095 - The Witching Road

A wasteland of cracked earth all around, a heavy cloud hung over the swamp, the sun completely hidden. It felt like rain, like the heavens could burst at any moment - Magnus wished it would - as it was, his clothes were damp with sweat, sticking to his skin.

The Empire Swamp, once the seat of a mighty empire, the home to a magnificent capital city . . now dead, now only cracked earth and black stones. Nothing could live here - the blue waters corrupted everything they touched. Only fools like Lars and his Pa would guide other fools into the ruins of the city, looking for long forgotten treasures.

Magnus walked on the rock paths, leaping where he could over parts, and quickly reaching a line of great stones - the remnants of the city wall. It must have stood at least fifty feet tall, at least ten feet wide, the stone blocks had all sunk and collapsed into the swamp now. On the other side were the city streets, as bad as it had been when he'd come to the swamp previously, it was worse now - far worse. Not a single structure still stood upright, not a single foundation remained intact.

This damage, the whole swamp entirely drained . . an earthquake? Magnus sat at the edge of a cobbled street looking out over the cracked earth. It had been right near here where he had fought and killed that Alchemist, right near here where he had fallen into the swamp. He flung out several green stones, setting up a small woods-for-trees formation.

With a steady hand he produced a thread of red-gold vigour and sent it out into the dry earth. Down, down through the mud and muck and stones, Magnus guided the thread as far as he could into the darkness beneath the surface. A hundred feet, two hundred feet . . deeper and deeper, seeing only a small area around the thread - nothing, no green threads, no lights - only a deep ocean of darkness, silent as the grave.

Nothing? The bloody great lizard had been sleeping right here! How could there be nothing? Ah hells . . nothing could be simple, could it? Well . . it might be pretty simple. After all, it is just a great big bloody lizard, even if its gone, where would it go? If it came up to the surface it would leave a huge trail, make a huge mess. Nah, it wouldn't come up, if its gone anywhere, its most like gone down.

"*Ahem*" Magnus cleared his throat, looking out over the wastes. A warm white aura spread around his throat and filled his lungs. "Hiiiiiii . . ech! Hiiiii . . rroooooo . . . hiiiiii . . . roooo . ." Continuing to repeat the syllables the figure of a man begun to form - a ghostly visage.

This was one of the base Seer divination techniques - the ghost form, often used to scout dangerous areas or otherwise inaccessible locations - a sort of far-seeing technique. While using the ghost form a Seer would be vulnerable, unable to protect themselves, but with the woods-for-trees formation Magnus reckoned he ought to be pretty safe.

Safe enough, in any event - the ghostly body floated above the swamp, Magnus poured his intent into it - his body left sitting on the cobbled streets. Through the ghost form he saw the world in spectral lights; the sun appeared a pale flat circle against purple clouds and green skies, the earth took on an almost fuzzy feeling, like a giant woolly blanket.

Magnus floated down into the ground, quickly diving much deeper and seeing much further - no longer was the earth dark to him - now, the depths of the earth held no secrets. The Seers song accompanied him down, a wave of steady chants were like a heart beat through the darkness, washing through the dirt and muck and illuminating the deep dark crevices below the Empire Swamp - there!

A cluster of lights forming roughly the shape of a giant lizard! This is where it must have laid - the earth thick with an Elemental aura. Down, the earth here damp - following the thick green aura with his ghostly form, it had dug down, through the sediment and hard rock - the lizard had burrowed deep into the earth, its movement shaking the whole swamp, all the waters draining through the hole it had left.

The trail continued for hundreds of feet - down into the absolute bowls of the earth, Magnus followed the lizards trail down until, just at the edge of his vision - bright green lights, thousands of green threads!

Beneath the swamp, beneath the water table and layers of sediment, an enormous underground lake filled with blue tinted water and mud, and at the bottom of the lake the dark green shape of a giant lizard, its eyes tight shut.

Here it is!

Magnus floated down, entering into the waters and guiding his ghostly form between the many green strands until he reached the lizards massive head. Next to its head his ghostly form appeared no larger than a firefly.

What now? It's too bloody deep, ain't it? I can't dig my way through the dirt . . and even if I do, all the bloody lizard has gotta do is dig itself deeper . . my Vigour ought to reach, right? Right enough, hells, all I would need do is get a single thread to the earth lizard . .

OOOoooo . . . .

*Prrrrt!*

Magnus rolled and groaned, blinking open his eyes to the surface world - his mind instantly back in his own body, his belly fit to burst.

After several minutes of groaning and rolling around he steadied himself once more, pointing a single finger down and guiding a thread of red-gold vigour into the depths of the earth, trying to follow the same path he'd taken in his ghostly form, deeper and deeper into the inky black darkness.

Deeper . . until . . . . . .

The red-gold thread burst up through the surface of the swamp several hundred meters from where Magnus sat.

Ah hells . . once he got into the dark depths of the earth it was impossible to tell left from right, up from down. No matter how much Magnus tried to follow the path down he quickly deviated, his thread turning and twisting and getting lost - no good, no good at all.

He needed the ghostly form to guide him, but to control both at once? Magnus tried - chanting and summoning a far seeing ghost, but the moment he took control he became entirely unable to project the thread of Vigour.

To do the two things at once . . . Magnus sat for half the day in the ruins of the swamp, trying and losing himself, failing time and again. No matter what he tried he found it near impossible to do both at once - maintaining the ghost form and projecting the thread of red-gold vigour was simply too hard . .

Need a little help there, Magnus?

Hob? How can you help out?

Easy. You need to sing and control the Vigour, right? Well, let me take over - I'll take control of the ghostly form and you guide the thread.

That'll work? I mean, you can do that? Ah hells, why didn't you say something earlier! I've wasted half the bloody day here in this stinking swamp!

Right, right, enough moaning - come on, sing me a little Seer song and let's get to it, stop your farting around once and for all!

"Hiiiiiiiii . . . . rrooooooo . . ." Magnus chanted once more, his voice going hoarse, the ghostly form taking shape.

This time, instead of pouring his intent into the ghost form Magnus felt a buzz, a warm pulse in his core - out from the depths of his white core came a sliver of gold coloured mist, shooting through the air and into the ghost form - it quickly took the shape of a person, looking in every way like Magnus, floating and moving through the air, but entirely out of his control.

"Ha! This feels great!" A bizarre voice came from the ghostly form, like the buzzing of tens of crickets. Hob flittered above the cracked earth, dancing around Magnus, finally diving down into the earth. "Come on Magnus!"

Magnus shot out a red-gold thread. It was just as dark beneath the earth, only a small space around the thread being visible.

"This way! Here! Come, come!" Hob called out continuously, flying in and out of his sight, guiding Magnus deeper and deeper.

Down they went together, descending rapidly to the original position of the giant lizard and, guided on by the ghostly Hob, down even deeper to the underground blue water lake.

"Big bloody thing, ain't it?" Hob took Magnus down between the green strands - the red-gold thread weaving its way through the waters, carefully cutting between the threads. Closer . . closer . . all the way to the very skin of the beast, Magnus licked his lips - the closer he got the lizard, the more appetizing it appeared - a giant delicious piece of meat - slow, no rushing now . . just one step further . .

Stab!

Magnus guided the red-gold thread right into the giant lizard's eyes, right through it's shut eyelids, penetrating all the way through to its brain!

The land rumbled - reacting instantly to the thread the lizard eyes shot open, its body convulsed, thrashing about wildly in the underground lake. It's green strands, like peaceful strands of seaweed out in the ocean, now shone bright green, thrashing around and finding the single thread of red-gold, wrapping around it and attempting to strangle it.

Too late!

Magnus was in the inner world now - his red-gold thread branching out infinitely - the inner skies and oceans all a green tinted, countless sparkling green lights in the skies - countless red-gold mouths rose to devour, to tear the skies apart, to rip and break and swallow whole.

The giant lizard trembled, its green strands dimming. It only took a minute, no more, before the green seaweed like strands in the underground lake fell limp - the giant lizard thrashed around no more.

"Easy, right?" Hob's ghostly buzz echoed in Magnus' mind.

"Easy."