Chương 66: Settle the Score

Maitiú didn't give Cormac another chance to speak. He thundered across the cave, four fists raised. Cormac's eyes widened in horror, with no idea what he was seeing." Drunken Nights!" Miriam shouted, pouring everything she could into a Life technique called Entangle. Vines manifested from her hands, building a web around Maitiú. They were supposed to come out of the ground too, but the stone floor wouldn't allow it.

The result was that Maitiú was encumbered by the tangle, but Miriam had only her own strength to try to hold him in place instead of being rooted into the earth the way the technique was intended to work. Róise recovered fast from her shock and immediately began Seven Drunken Nights.

"If it's above Fourth, it won't work right away. It might take all seven Nights! Or it might not work at all!" Miriam pulled as best she could. She had felt how much stronger she had gotten as a Second. It was safe to say that there was not a man alive in her home town who could have beaten her in any contest of strength. But this wasn't a contest of strength - this was trying to hold back an avalanche. Her feet slid across the stone as Maitiú continued to advance, slowed but not by any means stopped.

By now Cormac was weaving threads. Maitiú stumbled on the smooth floor. One of his many thumbs slipped as he tried to untangle the vines. Dust dribbling from the ceiling stung him in the eyes. The Saint Adept was flustered at the result - his Luck was not getting a firm grip.

"What is this thing, Miriam?"

"It's Maitiú," Miriam said.

"He absorbed a bunch of Drops - or, I guess the King forced him to. This was the result."" I'm going to kill you, Cormac!" Maitiú roared." You thought you could play with my life because you're a Third! Well, who do you think is stronger now?" Cormac opened his mouth.

"Don't you gods-damned dare!" Miriam shouted.

"Technically I'm a Fourth now," Cormac said, giving one arm a flex. Water fórsa exploded from Maitiú, shredding Miriam's vines and blasting everyone off their feet. Róise managed to keep her technique going, but she was three Nights in and Maitiú showed no signs of impairment. The monstrous sailor was a blur as he lunged for Cormac. Which apparently had been Cormac's plan the entire time. He hadn't just been sending fleeting little annoyances at Maitiú - he'd been activating At What Cost.

He'd been pulling Luck from Maitiú's arms - all four of them - and pouring that Luck into Róise. With anyone else it might not have worked, given the vast differences in their power, but Cormac got a boost to his techniques when he was using them to benefit Róise in particular. Cian had told him that his Adept class considered him her Protector - even if the opposite was usually true.

As such, the first fist Maitiú unleashed directly at Cormac's face missed completely and he stumbled, Seven Drunken Nights suddenly more effective as the stolen Luck buoyed Róise's power. Leaping over Cormac, Róise activated Medley and with Banks of Red Roses in concert with Seven Drunken Nights, launched a flurry of strikes at Maitiú. Her blue blades made thin slices wherever she whirled, but Miriam could tell they were doing no real damage.

"Róise! Stop! This is Maitiú!" Miriam shouted.

"Oh, is it?" Róise yelled back.

"The Maitiú who took advantage of my friend? Who stole from us? The Maitiú who attacked Luíseach? The Maitiú who is doing gods-knows-what to Cian right now? I've put men down for lesser mutinies than this!" Róise ducked under an uncoordinated swipe from Maitiú and leaped up, kicking off his misshapen knee to plant one fórsa knife in his neck - though it dug in only shallowly." You killed Aodh. And Liam. And Ger!" Maitiú's eyes focused blurrily on Róise." Why? For saying you didn't know what you were doing?

That you were going to get us killed? AND LOOK AT US NOW!" Another burst of Water fórsa sent Róise and Cormac flying, this one tearing bloody furrows into each of them. Róise screamed as a cross of wounds sliced through her upper chest, scoring the bottom of her neck. Cormac saw the wave coming, but he had his eyes on Róise.

With both hands he ripped golden threads out of the air as if he were clawing at heavy rigging on the Líadan, bellowing out as he wrenched Luck to where he thought it should be. Róise was lucky the Water fórsa hadn't decapitated her. Very lucky. Having devoted all his attention to saving Róise, Cormac had no time to protect himself. The Water fórsa sliced into him, his torso erupting in a shower of blood. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Cormac!" Miriam ran towards Maitiú, hands blurring with the foul miasma of Blight. He could survive this, she was sure. To be fair, there might not be anything she could do that he wouldn't survive. She locked her hands on his back and activated Gangrenous Necrosis. Maitiú cocked his head towards her, still pulsating and putrid, and for a moment seemed bleary and lost. Then his gaze sharpened and his mouth twisted into a snarl.

Miriam dared a glance away - Róise had killed Seven Drunken Nights and was applying Róisín Dubh to Cormac. After a quick moment where she was afraid the Blight would have no effect, Maitiú grimaced. The Blight took hold at a very surface level - necrosis of the skin only. He casually grabbed her with one of his four arms and flung her away. As she skittered on the floor, scraping the skin off her left arm, Miriam looked back at the conflict. As far as she could tell, Cormac and Róise were about to die.

She leaped back to her feet, only to feel a rough hand grab her arm.

"I have an idea, but I need your help," Sol said, breathing heavily.

"What is it?"

"I don't have time to explain, but it's going to hurt. Both of us. A lot." Sol said. Miriam didn't hesitate.

"Let's do it." Róise was kneeling over Cormac, her own wounds closing in the aura of Róisín Dubh. Her face was twisted with rage as she looked at Maitiú, lumbering his way to them. In the hand not supporting Cormac's head a blue blade manifested.

"No," Cormac said, struggling to sit up.

"Stop. Stop this. Maitiú!"" Begging won't save you, but I will still enjoy it," Maitiú said, leering. Cormac grunted loudly, getting up first to one knee, then upright, leaning on Róise. The room began to sway to a different tempo. He panted with effort and with the sharp pain that Róisín Dubh had only dulled.

"I was wrong."" An apology? Save it! An apology won't get me off this gods-forsaken rock!" Maitiú seemed to be getting angrier at the idea.

"It won't. And I am sorry for stranding you here. I had meant to give you a choice before we entered Cianán's Walk, but… I suppose it's my fault that didn't happen too." Cormac stepped forward gingerly towards his old crewmate.

"But what I really want to apologize for what the way I treated you after we got here." Maitiú frowned, but stayed silent.

"I brushed off your anger. I deflected it with a joke. I made it seem like this was no big deal, but it was. This was your life, Maitiú. I took it from you and then laughed in your face, like we should all just be buddies afterwards. And… then everyone just took my side. Because… well, I'm just likable I guess. It's easy to seem like the reasonable one in the face of anger like yours by just refusing to take it seriously. And that's what I did." Cormac shook his head.

"I should have helped you more. When you decided to stay here, I should have taken you by the collar and shook some sense into you. Helped you train. Helped you become everything you needed to be to get out of here. Instead… I was relieved. One nagging trouble had resolved itself, and maybe I didn't have to feel so bad about it anymore." He swallowed hard, his throat going dry.

"You have every right to kill me if you have to, Maitiú. I won't lie - I really wish you wouldn't. But you're not wrong. And you deserve your revenge." Maitiú panted softly, little frustrated growls that continued to build." If you thought that would make me feel better, you were wrong again. I can't… not hate you, Cormac. Do you understand? The fórsa has burned that ability out of my brain. I can feel it. It's hardwired now, like hunger or loneliness. I couldn't choose to not kill you if I wanted to."

Cormac sighed, closing his eyes.

"Then I suppose you have work to do." From behind, approaching unnoticed during Cormac's apology, Sol put his hand on Maitiú's arm one more time. He screamed silently again, but this time the lights didn't just build beneath the seams in his skin. It rippled, moving from one hand, through his body and into the other without even being stored. The last time he had tried this, he had been unable to form the material fórsa in time, and the power had built up faster than his body could handle.

Now he was locking hands with Miriam so tightly that the instant he built a fragment of material it shattered against her skin and she absorbed it. This was helped because of the fact that the fórsa Maitiú had not yet integrated into his body was pure. It had no fórsa nature, so it required no processing from him to turn into a format that Miriam could use. She instantly took it in, rebuilding her fórsa pool continuously as she in turn unleashed her power with her other hand. And unleash it she did.

A roaring river thundered through the cavern, submerging the stone table with its burned-in symbols. It blasted through the cavern into the tunnels from which Miriam and Sol had come. Soon she could feel her hold on the prism in her mind space that controlled her fórsa natures slipping. She was barely holding on, but then her grip fell apart. Once-pure river water was now filled with fetid, dead plants; rotting vines and algae. Miriam grimaced at her lack of control, but there was nothing to be done about it now.

She had to release it as fast as she could - not even anything as structured as a Waterfall technique, just raw fórsa manifestation. It couldn't go like this forever. In only a few moments the power was building too high again, faster than Sol could shunt the energy and greater than Miriam could release at one time. With a duo of pained cries, Miriam and Sol pulled away from Maitiú. The deformed man was no longer quite as monstrous as he had been. The pulsing of his skin had stopped.

His eye returned to normal proportions. He still had too many arms. His skin was still discolored and diseased. But when she looked in his eyes it was a lucid man who looked back.

"My gods…" Maitiú said, giving a deep sigh.

"You have no idea how good that feels."

"We don't want to hurt you, Maitiú," Miriam said, her whole body aching.

"But I don't want you to hurt my other friends either." Then he twitched violently, looking back at Cormac, a familiar snarl reappearing on his face." I'm afraid we don't always get what we want, do we my dear?" With a single stomp, he crushed Cormac's knee.