The Tears of Kas̆dael

“A lightning-scarred sun?” Jasper repeated the description of the ring the mage had been wearing. “Is that the symbol of a deity? Or some sort of cult?” he added, hoping that he hadn't stumbled upon another Brotherhood of Yas̆gah situation. Is it too much to ask for at least some time off between killing demigods?

“Not one I’m familiar with,” Tsia replied instantly, but Jasper noticed that the prince seemed more pensive.

“Does it mean something to you?”

"“I’m not sure." S̆ams̆ādur stroked his beard thoughtfully. "The symbol seems familiar, but I can’t quite place it. Maybe it was connected to one of the Sidhe?”

“I guess that’s something,” Jasper grimaced, “but it’s not much of a lead. The commander didn’t remember anything else about the man - like his face?”

“According to him, the man’s hood cast an unnatural shadow, making it impossible to discern his features,” Tsia said with a shake of her head.

“Or the mage just removed the memory,” “I’m not sure. pointed out.

“Maybe, but the commander did remember the ring,” Tsia replied, “and he was able to provide one more piece of information. The mage was here just three days ago.”

“Three days? Then that means he’s not holed up in Birnah. And if he's not holed up in Birnah, maybe he really is the mastermind behind the Atrometos attacks,” Jasper added, tossing a nod at the durgu who had first suggested the idea.

“Maybe,” the prince agreed with a shrug, “but it also means we could be at risk of being compromised. Kruvas̆,” he cursed, “You could be compromised already. If he was at Deḇur just a few days ago, perhaps he never left the city. He could have ensorcelled one of us and we wouldn't even know it.”

An uneasy pall settled over the group as each one realized that they had been alone in Deḇur, with no one to verify that they hadn’t encountered a certain brown-hooded mage.

“I assume you’re immune?” Jasper asked hopefully, uncertain exactly how S̆ams̆ādur's powers worked.

“I should be. I don’t have an absolute immunity - a sufficiently powerful individual could potentially overwhelm my defenses - but unless we’re dealing with a true monster, like Duluhhû…” The prince paused, then cursed. “Kruvas̆ - I remember what the symbol is now. It’s the emblem of Duluhhû, the defiler of minds. I believe he was one of the Sidhe lords that planned the attack that destroyed the Mwryanni’s empire.”

“So we’re dealing with a Sidhe?” Tsia questioned, with a curious mixture of fear and excitement pooled in her eyes.

“Eh.” The prince waggled his hand uncertainly. “It’s been a long time since I sat at the knees of the priests, but didn't Duluhhû die during the war? Or maybe it was the one after it," he added with a frown. "You're much younger than I lass - surely you recall?” he said to Tsia.

"I'm not that young," she protested.

“I think we’re getting off track here,” Jasper interrupted the two. “We can always look up Duluhhû’s history later, but for now we need to know if any of us have been compromised. Can you do that?”

“I should be able-” The prince’s reply was broken off as pandemonium erupted in the camp behind them. Shouts and screams filled the air as fire leaped from tent to tent, and durgu writhed on the ground wreathed in flames while others charged through the camp, slashing blazing torches at any they could reach.

“Kruvas̆. We’re too late,” he growled. Leaping to his feet, he charged toward the melee.

Jasper followed close behind, though he wasn’t sure what exactly he could do to help - more fire was hardly what they needed. Instead, he searched darkness for the men who'd gone mad but was forced to dodge as a soldier consumed by flames rolled in front of him. Another durgu followed him, frantically beating him with a blanket. Too bad I don’t have a water spell.

“Don’t kill ‘em,” he heard S̆ams̆ādur roar off to the side, and he swiveled to see the prince try to deflect a blow aimed at one of the men running wild. “They don’t know what they’re doing.”

S̆ams̆ādur missed, and the blow struck through, crushing the skull of the maddened durgu. Crap.

Something hot hit him in the back, and Jasper spun to find one of the durgu slashing at him with a torch. He cursed as the fire spread rapidly over his clothes, but at least it didn’t hurt him. Stepping close, he grabbed the man’s wrist and twisted it hard enough to break it, forcing the man to drop the torch, and delivered an uppercut that would have downed Mohammed Ali.

But the durgu barely blinked. Leaving the torch to burn in the grass, the man wrapped his arms around Jasper and tossed them both to the ground. Jasper struggled to free his arms from beneath the man’s legs as the durgu pommeled him, but the durgu was as heavy as stone. And then, their twin screams rent the night, as an electric current surged through both of them.

“Get off of him!” His muscles were still twitching as Tsia kicked the durgu off him, shoving the man into the dewy grass. A skein of rope swung from her hands as she stepped over Jasper carefully, and bent down to tie the durgu up.

“Be…hind,” Jasper choked his words out through clenched teeth as another wave of spasms swept his body. Night turned to day as a bolt of lightning cracked from her hand and intercepted another assailant, who fell into the ground beside them.

As the spasm passed, Jasper rolled to his knees and cursed as the last pitiful remnants of his clothes, all but consumed by the flames, fell off. “Damn it.”

Tsia glanced over, and her eyes widened as she took in his condition. “Don’t look,” he hissed, he hastily clamped a hand over his nethers.

She immediately averted her eyes, her cheeks burning in the moonlight, and he scampered behind her, clutching frantically at the one non-flammable item he’d been wearing - the bag of holding his uncle had given him - for a change of clothes.

It was not meant to be. With a shudder, the second durgu Tsia had felled regained his senses. Rolling to his feet, the durgu his knife and charged toward her turned back.

“Fiery Shackles.” The man’s charge was halted five feet behind her as burning blades clamped around his ankles. His flesh sizzled beneath the white-hot heat, but in his madness, the durgu didn’t even notice. He let himself forward, snapping the bones in both ankles as he angled the knife toward her neck, and as the tip grazed her skin, Jasper bulldozed into him.

The knife cut a shallow slash across Jasper’s torso as they landed in the grass a few inches to the side of her. This time, though, Jasper didn’t try to overpower the durgu - they were simply too strong. Releasing the man’s hands, he kicked the knife away and scampered out of reach where he renewed the spell. He pulled the glaive out of his bag and slammed the butt into the side of the durgu’s head. The man kept thrashing, trying to grab hold of Tsia and Jasper hit him harder.

This time the man stilled. I hope I didn’t hit him too hard. He dropped to his knees on the grass beside the man and, pulling his own supply of rope out of his bag, quickly wrapped it around the durgu’s hands, fumbling with the knots. Satisfied the man was going nowhere, he lurched to his feet and spun around, searching for more attackers.

Cries of pain still filled the air, but the screams had subsided. Lines of durgu had quickly around the blazing tents, beating at the fires with blankets or anything else that came to hand, while others raced back from the nearby river, sloshing water out of their upturned helmets, but at least there were no more attackers running wild.

“Jasper? Tsia? You alright?” S̆ams̆ādur’s voice was hoarse from smoke as he ran towards them, but the prince was otherwise harmed. He skidded to a stop a few feet away from them, and amusement flashed across his face. “I know they say armor only slows you down, but foregoing it all together is quite the choice.”

“You know, I’ve been feeling a little slow these last few fights, but this really made a difference. There’s nothing like the full-fledged terror of a knife a few inches from your dangling junk to inspire you to new heights,” Jasper replied wryly, as he dug in his bag for a change of tunics.

“I’ll have to try it sometime,” the prince chuckled. “But maybe after I've sired my first few children.”

“Are your men alright,” Jasper asked, and the levity dropped off the durgu’s face immediately.

“Three dead, at least twenty wounded, maybe more. But that's not the worst of it,” he sighed. “We’ll be lucky if half of our supplies and tents survive. Neither of you would happen to know a water spell to put these fires out?”

Jasper finished pulling the tunic over his head and scowled as he noticed Tsia quickly glancing away after getting another eyeful. “No. As this little battle showed me, I know very few spells that aren’t designed to kill.”

“Eh, I kind of expected that.” His eyes trailed to where the durgu were beating the last of the flames out of the tents. “Looks like it’s going to be a long night.”

The sun rose early on the flat western plains, not that it mattered. None of them had slept that night as they dealt with the aftermath of the attacks. Jasper had spent the night tending to the wounded, pushing his essence to the breaking point repeatedly as he tried to heal several durgu that had caught on fire.

S̆ams̆ādur and Tsia had an equally difficult task, as the sudden attack proved that some of their men had been compromised. He spent the night talking with each and every soldier, probing their mind for any sign of tampering, with Tsia standing beside him, ready to zap any man who responded with aggression. Despite their best efforts, however, they had only interviewed half the group by the time the sun rose.

As they regrouped around the fire to dig into the breakfast the cleared men had prepared, Jasper struggled to keep his eyes open. “Have you found any more,” he asked groggily.

“Aye,” the prince grunted. “This kruvas̆-cursed mage is clever. There were just six last night, but I’ve found another four thus far whose minds have been meddled with. Probably supposed to be a second wave.”

“Any similarities between them?”

The prince ignored the question in favor of shoveling more of the gruel the durgu had prepared into his mouth, and Tsia answered for him.

“They were all part of the group sent to the quartermaster, weren’t they.” The prince nodded mutely, and Jasper rubbed his brow, his tired brain struggling to think.

“So that means they may have encountered the mage there. And with so many of them, maybe…maybe the mage can corrupt more than one mind at a time?” He finally reached the conclusion that usually would have been obvious. “How powerful does that make him?”

“More than I expected,” S̆ams̆ādur growled.

“Can you still resist him?”

“I guess we’ll have to hope so, don’t we?” The prince’s eyes turned to the city of Debur, which lay on the far side of the moat. “And if we have any hope of finding this bloody mage, it looks like at least one of us will have to make another trip to the city.”

“Of course,” Jasper agreed with a sigh. “You never got the chance to answer last night - do you have a spell that will protect us?”

The prince grimaced. “Yes and no. I don’t have a spell that can shield a group this large, but I can protect a few people, temporarily. I can cast it on you, let you and the lass track this mage down, while I keep sorting through my men.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Tipping the bowl up to his mouth, Jasper slurped down the rest of the gruel quickly and wiped his mouth. “Might as well go as soon as possible. Don’t want our little birdy taking flight.”