Origin (Land of the Elementals Book 3), page 36
Shelderoth shuddered, and Arbor had to resist the urge to do so as well. He remembered what those worms looked like and was glad he’d only run into the one, and that Kya had managed to drive it off.
“I was forced to report my failure. Of course, the Demon Lord was unhappy, and threatened to kill a thousand of my kind for every hour it took to find you. We came out in droves then, as I’m sure you noticed, desperately hunting for you. After your capture, I approached Nilegard, the Demon in charge up here in Grimm, to take me back down to see the Demon Lord and report my success.
“I was expecting a reward, you see, as capturing you is something that can finally give them an edge over the Heavenly races. However, when I arrived, Nilegard decided he would deign to join me.”
Here, Shelderoth’s voice turned bitter, and a look of anger, fear, and frustration crossed his features.
“He took credit for the entire thing, siting my supposed failure to do so. I then made the mistake of speaking out against a Demon and nearly lost my life as a result. The Demon Lord spared me, taking Nilegard to receive my well-earned reward, while sending me back here. Nilegard won’t let me live, not after what I said about him, and in front of a Lord, no less. The torture he’ll put me through will likely last for centuries, and that’s if I’m lucky.
“In the end, I don’t really have much of a life to live. But the worst part is that I should have expected something like this to happen. Believe it or not, this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. This is how the Demons remain in power, while the Elementals are continuously trodden underfoot. We are little more than slaves, playing pieces for those more powerful.
“Now, I realize that the reason you’re here is my fault. I won’t deny that. But I’m fed up with being treated this way, and so are a lot of my kind. I don’t know many who would have the strength to rebel, but there are enough. If you agree to take us with you, I can help you escape. So, human,” Shelderoth asked, his voice firm for the first time since he’d entered, “what do you say?”
45
Arbor stared at the small creature for several long seconds, before half-turning to look at Kya. Not once through his entire story had she tapped him to indicate a falsehood, but without the ability to tell truth from deception, he had to rely entirely on her for their answer. Much to his surprise, he turned around and found that Kya was crying. Large tears rolled down the elf’s cheeks as she stared past him to Shelderoth.
“Oh, you poor thing!” she exclaimed, seemingly fighting herself from running over to the Elemental. “There’s so much pain and anguish… It’s almost too much to bear!”
She whirled on Arbor then, a look of desperation in her eyes.
“Please, we have to help him! I can’t even begin to explain how…how horrible…” Kya trailed off, her eyes flicking back to Shelderoth, who was still floating before them, now looking a bit uncomfortable.
“Alright,” Arbor said, turning back to the Elemental as well. “You have a deal. But how will you get us out of here, and exactly how am I supposed to bring you back with me?”
The look of relief on Shelderoth’s face was immense, so much so that Arbor had to wonder just how afraid this small creature really was. Perhaps he should reevaluate his ideas on how dangerous these Demons were in general.
“I’ll explain on the way. Right now, all the Elementals guarding you are willing to join me. There is one problem — the Dufinity. None of us have the power needed to kill him, and there is nothing short of true death that will stop one of the Demonkin. For that, we’re going to have to rely on you.”
“But I can’t kill your kind,” Arbor protested, remembering well how ineffectual his attacks were earlier.
“You have the Origin, don’t you?” Shelderoth asked, his voice becoming tinged with fear once again.
“Yes, but I can’t exactly use it at the moment,” Arbor replied.
“You used it in our fight,” Shelderoth said, relieved but confused.
“I only had half of it then,” Arbor replied. “I now have the whole thing, and my control has been almost nonexistent since I’ve gotten it.”
Shelderoth didn’t seem put off by that. If anything, he seemed a little excited.
“Well, what better chance to test yourself than against a powerful adversary? In my experience – and I have a lot of that – the best way to gain control, is by understanding the source of your power and how it functions. Without someone here to guide you, your best chance is trial and error.”
“I can’t control any of it,” Arbor said. “When I draw on the Origin now, it gives me too much unwanted power.”
“Do you want to live or not?”
Shelderoth’s blunt question stopped Arbor’s arguments in their tracks. Yes, he wanted to live, that much was clear. He had a sister to return to, an entire race counting on him, and so much to accomplish back home. He couldn’t afford to give up, not now, and not ever.
“How do we do this?” Arbor asked, feeling his shoulders firm up.
“I’ll bang on the door to be let out. One of my cohorts has your weapon. We have a prearranged signal that you’ve accepted my offer. Once I use it, the others will cut off all sound from the area, preventing anyone from hearing anything. We’ll work to keep the Dufinity from running away as well, but you’re going to have to work quickly. There’s no knowing when Nilegard will return. When he does, he’ll be looking for me.”
Arbor nodded, taking several deep breaths to try and calm himself as he prepared to reach for his Origin magic. The last time he’d attempted to use it, Kya had had to calm him down before he’d been able to reassert control.
A hand fell on his arm, and Arbor turned to see the elf in question. She was no longer crying and had a determined look in her eyes.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said, her voice hard with resolve. “I’ll be here for you the entire time. If you need help, trust that I can give it.”
Arbor gave her a grateful smile before turning to Shelderoth. He felt a bit better now, though he knew the next several minutes would be unpleasant at best, and horrific pain was the most probable outcome. His body might be fine, but his mind simply was not accustomed to the immense overload of information the new aspects of the Origin provided.
Sure, it was still locked at the 8th Tier and would go no higher until he advanced, but control was not something he’d have a lot of until he’d spent a serious amount of time understanding how the Origin worked. Right now, he was simply going to do his best with the knowledge he had and hope it would be enough.
“Alright,” Arbor said, turning to the Elemental. “I’m ready.”
Shelderoth nodded, then turned in the air and floated over to the door. Arbor’s muscles tensed as he banged on it twice, reaching for the sphere of black and white power sitting in his chest. The magic responded immediately, almost eager to escape out into the world. It reminded him of the way the magic had been when he’d first discovered it. Wild, untamed, and completely out of his control.
“Finally done in there, bug?” asked a voice from outside, followed by a snicker. “Don’t know why you wanted to talk to a mortal, but even bugs like to feel powerful someti-”
The voice cut off as the door swung wide, and Shelderoth bolted forward with a yell. The black and white creature, nearly triple his size, let out a surprised cry as he was tossed bodily back, disappearing from Arbor’s sight as Shelderoth began to yell.
“Freedom! Close it off! Our chance is finally here!”
Arbor shared one last look with Kya, before dashing from the cell and out into the open yard-area of the small prison. There, he saw dozens of Elementals flying about, most heading to the low walls surrounding the block of metal and beginning to work some type of magic, while the others helped Shelderoth keep the Dufinity occupied.
“Here, human!”
Arbor looked up, just in time to see his glaive dropping out of the sky, blue light glittering along its length as the Azure-Leopard’s Mythicallium reflected the red light of Grimm. His hand flashed out, and when his fingers wrapped around the haft of the weapon, Arbor felt an immense sense of relief. He never felt quite right without his glaive nearby, and now that he had it, he felt whole again.
“Get back!” he yelled, then darted toward the Dufinity, who was thrashing and expelling bursts of white fire in an attempt to free himself.
The Elementals reacted with shocking speed, flickering back in an instant and leaving Arbor a clear path to the Dufinity. The creature let out a bellow, leaping to his feet and whirling to face one of the Elementals, but it was at that moment that Arbor hit him.
The glaive flashed forward, Arbor channeling his Origin magic through the weapon and into the creature, much in the same way as he had before. He staggered as the blow impacted, wincing as a burning pain shot through his head, and his vision flashed in several sequences before settling on Mage Sight. However, it wasn’t the regular Mage Sight, but rather, the one that was overlaid with the tracer lines, the ones that showed the Dufinity’s makeup.
While the creature itself seemed to be practically made of magic, its actual makeup was vastly different than he’d imagined. For one, the lines traced in weird patterns that made his head hurt even more, and for another, they stretched far higher than the Dufinity’s actual form, indicating that at least part of its makeup was incorporeal or invisible to the naked eye.
All of this happened just as Arbor’s glaive made contact with what he hoped was the Dufinity’s chest. The Origin magic, now allowed to fly freely, exploded from the tip of his glaive, bursting into the world with an explosion that put his previous attacks to shame. The Dufinity was torn to pieces in an instant, its entire body consumed by the black and white light.
The creature screamed such a horrible scream that Arbor feared he might go permanently deaf. The worst part of it all, though, was actually being able to see what his magic was doing to the creature. Before his very eyes, he saw the white magic tearing at the lines that made up the creature, while at the same time, the black tore at the magic, ripping pieces from the Dufinity’s body.
If Arbor had been afraid that the creature would put up much of a fight after that, he’d have worried for nothing. While the Dufinity screamed in its death throes, Arbor was too busy trying to wrangle the magic under control.
He staggered, magic flaring from his body and exploding into the air in bursts. Flowers grew at his feet, only to burn to ash a second later. The air smelled first fresh, then of ozone. He staggered as another burst of magic escaped him, blowing a crater in the ground and filling it with water. The next burst turned it to steam, then back to water again.
Arbor fell to his knees, clutching at his head as he tried to pull the magic back into himself. It just wasn’t working. This was what he’d been most afraid of when using the Origin magic before he was ready. The lack of control meant that he couldn’t pull it back in once it had been unleashed, and judging by the way his second Origin was pulsing and roiling in his chest, there was little chance he’d be able to regain control by covering it in a shell of Perception magic.
The Dufinity finally stopped screaming then, its body, now diminished to little more than a husk, before crumbling away to nothingness. The warden of his prison was gone, but Arbor was nowhere near free, not when he couldn’t even get off his knees.
A soothing sensation washed over him then, and Arbor half-turned to see Kya approaching, her face pinched in concentration. The effect she was having on him was calming, but not nearly enough to stop the random bursts of magic now flowing from him. Her magic was strongest through direct contact, and seeing as she was liable to be killed if she approached, she wouldn’t be able to…
“What the hell are you doing?” Arbor demanded as Kya walked right up to him and placed a hand on his face.
“Keeping my promise,” Kya said, flooding his body with her calming magic.
Arbor could feel his body’s chemistry reacting to her power, bending to her will far faster than it had before. He could feel his magic roiling up for another sudden burst and knew that if she were to be caught in it, there was no way she’d survive.
“You need to back off!” he yelled, reaching up to push her away.
Kya’s other hand clamped over his, pulling it tight to her shoulder and holding it there.
“I’m not going anywhere!” she said stubbornly.
“But you’re going to die!” Arbor yelled, feeling the magic close to bursting.
“You’re not going to let that happen,” Kya said, not a shred of uncertainty or fear in her voice. “You are stronger than your magic, and you won’t allow it to kill me.”
Arbor grit his teeth, fighting to keep the roiling magic contained, even as Kya continued to soothe his overtaxed mind.
“Idiot elf!” he yelled. “What am I going to tell Karria if you die?”
“Nothing,” Kya said, meeting his angry gaze with her calm one. “Because I’m not going to die. As I said, you won’t kill me because you’re stronger than your magic. Now, take a deep breath, calm down, and take control.”
Arbor wanted to yell, to allow the magic pressing on his skin from the inside to burst free. His entire body felt as though it were fighting to contain a massive force, and Arbor knew that if he just relaxed, it would feel so much better. Yet he couldn’t. He would not allow Kya to die. He would not allow his own selfishness, his own desire for the pain to be gone, to relax, even for a single moment.
Her magic continued to soothe him all the while, calming his racing heart and pounding head. Slowly, painfully, Arbor began to reassert control. He was dimly aware of the Elementals around them, and he could feel their presence practically looming over him, yet all he was truly aware of in that moment was the core of black and white in his chest, and the warm hand pressed to his cheek.
His lungs were on fire, Arbor holding his breath as the magic wormed its way into them. It was flowing into his organs, looking for some other escape, and Arbor knew if he so much as breathed now, black and white power would come bursting forth. Kya didn’t say a word, merely crouching before him, her hand pressed to his face and watching as he struggled to keep his magic from killing her.
She was being reckless, to the point of being suicidal. No one should be this irrational, not toward someone they’d only just met. He briefly wondered if Kya might have finally snapped under the pressure, but as she continued to stare, determination set in every line of her body, Arbor finally began to realize – or at least, thought he realized – why she was doing all of this.
Like him with Grak and Hord, Karria would undoubtedly have spoken endlessly to her best friend about her big brother. The two of them had been very close, and he knew Karria looked up to him. That was why he’d always strived to set a good example and be the best big brother he possibly could be. He’d loved his parents, and he still did to this day, but the person in his family that he’d undoubtedly loved the most was his baby sister.
How could he not, after all? There was a closeness between siblings that parents could never match, and although Karria had never said as much out loud, he knew she felt the same way. After hours upon hours of talking about her to his friends, they felt like they knew her, despite never having met her before. They knew how important she was to him, and would do anything to keep her safe in his absence.
Kya, as Karria’s best friend, would likely see him the same way. Arbor had no idea what the two of them had been through together, but he had to assume that their journey could not have been much easier than his. Yet Kya treated him in a way that suggested she understood him, and in a way that someone who’d just met him shouldn’t.
The elf girl gave him a smile then, even as Arbor felt the magic beginning to leak from his skin, drifting into the air as his strength to hold it back began to fail.
“I won’t leave you,” she said, leaning in a bit closer. “Not when I feel-”
Arbor lost control then, the magic slipping from his grasp and exiting his body in a massive explosion.
46
Karria crouched in the shadow of the bushes, watching the approaching troop of dwarves with a discerning eye. They would pass in approximately eight seconds at their current speed, and in twenty-four, they’d be far away enough not to hear any movement. In fifty-one, they’d be out of earshot, and that was when she would strike. Grak shifted behind her, causing the bushes to rustle and giving Karria the urge to strangle her.
The gremlin didn’t seem to have the ability to sit still for even a few moments, and if she continued shifting around, she would get them caught. Much as Karria was confident they could take the group of twelve dwarves, she didn’t think they could do it quietly. If Grak caused them to be caught, Karria decided she would kill her as soon as the dwarves were dead. Sure, she was planning on disposing of them as soon as their mission was over anyway, but perhaps getting rid of them now would be better.
The dwarves, however, didn’t seem to think that anything was out of the ordinary and continued on their way without so much as a head-turn. Karria waited, counting silently in her head as she watched them disappear around the next bend, noting that one of them gave the hidden entrance a sidelong glance as he did.
This was a huge mistake on his part, as he could have glanced at the entrance without even moving his head. That was what Karria would have done, but not everyone possessed her brilliance, and the dwarf’s stupidity assured her that she was in the right place. She’d been fairly certain up until now, but this cemented her surety.
Karria waited until the time had run out in her head, then another ten seconds after that, just in case.
“Let’s go,” she said in a low voice, rising from her crouch and dashing across the narrow road.
A dagger appeared in her hand, curved at one end and sharp as could be. She pictured where the dwarves would be in the tunnel relative to her, dressed in the same armor as the others, and gave them shields to boot. Before she even crossed the path, she had half a dozen ways in which to kill them.
