Chương 80: Hanza of House Padma

The timer had ticked over the 95th-day threshold by the time Hanza Padma finished recounting his life—his many lives, to be exact. The food had gone cold, and both Gym Rats were swaying in their seats, overwhelmed by exhaustion. But there was just no way Jordan could leave things the way they were.

"Let me get this straight," he said while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Your Shaman spell, [Ancestral Communion], it lets you relive the lives of your ancestors? And that's how you learned all this stuff that's been kept off the history books?"

"You're only partially correct, Gatekeeper." The passage of time seemed to hold no power over the Lv. 20 Shaman. He looked and sounded just as fresh as he had about two hours and a looong story ago.

"You see, [Ancestral] is something of a misnomer. The spell's target is not necessarily blood forebears but rather souls with whom the caster shares a certain level of resonance—souls to whom my soul is naturally drawn to once it's projected into the Original Void and seeking anchor. Does that make sense?" Jordan nodded. Slowly, though with some amount of conviction, armed as he was with a certain degree of fantasy literacy as well as what might potentially count as personal experience.

"Granted," Hanza went on, "a caster does tend to find the strongest resonance with those in their direct lineage. But there are exceptions to the rule. I myself have [Communed] quite happily with a master swordsman from the Everhome Dynasty as well as a pre-unification adept of some renown, neither of whom is in any way related to the Padma bloodline.

Rather than limiting the pool of potential targets to strictly our [Ancestors], I suppose it's more accurate to say that we Shamans [Commune] with and draw power from our past lives." Jordan broke out in an involuntary shudder. Once again, he recalled an item description that was very much pertinent to his current side quest. Are you really living in the now, if your soul is stranded in a previous incarnation?

"And this is how you've reached Lv. 20 at such a young age." This from Pewter, sufficiently awed.

"By retaining and incorporating all the experience from your previous lives." Hanza nodded with a rueful smile.

"To my own detriment, I should say," the man did say.

"Would that a senior Shaman had been around to take me under their wings, to teach me the do's, don'ts, and had-better-nots of the profession. You see, I'd dedicated so much of myself to the lives of others that I've neglected to live my own, in the here and now. I've not sired an heir, nor have I taken a wife for that matter. I may look thirty, but inside this youthful veneer lives a man decades—if not centuries—older." Hearing this, another puzzle piece fell into place.

Jordan recalled his and Hanza's conversation in the infirmary. How the latter had struggled with the simple math of 'nine days remaining out of a hundred'. Could you blame the man, when his sense of time and existence had been so warped by his life-hopping habits?

"Okay but," Jordan said with as much cheer as he could muster, " physically, you're still thirty, yeah? Still plenty of time to meet a girl and start a family. You just gotta put yourself out there instead of, you know, being a shut-in inside this estate." Hanza smiled again, gracious yet ever more rueful. There was something more to the story than the man was willing to let on. And Jordan had the funny feeling that he knew the what and the why. Insight DC 18: success"Alright."

Jordan chose to let Hanza keep just this one secret.

"Now we know the background. Shall we get back to the present?" Here, Pewter once again picked up the thread, brow furrowed in thought.

"A twin named Shaza and a mother who supposedly had been betrayed by House Padma. I think we can reasonably assume that the voice we heard at Yellowspring Grotto belonged to this mother. Her… spirit or some such, which reacted to the wooden box— an heirloom from her side of the family, perhaps? And if we take the twin—Shaza—at his word, we can then deduce that the mother once hailed from Blacksnake Hollow, a community that had once been annexed by House Padma and had since been struck from historical records.

Do I have the right of it?" Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Both Jordan and Hanza nodded at the same time. Pewter went on,"And if the deathtouch plague indeed is related to this curse Shaza and his mother had cast upon House Padma, then the only way to cure those afflicted might be to reverse the curse. Perhaps by appeasing the ghosts? Somehow convince them to let go of their grudge? But what I still don't understand is… why now?"

Pewter's gaze went to the half-eaten steamed bun on his plate. He picked it up and bit into it, chewing absent-mindedly as he continued his ponderings.

"According to the records in the library, and as corroborated by Lord Padma's [Communions] with his past lives, deathtouch came and went for several generations after the end of the Unification Wars. And then… nothing. To find the last reported case, you would have to go all the way back to the Elderift Dynasty, and even then, it's dubious whether or not that was a real case of deathtouch. So… why has it started up again in the 59th year of the Radiant Vigor Era?

After almost a millennium of dormancy, and in such great numbers and severity?"

"It almost feels like," Jordan found himself murmuring, "whoever cast the curse in the first place… just remembered to cast it again." Pewter slowed his chewing. Hanza fixed Jordan with a thoughtful gaze. As for Jordan himself, he was feeling a bit of the ol' déjà vu again. What did this conversation remind him of?

"It would have to be the twin, no?" Pewter again.

"Shaza? But Jordan and I only heard from the mother. Did you, Jordan, feel the presence of another spirit while you were trying to escape from the cave?" Jordan shook his head.

"Nope, and didn't the mother say something like'don't leave me'? And she was calling to both of her children, which makes me think that this Shaza kid isn't with her anymore. I wonder if he's moved on from the nether realm somehow, or—""Or… he was never of the nether realm." Jordan stared at Hanza. The Shaman had that faraway look again, at once living in the now and reliving the distant past.

"In any case," Hanza went on, "I believe both of you have hit upon the crux of our problem. The recent slew of deathtouch cases is the result of an 1, 800-year-old curse. One that has seen a resurgence lately for some as yet unidentifiable reason. The solution, then, is to find the culpable spirit, ghost, or some other manner of being and… compel it to reverse the curse." The trio was silent for some time, no doubt each interrogating the theory in their own way.

In the end, Jordan declared,"Yeah, I'd say that's the best we can come up with for the time being. Now, what can we do about it?" Hanza leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. He might've looked to have fallen asleep, were it not for his eyes fluttering ceaselessly behind their lids. Living and reliving… and somewhere in between, making the choices demanded of a man of his people. Hanza opened his eyes. The wistfulness was gone. In its place shone only determination.

"I believe," he said, "that I ought to pay Yellowspring Grotto a visit."

"Are you sure?" Jordan blurted right away. That earlier 'funny feeling' now bloomed into genuine worry for his host—a man he'd come to respect and appreciate despite the less than steady start to their companionship.

"To do that, you would have to leave the estate. Wouldn't that… you know…" Hanza smiled at Jordan. Pewter looked between the two of them, confusion plain upon his exhausted face. Evidently, not everyone had the [Wisdom] on hand to pass a DC-18 [Insight] check.

"Ah, so you've arrived at the reason I've shut myself in my own house. You're sharper than you let on, Gatekeeper Yu," Hanza said, still smiling. Jordan chose to take it as a compliment.

"And I appreciate your concern. It's certainly more than I deserve. But to answer your question… I am sure. My people need me to come through for them. And now that there's a clear opportunity for me to do just that, I shan't hesitate to take it." Well, Jordan could hesitate plenty for the both of them. In the end, however, he merely nodded his approval. He might not be the most socially adept Earthling ever, but even he wasn't so far gone as to come between a man and his mission to save his people.

"Alright," he said.

"Now that's decided, I guess we'd better get to it, yeah? The clock's ticking, as we like to say in my home country. If we hurry, we might even get there before… y—yaaawwwnnn …" Hanza laughed heartily at that. He then gave a firm yet gentle order, as befitted a noble lord:"Your enthusiasm is admirable, Gatekeeper Yu. But here in Stormvast, we like to say that preparation is the panacea to cure all worries. Both you and Tetherer Sapling are exhausted beyond measure.

Take the rest of the day to recuperate while I ready myself for the journey. We leave first thing tomorrow."