Chapter 43: The Welders

Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - Blightbane Guild

“Come on now. It’s no fun if you don’t resist!” Latice complained.

He wasn’t lying. The unexpected aggressor looked around the Guild hall with crossed arms and an impatient frown.

The reason he said this was simple: the loyal citizens refused to fight. Everyone in the Guild had dropped to a kneeling position or some other kind subservient pose. Not all at once, but a ripple of fear and confusion at first brought about that result.

Caim watched the faces around him and saw frustration and annoyance in the wilder characters among the Guild. Some even displayed outright anger. Yet, in the end, they didn’t offer the slightest resistance, accepting their fate silently.

Only Caim, the six armored knights, and the Hexaline Knight of Expedition Latice were still standing.

Subtly, Caim activated Flourish Catalyst. He’d experimented doing this alone in the festerfont, but it was still nerve-wracking to do now.

The ethereal metal seed materialized within one palm, covered by a tilted hand so that only he could see it. The glow of the seed was dim, but enough that the yellow-green glint caught his eye.

It was just as magnificent as the first time he laid eyes on it, no matter how subdued. Slowly, he brought that hand to his chest and felt the power take hold deep in his chest.

Hexknight Latice was looking away, likely because he understandably deemed Caim a harmless non-threat, an easily manageable Initiate.

Tactical Control System Primed Multi-Targeting System Prerequisite Conditions Met: Host

Caim felt the power inside him shiver with new possibilities. He anticipated the change in the spell’s capabilities.

“This doesn’t feel right, Hexknight,” one of the Welder Knights commented, his voice verberating through his helmet.

Staring down at a helpless Guild Defender kneeling on the grey brick floor had given the man pause. For someone clad in monstrous armor, he was surprisingly reluctant to act the savage.

The other knights were similarly rooted, but the armor oozed with the threat of overwhelming violence.

A knight was selected because they were willing to act out the theocracy’s holy will in all it’s viciousness, wasn’t what Gwen said? Well, more or less, I think I added or subtracted a word in there.

There was no time to waste deliberating. If there was ever a time to attempt to modify the Flourish Catalyst, now might be it. He’d lose his chance if they all died. It didn’t matter how confused he was by this sequence of events, and it didn’t matter if it drew attention.

However, the accumulated and sustained confusion throughout his time in Shroud had somewhat desensitized him to moments like this.

Even so, I should be kneeling like the others, shouldn’t I?

Caim targeted the Guild defender and four others close to the remaining knights. He wasn’t so clear on how all of this worked, but it seemed he wouldn’t need to physically touch any new targets so long as the spell had already taken hold of the host. That host served as a central beacon of sorts.

“I know what you mean,” Latice mused. “This isn’t how I thought a visit to a hall full of ancient warriors would go down. That’s right, seekers, I’ve read the stories too,” Latice addressed the submissive crowd with disdain.

Latice wanted resistance? It didn’t look like the Hexknight wished to kill anyone here, even by ordering a subordinate to do it. Caim couldn’t read his intentions.

“You’ll just have to push through for the sake of our Paragon. I know you can do it.”

Mention of the Paragon filled the knight with determination. He immediately adopted a “ready stance”.

“Understood, my lord. Your faith is more than I deserve.”

Now that was the voice of a theocracy puppet.

Caim focused on the four individuals he’d seeded with a fragment of the Flourish Catalyst spell. He could “see” it glowing on their person, but only when he concentrated. Doubting anyone else noticed anything strange, he set to work crudely, modifying the spell’s default parameters.

Tactical Control System Activated Rebalancing: Flourish Catalyst

None of them needed stamina right now. The targets weren’t completing any kind of endurance task, so there was no need to enhance their body’s abilities to replenish and refuel in that sense. No, they only needed to survive.

All in on healing, then.

Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - Blightbane Guild

The first punch hit the Guild Defender with a dull thud. Many of the silent, kneeling onlookers shuddered reflexively, even averting their gaze.

Fresh blood wet the floor, oozing from a wound in the victim’s cheek. He sucked in a quick breath, but otherwise, he didn’t react.

Caim waited, watching for the moment the magic took hold.

Green strands of light burst forth from the Defender’s chest and caressed the man’s body, twirled like ghostly vines. The wounded man gasped in surprise.

The wound on his cheek sealed entirely in seconds.

The knight standing over him noticed and gripped the Defender’s chin, roughly tugging him forward to examine the mended skin more closely.

“Vitality magic. But it didn’t trigger an echo. Silent-cast?” he verbalized his thought process.

Silent-cast? Must be some way of hiding magic, Caim guessed from context. I need to remember that something like this exists if I ever have to explain my magic again. If I live, that is.

“Silent or not, we’d have seen the discoloration in his eyes unless he was also somehow proficient in concealing that too,” Latice replied, scanning the room. “What is this? Is this magic the result of enchantment, or is it an active effect?”

No one had the answer, including the Defender. Caim started wondering if he’d made matters worse.

But… wow. That’s much stronger than the default version. It really does get more potent when you deactivate features.

Healing wasn’t the right word for that particular aspect of Flourish, but Caim wasn’t a physician, and the magic couldn’t be manipulated in any language he understood anyway. All he knew was he just had to think about what he wanted, and his intentions imprinted on the magic. If it were possible, it would happen.

With enigmatic spells like these, it was helpful that Vera had gifted him with a “manual” of sorts that would grant a baseline understanding. Yet, the way it did so was just as convoluted, injecting his consciousness with information.

And pain. Can’t forget about the headaches and nausea.

Over time, Flourish would communicate what it was capable of to him when the spell was active, and he thought intensely about it. In this way, he learned that it had two core functions.

One function was to make the body more mobile, make it more capable of incredible feats of agility, and sustain these capabilities for as long as possible. It let Caim push his useless body like it was a well-maintained sprinter’s temple.

Because of that, and because of Caim’s motivations, he’d already improved himself even when he was without the shortcut. It was a long way off, but he might also climb to Alice’s heights of athleticism.

No one had answered Latice’s question, so he glared at Mille, who he’d seen talking to Caim. She looked up at him, exhibiting swirls of fearful pink mixed with mournful blues.

The Hexknight slowly reached out for her collar, and she didn’t move a muscle to avoid whatever may come. He commanded tremendous authority in Shroud, and what was more, she was just a faron.

Latice hadn’t asked the question in anger, but he was annoyed at receiving no reply. He was also harboring another kind of minor hostility when he looked at Caim’s friend, but Caim didn’t understand what she’d done to deserve it.

Caim’s heart pounded, and his whole body felt hot in the thick Mage’s Carapace armor.

Why is this happening? he still couldn’t reason out. They didn’t do anything. These are just obedient citizens!

“Please forgive- Forgive me for speaking out of turn. I don’t think that man can turn it off,” Caim blurted out in a shaking voice. “She probably doesn’t know about it either,” he gestured in Mille’s direction.

His voice wasn’t shaking out of fear. Though he was afraid, this was another fundamental emotion bubbling up. If he had power, would he be able to do the right thing in a situation like this?

But without power... what was he doing? What would he say? Could Scion kill them? No. They were an entirely different existence. Even a Guild Champion was hopeless against one of the “lesser” knights.

Latice didn’t have to wear armor like that, didn’t have to make threats, didn’t have to carry a weapon, and everyone could grasp that it was “submit or die”.

“And why is that, Caim? Why would you know something when she doesn’t?” he said, striding confidently closer until their slight height discrepancy felt leagues more significant than it was.

Caim didn’t move, but he did wonder if Latice’s civilian clothes made him vulnerable to a well-placed attack. It didn’t matter. Caim had no weapons to speak of nor the skill to wield them.

“The Blightbane Guild is devoted to cleansing The Shrouded Theocracy of Blight. They do this for their reasons, but at the end of the day, these are loyal citizens who die for Shroud. Every tool to be more effective in that fight is a tool utilized in service to The Hexaline.”

He was still working out what he would say to the very end. The longer he kept talking, the less violence there would be until the point where the Hexknight finally got fed up with him stalling.

“I don’t know much about it, but I think there is a kind of ‘active enchantment’ in place right now localized to the building. This is a guess based on my experience with magic.”

It was the best Caim could think of on the spot. He was walking a dangerous line, but he kept on talking.

“Injuries happen all kinds of ways, and sometimes seekers don’t know how badly they’ve been wounded. It’s probably only for emergencies. I think maybe powerful people might forget how fragile the rest of us can be.”

Latice frowned, obviously unsatisfied by such a vague and scattered explanation. A Lifemage would know how far off Caim’s bluff was from legitimately healing magic, but it looked like the Hexknight wasn’t on that level.

“We have a license to use magic, Hexaline Knight,” Marian spoke up. “There are some spells that only activate when someone registered with the Guild is in danger. I should point out that these are entirely defensive. We don’t need the city to grant us emergency authority for measures such as what I’m describing.”

Marian seemed to have caught on that Caim was responsible, probably because Caim had a reputation for using strange magic. She avoided directly attributing this healing to whatever the Guild had prepared for emergencies. However, no one else had reason to doubt her. It was only Lactice’s directionless suspicions that made him difficult to convince.

With a snap and a pointed finger, the Hexknight compelled his subordinate to continue.

The second punch was more savage than the first, breaking the Defender’s nose and wetting the brick with blood. Even a light tap from a gauntleted fist was no joke.

The ugly dent in the man’s nose didn’t mend, but the split flesh closed up in less than a minute. The Defender took the pain silently, but he couldn’t completely hide the helplessness in his eyes.

Flourish continued to heal him, but it didn’t numb the pain.

“What in Pulse?!” the attacking knight exclaimed.

The Defender’s nose was contorting beneath the skin, and his fingers curled up to suppress the tremendous pain. Through a slow and miserable process, Flourish could apparently mend broken bones now.

New Defenders were targeted by the knights that had yet to make their first moves. One of them was someone to whom Caim had not granted Flourish’s boon.

This second function of the Flourish Catalyst enhanced the body’s regenerative abilities. Caim already had a lot of experience with how it would stop scrapes from bleeding without the need of additional treatment.

He didn’t think it would also be effective on bone. Well, it wasn’t the same. It looked like Flourish was ensuring the nose healed as it had been. Caim had many questions about how it determined this.

He never even had to make use of any of those healing stations littered about the city thanks to this spell. His Seeker Badge worked as identification for these, but even moderate wounds always mended over the walk back. It helped that his armor warded off more grievous wounds.

Without the education to think about the spell as a medical practitioner would, he focused instead on understanding what the spell revealed. He’d leave asking someone to help him experiment and record the results to a later date.

Come to think of it… I don’t even know what the date is in whatever’s Shroud’s calendar is. Hopefully not a day the city will have to memorialize.

So far, this incident had remained local and relatively tame as far as abuse of power was concerned.

“I don’t have the authority or capacity to deactivate defensive spells,” Marian shouted, looking past Latice to Caim. She seemed to be indicating something. “If you told me what you wanted, surely we could resolve this in some other way. I want us all to do all we can to resolve this peacefully.”

But Caim was distracted by the thought of the unprotected Defender among the new targets who probably believed she would be miraculously healed like the others.

For this reason, she was steadfast in taking the first punch. It was also possible the knight targeting her assumed she would be more hardy under the effects of the spell and consequently wasn’t as reluctant to hit someone who wasn’t going to fight back.

Unfortunately, they were both wrong, but Caim couldn’t let them find out. Carefully, he withdrew Flourish from a Defender who’d just recovered and placed it on this new miserable victim, whose jaw was bloody and quite probably dislocated.

Using Flourish Catalyst somehow enhanced the spell. It became more potent and unlocked new possibilities. Right now, Caim could assign it to six people.

That was equal to the number of knights in the room excluding Hexknight Latice, but that was not how this worked. The knights were alternating targets, perhaps to give them time to recover, and Caim himself was acting as a host for the core spell, leaving him with only five boons to distribute across upwards of twelve targets.

“I never wanted you to turn it off, but I do want them to fight back. You think we can resolve this peacefully? Do you inners have any idea what’s been going on out there? Maybe some places are fine for now, but the monsters don’t stop coming, and we need to be strong in case…”

Latice had said more than he intended to. He returned to his previous point.

“Technically, I could order them to resist, but there is a certain protocol for matters like these. To be honest, we aren’t accustomed to operating inside the Barrier, so the rules are confusing. None of you are technically charged with anything yet, and I won’t abuse my power to make something up.”

“I… Is that so… Then what do you want?” Marian asked frowning.

“Command them to defend themselves. Their victim act is leaving a bad taste in my mouth."

It did look like Latice was telling the truth about not wanting his knights beating on kneeling guards. And the knights had probably targeted Defenders because they were guards, whose job it was to take a beating for the Guild if necessary.

The victims aren’t their target. The Guild as an entity isn’t their target! These knights are after someone else in the room!

But... who? Latice was continuously scanning the hall for something with a rigid posture and a conflicted expression clouding his eyes. It was nothing like the cheerful mask he’d previously worn. He looked weary. Which personality was most genuine?

As for Marian, her easy-going demeanor had long vanished. She hesitated because she knew that it would cause the Defenders more trouble to make a command like that than to let him take the abuse kneeling.

Her eyes narrowed, and she inhaled sharply.

"Defender Heath- No, I address all on-duty Guild Defenders here... I forbid you from using your weapons, but please protect the Guild. Defend our home."

Marian was following what Latice had requested, but her wording was her act of defiance. This told everyone kneeling in the hall how she felt about this Hexaline Knight. Latice was the enemy.