The Forsaken Hero

A violent shudder traveled through the centipede, beginning at its head and traveling the entire length of its body. It thrashed back and forth, slamming into the cliffs on either side. With every impact, water spewed from the chinks in its carapace, and the centipede movement dulled. With a final scream, the centipede stiffened and its flailing legs stilled. Then, its head exploded in a pressurized rush of fluid–conjured water, blood, and a grayish substance that looked like brain matter.

A deafening silence engulfed the canyon. For a breathless moment, all was still, the only sound was the thin whistle of wind through the chasms. The scent of wet earth and something like rotting seaweed filled the air. Then, a sickening squelch followed by the clatter of chitin, and the centipede’s corpse collapsed to the ground. Its death caused as much damage as any of its actions in life, splitting the earth wide open and destroying what little remained of the once beautiful rock formations.

I staggered in the aftershocks, leaning on my staff for support. Korra had vanished in the violent death throes, tossed from the creature’s head, and I cast my eyes about, looking for her. A flash of movement caught my eye, and I found Fable in his shrunken form crouching close to the ground, ragged breaths heaving through his blood-matted fur. The entire cliffside was devastated around him, the sun reflecting off streaks of scarlet blood and tufts of silver fur caught in the rock and stone. Still looking for Korra, I stumbled across the shattered ground toward him.

The wolf struggled to stand, but whimpered as a heavy spurt of blood erupted from a nasty gash on his foreleg. My heart stopped for a moment as I caught sight of white bone flashing amid the red torrent, an anxious tremor running down my tail.

”Regenerate!”

Not caring one bit for preserving my mana, I cast the fifth-circle life spell in the Nexus. A green magic circle opened up beneath Fable and tendrils of life magic rose about him, winding gently around his body. I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his fur, not caring one bit that his blood stained my clothes. He nuzzled my cheek tenderly, tail lifting to wag behind him, and his tongue flicked across my cheek, tasting my tears.

”Fable...” I whispered, pulling back to look into his golden eyes. They wavered with pain but were bright and lively. His wounds were severe, but Regenerate was a spell capable of regrowing limbs and healing all but mortal injuries. In a few minutes, he would be fine. Exhausted, but fine.

Still hugging my wolf, I turned my eyes to the massive, motionless corpse of the centipede. The clouds of dust and debris had begun to settle, revealing the true carnage wrought upon the monster. Korra’s finishing technique had invaded the soft insides of its body. The carapace had trapped it in like a shout in a cave, forcing the mana to echo endlessly within. The same ability that had made it all but invulnerable proved its death, amplifying a fifth-level magical technique into something capable of slaying a sixth-level monster.

The irony wasn’t lost on me, but I pushed it aside, looking for any sign of Korra. Through the Nexus, I could feel the faint pulse of her soul, but that was it. I had no soul bond with her, not like I did with Fable.

With an exhausted groan, I finally relinquished my hold on Fable and stood, leaving the wolf to slowly heal. Stumbling toward the centipede’s corpse, I shouted with everything I had. ”Korra!”

The name echoed off the canyon walls, sharp and loud after the unsettling silence that followed the centipede’s demise. My eyes darted across the carnage, frantically searching for a flicker of blue amidst the mangled chitin and glistening ichor. Each boulder, each crevice, might be sheltering her as she rested for a moment, just trying to catch her breath. That was why she wasn’t returning my calls. It had to be.

With every passing minute, I grew more rash and desperate. Why wasn’t she answering me? Why didn’t she come out now that the creature was dead? More dreadful than the questions was the faint bond I held with through the Nexus. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the strength of her soul was growing ever more tenuous. The realization sent a shudder through me, and I slipped in a pool of centipede goo, gashing my leg on the jagged edge of a broken boulder. The cut was deep, nearly to the bone, but the pain was shallow compared to terror gnawing at my heart.

”Korra! Please, answer me!”

Silence answered. After another minute of frantic searching, I regenerated enough mana to cast a fourth-circle spell.

”Detect Presence.”

Immediately, knowledge flowed into my mind. The region around was almost entirely devoid of life–a likely consequence of the scope of the battle. But there, on the fringes of the spell, I felt an unsteady pulse. It aligned with the lifeforce in the Nexus. Korra.

Casting my hesitation aside, I ran for everything I was worth. My muscles burned and my lungs screamed in protest, but I pushed on, scrambling over rocks and cliffs, ending up with more than a few cuts and scrapes.

After an eternity, I burst out of a narrow canyon and into a wide valley. It was here the centipede’s head had come to rest after its death throes had ended. Following Korra’s magical technique, little remained beyond the broken exoskeleton. The titanic mandibles, each three times as long as I was tall, gaped open in a final, silent screech. And there, between them, was Korra.

She stood unsteadily on her feet, leaning against one of the mandibles for support. As I called her name and ran forward, she tilted her head toward me, and I came up short. Her piercing green eyes were tainted with a sickly violet, her skin ashen gray. Thick purple veins bulged across her body, growing darker with every passing second. She stared listlessly at me for a moment, with no hint of recognition in her face.

Then, like a spell was broken, she blinked. ”X-Xiviyah?”

Her voice was dull and lifeless, barely possessing the energy to curl into an interrogative. It was the push I needed to swallow my shock and run forward, throwing my arms around her. I was greeted by another shock then. Hot, sticky fluid coated my hands as I embraced her. Blood. Korra’s blood.

Letting out a strangled scream, she slumped against me, overwhelmed by the pressure of my grip on her back. Her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing slowed as she drifted into unconsciousness, allowing me to lower her to the ground and examine her.

A long, terrible cut ran from her shoulder blade to her hip. The laceration seemed to be the source of the corruption tainting her body. Her flesh was dark, nearly black, and released an acrid odor so foul my eyes watered. Poison.

Green light danced around the edges of the wound, quelling the bleeding and drawing the skin together. But it was weak and slow, hindered by whatever taint the poison inflicted. It was all that remained of the Regeneration spell I had cast in the Nexus to heal Fable. If I hadn’t cast it when I did, Korra might have...have...

Holding back a sob, I clutched her head to my chest. She stirred as my tears splashed onto her face, and her sickly eyes opened to stare up at me. They were dull and unfocused, so I whispered to her comfortingly, afraid she might be unable to tell it was me.

”I’m here, Korra. I’m here.”

”Xiviyah? Thank the gods,” she groaned, each breath labored. ”I’m...not great.”

”Shhh, just rest,” I soothed, and tucked a stray strand of brown hair behind her ear, just like she did for me. ”I’ll be able to heal you in a bit. I have a third-circle spell that cures poison. Just wait for me.”

She raised a trembling hand and clutched my wrist, pushing it away. ”I-it won’t work. Your spell. Only R’lissia could...at third level...needs antidote...or sixth...”

I bit my lip, desperately trying to decipher her words. Who was R’lissia? Was she trying to say I needed a sixth-circle spell to cure her poison? But even if I had enough mana to cast a sixth-circle array, I didn’t know any Life Magic capable of doing more against poison than the third-circle spell Purify. Even if I had the proper spell book, it would be impossible to study and learn such powerful magic in the time Korra had left.

Korra coughed violently, hacking up a mouthful of black blood. Her grip on my hand tightened, and she looked into my eyes, blood still staining her lips. ”A city...deeper in canyon...army...healers...”

She collapsed into another coughing fit, and I nodded. ”I’ll find them. Before you...you...I’ll find them! Just wait for me, Korra, I’ll be the one to save you this time.”