I groaned as consciousness slowly reasserted itself over my senses. My entire body ached, my head throbbed, and a thick, cottony taste filled my mouth. I spat as I blinked open my eyes, trying to get the taste out, then suddenly remembered my last moments before unconsciousness. I snapped my eyes open and tried to stand, but my hands and feet wouldn’t move. My blurred vision cleared, and I looked around in confusion.

“Where the hell am I?” I muttered. The room surrounding me could only be called that by the loosest of measures. The floor and walls were dirt, and roots dangled from the upper walls and ceiling like tentacles. The space was small, maybe thirty feet across, with an old, dilapidated bookshelf against one wall, filled with books that looked half-rotted. The air was thick, wet, and heavy, filled with the brownish haze I’d noticed above and a strange, musky scent that I didn’t recognize but that smelled vaguely familiar.

I glanced down at myself and saw that my feet were bound together with a strip of leather, tied tightly. I sat on the damp, dirt floor with my hands tied behind me, fastened around what felt like a wooden pole when I bumped the back of my head against it.

“Ah, so the Sorvaraji awakens,” a warm, mellow voice spoke. My gaze swiveled to the center of the room, where a tall, thin man with elegant features, light blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes stood beside a table that looked like a silver slab atop a pedestal of some bluish-white, opalescent stone I didn’t recognize. A pentagram had been inscribed on the floor in what looked like powdered silver, with candles guttering at each point of the symbol and twisted, arcane symbols written around its periphery and interior. As I looked at the diagram, my stomach twisted, and nausea swept through me; this figure was somehow related to the imbalance in this world.

I spat again, trying to get the foul taste out of my mouth as my brain clicked into gear. “The lomoraji, I presume,” I said after a moment. “What did you do, drug me? Poison me?”

“Nothing of the sort,” he chuckled in that melodic voice. “I just gave you some herbal medicines to speed your healing.” He made a face. “Sadly, the power of the moons isn’t really very good at healing. Blood magic can stabilize injuries and keep them from getting worse, but the Sun kept the leurik’s share of beneficial magics for itself.”

“Why would you heal me?” I asked slowly.

He shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I? Down here, you’re no real threat to me, and while my pets are wonderful creatures, there’s no true replacement for the company of another omeni.” As he spoke, he turned to look behind him. I spotted a dark patch that I realized was a tunnel a moment later, when a huge creature stalked out of it. The beast stood five feet tall and twelve long, taking up a huge portion of the room by itself. Its body was feline, covered with bristly fur in an elaborate pattern of black, gray, and lavender that was hard to focus on. It had a head similar to a tiger’s, with blazing emerald eyes and swirling patterns of black and gray across it, plus a thick black ruff around its neck that looked almost like a lion’s mane. The creature walked over to the man, who stroked its face gently. It turned its gaze toward me and let out a menacing, rumbling growl that prickled up my spine like ice.

“Now, Emil,” the man said gently but chidingly, “you scared him plenty already. Why don’t you go lay down and keep an eye on him?”

The big cat let out a last growl before stalking to one side of the room and collapsing into a pile of what looked like discarded furs and clothing. It laid its head down, its eyes staring at me and its tail lashing disquietly.

The man laughed. “Sorry about that. Emil’s a good boy, but he doesn’t know his own strength. I just asked him to bring you two to me, not to hurt you.”

“That ‘good boy’ killed a bunch of omeni about an hour from here in the forest,” I said flatly. “Makes it hard to believe he’s just a harmless pet.”

The lunar mage winced. “Yes, I saw that in his memories. He was out hunting when he encountered them, and his instincts took control before I could interfere.” He shook his head. “Such a waste, really, especially considering that come tomorrow, they’ll all rise again as hungering themselves.” He shivered. “That’s not a fate I’d wish on my worst enemies.”

I looked around the room, subtly testing the leather bonds around my wrists. They were tight, but not tight enough to cut off circulation to my hands, which meant I had enough leeway to work with them. It’s a pretty common mistake; people don’t want to bind someone tightly enough for their hands to turn purple for some reason – I mean, it’s not like they’re tying you up for your health – so they forget that wrists are oblong, and a small shift can create a fair bit of slack.

“What is this place?” I asked to cover up my movements. “I can tell we’re underground – are we beneath the lake?”

“Correct!” he said happily, then paused. “Well, partially correct. We’re beneath the pool in the center of the island in the center of the lake in the center of the Darkwood.” He laughed happily. “Not an easy thing to say, for sure!”

“There’s a pool in the middle of the island?” I asked, glancing up at the ceiling and pausing my efforts for a moment. A perfect circle of blackness hung directly above the table, eight feet wide and completely smooth and glossy. At first, I thought it was some sort of black crystal until I saw the brown smudge floating in the center of it. “Is – is that the brown moon?”

“Yes! That’s Fiare, hanging above us,” he said excitedly. “That’s the secret of the lake and its waters, you see. This whole area is a sort of collector for lunar raju, but especially for bestial magic. The lake’s waters absorb Fiare’s light without reflecting it, allowing it to soak into the ground. Over millennia or perhaps eons, the entire forest has become drenched in lunar magic.”

He reached up and touched a dangling root. “That’s why the darkwood trees are so tough and dense, you know. Blood magic is good at making things stronger and more resilient.” He gazed toward his apparently tamed or charmed leurik. “And it’s why Emil, here, is so big and strong. Aren’t you, boy?” The leurik purred happily, never taking its eyes off me as it did.

“The Darkwood is one of the few places where someone like this woman, here, could tame an animal like her cairnik without using a spell. The bestial magic is simply that strong here. It makes the forest creatures more prolific, more savage, and easier to control and command. It’s how I tamed Emil, and how he led me to this place.”

I recalled the heavy musk filling the air. “This is its den, isn’t it? It was living here, on this island, all this time.”

“Yes, he was. Emil is a living creature, not a thing.” The man’s eyes flashed angrily, and I suddenly saw a hint of the madness Vasily had mentioned, lurking just beneath the surface. “I hate when people treat animals like – like things! Emil’s life is just as valuable as any omeni’s – more, really, because his kind are so rare, and if he dies, it’ll destabilize the entire ecosystem around here.” His eyes blazed. “But people can’t see that, can they? No, the forest’s creatures are just things to them, food to be eaten, a source of furs, or a danger to be slaughtered.”

“I’m sorry I called Emil an ‘it’,” I said softly, trying to calm the man down. “I should have said, ‘him’. It was my mistake, and I was wrong.”

The lomoraji settled almost instantly. “Apology accepted,” he smiled. “Actually, I was surprised to hear that from you, considering that you travel with a woman who obviously knows the true value of animals – as partners and companions, not things.” He reached down and touched something atop the table I couldn’t see, and my heart skipped a beat.

“Renica?” I said loudly.

“Oh, she can’t hear you,” the man smiled at me. “To clarify, she can’t hear you because she’s not awake. It’ll be kinder to her if she sleeps through what’s going to happen to her.”

I took in the table, the woman’s position atop it, and the ritual surrounding it, and a sudden fear filled me. The man was going to sacrifice Renica; I didn’t know why, but that much seemed certain. My first thought was to attempt to break my bonds and kill the man, but with the leurik watching me, I had to be careful. My only chance was to take them both by surprise, kill the leurik with a flaming fist empowered by Solar Strike, and then move on the man. I needed time to do that – which meant keeping the man talking.

“So, you never told me what this place is,” I noted, forcing my voice to stay calm.

“This is one of the few remaining Noviladan Moon Altars,” the man explained, preening a bit as he did. “Long ago, before the Empire and the invasion of our land, our forefathers gathered at altars like these to perform ancient rites to the moons.” He looked at me. “Do you know the story?”

“Somewhat,” I hedged. “I know that the Larjeeni claim that when they invaded Novilad, they found a culture barely at the edge of survival. I don’t know that it’s true, though.”

“Perceptive of you. Yes, the Larjeeni told the tale that they wished everyone to hear, about how our forebears were savage primitives, living at the mercy of the moons.” He laughed. “Of course, even cursory examination proves that to be a lie. After all, how could a savage, primitive society have survived the ravages of the mooncursed?”

“You know how they did?” I asked, still working furiously at my bonds. They were looser, but I didn’t know how long it was going to take to get enough slack to pull an arm out.

“Not at first, but I’ve learned since I came here,” he said, pointing to the leurik. “They didn’t fear the moons because they used them to protect themselves! They used the power of the moons to tame the beasts of the world, to strengthen themselves, and to grant themselves resistance to sickness and injury. They mastered the powers that we poor lomoraji are still struggling to unlock.” He shook his head. “So much lost, and why? Because the Larjeeni were sun-worshippers and hated the moons!”

“Sun-worshippers?” I echoed. As I did, I got an idea. If I could channel power into my fists, I could certainly channel it around my wrists. It would hurt, to be sure, but I’d be free, and I could deal with the pain. At least, I hoped I could.

“Oh, yes. That’s in all of their writings, you know. They idolized the Sun and its magic and feared the moons, while our ancestors mastered the power of the moons and still lived in the sun!” He laughed, and once again, I heard that touch of madness. “Who were the primitives, do you think? The fearful Larjeeni, hiding from the moons, or the Noviladians, standing fearlessly both day and night?”

As the man spoke, I imagined the power gathering toward me, flowing around me in a red-orange mist. I pictured it condensing around me, flowing down to my wrists, and wrapping into a tight line of blazing fire. I held the image in my mind, poured power into it – and nothing happened. I blinked in surprise; no power gathered, no energy swirled around me. It was as if my solar raju didn’t exist at all…

John Gilliam, Tamer of the Divine

Mental Stats

Reason: 18 Intuition: 17 Perception: 20 Charm: 7

Physical Stats

Prowess: 12 Vigor: 10 Celerity: 11 Skill: 12

Solar Raju: 0 (0/minute recovery)

Which, apparently, it didn’t.

“Noticing that you can’t use your magic down here?” the man chuckled. “Yes, that’s the only reason it’s safe to leave you alive, I’m afraid. The lake above blocks solar raju from passing through it; you’re locked away from the Sun, here, and that leaves you helpless.” He shrugged. “Be glad of it; otherwise, I’d have had to kill you.”

My mind raced. I could eventually work my way out of my bonds, but without my spells, I didn’t know how I was going to deal with the leurik. From the feel of it, the lomoraji left me with my hatchet and knife, probably thinking that they would be useless against a creature as powerful as the feline – and he was right. Even with my war axe, I wouldn’t stand a chance without magic. I needed more time, time to try and find a way out of this…

“I’ve heard that the use of moon magic can be – detrimental to the user,” I said a bit desperately.

The man’s eyes narrowed, and he took a couple steps toward me. “Are you suggesting I’m mad?” he asked softly.

“No, not at all,” I shook my head, suddenly wishing that my Charm stat was much higher. “It’s just that when I first heard how the Noviladians used lunar magic, I wondered how they did it safely. Obviously, you’ve figured it out.”

He stared at me, his eyes hard, madness glimmering just behind them, then relaxed. “A good question,” he finally sighed. “The very reason I came here in the first place, in fact.” He went over to the bookshelf and took out a book that looked ancient, its binding cracked and faded, but also looked less affected by the damp than the other books there.

“It all began here,” he said excitedly, holding up the book and touching a strange seal on it, one that looked almost like a gold and silver yin yang. “Do you know what this is? Do you recognize this seal?” I shook my head. “This is the Imperial Seal of the Hilmenrik Empire, Sorvaraji. I hold in my hands one of the few remaining works from the time of the Empire – one of the only treatises of magic penned by Emperor Florin himself, in fact!”

I froze, staring at the book in the man’s hands. “Really?” I asked. “I thought they were all destroyed!”

He shook his head frantically. “No, you see, the Vanatori didn’t truly want to lose all of Florin’s teachings, in case they wanted to use them themselves one day. So, they kept what copies they could find and locked them away – but some of them escaped their clutches.” The man giggled and caressed the book in his hands. “Didn’t you, my dear?”

I took his moment of inattention to wrench at my bonds, loosening them significantly as the damp leather stretched. I fell still before he could look back at me, his eyes suspicious. “I’m not mad, you know,” he said softly. “They say that all lomoraji go mad, but I’m not insane. My mind is clear.”

“I believe you,” I lied as carefully as I could.

He frowned. “You don’t. I can sense that.” He looked around. “I came here to prove that I wasn’t mad, to show that what I always knew to be true was indeed correct.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, thrashing when he wasn’t looking and gaining even more slack in my bonds. The leurik lifted its head and growled warningly, but I ignored it. I yanked on the leather, twisting, and I felt one hand slip out. My elbow smacked into something soft, and I looked down and saw that the man had put our packs beside me. My heart leaped; maybe there would be something in them I could use – if only he would look away for longer. I had my hands back in place before he looked back at me, but even with my hands free, I didn’t know what I could do against the huge feline.

“The moons,” he grinned at me, pointing overhead. “How many are there?”

“Three,” I answered slowly. It was the obvious answer, which meant it had to be the wrong one, as far as he was concerned, but it was the only one I could give.

“Ha! Incorrect!” he crowed triumphantly. “Or, more specifically, only partially correct. There are three moons in the sky, it’s true – but it wasn’t always that way.”

“It wasn’t?” I watched him carefully, waiting for him to look away, but he kept his gaze on me as he spoke.

“No, it wasn’t. I’ve always thought that, but in the writings of the ancients – of Florin himself – I found proof that I was right!” He held up the book, his eyes dancing with glee. “You see, that’s the secret, the proof that I’m not mad! The moons – once, they were one! Somehow, they were separated, and I believe it’s that separation that damages the minds of those who use the moons’ magic.”

He turned away from me, and I grabbed the nearest pack and dragged it behind me, out of sight. He didn’t seem to notice, and when he turned back, I still sat, still and unmoving – with my freed hands buried in the pack behind me, searching carefully but frantically.

“You see, that’s what I’ve been doing here,” he continued, apparently oblivious to my newfound freedom. “I’ve harnessed the power of the silver moon, but I’ve changed it.” He gestured at the ritual drawn on the floor, its lines nowhere near as smooth and pristine as Viora’s diagram had been. The augury was right; the man had clumsy hands, indeed.

“I’ve figured out a way to shift death magic into bestial magic, you see! With this ritual – and an appropriate sacrifice – I can command the power of the silver moon, the first step to rejoining the shattered moons!”

He reached out and touched Renica gently again. “First, I tried using one of the undying as the focus for the spell,” he admitted. “That didn’t work at all, and it set me back two days. Then, I tried using an iupak.” He sighed. “I despaired to do it, but it needed to be done.”

He looked back at me. “And it worked – only not very well. The power of the silver moon killed the poor animal, and its death released a wave of bestial energy, but I couldn’t control it. It simply flooded the Heart and spilled out in the Darkwood.”

“Which explains why the animals in the forest were going crazy,” I thought silently.

“It might, yes,” Sara replied silently. “It depends on how much power he unleashed, but from what I can tell, bestial magic does tend to make its user a bit savage and easily enraged.”

“Since then, I’ve tried a cerbak and even a cairnik,” he said. “But they just unleash more uncontrolled power. That’s when I realized that I needed an omeni.” He looked over at me, and his face grew sad. “I sent my cairnik pack to collect some from the forest, but they never returned. I have to assume that the villagers killed them.” He sighed, then turned back to Renica.

“However, it might have been a blessing in disguise. This one – she’s the sacrifice I need. Not just an omeni, but a moon-touched omeni, and one attuned to Fiare, at that!”

“What?” I froze as my hand touched something hard in the pack. At first, I thought it was a weapon, but my heart sank as I realized it was one of Renica’s clay discs. My eyes narrowed as an idea occurred to me, and I grabbed the disc, holding it tightly.

“She’s moon-touched,” the man repeated. “She can use lunar magic. Didn’t you know? Didn’t she?” I shook my head, although as I did, I realized that if Renica did know that she could use that sort of magic, she probably wouldn’t have told anyone.

The man shook his head. “Again, what a waste. The poor girl probably went her whole life not understanding who she truly was. She probably always felt drawn to the forest and the animals within it – and uncomfortable around others, beneath the slave chains of the Sun’s Peace.” He sighed. “And now, she’ll die, never knowing what power might have been hers…AAIIGH!”

The lomoraji shrieked as Vikarik suddenly lunged from the tunnel and charged the man. The caster fell back, but even as he did, he flung strands of ugly, brown energy over the dog, and Vikarik froze, shaking her head and looking confused. It looked like the beast’s attack ended as quickly as it started, but in that moment, the leurik turned its gaze away from me and toward the intruder – and I seized that chance.

I snatched my hatchet from its sheath and let it fly in one smooth motion. The blade whirled end-over-end, slamming into the man’s shoulder and burying itself in his upper chest. He clutched the axe and fell backward as I grabbed my knife and slashed the leather holding my legs, parting them.

The leurik roared and leaped toward me, and my left hand darted out, gripping an eight-inch clay disc with an elaborate figure drawn upon it. I snapped my hand forward, hurling the disc like a Frisbee at the feline as I rolled sideways to escape its charge. Its roar swept over me, numbing my muscles, but I fought off the tingling paralysis and kept rolling. The disc flew low, toward the creature’s chest, but the leurik snatched it from the air with its jaws and clamped down.

BOOM!

The chamber lit with brilliant orange light as the disc shattered, unleashing a wave of solar raju. Flames exploded from the leurik’s mouth, scorching and blackening its fur and flesh. It shook its head and yowled in pain as fire licked its mouth, searing its throat, and I saw that the flames burned a large chunk of its tongue away. Its eyes fastened on me as I scrambled to my feet, and it growled menacingly before lunging forward.

I dove to the side once again, but the leurik’s claws caught my side and slammed me backward, tearing four deep trenches in my flesh. I hissed in pain and lashed out with the knife, casting Solar Strike almost by instinct and forgetting that I was blocked from the sun’s power down here. Energy flared down my arm, burning hot, but a similar wave of power wrapped around it, cooling the heat. The energy coursing down me felt – right, more correct than it ever had, and I slammed the knife into the leg pinning me down, driving the power into it as I did.

The leurik screamed as the knife blade sank effortlessly into its flesh and fire exploded from its leg. The flames sucked into the wound and raced up its leg, scorching and blackening its flesh almost to its body before winking out. The leurik sprang backward, and I staggered to my feet, the knife held out in front of me. The creature crouched and rushed at me, its charge so swift I barely saw it coming. I slashed with the knife and felt another surge of power rush down the blade. The slim knife slid through the creature’s flesh, but its flaming teeth sank into my left shoulder, and it lifted me off the ground.

I screamed and plunged the knife almost blindly toward its face, my arm screaming in burning agony. The knife sank deep into it, and I poured energy into the weapon, driving it into the creature. The leurik roared and flung me to the side, tearing the weapon from my weakened grasp and sending me tumbling across the floor to slam into an earthen wall. I groaned and pushed myself back to my feet, shoving the pain in my side and shoulder down into the depths of my awareness. Icy energy seeped into my wounds, numbing the pain slightly, and I straightened, readying myself for the beast’s next attack.

The leurik wasn’t paying any attention to me, though. It raged about, slashing at air and roaring furiously, and I realized that I buried my knife in its eye. Smoke coiled up from the wound, and crimson fire seared along its head and down its neck, following the thick veins in its throat. I backed away from the creature and turned toward the lomoraji, who’d yanked the axe from his shoulder and was rising slowly and shakily to his feet.

“Y-you!” he gasped, pointing a trembling finger at me. “L-look what you’ve done! Emil! My Emil!”

“You’re next,” I growled, crouching and getting ready to spring.

The man muttered a word, and a lash of power snapped out toward me. I staggered sideways, and the whip of energy flashed by me, but it quickly corrected and dove toward me. The energy slammed into my forehead, crawling into my skull. I felt tiny tendrils of it slipping into my brain, trying to bury themselves deep within. I gritted my teeth and pressed back, imagining a helmet of power wrapped around my skull. I poured burning energy into the image, and I felt the tendrils vanish instantly.

I shook my head and lunged forward, my fist lashing out and crashing into the man’s skull. His head snapped back, and I grabbed his shirt and pulled him forward, slamming my forehead into his face. His nose crunched beneath my skull, and bright blood sprayed from him, splattering the floor beneath us – which lit up as the diagrams suddenly started to glow with power. As it did, my stomach fluttered, twisting into a knot as my Sense Imbalance ability reminded me that I was there to stop the ritual, not activate it.

“No, not yet!” he screamed, pushing me away with a burst of strength that sent me tumbling backward. He touched the diagram, and the glow faded – but didn’t quite die. He jerked the hatchet from his shoulder and rushed at me, holding it awkwardly with his uninjured left arm. He swung the axe in a clumsy blow that I easily avoided.

I grabbed his extended arm with my good one and twisted, hyperextending his elbow and forcing the limb straight. I twisted and tucked his elbow beneath my unwounded shoulder and yanked upward, hard. His elbow shattered with a loud crack, and he screeched in pain as I released him.

I picked up my fallen hatchet and turned back to the rampaging leurik. Whatever hold the lomoraji had on the creature seemed broken, and it tore at everything in its path in an absolute frenzy. I took a deep breath, then rushed over to it, picturing my Solar Strike spell in my mind as I did. Again, the energy felt off, and I hastily cooled it until it felt comfortable in my thoughts. The beast didn’t even notice me until I slammed the hatchet into its side, sliding the axe between the ribs and driving the energy into it. It lashed out, maddened with pain, and its claws swept across my chest, flinging my backward and tearing open three long, bloody furrows. I rolled with the impact as best I could, gritting my teeth against the agony flaring in my shoulder and chest, then struggled to one hand and my knees.

The leurik took a staggering step toward me, its jaws hanging open, dripping fire and blood in equal measures. My knife jutted from one eye, and the other steamed and smoked from the spell I’d poured into it. I tried to rise, but my body simply wasn’t responding. I could only watch as it took another slow step – and dropped, collapsing in a heap on the floor.

“Renica, John! Don’t forget Renica!” Sara’s voice was urgent in my head, and I forced myself to stand, putting aside the pain in my body. I staggered over to the altar where the woman lay, unbound but unconscious. I didn’t have the strength to carry her, so I grabbed her shirt with one hand and began dragging her off the altar.

“NOOOO!” the lomoraji shrieked, flinging himself bodily into me and gnashing at me with his teeth. His weight staggered me, but I slammed a knee into his stomach, knocking him back, then shoved Renica off the altar, letting her fall to the earth floor below and hoping it didn’t harm her.

“Then let it be you!” the lomoraji screamed, his madness fully apparent in his wide eyes and rictus grin. I turned back to him, ready to fight, but he wiped his hand on his bloody face and slammed it down onto the ritual circle. Instantly, the diagram blazed with power, and energy poured into me, flooding my body.

I screamed as the icy power roared through me, surging in my veins and battering my mind. It tore at my flesh and clawed at my will, burrowing inside me and racing along my veins.

“Control it, John!” Sara shouted, barely heard over my own screams and the power tearing me apart from within. I didn’t know what she meant; this wasn’t the warm power of the sun. Frigid death ripped at my being, trying to tear my life from me. “Like this!”

An image flashed in my mind, one of my guiding the power around me instead of through me, back toward the grinning lomoraji. I grasped onto that image like a drowning man to a life preserver and poured everything I had into it. Every ounce of energy and will within me surged into that image and erupted from me, back toward the lomoraji.

The man’s eyes opened wide in shock and fear as a column of silver power flecked with brilliant yellow slammed into him. The energy wrapped around him like grasping tentacles, plunging into his chest and eyes and surging through his gaping mouth. His body stiffened, and black smoke poured from his mouth in a long stream, thick and acrid. He coughed once, then collapsed into a heap. A moment later, I did the same as the last of my strength faded.

“John, picture this,” Sara said urgently, sending me an image of my blood coursing back into my body, flowing up against gravity and sucking into my wounds. Fire flared at the wounds, sealing them shut, leaving angry welts.

Exhaustion washed over me, but the intensity in her voice drove me, and I forced my brain to fasten onto the image, holding it tightly. “Now, empower it. Hurry, you’re losing blood fast!”

I channeled the orange-red fire of my solar raju into it, but I knew right away that the energy was simply – wrong. It burned my mind and my skin; I couldn’t imagine what it would do to my blood. Icy power raged in the air around me, and I grabbed it, using it to tame the dwindling flames of the solar raju the clay disc released. I poured the cool energy into the image, and I felt it wash over me. Power flooded my wounds, and life seemed to seep into me, restoring my fading energy. My injuries burned briefly, and the power faded, leaving me panting on the floor in a blissful lack of pain.