The Forsaken Hero

Fable swept across the hills like a summer storm, leaving trailing eddies of writhing grass in his wake. The ground flowed smoothly beneath his tremendous paws, each bound eating up dozens of feet at once. Korra and I lay side by side, reclining against the slope of his shoulders. His horns served as a potent windbreak, shielding us from the worst of the air resistance and noise caused by traveling at such absurd velocities.

”Astral Breath. That’s the name of the spell the demonkin taught me,” I said, looking out at the passing scenery. A small copse of trees appeared, passed, and then disappeared as a blip of brown and green on the prairie.

Korra frowned, tapping a finger to her chin. ”Astral Breath? I’ve never heard of anything like that before, not even from the upper church echelons. If there were such a spell to heal one’s soul, wouldn’t there be some records of it?”

I shrugged, idly rubbing a horn. ”The magic system in this world is super underdeveloped. The gods brought magic to mortality, but they only gave the bare minimum. The inhabitants are left to figure it out for themselves. I can only assume there are countless spells scattered throughout their domains, but the gods themselves are the only ones privy to them. I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn arrays have been invented before, just at a different time and world.”

”The things they don’t tell you in church,” said Korra, shaking her head. After a second of quiet, she glanced at me, face turning serious once more. ”Now about this Astral Breath. If you can already cast it, why are you so stressed about it?”

”Souls are extremely personalized and complex, almost to the point of being incomprehensible. Any magic that deals with them has to be so simple it can be applied on a universal level. When it comes to interacting directly with an individual soul, there can’t be any one spell. Astral Breath is the framework, a first aid kid if you will. It has all the runes, circles, and functions necessary for mending damage to the soul, but it’s all useless if you don’t know how to apply it.”

She nodded slowly. ”Like clay.” I gave her a blank look, and she giggled, reddening slightly. ”You know, like what sculptures use. They have the clay, but if they aren’t very good, they can’t form it into the intended shape. It’s just a lump.”

”Um, yeah, I guess.” My tail flicked back and forth, but I soon gave up on understanding the analogy and moved back to my explanation. ”Without a pattern, I can only guess what my soul is supposed to look there. There are so many patterns, facets, and depths that I wouldn’t even know where to start. Stitching it all back together would take me hours, if not days, during which I’d be completely vulnerable.”

”If that’s all there is, then there’s nothing to worry about. Fable and I can protect you,” Korra replied confidently. ”With my unique abilities and fighting style, I think I could hold off a sixth-level demon for some time, and kill it if Fable helped me.”

”There’s more, though. It’s technically a fifth-level spell, but it requires an insane amount of mana to maintain. I tested it, safely of course, but could only sustain it for like a minute. Even at my peak, I don’t think I would last more than an hour. Even an eighth-level mage might have trouble casting it long enough to make any significant progress when mending a soul. The only time I’ve seen it used was when the Curse Demon healed Elise’s soul, but he was a Demon Lord with millennia of experience, and the damage wasn’t really that bad. Nothing compared to mine, and–” I pressed my lips together, cutting off the thought.

Korra’s expression fell, and she pursed her lips together thoughtfully. ”That’s asking for an awful lot. Where are we supposed to find a ninth-level mage who would be willing to help us cast? That’s like...there’s more, isn’t there.”

I nodded glumly. ”Yeah...the worst part. Even if we find someone with that much mana, it won’t be so easy to actually cast. Unless they have an Eyes ability, they won’t even be able to see my soul, much less stitch it back together. In fact, it might be impossible for anyone else on Enusia to successfully cast this spell other than myself.”

”Feeling a little confident are we?” A smile tugged at her lips.

I paused, blushing as I realized what I’d just said. ”I-I didn’t mean it like!” I said hurriedly. ”It’s just...I don’t think anyone has had nearly as much experience with souls. The Great Library at the Divine Throne was essentially devoid of anything touching the topic, and I–”

Korra covered her mouth, smothering a giggle. ”Relax, I’m only teasing. I know better than anyone your qualifications to make that claim.”

”Oh. Right.” I coughed, my tail swishing bashfully behind me. ”A-as I was trying to say, I’ll have to cast it myself. But the mana and magic required is going to be insane, perhaps as much as a ninth-level spell. I’m not certain, but I’m afraid it might draw the demons in. You mentioned earlier that you noticed I never release my aura?”

She nodded. ”What of it?”

”That’s because the demons can feel it. I’ve built tight walls around my soul to prevent all but a smidgeon of my power from leaking, yet they still go crazy for me. Can you imagine what might happen if I discard those walls and fill my soul with enough mana to level a mountain range? I’m afraid every demon on the continent’s going to be able to sense me. The longer it takes me, the more will come. What if it really does take me longer than a few hours? Just how many demons are you going to be able to kill?”

Korra sucked in a sharp breath and folded her arms tightly beneath her breasts. ”Well damn it.”

I nodded in agreement, a small despondent sigh slipping between my lips. ”That’s why it’s just a hope. Even if we could get the mana and the strength to fight so many demons, we can’t do anything until I somehow figure out how to attune the spell to my soul. I’ve made some progress, but without a template, it’s too risky to rush anything. Even the slightest mistake would deform or cripple my soul forever. I might even end up worse than before I started to recover.”

She sighed long and hard. ”I guess that’s true. Damn it all, but I can see why you were reluctant to talk about it. You got my hopes up for nothing.”

”Sorry...”

We traveled in silence for some time, simply basking in the light of the evening sun. The winter chill of the anomaly had begun to penetrate longer into the day, lingering nearly until the sun began its descent beneath the horizon. Some mornings, there’d even been frost on the ground.

An hour later, as the sun touched the horizon, Fable came to a gradual stop. I frowned, sitting up to peer over his shoulder. That was odd, we should have kept going for at least an hour, what had–

My mind blanked at the sight that met my eyes. Far in the distance on my left and right, towering mountains, many times taller than those in Heartland, dominated the sky. They stretched miles into the sky and were surrounded by swirling storm clouds. Even at this great distance, I could make out a distorted haze of magical effects, the markings of powerful magical creature’s domains. Betwixt the two mountain ranges the ground plummeted in an incredible canyon. The sheer scale was equally impressive to the peaks around them, even more incredible than the Grand Canyon I’d seen pictures of in my previous world. It stretched past the horizon, a gaping maw in the earth’s crust, filled with countless jagged ridges, sheer valleys, and winding rivers.

”The Blue Canyon,” Korra breathed, her eyes wide with wonder. ”One of the great wonders of this world. No one knows how it formed, though they speculate it was the sight of a squabble between gods when they were creating the world.”

”How deep is it?” I mumbled, pressing a trembling hand to my breast.

She shrugged. ”Who knows? Honestly, though, I’ve heard it’s more like descending a mountain than a cliff or canyon. Feeling a little intimidated?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak further. The indescribable grandeur of the vista made the cliffs descending into Heartland pale in comparison. I hadn’t felt this unsettled even when flying in the arms of the arbiter across the world. At least that had been at night, when the entire world was one black carpet and I couldn’t appreciate how high up we were. This, on the other hand? Korra’s description earlier had done it no justice.

But Sari was on the other side. So, even if it was terrifying, we had to cross it. No demon, human, or even cliff would stop me from reaching her side and saving her from the clutches of that monster.

Taking a deep breath, I leaned forward and touched Fable’s titanic head. He twisted his neck to look at me, golden eyes glittering with stars. ”Let’s go,” I whispered. My voice held a husky tremor, but he seemed to get the message.

His muscles coiled beneath him, gathering power until the ground cracked beneath his weight. A heartbeat later we were airborne, swallowed up by the depths of the canyon. The fated descent had begun.