Chapter 205 - A Dragon's Gaze

Another bonus chapter! (hopefully) I'm going to try and write another chapter for Tuesday's usual release, but it's not started yet so it may not happen. 

At least for tonight, Patreon is officially 10 chapters ahead!

There was no point in thinking about it any further. The longer Hump mulled it over, the more time he had to convince himself he couldn’t do it. There was no room for doubt. This was life and death, and he didn’t plan to give up his soul easily. The fragments would be his, and he would be whole once more.

He took the plunge. All it took was a thought. The river of power rushing through his body changed course, merging with his soul through a single channel. The essence moved eagerly, seeking any space to expand.

Heat was the first thing Hump felt. It wasn’t unpleasant at first, but pressure was building. It tugged at him. He felt the core of himself loosen, his own essence and will diluted by these foreign powers; the fabric of his soul frayed and distorted. It would destroy him if he gave it a chance. This was the first part of his battle, and there was no turning back.

Just keeping himself together took every shred of will he had. The cycle was the only thing on his mind, maintaining it even in the very core of himself. The energies seared through him, drawing on his soul for power and growing in strength. They bounced around within the walls of his souls, trying to breach. Trying to escape and flood back into the rest of his body. It was much like his training with Vivienne, only now, Hump was trying to compress the essences within him rather than project a barrier. Hump gritted his teeth, controlling the flow. Over and over, around and around, the single goal in his life was to maintain the cycles. Time faded from thought, there was only the magic. The need to keep the river moving and the waves steady. If he failed, he died, it was as simple as that.

At times, Hump caught a glimpse of the entities within him. It was subtle, particularly for the dungeon and phoenix essences. They were so weak now, their intent almost lost amidst the power of the dragon and gorger, but he felt the phoenix’s golden heat, and the dungeon’s chaotic, craving hunger. The gorger was more brutish. Its power gave up on trying to escape and instead delved deeper. Finally, it had access to Hump’s soul, and it seemed it was going to try and make use of it.

Cold lanced through him. Alone, Hump would have had no chance, but the dragon did not fight him. Something about it had changed though. While it did not resist him, there was a wildness to it that wasn’t there before; a result of the powder Eliana had dosed him with, twisting all the essences inside, activating everything to their fullest. Despite that, the pain slowly subsided.

They were his. He would not let them escape, and the cycles would not break. As hard as they fought him, their intents were fading and he was taking over. The waves calmed to still waters, and his soul returned to some semblance of normality.

Hump knew he was changing though. A human soul was not meant to contain the essence of other beings. To do so, it had to grow and reform into something strong enough to hold them.

An image flashed in Hump’s mind—a sensation of warmth, safety, love, and goodbye. The dragon’s thought—her final thought. Hump felt an urge to hold on. Her intent slipped from his grasp, and then the storm was no more. The foreign essences were no more. There was only him.

He’d succeeded. Not just that, but instinctively Hump knew what he’d just accomplished. He hadn’t just changed his soul, he’d manifested it.

***

Winds of magic stormed through the hall, and Celaine’s heart was in her throat as she watched.

Owalyn’s mercy, spare him. Please.

Essence leaked from his body in sickly swirls, adding to the storm around him. It made her feel sick. Shivers ran across her skin as she stood there, glaring at him. The idiot had gotten himself in a mess again.

She felt bad even thinking it. Hump was deathly pale. Even at the best of times he was frail, but right she feared he might just fade away. Not that looks were everything. She’d seen him smash Bud’s head, and it had been a good smash at that. Though that strength had clearly come at a price. Every bit of fat on his body was gone. He was a starved animal, his face gaunt, eyes sunken, hair thin and skin pale. Even his face was changed, the bones of his cheeks protruding while his brow and nose were scrunched together, contorted to look like the warlocks that had fallen to their bestial side.

It was a bad look; one that made her skin itch. Even his presence was different. Usually, she felt at ease around him. Right now, he wasn’t himself. His essence surrounded him in chaos, and it was filled with other powers, each of them fighting.

Behind him, Eliana suddenly moved. Celaine nocked an arrow in a heartbeat, startling the old wizard’s comrades, but she didn’t care.

“Don’t you move,” Celaine growled. She was aiming at Eliana’s stomach. She’d heard what Eliana had said to Hump, and she wouldn’t give her a quick death for it.

“I’ll hold her,” Dylan said, walking over to her side, and Emilia going with him to assist.

“Please,” Eliana whispered to him. “We’re friends, aren’t we? Let me go.”

Dylan’s eyes were hard as he summoned vines around her, binding her arms and legs. “We could have been.”

Strange as it all was, Celaine didn’t let it consume her attention. Eliana was dealt with, now onto the dragon in the room.

Nobody else in the party could be trusted to pay attention to things when it mattered. They were all mud-headed. All distracted by what Hump was doing. So, she kept an eye on the wizard, Starick, at all times. He couldn’t be trusted. He was no Chosen of these southern gods, and he was too powerful to be a normal wizard. Most of all, he watched Hump with curious interest. She knew he would have no qualms about killing him, so she made sure the feeling was reciprocated. A wizard was a wizard after all, he’d die to an arrow just the same.

All the attention was off her too though. She slipped to the side and picked up Hump’s pouch, shouldering it. She took a peek inside and the egg was still there, undamaged, the scaley shell glowing golden between the cracks. A glimmer of excitement flared in her, but she didn’t let it show.

She glared at Hump. The egg would hatch soon, so that idiot had better make it through this.

Slowly, the essence of the world started to calm. It was gentler on her skin, and the intense rage radiating from it faded. Instead, she started to sense Hump’s presence once again. Though it was not alone. His presence built, cloaking him in a pale purple aura, hardly visible except that Celaine was looking for it. She could hardly believe it when she felt a dragon before her, somehow crammed into that small wizard body. There was no mistaking it. She’d grown up around dragons, but even she felt awed at the sight.

“What’s happening?” Bud asked, a tinge of nervousness to his voice. “Starick! Please, what’s going on?”

“Your friend has a dragon in him,” the wizard said with disbelief. “Few have ever mastered such a powerful intent, but it seems he has overcome it.”

“Then what’s wrong with him?” Bud asked.

“Nothing. It’s quite the opposite. His soul is manifesting.”

Relief rushed through Celaine, along with excitement. They all stared at Hump as his aura grew thicker, the purple light deeper. His intent poured from it—curious, kind-of-heart, protective, dominating. Streaks of white, bronze, and red flared within like flames.

When Hump finally opened his eyes, there was a purple hue to them now, and the same flakes of essence glimmered inside. They reminded her of Storm’s eyes before she had died and risen again in Bledsbury. She liked that. It was nice to know that at least a little part of her had survived in him.

As his eyes met hers, she felt her soul shudder. Fear, anticipation, tension; it passed through her at once. There was no resisting it, even for her. Human instinct took over, for that was the gaze of a dragon.

***

Hump stared at Starick and felt strangely confident. He wondered if that was an effect of his Soul Manifestation.

There was a purple sheen to the world. He felt stronger, faster, and more durable than ever, both physically and magically. It felt as if all the essence of the world was his, and that it would bow to his will, obeying his every command. He noticed the nervousness in his party’s eyes as he looked over them, and realised he was projecting his soul, much as Vivienne had done during their training. He withdrew it, and it was as if everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Weakness came over Hump, his vision blurring as he wobbled to the side, catching himself on a hand. He was ice cold and ready to pass out. Yet he could still see the dragon’s final image. He tried to stand and Bud hurried forward to help him up.

“Easy there,” Bud said.

“You’ve expended too much essence,” Dylan said. “You need rest, Hump.”

Hump looked around for his pouch—for his egg—when Celaine came to his side.

“Here.” She helped him to fit it over his shoulder. She leant down and picked up his spellbook. “You’ll need this too. It’s all there.”

It shuddered as Hump touched it, essence shooting through him in a way it hadn’t done before. He supposed it considered Soul Manifestation significant, though he’d need to wait for some time alone to find out why.

“Thank you,” Hump said, fitting it to his belt.

Only then did he face Starick again. The man studied him curiously.

“So,” Hump said, “I succeeded. I take it execution is off the table.”

“Are you sure that was a dragon?” the woman beside him asked. “He doesn’t look like much, and how can a boy that hasn’t even manifested his soul do such a thing?”

“Could he still be a warlock?” Starick’s other companion asked.

Starick shook his head. “He’s in the clear. This isn’t something he could hide.” He looked at Hump. “It’s not often I’m impressed, though it’s not often I see a young wizard burn down one of Baelkor’s trees and conquer the will of a dragon.”

“I don’t intend to make a habit of it.”

Starick smiled, and Hump got the sense of a warrior in his gaze. He was not some scholarly wizard that hid away at an academy to study, he was a fighter, and perhaps the strongest one Hump had ever seen other than Anthony. Which begged the question, why had he never heard of him?

“Who are you?” Hump asked. “And who is Baelkor?”

“I believe you’ve met Baelkor,” Starick answered. “He was the shadow beyond the rift, and these trees are a part of his magic.”

“That tells us nothing,” Emilia said. “Does he lead the warlocks?”

Hump glanced over his shoulder to see her standing over a bound Eliana. He stared at the woman on the ground for a few moments, his anger rising in him once more but he was too tired to let it show.

“He is much more than that,” Starick said. “He is the first servant of Uvdar, and a titan from an age best left forgotten.”

Hump swallowed as he realised what that meant. He’d met the eyes of a servant of the Fallen God, Uvdar, while he watched his rift into their world burn. That… was not something he was going to get over very quickly.

“And what do you people do?” Bud asked. “Are you fighting him?”

“We are keepers of history.”

Starick looked over his shoulder as the sound of voices reached them. Sir Roderick was climbing the steps to enter the building, a whole host of men and women with him. The Tree of Damnation blazed in the main hall, illuminating them in the evening dark. Even at a glance Hump could see the tiredness of the army. They were bloodied and exhausted, and yet Roderick marched them closer as if the battle had not yet ended. His eyes set on Starick.

“Our time here is up.” Starick looked at Hump. “What is your name, wizard?”

“Humphrey Woodrow.”

Starick nodded. “Tend to that book well, Wizard Humphrey, for there is nothing else like it.”

With that, he walked toward Sir Roderick and his army. Three practitioners against a host of Chosen. Amongst them, Hump spotted very few familiar faces. Sir Isaac of the academy was there, and a few other adventurers that he couldn’t remember the names of, but none of his friends.

“Who of the Three Eyes am I speaking to?” Roderick asked.

“Wizard Starick. And you are Sir Roderick, Destroyer of Fellgreen. I’ve heard of you.”

“Yet I have never heard of you,” Roderick said. “I believe you acted in support of Sheercliff today, and for that I thank you. But we need answers.”

Starick held up a finger. “It is best we speak once all have arrived.”

A look of confusion passed through the crowd, when a portal opened close to Sir Roderick. From it, Natalie stepped through, followed by Vivienne, Marcela, Len, and a half dozen other Chosen. Last was Countess Daston—she was carried through in the arms of one of her knights. She was alive, her wound seemingly healed though her armour was still caked in blood, yet it appeared she could not walk.

Starick nodded his head toward her. “Lady Daston.”

“It’s rare that even I do not know what is going on,” she said. “I take it you are the three that fell from the sky.”

“Indeed, we are.”

“What is your affiliation with the warlock, Anthony?” Roderick asked. “I have reports that you were familiar with each other.”

“His full name is Anthony Lochhart,” Starick said. “He was a member of our order before he went rogue.”

“And what interest does a rogue member of the Three Eyes have with our city?” Roderick growled.

Starick turned to Countess Daston. “I believe your countess may have the answer to that.”

She pressed her lips tightly together. There was no denial in her eyes.

“He was here for Osidium’s Seal,” she declared. “And it was broken.”

“Stolen would be a more apt description,” Starick said. “It is the second seal to fall, but it will not be the last.”

“Can we stop it?” she asked.

“I am not at liberty to say,” Starick said.

“You will answer her questions, wizard,” Roderick said. “I do not wish to make an enemy of you, but our city is in ruins. Our people were murdered by the thousands, by one of your own order no less. Someone must answer for that.”

“I truly hope they do,” Starick said. “But it shall not be this day.”

Starick tapped his staff to the ground and essence flared. A formation activated around him, forming a twelve-pointed star. The three of them stood at the centre as blue essence streamed from it. It rose around them in a mist, so thick only their outlines were visible.

“The next great war is coming, Countess. I wish you luck in surviving it.”

With that, the wizards were gone. All stared as the mist slowly dissipated, revealing nothing but empty air where they had stood.

“What does that mean?” Bud asked.

Hump already knew. There was only one thing Starick’s warning could only refer to one thing.

“The War of the Firmament,” Hump said. “A war where even gods died.”