Questions of Magic

"Questions?" asked the giant after they had been walking for an hour. "If it's important, I'll answer, but we shouldn't waste energy chatting."

Jeuni, already walking quickly to keep up with his new companion's much longer strides, picked up his pace and came up alongside the giant.

"How long will it take for Kihara to come back?"

The giant was blazing a trail through the underbrush, wielding his sword in one hand and cradling Kihara in the other. She seemed tiny slumped against his shoulder, evoking for Jeuni images of a tamed cat. Though her clothing was torn and blotched red, she did not look like the victim of eleven knife wounds. Occasionally, what sounded like a breath escaped her lips. Her face, shielded from the moonlight by her hood and hair, betrayed no trace of pain. It's as if she's napping, or if she died, it was peaceful, in her sleep.

"Less than two days," answered the giant.

"How does the regeneration work?" asked Jeuni, glad that his companion had seen fit to reply to his first question. Walking in silence wasn't his style unless he was cold or brooding. "It's fascinating to me, as a—"

"As a wizard?" the giant asked without looking down at the juggler. "It's not important right now."

Jeuni sighed.

"How about you just tell me what's important right now?"

A memory resurfaced, unbidden:

"Drunk already? Forget it, Master Huros. I'm leaving. I have business with you, but I suppose I'll find you another time, when you're better disposed."

"That's right," muttered Jeuni, "you're terrible at telling people what's going on. You were a real ass the night we met, you know?"

"Is that how you talk to someone you killed?"

"And always questioning my questions!"

The giant stopped moving forward, sword in midair. Jeuni tensed, fingertips brushing the cuffs of his tunic sleeves.

"What's wrong, man? Are you going to attack me again?"

The giant burst out laughing, a hearty bellowing laugh like applause that warmed Jeuni's heart and made him giddy.

"I apologize, Master Huros," coughed the giant, slowly regaining his composure, "but messing with you is such fun."

Jeuni clenched his teeth and kicked the giant as hard as he could.

"I deserve it, yes, Master Huros." The giant looked down at the juggler, who was rolling around on the ground clutching the toe of his right boot. He stuck his sword in the mud and reached down to help Jeuni stand. "I do apologize."

"Ass."

As the giant resumed his trail-blazing, he spoke.

"I have been accused of brusqueness in the past, by Kihara for instance, but I have decided to make it a strength rather than a weakness. I had to provoke you the other day—it worked splendidly, I might add. But now I have no excuse other than my own enjoyment, which is truly no excuse at all. My deepest apologies. Please forgive me."

The earnestness in his companion's voice humbled Jeuni.

"Um. It's okay."

"Thank you, Master Huros."

"No problem, Master—what is your name, Mister Beast-man?"

"I'm the Second Holder. We can save the pleasantries for later."

"Not this shit again."

"Sorry, sorry—I'll tell you what you need to know."

"About damn time."

"So, the Seventeenth—Tomora Ynthon—is after you for some reason. I don't know exactly why, but from what I gathered from your conversation as I lay in wait outside the guardhouse, it has something to do with your—"

"Wait one blasted second!" Jeuni got in front of the giant, halting him. "You were waiting outside the whole time?"

"Yes."

"Watching?"

"Listening."

"As Kihara killed herself."

"Yes."

Calm down. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. Calm down. Calm down, Jeuni! Calm.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING?!"

"Waiting, as I said," responded the giant, unperturbed. "For the right moment. If I had entered carelessly, the Seventeenth could have dominated all of us."

Jeuni stood speechless, seething.

"This brings us to another important topic, actually," the giant mused. "But could we keep moving?"

He pushed Jeuni aside with ease and resumed his forward progress. The juggler found himself once more struggling to keep up. After they had fallen back into the pace they'd been keeping prior to Jeuni's outburst, the giant continued.

"As I was about to say, the god granted the Seventeenth a dreadful power. Do you know what a conductor is, Master Huros?"

"No."

"No, you wouldn't, would you. Byhr and its better world... anyway, Master Huros, imagine musicians, dozens of them, all sitting together, bringing to life epic scores for the enjoyment of thousands. Can you picture that?"

Jeuni squinted as he tried to imagine the town fiddler multiplied fifty times, then grimaced when it was all too easy. He remembered seeing that exact sight after a particularly productive evening of drinking. But that was a hallucination. And what's a score?

"I'll take that as a no," said the giant. "Well, once upon a time in some places there were lots of people who could play instruments. And there was a great variety of them, too—pianos, violins, trumpets, drums, flutes—do you have any of these where you're from?"

"No."

"Well, once upon a time, Master Huros. And these people would form orchestras—units, Master Huros, but of musicians, not soldiers, and they would perform concerts. In large auditoriums—vast stages, surrounded by row after row of seats. And there would always be one man, the commander of the unit if you will, his back to the audience, facing the musicians. He was the conductor. Can you guess his role?"

"He gave orders." Jeuni sighed. "You know, you could have just told me that Ynthon's a commander, beast-man. You didn't have to go reciting history like a cleric story-teller."

"Sorry, Master Huros, but you wanted me to explain—"

"Stick to the important stuff," grumbled the juggler.

"Right. So the Seventeenth's power is—"

"He controls us." Jeuni yawned. "Tell me something new. He's a puppeteer. Why elaborate?"

"Wrong, Master Huros. Did you become a doll in his hands? Did you not still have agency? The conductor gives the musician a cue, but ultimately the choice of what notes to play is made by the musician himself. Of course, in the case of the Seventeenth, the cue is more than mere suggestion—you are compelled to follow his cues by the power of the god."

"So what's the difference, damn it?"

"As I said, you retain agency. Unless he compels you to play a certain note, or to not play a certain note, you are—"

"This music thing really isn't working for me."

"—free to... alright, Master Huros. Perhaps a military analogy would work better for a man dressed in Byhr's colors."

Jeuni colored slightly.

"So you're a footman, and you have a captain who gives you orders. Pretend you're a very good soldier—you do everything you are ordered to, to the letter. If your captain tells you to do something, you have to do it. If your captain tells you not to do something, you can't. You follow so far?"

"Go on."

"Alright, now imagine there's a course of action you want to take. It doesn't conflict with any orders you've been given."

"I can do it if I want."

"Precisely."

Jeuni sighed.

"What does any of this have to do with the timing of your arrival?"

"A captain can't give orders to a soldier who's not there, right?"

"But the moment the soldier shows up..."

"Even the best commander can only communicate so orders so fast, Master Huros. We were able to chase him off because I surprised him and together you and I attacked too fast for him to do anything about it."

"So when he comes back, we just need to attack in unison again?"

"I don't think we'll have that luxury," said the giant. "He will likely attack at night, first prohibiting all imaginable attacks of mine, then all of yours, and finally rousing us to kill each other."

"He can give orders while we sleep?"

"It's the power of the god," shrugged the giant.

"So what do we do? Sleep in shifts?"

"No. We want to lure him out. At least, I do. I want him dead."

"Me too." He killed Kihara.

"No, not like that—he hasn't done anything in particular to me, and I bear no grudge against him."

"What about her?"

"It happens," shrugged the giant. "I doubt Kihara hates him for it."

Jeuni furrowed his brow as his brain failed to process the nonchalant attitude of his companion.

"Then why do you want him dead?"

"It's complicated, but I can assure you that I have only the best of intentions."

"Well, whatever your intentions, our wish is the same," Jeuni said. "We'll kill him together. But how? If we wake up in the night, bound by his commands, how will we do anything to him?"

"Remember the weak point. You can do anything so long as it doesn't conflict with his commands. You're a wizard, Master Huros. Use your magic."

"He knows wizards better than I do! He stopped me from using it before, and he'll keep me from using it again."

"Did he really keep you from using it?"

"What do you mean? I couldn't use it."

"You didn't use it, Master Huros."

"What are you getting at?"

"Is it not obvious? I think you are keeping yourself from using it, Master Huros."

Jeuni stopped in his tracks.

The moonlight overhead had grown fainter as the forest roof had thickened, and the two stood in near darkness. Jeuni's grimy cloak felt heavy, weighed down with a hundred pounds of metal. The clasp dug into his throat and he choked, clawing at the fabric in an attempt to loosen it.

The sack of provisions he had bought in the morning spilled out onto the ground, a couple bottles of wine shattering upon impact with a tree root and emptying their contents into the soil.

"Stop," pleaded Jeuni, gasping, "stop it!"

A dagger slipped from his sleeve, tumbling toward the ground. Another followed it, this one flying in a horizontal line and embedding its tip in a tree trunk. Several dozen more knives freed themselves from Jeuni's clothing, haphazardly shooting this way and that, a large number striking the giant's armor and clattering to the ground.

"Master Huros, what's going on?"

Jeuni finally succeeded in removing his cloak and it dropped to the ground with the sound of a felled tree. The juggler stood panting over it, massaging his neck, sweat and tears rolling down his face.

"I can't," he said after sitting down and taking a deep breath.

"You can't what, Master Huros?"

"You were right, beast-man! I can't use my magic."

"I'm hurt, Master Huros. You had no reservations shredding me."

Jeuni shot the giant what he hoped was a withering glance and the giant immediately kneeled down beside him.

"I'm sorry, Master Huros. Now isn't the time for jokes. We'll make camp here, and you can rest."

"What if... Ynthon..."

Jeuni drew his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around his shins, curling into a ball.

"Tonight should be safe."

"How... can you..."

"How can I be so sure? I'll explain in the morning. But for tonight, Master Huros, just rest. Everything will be okay."

The giant's words were a rumbling lullaby and Jeuni soon found himself sprawled in the pine needles, eyes slowly closing.

* * *

Jeuni woke to the sensation of raindrops steadily landing on a single point of his forehead. Cracking his eyes open, he saw that the water held in the needles of the pine at whose base he lay was slowly being discharged.

He sat up and looked around, pale dawn light illuminating the forest for him. His cloak and much of the gear formerly stashed within it lay scattered in the dirt. The giant lay a couple yards off, sleeping in his armor. Kihara was exactly where she'd been the day before, curled up against the giant's left shoulder.

On the bright side, everyone seems alright. There's worse things than waking up to a tree pissing on you.

Jeuni stood and stretched.

He walked over to his cloak and tried to lift it to no avail. "Piece of shit."

"G'morning."

The giant was stirring groggily.

"Damn, my left arm's asleep."

Jeuni chuckled, then frowned.

"Why didn't Ynthon come after us last night?"

"Is that how you greet someone in the morning?" asked the giant, opening his eyes and yawning.

"Good morning, damn it." You're the one who said the pleasantries could wait.

"There you go. Did you sleep well?"

"Why didn't Ynthon come after us last night?"

"You're ruthless," said the giant, stifling another yawn. "Give me a minute, alright?"

Jeuni tapped his foot in impatience as the giant slowly squirmed into a sitting position, transferred Kihara to his right arm, and then stood.

"So, why didn't the Seventeenth attack last night." The giant stretched and cracked his neck. "You left his unit in quite a mess. He was almost certainly going to take them to the nearest military hospital."

"Really?" asked Jeuni, wrinkling his nose. "Their condition wasn't critical, and he seemed like the kind of guy who'd leave his subordinates to die without a second thought."

"Correct, Master Huros. That's the kind of guy he is. Was. He was punished for it quite severely once, though, and now he does his best to protect the men he leads. Just as his contract compels him to remain silent, so too does it require that he treat his troops well."

"Your god is weird."

"Perhaps it is we that are weird, Master Huros."

"You don't say."

The giant chuckled.

"I was including you in the 'we.'"

Jeuni glared at his companion.

"Let's have a bite now and set out." The giant walked over to the sack of provisions on the ground and began rummaging through it. "Will you be able to carry this stuff today?"

"No." I don't seem able to.

"Alright, I'll take the food and we'll leave the rest behind."

"I'm staying right here." I can't leave my cloak, my daggers—

"You want to stay here until you get your magic back? Alright, Master Huros, I'll indulge you."

Jeuni sat down on the stump the giant had been using as a pillow.

"So, will Ynthon strike tonight?"

"Probably."

"So I need to somehow get it back before the end of the day."

The giant remained silent, opting to respond only by producing a roll from the provision sack and tossing it to Jeuni. The juggler fumbled the bread and cursed half-heartedly.

What's wrong with me...?

After recovering the roll, brushing off its fresh topping of pine needles, and eating it, Jeuni looked up at the foliage above. If I can't use my magic, we can't beat Ynthon. He'll kill the beast-man, he'll make sure Kihara can't revive, and who knows what he'll do to me...

"You don't have any surprises for Ynthon?"

"What do you mean?"

"Something that he doesn't know about, something that will catch him off guard?"

"Sadly, no," replied the giant. "He and I have fought each other countless times over the decades. If it were just me, I could run away easily enough, but I need to show you the South."

"Why?"

"Why, Master Huros?" The giant sat down on the ground next to the stump. "I'm on a mission."

"Something for your god?"

"Surprisingly, no. I mean, I am doing his work, of course, but—" the giant paused and blinked. "I wonder why I'm telling you this. Maybe her blood..."

"Whose? Kihara's?"

"No, never mind. But I could ask you the same—why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to escape?"

"Anyone would want to escape the Midlands."

"Have you given up on them, Master Huros?"

Jeuni looked down at his companion quizzically.

"Hasn't everyone?"

"Byhr hasn't."

"Bullshit."

The giant grinned. "Maybe." Narrowing his eyes, he added, "but I haven't. You seem surprised, Master Huros. Have you never known anyone that believed in the salvation of the Midlands?"

"You sound more like a cleric every day," Jeuni grumbled.

"Don't worry. I'm not as pious as I seem."

"Don't worry," imitated Jeuni, "you don't seem very pious." His attitude!

"Piety would be an obstacle to my goal."

"You're just saying random shit."

"It's fine if you take it like that, Master Huros. But answer my question—none of your acquaintances have ever had hope in the Midlands?"

"No one," replied the juggler.

"That's interesting—and false. You've known another man who believed and hoped, though maybe you didn't realize it. Maybe he was as good a performer as you are."

"Ynthon said the same thing about a wizard."

"Maybe we're talking about the same person," the giant chuckled.

"I have no idea what the two of you are on about."

"I believe you."

"Believe, believe..." Jeuni trailed off. Beliefs. What are mine? Drinking, juggling, making easy money. I believe Keys can be profitable. I believe the wintertime is cold. The South—do I believe in it? Which South? The frozen South of Kihara's song, or the Shaded Orchard? Which Shaded Orchard? I believe that a Holder of the Covenant saved my life. I believe I'm a wizard, and that I can't use my magic.

"Are you trying to figure out why you can't use your magic? If you want, we can try talking through it together."

Jeuni remained silent.

"I can't help you if you don't talk to me." The giant waited, then went on. "I don't know much about magic, but maybe just by having someone to listen—"

"No," said Jeuni. "I'll fix it myself. And why are you so worried? You'll be fine either way, right?"

"I can't let you come to harm, Master Huros. If you die, even if Kihara and I survive, it will be meaningless."

"I'm not so important," scoffed Jeuni. "Just a bibulous country bumpkin."

"And a wizard."

"And a wizard, yes."

"A wizard with amazing power."

"Is it amazing?"

"Have you never met another wizard?"

"Ynthon says I have, but..."

"So you're not even aware of how tremendous your talents are."

"Are they tremendous?"

"The god needs them, Master Huros."

Jeuni recoiled in disgust.

"Don't tell me you want to bring me south to make me take your filthy covenant."

"No, not at all."

"I don't trust you."

"Trust me? You don't need to. You just need to see the South, as you've always desired. Once you do, you'll understand everything."

"Everything? Heh. That's a damn lot of things."

Jeuni sighed. Such an obviously hollow promise. But he's right: I want to see the South. And when I do, I'll probably die—if read Kihara's eyes right, at least. Are they working together? Or separately? Does the beast-man want me to die? Why is the South so special? I've really gotten myself in way over my head... maybe when Kihara's revived, I'll learn something from watching their interactions.

Have they ever even been alive at the same time?!

"Yes, that's a lot of things. And if you want to get there, you need to survive. Just to be clear: you cannot allow yourself to be captured by the Seventeenth. For that, you're going to need to recover your magic. If you don't want my help, Master Huros, I won't keep offering it. But the day is wearing on. Please try to figure something out."

"I'll do my best."

"One more thing, Master Huros."

"Hm?"

"Don't go easy on me if Ynthon controls me. Kihara will be back in time to stop his regeneration, so just focus on killing anything that moves."

Jeuni wrinkled his nose.

"I don't like the sound of that."

That said, Jeuni sprawled out on the stump, arms outstretched and fingers brushing the needle-covered ground. The night, like all Midlands winter nights, had been freezing, and he hadn't slept well. Maybe a good rest will help everything.

* * *

"Hello, Master Huros."

Jeuni sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Ynthon."

The black-coated man stood next to the giant, speaking through him as the two loomed over the juggler.

"Are you ready to use your magic?"

"Yeah, I am."

"I see. So is this the end for me?"

"Most likely."

"Very well. Do your thing, little wizard."

Kihara stood next to the other two Holders, alive, smiling, red eyes glowing with encouragement.

"Good luck, Master Huros."

Jeuni extended his hands and felt his heart race as power filled him. The moon shone down through the rapidly thinning foliage as the air rippled and countless blue lines traced themselves across the night. The sky itself was shredded along with the trees, and when the sounds of timber crashing to the forest floor stopped, Ynthon was nothing more than a pile of black cloth blotted red in the moonlight.

* * *

Jeuni tossed and turned in his sleep. He was smiling, pleased in his dreams and showing it outwardly.

"I did it, Kihara," he muttered. "Everything will be alright."

"I sure hope so," replied the giant, before realizing that the juggler was merely sleep-talking. "Heh. At least you can beat the Seventeenth in your dreams."