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Chapter 64

Patience

I’d like to say that next week went without incident. No such luck.

“Where is everyone else?” I asked.

“Oh, they got a plan they liked, and left.” Katherine said.

“Beg pardon?” I said. “I had guides arranged for them at the Guild.”

.....

“I’ve no doubt they took them.” Katherine said. “Honestly, not looking forward to a week on the trail between here and there, myself.”

I sighed. “Of all the reckless... It is done, our die is now cast. All that remains is to determine who else is making the journey.”

“And coming back?” asked Geralt.

I waved a hand. “Even if we catch Rakkal unarmored and in the bath, I don’t think we’re all coming back.”

“So catch him asleep. Minotaur or not, he needs sleep.”

“I do not think it will be so easy.” I said.

“Gloomy.” Katherine said. “Well, I want to learn this Riposte maneuver.”

“Then it is time to practice.” Gerald said.

By practice, he meant letting me flail around at Katherine, who darted circles around me, poking at me with her foil. She had a grand old time, and I missed my shield.

“Now you see?” asked Gerald. “Armor just slows you down. Any manner of true combatant doesn’t need it.”

I pulled my shield from my inventory, fastened it to my arm. “Another bout, if you please, Miss Katherine.”

She smiled and moved in for the kill. Back, and then in for the kill. And my shield was scratched and dinged by her steel foil, but she could land no meaningful blow.

For a time, she danced toward my right, and I had to spin, parrying with my flavian. Neither of us was able to land a telling blow on the other, and Geralt called a halt when Katherine began running out of energy.

“All right, little turtle, let’s see how you do against this.” He drew his blade, an arming sword so well polished it seemed to be cast in silver. It moved with the speed of a moonbeam, and seemed to always be thrusting or slashing at me.

He won; of course he won. Much as I might like to fancy it up with words and details, it was never a contest. His skills eclipsed mine by that much.

“You see? You see? Still dead. That shield, that armor, hasn’t protected you at all.”

I was gasping for air. “Three times.” I said.

“Beg pardon?”

“I last three times as long against you with the shield than without.”

He turned his head and spat. “If you won’t take my lessons, I can’t train you.”

“If your lessons will get me killed, then I have no need for them. Academic fighting methods that get actual warriors killed-”

“ACTUAL warriors? Lad, I’ve SLAIN a dozen people a year for longer than you’ve been alive.”

“How many of those times were you in a shield wall? How many times do you hold off three or four times your number?”

“Often. I’m trying to teach you lessons that it’s taken me a lifetime to learn. That weight you’re lugging around slows you. It’s easier to hit you.”

“And it’s easier to survive the hits. Eight points of protection may seem like nothing to you-”

He raised the tip of his sword to my eye. “Silver Eagle does sixteen points of damage on a clean hit. More on a critical.”

“Two blows to kill me versus four.”

“Those four are easier to land.” He insisted.

“Are they? I’m better at blocking with my shield than dodging without it.”

“That is because of your armor. If you work on your skill, your mobility, you could become as good at dodging as interposing your slab of metal, there.”

“In how many years?” I asked. “Because we have two weeks, three at the most. Can you train me to that level within that time?”

“Not with that attitude of yours.”

I smiled. “Train Katherine to that level, then, and I’ll give you the apology I owe.”

“Indeed?” He squinted at Katherine. “I’ll have that apology, then. In three weeks, Katherine will be able to deal with you as effortlessly as I myself do.”

#

I wasn’t about to make that easy for her, of course. Shorter legs meant that I was less mobile, so I practiced that.

Yeah, you try sprinting suddenly to a side. Remember how embarrassing running and using Tail Lash was? This was worse, and repeated. And deliberate.

It is far easier to trip over a carton that leap over or atop it, even when not moving at combat speeds. Oh, I EARNED that week’s XP for my Physical Training Regimen.

I even managed to reduce the condition of my shield, though that was far from my intention.

“Exercise is physically stupid.” Black Snake told me.

“It is.” I agreed. “Until your body gets used to doing what it didn’t used to be.”

“Do you need any assistance tonight?” she asked.

“I should be good, are you off to talk to the mice again?”

Black Snake had found a family of Aware mice, and adopted them as her second family.

“Smarter than you are.” She said.

I see her point; I will never improve as rapidly as someone without my divisor. For that matter, I was attempting to practice skills that just weren’t what Pankratios was good at.

Wait. What WAS Pankratios good at? Oh... Right...

At the end of the week, I felt I was ready.

“Flurry of Blows!” she began. Cripes.

I still didn’t have anything resembling Flurry of Blocks.

[You have suffered an ORANGE critical for 32 points of piercing damage. After armor, 24 piercing damage has been taken. You have 6/30 health remaining.]

Katherine’s eyes widened as her foil pierced my stomach, and came out my back. By reflex and training, she drew it back out.

[Serious injury: Bleeding 2]

I coughed up blood. “That was well done.” I said. “Tell master Gerald...”

[Your pain threshold exceeds your remaining health. You will experience a period of unconsciousness.]

“... I apologize.”

I awakened to the familiar smell of feces and rot, barely concealed by a scent of lavender soap.

“Sandru? How long have I been out?”

“What? What are you doing alive? Your intestines are split, untreatable. I can smell the septicemia from here.”

[Serious Infection: Septic]

“Yes, my system agrees with you.” I said.

“And it tells you it is fatal?”

“Huh? No, nothing like that. In fact, it doesn’t have anything here about damage to my intestines.”

“I assure you, there is.” Sandru said, proceeding to unwrap bandages. “How do you feel?”

“I could do with a bale of hay.”

“Not with a punctured intestine. That’s... not possible...”

He prodded.

“Bedpan! Urgent bedpan!” I warned him, before my diarrhea exploded out of me. I could smell the stagnant blood in the mix. It was awful, both the experience and the stench.

“Blessed gods!” Sandru exclaimed, nearly dropping the bedpan.

The stench remained behind for the two days I was in the infirmary that visit, though I was able to make it to the outhouse for incidents after that. The pain was crippling, and worse, was no longer in a straight line. It was as though someone had put multiple needles inside me, oriented at all weird angles, and then lit them on fire.

I was feverish for two days, and then I woke shortly after dusk to find Black Snake hovering over me, having dropped a wet rag squarely across my left eye.

“Thank you, Black Snake.”

.....

“You are welcome. You are also urgently needed.”

“I am also wounded.” I said.

“You must come now. The mice are in grave danger.”

I was able to sit up. It cost me serenity, but I could sit up. “What is it, sentient cat?”

“Dog. Sentient dog.”

“Black Snake, how were you able to cross the Guild barrier?”

“It is down tonight.”

“SANDRU!” I stood, and called out again.

Gaedron was on the night shift. “No pain medication for you.”

“Gaedron, the guildhall’s mystic barrier is down. Let Duenan and Reynald know!”

To his credit, he ran.

I limped out to help the mice. In my current condition, I wasn’t going to be much use against anything capable of taking that barrier ward down.

“Have you been bullying the mice?” I asked the dog.

“It is the right of the strong to bully the weak.” She replied. “You look weak.”

She lept at my throat; I interposed my arm.

[You have taken six points of piercing damage. After armor, no damage has been received.]

But the impact knocked me off my feet. She released my arm to attempt to seize my neck again.

I grabbed hold of her foreleg, and rolled. She snapped up at me, and I shoved my hand far enough down her throat to grab the base of her tongue.

She stopped fighting.

I turned my head, and spat blood, turned my head back so her right eye was looking directly into mine.

“Let’s try this again. How should the strong treat the weak?”

#

By the time I made it to the inn, my [Bleeding 1] had stopped. My health was back in the orange, and my vision swam, but my hearing and scent were just fine.

“Which room is the lady Katherine in?”

“The lady Katherine checked out two days ago.”

“Gerald as well?”

“I gather that they were headed opposite directions, if that helps, sir.”

“It does. Thank you, Ron.”

“Rohan, sir. The name is Alpin in origin.”

“You have Alpin blood in you?”

“No sir, just a mother and grandmother infatuated of the culture.”

“I see. Thank you, Rohan, and good night.”

“Good night, sir.”

The [Bleeding 1] came back before I’d made it even halfway to the Guild. I had to stop in an alleyway, and nearly passed out. Why the fuck not?

As I said, creating wards against the mystic is one of the first ceremonies any user of magic learns. There is power in blood; I drew a circle with mine.

“By salt and blood and life, I declare this area sacred to my cause! I am Rhishisikk, blood of Titans, and Speaker of Truth, Shaman of Dream and Darkness, Water and Death, and other domains besides! I reserve the area within this circle for my own use, and forbid all unaligned magics passage! Mystic Warding!”

That second to last part was needed to allow Black Snake access.

[Resist Pain check has succeeded. You may remain conscious.]

I cast the Lucid Dream, and was able to reach Katherine. Don’t ask me why that worked.

“Katherine.”

“By salt and spell, I bid you begone, ghost! Exorcism!”

I said something profound, like “AAAAAAA! MY EYES!”

“You bitch! I’m ALIVE. I’ll link you to your children tonight, if I can. But get back here to Narrow Valley. Oh gods, I think it would hurt less to just tear them out. The quest is ongoing, Katherine.”

“You’re alive?”

“I live.”

“I nearly killed you.”

“Save my life later, and we’ll call it even.”

“I’m one day from my children. Let me visit them first.”

“Fine. A day or two to visit your children. I’ll need to heal, anyway. Dream Merging – Callisto! Dream Merging – Kristoph! Ah, Gumdrop Falls. Don’t eat more than I would.”

“Private. Dream. Get out.”

Physical pain affects the mind and the spirit. I did not oppose her will.

The dawn came with its accursed brightness, and noise, and last night didn’t count as restful.

I thanked the powers, and dismissed my circle. I don’t remember how I got back to the guildhall, I only know that when Black Snake woke me, I was back in the infirmary.

“What? What is it? Is it the dog again?”

“I love you, father. Please don’t die.”

“Please make certain the mice are safe, if you would.”

“At once, father.”

By my bedside, there was a pale envelope sealed with brown wax. The ornate vine and leaf design could mean only one thing.

I had a reply from the elves of Greywood.

#