065 - The Sleeping Forest

The short sword trembled, slashing through the air at him. Magnus raised his arm to catch it again, but the sword suddenly stopped, raising up and slashing down on his head forcing him to leap back.

Cheeky little bastard! It adapted so fast . .

The sword flew through the air, a thick yellow aura gathered at its tip. Magnus remained still this time, letting it approach to within a foot before reacting.

Swoosh!

Just as the tip pierced the outer layer of his jacket Magnus twisted his torso, the sword stabbing through the flesh of his side. He quickly grabbed hold of the hilt, pulling it out and holding it tightly.

The short sword vibrated fiercely in his grasp, trying to break free or cut at him. No good. The Heart Sword simply wasn't strong enough to break out of his grip. What about a sheath? Min had been wearing a sheath at her waist, right? Magnus thrust the blade into the hardwood sheath, but it instantly split, the blood aura intensifying its ferocity. He could feel the depths of the curse . . a black hatred soaked into the very fabric of the sword.

Breaking is no good, it won't stay sheathed, hmm. This was truly a troublesome matter. Magnus focused on the aura around the blade for a time, sending a yellow thread of Mens out from his fingertip. The thread touched the blood coloured aura and could go no further. No good. What about Vigour? He did the same with a red thread, nothing.

Min had always been the one to study curses, even going so far as to steal into Ji Min's personal library . . a curse like this would be nearly impossible to break with the materials on this world, but that didn't mean it would be impossible to deal with.

Ji Min . . mother . . mother?

Magnus felt a sharp pain behind his eyes. No . . not my . . he took a deep breath, the throbbing in his head slowly passing.

Any curse like the Heart Sword would have its limits, a way to dispel the effects . . hmm . . it would have to have a certain range, a limit to how far it could detect its target. Alright. He looked around, spotting a nearby boulder by the river.

Magnus acted without hesitation, slamming the blade onto a rock and shattering it. Before the pieces could gather back together he lifted the boulder and smashed it down on the pieces, burying the sword in the ground.

On the boulder he etched the shape of an eye within an open palm with the tip of his finger, sending out a thread of Mens as he drew. A simple Hamsa ward, ought to suffice to keep the curse in check for a time. If I hurry I could get out of the range of the curse.

"Min, how far is the effect for the Heart Sword?" Magnus muttered aloud. "Oh, right. Nevermind." He shook his head sadly.

Where to now? Back to Kujata? He looked over at the corpse of Sif . . she won't be too happy about that. Poor mutt. Ah. Didn't it bring me something? Magnus took another look at white candle. Of course, if she's given me this it's obviously to light. I wonder why?

Magnus sniffed the candle . . there didn't seem to be anything untoward, just normal wax and wick, no medicinal aromas.

Should I just light it here? Hmm. Probably best not to hang around, find a cave or somewhere safe . . from what? I can just use the woods for trees formation! Ah ha! Thats right, what a wonderful formation!

Magnus found a relatively cleaner set of clothes from a hunter about his build, replacing his torn jacket and gathered the green stones, pausing to look at the corpses of Soo and Min.

I can't leave them here like this . . . what if someone come looking for them? Oh, thats right. In his mind arose memories of the last couple of weeks, Min and Soo travelling through Jute, coming down on one of the Alchemists formations to the south. No one's going to come, not for me or sis . . not for Soo or Min. They'd be expected back before the auction on Domus starts, but even if they didn't return.

Who was going to come looking for lowly servants of the fourth outer court? Sung Hu was in the outer palace, he wouldn't be back for months, and mother . . mother . . no! My mother is . . Ji Min? No . . my mother's name is . . my father's name is . .

Magnus face contorted with confusion.

My parents . . what are their names? I can't . . I can't remember! My name, I'm Magnus Lund. Kloster . . . Rolf . . Pa Lund . . mother . . father . . why can't I remember their names? They look . . they look like . . ah . . my brother and sister . . my . . Festus . . FESTUS! Arrgghh!

No matter how much he tried, Magnus could not see the faces or remember the names of his family, his memories and those of Soo overlapping and conflicting, a boiling rage erupting every time the image of Festus or any other Alchemist appeared within his mind's eye.

Soo had seen plenty of Alchemists, they had come to this world using the Alchemists interstellar formations . . the towers . . the auction . .

A vast amount of information paraded itself before Magnus, everything that Soo had seen, had heard, had experienced within his life!

Focus!

Where do I go . . what do I do now?

Yeah . . on Soo . . Magnus went over to Soo’s body and rifled through the inner pockets, finding a pouch heavy with coins and stone tokens. Not much, but the tokens could be used to travel through the Alchemists formation back to Domus, useless to Magnus as they had been keyed to Min and Soo.

The token . . thats right! Something was off about the stone token Waldemar had given him. Magnus took out the stone with the imprint of a fist, sending a yellow thread out into it. Within the stone token there was a faint trace of Animus, a single blue thread in the shape of a five pointed star. An Alchemist's tracking sigil! The Witching Road . . the people who fought against the tyranny of the Alchemists . .

Magnus gathered his mind, setting off south towards the Vale. It would take a day at a quick pace to get back to the village at the foot of the horn, not more than a half day from the Vale to the shrine.

The wound in his side where the sword stabbed through had already knitted over, only a slight scar remained. In a pouch at his side he placed the several green stones and the stone token he'd got from Waldemar. Magnus set off at a decent jog, running down the dirt roads south, soon leaving the field of corpses far behind.

He searched for a hour, finding a small cave in the side of a cliff, blocking the entrance with a large rock and drawing another Hamsa on the interior. Right. If the Heart Sword comes again . . when it comes the ward should hold it for a time.

He quickly placed the green stones around him and infused them with a strand of Vigour. This is enough to keep me hidden from most things, but a curse like the Heart Sword . . he drew several sigils around the outside of the formation.

I just . . I just know this will work . . not once did he question the efficacy of the sigils, they had always worked this way in the past during practice with sis . .

Slap!

Magnus hit himself fiercely in the face. Focus! Concentrate!

***

Back in the field, by the river the boulder shook, the eye within the palm flared and glowed red hot . . a sharp yellow aura leaking out.

In a matter of minutes the sigil faded entirely. The dirt beneath the boulder trembled, from the earth burst the Heart Sword. It spun through the air, finally finding the direction Magnus had departed and shooting out after him.

***