Fate’s Pawn

Someone that big had absolutely no business being that quiet. Raziel was half his size, and he had the decency to not be quiet at all.

Roland stood behind him in the entrance to the hallway. He leaned against the empty doorframe, taking up most of the empty space. The shirt he was wearing was torn so badly that it was nearly pointless. Most of the front of his chest was exposed. At first Raziel thought the blue light he was holding was making him look discolored, but it wasn’t that. The majority of his chest was covered in a purplish bruise. It didn’t look particularly dark. It was just very large.

“You okay?” Raziel asked.

Roland glanced down at his chest and frowned. He looked embarrassed more than anything. “It’s not so bad.”

“The wolf did that?”

“Kicked me,” he said with a nod.

“Rot and ashes. A giant wolf kicks you and all you have to show for it is a bruise? Just how tough are you?”

Roland nearly smiled, though Raziel thought there was something rueful in it. “Pretty tough.”

“You ready for this?”

Roland cocked an eyebrow in question. Raziel gestured outside.

“There’s a fight coming. It’s why we’re here, isn’t it? You ready?”

Roland looked down, considering. He stood straighter, not leaning on the door anymore. Raziel saw his friend’s jaw set and the whole sense of him seemed to change. His big hands tightened into fists, his knuckles cracking, and the air around him went still. He looked up and his eyes were steady. Raziel suddenly felt very glad that Roland was on his side.

“I can fight monsters.”

Raziel grinned, fierce pride in his friend blooming in him. He took a few steps forward and raised his fist towards Roland. Roland bumped it with his own. Nothing more needed to be said on that account.

“Hoeru’s upstairs?” Raziel asked.

“Yeah.”

Roland stepped aside to let Raziel through. Raziel eased away some of the magic in the flowing orb. He didn’t want Roland to see him shiver. It was easy to put on a confident face while he talked to Roland, but the size of the bruise on his chest was disconcerting. He remembered the marks they’d seen on the trees the first time they’d come out to the fort. Just how big was this wolf?

The stairs up to the chapel were in the same place at the end of the hall that they had been in the other building. As Raziel began climbing them, a faint sound gave him pause. He could hear someone crying.

It had to be Hoeru, though Raziel had never known the changeling to cry. Hoeru was generally upfront with what he felt. He wasn’t hard to read. It was one reason it was easy for Raziel to get along with him. Every year around the time that Hoeru had originally come to Peritura, Hoeru would get morose, but when that happened he just spent more time out in the forest. It left Raziel unsure of how to handle the situation. Hoeru was obviously the type to hide his pain.

Raziel chewed his lip considering and began climbing the stairs again. If Hoeru wanted to be alone, that was fine. But he might need someone to talk to. The least Raziel could do was give him a choice.

Raziel moved slowly but not quietly. Hoeru was sitting in one of the pews and as Raziel drew nearer, he could tell that Hoeru wasn’t just crying. He was sobbing.

The discomfort Raziel felt was profound. He felt like an intruder, like he’d walked in on someone in the shower. But he told himself that Hoeru had to know he was there and stood his ground against his own unease. He sat next to his friend and cautiously laid a hand on the changeling’s back.

Hoeru’s reaction was instantaneous. He whirled on Raziel and for a moment Raziel thought he must be angry at him. He caught a glimpse of Hoeru’s wet face and then the changeling wrapped his arms around Raziel, pulling him into a hug that made his ribs creak.

Raziel had never felt so awkward. For a moment he flailed, no idea how to react. Hoeru was crying even harder now, his face buried in Raziel’s shoulder. There was nothing else to do. He couldn’t pull back now, and Hoeru showed no signs of letting go. So Raziel returned the hug and patted Hoeru on the back, praying that whatever this was would end soon.

And it did. Not as quickly as Raziel might have liked, but it wasn’t a very long time before Hoeru released him. The changeling snorted up an enormous amount of snot.

“Your shirt smells terrible,” he said.

Raziel glanced at the giant wet spot on his shoulder. “Sorry.”

“S’ok.”

“You alright?”

Hoeru was quiet for a long time before shaking his head. “We should have died.”

“What?”

“Did anyone tell you what happened while you were unconscious?”

“Keira says you fought a giant wolf.”

“Fought,” Hoeru said bitterly. “That wasn’t a fight. We never stood a chance.”

“But you did fight. And you got out alive.”

“No thanks to me. I lead us into danger. I got us into a fight we couldn’t win. Just because it worked out doesn’t mean I didn’t mess up. We should be dead.”

That statement hung in the air between them, and Raziel couldn’t think of a way to turn it around. He didn’t want to say it, but it sounded like Hoeru was right. And if Hoeru was this upset about it, it had to be really bad. He couldn’t let Hoeru see how much that scared him. So he’d have to take a different tactic.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“Huh?”

“We’re still here. Mask is coming, isn’t he? He’s probably bringing that wolf. What are you going to do about it?”

Hoeru didn’t answer for a long time. The changeling just sat, looking at his own hands, while a war of emotion played over his face. Fear, grief, rage all played across his features.

“I don’t know, Raz,” he whispered at last. “I have to set the wolf free.”

“You mean get it free from Mask’s control?”

“No. We can’t. It was wearing a mask. He’s corrupted it. We can’t save it now. I have to kill it. But I don’t know if I can.”

“I don’t know if you can, either,” Raziel said bracing himself to say the next words. “But I know we will.”

“I- What?” Hoeru asked, confused. Raziel gripped Hoeru’s shoulder hard, used it to anchor himself to give his words strength he wasn’t sure he felt.

“We’re going to fight that thing together. You and me. We’re going to kill it.”

“But Raz—”

“No buts. This is important to you. So it’s important to me.”

Hoeru met his eyes. “You could die.”

Raziel swallowed. But he didn’t look away. “I know.”

“You’re… okay with that?”

Raziel knew he wasn’t okay with dying. How could he be? But he knew what Hoeru needed him to say and getting to say it was enough to let Raziel smile about it.

“Hoeru,” he said, in the tone of someone explaining the very obvious. “You’re my friend.”

Raziel looked away and put his arms across the back of the pew, as if the conversation was over, as if that settled things. Hoeru clearly wanted to contest him on the point. But apprehension lost out to gratitude. Hoeru gave him a hesitant nod.

They sat there in companionable silence for a while. Raziel hadn’t really paid attention to the rest of the room until then. and it was a good distraction from the fear that was creeping in around him. There was a mural on the walls here, just as there had been in the room they’d explored in the other building. Just as in that room, there was something in the clouds. But this time it was only a single dragon. A storm dragon.

It was furious.

Terrible stormcloud wings spread out across the mural of the room, seeming to roll on for miles and miles. Raziel could almost feel the howling wind and driving rain. He would have expected there to be more lightning. But that was saved for the dragon’s eyes. There was something equally horrifying and fascinating to those eyes.

Raziel found himself so transfixed by the dragon’s eyes that he almost didn’t notice that it was looking at something in particular. There was a man standing at the heart of the dragon’s fury. He wore a robe and carried a staff, but there wasn’t much detail beyond that to the tiny figure. His stance held a sense of defiance, and Raziel couldn’t help wondering what he’d done to make a dragon angry.

Eventually Raziel found he couldn’t stay still under the dragon’s angry gaze anymore. The gem in his hand was still pulsing new energy into him. He wondered if he ought to put it down at some point or not. An image of his body exploding like a watermelon under a sledge hammer popped into his head. Which led him to thinking about Keira and what she’d said about the fight with the wolf. And finally that lead to Kusa. It occurred to him that this might be his last chance to ask the spirit about his father. It might have some advice on what they could do to help in the fight. Or at least on how to survive it.

While these thoughts rolled through his head, his body was moving automatically. He didn’t know where it was taking him, but when he looked up, he found he was under the night sky. Magical lights in the city didn’t keep him from seeing the stars, but they did keep him from seeing all of the stars.

Hoeru came to stand next to him, his stance a little hunched and his hands in his pockets, but he looked up too. It was hard to believe that death was coming for them while they were looking up at a sky so full of stars.

There was a sound like a sudden gust of wind and hot, wet air rolled over Raziel and Hoeru. Raziel turned around to find himself staring at an enormous mass of brown fur. Raziel would have screamed if he could, but the only thing he managed to do was trip and fall backwards.

“What?” Hoeru asked. Raziel pointed at the furry mountain that was getting to its feet behind Hoeru.

“Eggbeast!” Raziel shouted, his voice finally coming back to him. Hoeru turned, looked at the eggbeast just a few feet away and then back to Raziel.

“Yes. That is the eggbeast.”

There was a moment of almost silence, the only noise being the wet sloppy sound of the eggbeast’s mouth falling open and its absurdly large tongue falling out of its mouth as it panted happily.

“Oh right. I guess no one told you. Kusa convinced it to help us.”

“Oh. Thanks. That’s good to know,” Raziel’s words came out stilted as he tried to get his panic and irritation with Hoeru under control.

“Sure.”

The eggbeast let out a chuffing sound. Hoeru turned his head towards the beast, and it mewled to him, a sound like a squeaky door made for giants. Hoeru nodded.

“It also says sorry for trying to eat you.”

“You… speak eggbeast?”

“Well no. But we both speak squirrel.”

“You know, it’s really hard to tell when you’re joking.”

Hoeru didn’t answer. He just gave a small smile.

“Hey, does it know where Kusa is?”

Hoeru chirped at the eggbeast. The eggbeast rumbled back.

“In its room in the tower.”

“Thanks.”

Raziel got up and headed to the tower. It was hard not to keep an eye on the eggbeast as he went, but the one time he looked back, Hoeru was scratching just below the spot where Raziel assumed its ears must be hidden in all the fur. The eggbeast was rolling halfway on its side into the scratching like a big dog. It was hard to be afraid of it just then.

There was light coming from within the doorway to the tower. The light was a blue-green glow that grew stronger and faded at irregular intervals. Raziel found Miles scribbling on the ground within the tower with some chalk. He’d drawn a series of symbols and circles all over the floor and light snaked through the symbols. Miles was muttering and staring at the ground intently, chalk smudges on his face. On top of that, his hair was standing on end. All of it.

“Uh. Miles? You okay?”

“Huh? Oh. Raz!” Miles said, his hair wavering like stalks of seaweed as he turned to face Raziel.

“It alright if I come in? Need to go see Kusa.”

“Sure. Just don’t step on any of the chalk. It might explode.”

Raziel gave a thumbs up and moved towards the stairs, carefully avoiding Miles’ drawings. The stairwell was just as dark as it had been when he and Keira had gone up it. But now Raziel had a new trick.

He willed light into existence. It came in a flash, not the tiny orb of soft light he intended but a flare of bright blue light like a torch had burst into flame next to his head. He nearly stumbled and fell back down the stairs as the light blinded him.

It took a few moments of blinking and concentration to get his sight back. When he did, he looked from the orb to the gem in his hand. Those pulses of warm energy were still coming, but they’d begun to feel smaller. He’d assumed it was running out of energy. But looking at the hovering blue ball of light casting shadows through the tower stairwell, he couldn’t help doubting that.

“I really hope I don’t explode,” he muttered to himself and started up the stairs again.

There were a few rooms in the center of the tower that Raziel hadn’t realized were there when he’d passed by in the dark. They were odd, to say the least. One room had rows and rows of silverware on the floor, neatly organized by type and, it appeared to Raziel, quality. Nicer ones were toward the front of the room while bent or damaged items were further back. On the next floor up, there was a similar situation but with chairs. After that was a room full of stacks of blankets. Raziel guessed that only the nicest items made it to the top of Kusa’s tower.

The door at the top of the stairs was open this time and warm firelight lit the room. Raziel let his own light fade and slip out of existence. The room was as he remembered it, filled with dozens of odds and ends of every kind. But in the gentle lamplight with all the lovingly cared for books, the room looked terribly lonely.

Raziel didn’t see Kusa at first. He stepped into the room cautiously, not wanting to disturb the creature. It wasn’t hard to figure out where it was.

In one part of the room, the little spirit had erected a wall of books. Raziel peaked over it and found Kusa sitting with its back to the wall reading a book by the light of a second lamp.

“Kusa?” he asked. The spirit looked up with its enormous eyes. The light cast a warmer tone on its skin, making it look like a small child, save for its grass hair. Raziel didn’t know what he’d expected to find, but it wasn’t this. But he could only think of one thing to do.

“Do you mind if I join you?”

Kusa considered for a moment and then scooted a little bit to one side so that there was room. Raziel stepped carefully over the wall of books, put his back to the wall, and slid into a sitting position. It was a little cramped for his larger legs but that was alright.

Now that he was at a different angle, he could see what Kusa was reading. It was a children’s picture book. One filled with heroes from throughout history. On one side, Raziel could see Aelan the One-Handed, who had slain a dragon that was terrorizing his home. On the other was Cassandra of Uhrstadt, a dwarven princess who’d trapped an entire army of elves and gholam in her city and kept them there for a full month, long enough for dwarven forces to rally and retake their home. The book trembled slightly in the spirit’s small hands. That tremor was perhaps the single most frightening thing Raziel had ever seen.

“Are you scared?” Raziel asked, careful to keep his own tone mild. Kusa nodded, once. Raziel looked away and let his breath out in a long sigh. Kusa had apparently made the giant wolf leave just by showing up. What could Mask possibly be capable of that Kusa was afraid of him?

“Yeah, me too,” Raziel admitted. A chill ran over his body at the same time that a wave of energy pulsed out from the gem. The sensation was uncomfortable to say the least, like sitting too close to a fire and getting hit by a snowball.

“Kusa, what is this thing you gave me?” Raziel said, holding out the gem.

Kusa glanced at it. Raziel was afraid it was just going to say, ‘Kusa’ and not give him any further explanation. Instead the spirit reached down and patted the floor in front of it with both hands several times. Then it raised its hands into the air, wiggling its fingers. It made a motion like scooping something out of the air and then pressed its hands to its chest. It tapped a spot over its heart and the gem in Raziel’s hand. Finally it looked at Raziel to see if he’d understood. He thought he did.

“There’s magic in the ground. And the gem gathers it up and puts it into me?”

Kusa wiggled its hand in a ‘more or less’ type of gesture. It was an odd motion; mechanical where the spirit’s usually motions were beyond graceful. It was like it was mimicking something it had seen.

The little spirit picked up its book again, turning pages, looking at heroes of the past. Its hands still trembled every so slightly. Raziel felt selfish but there was one more question he had to have answered.

“Do you have my father’s book?”

Kusa nodded.

“With you?”

It shook its head and patted the floor of the tower again.

“So it’s somewhere safe?”

Nod.

Raziel leaned back against the wall. That was good enough for him. He could get it from Kusa once this was all over. Assuming any of them lived. He sat there, silent for a few moments, trying to summon up something to say that could help Kusa, but it was almost all he could do to keep from trembling himself.

“You remember my father?” he asked at last.

Nod.

“Well, I live with his dad, my grandfather, now. After Mom and Dad disappeared, he took care of me.” Raziel’s words were slow, fumbling. Talking to himself as much as to Kusa. “For a long time I would get scared, panicky. There was no reason for it. It would just hit me. He didn’t really know how to help me. But he told me something that stuck with me. He used to tell me stories about heroes, to help me sleep at night. And one night he asked me if I thought heroes were ever afraid. I didn’t think so. How could they be? They had to go up against monsters and demons. Terrible things wanted them dead. If they were afraid, how could they do what they had to do?”

Kusa wasn’t looking at its book anymore. It was looking at Raziel with wide, unblinking eyes.

“He said, they were all afraid. But being a hero means doing what you need to even when you’re afraid. Letting fear control you is a choice.”

Kusa looked back at the book in its hands. It ran its tiny hand over the page like it was trying to touch the characters depicted in it. Raziel reached out and put a hand on its shoulder.

“I think you’re a hero,” he said, giving the spirit a squeeze.

There was a shift in the creature. Its jaw seemed to set and its shoulders moved back. Kusa uncurled from the near fetal position it had been sitting in and stood. Raziel stood up with him, taking heart in the spirit’s choice.

“You ready?” Raziel asked.

“Kusa,” it said in a quiet, firm voice. It lifted a hand and the wall of books began to float up and return to their places on the shelves as Raziel and Kusa headed for the door.