"So still nothing eh?" Mira faintly heard someone speaking, the voice only vaguely familiar. She wanted to try and place how the voice was familiar but a thick haze had blocked the majority of her mental faculties.
Wait… wasn't there something I was doing? She struggled to think through the fog in her brain, letting out a groan as she forced her eyes open. The light in whatever room she was in was impossibly bright, painfully so in fact. She tried to shield her eyes with a hand, but it was painful to even move.
"Oh, Mira! You're awake!" this time, the voice was clearer to her, and definitely familiar. She forced herself to sit up, blinking several times as her muscles burned and fought the motion. Once her eyes cleared a little, she was able to take in her surroundings. She looked to be in a tavern, laying on the back counter. All around her were dozens of people, almost all of them on tables and in similar incapacitated states. Beside her was one of the strange furless humans from across the ocean, as well as an Orange vulpine, and scantily clad lynx variety of feline. Upon seeing them, the fog filling her memory lifted, remembering their names, and more importantly, what she was even doing here.
"Yeah… I feel like a dung pile though… how long was I out?"
"A few hours." The human, Will, spoke with a grimace.
"Yeah, everyone just started collapsing. I nearly did myself. Have a splitting headache. Miyu got a welt when her head hit a table on the way down."
"oh shove it Fox, I'm fine!" she was holding a bundle of dripping cloth to the side of her head, her ears pressed up against her skull.
"I'm the only one seemingly unaffected. It's…. well, strange for lack of another descriptor." Will again. The others were speaking so rapidly one after the other that her still muddled brain was having a little trouble keeping up. "You were saying you had figured out what was going on?"
Now that he mentioned it, she remembered what she was about to tell him right before she collapsed. Heck, he, being a human, being unaffected simply reinforced her hypothesis. "I think I do. These people are suffering from severe magic deprivation. I don't know how, or why, but it seems to be effecting everyone in the town."
"Huh… that does kinda make sense. It would explain why Will is fine too. He's human, they don't have nor can manipulate magic. But how? I doubt many of these people even know magic?" Fox crossed his arms before dropping his chin into one of his hands, his ears twitching in concentration.
"I have a thought, I'm going to go ask a few questions, be right back." Will immediately walked away from them, headed for one of the villagers that was still conscious.
"Gee, I wonder what mister idiot thinks he can figure out on his own. Probably nothing…"
"Miyu!"
"What!? He was dumb enough to give all of his money to a fucking mutt." Mira's heart lurched a little at Miyu's comment, realizing her hood had fallen down. She quickly pulled it back, burying herself within it's depths once more.
"Would you stop it with the mutt crap Miyu? What's you're problem with them anyway?" Fox snapped back at Miyu, glaring at his younger companion.
"Why don't you have a problem with em? They shouldn't even exist. Friggan gross if you ask me."
"Don't tell me you're some kind of racial purest now?"
"And you aren't? like come on, we all should be! Mutts shouldn't even exist!"
Mira let out a quiet sigh as she gingerly slipped off the counter, having heard the same thing a thousand times in the past.
"They are still people Miyu. They didn't choose their parentage! And besides that, so what!? If two people love one another, who gives a rats ass if they are the same race or not!?" Fox's voice was starting to raise, his words startling her a little. Though she had heard the 'children don't choose their parents' line a couple of times before from other kinder folk, but they always still displayed disgust with interracial couples. But Fox here had straight up spoken in support of them, which was a first to her.
"Tch, whatever." Miyu rolled her eyes, leaning back against the counter as she dropped the cloth from her head.
"It's someone casting some sort of spell." Will's voice interrupted the conversation, the human striding back to them with one hand on his blade.
"Uh what? The hell would you know, you can't even wield magic ya idiot?!"
"Every person I talked to said the symptoms get worse in waves, twice a day. Entire family gets effected at once. My guess, is someone is casting some sort of spell that's been draining their magic, twice a day. For what purpose, or from where, I have no idea."
"If that's true then… I might be able to find the source." Mira kept her voice quiet, unsure of herself even as she said it. She knew several ways to detect magic spells, but she wasn't really sure how well they would work in finding a spell that drained magic.
"What would you need to do it Mira?" Fox's eyes seemed to bore clean through the shadow of her hood, making her want to shrivel up right there.
"high ground and for the spell to be cast. I don't know if any of the spells I know can detect a spell like this though. I've never heard of anyone using a magic draining spell before."
"Alright, we'll go camp up in the guards watch tower until the next pulse. When do they occur Will?"
"Once before noon, once just before sunset, almost like clockwork."
"Alright, that's the plan. Mira, conserve your magic until tonight, everyone, do what you can for the people, I'm going to go make sure we can get into the tower. Reconvene around say…" he pulled out a small mechanical timepiece, an incredibly rare and expensive item. "four thirty this afternoon. That should give us about two hours before sun set."
"Will do Fox, let's go Mira." Will nodded to Mira, gaining her attention. She took a deep breath, just hoping she could really help, before nodding to him and following him toward the rest of the room.
Fox took a deep breath as he scanned the tree line over two miles away, looking for any sign of movement. Will and Miyu were already doing the same in other directions, Mira in the center of the tower. He spared a glance from his scanning for her, immediately finding himself mesmerized. In the air around her were nearly three dozen different runes of various colors and complexities, and she was still making more of them, one with each hand. She was incredibly fast and efficient about it, her eyes closed as she was quietly muttering to herself. He himself barely knew more than three spells, and two of the spells were fire spells, the last used heat to cauterize wounds. And even then, the spells he knew only had a couple of runes to them. Each of her spell circles had in the dozens of different runes, many of which had never even seen before.
She might be poor as hell, but she has a lot of talent and knowledge! Hell, at this rate, I might ask her to join the Flying Foxes… as he had that thought, her hands came to a stop, completing the two circles she had been making.
"There, that's every detection spell I know. Hopefully one of them works…" she was as quiet as always, her shoulders drooping as she touched each circle with a finger, the circles all lighting up as their spells started.
"One of them is bound to. If Will's hunch is correct, their magic will be traceable. And frankly, he knows as much about magic as I do"
"Yeah, too bad I can't actually use it, eh Fox?"
"Yeaaaah no. You are already deadly enough with that blade of yours. We don't need you throwing fire balls around like candy too!"
"Awl, is poor wittle Foxy worried that the wee little human is better than him?" Miyu's tail flicked, her eyes still scanning the treeline.
"Ha ha ha, funny, coming from the most mediocre spear wielder I've ever met." Will was leaning against the railing, facing Mira and Fox with his arms crossed.
"Oh, you know you're jealous of my skills!"
"Hmph, as if, how old are you again, two?"
"I told you, I'm fourteen!" she snapped that out, finally turning around to face the rest of them.
"Oooooohhhh so that's your age! I guess I forgot it with the sixty or so times you've said it since you joined us!" Will snarked right back at her, a smirk on his face.
"So Mira, how will we know one of your spells worked?" Fox hoped his sudden change in topic would stop the small argument starting between his subordinates.
"Well, it depends on which spell triggers. No matter what, I'll know." Mira shrugged, the movement muffled by her coat.
"Joy, we gotta rely on the mutt. You sure she isn't just pulling our legs and wasting our time?"
"Miyu…"
"What!? Just sayin…"
"I… I wo-ouldn't do that!" Fox startled slightly, having not expected Mira to snap back at Miyu. She had shown no attempts to defend herself as of yet.
"Uh guys…?" Will's voice stopped their conversation, Fox looking at him only to realize the light of Mira's spell circles was being pulled away from the circles, for lack of a better descriptor. The various lights were congealing together as they left the tower, snaking out toward the wood line.
"I… have never seen anything like that before…" Mira's voice had fallen back below her norm, Fox echoing her sentiment.
"Ten gold says the perpetrators are over there somewhere?"
"Yeah, not even a mutt would take that bet." Miyu, popped off the railing walking over to the trap door back into the guard house and popping it open. "Well, shall we?"
"After you Miyu." Will gestured for her to go down, the girl rolling her eyes before literally dropping down the hole.
"Mira, stay here, just focus on recovering you magic and helping the townsfolk. We'll go figure out what's going on." She nodded in response to Fox, Fox waiting for Will to be far enough down the ladder for Fox to fit before he started climbing down after him.
I kept my sword and shield at the ready as I walked toward the tree line, my eyes slowly sweeping back and forth for any sign of movement. The lack of a solid plan was really bugging me, as we still had no idea why exactly anyone would be stealing magic from folk who couldn't use it. Whatever purpose they had for it would likely be devastating and terrifying, and could have an infinite number of uses.
As I moved, I made a quick glance to the left and right, locking eyes with Fox and Miyu, about ten feet to my right and left respectfully. Their hasty and loose formation meant it would be easy to speak to one another, should the need arise, but they covered a little more ground in hopes of finding the spellcasters location easier. The light from Mira's spells was long gone now, so it meant remembering what section of tree line it had disappeared to and walking that way.
I took a deep breath as my heart rate steadily increased, finally crossing out of the farm fields and into the trees. After passing the first layer or so, I started to discern a faint red glow, glancing between the others once more. With a small nod, the three of us began to pick up our pace, aiming for the light. The closer we got, the more the light permeated the area, voices starting to pierce the quiet of the woods.
"Just like this morning, nearly three times as much mana! If this keeps up, we'll fill these war gems right quick!" the voices weren't speaking in Cornerian, the language sending a small chill down my spine. They were speaking in Venomian. It was an incredibly rare and distinct language, not many on the continent of Lylat speaking it. Most of those people were across the Titanian Desert, far to the east, in the Venom Empire. It had once crossed the deserts and assaulted all of the known kingdoms at once, nearly bringing them all to their knees until Fox's father used his mercenary company to destroy Venom's supply lines, forcing the armies to retreat back across the desert. In the decades following, the various kingdoms had been growing increasingly wary of a second assault by venom, and all had been beefing up their military prowess in case of it occurring. They even had a series of treaties signed between the kingdoms for mutual support, reaching out to Sol to try and achieve similar treaties with the human nations and kingdoms. That had been the reason for Will's father to come to Lylat, bringing Will with him.
"Once we got that, none of the lousy guards around here will be able to stop us! We'll be the best bandits in kingdom, and be filthy rich!" the excitement in the second voice made me uneasy, as it meant what ever these 'war gems' were, they were seen as powerful to these venom speakers.
Before someone could say more, the light suddenly cut, Bringing me to a stop. A moment later, several whispers reached my ears, too indistinct to understand. The loss of the light and the whispers meant we had been spotted, so I took off at a sprint through the trees.
Only a couple dozen yards from where I started my sprint, I came out into a small clearing, to the startled reactions of seven people. Four of the group wore blood red plated armor, the last three all in black robes with red accents. If that wasn't a calling card enough, the three in robes were all primates, with three of the others being lizards, the last of them being a wolf. Each had the stylized monkey in faded white paint on their chests, marking them as Venomian soldiers. But, their gear was ragged, the biggest of the lizards missing much of his armor past his vambraces, grieves, and breast plate. So while I could easily say they were once affiliated with venom, the condition of the gear stated they were no longer soldiers of venom.
"Will, take the big guy, I got the two on the left, Miyu, try to get those mages!" Fox shouted from off on my left, having entered the clearing with me. Without hesitating, I rushed at the lizard, hoping to catch him before he drew his great sword. My angled slash for his exposed throat clanged on the steel of his long slender blade, the lizard grinning.
"Never fought a hu-" He didn't get to finish as I slammed my shield into him, even his bulk staggered by the heafty blow, just before thrusting my blade into his throat. His blood ran down the fuller as his voice gurgled, his weapon forgotten as he tried to weakly pull the razor sharp blade from his throat to no avail. Once he began to fall, I ripped the blade free, giving the blade a single rapid spin to send the blood arcing from it before aiming for the three mages.
To my left, Fox had wreathed his blade in brilliant red flames, the heat allowing him to carve clean through the wolf's war axe and his shield, cleaving him in half in a single swing, followed by a fire ball to engulf the small lizard he was facing. The lizard wasn't immediately burnt to a crisp, a massive frill exploding from his neck as he screamed in agony and rage at Fox, only for a second fireball to fly straight into his mouth and eviscerate his head and neck.
On my right, Miyu had come sliding to a stop from her sprint, much closer than she should've been for normal spear combat. Her slide had ducked right under the horizontal swing of her lizard, transferring into a spinning motion to slam her calf into the back of the lizards knee. She then used the lizard to spin herself back around, slamming the haft of her spear into the lizards chest to floor him, just before artfully spinning the spear and impaling the lizard through the throat. The moment she had, she had outstretched a hand, a blue rune forming just before a bolt of lightning cracked between her and the closest mage. Only for the bolt to flash harmlessly against a red dome formed around the trio.
"Damn, I was hoping to get them faster than that…" Fox groaned as he prepped a fireball, clearly aiming to beat the barrier away.
The three mages were all intensely focused above them, prompting me to look up. Above us, high in sky, was a massive red magic circle, formed with half a dozen runes and stretching dozens of feet. "Uh Fox! I think we need to run!" I shouted that to him as the circle disappeared, replaced with a massive molten rock, just starting to fall toward them.
Fuck, too late! We're all dead! I couldn't help that thought, feeling something brush into me.
Mira, who I had thought was left in the village, had run a few feet past me, holding a hand into the air as she shouted. "Get to me!" above her hand, was a blue rune circle, filling the whole clearing with it's brilliant light. Without hesitation, all three of us ran to her, just before a brilliant blue diamond formed around Mira and the rune, covering all four of us just before the molten rock slammed down. The diamond flickered and cracked from the immense impact, my eyes wide as I watched and waited for the spell to fail. But as quickly as it all happened, it was over, the air around the diamond filled with dust and smoke.
The barrier flickered several times before it fell, Mira collapsing between them. With it gone, the hot smoke and ash rushed among us, sending all of us into coughing fits as it was slowly blown away on the wind. In its wake, was a scene from a nightmare. For at least a hundred yards in each direction, the forest was straight gone, replaced by a several foot deep crater of fused rock. Where the three mages had been was nothing but a small mound, slightly less charred than the rest of the crater. Enough of their charred skeletons remained to show they hadn't survived their own devastating spell.
I rushed over to Mira's side, casting my blade aside as I checked her for a pulse, breathing a small sigh of relief.
"She alive Will?" Fox was quiet, his voice a little raspy and raw, though that was likely from their short stint of breathing ash and smoke.
"Yeah…" My own voice was no better.
"Good… I thought we told her to stay in the town?"
"Well… I don't know about you… but I'm glad she didn't… I can't believe a mutt created a barrier strong enough to withstand… this!" Miyu gestured at the area around them in shock, Fox and I merely nodding in agreement.
"Well, lets get back to the village, make sure it's alright… and hopefully, they won't be dealing with this sickness anymore." I scooped Mira up as I spoke, looking back toward the village, able to see it clearly with the trees gone and with the days' small amount of fading light.
"Yeah… lets…"
Mira let out a groan, one of her hands immediately going to her forehead. Her head felt like someone had tried to split it with an axe, not even particularly sure why.
"Hey, looks like she's waking up, finally." She could register that the voice speaking was vaguely familiar to her, but she had no clue whom. Given the splitting pain just the light leaking through her eyelids was giving her, she wasn't opening her eyes.
"Oooooooow, someone turn out the lights, please…" she grumbled that, covering her eyes with her hands.
"Well, you heard the lady! Draw the curtains closed, please!" That voice was much older than the previous, and just as vaguely familiar. A moment later, the light still sneaking past her fingers was snuffed out, a good portion of the pain disappearing with it.
"What happened?" it was the only thing she could think to say, as she was drawing up blanks. She forced herself to sit up as she opened her eyes, a small group around her including a human, a vulpine, a feline, and a floppy skinned canine. It took her moment, but some of her memories about the village and the strange virus came back to her, as well as who these people were.
"Well, simply put, you saved everyones asses. And it was awesome. Even our resident stuck up complimented ya!" Will was beaming at her, his arms crossed.
"Did not!"
"We all heard it Miyu…" Fox shook his head, a smirk on his face. "Really though, you saved our tails back there! Thank you."
"Oh… um… your welcome?" she couldn't recall what she could have possibly done to save their lives, nor did she want to try and think of it right now. Thinking hurt. "Is the town alright?"
"People are still coming too, but it seems the worst has passed, thanks to your efforts. Would you like anything?" the village leader smiled to her, his hands clasped at his waist.
"Um, some water would be nice?"
"At once miss Marshall." He slipped out the door to the room, closing the door behind him.
"So Mira, what are you planning on doing once you get back on your feet?" Fox nervously scratched the back of his head as he spoke, a slight smirk on his muzzle.
"Oh… um… just go back home and keep working as a healer with mother. Why?"
"Well, Will and I were thinking… if you wanted to, you can tag along with us? I promise, you would get an equal cut from jobs!" Fox beamed at her, Will nodding with him.
She couldn't stop the smile that spread across her muzzle, her chest suddenly feeling like it was burning on her. "I'm flattered but… no. I'm happy with the work mother and I do, and out here, it's a necessity. Thank you though, I do appreciate the offer!" Besides, I'd weigh them down anyway… I already did on the way here…
"Oh… alright. Well, if we ever run into you again, feel free to call on us! We'll be glad to help you anytime!"
"Hmph, speak for yourself there Fox. Good riddance I say!" Miyu strutted out of the room before anyone could respond to her, gone in a flash.
"Jeez, why does she have to be so rude sometimes?"
"She's a kid Will, let it slide."
"Hmph, kid my ass, she's probably killed as many folk as I have!"
"Wiiiiill…"
"What!? It's true!"
Mira let out a small chuckle as she watched them, their banter reminding them of just a couple of days prior, when they were bantering much the same way as they were now.
"Anywa, really, thank you Mira. We wouldn't be alive right now if you weren't here. Nor would the town for that matter. So I can't stress this enough, thank you Mira. Get some rest okay?" Will's steel eyes never left her, a soft smile on his face.
"Alright. And of course." She beamed right back at him, unable to help herself. As much as she couldn't recall how she could have saved them, it made her feel good knowing she had paid him back for saving her life earlier.
With the conversation over, Fox and Will both left the room, leaving Mira alone on the bed, her memory slowing fading back into her mind as she got comfortable once more.