Bound Evil

Emily happily stretched her tired muscles out in the bed like a cat liaising away. But she pulled back when her hand brushed against another source of warmth. With the early morning light streaming in through the blinds, Emily could just make out the form of the Bard from last night sleeping soundly beside her. Taking a deep breath Emily sighed as a pounding headache made itself known behind her eyes. Trying to piece together the events of last night, Emily dredged up the memory of the woman's name. Tehila. She was a traveling Bard but had gotten left here when her last troop and she had split ways. Emily wasn’t sure of the exact story but they left on bad terms and now the woman was stuck in the village, as traveling alone in the wilds was never advised, and a caravan had not made its way through here in the winter months.

Emily found herself sympathizing with the woman and they had chatted the rest of the evening away. Somewhere along the line, she must have done something right because the woman was in her bed.

Sighing again Emily sat up and rubbed her temples.

“Right, first things first…”

Using only the smallest hint of power to recover from the handover was a waste, but one Emily was willing to incur. After all, it felt like like a band of ragged elves were beating the inside of her skull like a drum.

The moment the pain subsided Emily could think a little better and then the dream from last night hit her, making her eyes go wide. The stars had been so happy but Emily had been completely out of it, so she only now recalled their words as they came back to her.

‘18 - second threshold released at rank 25’

Skill threshold released!

New features have been unlocked!

Vital Shell: Creates a protective barrier around an ally at the cost of the user's life source, absorbing a set amount of damage before breaking.

And

Blood Conversion: Converts the user's life source into their primary source without increasing Source exposure.

And

Lethal Spike: Forms spikes or projectiles from spilled blood, which can be launched at enemies, capable of piercing armor. Inflicts Blood Curse: Prevents the entry of White source into the body.

Curse in effect!

Result: The feature Lethal spike has been destroyed.

Emily humphed quietly to herself as she contemplated her new skills. From what she could tell Vital Shell came from the Scarlet sister skill tree, while Blood Conversion and Lethal Spike were probably from the Blood mages tree. It was annoying that Lethal Spike had been destroyed but she could pretty much make a blood spike in her sleep. The real loss was the blood curse, from the description it stopped people from healing in combat and that would have been a powerful tool to have in her arsenal.

The barrier was interesting but self-explanatory, all that remained was to test its duration and how much damage it could handle.

Her final skill was the most appealing of them all. Its description was simple, but the effect was far from it. As far as Emily could tell, she could now convert some of her vitality into Grey Source without drawing in additional external power. This was a crucial ability for Blood Mages, as it meant she could delay reaching her Source limit—whenever she discovered what that was—longer than most.

Emily now understood what Ashe meant when she said Blood Mages could cast spells far beyond their usual limits. With this skill alone, they could outlast any Mage of the same rank, as long as they had some life source remaining.

Emily was just about to get up when Tehila began to stir beside her.

“Moring…fair maiden,” Tehila whispered sleepily.

Emily grinned. Tehila's features were delicate and her long locks of black hair gave her an air of mystery.

You don't remember my name, Tehila?" she asked, adding a mock-wounded tone to her voice.

The woman didn’t even blush, she just plastered a smirk on her face.

“Oh I remember many things from last night… sadly your name is not amongst them.”

Emily snorted and got out of bed as she began collecting her clothes which had been strewn about the room.

“You still interested in following us?”

Sitting up on both elbows Tehila’s eyes widened.

“Yes, very much so.”

“Alright then, get dressed. I’ll speak to Atticus and from there, it's up to you to convince them. Oh, and you might want to wait for us to return from our mission or you’ll be in danger.”

Tehila chortled but began to dress herself.

Emily was just heading to the door when she thought she heard the ringing of coins dropping to the floor. Looking around Emily felt her Mercenary title triggering. It was a strange sensation. All at once she knew that Kael had just accepted a job from the Elder of the village. They were to cull no less than three hundred Blightstingers or destroy the nest itself. There was a reward but Emily couldn’t tell what it was, just that she would be getting coin.

Shaking herself from the daze Emily headed downstairs with Tehila in tow. She supposed that something like that was fairly common but hadn’t expected it. Explorer had become integral to how Emily dealt with the wilds, but this was the first time she’d felt the Mercenary title stick its nose into things. If anything it was far more intrusive than her first title. When they got down to the tavern Emily didn’t have time for breakfast as she could see the wandering fangs already heading out toward their camp, but she’d be damned if she didn’t at least get a mug of Night Brew to go.

When they got to the tents, Emily dropped Tehila off at Atticus and left to go find Alex. He didn’t look hung over like a good many people from last night, instead, he was harnessing up Mist himself.

“Hey, I need to test something. How do I activate my skills?”

Alex still looked like he couldn’t wait to get moving, but he answered anyway.

“Every title is different so you’ll have to figure that one out yourself, but it helps to understand the path your title is trying to take you on. It gave you that skill for a reason, why do you think that is? Then try and imagine it the first time you met your path and run with that.”

Emily frowned, what was her title trying to tell her?

The first skill it had given her was Life conduit and now a shield. The stars had already made it clear that her power came from other's blood. So… the skill was there to protect her resources? Protect what was hers?

Without thinking Emily lifted her arm and rested it on Alex's shoulder while thinking of Vital Shell. Emily didn’t have to do a thing as she felt a tiny portion of her power separate from her and encase Alex. It was around the same amount as a single blood bolt but the strange thing was that she didn’t need to do any of it herself.

Emily's natural gifts were powerful but she had to be the one to shape and manipulate every aspect of it. This skill seemed to take that burden off her as it latched onto Alex. A faint red glow began to grow around him like veins mapping themselves out around him until they sealed him behind a bubble of red light. A second or two later the shield faded from view, and yet Emily could feel it was still there, working quietly in the background.

She could feel that if nothing attacked him and forced the shield to trigger it could last for around ten hours.

“Huh, cool…” Emily muttered.

Alex, on the other hand, looked both annoyed and begrudgingly impressed.

“Are you done?”

Emily shrugged.

“Well ideally I’d like to see how strong it is but for now yeah, I think I’m done.”

Alex continued to work on Mist, and Emily went over to Cupcake to see how she’d slept. The Rime wolf was happy to see her, and Emily found herself glad too. Cupcake had visibly begun to look healthier over the last few days, she was even convinced that the she-wolf was putting on weight and muscle. The scars and greying fur were slowly shifting back to a strong white. If Emily looked hard, she could even make out a couple of odd hairs turning a deep crimson.

“Here, girl, drink up,” Emily said as she drew more blood from her palm.

Loch was nearby so Emily trudged over to him with Cupcake in tow, but he looked down and smiled.

“Not today Emily. It's about time you started riding your own wolf. She’s healed now, Gerade gave the all-clear a little while ago.” As Loch said this he pointed at the saddle lying on a nearby stump.

Emily's eyes crinkled at the corner and she turned to Cupcake.

Sending clear images of what she wanted. The beast stared at Emily, a low warning growl issuing forth from its throat but Emily stepped up beside it, plunging her face into the she-wolf pelt. The vibrating moving through the beast's chest reminded Emily of a guttural engine.

“Please?”

The growling continued but lowered to a pur and Emily took that as an ‘okay’. Without waiting Emily hopped up onto Cupcake, not bothering to saddle her. No sooner had her arms looped around the large creature's neck than Cupcake took off at full tilt. Houses and buildings blurred around her as the campsite disappeared. Storefronts and a frozen stream flickered by until the black pillars came into view. Leaning to the side Cupcake ran parallel with them as they began running on the outskirts of the village. The brisk morning air whipping around her clothes caused Emily to giggle, this made the she-wolf run faster. Pressing herself into the beast's fur, Emily gave the go-ahead. All at once the wolf lept into the sky, bounding over a single-story cabin with ease. Cupcake never once tried to launch Emily off and in exchange, Emily moved where the beast wanted to go. They sped around for a short while longer but once they had circled the whole village Cupcake brought them back to where they had left. Emily got off feeling a deeper connection than just the one written in blood, she felt a kinship with the she-wolf.

At that point, Loch whistled to get her attention and Emily could see the company was ready to head out. Quickly saddling Cupcake up Emily moved to the front of the pack with Selia.

As they left the village of Frosthaven the Elder waved them off along with several of his men. Emily even noticed Tehila there too. When she spotted Emily, she gave a thumbs up to show her negotiations had been successful.

Smiling Emily wave to her.

Even a couple of the villagers showed up to see their new drinking buddies off. They hadn’t even stayed a full day here, and Emily was already missing it.

With the invisible wall lowered the Wandering fangs stepped back out into the wilds.

No sooner had they, than the droning sound of insects returned. Emily hadn’t noticed but the wall even seemed to block out some of the constant buzzing.

Stepping out onto the plains Kael set their direction towards one of the largest landmarks in the area. Once the Rime wolves were set loose they tore through the flat terrain with ease, their collum twisting through the sparse trees like a serpent.

After half a day’s travel their destination loomed just up ahead. From over the treetops, Emily spotted the pointed gorge poking its head out from behind the canopy. Only half an hour later they came to the foot of the landmark. Now that they were closer Emily couldn’t help but stare up at the mountainous valley. It resembled an old mountain that some unknown force had split it perfectly in two. The neat divide dropped down into the earth like a chasm, dropping well below ground level. There was a gradual decline leading down into the earth like an open maw. All of this would have been breathtaking if it were for the ominous sound of countless wings. As built near the top of the rockface was a massive hornet's nest burrowed into the side of the stone. Large tunnels littered the walls with holes where buzzing could be heard just beyond. Looking at the pass, one thing was for certain, there would be a lot more Blightstingers here than just a couple hundred.

Blood points: 55