Chapter 1: Crucible

Location Lost Souls Day Nest, Battle Grounds
Time 11 Hundred-Days Previous

Maiho took the lead along with her ever present shield bearer Jep as they made their way down the endless white corridors of the day nest of the Village of Lost Souls. Only the shard hunters were in front of her. Part of the reason they were so far forward, was that no-one wanted to stand in front of the weapon she was carrying.

“How much farther to the food depot? This thing is heavy,” asked Maiho referring to the device of green crystal that the young Blue Wave tribe’s girl was carrying.

“It is not as heavy as lugging around this,” replied Jep indicating the large shield that would protect both the small Red Blade tribe’s boy and his blue companion if they ran into archers. “The depot should be three corridors further.”

“Last time there was only mouldy mana bread and some leftover dried meat in the cold boxes,” Maiho complained.

“Ma and Pa said might have to check several depots before we find any food at all.”

“Don’t call them that. It just encourages them. Rath and Illia are only one hundred-days older than we are.”

“A hundred-days older than you maybe,” Jep scoffed.

“Yes I can see you are very tall and wise,” returned Maiho patting the slightly shorter boys head. “We can’t check all the depots. The Reborn are going find us and kill us. We barely made it back to the traveling rooms last time,” complained Maiho. She stopped as Jep halted.

“I think the hunters have found something or someone,” remarked Jep setting down the shield and crouching behind it. The shard hunters were artifacts made of crystals. They were shaped roughly like night wolves and moved in a similar manner. Legend said that they were creation of a mysterious long dead people sometimes called the Old Ones and sometimes called the Eldar, as were as crystal devices like the weapon Maiho carried, and the Eldarholme corridors through which they travelled.

The hunters had stopped at a cross corridor. Maiho could hear singing from up ahead. It was the hunting song. The hunters, like all the Eldar’s gifts, were controlled by music. Someone was trying to steal their hunters.

A shiver of fear run though Maiho. The children had only survived because they had three strong singers, Illia, Kin and Maiho herself. She was confident she could handle any normal reborn warrior as long as she and Jep did not let the warrior get within sword to spear range. Reborn singers were another matter, they had only managed to survive by running from any singers they encountered.

Jep placed a hand her shoulder. “Rule One - Protect Our Singers. I will keep you safe.”

Rule Two was Kill the Enemy Singers First. Maiho started singing the activation song for her weapon. Behind her Illia and Kin started singing the hunting song striving to prevent the enemy singer from taking over the hunters.

Enemy hunters rushed out of the side corridor slamming into the childrens’ hunters. They went down in a tangle of crystal limbs. Loud chiming and clanging sounds rose from the melee as the hunters struggled and fought with hunters. The enemy hunters endeavouring to disengage from the friendly hunters in order to reach the children, the friendly hunters blocking, and holding the enemy hunters. The sound threatened to drown out Kin’s and Illia’s hunting song.

Maiho completed the activation song for the needle flinger as a reborn archer stepped out of the side corridor and loosed an arrow. Fine crystal needles splintered off from the end of the green crystal she was carrying, and flew toward the archer. The arrow sped towards Illia’s and Rath’s position. She had to trust Rath to use his shield to protect them both. She could see the puffs of dust as the needles hit the wall next to the archer. She repeated parts of her weapons control song and shifted her aim and the archer went down. Another archer loosed an arrow and stepped back behind cover before she could find him with her needles. A third stepped into the barrage of needles she was firing at the side corridor, collapsing, his arrow going wide.

One of the hunters detached itself from the melee and started towards them. In a panic she shifted needle fire towards the hunter. Jep placed his hand on her shoulder and yelled urgently. “Let Illia handle the hunter. Aim at the humans!”

She shifted her aim back to the side corridor. She knew he was right. Her needles could not harm Artificia like the shard hunter. Still, it took all her will power to ignore the rapidly approaching shard hunter: to avoid thinking about its crystal claws slashing her; its crystal teeth rending her.

An archer loosed an arrow this time toward Jep and Maiho. She dodged half behind the shield, trying to protect her face and body, while keeping the needle-flinger and the hand holding it, clear of the shield, as she continued to fire needles towards the enemy.

The arrow passed over the shield and Maiho heard it clatter against the wall behind them. When she poked her head around the shield, fear gripped her as she saw how close the approaching hunter was. Illia’s voice rang out, the hunting song filling the passageway. Maiho’s mouth went dry as the crystal creature kept on advancing. She was about to break and run when the Artificia stopped, its whirling eyes focused on Illia. It made a bow of acquiescence to Illia and relief flooded though Maiho.

A strange song rang out from the side corridor and a reborn singer stepped into view, something red glowing in his hand.

“Light spear!” yelled Rath.

Maiho half dodged behind the shield, trying to find the enemy singer with her needles, while protecting herself. Red light scattered off their surroundings until the light beam from weapon found its target on Jep’s shield. The metal of the shield grew hot while the wood started to smoke, giving off an acrid smell. Jep screamed as the metal handle of the shield burned his arm. Then fire washed over Maiho’s hand, she opened her mouth wide and the song she was using to control her weapon wavered and modulated into a half shout, half scream. Yellow light flared, the needle-flinger bucked and twisted in her hand. The crystal device clattered to the ground. Her damaged hand could no longer hold it.

“You got him, he’s down, they’re all down,” shouted Kin’s shield bearer Pas from behind them.

Maiho panted and gasped, breathing in and out raggedly as she tried to ignore the pain in her hand. The smell of burnt flesh and wood smoke assaulted her nostrils. Gritting her teeth Maiho poked her head around the shield. There were now fist sized holes in the walls, floor and ceiling around the enemy’s position.

She picked up the green crystal needle-flinger with her good hand. It seemed half the size of what it was before.

“You need to heal that hand now,” commanded Jep.

“No! I am fine. I need to heal your arm. Dret, Farn, Quan help me get his arm out of the shield,” she shouted. She glanced at her hand and a sick feeling formed in the pit of her stomach. She tore her eyes away from her hand and concentrated on Jep’s arm. The three red blade boys rushed from their position in the rear. They had been brought along to help carry the loot back, but since none of them were singers or singers’ shield bearers they were of limited value in a fight.

“Maiho, you need to heal yourself first. The others need you to help keep them alive. You are more important than me.” Jep argued.

“Dret, cover them with your shield. Let Farn and Quan help Maiho. There could still be more of the Reborn,” shouted Rath.

Maiho placed what remained of the needle-flinger into her bag and removed the White healing crystal from its pouch.

Farn and Quan used their carry bags to protect their hands from the hot metal of the shield. They gingerly removed Jep’s arm from the shield. Maiho sang the healing song and applied the healing crystal to his arm. He tensed his body, gritting his teeth. Quan fished a piece of dried meat out of his bag, placing it between Jep’s teeth for him to clamp down on.

She glanced at Jep’s shield as she sang. It was now face up on the ground. A scorch mark ran diagonally across the shield. The thin metal facing was warped and partially melted. The fire resistant fibre wood backing layer was still smoking.

She looked over at Dret and the shield he was carrying. If the Reborn attacked now they would be in trouble, as there was no way a single shield could provide cover for all five of them.

The intense pain made it difficult to ignore her own wounds. Reluctantly she stopped healing Jep’s arm and examined her hand more closely. It was bad, she would be lucky not to lose at least two fingers. Jep had been right when he insisted that she should take care of herself first. She really needed a healing altar, the small healing crystal was not going to be enough. Unfortunately even though they had found an altar down in the lower levels, Maiho did not know the first half of the healing prayer used to activate the altar. She only knew the less secret second half, that most blue healers’ patients had heard. A further disappointment was that despite the fact, as a half trained archivist, Illia seemed to know everything about almost anything, Illia did not know the healing prayer either.

She recommenced singing the healing song, and applied the crystal to her own burnt hand. Her hand exploded in agony. She had thought the pain couldn’t get worse, but she was wrong. Only hundred-days of training kept her voice approximately in tune, as she healed her hand. The pain overwhelmed everything. The universe narrowed to the pain in her hand, and the song she needed to sing. The healing song seemed to stretch forever. Time seemed to stand still.

When Maiho regained consciousness her head was in someone’s lap. She knew without opening her eyes that it was Illia. There was something about her touch especially when she had been singing crystal, it almost tingled. Maiho cracked open her eyes.

“Healing crystal,” she demanded in a hoarse voice.

“You have already drained it completely,” replied Illia.

“I need to heal Jep.”

“You need to rest.”

“I will rest, when I’m dead,” said Maiho as she scrambled unevenly to her feet. She swayed unsteadily. She examined her hand. It was much improved, however the finger tips were still in a bad way. Illia and her shield bearer Rath were the only ones in view. “Jep! Where is Jep?”

“He and my other fellow Red Blade Tribe members are gleaning the Reborn’s bodies. They are drooling over the bows even though they are far too big for any of the boys to use,” said Rath.

Rath and Illia moved to support Maiho but she waved them away. The rush of energy she had been feeling after singing crystal recently was hitting her. She felt surprisingly good. Her throat should feel sore after screaming out the healing song like that but her voice felt strong. She examined the patterns on her skin that were a part of her heritage as a Blue Wave Tribe member. The blue swirls had been changing recently, now there was a hint of green in the patterns. She was sure it was because of the green crystals she was singing, but what choice did she have? Kin’s hair and angular skin patterns were becoming more orange, however that just meant that it was less obvious that he was a singer. Probably a good thing considering he did not belong to a singing caste. However Maiho’s colour changes just made her look like a freak. Illia for some reason showed no sign of any change in her pure white colour despite singing a number of different coloured crystals.

“We now have four more hunters,” said Illia.

Maiho counted three green crystal shard hunters, two white hunters and two red. She sighed, she wondered whether they were ever going to find blue crystal. However day nests usually only contained crystals that matched the colour of the nest. It was remarkable that they kept finding so much non-white crystal.

When they reached the side corridor there were eight bloody bodies scattered on the floor. The smell of blood and shit permeated the area. The boys were sorting through the dead reborn warrior’s bags. Jep came over and presented her with a long red crystal rod.

“Your opponent’s weapon. As the victor, it belongs to you,” Jep announced.

“Where were you? I woke up and you weren’t there,” accused Maiho, taking the rod and placing it in her bag.

“Illia insisted on taking care of you. Who am I to argue with a singer?” asked Jep.

“Let me look at your arm,” she demanded. Jep offered her his arm for examination. “This needs more healing.”

“The healing crystal is completely drained and when it is recharged I am going to use it to heal you, young lady,” insisted Illia.

“Stop acting like my mother. You are barely than me, and I am the healer,” retorted Maiho.

“Then act like it. Who has the more serious injuries, you or Jep?”

Maiho glanced at her right hand, opening and closing it. “Mine,” she admitted reluctantly. “What happened here?” she asked, glancing around at the devastation.

“When the reborn singer hit your needle-flinger with his light spear, the flinger started firing larger needles and it was firing them all at once. The needles were hitting the walls then shattering and spraying everywhere. The Reborn were cut to pieces. We are lucky you managed to keep the flinger pointed in the right direction or we would been cut to pieces too,” explained Illia. “I am guessing it has something to do with the way the crystals are recharged using light. It was like the flinger was doing what it normally does but with more energy. I don’t suppose you heard the song for the light spear?”

“I think so,” said Maiho, taking the red rod out of her bag with her left hand. She started singing pointing the rod at a nearby corpse. She could feel the rod respond when she got the song right and she could feel it when she made a mistake. After a couple of tries a red light flashed and the body blacked and burned. Illia gagged as the smell of burnt flesh washed over them.

“Right, now place the healing crystal on the ground and shoot it with the light spear,” ordered Illia coughing from the smell.

“Won’t that break the crystal?” asked Jep.

“No, they are very hard to break,” stated Illia.

With some trepidation Maiho followed Illia’s instructions. There was another flash as Maiho completed the activation song. The healing crystal lay seemingly unchanged on the floor. When she went to pick it up she noted that the floor that the crystal rested on was hot but the crystal itself was cool.

“It’s partially charged,” announced Maiho.

“Let me heal you,” requested Illia.

Remembering how difficult it had been to heal herself the first time, Maiho reluctantly gave Illia the healing crystal. Kin handed her a piece of dried meat which she clamped down on. She looked away and tried not to squirm as Illia worked on her damaged right hand.

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” exclaimed Illia.

“What?” asked Maiho.

“Your finger tips are dead. Cooked right though,” Illia said.

Maiho turned and saw the ends of her fingers melt away and her finger nails dissolve under the influence of the healing crystal. She made herself keep watching, reminding herself that she was a healer and shouldn’t shrink from such things. When it was done she flexed her damaged truncated hand, and took the crystal from Illia insisting on healing Jep.

Looking around at what remained of their devastated enemies, she realized that they had faced reborn singers, at least one, possibly two, and they had not run, no-one had died, and they had won. Surely the damage to her hand was a small price to pay.

“Let’s go, we don’t want their friends to find us,” cautioned Rath.

As they continued to their destination Maiho made it clear that she was using Dret as her shield bearer insisting that Jep needed to rest.

After walking down few more corridors they were at their destination. However there were four reborn warriors outside the food storage area. Before the Reborn could defend themselves Maiho cut them down with the red light spear, using her anger. Her rage at being kidnapped, forced into a life of kill, or be killed, and the maiming of her hand all became fuel that intensified her song. The light spear was drained with the death of these latest enemies and Maiho switched back to what was left of her green needle-flinger.

The hunters gathered at the entrance to the food depot, their behavior indicating that there was someone inside.

Rath and Illia took the left hand side of the door and Maiho and Dret took the right side. The youngest singer Kin and his shield bearer Pas formed up behind Maiho and the others hung back. Illia and Kin sang the hunters inside the depot giving them a guard command.

Maiho started the activation song for the flinger. Dret followed the hunters. Maiho followed half behind Dret on the opposite side from what she was used to, keeping the needle-flinger in her left hand free of Dret’s shield. When they entered the room they found it full of children their age but of the Green Spore and Black Spire tribes. They were seated on the floor and were scrabbling out of the way of the hunters. In desperation Maiho jerked the flinger upwards as the needles fired as her song completed.

Location Training Camp, wilderness near Waterless Shore, Blue Wave Territory
Time Night Sleep 7900 hours (16 hours before dawn)

Maiho jerked awake sweat pouring off her body. The stars above her and the shapes of the night trees around her were a reassuring contrast to the white corridors of the Reborn’s stronghold.

“Were you dreaming of the Village of Lost Souls?” asked her companion.

“Yes,” Maiho replied.

“It’s been 10 hundred-days. Are you ever going to get over these nightmares?” he asked.

“I was there one and a half hundred-days. Every single day I was there I was in danger of dying from burning, slashing, bashing, piercing, biting, crushing or simply dying of starvation. I was torn from my parents, my old friends and any adult that did not want to either kidnap or kill me. I have a lot to have nightmares about. Can you please try to be more understanding, Kernan?”

He grimaced and briefly turned away before turning back to her. “I’m sorry. That was thoughtless,” he admitted as he pulled her close.

She examined her right hand by the moonlight. It had taken her mother using the altar of healing over several treatment sessions to regrow her finger tips after she had managed to find her way back to her home village of Waterless Shore. Her right hand was the only part of her body that was her original colour. Tears filled her eyes as remembered the distrust and hostility she had faced when she had returned home.

She turned over on the sleeping mat she shared with Kernan and tried to salvage the rest of Night Sleep and resume her slumber. On Predawn there would be a seven kay run for the trainees and the junior guard then there would be weapon drill. She intended to insist on doing both. There would be injuries and as the patrol’s healer she would be expected to treat them. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to claim her.