Vae Victis - Chapter 17

Heya! Vae Victis just hit Rising Stars on Royal Road, I would really appreciate it if you helped me out by leaving a review or a rating on Royal Road. It helps a lot for new stories. And I also got two 0.5 star ratings since release that have brought the rating down a bit. Only if you have the time of course!

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A Whole New World

We reached the camp after only a few hours of walking through the thick jungle, while it was still daytime. I couldn’t help but twitch at any slight sound. The memory of nearly dying was fresh in my mind. I was exhausted mentally; death had been my companion for days now. First the silver around my neck, then this new world. I knew that I had to gather myself, but it was harder than I thought it would be. My emotions were a mess. I hadn’t felt this way since I was turned. I had thought that I had mastered the thirst and my emotions years ago.

The camp was located near a massive boulder covered with moss-like plant growth, sitting in the shadow of a massive tree that loomed overhead. There was a small ring of stones, suitable for a campfire, a tent, a chest, and a long rod that was stabbed into the ground. Oh, and it was surrounded by a pale blue sphere of light that pulsed in the same rhythm as the gemstone at the head of the rod. I paused when I saw it. This was magic. There were things and moments ever since I arrived here where I had seen things that were unexplainable, different. I had used a skill, but there was something different about seeing it in such a manner, as proof right in front of my eyes.

“You are invited into my humble camp,” he gestured gravely.

I turned my eyes at the man whose name I still didn’t know, he was already inside the half-sphere of light, looking at me with one side of his lips turned up in a half grin. For a moment I wondered if he knew what I was, somehow, his words were what someone who believed the stories of vampires might say—though they were mostly nonsense. No, I decided, the choice of his words was merely a coincidence.

Still, there was something wicked about the man, he had a look of a scoundrel at times, though the way that he spoke held… a gravitas that reminded me of my sire. Slowly, I walked over to the edge of the glowing wall. Then I tentatively reached out with my hand. The moment I touched it, I felt a shiver pass through my body. Then, I walked through, closing my eyes as a strange feeling came over me, raising the hairs on my body.

I shook my head once I got inside and turned to look at the man.

“See,” he said. “No reason for concern. Its purpose is to keep most of the smaller denizens of the forest away.”

I nodded, as if somehow that made sense. “Thanks, uh... I didn’t catch your name?”

“That is because I did not offer it,” the man said, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight. “Among my people, names are important. Given only to those who are worthy of knowing them. But, you may call me Shimi, it is a common term for those whose name you do not know.”

I blinked and tilted my head. “And what are your people exactly? Is this your world?”

He sighed, then gestured for me to join him near a small campfire. He took a seat on a stone and pointed at another for me. I went to take a seat, and then saw the state of my clothes. My pants were ripped and soaked with blood; my tank top was somehow in an even worse state. It was barely hanging on. I was showing a lot more than I was comfortable with.

The man, Shimi, had to have noticed my plight, because he stood and walked up to a chest near the tent and opened it.

“I only have clothes in my size, but I think that they will fit you,” he said, then he walked over and offered me black pants and a shirt.

I grimaced. I really wished that I could’ve washed all of this off first.

“There is a river nearby,” he said, again proving his perceptiveness. “I have spares.”

I sighed, then took them from his hand, offering murmured thanks as I pulled them on over my ruined clothes. I was not about to take my clothes off in front of him. He didn’t comment as I took a seat again. I looked at his strange orange eyes and spoke.

“You said that I was brought here by a spell?” I asked, deciding to get as much information as possible. I only had information known by a messenger that had been dead for a long time. It would be good to learn about what someone from this time thought.

“That is an oversimplification of the facts, but it is ultimately correct. It is the reason that you understand me. When you were brought here, the Grand Spell altered your mind, you are speaking Common, the language that everyone on Kirios speaks. It just appears to you like you are still talking in your native tongue. This is the world of Kirios,” he said. “More precisely the continent of Ish Vimza, the Cursed Jungle, the Broken Land, whatever you prefer. The Grand Spell, is the… thing, that brought you here. You must remember the transition?”

“I…” my mouth opened, and then closed as I tried to marshal my thoughts. I did remember some of it, the pain of the hanging had made me pass out, so I wasn’t quite sure. I mulled over what to say, and then made a decision. “I passed out when the light swallowed me, I remember words flashing in front of my eyes, but then… I woke up here,” I told him.

“Ah, I wondered why someone would pick Ish Vimza, it is a suicide for most, but there must always be one,” he chuckled.

I didn’t quite understand what he meant by that. Though, I was reminded that he had saved my life. Then, I remembered my manners and my sire’s teachings. I bowed my head over my fists. “Thank you for helping me,” I said. “I’m Marianna Rojas.”

The furry ear on top of his head twitched again. “You are welcome, Marianna Rojas,” then, he looked around, his expression twisting for a split second before returning to the one of calm he had before. “You are in a very dangerous place, Marianna Rojas, and you are not equipped to survive it. You have manifested your Mask, I can tell, but you are not even in your First Investment, are you?”

I frowned and tilted my head, hesitating, but then deciding that giving that much away shouldn’t be too bad. “No, I am not. I don’t know anything about Masks really. My world, it is very different, we have nothing like it.”

He nodded his head. “A Mask grants you access to the Source, it is a way for you to increase and grow in power, and in the cultures of Kirios a Mask is your life path. Everyone has a Mask, and they give you skills which will help you fulfill the purpose of that path. What Mask a person receives is based on their life prior to gaining it. For people of Kirios, it happens during childhood, though many wait until they are older before choosing one, so that they might get a pick of a mask that will shape their future better.”

I thought about what kind of choices I had when I got the Mask. They made sense now, each was based on the life that I had before, just as he said.

“There is a lot that you do not know,” he continued. “And which will not serve you much at this time. Suffice to say, ages ago, the people who were the original inhabitants of this world—the Ancient Ones—created a Grand Spell. This spell changed the rules of reality and simplified the use of the world’s Source through Masks.”

“Source?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

“Source,” he waved his hand at the pale blue sphere around them. “The Weave, the Way, Magic. I do not know what your people call it.”

I looked around, wondering about how to get him to tell me more. “Magic… There is no magic on Earth—my world—it only exists in stories.”

That made him lean back, a frown on his face. “No Source? How would that even—no, I apologize, my curiosity gets the better of me. That will not help you. Your world is forever changed, the Grand Spell chose it, and that means that soon it will be transported here.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, a deep worry starting to open up inside of me.

“You are here ahead of your world,” he said slowly. “The Grand Spell picks thirty people from the world it chooses and transports them here. We call these people Exemplars, and you are one. The thirty are scattered across the world, we do not know the reasons as to why, but we know that you will be here for exactly one month. Your world is currently being fully integrated into ours, your landmasses and oceans added to Kirios. And after the month ends, you will be sent back to where you came from. But your world will be changed, it will be part of Kirios, the Grand Spell will flood it with Source, which will in turn mutate your wildlife, and each member of your race will gain access to Masks as the rest of us. You are here ahead of them to learn, if you survive that is. Once you return, you will have an advantage over your people, who will have to struggle through a new world unprepared. Your world will have a year of grace period, the Grand Spell will keep your lands in a protective bubble, not allowing other races to visit. Six months in, portals will open, allowing small expeditions, six months later the protections will be lifted and your world will be fully a part of Kirios.”

If what he was saying was true, and with everything that I had learned I had no reason not to believe him, the Earth that I knew was done, over. The vision that I saw was coming true, people of Earth were there at the battle. But even before we got to that point, the Earth’s people would be the newcomers here, wholly ignorant compared to the races that were natives. “Why’d it pick us? Do you know? And how many times did this happen before?”

He shrugged. “No one knows. And we call these events the Great Expansion Intervals, and they had occurred six times before, including this one—that we know of at least. The Ancient race who had started all of this is long gone and dead, so that means that with your people there are now seven worlds and six races on Kirios.”

Six races, and a threat somewhere out there, waiting to come and swallow them all.

“How does a Mask grow?” I asked.

“It grows through investment. All Masks have different investment requirements, though those that share types have similar ones. What kind is needed depended on what type of a Mask it is,” he answered. “A Mask of the Farmer will need farming investment, a Mask of the Cook will need cooking investment, a Mask of the Guard will need guarding investment, and so on. It gets more complicated with the complexity of the Mask and what it does. But that should give you an idea. You invest into your Mask, and it gives you power. A Mask grows, and at certain thresholds, it improves both itself and you. Each time it reaches this threshold, it will change slightly in appearance and your physical or mental capability might get improved. These improvements are called Carvings. And every ten Carvings are called an Investment, and that represents a significant evolution of a Mask and an increase in power. As you improve your Mask, you might get more skills, or you might not. It depends on what you do.”

It did. It was basically experience, just tailored for a Mask, or rather a profession, if what he had said about Masks being life paths was true. They were basically jobs. Mine was the Mask of the Drainer, I didn’t need to think a lot on what kind of investment I needed. I had only ever gained Carvings when I drank blood. I wondered why I had only gained one when I drank the blood of the big beast. Others that had been weaker than it had given me more I felt like. Maybe because I didn’t kill it?

“You have a Mask too then?” I asked, trying to see if I could learn something about the man.

He grinned. “As I said, everyone does in this world. It is as essential to life as breathing,” he put his hand over his chest, and then I watched with wide eyes as he pulled a Mask out of it. Like out of thin air, it seemed to form in his hand, until at last it was there, held in his fingers. It was beautiful, made, the top was blue, smooth as it went around the eyes and forehead, then ending in a dozen points above that almost looked like they were a crown. The bottom below the nose was white, and it had an image of a blue mouth painted on it, curled up into a smile. There were two attachments on the sides, near the ears, almost like earrings latched onto it. One looked like an emerald gem, and the other was black.

I was struck silent for a moment.

“You haven’t manifested your Mask yet, have you?”

I blinked. “No, I didn’t know that I could do that.”

“Put your palm against your chest, focus on your souls space and Mask, then just,” he mimed a grabbing gesture with his hand. “Pull it out.”

I did as he said, wanting to see if I could do it. I placed my palm against my chest and focused. Immediately, a perfect image of my inner room, the soul space, as he had called it appeared in my mind. I focused on the Mask and then just pulled. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be, though the sensation was weird. One moment my palm was empty, and then I felt the weight of the Mask appearing in it.

It was done in the span of two breaths. In the palm of my hand was a Mask, I immediately noticed the change, another notch on the horns. It had to be because of the Carving I gained.

“You did it, congratulations,” Shimi inclined his head.

“Thank you,” I said.

“It is very unique. I’ve never seen anything like it,” He said as he looked at my Mask. “That is rare, it would mean that it is something really specific. Might I know what it is?” His face tried to seem nonchalant about it, by I saw a flash of curiosity.

Suddenly, I got a feeling like I had just revealed more than I was supposed to. Caution warred with my gratitude. “Should I tell you?”

He tilted his head, one of his ears twitching, then smiled. “No, you should not reveal what your Mask is to anyone you do not trust explicitly,” he bowed his head. “Forgive me for asking, curiosity got the better than me.”

“It’s fine,” I said slowly as I put my Mask against my chest and willed it back in. I suppressed the desire to sigh in relief at it working. Shimi kept his eyes on me, somehow I felt like he knew.

Shimi grinned a wicked smile. “No, you should not reveal what your Mask is to anyone you do not trust explicitly,” then, his expression turned serious. “At least that is how people in Kirios think about it. Some Masks are easy to identify, both by appearance and the skills that they can use. And there are devices that can reveal your Mask name and skills… You are ignorant of so many things. Not knowing how to properly advance your Mask will hurt you, and I can help you with that.”

I didn’t say anything, I was trying to think if I should trust him, debt or no debt.

He sighed and shook his head. “Listen, you are not the only one that was sent here. Other Exemplars have arrived all over the world, they will manifest their own Masks and meet people. Some will die, others will form partnerships or find mentors. This is… bigger than you think it is.”

It is bigger than you think it is. I added in my head. I wondered if he had any knowledge of the vision and the prophecy. I wondered if I should say anything. Kolan Shuk had made a plea, for his warning to be spread, for it to be heard. I wanted to honor it, but I also understood reality. I couldn’t afford to appear insane in front of this man, nor did I trust him enough yet to share the message itself. Kolan Shuk had warned of the Deceiver, said that he will have agents everywhere.

If fate existed, then this meeting could be fated as well. My life saved by a stranger, in the middle of the jungle. It was hard to believe that it was pure chance.

“So tell me how big it is then,” I said, prying for more information.

He looked away for a few seconds, then turned his orange eyes back on me. “Once your world gets fully integrated, a year and a month from now, the entirety of Kirios will flock to your lands. Factions will want to establish their presence, to take resources, to make relationships with your people. New land means new opportunities, it means a chance at wealth, at power. A newly integrated world is wild, rampant with dangers, and that most of all means investment, a chance to evolve your Mask. They will come.”

“There are a lot of my people who will not stand for that,” I added, the nations of Earth were not weak. I saw some of what this world has, the power that a Mask offered. I didn’t think that they could stand against what Earth had in its arsenal.

“Your world is no longer what you remember it to be. Not many survive the integration. The best survival rate that a race ever had were my kind, the YoKai-ni. Out of billions, only five hundred million survived. Less than twenty percent of our world.”

I paused, that didn’t seem right. He continued talking, not letting me fully digest what his words meant.

“The Exemplars that survive and return to your lands will… some of them will be working with the factions they made contact with. They will have been convinced by them, it has happened before, and some of the Kirios nations know exactly how to entice new arrivals and offer them deals that they will not refuse. When the envoys arrive through the portals, they will endeavor to create foundations for when the protections are lifted.”

That… sounded a lot more serious than what I imagined. And that was telling, especially with everything else that was going on, now they will have to worry about other races involving themselves.

“And you’re about to offer me such one such deal?” I asked him, that made more sense to me. It gave me a reason why he would help me, why tell me these things.

“In a way,” he said slowly. “I do not involve myself in the worldly affairs, not anymore. But… fate put you in my way, so I do feel a tiny bit obligated to give you at least a fighting chance. This place,” he waved his hand at the jungle. “It is the harshest continent on our world, filled with dangers that not even the strongest on Kirios would dare face lightly. The fact that you survived until I found you is impressive, but the jungle will swallow you whole if you don’t learn and improve your Mask, and do it fast. What you faced so far is nothing but the smallest of the dangers this place holds.”

“Oh,” I just said. If the monster that nearly killed me was the smallest of the dangers, then I did not want to meet the bigger threats.

Shimi met my eyes, and held them for a long time. “I am interested in your world. Pursuit of knowledge is one of my greatest drives. If you agree, I will help you survive until you are returned to your world, I will teach you how to master your Mask, in return for you sharing the details of your world.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You just said that the people of this world will seek to take advantage of us. And you want me to give you information that might help you do that?”

Shimi waved his hand. “That will happen regardless. You are not the only Exemplar, and the others might have already sold their knowledge in return for guidance and power. Not all will know the same things, some information will be useless, but in return they will have secured the power of their own. They will make deals and plans for when your lands arrive, they will return there as warlords, gathering up your people and guiding them. In the aftermath of the integration they will emerge as leaders of your kind. It is not us you need to be worried about, it is your own kind. I have never known a race that was not plagued with greed. It is inevitable that some of your own will sell your lands, secrets, and people in return for power. Mask evolution is an intoxicating thing.”

I opened my mouth to rebut his words, but then quickly closed them. Oh yes, I knew what lengths people could go to. If what he said was the truth, if the world was about to end, yes, some would rise and try to grab as much power as they possibly could.

“So you don’t really need me?”

“It would save me time, and having to interact with other people,” Shimi answered with honesty, at least I believed it to be.

“Are there any settlements, any cities nearby where we could be safe?” I asked, more as a way to buy time to think.

He shook his head. “There are no cities on Ish Vimza, only the ruins of the Ancient Ones long since scoured clean. No one sane comes here, it is filled with beasts stronger than most average Masked, and those are just the beasts in the outer circle. The inner circle holds monsters—beasts corrupted by the blight storm coming from the center.”

I blinked. Blight, storm, monsters? That sounded like what I had seen in the vision. “Is this connected to the big cloud curtain that I saw in the distance?”

Shimi nodded. “The blight curtain, or the blight storm, yes. It is the center of the continent, the barrier preventing anyone from entering what most believe to be the location of the Grand Spell’s anchor. The last time someone tried to breach it, the result was destruction of one third of the Ish Vimza continent and a wave of blight that turned nearly half of all animals in the world into monsters and created the blighted, causing the breakdown of civilization that we are yet to recover from five thousand years later. We call that period the Blight War.”

Five thousand years? It sounded like it could be related, but that long? The vision seemed different to me somehow. I asked him how long the curtain was there.

“Always,” was his answer. “It had been there since before the elves arrived and found Ish Vimza, nearly twenty thousand years ago.”

Twenty thousand years? That was longer than the modern human history. Suddenly I was very worried about Earth. I was making assumptions, I haven’t seen anything about the people that lived here. I had fallen into a trap of thinking of this like a game, a fantasy setting where people had magic but were primitive. I should be a lot smarter.

But, was the prophecy wrong? Was it already too late? Was the threat over with? Was the vision not accurate depiction of events but an allegory? I hated not knowing, and not being able to find out. On Earth, I could type a few words in a search engine and find answers to most questions, here I had to play a game with the people living here, balancing risk and reward.

I had to know more. “What exactly is a monster?”

“Animals corrupted by the blight are called such, people corrupted are usually called blighted. Those affected have an aura of the blight on them, though not all can feel it. Red Source twists around them. The mature ferrorn had some signs of it, though nowhere near enough to actually turn it fully, if it had ventured closer to the curtain it would’ve turned eventually. The blight first appeared in the event I described before, we call it the Breaking. So far, the blight is the most dangerous in the inner ring of the continent, but it is spreading, growing year after year, though very slowly. It had barely moved in the last thousand years. Most of the monsters here are at least somewhat affected, but they do not become monsters until it fully takes them. A blighted animal, or a monster, is more aggressive, more powerful for its Investment, sometimes it is driven insane, and it carries the blight with it that infects the Source around them, which in turn can corrupt those in their presence if they are not powerful enough. Monsters are usually much longer lived, which makes those that survive the blight far more dangerous because they tend to be old and experienced.”

Was that what the threat was? These people seemed to have been in conflict with these things for thousands of years.

“So, avoid monsters,” I said.

“Yes,” Shimi said. “I am worried that something had disturbed the inner ring, which made the monsters start to migrate out of it. The ferrorn female would never have left a juvenile unattended if a threat had not encroached on its territory. A power shift in the monster hierarchy is the most likely explanation.”

“The earthquakes, could they be a cause?”

He shook his head immediately. “No, those are common and have been for thousands of years. Ish Vimza has been unstable since the Breaking.”

“So, what now?” I asked, I figured that I shouldn’t push it with the questions now. He would be expecting something in return. I had to think on what I could reveal.

“First, we should probably rest,” Shimi said. “Nightfall is approaching fast.”

“Ah,” I started, trying to think about how much I should reveal. There would be no hiding what would happen soon. Right now, my body felt slow, weak, uncoordinated. When the sun set, I would gain my vampire power back. Just the way I moved would be different. He would notice. “About that. I am nocturnal, you could say.”

He blinked at that. “Oh?”

“Yes, I don’t rest at night, in most cases,” I added.

He could tell that I was holding back, I wasn’t that good at obscuring the fact. It was why I mostly tried to not even mention anything. He didn’t press, instead he switched topics.

Shimi stood up suddenly. “Well, if you do not need to rest, perhaps now would be a good time to visit the river. I am sure that you want to get all that off from you. Or wait, is this a… whatever you are a thing? Do you… paint yourselves with blood?”

I glared. “No, we don’t! Not intentionally—well, once, but not usually!” I shook my head, as I felt a blush coming up my neck. “River would be great,” I whispered. Then, because he had shared information without getting any in return, I added. “And my kind are called vampires.”