Feral Mage Book 2: Reworked Chapter 43

Bryce dragged Thea along with him through the empty town as he looked for the girls. He dropped the Pale Queen Aspect, but kept the Primal Troll one active in case he needed to restrain Thea further, or in case she attempted to take a bite out of him. She had attempted several times to approach dead bodies, both people and gnolls, before Bryce pulled her away by the chain.

He still felt hazy about what had happened in his soul this time. He remembered the fight with the monsters, he remembered winning, but then everything turned fuzzy. There was one image that kept coming to mind, though, and it was the face of an elven woman with ashen gray skin and four black eyes wearing the faintest of smiles.

He shook his head, cursing to himself. It had been a long night.

The town was in ruins, its people either dead, in hiding, or lucky enough to flee when the madness had begun. He moved around the back side of the still-burning tavern, seeing the hole in the wall the girls had made to escape. He kept moving in that direction, towing Thea along behind him.

“Bryce!” Vex yelled.

He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the girls near the town’s exit. They stood there with a small group of survivors and a few dwarves kneeling with their arms bound behind their backs. Janna sat on a boulder and gave him a warm smile, her naginata on the ground some distance away from her. Vex tried to run to him, but Callie grabbed her shoulder, stopping the wolfgirl. He saw a smirk on the snow elf’s face as she nodded to him.

“Glad to see you’re not a chimera,” Callie said.

Bellamy smiled at him as well, but her gaze quickly landed on Thea, and she raced toward them.

“You found her!” she exclaimed.

A woman stepped out from the group of survivors and started racing toward them as well. It took Bryce a second to recognize that it was Baroness Julia.

“Thank the Divine! Thea!” she exclaimed.

Bryce let Bellamy pass, but he held up his hand and stopped the Baroness.

“She’s not herself right now,” he said as the older woman frowned at him.

Baroness Julia drew an uneasy breath, and Bryce expected her to try to argue with him. It wouldn’t be the first time a noble had believed their status meant they knew best.

“Can you help her?” she asked instead, and Bryce saw tears welling up in the old woman’s eyes.

He nodded his head.

“I’m going to try,” he answered.

***

Two hours later, Thea stared up at him from within the temple, chains wrapped around her body, and the ragged dress she wore as she sat in the chalk circle. Bellamy, the Prestiess, and Baroness Julia stood just outside the circle, watching. Surrounding Thea were the statues of the various Gods and Goddesses, including the Goddess of Harvest which Bryce had given more than one disdainful look toward.

He stood in the circle with her, feeling like a fool as he tried the same thing over and over.

“You have to fight them, Thea. You can kill the monsters. And when you do, you’ll no longer be a chimera,” Bryce said. “Focus on what’s important to you, what you lose by being a chimera. The people important to you, your life, your dreams.”

That’s what Bryce had done before launching himself at the monsters in his soul. He knew the girls would have been in danger if he became a chimera.

Thea tilted her head to the side, cascading her blonde hair over her shoulder. The pose would have been cute if Bryce hadn’t seen her eating the guts of a dwarf just a few short hours ago.

“I think she’s listening,” Baroness Julia said, her voice filled with hope.

Bryce sighed.

“No,” he answered as Thea lunged for him. “She’s gauging the distance between us.”

He watched as Thea’s teeth snapped at the air, the chains binding her keeping him just out of reach. His hand came up and rubbed his brow. he was still pondering what had happened in his soul and with his monsters. Trying to figure out the best way to help Thea was.

“Bryce,” Bellamy said softly. “Go rest, you’ve put yourself through a lot today. Thea will still be here when you wake up.”

He rubbed his eyes.

“I’ll step out and help Janna, Vex, and Callie look for survivors,” he said.

As he turned to go, he saw his former master shake her head.

“That’s not rest, Bryce. Those three are leading the other survivors in the search. I’m sure they have enough people,” Bellamy said.

He was about to protest again when the Priestess let out a gasp, and something heavy hit the floor. Bryce turned and saw her staring at the Goddess of Harvest’s statue, which was now broken in half on the floor.

“An ill omen…” the Priestess said, her voice fearful.

Bryce changed his direction and walked toward the statue, kneeling to examine it.

Probably finally gave out when it was moved for the chalk circle.

He was going to say as much to the Priestess, but his eyes froze on the nearby candle stand. The brass had been polished to a shine, and Bryce could see his reflection in it and the elven woman standing next to him. The same two sets of black eyes watched him as she smiled, only this time, one of her hands now had foot-long, Drake claws coming from the end of each of her fingers.

Bryce stared at her as she flexed her clawed hand. When she didn’t attack him, he looked back at the statue. His lips thinned as it became clear to him the statue hadn’t fallen apart. It had been cut.

“I have another statue of the Harvest Goddess, but I will need some time to bless and purify it,” the Priestess said, with a nervous tone. “Perhaps I’ll purify the entire temple while I’m at it. Go and rest, I believe we will need the power of all the Divine watching over us to cure this poor girl.”

The woman in the reflection smiled a little more at the Priestess’ words. Bryce turned from the brass candlestick, seeing the woman gone and Bellamy looking at him with concern. He smiled at her and nodded.

“Fine, I’ll go lie down for a bit. Rest, stretch my legs, and maybe I’ll come up with something that might help Thea,” he said, his eyes shifting to the chimera.

His gut churned as she stared right where the woman should have been. He was half tempted to use one of his Aspects right then and there to see if he could see her, maybe even use the Pale Queen’s heat sight. He didn’t. The night had been a long one, and he had pushed himself by becoming a chimera again. He wasn’t very confident that he wasn’t just seeing things.

He gave a parting wave before heading out of the temple into the ruined town. It was still nighttime, but more torches were lit, and those that had survived were moving about looking for others. Both Vex and Janna were making use of their heightened senses to help in the search.

He moved through the town, seeing dozens of torches waving about like giant fireflies. The walk wasn’t far to the small house Baroness Julia owned in the city, which she had lent to Bryce’s party since the Inn was burning. Still, his nerves were frayed from the fight, from becoming a chimera, from the strange elven woman he kept seeing.

“We’ll see how much sleep I’m able to get,” he said to himself doubtfully.

The house was empty as he expected, but when he opened the door to the bedroom, he froze. His eyes landed on the nude elven woman standing in the middle of it, holding a knife in her hand.

“Damn it, Callie,” Bryce groaned moving to step back out of the room. “Lock the door.”

He caught her blue eyes looking toward him as the door was about to close.

“Wait,” she said with a sigh. “I could actually use your help.”

He paused, then realized what she was doing and stepped back into the room, closing the door and locking it behind him.

“This is to your bloodline, isn’t it?” he asked.

She nodded, turning her fully nude body to face him. Pale-toned abs, large breasts with rose colored nipples, and a white haired bush between her legs greeted him, forcing Bryce to do his best to keep his eyes on Callie’s.

“I can’t find the damn mark,” she answered. “I’m sure it’s on my back, but there are no mirrors in this place.”

That was a relief to Bryce. No mirrors meant no reflections.

“Hand me the knife and turn around,” Bryce said.

Callie did, and he spotted the red thorn-shaped mark on her back just below her shoulder. He could also see the small scars covering her body from where she had bled her blood hundreds of times.

“Found it. It looks bigger than the one you had back in Sentinel,” Bryce said.

Callie sighed.

“It grows the longer I wait to bleed it. Eventually, it will start to drain my strength, then kill me once it spreads fully.”

Bryce grimaced as she reminded him of what he had called a leash on her bloodline. It was something the royal family of the Winter Kingdom placed on the bloodline of their personal guards from House Queenshield. Something to ensure they were strong enough to protect, but not be a threat to the Kingdom.

He made the cut, then moved to their pack for bandages. Callie let out an amused chuckle as Bryce dressed the small cut, but she didn’t try to stop him.

“Mark knows a lot of people. Probably knows someone who could help remove this part of your bloodline,” Bryce stated.

Callie was silent for a moment, then shook her head.

“No. It would require the blood of the Winter family as an ingredient,” she said. “Doing so would be revealing Alice’s identity and could put her in danger.”

Bloodlines. He knew that the various methods to create them were brutal and cruel, but the common thing with all of them was the culling. Family members without the bloodline were pruned from the family tree and usually turned into ingredients to help strengthen it in those who did possess it. Callie was born a weapon. A weapon meant to protect a family, trained since birth for just that task.

Alice was important to Bryce because of who she was, a girl he got to know during their travels together. Callie thought Alice was everything she had lived for, the reason she was brought into this world, and the reason she had suffered so much.

“Thank you,” Callie said as she dressed with the same lack of shyness as she had when Bryce first entered the room.

He nodded at her.

“Thanks for protecting the girls,” he said to her before she left.

She smiled at him before closing the door. Bryce let out a sigh, stripped, and crawled into the bed. The mattress felt as soft as those the Baroness had in the towerhouse, and soon he felt his eyes become heavy and the world started to fade away.