Endrance stood, trying to wipe the blood off his face and chest with the ruins of his shirt. He mostly succeeded, leaving his chest smeared with it in places. The bleeding had stopped, but he had developed a powerful headache and his skin still burned.
"Tell me everything you know about Valeria, involving her association with Kalenden or me." he said, panting. Lights flashed in his eyes and the spell light he had called out flickered. Something was wrong.
"How much detail do you desire?" She asked.
Endrance sunk to the ground onto his rear. He rubbed at his temples and the pain subsided enough that he was able to focus on her again. "I want to know specifics, but not every minute detail unless it explicitly involves me." he said, his words slurring slightly.
The demoness watched him without empathy. "I can do this." she said. "Kalenden's associate Valeria was the one who traded the summoning circle in exchange for a large quantity of Crystalphage. She has communicated with him through proxies, though I was only present for the last one, where she cut off her support of him."
Endrance waited, listening.
"Ultimately, there is only one thing about you that I know." She concluded. "She loves you."
Endrance looked up at her quizzically. "What?"
Instead of answering, the demoness turned and slashed at the circle with her talons. Stone parted like butter and the soft gold was cut clean through. Endrance flinched as the circle fell into pieces before him and magic power flickered through the room in backlash. She turned back to him, kissed the air between them, and disappeared in sudden gouts of flame.
Endrance watched the smoke dissipate and frowned. He was confused, unable to wrap his beleaguered brain around what she said.
"Loves... me?" he asked, standing. His head hurt, but it seemed that the absence of the circle had lessened his pain. He knew he had to check himself over for damage, but there was nothing he'd be able to do about it at the moment.
Endrance started walking down the passage. As he followed the rough stone walls, he had to stop several times to catch his breath and let the world swim into focus again. He needed to continue on; he dimly recognized he was badly injured. Eventually that thought escaped him, and he continued on because he couldn't think straight with how badly his head hurt. The rock below his feet turned to smooth stone and at some point he stumbled back into the light, but Endrance did not see it.
He could progress no further. He sank to his knees on the raised steps and slumped up against something square and uncomfortable. He almost recognized what it was, but drifted into unconsciousness, only his head and arm resting against the broken throne. As he faded, the spell lights drifting around the room flickered, and died.
Endrance awoke with a gasp, his hands scrabbling against the cold surface he'd blacked out on. Dried blood splattered the stone underneath his face, and flakes of it peeled off of his skin as he sat up. It was dim, but not perfectly dark in the throne room.
His head pounded painfully, a war drum being beaten against his skull. His throat was dry and parched and his whole body screamed in aches and pains when he moved. His heart ached and pounded hard in his chest. In the back of his mind, he felt that his aura was almost entirely empty of power. For a moment, Endrance wondered why he wanted to be alive again.
The aches and pains slowly dulled and the pounding of his head reached a more survivable level of hurt. The wizard finally was able to pull his feet under him, standing. He needed to get back to the people outside.
He started across the area in the dark and nearly fell on his face when he felt a sharp pain in his foot. Lifting his foot, he found a sharpened bit of horn sticking out of the ball of his foot. Plucking it free, he blinked as the tip came out of his foot slightly luminous. A little bead of blood formed on his foot, visible even in the darkness. He wiped it off on his hand and continued staggering toward the doors.
Stumbling, the wizard moved through the dark more from memory than by senses. He didn't want to try using a spell with his aura so dangerously close to empty. He'd not sacrifice what little power remained in his body, which was needed to keep him alive.
He undid the bar to the doors and pulled them open agonizingly slowly, hardly able to handle their weight in his weakened state. He was surprised to see that not only was it daytime, but it was snowing again. Only two men waited for him in the courtyard. One was Joven. The other was Thorald. Both stared at him, mouths agape as he shambled out of the castle into the courtyard.
"Endrance..." Joven said. Endrance had seen the man shot with crossbows and be less fazed than he was at this moment.
"I got rid of the corruption." Endrance said weakly. "I really need some food, a bed, and a bath."
"I'll say." Thorald said, recovering faster than Joven. "You've been hard at work a long time. We thought you had died."
"Long time?" Endrance asked. The sunlight, even through the snow clouds above, seemed far too bright for him.
"Yeah,” Thorald replied. “I was trying to convince them to let me knock down the doors and send a search party after you. You've been gone for several hours."
Endrance stared blankly at the elder barbarian. "Come again?"
"You were in there purifying the castle for the last half day, at the least." Thorald repeated. "You must have been so busy you lost track of time."
Endrance scratched his cheek with a finger. "I...must have."
"Endrance!" Joven said again, with more force behind it.
"What?" the mage asked, exhausted. "What is it?"
"What happened to you?" he asked.
Endrance looked down at himself. He was wearing only a pair of pants and shoes. His chest was bare and covered in blood, sweat, dirt, and scratches. His hair hung limply around his face and he stooped a little, as standing up straight made him dizzy.
"I know." Endrance said, shaking his head. "To think I could have bathed or something."
"Not that!" Joven said, crossing his hands in front of him. "That makes you look like a real man! But how did you get this way?"
Endrance blinked. "Huh?"
Chapter 04
Selene leaned over the table and felt the Spengur's forehead. Frowning, she shook her head.
"I don't get it." she said at last. "Are you sick?"
Endrance shrugged; his mouth full of food as he stuffed his face with everything that the two of them put in front of him. If he had been hungry when he came out of the castle, it was nothing compared to how he felt when he finally made it down to the fifth bowl and the house. As time passed he felt his hunger deepen and sharpen, much like how one felt after waking up having not eaten the night before; sleepiness dulled exactly how hungry he felt until he woke all the way up.
"I guess I had some catching up left to do." He mumbled, swallowing a bite of boar and immediately setting into the mug of mead sitting nearby. As he gulped it down, Joven tore a loaf of bread in half and tossed it onto the table. The mage snagged it with his other hand automatically and without looking, and as soon as the mug was clear of his face he had started tearing into it with his teeth.
Endrance had restrained himself from eating until he had been cleaned up and checked for injury. Almost all of the blood was from his massive nosebleed hours before, and a cloth with hot water was able to clear off most of the grime. He had dunked his hair in water and it was drying as he ate. Endrance still ached too much for him to don any clothes, so Selene had him wear the traditional mage’s robes over what he had come home in.
Joven exchanged a look with Selene and shrugged. "About time he learned some real table manners." He said, reclining back in the chair he had commandeered, the wood creaking under his armored weight. "I was a bit concerned; he ate as delicately as you women do."
Selene watched Endrance finish off the bread with wide eyes and only turned a little towards Joven. "Where is it all going?" she asked Joven, her eyes locked on the scrawny mage as he set back into the plate of boar meat. "This was your plate."
Jov
en shrugged. "Beats the hell out of me. I don't even know where his plate went."
"It's over there." Endrance mumbled, but it only came out as "Imphrmerdre..."
Joven looked over to the fire where the boar was being heated. The wooden plate was sitting nearby. "Oh." he said.
"You understood that?" Selene asked.
Joven picked at his ear absently. "Only a little bit." Joven said. "It's been a while since I've had to translate 'face full of food'."
"Ah." Selene said with an amused smile. "Well, I better go get some more food, at the rate he's eating." She rose and started dressing for the cold outside. "I hope the rest of the boar lasts till I get back."
"Ehlhvmoo." Endrance managed to say with his mouth full.
"He said-" Joven started.
"I think I got it!" she interrupted with a wink, pulling the hood of her cloak over her head and opening the door. A cold wash of wind slipped through the room, and she was gone.
Endrance swallowed, breathed for a few seconds, and looked at Joven. "Joven?" he asked.
"Yeah?" the barbarian responded, still leaning back in his seat.
"Tell me what happened to Ezeilo."
"Sure."
By the end of the day, Endrance had put away a whole boar, two loaves of bread, a pint of vegetable stew, and seven tankards of mead. When he was finished he could do nothing but lay on the floor and try to resist falling asleep again. Selene kneeled next to him. She poked him in the stomach, still unable to conceive of where so much food went. Enough food to feed all of them, and the mage's stomach barely bulged from eating it all. As she stared at him, she could swear even that was shrinking.
It wouldn't stop her from staring at him, but it was nice to have excuses to do so now and again.
"Ugh." Endrance grunted.
"Ugh." Joven responded, looking at the pile of dirty dishes by the fire. "Didn't even leave us any."
"Sorry."
"We need to talk about the Ascension." Joven said.
"Talk." Endrance said, suppressing a burp.
"Who are you going to support?"
"What?"
"The Spengur is always involved in the Ascension in one way or another." Selene explained. "The person they feel is most qualified to be king usually receives their promise they won't curse them if they succeed. It's very effective at ensuring the successor is also friendly towards the Spengur when everything is done."
"Wow. That's my blessing?" Endrance asked. "I won't curse you, so go win?"
"Pretty much." Selene said. "Not that simple, mind you. There’s a special token you need to make and a ritual dance you perform before the assembled participants of the Ascension."
"Wait, dance?" Endrance asked, perplexed. "I have to do a dance?"
"Yes." Selene confirmed. "There is also a special outfit you need to wear..." She trailed off, thinking. "Actually, I need to go out again. I almost forgot the costume burned down with our home."
"... When do I have to do this?" Endrance asked.
"Before the Ascension."
"Ah."
"What other options do I have?" he asked.
"Options?"
"Do I have to do this dance in the costume, which I presume is incredibly silly?"
"It was a bit silly, and yes, you have to do the dance for the person you want to support."
"That's... a horrible, horrible, tradition."
Joven shrugged, grinning. "Speaking of horrible traditions, there might not be an Ascension at all."
"What?" Selene and Endrance said at the same time. Endrance looked over at the man. "Say again?"
"Some of the people who were there at the coup remember how much you had done to overthrow Kalenden." Joven said. "Some of them were even first into the throne room and saw how you killed the king."
"Okay?"
"Do you remember when I mentioned the king of Balator had a standing invitation that anyone who could kill him would become king?"
Endrance's face paled. "Oh... you have to be joking, right?"
"Nope." Joven said with a grin. "Some of the barbarians who have come to like you have been pushing to have you be the new king."
"Oh hell no!" Endrance exclaimed, sitting up. "I don't want to!"
Joven shrugged. "Probably won't work anyways."
"Still, the idea of me being a king is..." Endrance began, but memory touched him then. There was something important about that castle, he was just unable to grasp what it was.
"It's pretty horrible." Joven concluded, with a grimace. "I'm betting you'd be king for an hour before someone tried to kill you."
"Hour?" Endrance said with a laugh. "I'm worried about minutes."
"I don't think it's a good idea, either." Selene said. "It would be like living with a sword over your head all the time."
"That's far too stressful to me." Endrance admitted. "I guess I'll have to do this dance."
"Okay!" Selene said with a smile. "I'll go pick up the cloth and thread tomorrow."
“Great.” Endrance said. “I’m going to do some more work while I rest.”
Joven frowned at him, leaning forward in his chair. “I think we should have you looked at.” He declared.
“Joven,” Endrance replied. “Last time I blacked out with blood pouring through my nose, it was because of magic and your healers knew nothing of how to fix it. This is the same, so I don’t think they would be able to do anything this time either.”
The bodyguard scowled. “I don’t like just leaving it.”
“I promise I’ll use my healing spell once I’ve recovered enough energy. That should help me more than a healer prodding me for several minutes.” He said in response.
“Fine.” Joven stated. “But get some rest. You have to be ready to help with the longhouse again tomorrow.”
“All right.” Endrance said. “I will. You’re free to head out if you need to.”
“Well I do now!” Joven exclaimed heartily. “You ate all the food! I’ll be at home if you need me.”
An hour later Endrance rubbed his temples for the last time, tossing the quill pen roughly onto the table in frustration. He threw his arms up behind his head and interlocked his fingers to support the weight as he leaned back in his chair. He let out a pent up breath slowly, trying to vent his agitation.
He was sitting in the downstairs room of the house they had commandeered. Only the books that Selene had saved were stored on one empty, lonely shelf. Other parchments and papers were scattered across the central table. A cot was shoved into a corner, a requirement that was made after the third time that Joven found him sleeping at his worktable, ink spilled onto his face. Only after he found how hard it was to remove the ink from his skin did he accept. He also started keeping his hair in a ponytail as a precaution.
He had been spending countless hours since he had saved Bridget's life trying to research how to restore the lost limb. He had made very little progress. Endrance had been battering his head against a wall he could not overcome no matter how cleverly he worked. He knew it had to have been possible, all things considered. Magic could close a wound or heal a burn, why couldn't it replace a lost arm? His healing spell had even fixed up almost all of the headaches he had felt since his encounter with the stray demon in the castle. It was the only way he’d been able to focus.
The problem he had was in the required elements. The healing magic that he’d learned was an infusion of power that specifically accelerated the subject's natural healing process many dozens of times over for the span of an instant. It just was not very efficient. It was more time magic than healing, and therefore had limitations. If the body didn't have the ability to heal a particular injury, no matter how much time it had, the spell was effectively useless.
He knew of no greater magic than what he had already wrought. If there had been something more powerful, it would have to be able to manipulate the energy of life itself...
He sat up, his hands gripping the armrests of his chair. Life magic. The el
f he had encountered nearly a year prior had mentioned a critical difference between elven and human magic. Human mages believed in four core elements that magic could manipulate: Fire, Air, Water, Earth.
Valzoa mentioned that they believed the force of Life was the fifth element that was not covered by human mages. He had to figure out how to learn more about elven Life magic, and he needed to learn it quick.
He remembered wishing he could have talked at length with the elf about it, but the situation made that impossible. If only he had a way to contact him.
Inspiration struck. Endrance shuffled through his parchments until he found a blank one. He recovered his discarded quill, and began jotting down the theories he would need to put together in order to design the spell he would need. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it before. Why hadn't anyone thought of it before?
Hours later, Endrance held up the fifteenth sheet of parchment to dry. It and the fourteen pages before it were covered in arcane script, geometric symbols, mathematical formulas, and carefully arranged concepts in sequence. He finally had finished his preliminary work. He went to put the page down in the next open space for it, but was surprised to find a plate of now cooled sliced potatoes and a roll of bread taking up the space. Even a cup of tepid tea accompanied the food.
He looked around the room, confused. The papers he had strewn about the room had been policed and stacked neatly alongside his few remaining books. The other quills he had thrown about and the spare jar of ink held the pages down. Even his bed had been made. Endrance slid a foot across the floor. Had someone even swept? Light battered at the shutters covering the only window into the room.
His stomach growled hungrily at him. He had been swept up in his task for far longer than he had thought. He gingerly collected the pages in order, and set them aside as he ate the food that had been left out. It was cold, but he didn't care. Only Selene would have been able to do it; Joven was too big and loud, and Bridget wasn't going to be doing him any kindness anytime soon.
Spellscribed: Ascension Page 5
