The Third Step: Chapter Twenty-Four

Since you all got a short story on Wednesday, here's the chapter to make up for it! I'm gonna go make that short story public. There will still be three chapters Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday this upcoming week as normal.

-

“On one hand, the Flock is bound to this side of the forest. It’s never left the cordon and gone to hunt innocents. There’s a very real case to be made that it’s simply protecting its territory from humans, invaders to a wild land that it hates,” I mused. “Does it deserve to be killed for acting in accordance with its nature, and protecting the cordoned off lands? Nobody is forced to enter these lands. It’s a risk, and it’s clearly designated. Practically nobody can get twenty miles deep in the cordon by accident.” 

“On the other hand… it does kill people. It’s not satisfied to just drive people off,” Kene pointed out. “When you fled into Dusk, it began to use a gatecrawler to try and force its way in. It might be defending its lands, but its method of doing so killing. A bear might kill a person, but if that person manages to flee, the bear doesn’t vow to hunt them down.” 

“It… I wish I had a way to hold it,” I admitted. “I don’t have the spirit trap spell, and even if I lured it into a spirit circle within Dusk, I’m not sure how long it would last. The overcharged, soul mana infused gourd that we held the slaughter spirit in was capable of holding it for a few hours, but I couldn’t sustain it.”

“If wishes were horses, even beggars could ride,” Kene said. “I don’t know if it needs to die. It’s not a beast that doesn’t have a mind. There are records of Asomatous turning their emotional impulses to new ends, but those are far from common, especially with negative emotions. Still, there are records. But even though I’m not sure that it needs to die, I know that it needs to stop killing people.” 

I let out a long, hearty sigh, before looking at the cwn anwnn, many of whom were laying down for short naps to restore their mana. No lone member of the pack was as strong as the Flock was alone, and the Flock was capable of gathering up a bunch of birds and theoretically matching the hounds on that front alone, even if I suspected the average cwn anwnn would be stronger than the average bird.

“If I don’t help them, there’s decent odds that they fail,” I said. “The Flock is strong, and even though we hurt it, it’ll also be recovering its mana, just like we are. It will quite possibly kill them all. Even if it doesn’t, it’ll kill a lot of them.” 

“And if they don’t stop the Flock, then it will continue to kill people delving into the forest. While they might be plundering the natural landscape, I don’t believe that warrants a death sentence from an emotion acting as judge, jury, and executioner.” 

I glanced at Dusk and Dawn, trying to see what either one of them thought about this. Dusk sighed and flopped onto her cloud, kicking her feet, before making the most complex sound that I’d ever heard her make. It reminded me of a mournful cat, the whistling of a cold winter wind at midnight, the faint creaking of the trees as they settled in the autumn, the burbling of a stream on a hot summer’s day, and the cawing of birds on a bright and clear spring morning. 

Though she only made the single sound, it carried a great deal of meaning. When she’d pitted her magic against the Asomatous’ dominion, she’d felt the rage and hate that it held for humans. Humans that came into its home to steal natural treasures. Humans that killed its birds to rip out beast cores. It hated Kene, and it saw me as little better, and her as a traitor for working with us when she should be killing us. And it carried depth to those emotions, 

She wished that Obsidian Forest hadn’t structured the cordon in the way it had. If it had used an approach more like Kijani, which we’d used back in Crysite, then it would have been able to take a plot of land and make it illegal to enter. The Flock would have had a place completely free of humans to live in symbiosis with its birds, and any people who entered would be less like playing a risk-reward lottery, and more like people ignoring a sign saying ‘do not touch’ on a city-sized mana generator. But that was nothing but wishes and smoke. 

Dawn, on the other hand, seemed more confused by the question than anything. I tried to project the conundrum into her head, and she just blinked at me, then cocked her head like a dog. She sent back images of a hundred and fifty one thousand glowing strings of light that were weaving themselves into a tapestry that utilized a dimension, or perhaps set of dimensions, that I didn’t understand. It was neither space, nor time, and it was–

My nose started bleeding again, and Dawn shut the link in panic, then opened it up slowly again, before sending a more specific and narrow question, a sense of curiosity about the moisture in the soil that made up the composition of the majority of the cordoned off lands. I blinked, completely uncertain how that played into the asomatous, but Dawn seemed insistent that it was incredibly relevant. 

I did my best to describe what I knew of the country’s loam, but admittedly did somewhat come up short, and admitted as much to Dawn. She accepted that, and then projected out that while she was uncertain of the answer, she thought it was a good idea to consult with the blank pages now filled upon my connection-point. 

Parsing that took a moment, but after a bit of back and forth, I got the bulk of what she meant. I closed my eyes and drew into my mana-garden, listening to the winds and to my nascent truths. 

The two winds that I had were both eerily silent, and even as I stood in the archway of my beastgate, I found myself feeling like I was not alone. I felt a breath touch my right ear, and jerked, spinning to see if Dawn had entered my mana-garden.

She hadn’t. 

I shivered, as the sensation of not being alone within my own soul seemed to grow. There was the feeling of being watched, and for an instant, I swore that a figure ducked behind one of my gates, but when I raced over and checked, there was nothing there at all, just the pulsing strings of mana connecting things as they always were. 

The feelings seemed to ease after a moment, and I walked back to the center of my mana-garden, then began to focus on my Nascent Truths.

The Truth of the Guardian was content with going after the Flock, the pulsing steady drum of its protective nature eager to defend people. There was a degree of pragmatism to it – if one person had to die to save five, then one must die. It’s regrettable, and that person should be mourned. But it must be done. 

Benevolence was not nearly so convinced. Nobody had to enter the cordoned off lands. Killing the Flock would open the land for more plunder, and could damage the ecosystem. This was not as simple as Guardian made it out to be. There were arguments to be made to try and twist this into an act of kindness, but that was the problem – they were twisting the truth. Committing to killing someone for the greater good was a dangerous step to take, and Benevolence was warning me. 

Druid sat there silently for some time, listening to the arguments of both of the other Truths, before it began to beat to its own pulsing rhythm. Death was a part of life, that much was true, but choosing to kill was not. The choice was a unique factor of sapience. It acknowledged my wish that I had a method to contain the Flock, and to turn its hate towards something else, something that would be less likely to result in the deaths of people. But like Kene, it pointed out that we couldn’t. If we were Arcanists, then we might be able to, but we weren’t.

And it pointed out something else, too, something that made me consider if I’d perhaps grown a bit arrogant: the Druid was not even certain we would win. 

It was true we might be able to kill it. Alone, no, but with the pack of the cwn anwnn, we stood a very real chance. But that bore with it the equal likelihood that it could kill one of us. That was even ignoring the idea that it would be able to flee once more, or would force us to flee.

Aye, if any group of spellbinders was likely to be able to retreat from the Flock’s wrath without dying, then a healer, guardian beast, world spirit, soul dragon, and teleporter would be the group. 

Bearing that in mind, it was not so unreasonable to join the cwn anwnn. If nothing else, we might be able to prevent some of them from dying, if things were to turn south.

That sentiment brought some degree of harmony between Benevolence and Guardian. They might disagree on what to do, but none of my three Truths believed that the pack of hounds deserved to die due to squabbling over territory. 

I chuffed out a slow breath and opened my eyes to find Kene studying me. 

“I’ll join them,” I said, nodding my agreement. “Let’s rest, and I’ll work on restoring my mana.” 

Kene reached out and squeezed my hand. They didn’t tell me I was doing the right thing, for which I was grateful. While the situation might seem simple on the surface, it was a good bit more complex than it seemed. Rather than layering on some false platitudes, they suggested we go make dinner. 

We had brought nutritional potions, but they were mainly there in case we ran out of food while deep in the forest and struggling to get back. That was a distant possibility now that Dusk could open gates back to Mossford and beyond, but it was better to have and not need than need and not have. Feeling a bit camping-ish, given we were in the middle of the spooky woods, we made a small fire out in the firepit, wrapped some potatoes in foil, and tossed them into the flames to cook, while putting a metal grate that Dusk had found somewhere over some cement bricks to make a cooking station. We grilled some chicken coated in paprika, salt, white pepper and cayenne pepper, and then ate our food, sharing some of the chicken with the more adventurous members of the cwn anwnn who wandered into Dusk’s realm. 

Though we didn’t settle down for bed, we did let the fire get low, then take a couple of hours of a nap, in order to be fully restored, and to let the plants restore themselves. Then, following the leader of the cwn anwnn, we set off to find the Flock.