Feral Mage Book 2: Chapter 43

Bryce dragged Thea along with him as he looked for the girls in the empty town. He dropped the Pale Queen Aspect, but kept the Primal Troll one active in case he needed to restrain Thea further, or 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 with the chain.

His mind 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, and it was the face of an elven woman with ashen gray skin and four black eyes with the faintest of smiles.

He shook his head, cursing to himself that 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 turned to Thea, and she raced toward them.

“You found her!” she exclaimed.

A woman stepped from the group of survivors and started racing toward them as well. It took Bryce a second, but he realized 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 and birth meant they knew best.

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

He nodded his head.

“I’m going to try,” he answered.

***

Hours later, the sun rose over what remained of Stonewall, the town a wreck. The gnolls had slaughtered most of the guards and soldiers there as well as those at Baroness Julia’s towerhouse. Corpses littered the streets, and more than one building went up in smoke before the night was over. Bryce had seen worse in his life, but events like this were rare outside of war.

He sat outside on a low stone fence around the building that Baroness Julia and the mayor of Stonewall were using to discuss the situation. Bellamy and the Priestess were at the temple, both of them watching over the chimera.

Vex and Janna were searching the town for any survivors still hiding. Their heighten senses helping with the task.

“Forty-five dwarf mercenaries,” Callie said as she approached him with Omelet on a leash. “And fifteen gnolls. That’s what we killed last night, though most of them go to your kitsune.”

Bryce frowned.

“She still won’t tell me how she did it,” he stated.

Callie took a seat beside him on the stone wall.

“It was powerful magic that I doubt she could cast herself,” Callie said. “I’d wager it’s connected to the strange weapon she uses. Something about it feels…off to me.”

Bryce stretched.

“Whatever it is, Janna will tell me when she’s ready. What did Bellamy say about your headless opponent?”

He saw a frown form on her face.

“He was the Commander of the Red-Shield Company. We cut him open and found one of those wooden hearts, like those Bellamy said she found in the soldiers she fought back in the Red Pine Kingdom. A puppet, and given what Baroness Julia told us, we’re pretty certain Harold Volson was the one pulling its strings.”

She shook her head and swore.

“I’ve lost enough sleep worrying about what Duchess Frozenveil wanted those keys for. Now I learn that the Northern Human Kingdoms are all under the control of some kind of puppet master, and he’s expanding his control to the south.” Callie swore again. “What do we do with someone like that?”

Bryce shrugged.

“Kill them,” he answered.

She frowned at him.

“And if Baroness Julia is right? That all the Kings in the north are his puppets, along with several nobles? What happens to them when he dies? Do they die?” She shook her head. “We’re talking about a man whose death could collapse several Kingdoms.”

Bryce sighed.

“Callie, I’m a merc. What do you want me to do about it? What can I do about it?” he asked.

She looked at him.

“Fix the girl. Thea is a Princess and knows the truth about her uncle. She can pull the political strings, help align things so when Harold Volson is dealt with, the fallout is minimal,” Callie said.

Bryce nodded, stood up from the wall, and began to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Callie called out to him. “We were having a conversation.”

Bryce looked back at her.

“To do what you said I should. Not really sure how I’m going to do it, but I already promised Bellamy and Baroness Julia I would try,” Bryce answered.

He considered what to do as he made his way to the temple. He had fought the monsters inside himself twice already, stepping back from being a chimera. He knew it was possible, but how would he guide Thea through it?

He was at the temple door before he could come up with an answer. Walking inside, he found Bellamy, heavy bags under her eyes, watching over the bound Thea, who was in a circle of chalk symbols on the floor. Nearby, the priestess chanted prayers to the various Gods and Goddesses.

“Bryce,” Bellamy greeted, her voice sounding tired.

She’s not going to sleep until Thea’s better, is she?

“How’s she doing, Bellamy?” he asked.

His former master gave him a grim look, and his lips thinned.

“She is still a chimera and hasn’t shifted back to her old personality yet,” Bellamy sighed. “I had hoped that if she was still fluctuating between herself and the chimera, we would be able to talk to her, tell her how you managed to step back from it.”

Bryce looked at Thea, the girl’s red eyes staring at him with a feral intensity. He knew if not for the chains binding her, she would try to tear out his insides for a meal. He stood there staring into her feral eyes as he tried to figure out what he could do for her.

“Touch her…”

The voice was like a whisper in his ear, so faint he almost thought it was his mind. He drew in a breath and smelled the scent of wolfsbane and hemlock in the air.

As he exhaled, Bryce took a step into the chalk circle, approaching Thea. The priestess stopped her chanting and watched him, as did Bellamy. Those feral eyes glared up at him as Bryce placed his hand on Thea’s head. He froze as the world turned black.

Bryce stood in the pitch black room again, only this time he wasn’t alone.

“Who are you?” Thea asked.

Tears stained her face as she looked up at him, her body covered in cuts, old scars, and new ones visible through her tattered clothing. The girl looked tired, beaten, and afraid. He wondered if this was Thea’s soul and not the room.

“A friend,” he said with a smile. “I’m here to help you.”

Thea stared at him, fresh tears running down her face.

“You need to leave. It will come back,” she said, her voice cracking. “It always comes back.”

Bryce shook his head.

“I’m not leaving you,” he declared.

He heard movement and turned, expecting to see the Sea Drake and Fire Bull that he knew Thea had as Aspects. Instead, he took a step back at the horror he saw. A true chimera charging toward them.

The creature had the head of a Fire Bull, its horns a light with fire and bright red eyes, but on the neck of a Sea Drake with its wings. The body was an absurd combination of both monsters, having eight legs, four belonging to the bull and four to the drake. Despite its bizarre appearance, the monster moved quickly. It’s eight legs working together in unison, almost as well as the Pale Queen’s had. Bryce grabbed Thea and dove to the side as the Sea Drake’s arm lashed out at them with its claws. He cursed not having a sword as he pulled Thea and himself to their feet.

“Stay back,” he said to her. “I’ll take care of it.”

Thea looked at him as if he were crazy, before she quickly moved away from him and the monster. He saw its long neck whip toward him and the bull’s mouth opened up. He could feel the heat from the fire burning within it. He dove again as flames scorched the ground where he stood. He charged at the monster and struck it in the ribs with his fist. He hoped the blow would break the monster’s bones, but Bryce paled as the punch was only as powerful as it would have been in the real world. It seemed he didn’t have his bizarre strength in Thea’s soul.

“Shit!” Bryce swore as the monster’s drake-like tail whipped out at him, knocking him off his feet, and sending him rolling along the dark floor.

He groaned his teeth as he pushed himself to his feet. How was he going to win this fight? No weapons, no Aspects. What did he have that he could use? What would happen to him if he lost here?

“Use them…” the voice whispered.

“Use what?” he called out as he dodged another strike from the chimera’s Sea Drake claws.

Only the reflexes he had built up over the years were keeping him alive, last-second dodges that his gut told him to make, but Bryce knew it was only a matter of time before he slipped up and the monster got a hit, one that would probably end this fight.

“Your monsters…”

He knew he couldn’t pull on his Aspects within his own soul. Could he use them here?

“I’ve chained them to your soul… all your monsters will be chained to your soul… this is my blessing… my champion… my chimera.”

His blood chilled at those words. What did she mean by that? Who was this woman?

A scream broke his thoughts as he saw the chimera turn from him toward Thea. The monster now lumbering toward her. He needed to stop it, to protect her. Bryce reached out for the strength of his Primal Troll. Instead of an Aspect taking hold, he saw a green arm burst from the ground under the chimera and grab its leg. The Primal Troll was here now, pulling itself from the black ground as the chimera tried to break free from its grasp.

“Is this what you meant?” he asked, but the voice no longer answered him.

Bryce pulled on his Manticore, and a second later, the lion-like monster with a scorpion tail emerged from the ground. It jumped on the back of the chimera, fangs and claws tearing into its flesh as its stinger stabbed into the abomination.

The Pale Queen was next, and Bryce saw the white spider’s legs break from the ground before he turned and raced toward Thea.

“There are more monsters!” she cried as he arrived.

“These ones are on our side,” he said, at least he hoped they were.

Bryce turned and watched as the three monsters that made up his Aspects dragged the chimera down and began to tear it apart. Roars of pain left the beast. A combination of the bellows of a bull and the hiss of a drake. The room started to become lighter, shifting from dark grey to grey and finally white.

The chimera’s body broke apart, turning back into the Sea Drake and Fire Bull that it originally was. Then the bodies dissolved into the ground of Thea’s soul. Bryce eyed his Aspects, but none moved toward them. After a second, they began to sink into the ground as well.

Bryce opened his eyes and heard Thea gasp. They were standing back in the temple, the priestess and Bellamy watching intently from the sides of the chalk circle. Bryce’s mind recalled the fight in Thea’s soul, the chimera that formed from her Aspects and… the voice…

“You’re Bryce, right?” Thea asked, looking up at him with those red eyes no longer feral.

He nodded.

“You should be able to cancel your Aspects now,” he said to her.

Her eyes widened, and Bryce watched as the drake wings vanished from her back, as did the scaled claws on her hand. The nubs of her horns and fiery red eyes vanished next.

Thea lifted her hands, staring at them as tears welled in her eyes before spilling over and running down her cheeks. She sniffled, then hiccuped before looking back at him.

“Thank you!” she said before she started to sob. “Thank you for making me human again!”