Chương 24: The Desolated Lands

Aaron disapproved of Tim getting along so well with Giddeon. They were up ahead in the tunnel chatting away happily as if nothing was wrong. It was only a week ago since he intruded their home with the intention of killing him. Admittedly, he had given them a way to escape Harrold and was taking them to find a cure for Tim. Either way, Giddeon was only to be trusted as far as he was useful. The farm was probably only a few weeks walk, maybe faster if they found a cart. He would sleep lightly until then.

A small white ball of light hovered above her head, swaying back and forth like a moth. Paige's palm was facing upwards controlling it. There wasn't much to see in the passageway. It was a damp square walkway just about high enough to not have to duck and with enough room to walk two abreast. The walls were made of the natural rock and dirt it was dug out of without so much as a wooden beam for support. Aaron turned his attention to Paige.

Her brown hair was tied back neatly and professionally as always, however she seemed different; her face seemed harsher and more serious, which was probably appropriate given the situation. She must have noticed him looking across at her, "It's not personal, you know. I do what Gidden tells me. It was my job to monitor you."

"I know," Aaron said, hiding a sinking feeling of betrayal.

"What's that light?"

"It's a tiny light spirit. I can channel my mana to create synthetic spirits," Paige explained. She seemed to relax a little bit. Aaron suspected she may have been expecting him to appear more upset.

"Ectomancy," Aaron said, remembering his research with Tim.

"Can Giddeon do that?"

"Yes, I am apprenticed to him. Don't judge him too quickly. He can be a bit callous, but he just doesn't trust you." Aaron scowled and raised his voice, knowing Giddeon could probably hear him now.

"Doesn't trust me? He hates me. Just because I have these powers, he thinks I'm evil." Paige looked forwards and put her hands in her coat pockets. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry," Aaron said, "It's been a long day and I didn't mean to yell." Paige returned to her professional tone, "Look, it's not my business to get you two to like each other. If we are going on this long trip together, I just wanted to try and make it easier for you both." The pair walked another twenty paces or so without saying a word before Aaron figured out what to say.

"How much of what you told me in the hospital was true? You must be a Gifted, since you are using magic."

"I haven't lied to you, Aaron," Paige said firmly, "I am not a Gifted."

"Then how can you create that light spirit?"

"There are more ways to cast magic than being Gifted. The tomes are just one way of guiding your spirit to develop in a certain way. Some people develop their magic purely through practice and repetition, but it is slower and takes much more patience. Some people apprentice to a master to speed up the process. Some people use magical charms to focus their mana. Things work differently outside the city." Aaron never thought about life outside the city, let alone magic.

He was used to only the Gifted being apprenticed, and couldn't remember any magic users from his childhood. He'd heard stories of magic use before the dragon attacks, but never seen it first hand other than the Gifted. You would have been ridiculed if you came into the hospital without a tome asking to learn from a master. He had never seen the Desolated Lands for himself and had always assumed that they were barren and empty like the name.

However Paige was telling him people lived there and learned to use magic without the help of the Sacred Library and its tomes. He wondered what else he didn't know.

"Charms like Giddeon's pendant?" Aaron asked.

"Yes, his pendant is infused with a boon of passage. He created guardian spirits and infused them into the exits to this tunnel. When presented with the key, they open."

"How do things work differently out there?" He asked. Although he suspected Paige was growing tired of his questions.

"You'll see for yourself soon. We are almost there." The light above Paige dimmed and swooped around smoothly onto the front of her body and absorbed into her chest. There were beams of light shining into the tunnel from up ahead in a crescent shape. A flash of light appeared briefly and the tunnel started rumbling. He put a hand on the wall for support. The crescent of light expanded ahead and moonlight flooded the tunnel.

Holding onto the sides of the narrow tunnel, he clambered out of the passageway and into the open. The fresh air hit his nostrils and filled them with the spiced tang of pine trees. As he gradually acclimated to his surroundings, he noticed the dark brown trunks towering over them. The forest was sparse and continued down the hill onto a clearing by the river in the distance where there was a modest sized settlement.

It was too far away and took dark to make out any details, but he was shocked to find signs of civilised life outside of the city. Aaron turned around. The city walls were fifty paces or so behind him on the top of a hill. He couldn't see any buildings over them, only the face of chalky-white stone. The earth rumbled behind him, accompanied by the sound of pebbles and grit shifting as Giddeon gripped his pendant again. A large boulder rolled back over the passageway covering their tracks.

Aaron disliked the man, but couldn't help but be impressed by his magic.

"It's so… nice out here," Aaron said. He was mystified by the tranquility of the forest outside of the city walls. The air was so clean and quiet. He could hear an owl hooting from what sounded like a league away. There were few green spaces inside and the ones that existed were packed full of people and contaminated with the smells of the city.

"Not all monsters and corrupted wasteland like they'd have you think inside, huh?" Giddon said.

"I thought the world was burned and destroyed since the dragonstrikes. If it's like this, then what's the need for the wall?" Aaron asked. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"Don't be mistaken, there are monsters and corruption. But the king has definitely exaggerated the risk a little bit," he replied. A little bit was an understatement. There was a gigantic magical stone wall encasing the massive city.

"A little bit?" Aaron huffed.

"We've been trapped by a wall for the last ten years!" Giddeon grunted and looked away. Aaron figured he would just ask Paige some questions later.

"I need to rest soon," Tim said. He was leaning heavily on his cane which wobbled and swayed under his weight. He was panting heavily, although they had walked for hours that evening.

"We should avoid the settlement tonight. We might be mistaken for raiders if we enter in the middle of the night." Paige's competence was startling and a big contrast from the naive laundry girl she portrayed.

"Agreed," Giddeon said.

"There's a site nearby where I've camped before." Giddeon lead the way through the pine forest, away from the city wall. The hill wasn't too steep going down towards the river, but Aaron had to tread carefully around the branches and foliage.

"Mind your step" Paige called back to them. As they progressed down the hill they approached a flatter, roughly circular area. The ground was scorched in the middle. Giddeon took his bag off and threw it on the floor. A few dried leaves blew to the side on the impact. Aaron did the same and sat down on a fallen tree a few paces back. It felt good to finally be off his feet.

"Don't sit yet," Giddeon said, "Go and fetch some wood for the fire."

"Won't that just attract attention?" Aaron asked. Giddeon scoffed.

"Corrupted creatures don't like light and heat. I'd rather take my chances with bandits than those monsters." Aaron grumbled and got back onto his feet. His legs were sore and stiff where he had been walking for hours. Tim sat on the floor and rested against the fallen tree, tilting his head back on the log and looking up at the sky. The tension between the brothers was starting to get to Aaron.

He felt betrayed that Tim lied to him about Giddeon's offer, but at the same time he hadn't been forthcoming about his dealings with Harrold. Paige went around the area and kicked the dry leaves away, clearing some space for the fire and bedrolls. Giddeon stood at a bank next to the campsite and smoldered into the distance, slowly turning his head, presumably scanning the area. Aaron spent a few minutes curating a fine selection of small twigs to start a fire.

He arranged them in a careful pile, with a bundle of the lightest, driest and easiest to ignite at the bottom. He had a few larger twigs and then a couple of thicker logs to throw on as the fire grew. Giddeon walked over to the masterfully crafted pile of sticks, grinning from ear to ear. He opened his palm and a small red ball fluttered out of it like a cinder on the wind. When it was above the fire, it suddenly glowed bright and shot downwards at speed.

It made a firm thud as it impacted the ground and flames roared up from the pile. The majority of the small sticks were ejected to the sides in the impact. Giddeon chuckled to himself and walked away, but Aaron didn't really care as it saved him the job of lighting the sticks and blowing on them. He piled up the logs over the flame until the fire was steady. He unrolled his bed roll and lay down on it next to the fire, looking at the sky. He felt like he was floating now all the weight was taken off his back.

"The monsters don't like the light," Paige said. Aaron lifted his head up to see Paige still sweeping leaves around him. She walked off to meet Giddeon, without waiting for Aaron to respond. laying his head back down on the bedroll, Aaron yelped as something jabbed him in the back. He reached under the bedroll and found a handful of bones. It must have been dug up as Paige was kicking the leaves around. Aaron picked it up and rolled away from the group. He placed it down on the ground out of their sight.

The skeleton was well preserved, but a bit dirty from the soil. It appeared to be from a medium rodent, like a rat. Small circular bones carefully interconnected forming a tail. The ribs curled around where its thorax was in a tight protective cage. And its skull was long and pointed with two small front teeth. He stared, puzzled for a moment. The front feet of the skeleton had talons which would not have been out of place on the feet of an eagle. They were monstrous and unnatural.

Aaron wondered if the dragonfire scourged lands caused this mutation, or if this is just how rats looked. He had seen rats on a daily basis in the city but none like this. Aaron knew he needed to keep experimenting with his magic. Triggering spirit coalescence would help him claw back his progress and become a journeyman again. He was desperate to practise as much as possible. Not just for strength and safety, but to see if he could finally learn more about curses.

When he had a chance, he promised he would test out his new Lesser Curse of Rotting. But he figured it might smell or leave decay on the floor, or even spoil their supplies. Aaron remembered how easy it was to move the bones of the drained guard. Osteokineses was easy to use when he was full of adrenaline and had a recent burst of mana regeneration. But he wanted to see how strong it was under more controlled conditions. He pulled his tome out from his bag and placed it beside the rat.

The runes were difficult to make out, but the pages gave off a faint shimmer of light which made it just about possible to read, even at night. Aaron checked behind. Paige and Giddeon were deep in conversation on the other side of the fire and Tim was snoring heavily with his head back on the log. No one would notice if he cast a couple of small spells. Not that he needed their permission to cast a few spells, but he couldn't be bothered to deal with the inevitable backlash from Giddeon.

After Carving out the Osteokinesis runes in his mind's eye, Aaron weaved his mana through the bones of the rat, connecting the legs through the spine and into the tail. His Bone and Flesh Mastery were high enough that he knew the tail was an important counterbalance and he wouldn't be able to move it very far without fine control over it. It took a few minutes to finish stitching his mana through its bones, much longer than when he used it on the guard.

It should have been easy since it was so small, but the tiny bones made it fiddly and tedious. Laying on his side, shielding the rat from view of the others, he grinned at himself proudly. His mana was set satisfyingly interlocking over all the bones, perfectly aligned over the joints. Aaron waited expectantly for his Osteomancy skill to improve, but nothing happened. He huffed in disappointment. It was a technically challenging spell, but barely used any mana due to its size. It wasn't a waste of effort.

His mana was set around the bones and he could practise controlling the bones more naturally. He had never moved such a small animal before; the closest thing was the slice of ham. He focused his spirit, connecting with the mana infused into the skeleton. His chest went cold and seemed to block out the warmth of the fire on his back. He splayed the limbs out by its side and pressed the feet into the ground. The strange monstrous talons gripped the soil, dragging sharp lines in the dirt.

As he focused more force down through its legs, the body started to raise up. It wasn't smooth and natural, but he got it standing at least. The body was unsteady and barely balanced. The slightest wind could have toppled it over. Instinctively, Aaron knew to extend the tail at its base so it raised up and curved round onto the floor. He focused on swaying it side to side to counter the slight imbalances as he brought the skeleton to a full upright position.

[Somatomancy talent improved] Bone Mastery: Rank 2 Aaron smiled to himself. Learning to control the bones and adapting to the natural mechanics of the body seemed to reward him with talent improvements. It was a different way of leveling to Spirit Healing, but it was simple enough to practise. He also felt a small amount of mana flood into him from the earth around him. The Spirit Coalescence wasn't much, but it put him on track to unlock his next talent.

"Get some sleep." Aaron almost jumped out of his skin as Giddeon spoke in the distance. He quickly grabbed the skeleton and stuffed it into his coin pouch.

"Tomorrow we stock up and pass through the settlement." Aaron pretended to be asleep as he didn't want to interact with the old bastard any more than he absolutely needed to.