Guild Mage: Apprentice

"Aluthet Aiveh Avia!" Liv shouted, dashing for the lip of the abyss. A shining gyrfalcon of brilliant blue mana, veined with gold, formed to her intent, and she jumped onto its back, throwing her arms around the construct's neck.

The conjured raptor tucked its wings and dove down into the shaft. Thick, overwhelming mana pressed in upon Liv from every side, crushing against her. The sounds of the fighting above faded, and there was only darkness, save for the light cast by the bird of coherent mana itself. Liv followed the sound of Elenda's screams, and tried not to think about just how deep the Well of Bones actually was. Deep as a mountain was high? How long would it take the girl to fall, before she hit the bottom?

There! At Liv's mental command, the gyrfalcon swooped in from the side, avoiding the tumbling, thrashing corpse that had carried Elenda over the edge, and slamming the two girls into each other. Liv kept one arm on the neck of the falcon and wrapped the other around Elenda, who clutched at Liv like she was drowning. Then, the bird beat its wings.

They hung there, suspended, for an endless moment, and Liv had time to see one wall of the shaft, terrifyingly close. Striations of packed, ancient mud and stone were illuminated by the light of Liv's mana construct, and she could see the pale outline of bones, just visible at the edge of the wall.

With a second beat of the gyrfalcon's wings, they were rising back up, speeding toward the top of the shaft. Elenda was shaking and sobbing, and it was all Liv could do to hold onto the larger girl without falling off. For the second time, she promised herself to find a way to work a saddle into this spell, so that it was less terrifying.

They shot up over the lip of the landing, and there was light again - lanterns and torches that had been brought by the soldiers of the fortress, the flare of blue magic from the journeymen below, and fire rampaging through the press of the undead where oil had been set aflame. Liv brought the gyrfalcon down between the two lines of ksatriya, and its claws dug into the stone.

"I need a healer!" she shouted. Elenda's veins were already turning black: nothing the guild had ever taught the girl had prepared her for being thrown into the depths of a rift. Two soldiers dropped their bows and helped Liv lower the shaking journeyman down off the back of the conjured bird.

"Coming!" Arjun shouted, and Liv saw him break out from the fourth gate in a sprint, running between the lines of troops, trailed by Chandrika. Both of them stayed low, to present less of a target – though Liv hadn't seen the corpses throw anything yet, it was still a good instinct.

"Mana sickness," Liv shouted, over the din of the battle.

"I can get the excess out," Arjun said, with a nod. "But I don't have anywhere to put it. The stones they gave us are back in the hall."

Liv raised her left hand, and with a thought, sucked her golden bracelet and chained rings dry of mana. Then, she pulled the piece of overly-ornate jewelry off and threw it to Arjun. "Use this," she said. "It can hold eight rings."

Arjun nodded, and at Liv's command, the gyrfalcon beat its wings again, carrying her up over the battle. She let the bird's turn bring them out over the abyss for a moment, and then they banked back around so that she could see the descending stairs that General Mishra had shown them on his map of the fortifications. The falcon brought Liv close enough to raise a wall of ice, cutting the corpses on the landing off from further reinforcements. Then, she dropped an explosion of her father's crystal spell right in the middle of the press of decaying bodies, letting the sharp edges of the growths shred and grind the enemy masses as they expanded.

A woman's shriek cut through the air – not the kind of scream a soldier made, Liv thought. She looked for the source, and saw that a section of the ksatriya line had broken. The corpse of a slain soldier was just now rising from where he'd fallen, and had seized Chandrika by the leg. She was kicking at the dead body's skull, but it felt no pain and wouldn't let her go.

"Costet Scelis'o'Manis!" Arjun shouted, raising a hand. Spikes of bone tore themselves out of the corpse, spearing through flesh and armor alike, wrenching the body about with the force and violence of their eruption. The thrashing of the corpse loosed the grasp of its hand, and Chandrika was able to scramble back away from it. One of the soldiers dashed in and smashed the head of the corpse in with a hammer, and it stopped moving. Liv had time to see two more soldiers help Arjun get Chandrika and Elenda back into the corridor, and then she focused on ending the fighting.

With the mana stored in the bracelet she'd given to Arjun, Liv was nearly entirely full. Letting the gyrfalcon circle low above the battle, she raised her hands and began to chant. There was no need to create something new for this: an old spell would work just as well.

"Celent Decm̥ Belim!" Liv intoned, and the bulbs of ice coalesced at her command, five to either side of the soldiers' lines, spread throughout the landing. Vines coiled out along the stone floor, connecting the closed flowers, slithering between the legs of the corpses. "Celent'he Aiveh Decm Sekerim'o'Vradim," she continued, pausing in her chant only long enough to draw in breath.

Thorns exploded out from the vines, tearing through the massed bodies of the risen dead. Arms were torn asunder, heads pulped, bones shattered. Liv made certain that none of the thorns were directed toward her allies, but other than that simply allowed them to cause maximum carnage. ""Celent'he Aiveh Decm Manim'o'Belim," she concluded, feeling a third great wave of power rush out of her. She had to pull even the mana from her guild ring to finish, but that was enough.

Each one of the ten bulbs opened its petals, and from every opened flower strode a soldier of solid ice, holding not a spear or sword, as she'd sculpted in the past, but now a great hammer. The ten soldiers stalked forward into the press, laying about with great swings, crushing bone wherever they struck.

Exhausted, Liv collapsed against the neck of the conjured gyrfalcon, and guided it down to land, just in front of the fourth gate. There, she had just strength enough to slide down off the raptor's broad back before allowing it to dissolve back into glowing motes of magic. She pulled a sliver of mana from her pearl, enough to prevent herself from passing out, and staggered past gaping soldiers into the corridor.

"Can your men finish things from here?" She asked General Mishra.

"Yes," he said, with a slow nod. "They can. Go get yourself some rest, Kumari Livara."

Liv dragged herself deeper into the corridor, past the soldiers waiting in reserve, until she found where the healers were treating the injured, at the top of the stairs. Arjun was working on a Dakruiman woman, now, and Liv saw that Elenda was lying on a stretcher.

"How is she?" Liv asked, slumping against the cool stone of the wall.

"Elenda?" He didn't look up from his work setting a bone. "She'll live, but we'll need to watch her skin for a month or two. I wouldn't be surprised if she needs to have more than a few growths cut off. Her bones were odd, too," he said, standing back up once his work was done.

"The mana of the rift is affecting everyone's bones, I think," Arjun told her, walking close enough that he could lower his voice and still be heard. "Hers were almost crawling beneath her skin, until I managed to stop them. It's like the word of power itself is alive here."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"The word of power," Liv asked, "or the goddess?"

Arjun shrugged. "I don't know."

"And your betrothed?" Liv searched the ranks of the healers and the injured, and found Chandrika kneeling over a man who'd had his eye clawed out.

"Scraped up a bit," he said, "but otherwise healthy. She hasn't looked me in the eye since I used that spell, though."

"Your jati isn't supposed to fight, right? Just use healing magic?"

Arjun nodded.

"So she's just watched you throw tradition out the window," Liv said. "Even if it was to save her. You know her better than I do, Arjun. Maybe talk to her once the fighting is done?"

"I will," he promised. "But for now, I have wounded soldiers to treat."

Liv let herself slide down the wall to sit on the stone floor. If the undead broke through the ksatriya lines, she'd move; but other than that, she was going to sit right there, and try not to fall asleep.

☙

It was the work of hours to secure the landing, throw the corpses over the side into the abyss, and repair the fourth gate. The section of crenellated wall that Liv had accidentally broken off proved useful, at least, for disposal purposes. Moveable barricades were brought up to the wall of ice she'd created, ready for when the temporary barrier melted.

Dozens of men and women were wounded, and nearly as many killed. The stairwell leading down to the fourth gate was cramped with moaning, bloody bodies until there was enough time to carry all of the survivors back to the infirmary.

The dead, as well, had to be evacuated, lest they rise from the wild mana of the shoal. That evening, a great pyre was lit in the courtyard of Akela Kila, and Vivek Sharma led the assembled in prayers to the Lady of Changes. Liv could only catch a few words in Dakruiman, but she found that didn't matter. Wherever she went, whether it was Whitehill, the north, or here in the east, the rites of the goddess were the same.

"We give your bodies to the fire, so that your mortal blood may not feed the wicked. May your soul be free at last," Liv said, watching the fire catch from where she stood next to the other journeymen. Elenda was still in the infirmary: she was likely done fighting anything until after they'd returned to Coral Bay, and she had time to recover. Without knowledge of the Elden techniques for circulating mana to speed the body's natural healing, she would have to wait for her body to do its work. The healers had so much work to do they could only spare magic for the most serious injuries.

Brom had broken a finger on his right hand, while Wyman had somehow managed to come out of the fighting with nothing more than a cut on his cheek that, when it had healed, would leave him the kind of scar women would swoon over. Liv considered the group fortunate the extent of their injuries wasn't worse.

As smoke rose, the scent of incense and herbs wafted across the courtyard, unable to quite hide the stench of burning human flesh. Some of the soldiers played drums, which was a part of the funeral rites Liv had never seen before, and she guessed might be unique to Lendh ka Dakruim. There were flower petals, as well, thrown upon the pyre, and garlands around the necks of the dead.

When he had finished speaking, Vivek Sharma approached the small group of journeymen, finding himself a place to stand near Liv and Arjun. "Has your young friend explained to you that after the ashes have cooled, they must be searched for fragments of bone?"

Liv shook her head, and looked to Arjun.

"Our ancestors could not risk leaving anything that the Lady of Bones might turn against them," he explained. "Anything they find will be ground to dust using mortars and pestles."

"My people are more concerned about the blood," Liv said. She knew that Wren would be back in the shadows at the edge of the courtyard, somewhere close by, and wondered whether the huntress had found a chance to drink from the dying. On the one hand, the thought turned her stomach; on the other, she wanted Wren to be at full strength tomorrow, and those soldiers wouldn't be needing it anyway.

"Is that the Eld, or Lucania?" Isabel asked, from a few paces away.

"In this case, both," Liv said.

"I am told your betrothed will be departing in the morning," Vivek commented to Arjun.

"Yes," he confirmed. "She says that I have broken all the traditions of our jati by using magic to harm." Arjun sighed. "Despite the fact that I did it to save her. Chandrika says there is no chance her parents would uphold the match now, and that I have brought shame to my parents."

"Rust them," Liv said. "You saved her life. They should be thanking you." She couldn't help but scowl. "Still, this makes things easier for you, doesn't it? No one will show up to Coral Bay trying to drag you off to a wedding."

"It does," Arjun agreed. The unspoken, shared knowledge of their conversation, back at Coral Bay, hung in the air, but Liv would never share what her friend had told her without his permission. "I still can't help but feel sad, though. I've known her since we were children, and now I can't help but feel I won't see her again."

"The Lady of Changes teaches us that good can come even out of endings," the old priest told Arjun, patting the young man's shoulder with his hand. "Pray to her, tonight, and she will ease your heart. Do you still intend to descend tomorrow, Kumari Livara?"

"I don't see any point in waiting," Liv said. "By that time, all the wild mana drained into the fort's mana stone reserves should have settled enough to be usable. We'll drain whatever we need before we go."

Sharma nodded. "I will see your expedition off, at the fourth gate," he promised. "But for now, I will remain here to watch the pyres burn. You are visitors, and did not know these soldiers. You have all paid them sufficient respect by being here already. Do not feel obligated to remain any longer."

"Thank you," Isabel said, inclining her head. Then, she turned and headed across the courtyard. Liv, along with the other journeymen, fell in around her.

☙

Liv took the chance to use the baths, before turning in. Thora and Wren went with her, the maid bringing along a basket full of not only clean clothing and towels, but soaps and oils to care for Liv's hair. Nearly all of the ksatriya, both men and women, were standing vigil in the courtyard - and those that weren't, were on duty, keeping watch from the walls or at the gates. As a result, they had the women's side of the baths entirely to themselves.

"Are you really going down there, m'lady?" Thora asked, from where she knelt behind Liv. She had packed Liv's aspen-wood comb, which had come all the way with her from Whitehill, and used it to gently tease the tangles and knots from her hair.

"Yes," Liv answered. "I'm more convinced than ever that we have to. There's something down there. I can feel it, Wren."

Across the bath, the huntress leaned back on the polished sandstone that had been shaped into a sort of submerged bench. "What did it feel like?" she asked, though she didn't raise her head or open her eyes.

"Part of it was just a crushing weight," Liv said. "Like being in the same place as Ractia."

"I know that feeling," Wren muttered. "It was a struggle just to stand up around her."

"It was more than that, though," Liv continued. "I felt this crazy urge to just walk up to the edge and throw myself down into the shaft. Like there was something at the bottom calling to me. It reminded me a bit of how it feels to be hit with Celestria's word of power. And there's more," she said. "Arjun said that the mana from the eruption was warping people's bones."

"Wonderful," Wren grumbled. "That duchess of yours wants me to keep you safe. Maybe I should just hit you over the head now and drag you back to Coral Bay."

"I'm not sure that would be any safer," Liv responded, letting herself sink lower into the water. She lifted a hand up onto the sandstone, traced a swirl of ice on the floor, and then released the waste heat into the water. Steam began to rise from the surface of the bath, and she sighed in relief.

"That's fair enough," Wren said. "As long as that bitch is walking this world, nowhere's really safe. You know what I want to find out, Liv?"

"What?"

"If we kill Ractia, do I get my father back?" At the other woman's words, Liv opened her eyes again. The huntress' face was turned up toward the ceiling, Liv saw, and hard as stone. "I want to see," Wren continued, softly. "I want to see if his eyes stay red when she's gone, or if they turn brown again."

Liv thought of her grandfather, waking just long enough to die in bed from the poison of the wyrm's bite. She remembered the sight of Karis' brain, encased in a shell of steel, twitching as the twisted thing that had once been a man died.

"I'll help you find out," she said.