The Brightest Shadow, page 49
Then Celivia's whip flashed out, lashing around his arm with the blades digging deep. When Celivia pulled on it they bit deeper and the mansthein let out a groan and staggered. While he was off balance, Tani easily swept in and slashed her sickle knife across his throat.
She couldn't see any more soldiers nearby, so Tani retreated. She saw that while Celivia looked focused in combat, her control wasn't perfect. The other woman leaned against the wall of the building, holding her head and gritting her teeth in a vicious snarl. When she saw Tani approach, she regained control.
"Tani... you don't seem to be swept up in it."
"That's right. It's difficult to explain, but yes." Tani winced and rubbed her wrist. "The training that required meant taking time away from other skills, though. I can't get overconfident."
"Stay close to Slaten and me. We may not be thinking as clearly, but we have the strength to support you." Celivia's gaze flickered back. "Presuming that Slaten is okay."
When Tani looked, she saw that he was biting into his arm hard enough to draw blood. She hastened to him, gently pulling his arm from between his teeth. For a moment his eyes stared at her with a wild emotion beyond names, then he seemed to calm. With a slightly ashamed look, he wiped off his arm and pulled down his sleeve.
"It's... so hard to concentrate..."
"I know, Slaten, I know. But it will be okay. Stick close to us and we'll handle it together." Tani wanted to say more, but saw his eyes shift to look behind her.
"He's coming..."
She turned to look and saw him. It was Melal, though he had transformed. Tani felt a surge of emotions and let it pass through without influencing her. Melal had gained the power of the Hero, but he was not the Hero. He was just Melal, regardless of how much the sunlight seemed to clothe him.
Besides, the smile on his face was only partially gentle - part of it was familiar smugness. When a mansthein soldier tried to attack him from behind, he whirled in an exaggerated movement, his sword decapitating the man in one blow. As the head and body fell to the ground, Melal spat at them.
"Hah! That's what you get, Deathspawn scum!"
Tani let out a deep sigh. Just as she'd feared, it hadn't ended. Judging from the looks she saw in Slaten and Celivia's eyes, this wasn't the first time. The light around Melal might not affect her, but it would still affect everything else. As far as she had come, she was still far from finding a solution.
But a step closer. Tani focused herself again as the Hero approached.
~ ~ ~
As they waited, Slaten tried to stay close to Tani. His body still floated in a haze and it was difficult to concentrate, yet he could tell that the world was different for her. Truths he struggled to speak of plainly, she could address. When he spoke to her, it became a little easier for him to focus as well.
None of that helped the fact that Melal had become the next Hero. He raised his sword and a fist to the sky, crying out a challenge for more enemies to come fight him. Though he hadn't started shouting about being the Hero yet, it was only a matter of time. If that happened, then there would be nothing that would prevent his death.
"We need to talk to him." Tani glanced at Slaten and Celivia, then moved forward. Slaten followed, struggling to adopt a ready position, focusing solely on his stance and the blade he carried.
As they approached, Melal turned and flashed them a bright smile. Far brighter than before, but still the cocky smile they'd expect from Melal. "Have you come to join me? Today's the day we take the fight to the enemy and kick their Deathspawn asses!"
"Melal, please. Calm down." When Tani said his name, Melal twitched and scowled at her.
"I'm not... do you not know who I am? I'm the Hero! Speak with respect!"
"You may be the Hero now, Melal, but do you remember what happened before?" Tani returned her knives to their places and approached him with her arms open. "The past Heroes died, Melal. They couldn't overcome everything. Unless you stop shouting, you'll d-"
Melal roared and lunged forward, his sword swinging in a glimmering arc. Slaten intercepted it, his body finally shedding some of the heaviness. Instead of trying to sweep aside his sword or strike again, Melal merely pushed forward with more strength, glaring at Slaten as if trying to throw him aside. He was monstrously strong, but Slaten drew in all the sein he had and held him back.
"Focus, Melal!" Tani raised her voice and Melal's eyes shifted toward her. They were very light blue, but not white. "Whatever you want to do, you won't accomplish it by fighting an entire army, not now."
"I'm the Hero!"
"Even heroes don't win wars in a day. Don't you need time to prepare? Or... uh, train in your heroism? Or focus on the Legend?"
"There is no room for doubt." But even as he spoke, Melal pulled back, no longer forcing his strength against Slaten's. Though he stayed on guard, Slaten drew back, letting his burning muscles rest. He saw that Celivia was watching with narrow eyes, hands on her weapons.
After a long pause, Melal took a wavering step backward. Only then did Slaten realize how many wounds covered his body. Before, he had ignored them entirely, but now Melal seemed weak, more like a mortal man than a Hero. He shook his head, eyes uncertain, then dropped his sword and fell back into a sitting position on the ground.
"I... I need to think. Don't... don't let the enemy win..." His words faded and became much softer, eyes no longer focused on anything. Slaten remained wary, afraid Melal would spring up again, but it seemed that he had truly calmed down.
Tani breathed a sigh of relief and turned to them with a broad smile. As confident as she had sounded, he could see now how much tension she had been holding. Given what they'd seen past Heroes do, it had certainly been a risk. He wasn't sure if this was progress, but it was better than the overwhelming light that had swept over them every previous time.
His head felt clearer now, and the light around them felt natural. Thick clouds hid the sun, and though it shone brightly enough that there was little shade, it remained hidden. When he scanned the environment, he didn't see any more fights taking place. Most of the new soldiers had retreated and the wounded were already being treated.
The three of them slumped into seated positions as well. Slaten wanted to thank Tani for saving their lives, but still needed time to recover from the ordeal.
Before they were able to regain their breath, Slaten saw Kolanin approaching them. Though he looked exhausted, when he saw Tani his expression opened in a surprised smile.
"Tani! I am glad to see you still live."
"Kolanin. It's been a long time... sorry if I don't get up."
"I understand completely." His face became more serious a moment later and he looked over the three of them. "But I'm afraid I must insist that all of you surrender your weapons. Aryabaus's soldiers are saying that this incident proves humans are too violent to be trusted. We can't give them any room to do something like this again."
Slaten dropped his weapon - it was a familiar ritual by now. Melal didn't even seem to hear what was happening. The only one who hesitated was Tani, but after carefully removing her blades, she wrapped them into a dark red cloth and handed them to Kolanin.
"Please take care of these."
"I will." He took the bundle and sighed. "I hope the day comes when I can return them to you. But it seems we cannot stop violence even without a Hero."
With that, he turned away to continue his work. So it was over for now. Though Slaten hadn't fought hard enough to stretch his limits, he was exhausted on every level but physical. At least there was no force threatening to sweep his mind away.
Melal sat not far from them, eyes still downcast. The Hero was completely silent.
Chapter 37
-
"I will be direct with you, General: I do not believe open conflict in Breilin is in our best interests. The human groups here would be willing to negotiate surrender, particularly if we take a less aggressive approach and reduce our occupying presence. The region could be conquered entirely by peaceful means.
"Even if this rationale does not appeal to you, consider that the nature of the Chorhan Expanse renders it difficult to effectively occupy. Native humans will continue to strike opportunistically unless we adopt a more effective approach."
- Commander Kolanin, head of operations at Ith Ire
-
Though Tani would have preferred not to give up her new weapons, after a day passed without incident, she grew accustomed to it. The work camp of Ith Ire was not as safe as Bundlin, which itself wasn't completely safe. However, it was clear that the biggest threat was the Hero, even if Melal was just sulking and avoiding work for now.
She'd been assigned to work with the others in the mines and the first day had gone well. Her muscles weren't used to the exercise, so she was a bit sore, but it was nothing that a night of circulating her sein wouldn't cure. More importantly, they'd all finished their duties for the day. They'd agreed to meet together to discuss everything as soon as work finished.
When she arrived in the empty part of the prisons they'd shown her, she found others already present. Slaten and Celivia spoke in low voices while Eraes examined a map of the region. Tani paused to watch the group before joining them. She felt that it might be better to have a mansthein with them, and would have especially valued Kolanin's insights.
Since that wasn't possible, she just headed down the stairs. The others glanced at her and Celivia scooted a chair over for her to sit in. Since her arrival had interrupted the previous conversations, Tani started by addressing Slaten. "Any changes with Melal?"
"I'm not sure," he said, "but it doesn't seem so. Someone bothered him when he stopped working and he didn't shout about slaying the Deathspawn."
"That's better than we'd guessed." Tani met everyone's eyes, one by one. "So, what do we actually do about this?"
"Kill him." Eraes answered immediately and Tani blinked in surprise. "That isn't a joke. Melal may not be the worst person to have that much power, but I don't like it. Letting him keep it is asking for trouble."
Tani took a deep breath and kept her expression pleasant. She hadn't anticipated any conflict so soon. "You should know even better than me that another Hero is just going to appear. What if the next one is a man like Efeinas, or even worse? I don't want to take that gamble."
"I would, but I respect your point."
After an awkward pause, Slaten spoke up. "Every Hero so far has begun with violence. Those who became established might have continued killing people, but they weren't violent all the time. Would a consistent Hero be worse than a new one appearing several times each year and causing more chaos?"
"It's a fair question, but I think it could." Eraes folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. "We've seen deaths here, yes, but nothing like what happened to Bundlin. Melal may be calm now, but do you think he won't get worse over time?"
"I... yes, he will probably get worse."
That was a fair point Tani hadn't considered. Given how little they knew about how this actually worked, it was difficult to compare. She had to wonder if there was some way to prevent new Heroes from appearing and yet saw no way to explore that question.
"Let's try a different question." Celivia broke the silence, her eyes sliding over everyone. "Do you think the Hero could be manipulated? None of them have been exactly subtle."
"That's a good thought." Tani smiled as she considered the possibilities. "Melal was willing to listen to us, after all. Maybe if we stick with him, we can keep him from killing anyone."
As soon as she spoke, she could see that the others didn't agree. Since they had been enduring worse conditions than her, Tani accepted that they might be correct. She still thought the idea was worth considering.
"I know he makes it difficult to think," Tani said, "but it's not impossible to overcome the effect. I have, and I could train you as well. If there are enough of us, we can keep thinking rationally about this."
Eraes shook her head. "That might work for you, but based on what you've already told me, I don't think I could master it. Completely untrained civilians, even less so. And that aside, what are we going to do, train the entire world? Train Deathspawn? The Hero changes too much. Death is the only thing that's stuck for even a little while."
She left them with that grim thought. While Tani was marshaling counterarguments, Celivia spoke again.
"Say that hypothetically it's possible to manipulate him. What would you actually do with that?"
Tani wanted to answer that she'd try to teach Melal a more nuanced view, but it sounded naive even in her head. This was nothing so simple. Besides, if she managed to convince Melal and he tried to make peace between humans and mansthein, she'd be afraid that his presence would start forcing everyone into that peace. In a way, that could be just as terrible as the violence.
"Do any of you know the khanhorn?" Eraes asked. Only Celivia nodded, so Eraes waved a hand. "It's a bad example, then. What you need to know is that it's a large creature with a great deal of brute force. They can't be fully tamed, but they can still be used in combat. You just have to direct them to charge at the right target."
Tani felt another smile coming on. "And you're suggesting the Hero can be handled the same way?"
"It's at least theoretically possible. Think about it: none of the Heroes have been very discriminating in their targets. So we could keep them away from people like Kolanin and let them attack Deathspawn who are doing more harm. I doubt that a Hero could make the situation in Teralanth any worse."
"I can't agree." That was remarkably close to a direct refusal for Slaten, so everyone turned to look at him. "I don't think we've seen the worst yet. The best thing we can do is keep the Hero far away from as many people as possible. The Chorhan Expanse might be the best place."
Eraes folded her arms and frowned. "That might be best considering the Hero alone, but the Deathspawn are still invading. By manipulating the Hero, we might be able to kill warmongers like Aryabaus and end the invasion. I think that's worth the risk, unless you plan to just ignore the Deathspawn invasion."
"I'm not sure I understand the invasion enough to stop it. But I think we might be able to have an impact on the Hero."
Their conversation continued from there, twisting through a maze they couldn't fully see. Though they didn't reach any grand conclusions, Tani felt that just discussing the problem helped her think more clearly. This wasn't a natural law or an inevitability: it was something like the animal Eraes had described, powerful but manageable. They just needed to find the right approach.
Many of the questions stuck in her mind after the meeting, however. Could they really stop the invasion if they killed Aryabaus? Though it seemed likely that he was the one responsible for pushing the Deathspawn armies against the Rhen, there was more to the conflict than that, and Kolanin was the exception.
She might prefer a world without a Hero, but since one existed, what would be best? Melal seemed to listen to her, so what should she tell him? Eventually their conversation turned to lighter subjects and Tani enjoyed the rest of the evening.
As soon as she was back in bed trying to fall asleep, all the questions returned. Even doing her best to meditate, she wasn't sure how much sleep she got that night.
She woke bright and early the next morning, only a little tired. When she emerged she found that only a few workers had begun their jobs. According to the others, they never received any food until noon, so Tani set aside her hunger and looked around to see what else she could do.
Slaten sat beside a fire, so Tani moved to sit beside him. She hesitated as she saw he was holding his hand within the flame. That alone might be harmful, but his sein...
Tani reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling his hand out of the fire. "What are you doing?"
"Training." He pulled his hand back and looked at her curiously. "It's a Rhen technique called the Scorched Palm. Do you know of it?"
"I suspected as much." Tani shook her head and scowled. "Was there someone from the Kelfaa here?"
"Yes. He's dead now."
That took the edge off her anger, so instead she just focused on Slaten and tried to convince him. "The Kelfaa are strong, but I wouldn't use them as an example to follow. The Scorched Palm... it deadens pain, but it also deadens your other senses. Over time, the disadvantages will start to outweigh the advantages. It's a dead end when it comes to training."
"Perhaps. But I have a hard time believing an entire group of people would use something in warfare if it was really a mistake."
"I didn't say it has no advantages. After five years, someone using the Scorched Palm would actually be stronger than someone who did not. But after ten years, those advantages wouldn't seem so significant and the disadvantages would be obvious. And every year after that, the difference between them would increase. Don't stunt your growth, Slaten."
"Hmm." He examined his hand as he flexed the burned skin. "I admit that I've noticed my sein doesn't flow quite as easily. Can the damage be undone?"
"You haven't even been using it a full year, right? Then I think you can slowly repair the damage. There's another art called the Supple Reed Fist..." Tani explained the basics and as usual Slaten picked them up quickly. She didn't know any truly advanced techniques from the Supple Reed Fist and felt there was no dishonor in teaching him something so simple, especially since it mostly just canceled out the damage done by the Scorched Palm.
"Show me that again." The new voice made Tani jump. She turned and was surprised to see Melal - it hadn't sounded much like him. He sat down on the other side of her, frowning. "I can't afford stunted growth. Show me the technique."
"Have you been using the same art?" Even as Tani asked it, she winced. Melal's arm had deep visible burns and the sein within was even worse. Burnt mint assaulted her nostrils and she had to struggle not to gag. "I don't know how much it will help, but I can show you again."
