The Forsaken Hero

”Leave him behind?”

I recoiled from the man’s request, laying a protective hand on my wolf’s shoulder. The strongest villagers were only third level, but I couldn’t bring myself to walk among them unprotected. Demonkin were hated and despised in this land. And if they somehow figured out who I was...

Fable growled, sensing my reluctance. His ears slicked back, fur rising in hardened silver spikes. The villagers tensed and raised their weapons, slowly advancing back to their positions in the barricade. They seemed emboldened by my claim that Fable’s monstrous size was only the temporary effect of a spell.

An explosion rocked the village, coming from somewhere near the fringe of homes. I looked over my shoulder and then back at the villagers. I couldn’t waste any more time here, not when Korra was still fighting, and whatever made that dreadful screech before was on the loose.

”It’s fine,” I said, as much to Fable as the villagers. ”Please, just calm down. I really am here to help.”

I could hear a few distrustful mutters, but the grizzled man waved behind him, silencing them. Fable growled softly as I stepped away from him, hand lingering on his head for as long as I could reach. His tail swept ash across the street, agitated. My own tail moved similarly, but I pushed away the unease and looked up into the man’s eyes.

”My name is Starlight. I can heal your people, if you’ll let me.”

He stared down at me a moment longer, then gave a short nod. ”Erik.” Without another thought, he offered me his hand, pulling me atop the wagon beside him. ”Don’t try anything, or you’ll find out just how vicious we can be when cornered.”

His grip was firm and rough, fingers chiseled with callouses. I winced at the tightness of his grip, and his eyes widened slightly. Once I was atop the wagon, he quickly released me, staring for a second at his hand, flexing his fingers.

”Sorry,” he muttered. ”I expected you to be stronger...never mind. This is everyone that’s left.”

Shaking my hand, I gazed out over the makeshift fort, feeling a touch of surprise. Up close, I could get a much more accurate count, finding forty, maybe fifty, people staring up at me. Fear and sorrow filled the square, haunting the eyes of the villagers. Many suffered bad cuts, burns, or bruises. A few lay spread out across the ground, covered in bloodstained bandages, their hands clutched by their loved ones, who sobbed at their side.

Another explosion filled the air, coming from the fringes of the village. My tail gave an involuntary twitch, and my grip on my staff tightened.

”I’m going to cast a spell,” I said, glancing at the Erik. At his nod, I raised my hand and embraced my mana. ”Lesser Restoration: Mass.”

Four magic circles opened a dozen feet above the fort, spinning out to cover the entirety of its airspace. They rotated slowly, the soft light of thousands of runes causing the villagers to look up, eyes wide with shock and suspicion. As they bathed in its healing light, their whispered murmur turned to groans of discomfort. Cuts knit together, bruises faded, and the scorched skin sloughed off in waves of black, revealing healthy, pink skin beneath.

Lesser restoration lacked the sheer power to heal many of the worst injuries, so I grit my teeth against the dull ache in my soul and, before the first had even faded, cast it again. Lesser Restoration: Mass was my own invention, based on the principles of Restoration: Mass. I’d mostly stitched it together from theory and experience, making it more of an array than an actual spell, and I hadn’t had time to properly streamline or perfect it. The consecutive castings left my already low mana strained, leaving me weak and gasping for breath.

”Incredible,” Erik whispered, fixated on his injuries. They faded in real-time until only bloodstains lingered where the lacerations had been. His gaze filled with reverence as he looked up at me. ”I’ve never seen anything like this before. How did you–”

His voice faltered as I swooned, eyes falling on my ashen complexion and trembling muscles. In a flash, he was by my side, one arm on my shoulder, the other holding my arm, steadying me.

”I’m alright.” My voice was soft and slurred. Mana exhaustion wouldn’t have been too bad, but the weakness combined with the lingering effects of the sonic attack from before muddled my mind.

Erik’s brow creased with concern, his grip taking on a gentle, fatherly strength. ”You...for us? Even though we...why?”

”She wanted to,” I muttered faintly. Then, forcing my blurry eyes to focus on the man, I asked, ”Why are there burns? And that terrible screeching from before?”

The questions were pulled from scattered bits of my recent experience and given without any context, but the man seemed to understand. His face fell, turning angry and bitter.

”That damned fire demon attacked first, setting fire to that entire side of the town. When we ran from our burning homes, the blade demon used its screech to confuse us, then let its scions run loose. It was a slaughter from the beginning. We never even stood a chance. If you hadn’t arrived and drawn them off, we might not have even been able to gather here.”

Two evolved demons? None of the blade demons we faced showed any sign of possessing such a sonic attack, and as for the fire demon...? I shivered as the face of the demon who fought Levin flashed through my mind, but I quickly dismissed the thought. If something that powerful were here, the entire region would be reduced to ash with a flick of its hand. It wouldn’t waste time on a strategy to weaken and divide the villagers before attacking. But where was it? If they were smart enough to create a plan, then they’d surely be able to account for us once we made ourselves known. That meant...Korra!

I jerked so quickly that I nearly fell, overwhelmed by a wave of vertigo, but the man’s grip tightened, keeping me on my feet.

”Stay calm, you’re exhausted,” he said soothingly. His voice was completely different from before, filled with quiet, if firm, resolve. ”We’re fine now.”

”No, I can’t!” I cried, voice laced with desperation. ”Korra! I have to warn her. The demons!”

His brow furrowed, but before he could respond, my soul writhed, leaving me breathless. Acting purely by instinct, I drew on the lingering remnants of my mana, casting a Sound Ward about us. Scarcely a heartbeat later, the dreadful keen tore through the air, visible as a distorted shockwave in the air. It slammed against the sound ward and...dissipated. As I’d hypothesized, the attack seemed purely physical, thus even the second-circle spell had no trouble keeping it at bay.

The villagers out of range of the ward screamed, clutching their heads and falling to the ground. My head whipped toward where it came from and my heart dropped as I found myself looking in Korra’s direction.

Erik’s grip had slackened, allowing me to pull myself free. Ignoring his protests, I stumbled off the wagon, landing heavily on the cobblestone street below. Fable was at my side in an instant, pressing up against me and letting his warmth and strength flow through the bond. I gasped, hand flying to my chest, as his mana flowed through our bond, sloshing into my soul with great force. When I was weaker, he could restore my mana completely, but now that we were both fourth level, the flow ceased when I’d only recovered about half. Even so, it was enough.

”Let’s go!” I cried, sliding atop his back. Even in his small form, he was ten feet long and as large as a horse, easily strong enough to carry me without discomfort. If anything, it felt safer and more intimate, allowing me to cling to his neck and rest my head on his shoulder.

The village blurred as he took off, streaking toward the source of the noise. The Sound Ward traveled with me, bound to my soul, but I couldn’t afford to worry about the villagers now. Most of the demons were dead by now, and there were enough third-level souls among them to resist the confusion and fight the remaining scions off. I had done everything I could.

Without the scions to cloud Detect Presence, I easily found Korra on the edge of the village. Two other presences, so powerful my heart leaped in my throat, locked with hers. Their auras spread out over half the village, one tainted with fire, the other steel. Both were fifth level.

As we burst out between the last two smoldering houses, I gasped, Korra’s name tearing from my lips. She stood panting, a demon circling her on either side, her soul and body trembling with exertion. Blood streamed from a long, jagged laceration on her side, and her left bicep was a blackened mass of scorched flesh and blistered. Yet, despite it all, there was a glint in her eye and a ferocious smile on her face, one that widened the moment she caught sight of me.

Her voice was as strong and cheerful as ever. ”You finally made it! I was starting to get tired of stalling, anyway. You ready to send these bastards back to hell?”