Vignette - The Wise Woman

“What path have you imagined, Candidate?”

“I am sick of all this violence. Sick of people ignoring the three fold rule. I will take a different path. Like the Wise Women of old I will grow my crops with care and magic. Each ingredient has a portion of meaning. From spices to vegetables they are my paints and the world my canvas. In my Cauldron I will mix a message that will make the world a better place. I reject violence and embrace compassion. Let my magic do the same.

Chapter 16

Timothy was not an island.

Watching Regi do a grand working was a treat and a reminder of that simple fact.

All 123 Wanders stood behind him, the Brotherhood's magic stored in the bindings that linked them together. Bondes that Timothy hadn’t really noticed before. They normally blended into the chaos of the background magic field. Only now that they stood in ranks close together and called on them did he really pay attention. Once he knew what to look for they were blindingly obvious. To the point where Timothy wondered how he had failed to notice them before this. They stood out in vibrant stripes of blue and gold that smelled like dog hair. Ya, he couldn’t explain that one.

Then those lines pulsed. Like pushing the meat from a sausage casing the magic stored in each link raced towards Regi. Leaving behind much smaller ribbons with faded colors and no phantom scents. The links remained but would need to be recharged before they were worth much. That was a worry for later, for now Timothy couldn’t take his eyes away from his brother. The ribbons of magic coiled around him for a moment before launching themselves into the earth.

They sunk in and caused that very earth to shake and shift. Trenches, still carpeted in tall grasses, formed down into the prairie while hills rose up beside them. The result was a C shaped steep sided hill with a deep trench around the outside of it. The opening was small, enough for the 150 odd Volunteers to fill in ranks six men deep. A solid wall of sharp pointy spears, enhanced by but without any active magic. They planned to stand through the beast wave.

They would fail.

He still wondered if the lesson was worth the pain. He sighed but moved on. It wasn't his choice to make, and the die was already cast. At least he couldn’t doubt their courage. Even if it was courage born of ignorance. Fearing an inevitable failure he still hoped for their success. A familiar feeling when it came to his fellow man.

Regi and the guardians collapsed with a relieved sigh. He had assured Timothy that the bindings would recover in time for the test. In the meantime they were spent, and Timothy would have to step up and get it done.

They had decided to hold back the Essence Light weapons. The shovels could recharge without a human in the loop so they were usable, but they might need the Essence light for the real world. They couldn’t waste it now. That didn’t mean they had none of Timothy’s toys ready for use. Several formed wooden claymore’s would be set up around the mounds and the motion wards were ready. He would have to find something useful to do with the stored motion after the fight was over.

He’d distributed them around the sides of the C shape, but there were not enough of them for full coverage. There would be gaps for the beasts to exploit. That was at the ground layer, it completely ignored the air. They were going to have issues with birds this time.

It would have to be enough. Regi and his mind melders would have to cover the sky. He promised thunder and lightning and that it would be very very frightening. That and some fierce winds. For the rest, the fighters would stay as close to the motion wards as they could get and the non combatives would hide in a bunker in the center of the C.

And that was on him. A bit of joining of rock shards on top, and some digging underneath provided them a tight fitting series of caves with a stone roof over the dirt. It would be tight, but they would fit. Plenty of air holes in place to make sure no one suffocated, a few side caves for latrines. It would work out. One trick he had found for making rooms underground was to abuse the creation of essence dirt. Concentrating the dirt to make walls or a floor was much more effective than carrying it all out. Considering the ratio was one to four by volume it was pretty effective.

It took time and effort, but at last they were ready.

After a communal meal (Jessey went all out, her bubbling stone pot granting anyone who ate from it a temporary boost to their physical strength, each of the willing norms was hefting the heavy pikes like they were twiggs!) and some stress filled bragging about who was going to become a guardian it was at last time to assume the position.

The norm squad formed up like a porcupine in the opening. One olive skinned kid standing in front of them with a wooden sword. It turned out that essence wood held a surprisingly sharp edge. Still Timothy did not have high hopes for him. Or for the rest of them frankly. He had raised a small essence dirt wall behind them just in case. It was manned with a smattering of guardians wielding shovels. It was necessary. When they were overrun, the non combatants would not be next. The remaining guardians, and two pathfinders, Jenney would not fight, spread out on the other three sides and settled in to wait.

They didn't wait long.

Fog rose from the ground in swirls and eddies. Slowly taking on the familiar forms. A passel of giant boars formed opposite the norms, some 50 strong. Hovercrocs swam into existence to the top of the C while the back was to the river and nothing formed on that side yet, the bottom of the C was graced by a couple dozen pairs of jarapters. It was about to get heavy.

The fog leaked up and the beasts gained solidity and definition. Then it began.

“SQUEEEEEEEEELLLLLL” The warcry of insanity rang out. Doing the standard number on the defenders, massed ranks flinched and began to fall apart before the massed noise, only to be countered by a strong tenor voice, rising in a strident martial hymn.

Gareth was proving his worth already, the lines of pikes reformed and hunkered down.

Lord for what they are about to receive, may they be truly thankful.

Red eyed the boars began to charge.

Timothy had to look away, he had his own responsibilities to look to. He was situated to the north and hovercrocs were scary enough, 30-35 feet of cold blooded eating machine. They shot forward in strange arcs and slides. Professional ice skaters on a tropical beach. The mind boggled! Unfortunately so did the eyes. It was unnatural and his human instincts built up over the entirety of human history and before betrayed them. The mind rejected motion that was entirely outside of his species racial memory.

A Blink and they had halved the distance. Thunder rumbled, Regi getting to work in C’s bottom, again not Timothy’s problem, he had weeping crocs to deal with.

Don’t blink!

And they were there, sliding through the cracks in the shield like they could see it. With a start he triggered his shovel. No specific rune on this simple wooden stick. Just a 2 foot square wood chipper placed where the croc had to come. Intact arms shot past him on either side, as a pile of red sawdust poured out into a small hill below him.

Just red sawdust. No time to freak out.

He could not keep looking forward, watching as a living creature shoved itself into a transparent wood chipper, its high momentum making it slide forward long after it was dead. The entire 30 odd feet of croc would indeed blend, and he had ringside seats a foot from the blades.

He looked away. Holding the shovel active he looked away. It didn't help, but he caught sight of the first giant boar as it took a running jump, stored motion launching it like a pig shaped lawn dart. It shot across twenty feet and slammed into the waiting pikes. Having just triggered the motion release there was a short delay before a boar could start to absorb more. Instead a ton and a half of insane ham hit the braced spears.

They didn’t run, dimly heard singing perhaps explained why, they held… for a moment. That much mass simply overwhelmed the defenders. The Boar died but he crushed a line 4 people wide and 6 rows deep, pinwheeling over and through, the pikes became threshing flails. And that was only the first, again and again they impacted the line, dying on the pikes, but never dying alone.

Back to his task, he could not help them now.

A shrill spectral buzzard slammed into the men beside him. The vulture that sent the blast did not live to regret it though, it swooped a smidgen too low and accordioned into the top of the motion ward. It’s head’s considerable speed was reduced to almost nothing in an instant while the rest of its body was still moving. Splat!

Damn the vicious critters though, they were seven kinds of dangerous. In all the practice battles he had never seen a man die to one, but many a battle was lost when the men were frozen by fear and could not defend against other beasts. They got theirs when the fight was over and there were leftovers to be had.

Again he pushed those thoughts from his head. He had a simple task to do. He needed to hold the shovel up in this gap between the motion wards. Just that. Somebody else was responsible for the Vultures.

When lightning arced up in the sky Timothy knew that somebody was still on the job. From the corner of this eye he saw the lightning arc out from Arthur, some 20 feet or so to his right, and a charred body fell from the sky in response.

Oh yes they had plans. Regi’s magic was odd that way. He could take from all those connected to him, but they could also take from him. He could see through them if he chose, or he could let them see what he saw. He may have been stationed to the bottom of the C, but he was really everywhere.

A comforting thought as thunder boomed again and again.

A scream rang out to his left, a snake, more shadow then solid, was coiling about the guardian three down from Timothy. A second snake stuck from inside the motion suppressing field right as he turned. Shadow snakes, hard to see and with venom that dissolved their victim into a liquid shadow for easy consumption. They were slow moving ambush predators. Right up until they made their final lightning fast bite. The bastards had slithered right through the wards.

One man was caught unaware, but his scream clued in the rest. Shovels activated up and down the line, giving mercy to one man and quickly swept through the edge of the motion field. Killing a number of the snakes while they were incapable of striking.

It went on and on. Screams rose, human and beast alike. Smells beyond human endurance and sights that the mind refused to recognize.

He held, his will was forged in pain and sacrifice. This horror would not master him.

He was the master of his mind, and his mind the master of his body.

He held as the pile below him poured over his boots and spread.

He held till, at last, blessed silence reigned.

End Part One, The Tutorial