Chapter 40: Chapter 40 – Aftermath

//Author Note: Whelp, I've been kindly informed—yes, actually kindly, it wasn't sarcasm. I was surprised, too!—that I need to be more social with my audience. It was terrible advice really, I mean who here really wants to know me? I hear your silence! Good work proving me right hahaha, sucker. Anyway, link for  for those who haven't converted to reading both//

 

It is the darkness itself that burns me. Like boiling oil, but without the stickiness. Like a fire, but without the roaring air and thick smoke. It’s not a liquid, but it’s not like the air either. It’s something else.

Burning and screaming, though I can’t hear the sounds, or even feel my lungs, all I can do is think and feel the tiny changes in the burning sensation that spreads all around me and through me.

The darkness is what burns, and it burns with the same feeling as my æther channels do when I’m casting. Here, though, it burns away at my spirit, soul, or whatever it is that I am here where flesh and bone is a foreign concept. This place isn’t the same as the realms of dreams, it’s different.

If this could even be called a place.

As the burning currents of darkness drown me, I relax and focus on the sensation. Not the pain of it, but a slight tugging that’s hidden inside of the pain. It’s difficult to focus on, but I feel it sometimes like I’m floating in the water and getting pulled along by a current. Even trying my best, it’s a struggle to set aside the pain and find that small movement, that tiny pressure, quick to disappear again.

As I focus on moving around in these fiery currents, the itching spreads through my body. Thousands of insects crawling all over, and through, everything that I am, treading on my very soul as they bring me back to the real world and away from whatever dark realm I was lost in.

Light and sound come back first, but it’s all unclear. People are talking all around me. I’m not alone. I’m not dead.

I reach around, looking for someone or something to grip onto. I grasp something warm and hold on tight, I don’t want to fall into that darkness again, the burning pain is only just starting to fade away and the insects are still crawling all throughout me.

More sounds, more warmth. Slowly, I can make out the details and the insects start to flee.

We’re somewhere unfamiliar, but Adeleya and the others are all here with me. Anna is resting on a small bed a little to the side and Olive is rubbing my back as I hold onto her. She smiles at me, as I try to form some words, failing at it.

She opens her mouth to say something, but she doesn’t find any words and just presses her forehead against my shoulder. She’s soft and warm.

Hugging her settles my heart as I relax back against the wall.

I want to fall asleep, but I can’t. Not until I understand what’s happened and what’s going to happen. We could still be in danger.

This place reminds me of the guild but it’s much smaller and everything is a little bit worse. The books are torn at the bottom and top of the spine, the furniture is stained over and covered in scratches, and the candle brackets on the wall are badly rusted.

Theo is talking with an older man, he has dozens of scars covering his arms and considering how he’s wearing gold and silver rings, I guess that he just wants to keep them for some reason when he could clearly afford to have them healed. His expression is as hard as stone, and everyone here is itching to draw their swords, watching the windows for any predator seeking to break in.

“Anna?” I ask, watching her sleep. She’s alive.

“They took her blood,” Olive whispers, her eyes closed and her head pressing hard against me. “They took all of her blood. I gave her mine, and… she healed herself.”

“She healed? She’s not a zombie? Not some undead that’s come back?”

“No,” Olive shakes her head quickly but I’m not sure that I can believe her. I pull out of her arms and shuffle closer to Anna. She’s pale but still breathing, and the others wouldn’t have left her like this if she was dead, or undead. I press my hand on hers and push a tiny, little thread of necromancy into her.

It washes over her like rain washes over stone. I can’t control her. She’s alive.

“She healed using your blood?” I ask Olive. If she didn’t have any blood, how was she able to use magic? How was she able to think? I can’t do the same thing, not at all. Is there something special about her?

I’ll have to ask when she wakes up.

Shaking my head, I reach out for Crow. Already forming my goodbye. I need to say it properly.

“I’m sorr-ah!” I stumble back falling on my butt and staring up into the ceiling. Crow should be dead. They all always die.

Why isn’t he dead?

I can feel him.

I can’t see through his eyes anymore. I can’t control him, but he’s not gone, yet.

He’s somewhere else, far from here. I’ll have to go and find him and get him back. I need to know what happened. How did he survive?

“Syr, are you feeling better?” Theo asks, turning from his place at the table and waving me closer. “You seem surprised by something?”

“It’s nothing,” I say. I can’t talk about necromancy in front of others… wait, is that still true. I used so much of it when fighting the knight, did no one notice it? I can’t openly ask if anyone noticed that I was ordering corpses around without giving my secret away by asking.

“Well, little knight killer, do you want to tell us how you did it?” The strange older man asks. “Not many people around who could kill a knight, I’m glad that you’re part of our company.”

“Company? Knight killer?” I ask.

“Don’t remember it?” He asks. “Not surprised, considering the state you were in when they brought you here. Completely out of it.”

“This is our company’s commander, Davis,” Theo says, introducing me to him. “He knows about the vampires so we can talk openly here. Also, I checked with the other survivors, and not many noticed your secret abilities, you were lucky and it seems you can keep that ace up your sleeve. Mostly.”

Semi saw me. She knows what I am.

“You’re making me curious, Theo,” Davis chuckles, leaning back and taking a long sip of his drink.

“You know better than to ask, especially given our enemies,” Theo says, levelling a glare at the man.

“Yeah, those lot…” Davis grunts, staring down into his cup. “They’ve never hit us this hard before… back to little Syr. Tell us what you can, killing a knight is something special, though we won’t talk about it much outside this room. The nobility doesn’t much like us killing their knights, they like it even less when we gloat about it.”

He thinks that I killed the knight?

Theo, Adeleya, and the others all look at me expectantly, and it doesn’t seem like they know any different.

Semi was the one to kill him, but should I say that? If she doesn’t want it known then I really shouldn’t say it, especially since she knows my secret… Is that where Crow went? Semi was with me when I fell unconscious, and she has to have been the one to drag me to safety.

“I don’t remember,” I say avoiding the problem. “Is it okay to be here? Won’t they come for us? Shouldn’t we be running away, leaving the city?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Davis grumbles, staring down into his cup. “It hasn’t been this bad before, but if they’re making moves like this, then we need to be getting out of here. From what you lot have taught me about vampires… if they want an army of those things, then they’ll need corpses and blood. I don’t want to play either role, and I’m not letting my family go through that either.”

“We won’t be the only ones…” Theo adds. “If people start flooding out of this city, what happens then?”

“The outer villagers and territories supply most of our food, and the merchants are already getting ahead of the game,” Davis replies. “I’m already sending out our mercs to work on quests to clean up the roads out of here, selling everything not nailed down here and moving out. I’ve sent out runners, spreading word of the vampire’s weaknesses. If they try to get us all, they’ll suffer for it.”

“Where are you going?” Theo asks. “If the company is abandoning the capital city, then one of the great duchies?”

“No, they’ve got the same bastards running the show. We’re going through the mountains, see if we can’t make ourselves a fortune out that way. If it’s as rich as we’re all hearing, then maybe it’ll be a new start for all of us. A new kingdom.”

“That’s a thought difficult to swallow,” Theo leans back on his own chair, gripping his cup tight. “Surely they won’t destroy the entire kingdom?”

“I’m not sticking around to see them try to fix it,” Davis grunts. “I’ve had enough of all this crap.”

He throws back the last of his drink and heads to the door, leaving the rest of us alone while the flaming candles flicker with the small breeze rushing through the room at the opening and closing of the door. The distant sounds of busy feet echo around the room from the floors above and below, and it feels like there’s an energy flowing through everything here.

“We contacted the researchers,” Theo says. “They’re heading out on an expedition to a nearby ruin, and we can’t talk them out of it. They’ve agreed to come to Snowspring with us after they’re done, but they’re not leaving for another week, no matter what we say.”

Olive is twisting around beside me, gripping her own hands tight as she bites her lip.

Is something bothering her?

“We only have a week to settle issues here, but that gives our enemies a week to move against us. It could be dangerous, but there are a few things that we should look into,” Theo says. “First of which, we need to visit that Countess and see what she wants from us.”

“Countess?”

“She’s…” he glances at Olive but shakes his head and continues. “She’s a vampire. One of the undead that we’ve been worried about. She has seen through your special trick, and she wants to talk with us about it.”

So, someone did notice.

Probably more than just the Countess, too.

Did Anna see it?

You are reading story Rotten Æther at novel35.com

Olive?

Semi definitely knows and I just know that she’s waiting for me to reach out to her.

“There are a few people that I have to reach out to,” Lothar says, leaning on the wall by the door. “It’s… they’re not the sort who can manage to escape this city even if it was literally slipping into the deepest hells.”

“You want to take them back to Snowspring with us?” Adeleya asks, gripping her staff as she stares at the windows. She’s holding a light aloft even though the candles should bring enough light to the room.

“They’d slow us down,” Lothar shakes his head. “We can’t afford the time it would cost us.”

Olive curls up at my side, gripping her knees as she closes her eyes. I don’t know what’s wrong, so I squeeze her tight in a hug.

“Mom doesn’t want to leave,” Olive says. “She can’t move everything, and she doesn’t want to abandon the shop. She won’t leave.”

“We’ll talk to her,” I say, patting her head like Adeleya has done for me. Her fluffy ears are soft and a little cold. “We won’t leave her behind.”

Nadia focuses in on us, but says nothing, looking down at the ground and taking another drink.

“How did you do it?” Theo asks me. “I’ve trained with you before. I could see you killing weaker knights in a few years with how you’re developing, but today…? No.”

“I didn’t,” I say, still holding Olive tight again. “Someone saved me. He was distracted and they killed him from behind.”

“Did you recognise them?” He asks, leaning over the table.

Semi is dangerous.

I don’t know if she’s a good person or another villain, but I know for sure that she’s dangerous. I need to be careful and telling everyone about her could lead to more trouble. She could end up killing them because of me.

I shake my head, biting my tongue.

Theo nods, looking around at each of us. We’re all still on edge, ready to fight, but the others aren’t handling it as well as I am. They’re much too tense, and they won’t be able to keep this up forever.

“We were lucky last night,” Theo says. “No one should have lived through that situation. If the people behind it even thought to bring another knight into the fight, everyone would be dead. They could do it again, and I doubt they’ll make the same mistake a second time if they do.”

“Shouldn’t we just leave?” Adeleya asks.

“Not without the researchers,” Nadia shakes her head. “We need to know what’s in Cildr, especially if more of those vampires are going to come killing the people of Snowspring just to find what’s down there.”

“I’ll try to get them moving faster, but they were sure that it would take them a week to get the gear together to break into a new ruin,” Theo says. “We should assume that we’ll be stuck here for a week, and it’ll be safest if we stay here with the company while that happens. There are always some knight-strength mercenaries around just in case something happens, and we have a few allied companies nearby that would help us in an emergency the scale of what happened last night.”

“I’ll stay with Olive,” I say. “Her family needs protection, too.”

Theo looks at us, taking some time to come up with a thought, but Lothar is first to speak.

“Her mother will want her under our protection, where it’s at least somewhat safer,” he shakes his head. “We can go visit her shortly and find out, but I’m sure that when she hears all the details, Olive will be staying with us.”

I need to convince her mother to come with us. It’s painful to leave your family behind, and I won’t let Olive’s mom make the same stupid mistake.

“Is there anything else we need to discuss?” Theo asks, looking around at us. “Good, I’ll secure a visit to the Countess for tomorrow. Rest and recover yourselves. From, today we treat the city like we would any dangerous place in the wilds. Stay in groups and ensure that others know where you are at all times. We could be attacked at any moment, so stay armed, keep your armour on, and stay ready.”

I nod, checking on my two swords. The ones that Semi gave me and then returned to me after the battle was done.

“I’m heading out,” Lothar says. “I need to see if there’s something I can to do help out at my old house, can someone come watch my back?”

“I’ll go,” Adeleya stands up quickly, walking by me and patting my head before reaching Lothar. The two hold a whispered conversation and Lothar looks away, adjusting the position of his sword on his waist.

“We need to visit Olive’s mom, we left our stuff there,” I say, standing up and shaking Olive until she stands up with me.

“I’ll go with them,” Nadia says, checking her weapons. Alongside the usual axe, pick, shortsword, and daggers, she has a few sharpened wooden sticks with some simple enchantments on them. I’ll have to ask about them later.

“I’ll go too,” Anna says, sitting up. Her expression turns more pale but she leans over the side of the bed and grabs the wood tight just to stay sitting up. “I need to get titan. If we had titan… He could’ve bought you a moment.”

“Let me help,” Nadia says, stepping in beside her and then hesitating as Anna panics. She still doesn’t like to be touched.

“I’ll help,” I say, rushing over and glancing back at Olive. She follows, keeping a little distance from Anna while I help her stand. We’ve been hugging and getting her used to it for a while, so she doesn’t panic quite as much with me.

“Maybe, we can buy you some good steel to make your next model of golem,” Nadia suggests. “With everyone running, heavy things like metal will come cheap. Just don’t expect a smith to help you with it.”

“Metal golem?” Anna asks, shaking her head slowly. “I have no designs… and I can’t work with metal yet. I can’t trust anyone else to do it… If I could use titan to do the heavy lifting and hitting, maybe I could do something.”

Nadia leads us outside, watching every shadow and every passing stranger. Anyone of them could be a vampire in secret or one of the humans that was working with them…

Why weren’t there any of the humans around last night? Are they not on the same team anymore? Are they still around?

I’m constantly looking out for threats and ready to draw any moment, not letting Olive or Anna out of sight. It seems safe but that could change at any time. It’s like when I was living in the wilds, you never know when a predator is stalking you, so you have to be ready at all times.

“How did you do it?” I ask Anna. “You didn’t have any blood? How did you use your magic?”

Anna is focused on each step, still moving slowly even though I’m helping her keep balance. She doesn’t even look up to answer me.

“In the darkness. I was floating in the darkness, the same that people go to when they push too hard,” she says. “I felt myself going somewhere further away. I could still feel the æther, the way it flows through me. I just made the æther flow right.”

“You cast magic while in the dark place?” I ask, nearly stumbling. If I tried that… it burns in that place. It burns more than anything, casting magic as well…

“It felt right,” Anna says. “I didn’t know it while I was in the dark, but I think I might have used the blood that Olive was trying to force into my neck. It was a stupid thing to do and in any other situation… Thank you, Olive.”

“You just called me stupid,” Olive sniffles, grabbing at my arm and backing away from a pale man in the crowd. He’s not a vampire, just sick.

“You cut up your arm and tried to force your blood into the open wound in my neck,” Anna says.

“I did some healing magic, too,” Olive lowers her head, covering her face with one hand, the sleeves on her borrowed jacket much too long for her. “I was trying to. I couldn’t think of the right words.”

“Thank you,” Anna says again. “I… we’re nearly strangers, but you went so far for me.”

“We’re friends, right?” Olive asks, squeezing closer to me, her eyes sparkling as she looks between the two of us.

“Friends,” I agree, lifting her hand high.

“Friends,” Anna replies weakly, groaning quietly as she forces another step. It takes a lot of energy to replace things. It’s much easier to put things in the right place than to make something from nothing.

“Friends,” Nadia adds, lifting her muscly arm up into the sky as she glances back at us with a silly smile on her face. Olive, Anna, and I share a look before laughter bubbles out of us.

The city is a dangerous violent place. We almost died, and so many other people did, but today, we’re still alive and I’m not alone. Everything will be okay.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

//Author Question: Those of you reading both stories, which new chapter do you jump on first? Kind of curious to know, and yes, it has to do with the coming chapters.

 

If you enjoy this story, like it, rate it, leave a comment, and share it around!

If you really like it and want more chapters join the Patreon, I need all your support to keep this going.

 

You can find story with these keywords: Rotten Æther, Read Rotten Æther, Rotten Æther novel, Rotten Æther book, Rotten Æther story, Rotten Æther full, Rotten Æther Latest Chapter