Savior of the Damned

Phaedra sat on the fallen tree, sipping from the flask she held. Torin was scouting, but she was taking a break away from him. Phaedra didn’t want to admit that the flood of information from being bound to Aurelius was sometimes overwhelming. Proximity had a hand in how much it could be, but she still struggled to block it out, like Torin was trying to help her with.

She glanced over her shoulder, expecting to see both men, but there was nothing. Sighing to herself, Phaedra took another swig from her flask. She could feel where they were and shook her head because she had to join them soon. Phaedra looked down at her armor, the black armor that both blocked a lot of magical attacks and increased the power they could draw on from Aurelius. Phaedra hadn’t believed the rumors that he was a God until he had taken her. She still wasn’t sure if he was a God or demon now, but the otherworldliness he had was unmistakable. He wasn’t human, and she didn’t know if he had ever been.

Phaedra felt more than heard one of them getting closer. She slipped the flask away and stood up as Torin entered the clearing. “It’s up ahead. I see. . .” Phaedra trailed off, trying to grasp for it the way Torin showed her on the ’ship. “I see it somewhere,” she said, shaking her stuffy head. “At least I think.”

“Good enough for me.” Torin slapped his hands together. “Guess we take out the village,” Torin said as Luca entered the clearing. It struck Phaedra again how quiet everything was, especially with her heightened senses. “We can’t stop and consider failure now,” Torin said, sounding irritated. “We don’t have a choice.”

Phaedra debated running away, but knew it wouldn’t work. “Where’s the nearest cemetery? We should empty it.”

Torin eyed her suspiciously. “You’re The Oracle, why don’t you tell us?”

Phaedra closed her eyes and turned her vision inward. The information was at her fingertips in an instant; as she had died before being brought back, it gave her the ability to sense the dead. They all had it, that was true, but as The Oracle she could see the graveyard and trace a path to it with an ease that scared her. It was the one aspect of her Seer vision that had come instantly. “South of the village,” she said, stomach roiling with what they were about to do. There were troops that would help them, but Aurelius always emptied the local cemeteries to use the dead against the living. Cremation didn’t help, as he could still use the ashes to form other types of undead, so a lot of places had given up trying to burn their dearly departed. Instead, they hid in the forests and buried them far away to reduce the chance of their loved one’s coming back to kill them. That was another reason he took Phaedra; as The Oracle she could ferret out the remaining hiding places.

Phaedra touched the spell cannon on her bandolier before touching her sword hilt. She didn’t have a choice. If she tried to run, Aurelius would either issue a command to make her stop, or the other Resurrected would hunt her down. They wouldn’t kill her, though. Aurelius had invested too much in her to give up the opportunity she afforded him.

“Do we risk bringing the ’ship or can we walk?” Torin asked, still eyeing her.

Phaedra paused, listening for the whisper. “It’s close. Really close.”

Torin headed off without Phaedra having to explain more, Luca on his heels. Phaedra followed the two men, watching them. As they fanned out, Phaedra slowed down the tiniest bit. Each one of them headed off in a different direction from the one Phaedra wanted. She stopped at a small clearing with a tree in the middle that had an enormous gaping hole in the trunk. Reaching into her pants pocket, she withdrew the locket. Glancing around to make sure she was alone, Phaedra placed it inside the tree, hoping the message reached Eldren. Something gently closed on her, and she withdrew her empty hand. All she could do was hope he could help her, now.

Phaedra hurried up, knowing she was approaching the front gates of the cemetery; as she could feel the dead in the ground she could also see, with her mind’s eye, the front gates made of thick, spelled wrought iron. The gates formed a dome, which was why she had declined using the airship. There was nowhere to land inside the gates themselves.

Phaedra looked to either side of the gate, waiting for her two companions to join them. They hadn’t called in the other men from the ’ship, and Phaedra wasn’t going to bring them up. There was something there, she was sure, she just didn’t know what. It seemed like such a radical idea to buy them time, but so far Torin and Luca hadn’t caught on.

Seeing no one, Phaedra approached the front of the cemetery. They had cleared out some of the trees when making the graveyard, but not enough to thin the canopy. The wrought iron bars also only reached about ten feet up, about the height of an average home’s ceiling. Vining plants climbed the bars, the blooms on them large and opened. They looked almost like lilies but possessed coloring unlike any Phaedra had seen. Dark blue, green, and black, they almost seemed to glow in the light that didn’t quite reach them. She didn’t touch them; she might not have seen them before, but she knew what they were. They were death blooms, flowers that were thought to protect the dead.

“I thought Aurelius killed all these,” Torin said as he approached Phaedra.

“Aren’t these dangerous?” Phaedra asked. “I heard that just getting the pollen on you can be deadly.”

“That’s true,” Torin said. “Aurelius hasn’t supplied the gear to clean them out in almost a century, though,” he said, frowning.

“What do we do?” Phaedra asked.

Luca came up on the other side of Phaedra. “We need help. But if we call for backup, they’ll run the Godstone out of here well before it arrives.”

Phaedra’s heart threatened to explode in her chest, and she fought to keep it from showing. Maybe she could pull this off. “I’ve never dealt with death blooms in my life,” she said, glancing over at the frowning Torin.

“I haven’t either,” he said.

Phaedra caught Luca’s look of suspicion and returned it.

“We’re already dead. We can’t die again,”Luca said.

“After you.”

“Not with a lady present.” Luca rolled his shoulders while Torin’s mouth twisted into what could have been a smile.

“How thoughtful,” Phaedra said.

“Quiet.” Torin pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses. He glanced at Phaedra. “What kinds of Command Words do you have at your disposal? Anything useful?”

Phaedra thought. “There is one I could try.” She shivered in the heat. Technically, she wasn’t supposed to know it. Orso had ordered Abraham to teach it to her, and also swore them both to secrecy. He begged her to not use it unless she had to, but looking up at the vines, she didn’t think she could get around it. Sorry, Old Man.

“Then let’s use it.”

Phaedra couldn’t help but catch the almost excited look on Torin’s face. She ground her teeth and pointed at the vines, conjuring up images of decay as she tapped directly into the Celestial Fane. “Torre,” she said, projecting those same images into the vines. A sick feeling filled Phaedra’s stomach as the vines darkened and dried up, falling apart. They fell from the gates in silence, causing the three of them to step back a little.

“Nicely done,” Torin said, sounding impressed. Phaedra looked at his face, noted his rapt attention, and twisted her lips in what might have been a smile under other circumstances. “Let’s go in, shall we?” he said, stepping forward to swing the gates open.

Phaedra’s distaste for cemeteries was new. Temple had always hired or trained professionals to deal with them, and since Death magic wasn’t anything she practiced, she was never on that team. That Aurelius was the sole reason she was going to raise the dead despite protections against it appalled her. Memories of fighting zombies and ghouls to get away rose in her, and she tasted bile.

Torin stopped at one grave in particular. Phaedra realized it was old, because the grave markers were giant slabs placed over the graves themselves, to prevent things from rising from them. It hadn’t worked. The tree that someone had planted between them might have done more to protect it, if the magic had been worked properly. But Phaedra knew just from standing there that it had been a rush job. “Ready?”

“No.”

Torin shook his head as Luca glared. “You don’t have a choice.”

Phaedra tasted bile again. She tried to shove the memories down. “Fine. What do I do?” she asked.

“Since you’re inexperienced, I’ll do it to give you an idea.”

Phaedra watched as Torin knelt on the ground and placed his hands on the slab. He closed his eyes as power surged, different from anything Phaedra had ever been taught to channel at Temple. It flowed from him into the ground, connecting the graves in the area. Slowly he stood, drawing it up with him as he held it clutched in his fists. The ground shuddered, rolling as things clawed their way up.

Looking around, Phaedra noted it only affected a small portion of the cemetery. She waited for Torin to finish, pretending not to see the zombies digging their way up. “You do it a bit at a time?”

Torin blinked as if trying to focus his eyes. “If I wanted just zombies, it would be one thing, but doing it in sections gives me the chance for a variety.” He didn’t sound proud or pleased. Rather, he sounded defeated. Phaedra was in over her head at that point, but she didn’t have a choice. Looking at Torin, with his eyes downcast, and looking at Luca, arms crossed as he appeared disgusted, furthered her resolve.

They moved on to the next batch of graves, Torin repeating the process. The power felt different this time, and Phaedra watched, unable to look away as ghouls came up from the ground. Zombies just spread disease. The wounds they inflicted guaranteed infection, whereas ghouls were more akin to grunts. They had minimal intelligence and were fast and deadly. Phaedra remembered the ghouls who killed her parents and closed her eyes, trying to block the memory.

Phaedra looked at Torin as he came back to where they were, blinking rapidly as his pupils tried to equalize, and wondered who had been the one to raze Haven. It was almost a relief to know it wasn’t Torin. That relief was tempered by the knowledge that he had taken down Sanctuary City instead.

Torin glanced at her; his face was expressionless. “You’re handling this better than I expected,” he said, voice holding no inflection. He sounded as dead as the ghouls that were standing around them.

“I don’t have a choice, remember?” She broke eye contact first.

“This is probably all we need,” Luca said, sounding harsh. “Seems like a waste to raise all the graves when the town itself is so small.”

Phaedra looked at him. “You almost sound sorry,” she said.

Luca scoffed. “It’s a waste of energy and materials to raise the whole thing,” he said, stalking away. The bodies around them split into two groups as Luca stormed off. About a third of them shuffled after the retreating elf, but the others came to stand around Torin and Phaedra. Phaedra held her breath as she caught Torin’s lifeless expression. “They sort out who to follow themselves. Since there are three of us, we all control a third.” with that, he started walking in Luca’s direction, leaving Phaedra to trail after them.

***

The battle was nothing. The town was all but empty, and the people who were left didn’t stand a chance against them. They weren’t fighters, just poor farmers and others trying to survive. Phaedra looked around her, hyperventilating. She had to get out of there.

She had spied a fairy circle on the edge of the town. Maybe . . .? Phaedra headed off to it, to have someone grab her.

“What are you doing?” Torin asked, forcing her to look at him. “You don’t want to do that.”

Phaedra shook his grip off. “You don’t know what I want.”

“Remember, I have the benefit of having been here a lot longer. I’m just trying to spare you some grief.”

Phaedra’s chest tightened at the compassion in his voice. “It’s all so . . . so . . .”

“I know.” He reached out and squeezed her shoulder, a look of compassion on his face. “I need your help with something.”

She looked at him, mind working. “With what?”

“There’s the ’stone, but before that I want to find all the magic items here.”

“Why?”

“Just help me. Please?” He didn’t sound happy, but it was the first time he’d asked instead of ordering her.

“Fine,” she said.

Torin gave her a look and drank from his flask. “With your Sight abilities, it should be easier to find all the magic items here.”

“What’s the big deal with that, anyway? Let’s just grab the ’stones and go.”

Torin looked at her again. “Aren’t we in a rush?” he commented.

Phaedra scoffed, but tapped into her inner vision. The small sparkles that told her what items were magic were much easier to spot than the ’stone. Which wasn’t there at all. Phaedra frowned. Where the hell did it go?

“What’s wrong?”

Phaedra sucked in a lungful of air and let it out slow. “I can see minor magic items, but I don’t sense the ’stone anymore.”

“Damn, where did it go? Are there tunnels here?”

“There are a few, but they were deserted from what I could see,” Luca said. “You’re sure it was here?”

It had to have been here. Phaedra didn’t dare think of what could have happened. “It was,” she said, defeated. “I don’t know what happened or where it went.” In the back of her mind, she was hoping beyond hope it was Eldren. Please, let him have been the one to fetch it.

Torin kicked a rock. “He’s not going to like this.”

“No, he won’t,” Luca agreed.

“What do we do?” Phaedra had no idea what to expect.

“Let’s gather up the magic items first,” Torin said.

“I’m going to find a drink.” Luca clenched and unclenched his fists a few times. “Find me when you’re done.”

Phaedra helped Torin gather the items, and he placed them on a table in someone’s house to sort. She watched as Torin removed a bracelet from his wrist and laid the charm on it over an item. She held her breath as she felt more than saw the magic in the artifact get absorbed by the charm. Phaedra leaned closer, looking at the symbol roughly engraved on the wood. She cursed slacking off in sigil lessons now, not recognizing what was on the disk.

“It’s an experiment I’ve been working on,” Torin said, putting the bracelet with its charm back on his wrist.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he put the item down.

“It’s storing used magic. Anything where the magic is weakened or unusable, I store it in this,” he said.

“Why?”

Torin looked at her and went back to sorting through items. “Tell Luca to call the ’ship. There’s stuff we can take back.”

Phaedra huffed, but walked out, looking for the tall elf. She spied him in the local tavern, sipping on a pilfered mug of ale. “Torin says to summon the ’ship,” she said, sitting down across from him.

Deep scowl lines formed on his face as he glared at her. He pulled out what looked like a pocket watch with no chain; it even opened like one, but it had a button installed in it instead of a watch face. Pressing it once, he slipped it back into a pouch and went back to drinking. Phaedra eyed him as he sipped at his mug, not making eye contact with her. “It signals the ’ship that we’re ready, with our location attached.”

Phaedra leaned back, not sure what to do. She hoped the men chalked up the loss to her inexperience and not sabotage, but she didn’t want to bet on it. Torin, at least, was intelligent, and she was betting Luca was too.

“You’re sure the ’stone was here?” he asked, lowering his mug.

“Something powerful was hidden here, but I don’t know what happened.”

Luca eyed her, a wary look on his features. “Interesting.”

“I take it we’re not giving anyone last rites,” she said, looking out the door that was smashed open.

Luca shifted, rolling his shoulders. “Unless you’re ordained, there’s no point. No priests elsewhere that I know of.”

Demeter could do it in a pinch, though she wasn’t the right kind of priest. Demeter’s training included things like last rites, but it wasn’t something she’d ever have to do in the capacity they brought her into.

“Go walk around some. It’ll be awhile. Just don’t wander too far.” Luca looked to one side, deep scowl lines surrounding his mouth for a moment. “Hate to see something happen to you.”

Phaedra glanced at him, though he wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I’ll go do that,” she said, and stood up.

Outside, the zombies and ghouls wandered around the villagers they had killed. Phaedra wasn’t sure which smell was worse; the smell of the newly killed or the fetid stench of the zombies and ghouls that were still wandering around. The cemetery had been old enough she had expected skeletons, but that wasn’t what Torin had raised.

She glanced toward the fairy circle but went the other way so as not to alert Torin. She stood on the edge of town when something caught her eye. Was that red hair she saw? Her breathing sped up, and she looked around. Nothing. Eldren wouldn’t risk capture out here, would he?

Torin called her name, and Phaedra cast her eyes out to the trees one last time. Nothing. She must be seeing things now. “Coming!” she yelled as she turned around, mind working overtime.