Chapter 3: CH3: On The Road Again

After a week, all the work he got out of his one landlocked serf was a full wagon full of produce that Dotty, his old grey nag, could barely pull. Even after he distilled his piss into drinkable water and added it to Dotty’s trough, her gains were negligible. Silas’s fence front had been more successful; he added more posts connected to the fence designed for malignant spirits. Two more high posts near his homestead crossed the protection into his land with a layer of redundancy. If the hollow managed to get through the fence, every step on Silas’s land would be like battling the fence until it destroyed two key posts. Su's spirit was largely unaffected by his additions, but her chain wouldn’t last forever.

 

In exchange for help, he invited a growing problem into his life. He felt her eyes on him most days and knew she understood the significance of the posts. Silas was ready for a betrayal and had crafted some measures to repay it.

 

Silas hadn’t let the spirit back in his cave and instead placed a post in the ground that collected spiritual energy. It was less efficient than his immortals’ cave and honestly a rushed job, but Su owed him a debt of spiritual energy. He was almost convinced by how she acted that the ghost was working with the hollow.  

 

He poured an alchemic chemical on the crops Su managed to pick to keep them from rotting and entered his immortal’s cave. Special carvings filled with doe blood kept Su from entering; the same was true for his shack. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t sleep near a spirit that could affect the world.

 

“Methinks the cloudy skies are an ill omen. Traveling to town today is unwise. The monster hunts actively in the dark. Mayhap another day with clear skies would be fruitful.” Su said.

 

“With the storm, first snow will surely fall, and my crops will wilt. Thy work will end and with it my payment. Thou fear the monster for thy own sake, but thou will not suffer. I have ensured if thee becomes a hollow, the same protections that keep the beast at bay will destroy, thou. Work with confidence that thy soul will not last corrupted, but if thou manage to pass on even better.”

 

Su looked troubled, and Silas might have felt a little guilty from his words but squashed the feeling. This ghost worked slower than the meekest slave, even paid a fair wage. He could have threatened to destroy her if she didn’t tend his field for no compensation. Silas had been generous, with only a wagon full of crops plucked poorly after a week. He had a slow journey ahead of him and needed to buy more hogs for their blood, if not their meat.

 

With his current yield, he might make enough to buy a few sheets of paper to take notes instead of carving his plans into the dirt and then erasing them.

 

Silas hoped his homestead wasn’t destroyed upon his return.

 

He couldn’t even take the hide from his poor milk cow after the hollow ruined it. Silas could have used it to write his seals or enchanted it, possibly transforming the pelt into a spirit item.

 

“I was never baptized under the lord; my husband gave me many concessions in our marriage. How can I go on to heaven like him?” Su asked.

 

“There is no heaven, only the next life where thy late husband rests. I would advise thou get to it quickly lest he finds another pretty squaw. Nothing holds thou back but thy misconceptions.” Silas said.

 

Su seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking her head. “There is one more tether. My son, he hunts me and thou as well. I will not rest until he is at peace.” Su said.

 

There it was, her reason for sticking around. Her son was the hollow, hunting him and causing trouble. The spiritual energy gathered in his farm and more so in his immortal’s cave called to it. Silas could see it might also want to devour its mother. While its mother’s chain bound her to him, his chain might have bound it to the mother or even its father, who passed on. Silas could see it freaking out and hastening its hollofication after finding out its father had already passed on.

 

Of course, he couldn’t know if anything the spirit told him was true. Su was a thief that pilfered his spiritual energy in his immortal’s cave.

 

…

 

The road to town was cracked and filled with wheel-breaking potholes. Each section threatened to lame Dotty while she diligently pulled his wagon. He heard the creaking of trees and occasionally the falling of long dead limbs before they crashed heavily on the ground. Birds chirped as they squeezed into their nests in preparation for the coming downpour. The air was hot and damp, but he had a feeling the climate would quickly chill after the rain, and the year’s first snow would come at last. The soil could rest for the next year if they could only survive the coming storm.

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Silas checked his muskets for the fifth time to ensure they were ready to fire. Between cultivation sessions over the last week, he wasn’t idle and diligently worked to create a weapon through seals. Out of the prying eyes of Su, he crafted 20 seal-covered lead balls with anti-malignant spirit seals.

 

He didn’t expect it to kill the hollow, but it might slow the monster down or scare it off. Besides adjusting his armaments, Silas had made some progress with cultivation. 12% of his veins had been transformed by cultivation increasing his physical strength and the range of his spirit sense. Su appeared clearer to his eyes, and he felt his spirit energy radiate from him.

 

While the soul reapers called it reiatsu, he preferred to think of it as his aura. His reiryoku was his cultivation base though he had no core or pillars to speak of. Silas was at the beginning of his cultivation journey and would need months to reach the first stage. His body was still mortal, and it would be that way for some time.

 

Silas focused on the road and his companion diligently pulling the cart up a stout hill.

 

The mare needed a friend just as he did. Buster had been a good friend but had died too soon. Night had become colder, and his mind felt agitated, with only a few conversations with Su to keep him relatively sane. He hungered for companionship and conversation but knew he couldn’t have it with his current situation. The hollow needed to die, but he didn’t have the power to kill it, only keep it at bay or scare it off.

 

Silas froze and looked up to see a woman with most of his soul chain eaten away and fading quickly under the swinging body of a corpse holding up a sign that said, witch. Silas halted the wagon and pulled out a spade while walking toward the tree. The ghost watched him lead the flintlock rifle against the tree before he shimmied up it and cut through the rope with his knife.

 

The corpse fell, and the woman gasped as he began to dig. Silas didn’t say a word as tears fell from her eyes as Silas quickly dug a deep hole through roots and rocks. He lifted the corpse and placed it gently in the hole before burying her. Silas didn’t say a word as the spirit faded away.

 

“God bless thou,” The spirit said before it faded.

 

He saw the girl in town once before but never spoke to her. Elizabeth or Bethany, he couldn’t remember, but she wasn’t a witch. The girl was 13 or 14 and not yet wed because while plenty of women were in the village, the last skirmish with the red Indians and the French had thinned out their numbers. Young men like himself who weren’t well-established couldn’t afford a wife.

 

Silas hoped the hollow had some ability to cause madness in people. At least then, he would have something to hate that could be dealt with. If it was merely human superstition that caused the town greybeards to hang an innocent girl, he might have to kill a lot of people. Silas could feel his aura gathering, ready to roar, but it was too weak to even blow a leaf. The anger he felt died like an ember in the rain.

 

The monster’s presence appeared behind him, and he moved. Silas ducked and threw himself towards the hanging tree.

 

“Thou cost me a meal.” The hollow screeched as it lunged forward. Silas stared at the monster. It had the hollow mask of a bear with yellow warpaint covering its body in whirlpool designs. The monster slashed with its claws as Silas grabbed his gun and threw him out of the monster’s reach. He could feel a maelstrom of malignant energy pouring out of the monster pressing on Silas. He pointed his gun, and the monster cackled.

 

“Hark thee human has thy mind spoiled like milk cuddling to cheese. Thy spirit is weak and beliefs a lie. No angel protects thou, and no god watches his flock. Reapers don’t hunt these lands, and no grande Vasto Lordes remain from ancient times remain to protect thou.” The hollow started cackling at its words.

 

Silas squeezed the trigger, and powder ignited, blasting a large lead ball into the hollow’s chest. The creature shrieked as red light flashed across its body. Then, it turned tail and ran crashing into trees as it fled.

 

Grande Vasto Lordes, Silas shook his head as his heart hammered in his chest. He felt something wet and looked down to see five deep wounds bleeding freely. Silas used a spare cloth to bind his wounds and hoped he was far enough from a normal mortal to heal.

 

Silas climbed onto his wagon seat after reloading his flit lock rifle and slapped his reins. Dotty trotted toward the town that would condemn a little girl for witchcraft. His goals had already changed. He planned to get what he could and leave for months. But, unfortunately, there was no telling how bad things were about to get in the town, thanks to one hollow.

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