Sorcerer in a fantasy world
Chapter 98

Chapter 98: Chapter 98

Tara clutched her severed limb.

"I can’t." I admitted. "Not right now."

She nodded.

"Tulisa."

"She’s alive."

I wasn’t sure what else to say and the chance was stolen anyway.

Làidir leapt onto me.

"You were amazing." She cheered hoisting me up.

Her heavy breasts pressed against my chest and her warm lips trailed my ear and cheek. Usually I’d have gotten hard. I was devastated from the fight. The residual terror from Jack’s psychic attacks killed any sense of positive feeling.

It may not have been a provocative tease. It could have been a sincere clinging for comfort and emotional safety. Heck if I knew. Most of the time I lacked the capacity to tell. At that moment I was dead inside.

Iris, Morgana and Samiya hugged one another. The hot rush of life a shocking experience to the recently deceased.

Tara stared with hollow eyes at her stump. I was sure I could create some kind of prosthetic limb. Her lack of magic meaning I couldn’t just regrow a permanent limb for her. Perhaps one day if I could craft an enchanted item that spat out compatibility body parts, but the task seemed overwhelming complex. A metal hand and with a little enchantment a reactive one would be easier and stand in until a better solution could be devised.

I’d work on the prosthetic soon. Tara deserved that much from me.

"Where’s Umbra?" Someone asked.

"Safe for now. I’ll tell you later." I said. "I’ve got a more pressing problem"

I walked over to Tulisa who was barely alive.

I didn’t know what to do.

The only person who might know would be Umbra and she was gone for now.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and almost lashed out.

"I have an idea."

"What?" I snapped.

"I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone else, but there is a tale Merlin told me in my youth."

I breathed and tried to calm down.

"Go on."

"There is a tale of something called a golem."

"The rock creature?" I asked vaguely remembering a video game mob.

"Not quite. The golem is artificial life. When his daughter and first apprentice passed away to a giant attack. He tried to give them a new body. He wrapped her in a cocoon of dust and earth, chanted a ritual and then he tried to breathe her life into it. He succeeded in part, for he did breathe life into the construct, but it was a new empty life. A creature that had no will and obeyed its creator’s wishes without question. Ironically, I noticed this pleased him more than he cared to admit. For his daughter had been willful and such will had led her to an early death. He was cruel like that, Merlin."

"What hope is there then. I am not going to create an empty being. I’m not Merlin."

"Tulisa is alive. She needs a body, the breath of her existence clings to what is left."

"I don’t know the spell."

Morgana was silent at that admission. I looked at her and she held a confident smile.

"I believe in you."

"Iris, I need you."

Iris, my lover came over.

"What is it, love? How can I help?"

"I need a guide and your body is magically made, yes?"

"Magically altered, but the flesh is all mine."

"I need a map. Your map is the best I’ve got." I said and then added "Not too be rude."

She kissed my cheek, "You never could be." She placed my hand on her breast. "Let me be your guide."

I did not use dust or earth, but the false, magic flesh I had improvised earlier to host an enchantment. It was based on Tulisa’s DNA from her remaining body. I was glad her brain and heart were still there and many of her vital organs.

Oxygen was still reaching her brain. I should have time. It was hard to make her a new body. The human body is wonderfully complex, but it took great effort to recreate it.

I used Tulisa’s magically altered body as a very rough guide on how to create a magical body. A sort of template. Pound by pound I grew Tulisa a body. I sweated and strained. At times, I wished to die rather than continue the struggle. At one point I puked my guts out, but still I persisted.

I pulsed Tulisa to sleep rather than make her endure the operation aware.

I grew a great empathy for surgeons, but what I did was harder still. I wished I could borrow from their vast knowledge and experience, for I acted with little of both. Sheer power compensated for my lack.

Night fell, the Romans gave a lighthearted attack that my women and Làidir fended off, and the Sun rose again. It was with the dawn that I finished and Tulisa, my golem, was alive again.

I woke her up.

She blinked away, "Damian."

"Yes."

"What happened? You look so sad and tired."

"You’re rather more honest than before, but you seem to be you, Tulisa."

"Why wouldn’t I be me?"

She followed my gaze and looked at her body that appeared just like her old one.

"I feel different."

"How different?"

"My breasts are smaller."

I fixed that.

"Bigger.

"You sure?"

"Bigger." She insisted

I grew her tits until they were stupidly huge, closer to ten inches than long and taking up most of her upper body.

"You can stop there."

She’d gone more anime, no, hentai characters than human proportions. In a mortal body it would have broken her back, but the golem body managed without strain.

She was like me, effectively immortal. The magical power would keep her heart and brain from decaying so long as she had access to me doing a check on her body every few tens of thousands of years. She could die by head injury, but the rest of her body was effectively invulnerable to damage. The only person stronger than her was Làidir though should wouldn’t be that fast and was now very, very heavy, more like a truck than a human in weight.

"Stand up."

She wobbled, "I think my legs are a little short."

They were.

I increased their length until they were close to her previous size and she could move just fine.

"Anything else?" I asked.

She frowned and thought about it, "You can make me into anything?"

"Within reason." I said with narrowed eyes.

She ran over and kissed my lips, "I’ll ask later. I’m just happy to be alive." She cupped her new massive breasts, "And with these bad girls."

She seemed more free after her near-death experience. It was nice in a way.

Làidir strolled over and picked Tulisa up and dropped her like a box. She glared at the maid and Tulisa showed no resistance.

"You’re so heavy! Why?" Làidir shouted.

"Fuck if I know."

"You must know something."

"Me."

"Make sense."

I didn’t even know Làidir had been here. She wasn’t the only one. Everyone was back.

"Everyone’s alive." I said. It felt like I needed to say it for it to be real.

"I died." Samiya whimpered.

"Everyone is okay now." I said.

No one agreed with me.

"You saved her." Iris said eventually.

"He actually did it." Morgana reaffirmed.

"I couldn’t have done it without you."

Morgana shook her head, "I take credit for the idea, but no. This is all you, Master Sorcerer from beyond the stars. You healed us from death, but we were whole and that was an extension of your healing. What you’ve done with Tulisa. She wasn’t dead, but she had basically nothing left. You’ve made a full life out of nothing using only the breath of life, the head and heart as a foundation."

"Sorry to be selfish, but my arm..." Tara said, she almost begged.

So, I fashioned her an arm. One that was greater in every respect to the evolved body. Stronger, more durable and I would embed enchantments into it later. She would live a long, long life.

"You did it again." Iris said in shock.

"He did." Samiya added.

I was barely functioning and awake, but I had another thing I wanted to sort before I slept.

I faced Làidir, "We need to talk."

"What is it?"

"We’re alive because of you."

"You are, as are your women."

"What do I need to do to make you mine?"

She tapped her lips with her finger, eyes to the sky, and thought.

"I wonder."

"A duel. You will win in my current condition."

"Nae, we’ll fight. But that doesn’t seem right to make a union."

"What then?"

She leaned in her eyes alit with ardour.

"You know what I want." She whispered. I’m sure I did. I wanted it nearly as bad.

"Say it."

"You. I’m not greedy. I’ve seen you. I watched you demean yourself to entertain the child. You’ve brought back the dead. I know how you think of women. Just acknowledge my strength is greater than theirs and accept me among you."

"I do."

"Good. But, just as you are not mine alone neither am I yours."

"Agreed."

She kissed me. Stole my lips with a warrior’s demand. Her passion had no equal.

"I will drive these rats out from their lairs. Be ready to strike with me. We will crush the Unseelie together."

She walked away.

I’d done it. Prostitute myself. No, that was exhaustion speaking. I agreed to it and the actual act had yet to happen. A confusing mix of desire and exhaustion moulded in my mind. The circumstances of this union made were beyond my expectations of our...coupling. Circumstance had hasted my hand and it did irk me more than I cared to admit.

Umbra still floated high above. I cavered a simple amulet to hold the spell to keep her aloft. A problem for when I woke again. For now sleep.

I escorted the group back to our temporary abode. I didn’t speak. Lost to thought and a new hatred of Elkilbour. It had exacted a scar. We’d met an enemy that had beaten me within the walls. Not a god nor a near god like Maradon. A creature of magic so foul it had crippled me. A creature allied with a warrior that had bested Morgana, Tara and Iris.

I slept alone and cried tears to sleep.

When I woke, I ignored the many lovely, loving women in my bed.

I brooded.

I’d somehow done worse against Clavile’s pawns than I had against Maradon. I didn’t think that this was because in a video gamey style they were a higher level. It was the more awkward facts of combat was about context. We were unprepared and poorly matched against these powerful pawns. They had the element of surprise and we were ill-matched to their power sets.

Psychic warfare Jack used seems to be my weakness. He used it far better than Maradon’s attempt.

I’d failed. I tried to get everyone outside and having fun. A mini vacation during a siege. What a fool! If it wasn’t for the Romans we wouldn’t even be stuck here. None of this would be happening.

Yet I show them mercy.

A mercy that leads to nothing but death.

I need a deterrent, but first I want to use it. I can’t prove that the Romans are the direct cause, but even if they aren’t they are forcing us into this situation.

I sat in silence in our shelter beneath the ground. Iris and Tulisa tried to create some sense of normality. Morgana and Tara talked between them. Byrette joined them.

I had never properly prepared to attack the Romans. I had no idea how to stop the Unseelie attack or protect my mind from Jack. It scared me, confused me and I sought certainty and vengeance. But, now that we had another threat from the Unseelie that I couldn’t deal with, the Romans became clear in my mind.

I’d take their supplies out for good. Not a showy display of a lightning strike. No the same cultivation magic I could use to grow wheat or rice. Well, I would decay all food, perhaps even leather. I’d rot it all.

I fashioned the decay bomb. An enchanted item, a piece of metal no one would notice in their camp. I’d place it next time I went out.

Armies also need water. I’d electrify the source. A pulse of numbing, no stunning perhaps even lethal shock. Activate on approach. Some wildlife would get slaughtered. It was wrong. I fashioned the enchanted item.

Food and water. Shelter. I’d destroyed much of their camp before. They just rebuild.

Why not make a prison?

Sure Mars there they could escape. But, what is it like not seeing the Sun? Struggling to breathe? I’d put them in a box. Yes, trap them out of the water supply and even if they make it. They get shocked. Food that decays.

A shame I couldn’t think of anything to do with Flesh magic to hurt the Romans.

I am still being merciful right?

I could just kill them all.

How easy it would be... could I beat Mars?

Is that all that is stopping me?

Fear of death?

Am I out of compassion?

What about Umbra?

How to tackle the evil eye?

The charm had worked once. I needed to talk to Umbra myself before I decided anything. I talked through the matter with Morgana and Iris, but they too had no answers.

I mimicked Umbra’s charm, a crude but far more powerful intimation I conjured.

In an empty field I brought Umbra to the earth and forced a charm on her. Desperate times, desperate measures. I told myself to justify such nasty methods as brainwashing.

Umbra flickered to life before my eyes.

"Master." Her first words were me. She cried. "I thought I was lost."

"I brought you back."

"You did."

"I don’t know what to do next."

I was crying too.

Everything was too much.

"I have an idea. I’ve been researching in secret. I felt the evil eye, I was scared. I should have said."

"It is in the past."

"Please. I know how to stop it."

"Convenient. Is that the evil eye talking?" I asked with cold eyes.

She shook her head, "You don’t understand it, Master. It is not alive. It doesn’t try to survive. It’s just hatred. All it wants to do is kill and cause suffering. It’s all my fault. I let it in."

"The solution. What is it?"

I didn’t have the compassion left to deny this was all her fault. Including Tulisa’s near death. However, without Tulisa it was likely they would all be dead including me. Jack’s ambush had been that brutal.

"It is a protective amulet made from the gem of jasper. It will act as the new ’body’ of the evil eye."

"Okay."

"And we must use juice from the eye of the recently dead, the bones of a druid, and magic of an uncorrupted magi. That will be you. All of those and we can crave an amulet that will transfer the evil eye to the amulet and give me complete control over it and seal the malice."

"Can it break free?"

"Yes it can, but it is unheard of for it to succeed. The amulet serves to weaken the eye. It would take a great ritual down by a very powerful magic user to break the amulet. If you make it with me, then I think only you would be capable of breaking it."

"Or you."

"Maybe."

"It might tempt you."

"Do you trust me."

No, but...

"I want to."

She smiled, warmly, perhaps her first warm smile to me.

"I want to be worthy that that wish. Please let me, Damian."

I nodded, "Okay. Let’s do this."

We got to work. Constructing the protective amulet and gathering all the materials. Ethically questionable, but the loss of Umbra would be worse.

Another day and night. Another time I left others to defend the city. They succeeded, but I could feel the losses. They made me question my choice. Were those defenders less valuable than Umbra? Could I save more by defending the city, but only I could save Umbra.

Umbra was the one that mattered to me. Selfish, but the people close came first. I made a poor hero as it turned out.

So, under a bright moon we fashioned the amulet per Umbra’s instructions.

The worst part was the bones of the druid. I understood why Umbra hadn’t mentioned this idea before. She was wrong, but I got it. She told me as we worked she had looked into more ideal options.

We made the amulet. But, the amulet failed.

"Why?" Umbra asked.

I guessed it. But, my guess was correct.

"A life."

She shook her head, "No."

A life brought it into this world, another is needed to properly seal it. An active existence seems to be what it feeds on.

"I’m not worth it."

"Don’t worry. Many a warrior dies tonight. I just need to steal one and not save it."

"No, it isn’t right. It is not what you do."

"The other choice is kill you, and my unborn child that is growing this very moment in your womb or to let an already dying warrior pass. No one needs to know."

"I’m so sorry." She sobbed.

I did it swiftly. Carrying a body cocoon in steel under the earth.

I gave what remained of his life to empower the amulet and enable the evil eyes transfer from Iris into the amulet. The evil eye fell for the trap of a new host. Umbra was safe. Now for good. At the cost of an innocent life and my morality further blackened and stained my hands with more blood.

We returned to the Circle of Druid.

Morgana and Iris slept together with Samiya that night.

I fucked Umbra. We were desperate for one another. Keen to feel anything and connect.

In the morning, it was the Romans turn to feel my wrath.