The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

[79] Blood

Time seemed to slow as Tanisha searched the bond to feel Bjorn’s emotions. He was confident and wanted her to trust him. She had no choice, as she was just bitten by one of if not the most toxic animals she had ever heard of, but she did trust him. It was at that moment she saw a stream of venom be carried in the aether directly into Thyra. 

Venomous Bite
Aether Cost: 0
You have a neurotoxic venom which can be injected through a bite with your fangs. Your venom becomes infectious and will spread to nearby targets within five feet of the injected target. Allies are unaffected by your venom.

Tanisha understood that somehow the venom wasn’t deadly to her in the same way Poison Cloud never hurt her. While Tanisha was temporarily distracted Thyra landed another hit, but it was significantly weaker than the first. The added venom had already begun rampaging through her body. Tanisha had her own plan to enact, and she needed concentration to pull it off. The Poison Cloud limited visibility so much so that Thyra didn’t notice that Tanisha’s daggers were floating in the air behind her. Tanisha hadn’t thrown them, but instead let the Air Constructs have them so she could attack from behind.

Joha had taught her a long time ago that there was only one way to properly kill a mage. Tanisha ducked under a strike from Thyra, breaking the woman’s guard, and punched her with an uppercut to the head. The seiðr exploded outward, knocking her head back. Thyra was dazed but her magic kept her conscious; her healing was fighting the venom in her, the poison all around and the combat damage at the same time. 

Blood began to flow from Thyra’s eyes and ears as she reared back to defend herself. Her confidence in winning this fight waned with each missed strike as Tanisha weaved her two jabs. She was getting weaker each passing moment. Then she felt something stab through her throat. Then a second time as the blades returned. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, she had been stabbed many times before, but this was different. This was the first time she felt cold. She felt fear in the face of battle. The Hand was so weak now that she fell to her knees, unable to breathe as she started to shake uncontrollably.

“All you had to do was leave me alone,” Tanisha said as she reached behind Thyra’s head and grabbed one of the twin daggers. “I hope you still think the journey was worth it to see me again.”

Recognition flashed in Thyra’s bloodshot eyes. “Fr…eja?” she coughed out. “You have to be kidding me. The failure, the-the shia?”

Tanisha yanked the dagger around, using an Air Construct hand to do the same to the other weapon since her arm was broken. 

“No, my name is Tanisha,” she said as the head rolled free.

Thyra’s body slumped over as blood pooled on the ground. Tanisha was going to turn away to join the fight against Loki, but something in her made her look at the crimson wash. She couldn’t break free of the sight and smell; she wanted to taste it. She needed to taste it. Something about the blood was calling to her. It was Bjorn growling at her that made her realize she was on the ground, on her hands and knees, her head just a few inches from the blood. 

Tanisha had to muster all of her willpower to resist the overwhelming urge to lap up as much as she could. She hyperventilated as she struggled to keep herself from doing something she would regret. Bjorn had to tackle her and move her way from Thyra’s body to finally snap her out of her transfixation. 

She almost drank blood, wendigo blood. 

Tanisha shook her head in disbelief. Maybe being a cernunnos had affected her mind after all.

“Thanks Bjorn…” she said in a pained grunt. “Maybe don’t use me as a venom delivery system next time, though.” 

Tanisha had to pick herself off the ground. The fight with Thyra had left her battered, but she was the one who’d survived in the end. She shouldn’t have won that fight; Thyra was far more skillful, durable and experienced, but she was too cocky. She had believed nothing could hurt her, so she didn’t use her abilities to their absolute best. If Thyra had been serious in the beginning Tanisha would be the one without a head. 

Tanisha directed one of her Hard Air Constructs to burn Thyra’s head, which it did rather quickly. It was a precaution to ensure that Thyra didn’t regenerate or become an undead. The sounds of battle grabbed her attention; the Isi disciples were still fighting Loki. When Tanisha turned to see what was going on her heart sank. All but three of the disciples were dead. Tyr was pierced through the chest with a long shadow spike. Svan was in combat with a shadow construct and was missing an arm. 

She was too late to save them. She glared at Loki, her body too damaged to engage with the stronger of Ingrid’s Hands. Although her fury in seeing the man caused seiðr to spill from her mouth and crackle with power. Despite the fact she knew she wouldn’t survive engagement she prepared to throw everything she had into killing the man.

A moment before Tanisha could will herself to move Joha finally rejoined the battle; he was again covered in wounds and black maya as he sped towards the spike that held up Tyr’s body. He broke the shadow construct spike with a kick and caught Tyr. He threw the young man over his shoulder. Loki summoned shadow spikes which shot out of the ground towards the tiger demon. Joha was able to dodge them, but only by inches each time.

“Get him out of here!” Svan yelled. “Don’t worry about us! For the Isi!”

The other surviving Isi disciple reiterated Svan’s sentiment. Joha rushed towards Tanisha and picked her up under his free arm. 

“Bjorn, on my back, hold on,” Joha said.

“Joha, we have to kill him! With you here we can!” Tanisha screamed.

“We stay, Tyr dies.” Joha responded. “I am not sure I can beat that man.”

Tanisha looked over to Tyr. He was breathing although it was very shallow. She then looked over to Loki and balled her fist only to release it.  Her daggers were stored in her necklace as she let out a breath.  

“Fine.” Tanisha relented.

Bjorn did as he was told and jumped onto the tiger demon’s back. He even used his claws to ensure he was on securely. Joha ran, taking off like an arrow through the sky. Tanisha could see how each step was infused with maya, pushing him that much faster. He wasn’t using Maya Blink or Flash Step, but instead some kind of running jump where he released a small amount of maya each time his foot pushed off the ground.  

Between the hail of spikes, the sentinels at the gatehouse and the shadow constructs, there was no way Joha could make it through unscathed. That’s when Bjorn again unleashed his fire breath, this time from all of his heads at once. Clearing a way in front of them for a single moment. Joha used that moment, charging through to the outer city. They had done it; they escaped the influence of the Salstar domain.

The outer city was far more densely packed than the inner one. Crowds had come to see the fight at the gate as best they could. The Prince and the Salstars only had control of the inner city and Palace at the moment. Although the prince could take complete control if he wanted. Tanisha was right in her assumption that he wouldn’t; the Salstars had to pass the test first or he wouldn’t back them.

Joha changed his appearance several times during the escape, only stopping once he was sure no one was following them. He took them into an alley where several homeless people watched them suspiciously before turning away to mind their own business. Joha let go of Tanisha as Bjorn jumped off of him. Joha now looked like some random wendigo woman. He carefully placed Tyr on the ground; the young man’s breathing was shallow and wet. The hole in his chest looked to have just barely missed his heart but had punctured his lung. He had various other wounds, including a missing eye.

“Are you okay, Sif?” Joha asked as he nodded towards the alley dwellers.

“I am, Lykke,” Tanisha decided to name him. “But I don’t think we can save him. If we take him to a healer Lo-you know who might have constructs and they might find us, and I don’t have any poti…” She quickly accessed her necklace. “I know I placed it in here.” A bottle containing the blue greater health potion appeared in her hand. “Lykke, administer this.”

Joha took the potion and uncorked it. His maya turned the brew into a fine mist.  Tanisha remembered when they’d had to do the same thing for Wyatt when he was kicked by a startled horse. Despite this being far more serious the procedure was the same. Each time Tyr breathed some of the potion would enter through his mouth or nose. His breathing became more erratic as the pain increased. Having tissue and organs repaired this way always hurt, and it would be far slower than if he could just drink the potion.

“Hold him down,” Joha said.

Tanisha held onto one of Tyr’s wrists and Bjorn had to hold the other as one of her arms was broken. She was surprised she wasn’t in more pain. It hurt, sure, but not to the same level as when she’d fought the troll back at the start of her adventure. Well, Bjorn fought the troll. She just got ragdolled, but whatever. This pain was far more manageable, even ignorable. She resigned herself to just believing it was a combination of her higher constitution and willpower, maybe.

It took five minutes for Tyr’s breathing to normalize, and an additional five before he finally took all of the potion. He was unconscious, however, and they didn’t know how long it would be before he woke up.

“I think he’s going to make it,” Tanisha said. “Even his eye regenerated.”

“It was a good potion,” Joha agreed. “We need to keep moving, though. Come here.” A long cloth appeared in his hands and he tied a sling around Tanisha’s broken arm. “That should work for now. We stick to the alleys, we stay hidden and stick to your plan.” He looked at Bjorn. “We just need to get him out of sight.”

Tyr stirred, then opened his eyes. He quickly looked around confused as to where he was. He was too weak to do much more than sit up.

“What’s going on? Who are you two?” Tyr asked.

“It’s me, Tanisha,” she said in a whisper. “We’re out in the outer city, but call me Sif for now.”

“Tani-Sif, we got out?” Tyr asked as whatever strength he had left failed him and he layed back on the ground. “What about everyone else?”  He looked around.

“We need to go somewhere safe. Do you know of a place?” Joha asked abruptly. 

Tyr swallowed dryly; he understood the context behind changing the subject. He clenched his fists and cursed under his breath. 

The young man closed his eyes and nodded. “I do-I do.” His voice was tired. “We have a meetup location with the ones who got through before things turned to shit.” Tyr tried to stand but couldn’t even sit up again. “Uh, I may need some help, but I can get us there.”