by Colin Taber
His head spun for a moment.
Anton shook his head and tried to refocus.
With the toxin gathered, he pushed it to expel it out of the wound.
He looked at the puncture in the real world and watched as red sparks of blood magic snapped and flared.
The poison leaked out as a yellow liquid, welling up and out of the puncture.
As he watched the last of the poison empty itself out, he heard her breath stop and saw her chest still.
His eyes widened in horror.
Her heart had stopped beating.
Anton was drained, but he still needed to revive her.
Sweat beaded on his brow as he again tried to focus.
For a moment his vision swam.
He swayed again, having to put a hand out to stop himself falling to the side. It splashed blood around him.
His blood pooled in the moss.
Too much blood.
Then he heard Sef’s exasperated voice behind him, “What are you doing!”
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Sef ran for Anton, fearing the worst.
He was horrified when he was close enough to see what was happening.
The amount of blood that had pooled in the apron of frost surrounding his two friends spoke of the scale of Anton’s folly.
Sef knew Matraia may not be able to take any more divine healing, but Anton could. And by the way the Outleaguer swayed in front of him, surrounded by his own blood, Sef didn’t have to ask if he needed it.
The first thing Sef did was beg a strong blessing of vitality from Juvela, a blessing he would bestow not upon Matraia, but his spent friend. His request was heady with fear and desperation.
Juvela gifted the healing immediately, the blessing generous and strong.
Sef reached him and growled, “What are you doing!” as he tore off his own shirt.
Anton could only sluggishly shake his head. He had rid Matraia of the poison, but failed to revive her. And now he had nothing left to give.
He had failed, and that failure was going to cost him dearly.
The big Flet dropped to his knees beside Anton and put a hand to the Outleaguer’s chest, as he hissed, “Juvela, heal him, but make it hurt!”
Anton gasped and screamed.
The blood magic’s red sparks blazed, the flow from his wrist tripling to squirt across the moss, reinvigorated by Juvela’s blessing.
Sef steadied his friend, and then grabbed his bloody wrist, wrapping it tight with his shirt. He growled, “You’re a madman!”
Finally, the red sparks faded, the power cut off as Anton’s bleeding was stopped.
The Outleaguer nodded weakly, understanding his friend. “I’m sorry... I just wanted to save her!” The former inquisitor began weeping.
“But blood magic?”
“If that’s what we can afford.”
“The price is too high. You know it to be true. Promise me you’ll never do it again!”
Matraia interrupted the scolding as she stirred beside them, her colour returning. The wound on her bicep had not just lost its angry colour, but healed over.
The last surge of blood magic, augmented by Anton’s healing via Juvela, had reached her.
Anton gasped with relief.
But his satisfaction was short lived.
In front of them, from the tunnel, the patter of long feet sounded, echoing into the afternoon.
Sef and Anton rose up quickly, the Outleaguer briefly swaying on his feet. Matraia unbelievably rose between them, even if her movements were stiff. She didn’t just look awake, but also recovered.
Sef said, “We need to go, can you both run?”
Through her confusion she nodded.
Anton strengthened in front of Sef, Juvela’s blessing continuing to do its work. He hissed, “Let’s go!”
They grabbed their gear and began their flight into the forest.
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The End
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Ossard Rising (book #4) is out now.
Lae Ossard (book #5) will conclude the Ossard Series in early 2019.
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Appendix
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The Goddess of Life & the God of Death
The Mother Goddess, Life, is, and always has been. It needs to be understood that she was long before anything else could be. Trying to fathom where she came from or how she came to be is beyond our mortal minds, as is such an understanding of her partner, Death.
She is the mother of all life, of this world and others, and even the gods who reign over them. Nonetheless, she needed a partner in bringing such bounty into being, and she found it in her opposite, Death.
He agreed to work with her, to labour with her, and love her. A union that saw the universe born. It took that union, his seed and her bloom, to fill it with the magic of their offspring.
But, for all his toil, Death demanded a price: That all of her creations would eventually come home to him.
One day Life will run short of the seed her partner gave. In the meantime, she brings more life to the worlds she has woven, and Death reaps the harvest it returns.
The departed souls of our loved ones’ journey to his dark and cold realm, but only to stay for a while. For again, in time, they are reborn into mortal forms.
Life and Death, though, have since become estranged.
Now Death seeks advantage. He works to win influence amongst their divine children, the gods, and their mortal children, the races of man. He wants to control the flow of souls, not just in his dark and chill realm of the dead, but also in the worlds of the living.
For souls are power.
Glossary
Aespen Ocean – The wide ocean to the west of Dormetia.
Anja Vaugen – See Vaugen, Anja.
Ansilsae, The Plain of – A barren plain on the east coast of Velsana. The site where the prophecy of the same name was issued, ending the Battle of Ansilsae. That prophecy – or divine promise – ended a civil war that would have otherwise seen the destruction of the Lae Velsanan race. The prophecy promises that plain as the site of the Eternal Capital of the Lae Velsanans’ Fifth and Final Dominion.
Ansilsae Prophecy, The – Issued by the five gods of the Kinreda. It promises their followers, the Lae Velsanans, total and final rule over the world if they can discover and overcome the four failings of their race.
Atalia Cerraro – See Cerraro, Atalia
Avida – Another face of the Horned God or Terura. A god of greed, decadence, gluttony, and more. This is the Heletian name for that aspect.
Baden, Kurt – Juvela and Pedro’s Flet coach driver.
Baimiopia – The Holy City, capital of Greater Baimiopia, and the centre of the Church of Baimiopia.
Ba-Mora – Inquisitor Anton’s Ship, the lone vessel dispatched with his small force from the Black Fleet to Ossard. It is named after the lost capital of the Ogres, a mountain city said to be a wonder, but sacked by Saint Baimio during the Heletian-Ogre wars. The Ogres were the fourth race of man and called the city Bar Mor.
Baruna Discotti – See Discotti, Baruna.
Benefice Gian Vassini – The most senior churchman of the Church of Baimiopia in Ossard. He is comfortable and somewhat corrupt, and now heading towards his more mature years.
Black Fleet, The – The fleet of ships maintained by the Inquisition and used as their main means of travel for their various missions and regular rounds of the Heletian League states, as they hunt out heresy and the enemies of the Church of Baimiopia.
Burnings, The – The uprising that saw the Inquisition and its Black Fleet forced out of Ossard following excessive purging and spiritual policing by the Inquisition over two decades ago.
Burvois – The middling people of Burvoy, also the name of their language.
Burvoy – A kingdom of sun, fields, orchards, and the dark Cas
pas Forest, found at the south-eastern borders of the Heletian League.
Cabal, The – An organisation that spans the world and touches all races. It governs the use of heart magic by its practitioners. Much of its workings are subject to secrecy. It’s also engaged in the hunt for renegades - those users of heart magic who refuse to join its ranks.
Cabalists – Members of the Cabal (see above).
Calbaro, The – The main order of holy scholars found within the Church of Baimiopia.
Cassaro River, The – The river that passes through the city of Ossard.
Celestial, The – The realm of gods, spirits, souls, and raw magic. This astral place is invisible to most, but able to be slipped between (from the real world) by those who handle one of the three branches of magic.
Cerraro, Atalia – The dead and much loved wife of Marco Cerraro.
Cerraro, Marco – A Heletian follower of Juvela, and recently widowed.
Church of Baimiopia – The only legal faith in the lands of the Heletian League. The faith of Krienta (the creator) and his chosen son, Saint Baimio. The faith is centred in the most powerful Heletian state, Greater Baimiopia, in the holy city of Baimiopia.
Chronicle, The – A position held by a Lae Velsanan who records the history of his or her age. Currently held by Forwao, who resides in Yamere at the Core of Lae Wair-Rae. The record is a detailed account of the rise and fall of the first four promised dominions of the Ansilsae Prophecy. In the Chronicle's library (the Library of Truth) an almost continuous record of Lae Velsanan history exists. Only one volume is missing - that which deals with the final days of the second dominion. The Chronicle is divinely inspired in sourcing his or her information. He or she is mortal, but receives whispered truths from the celestial.
Ciero, Mauricio – The most senior member of the Cabal in Ossard. He’s a reclusive Heletian, and lives in the city’s elevated and wealthy northern district.
Colonies, The – The eleven official colonies of the Lae Velsanans’ Fifth and Final Dominion, Lae Wair-Rae, which are scattered about Dormetia and to its east.
Communed, Celestially – To communicate soul-to-soul through celestial means. Requires powerful magic, or a god, or cell-mind to facilitate.
Core, The – The heartland of Lae Wair-Rae, the region found on the south-eastern part of the island of Wairanir. This is a land well developed and overcrowded, thus the need for colonies to both feed the Core, but also export its excess people to.
Counter Prayer – Magic that works to counter that previously cast, usually of equal power and the opposite effect.
Covenant, The – The divine agreement that sees the elevated gods of the celestial not meddle directly in mortal affairs. They may send blessings to their followers, or via their priests, but may not directly intervene in the mortal world. The Covenant hasn't been breached for centuries. Such breaches are punished by massed actions agreed to by the remaining elevated gods.
Council of Merchant Princes – The grouping that governs Ossard through discussion and vote, and is drawn from the wealthiest families of the city-state. It is headed by the Lord of Ossard, Lord Liberigo.
Cycle of Life – The cycle the soul follows through birth and death, and on to rebirth (see appendix).
Death – An immortal figure, and original adversary to the goddess, Life, also her estranged lover.
Def Turtung – Also know as the Killing (to the Flets), or New Moons Night – Lae Lunis Pors – (to the Lae Velsanans).
The night that marked the beginning of the Fall of the Fourth Dominion of (Old) Wair-Rae. The Flets had spent centuries as an enslaved race in the Fourth Dominion, and eventually began to win (and buy) their freedom. Nonetheless, the dominion was still very much dependent on Flet labour (particularly in the fields of agriculture).
Def Turtung began in Yamere, a series of riots by the common people of the dominion against the Flets who’d gained their freedom through hard work and success. The disturbances spread and were openly encouraged by the forces of law. Eventually, what began as a spontaneous and popular expression of anger (and more than anything, jealousy and bigotry) became a sanctioned war against the Flets, forcing them to flee by sea.
Discotti, Baruna – The Heletian woman who comes to befriend Juvela, attracted by her sense of justice, compassion and hope.
Divine Focus – A place where the real world and the next world (the celestial) almost join, drawn together by bridges hosted by celestially aware individuals, or those anchored to artifacts or rituals.
Divine Mark – A brand that marks a soul, denoting the marking god’s interest in it. It is a sign to their followers to take some kind of action: Some marks are a sign for followers to challenge or kill the bearer, or for more complex marks, to offer aid. Marks can also be bestowed by gods upon their own followers to mark them for penance and shame.
Dominions, The – Of the Ansilsae Prophecy. There will be five. They are as follows: Quo Ungria, Kalraith, Jhae Dalin Cor, Old Wair-Rae, and Lae Wair-Rae.
Dorloth – The awakened god of the gargoyle nation. She is now mature and ready for elevation to the celestial, at which point she will leave her physical form behind.
Dormetia – The region controlled in a large part by the rising Fifth and Final Dominion. The only other major power, though not of equal strength, is the Heletian League.
EK – See Encarnigo Krienta.
Elemental World, The – The third world. The real world is the first, the second is the celestial (home of gods, spirits, souls and magic), and the third is the elemental. It is a place of raw power filled with the primal energy of fire, water, air, and soil.
Encarnigo Krienta – Part of the Heletian calendar, the zero year, the year of Saint Baimio’s (the mortal son of Krienta) elevation to the celestial after his defeat of the Ogres and the sacking of their mountain capital of Bar Mor, known to the Heletians as Ba-Mora.
Evora – A former runt Heletian kingdom (and member of the Heletian League) that was all but sold off to the middling Prabesk traders from far off Prabeq (found far to the east). The deal was done as the last Evoran king succumbed to his debts. Evora is no longer a Heletian League member, and is now used as a trading base by the Prabesk, and largely populated by their own kind. Militant factions in the League and the Church of Baimiopia (and Inquisition) refer to it as woeful lost Evora and dream of retaking the territory.
Expeditia Puritanica, The – The arm of the Church of Baimiopia’s Inquisition that actively undertakes the organisation’s many cleansing missions. All field Inquisitors and the Black Fleet come under its governance.
Feeders, The – The lost spirits, shades, and carrion of the celestial. The ruins of souls.
Felmaradis Jenn – See Jenn, Felmaradis.
Fifth and Final Dominion, The – Lae Wair-Rae was declared the Fifth and Final Dominion by High King Caemarou after the riots of New Moon's Night. He claimed that the freeing of the Fourth Dominion from its dependence on slavery spelt the end of that realm and the beginning of the next, it being cured of the fourth failing; sloth.
Some historians have suggested that Lae Wair-Rae is merely a continuation of Old Wair-Rae, but such discussions are not popular at the royal court. Such voices claim their position due to the lack of calamity at the end of the Fourth Dominion. Advocates of Lae Wair-Rae being the Fifth and Final Dominion (including High King Caemarou) point to the famines and upheavals suffered by the Lae Velsanans after the bloody events of New Moon's Night, and the subsequent war against the Flets (their former enslaved workforce). Despite the stifled debate, something limited largely to a handful of academic circles, it is widely believed that Lae Wair-Rae is indeed the Fifth and Final Dominion.
First Faith, The – The faith of the Goddess of Life. She is also known by the divine names of Schoperde, Pordanamae, Bru Moar, Tergaia, and the Green Way amongst others. This is the most basic of faiths, the worship of our natural world and the life that it gives. It is about balance and the ways of nature.
Five Faiths of the Kinreda, The – See The Kinreda.
Flet/Fletlander – Of Fletland. The Flets are of the middle race of men and have been a wandering people for over a thousand years. They most recently suffered at the hands of the Lae Velsanans in a genocidal campaign waged by High King Caemarou to chase them out of the borders of his newly decreed Fifth and Final Dominion. They can be found in the harsh and wild lands of Fletland and in Ossard.
Fletland – The current Flet homeland, found on the south-eastern corner of the island of Kalraith (to the west of Ossard). It is a place of plains, bogs, deep forests, and inland lakes and rivers.
Florin – The currency of the Heletian League states, and minted by each member.
Forbidden, The – The name given by the Lae Velsanans to their cultist kin found in the icy northern wastes of Wairanir, well north of the Core.
Forwao – The current Chronicle (see The Chronicle).
Gods – There are many gods, but originally there were only two: the god of life, and the god of death. Life birthed many more, and after such labour left them to govern the worlds and races she created before entering a deep sleep to recover from her efforts. After an age, Life reawakened to find that many of this second generation of gods had been seduced by the promise of easy power from their father, Death. They have since become addicted to feeding on souls and the surge of elation that such a thing delivers, instead of the constant succour delivered by living souls that offer devotion through faith.
There are three stages of godhood:
The Avatar – the seed of a god within a mortal shell.
The Awakened – the sprouting seed of a god within a mortal form. If they gather enough strength they will eventually become elevated. Such a process can take as little as years or as long as millenia.
The Elevated – a mature god who has come into its final form in the celestial, and abandoned its mortal or physical representation in our world. Elevated gods have to abide by the rules of the Covenant.
Goldston Bridge – The bridge across the Cassaro well outside of Ossard’s walls, and a good ride up the valley to the small trading town of the same name.
