Chapter 51: Souls and Bindings
Thane saw the three standing at the edge of the path, stiff with fear and utterly clueless about where to step next. The darkness pressed in like a hand over their mouths; the sounds of death still hung in the tunnel like smoke and had made them small and unsure, like figures carved from shadow. He lifted the scepter, angled the ember crystal away from their faces, and slowly poured a trickle of mana into the staff.
Fire surged to life, a tight, bright bloom that threw long, leaping shapes across the stone. The three finally saw Thane.
Their reactions were immediate and unguarded. The man’s jaw fell open, his rough features pinched by disbelief. The woman flinched backward, eyes wide, shoulders forming a shield around the boy. The boy blinked up through a film of tears, confusion melting into shock as the light painted Thane’s face in gold and ember red, revealing not a grizzled mercenary or armored knight but a teenager with soot on his cheeks and steadiness in his gaze, holding a staff like he had borrowed it from an uncle.
"A... boy?!" the man cried, his voice cracking between wonder and dread.
"I’m Thane. Nice to meet you!" Thane said, as if they had just met at a village well, completely oblivious to the incredulous looks he was getting.
The light spilled farther, catching the ground behind Thane and the corpses sprawled across it.
One barbarian lay twisted with a dagger in his skull; another had fallen with a dagger dug deep into the chest; the battle mages were splayed like broken puppets.
The torchlight wavered as if shocked, and for a breath, the three could only stare, stunned into silence by the plainness of the scene: the boy, alive, and the barbarians and battle mages that were after them were not!
"Hmm? Is there something wrong? I’m pretty sure they’re dead..." Thane glanced back. Hadn’t Libra taken their souls?
"Uh... Th-Thane was it? Thane, thank you for saving us!" the man said at last, voice coming back to him.
"I am Matthew. This woman is Priscilla. And the boy is Josiah."
Thane’s eyebrows lifted. All biblical names. He tried not to smile at the familiarity of it; it steadied something in him.
"Thane... are they...? We heard the screaming and—" Priscilla’s voice trembled, her gaze darting from the bodies to Thane’s face.
"...Yeah," Thane answered.
"I tricked them. I used some poison on the daggers." He kept it simple; there would be time later to explain Spirit and Soul Bind and everything else.
"Killing five members of the Red Chains at such a young age is quite impressive, and frankly shocking!" Matthew said, glancing down at one of the dead with a visible shiver.
"Considering that one of them is Bolgard the Beheader!"
Josiah’s eyes widened.
"You fought them in total darkness!" he blurted, awe chasing away his fear.
"How could you even see them?"
Thane froze mid-gesture.
"Oh, that? Uh... I was, you know, raised in a dark environment..." he said, trying for nonchalance.
The three stared, confusion flickering among them. Priscilla’s brows knit, Matthew tilted his head, but neither pressed further. After a moment’s awkward silence, Matthew cleared his throat.
"Well," Thane said quickly, seizing the chance to move on, "You’re safe for now."
"There are still several of them outside," Matthew warned.
"They searched for us inside this cave. We have to flee. I heard this cave leads to several exits. We have to get out."
"Why are they after you in the first place?" Thane tilted his head.
"I will tell that tale later. But for now, we must move. There are other members of the Red Chains. They will know that Bolgard has died because of their Life Link Band."
"A Life Link Band?" Thane asked, buying time as he checked the tunnel with a glance.
"It is binding magic to a person’s body. It tells his allies if he is alive or dead, and those who hold the other end of this magic can find the body!" Matthew explained hurriedly, already urging Priscilla and Josiah to their feet.
"We could toss the bodies down the lava!" Thane said.
"I saw a cliff leading to a lava river."
"Of course! The lava flows there! Let’s throw them now so they lose track of the body," Matthew exclaimed!
He noticed the staff in Thane’s hands and took it in with obvious relief.
"What luck. The battle mage hadn’t bound the item to himself! Quite odd, but it is to our luck."
"Erm, is the rest of the items... bound?" Thane couldn’t help asking, testing how much he could get away with showing.
Matthew reached toward Bolgard’s sword, then struggled as the weapon trembled in his grip.
"Ugh. It is!" he hissed.
"It might be possible to unbind this, but since the man we killed is of a reputation, unbinding his weapon would be recorded. And it’s even worse if we seek someone who can illegally unbind it. We must toss it into the lava if we want all traces gone."
"Alrighty." Thane nodded, easy and practical. He understood. Evidence and bindings worked like chains in more ways than one.
Matthew moved to drag Bolgard’s body. Thane reached for the other two barbarians, one in each hand, and hefted them as if they were sacks of grain. He also hooked his foot around the staff-wielder’s corpse and pulled it along, then bent and scooped the sword-mage by the collar for good measure. He started jogging toward the cliff.
"Wha? What?" Matthew staggered, staring. Priscilla’s hand flew to her mouth; Josiah let out a tiny, involuntary "whoa."
"That kid is strong," Priscilla whispered, as if naming it might break the spell.
"Wait! We can’t see!" Josiah cried when Thane vanished around the bend with the only good light source.
But Thane didn’t slow. He wanted space to confirm something away from their eyes. He held the weapons, Bolgard’s sword, and tested the items in his grip. Nothing happened.
"This is what I meant, Master," Libra murmured, drifting cool and steady at the back of Thane’s mind.
"The weapons are unbound at your touch. In this world of magic, items like these become sentient, or nearly so, when they have fought long and absorbed much mana. You could also bind it through magic. And the Dungeon cores have this magic and would bind the weapons to their summoned creatures. You simply have the ability to unbind them."
"Why?" Thane asked, still moving.
"Because you are a Conqueror. I could not possess you, and I hold quite powerful binding magic. It follows: a Son of the Most High cannot be yoked to lesser bonds. You are already bound with the strongest seal that can never be broken."
"Ah, the Seal of the Holy Spirit. Gotcha." Thane exhaled.
"Anyway, Matthew didn’t touch this hammer. I need to show I’m carrying a weapon so I don’t flash my Item Storage cheat." He shifted his grip on the cyclopean hammer.
"Let’s keep the miracle-meter low."
He jogged to the cliff, checked the tunnel, and, once out of view, slid two of the corpses into his [Item Storage] with a thought. They vanished into the hush of the pocket-space. He dusted his hands, waited a few seconds so it wouldn’t look like a magic trick, then doubled back.
He found Matthew squatting among shattered torches, hands moving deftly. Vines of green light grew between splintered shafts, binding wood to wood. Matthew pressed his palm to Josiah’s wound; tendrils of chlorophyll light seeped into torn flesh, knitting skin and stanching blood.
Josiah was grimacing but bore the pain.
"Thane! You ran off so fast—oh? That hammer!" Matthew blinked; the green spell flickered, then steadied.
"We have to act fast, remember?" Thane said, setting down Bolgard’s body beside the others.
"And it seems not all their items were bound. Weird, right? Anyway, can you get that torch working without the light?" He tilted his chin at the glowing bundle.
Priscilla’s eyes were on Thane’s arms. It was not even like that of the barbarian and was as lean as the boys!
"H-how did you get so strong?"
"I was trained by a master who chose a hermit’s life," Thane said easily, voice slanting toward teasing to relax them.
"He said I already had a body unusually strong, full of Power. So he trained me." He hefted two corpses again as if they weighed little.
"Anyway, less talk, more actions, and then we can get out of here."
As he moved out of earshot, he murmured, "We got the souls, right?"
"All five of them," Libra replied, a satisfied chime under the words.
"Any recommendations?"
"You’re asking me? I could betray you with this, you know," Libra said, almost playfully.
"I doubt you will," Thane answered, blunt and unruffled, drawing another body into [Item Storage]. "You’ve got better taste than treason."
Libra’s presence curled in a smirk; he didn’t have a face to show.
"...I suppose I won’t. Of the five, Bolgard’s soul is the strongest. We could merge that soul with Esau later. Then Esau would be a very reliable companion if you manage to summon him."
"Oh?" Thane was shocked.