Spirit Speaker

"Sir?" Rowan was at my side in an instant. "Sir? What happened?" 

I stumbled as time resumed, feeling the strength that Greywind and Golden Leaf had given me drain from my limbs.

Pain erupted in my chest as dozens of cuts and gashes began to make their presence known all at once. 

"Rowan," I said, feeling him put my arm around his shoulders. "Things aren't good here."

"I see that sir, what happened?" Rowan's eyes were a little wild. 

I looked down, the twinge in my chest a sharp reminder of the spirit's assault. 

My shirt was ragged, and the flesh beneath it was a churned mass of gashes and cuts. There was blood everywhere. 

I gritted my teeth.

"I've endured much worse before, lad. You know that."

"No, I don't sir. SEVEREN!" He shouted at the carriage. "SEVEREN BRING THE FIRST AID KIT!"

He looked back at me. "Sir, I'm going to let you go for a moment. If you fall over I'm going to make you run next to the carriage the rest of the way."

"Yes, yes, Rowan, I'm not going to fall."

Rowan looked at me for a moment. "Alright. I'm letting go, sir."

He let go of me. 

I didn't collapse. My feet were steady. It was the rest of the world that seemed to sway back and forth, the horizon turning on its side at one point. 

I heard Rowan swear. He rolled me onto my back, onto something soft. 

His jacket.

"Master Ilyas." He looked up. "Thank you, sir." He looked back down at me, and tore the remnants of my shirt from my chest. 

Severen stood over me, his eyes a little wide. 

"What happened?" He asked. I saw the muscles in his face shift. 

"Careful, Severen." I wheezed. It was getting harder to breathe. 

I coughed, and a fine mist of blood sprayed onto Rowan's face.

Rowan swore again. 

"Hold still sir." He tore large pieces of cotton from a ball in the box. 

He dabbed at the wounds. 

A spirit floated from one of them and began telling him off. 

"What the-" He said, and dabbed again. 

A larger spirit floated from the wound, landed on his hand and started guiding it to the other wounds.

Each new wound produced a new spirit. 

I began to laugh at Rowan's expression. "You should see your face lad," I said, my breathing getting easier. 

"Master Ilyas, will you go and get the princess? I think we might need magic for this."

I gripped Rowan's arm. 

"No." 

He ignored me. "Severen, I thought I asked you to do something."

"Rowan, do not disturb her."

"Shut up, sir."

I shut my mouth. 

The princess was by my side within moments. 

"What happened?" She asked Rowan.

"Don't know ma'am. A stag appeared, and he just erupted into a fountain of blood."

"Really, Rowan?" I let go of his arm. "A fountain?"

"Shut up, sir."

I shut my mouth a second time. 

"Can you do something about all this blood, highness?" Rowan asked. 

The princess's expression shifted from worry to determination. 

I gasped as a large ball of water landed on my chest, the wounds erupting into fire as soon as the water made contact. 

A large spirit floated from one of the wounds and began to tell the princess off. 

"What do you mean be gentle?" Anna said. "Look at him!" 

The spirit chattered more at her, before settling in her hair and changing colour to red. 

"That's odd," Rowan murmured. I knew that expression. He didn't understand something. 

"What is it?" I asked, the stinging subsiding. 

"There's…ink? In the wounds."

I went cold. 

No. 

"Are you sure?" I asked, seriously. "Are you certain that that's what you see?"

He nodded. "Sir, there's ink. It's spreading over the wounds." He swore and jumped backwards. "Gods preserve us."

"Weaver…" Anna whispered, her face pale. 

I looked down to see the black ink scab over my chest. 

The pain intensified. 

I bit my lip, stopping a scream. 

"What do I do?" Rowan asked, panicked. 

"Burn it off," I said, through gritted teeth, my voice tightly controlled. "You're going to have to burn it off."

I saw something click in Rowan's head. 

"Rena."

I turned to Anna. "Princess…" I reached out and took her hand. "You're going to have to be brave for this next part."

"Lukas, what…what's happening? What is that?"

"Talk to Gurada, tell him to help you burn it off, and he'll do it."

The focus hanging from her neck blazed into life. 

"Gurada?"

Damn. 

I coughed and tried to prop myself up onto my elbows. 

Rowan held me down. 

I was in too much pain to fight. 

"Your focus. That's his name. Forgive me, Gurada. I was in too much pain. It slipped out."

The spider blazed red, then green, then gold. 

- Fine. His voice muttered in my head. I was going to have to tell her sometime. She's read passed it half a dozen times in the library. 

I laughed, and my chest burned with the movement. 

I winced and then knocked Rowan's hand away. "I can stand now, lad. The weakness is gone."

He held me down. "Move and I'll shove that staff of yours somewhere unpleasant." He warned. 

I lay back down. 

"Anna." I sighed. "Like this." I lifted a finger and summoned a flame to it. 

Or tried to at least. 

"Well, that's not good." I let my hand drop.  

Ilargia floated from the carriage and began darting around me. 

- What happened?

"Help Anna summon flame, Ilargia," I said. "I'll explain later."

Anna had her hand on her focus, her eyes flickering between red and blue, her lips moving slightly. 

They settled on red. 

- Like the Countess? Ilargia asked. 

"Yes."

- Damn. 

"My thoughts exactly. Will you show her?"

Red, white, gold.

- Like this highness.

Anna lifted her hand and summoned a ball of fire above it. She then focused it and condensed it down further and further, until it was a bright, white flame, barely wider than her finger. 

"Rowan? Do you have a block of wood or something?" 

"Sir?"

"I don't want to bite my tongue in two," I said. 

I heard a gasp behind me. 

I looked backwards to see an upside-down Miss Rita, her face pale.

She dashed towards me. "Master Lukas." She said, kneeling by my side. "What is this?"

I winced as my chest twinged. 

"Everything's under control, Miss Rita." I said, "That woodblock lad?"

Rowan undid his belt. 

"This'll have to do sir." He said. 

I took it and brought it to my lips. 

"Not a drop of darkness left, Anna. No matter how much I scream, do not stop. If you do, I'll bury you."

Anna nodded. 

I bit down on the leather and gave her a thumbs up. 

Anna brought the flame to my chest. 

I screamed. 

"Sir?" Anna pulled the flame away. 

I spat the belt out and glared at her. "What did I say, girl?" I asked. "Again."

I lifted the belt to my lips and bit down. 

Anna lowered the flame to my chest a second time, and this time I caught the scream in my throat before it could escape.

"Good work, princess," Rowan said softly, slowly, deliberately. "Move here now." 

Anna did as she was asked, and I shut my eyes tight as the pain spread across my chest. 

When I opened them again, Anna's hand had stopped, and I saw tears in her eyes. 

I reached up and patted her cheek. 

"You're doing great, Anna." I breathed, my voice raw with pain. 

She blinked the tears away. 

"Good job, princess," Rowan said again. "Now, we're going to move down here."

Anna followed Rowan's finger, and a lance of pain followed her. 

I shut my eyes again, my mind reeling from the pain. 

Something lifted my head.

I opened my eyes and found myself staring deep into the golden eyes of my goddess. 

She raised a finger to her lips. 

Her presence didn't end the pain, it didn't even lessen it, but it did bolster my resolve. 

Anna didn't notice her. 

I looked down and saw a large group of spirits gathering and settling on the burns. 

Anna was slowing, the heat not as intense. 

"Highness. Focus." I said, through gritted teeth. 

She looked up at me, her eyes flashing. "I'm try-" She raised her hand. "Ma'am."

The Weaver winked at her, and shook her head, nodding back at my chest. 

She reached out and touched Anna's shoulder. 

I saw her steel herself. My queen. 

She brought the flame down again, and an electric current wracked my whole body. 

She'd found something. 

"Nnngg," I grunted, my eyes shut tightly. 

"This part is thicker than the rest." Anna said, "It's taking more to burn it away."

She held the flame over that part of my chest, just above my stomach for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, she drew it away and followed Rowan's hand. 

I felt the Weaver put her hand on my cheek. I looked into her eyes. Irritation. Concern. 

"Later." 

I swallowed and nodded. 

Eventually, Anna stopped and raised her hand. "Done." She said and sat backwards. 

The Weaver smiled warmly at my apprentice. "Well done, Anna." her voice was full and kind. 

"Now, if you'll excuse us." 

And I was in her room. 

She lay me on her bed and pulled up a chair beside it. 

"Hold still, Lukas." 

She ran her fingers along the burn, and a large spirit floated out of it. 

"Why are you little ones in there?" She muttered. 

The spirit floated around her and then settled on her fingers. 

It was joined by more and more of its kind as the Weaver healed the burns on my chest, leaving nothing but pink flesh and whip scars.

"Hold still, Lukas, I need to check your weave." She leaned over me and stared into my eyes. 

I chose not to follow her weave this time and just studied her golden irises. 

They weren't one solid colour but were rather a kaleidoscope of radiant golds and ambers. 

They glowed. 

She caught me staring. 

"Seen all you want to?"

I smiled. "Never."

She shook her head and looked down at my chest where the wounds had just been a moment before. 

I knew she was done because she punched me in the side. 

"Ugh…" I coughed. "Hey! Wounded!"

"What happened?" She asked, sitting back in the chair.

"The clans called me to the place between seconds, one of them's been corrupted by a landbreaker. The spirit broke free and attacked me, before vanishing into ink."

I held the golden amulet in my hands. "I would be dead if it weren't for this." I said, and let it drop back to my chest. 

"I'm glad, it did its job properly. It called me as soon as you came back to reality." She said. "That and the fact that your thread on the weave had frozen solid." She hit me again, with the back of her hand. "You keep vanishing, Lukas." 

"I keep getting pulled about by spirits and a goddess. I'm surprised there's anything left of my weave."

She sat beside me on the bed. 

"You keep doing that yourself, Lukas. Your weave pulls us into your orbit. Regular mortals don't even realise it's happening."

She lay down so that our heads were just inches away from each other, and held her hand up into the air. 

A golden string appeared between her thumb and index finger. 

"This is you." She said. 

Then another string appeared and wrapped itself around the first one. 

"This is the princess."

Another appeared. "This is the king."

And another. "And the queen."

And four more wrapped themselves around the golden string. "The greater spirits."

And then one more. "Me."

The string was encased in a large knot, beautiful in its complexity. "You can't walk without shifting the weave, and changing its design."

She let her hand drop to her side. "The Seeker was lucky he got out when he did." She said and turned onto her side to face me. 

"That's not fair," and I said her name. "You took just as much of my soul as I have of yours."

"I'm not entirely sure that's true." She replied. She turned her palm up between us, and the strings appeared again. 

"You, just by being you, make others rely on you. They turn to you for guidance, they instinctively reach out, trying to make sense of you. And you, just by being you, dominate them, one by one, until they have no choice but to rely on you."

She must have seen the look on my face. 

She laughed. "Okay, maybe not dominate." The strings vanished. "But you have more control over us than we have of you." 

"I don't mean to," I said. "I don't even know I'm doing it!"

"I know, which makes you all the more terrible. If you knew what you were doing, and were willingly dominating souls around you, I would have destroyed you the moment you appeared before me, world be damned." She looked at me very seriously. 

"But you don't. And whenever someone gives you power over them, you respond in kind, giving them a little of you in return. You take their strings, and reinforce them with your own, leaving them stronger than before they met you."

"And you don't ever ask for something in return." 

I turned to face her, reached out and traced the lines of her face. 

"That's not true," I said. "I asked to be your friend. And for you to be mine."

She held my hand against her face. 

"Is that what we are, Lukas?" She asked, flashing a smile I didn't recognise at me. "Friends?"

She leaned forward and put her forehead on mine. 

"What if that's not enough for me anymore?" 

And I was back in the world.