Callan gave the sprawled rebel a sideways glance. Hiding his grin he turned to Yana. "So, we're here on behalf of the Scarlet Heart."
"Yes yes, the domestic terrorists, I'm well versed in your activities." She frowns, "we asked for full fledged mages, you kids don-"
"Aren't you like, seventeen?" Callan interrupted, "And from what I can tell, the majority of your 'mages' don't have formal training or decent discipline. Give us three days and they'll be whipped to shape. Besides, we're here to give some of the weapons you were waiting on."
Yana is about to give a retort but hears someone walking behind her. She smiles and runs to the young man in his mid twenties, embracing him. Callan's expression remains in his faint half smile. The man Yana embraced was tall. He had ear length brown hair, deep brown eyes, and a handsome face that wore an elegant clean-shaven smile. He wore a tan tunic and light brown breeches. He lifted up Yana, smiling wider as she giggled, putting her down after a few more intimate seconds he turned to Nytheria.
"I am Thane, son of Horace the Iron Fence." He smirked as he looked at the group of young teens, eyes barely passing over Callan. Thane walked towards them.
"Hello I-" Callan stopped as Thane walked past him to Nytheria.
"You must be the representative of the Golden Horde, what they call, Dwervakyn?" His bright confident smile was faced with Nytheria's passive, unimpressed smile. Eventually Callan walked towards Thane.
"Yeah… hey, I'm the liason, she's simply the attractive muscle."
Thane turned to him, smile faltering a bit. "I see, well you heard my introduction. So." He folded his arms, "Do you have the equipment?"
Callan smiled widely, "Of course, unless you think I'm somehow incapable." He takes out a satchel, inside the satchel was a somewhat thin but wide box, opening the box revealed 2 dozen green glowing knives, and a green glowing rapier. "Soul Steel weapons. Two dozen of them, and a specialized one for one of your stronger members. Do you have what we asked for?"
Thane smiled, "Of course." He turned, "follow me," and began to lead the group through the camp. Callan observed people's looks with amusement. The men and women in the camp looked at Thane with mixes of longing, awe, admiration, and fear. Callan's eyes turned to track Thane again, then to Yana who hung by his side, the affection apparent of her face. He stifled a chuckle as his eyes turned to track the sword at Thane's hips. From the short bit of mind reading he indulged himself in, Thane's abilities and the war effort on the rebellion side had been improved when he started using that golden sword. That was when the Golden Horde and Scarlett Heart got involved, they'd send supplies and weapons to help them in their war, if only to help spread chaos. At least, that was the original plan. Callan smirked as he looked at groups of men, women and even young children practicing lifting and tossing stones, shaping blobs of water, and burning piles of hay with magic. There were hundreds of them in this camp alone, all of them laughably weak both in capacity and skill, but this was still a nearly perfect example of quantity overcoming quality.
Callan thought to himself. They followed Thane into a large tent, inside were half a dozen men writhing in pain, veins and arteries glowing a deep blue through their skin. One cried out in pain, only to be silent, collapsing suddenly in a drooling fit.
"Idiot…" A voice murmured, "You can't just undergo a second ritual and expect it to be alright." They turned to see a young woman, maybe in her mid twenties, she had curly blond hair and crystal blue eyes that were highlighted by her heavy eyeshadow. She was voluptuous and beautiful in a different but almost equal way to the captivating elegance of elves. Callan felt hot and uncomfortable and reactively gripped the exposed part of his green staff, immediately calming himself. The woman looked to the group, her eyes flitting past each one until they rested on Thane, upon doing so her smile widened. "Thane! Darling, I'm glad you've come to visit, changed your mind on that potion of mine? I promise it's efficacy is… stimulatingly delightful."
Thane shook his head. "Sorry Rebecca," at the moment we need to concentrate on the war effort. He turns to look at the drooling man. "Is he…?"
"Dead? No, he'll rouse in a day, the fool threatened me to give him another dosage of the 'treatment', he was upset a subordinate had a greater magical talent and wanted to one-up him, I warned him that it gets more and more difficult the more one delves into the ability, but he didn't listen." She turns to the other convulsing patients, "As for these ones? It's their first procedure, they've been prepped and ready, and after the pain subsides they should be ready for training tonight."
"I take it you're the genius behind the awakening?" Callan smiled as he walked up to the woman. Rebecca pursed her ruby red lips and turned to Thane.
"Are these new recruits?" She smirks as she looks at them, her eyes alighting when she lays eyes on Nytheria. "Oh… Oh!" She claps her hands. "That means you have the weapons we requested right?!" Nytheria stared at her blankly, and Callan cleared his throat.
"Rebecca, the Surdan has the equipment." Rebecca's smile faded as she turned towards Callan, who was holding the case and smiling cheekily.
"You have the supplies we requested as well, right?" He smiled sweetly. The woman's smile faltered before redoubling.
"Of course we do." She reached into a large satchel to remove a smaller satchel full of what appeared to be orbs with words of the ancient language carved unto them, the orbs smelled of sweet flowers and sulfur.
Callan took one out and sniffed it. "And these are…"
"Awakening pills, I researched them back in my time in the capital, they allow anyone who didn't otherwise have magical talent to develop it, and allow anyone with magical talent to improve their capability to channel it, albeit with a lower efficacy and higher danger level than if they had no talent." She smiles, "It's a matter of compatibility at the end of the day, some people take to it better than others, but so far, the pill's an overwhelming success."
"What's the fatality rate."
"I don't know, about 1 in every seven and five hundred-and-sixty. This idiot here almost croaked himself."
Callan smirks and chomps on the one in his hands. The woman's smile falters and he laughs. "You must think I'm stupid. You, Thane, and Yana, what, are Surdan's weak or something? Didn't they rebel from Galbatorix first, and isn't the Queen at least half Surdan?" He chews noisily, taking the time to enunciate in between his chewing. "Now…" he began, "I think you probably thought that mmmm…" He smirks, "This stuff's not half bad." He pops another in his mouth. "It's the first time someone was able to mask seithr oil's toxic properties to such a degree my word." Thane reached for his sword, but Callan interrupted, "Now, I know what you're thinking, stop, I know you dumbasses thought you could hoodwink us with this false pill shit, but Nytheria could tell the second you pulled them out of your satchel." He takes out another of the orbs, popping it in his mouth and crunching down hard. The crackling causes Yana to flinch. "But, I wanted to see what you'd do, and frankly," He gives a thumbs up, "This shit's not half bad, a little spicy, but a highly corrosive substance can normally do that to a person." He reaches into the bag, takes out a handful and shoves it into his mouth. "So… here's what's going to happen, you're going to give us the real stuff, or I'll kill you all, slowly." A guard, hidden in a corner charges forward, but before anyone else could react Callan's free hand shifted as dark claws and deep blue scales replaced his skin and nails. He slashed the guard's arm off, and Rebecca, Thane, and Yana watched in horror as the guard began to scream, but no sound came out, then he began to disintegrate from the wound, body falling apart as Callan's clawed hand dripped a light substance that fizzled and hissed whenever it landed on an organic body part. "Like that." Callan chuckles, "Poor bastard, seithr oil is a painful way to go." He extended a clawed finger into the man's screaming mouth, causing him to choke then scrabble at his throat, eyes bugging out before he began to convulse and throw up a mixture of blood and dissolved body matter. Callan's hand ceased dripping, and morphed back into it's normal, human looking state. "Now that I've made my point, let's talk business..."
…
Faris looked at the basin, his impatience had caused him to still the water with magic. He began to scry, first was his parents. His mother and father had aged since the last he'd seen them, fletches of grey streaking his father's beard, and a few wrinkles under his mother's eyes. He smiled sadly at the scene, he hadn't met them in person for a long time, and he'd been lying about how he was doing, two sins he wished he could rectify, he looked at his hands and almost swore he could still see the blood from yesterday's slaughter, clenching them he turned to look. He saw some villagers pass by, and from the contents of the background they were somewhere in the town square, smiling to himself he ended the spell, content with seeing them safe. The next people he searched for were Elva and Angela and Solembum, like he expected, all he received was hazy blackness and a retaliatory blast of magic that nearly drove him mad.
Faris smiled, even though he couldn't see them, the fact her wards were still up meant his teacher was still alright. He sighed, tapping into his ill-gotten magic once more he searched for Venka. The image came up, and he saw Venka, who looked to be in formal attire, she was dancing with someone it seemed, as she moved and the surroundings changed he saw Morgan, Seya, Nya, Katya, Bartholomew, and even Jonothan, Cynthia, Manny, and Vern, his fellow knight apprentices.
Tartarus asked, Faris absentmindedly nodded, Venka seemed calm, if not bored, Faris furrowed his eyebrows at the silhouetted form of her dancing partner, the spell was such that unless he formed a two way communication or enchanted a reflective surface on the other end, he wouldn't be privy to the conversation, or to who the stranger was, though as the dancing and whatever music seemed to play stop, Venka turned and bowed, alongside her partner, someone began to approach them. Faris's eyes narrowed as he recognized Lady Rembrant, he had seen her once, during his match with Yacob and his group just a year ago. He clenched his fist, but unclenched it, sighing he cut the magic.
Faris dipped his hand into the bowl, breaking up the image and washing his face. He stood up, turning towards his camp and companions. Marigold was still asleep, but Atlas was in the middle of making breakfast, Faris dug through his supplies and found some dried fruit and oats, Tartarus elected to boil oatmeal. Faris watched as the large shade stirred the wooden spoon, moving with such ease that one might think he was stirring water.
Atlas looked up from his task up to Faris. "Master… how was your night?" The only other sound in the clearing was the sound of boiling water and oatmeal, which drowned out most other sounds.
Faris smiled, "Fine, how about you?"
"I don't need much sleep, but resting did feel good, I should do it more often." Atlas turned to Marigold. "I'm amazed that the spirit half of their pairing allowed the human half's identity and personality to return to the surface, you truly are amazing."
Faris merely nodded, "I wish I could return to you your memories, but it feels like someone had wiped them clean slowly and thoroughly."
"No matter, I'm somewhat content as I am right now." Atlas touched his hair, still brown from his magic. "This spell is great, I don't have to worry about being attacked nor will people run at first sighting."
"True, but you'll maybe get robbed a lot."
Atlas laughed, "and what bandit would be stupid enough to target me as it's quarry?"
"It's not like bandits are magic or anything." Faris began, frowning as a sizeable chunk of his reserves were drained as a spell struck his wards, he turned to the forest, narrowing his eyes. "We have company."
"Bandits perhaps?" Atlas smiled innocently. "Should I take care of them? Or should you?" He returned to cooking as Faris stood up, limbs darkening as blackened metal claws covered his fingers.
Faris called out, voice semi amplified by magic, "I'll ask you to surrender or flee right now, I'm in no mood to take prisoners if I'm fighting." The men and women turned to each other and took out swords, maces, and even pitchforks.
"How about y-" The leader is cut off as a white spear pierces his chest. He barely has time to scream as sinewy blood red tendrils seep from the wound and enwrap his body.
"Brisingr!" The soldiers begin to scream out in terror, setting the spear and tendrils on fire as they backed away from the body, which flails in terror. Faris cocks his head and the burning man slams into the closest body, catching it on fire as Faris goads the flames to expand, in their confusion he charges into the fray, grabbing the best looking sword and stabbing and slashing amidst their confusion. For the last 5 he breaks past their piss-poor mental defenses and leaves them slack jawed and trembling on the floor. He looked at his carnage, of the 19 that attacked, only 8 still lived, though they were all mortally wounded. He walked towards the most coherent, one who clutched his stomach, as if to keep his blood and guts from spilling out.
"P-please…" The man looked up at Faris in fear.
Faris frowned, "I mean, I would… but you did kill Hendon and his family for not joining the rebellion." He grinned humorlessly as the man's eyes widened in terror, and cut the man's head off. He gathered the energy within the corpses, so much so that their bodies fell apart and seemed to turn to dust, Faris gathered the dust, alongside the spear of bone. "Welp, it looks like we need to get to Ceunon quick."
"Why?" Atlas asked. "I thought you would help Marigold acclimate and control her strength a bit more."
"I wish I had the time to, unfortunately it looks like my friends might actually die this time…"
Afterword:
Been a bit, sorry about that, college is pretty killer at times, just finished a nice bit of midterms so I should be able to belt out a good 20 or so chapters before the month's end hopefully, to help tide you guys over lol.
Reviews are nice and helpful, and DM me any questions about the story. As for Faris… hoo boy, he's pretty unhinged at the moment no? Basically, what he's doing is somewhat similar to the function of the BlackLight Virus in Prototype, absorbing biomass from those he's slain. He's still, somewhat a good person, as he doesn't go out of his way to do this, but his conception of morality has been skewed and tainted ever since he had been tortured, and especially in this situation where there is no one who can legitimately judge his actions based on their own understanding of morality, he's pretty much left to do whatever. You can though bet a lot that he's highly interested in this magic awakening method. Until next time... peace out.