Chapter 5: A Solflame's Embrace

Subject: Inis Location: Moss Crescent

Inis stumbled down onto her backside. The talusfang broke its remaining restraints and snapped at her. She rolled backward, just in time, and nimbly jumped back to her feet. Inis’s heart pounded in her chest, but she remained wholly focused on casting a series of Viralight Darts into the Blightbeasts joints.

She turned and began to run. Inis knew should couldn’t outrun the creature, but she needed to get to a place where she had more of a chance of surviving the encounter. She wasn’t fit for running, but fear motivated her to push her limits.

“Viralight Dart”, often shortened to “Viradart”, was a spell from the “Thorned Viralight” spell grouping. It was a “one-off” cast, meaning that it did not require constant or intermittent maintenance. In effect, it was a rapid precision projectile.

As Inis sprinted, she accidentally crossed paths with a seeker who was oblivious to the danger approaching. She was about to warn this stranger, but it was too late. The malevolent talusfang was clambering across the uneven terrain. It was not hindered by the slope of the hill, only by the wounds Inis had inflicted.

Oddly, the creature ignored the other seeker, who was much closer. It had set its sights on Inis. This was not standard behavior for a blightbeast. Inis felt like she was being targeted. It had passed by easy prey.

Could this have to do with its visual cone? No, it should have seen that seeker. Then maybe it has more to do with the festerfont “marking system” I’ve been studying? Does the festerfont really perceive me as such a threat?

It didn’t matter now, because the seeker fled the moment he saw the creature, after it had already passed him by.

I was too focused on recording my observations. I should have been paying attention to my surroundings.

Now, she was forced to notice the hilly terrain surrounding her. She arrived at the base of one of the hills, where a large stretch of moss-covered stone formed a hard floor. The talusfang, limping slightly, caught up to her immediately. It bore down on her, the teeth beyond its sharp front fangs slobbering orange goo all over the rock.

The Moss Crescent hills supported a sparse forest. Boulders broke through soft dirt, layer with lush indigo moss. Inis had trapped the creature on one such boulder, but it wasn’t a failure of the integrity of the terrain, but the magnitude of the spell she had cast.

When the creature lunged at Inis again, she dodged to the side and switch places with it. The blightbeast turned to face her and she tried to back-step to keep enough distance between them. Something stopped her.

This thing secretes ensnaring fluid? Why would such a beast need something like that? Before I crippled it, it could cross wide distances very fast on those six legs.

Inis struggled to lift her foot, but couldn’t, so she gave up. She fired more Viradarts at the creature and it yelped. She had seriously wounded it with her precision attacks.

Firing a cautious Viradart into each of the talusfang’s six legs, Inis then turned her attention to escaping the goo that now held her own feet in place.

Though the Viradart was a precision attack spell, it was mostly used outside of combat. This included professional areas like construction. Unlike the more common “Breachbolt” spell, it was much more difficult to learn to cast and manipulate the Viradart effectively. The difference in precision wasn’t that great when it was used in combat, but Inis valued precision more than the extra time it took to learn it.

She had practiced day after day until the Viradart was mastered. Inis stubbornly did this for the same reason that she tripled up on memgel inscription spells. Most times, there were no second chances. Most times, she needed to get the job done right the first time around.

“This isn’t anything I can’t cut through, but it will be a pain,” she muttered to herself while shaking her head in disappointment in the blightbeast’s direction.

Inis bent down and caught hold of her headset. She fastened it around her head and activated it.

“I have discovered that the malevolent talusfang’s secretion is an adhesive. It has immobilized my feet, binding them to the stone. I cannot break free without resorting to magic, but the talusfang is a dangerous threat. I need to practice caution and kill the specimen.”

Inis was scared, but she left her headset recording and called out her next spell’s name aloud for later reference.

“Solflame Embrace!” Inis yelled with a fearful passion.

This spell was about as difficult to learn as Viradart, but there was a stark difference in the effect.

Inis felt the temperature rise dramatically as golden flames ignited on the fur of the blightbeast. This fire, birthed by magic, had appeared instantaneously, while Inis performed the mental calculations to cast it.

This spell required less concentration. A mage merely needed to apply basic principles of magic to make use of it. Inis had chosen it because she needed to kill the talusfang immediately, and the flammable fur of this blightbeast variant was easy to exploit.

The talusfang's screeches of agony pierced the shroud of golden flame around it. Finally, it began to dissipate, and so did the goo holding Inis in place. Finally free, she reached down to retrieve the green blightseed the specimen left behind.

Such a loss.

Her only consolation was the thought that the beast could no longer harm anyone traveling in Moss Crescent.

I’m not here to protect a handful of seekers, she argued with herself. I need to uncover the secrets of this strange phenomenon!

Subject: Inis Location: Moss Crescent

As Inis carefully made her way out of the festerfont, she concluded that her documentation of the greater region was coming to a close. She needed to leave the Sprawlcap Hills soon.

“I believe I’ve found evidence to support the claim that the Blight is changing,” she noted, letting her brain broadly analyze the last week in parallel with analysis of the day’s events.

Inis fumbled for the fresh blightseed in her pocket and distractedly brought it to her lips. A blightseed had two uses.

Consuming one would contribute to her level of physical fitness, a well-known effect she had experienced numerous times before. At first, she had done this out of curiosity. As dangerous situations became a more frequent part of her knowledge-seeking journey, she began consuming blightseeds to mold her body into one that would withstand the trials ahead.

Yet, I can never push myself as hard as I need to…

On the other hand, a blightseed could be sold to the Guild, where it would be distributed to staff under the organization’s employ.

Inis had resorted to doing this on occasion when she needed coin to buy materials, but it was always accompanied by disappointment as the blightseeds left her possession.

Is there something about the seeds that compels one to consume them? That would imply some kind of insidious intent. Maybe...

Inis’s heart pounded at the thought of the blightseeds as dormant orbs of malice. Her boots quickened their pace, carrying her across the threshold and out of the festerfont’s territory.

No. Civilizations have tested blightseeds for toxins or suspicious mechanisms for thousands of years. That doesn’t rule it out, but there has been no discernible difference between the lifespan or overall health of one who consumes blightseeds and one who doesn’t even come into contact with them. If anything, those that consume them are stronger for it.

Inis’s thoughts were now honed on this age-old problem. It was a problem she couldn’t hope to solve on her own. That wouldn’t stop her from trying, but she needed to make an effort to be realistic.

Trust in longitudinal studies, Inistra. The repeated observations of researchers studying blightseeds over a long period is solid footing. I’ll give the Guild some credit for funding studies that have been going on for centuries.

Just then, a tangential thought dragged most of Inis’s attention with it. There was something she needed to try with this blightseed specimen. She had considered it before, but there was always other work to do. Now, she had the time to be bold.

It is finally time to take a real risk with my research! First, I need to get away from prying eyes. Any seeker might wander by when I’m this close to a festerfont. I’ll need to go back to my camp anyway. I’ll do it there. This terrifying experience has taught me that I need to be stronger. I nearly died.

Inis’s heart pounded with anticipation.