RavensDagger

  Chapter Thirty-Seven - A Feeling

  54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden EraShorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex

  "You just have to feel it," Magus Discipulus Crthorn said. He gestured towards his chest, where his heart was. "It's like... touching a tapestry with your heart. You feel the weave, and the cloth, and eventually you learn to see the patterns and how to unknot them and make something new. At least, that's the analogy that worked for me. But my mother was a seamstress. I know that Olivia liked to think of it as painting."

  "I see," Lazur said.

  But she didn't.

  She was walking a step or two to the side of Viridian and Carnel, keeping pace with the young magus as they headed to his master. Her companions were focused on their own things, and she couldn't bme them for being more attentive to their surroundings than to the conversation. It was logical, even.

  But Lazur just couldn't. Yes, she knew that it would be wise to be attentive, but at the moment she was too... too emotional for that.

  There was a certain irony that she enjoyed the fvour of as she considered the implications of being emotional now that she was little more than an automaton.

  "I'm uncertain if I can feel that," she admitted. Her voice bothered her. It was one of many things that bothered her, but this one she could live with. Her body's ck of feeling was fine. The way her joints were metal, her limbs wood? She could continue to survive despite that.

  But the void? That hungering pit inside of her where she should have been feeling something? It gnawed at her constantly. Sometimes, when she cast the one spell she had access to, she'd feel a slight tickle, an impression that the pit wasn't real. But then the spell would be cast and the impression would fade into nothing.

  She wanted her magic back.

  It was a stupid thing to want, she realized. She'd been brought back from the clutches of death itself. Losing one's magic was a small price to pay, but...

  Looking to the side, she saw Viridian eyeing their surroundings while one of her hands idly pyed with the edge of her gambeson. The puppet wanted to make. It was as clear as day. Viridian was the speaker of their group, the gentle one. She was perhaps too passive at times, but she was still... good.

  Carnel, next to her, was someone that Lazur had grown to dislike and respect in equal measure. The automaton was brutish and violent and cared not for the things that Lazur found important.

  If she were to reveal her fears to her companions, Viridian would sympathize, and Carnel would tell her to do something about it. Both responses, she supposed, were fair.

  Do something about it...

  Lazur considered it as they continued their trek to the Magus's tower. Her conversation with the Discipulus waned. The young man was willing to talk more about magic, but his experience and knowledge did nothing for her when she couldn't act on it.

  Do something about it.

  Was she willing to admit that the hypothetical Carnel in her mind was right? Viridian wanted to make, and she would be able to. The moment they had time for themselves, she was certain the puppet would get to work.

  Carnel wanted to fight, and there had been numerous opportunities for that. More times would come where she would be able to hone her craft and practice with her tools.

  Carnel's tools were not Lazur's. She wanted... needed, magic.

  They arrived at Magus Beornhelm's tower, and the apprentice ran up to the door and knocked.

  The meeting between apprentice and magus was emotional, but understated. Both men seemed happy to see each other, but unwilling to express it, and a pall hung over them at the loss of a mutual friend.

  "We... were not able to retrieve the body of Olivia," Viridian said. "I'm sorry. But the town is in turmoil. It is possible that soon..."

  Beornhelm frowned from his seat, his own clumsy manservant puppet still by his side. "I see. Well, time will deliver her unto us," he said. "Tell your master that I am willing to discuss things moving forwards. He wishes to use my tower's communication array, then so be it. We can negotiate prices and favours in due time."

  "Thank you," Viridian said.

  Too passive, Lazur thought. Given a little more power, they wouldn't be bowing and scraping and running errands for lords and strange mages just to earn more favour from their own master. But they weren't yet so powerful that they could make such demands.

  "One more thing," Viridian said. She removed the twin letters from within her gambeson, then extended one to the magus.

  He gestured, and the letter flicked forwards and snapped into his hand. He spun it around, examining the seal. "From Baron Goldfilius?" he asked.

  "Yes," Viridian said. "He didn't say what the letter was about, only asked us to deliver it to you."

  "Well, whatever," the magus said. He pced it onto the tray his puppet held for him. "I'll read it at my convenience, if I can be bothered to take part in whatever ridiculous political ploy the baron is trying to pull."

  Viridian gnced around, her mechanical eyes locking onto Lazur's for a moment. There was no expression on her face, since it wasn't able to produce one, but Lazur had the sense that Viridian wanted to know if there was more to add.

  She shook her head slightly, and Viridian returned her focus onto the magus. "If that's all, we'll be leaving now," she said.

  Magus Beornhelm waved them off, then turned to his apprentice. They likely had much to talk about, but the three of them wouldn't be here to see it.

  They started back towards the shore. The graveyard was quieter in the light of day, the restless undead finding no soce in the sun's gre, and the woods they cut through were alive and... perhaps not well but surviving.

  Lazur idly noted that some trees were growing scales through their bark, and several of the small critters they passed were mutated and strange, but not necessarily aggressive. Or perhaps the aggressive ones knew better. They likely stank of blood.

  "We did good, I think," Viridian said. The words drew Lazur out of her introspection. "We did as Magus Maldrak asked, gained lots of essence, and made allies."

  "Allies of convenience, perhaps," Lazur said. "I wouldn't trust them too far. In a space with so much turmoil, they have reason to want the stability afforded by Magus Maldrak, but trusting them further would be unwise."

  "I guess?" Viridian said. She was far faster to trust than either Lazur or Carnel, and it showed.

  The route back to the vilge by the shore wasn't complicated. Lazur's knee felt like it was worsening as she went, losing some amount of flexibility and bend as they walked, but she didn't compin, not when they were so close to being back.

  They caught sight of the vilge as they came over a rise. It was surprisingly busy.

  Teams of sailors were scouring the area around the town, mowing down bushes and taller grass. Others were cutting down trees along the edge of the nearby woods while still more were working to build the start of a palisade wall along the edge of the town.

  "They're fortifying," Carnel said, tilting her head as she took in the half-built palisade.

  "They might not have a choice," Lazur replied. "With Shorefarm falling into chaos and the mutations getting worse, they'll need walls soon."

  As they stepped into the vilge proper, a familiar figure broke away from the construction efforts and ambled casually toward them. Mage-Knight Ashheel was wearing a mask that covered his nose and the lower half of his face. It was simple cloth, tied to the back of his head with a knot. "Good to see you three alive and well," he said. "We were beginning to wonder if you'd run into trouble."

  "Some," Lazur said.

  "A little," Viridian replied. "But not too much."

  "I'd ask for details, but it doesn't take much to guess how it ended." He gnced toward the bay, where the Gentle Tidings rocked gently against the dock. "You'll want to report to Maldrak. He's expecting you."

  Lazur let out a low hum, adjusting the grip on her pike as she scanned the growing fortifications. "It seems things have been busy in our absence."

  Jorvin followed her gaze and nodded. "Maldrak doesn't believe in waiting for trouble to find him. I agree. I don't know how much help the walls will be, but it'll deter anyone unprepared from trying anything. We're working in shifts though. The ground is contaminated. So is the air."

  Lazur gnced at the nearest sailors, noting that they wore cloth masks as well. She wondered how much that would actually help.

  It didn't matter too much. This was one thing that her wooden body had over the normal people here.

  "Alright, let's go talk to the boss," Carnel said.

  "Let's," she agreed.

  ***