Private Tales What Does Not Kill Us

[Pern]

A shriek accompanied a lancing bolt of lightning through the air as Pern sailed through the rain, landing limply a dozen yards or so away from her backpack. She'd lost her dagger to the deep mud and the piercing, throbbing pain of her wrist was enough to bring her to cry out. Rolling over through the mud, wounded arm held against her chest, she heard Hath yell out to her to run and every fiber of her being told her to obey. With a haggard gasp for breath she pushed herself up and began to make for her bag.

The very same moment the axe sunk into Glith's chest, a dastardly arrow shot by Glith's mate speared through Pern's left thigh. The agony was instant and spread quickly through her leg like wildfire. Pern wailed, collapsing just short of her bag. She didn't see the sword cutting through Hath's chest because she was struggling to bite back gasps of pain while trying to get to her bag. Her hand managed to clutch the straps just in time to look up and find Bathyr on the approach.

Hath.

Where was Hath?

Where was Hath?!

Her eyes landed on a dark figure through the rains, crumpled against the ground. It was too far away to see, but it was where they had been fighting. Gods no.

"HATH!"

 

[Hath Charosh]

Everything was sliding out of focus. He didn't even hear her cry. All he heard was his own heart beat. It was slowing down. Another flash of lightning. Something in the water caught the light that flashed across the sky. His heartbeat fluttered. Then it stopped.

Bathyr walked towards Pern slowly, putting his bulk between her and Hath's motionless body. An entire half of his sword was covered in dark blood, the cleansing rains slow to remove the stain of his betrayal.

"No!" Bathyr shouted suddenly. He swung his free hand outwards and caught Glith's mate. She went tumbling to the ground, but quickly righted herself and crawled through the mud to Glith. She hunched over his body, snarling at Pern.

"Come," said Bathyr in human, holding out his hand to Pern. "Come."

A rapid series of splashes had Bathyr turn sharply away. Too late to stop Hath's form shoulder barging him through the air.

Snarling and snapping. Hath stalked after him. Midnight Black tendrils still snaked across the fatal wound in his chest, pulling flesh back together. His eyes had turned entirely black, the corruption unchecked. His hand shot upwards and snatched an arrow out of the air.

 

[Pern]

"Noo!" Pern yelled at Bathyr, though the explosive nature of the outburst was near a wailing snarl, "Get away!"

And not but a moment later his massive form was bludgeoned by another blur of mass, sending him sprawling across the field. Pern flinched, looking up again to find Hath overcome by his inner corruption and she stared, mouth agape at the sight of him. Several rampant emotions collided: horror, despair, relief, confusion, but she didn't have time to think on them.

But somehow she had noticed the amulet was missing from his neck and it had hung just level with where that fresh slash and stab wound were tying themselves together. She waited until his form stalked by, seething with dark intent for Bathyr, before making a desperate grab for her bag and pushing herself to her feet. Groaning in pain from the arrow, blood now freely flowing from both sides of her leg where it stuck, she began hobbling her way over towards where she'd seen him crumpled before.

The amulet, she had to find the amulet.

 

[Hath Charosh]

Bathyr found his footing quickly, body moving on instinct. When he turned back to Hath he went still. He slowly let the grim visage of his half-brother sink in. Bathyr had felt a touch of regret skewering Hath, but there was no time for sentiment in the wild savanna.

His father knew best, better than Kardidua. This was best for the tribe. Each time Hath had returned form his travels he had carried himself with more confidence, had been more reluctant to yield. Bathyr's position had to be solidified.

Hath strode forwards as if approaching a meal table.

Be done with him. Then his father. Take the tribe. The first tribe. Then we take the others, one by one.

It all seemed so simple now. It was his own lack of ambition that had held him back. Anyone else who held him back would have to stand aside.

Bathyr surged forward, a straight thrust that would have hit the same wound that was still healing itself. Almost casually, Hath swung his bare left arm down in a block. The blade bit deep, to the bone but the thrust slid past his waist.

One long sidestep closed the space between them. Hath slammed his right shoulder into Bathyr's chest and grabbed the hilt of his sword. The two struggled, snarling and grunting. Hath shoved his back into Bathyr's chest and freed the sword. Bathyr tried to back away but Hath pivoted at the waist and swung at waist height.

The air itself wailed in pain, cut by the ferocity of the swing. Bathyr cried out once and fell silent. He fell to the ground. Both halves of him fell to the ground.

An arrow thudded into his shoulder blade. Hath turned towards Jarshi, still kneeling over her dead mate. She nocked another arrow. Hath dropped the sword and charged. Another arrow struck his chest and he kept running. Two were now embedded in him, the fletchings spraying water with each stride.

Jarshi drew another arrow but was out of time. She held it tight in one fist and thrust it forwards, but Hath slapped it away with such strength that her wrist was broken.

Hath drove her back into the ground. Water poured down the slope, thick and dark with mud. He wrapped both hands around her neck and pressed so hard that her head sank into the mud until she vanished unto a curtain of water. Shadows pulsed through his veins, the opposite of light yet they still burned.

 

[Pern]

Pern was struggling with the pain of her wrist and the arrow lodged through her leg. She'd left it where it was to stem the flow of blood, but the streak of scarlet was freshly washing down her leg in the rain just the same. She needed to get out of the rain, needed to get the arrow out and search her bag for healing supplies.

But she also needed to find that amulet - her eyes continued to frantically glance up at the sounds of the fight. Hath had cleanly carved his brother in twain and had advanced on the other scout. Pern felt her heart stutter, her lungs burn to catch breath as she searched through the muck and water for any glimmer of metal.

Where?

WHERE?!

Gods, where was the amulet?!

Another glance up at Hath found him standing from where he had suffocated the scout. Collapsing to her good knee with a gasping sob, she began to search around the area where Hath had been gored through. Somewhere. It had to be here somewhere.

 

[Hath Charosh]

It was fortunate that Hath and Bathyr had been fighting on the even ground. The amulet hadn't been washed away. A flash of lightning. A beacon in the dark and murky waters. A disc of solid metal in the turbulence.

Jarshi got one arm to Hath's shoulder. Using it as an anchor she lifted her head from the water long enough for a gulp of air before Hath simply broke her hold with raw strength. The darkness swirled around the arrows now, but the tendrils had almost sealed the wound right through his chest.

This is right. This is as it should be. They struck first.

 

[Pern]

The glint of metal caught her eye and Pern's hand surged through the water for it, fingers closing around the familiar disc and yanking it out of the muck. Heaving for breath she pushed herself back to her feet, biting back a groan of pain as she attempted to put weight on her injured leg. Tucking the amulet inside her palm and out of sight she began to hobble towards Hath.

"Hath! Hath!" she called for him, trying to get his attention. Whoever he was right now, she knew it wasn't Hath, but she had to try something to put things right. The amulet had worked, really worked, and if she could just get close enough...

Her foot hit the handle of an axe stuck in the mud, she paused.

"Hath, let'sh go - pleashe!"

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath turned slowly to look over his shoulder. There was no light in his eyes. The corruption convulsed through his body and swirled around his wounds.

Jarshi had her hands around his wrists and managed the push her nose up out of the water for a breath. Hath didn't even react. His jaw moved as if he were testing words, or perhaps speaking within his own mind. He frowned at Pern until he finally spoke.

"We will go back to the tribe and finish this," he stated. There was recognition finally. His voice carried a vicious note, but there was also regret there. He almost looked defeated as he returned to snuffing out Jarshi's life.

 

[Pern]

"Hath..."

She frowned. It wasn't him. That wasn't him. Pern shook her head, "Pleashe...we can leave, continue our journey. You don't have to do thish."

 

[Hath Charosh]

His shoulders rose and fell. The sound of the rain was interrupted by Jarshi coughing and spluttering as she was given a reprieve.

Hath pushed himself to his feet and turned towards Pern. Unhurried strides closed the space between them in the space of a handful of heartbeats and one roll of thunder.

He was there, in the nuance of expression as he regarded her. His voice however seemed distant, as if it made its way to her from the end of a deep cavern.

"This has to be finished now. My half-brother...he tried to kill me." The deep growl that followed would resonate through her chest as surely as any thunder.

 

[Pern]

She'd never felt more frozen on the spot then now. Pern's instincts were telling her to get away from him and she forcibly denied that impulse. The fear of doubt crept into her spine as he came to stand before her. It sounded like Hath, but it still didn't look like him. Didn't feel like Hath.

And that feeling felt audacious even for her. Pern had to really ask herself just how well she thought she knew him. Maybe she didn't know him as well as she thought. Maybe it was just her human-civilized brain telling her this was wrong when it had no right to. She flinched under his growl, shuddering at the sensation of it reverberating through her bones. Made her heart tremble.

"I know ... your tribe ish important to you," that much was clear, "but we can't delay any longer, Hath. Look at you" her frown deepened, "it ish revenge at the expenshe of yourshelf."

"We can...make thingsh right on the way back. Pleashe, let'sh keep going."

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath's chest heaved. Rising and falling when he should have ceased to breathe minutes ago. The dark chords across the chasm in his chest had stopped moving. They were slowly hardening into new flesh.

At his side his hands trembled. The muscles of his jaw worked as if he was trying to form words. His lips were curled in pure anger, but every time she said please his seemed to plead with her.

"You should..." he started, before snapping his mouth closed. It had sounded much more like the Hath she knew.

"I will take you back to Elbion," he hissed through clenched teeth. Control flowed back and forth and he barred for control of his own mind. A bargain had been struck. Hath had dug in his heels when it had wanted her gone too. "Far away...from me."

 

[Pern]

"No," Pern shook her head again, finding her own voice of strength, "I made a promishe."

"You made a promishe," she reminded him. It was difficult to say if there were tears on her face for all the rain that soaked them over. Pern's chest was tight with emotion, fear gripping her for the possible repercussions of acting against whatever demon had a hold of him, but she'd made up her mind. She wasn't leaving Hath behind so long as she could help it.

"Pleashe, Hath," her good hand lifted to his chest, flattening her palm and the amulet against his skin, "let'sh go."

 

[Hath Charosh]

Time slowed to a stop. A streak of lightning lazily split the sky before that too stopped. The rain hung in the air. A droplet on that struck Hath was a blossoming flower erupting from his shoulder.

The darkness inside has shifted, not fleeing the touch of the pendant, but swirling around it. Hath's arms were in a a strange position. His right hand was reaching upwards, his left clamped across its wrist. They were crossed over his chest, below her arm.

Lightning had cast a long shadow beneath Hath. It moved. It was the only thing that moved. It detached itself from his feet and started to swirl upwards. It took a nebulous form, almost a mirror of Hath. Slit eyes opening slowly to stare it Pern.

Why? It asked, the word manifesting inside her head.

 

[Pern]

Pern felt the stillness overcome the moment and despite how terrifying that sort of power should have been, it felt calm. She didn't look up, didn't look at the creature she could feel staring down upon her. The sensation of its presence made her skin crawl and her stomach churn, as if the horror of the last hour had been made manifest. Pern closed her eyes against it, willing her strength to remain.

"There ish too much darknesh and death in thish world," she said, hearing her own voice as if it were far away, "and I'm not letting you take any more light and goodnesh from it."

 

[Hath Charosh]

"Light and goodness?" The shadow turned its head to look at Hath. "I know him far better than you do. Perhaps he lacks the will to act. Perhaps he cares for you more than he let's on. This is not a matter of good an evil. Strength and action against mere existence."

The demons walked slowly around Pern. It could not harm her. It brought it great pain just to push through the trappings of the pendant to make its plea.

"You are a merchant of death. Hath could sweep across the plains and build a new world with his people wielding your steel."

Even here, the demon shuddered in revulsion at the word. Their kind could not stand iron or steel.

"You have seen the chaos of this place. We could make it better."

The shadow started to blur, the tip of the lightning bolt started to etch across the sky slowly. The thing did not have much time left to make its bargain.

 

[Pern]

Pern shook her head.

"I would gladly help Hath bring peashe to hish tribe."

Brows furrowing as she sensed the overwhelming pain of her injuries slowly seep back into feeling, Pern set her jaw, "You are not Hath."

And then, on an instinctive whim that came from nowhere but her own heart, Pern took a deep breath and uttered the ancient word for banishment, activating one of the runes carved into the amulet beneath her palm. She could not see the glow of light, but she could feel the curious surge of power beneath her hand.

 

[Hath Charosh]

The shadow suddenly dispersed. A cry of surprise echoed cut through the silence.

"You...you are derided...when you have power...you could be respected...adored..."

It wasn't a full demon. Just a shard of one carried back from pandemonium. It had taken the fiend time to work through the cracks in Hath's mind. It was throwing out desperate attempts.

The darkness reformed beneath Hath's feet. The lightning split into tendrils.

"That toy will not contain me. You will suffer... Your choice..."

Hath's hand slapped over Perns. The rain crashed down upon them. The silence was gone, replaced by the roar of the rain, the gasping of Jarshi.

"Pern..." he sighed, clasping her hand tight to him. In that last moment the thing had seen the pendant, so had he. His right hand had moved to stop her, but Hath had snatched his own right arm with his left at the last moment. Now he placed both over Perns.

The darkness was a cloud, dispersed in one gust from his eyes. Hath growled softly, but in pain and not in anger. Ever so slowly, he dropped to both knees, dragging the pendant and Pern back woth him. Blood welled up around the arrows still stuck in his body, the dark power not having the time to heal those.

 

[Pern]

Pern crumpled back to the ground with him, drawn down by his weight as well as her own sudden mounting exhaustion. The wonder of what she had just done escaped her utterly, but the amount of her own energy it had taken was substantial considering she'd not had much to spare.

Cringing and biting back a gasp of pain as her injured leg gave out beneath her, she bit through the fog of it to look back to Hath. The darkness was gone from his eyes and no longer shadowing his aura - he was back.

"Haaa-" a wince, Pern cradled her broken wrist to her middle, partially leaning against the larger orc as she clenched against a fresh wave of agony, "I have ... shuppliesh in my bag."

Leather string to remake his amulet, healing potions and more.

"Hold - geh - the pendant and I'll get it."

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath slipped his fingers between hers, pressing a fingertip to the cold metal. He kept her hand in place deliberately for a little longer.

"I am sorry," he muttered. His shame didn't even allow him to hold Pern's gaze. He looked down at her hand on top of his rising chest.

The pain running through him was exquisite. The power had burned through him, but now he just burned. He could feel the fresh skin through his chest and could not help but wonder if he was now permanently tainted. No matter the magic allied to him, a part would have been build by demonic force.

 

[Pern]

Frowning deeply, Pern shook her head and withdrew her hand form his, "I think ... thish ish beyond shorry, Hath."

She had no idea if an apology really meant anything for what had just happened. She had no idea whose fault it was, if anyone's at all. They were leaving peacefully and Hath's brother had attacked them. Part of her acknowledged that the demon ... dark presence, whatever it was, may have been responsible for saving Hath and bringing him back. Feeling grateful for this made her sick.

She carefully pulled her shoulderstraps off and set her bag aside, fishing through it for the bundle of leather tie. The previous one had been triple-braided for strength but she didn't have the use of both hands or the desire to sit for an hour in the pouring rain. Pulling length enough for a simple necklace, she bit it free and leaned in to thread it through the metal link. For such a simple act to be so complicated and cause so much pain, Pern felt she couldn't make a greater gesture for the orc. Tying off the knot was far more difficult than it needed to be, but she got the job done and dropped herself back to the ground, into the muck, with a painful grunt.

So many questions she wanted to ask, instead she returned to her bag to look for the healing potions Ignatius had tucked away inside.

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath slumped to both knees, his chin slumped to his chest. Mud pooled around his knees. He could have been crying but tears in the rain were soon washed away.

"I could have killed it," he sighed. Hath brought one hand to the arrow in his shoulder. It didn't seem to have lodged in the bone.

"If I had gone, it would have gone. And I let it in."

Hath felt a constant throbbing ache through his whole body that drowned out the acute pain of the arrows. Most was simply swallowed up by his disappointment with himself. His entire existence had been ending. He had been sinking into the endless dark, taking the writhing beast with him. It had told him that Bathyr would end Pern when he was done with her.

"Thank you for standing up to it. What...did you do?"

 

[Pern]

Pern was busy frowning. And searching through her bag, but mostly frowning. A tight sigh left her nostrils, rain still dripping down across her lashes and nose. She couldn't bring herself to telling Hath that killing the demon that way would have meant his end too. Then where would she be? Halfway into a journey with no idea of how to get home, that's where. The only place she'd have to go back to was his tribe and, judging by recent events, she wasn't sure they'd let her leave again.

There, finally, five small glass bottles filled with a faintly glowing red potion. They had their fair share of injuries, but she hoped one bottle each would be enough to heal them well enough to get going again. Pulling two bottles out, Pern shifted in the muck to look at him, broken wrist gingerly set in her wrap, blood still oozing from her leg.

"I don't know..." she admitted, "it wanted me to let it shtay sho you could go back to the tribe."

Brow furrowed, she shook her head, "I could not let that happen, sho I banished it."

Golden eyes settled on the arrow stuck through her leg, a shaky sigh sounding, "I need your help with thish." She couldn't break the arrow cleanly with one hand and, honestly, she didn't think she could yank it out either.

 

[Hath Charosh]

"It's going to have to come out," he warned.

Having an immediate purpose helped. Dealing with one problem at a time was a very orcish way of looking at life. He did not want to face up to what had just happened. Bathyr might have come to kill him, but now his half brother was lying in two pieces.

Hath had still been there, still felt everything. He wasn't removed or displaced, just that the core of that dark twisted thing had wound itself around his very soul. It fed itself off his own anger. That was what made him feel the worst. Knowing that the heart of his behaviour came from within and not from without.

Hath placed his left hand firmly down on her thigh and grasped the arrow with his right. The arrowhead couldn't be left in the meat of her leg. If the head was embedded in bone this was going to be painful.

"Ready?"

 

[Pern]

Pern was exceptionally aware of the fact that the arrow needed to come out. She wanted it out but she would have preferred bypassing the whole taking it out portion of the process. No such luck. The orcess nodded grimly, bracing herself as he snapped the arrowhead off where it presently stuck out to the outside of her leg. The vibration sent an agonizing shiver down the length of the arrow through the meat of her leg, causing fresh blood to well up and a seizing grip of fire.

She made a sound between a yelp and a gasp, utterly oblivious to how shocking and awkward the sensation of his hand on her thigh would have been in any other setting and situation. Setting her jaw, another nod was given to him and without further ado Hath pulled the arrow from her leg.

Couldn't help the sudden roaring, bellow of pain. The heaving gasps, the convulsive shivering of her leg. There may have been a growled orcish expletive that she'd used only a few times at the Forge Circle much to the other Smiths' amusement.

Pern bit the cork of a healing potion bottle and promptly threw the potion back the way an experienced drinker might a shot before hastily tossing it into the muck. Didn't take long for the potion to work its magic. The pain of her leg began to subside, the wound began to seal, even the throbbing in her wrist abated. One bottle wouldn't heal everything completely, but it was enough to leave two much less serious open wounds on her leg and take her wrist back to a sprain instead of a break. Wasn't until the relief sunk in that she realized she was leaning against Hath.

"Can we..." she pushed herself to sit up from him, leaning to look warily at the arrows sticking out of his chest, "try to avoid arrowsh from now on."