The Forsaken Hero

The next few days passed as quickly as the ground beneath Fable’s paws. By the end of the first week, we left the forest behind, emerging onto a sweeping prairie. A coarse sea of sharp, long-bladed grass rolled over the gentle hills, an endless expanse of greens and yellows punctuated by bursts of purple coneflowers. Shining ripples flowed across the gentle hills, traveling with the breeze like ocean swells, rustling a low symphony as they passed. In the distance, a herd of bison grazed, their dark forms in stark contrast to the lighter prairie grasses.

”Beautiful,” Korra murmured.

I nodded, soaking in the unfamiliar vista, then shot her a strange look. ”Wait, haven’t you already seen this before?”

She nodded, smiling gently. ”Yeah, but some things are easier to appreciate when you share them with friends.”

Fable accelerated as we left the forest behind, no longer inhibited by the cluttered trees and rocky outcroppings. He cut through the long, waving grass like a ship in the sea, his paws leaving a wide, matted trail in the green behind us. The forest had also served to break the wind, and now that it was gone, the breeze nipped at us wantonly. Though it was mid-summer, it carried the bitter chill and promise of winter.

It had grown steadily colder the further East we traveled, bringing us closer to the Anomaly. Just what kind of storm was it? According to my last vision, not even the ninth-level caster of Brithlite could do anything about it, nor had they even discovered what caused it.

Shivering, I sank further into Fable’s silver fur and drew my cloak tighter about me. A heavy weight settled in my stomach, a sinking suspicion that refused to go away no matter how much I dismissed it. If their timetable was to be believed, it had begun moving the night I reawakened the Eyes of Fate, drawing a line straight toward me. It was another, unspoken reason I had to leave Heartland behind. If it truly was hunting me, I couldn’t risk letting the only place I called home become a frozen wasteland.

Korra’s voice filtered through my thoughts. ”Hey, do you see that?”

Raising my head, I followed her pointing finger north, to the horizon. A black stain rose above the sea of grass, a billowing plume of smoke, dark against the gentle blue sky. A tremor passed through my soul, a sort of chaotic resonance. Demons.

Fable’s ears twitched, and without waiting for me to ask, our direction turned. As we streaked across the prairie, Korra smoothed an errant lock of hair behind her ear, opening her mouth to say something, when the smoldering remains of a village came into view. Her eyes narrowed, locked onto the flaming thatch roofs and shredded corpses obscured by swirling smoke. Her hands trembled slightly, and wisps of aura escaped her soul, thick and tainted with ferocity.

”Korra?” I asked softly, reaching out and resting a hand on her thigh.

She flinched at the sudden touch, blinking rapidly a few times. When her eyes finally settled on me, they were bright and clear, free of the frightening intensity that had gripped her.

”Sorry, it’s nothing, just a bad memory. Any idea what–”

A series of metallic shrieks shattered the air, drowning out her next words and making me flinch. I clapped my hands over my ears, squeezing my eyes shut as the terrible cacophony rose even louder, reaching a grating crescendo that reverberated in my bones and set my teeth on edge. The noise was so overwhelming it scattered all conscious thought, preventing me from even considering casting a sound ward.

As quickly as it came, the dreadful shriek cut off, leaving a painful ringing in my ears. The dissonance had penetrated every corner of my body, leaving my muscles trembling and eyes strained and unsteady. The world distorted like I was viewing it underwater, but, far more concerning, everything was silent. I could feel myself gasping for breath, feel Korra’s hand steadying my arm, and even see her lips moving, but there was nothing.

My chest grew tight, restricting my breathing, as a bubble of panic swelled within me. Flashes of light blurred around me, confusing what little perception I could muster, and Korra vanished, leaping off Fable’s back. I looked around, frantically, but no matter how much I blinked, my vision was blurry and unfocused. There were the bright flares of the fires, hazy streams of water, and glimmers of silvery steel whirling in the air around me.

Trying to force myself to focus only filled my head with a splitting pain, making even thinking difficult. Fable jerked beneath me and the world spun again. I let out a soundless scream, throwing myself against his back and clutching his fur, nearly vomiting at the sudden surge of vertigo and nausea. His roar was so low and powerful that I felt the reverberations throughout my entire body, even if it remained silent in my ears.

As Fable’s erratic movements continued, I squeezed my eyes shut, desperately trying to sort through my confusion. What was even happening right now? There had been no mana or magic in the air, no warning or indication of any kind of attack. That shriek was eerily familiar, almost identical to the cry of the fifth-level blade demon Korra and I faced, yet held a completely unfamiliar power. Adaptive Resistance should have protected me from any sort of debilitating effects, which only meant it wasn’t magical. It must be some strictly physical effect, which would explain why neither Korra nor Fable, who had vastly superior bodies to my own, were affected.

If that were the case, perhaps there was something I could do after all. It took a few seconds to gather my scattered concentrations and embrace my mana. The rush of power brought a newfound clarity to my mind, allowing me to laboriously Soul Cast a single second-circle spell.

”Lesser Restoration!’

The small surge of life magic swept through me like a wave, scouring the confusion from my mind and soothing the constant ache of my bones. My muscles still trembled, and my hearing remained faint, but as I opened my eyes, the world sharpened into focus, and I found myself in the middle of the burning village.

The chaotic battle around me was, for a moment, even more disorienting than the blurs I’d just recovered from. Dozens of demonic scions whirled around the clearing, filling the air with the flash of steel. They were similar to other scions I’d seen thus far, save their scales and horns jutted out like daggers, catching the light on edges sharp as any word. They stared at me with smoldering blueish-silver eyes, filled with the chaos and lust typical of more weak-minded demons.

Korra wove within their midst, her motions as fluid and graceful as a river, surrounded by countless streams of water. The ribbons of fluid took on draconic shape, biting and clawing at the demons, digging deep gouts of silver blood from their metallic flesh. Her fists flashed too fast for my eyes to track, shattering claw, tooth, and scale with ease.

Fable lunged forward, nearly knocking me off balance, snapping at a larger demon, this one with a fourth-level soul. It was tall and thin, vaguely humanoid, and made entirely of thin, daggerlike blades. Its body distorted mere moments before the massive teeth clamped down on it, shifting into something more resembling a cactus than a man, blades braced to puncture Fable’s maw.

With a frustrated whine, Fable leaped back again, out of range of the swarming scions. From the fury I felt in his soul, this was not the first time something like this had happened, reinforced by the multiple streams of crimson blood flowing from deep lacerations on his paws.

I shook my head, wondering at the unfairness of it all. Blade demons held an undeniable advantage against Fable, a monster that relied on his natural attacks, crippling him before the fight even began. If Korra hadn’t been there to fight beside us in the meadow, we would have stood no chance of winning against a demon so far above us.

But this thing was small fry compared to that evolved demon, barely over the threshold of fifth level. Scowling, I waved my hand, Soul Casting a Restoration on Fable. His whine shifted to a growl as his wounds knit together, hardened silver fur sprouting to fill in the gaps. Without hesitating, I moved right into an array, burning nearly a third of my mana to cast Blade Ward on my wolf.

By the time the demons reached our new position, the spell settled in a glistening shield around us. Fable howled, his voice rejuvenated and charged forward. His claws cut through the air, as fierce as any sword, bisecting several scions at once. The evolved blade demon lunged forward, seeking to sink several gleaming appendages into his flank, but the golden ward materialized, deflecting the attack. Fable’s tail swept into it from the side, sending it careening through the air into the blackened frame of a burning home.

After the attack, I glanced back, letting out a sigh of relief as I found his tail unharmed by the impact. It seemed the Blade Ward was effective for this, too.

Fable lashed out several more times, claiming the lives of nearly twenty scions and driving the rest back. The reprieve gave me time to find Korra, who was locked in combat with another fourth-level evolved blade demon. Taking a deep breath, I raised my staff, intending to sacrifice another third of my mana to shield her with a Blade Ward.

Before I could even weave the first rune, she threw her hand up toward me, face glowing with excitement. ”No! You got to train this morning. Now, it’s my turn!”