Chapter 383: Magical Inquiry

Plum stared pitifully at the poor unlucky bastards lying unconscious. On a closer look, she noticed a silver amulet hanging from the drow prisoner’s neck. The amulet was the symbol of an academically-trained mageborn and the ruby embedded on her amulet marked her as a chromatic red mage.

Stryg was right. Though the drow was wearing a soldier’s armor she was a mageborn like them. There were a few scorch marks on her armor, but save for a few bruises she seemed fine, which was far more than could be said about the rest of her comrades.

The other survivor was a human, definitely not a part of the Undergrowth military. He wore no armor, only a ragged tunic. Dried blood was caked around the side of his head where Stryg had no doubt bludgeoned him. The man would have a terrible headache but with the proper medical treatment, he would recover just fine.

Plum sighed.

Not that either of them will live to see the sunrise.

Even if she managed to use her purple magic to salvage information from their minds, Stryg wasn’t the kind of warrior to leave survivors. The blood covering him from head to toe was a testament to that.

Still, Stryg didn't seem to notice the hesitation on her face. In fact, he didn’t even seem bothered by all the blood and bits of gore over him. His eyes were focused entirely on the silver blade in his hands.

“Does that sword belong to one of them?” Plum gestured to the prisoners.

Stryg finally looked up and shook his head slowly.

Tauri smirked, “So you just looted it from one of the corpses strewn about the camp? And here I remember you saying you didn’t need a new sword, your precious Nameless was enough.”

“…This isn’t a new sword. It’s the relic sword we found in the serpent’s cave,” Stryg answered quietly.

“Wait, what?” Tauri hurried over towards him and stared at the sword up close. Gone were the chipped edges and dull sheen. The blade was a pristine silver with a fine edge that glimmered in the wreckage’s firelight.

Tauri was about to refute his claim but then she spotted the straight crossguard, steel-white hilt, and the Parallel Magestones embedded on the black pommel. The faded engraving at the base of the blade was still there, as faded as before.

“That can’t be… It really is the relic sword?” Tauri mumbled, dumbfounded.

“How is that possible?” Plum frowned. “Is it because of the Parallel Magestones? Did they somehow fix the blade?”

Tauri bit her lip, “No. The Parallel Magestones are believed to greatly empower the enchantments of an object, not fix the object. This has to be some kind of self-repairing enchantment… except I’ve never heard of an enchantment like that.”

“This has to be old magic, then? Brown spells that have been lost through time?” Plum asked.

“That seems like a reasonable conjecture, except if the blade could repair itself then why wait till now? Why didn’t it repair itself earlier?” Tauri muttered.

“It was the blood,” Stryg said with a wary expression. “As I was killing the soldiers, I noticed their blood was being— absorbed. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I think it somehow used the blood to fix itself.”

“Ah!” Plum’s eyes widened. “I remember seeing something like that back at the cave. So that’s why it was drinking the lamia blood.”

“Drinking blood…?” Tauri furrowed her brow and stared at the relic sword. “That sounds almost like…”

“Like what?” Stryg asked.

Tauri shook her head, “No, forget it. It’s impossible. The blade is the wrong color anyway.”

The red mage groaned in pain and tried to move, but the vines wrapped around her more tightly instead. She opened her eyes blearily and looked around dazed. “W-Where…? Who are you?”

“Looks like the drow is awake,” Tauri noted.

“Oh, uh, hello there,” Plum waved awkwardly.

“Who are you people!?” the drow soldier shouted, panic rising in her voice. She glanced around anxiously and stiffened at the sight of the smoldering ruined camp.

“Sooo, I’m Plumela, but you can just call me Plum,” she said with an uncertain smile.

“What are you doing!? Don’t tell her your name!” Tauri chastised.

“Oh, sorry,” Plum winced.

“What does it matter? She’ll be dead soon enough,” Stryg said off-handedly.

“You’re the ones who attacked us… Where are the rest of your men?” the soldier asked worriedly.

“We’re asking the questions,” Tauri said.

“There’s no one else.”

“Plum!” Tauri yelled.

“What? Stryg said it doesn’t matter what we tell her, right? You’re all just gonna kill her anyway!” Plum yelled in frustration.

“Stryg…?” the soldier whispered. She slowly turned to the goblin and stared at him with eyes as wide as saucers. Beneath the blood and ash, she could make out the blue skin in the firelight.

He glanced at her with cold lilac eyes, his slit pupils as sharp as blades.

“My gods, it’s really you…” the soldier mumbled in awe. “The Ebon Aspirant.”

Stryg cocked his head to the side. “And you are?”

“I-I’m… I’m Olivia, captain of the 42nd company.” She glanced around the campsite and back at him, “I… I thought we were attacked by some sort of elite team of mages, but it was all you, wasn’t it?”

“Not entirely,” Stryg glanced at Tauri who nodded in acknowledgement.

“...I, uh,” Olivia swallowed hard. “I’m not going to survive this, am I?”

Stryg looked her in the eyes and spoke in a steady voice, “No, you won’t.”

She looked down at herself and smiled weakly, “I see… I take it you’ve kept me alive for questioning?”

“Yes.”

Olivia took a deep breath and tried to muster what courage she had left. “I am loyal to my queen.”

“It doesn’t matter. Plum, try to hurry. We don’t know how much time we have before more enemies show up,” Stryg said.

Plum’s stomach twisted. She took a step back. “I can’t… I can’t do this.”

“I don’t understand,” Stryg frowned.

“This is why we should have kept them unconscious,” Tauri said. “Plum isn’t a soldier, Stryg. She can’t just look someone in the eye and run a sword through them. She hasn’t been trained for this. And the way you ‘handle’ your enemies is something that not even soldiers are trained to watch.”

“Hm. I understand,” Stryg nodded and flicked his wrist in a small gesture. The vines around Olivia’s throat tightened. She gasped for breath, but there was none. Her grey cheeks grew flushed and she tried to roll on the ground, but the vines held taut.

“What are you doing!?” Plum yelled.

“Making it easier for you,” Stryg said and curled his fingers into a fist.

The vines squeezed tight until it seemed as if they would crush the drow’s windpipe. Saliva began to dribble from the edge of her mouth and her eyes rolled up. Olivia’s muscles relaxed and her body went slack.

“There, she’s unconscious,” Stryg said and loosened the vines with a small gesture. “It should be easier to read her mind now.”

Plum glared at him, “I don’t want to do this.”

Stryg sighed, “Fine. Why don’t you go ahead and read the human’s mind instead? Tell us what you can find out about him.”

Plum glanced at the unconscious human and the dried blood on the side of his head. “They won’t ever be waking up, will they?”

“Does that bother you?” Stryg asked.

“Yes, but it makes this easier,” Plum said with a tired defeated voice. “I can at least help him dream.”

Tauri smiled sympathetically, “Better to leave this world with a nice dream than to wake up to this nightmare.”

“Mm,” Plum nodded with a tired, bitter expression.

“Well, I guess I’ll deal with the drow then,” Stryg said.

The vines lifted Olivia towards Stryg and held her slack body in front of him. He grabbed her by the sides of her forehead and began channeling purple mana into his hand. Faint purple strings of light extended out from his fingers and wrapped around Olivia’s head, like tendrils swimming through the water.

“Does this not bother you in the slightest?” Plum asked him frustratedly. “Does knowing you are going through someone's memories, seeing what they saw, experiencing what they felt… knowing you are going to end their life... How can you be so calm?!”

Stryg cocked his head to the side and blinked slowly, “Is it supposed to bother me? They are my enemy. Keeping them alive would only serve to hurt me and the ones I care about.”

Plum narrowed her eyes and looked at Stryg thoughtfully. “…I think I’m beginning to understand you a bit more now… People can’t usually close off the part of themselves that cares, even if it is their enemy. But you, it comes naturally to you. It’s almost like that part of you wasn’t there to begin with.”

“Okaaay, I think that’s enough introspection for now,” Tauri said. “May I remind you both that we are on limited time.”

Stryg shrugged and focused on his magic. Olivia’s face contorted painfully and her body twitched incessantly.

Stryg sighed, “I really need to practice my mind spells.”

Plum turned away, uncomfortable at the sight. She crouched down next to the human and extended tendrils of light towards his head carefully.

Tauri waited silently for a few minutes, watching the duo work. Olivia’s spasms grew worse and it didn’t seem as if they were going to get any better if Stryg’s cursing was any indication.

“Any luck?” Tauri finally asked.

Stryg closed his eyes and tried his best to focus, “It’s all a bit blurry, but I think you were right. The ashen wood was to be used for siege weapons, but it wasn’t for Murkton. Olivia’s orders were to give the wood to… the Adder Tribe?”

Tauri’s expression darkened, “The Adder Tribe? Are you certain?”

“Yeah. Who are they?”

“They are the most prominent of the valley tribes. Why would Undergrowth soldiers be working with valley savages?” Tauri muttered.

“Because they made some kind of alliance,” Plum said. “This man, his name is Brom, is a valley tribesman. He was ordered to procure the ashen wood for a siege against… Hollow Shade?”

Tauri laughed, “Do those savages really think siege weapons will work against the shade wall? Let them come, we’ll put an end to them once and for all.”

“Loh! She’s alive!” Stryg cried out excitedly. “There were reports that she escaped the city. They’re still trying to find her.”

Tauri broke into a soft smile and sighed in relief, “That’s good. Do you know how she managed to escape? What about the others? Are they safe?”

“Let me see… dammit!” Stryg cursed under his breath. “I can’t make out anything else, Olivia’s mind is too much of a mess and I don’t know how to navigate it. Can you see anything else on your end, Plum?”

“I’m trying,” Plum said with closed eyes. “Something important happened to him recently, I can feel it. There are a lot of emotions tied up in his memories from around two weeks ago. He was in some kind of important meeting. It was a gathering of all the valley chieftains.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Tauri muttered. “What were they talking about?”

“I’m not sure… There’s something about the Cairn and… Marek?”

Stryg opened his eyes and looked at Plum, “What did you just say?”

“I’m trying to see. Brom was terrified. Something happened,” Plum said. The tendrils of purple magic flared. “I can see something but it's a blur. One sec, let me try to synchronize my mind with his.”

“Careful,” Stryg warned. “Mind linking can be very dangerous. Vayu once told me about the potential mind dissonance, if you make a single mistake you could—”

“It’s fine, I’ve practiced mind linking plenty of times,” Plum said reassuringly. “If we can find out about what the valley warlord is planning then we should try everything we can.”

“But—”

“She’s right, Stryg. Whatever information she can find could prove invaluable in the war,” Tauri said.

Stryg glanced at them both with uncertainty, but he held his tongue.

“I see something!” Plum squeezed her eyes closed tight, “Marek was there, they were accusing him of starting the war… We’re walking outside. Marek is showing us something. It’s some kind of creature. It’s asleep, but it's big, really big. Unildyr’s beast…? Wait, something’s wrong. No. N-No!”

Plum abruptly seized and fell back.

Stryg sprinted towards her and caught her in his embrace. She screamed hysterically and thrashed about. He held her in his arms and rocked her back and forth, careful to keep her from hurting herself.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” Stryg whispered. “They’re not your memories. They’re Brom’s. You’re safe. You're safe.”

Plum whimpered quietly and cried. “It killed them. It killed everyone. My friends… they’re all dead.”

“They weren’t your friends. They were Brom’s, remember?” Stryg said softly. “You’re Plumela, born in Undergrowth, raised in Hollow Shade. Your father’s name was Alin and your mother… her name was Byrel.”

“Byrel?” Plum whispered.

Stryg smiled sadly, “That’s right. She loved flowers and books. She used to read to you when you were a child. You ended up loving books so much that you became a librarian at Hollow Shade’s academy of magic.”

“I did…? I did,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, you did,” he grinned. “Your mom named you Plumela after her favorite flower. Do you remember why?”

She nodded slowly, “Because the plumela flowers grow even in the harshest of lands. Even when there is little water and soil… the plumela flower grows.”

Stryg swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, “Clypeus told me— A dear friend once told me, ‘The plumela’s beauty is a testament to its resiliency.’ That’s what you are, Plumela, resilient. Byrel knew that from the moment you were born—”

“—My mom… she’s dead isn’t she?” Plum whispered.

“...Yeah… she is. Your mom, she, uh, she loved you, Plumela. Byrel loved you very much.”

She looked into his eyes and saw the pain within them, “Wait. I know you… You’re… Stryg…?”

He smiled softly, “Hi, Plum.”