Bloodline

Corruption - part 10

It was too late to dodge the spear, but in his attempt, the spear cuts through part of his arm, and into part of Zircon's side as well. He cries out in pain, holding the object that was grabbed by the arrow, and showing it to Tesath. She stops dead in her tracks, and let's go of the spear, backing up in fear. Zircon walks to her with the item, a strange mirror of sorts with different gems around it, while also attempting to remove the spear from his hip. Tesath trips over a rock, still trying to back away, and is blocked by the trees.

"Tess...please, I know...your there..." Zircon manages to says before falling onto his knees, the spear then cutting deeper into him. Tesath only looks in fear as he yelps in pain, her eyes filled with regret and sadness as she stops. She speaks up, "Leave me alone! Stop torturing me like this!" She buries her head into her knees, covering her face as Zircon inches closer. "Tesath...It's me, Zir-" he coughs up a little bit of blood, spitting more out as he puts a hand to her shoulder, slowly moving it to her cheek. "It's me, Zircon...there's nothing to worry about..." he says as he lifts her head up, smiling through pain and blood. She looks scared for a moment, but her eyes begin to clear up as she looks up at him. Just as this happens, the trees open for the others, who rush to Zircon to aid him. "Nothing to...worry about..." He says before passing out, the mirror cracking before breaking apart.

Time passes, and Zircon thinks in his head while unconscious. 'The forest seemed to trap her in a brainwashed state, making her view me as something, maybe it was feeding on her as she used her magic through the encounter while she tried to kill me. What did she see that made her go into a murderous rage to kill me?'

Later, after the uncomfortable feeling of waking up to smelling salts in a bed, Zircon looks up. Damian and Osred are sitting next to him, with a wet towel and other things when they notice him. "Zircon, you're finally awake!" Damian says as he wraps Zircon into a hug before he could do anything. Zircon yelps a bit as he looks to his side and arm, both covered in bandages. "Tesath did as much as she could with her magic to help you, but she wasnt able to heal you entirely, she ended up passing out too a minute after you did." He sits up, looking around to find himself in one of many beds, with Tesath laying in one across from his with Lutol and Maralyne sitting next to her.

"I guess we're in some sort of tavern, but how did you find the way out of the forest?" Zircon asks, as Damian pulls out the amulet from before from a pouch in his armor. "I saw you had this when you found us all, and you seemed to know where to go when you had it around your neck, so I took it off you, and put it on, and some voice spoke to me, leading us out." Damian hands the amulet to Zircon, and pulls a chair closer to the bed. "It took some time to get here, but when we did, Tesath woke up for a bit, and tried using her magic to heal you as much as possible, but the forest took so much of her power to the point where she passed out due to using too much of it, so we had to fix you up as best as we could and get everyone someplace safe." Osred says as he reveals a pack of smelling salts in a drawer. "This tavern brought us in when they saw the damage done to you and how 'Tess' was unconscious, and even provided healing supplies and the smelling salts to wake you guys up when the time was right."

Zircon scratches his head a bit, before attempting to stand, falling on the floor and catching himself when his legs almost didnt seem to work. Damian lifts Zircon into a sitting position on the bed, "Carefull there, you took a mighty fine cut into your side, it's best you should rest while you continue to recover, and if Tesath awakes she can speed this up once she gets her own strength back." Zircon looks at him as he says this, sighing. "So much for being a careful assassin, this will roughen my skills up for a while until then." Maralyne and Lutol make their way to Zircon and the others, and stand around him. "Your lucky my arrow brought whatever that mirror thing was down to you, you looked like you were about to die before we were able to come in." Zircon laughs, "If you weren't this mean I would've congratulated you for your shot. Though, we all know that I'm still the better shot, I just didnt have time to do much other than avoid the attacks." Maralyne turns away, "Whatever, but I guess I can say I was worried when the spear hit you, which further influenced my ability to shoot the arrow directly into the sky, only for it to come back down, snag the mirror, and land next to you, if you could do that yourself." "I probably could, but knowing that it was you that did the shot and not me, I guess I should thank you, so thank you Maralyne." Zircon says, Maralyne turning back to him and smiling. Zircon looks at Lutol, him standing in silence staring at his wounds. "You've had worse wounds Lutol, what makes you surprised about mine?"

Lutol looks at him, confused, and shrugs. "I'm just wondering how so much damage was done to you all at once, theres not a single time I remember where she was able to do so much as slice through armor and barely go past half the tip of her spear, this had the entire head go through your side and then a little more, and your almost completely fine." Zircon shrugs, "My guess is that all those other times, she was focusing on others, using her magic to support them while she used her spear only when people and monsters got near her. This time she acted like she really wanted to kill me, using her full strength and then some to kill me, as for how she gained enough strength to throw me off her like nothing when I tried to pin her down, I would guess that's due to the forest trying to drain her magic, probably giving her some power and strength to try to finish me and cutting its magic off her when it deemed it enough for her to end me on her own."

"Well it's best we don't try to find out if that's the case, she is very weak right now and still hasn't awoken since helping you when we got out of there." Damian says she he puts a hand on Zircon's shoulder looking at everyone as he gets up from his chair. "I think it's safe to assume everyone here is hungry or thirsty, so let's get something to eat from below and bring some to Zircon when we've had our fill." Everyone nods, and Zircon lays back down, going under the covers as he thinks, looking to Tesath before falling asleep moments later.