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Chapter Thirteen

THE AFFLICTED

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“Effective immediately, all persons believed to be afflicted are to be reported to the Order of Radiance.”

– Magistra Saranna Featherstone of Her Grace’s Order of Radiance

~*~

Angaeli River Valley

Orenthium

7:26am Local Time

At first, Ember resisted, but a second tug at her reins had her bending to the right. She jumped the shallow ditch separating the road from the field and this time, the sudden jolt nearly sent Liv flying. One of her feet slipped free of the stirrup and in the chaos of their flight, she failed to regain her footing. She held to the saddle as best she could to compensate, but with her hands occupied, her ability to steer became nonexistent.

Instead of taking the direct path across the field, her mare tried circling back toward the valley. She whinnied and rushed for the treeline. Kelsa answered from somewhere behind them, but Liv didn’t dare break her focus. While she’d managed to stay on this long, she knew she had no chance of keeping her seat while weaving through the forest. Cursing, she squeezed her knees the way Kaedric had taught her and took a firm hold of the reins.

“Whoa,” she breathed, “Easy, Ember.”

The horse tossed her head, but mercifully began to slow. Liv brought her back around toward the far end of the field, bouncing awkwardly through her trot until she eased to a brisk walk. She stooped to set her foot back in place, but it was only a momentary relief.

That thing was still out there.

Once she was secure, she cast her gaze across the open flat in search of Kaedric. Rather than finding him upon Kelsa’s back, she spotted him standing near the roadside. He was crouched in what might have been a martial stance as he faced off against the creature. Two arrows protruded from its sinuous body, one from the shoulder, while the other had skewered it clean through the elbow. If it were in pain, though, it gave no sign, for it prowled around him without so much as a limp. He moved with it and when it lunged, he acted.

With a rumble, the ground shifted and rather than propel itself forward as it intended, the creature landed, splayed on its stomach. A quick twist of Kaedric’s arms had a wave of mud and grass smothering it where it lay. He used its momentary incapacitation to peddle backward toward a collection of boulders and as the ground erupted, he planted his feet and waited.

The creature hissed as it sprang forward to close the distance between them, but then one of the smaller boulders took it out at the legs. Its momentum propelled it forward in a heap of flailing limbs, claws wildly scrambling about for purchase. However, Kaedric was faster. A second boulder flew and this time, it landed directly upon its back. The resulting crunch echoed across the field and sent a shiver up Liv’s spine.

But the damn thing was still moving.

It shrieked not in pain, but fury as it tried to pry itself free. Kaedric rolled his shoulders as he approached and, with a single commanding stomp, sent a pillar of condensed mud up at an angle beneath the creature’s head. It caught it below the chin, forced its head back and crushed it against the very stone pinning it to the ground. Liv flinched. The arms went stiff, then began to spasm until after several seconds, it stopped moving altogether.

Ember paced sideways as Kelsa came up on her flank, but didn’t bolt. The two nickered to one another, prancing nervously as they tried to determine whether or not the threat had passed. Liv debated reaching for the other mare’s lead, but ultimately thought better of it. It was hard enough to keep one under her control, let alone two. Instead, she remained where she was until Kaedric gave the all clear.

She watched him make his cautious approach, then kick at the creature with his boot. He gave a single, satisfied nod, then raised his fingers to his lips and whistled. Kelsa immediately perked up and galloped off in his direction as he waved Liv over.

“No faster than a walk this time, please?” She said, but Ember only compromised with a jig that while not a trot, technically counted as what she’d asked for.

“Are you all right?” Kaedric asked.

Liv pressed a hand to her chest while she tried to catch her breath.

“I’m going to have a few bruises on my ass, but I’ll live,” she said, glancing between him and the remains of whatever that thing was, “What about you? Still have all your insides?”

“Last I checked, thankfully.”

She looked him up and down just in case, but aside from a few errant bits of grass, he appeared well enough.

“Good. Now, would you mind telling me what the hell that thing is?”

His lips thinned, “An afflicted. I’ll be honest though, I’ve never seen such an advanced case.”

“Afflicted?” She asked, then paused to consider, “Wait, is this a result of the Rot you mentioned when we first met?”

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He nodded.

She shuddered, “I thought you said the only outward sign was a darkening of the veins around the eyes?”

“That’s how it starts,” he said, “but it’s progressive. Whoever this was must have had it for months, if not years.”

“Holy shit,” she muttered.

It was hard to believe the thing had once been a person at all. It was humanoid in appearance, sure, but certain aspects had been rendered unrecognizable. The hands alone were more than a foot and a half long, thanks to a dramatic lengthening of the palm and odd arrangement of the adjoining fingers. No two were the same size and shortened in descending order down the outer edge of the limb. The forefinger was the longest by far and tipped with a curved black talon.

She couldn’t discern much of its face, nor the rest of its body in its current state, but she could have sworn its head was at least twice as large as what a normal man’s should be. It really was skinless, though. The tendons, ligaments and muscle fibers were all visible and appeared as though they had been soaked in ink. Here and there, bones could be seen, but they too were black as pitch. The only spots of color had been the growths, but in death, the violet glow had faded to a listless grey.

“Do we have to worry about it coming back?” She asked.

If death wasn’t permanent for the people of this world . . .

He shook his head, “For better or worse, there is no coming back from something like this. Not to my knowledge, at least. Even if there were, we wouldn’t have to worry about this one coming back anytime soon.”

“Really?” She asked, “Why’s that?”

“Because when someone dies, they don’t crop back up wherever it is they fell. Their body gradually evaporates, then travels back to the nearest spiritstone to resurge around a day or so later.”

“Every time?”

He nodded.

“Huh. Where’s the closest one from here?”

“Ralencia. Come, we should get back underway. We can talk once we’re back on the road,” he said.

Liv glanced back down at the mangled corpse, “Are we just going to leave it here?”

“For now, yes. I’ll report it once we arrive in the city.”

“The infection isn’t going to somehow spread in the meantime?”

“In its current state? No. It spreads through bite,” he said.

“So like zombie plagues?” She asked, “Or really fucked up rabies?”

He gave her an odd look, “I . . . suppose? None of the animals eat it either, so until someone comes to recover it, it won’t be disturbed.”

“I guess I see why you went for the head. No face, no bite, right?”

He snorted, “That and it’s the only thing that puts them down.”

“In that case, definitely a zombie,” she said, though as she thought about it, she began to wonder if she could sense whatever caused the infection in the first place. Depending on what it was, maybe she’d be able to read it? Being able to differentiate the Rot from another disease might be useful, “Before we go, do you mind if I take a look at it?”

“You want to use your ability on it?”

She nodded, “Might as well. When else am I going to have the opportunity?”

Kaedric pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed, “All right, but make it quick. I’ll check your tack in the meantime.”

Her knees protested when she dismounted, but thankfully didn’t buckle once they met solid ground. She took a moment to stretch her stiff limbs and silently mourn the fact that she likely wouldn’t be able to sit right for a week after that fiasco. Bruises indeed. She was still in one piece, at least, so she couldn’t complain too much.

Despite the thing being completely and utterly pulverized, she made her approach with a degree of caution. However, once the first of its body crossed into her sphere of detection, she paused and went rigid. It wasn’t life, she sensed, or even decay, but a corruption so deep and so thorough, it seemed to violate the very essence of nature. Darkness crept in along the edges of her vision, the world tilted and suddenly, Liv found herself bent over in the grass more than a dozen feet away. Her body heaved and she choked back a sob before she was sick right there in the grass.

Kaedric had whirled on her, “Liv? What is it? What’s wrong?”

She raised a trembling arm in the direction of the body, then heaved again.

He muttered a curse under his breath, then moved to her side, placed a steady hand upon her back and drew her braid away from the mess. Minutes passed, but he said nothing, merely offered his silent support as she retched again and again. Opening her senses to that abomination had been like swallowing fouled oil and for all her effort, she couldn’t get it out. She was drowning, spiralling. She vaguely registered being lifted from the ground, but didn’t have the wherewithal to open her eyes, let alone protest.

How much time had passed, she couldn’t say, but as she slowly regained her senses, all she could smell was mint. Positive energy brimmed around her, comforting and warm as gentle rays of sunlight. Bit by bit, it chased away the suffocating darkness she’d succumb to and as it did, she drew a full, deep breath.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself in the midst of a giant patch of what had to be mint. Scent aside, she’d seen enough of it over the past several days to recognize it anywhere now. She was in Kaedric’s lap too, she realized. His brows were furrowed as he searched her face, concern all too present in those dark brown eyes of his.

“What happened?” She asked, bringing a hand to her head.

“You started seizing a few seconds after you tried reading that damned thing,” he said.

“Seizing?” She remembered being sick, but nothing quite so violent, “Why are we in a mint bush?”

He gave her a relieved, almost sheepish sort of smile.

“Call it a whim, but I remembered you saying mint and dandelion always felt like they held the most positive energy. I knew this particular patch was close by, so I brought you here hoping the aura might bring you out of it.”

“Whim or no, it worked. I think I owe you one,” she said, grimacing at the lingering taste of bile in her mouth.

He gave a soft snort, “I’ll take you healthy and among the living. No debt required.”

“No promises,” she winced.

The man actually rolled his eyes. She would have laughed too, had the whole of her body not felt like it had been hit by a bus. She thought to try and sit up, but a bout of lingering dizziness had her relaxing once more. She and Kaedric’s proximity made her cheeks warm, but thankfully there wasn’t so much of a hint of awkwardness between them.

“I don’t suppose you have anything for bad breath in that satchel of yours?” She asked.

He pointedly plucked one of the mint stems and offered it to her.

Sighing, she supposed she should have seen that one coming.

Kaedric helped her sit forward once she settled, though for all her relief, something still nagged at the edges of her mind. Her heartbeat fluttered from time to time, which she might have explained away, had she not remembered her spiritbook. She cursed, summoned it and nearly knocked Kaedric over in the process.

There, scrawling across the page, was the line she’d been waiting for.