This Life of Sin 2: Demonia

From the Fog

Chapter 16: From the fog

Perhaps sensing that I really did not want to stand around for a half an hour or more, Cinder led me from the tent and took me around the encampment. Kieran followed, of course, while Shinra slipped back into my shadow without a word. Cinder led me through the camp an I saw that Rougier was curled up on his hill, his large scaly back easy to pick out even among the tall tents.

"I thought that, perhaps, you would be able to help here Sin." Cinder said quietly as she pulled back the flap on a large blue tent.

Even before I stepped in I had a good idea what I would find. After all, the scent of blood and the pungent stench of ointments was not hard to miss. Sure enough, I walked into a make shift medical tent. There were no cots here, just stretchers lain out in lines on the purple-ish earth, with men and women on them in varying states of pain and misery. Between the stretchers were other demons hurrying back and forth, bandaging and cleaning wounds.

"I am not a healer..." I said, hearing the anxiousness in my own voice. Even using healing magic on my own tames was a difficult process for me. It just was not my strong point.

Cinder nodded. "Perhaps not, but you did say that you can spread your mana to just about anyone did you not?" Surprised, I nodded. "Well, if it is not to presumptuous to ask, would you be able to lend your mana to the healers? Even sending your strength to the wounded would be of great comfort to them. Many of the forces we were able to muster were not even from our own lines, but many Reihan that were living on our lands. I and the other Queens are unable to aid the vast majority of the wounded, and our efforts are mostly wasted even when we try. But you..."

I nodded. She didn't need to convince me farther. I may be a bitch most of the time but it was against my nature to let people just wallow in pain when I could help. Besides, there wasn't much else I could do to aid the demon forces, and so I was eager to do what I could.

I took two steps farther into the tent, planted my bare feet in the earth, and closed my eyes, feeling for the mana channels. They were sluggish here, I realized, like the mana was turned into the same sludge now occupying the Eternal Lake itself. Still, I had to do something. On a whim I lifted Larasta off my shoulder and also planted it in the dirt, instinctually using it like another anchor to the ground. It did not help the sludgy feel but I did feel a kind of boost to my energies. I sent my mana forth into the syrupy mana flows and used a little more effort than normal to get it to go where I wanted.

It took a moment but soon my mana was spidering its way out toward healers and patients alike. You could almost hear the sigh of relief flutter out from those around me. Several people turned my way but my eyes were still closed, my concentration on the mana both seeping out of me as well as the mana that existed around us.

It was this external mana that had the greater part of my attention. At first it was just because it was so far removed from what I was used to that I was curious. But soon I realized that the mana wasn't different, as much as that it was sick, or maybe poisoned. I was not skilled enough in my queenly arts yet to fully know about what it was I was sensing right now. I did know enough to see that it was not a good thing. This land was dying worse than I had originally thought, if even the flow of mana was affected. I had a feeling that there was no way that an arrent spell colliding with what ever dragon nonsense Rougier had done could have caused this mess.

I may have been new to this whole thing, but this screamed of anti-mana to me.

'Even I can feel her mana..." Said Cinder, a note of wonder in her voice. Her words were directed to Kieran as it was pretty clear that I was not paying attention.