[Womb of the Dark Mage]

Chapter 23 / 03

Vestige of Division

After a long, early morning of planning and preparation, Geoff’s shoulders sagged. His legs were sore from standing to the point where he thought they might actually feel better if they walked. But they had to wait for Lamet to return. She’d gone elsewhere, as she did, returned to boss them around, and then left again. So they stood at the edge of town with food and other basic supplies, waiting to embark on their long journey.

He was still dizzy from the rites. He regretted accepting the challenge of performing the Rite of Vitality and the Rite of Tongues together. It will save time, they said. He was still trying to remember some of the colours he’d seen. He wasn’t even sure they were real.

And there was no way he was ever eating applesauce again. Even his daughter Marinda couldn’t have inhaled that much.

Nightmares of Warbinger had chased the hallucinations from his head. He was glad Rick was spared those, and if Lamet suffered any she made no show of it. She might be too tough to let even Warbinger get to her.

“It is time to go,” Lamet said.

Geoff’s back straightened from surprise. He spun around to see the Riteweaver marching towards them.

“You have not forgotten the other Bearing Bag?” Lamet asked, leaning close to Sparlyset.

“No!” Sparlyset whined. She clutched Rick’s shirt in her hand.

“My head feels like it just came out of the dryer,” Geoff said. “Can we not yell?”

Lamet spoke as she walked away. “It could take weeks to reach the ruins, but if we do not dawdle like those Lightweavers my magic will take us half way today.”

“So you found them.” Geoff hurried after her,

“They are here,” Lamet said, stopping. “Useless nanas. My brother, on the other hand, has gone ruin delving.”

“Does that mean we get to go after him?” Rick asked with a slight grin.

Lamet shot him a cold glare. “‘Get’? We do not get to go after him. It is not a privilege to enter the Tomb.”

Rick was quick with a defence. “Sorry, Lamet. I’m not trying to make light of the dangers, I’m just pretty excited to learn more about Oval and its peoples’s history.”

“That, I understand,” Lamet said a bit more calmly. “But this tomb is not the place for that, hence the urgency and my sour mood.”

“It’ll be all right, Lamet,” said Rick, trying to sound reassuring. “We’ll go through carefully, find your brother and you can give him a good what for.”

“We can discuss it more when we are closer to the Tomb,” she said dismissively. She squinted at the mountain peak. “Horizon Bound has similar limitations as Bound when you bring others. Namely that the range is greatly reduced.”

“What’s the normal range?” Geoff asked. “I thought it was pretty short. Like ten metres.”

“For Bound, and with you it was, but alone it is the distance to the horizon from the ground. This range does not increase if you elevate yourself to see farther. What I am saying is Horizon Bound has reduced range in the same fashion, but does not have the other limitation. If we travel by mountain top, we can travel farther.”

Before anyone could speak she grabbed Rick and Geoff by the wrists and they were suddenly high in the cold wind of the Flange peaks.

Flakes of snow settled on his skin as Lamet oriented herself. She squinted into the distance and Geoff barely had time to enjoy the long view of the mountain expanse before they were gone again.

Now they were on a precarious cliffside overlooking the valley far below.The river was like a strand of blue string winding between two bolts of turquoise felt stretched across the mountainside. Rick teetered on the edge, lacking the space to stand on the narrow ledge with Sparlyset on his back. He drifted forward and Geoff’s heart sank.

Geoff’s boots landed on the ground. He watched as the long drop beneath Rick became a patch of sand and he landed roughly on his face, forcing a squeak out of Sparlyset. A spout of sand shot out as he exhaled. He pushed himself up and brushed himself off while Sparlyset patted him reassuringly.

“That was not fun.” Rick said, spitting sand. “Was that the last jump?”

Lamet was already walking away. Rick looked over his shoulder to find her, and nodded to Geoff before jogging after her.

They were at the edge of the mountains now. The tall peaks gave way to stone hills that were abnormally round by Earth standards, all uniform in size, shape and distance. Violet wildgrass was packed tightly between them. They were so unusual that Geoff considered asking Lamet about them. Or maybe Sparlyset. As they passed nearer to the hills he noticed cracks running through the grey wall of one nearby that spilled sand over the ground around it.

“What are these, Sparly?” Rick asked.

Sparlyset’s ears perked up and her tail swished through the air. “These are vessels that bore the young of Vaankekada.”

Geoff blinked. “What?” He regretted not asking Lamet when he’d thought of it. “They’re like eggs? Of a…?”

“Vaankekada,” Lamet said. “She is the being who created our world. Perhaps all worlds. By these eggs, she hoped to spread life across the sea of stars, or so we believe. Only the Lightweavers can claim to know more. If you care to listen to Sparlyset.” There was something of an insult in the way she said it, but Sparlyset was too excited to notice.

“Vaankekada is the ultimate life-form,” Sparlyset explained. “She is the pinnacle of evolution, possessed of boundless wisdom who created us and graced our people with knowledge of fire, tool-making, and agriculture. Our lore teaches that Haantisha, one of the Eight Worlds and the place we retire in death, resides upon her exceptional carapace.”

“Wait,” Rick tried to look over his shoulder at her and she leaned to try and meet his eyes. “If one of the worlds thast battled Warbinger originally is literally your goddess, why… didn’t she help?”

“Oh, she fought,” she said. Her tone lost its excitement. “Without question, she fought. But accounts claim she was slain by Warbinger’s foul darkness.”

“The perspective this gives us of Warbinger’s power is bittersweet,” Lamet added. “If we cannot find greater power than Vaankekada herself wielded, we have no chance of victory.”

Geoff nodded. “I think… you said there’s only two parts of it here right? Should be easier to kill than all that, and once we do, even if we have to face the rest of it later, it’ll be weaker than it was in the past.”

“So we hope,” said Lamet quietly. “But when he can lay siege to even the afterlife, hope is hard to maintain.”

Rick was transfixed on the stone eggs, like he was seeing something profound in them. He spoke with a gentle, disconnected tone as if he was half daydreaming. “We beat Warbinger once. We may need to beat him on a whole other level to stop him for good, but with what we’ve achieved so far, I don’t think it’s that much of a leap. We’ll get Dorshemet first, and then we’ll exhaust every resource we can find. We’ll come up with something.” He raised both his palms towards the eggs, as if expecting something to happen. Nothing did.

Lamet stopped walking and turned to look at Rick. She raised her voice so he could hear her. “Do you see something in the vessels?”

“They’re magic,” Rick said. He maintained a trance-like stare on them as he walked forward. His boots slid in the sand but he didn’t seem to notice. “Vaankekada’s power is still here. At least a little.”

When Rick reached the towering stone he placed his hands flat on its surface. He cocked his head and closed his eyes.

“Do not touch them!” Lamet shouted. She Bound next to him and reached for Rick’s shoulder, but Sparlyset swatted her hand aside.

“To what do you bear witness, through mantira’s lens?” Sparlyset asked.

“Mantira?” Lamet grabbed Sparlyset this time. “Him? You cannot be serious.”

Sparlyset yanked her arm from Lamet’s grip with a high-pitched whine and the Riteweaver slipped in the sand and fell on her back. Rick opened his eyes. He looked down at Lamet and extended a hand to her. After helping her up, he brushed her aside and knelt in the sand.

With both hands he started awkwardly shovelling sand away, struggling under Sparlyset’s weight. Geoff sighed and knelt beside him to lend a hand. They dug until they reached the dry soil below. There was nothing but dried up roots.

“Lamet,” Rick said as he took the roots in his hand, “what is the Rite of Dragons?” He tugged on the roots, creating a small cloud of dust as they broke free. A round sprout popped out of the parched soil.

Lamet brushed sand off her robe and stared at the dry sprout in Rick’s hand. “Is that a riteseed? Mantira showed you that somehow?”

“What the hell is ‘mantira’?” Geoff asked, annoyed that everyone seemed to know but him. He felt a lot of that recently. As the only one completely new to Oval he was entirely out of the loop and seemed to find everything out late.

“It’s a blessing from the gods that lets me see magic.” Rick said. “And the magic on this riteseed is different from the ones you grow in Mount Flange. It isn’t a rainbow sheen, it’s just white.”

“Let me see it,” Lamet held out her hand expectantly. The look in her eye was dangerously envious, and Geoff could see that Rick recognised it as well. He tucked the seed away in his pouch.

“The Rite of Dragons is for the Lightweaver,” Rick said with a confidence that Geoff wished he understood. He pushed himself to his feet. Sensing conflict brewing, Geoff stayed between him and Lamet as the Riteweaver rose to her feet after him.

“Who told you that?” Lamet demanded. “I have never heard of a Rite of Dragons.”

“Whatever spoke to me through the egg,” was all Rick had to say. He trudged back through the sand and continued the way Lamet had been going.

She tried to hurry after him, but Geoff held her back. “I don’t like that look in your eye, Lamet,” he told her sternly. “If Rick was given a gift and it led him to this thing, then it’s his, isn’t it? And Sparlyset’s I guess.”

Lamet pushed his hand aside. “I want the Rite of Dragons.” She looked furious, but she gave up trying to follow Rick and placed her hands on the petrified egg. “Bless me, Vaankekada! Grace me with the strength to face Warbinger!”

Geoff waited in silence until Lamet lost her patience and replaced her hands. As far as Geoff could tell, nothing was happening any differently than it had with Rick. She stepped back with a distressed look on her face. Her jaw trembled as she dropped into the sand and began shovelling sand away. She dug up nothing but dry earth. She kept muttering about the blessing under her breath.

The space she was clearing grew wider and wider, and soon Rick returned without Sparlyset on his back to help her. She glowered at him, but accepted the help.

“I’m the furthest thing from an expert on anything here,” Geoff said, “But I know you don’t want that Rite of Dragons to help you beat Warbinger. You’ve been collecting Rites your whole life, haven’t you?”

Lamet stopped pushing sand and just knelt on the ground, squeezing it through her fingers. “What are you saying?” she asked in a trembling voice without turning her head.

“If I can figure that much out, Vaankekada sure as hell can, can’t she? If the gods—whoever they all are—wanted you to have it, then you would. But go ahead and keep trying to pull one over on them if you think they’ll fall for that.”

Lamet stood up straight in a single motion and tossed her handfuls of sand down at her sides. “Fine,” she said. “The Rite of Dragons is not to be mine this time, but I will perform it one day. I have claimed impossible Rites before.”

She stormed off. Geoff shared a look with Rick before they followed her.

Sparlyset was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed. “The avarice reflected in your eyes does much to highlight the family resemblance,” she said, watching Lamet approach. Lamet shook her robe out, showering Sparlyset with sand and kept on marching forward.

Rick knelt by Sparlyset as she spat to clear her mouth and started brushing sand off her shoulders. “Stay with Lamet.”

The Riteweaver was marching south, following a route only she knew. Geoff thought they must be lucky she didn’t just Bound away and leave them in the sand. If nothing else, she had a good sense of responsibility. He jogged to catch up to her.

“Hey,” he said, trying his best to sound friendly.

“Shut up,” she replied.

“Come on, I know I’m no Rick who can just run his mouth and everyone feels better… but I still don’t want to see you so upset.”

“Then do not look at me.”

Geoff sighed. “Maybe this is one of those Rite of Light things where only she can do it. If that’s the way it is, there’s nothing you can do anyway.”

She frowned at him. Her deep blue eyes gave him a sideways glance, but she didn’t turn her head. “Is that supposed to make me feel better? I am still annoyed to this day that I cannot perform the Rite of Light. I would make a much better Lightweaver than her.”

“Probably,” Geoff admitted. “But she’s not so bad. I think on the other hand, you should remember that if this Rite of Dragons isn’t something only she can do, you’ll do it for sure. If anyone can, you will.”

“Thank you,” Lamet said reluctantly.

Goeff looked over his shoulder to check on Rick and Sparlyset before speaking again. They were following, but Rick was hanging back.

“Besides,” he continued, “And don’t tell Rick I said this, but one day you’re going to have to show Sparlyset that Rite of Sharing, aren’t you? I trust you when you say she can’t do it. Not because I think lowly of Sparlyset of course… but I know you know what you’re talking about. You can give her the old ‘I told you so’,” he laughed, hoping Lamet was petty enough for it to lighten her mood a little.

“You are right,” Lamet turned her palm up. “I do not wish her to fail, but it will be satisfying when she does, and her hubris nips her on the backside. She may even learn to appreciate what I do.”

“Is it really that hard?”

She turned her palm up again. “I will tell you a little, but I warn you that if I do, you will never be able to perform the Rite yourself. It compensates for any knowledge of the Rite that you enter with, not only rendering that knowledge useless, but also…” she sighed. “It is not possible anyway.”

Geoff shrugged. “If you think so, then there’s no harm in telling me, I guess.”

Her ears drooped pensively and her tail curled around her leg. “The hallucination pits you against a thousand challenges, only a few of which are revealed to you beforehand. You must manage the resources of a village of the utmost poor, and keep them alive for a period of time.” Lamet paused to take a deep breath.

“I did well, but ultimately I failed. The keeper of the Rite told me that was it. I would never learn it. That was not sufficient for me. I begged and grovelled until she threw me out. I spent days pondering the puzzle, desperate for the solution. Every night I lay awake, unable to sleep for more than an hour. What dreams I had repeated my failure again and again. Eventually I returned to her to grovel more, and she reluctantly agreed to let me perform it again, but only so that I would understand that there was no second chance.”

“But somehow, you did it?” Geoff almost regretted asking about the Rite. He wanted to see it for himself now. Lamet wasn’t sharing enough details to satisfy his curiosity.

“No.” She clenched her fists. “I failed again, and I understood the impossibility of it more than I have ever understood anything else. There was no way to win.

“But, I had learned how the Rite was performed by observing it twice. It requires the blood of two to perform, like the Rite of Vitality, so I did not attempt it again until I found new strength elsewhere; a Rite I have never spoken of to anyone. It took over forty attempts, but once I had learned that secret Rite my grandmother elder Coremet assisted me.”

“And that time you did it?”

“Apparently,” she sneered. “My last memory of the Rite of Sharing is my severed head rolling so my corpse was just in view, and the thought, ‘It cannot be done’.”

“Holy shit,” Geoff cursed. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Rick and Sparlyset were still out of earshot. “And I thought the sea of applesauce from my Rite of Vitality was a pain.”

“Followed, I bet, by a panorama of colours you cannot even name,” Lamet laughed. “Thank you Geoff, talking has made me feel better. I forget myself sometimes, and though I hate to admit it, I know my brother and I are very much alike. It is exactly why I fear the risks he might take.”

Geoff smiled at her. He was relieved that he was able to help. Hearing secrets from her made him feel better too. He wasn’t being left out, things just came as they did and sometimes they reached people at different times. It was important that they kept their heads on straight to follow their orders and see the mission through.

Lamet waved at Rick and Sparlyset. When they caught up, she spoke with a softness in her tone that he’d never heard from the stoney woman. It suited the melodic nature of her voice.

“Today, we will reach a town in the stone called Blistered Cleft, and will rest there only long enough for me to recover my Horizon Bounds. Then I can take us the rest of the way to the Tomb of the Newborn.”