Julia closed the Class options screen. Defeating the Barrowlord had catapulted her to Level 50, so it was time to pick another Class (and evolution, potentially). She had no time to cocoon herself and evolve, however, so she was simply contemplating her choices—her Subclass choices, that is.

  Her main Class choice was pretty obvious. She’d never even heard of anyone who had a Legendary Class. She was obviously going to pick that one.

  That was for the future, though. Right now, she and the elves were perched on the branch of an enormous marsh tree while she fixed up their raqsalin. They had retreated into the marsh-proper, and they didn’t want to leave behind a trail of ice for the nashiin to follow—not to mention the mana cost for the ice.

  “Fixing up” in this case meant scratching her freezing runes out, unfortunately. Julia wasn’t even close to being skilled enough to remove existing enchantments. She didn’t even know if that was possible. She had to settle for scratching enough of the runes out that the enchantment couldn’t function.

  True, the elves could simply stop supplying their mana to the runes to cease their function, but she wasn’t completely sure that the runes she’d etched wouldn’t interfere with the water-gliding enchantments. They might end up siphoning the ambient mana they needed to function or something. She’d done it in haste, after all—better safe than sorry.

  “Dahm'Zahra, what is the magic you wield that dyes things crimson—the bloodbolt and the bloodwater?” Nadhem asked, inspecting the raqsala she handed to him.

  Julia internally sighed. She’d sort of missed the boat on asking him not to call her that. When she didn’t know what it meant, she’d not minded a nickname. Now, it was rather embarrassing. He’d been calling her that for a whole day now—which was 50% of the time she’d known them—and they were finally getting along. She’d missed one boat; no need to rock this one by asking him to stop.

  “It’s magic that I sort of…extrapolated from what the nashiin use. When I was trying to figure out how to heal the damage they did to me, I noticed their magic’s rot possessed a…uh…’hungry’ aspect. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it seemed like the magic wanted to consume anything and everything it came in contact with.

  “I decided to try and recreate the effect with my own mana to counteract the fell mana burrowing into my wounds. It seemed easier than trying to figure out how to counteract it without anything else to go on. Consuming the consumer was the intent.

  “Not that I was in a proper state of mind at the time to even try countering the fell mana some other way. I hadn’t slept much, I had just watched people dear to me die, I was completely alone in an environment I was unfamiliar with, and so on,” she concluded, realizing she had started rambling—damn you, Braden.

  Nadhem nodded in understanding. “Your story echoes how the Jadhariin learn to wield the Mother’s magic. It is an attempt to recreate something you see and feel with your own mana,” he said nostalgically.

  That got Julia’s attention. Taln?r had been dodgy about the magic he used when she questioned him, yet here was Nadhem offering answers willingly not a full 20 hours later. Things really do change quickly.

  “I noticed that you and Taln?r both use magic that I don’t really understand. It doesn’t look the same to my Truesight as the magic I’m familiar with. It also seems to have some kind of detrimental effect on the nashiin?” she asked, recalling how Nadhem had felled skeletons just by impacting the sides of their skulls with an arrow.

  “Indeed, the Mother’s magic is highly attuned to life, while the nashiin’s appears the opposite. Their fell magic seems aligned most with death, so our Life Magic is likely to them what their own rot is to us.

  “I believe, and this is just my own guess, that the nashiin generally lack the intelligence to make better use of it. Their weapons and claws are coated in their fell magic simply from proximity, not conscious use. If there were nashiin capable of consciously wielding their Death Magic the way we wield our Life Magic…well, that would truly be frightening,” he finished solemnly.

  An image of the felllord scorching their previous shelter with purple fire, a cloud of smoke shaped like skulls and tortured souls billowing above it, flashed through Julia’s mind. She knew exactly how frightening that would be.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  She shook her head and cleared the thoughts of a likely future confrontation away. Her scratchings finished, she redistributed the raqsalin, and they continued toward the marsh’s center—Julia sprinting on top of the water behind the elves, who glided over it.

  The trees in the marsh were becoming more frequent, but they were so enormous that Julia was actually disquieted by the amount of open space between them. She’d spent the last week and a half navigating close trees and other swamp vegetation. She hadn’t realized she’d become so used to the claustrophobic dread that the swamp imposed on her.

  These trees were colossal, which was saying something since the swamp trees were not small by any measure. They towered over the marsh like titans holding up the sky, and they seemed to get taller the farther in they went. Their branches didn’t even begin until a half-climb from the waterline, and the actual canopies of the trees must be a full climb—possibly even higher—up.

  She noted a distinct lack of those gigantic water bugs she’d seen when she first encountered the marsh. Actually, there was a distinct lack of any creatures that she could see. There was life below the water—revealed by her Truesight—but it was not the gargantuan creatures she’d expected. She hadn’t even encountered the crocfrogs back in the swamp since she found the elves.

  That could possibly be explained by the crocfrogs fleeing the army of undead, but the lack of creatures now? Julia resolved to ask about it when they took their next rest, which should be soon, as they’d been running (well, she’d been running—the elves gliding) for several hours now.

  Just as she had the thought, a rumbling shook the ground and created ripples on the surface of the water around the group. Great vines and roots and all manner of vegetation rose out of the water to encircle them, cutting off any escape. The elves slowed to a stop, not looking concerned in the least. Julia stopped behind them, following their lead.

  “Halt!” a man shouted from the branch of a nearby tree. Somehow, Julia heard his voice as though he was right next to her. “We were expecting the return of our scouting parties, but we were not expecting any naqir accompanying them. Tell me, why do you bring one here? Have you taken a prisoner?”

  The man, accompanied by a number that must be in the double-digits of other elves, with weapons ready, descended from the branch toward them. They rode on twisting vines that seemed to originate from a group of five elves in the center of their formation. They must be dedicated casters, as they had no other weapons beyond their staves, which resembled Taln?r’s.

  Speaking of, Taln?r slid slightly forward, his raqsala keeping him atop the water even when not moving. “Julia is not our prisoner. She is an ally, and we would bring her to Veshari to deliver our report. Things grow dire, and the news we carry is important,” he said with confidence.

  The elves’ chariot of vines reached the water, where they anchored themselves in the ground below them. The leading elf stepped forward. He was tall, with a head of golden hair parted down the middle and draping his shoulders. Julia couldn’t help thinking how annoying that hair would be in combat.

  He had a long face, with a short nose and high brows. Hazel eyes stared at her with what she thought was displeasure. Perhaps it was just her history with being despised that was coloring her opinion, though. She decided to remain open-minded.

  “Greetings, my name is Julia. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. Taln?r, Sahira, and Nadhem have told me of the Jadhariin, and I am excited to get to know more about all of you,” she said as politely as possible, bowing slightly since she was unsure what the protocol was.

  She figured that even if bowing wasn’t part of their culture, her doing it without hesitation would make them assume it was part of her culture, and she could get a pass.

  The man stared at her a second before turning to Taln?r. “Why does the prisoner address me?” he spat.

  “I just told you that Julia is no prisoner,” Taln?r said, a little heat in his voice.

  “We’ve been fighting the nashiin for two full days now. We have much information to give, if you’d allow us passage,” Julia said amicably. She was trying to get on these people’s good side, so no need to rise to any provocations.

  The man turned his disdainful eyes back on her. “Brave of a naqir to stand in the presence of so many Jadhariin and speak not once, but twice without address,” he said, putting some extra stink on the word “naqir.”

  “A man who confronts a group of four with five times their number at his back has no ground from which to speak of bravery,” Julia said before she could stop herself—shit. So much for not taking the bait.

  The man’s face soured, a vein beginning to throb in his forehead. He opened his mouth to respond, taking a step toward Julia (probably to loom over her), but before his foot left the vine platform, Nadhem was behind him—dagger at his throat.

  “This naqir you deride defeated a fell captain mere hours ago. She has saved our lives many times now, and she is an ally to the Jadhariin. However, I have no illusion that the Dahm'Zahra would not defend herself if threatened, in which case all of you would die.

  “To avoid that fate, perhaps I will simply kill you, and save the lives of the others you would drag with you to your grave,” Nadhem whispered, his breath likely palpable on the other elf’s ear.

  Julia had to refrain from laughing loudly—Nadhem had said things not too dissimilar from this elf just a couple days ago. She glanced over to see Taln?r similarly trying not to laugh at the irony of the situation. Sahira just rolled her eyes and stepped forward.

  “Cease this unnecessary bickering!” she said while pulling Nadhem and the elf apart. “Have you forgotten that the nashiin pollute the Mother’s waters even now? We bring information back to Veshari, as was our mission.

  “And if you weren’t so obsessed with the rhythm of your own song, you might have heard the melody of kin. This is no naqir—she is half-ruwāh. You might have also noticed her ruwāh companion wrapped around her body,” she said, motioning toward Trixy.

  “Pathetic, to be so obsessed with the modicum of authority that has been granted to you that you insult the Mother’s own kin,” Sahira said to the elf with plain disappointment.

  The elf’s face was now going red, though with anger or embarrassment, Julia couldn’t say. He again opened his mouth to say something and was interrupted.

  “It’s true! Her song sings lyrics of the ruwāh! Can you not hear it?” one of the elf mages in the group’s center shouted. The elves all began muttering to each other. Julia could only hear fragments of conversations, but she caught many instances of “ruwāh” and “Dahm'Zahra.” She began to get a little uncomfortable, being the center of so many strangers’ attention.

  The elf man, likely realizing he had lost in the court of public opinion, straightened his flowing white robe out and looked toward the group of elves. “Very well. Escort them to Veshari,” he said as he motioned the mages to begin their ascension back to the branches.

  The group of elves all looked around at each other in confusion before looking back at the leader. One, brave soul questioned, “Who should—”

  “Anyone! Whoever! Just get them out of here!” the leader shouted as the group began ascending. The brambles and vines encircling the party began to descend back into the water.

  One of the elves at the front of the group jumped down from the vines, landing with a soft plop atop the water. His shoes seemed enchanted similarly to a raqsala, as he glided over to them.

  “Please, follow me. Veshari is still a few hours out, so we have much travel ahead of us,” he said politely as he skimmed off toward (presumably) the center of the marsh.

  The group—Taln?r, Nadhem, Sahira, and Julia—all glanced at each other and nodded before taking off after him. They were almost there. Julia could almost feel the warm water of a bath against her skin.