23.5 The Dead Cling
General Summary
Day 396
That night I rise silently from my bed and slip out into the night, leaving Lyssa sleeping alone. Normally I know I wouldn't be able to leave so easily but my affinity for sleep has many benefits. She doesn't wake.
I return to the Empress' cave without clear intentions or hopes. I want to speak to her but I'm all too aware that she might not feel the same way or be ready to share answers. My frustration mingles with my sense of dread and indecision swirling around Tom and what to do with him and his magic. I kneel silently for hours on the cold stone floor of the cave before waking with a start, collapsed beside the entrance with my hand collecting spray from the waterfall.
Day 397
I remember no conversations, no discussion, nothing but my own memories cluttered together into a tapestry of rage, loss, and pain. I have lived through the Collective's betrayal ten times over - first seeing Mistress' face as she staggered back from the Collective's bolts. Then it's Lyssa, then Bran, people I know could not have been there but who wear the same expression as their life slips away before my eyes. I live through my cold rampage against the Collective again and again, seeing civilians fall before me in droves before I finally reach Shakshakshafah.
I try to wash away the feelings as I clean the tears and sleep from my eyes and tie back my hair again. I don't know if those dreams were supposed to be a one-sided conversation or just my own heart tormenting me. I imagine it is futile to truly hide my thoughts and feelings from someone who shelters inside of me; I wish I had the opportunity to share them openly once I've refined them instead of as they bubble up from my subconscious.
I emerge from the cave to the smell of woodsmoke - Lyssa sitting cross-legged on a blanket with a small fire and preparations for tea. I collapse beside her and lean in as she holds me and lets my jumbled feelings pour out of me.
I desperately do not want to kill Tom. I want to talk to him, understand why he is using his magic like this, what he has taken from this place, and whether he truly doesn't understand the perils of what he is unweaving. Surely these are the actions of someone well-meaning but ignorant!
Visions of Shakshakshafah's life leaving his eyes as I plunge my own bloodletting dagger into his heart. Or maybe someone evil who could be convinced otherwise...?
The bolts hitting Hella and driving her backwards into Bran's arms as we rip through the tent to escape. Lyssa untangles my mind carefully, asking me the questions I need to answer before I decide whether I need to act and if so, how.
I don't see a future where my thread crosses this place and doesn't change it somehow. It cannot continue as it has.
It feels the same way I did when I told Alder to get rid of Elder Haman. This time I know I cannot ask him to deal with the problem alone; the danger is too great. We will need to act together.
As I help her pack up our little picnic Lyssa remarks that whatever I was doing in that cave last night felt overwhelmingly powerful.
I felt small next to the magic in that cave. Like something large was happening and might crush me if I got too close.
With this in mind I focus again on the magic of the area. Where before it felt like the immediate shade of the Empress it has faded into just a memory of her. I imagine that in time it might fade completely. The Shard, however, feels stronger. I add a single grain to the small pile of my frustration before shaking it off and returning to Meila's home.
Under Lyssa's strict supervision I have breakfast, a hot bath, and a luxuriously long massage in which she discovers new muscles that I didn't know I had. When I am finally ready to speak with the rest of the family I am looser and a little more relaxed, though I can't entirely set aside my mixed feelings about the Empress.
Once the immediate shock of my announcement ("We're going to kill Tom") has faded in Camellia and Knotrael, the discussion becomes quite straightforward. Poisons will be ineffective against a healer, and many other offensive magics might be unwoven before they can truly finish him. He presents a unique challenge and several ideas are put forth.
- Bran suggests that Knotrael simply behead him. It is a messy assassination but few people can continue casting or working magic without a head.
- I believe that if we join in a circle I would be able to draw on all of our strength and deal far more instant damage than I'd normally be capable of.
- Tira and Alder propose laying a mixture of traps and inconveniences that would wear down his magic until he is weak enough to kill easily.
- Lyssa shows us something I have never seen before - crimson crackling lightning that sends a thrill of fear down my spine. It is magic from the Valley which burns away a person's magic from the inside...if they survive at all.
The plan that forms out of this is just as detailed and well-plotted as it would have been at home in a war room. Lyssa will take up a position across from the cave and lie in wait, guarded by Camellia. Alder will set a shadow gate anchor within the cave so that Bran and I can slip out of range and avoid being caught in the crossfire. Tira and Knotrael will stay with Alder to protect him. Mystery will stay with Charlotte in the village and run interference if need-be. And Bran and I will lead Tom to his death.
The operation is put into action immediately as Bran and I find Tom chopping herbs on his wrap-around porch. We join him and make idle conversation as I probe for information on his magic, the spring, and his healing methodology. Some of what he says is true - his method of healing is tied to the magic of the water here. Some is sinister - he carries the ghosts of the people he has healed. And some rings false to my ears - the ghosts are a burden but he bears it for the greater good.
Finally he accepts my offer to show him the elvish cavern and share what makes it special. Our passage out of the village is painfully slow as he stops to chat with anyone we see, including Gedrin, who he invites along with us. There is a flicker of concern on his face as I neatly parry his move and direct Gedrin to find Charlotte and Mystery instead, promising to show him the cave tomorrow. I can tell that Tom knows something is wrong but one of the many critical thing I believe in is commitment to a goal. Abandoning at any point makes it doubly hard to reach a target in the future and I trust us to get it right the first time, even as he looks directly at Lyssa's hideout and makes a comment about a golden bird he glimpsed there.
Before we enter the cave I encircle all the surrounding wildlife with a thread of magic so that I can draw on it if I need it. More importantly, so that he cannot. Inside the cave I show him the runes and discuss their significance, translating them falsely and weaving some simple story about shadows and shelter. When he comes to the cracked runes he offers to restore them and I put him to sleep just as he reaches for a flask of distilled water from the spring.
With my hand on his shoulder I can feel him tense and start to reach for his own magic but I have Lyssa's quick hands and Tira's quick mind and he is flooded with sleep before he can move. I direct the distilled water away from him and then slip back through the shadow gate with Bran and signal for Lyssa to take him out. In seconds, the cave is filled with blue, purple, and crimson red electricity that seeks him out like a targeted arrow. Before long he is nothing but scattered ashes across the stones.
Lyssa and Camellia join us and I lean into Lyssa, entangling our fingers before Mystery speaks through our circle. She has seen the swirl of energy gathering amidst Tom's ashes and is telling us to get away, now. She doesn't remember how she knows this but she can recognize the dead clinging to the place. Ancestral spirits will storm this area for a long time and it will be dangerous for anyone who cannot choose which spirits they interact with.
As we retreat from the clearing and I release my hold on the plants I tell her that we'll have to come back here with her mother. She'll know what to do.
