The Scholar's Tale (Original Fantasy)

Book I, Chapter 3

"There is no crueller chain than being master of your own fate and not knowing your path."-Samuel Clyde, third Admiral-Elect of the Free Fleet;

So, this is what flying feels like,I thought as the deck spun above me and the sky shook beneath me. I landed on my back, letting out a choked gasp-the pain was so sharp I couldn't even scream.

The thing was just as fast in combat as it was while attacking from ambush, and had struck me without even moving from the spot where it was choking Mharra. Instead, it had extended a steely tendril as thick as my torso, which had struck me like a whip.

Shaking my head, I struggled to rise. After two tries, I was on my knees, a hand to my ribs. The monster had struck me in the chest, but nothing seemed to be broken-

Ah.

It was like a knife was scraping the inside of my chest. I could breathe, but... dammit. A problem for later. Pain just meant you were still alive. I could still fight.

The thing had not struck me again while I'd recovered. Why? Did it think me dead? Or was it focused on Mharra rather than me?

Its mistake.

I stepped forward, tapping into my Gift. Even if I couldn't reach the monster, I could still touch a tendril and cripple it. An instant would be enough for my Gift to work, if only I could react-

Now!

Another tendril, extended to crush, rather than strike. Even so, it was still blindingly fast, wrapping around my waist like a steel snake and lifting me from the deck like I was a ragdoll.

As it tightened around me, driving the breath ftom my lungs, I placed both hands on the limb and remembered my greatest pain.

I can't move.

'Do you see?'

My legs are broken, my arms twisted , bones breaking through flesh.

'Do you see where this pointless obsession leads?'

I do not want to leave, even now. It's the only place I have ever known. Please...

'If you love it so much, die with it.'

My tears are of rage and shame, not pain. I am not alone. The others are not punished, even though-

It ended. The tendril clenched, then quivered and opened. It tried to draw back, to retreat into the greater mass, but it could not. The monster was twisting, churning like mud in a storm, its shapelessness turned against it. I'd remembered being paralyzed, mangled and unable to move, and so was it, now.

And then, it broke apart.

Not slowly, like a crumbling building, but painfully fast, like a blastshell. Pieces of the monster burst from the central mass, flying through the air faster than I could see, the sound making my ears ring.
In moments, grey, shapeless blobs were scattered over the deck and steam towers, sticking to them like unnatural moss.

'Peak and Pit...' I rasped. I eyed the pieces, but nothing seemed to move. Thank Vhaarn. I could not hope to fight hundreds of lesser monster, even if each only had a fraction of the original's might....

And then, the ship shook.

Or, rather, it rung. Like a struck bell, the steamer blurred and trembled, and I could feel my bones shake, like toys in a box thrown by a sulking child.

I looked at Mharra, and saw him somehow rising to his feet, despite the shaking ship. How...

'Mharra! We must leave, now! Before the damn ship comes apart!' I screamed. Could we even get off the steamer in time? And where the Pit was Mharra's subordinate? Was he somehow sleeping throught this, or had the monster killed him before coming for Mharra?

Damn it. Another poor fool dead, and I hadn't even met him!

And then, Mharra did something that scared me even more than the shaking ship. He laughed.

He laughed, and the trembling and blurring slowed down, until the steamship was once more gently floating on the waves. It was like nothing had even happened.

'Mharra!' I cried, and he moved to look at me, grinning, eyes shining with mirth. "What have you done? The ship-was it the monster's death throes...?' And I trailed off as his grin widened.

'No death throes, "Dhalgo", and no monster.' He clasped his hands, like a magician pleased with a trick. 'I thought there was something more to you, and wanted to draw it out into the light.'

'Something more to... what are you talking about?' I asked, even as my mind spun. 'You did not even know me until I came to talk to you...' Could he have somehow learned about my Gift? But when? He'd been blinded during my fight, almost covered in the creature's bulk-

The creature.

'What did you mean by "no monster"?' I asked, as much as to make him talk as to calm myself. Could he have been one of-no. Even if he had been, that trail was cold and dead. The man I was today would not have been recognised by any of them, if they'd even stuck together after over a decade.

'The "monster" you blew apart-and I'm sure you'll tell us just how you did that- is the third and last member of my little crew. Or, rather...' He ran his eyes over me. Checking for wounds, or something else? '...the  fourth member,' he finished.

'What do you mean? That... being, works for you? And I've murdered it?' I couldn't even bring myself to sound shocked. The chase from the inn, the fight, the memory... and this had been some sort of setup? To what purpose?

'I don't take just anyone on my ship. You're educated and can work-so? Not being a lazy fool is no qualification for crew membership. I saw you running all over the docks, being refused by those you didn't anger into chasing you...' Mharra smiled
'We had to test you. You want to see the world, you say, and I think you're honest enough. If you just wanted a place to live that wasn't threatened by tide or storm, you'd have gone to Illuminaria, or somewhere like it.'

I grimaced. The Wrought Island was safe enough, yes, the way a gaol was. But with my attitude, I'd have ended up hollowed out and Compelled in hours- providing the Illuminated did not learn about my Gift. Mages and their ilk had a place on the Enlightened Path, as extensions of the Hierarchs' will. Couldn't afford to let us run wild.

'You do not want to do menial work, though you do not shy from it, either,' Mharra continued. 'Aye-do not think I did not see it, lad. Even when you offered your services, I could practically hear you saying "This? This is the least I can do." You have a power in you, a Gift or something like one. Surprised you did not start talking about it first chance. Most mages can't help themselves...' He smiled again. 'No offence. Well, come on, Ib. Stop laying around.'

I was about to ask who he was talking to, when the grey creature's remains flew together, reforming the grey, shapeless thing. Then, to my surprise, it rose from the deck, flowing into a new shape. It was nearly twice my height, human-like in shape, thought six-armed and featureless.

"Ib" stepped toward me, the deck swaying under its feet. Up close, I could see its waist alone was level with my neck, and that it was broader than I was tall.

'That was a nasty trick, friend,' it said in a surprisingly human voice. Then, its flat face flowed into something like a smile. 'Can we do it again?'

I answered the only way I could.

'...What?'