Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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Pallesia: Chapter 134 - Punishment.
🕑 Added 2024-04-27 03:04:59 +0000 UTCThis chapter might be subject to extreme change from between here and when posted to RR. I'll let everyone know on discord if it is changed later on, and post the revised chapter at that time.
This might be a good stopping point for book 2, and onwards to book 3. Might just say fuck the book stuff and continue doing a long web-serial.
Let me know your thoughts about this chapter. It's pretty different than some of the others, and I might have been too heavy-handed with the emotions.
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After devouring more breakfast sweets, Lee followed Em as they headed to the location of their wagon. Since Em had brought the wagon into the livery, she led the way with her usually hasty movements.
After having known Em for well over a month, Lee was starting to pick up some of her mannerisms. One of the most important things to note was her speed. All eight of her legs flowed swiftly in a mesmerizing display of fluidity. The movement reminded him of watching the inside of a fast-moving machine, with pistons narrowly passing by one another with pinpoint precision.
The reason he was noting her speed now, however… She was moving faster than usual.
“Everything okay, Em?”
“Indeed! I’m just excited to get back on the road. More magic to discuss and adventures to be had!” Em waved her hand around flippantly as she finished.
Lee narrowed his eyes as his bullshit alarm was starting to ring. He noted several livery workers hurriedly scattered to the wind, obviously remembering that they forgot the oven was on or left their fridge running. Em ignored the commotion around her, and her only response was to move faster toward their wagon.
A frown crept onto his face at a sudden thought. “Em, you don’t—”
Em’s legs slammed into the ground, causing bits of rubble to fly into the air, eliciting screams of terror and fright to erupt from all around. A young woman even dropped her tools and ran away, falling to the floor and scrambling to right herself again as her legs continued onwards.
“Let’s just go, Lee. Please…”
Lee took a deep breath as he suddenly felt like an idiot. Of course she wants to leave quickly… Nobody wants her here, and she feels out of place.
He didn’t say anything else as they continued on their way, not wanting to pry into her feelings any more than he already had. Once they were back on the road, everything should return to normal. Lee had to jog after her as she blitzed through the large open yard of the livery, but eventually, they reached their wagon and found Regina, Jeremy, and Kendri finishing loading small sacks and crates into the back. Regina was, of course, filling the management position, leaving Kendri and Jeremy to do the manual labor.
“We all ready to head out?” Lee asked as they arrived.
Kendri took a swig from his bottle and grunted in affirmation. “Let’s go. This town sucks.”
They all settled into their wagon as Regina approached the front to talk to the horses. They were apparently smart enough to understand people and directions as they had carried them to this town without anyone driving it.
Lee, once again, narrowed his eyes. Suspicious…
He had just begun trying to remember if he had ever said anything incriminating in front of them as the wagon jolted to a start. Looking out of the back flap as they left the livery and entered the town's main thoroughfare, Lee spotted several groups of the local militia near the sides of the street, watching them pass with wariness. As their wagon passed one of the groups, Lee heard something that instantly made his blood boil.
A dull ringing from something solid hitting a metallic surface blasted outwards, and a functioning town's local commotion and numerous sounds stopped instantly. The only thing Lee heard as he instinctually rose from his seat was a younger-sounding voice, masculine and hurt. “You best be leaving! You don’t belong here! You monstrous freak!”
Lee threw aside the back flap of the wagon as he lept out of the back, eyes instantly swerving to the side to spot a young man, roughly eighteen or so, with his arm cocked back with a large stone. He saw the usually proud and regal Em looking towards the ground, avoiding the young man’s gaze, as red blood pooled at the corners of her eyes. She was biting her quivering lip as she followed after the still-moving but slowing wagon.
While Em’s eyes were red from tears, Lee’s vision turned red in anger. Nobody deserves to be talked to like that, especially for just existing.
As the young man threw another stone the size of a closed fist, Lee cast Gale Burst, knocking the stone out of its trajectory. Then, he quickly cast Manual Breathing, Blind, and Swiftness and used Identify on his now-opponent.
Clive - Human - Level: 5 Militia
He watched as the angry Clive choke and as his furious eyes faded to black from magical blindness. He tried to clasp his throat but smacked his face and fell on his ass as his body couldn’t keep up with the heightened speed from Swiftness.
As Lee stormed up to the practically disabled man, his nearby militia allies unsheathed their weapons and aimed them toward both him and Em. He ignored them as his sights were already locked on his foe. Lee spat words laced with venomous intent toward them without moving his eyes or straying from his path. “Continue to aim those towards us, and I will take away your hand privileges.”
You have been the target of a failed identify!
You have been the target of a failed identify!
You have been the target of a failed identify!
You have been the target of a failed identify!
You have been the—
Lee cut off the rest of the emerging notifications right as he reached the foot of the confused, angry, and now slightly scared Clive. He knelt down and spoke calmly when inches away from Clive's unaware face, one much too calm given the circumstances. “Do you know who I am?”
Clive jerked his head to lock on the sound of his voice, and then all of the fear he had previously had faded away as he snarled. “A dead man by the sounds of it. Do you know who I am?”
Lee nodded once, then rose up. “Yes, Clive, I do.” Several Walls of Earth arose from the cobbled streets and created a stone cube around Clive, cutting him off from the outside world. Lee dusted his trembling hands and then walked toward the downtrodden Em. “You alright? What do you want to do?”
Em barely spared the brown earthen cube a glance before she looked back down toward the ground. “Let’s just leave. I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“Hands or no hands?” Lee asked, half in jest and half serious.
Em shrugged noncommittally. “If I hurt them, I’m just proving their point. I can’t do anything about it, Lee.”
“Allright, then let—” Lee cut off his words as his wisdom flared in an alert. He ducked toward the ground as Em dashed over him, shielding him from an arrow one of the militiamen shot toward him. It clanked off her metallic body right where his chest would have been, but it left not even a scratch on her. Lee uncovered his head and got out from under Em as he made a choice.
In that small moment when his life was in severe danger, Lee felt a very familiar feeling. The feeling of knowing you’re about to die—the threat of death and the end of life. A cycle that has been a part of the universe for as long as one can remember. A cycle Lee had almost abandoned, given his ageless immortality. Like a whisper through the wind, a word came to his lips. A weighty word that he knew the implications of now felt stirring inside him.
Mortality.
He’d died once already, and through extreme luck and a loving family, he’d been given another chance. Since arriving, he’s been close to death, threatened with death, met death… and all we wanted was to give life to those too close to said death—those deserving a chance like his own.
Lee looked at the woman lowering her bow, who gave a frightened glance toward Em as she took a terror-stricken step back. He cast a spell.
A new type of mana rolled down his arm to the tips of his fingers. It was both cold and warm, dark and bright, solid and fragile, weighty and weightless, a whole host of conflicting sensations and ideals. The color was gray, and the mana itself looked rigid, not as gaseous and fleeting as his other types of mana. This mana was resolute and also halfhearted, but it was his to command.
To cast spells, Lee needed to understand how the spell worked, as with his blind spell, which darkened the eyes to block out the light they needed to see. For this spell, he didn’t know how it worked, only that it would. He just needed to tell his mana what he wanted. The scope of what it could accomplish was narrow, exceptionally so, but it would do what he wanted right now, and that’s all he could ask for, especially with no preparation.
Lee pointed his finger toward the bow-wielding woman, and that was all that was needed for his spell to take effect. There was no bolt of mana sent forth through the air; there was no ray capable of being dodged. It was instant. He felt his mana plummet, but the job was done.
Spell Created!
Spell Name: Mortality’s Embrace.
Spell Description: Using expert tier Mortality mana, alter a mortality aspect of your target, for better or for worse. Duration, effects, number of targets, cooldown, cost, range, and all other effects of this spell are variable depending on the aspect chosen.
Secondary Effects: Variable
Cost: Variable
Cooldown: Variable
He checked his mana.
MP: 75/475
Acceptable. He thought.
Lee turned to walk away back toward the now halted wagon, completely ignoring the group of militiamen now that his punishment was delivered, but Em scuttled in front of him as she frantically looked from him to the woman who shot an arrow at him. “What—What did you do?”
It appeared that she had seen his mana. “I punished her for her transgressions. It was either that, or death, and I’m not prepared to take a life directly just yet.”
“Directly…?” She whispered to herself as Lee passed her by.
Regina was standing with an arm held out, holding back a furious and worried Jeremy, who had both his sword and shield at the ready. She gave him a calm, calculated look, but upon seeing his all too calm appearance, she didn’t say a word. Lee did, though. “Don’t kill her. Don’t get her killed. Don’t demote her or do anything to her. I’ve done enough.” He hopped back into the back of the wagon as the militiamen started to use their weapons to free their trapped comrade.
Before he sat down, he yelled out to everyone around. “Treat others how you wish to be treated. If not, you won't be able to be treated at all.” Lee leveled his gaze on the woman who had begun helping to free her trapped friend. He plopped down in his seat and bounced his leg in anger, frustration, and a hint of worry.
He’d done a lot of things to people in the past: some who had deserved it, some who, in hindsight, didn’t, and some who deserved more. This one was in the gray area. While he didn’t kill her for trying to kill him, he did something admittedly almost as wrong.
For now, she wouldn’t be able to heal, and he didn’t know how long the spell would last. It would be an hour, or it could be forever. He wasn’t sure, and that was almost sickening to think about. If given the chance, he’d cast the exact same spell with the same aspect on the man, Clive, who had thrown the rock at Em. He deserved it more than the woman, at least; he thought so right now while fuming with anger.
This wasn’t the way he thought he would find out the combination of Life and Death, but on the bright side, it saved him from using his Arcane Synthesis cooldown.
He’d get that over with once they were on the road. He needed help from his friend Em, after all.
Hopefully, things won’t be so bad in Felispar.
Comments
jean
we get hurt and heal daily if she can't heal for a long enough time she will either cripple herself since she can't heal from damage or die from accumulated damage and if she trains or exert herself from training or such it happens faster if this is an all you don't heal then its really harsh if its only normal damage fine but if its everything that don't heal i give her at most a month being generous before everything that stacks hit her hard enough to affect her permanently without healing magic so its all about how long this last and how bad the effects are gonna get before the magic stops working :P
James Faulkner
Awesome, thanks!
Tyler Kimball
I just posted a list of all know elements on Discord if you'd like to check it out.
Tyler Kimball
Just like as if Lee wanted to learn fireball or a Magma (Fire+ Earth) spell from a spellbook, he couldn't because he doesn't have the pre-requisite of having the fire element.
Tyler Kimball
Life and Death are advanced. Life is Earth+Light and Death is Earh+Dark. The reason why Lee needs to find spellcasters that have Earth and Light s because they're the only people capable of learning Life, which is his healing element.
James Faulkner
So what are the constituent elements of Mortality mana? I thought life and death were basic elements?
Tyler Kimball
Expert tier magics are still extremely rare, but it's not as rare as being a healer is for example.
Tyler Kimball
No. It has always been this way. The reason four were mentioned at the time was because Lee was mana infused and given Glacial and all of the accompanying elements that make up glacial, which is ice and cold. Air, water, and dark.
James Faulkner
Also I assume that this new style of mana combination is a retcon? I remember when Glacial was first described it was a combination of 3 or 4 subtypes which emphasized why it was so hard to learn expert level magic
James Faulkner
This was awesome! Definitely not the type of mana I expected him to get next, but being unable to heal is huge. Completely trivializes enemies like trolls with natural regeneration and makes it possible to die from a paper cut
James Squibb
It makes sense. The thing Lee knows incredibly well first hand is death. Through that, he wants to grant healing/life. Two sides of the same coin amd people learn to deal with the mortality that surrounds them.
Tyler Kimball
I just hope it wasn't too unrational. It was also sporadic, but I thought that if there was ever going to be an element Lee learned the good'ol fashioned way, it would be this one.
James Squibb
A great place to stop. I am thankful you wrote Lee this way. He has had enough and cares deeply for his friends.
Wintermelody
Thanks for the Chapter, I don't see much heavy handedness. I really enjoyed how he learned the new spell.
