Melody of War 5

(Again huh?)

The question echoed out in the darkness but there were none to answer it, none bar a girl of ten springs with long brown hair and large, round green eyes. Standing alone in the darkness should have frightened her but she instead looked irritable. Even before she heard the jingling of chains she knew it was coming for her and there was no surprise when a chain wrapped itself around her ankle. Though not surprised she naturally tensed at the chain’s touch. Trying not to look down the girl fought to keep a brave face on as chain after chain reached out of the darkness and entwined around her slight form. Her efforts were in vain however as the first of the chain’s began to caress her face.

“No…”

Her whispered defiance meant naught to the chains which rapidly and violently multiplied in number as they viciously cocooned her. The speed with which the bundle of chains fattened elicited the terror and tears from the girl’s eyes that she so fought to keep back and as the chain’s threatened to burry even her head in their merciless embrace she opened her mouth to scream.

“That’s three days in a row now Chain that we’ve woken you from the grip of nightmares as we’ve made camp.”

Elliot’s voice pulled Chain from her thoughts and she pulled her hand away from where she had just cast a simple circle of light into the ground with a symbol for fire at its heart.

“It’s probably not a good idea to interrupt me while I’m preparing the ritual so we can spend the night here safely.”

Chain did not refute Elliot’s statement as she changed the subject, nor did look at him as she rose to her feet under the rocky outcropping that would easily serve as the group’s campsite for the night.

“I could think of no better time for when we might have the privacy to talk about it.”

“Who says I want to?”

“It’s obvious you need to. Even Melody is fast growing worried for you, though admittedly while it seems she knows what it is that haunt’s your sleep she won’t speak of it to me.”

“Of course not. Melody has known me for a full ten springs and knows I don’t talk about my problems with anyone.”

“A change of pace may do you well.”

“Maybe, and since I’ve seen your sword play but not how you fight with a spear how about we go hunting once everyone has settled in for the night.”

“What? I know we must replenish our dwindling food supply but the Great Bird Lord Sol will soon dip beyond the horizon and the light of day he provides with him. To hunt at such a time would be folly.”

Placing her hands on her hips Chain sighed as she shook her head.

“This is the problem with traveling with people who don’t know you. I’m not talking about hunting for food but to stretch out a little and blow off some steam. Honestly, I get that in Lumirest that sling you’ve been forcing me to sleep in is used for long campaigns to sustain a near unending march but I don’t think a single person was meant to use it from dawn to dusk. If I don’t blow off some steam I’m likely to kill someone myself before that thing kills me.”

Elliot had plenty of arguments that he could have brought up but as he looked at Chain’s back none came to mind as the maid would not turn to face him. Offering her no argument all he could do was offer her his company after the group ate the last of their rationed horned wolf meat and turned in for the night as Chain left the bubble of magic she had erected around their camp. As Chain stepped past the unseen barrier a shadowy mist flowed from her chainmail starting at where her pectorals ended at the shoulder and taking the form of a cape. As her black cape came into a being it flowed around her a moment longer in an unseen breeze revealing a distinct two handed sword suddenly dangling from her left hip with quillons that could serve as grips as well. Following Chain beyond the bubble of magic Elliot was assaulted by the darkness and bitter cold of the world under the great tree that covered the sky blocking even starlight. Looking back at where he had just walked from Elliot could not see any sign of their camp though it had but a moment before been as easy to see as though it were bathed in sunlight. The Hero could not help but marvel at the magic that Chain wielded and would have more reason to be impressed as he heard her snap the fingers of her left hand calling forth the ever distinctive ringing sound of the motion and a small ball of light.

“~ That which abhors opposites dwelling in the Seventh Well, come unto this world ~”

“The Seventh Well? Is that not the Well of Chaos?”

Elliot demonstrated his knowledge of the Seven Great Spirit Wells that spilt magic power into the world and was the foodstuff of the Builders whose song shaped it as Chain began her incantation. Chain paid Elliot no mind however as the sphere of light in her hand became both light and shadow at once and as one.

“~ Let brother and enemy be as sister and friend, light and darkness be as one ~
~ Rue Sion! ~”

Finishing her incantation Chain held her left hand aloft and the light within it disappeared. It was not a return to a world of utter darkness for Elliot as his vision cleared and the world was as bathed in a night of daylight shadow. Elliot recognized the effect immediately however and commented on it.

“This is the same spell you cast when we fled from Highroot is it not Chain? I had not heard your incantation then and thus did not realize it called upon the power of the Seventh Well.”

“I’m just surprised that you know so much about it. I’d have thought that an idiot like you who gains his powers from the Builders’ Song which also gave the stupid tree bathing this land in darkness its form would be more attuned to Builder Magic.”

“While it’s true that I currently travel in the company of a master Rattama Song Smith who can use the technology of Automina to make the Builders sing as he pleases, I am also a Knight Prince of Lumirest and sworn of her Emminence, the Goodess, Lady Cardinal who unifies the power of the Four Gods whose forms comprise our world. My education on magic is far from lacking as a result.”

“Blessed by man, god, and Builder, all huh?”

Elliot had no response for Chain as the maid quoted a line from his verse in the Builders’ Song. Chain did not seem particularly bothered by the Hero’s lack of response however and continued on her way from their camp placing her hands on the back of her head.

“Well, the Builders may have rebuilt the world after the Fall of Automina but the Seven Wells were made by the hands of man and so was this Chainmail I’m wearing and I don’t find either a blessing. I couldn’t even hear the Builders’ Song like Melody or cast magic at all until after I gained this thing. But if I didn’t learn how I probably wouldn’t be able to even move no less have ever broken out of the cocoon that was this suit of armor’s original form. Believe it or not but that was how my entire first year as an adventurer with Soarmont’s Adventuring Comapany was spent; trapped within a cocoon of chains with no interaction with the world beyond except the voice of my mentor. And it was horrible because all he cared about was my ability to learn magic and to hear the Builders’ Song in his unfounded belief that if I did I could break out of my cocoon. That was five summers ago and despite the fact that those bound by Relics of the Age of Ash are unaffected by the Builders’ Song that crazy old coot was somehow right. What he taught me somehow let me learn how to control this stupid relic or maybe it finally started responding to me because I was sick and tired of listening to the old coot’s words.”

“My apologies Chain.”

“Hm?”

Looking back over her shoulder at Elliot, Chain gave the Hero a quizzical look. Elliot took a moment to lift his head from where he hung it in shame and when he did he locked eyes with Chain bearing a solemn expression.

“I had not known. So your nightmares this three-day past is because–”

“This is only my fifteenth spring so just think of it as the last vestiges of my childhood. I’m an adult now and I came north to celebrate that fact. My mentors went to the Eastern Kingdoms to study the Tear of Automina in Raptoria’s possession since they invited scholars from all over to do so and I came this way as my first action as an independent adult. Of course though I brought Melody with me, not that she would have let me go on my own anyway since aside from when she went to become an adventure while I was stuck in a stupid cocoon she’s always been with me for as long as we’ve known each other.”

Elliot again hung his head no longer able to look at Chain as guilt started to weigh him down.

“I could not have made a worse mistake than not chartering a private train of the Brass Line.”

“Now what are you babbling about?”

Chain’s voice grew irritable as Elliot grew more solemn as he reflected on the choices that had led him to where he was now. Chain would have none of that however and continued on not giving the Hero the time to answer her question.

“You didn’t make the choice to go after the Bandit King according to what you told Highperch back in Highroot and if I’m remembering correctly even then you were only to fight him if he came to you. Despite Highperch trying to pin the actions of that grinning idiot on the two of us what reason did you have to believe that he would have slaughtered an entire train of merchants and travelers just to get to you to add to his own verse in the Builders’ Song? And I won’t accept any pity from you about me having nightmares either. That’s my own immaturity getting the better of me from a trauma I should have long since put behind me. Besides, if I wanted to be pitied I would tell you my life story which is a whole lot crummier depending on your point of view. But I don’t so don’t expect to hear anymore about me asides from what little you just got to answer your question about my nightmares. Besides, bandits had nothing to do with my life until after I broke out of my cocoon and yet I still earned the name ‘Bandit Eater’. And even though I absolutely hate that name I’m rather proud of the fact that I earned it. Proud enough even that I’m looking forward to a rematch with that grinning idiot so that I can prove I can conquer any bandit. Right now though, I think I’ll just settle for that monster over there.”

“What?!”

Noting the direction of Chain’s line of sight Elliot spun around and spied a black coated deer with glowing red antlers and eyes watching them from atop a small spire of rock amongst the teeth of the mountains to the north where they had made camp. Spinning his spear around into a combat stance the Hero made ready to do battle and knew Chain did the same as he heard her sword come free of its scabbard.

“The other’s lives may be dependent on my well being but try to remember Elliot; we came out here so I could blow off some steam.”

Copyright © 2018 Joshua D Tarwater