"What are you waiting for? Attack!" Tartarus admonished.
Faris has observed his friends defending themselves against the shadelings quite well, but his attention was mostly on the two shades, they continued flinging spells while slowly recovering, he would have approached but they were in high alert, one glancing his way or even a blade of grass shifted wrong. Luckily he hid his presence by spreading his consciousness, but even then he was preparing, slowly removing two ward piercing bullets, and placing their crystals on one arrowhead and on the tip of his blade. He finally answered Tartarus's frustrated screams with a question.
"Why do you care? Aren't they my friends?"
Tartarus was taken aback. "I! You! Shut up I'm simply worried you'll attack me out of spite if they're harmed."
"Not worried about them at all right?"
"Not at all! Anyways, they might really die so hurry up!"
Faris smiles for only a second before concentrating deeply as the shades began to walk towards his friends. He fired ten ward piercing bullets into the stronger one while their guard was at the lowest. Then stabbed the other in the chest. He felt it surge its mind towards his, its isparate insanity attempting to flood into him. He easily overtook it and entered its mind.
Yuwan was a simple farm boy, at the age of 17 it was discovered he had magical ability, while not too talented he was famous for being a minor healer, stitching up wounds and disinfecting the area with magic. Helping from simple common colds to keeping someone from bleeding internally with small healing here and there. He was taken by men and women claiming to be for the true liberation of Alagaesia, they beat him black and blue, tested the limits of his magic, and finally, forced him down on a stone slab, and began the ritual.
The shade's eyes began to flicker between red and brown, he tried swinging his fist down but seemed to stop himself.
Yuwan struggled for a while, but the spirits were too numerous, and Hezrou was born, Hezrou slaughtered at his master's beck and call, and was a truly miserable existence, the weakest of the group of shades sent out, desiring to destroy and endure.
"I can't end here! I can't!"
The shade redoubled its efforts, in its death throes it attempted to force its consciousness into Faris.
Faris for his part welcomed him with open arms, which surprised the shade.
"Wh-What?!"
Faris smiled underneath his helmet. "I've been through as much, if not worse, pain, what's a little more in exchange for letting you be remembered. Your lasting "immortality". I, unfortunately, love my friends and don't want them, or I, to die, so this is the best I can do."
The shade was silent, then began chanting in the ancient language. Faris began to panic, after being stabbed in the heart a shade should die almost immediately, but this one was struggling on.
"The spirits and the host are well bonded, meaning they eventually embraced each other, though I don't think they're attacking you Faris." Tartarus murmured in wonder. "He's not attacking you… he's…"
"Giving me strength…" Faris finished, as the shades life expired he finished his spell. The first thing Faris felt was great pain as a fiery feeling spread through his limbs as if magma was injected into his veins. He would have fallen, crippled if not for his discipline, and the fact the second shade was beginning to chant words in the ancient language, words to destroy the entire area, with little hesitation he fired his arrow into the second shade's heart. He turned to see his friends, without the pressure of the shade's they could fight a bit better, but mental fatigue had finally reared its ugly head. Faris charged forward to aid them.
The battle ended then and there, the shadelings, already on the losing end, were now unable to cast spells thanks to Faris's incredible mental strength overwhelming their own. Within the next ten minutes the shadelings were finally dispatched, and Venka and the rest collapsed, exhausted.
The villagers were shocked.
"No way!"
"They defeated the shades?! But they're just kids!"
"Maybe it's all a trick…"
"You saw how those shades destroyed our village!"
The people spoke to each other, loudly, eventually, a woman walked up to the group.
"I thank you, on behalf of Rain village. I am Alda."
Morgan stood up, and nodded. "It was our duty madam." He turned to the others, who nodded in affirmation. "Now, are there any other villagers?"
The woman nodded sadly, "yes, yes there are, the man with a skull mask took them to the village head's cellar, where he locked them up, are most able bodied men and women. Please! You have to-"
She was cut off as a villager yelled out in delight. Everyone turned to see more villagers, many of them sick, others starved, but all alive as they made their way towards the other waiting villagers, family, friends, and lovers reunited. The woman smiled, but her smile faltered as she looked around. "I'm so sorry…" she began, "you've already done so much, but… my daughter, do you know what happened to her?"
Morgan's smile faltered… "I'm sorry, if she's not amongst the children and other villagers…"
"I know where she is." They all turned to look at the mysterious knight. "I rescued her, and got the gist of what was happening, so I came to help."
The woman looks joyful, then hesitatingly asks, "is she…?"
"She's mostly fine, a few bruises, a little scared, I left her my food and water and a campfire to ward off wild animals, and she's with my horse, who'll run with her in the first sign of danger." He turns to leave, "if you want, come with me."
"Hey!" Nya approached, "you, thank you for your help, are you a member of the knight brigade?"
Faris nodded, helmet still on, and turned, "If you have any more questions let's walk and talk, we need to get to the girl before sun down." They began to proceed through the forest, coming across a clearing and Samara, sitting cross legged in the lap of a bear of a man. Venka and the others looked on in horror, the man's red hair and deep crimson eyes gleamed in the evening light. Faris ignored their panic and walked towards the shade, who looked up and smiled as he felt Faris's mind approach his, after a short exchange of thoughts the shade stood up and patted Samara on the top of the head before turning to leave.
Morgan had to stop Katya from firing off her bow. The others were simply surprised, looking at the knight with a mix of fear and suspicion, but also in wonder.
"Do you… know that shade?"
Faris shrugged. "Maybe." He turned to approach Tamara, who had been healed by Tartarus. Before he could get on Nya grabbed his shoulder.
"We aren't done with our questions yet yo-" Faris was about to answer, but he noticed her hand on her dagger, he narrowed his eyes and his temper flared up.
"The masked bastard is chained up in the basement cellar, these villagers need to be fed, I've left all my food and water, a week's worth, for them, that should last them at least a single meal, afterwards they need to rebuild, and you'll probably have to wait for reinforcements to protect the village and arrest the masked bastard." Faris turned to look at Nya, who backed away in surprise. "I have a mission further north that I need to get back to, all I have left is feed for my horse, so I'll have to hunt and forage on my way. I don't mind that inconvenience all too much, but I can't keep dallying. Please stop wasting my time." Before Nya could sputter a reply Faris jumped on Tamara's saddle and she began to gallop into the forest.
"Why… you…" Nya's face grew red in indignation.
"Just give it up, he helped us, and that monster didn't attack the girl." Katya sighed, "Maybe they had a falling out."
"Or maybe the shade turned good." Seya joked, causing them to all laugh, except for Venka and Bartholomew.
"Well…" Bartholomew clapped to get everyone's attention, "I for one am starved, we should get some food, and take advantage of that errant knight's kindness." He began collecting the crystals that were still intact, and had the string golem collect the bags and carry it beside villagers looked at each other, and simply followed behind…
"That went poorly." Tartarus tentatively began.
"I'm not in the mood."
"You never are, what's with you?! Logically they should be scared. You can't expect them to remember Atlas, and besides, they never trusted him, it was a-"
"She was ready to cut me down should the need arise Tartarus." Faris sounded tired as he continued. "I'm conflicted, proud she and the rest have the ability to make such a split decision, but…" He thought to the look of pity and fear they gave him when he collapsed on the floor, and a wave of pain washed through him. "I'm not meeting them again until I regain magical ability."
"...there's someone with Tartarus"
"I know." Tamara trotted forward, looking at Tartarus, and the female shade struggling against her green chains.
"Marigold, right?"
…
"The village fence is almost repaired." Bartholomew said, munching on some roasted chicken, the villagers insisted on making a feast on their behalf, and they had no reason to refuse, after burying their dead they had set to work repairing the walls with the aid of Bartholomew's golems, healing and bandaging their injured and sick with Katya and Venka, and hunting with Morgan and Seya, now it was nearly feast time and everyone could finally rest.
"That's good." Morgan turned to look at the messenger hawk resting on the pedestal. "We just got the letter back."
"What's it say?" Venka asked.
Morgan barely hid his distaste. "We are not to engage with the enemy. Retreat and await further orders. Use of magic on hold." Everyone sat in shock.
"He does realize we were literally fighting shades, is he." Venka began to clench her fist. "I want to beat him up, alot right now."
"So what happens? We pretty much already dealt with them, the guy's raving down there in the cellar. The village is maybe 80 percent restored. I broke the rules expecting to receive approval, so I'm doubly screwed." Bartholomew chuckled.
"I say we ignore his bull." Nya began, "He's gonna send one of those stuffy teachers he hired that hate us. Then he's going to make it unfair to do anything. Lets just leave before he gets there, say that we were back on the road."
"And leave that skull maniac in the village? That's dangerous. We have to stay here, even if we don't want to."
"I could just kill him." Seya suggested, causing an awkward silence.
"We need to interrogate him. Find out how he controlled those shades, and what his staff does." Morgan sighed, "at least the feast will be nice."
Faris looked at the angry screaming shade, then turned to Tartarus. He shrugged.
"They turned her, but she proved way too uncontrollable. So they chained her like they did me and left her to starve, I freed her. And this was my thanks." He pointed to his bleeding chest.
"How many spirits?" Faris asked as he approached the woman.
"39, she's actually a good bit stronger than me when I first turned." Tartarus chuckled, "But I'm a decade her senior, so our strength is around the same level."
"Meat bag! Arrg! Release me this instant!" The shade struggled against its bonds, then turned to see Faris. "You! Boy! Help me or I'll kill you!"
Faris frowned, Marigold was a triple, one of the mages considered skilled enough to replace council of thirteen members, she would replace Sona, Katya's mom should the need arise, news of her turn would be… bad."
"What do we do?"
Faris thought to the shade, Hezrou, and the human Yuwan who had been before, he could try and suppress the spirits while bolstering the woman's, her manic behavior was a sign of the internal struggle that raged on between the spirits vying for dominance. He closed his eyes and reached into her mind. The spirits raged within and attacked him, but he brushed them aside with ease, they weren't focused. Slowly, but surely, he began to beat into their minds, placing all his pent up rage and frustration into it, grinding down their defenses, shattering their core and hammering down the remains, eventually the discordant cacophony ended with only one spirit still relatively active.
Faris approached the spirit, his mind calling out, "you, name"
The spirit, representing itself as an orb, attempted to change color, becoming prismatic and attempting to exude feelings of pure joy and happiness at being. Faris ignored those defenses and pushed back the spirit.
"Don't try to play that, give me a name, names are normally determined at birth right?"
"V-vanda…"
"Okay, good, we are getting somewhere." Faris continued.
"Now, Vanda, I need you to lead me to the human woman's consciousness, we'll be returning it to the forefront, in exchange, I'll let you remain alive, and if you wish to, you can fully merge with your brethren, as long as you don't harm the woman or go against her wishes, is that fair?"
After gaining the spirit's excited confirmation he followed it until he found an invisible wall within Marigold's mind space, he ventured in.
A little girl with bright golden locks and calm blue eyes played with a set of dolls, as she ran around she tripped, scraping her knee. As she lay there crying, a young woman ran up to her, consoling her.
"Oh! Young lady Marigold, got a booboo I see?"
"It hurts Luna!" The little girl cried.
"It's alright, I'll cast a spell to make it all better…" The woman extends her hands and begins muttering nonsense words. Nothing happens to the wound, but her silly display caused the little girl to giggle.
"Does it feel better?"
The little girl nodded, smiling, "Thanks big sis!"
Faris looked turned, a little embarrassed that he viewed such a personal memory.
"Why are you embarrassed?" Tartarus admonished, within the realm of the mind he resembled Faris except with red hair and eyes, though much smaller, and younger, the age Faris first killed someone.
"I'm affected by whatever emotions are felt in the memory, she feels warmth, happiness, and newly feels embarrassment for this memory, it's what inspired her to be a Protector of Life guild member, and is what spurred her on to reach the rank of a Triple." Faris observes the location, they are in a courtyard, leading up to a large manor. Faris enters the doors, and steps out to a battle field, he sees walls breaking down, soldiers in rag tag bits of armor and disparate clothing allied with dwarves, elves, urgals, and werecats flooding the streets.
"She was a mage of the empire?" Tartarus exclaimed.
"I wouldn't surprised, most of them have to be." Faris continued, there aren't enough mages to Du Vrangr Gata to explain this huge amount of skilled persons, and there seems to be tension between them and those members. Besides, the school is too established to only be 15 years old, its likely older, but only recently became mainstream in the last decade after the war." Faris thinks. "Though, she's too young to be such a thing, she was likely a student of the academy."
Faris continues, unperturbed through the battlefield, until he reaches a hidey hole on the side if a tavern. He opens it to see a little girl, huddling in a corner, in the center of the room, a woman, Luna, sword in her back. An empire soldier, drunk and standing over the dead woman, he turns to Marigold, anger in his eyes as he approaches menacingly, only to be cut down by an elf. The elf looks down at the weeping girl, and wipes away one tear, before turning and speaking some blessing unto her.
"I see why she isn't ene-"
"Can you not read the goddamn mood Tartarus?" Faris admonished. He waited for the elf to walk past him, and watched as the room grew dark until only Marigold and Luna's corpse were illuminated. He walked towards them. Marigold looked up, gasping.
"The shade-child!"
"Well, that's a shitty way to greet someone trying to rescue you."
"Trying to…"
Faris flinched as he felt a flash of pain, hurt and regret as soldiers and mages he fought with who counted on him to protect them, died, if only she tried harder! She shouldn't have attacked the masked man! She should h-
"Stop!" Faris yelled, quieting the pain, he looked down on Marigold, who teared up.
"My soldiers, they…"
"Were sacrificed."
"It's all my fault."
"Yes, yes it is." Tartarus interrupted.
Marigold flinched as she saw the shade besides Faris. "You!"
"Yeah yeah, all evil, but yes, it's your fault they couldn't be saved, and you got turned into a shade, and this asshole saved your life."
Marigold looked down. "Then shouldn't a waste of space like me just die?!"
"If you're a waste of space I'm literally useless." Faris chuckled, "think of this as a new lease on life. Let me ask you, did they have friends and families?" After a few moments she barely nodded. "They did? That means someone needs to let them know they didn't die in vain, they protected you, seeing as you are alive, that should satisfy them."
"And how do you know!"
Faris simply closed his eyes. Marigold widened hers as materializing from thin air were her troops. The first and foremost, a red headed man with short hair already graying despite his young appearance.
"James…?" She reached out to touch the apparition of her love.
-She must survive
She flinched, backing away. "What the hell was that?!"
"I could only truly preserve their last thoughts…"
She hesitantly reached out again.
-I wish we had been able to have children, but we hadn't the time. Even then, I was happy, I don't care what you bastards do to me, but I'll come after you if she's harmed!"
Wet tears began to plop down Marigold's face. She reached out to the next soldier, Bean, the father figure of the group, and the one she got along with least.
-She's still a brat, they all are, but I'm not worth my salt if they go out first, not like this. Even if Angvard takes me, let them survive, at least her, she's too kind for this kind of thing…
She went through each and every soldier.
-Well at least I go out a hero, if she cries for me I won, haha!
-I don't want to die, but I don't want her to die before me, she's not old enough yet. Dammit I should have been stronger...
-I don't want her to cry, we have to win! We got to win! At least buy five minutes for her!
-This is my family now, I live and die with them, and the ones that survive better bury me or I'll be pissed
As each message wrung through her mind she began to cry, wailing in despair and sadness, but there was a bit of relief in that despair. Faris could understand it.
"It hurts not knowing if someone resents you for their lot in life, right?" Faris continued, "They wanted you to live, so you damn better live, I give zero shits on how much it hurts, how tired you are, or how sorry you feel, you better fucking live."
"But why do you care?!" Marigold screamed, the bodies of her fallen friends and troop members materialized behind her, ghastly versions of themselves, faces contorted in pain and anguish, all pointing accusingly towards her. Marigold continued, screaming, "Where were you when they were attacked, huh?! Were-"
Faris shut her up as his shirt melted away, revealing the terrible scars that littered his body. His hands, dripping in blood, gripped bloody swords as he stood over a pile of bones, burning in a pyre and reaching for him, gripping his body in a tight embrace. Behind him were the burned corpses of Venka's parents, Venka's shattered screams echoing into the void, and the dead bodies of all the children he discovered that awful day. "Fighting my own battles, so you fight yours."
"..."
"...Okay"
With the sound of glass shattering the shade collapsed. Faris stumbled, a bit unsteady on his feet. Atlas kept him from collapsing, he looked up, grateful.
"Remove the chains."
Atlas obliged, removing the green chains, as he did, the shade opened her eyes, and Faris held his breath as those glowing red eyes peered at him from Marigold's face. After what felt like hours she finally spoke.
"I'm… back?"