There is always another way to get somthing done. Its just that you may only be able to do one of them. - Antonio Ravnos

Adrian

After conversing with each other in their language the other two remove their helmets. Another pointed ear effeminate face with red hair, identical to the first’s. Definitely related, the other has the face of a young woman. No odd characteristics that hint at her being anything other than human, save for her silver hair. All three have relatively short hair, probably to keep it from getting caught on the helmet. As they speak to each other I heal the cuts on my left arm, fixing the bones will have to be later. Can I even heal the broken bones? I’ll probably need to have someone set the bones for me first.

One of the shorter two walks closer to me and pulls out a necklace with a symbol of a tree on it; breaking my train of thought. She begins to chant something in their tongue. After a few seconds, she stops and begins to speak.

“I am Lysan, can you understand me?”

“I can now, I assume that we won’t need to fight.”

“Unless you give us a reason to. I am Kythia, Talia is the one who greeted you at the end of the fight with the tainted” answers the tallest of the three.

“I am Adrian. You are not from Earth. I guess you are from the same place as these orcs?”

The three of them all grab their weapons. “Retract you insult, or die” they say in unison. Shit.

“I mean no offense, neither you nor they or even anything that has happened in the last half a day should be here. I just want to piece together what is happening. These creatures never walked this world as far as I know. Anyway, how about we move into the building behind me, and turn off these lights; I think that light will draw more to us at night.”

I turn around and begin to walk to the entrance of the store, after I take a few steps I turn back as the three had not begun to follow. “Are you coming?”

“Are you offering hospitality?” asks the tallest of the three, what was her name? It started with a k, Kithix? No, that’s not it. At least the other two had names that are easier to remember.

“Sure, some food and a place to sleep for the night. You’ll have to help with the watch shifts though.”

The three of them look at each other for a moment before nodding to each other. They then speak in unison once more. “We graciously accept you offer of hospitality Lord Adrian.” They then start to follow behind me to the entrance of Outdoor World. Well, they come from somewhere with a feudalist or nobility system.

“How long will the spell that is allowing us to communicate last?”

“The duration is about an hour for me” answers Talia? No, Talia has the sword. Lysan was the one without a blade.

“Do any of you know why these creatures are rampaging?”

“They are demon tainted. They always are trying to kill anything that is not them. How do you not know this?” answers Talia.

“I’ve never seen or heard of one actually existing before today.”

Bryan interrupts the conversation “how do you understand them? If they are friendly Tomas is going to freak out once he wakes up.”

I point at Lysan, “she cast some form of magic. I’ll be able to understand them for about an hour.”

“As much as I want to talk, its past midnight and I don’t want to be too tired if another attack happens in the morning.”

Abagail adds in “I’ll lay out some more sleeping bags before resting. Am I going to get stuck with Jason’s watch since he drank untill he passed out?”

“Probably, we’ll have to have a discussion about that bad decision of his later.”

Abagail then turns around and heads towards the camping section. I turn off the exterior and most of the interior lights before I lead the trio to the food court and turn on one of the grills I didn’t spill goblin guts all over. As the grill heats up I start to drag the goblin bodies away from the food.

“This does not seem to be a home. Is this a market place of some sort?” asks Karen? No still not the right name.

“It’s a store, I don’t own it but I think the owner will have died from these attacks. Will meat and bread be an acceptable meal for the three of you?”

“The twins would prefer more bread and vegetables but they’ll have to deal with it.”

“What spell did that wand of yours use to injure the tainted?” asks Lysan.

“What wand?”

“The metal thing you kept pointing at the tainted.”

“That’s a weapon not a wand, there is no magic to it.”

“No, that has to have magic. There is no way for it to be just a weapon.”

“There is no magic to the weapon itself, how can I explain it? Think of it as a smaller crossbow that shoots tiny bolts faster than sound.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I show you three how tomorrow then. Can any of you help me with my arm?”

“I’m a healer, but I’m out of mana and am not strong enough to mend bone.”

“No I mean to set the bones in place. I don’t want to heal them crooked.”

Kaitlyn, no that wasn’t it either, walks over to me. “I can set the bone, but you can heal broken bones? How then did these tainted manage to hurt you?”

“I don’t actually know if I can repair my bones. Also, I only know enough to heal myself, I don’t know how to heal others.”

She spends the next few minutes setting my arm. I then start focusing on fixing the damage, the pain slowly increases in my arm as the nerves begin to respond again. After about five minutes the pain subsides and I can freely move my arm again.

“Looks like it worked.” I begin to cook a few burgers, I put four on the grill as I feel hungry myself. A side effect of self-healing? I have been just accelerating the regenerative process the body naturally goes through, so maybe.

“How did you do that without a chant or foci?” asks Lysan.

“Those just make magic easier, I think they just help you focus and less likely to botch.”

“But healing can only be done by the gods, and they demand you present their symbol to do so.”

“Why, could a mage not draw positive energy and transplant it into the injured? Or how about transmutation to seal a wound and shape body back to its proper condition? You could also invert blood magic to turn mana to life force and then inject it.”

Katherin, nope that wasn’t it either, looks at me with great interest. “Explain the blood magic one further, transmutation fades over time and calling positive energy lacks a place to call it from.”

“I only know the theory behind most magic so I can’t demonstrate. But the idea behind blood magic is to draw life force out of blood and then convert that to mana. While just running the conversion process backwards probably will not work there should be a way to get that working. I assume that a necromancer could figure out the how as they specialize in manipulating life and death, then replace the mana to negative energy conversion in something like Negative Energy Burst with this mana to life force and it should then heal.”

“Your idea seems solid if one could invert blood magic. You say you don’t know blood magic so how did you heal yourself?”

“Accelerating the natural healing process.” The patties on the grill need flipped, I do that. “Do any of you know why you are now here?”

The three look at each other before Lysan speaks up. “All we know is that the leaders of some of the kingdoms decided to try an inverted summoning. I think they were trying to escape from the tainted but ended up casting something else. I think everyone was pulled in behind them. We were traveling back from fighting in the army when everything went blurry for a while. Then we found ourselves surrounded by these weird buildings. A while after high noon till now has been skirmishes with tainted.”

“You keep referencing these tainted, what do you mean by that?”

“The tainted are those who have either inherited the demonic taint from their ancestors, or have accepted the demons into themselves.”

“And what does the taint do?”

“It twists and mutates the mind and body of the infected. The green skinned orcs outside are an example of one of the things that the taint can twist a man into. Though they are the result of offspring of their tainted ancestor. They have no humanity, they are no longer people but monsters.”

“And this demonic influence comes from a different world than your own?”

“Yes, centuries ago three of the kingdoms of our world fought to rule over each other. It became a war of annihilation, all three of them turned to demonology to survive and strike against each other. In the end the demons had tainted the rulers of all three kingdoms turning them into puppets. Their puppets manipulated all three kingdoms into performing the same ritual, a sacrifice of most of their bodies and souls to possession to smite and destroy any who were not themselves.

With this the demons, had invaded being hired to consume the world as they wished. The tainted reproduce and grow faster than those who are not.”

“I’m guessing there was not much left of civilization.”

“There wasn’t the strong rule as dictators, and each day the hordes of the tainted grow as our own weaken.”

I assemble some burgers with the now cooked meat before passing one to each of the girls. “I suppose that is most of what you know is going on?”

“That is all that we are sure of” answers Talia.

At this point I hear a gunshot, I get up and run over to the camping section. I see Abagail holding a pistol standing near a still bleeding goblin corpse. Tomas is covered in blood, I rush to see to his wounds.

“He’s dead, I found this thing slitting his throat.”

A check his pulse, nothing. He isn’t breathing and it looks like someone sawed at his neck. Tears form in my eyes. Why, did this have to happen. I can ignore the death of those I don’t know, those I don’t care to know. Why is it that my friend had to die? After a few moments, I hear another gunshot, Abagail is still in sight. Bryan must be looking for any more sneaking bastards.

Whatever, he can handle any stragglers left. How can I see to Tomas’s burial? Cry and think, that is what my watch will be tonight. The trio of guests, walks over Kyle, no still wrong, speaks something but I wasn’t paying much attention.

“My friend just died, I’m no longer in the mood to talk. You can choose any sleeping bag to use for the night.”

“Sleeping bag?”

“The bulky cloth tube things.”

They leave, and I return to my solemn sitting. Bryan and Abagail sat nearby for a while before drifting off to sleep. Dam this bullshit, all fun and games till my friend dies over it.