The closer they got to the Rupture, the more certain Lira became that their group was indeed being stalked.
Arin stayed on Arden's arm. Shari kept sniffing the air, her body lower to the ground than usual as she moved through the grass. Even if their spirits hadn't been acting weird, Lira would have known something was out there. It was a feeling, a tingling in her left shoulder that woke her up in the middle of the night in the deep woods. The part of her that marked her bond to Shari could sense more than just her bondmate--but only if the spirit was powerful enough.
Lira ran a few steps forward to walk beside Arden. "This spirit is at least a primal. A strong one, too."
"How do you know that?" he asked in a quiet voice. Their group had long since stopped talking. Even soft words felt far too loud, too exposed.
"Spend enough time around them, and you start learning when they're nearby," murmured Lira.
Arden gave her a look, then shook his head. "Where the hell have you been to get familiar with primal spirits?"
"I'll tell you if you live through this."
"Comforting as always, Lira."
They fell back into silence until they reached the heart of this Wild lands.
Unlike the rest of the Wilds, the heart was different. In direct, constant exposure to the Rupture, the vegetation became almost a translucent, glowing blue, fading into a softer white light at their edges. Shari and Arin were almost perfectly camouflaged, distinguishable only by their slightly more solidified form given by their human bonds.
Then there was the Rupture itself.
In comparison to the ethereal, soft beauty around it, the Rupture was an ugly gash in whatever fabric usually kept the two realms apart. Crisp, jagged lightning flickered at the edges of its dark silvery centre--a flat, almost mirrored void that echoed the physical world around it. No one was entirely sure if the reflection truly showed what was on the other side in the spirit realm, and those that did venture in never came out again.
Lira stopped some ten metres from the Rupture, Arden beside her. The rest of the group spread out around the clearing. Shari wandered around, sniffing at everything and anything while Arin stood guard on her back.
"Bigger than usual," said Arden, looking over the Rupture. It was almost twice his height and half as wide, partially buried in the ground. Wind gusted around them, like the Rupture itself was trying to suck them in. "Not a good sign."
"Something came through," guessed Lira, looking around.
Something felt... wrong. When a Rupture first opened, it caused a small explosion of physical space, spirit energy, and about six other things Lira had never been able to remember that didn't combine well. The result was that anything within ten metres got disintegrated, leaving nothing but a small, barren crater of melted stone and dirt below the Rupture. The crater was usually smooth. Solid. Borderline dangerous with how easy it was to slip down the slope and fall into the Rupture.
Not this one. Great hunks of rock had been ripped from the stone she expected to be smooth. Large claws had gouged the dirt. Multiple bushes had been ripped from the ground and left to clumsily grow back into each other.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" asked Arden, reaching down to run his finger across one of the larger claw marks.
"Not often," said Lira. She flicked her gaze to the fighter, who was currently kicking at the ground by the base of one of the nearby trees with his buddy. "Only when poachers were involved."
"Can you two close the damn thing so we can leave?" called the guy with the map, which he'd traded for a shortsword that he now awkwardly clutched to his chest. "That spirit is still around, you know? I really just wanna--"
"Boss!" called one of the fighters, standing up and waving a hand at Arden. "We found, uh, well you should probably come look."
Arden glanced at Lira, shrugged, and walked over.
She followed him.
"What is it?" asked Arden, right as Lira spotted it.
Blood, spattered up the side of the tree.
Not only blood, but traps. Spiritsteel traps. A long cord was wrapped twice around the tree, attached to a harness that Lira had seen far too many times. Designed to wrap around a spirit's chest and lock around their necks, the inward-facing spiritsteel spikes that lined it ensured any spirit unfortunate to be placed in one couldn't wriggle their way out alive.
This was a large harness, big enough that even Shari would have been able to slip through, but judging by the white-blue blood dried on the tips of the spikes, the harness had indeed been used.
Lira pulled out her hunting knife and set about dismantling it.
Arden was a little slower on the uptake. "What the hell is this?"
"What does it look like, Arden?" muttered Lira, stabbing the tip of her knife through a key joint and pushing her weight on top of it to break it.
"I'll give you a hint, kid," said the fighter. He jerked his chin towards Lira. "Imagine her beast trapped in it, I can give you a demonstration if--"
Lira threw one of the spiritsteel spikes at him. It hit him on the cheek and drew blood.
"One more," she snarled, standing up with her knife in hand as he smeared crimson across his cheek. Arden tried to grab her arm but she shook him off. "Give me one more reason, because third time's the time that I really lose my patience."
"I forgot your beast was more civilised than you," the fighter said with a sneer. His hand went to his sword. "Maybe I should put you in the trap instead, see how long--"
"There's more blood over here!" one of the spirit mages called from a few metres away, oblivious to how close Lira was to adding one more individual's blood to the scene. They paused, then muttered a curse. "And, uh, what was possibly a bit of leg. Or maybe it's an arm."
The other fighter, who at least knew how to keep his mouth shut, grabbed the annoying one by the shoulder and pushed him away, whispering in voices too low for Lira to make out as they walked a little further into the trees.
"Lira," said Arden with a sigh. "You can't just attack people."
"He threatened Shari," said Lira, finishing off the trap. "Twice. And you're letting him. Does he say things like that about Arin?"
"He hasn't actually said he's going to hurt her yet," said Arden. "He hasn't done anything--"
"No, but by the time he does, Shari's dead and it's too late," said Lira. "You can't wait around and just react to people like him. You have to stop them before they do anything in the first place."
"And what do you mean by 'stop them', exactly?"
"Whatever it needs to mean at the time." Lira stood up and kicked the now-useless pieces of the trap a little further away from each other. "At least whoever tried to trap this spirit got what they deserved. There's human blood around."
"Lira, you..." Arden trailed off as she turned her back on him. After a few moments, he relented. "It was a full moon last night. Whoever tried... this," he said, gesturing around, "Was kinda dumb."
"I could have been here last night," muttered Lira, stepping over a claw mark as she walked back over to the Rupture. "I was in the town nearby, but with the storm and the moon, I thought it might be better to wait."
"It's not your fault someone trapped a spirit, Lira," Arden said, surprisingly softly.
She ignored him and drew one of her smaller daggers from her belts. "Sooner we close this, the better. You wanna do it, or shall I?"
He paused, running a hand through his hair. "You do it, you've always been better at seals. I'll keep an eye on the others." He gave her a small smile. "And Shari, of course."
"Fine."
Arden walked away, leaving Lira to close the Rupture.
The process wasn't hard, but it did involve blood magic. Lira pulled her right glove off and crouched by the edge of the crater, rolling up her sleeve. She scrunched up her nose as she dragged the tip of her dagger in a thin line down her bicep. Blood welled as she flexed her arm, and after swiping a gloved left finger across it, she drew the blood seal straight onto the melted rock around the Rupture.
The seal began to glow. Small, crimson flecks of light drifted towards the Rupture, absorbed into its dark, mirrored centre.
Lira walked around to the opposite side and repeated the process. The larger the Rupture, the more seals it needed around it to close. Smaller Ruptures took three. If she had to guess, this one would probably take five, if not six.
She sighed. At least this seal was simple. Two opposite, curved lines that ran through each other and a dash through the centre: 'Close'.
As she started on her third seal, Lira noticed something odd: a dried blood seal on the crater rock. Though some of the lines had been rubbed out, its complexity was apparent, not to mention its size. Her Close seals could fit on her palm with room to spare. The dried blood seal was bigger than her entire hand, fingers included.
She glanced up at Arden, intending to call him over before dismissing the idea.
Get the Rupture closed first, then worry about conspiracy theories.
When her fourth seal completed, the Rupture finally began to shrink.
"One more," she muttered to no one in particular, grimacing at the blood smeared over her bicep as she flexed it one last time.
As she drew one of the curved lines, the tingle in her left arm flared, not yet painful but a whole lot more uncomfortable than before.
Lira hesitated, hand on the hilt of her hunting knife as she turned to scan the treeline behind her.
She couldn't see Shari. Couldn't see Arin, or either of the fighters. The mages stood near the map-guy, paying zero attention to anything around them. Arden was at least doing as he'd promised, but--
From somewhere in the forest, Arin screeched a warning.
Lira cursed, turning her attention back to the seal. One more. She went to swipe her finger over her bicep again, but her left arm felt sluggish. It wouldn't lift more than a few centimetres, which meant--
"Arden!" she called out. He turned his attention towards her. "The spirit can--"
She didn't finish her sentence before the blue light erupted between the trees. The tingle in her arm exploded into lightning, leaving it hanging completely useless by her side as the primal spirit that had been stalking them emerged from the Wilds and charged straight at Arden.
*+*+*+*
A/N - Pissed off spirit vs Arden, round one, fight!
Aiming for daily updates atm, which means chapters might be a little shorter than my other books. Still almost 2k each, so we'll see how long until that goes out the window :D
Pls throw motivation in the form of comments/votes if daily updates are what you want :D