The Sword that Binds (Book of Worlds 1) (6 page)

“You wouldn’t happen to have a way to get that thing down here would you? With all those new tricks you’ve learned there must be something you can do about it," Sarena said.

There was a pause for a moment before Sarena heard anything. “Ah, no, actually I can’t do anything about that. I can only affect you, nothing else. Just do the opposite of what you did to make that big spike," Tyrus answered.

“Just do the opposite...” Sarena mumbled to herself, “How am I supposed to do the opposite when I don’t even know what I did in the first place! I just pushed all the stones I could at that thing! I didn’t know what would happen after that!” She felt the hunger suddenly dissipate, and her body stopped trembling.

“It’s not like I know how you did it either!” Tyrus’ voice resounded loudly throughout her mind. “I can only provide raw power, I don’t know how any of the other elements work. If I wasn’t trapped in here I might be able to do something about it, but giving you the ability to draw on my strength as if it was your own is already the limit of what I can do. Be glad that my power has no aspect. Otherwise even with everything I did, you wouldn’t be able to use it for anything,"

Sarena scowled as she stood there, her mind racing as she tried to remember what she had done to create the spire. Tyrus had told her to draw on the warmth he was radiating, and doing so seemed to have been the catalyst for everything else. She wanted that sense of belonging again, so much that she knew that it was unhealthy, but she couldn’t stop herself. “If I’m understanding you right, you’re saying that all you can do is act as a power source, while I have to direct how the power is used? Why couldn’t I do that until now?”

“That’s close enough to how it is,” Tyrus said. “There’s a lot more to it than that, but overall that’s what is happening. You couldn’t do it before because there was no channel for you to draw my power through. I was just pumping my strength into you, enhancing all of your natural talents, but doing so was incredibly inefficient. From what I could tell, your body’s normal element is stone, so when all you have is raw power with no aspect within you, you couldn’t do anything with it. The channel I created allows you to draw directly from my core and your body converts it instinctively to the correct element, wasting the vast majority of the power you draw, but allowing you to actually have control over what it does."

Pursing her lips, Sarena stepped forward and placed her left hand on the spire, maintaining her grip on Tyrus with the other. “This conversation isn’t over, but I need to eat and this monster is the only thing I’m going to find any time soon. If you’re right, breaking this spire should be easy."

Drawing on the warmth in her hand for the second time, she felt the world around her slow down. The sense of belonging returned instantly, filling her with a feeling of love and comfort that only her grandfather had let her feel before. Sarena simply stood there, basking in the warm feeling as long as she could, until she started to feel something else. Something other than the stone. The feeling of comfort was replaced by a wispy feeling, as if something was floating around inside of her, making her body weightless.
This is incredible! I feel like I can do anything!

In a way it was just as exhilarating as the feeling the stone gave her, but she knew that it was different, an opposite to the sturdy feeling of stone. Whatever was inside her was forever changing, constantly moving and begging her to do the same, like the winds that blew down from the White Mountains. While the world around her was moving at full speed, her perception of it was higher than ever. With just a thought she gave a small hop, her body shooting into the air straight towards the beast on the spire. She reached out with her left hand and grasped the horn as she passed by, using it to swing her body around and land on its back. It had happened faster than she could blink, and Sarena almost couldn’t believe what she had just done. Looking down she saw that the ground was staggering distance below her. Her concentration faltered, and the wispy feeling within her disappeared. Instantly her body felt its normal weight again, causing her to almost lose her footing. Sarena threw herself backward until she was leaning against the spire sticking out several feet from the back of the beast.

“What just happened?” She asked, her voice shaking. “There’s no way the stone let me do that. Even with all the power you gave me before I couldn’t do that. I’ve never moved that fast before.”

Tyrus was just as surprised as Sarena. His instincts weren’t giving him anything to work with aside from what they had before. “All I can tell is that you were drawing on my power and converting it to use it yourself. You started off with stone, but suddenly changed to a different element before you did anything with it. What element did it feel like?”

“I’m not sure, but maybe wind? That’s the thing that kept popping into my mind while I was using it. It made me feel so light and free, as if I could do anything," She said.

“I don’t know, but you might want to consider going back down before you get rid of this spike. This thing is going to make a pretty big impact when it lands," Tyrus replied.

Sarena nodded before answering, her mind calming down. “I know, and my name is Sarena. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself earlier, I wasn’t thinking very clearly. I’m not really sure I am now honestly."

She drew on the warmth again and felt the wispy cool breeze begin to flow within her body. Without a second thought she hopped off the side of the beast, reveling in the feeling of the wind rushing by her on the way down. Landing lightly on the ground she turned back to the spire, skipping backwards almost a dozen feet in an instant, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground as she did. Almost without thinking she let the wind inside of her change to stone, and felt the world slow to a crawl as a blanket of warmth wrapped around her. Effortlessly she commanded the spire to return, and felt the power within her rush out of her body, causing the world to return to its normal speed. The ground shook as the spire collapsed into a pile of rubble. Everything felt so simple now that she had done it once.

“Tyrus this is incredible! I feel like I can do anything! With this kind of power we should be able to survive here as long as we want! It’s a bit gloomy, but I’m sure things in the kingdom will have died down in a month or so. Everyone will be sure I’m dead by then, and we can pass through to Norvail in the north easily enough. It shouldn’t be difficult to book passage from there to Asravan across the sea, and by that point the kingdom won’t be able to touch us even if they know who we are. The Free Lands don’t recognize the authority of the southern kingdoms, so we will be safe," Sarena said while nodding, as if convincing herself of her plan.

A slight twinge from her stomach reminded Sarena of what she was supposed to be doing, and with a grimace she stepped forward to the corpse of the beast.
Just think of it as a deer, you’ve skinned and gutted plenty of those in the past.
Sarena thought. Her grandfather used to regularly take her on hunting trips in the foothills of the White Mountains, so she was familiar with what needed to be done. The sheer size of the beast made the task seem daunting to her though. Even if she ate constantly for weeks she wouldn’t be able to finish off the creature. Setting her mind to the task, Sarena raised Tyrus and began her work.

I
t took Sarena the better part of a day just to skin the strange creature, followed by two more to dry and cure the massive hide. Tyrus had been particularly unhelpful when it came to that, and throughout their conversations Sarena came to realize just how little Tyrus knew. She had ended up using the hide to make a cloak for herself, as well as a pack to hold things with and a simple tent. All of them looked remarkably ugly, but worked surprisingly well at keeping her warm. The hide was incredibly durable to the point where even Tyrus couldn’t easily cut it.

Inside of the pack there was very little besides the tent, bundles of smoked meat - all of which were chewy and tasted awful but was the only thing Sarena had to eat - and a crystal clear orb the size of a chicken egg that she had found at the base of the monster’s skull. Tyrus said he could feel power inside of it, but had no idea what it was for, so they left it at that. It was a surprisingly peaceful time for the both of them. It seemed that the creature they killed was the apex predator of the area around them so no others were willing to enter its territory. Sarena was able to sleep peacefully while Tyrus kept watch, feeling a sense of security now that she was able to use his power.

For almost a week the two of them stayed in their small camp. Sarena worked to build up her supply of food while she could, and spent the rest of her time crafting her tent and pack when the beast had decayed too far. They had found a stream about an hour’s walk from the corpse, which Sarena was able to traverse in several minutes using her wind element. While it didn’t have the effect of slowing the world around her like Tyrus’ power did, it let her move far faster and raised her reaction speed to a level beyond anything she had thought possible. She had experimented with it throughout the week and found that aside from increasing her speed and agility, it also sharpened her mind, giving her a much clearer view of things that had confused her before. It was an argument she had with Tyrus that had led her to discover that.

Three days after they had killed the beast, Sarena was sewing together the tent when she finally decided to ask Tyrus about his past.

“So where exactly did you come from? I don’t remember there being any mention of Heartseeker being alive in my family’s annals,” Sarena asked.

“I wish I knew. It’s pretty boring here in this sword. Just a big black void in every direction. I don’t even know how long I was waiting before you reached out for me,” he said.

“Doesn’t that mean you were just asleep?” she asked.

“No, although I might have been for a while. I
think
I was human before I got stuck in here, but I’m not really sure. It’s been too long.”

That must have been torture. Heartseeker has been in my family for thousands of years. How is he still sane?

“But that’s all in the past now! You freed me from that terrible realm! I’ve been doing my best to protect you since then. Honestly, I don’t know how you manage to get yourself into so many dangerous situations. I was barely free and you were already surrounded by so much evil.”

Instantly Sarena filled with rage. She had almost forgotten that Tyrus had done that, putting her in this terrible situation to begin with.

“This is entirely your fault!” She yelled. “I can’t believe I forgot about that until now! You killed the prince right in front of everyone, and you made it look like I did it! What in the seven hells were you thinking!” Without even realizing it Sarena had started to draw on the power from Tyrus, wind filling her body.

“I’m sorry! I truly am! I was barely awake at the time!” Tyrus said in a panic.

“So you just lash out at the first thing you see! What made you think that was a good idea!”

“I just wanted to protect you -”

“And look where that’s gotten us! I’m in the middle of the most dangerous forest in the world with nothing but the clothes on my back! I could have convinced my father to change his mind if you had just waited in your sheath like a normal sword!”

“But he was so evil! Even you wanted to kill him! I wouldn’t have done it otherwise!”

Sarena felt the rage inside of her wash away, as if sustaining it was pointless. As soon as the wind had filled her she felt her mind clear, the rage already dissipating. After Tyrus explained his reasons she simply couldn’t stay mad. While she had no way to empathize with thousands of years of darkness, she was still able to understand his desperation. If she had been in his place she doubted she would have done differently.
Wait, this isn’t how I normally act. My grandfather used to tell me that I would stay angry for days, even when I knew I was in the wrong. I still think he’s wrong about that, but I know I don’t normally calm down this quickly. Could the wind be causing this also?
She thought.
It’s always given me the feeling that I could handle anything, so maybe that includes my emotions too?

Their conversation had ended there, with Sarena deep in thought for the rest of the day. She hadn’t completely forgiven Tyrus, even though she knew it wasn’t entirely his fault. The prince
had
been disgusting, she had to admit. He actually thought she would sleep with him just because her father said so.
The more I think about it the angrier I get. I’m starting to think Tyrus did the right thing by killing that pompous idiot. If the world needed him to save it, we are probably better off being destroyed. Not that I believe in that stupid prophecy to begin with. Demons are nothing more than a myth.

Eventually Sarena felt there was nothing more that she could do by staying in the camp she had made. There was enough food in her pack for at least two weeks if she rationed well, and with her newest creation of a skin to hold water, she felt she was ready to move on. Confidence was flowing through her now that she was able to use Tyrus’ power herself, and he had said he was back to full strength again. They had found out that her use of the wind element barely pulled at him at all, but in return she couldn’t seem to use it for anything else. It was only good for enhancing herself, the same as Tyrus, but much more focused as far as what it enhanced. She tired out just as quickly when she used it, and her healing rate was still normal, but the speed and reaction it gave her far surpassed anything Tyrus could give her.

Packing up her tent and supplies, Sarena and Tyrus set out to head deeper into the woods, using the raw power from Tyrus to travel quickly without tiring. Carrying everything at once was a huge strain on her body, but she could feel herself growing stronger rapidly as they traveled. According to Tyrus he was able to maintain that indefinitely since his power healed the stress on her body faster than it accumulated, but she would still need to sleep since her mind would become exhausted like normal. His knowledge about magic seemed endless until Sarena asked him about anything besides his own power.