Siege State

An odd energy hung over the group as they made their way down the western trade road. They had another healer now, and the journey would accordingly be much safer. Their moods were buoyed by the addition, except for the healer himself.

Darius was sour. The handsome man was withdrawn and sullen, and none of the party seemed to know how to even attempt to converse with him. After all, who would be so despondent over manifesting Healing?

Tanya’s attempts to draw him into conversations about his Ideals were soundly rebuffed. Any attempt from the rest of them to talk to him about his journey, or his home, or the orcs threatening Horizon, were met with lamentations on how none of it mattered. He would be far from the front lines.

Tom was beginning to dislike Darius more and more. If Tom had manifested Healing, he would never have been exiled to the Hunters. He had made peace with it now, but seeing someone acting mortally wounded by manifesting desirable Ideals was irritating.

He had some sympathy for Darius wanting to fight to protect his home, but Tom got the impression that it was less of a sense of courage or national pride or protectiveness, and more of an inflated sense of vanity. The man’s ego simply could not stand being relegated away from potential glory.

At least he didn’t slow them down. Ever since Rosa had learned that some of the messengers from Wayrest had actually made it through to Horizon alive, she had become a woman possessed. She was obsessed with travelling as fast as possible.

Several times, Tom and Meri had to ask her to slow down. The speed she wanted to set would lead to trouble if they were not able to scout properly. There were still orcs around, as their rescue of Darius had proven.

After he had fully healed, they had made their way back to the road. Once there, they had encountered an obvious problem: they were each riding a familiar. Rosa and Eli began to argue over which of their mounts he would have to double up on. Either way, it was bound to slow them down.

“It’s okay,” Darius said with an exaggerated sigh. “I can travel myself. I have a familiar.”

They waited expectantly. Darius tugged up the back of his shirt. Tom caught a glimpse of an odd, tessellating pattern tattoo, and then, with a sudden pop, he summoned his familiar.

It was a giant tortoise. Several surreptitious glances were shared.

“We must travel with speed…” Rosa began, but Darius merely shook his head impatiently.

“This will not be an issue. It was bad, manifesting a familiar skill, but it had aspect requirement. I thought I can make it into a strong skill, not a healing one. The Prior of the Treasury and the Prior of the Infirmerers wanted me to add blood or bone.” He shook his head. “I would have had a healing tortoise. I requested a mountain essence.”

The tortoise was enormous. Tom had only ever seen little turtles in the Deep, but he had heard stories of giant, man-eating versions of the beasts living in the various swamps and marshes and estuaries around the continent.

The top of the shell was over six feet high, wider still, and oddly shaped. It had small crags and contours, sharp, vaulting sides, rising to a pointed peak. It was patterned like a regular turtle shell, but appeared to be made of a combination of various types of dark grey rock.

Its head was almost comically small compared to its craggy shell, though its beak looked more than capable of biting through stone. Its beady little eyes peered at them curiously from above the glossy black and sharp edged tool. Four broad legs supported its huge bulk, helping it to slowly shuffle about and look at them.

Darius vaulted up onto the tortoise’s shell and settled down cross-legged on a cliff-like shelf on the shell’s front side. It made almost a perfect chair, though it couldn’t have been comfortable.

“Well, you are wanting to be going, yes?” Darius said, affecting nonchalance.

The others glanced at each other, but summoned their own mounts. Darius gave a condescending look at Tanya when she summoned her mule, and remained aloof when Rosa and Eli summoned their horses. But when Meri’s greatwolf, Markus’ lion, and Sesame were resummoned, he snorted.

“Some people, they have all the luck,” he said. “Well, if we must do this, let us do it.”

He suited his actions to his words, and his tortoise began plodding slowly forwards. Rosa snickered at the sight, Coal stepping lightly as he gathered himself in anticipation. The pair cantered off down the road, eager to be away, followed by Meri, Eli and Markus.

Tanya sniffed, and set her mule trotting along after them. Tom lingered behind, watching Darius. Sesame was incredibly interested in the mountainous tortoise.

I like her! She smells good, like rock! I bet I can’t even scratch her! Sesame sent him. Tom shook his head ruefully. The bear was far too good at making friends. He had already established himself as the leader of the party’s familiars by way of sheer popularity.

Initially, the tortoise’s progress was slow, but after ten feet or so, Tom felt mana gather around it. Its broad feet began to sink into the surface of the road, and moments later, it had sunken in below the bottom of its shell. Soon enough, it was surfing along the surface of the road like it was water, its feet propelling it along and leaving a furrow of turned earth in its wake.

The tortoise was literally leaving them in the dirt. Tom urged Sesame to speed, and the bear gladly obeyed, sensing a competition.

They caught up with Tanya and the rest of the group, but Darius was not content with that. The tortoise kept accelerating. Soon, it had taken the lead.

Coal was having none of it. The leggy stallion’s hooves beat a steady tattoo as it charged ahead. Darius’ tortoise was not dissuaded. It just kept gradually accelerating, gaining ever more speed, like a boulder rolling downhill.

Horse and tortoise were neck and neck. Tom felt a flicker of mana from the tiny mountain flowing down the road, and a small, grasping tendril of earth snatched at one of Coal’s legs. Tom gasped. A tumble at that speed would lead to broken bones, at very least.

He needn’t have worried. A pulse of mana from Coal answered, and the target foreleg became ephemeral as smoke. The tendril grabbed at it and passed straight through.

After that, Coal eased into the lead. It seemed the rocky tortoise had reached its maximum speed. Satisfied that she had proved her mount’s superiority, Rosa dropped back to the group. Darius also eased off to join them too.

“Your stallion is impressive,” Darius said, flashing her a winning smile. “What I wouldn’t give for a mount like that.”

Rosa gave him an unreadable look. Tom guessed she was torn between her dislike of the man and her natural pride in her familiar.

Tom’s opinion of the man went down a notch. A familiar was a bond for life. They were their Idealist’s closest partners. To hear someone so casually disparage theirs was grating.

“Thank you,” Rosa said, at length.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tortoise move so fast!” Meri exclaimed.

Darius preened at the compliment. “Yes, my Granny, she is very good,” he said. The tortoise craned its head around, giving him a long-suffering side-eye.

Markus gave a snort. “Why’d you call it Granny?”

Darius eyed the younger Guard, aware of his tone and trying to decide whether he was being made fun of. “Why shouldn’t I? It is short for Granite, yes?”

Cheeks wrestled with smiles all throughout the group. Through the Idealist fortitude they managed not to laugh, though it was tempting, to knock Darius’ giant ego down a peg.

Tom thought Granny was a good name for the tortoise. He always felt the creatures looked ancient, regardless of how old they actually were. The cracks in Granny’s stone-like skin even looked like wrinkles.

Sesame was sniffing at Granny, tongue lolling as they rode, when the bond with Sol pinged.

Not again… the owl sighed.

Fucking orcs! Sus replied. Coming!

“Orcs, coming from the north,” Tom said. The group readied itself. Darius’ face came alive. Tom paused. “...only twenty of them.”

Everyone relaxed minutely. Twenty orcs against seven Idealists was nothing to be unduly concerned about.

They moved to the south side of the road and readied weapons. Soon, the sound of howls and barks began to echo out of the dark undergrowth. Tom glanced at Darius. The man looked a little uneasy, though not terrified.

As the orcs moved into Sere’s range, Sus and Sol began to pick at the rearmost runners. By the time they broke from the treeline, there were only sixteen alive.

The baying rose to a fever pitch as the orcs saw their prey. Darius gave a shout, and Granny surged through the earth, straight towards the pack and out of the defensive line.

Tom and Rosa cursed in unison. Sesame was galloping forwards to help protect the healer before Tom could even give the command. The bear was getting a lot smarter now that the World-provided intelligence had fully adapted to its form. That, and the pair had fought so often together that Sesame could reliably intuit what he was thinking before he vocalised it.

A lance of fire speared into the pack. A pair of arrows found orc throats. Not to be deterred, an orc frontrunner made a reckless leap at Darius, and tackled him from his seat. His back smashed painfully into Granny’s rocky shell. The pair fell to the rocky ground, scrabbling at each other. Darius’ sword was useless in such close quarters.

Sesame let out a resounding roar into the orcs, causing many of them to flinch at the razor sharp obsidian. Then he skidded, turning and batted the orc from where it had straddled Darius. The creature was sent flying back towards the forest, where it impacted a tree with a dull thud.

Another orc leaped, this time at Tom. Due to Sesame’s turn, he could not quite get his spear around far enough to skewer it, and it slammed into him as well. Sesame crouched, absorbing some of the force, and Tom barely managed to keep his seat.

Tom dropped his spear and braced his arms across the orc’s chest, desperately trying to keep it away from his face and neck. The piranha mouth, full of needle-like teeth, snapped and slavered as it sought his skin. Hot, foul breath plumed into his face.

Suddenly, an arrow sprouted from the side of the orc’s head, and its muscles spasmed and went slack. At the same moment, Tom gathered his wits and cast Wild Boar Strike. The orc was flung off him and into its charging fellows.

Tom caught a glint of steel, and then something sharp hit him. Pain bloomed all down his left hand side. Rosa screamed his name. He made to drop his arm and pure agony burned in his armpit.

Suddenly, cool, white relief sluiced through him. With a distracting, slimy movement, healing pushed an object from just above where his breastplate met his backplate. He watched as a knife dropped free of the wound as a huge burst heal flooded his system.

Tom grinned to himself. The new uplift he’d chosen for Grit had proven its worth already. He was excellent at resisting small amounts of damage, but single, deadly wounds had been a weakness until now. A knife wound directly to his armpit must have almost punctured his heart.

No sooner had he thought of it than he caught another flash of steel. His neck suddenly felt both very hot and very cold. He padded at it with one hand, and it came away slick with red.

Uh oh, he thought. Shit…

He slipped from his saddle, falling sideways onto the road. He was vaguely aware of Eli and Markus crashing into the orcs, scattering them. Bright, searing lights flashed across his vision, and it suddenly seemed as though he were under a canopy, noonday sun casting gentle patterns as he lay on the grass. Everything felt insubstantial.

A slight warmth spread from his neck. He could not tell if it was simply more blood pouring out. Sesame gave another roar, and it seemed like it was miles and miles away.

He could feel Sere flying back towards him as fast as she could.

Wait-wait-wait-wait! Hold on! Hold on Tom! She sent, the words pouring over each other in a tangle. He wondered what she was so concerned about. He just felt tired. So aching tired, all of a sudden.

That’s right, he thought. I just need a nap.

He closed his eyes. There was a flash of mana. Sleep overtook him.