Milc/C.J. Milnes

Chapter 38 - I am a wizard now, aren’t I?

My new soulbound servants kept smiling all the way back but by the time Areskit came into sight they were plastered on and not genuine.  I was exhausted and I was stronger than them so god knew how they were aching behind the fake grins.  The unenhanced members of our party staggered to...

Chapter 37 - Transfer Souls

The muffled screams had drawn the rest of the group around the tree to watch.  By this time Getha was down both eyes and couldn’t see to cast anything at them so I didn’t object.  They got into it in a way I found deeply disturbing.

“What about his stones?” asked Mune in c...

Chapter 36 - Not a smart move

Getha’s chair slid back with a screech as he jumped to his feet, his meal and goblet forgotten.  His eyes went wide as he extended the index finger of his right hand, arm outstretched in my direction and hissed like a kettle.

“Kill them!” he barked as a shard of ice crystallized ...

Chapter 35 - Soulbound Servant

Mune and I wandered over to what seemed to pass for an inn in this shithole of a town.  I began to appreciate the nomad’s epithet for city folks as we approached.  The place was a run down two story wooden structure with the barriers needed to pen animals set to one side.  A boy ...

Chapter 34 - Nothing for ale and food

“You understand the plans?” I asked Kril as we walked towards the Hatrik trade wagon.  The other families had set off earlier in the morning but I had had many things to discuss with Kril and Trikilo before I could set out with the Hatrik trade caravan.  I had been sad to learn I’...

Chapter 33 - We’re all pawns

I hadn’t yet come to grips with my D tier reflexes but they kicked in without me having to reach for them.  My left hand snapped up and latched onto the shaft of the spear two inches behind the metal head.  The point stopped an inch from my eyes.  I ignored the gasps and muttered...

Chapter 32 - What’s the point?

When we finally caught up with the rest of the tribe we were even more ragged and worn out.  It had been another couple of weeks, Kril and Hatrikilo had become increasingly surly and waspish as the time dragged by.  The fragile mood had filtered down to my now highly competent warriors ...

Chapter 31 - Break the prime directive

Two more weeks and we arrived at Areskit, or rather the site where Areskit had been.  The wagons were gone, the palisade was missing.  The area around was heavily trampled, grass churned into mud in a large blank circle that had been the camp.

“Huh.  He moved early.  Y...

Chapter 30 - Weakness leaving the body

For the next three days we kept moving south west without fires when we made camps.  Each time we stopped, either at dawn or at dusk, one of the warriors led an aurox off alone to lay another false trail, re-joining the main group before we set off again.  None of the others complained ...

Chapter 29 - Not my sisters

Having two leather pouches left, as a result of Kril making necklaces for the healing fangs I had given to Jandak and Hermune, I decided to put them to good use.  As we walked on from where we parted ways with our decoys I stooped to pick up small stones whenever I saw them.  I still ha...

Chapter 28 - Half a dozen dogs

I awoke to a string of kill notifications and yet another headache.  Twenty one Souls added to the bank and flickering lights in my eyes when I tried to focus.  I hadn’t slept well, not because of strange dreams or anything god-related, but due to simple aches and pain.  I had wo...

Chapter 27 - Vileslayer

The women screeched quietly and backed away to the palisade, pressing their backs up against it in a panic.  The warriors moved more slowly, spreading themselves out.

“Begone, Ur-Vile,” called Hatrikilo bravely.  “We will make payment in something other than flesh.”

...

Chapter 26 - Ur-Vile

I left two long furrows in the tundra behind me as we jogged back to our camp.  I held the point of a tusk in each hand and dragged the heavy bastards all that way, the bloody and jagged joints where they had joined the mastodon's jaw bone skittered and skidded across the grasslands for mile...

Chapter 25 - Great-tusk spoor

For five days we trudged north through the forest.  We weren’t attacked by any more animals but the warriors kept a careful watch anyway.  Each night I set my snares and deadfalls, each morning I harvested the bodies and Souls of my victims.  I was saving the Souls.  I had a...

Chapter 24 - Princess of savages

I stepped away from the fire and the tents to sit and stare at the sky.  I had a decision to make about my last Affinity but my mind was distracted.  I’d been plotting out shapes in the stars for the last few weeks but I had become increasingly interested in locating the planets. ...

Chapter 23 - Hardly a god

Jandak had found a suitable place to set up a  camp half an hour's walk along the trail.  The warriors built a pair of simple stretchers to carry the injured women, accepting Haylin’s worried commands with surprisingly gentle good humour as they carried our wounded up the pass.

...

Chapter 22 - Never drive the herds again

I placed a fur-clad foot against the ribs of the vile-cat and grasped my spear sticking out of its side.  I pulled back sharply and the shaft came free with a wet sucking sound.  The tip must have glanced off a rib on the way in or struck one on the way out.  The formerly arrowhead...

Chapter 21 - Spent them lavishly

Three weeks passed in a fashion that soon became humdrum.  I would wake to notifications of kills from my snares, gather the bodies and gleefully hoard my Souls.  Then a quick breakfast and a long, long walk.  On an evening I would set traps once more and then fight against the oth...

Chapter 20 - Lady Fayala

As Areskit gradually blurred into the horizon behind us and became lost in the vast expanse of the plains a weight lifted from my shoulders.  I was essentially unburdened, carrying only my satchel and knife, which I had tucked into the wide leather belt that Kril had given me.  Now I wa...

Chapter 19 - Laughter is the first sound of freedom

I was up twelve Souls for officiating over an animal sacrifice and I silently thanked Kril for inveigling me into doing the honours despite the barbaric nature of the ritual.  The animals had died quickly, with as little pain as one could hope for, but it still felt wrong somehow.

I ma...

Chapter 18 - The offering

“What do the tunic colours signify?” I asked Kril as we skirted around the settlement towards his yurt.  The bags weren’t heavy and the earlier exercise had helped clear away the stiffness in my muscles.

“Hmm?  Some dyes are expensive.  The fewer people you see wearin...

Chapter 17 - Tapped in the head

I had slept by the fire on some furs Kril had given me.  I woke up before him and stretched.  I hadn’t felt any fear of being vulnerable in the night.  Kril and I had talked for a while after his interrogation about my dream or vision or whatever it was.  I was convinced tha...

Chapter 16 - Whispered it in my dreams

The first thing I noticed was the complete absence of pain.  It had been so long since I didn’t have a recovering wound to twinge and grumble when I moved in an unusual way and the blessed sense of peace that came from the change was a god send.  Next was my clothing.  I was in m...

Chapter 15 - Another giveaway

“On your feet boy,” Dreamer said harshly, the snap of command was there in his voice.  I began to think this wasn’t just some old shaman.  He was a leader in addition to whatever other functions he carried out in his culture.

I struggled upright and untangled the remains of ...

Chapter 14 - The Dreamer

As I came back to consciousness I vowed to resume all of my old habits.  The brief time I had spent free of the lifelong masquerade, of being open and unfettered, had clearly come to an end.  The throbbing pain in my skull was all the reminder I would need.  My arms ached as well, ...

Chapter 13 - Goodbye blandness, my old friend

My beard had grown out since I arrived in this world.  I had passed through the itchy phase and was now moving into Grizzly Adams territory.  I eyed the dead aurox and hoped the arrow had survived.  The giant bovine creature clearly had not and fortunately when it collapsed it had ...

Chapter 12 - Shikrakyn

I walked past the dying man with cold disregard for his condition and picked up the bow from where Hawk had thrown it.  I turned it over, examining it closely.  It was well made and surprisingly sophisticated in its design.  Horn and wood had been glued together somehow to give the...

Chapter 11 - My next victim

Vilis Cervus slain.

Six Souls Gathered

Wilson shot past me and splashed his way across the shallow pond to inspect the deer.  After a cursory sniff to ensure it was dead he shook himself, throwing droplets all around him.

...

Chapter 10 - A whole new dynamic

“The thing was Wilson, if someone was willing to hire me they automatically ended up becoming fair game.  Hiring me made them defacto murderers, you see?  I got a job to knock some Korean businessman, Yung Sum Kim or something like that, I forget his name.  Anyway it was five or ...

Chapter 9 - Wilson

The ferns, bushes and grass were a green blur as I shuffled along.  I wasn’t moving quickly due to a pronounced limp but my surroundings still seemed indistinct and melted together.  Why the hell was I limping?  I glanced down and saw a short length of broken branch protruding fr...