A Lost and Tainted Soul

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When the rivulet of water turned mossy in tone Auron knew they’d found the right one. He continued climbing up the stoney brook to the cave entrance hidden by the heavy shadows of trees and crags. He avoided stepping in the water and rested a hand on his broadsword.

‘Curses, this water’s burning a hole in my boot,’ Samuel said. The young man shook off his boot with a kick and stepped out of the hazy stream. ‘Could have warned me.’

‘I thought my not walking in it was warning enough,’ Auron said.

‘What sort of monster leaks,’ Sam grunted. ‘Leaks whatever this is.’

‘The flowering kind,’ Kain said.

‘You mean like an ochu?’ Sam said. The trio gathered at the pitch black entrance to the cave, the trickle of the stream the only sound from within.

‘Nastier than an ochu,’ Auron blew on a crystal dangling from a length of twine, uncertain what the monster was. Light bloomed from the crystal and he tied it to his belt. ‘Ready?’ Auron didn’t wait for an answer and delved into the cave.

Sam drew his sabre, fingers caressing the pouch on his belt holding a few black crystals. Enchanted and deadly. ‘Worse than an ochu? Oh,’ he swallowed.

‘Remember, she’s been dead awhile,’ Kain’s words punctuated by eastern accent. He slid shut the visor of his blue-black helm and followed Auron.

‘What's this cave called?’ Sam asked from the rear.

‘Doesn’t have a name. No ore, no crystals, just stone and dust.’

‘Huh,’ Sam said.

‘Auron means there’s nothing worthwhile here,’ Kain added.

‘I know what he means!’

Kain mmm’d, his lance clicked against the stoney ground.

Moss clung at the walls and clear water seeped through the stone to gather in small pools about their feet. The pools filled until they overflowed and trickled out of the mouth of the cave. A thin trace of corrosive green poison sat in the centre of the path slinking left and right. Auron kept his steps either side of the blighted sap, unsure what it was. Didn’t need to. He rested his broadsword on one shoulder and raised the bracer on his left. It could be an ochu, a particularly nasty one, he thought. But Cid’s description of Katherine hadn’t hinted at that being the monster her unguided soul would become. It would be something else, something deadlier, but whatever Katherine had become wouldn’t matter in the end. It never does, Auron thought.

The small illumination crystal thrummed at his waist. The glow pierced further and further away as the enchantment reached its peak. ‘The path’s opening up.’ The fuzz of the dark replaced the mossy walls until the shadows gained shadows. Auron halted and peered into the gloom.

‘What?’

‘Shh,’ Auron turned his ear to the unknown. The crystal thrummed louder and the light pierced deeper but it was still not enough. The sound of tearing cloth and the crinkle of dried leaves came from beyond the crystals radiance, with it was a soft gurgling smothering the trickle of water and the crystal’s hum. ‘Toss one of those black ones, Sam. Over there,’ Auron pointed in the direction of the sound.

‘Aye aye, sir,’ Sam fished out one of the unassuming black stones. Light danced over it’s impervious surface, glinting in the air as it arced towards the spot Auron had indicated.

‘I’m not a knight,’ Auron watched the pebble spin through the air, a cascade of colour glittering through the dark. The crystal clicked against the stone and rolled. Fire erupted from the crystal obliterating the shadow. Monstrous hisses and squeals came from within the flames. Laces of fire whipped against the stone and slashed into the stream running in the centre of the cavern. The green tint evaporated. A host of bats fell upon the trio, squeaking and flapping, as they made for deeper into the cave. Velvet darkness returned a moment later, the enchantment. spent. Two black and shrivelled seedlings emerged from the dying flames, their burnt petals lined with teeth, their stems oddly leg like with surface roots jointed like fingers.

‘Was that her?’ Sam readied a second crystal.

Auron pushed the young man’s arm down, ‘No. They’re her seedlings. Save the rest.’

‘Why do they have hands?’

‘Why do you think?’ Kain strode passed the pair and prodded one with his lance. The leaf collapsed to ash. ‘That magus was worth it, even if he did charge a fortune for three enchanted crystals.’

Sam shrugged, his expression blank.

‘To move around on, their more feet than hands. Uproot themselves, travel, settle down again. Auron, this is a mature blodeuwedd,’ Kain’s dark eyes flashed with worry beneath his blue-black visor.

‘If she’s had time to spore then Cid lied about when she went missing, or was uncertain. Be on your guard, both of you,’ Auron said. He continued deeper into the cave, stepping round the burned husks of the seedlings. Soon enough the rivulet turned green again and all he had to do was follow it, and pray there were no more seedlings. Less seedlings, younger monster, less hassle. He wished he’d spent an extra pouch of coin on a few more of those black crystals, a travelling magus of such skill was unheard of. Sure, they all claimed to be masters but almost none were.

The creaking of roots reached his ears. ‘Halt. We have another.’

‘Crystal?’

‘No. We will save them. Kain on the left, Sam centre, I’ll go right. Keep your distance and don’t get bitten,’ Auron held his bracer in front of himself and adjusted the weight of his broadsword across his shoulder. The glow of the crystal crept into the darkness, revealing the seedling. Taller than the prior pair with pinkish petals lined with long, thin teeth and blood-red veins. The seedling cowered in the light, its hand-like roots dug into the stoney ground at the edge of the stream. Four teethed flowers faced outward, maws open. ‘Steady now, gentlemen,’ Auron whispered into the gloom. The tip of Kain’s exotic lance blurred amidst the gloom. The flora hissed back, its flowers arching high. ‘Sam, look out!’ Auron swung down as the monster lunged for Sam. The young man recoiled, plant teeth snapping inches from his hand. Auron’s blade severed the flower head from the stem. The pink and red petals fell in a heap on the ground. Kain’s lance pierced the stem through the middle and, with a hasty spin, split the monstrous plant in two.

Sam wheezed, ‘I wasn’t expecting that. I…’ he exhaled loudly.

‘You weren’t watching the monster. You should have seen the movement without me calling it out,’ Auron said.

Sam nodded, panicked.

‘Samuel is not dead, that is a success,’ Kain said. ‘Besides this is his first time dealing with flora, in the dark no less.’

Auron mmm’d. ‘Second time. We dealt with an ochu last season, out near Tag’s Toll.’

Kain planted his lance in the ground, ‘So we did.’ He turned to Samuel, ‘Be more aware. You were a sailor? Use those ocean wits.’

‘I will, I will,’ Sam said.

Had been, Auron remembered. Discharged, Samuel hadn’t told them why but he didn't seem the slit-your-throat-in-the-night type so Auron hadn’t questioned further. ‘Right, behind me. Be on the lookout. We must be near now,’ the air had turned putrid, the moss on the walls was withered, and the stream was thick with perilous green sap.

The caverns twisted and turned higher into the depths of the mountain. The deafening screech of the blodeuwedd thundered through the cave before fading to a whimper. ‘Is the monster crying?’ Samuel said.

‘The feelings and thoughts Katherine died with tainted her soul without a guide to the next world. She will relive them again and again unless we give her a second death. Whether she feels anything or merely acts it out, I don’t know and I don’t want to know,’ Auron said. ‘Ready one of those crystals.’

‘Aye aye, sir.’

‘I’m not a knight,’ Auron said again. Others thought him a cleric but that wasn’t right either, a soul once tainted was lost, he was, now, merely a swordsman. He pushed on into the darkness, the crystal flickered. He didn’t have another. A vine lashed out of the shadows by Auron and coiled around Kain’s chest. The vine snapped tight, pressing Kain's arms to his sides. A viscous emerald liquid bled from the plant’s tendril. Auron hacked at the vine, severing it one strike, and raised his bracer in time to deflect a swipe. Out of the darkness the blodeuwedd towered over him, the limp corpse of Katherine half submerged in the trunk thick knot of stems and framed by enormous pink leaves with blood-red veins. Walking back on her roots, the corpse swiped left and right with long, deformed fingers of hardened branches. Her head hung low, lime coloured drool dripping from her mouth. Skulls lodged inside the many, many stems that made up her ‘trunk’. A few swings of Auron’s broadsword and Samuels’ sabre forced the blodeuwedd to retreat back into a pool of the toxic liquid, its roots burrowing into the loamy earth beneath.

Kain shrugged out of the knot of vines, his black-blue armour pitted and rusted where the monster had ensnared him. He circled to the left, lance out straight ahead. ‘Sam, throw it.’

Sam chucked a black crystal. The scintillating stone spun through the air and struck a leaf. Fire burst from the tiny stone, tendrils of flame caressed the blodeuwedd. Writhing, the monster thrashed dislodging the crystal. The stone sank into the pool of sap, snuffing the fire. The monster flailed, guttering the embers that had charred a petal and part of the stems. ‘Only one left,’ Samuel said.

‘We need to draw her out of the pool,’ Auron strafed right. ‘Kain and I will attract her attention. When one of us has it run back and Samuel joins the other one to drive her out. Avoid the poison as best you can.’ Kain circled left until he was opposite Auron.

‘Aye aye,’ Sam nodded.

Auron hoped Kain would attract the monsters gaze, his lance was longer and deadlier than his broadsword and a man in full plate armour would surely look more threatening. Auron flicked his gaze left and right, watching for whipping vines, and jabbed at the blodeuwedd’s stem. The beast wailed, flinging Katherine’s corpse as it twisted. Corrosive spittle flew from her half-rotten lips, burning a hole in Auron’s leather overcoat. A fleck landed on his sword. Smoke rose from the hissing steel. Have to be quicker otherwise we’ll be down to our smallclothes and fists. A vine flashed through the air. Auron ducked and felt the air snap over his head. Kain jabbed at Katherine’s body, piercing her side and releasing a wash of emerald taint. His lance shrivelled. The blue-black steel sagged and dripped off staining the pool. The warrior swore in his native tongue and retreated a couple steps. The monster did not pursue. Auron swung heavily into the monsters flower petals, severing thin flesh and veins all the same. Blood splashed on his face, harmless. The blodeuwedd flailed, unearthing her roots and dragged herself towards Auron. That’s more like it, he poked and prodded catching vines, stems, and Katherine’s thigh. His broadsword came away pitted and gouged. Sweat ran down his forehead. He stepped back and to his dismay the monster followed, one petal hanging limp while Katherine’s corpse leaked a great deal of caustic sap. While his heart pounded and his sword smoked Auron attacked again and again, missing most of his strikes, but angering the blodeuwedd and drawing her out of her pit. She whipped and thrashed preventing Auron from striking the bulk of her stems. He just hoped Sam and Kain could finish her off before a vine ensnared him.

A blaze of fire erupted behind the monster. Auron shielded his eyes from the flare, listening to the shrivelling wails of the blodeuwedd as she slammed her roots into the ground, spat sap, and clawed at the air with Katherine’s entwined corpse. Droplets of sap seared his chin and trousers. He cuffed his face but the burning persisted and watched the plant as it withered and fell to silence, the flames engulfing her. A bangle slipped from Katherine’s wrist, jewelled and shimmering. Auron flicked it out of the fire with his sword, deformed as it was. The bangle glowed from the heat and had become misshapen itself.

‘That looks like it’s worth a bit,’ Sam said. He sheathed his sword and grinned.

‘It does and it isn’t ours,’ Auron said.

‘Whatever that old man pays us won’t be enough to replace your sword and Kain’s lance, plus look at his armour. And your coat, that’ll need patching,’ Sam gestured to Kain, then Auron.

‘Don’t worry about my equipment, Sam. Auron’s right, the bangle belongs to Cid. It is his memento of his wife.’

‘Exactly. Besides you’ve seen Kain’s armour get damaged before.’

‘Yeah but… this is different,’ Sam stared wide eyed at the man’s lance, the blade was almost entirely gone.

‘We should depart,’ Auron retrieved the bangle. The blodeuwedd was naught but a heap of ash and bone, the scent, however, could attract something fouler. Auron strode back the way they’d came.

The cave was much shorter on the way out than in and within half a watch the trio emerged into the wood nestled beneath the tor. The rivulet leading out and down to the stream had cleared and he wondered how far a seed could have been carried. Though a seedling on its own was prone to perishing young or to a farmer’s pitchfork. If it’s a problem I, or some other hunter, will be hired. Auron sighed when the warmth of the sun struck his face. Cid’s village wasn’t far.

Cid sat on a bench, against the wall of his cottage overlooking a field of recently sown seed, smoking a pipe. The man, a little older than Auron, rubbed his leg. A cane leant beside him. Cid looked up and took a long draw on his pipe. ‘It’s done then?’

‘It is,’ Auron said. Kain and Samuel stood to the side, the former’s lance looking more complete than before. The rust pits and scars in his armour cleared up entirely. The warrior from the east had been schtum over the details for so many years Auron had stopped asking. Samuel had yet to learn that lesson and pestered Kain with questions.

Cid nodded, oblivious to Sam’s mithering, and scratched at the greying-blond stubble on his chin. ‘What had she become?’

Auron paused before answering and held out the bangle.

Cid accepted the jewelled bracelet in both hands, his eyebrows furrowing as he blinked hard, ‘I see. Forget I asked, better I don’t know.’ He ran a finger over an inscription on the inside of the gold. ‘Thank you.’ The man held the bangle to his chest and reached to his belt. ‘This is your remaining fee. Thank you, all of you. You’ve put my heart, and Katherine’s, to rest,’ his smile cracked. ‘It would be most kind if you left a man to his thoughts.’

Auron slipped the purse of gold and silver into his belt, nodded, and ushered the other two back to the road. As he reached the road he double checked the payment, all there, faint sobbing crested over the cottage. A sudden thirst overcame Auron alongside the need for a good tale from a bard.

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