Chapter 15

Edited By: Old Fart

Kal, Ikuno, Bea and one of Aradelle’s vines approached the spectral wolf’s remains in hopes of finding any kind of information. Two long black streaks of decayed plant matter starting just beyond the edge of Aradelle’s clearing led them to where it had met its end. It was easy to see, however, that any hope of evidence pertaining to who sent it and why it was looking for Ikuno had dissolved into a bubbling, smoking pool of sickly yellow blood laced with black streaks.

“Any ideas?” asked Kal

Ikuno stared at the bile-colored pool in front of them, “Unfortunately no, I never had any desire to get to know any necromancers. Most of them are a vile sort, unpleasant personalities and always reeking of death and decay, well most of them anyway.” She turned to Aradelle’s vine and the blue orb it was holding, “You said that it was able to speak?” the vine nodded, “To say that I didn’t like necromancers doesn’t mean I didn’t have dealings with them over the years. I’ve seen plenty of these and never ran across, or even heard of, one with the ability to talk. From what little I’ve read on necromancy giving a raised creature any more than basic functions requires an active connection to the caster.”

She waved at the puddle, “That would be foolish for one of these necro-wolves, they’re considered disposable. Set them on their target and walk away. If they are destroyed first in most cases their death will kill the mark anyways. If they take enough damage they are often designed to explode and cover their mark in acid. Aradelle got extremely lucky that one of her ancestors had experience with one.”

“Do you think it could have actually killed you?” asked Kal

“The acid is magically strong, I would have had only seconds to wash it off if it had cornered me in my cave,” she gave him a look of genuine concern. “No, I don’t think I would have, at least not with the spells I have now.”

Kal was feeling a bit shaken, though he didn’t show it for the sake of Aradelle and Bea. Since he met the oni she had been this indomitable force in his life. Knowledgeable, powerful, strong, wise, and able to stare down three Knights of the Lion’s Shield with a grin, yet here she was admitting that one of these spectral wolves could have killed her. He was so accustomed to thinking of her as physically invulnerable that he was having a hard time accepting this small dose of reality.

“Quit looking so worried, Kal. That’s only a worst-case scenario. If I had any warning I’d just tap it with this,” she said summoning her iron club to her hand. “One touch is all it takes. After that, it’s just a corpse of a dire wolf.”

Bea took a step back from the large spiked weapon, “What on earth is that?”

“Something that creatures that are sustained by magic and wizards alike are wise to be scared of,” said Ikuno as she bent down and barely touched the puddle with one of the spikes near the end of the club. The yellow color of the puddle turned to a reddish brown and almost instantly stopped smoking. “It absorbs magic,” she told Bea standing back up and inspecting the spike for damage.

Aradelle’s vine popped up beside Ikuno, looking agitatedly between the club and Ikuno, the oni laughed when she figured out what the vine was getting at. “I never needed to summon it while you were around,” she said almost mimicking Aradelle’s own words from a few days earlier.

The vine managed to do a convincing representation of rolling its eye.

“Is there any way to track it back to who sent it?” asked Kal trying to steer the conversation back to the current issue.

Bea answered first, “Aradelle asked me to fly up to look around before you two got here and see if my eyes could pick anything up. There was a streak of coldness that ran north a ways but that faded and disappeared after a minute or so of following it.”

“Creatures like that absorb energy and magic from their environment to sustain them. The trail faded as the living creatures it stole energy from recovered,” explained Ikuno. “Directly north of here is one of the major trading roads in the area. Unfortunately, it’s trail running in that direction doesn’t tell us much.”

“What about using magic to track it back?” asked Kal.

Ikuno sent the iron club airborne with a flick of her wrist where it vanished with a small flash. She then looked down at the puddled remains of the wolf and shook her head, “Unless you think you can learn some divination spells in the next few minutes, we’re out of luck there.”

Kal thought for a moment, “What about something more physical? Like heightening your sense of smell?”

Ikuno gave him a questioning look and said, “I know that you think that I act like a bitch in heat all the time, but that’s a little harsh, Kal.”

“Wait! No! That’s not what I... , “ Kal stopped and turned red as Bea and Ikuno started laughing at him, even Aradelle’s vine was doing a good pantomime of someone having fits of laughter.

They eventually concluded there were no solid solutions for discovering the identity of the person hunting Ikuno. Realizing this, the trio made their way back to Aradelle’s flower before saying goodbye to the alarune and going their separate ways.

About halfway back to meet Gerda at the base of the mountain, Kal suddenly stopped in the middle of the trail.

“Wait a second!” he said looking at Ikuno, “How was ‘Dell able to hear us?!”

Perra. Was. Frustrated.

Little more than a week had gone by and Kal had been spending a large amount of time with Ikuno since the attack on Aradelle. When he was home, however, the sexual tension between them had reached a fever pitch. Perra had been taking almost cruel advantage of the side effect from his compatibility spell. Something that she would honestly feel bad about if it weren’t for Kal giving just as good as he got. Far too often she had gotten him all riled up only to have him turn it around on her and later end up off by herself taking care of her urges.

Today that all changed, she had seriously considered sneaking into Kal’s room and jumping his bones to start off her birthday on a good note. Kal’s mother had wanted to make breakfast as her gift to the birthday girl but Perra insisted she take care of it. As the morning dragged on and she had breakfast cooking with no sign of him, she decided to chance peeking into his room.

It was empty.

Worse yet, his pack was gone meaning he was planning on being out most of the day. Perra raged internally at his absence, at least she thought it was internally, Kal’s mother did her best to hide her smile as the girl stomped back over to the kitchen area.

Kal had been less than honest with Perra about his time away from the farm. Yes, he had been at Ikuno’s but the issue of the necro-wolf was largely dead at this point with no potential leads. Instead, Kal had been learning about geomancy with a very specific project in mind.

He had also been working on two new runes, specifically for the journey he was taking with Gerda. The first was placed on a roughly triangular hard leather mask that sealed tightly over his nose and mouth. The tanner in Telsin made it for him and the poor man had been totally confused as to why he wanted a mask that he could breathe out of but not in. On the inside and outside of the mask were runes that when powered took air from around the outer rune, cleaned it, then expelled it from the inner rune where he could breathe it in. The straps around his head were annoying and uncomfortable but the apparatus was necessary for what he had planned.

Sadly, Kal couldn’t take credit for the runes or the facemask as they had been in his runesmithing tome, along with a different rune for the outside which was meant to take air from water. The author explained that he never figured out a way get similar effects from using runes on his skin. However, Kal did manage to use his ability to see magic to make small improvements, when he was done even smells were filtered out leaving only pure air coming from the inner rune.

The second rune was for fire and flame resistance. Ikuno had been on him about learning and getting this one onto a bracer ever since she had mentioned visiting the salamander girl living off to the east. Similar to his haste rune, he took a particular interest in this one. Mostly because it introduced him to a new concept:

“‘The initial ring contains a limiting glyph for the power extended to the outer rings,’” Kal read from the book as he sat in Ikuno’s library. “‘It is set as such due to magical energy requirements increasing by an order of magnitude beyond this point. Theoretically, complete immunity to all types of thermal interaction would be achievable through the use of this particular rune. However, as currently set, the rune will afford protection to nearly any type of flame or thermal source, up to, but not including, draconic and magmatic.’”

Kal put the book on the table and ran his hands over his face. “Why must reading these descriptions be so dull,” he complained to the air around him.

Ikuno looked up from the book she was reading, “You haven’t met any other wizards yet, you’ll realize quickly that they can be a bunch of pompous asses. With the time and effort most of them have devoted to their craft, it’s difficult to blame them. I believe that they intentionally make their texts borderline incomprehensible. Partly as a means of demonstrating their knowledge of the subject and partly to keep people from ‘casually’ studying magic. I think you forget sometimes that you are decades younger than the author’s intended audience.”

“You’re right, I do,” Kal chuckled, “‘Other wizards’ ... It feels so strange when you or the townspeople call me a ‘wizard’. Sure, I can use magic, but I don’t feel much like someone who has earned that title. Then again, I still feel strange when people I’ve known my whole life call me ‘Master Kal’.”

Ikuno returned to her book, “They’ve only been doing it for a few months. Give it time and soon enough you’ll get all indignant when someone forgets to.”

“Ugh, I hope not,” he said looking back at his own book. “This limiting glyph on the innermost ring is interesting. I’m certain that I could use that in other things as well. Like that facemask I just made, right now it just pours out clean air. I wonder if I could make it pulse, so it only does it in time with my breathing.”

“What if you end up running or lifting with it on,” Ikuno said without looking up. “Also, if you are exerting yourself is it still going to produce enough air to keep you from passing out? Hopefully, I don’t need to remind you that your mask is a deathtrap if you lose consciousness.”

“Hmm ... Good points all. I may need to come back to that later. When I was flipping through some of the later chapters I think I saw something about a glyph that will lock a rune when it’s activated and remain on until dispelled. I have some other things I need to learn in between before I get to that point.”

Kal returned to his book again, A few moments later he let out a small whoop and started streaming ink from the inkwell into the air in front of him.

“Found something interesting I take it?” asked Ikuno.

“Very,” Kal responded as the ink flowed into the sigils and glyphs he wanted. “The author also added a resistance glyph. Assuming I’m understanding his jargon correctly, if I make the fire resistance rune while replacing the limiting glyph with the one for resistance I will be able to push the rune further if I need to.”

He looked up at Ikuno, “Compared to dragon’s breath, how hot is that Fire Wall spell of yours?” he asked with a grin.

Ikuno hung her head and groaned, “You’re going to be the death of me, boy.”

Gerda and Kal phased through a wall into a tiny cavern, Kal immediately summoned a small light source.

Gerda sniffed about for a moment, “The air is bad in here, keep the mask on.”

When contacting her sisters, the eldest one, named Marble, had known of a device that allowed humans to understand golems easier. Creating one had been surprisingly simple since all it turned out to be was a small pebble with a hole through it attached to a large hook. The pebble rested just inside the ear canal while the hook looped around the back of the ear and held it in place. Though the golem still spoke slowly it was still a vast improvement from the translation spell. When Kal asked Ikuno if she was going to remove the pearl in his mouth now, she laughed and told him that the spell was not specifically for golems and that he could speak and understand almost any living language. Kal was decidedly shocked by this news, as was Perra when he informed her later.

Kal nodded at Gerda’s assessment, the air was already making his eyes sting slightly. He had a hard time holding back a smile at the role reversal from when they first met. With the mask, his speech was too muffled for Gerda to understand and now she was the one able to speak clearly.

“The stones you want are there,” she said pointing at an angle towards the ceiling. “I’ll go get some and be back, then take you somewhere else. Yellow gas in here, it burns human’s eyes. Can’t stay here long.”

Kal didn’t know what ‘yellow gas’ was but he nodded vigorously as the golem girl walked back into the wall.

She came back in just a few minutes holding two large white crystals in one arm. With the other, she grabbed his hand and pulled him through the wall as they made their way to somewhere more suitable for the next part. Kal really didn’t get to see exactly what she was holding, the stinging had gotten worse to the point he had to close his eyes and keep them shut.

Minutes later, and far enough down that the earth was starting to warm up, they came out into another cavern roughly the size of the one they first met in. Kal again summoned a light as Gerda set the crystals down and began making a familiar swirling motion over a small area of the floor. Acting like she was grasping something large on both sides, she pulled upwards and a column of stone rose up to about waist level from the floor. She then passed a hand back and forth just above the surface, leaving the stone table perfectly smooth in its wake. Finally, Gerda picked up the two large white crystals, each about the size of one of Kal’s small stew pots, inspected each one carefully with her ruby eye, then placed one of them on the table.

She turned and looked at Kal, “You can take the mask off, the air is good here. It comes in over there,” she pointed at a crack in one wall, “and leaves there,” she said pointing at a similar small crack in the ceiling. Patting the top of the table she said, “Good place to work on gems. I’m going to eat.” She held up the other crystal then walked a few steps away and began making the swirling motion that tied her actions to the rock in front of her. Looking at her other hand with the crystal in it she stopped, placed the crystal down, then repeated the process of making the table but smaller and only high enough to make a stool to sit on. Picking the crystal up she took a large bite out of one side and crunched away at the mineral noisily, a dreamy look of contentment on her face.

Kal slowly took off his breathing mask, getting a strong whiff of sulfur, and watched all of this with a mix of curiosity and amusement. Comparing the flows of magic between Gerda and the stone to when he moved a bunch of dirt to plant Eludora was night and day. He had to make multiple rounds over the top of a rune in order to attach it to a plot of soft dirt that had been prepared beforehand with a magic circle, all prior to moving. Gerda could have likely done one circular motion with her hand before ‘lifting’ and had the same effect on the much tougher stone. It amazed him how easy she made it look.

Kal had been worried when he saw that she had chosen such large deposits. He didn’t want to insult her but he only needed a small piece to make the gem he wanted. When he saw how much she was enjoying eating the white mineral he didn’t think leftover rocks would be an issue. For a moment curiosity got the better of him and he lifted up the crystal, taking a small lick. It tasted like dirt.

Shaking his head and wondering what he had been expecting he dug through his pack and pulled out the parchment that had the instructions for shaping the mineral into a moonstone.

Three hours and five failed attempts later he finally had a small oval moonstone that matched his desired dimensions exactly. Kal looked over at Gerda. She had gotten rid of the stool once she was done eating the other crystal and instead made a bed to lay on. He chuckled when he realized that the bed she made was an exact stone replica of Ikuno’s, even down to the headboard.

Kal wrapped the completed moonstone in a piece of linen and placed it in his pack then went over to the napping rock golem. Lying down next to Gerda he draped one arm over her, putting a hand on her belly then sliding it up to cup one of her breasts. She had explained that golems only bother with covering up their breasts and sex when among surface dwellers. Like her rock armor, it took active concentration, even though it was just a tiny amount, to maintain her bikini. That meant when she fell asleep she reverted to being nude again, as she had now.

Gerda hummed happily for a moment before pebbles formed beneath Kal’s hand breaking contact with her skin.

Kal sighed, “You are learning how to tease me all too well from Ikuno.”

With much grinding and scraping on the stone bed, Gerda rolled over to face him, “I’m not teasing. Right now you want, not need. If you need, I will take care of you. If you only want, save it for Perra.” Gerda’s hips made a tiny circular motion, almost unnoticeable but enough to let Kal know she was wishing he was ‘in need’ right now.

Kal sighed again, “You’re right, I’m just wanting you right now. But we still have an amethyst to get.”

Gerda smiled and offered him her large rocky hand. After slipping the facemask back on from where it had been hanging around his neck, a mildly annoying task while laying on his side, he presented his own. Stone from her hand grew around his and a moment later they both sunk down into the bed leaving the chamber empty.

Perra stepped into the quiet of the inn’s dining room and threw back the hood of her cloak. This early in the morning there was little going on other than a few travelers having a late breakfast. To her surprise, Kahrin was behind the counter instead of the innkeeper, Master Ellis.

Kahrin smiled wide at the sight of her, “What can I do for ye Lady Perra?”

“Where’s Master Ellis?” Perra asked.

“He’s feelin’ a wee bit under the weather t’day so me n’ Bren are lookin’ after things for ‘im,” Bren grunted from his seat next to the door. “How can I help ye?”

Perra fidgeted for a moment before producing two silver pieces and sliding them across the counter, “I was wondering if I could have a bit of your time.”

“Why Lady Perra, I didn’a have a clue ye were inclined towards the soft touch of a woman. Not that ye’d be the first ta be interested in payin’ for me time,” Kahrin said looking positively scandalized.

Perra sputtered for a moment in embarrassment before nearly yelling, “Not for that!” she looked around the dining room for a moment, all of the current customers were out of earshot, then continued in a quieter tone, “I just need some advice, Kahrin. Today is my birthday.”

Kahrin squealed like a little girl and ran around the counter throwing her arms around the surprised young woman, “Yer so lucky lass! I’m guessin’ ye two haven’t gone for a tumble yet then?”

“No,” Perra grumbled, “he was gone when I woke up this morning.”

“Pfft, don’t ye worry none,” said the barmaid waving off her concerns, “Master Kal is a good man. He won’t be missin’ out on somethin’ as important as yer birthday.” Kahrin continued in a stage whisper, “Which is a right good thing for ye too lass. The only man I’ve had better n’ Master Kal is the big lout sittin’ in that chair over there.”

Having easily heard everything the barmaid just said, Bren chuckled, a deep bass rumbling that seemed to emanate more from his chest than his mouth. Perra swore she could feel the man’s laughter through the floorboards. Her eyes momentarily flicked to his crotch and she looked back at Kahrin with eyes like saucers. It was that big and it wasn’t even hard!

The barmaid chuckled at the girl’s expression, “Ye needn’t worry lass. It takes a special kinda woman ta take that monster. Master Kal’s a good size ta fit nicely without ye needin’ ta stretch yerself aforehand.”

Perra guessed that Kal hadn’t mentioned his enchanted cock to Kahrin during his time with her. She also steeled herself against jealous thoughts welling from the barmaid’s casual chatter about her night with Kal but to her astonishment, they never came. Then again, the older woman had been true to her word and completely stopped chasing after him after their time together.

Kahrin called out to the other barmaid who was working the tables while Kahrin manned the bar, “Ada! Keep an eye on things here I’ve some business with Lady Perra for awhile.”

The young blonde barmaid’s face wore a look of confusion, “Wot ya mean? People’l be comin’ in for dinnah in a few hours.”

Kahrin smiled, “Not that kind o’ business, the young Lady just wishes ta talk. Come get me if’n ye needs ta.”

Ada nodded and made her way to the bar as Kahrin threw an arm around Perra’s shoulders leading her towards her room at the back of the inn. “If’n you were wantin’ ta know yer way around a cock, ye came to the right woman. I’ve got just the things in me room for showin’ ye exactly what ta do, an’ what not ta do.”

The heat in the cavern that Gerda took him too next was blistering, forcing him to put significantly more power into the fire resistance rune until he was comfortable. He was less worried about the heat right now than the air, the rune on the front of his mask was so bright he could almost use it as a light source. With how the paired runes worked he had to guess the need for extra power was because there was so little breathable air in this subterranean furnace of a room. Gerda’s form shimmered in the heat of his floating light source. The golem was both uncaring and unaffected by the lack of air or high temperature. Thankfully there was none of the ‘yellow gas’ in the air that made his eyes sting here.

Kal had wanted to collect everything on his own with Gerda acting as transport between. When she explained that the mineral that moonstones were made of didn’t appear in caverns like this, he had to concede letting her help. With the amethyst, he was determined to do most of the work but already he was becoming thankful for the golem’s presence. They walked up to a sphere made of rock that was taller than him, Gerda walked ahead and stepped into it. Her feet poked out the bottom as she walked around inspecting the inside. After a minute or so she stepped out the side of the sphere and pointed.

“Hit it here,” she said.

Kal donned the other piece of gear he had made for him, specifically for this but he figured would be useful in other situations as well. A pair of fingerless leather gloves with a thick steel plate attached to the two middle fingers that ran across the front of his fist when he balled up his hand. For good measure, he had another plate attached to the tops of the gloves as well, in case he needed to backhand something big and mean. In actuality, it had been the blacksmith’s idea and he had talked Kal into it, even etching some fancy designs on the back to make them look more valuable.

When he showed them to Ikuno later and explained their use she gave them a passing approval before looking at Kal and asking, “Why don’t you just bring along a big hammer?” Seeing Kal’s face fall, she laughed and tossed the gauntlet back to him before going on a good-natured rant about ‘men and their toys’ and ‘missing the obvious’.

Once the gauntlets were secure on his hands he approached the spot Gerda had indicated. Rearing back, his strength rune shone as he punched through the outer shell of the sphere burying his arm up to the shoulder. Judging by the sigh he heard from the golem standing behind him, he wasn’t supposed to do that.

“Too much too fast, Kal,” she said in an exasperated tone, “Crack it like an egg, don’t punch it like an enemy.”

Kal was glad she couldn’t see him red-faced with embarrassment as he cautiously pulled his arm out of the hole. Following her advice, he made softer hits that made thin cracks that ran up and down from his original opening. When Gerda gave the go-ahead, he gripped each side of the hole and pulled apart. The large sphere broke cleanly in two along the crack and each half went rocking away from him. Inside the rocky outer later was a thicker shell of smoky purple with occasional white layers interspersed. The real treasure was on the innermost layer, large purplish-blue crystals, some nearly the size of his fist, jutted out from the inner surface.

Kal stared with wonder at the trove of gems before him. Gerda walked through rock and gem alike to inspect some of the larger crystals with her ruby eye. She pointed out a couple of perfect and near perfect amethysts that were big enough to suit his needs before stepping out of the half sphere. She then reached in and broke off a couple of the lower grade gems and popped them in her mouth like candy. As he watched her happily crunch away at the precious stones Kal had to wonder if her softer curves could be likened to those of a human with a sweet tooth.

Kal was able to quickly wrench or twist the gems Gerda had marked out of the whiter layer holding them in place. Then, on a whim, he collected all of the rest of the larger gems and placed them in a separate pouch, in case they might be of some use later. He turned to let Gerda know he was ready only to find her standing behind him glaring.

She pointed at the pouch he had just filled, “Want, not need,” she said and held out her hand. Kal was indignant at first but relented after careful consideration. He was already richer than anyone in the area, having these huge gems would be largely pointless, no one in the area or even the traveling merchants would ever be able to pay him for such a thing. As he handed them over Gerda inspected where they had been broken off and put them back in their original places, reattaching them with a little bit of geomancy.

As he went to hand her the last one he pulled his hand back and looked at the gem in confusion.

Looking up at Gerda he said, “I think I need this one for something.” Not understanding a word he said because of the leather mask, but gathering that he felt he needed to keep one of them. She swiped the amethyst out of his hand and replaced it inside the geode before breaking off another one of the same size and handing it to him.

“Better quality, almost perfect,” she said as he put it in his pouch. Then taking his hand they walked into the wall and headed back to the cave with his worktable.

Perra had to give Kahrin credit, she was certainly thorough. In two hours, she learned more about the penis and the man attached to it, Kahrin’s words not hers, than she had in all her previous years combined. The young woman tried to ignore the slight feeling of roughness in her throat as she walked to the Apothecary. Perra also tried her best to ignore that the reason for that rough feeling had been in the barmaid’s ass and pussy at one time or another. Kahrin had been very detailed in the girl’s instruction.

She walked into the apothecary’s store and waited patiently for the only other customer to leave. When it was her turn and she was alone the herbalist she suddenly became so nervous she nearly tripped in the couple of steps up to the counter.

“How can I help ya, Lady Perra,” he said with a big smile. “An’ how’s Master Kal’s mum doing these days? I don’t hear much about her since da young Master became a healer.”

“Sh ... sh ... She’s doing fine, Master Jurien,” stuttered Perra before turning bright red in embarrassment. “I’m here for some gondas weed and mint.”

“Oho! Got your sights set on the young wizard do you? Not that I blame ya Lady Perra, he was a good lad long before he started learnin’ magic.” He leaned down and whispered over the counter, “Though if yer lookin’ ta tie him down, gondas weed might not be da way ta go about it.” The apothecary stood back up and chuckled as Perra’s mouth opened and closed in an attempt to form a reply. “Nina!” He yelled towards the leather curtain that led to the back of the store.

“What love?” came the voice of his wife.

“Lady Perra is here fer some gondas weed an’ mint,” he called back. Perra wanted to curl up into a ball and die from embarrassment.

“First time, right?”

“Aye.”

“Send her back, then.”

The herbalist jerked his thumb towards the doorway, “Be on with ya now, I’ll have your things put together when da wife’s done with ya.”