Now that the battle was over, an awkward silence fell over the street. Neither the dogs nor the people truly knew what was going on, the previous cooperation might have been more a case of ‘my enemies enemy is my friend’, or at least an ally with whom I can cooperate to defeat my enemy, but now, without that enemy? Nobody knew how to interact, nobody except maybe Silva.

She wasn’t just standing there, vigilant and half-expecting hostilities to break out any moment, she was moving between the dogs, snuffling some of them and exchanging low growls, chuffs and barks with others. What she had done earlier, or how she had done it, I wasn’t sure, but I could guess. I recognised the tell-tale glow of divine magic, so an investigation was warranted.

“Lia, come over here,” I ordered, wanting to have my second ally close by, just in case the situation changed. Lia obeyed, keeping her distance as she circled past the dogs and the dead hogs, some blood dripping off her hands as she went. She didn’t look seriously hurt, but without checking more closely, I couldn’t tell.

When she was with me, I closed my eyes, trusting her to at least give me a warning if trouble approached, and started sniffing the air. Even my tongue darted out, tasting the air to parse the scents more easily and separate the magical from the mundane.

The mundane was obvious, blood, gore and diverse bestial scents, those were easily recognisable, but the magical side was less clear. My Ice-Magic, obviously, lingered in the area and there was a secondary scent, filled with blood and darkness, that I presumed came from Lia using her abilities to their full extent. Given that she had said they used up Astral Power, magical traces were to be expected, almost as if she was using spells. In addition, there were some small amounts of darkness-magic lingering, not quite the same flavour as what I’d use but something different. Foul, unpleasant, I couldn’t completely understand it, I only knew that I wanted nothing to do with it unless I was in control. Not the revulsion I would feel from fire, but more an instinctual caution warning me off. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I was confident it wasn’t what Silva had conjured.

Sniffing the air, I finally parsed the traces of Silva’s magic, the faint scent of divinity lingering. Normally, recognising which deity the magic belonged to was difficult, I might be able to parse out what domains were involved but nailing down the patron was hard. Not so in this case, I recognised the magic, or at least I was pretty sure I did. I had never truly experienced it, I doubted many people had, but I could feel a resonance between the magic and my Blessing of the Moon, my mind’s eye conjuring an image of a statue I had created oh-so-long ago. Hecate, Goddess of Magic and so many other domains, Holder of the Key, Torchbearer, accompanied by her loyal dogs. Somehow, I didn’t think this was a coincidence.

Lastly, there was another trace of magic, that one completely alien to me. It smelled of dog, strongly so, but there were some primal undertones to it that made me think of Adra. It wasn’t the same, far from it, but there were subtle similarities. Shaking my head, I pushed the thought away, I was relatively sure it was some sort of primal magic of the dogs, maybe stemming from the strength of their pack, maybe from the land itself, something along those lines. Nothing I’d be able to understand or harness, so I didn’t keep bothering with it. It would only give me a headache, with little to show for.

“Silva, anything you want to tell me?” I asked, looking at the silly dog. She was still snuffling the other dogs, exchanging quiet snuffles and a few growls, making it sound like there was a quiet conversation going on. In addition, she had used her magic a few more times, nothing big but small spells to treat minor wounds and such. When I called out, she looked at me with her usual, canine grin, almost daring me to call her to task. In her eyes, she had done what was right and it was up to me to do something about it.

And doing something, I did. Letting out a soft growl, I stalked towards the dogs, taking notes of their injuries as I moved. There were too many injuries, and there was something clinging to them, a creeping, seeping darkness. Silva was already healing some of the wounds, but she wouldn’t manage alone. She was getting tired, and quickly so. And so I approached, not to attack but to heal. However, the difference didn’t seem to filter through to the dogs, making them think I was hostile and growl to threaten me.

“Silva, I will heal them. Have them stand down,” I commanded, staring the dogs down. Silva, in return, let out a soft, non-threatening growl and it seemed to work, the dogs dropped the threatening behaviour and I could start working.

Amusingly, Lia wasn’t as welcome. Or maybe she wasn’t willing to get too close, she had remained where I originally stood, warily watching Silva and me move amongst the dogs.

It was good training, healing the dogs. Not only did they have numerous small cuts and punctures from the racoon claws, but there were massive bruises under their fur, courtesy of the hogs impacting their line. Healing those was quite the challenge, as I had to carefully redistribute the blood that was pooling below the skin, reduce the swelling and try to remove the pain, all without overly stressing the patient.

But while I’d normally be able to heal the small cuts and punctures with simple Blood Runes, there was something clinging to them, seeping into the dogs’ bodies and afflicting them. I wasn’t sure if it was poison, disease or curse, or none of those, but I could feel that it was magical in nature and partially darkness-affiliated. Drawing it from the wounds was hard, requiring a combination of Blood and Darkness-Magic, alongside intense concentration. Not so much a task of power, but one of subtlety and precision. A headache, but one I could deal with before I could actually heal the wounds.

Lastly, there were the broken bones. Those, I just couldn’t heal at the moment, I simply lacked the runes for that. Or maybe I might have been able to, but to even try healing one bone, I would have had to use almost my entire Astral Power, and even then, it wouldn’t have been a sure thing. Thus, triage was the order of the night, making sure that the wounds we could treat efficiently were prioritised, especially the creeping affliction. I had no idea what it might do if left alone. It might trigger an actual infection, or corrupt their bodies. Long-lasting effects could cause tremendous damage, even with minimal power investment.

It took a while, but finally, there was nothing more I could do. Silva had done some work on the broken bones, and her divine magic was able to heal them more efficiently than I could, but at the end of the day, I was a much stronger spellcaster, and it showed.

However, my efforts were far from unrewarded, healing the dogs netted me a couple of skill increases. My Blood Magic, for once not used to rip the life from my foes, went up by three, reaching level seventeen, while my Blood Rune Mastery only went up by one, reaching level fourteen. My Darkness Magic, maybe due to the quite unusual way I had been wielding it, went up by two, reaching level fourteen.

Amusingly, that meant my Blood Magic had overtaken my Ice Magic, despite my continuous use of Ice Magic to strike my foes. Going by the sheer number of applications, my Ice Magic won out by a long shot, but I had used Blood Magic in multiple, somewhat opposing, ways, to heal, to sacrifice and even to create a new race. The versatility must have made the difference, while my Ice Magic was mostly used to control my Frozen Shuttle, hailstones or mist. Nothing innovative, at least nothing of importance. Maybe I should try to find something interesting there, in order to get my skill higher.

But before I could consider that, there were other things to deal with, namely my four-legged partner who apparently had somehow managed to become a cleric, or something like that, of Hecate. How, I had no idea and given that I had yet to learn the dog language, I doubted Silva would tell me.

Standing, I moved back to Lia, intent to deal with Silva once we were away from the other dogs, hopefully, she’d give some indication of what was going on. However, as I moved, Silva followed after me, and behind her, the rest of the dogs moved, keeping a close and rather disciplined formation.

“Have you recruited them?” I asked Silva, not really expecting an answer. To my surprise, she gave a happy bark that was mirrored by the dogs behind her, only softer. It sounded very much as if I had somehow acquired a pack of canine crusaders.

“Guess this is the new Army of Dog?” I quietly asked, laughing to myself. I could only shake my head in disbelief, as I started my way back to the shelter. Maybe it was all just a dream, and there wasn’t an army of dogs following behind Silva. Maybe I had hit my head somewhere and by the time dusk rolled around, all would be normal again.

Somehow, I didn’t believe my own escape from reality, but it was a nice illusion.