virtues of old and not that."
"I certainly hope so."
She nodded, but almost fell over from doing so. "I wonder what happened to him, anyway."
"He said something about a dream. Could be he fell asleep here and the feelings of the shades entered his mind and muddled it? Just a guess, though. You want to give it a try?"
"What?"
"I'm joking." She studied Celia's face. "You don't look too good. Maybe I should heal you?"
"Go ahead."
Lina summoned the light to her hand and touched it to her head. After some seconds, she asked, "How do you feel?"
"Not much different. The pain's a little better, but I'm still dizzy as heck. Your healing magic is pretty weak if it can't even treat a punch."
"You were knocked out by the same single punch, so I could say your face is weak by that same logic. Plus, what do you expect from a new apprentice?"
"I suppose you have a point with that last one. Could you try treating my cuts instead?" She stretched out her arms. "The right one's not too bad, but the left is still bleeding a lot."
Lina applied her healing touch, which stopped the bleeding from the lesser wound and slowed it considerably from the worse one. She bandaged them too and smiled in satisfaction. "Should be enough to keep you from bleeding out at least. Now let's get back to searching for those stones before you faint."
#
They combed the battlefield for hours, discovering a multitude of unique and sometimes impractical armor and weapon styles Celia had never encountered before but not finding the stones they needed. She'd almost fallen into despair when Lina called, "Look, down there!"
She jogged over to the other girl, who stood at the edge of a pit roughly thirty feet deep. At the bottom lay a suit of partial armor with robes underneath the metal pieces. Next to an empty glove rested an ornate staff with a macelike head. A
few less distinct sets of gear were scattered around it. "I see, that set looks different from the rest. What of it?"
"Among the equipment we've seen, it seems the most like it might've belonged to a mage. So I'm hoping we can find what we're searching for on it."
Just because a mage might have used it didn't remotely guarantee the presence of magic-boosting stones. But their hope grew scant, and Celia eagerly grasped at a new spark of it. "One of us has to go down there, but I don't trust myself much to climb right now. Can you do it?"
The healer gazed thoughtfully down the pit's side. "Yes, if you'll hold the rope." Celia produced a length of rope—never leave home without some—from her pack and handed one end to Lina. She looped it around her waist for added assurance and gripped it tightly with both hands before giving the go-ahead. Lina lowered herself past the mouth, and Celia felt her weight pull at her hands and braced body. "You holding up okay?" Lina asked.
"Of course, you're not that heavy. Jed must weigh much more than you and I carried him." But due to her fatigue and concussion from the previous battle, the burden felt greater. No matter, she could handle it.
Lina moved down, tugging shockingly hard on Celia. She took an involuntary step forward before she caught herself, yanking the rope tight against the pit's rocky edge in order to keep it from slipping further. "Hey! You got it or what?"
"I'm... fine," she managed to get out. Her vision swam and she already sweated a lot, threatening to compromise her grip. She tried coiling part of the rope around her hand, but that hurt. She took a deep breath and fought back the dizziness. Come on, Celia, you can do this. Lina resumed climbing, and it proved quite the struggle not to be dragged along with her. In an attempt to counter the forward pressure, Celia leaned back. It felt easier now, with the rope snug against the edge seeming to mitigate some of the force against her. Lina yelped. What was going on? The rope stood steady in her hands, so it must be a problem on her associate's end—and then she saw the line fraying where it met the pit's jagged lip, which had apparently cut into it.
