Raising Allies

by Sarah Lin

  Yet as the fight progressed, all Meara could do was retreat backward. She kept herself unfocused so that any stray attacks would pass through her - though she tried to draw off some of the others, they had seen the arrows fail to harm her and they were too suspicious to be easily manipulated.

  If she let herself break apart into pieces, she could certainly horrify them long enough for Danniah and Izzy to kill them. But the last time Meara had tried to do that, she had found herself breaking apart, almost losing her grip on the system within her and even on her own identity. Only Bloodwraith had been able to bring her back from that, and he wasn't present.

  Just as Meara was beginning to think that the others could end the battle easily enough, Baratak entered. As he did so, he lifted a short javelin and hurled it.

  The weapon shot through the air, hitting Danniah's shield so hard that it tore through part of the metal as it scraped off, then buried itself in the stone wall. Danniah staggered from the impact and one of the remaining thugs tried to take advantage of it, but Izzy leapt on top of him, sword going through his neck.

  Baratak struck her a second later, drawing his sword and piercing her through the heart. Izzy dropped and lay still, and for a moment Meara worried for her, but then she realized that Izzy was playing dead again. Or perhaps playing at being alive. Even if they knew she could fight, they wouldn't expect her to be undead. Smart move.

  That motivated Meara to try to become involved. Danniah had struck down the last thug in the confusion, but now she was pinned in the corner with Baratak advancing on her. He hadn't seemed this powerful before, so what could have changed? When he struck out at Danniah, the blows seemed to knock her back against the wall with surprising force.

  As she moved closer, Meara examined the flow of the system around him, sensing items. Yes, especially around his hands: beneath his gloves, she realized that there were rings of great power. He had a full set of eight, which appeared to be enhancing his strength to truly impressive levels. Combined with his speed, he had Danniah pinned down and was battering away at her defenses. Danniah was already bleeding from several large wounds, struggling to keep her shield raised.

  Meara closed her eyes and reached out. Yes, she could sense that the rings he wore were also part of an inventory, in a sense... she was a merchant, inventories were her domain... placing items in them... and also removing items. As she drew close, Meara stretched her fingers toward his hand...

  His sword went through her stomach. Meara only slowly realized that it had not passed through her, it had torn open her body, then the pain flooded through her body.

  She let out a cry and fell to the ground, the pain breaking her apart. It was difficult to focus, but she realized that she had made a mistake, come too close to getting involved with the battle. When the system ceased to consider her a non-combatant, it no longer shielded her.

  Though she tried to retreat into her usual state of detachment, the agonizing pain and the feeling of her blood leaving her were too much. She was locked into the battle and helpless to do anything to help. In theory she should be able to create a potion to heal herself, but her mind was fragmenting into too many pieces. Even just retrieving a potion from the space within her cloak was too much - the void yawned open, threatening to consume her.

  "Meara!" Danniah used the rest of her mana on a shield bash that drove Baratak back, then drove toward Meara with a furious assault. Smirking, Baratak deflected her desperate swings easily and simply retreated, letting her exhaust herself uselessly.

  Except that his steps took him next to Izzy's body. She sprang up, grabbed his leg, and bit down hard. Baratak let out a loud cry and at that moment Danniah struck again. This time her mace clipped him on the arm and his sword clattered to the ground.

  Baratak kicked Izzy in the chest, his strength slamming her brutally into one of the walls. But instead of trying to retrieve his sword, he staggered back, limping badly. His leg had a large piece torn from it and he had to support himself on the side of the door.

  They might have been able to take him out in that moment, but Danniah stared at Meara and Izzy in concern. Meanwhile, Baratak recovered. Meara realized what he was going to do, yet when she opened her mouth no sound came out.

  His heavily-enchanted fist slammed against the side of the doorway as he fled. Danniah tried to stop him, but she was too late. The old stone of the ruin collapsed, the wall caving in and utterly burying the doorway. Baratak escaped and Danniah pulled back, though the falling stone knocked her to the ground. They were trapped within the ruin.

  Did it even matter? Meara found herself staring at flickers of boxes and numbers that she couldn't quite grasp, but she knew that the numbers were going down as she bled out. If only she could find her potions... even that was starting to fade...

  "Please..."

  Izzy's voice rasped in the darkness. She rose to her feet, her eyes the only source of light. It glinted off her teeth and also showed that her chest had been heavily damaged by the kick. As Meara struggled to focus, she realized that a box-like link was stretching away from them, toward the crypt. What could it mean?

  "Da, please..." Izzy dropped to her knees. "Please..."

  After what felt like an eternity, something pulsed back. When it met Izzy, she shuddered in a surge of necromantic energy. Her body lurched upward, shaking violently before going still. She stood motionless for a moment, then her eyes blazed open.

  Meara stared as Izzy approached her, teeth gleaming red. Surely she wasn't going to... yet Izzy didn't seem quite herself, overtaken with the new power. There was nothing Meara could do as Izzy bent down next to her open wound.

  Her teeth snapped shut.

  And then somehow Meara felt better. It was so unexpected that she didn't believe it at first, but she was no longer dying. Izzy lapped away the blood on her stomach, yet her tongue touched healed skin, not an open wound.

  As Izzy crawled away from her toward Danniah, Meara slowly sat up. Though her stomach still hurt and she didn't think she had truly recovered, the pain was gone and she was no longer bleeding out. Numb from the experience, Meara stared as Izzy reached Danniah's body and bent down.

  Again her teeth snapped, in the air instead of on the wound. As she did, Izzy generated a necromantic pulse of energy that seemed to draw something from Danniah.

  "Wha...?" Danniah stirred and stared at Izzy, who hovered over her with concern. "Izzy, did you... heal me?"

  "Ate pain. Ate suffering." Izzy buried her face in Danniah's chest and let out rasping sobs as Danniah held her. "Not want lose friends..."

  Meara slowly got to her feet, smiling for the first time since the ambush. She was no mage, but she supposed that if Izzy ate death energy, it might be possible that she could eat similar energy from the living. The pulses from the box system must have been her requesting to spend her points on a new trait and Bloodwraith granting permission.

  Which meant that Izzy was now an undead healer. Bloodwraith was going to love that.

  While Danniah held Izzy and stroked her back, she looked up toward Meara. "We're trapped in here, aren't we? Do you think Baratak is going to bring more people?"

  "I'm certain of it." Meara examined the different collapsed entrances and eventually selected one that was formed mostly of whole bricks. "But with his leg injury, it will take him some time. We need to be gone without a trace before then."

  "But how?"

  "It isn't impossible to clear this rubble." At least she hoped that it wasn't impossible. It had been a hastily constructed ambush, not a prison, but she was not at her best. Her body had recovered, but her mind still reeled from the injury.

  Closing her eyes, Meara forced herself to cohere into one person again. She needed to be able to focus to use the system or they wouldn't be able to escape quickly enough. Keeping her eyes closed, she slowly reached out and touched one of the fallen bricks. It hurt to access the inventory within her cloak, but she forced her way through.

  Then the brick
disappeared from her fingers and appeared within herself.

  Smiling, Meara began to pick up the bricks one at a time and place them into her inventory. It wasn't always easy, and she felt progressively heavier as her storage capacity filled, but she could manage it. Danniah saw what she was doing and moved to help her, pushing aside some larger clumps and breaking apart connected bricks.

  After hovering behind them for a while, uncertain how to help, Izzy went back to the bodies. She consumed them with particular viciousness, tearing them apart and staining many of the walls with blood. Watching that only distracted her, so Meara focused entirely on the rubble until at last she found herself groping for bricks that weren't there.

  "You did it, Meara." Danniah touched her gently on the arm. "We can get out. Are you still with us?"

  "Yes. I'm here." Meara put a hand over the other woman's, then forced herself to focus on reality again. "And we need to move."

  They crawled out through the gap they'd opened, which was actually larger than it would have needed to be. Once they were all on the other side, Meara reached back into her inventory and dumped out all the bricks she had collected. Danniah gave her a strange look as they turned away, heading into the desert to vanish as soon as possible.

  "Why put them back?"

  "I don't want to give them a hint that we fled." Meara glanced over her shoulder, checking that the doorway they'd used looked similar to the other blocked entrances. "Better if they have to work to open it up, then they'll find us just gone."

  "Oh, that's smart! Thanks for the help, Meara." Danniah turned and pulled Izzy into a hug. "And you! I didn't know you could do something like that!"

  "Ya!"

  But once the ruin had disappeared on the horizon and they began curving their path to return to the crypt, Danniah's mood fell. "I was hoping that no one who knew about the connections between us would betray us. But since Baratak escaped, he'll probably tell the others. There's no way we can get into Manascas easily anymore..."

  "That's true." Meara reached deep to find a smirk for Danniah's sake. "But look on the bright side: this is going to do wonders for your reputation. They'll break open that ruin and find nothing but a bunch more bodies torn apart."

  "Gah, no..." Danniah let out an exaggerated sigh and tugged off her helmet. "Stupid helm..."

  Though Meara kept a smile on her face, it was just a mask. While they should count themselves lucky to have survived, that meant nothing in the broad scheme of things. Now they faced a new opponent and increased restrictions. They had won the battle, but the war had turned against them.

  Chapter 21

  An undead healer? An undead healer?

  Bloodwraith paced back and forth in the crypt, completely unable to return to his work. He knew that it had been the right decision to approve the trait and was glad that everyone had survived. In terms of short term benefits, he couldn't fault the choice. And yet...

  [Consume Injuries

  Cost: 13 NP

  The Undead Companion will gain the ability to consume damage dealt to living beings. Damage healed will scale first with Intellect and second with damage. Consumption of this type will grant energy but not Necromancy Points.

  NOTE: This trait was produced through an idiosyncratic blend of traits and is poorly suited to Undead Companions. Taking this trait is not recommended.]

  The fact that the boxes didn't recommend it wasn't necessarily relevant, but it still rankled. Even if the skill didn't use actual healing magic, it was a healing spell in all but name. The exact opposite of the function of any undead. On top of that, even if it was effective, it largely duplicated what Meara could already do with her potions. Admittedly, healing was a reasonable capacity for redundancy, but Necromancy Points had been lost forever on it...

  "Da is angry?" Izilthor sat quietly, watching him pace back and forth. Bloodwraith shook his head.

  "No. You did the right thing, saving Danniah and Meara."

  "But Da is angry." She lowered her head and didn't look at him.

  Sighing, Bloodwraith bent down beside her. "I'm not angry, just disa... you made the right choice, it just might set us back. I've had to make some similar choices as well. Focusing on the long term means nothing if we don't survive the short term."

  "I liked it."

  Bloodwraith stared at her for a while and Izilthor shyly looked up at him.

  "Pain tastes good. Different than dead things. And it made Danniah safe. I liked it."

  "That's... we'll talk about this later, okay? I need to speak with the others about what we're going to do next."

  Though Izilthor nodded, when she slipped away she didn't seem like her usual self. Bloodwraith felt a simultaneous sense of guilt, and fury at feeling that guilt. He cursed the boxes under his breath for bringing him to such a position.

  Danniah entered with a concerned look on her face. "What did you say to Izzy?"

  "Nothing. She just knows I... a healing undead?"

  "Hmph! It's a good thing you weren't so judgmental when Izzy asked to learn the skill, or Meara and I could have died!"

  "Of course I was going to allow it. All of you were on assignment, and I trust Izilthor not to make foolish decisions. I assumed that she had a good reason."

  "But you don't trust her to make decisions about herself?"

  Bloodwraith stared at Danniah, irritation roiling within him, but then it all drained away. He sat down heavily and shook his head. "What's done is done. I'm glad you're all safe. It's just that our work is going to become more difficult now that there are people in Manascas actively looking for all of us."

  "It won't be so bad, will it?" Danniah came to sit down beside him, patting his knee. "We can still get stronger by exploring the rest of the crypt, right? It will be fun to have everyone work together again."

  He grumbled under his breath, but let her comfort him. Perhaps it was better to focus on the positives of the encounter. Aside from the highest value of their lives, they had gained more information about their enemies. He'd also gained a new version of his sword:

  [Lodestone Greatsword (enhanced)

  Base Damage: 18-24

  Durability: 100/100

  Mana Capacity: 0/9

  Rarity: Very Uncommon]

  Even if that was the best he could do with this basic weapon, it was good enough for now. He'd hoped that its mana capacity would increase more, since 3 points was just one weak skill, but the increase in damage was impressive. Hopefully that would be enough for him to continue using it for the near future.

  Before he could stare at the boxes for too long, Meara came in to join them, and a while later Gharavi emerged from deeper in the crypt. They all sat down in the chamber, by now ignoring the fact that they were seated on coffins, and spent some time in thought. Eventually Bloodwraith decided that he needed to lead things.

  "It's a testament to your skill that you escaped, but we have to assume that any time we enter Manascas, we will be taking a great risk." He glanced over the three of them seriously. "This doesn't fundamentally change what we need to do to prepare, it just restricts our options."

  "I think I could sneak into the city," Meara said, "but it would still be a risk. I think we should limit it to our most important objectives."

  "Agreed."

  Gharavi sat forward, steepling her fingers together. "There's one element of good news: we can be relatively certain that Raigar doesn't have access to a magical tracking artifact. I was concerned at first, but there's still no sign that anyone knows our location."

  "That's good, but..." Danniah glanced toward him with a concerned expression. "What's important enough for us to risk entering the city? I mean, I want to get the new gauntlets I found repaired, but that's just a tiny bit more power. We need big things against Raigar, right?"

  "Let me take a look at them." Gharavi reached over and examined the gauntlets carefully. "My first impression is that I won't be able to repair these, since they involve too much metal enchantment, not to m
ention that I lack materials. But I will do what I can."

  "Thanks!"

  Bloodwraith waved the gauntlets aside. "As you said, slightly more power will not make a difference. What we need, more than anything, is information. That is why I think our highest priority should be to confront this Aesidh in the Red Sands. Even if he knows nothing specific about Raigar, we might be able to uncover a weakness we can use against all Outsiders."

  "Good." Gharavi sat back, watching him carefully. "I was concerned you might have forgotten about it."

  "No. But what can you tell us about him?"

  "Only that the man is fiendishly hard to find except when he attends the Red Sands Arena. I understand that he has an estate near the Governor's mansion, but when I tested the defenses, I found that they were impenetrable, at least by the means available to me."

  "That has likely not changed. Meara?" He glanced toward her, but she shook her head slowly.

  "I might be able to infiltrate many locations, but I'd be concerned about trying when Outsiders are involved. They may use magic that supersedes the power implanted in me."

  "Then attacking his mansion is not a viable option, which means that we need to target him during one of his public outings. Fortunately, they are still holding such events, and we can reasonably hope that he will attend. Would it be possible to confront him there?"

  Gharavi nodded. "I have a small amount of information about him. I suspect that he transports himself primarily by magic, so we will need to take him by surprise and prevent usage of artifacts. Beyond that, I cannot predict how powerful he is personally. Other than the events that involve bloodshed, he seems most interested in magical and spear-related events, which suggests he may have skill in those areas."

  That was more information than he'd expected, so he nodded to her appreciatively. Unfortunately, he realized that working constantly beneath the crypt left him uncertain of the date. "When is the next Red Sands event?"

  Danniah perked up. "There's one in six days, but that's just another qualifying event. The next real tournament is supposed to be a tenday after that, unless something goes wrong."