Unwelcome News

“I guess that explains why he was so…weird,” Ash said. “He was using magic.”

“Not exactly,” Tienne snarled. “More accurately, magic was used on him.”

“Okay, so what’s the big deal? You’ve got Words all over your armor and whatever else you’re carrying. How’s this any different?”

“I and all other proper Wordcrafters use Scribed items, yes, but Scribing one’s own body—or anyone else’s body—is strictly forbidden. And before you ask: yes, there is a good reason for that.”

Tienne knelt back down, although she approached the man gingerly, as if his very body was dangerous. She tore open his shirt, revealing yet more hashmarks on his chest. Like the Words on his arm, these marks had been gouged deep into his flesh without a hint of scar tissue, and yet somehow remained completely bloodless.

“Remember what Lady Solenia said back at the inn: we need the Words of Creation to bind the primordial energy into objects precisely because mortals were never meant to handle it,” Tienne explained. “We can Scribe artificial objects because they are already ‘made.’ The Words merely alter the properties that they were given when built. Mortal bodies, and the natural world, are immutable: they are what they are. While it is possible to Scribe natural objects, doing so requires far more power, and without great skill is essentially guaranteed to fail. If the Words fail, the power will be released with explosive results. If we assume that the men we encountered earlier were similarly treated, then there will be many more who’s Scribings were…less successful.”

Tienne allowed the weight of her words to settle in. Ash tried not to imagine the scenario Tienne was implying, and failed. She felt something crawling deep in her gut.

“You were right, by the way: the Words were why these men behaved oddly, and were so resilient, but that is another problem,” Tienne continued. “Words fundamentally change whatever it is they are Scribed on; the greater the desired change, the greater the power required. It is why most objects are Scribed to have only the exact effect required, and for as short a time as possible. But the Words on this man’s body…are permanent. They are enhancing his strength and durability by a great deal, yes, but they are doing so all the time. The energy that is putting through him would drown out everything else about him. It must be reducing him to an animalistic nature.”

Ash was speechless. She was not new to the concept of magic, of course, but she was unversed in the reality of it. Until she had met Solenia and Tienne, magic had been a distant thing, something both wonderous and unknowable. It was a matter of stories, not everyday life. But now Ash was confronted with just what magic could do, and how far it could go. Now she knew that not all magic was to be admired. For no short span of time, the world itself was out of focus as Ash tried to make sense of it all. One thing that was clear to the young girl was that she could not fathom willingly doing what these men had done to themselves, trading their wits for power they might not be able to understand anymore.

This thought was followed by the realization that the procedure might not have been willing, and swiftly thereafter by the nauseating uncertainty of which option would be worse.

“At least that explains why he was so focused on me. Couldn’t think for himself, or something like that?” Ash asked, desperate to get out of her own mind.

“Actually, no,” Tienne said, thoughtful. “It is more that he was acting on pure instinct. Even animals know how to respond to greater threats, and I had a sword. You weren’t even attacking him. That does not make sense, unless there was some other reason.”

“I guess that means I was just a bigger threat than you.”

It was a poor joke and even more obvious deflection, and both girls knew it. Tienne just glared at her, and Ash declined to make eye contact, as if doing so would allow her to avoid considering the implication that the man had been targeting her for a reason.

After a minute or so of expectant silence, it was clear that neither of them had anything else useful to say.

“It seems we have hit another dead end. Wonderful.” Tienne sighed.

“I’m not sure about that. You said that only a skilled Wordcrafter could do this kind of Scribing, right? Well, how many people could possibly be that good? I’d bet if we find whoever did the Scribing, we’ll find the rest of them.”

“And how do you propose we do that? You did not even know what a Wordcrafter was yesterday,” Tienne said, sending a withering look Ash’s way.

“Okay, but am I wrong? ‘Really powerful, sketchy Wordcrafter’ has got to be an easier thing to find than people we know nothing about.”

“I suppose so,” Tienne finally said. It sounded like she was forcing the words out one by one. “It is better than nothing, at least. I will bring up the matter to Lady Solenia.”

With that said, Tienne spun and marched out of the warehouse without another word. Ash protested neither the Valkyrie’s hastily-added condition nor her abrupt departure. If allowing Tienne to defer a decision prevented further arguing, then Ash figured that was a step in the right direction.

Besides, it had been a very long day, and she needed to sleep more than she ever had before.

. . .

The trip back to the inn was far longer than the trip from it had been. Partially, this was because night had well and truly fallen, leaving only the light of the lamps and crescent moon to travel by. Mostly, though, it was because Tienne insisted on treating every errant shadow or half-seen movement as a potential threat. She moved with exaggerated caution, unwilling to let anything slip by her guard. The level of care Tienne displayed was perhaps counter-productive in the way it slowed the girls’ progress and made them deeply conspicuous to anyone who cared to look, but Ash could not blame her. Indeed, she was just as paranoid; she expected more Word-scarred men to jump out from behind every corner, eyes bulging with madness and bodies ludicrously swollen with power. She dutifully ignored the part of her mind that tried to remind her that this was not what the first man was like at all. The way the rest of her saw it, the Emerald Hand had apparently seen fit to carve so much magic into themselves that they went crazy. Who was she to say what else they were capable of?

Regardless of Ash’s lurid fantasies, however, they made it back to the inn without incident. It was located in what could fairly be described as a “typical” neighborhood in Mearn: reasonably prosperous, a little more claustrophobic than it should be, and overlooked by taller, wealthier districts. In short, it could have been anywhere in the city, such that no one who lived there felt the need to acknowledge it, if they even noticed.

Returning to that sense of unbothered normalcy was an almost physical shock to Ash’s system. To see people walking about without a care, for shopkeepers to be closing up with the conviction that they would be doing the same tomorrow, seemed somehow wrong. Didn’t these people know that not long ago, not far away, Ash and Tienne had been fighting for their lives? Didn’t they understand the strange, frightening threat that lurked in their midst? But none of them did, and if Ash insisted on convincing any of them just how absurd the situation was, then she would be the one making a scene. Ash was thus forced to suppress the internal voice screaming at passersby and follow Tienne back into the inn and back to the Valkyries’ room.

There, Ash was mildly surprised to see that Solenia had not already returned. She had assumed that the elder Valkyrie, with all her experience and skill, would have been done with her task well earlier. From the look of concern on Tienne’s face, she was equally caught off guard by the situation. But then, with no idea where Solenia had gone or what she was actually up to, there was nothing either of them could do about it.

That left sitting and waiting, an activity that did little to improve Ash’s mood. Mostly, it gave her more time to dwell on everything that had happened to her over the course of the day, and to replay the most traumatic moments over and over. Each time she rewatched the Emerald Hand man swinging at her, or the dagger hitting Gerred in the chest, her mind added ever more implausibly dramatic detail. Each loop just made her fed her desire for Solenia to just walk through the door already. Valkyries were supposed to be guardians of peace and sanity, the bulwark between innocent and evil. So it was only proper, Ash reasoned, for Solenia to make all of this make sense.

When the elder Valkyrie did finally enter the room, all thought of recent events fled Ash’s mind. Solenia only made it a few, stumbled steps into the room before she collapsed into a chair. She was clutching her left side tightly, but not tight enough to stop rivulets of blood from leaking out between her fingers. Every movement seemed to induce a wince of pain from the woman.

Tienne leapt to her feet and rushed to her teacher’s side, hands searching for something to do that would make everything better.

“Lady Solenia, what happened? You’re hurt!”

“A brilliant observation, dear Tienne,” Solenia said through gritted teeth. “But there’s no need to be panic. It looks much worse than it is.”

Ash bit back the observation that ‘it’ looked quite bad.

“But—”

“Your concern is touching, Tienne, but it is also unhelpful. I would much rather you make yourself useful.”

“Y—yes. Of course, Lady Solenia,” Tienne said, plainly ashamed of herself. She darted off to the corner of the room, where there was a pile of various travelling bags and started sifting through them.

Ash could bear standing around doing nothing for so long, and so resorted to talking to fill the void.

“Was it the Emerald Hand who did it?” She asked.

“Is that what they call themselves? Then yes, it was them. Surprisingly tough, and not very fond of people poking around in their business. Now help me get this armor off, would you?”

Ash hurried to comply, mostly to feel as if she were contributing. She fumbled with the straps, her hands trembling so badly that Solenia wound up doing most of the work anyway. While the process was ongoing seemed as good a time as any to tell Solenia what they had learned about the Emerald Hand, so Ash did so. The elf woman took it all in with grim understanding.

“That’s certainly unwelcome news,” Solenia said.

By then, Tienne had returned with a roll of bandages, and Solenia’s armor lay in a heap on the floor. As Tienne started to wrap the bandages around Solenia’s stomach, Ash got a view of the wound. She decided to keep to herself that she thought Tienne’s initial panic was more justified than Solenia had claimed. Thankfully, Tienne did not seem to be in the mood for careful observation.

“Where did this happen?” Tienne demanded. “We must go back there at once and make these vile criminals—”

“You will do no such thing,” Solenia said. So forceful was her voice that both Tienne and Ash were stunned completely still for a beat. “As Ashreida just told me, these Emerald Hand people obviously have far more power and resources than we initially believed. We are in no position to rush into things blind.”

That made clear, the work of dressing Solenia’s wound continued quietly. Once it was done—and Solenia appeared largely stable—the silence did not immediately lift. There was nothing obvious to say, no matter how taut the tension in the room was. It did not take long for it to become unbearable.

“Well…if nothing else is going to happen soon, I really ought to get back home. My gang will be worried about me, and I’m worried about them.”

“I’m truly sorry for taking you away from your people, but I cannot allow you to leave, either. From what you said, the most logical assumption is that man was targeting you deliberately. Right now, you walking the city alone is unacceptable. You will be staying here tonight.”

All of the woman’s usual joviality was completely gone. In its place was a cold, uncompromising command that left absolutely no room or possibility of disobedience.

With no other choice, Ash sat back down and made herself comfortable.