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mianite-season-3 · 6 years ago

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Unofficial Mianite S3 - Chapter 16

... ... ... I’m sorry.

Chapter 16 - Finding the Trail

The pulse of Andor’s faint soul traces guided the duo away from Sonja, before leveling out into a path that they surmised was parallel to Sonja’s. Martha nearly ran herself straight into several pits, focusing heavily on her sixth sense and ignoring the other five. Luckily, Wag was paying attention and grabs her around her waist, swinging her back into safety when she took a step into a lava pit.

She took a shaky breath, kicking her smoldering boot off before kissing Wag’s cheek. “Thank you. I’m sorry, it just hit me so suddenly...”

“‘s alright, I’m here for you.”

She hummed happily, taking his hand and starting to walk again. “You always are.”

They walked in silence for a while, Wag content to follow Martha’s lead. After a bout of silence, he spoke up again.

“Martha?”

“Yes?”

“Are you alright?”

The mystic laughed daintily at the question. “I’m a little tired, you know I didn’t get much sleep last night. But I’m well enough to keep going until dusk.”

Wag shook his head, nudging her gently with his elbow. “That isn’t what I meant.”

“Hmm?”

He pursed his lips. “We’re trying to find Andor, but... well, are you prepared for the possibility that we won’t?”

“Are you doubting my abilities?” She asked him with a smile.

“No! Just... you said yourself that he’s extremely far away. Has he gotten any closer?”

“Wag, my senses aren’t that precise-”

“So that’s a no.”

Martha pouted. He didn’t understand, she wasn’t a homing compass, she just had a vague ability to locate a person’s soul. She opened her mouth to explain that to him, but he cut her off before she could.

“All I’m saying, is that, if he is here, which you say he is and I believe you, then it’s possibly he’s trying to find us just as much as we’re trying to find him. And, if he happens to be going the same way as us, at the same rate, then we’re never going to find him.”

“Maybe so, but there’s just as likely of a chance that he isn’t going that way, and we’ll meet him in the middle. Don’t be pessimistic, we have two weeks to search for him. Chin up!” Martha tapped two fingers under his chin and grinned, pulling him along by the other hand.

Wag dropped it, but the awkward silence that remained was less preferable, so eventually she sighed and glanced back at him. “Wag, I’m serious. We just need to think positive. It’s a little early to be losing hope, don’t you think?”

He let out a long sigh through his nose. “I know. But... I just, have this bad feeling. And I know you’re the mystic, not me, but... it just, isn’t sitting right with me.”

“What isn’t, love?”

He squeezed her hand. “The fact that... we’re alone. I don’t mean you and me, I mean the six of us. In Ruxomar, the gods were always around. Or, at least, there was a way to contact them if we needed. But we’ve tried everything, and we’ve gotten nothing.”

Martha hummed, frowning. “Maybe so, and yes, that’s been on my mind as well, but, Andor’s not a god, dear. Are you suggesting we should have some kind of otherworldly connection to him?”

“No... no, I don’t think that. Honestly, I don’t really know what I’m saying.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I understand your concerns. It seems everyone’s been having them, about this world and its gods. But, that’s why we’re focusing on those who aren’t gods. Andor has a soul that can be traced. The same can’t be said for any of them, unfortunately.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Hold on, gods don’t have souls?”

She tilted her head sideways with a small grin at him. “I thought I’d told you this, but I suppose not. No, not in the same way humans do. They have their quintessence, which functionally is very similar, but visually its very different.”

“How?”

Martha gladly took the change in topic, and took her hand to motion in front of her while she explained. “Well, a human soul looks like... a star. A small little star, burning brightly within their chest. Right about where their heart is. And a trained eye may be able to see a faint glow throughout their veins, as their spirit courses through their blood. A human’s soul is as paramount to their being as a working heart or pair of lungs are. Without it, a body is just a body. It cannot move on its own.”

Wag’s eyes were wide. “So wait, we’re all just like puppets being controlled by a soul?”

“What? No, of course not. Your soul is a part of you. Just think of it as another organ. Just one not easily seen. Though,” Martha snickered, “ideally, you should never see any of your organs. But that’s beside the point.”

“Ok, so then what does a god’s soul look like?”

She paused, trying to gather the correct words. “Well, if a human’s soul looks like a twinkling star, then the gods are the sun. They don’t have a soul, per se... it’s more like, they are the soul, free of any mortal confines. You know how you get spots in your eyes if you look at the sun? That’s what it feels like. You can’t look at a god’s quintessence in its raw form.”

“But, the gods look human, more or less. Are they just, human souls that don’t have bodies?” Wag asked, looking slightly uncomfortable but very intrigued with the concept. Martha shook her head.

“No, that’s not possible. Human souls don’t burn after their bodies die. In some rare cases, they might break free and roam around, but they usually can’t survive like that. It only happens in cases where the human dies under distress, or they have unfinished business on this plane of existence that ties them here.”

Wag made a face, though he relaxed before Martha saw it. “Ok, so, humans have souls, but gods have quintessence. Wouldn’t it make more sense that the brighter the soul is, the easier it is to see?”

The mystic hummed again, tilting her hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. “Not quite. See, human souls leave threads wherever they go. Like a heat trail. They do so because they’re constantly generating more energy than needed, so it gets let out. Those threads can be picked up by someone like me, with the ‘sight’, and followed back to the source.”

“However, the gods are different. Because they don’t have a physical body, their form is generated by their quintessence. And even though they’re much more powerful than any human can ever dream to be, the amount of excess energy generated is put forward to maintaining their form and their powers. In short, they don’t generate threads like human soul do.”

“Huh. Ok, I see what you mean when you say they’re similar but different.”

Martha smiled sympathetically. “It’s alright if it doesn’t make sense to you. It took me a long time to understand, and I had my mother and uncles teaching me quite a bit. All that really matters is that Andor is leaving traces that I can follow, whether he knows it or not.”

“And you’re sure we can find him?”

“As sure as I can be.”

Wag seemed content enough with her answer, allowing the topic to drop for real this time. Martha took his hand again and they continued to follow the mystic’s senses.

After a few hours of walking, Martha was getting slightly worried. The trail wasn’t getting any warmer - in fact, at some points it was so faint she couldn’t actually be sure if they were going the correct way. There was also something else, pulling at the edges of her vision and tugging at her gut.

“Martha? Are you alright?”

The wizard tugged at her hand, but she didn’t stop walking. She was in some sort of trance, focusing entirely on the trail she was following.

“Martha, love, it’s getting dark. We need to stop.”

She shook her head slowly. “No... we can’t stop... he’s... so close...”

Wag sucked in a breath, she sounded winded and distant. He grabbed onto her hand with both of his, tugging her to a complete stop.

“Martha! Snap out of it!”

She turned back to him, and his fears were confirmed. Her eyes were dull, clouded. Yet they burned with an energy that he couldn’t describe as anything else but intense.

Then they fluttered shut, and she fell into his arms like a ragdoll. Wag staggered, adjusting his arms to get a better grip on her. “Martha! Shit, not now!”

This was the absolute worst time for her to fall into one of her visions. The sun was just below the horizon now, and any second now there would be hoards of mobs staggering after them. He moved fast, twisting Martha’s body so he could pick her up in a bridal carry and start running in the direction Martha had been leading them, a grove of what had once been trees. An arrow whizzed by his head, a creeper hissed and blew up as he passed. His hands grew sweaty and clammy and Martha nearly slipped out of his grasp. When he slowed to adjust his grip and get a better hang of her, he felt two fangs pierce the back of his ankle and he cried out in both surprise and pain as the fiery pain of poison started racing through his veins. Wag kicked the cave spider away, cursing this world and its tendency to spawn mobs where they shouldn’t spawn as he began running again. He couldn’t stop and fight here, out in the open where a single mob sneaking up from behind him could be the end of him or Martha. The tree grove may be more dangerous because it offers the monsters places to hide, but the same benefit applied to him as well.

A zombie swiped at him as he ducked under a tree’s reaching branches and tore through his robe and into his shoulder. The pain drove him forward, weaving between tree trunks and dodging the monsters following him until he broke into wall of brush into a clearing.

By the light of the moon, Wag could see the brambles were surrounding the clearing, thick enough that the monsters wouldn’t be able to break through them easily. He quickly set Martha down away from the entrance he’d made and raced back to it, building a barrier that they wouldn’t be able to break through out of miscellaneous blocks he had in his pockets. He heard the clanking of moving bones and zombie groans come from the other side, but nothing broke through.

Wag took the moment to breathe, realizing now just how much pain he was in. He lit a torch to inspect the extent of his injuries. The deep scratch on his shoulder was oozing, and when he looked down and twisted his ankle to check it, it burned and yellowish liquid was seeping out of the wound. The wizard took a shaky breath as he sat down and took off his robe to use as a rag. Dabbing at the scratch on his shoulder stung, but he hissed his way through it. Then he took care to wipe away all the grossness surrounding his ankle bite. He kept at it until it bled clean, then ripped a strip and tied it tightly. He decided his shoulder wound was too large and raw to bind, plus it was shallow enough that it would benefit more from fresh air.

The wizard lit a few more torches and walked around the perimeter of the strangely circular clearing, placing them to make certain no mobs would spawn. Once he’d done that, he realized something that hadn’t struck him as odd at first. This clearing had grass growing in it. As in, not a single five by five patch of it, but the entire circle was full of soft, plush grass. Even weirder, the barrier that was keeping the monsters out was completely made out of tangled leaves, not of random blocks like the rest of the forest was. It looked... natural, which had to mean that this was entirely intentional. But why?

Wag finished securing the perimeter, making sure there was no way for any mobs to get in. Then he turned back to the clearing, and registered that there was a small structure in the center that, in the torch light, he could recognize as a tree. An actual tree, with leaves and a trunk. It was intentionally planted here, in the center of the clearing. And looking closer, he saw there were signs on the trunk with slightly faded writing on them.

He stepped closer, holding the torch close to it so he can read them. There are four, one on each side of the tree.

‘Leo - A son, a brother and a protector until his very last breath. May his soul rest in peace.’

‘Luna - A mother, a daughter, and a protector until the very end. May her soul rest in peace.’

‘Sol - A man with good intentions caught up in bad circumstances. May his soul rest in peace.’

The bad feeling he had felt before came back full force, and he even put a hand over his gut to try and stop the pain he was getting. His curiosity got the better of him though, and he walked around to the other side of the tree to read the final sign. And with that, he felt his heart drop straight out of his chest.

‘Andor - A father, a son, and a protector until his very last breath. May his soul rest in peace.’

Wag couldn’t breathe. They’d come all this way - and he was dead?!

“W-Wag?” Faintly beyond the sudden rush of his blood in his ears, the wizard caught the sound of his girlfriend calling out for him, panicked and afraid. He stepped out from behind the tree and jogged over to her, his legs giving out once he reached her.

She was crying, her breath coming in ragged gasps and there were tears in her eyes as she looked up at him. “I saw... I dreamt... he was dead... he was stabbed, Wag... please, tell me... tell me it’s not real!”

He said nothing, bowing his head as the truth crashed over him like a wave. Martha had seen it - there was no denying it.

“Wag, please! It wasn’t real! It couldn’t be! Please, tell me it was just a dream!” The mystic clawed at his robes, pulling herself closer and shaking him. Frantic, her voice cracked as he managed to raise his head, and she saw the defeat in his eyes. “No... no! No, no, no!! It can’t be!”

“I’m... so sorry, Martha...” He bit his lip and pulled her into a tight hug. She resisted at first, trying desperately to pull away from his arms, fighting as if it would change the truth.

“He’s not! It was a dream! Another world! It wasn’t my Andor! It can’t be!”

“I can’t be alone!”

He only held her tighter as she broke down in tears. Martha buried her face in the crook of his neck, sobbing so hard she started dry heaving. He didn’t bother telling her she wasn’t alone - that wasn’t what she needed right now. She’d lost her brother and his wife, her niece, her father and her mother all in a relatively short time. And now, she was learning that the last human remaining in her family tree was dead.

They stayed like that for a long time. At some point they both fell asleep in each other’s arms, exhausted from the trek and the stress. When Wag woke up, he blinked against the early morning sun and blearily looked around. His environment was foggy with beams of dawn sunlight streaking down into the clearing.

He blinked and shifted, moving his arm that had ended up under Martha’s body to get the blood moving again. Wag looked down and kissed her forehead, then glanced up as movement attracted his attention.

At first, nothing was there. But as Wag blinked away the water in his eyes, he started noticing how the foggy sunstreaks were shimmering in a strange pattern behind Martha. Like something was there but he couldn’t focus enough on it to see what it was.

“...Andor?” The wizard mumbled, and he could feel the figure smile. It was a warm presence, and it stepped forward and brushed its invisible hand against the sleeping woman’s shoulder.

Then Wag opened his eyes, and nothing was there. The fog was gone, and the sunlight was no longer serene, but harsh and burning into his eyes.

He felt Martha sigh happily against him, and Wag settled back down again to sleep some more. Whatever that was - ghost, dream or mirage - it was calm and kind, and it was safe to stay here just a little longer.

#mianite #mianite season 3 #mianite s3 #saphira writes season 3 #mianite season 1 #mianite season 2 #mianite s1 #mianite s2 #two chapters in two days #these have been written for a while #but i was a bit scared #you'll see why #17 is halfway done so hopefully that can come soon?#cant wait to see how many enemies i make with this chapter!

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mianite-season-3 · 6 years ago

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Unofficial Mianite S3 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15 - It’s About the Journey

Tom was exploding with energy, and Jordan was not up for it this morning. He hadn’t slept well and he felt like his eyelids would soon become so heavy that he wouldn’t be able to stay awake.

“Joooooordan!”

He blinked and stumbled back. Tom was in his face, looking over him with a curious expression. “You look like shit, dude. What’s wrong?”

Jordan shoved him away, shaking his head. “I’m fine. Just tired. Can I borrow some of your energy, since you seem to have more than enough,” He snarked, and Tom grinned.

“I would if I could, man! I feel amazing, like I could fight a god or something!” The zombie man bounced on his toes and twirled his sword. Jordan felt drained watching him.

“Glad you are.” Gods, he was so tired. They’d been walking for what, an hour? He should not be drained like this, if he’d gotten a good night’s sleep. He was fed too, though fish and bread for a month hardly filled his stomach anymore.

Then again, maybe he wasn’t the anomaly. Everyone else had seemed at less than full this morning, and they had for the past week or two. This world had an energy that was different than the ones they’d been to before. It was heavy, dark, like thunder clouds hanging low overhead. The air was thick, making it hard to breathe and think properly. It made everyone want to seek shelter, stay inside and lie in bed—to wait until the clouds finally broke, because none of them wanted to be caught in the rain that wasn’t an if, but a when. Hopefully once it finally did, the sun would break through and they could finally be free from whatever it was that made them feel so strange.

Only Tom seemed to be able to resist the ever present weight on their shoulders, staying lighter than air. He wasn’t even aware of it, since the one time Jordan asked him about the bad feeling this world gave him, he didn’t understand. He pointed to the chaotic organization of the land as why he felt uneasy, rather than the oppressive feeling in his gut. Everyone else had known exactly what he was talking about, but Tom… didn’t.

“Do you really think we’re going to find anything out here, Tom?”

The Dianitee tilted his head, jumping down from a small hill and falling into stride next to him. “Well, I don’t really think we’re gonna find anyone that we’re looking for. It’s been a month, I think we’d have found something by now. But you never know, we might find someone else who can help us. Like pirates or something! Or like, an old temple that’s got a bunch of gear! Anyways, isn’t this better than staying at home? Fresh air’s good for you, since you look like death!”

That neverending optimism did make him smile slightly. While he’d love to see Ianite in this world, and speak with her, finding any clue about this world would also be good.

Hopefully Sonja would be able to get that at least. As much as he tried to hate Star as vehemently as his friends did... he couldn’t. Ianite stood for balance, and that meant he had to consider both sides. And weighing everything against each other, the evidence suggested that Star was a good person, albeit angry and with a short fuse. She hated Ianite for a reason, but he’d seen that before.

What killed him was that he wasn’t able to help directly. His presence would only serve to worsen the problem. It was the exact opposite of what Ianite was supposed to stand for. It made him a little sad to think about it.

“Ok, but Tom, Martha was sure you’d be able to track down Mot and Dianite somehow.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m trying, but I dunno how she expects me to do that. What, does she think I’m some kinda compass or something? It’s not like I can see souls like she can, so what the hell does she expect?”

Jordan shrugged. “She said because you’re a Dianite follower, you might have a connection.”

“That’s bullshit. If that was all it took, we’d have found all three gods by now!”

He shrugged again. “I don’t know. If you concentrate, can you feel anything?”

Jordan saw a flash of something appear in Tom’s eyes, but it disappeared before it registered. “I’ve never felt Dianite in this world, not once. Not even the other world’s Dianite.”

They’d been friends long enough for Jordan to know when he was blatantly lying. “Can you at least try? Who knows, maybe it’ll work this time,” he insisted, taking a seat on the ground himself. Tom made a face at him, but surprisingly didn’t put up too much of a fight before joining him.

“Fine. Just for you, Sparkly-dick, I’ll try.” he winked flirtatiously and Jordan rolled his eyes, leaning back and using his arms as a pillow. Might as well try to get some rest while he could. Within minutes, he was asleep.

Tom glanced back at his friend as he fell asleep. He may be loyal to his friends, but he was also loyal to his god. And Dianite had told him that he wasn’t to say a single word until he could gather enough energy... “Wait, what am I supposed to do?” Tom said out loud, frowning when Jordan doesn’t answer, due to being asleep. The Dianitee groaned, then crossed his legs, rested his hands in his lap and closed his eyes.

“Um, so, Dianite, if you’re around somewhere, can ya please show yourself? I don’t wanna have to find you.”

No response but a faint whistle of a breeze in his ear. “Come on, we’ve offered you literally hundreds of diamonds, that’s more than enough.”

A nerve in his right forearm twitched, and he winced. “Gods, this is pointless. You’re not around. I might as well be trying to talk to a ghost!” Tom sprang to his feet, energized with his frustration. He paced around, punching at the air to try and calm himself down. “Come! On! Dianite! You talked to me before, what the hell did you mean?”

He looked down at his hands, taking a breath. “You said to not abuse my power... but I don’t have any power!” he said it out loud, but part of him knew that wasn’t completely true. He remembered the incredible surge of power within the dream. It wasn’t real… but it was.

An idea. He sat down again, now a little ways from Jordan, and resumed his position. His lids fell and within the darkness of his mind, he summoned the image of the dream. The flames, suffocating. Them swirling into the visage of his god, terrifying and powerful. The words, spoken in a tongue he could only understand in a dream. The spark landing on his hand, and the incredible power blooming inside his body. The floating feeling that he was capable of anything, if he just put his mind to it. “I’m sick of fish and bread. If I could just have something else… an apple, or melon, or something!”

He concentrated, squeezing his eyes so tight that he saw stars and gave himself a headache. With eager anticipation his eyes flew open, and looking around, he saw…

Nothing. There was nothing laying on the ground, besides his friend a few meters away.

Tom moaned in annoyance. He tried so hard! What good was Dianite’s cryptic message if he didn’t actually get superpowers?

He spun around to wake Jordan. They should get going, they didn’t want to get caught at night with the millions of mobs. The flat field they were in wasn’t going to be the best to dig a temporary base into.

“Jordan? Jordan, wake up!” The older man groaned, batting at his friend. Tom rolled his eyes and shook his shoulder, but Jordan still didn’t rise.

“Jardon, get up!” Tom reeled back to kick Jordan’s foot, but before he could he heard a small “pop” come from behind him. He froze, the small sound had somehow reverberated within his entire body. When he finally managed to turn his head, he did not expect what he saw. A single apple, floating a few inches above the ground. Waiting. Tom blinked, sure that he’d just gone crazy. But it stayed. He closed his eyes for longer. It was still there when he opened them.

“Jordan! Holy shit!” He exclaimed, and that brought Jordan out of his nap. He squinted at Tom, irritated.

“What?”

“Look! Look what I did!” Tom pointed excitedly, and Jordan rolled his eyes before sitting up. They widened as he focused on what he was seeing. “W-What? Where did that come from?”

“I did it! I was just thinking really hard about wanting an apple and there it was! Hold on... I want... a million diamonds to rain from the sky!”

He threw his head up to the sky expectantly, but not surprisingly nothing came of it. Shrugging, Tom moved to scoop up the apple, taking a big bite out of it.

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up, why do you get to eat it!?” Jordan’s eyes were intense, ready to pounce for something other than bread. He lunged for it, but Tom danced out of the way. “Cause I spawned it, so it’s mine!”

“How could you have spawned it?!” Jordan exclaimed, still trying to get the bitten apple.

“I dunno, how else does it exist?!”

“I don’t care, give it to me, Tom!”

Jordan was in a frenzy, and in the heat of the moment Tom’s only option was putting some space between them. Unfortunately for Jordan, that meant throwing a punch right into his solar plexus. The older man fell to the ground, suddenly unable to breath. He gasped, trying to drag air back into his lungs.

Before he could get back up, Tom shoved the rest of the apple into his mouth, nearly choking. That was... intense, especially for Jordan who was usually so collected. This world was getting to him more than Tom had thought.

“You... suck...” Jordan huffed as he started to regain air. “How did you even... do that?”

Tom shrugged. “I don’t know! I was just concentrating, and then I thought about how hungry I was, but that I didn’t want bread or fish, and then it just appeared, right there!”

Jordan blinked. “And it wasn’t, you know, a god or something that you just didn’t notice?”

“And they didn’t say anything? The gods are attention whores, Jordan, they always say something when they appear. If they didn’t, isn’t that weirder than me summoning it?”

He pursed his lips. “I guess... but, you’ve never been able to do that before!”

“Yeah, well, maybe you can too! That girl had a bunch of spawn eggs, remember? Maybe people in this world can summon items sometimes?” He didn’t sound too sure of himself, but it was the best suggestion he could come up with. Why else would he be able to summon an apple out of thin air?

“You try it!” Tom shoved Jordan forward, causing his friend to stumble. “If I can do it, you can too!”’ “But what did you do?”

Tom rolled his eyes. “I just imagined it was there, and then it was!”

Jordan shook his head, confounded. But Tom didn’t let it go, so he sat down and closed his eyes, focusing on materializing something. Anything. He squeezed his eyes so tight that he saw stars, but when he opened them again, there was nothing sitting in front of him. Tom patted his shoulder after a minute of waiting. “I guess I’m just special. Alright, c’mon, let’s go!”

“What?” Jordan asked incredulously, standing up and following his friend. He was re-energized by this phenomenon. “Tom, shouldn’t we think about this some more? You made an apple appear out of thin air! Aren’t you curious?”

Tom thought about it for a second, then shrugged. “Nah. Weird stuff happens, it’s whatever.”

That wasn’t the right thing to say, according to Jordan’s reaction. “What do you mean? Does stuff like this happen to you a lot?”

“No! I just meant, you know... look around! The land’s like this, why not summoning random items sometimes?” Tom lied. But now was not the time to spill to Jordan about the weird things that have been happening to him. “Now come on, we’re s’pposed to find Dianite and we’re not gonna do that if you don’t move!”

They continued on, and Jordan dropped it after Tom refused to answer any of his questions. But only for now. Tom was hiding something. That in itself wasn’t new. But there was something about how he was acting, how serious he kept getting, that gave Jordan a bad feeling in his gut.

He would get the answers from Tom, because it felt like they were racing the clock, and whatever Tom was hiding was the key to their victory.

#mianite season 3 #mianite s3 #saphira writes s3 #mianite #mianite season 1 #mianite season #mianite s1 #mianite s2 #next chapter is gonna be up soon enough #its already written #oh boy #i feel like i might make a few enemies

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