I truly began to understand that things such as guilt, remorse, and other modern sensibilities would only be yet another handicap for me here. Only the privileged and those with advantages could afford to enjoy such luxuries. It was probably at this junction in my adventures that, in my deepest heart, the first seeds of my burgeoning desire for power took root. For with greater power came greater freedom to do whatever I wished in this brand-new world.
But with freedom came something else. These days, I felt more that I was without direction, but this also meant I was, for the first time in my life, truly free. It was ironic that it actually took a fantasy world to move me from my otherwise mediocre and railroaded life. The fmes of rebellion stirred—my destiny would not be shackled by the divine. Neither the terrible goddess Avaria nor the void beast Entropy would reduce me to being a sve again.
A wafting smell caught my attention and interrupted my thoughts. There was a delicious aroma that brought to mind the scent of cedar wood spit-roasted chicken. The inviting notes pyed about in the evening air, drawing me back, a willing captive, to the campfire to investigate.
We sat down to enjoy our simple meal and passed the time in companionable silence, which was occasionally broken by a great belch from Kidu, who offered not a word of apology for his ck of table manners. The meal was fvorful, and each chew brought a burst of fvor that melted across my pate. The meat was reminiscent of something a little between chicken and beef, with some kick from the herbs and spices that Elwin had added. The only compint I had was that our meal consisted only of lizard meat and tough traveler’s bread. Some vegetables to round out the evening spread would have been most welcome.
Once we were finished, we discussed and reviewed our recent actions, and the surprisingly ‘easy’ challenge of dealing with the quasi-alligators. We concluded that solid preparation and pnning were still the keys to our success. Even though in the end we didn’t need to use them, we had no regrets that we had prepared a simple line of traps. After collecting our rewards from the Guild, we would find a caravan out of the city as soon as we could. There were also the Broomshead mushrooms that we had collected for the eccentric alchemist. Since we had collected a rather considerable number of them, we could perhaps bargain for a little extra. Fighting the Karil and the River Lurkers had completely pushed the matter out of my mind.
When it was time for me to continue my voluntary watch, I excused myself from my companions. I patrolled the environs around our camp, just a little outside the blue Zajasite light at the perimeter.
Alone with my thoughts, a memory rose, unbidden. A picture of a woman with golden trinkets in her hair filled the pit of my stomach with the beginnings of a new dread. We could not rely on our retive anonymity to shield us for long.
Wanting to keep myself occupied, to stop myself from going down these dark avenues of thought, and to whittle away the time, I practiced my knife-throwing skills. In a stroke of luck or skill, I was even able to pin a small six-legged lizard to a tree with my daggers. One of the bdes had cut off one of its rear limbs cleanly and then embedded itself into the trunk of a tree. The other had pinned the reptile to the tree through its long meaty tail. The lizard had a beautiful feathered crest, though I was unsure of its color due to the poor light. It was scrabbling furiously to get away, sensing that the source of its dread was approaching. I was about to put the poor thing out of its misery with another throw when a cruel fsh of inspiration hit me.
I smiled a dark smile as I closed in on the little creature, causing it to further its futile escape efforts. Reaching up, I firmly plucked the small wriggling thing from the tree. It had completely stopped moving now, deciding that pying dead was the best course of action. Unfooled by such a basic ploy, I twisted at the area where my knife had pinned the beast, almost snapping off its tail but making sure that it was still attached by a few threads of flesh and skin. The animal positively scrambled to get away, furiously trying to escape from my grasp, but I just squeezed harder, stifling its pathetic attempts.
Warm energies flew through me, starting at my core, then flowing through my arms towards the struggling creature. My Heal spell went into the beast, and the warmth of the magic infused the small thing with curative energy. With the struggling reptile in hand, I walked back to one of the perimeter stones. I held up the animal to the Zajasite’s light. Before my very eyes, under the blue magical light, the damage I had inflicted with my knife and indifferent cruelty had healed. The long tail had reattached itself and aligned correctly with the rest of the vertebrae. The blood flowing from what was left of its left rear limb was now staunched.
Deciding to remove the tail completely, I snapped it clean off with a sudden twist and threw the wriggling appendage into the bushes. The limits of my magic would require further testing, and the key to experimentation was repetition.
The damn animal was bleeding on my gloves, a slow drip from its severed tail, and chirping in extreme panic and stress. It would have been kinder of me if I just snapped its neck there and then, and ended its poor life. But I hardened my heart and prepared to continue my torturous experiments, casting another Heal. Using the divine energies to improve my knowledge of the world at the cost of extending another being’s suffering felt wrong, and the spell rebelled against my will at first. Nonetheless, I focused my intent, and once again, the warm healing magic flowed into the creature, its pathetic chirps stilling a little as the arcane energies flowed through its body. Its new wound scabbed over, forming a scar, and new scales and skin grew over the severed nub of its tail.
The whole thing fascinated me as I finally found a limit to my basic Heal spell. Though capable of restoring flesh, the spell could not regrow lost limbs.
Curiosity warred with self-disgust and, after a few long moments, curiosity finally won out. I stuffed the struggling reptilian into a small leather bag, sealing it tightly with the raw-hide strips.
The more-powerful version of the spell, Greater Heal, would require testing to see if it had simir limitations. I decided to wait until my Mana reached eleven or so points to avoid potential ‘Mana sickness.’ Despite the effects of Mana sickness being far less debilitating, I thought it best not to push myself. There was the option to cast a Drain, but the trees here were mere shadows of the behemoths of the true Sainba Forest and, most likely, had but a pittance of Mana in them. By my rough estimation, it would be a few more hours away, towards the end of my second watch, before I could cast Greater Heal.
I did a few more ps around the camp as the soft moonlight painted the world in silvers and grays. There was no stealth to my step, and the sounds of my passing through the undergrowth were quite audible over the night sounds of the forest. The whole environment was alive, a stark contrast to my own life, which seemed such a long time ago. Was it months? Weeks? I had simply lost track; that world and its memories were growing distant and fading out of recollection.
Trodding back, I woke up a compining Elwin, who grumbled for grumbling’s sake before taking up his watch. Like a monkey, the lithe man climbed one of the trees, surveying the night scene as I id down to rest - too uncaring to remove my armor. Perhaps it was the skill, or just my own adaptable mind, but I had long since lost the initial feeling of weight and clumsiness that my suit of steel and iron had imposed. Not quite a second skin, but unless I consciously thought about it, I hardly noticed the difference.
This brought my mind to question the nature of Skills. Were they just a measure of skill? Or were they, in fact, a direct bonus that was added artificially? I would hazard a guess that it was the tter, but I was unwilling to spend one of my precious skill points on one of my more martial skills as an experiment. Also, what were the interactions between them? Like my Endure and Pain Nullification skill? For instance, my own Silent Casting skill had a great unexpected synergy with Power Strike, allowing me to mimic the prowess of an experienced warrior.
As I prepared for rest, these thoughts and more weighed heavily on me, even as I tried to ignore the struggling bundle at my side.
