Riftside 3 - Chapter 30

Knut’s room was crowded. 

Nabeeh lay strapped to the reinforced bed, a forced, brittle smile on her face. Eryn held her hand tied down, while Knut stood guard by the door like a mountain. Katherine was preparing to heal, a focused, professional calm about her. Mara stood in the corner, an intimidating observer, and Lan lingered awkwardly near the window.

“So, a Fire Mage, a Hammerlord, and a Stormwarden walk into a bar…” Nabeeh began, her voice a little too loud.

Eryn squeezed her hand. 

“You’ll be fine.”

“And?” Knut asked. “What happened?”

“What?” Nabeeh asked.

“The joke. How is bar?”

“I…I don’t know, Knut. I’m just nervous,” Nabeeh said. “But probably in shambles if I know our glorious leader and his hammer at all.”

“Oh. Poor joke,” Knut said, disappointed. 

“Okay, that’s it. Everyone but the patient and my assistant, shut up, or I will kick you out,” Katherine said, raising her voice.

“And who, pray tell, is your assistant?” Roq asked.

“You are,” Katherine said and sighed. 

“Technically, you are my assistant, as you will be following my instructions,” Roq preened. “But I shall allow it, this once. I am nothing if not magnanimous. Let it be known throughout these lands!”

Mara actually patted Katherine’s shoulder. 

“You’re saving lives, Doctor.”

“Why haven’t you brought more healers?” Lan asked from her corner.

Katherine let out another long-suffering sigh. 

“Because Official Mara has forbidden me from speaking of soul weapons, and I would rather have Roq’s… guidance… than more mana at hand. My regeneration won’t impact the end result much as it was with Enar. With his mind it was about keeping the bridge repaired for a specific time point. With a normal breakthrough, the Class Gem will keep going while I regenerate, and it spends much less energy than when I heal. All my lack of mana does is draw out the process.”

“Yippee,” Nabeeh said sarcastically.

We all wished her good luck and if anything, she seemed even more nervous.

“Are there any physical changes you desire?” Roq asked Nabeeh. “I made Ash taller, you know. I am a genius creator, and can do two things at once.”

“I am perfectly fine the way I am, thank you very much!” Nabeeh snapped. “No weird things to…anywhere on my body, or I will have Ash throw you into a lake!” 

“Not even a slight trim of the nose tip?” Roq asked. “You’ve got plenty. Or perhaps longer fingers for… better cooking?”

“Don’t you dare touch a thing on my look!” Nabeeh snarled. “I mean it!”

“Fine,” Roq sighed, giving up. “As you wish. But keep it in mind the next time you see yourself in the mirror that you could have been more handsome. What if Edwin doesn’t like--”

“Roq, why not adjust Ash’s face?” Knut asked.

“I’m a mere genius,” Roq said. “Not a god. Yet. Nor do I take on projects of futility. Fixing him? Waste of time.”

“Thanks for cheering me up, Roq,” Nabeeh said, chuckling, likely believing he was joking.

Then she took a deep, shuddering breath, let go of Eryn’s hand, and gripped the edge of the bed, her knuckles going white. She looked from the flawless blue gem in her gloved hand to each of us, a silent question in her eyes. 

Eryn gave her a reassuring nod. Knut grunted his approval. I just smiled, hoping it conveyed a confidence I didn’t entirely feel. With a final, steeling inhale, Nabeeh pressed the Mage’s Class Gem to her forehead.

The effect was instantaneous and brutal.

Nabeeh’s scream was sharp and piercing, as if her soul was being flayed. Her body arched violently, a taut bow of pure agony, the muscles in her back and limbs standing out like thick ropes. 

I grabbed her free wrist as planned and forced it down, snapping the final heavy steel chain into place and locking it. The reinforced bed frame groaned under the strain of her convulsions, threatening to splinter.

“By the bells,” I said, shocked by the raw strength in her body. 

“Do it,” Katherine said to me, and I pushed Roq’s spike into Nabeeh’s leg, the wound bleeding freely.

“Let the soul forging commence!” Roq said excitedly. His enthusiasm was a bizarre counterpoint to Nabeeh’s torment. “Healer! We begin with the mana core. It is… surprisingly robust, for someone not yet touched by my designs, but we shall make it exquisite. More efficient. Less a wildfire, more a controlled forge. Heal the lower quadrant, but in pulses, giving the Class Gem time to heal in between. Do it like the beat of your own heart.”

Katherine didn’t question his guidance. Her hands glowed softly golden, and she placed them on Nabeeh’s chest. The moment she did, our friend’s screams intensified, rising in pitch until it felt like my ears would bleed.

“It fights back,” Katherine grunted, sweat beading on her brow. “Her own magic… it’s like its resisting me.”

“Of course it does! It is an untamed thing!” Roq declared. “Push through! You are the smith, she is the steel! Now, pulses!”

The golden glow flared and dimmed, again and again.

“No!” Roq yelled. “Not the rhythm of you sitting down to eat. Make it like… how your heart beats when you see Knut!”

The doctor’s cheeks took on the slightest hint of red, but she said nothing, only sped up the pulse. 

“Excellent. Now, keep that going for twenty beats, and then work your way up to the upper quadrant, twenty beats, and then back down. Go!”

Once Katherine had exhausted her mana, she went downstairs to regenerate. 

The rest of us stayed with Nabeeh, as Roq attempted to cheer her up. 

“Worry not about the pain,” Roq said. “It is only in your body. We don’t feel a thing.”

Once Katherine returned, they worked on Nabeeh’s mind.

“The very seat of her power. It is a fiery thing, as I suspected. Chaotic, but potent. Filled with… No?” Roq paused, as if listening to Nabeeh. “Secrets? But—fine. We will not douse your flame. Stop screaming at me! I’m helping to build your new self! We will simply build a…a better furnace for your fieryness! Yes. Assistant, focus your healing on the corpus callosum, strengthen the bridge between intent and action!”

The hours that followed were horrible, but thankfully the breakthrough went well. Even so, the room was filled with pain, power, and Roq’s incessant, arrogant, yet undeniably effective instructions. 

He directed Katherine’s healing with precision, having her target specific neural pathways, weave her magic through Nabeeh’s mana channels, and it seemed as if he was reinforcing her very being. I didn’t understand half of what he talked about, but it seemed Katherine did, and that was all that mattered.

“Her thoughts are sparking, assistant! We must forge them into a focused beam! Target the pineal gland! Not with a flood, but with a gentle, insistent pressure! Make it a lens, not a shattered crystal!”

Mara watched, silent and still as a statue. Lan sat with a less sullen face, and rather looked as if she was sharing in Nabeeh’s pain. 

Again and again, Katherine was forced to stop, her mana depleted. She would slump and Knut would help her downstairs. While she meditated frantically, Nabeeh’s body thrashed in that less-focused, but still agonizing, state of a normal breakthrough.

“Her energy is squandered in this untamed state,” Roq lamented during one such break. “Like a forge with cracked bellows. All heat and no focus. Hurry, Healer, our canvas grows cold!”

“Tell your stupid hammer to shut the hell up!” Katherine screamed from downstairs, a testament to how far she was pushing herself.

“How rude.”

When Katherine came to resume her work, a new change occurred. Nabeeh’s skin began to flush a deep, angry red, and the air around her grew palpably hotter.

“What are you doing?” Eryn asked, touching Nabeeh’s forehead. “She’s burning up!”

“I promised not to change her look,” Roq said. “But I said nothing about optimizing the vessel for maximum power. This is not for looks, but for flow of mana. A subtle yet crucial distinction.”

I exchanged a glance with Knut. If Nabeeh came to and looked red as a tomato, I might have to find myself a new Soul Weapon.

“Heal the connections between her mind and her hands, Katherine, from top and down! The channels are a bit too hot. We must widen and reinforce them before the fire damages them.”

With Roq’s guidance, Katherine worked, her hands moving in a desperate, intricate dance over Nabeeh’s body. The intense heat slowly subsided, the angry flush on her skin fading to a healthy glow, and I sighed in relief.

The final hour was the worst. 

The last bit of energy within Nabeeh raged stronger than ever, yet Katherine was spent. The bed frame, despite its reinforcement, finally splintered, one of the legs snapping with a sharp crack that made Lan jump. Knut moved to hold the corner of the bed steady, keeping Nabeeh from hurting herself. 

“Must have new bed, again,” he mused. “This time of steelhusk.”

“The final stage,” Roq said. “Pour everything you have left into her core, Katherine! Forge it in the heart of the star she is becoming! Let it be reborn in fire!”

Katherine growled as she unleashed the last of her mana in a final, brilliant flood of golden light.

For a heart-stopping moment, Nabeeh’s body went rigid, every muscle locked and light blazed from her eyes and mouth. Then, with a last, shuddering gasp, her body went limp, the violent convulsions ceasing. 

The fiery glow of the Class Gem faded from her forehead, its power finally spent.

I pulled Roq from her leg, and Eryn moved to put pressure on the wound. Katherine would heal it as soon as she could.

Silence fell over the room, and all I heard was our ragged, exhausted breaths. I felt more tired from watching it than I had fighting the Steel Scrambler.

Nabeeh lay panting, drenched in sweat, and utterly spent but alive.

A slow, triumphant, and predatory smile spread across her face. 

The fatigue was there, but beneath it lay satisfaction.

“Well,” she rasped, “That was… fun.”

We unlocked the chains and helped her up into a sitting position. 

Her eyes, once a warm brown, now seemed to glow with a faint, inner fire. She surveyed us all, her gaze lingering on each of us for a beat, like a noble at court.

“What did you do to her?” I asked Roq. 

“What…what are you?” Eryn asked.

“I am Nabeeh Sayani,” she said, and then grinned. “Pyromancer.”

Nabeeh insisted we gather outside of the town later that night for what she called an impromptu Azbaran fire festival to celebrate her breakthrough. Which turned out to be nothing more than a brilliant excuse to bring all the alcohol we could get our hands on, gather up our family and closest friends, and head far outside the town. 

We gathered all the flammable material we could find, piling it into a huge pyre. 

“Come on, Edwin!” she said, grabbing his hand. “It’s time to light it! Everyone, step back. This might get…messy.” She giggled as she pulled the commander away, jogging into the darkness. He let himself be dragged off to who knew what fate. 

The rest of us took a good few steps back and I took a look around at those gathered. Ma and Pa were there, standing together with Torsten and his wife. They’d left their kids with the oldest. We’d even been able to rustle up almost everyone from Shay, Richard, and the three mages’ parties, though only Edwin could come from his. How Wade had convinced three girls to come with him, I couldn’t understand. 

Even Johan was there, leaving the tavern in the capable hands of his partner and fiancé, though he had grumbled a bit about the party not being in the Timberline.

Knut stood with one arm around Katherine, a small keg in his other, whispering something in her ear that made her laugh and gently slap his arm.

“Get ready, everyone!” Nabeeh called. “In Azbara, this is how we show our new spells to friends and family!” Then she lowered her voice, but I could still hear. “Edwin, lift me up onto your shoulders.”

“What?” the commander said, sounding as if she’d asked him to tackle a beehive naked.

“It’s part of the tradition!” she said, hands on her hips. “An Azbaran fire mage is to be lifted towards the sky for this part of the tradition. Just think about it. What is the biggest fire we know?”

“Armageddon?” Edwin said. “The level sixty—”

“No, you dolt,” Nabeeh said, interrupting. “The sun! Now, lift me up on those broad shoulders of yours. People are waiting!”

I stood with my arm around Eryn and felt her chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” I whispered as Edwin grasped Nabeeh by her waist.

“Wheee!” Nabeeh called as he easily lifted her up and settled her on his shoulders.

“I was the one who made this one up,” Eryn whispered back.

“What?” I asked as Nabeeh wiggled about, settling in.

“Azbaran tradition of lifting women towards the sun?” Eryn said. “We just made that up so he’d finally put his hands on her and get at least a bit physical.”

“That is pure evil,” Lan said, seemingly having overheard. She was nursing a tiny cup of red wine. “I like it.”

I groaned.

“At least I shot down her idea involving seeking shade and shelter from the sun,” Eryn said. “Some things are best to reserve for marriage.” 

She poked my side.

“Ready?” Nabeeh called, swiping out her staff and accidentally bonking Edwin on the side of his head. 

“Yes!” we all shouted in unison, raising our drinks.

“This. Is. Fireball!” Nabeeh said, raising her voice and pointing her staff into the air.

The area around us lit up with light as a ball of fire twice the size of a man’s head arced high into the sky to a collective ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’.

Seems the celebration involved a trick shot, but it looked as if she’d gotten it right.

“Run!” Nabeeh suddenly shouted. 

“What?” Katherine shouted back. 

“It’s going to explode!” Nabeeh said, laughing madly. 

“Oh crap!” Justin said as we all turned and legged it.

“Three!” Nabeeh said.

Eryn and I ran hand-in-hand, laughing, doing our best not to spill our beers.

“Two!” she called.

I glanced, seeing everyone scattering, with Pa doing his best despite the leg. Well, everyone except Lan, who had cast Drown and Water Spheres, and now stood well protected.

“One!”

The fireball slammed into the pyre where it detonated like a whiskey drunk Glowcap, with a rapidly expanding sphere of orange flame. The explosion sent a wave of heat washing over us, and the night erupted with a chaotic but beautiful shower of blazing shrapnel. Burning bits of wood tumbled through the air like comets, trailing tails of sparks, while a million embers spiraled upwards in a vortex of red and gold.

The frenzied retreat turned into a chorus of delighted shrieks and clapping. Eryn squeezed my hand, her face lit by the falling fire, her laughter joining the joyous, reckless symphony of our impromptu festival.

Next, a pillar of flame burst up where the pyre had been, and we whooped in delight. A classic Flame Trap. 

Then her wall of fire appeared, and we laughed as Lan hurriedly retreated, shielding her face with her hand.

“She’s really letting loose!” I called to Eryn, glancing over to where Pa stood, sheltering Ma, and it struck me how this might just be triggering Pa’s relatively healthy fear of fire.

“I wonder what her other new spell is!” Eryn said, following my gaze, and added, “Oh. Pa looks a bit shook. I’ll Warden’s Embrace him.” 

The protective cocoon lit up around Pa, and he relaxed as the spell protected him from some of the heat, and looked around until he spotted us, and gave a small wave, Ma safely peeking out at the show from behind him.

“Dragon’s Trail!” Nabeeh shouted, just loud enough for us to hear, and we looked at her sitting on Edwin’s shoulders, wiggling her feet about, just as she let out a stream of fire into the air. Unlike Flame Breath, this was only about a foot wide, but it kept going higher and higher into the night air, lighting up the area around us.

“She was right,” I said, neck craning as I stared at the flames. “This is definitely a more fitting celebration for a Pyromancer than going to the Timberline.”

Then I pulled Eryn in for a kiss and a hug, enjoying the tribal feeling of friends and family celebrating a breakthrough.