The Forsaken Hero

Fable let out a low warning growl as another explosion rocked the inn. The innkeeper paused his polishing and glanced toward the door, then to us.

”It’s bout time you move out, ain’t it?” he prodded respectfully, no doubt aware of our identities. ”I’ll be leaving myself shortly, and I’d like to lock up the inn before it’s too late. Don’t know if those demon bastards are going to take the city, and I’d like someplace to return to if they don’t. Can’t trust looters these days.”

Korra and Grace exchanged a glance, then stood at the same time. I was half a beat behind them but failed to hide my wince as the mere effort of standing sent a thrill of pain through my side. In the intervening hours since the battle for the shard began, the sunpurge had crept almost a half inch higher up my side than where it began, now halfway between my naval and the lower ridge of my ribcage. Fortunately, it hadn’t spread any further since I detached my link with the shard, but just tilting my body to the side stretched the glowing scars along with my skin.

Korra’s brow wrinkled with worry and she was around the table before I could react, her hand pulling mine away as I tried to shield my side from her prying eyes. The harsh, angry glow permeated the thin, silky fabric of my dress, and she gasped.

”That’s...not good. Wasn’t it only here before?” she asked, softly touching my side just above my hip.

I shuddered as even that light touch sent another thrill of pain shooting through my system. ”N-no, it’s always been like this,” I replied when the pain subsided. Worrying about wouldn’t do any good, and would only slow us down.

She stared at me hard until I looked away, the tip of my tail flicking nervously. I snatched it out of the air, but the motion only served to draw her attention to it even more, and I flushed red.

”Let’s just go,” I said, pushing past her. I was aware of her and Grace’s eyes on me, but it didn’t matter. Worrying about it now would only slow us down, and despite the condition I found the two in, I still had faith in the Oracle of Eternity. It hadn’t been wrong before, and with the approaching presence of the demons, I didn’t want to find out just why Korra might need me so badly.

Korra’s lips drew together in a thin, worried line, but she reluctantly let it go. ”Fine, but don’t think this is the end of it. I’m taking you straight to Elinore the moment we get to the camp, and that’s final.”

As we left the Empty Nest Inn behind, I let myself look at her again, my voice soft. ”There is no camp. Everyone’s outside of the city now. As soon as we make it back to them, we’re going to flee into Brithlite. I don’t think Bluegate Keep is going to stop the demons, not after all the chaos and damage we inflicted on their back line.”

”In that case, there’s no point sticking around any longer,” Grace said.

Before either Korra or I could react, she raised her hand in the air. Electricity crackled along her forearm, gaining strength and mass as it neared her outstretched hands. The final bolt erupted from her fingers and shot toward the heavens, splitting the sky apart with a deafening peel of thunder. The bolt of lightning lingered in the air for a few seconds, and a dark shape peeled away from the wyverns still circling the space above the shard.

My delicate ears rang with the blast, and by the time my hearing returned, Korra and Grace had exchanged a few words. Then, the Storm Hero leaped into the sky, traveling a hundred feet up before the monster caught her in its claw. Korra and I watched silently as the single wyvern rejoined the others. The rest fell in behind them and they fled Bluegate skies, headed away from the canyon, presumably toward whichever kingdom had sent them. I’d already forgotten the name, but something told me I’d be hearing it again before long.

”Wish she’d offered us a ride,” Korra muttered, then forced a small smile. ”But it’s fine, we have Fable, right?”

I nodded in agreement, and Fable gave himself a shake, letting his long, silver fur wave. It shimmered in the light of the distant Demon Gate, turning a tainted red color, like blood. The gods only knew I’d been seeing too much of that recently, and I unconsciously touched my face, running my hands over the crusted blood on my cheek.

A minute later, we were flying through the streets on Fable’s back, the faint blue wisps of Wind’s Speed trailing behind us like a comet’s tail. I settled for holding Korra’s waist as she rode in front, a necessary sacrifice for my own health. I longed to cling to my wolf’s neck myself, but Korra wouldn’t be able to hold me like we had in the past, with the burn creeping up my side.

The streets remained blessedly empty, but that soon changed as we crossed into some of the more densely populated inner districts. Refugees began to appear in small, huddled groups, growing thicker with each street further from the front gate, as did signs of the Ice Spirit’s initial rampage. Frost coated everything still, but occasionally, we came across entire city blocks and streets crushed to fine dust, or frozen in ice formations stronger than even enchanted steel. I had to close my eyes as we ran past those, unable to bring myself to meet the terrified eyes of the people frozen within the ice, sealed in their final, desperate moments.

Despite the thickening crowds, few tried to stop us. Most of the civilians screamed and fled the moment they caught sight of Fable’s infernal appearance, while many of the soldiers only stiffened in fear, just strong enough to recognize the sheer difference in power between them and the wolf. A few mages and archers raised staffs and bows toward us, but by the time they took aim and chanted spells, we were already gone.

This city was truly massive, almost disheartenedly slow. Mile after mile of urban sprawl and crowded streets passed by beneath Fable’s paws. At some point, the streets became completely unnavigable with crowds of fleeing refugees and we took the rooftops. Tile, wood, and shingle cracked with every bound, unable to sustain Fable’s forceful leaps. My heart leaped in my throat every time I felt someone embrace their mana around us, certain it was a demon or one of the apostles, but my fears were in vain and only served to exhaust my concentration further.

It wasn’t that we weren’t making progress, it was just slow. By the time the outer wall loomed overhead, the sun had fully darkened. The sky burned an angry red in the chaotic light of the Demon Gate, polluting the darkness so that only a handful of the brightest stars were visible. The large, four-story gates in the wall had been forced open before the river of refugees, letting out hundreds with every passing minute. And yet, as we moved to join them, my mana writhed.

Fable must have sensed my hesitation because he came up short on the stone roof of a guard house, a single leap away from the courtyard beneath the gates. Korra glanced back at me, a question on her lips, but fell silent as my hands tightened on her waist.

I looked away from the mass exodus and up at the sky, my eyes widening in surprise. A massive magic circle overshadowed the street, the edges hovering just above the walls and buildings surrounding the courtyard. The runes were blacker than the sky, visible to the naked eye only because of the fiery aurora that tainted the darkness behind it. The spell was, at first, foreign to me, but my tail stiffened as more runes slotted into place.

”A teleportation?” I muttered in disbelief.

”What the hell? This big?” Korra gasped alongside me.

I shook my head, but when I looked up at it the spell was still there. The largest teleportation formation I’d ever seen was when the church used the Shard of Omniscience to jump between cities. Aside from that, all of my experience had been the Circle’s magic items, which were just strong enough to move one person behind. Alverin had purportedly used a group spell to steal Sari and the other slaves from Vithrass, but we’d gotten there too late to miss it.

But the magical residues of that spell were dwarfed by what we were witnessing here. It was significantly less than the shard’s method, which implied the range was much shorter, but the sheer amount of infernal mana going into placed the spell at eighth level.

I met Korra’s wide eyes, finding my own uncertain face reflected in her pupils. It was at that moment, as the teleportation spell resolved, that I realized something. In my haste, exhaustion, and worry, I’d missed a small, almost imperceptible thread of mana connected to Korra’s soul. It was a Fate Spell, and though not one I’d seen before, its use was clear. A tracking spell, connecting her with a source somewhere in the distance toward the canyon.

A pillar of darkness descended from the magic circle, striking the center of the crowded courtyard. Thousands of refugees screamed in fear and pain as a concussive wave of mana blasted out of the impact, instantly killing anyone below second level. Impenetrable shadows followed the shockwave, obscuring every sense but sound. The wet slaps of broken bodies colliding against each other and the unforgiving walls of the city were deafening, making me wish sound had been stolen too.

It was then, as I looked back at Korra, I noticed the tracking thread had moved. Instead of leading into the canyon, it drew a taught line directly into the cloud of darkness. Whoever was looking for her had found us.