Wraithwood Botanist

Mira was moving, though, and Hadrian thought she’d make it until one of the torok decided to sacrifice itself and run to the barrier. Unlike the lurvine, which had a soul pact with a harvester and could thus enter the grand ward, it would kill any other beast that entered the mouth. But the cretin crudely determined that it would rather suffer death than live without its eyes, so it charged.

Mira was five feet away—but she wasn’t close enough.

Or, rather, it was.

Mira made it, but this cowardly invalid dared to sacrifice its life rather than fight or live and train. It was no better than Jas, who had denied Mira her glory.

Not again.

He refused to let such a grotesque act desecrate this moment of glory.

2.

I had never had such powerful mixed feelings toward anyone as I had Hadrian. He just watched me crawl for my life, crying and sobbing and fighting without doing a goddamn thing. Then Brexton scared Jas, and it changed. Hadrian casually executed another family member, giving her hope. But then he ruined it by continuing to watch her with his arms folded.

It was total bullshit.

Everything was going down to the wire, and I almost made it when the torok charged. For a moment, I thought that everyone would just let me die as my brother screamed for them to help, but the bastard actually decided to act.

And god, I hate to give him credit, but it was really something.

He lifted his hand, and a blast of cold chilled my bones. Thousands of thick spears of ice formed above his head, glistening colorful prisms on the ground around me. Each of them radiated with an intense aura, spinning like bullets. It was suffocating.

"You disgust me," Hadrian said to the torok. He flicked his wrist, and the blades flew past me, impacting with piercing, bloody, squelching sounds. Each sound was followed by crackling as the wounds froze, cracked, and reformed.

I held my breath and listened—then my body bounced from the seismic wave of the titan falling to the ground.

It took me thirty seconds of blinding pain to recover from the impact, but I was so close, so I grabbed Kline and pulled him forward.

Three feet, two, one…

It was gruesome work, but after one thrust of my arm, I felt a buzzing chill and the sensation of cool tile on my fingertips. Then, I heard a chorus of cheers.

Cheering.

Fuck these people.

I found no glory in pain and suffering and all that other bullshit. I just wanted to survive, and I was crawling over the ground with a thirty-pound backpack and a cat.

But it did feel a little good, I guess.

So I kept pushing, pulling, clawing, and gasping until my whole chest was on the tile, and then I crawled some more.

I’m not sure when I got my whole body in, but I imagine it was about the time when Kalas’ callous ass released him.

"Mira!" Tyler screamed. He ran up and pulled my backpack off me like a normal, decent person and said, "Where’s your healing stuff? You have healing stuff, right?"

"No need," Hadrian said. He motioned to a rough-looking blonde with a hook nose and a tight bun, and she knelt beside me, grabbing my broken leg. It was facing eight o’clock, a truly terrifying sight, and this bitch had the great idea of man-handling it like a baseball bat.

"This is going to hurt," she warned as if I weren’t actively screaming. Then I heard a crack and blacked out.

3.

It would’ve been nice to see the miraculous effect of healing magic and whatever other voodoo they pulled off, but it was far better to just blackout and time-travel to a moment when I wasn’t in a state of agony. I woke up out of pain with Aiden and Tyler beside me, and that was a great relief.

"Uh…" I looked between them. "Where’s…"

"Kline?" Aiden smiled. He pointed down, and I found my little warrior snuggled against me.

"Oh thank God…" I said, letting my head crash back on the pillow. "Sina?"

"Safe," he said. "I hope you don’t mind, but I healed their eyes with your Diktyo water."

"That’s perfect," I said. "Everyone else?"

Tyler and Aiden grimaced.

"What?" I asked.

"Well, eighteen people are permanently blind now," Aiden said, "thirty-six with partial blindness. It was originally about a hundred, but I knew you’d hate that, so I used water on them, too. That wasn’t all. Brexton, Hadrian, and well, a bunch of families healed as many as they could as a sign of goodwill toward you. It’s honestly a miracle we could heal that many. Diktyo water truly is incredible."

The pain felt from blinding people was far too great to worry about people helping. It sucked.

"Bro, tell her the good news already!" Tyler demanded.

"What good news?" Aiden asked.

"What good… dude, you’re inept as fuck." Tyler turned to me in exasperation. "A hundred and eighty three people survived Harvestrvest because of you. Two… hundred. Hell, maybe more. There’s still a day before the end ofHarvestrvest, give or take. And if you didn’t kill and blind those things, those things would’ve killed all of them."

"But there were two still alive," I said.

"Yeah, but one ran away, and Hadrian killed the third," Tyler said. "It was fucking epic. That guy’s a monster. Apparently, he’s only been threading third evolution cores the last two years. Yours included. I bet he could’ve taken at least two of them by himself. Maybe three."

"Oh…" That’s all I could muster as I looked up at the ceiling, trying to process what happened and whether I did the right thing. I mean, I permanently blinded eighteen people, and that was well within the "not-a-statistic" category where you can feel empathy for each and every one of them.

I get that these people came here prepared to die, but still. I wouldn’t blame myself forever, but I felt it would be wrong not to care deeply about it.

"You want a moment alone?" Aiden asked.

"No…" I said."I’m glad you’re here." I paused and reflected and then said, "What about that lurvine…" I could still remember one getting hit.

"I healed him," Aiden said. "Not to boast, but that’s practically the only thing I’m good at."

My eyes widened. "You…"

"Yeah, me. That was my job during the trial…"

"Oh…" My excitement peaked, and then cold reality crushed me back down again.

"How strange…" I swallowed. "Speaking of families… How’s Kal?"

"How’s Kal?" Tyler laughed, becoming strangely animated. "That guy’s toast. He still hasn’t woken up but he’s in a rude awakening when he does."

"Why? What happened?"

"What happened?" he repeated obnoxiously. "His whole party’s dead. That’s what happened. And that’s only the start. Everyone also knows that he threatened you and then tried to kill you, but no one knows what happened. The guy that tried to kill you kept saying that you went around and killed all of them. But a search party went out and found three of them wandering the forest aimlessly, walking right over poisonous plants. Two of ’em died before they even showed up, and the one who survived returned as a husk. They chose to just end the guy’s suffering."

"How is any of this funny?" I asked chillingly.

Tyler locked up and turned away. "It’s just… Hadrian. He killed that guy, right? And he told everyone he didn’t and if anyone said otherwise, he would eradicate their family tree." He looked away, seemingly realizing that his admission made things worse, so he quickly corrected. "And he was protecting you. Said it was their fault, and if you did kill them, you were justified, and if you didn’t, their family had aggressively disregarded the will of… whatever council or government. He pretty much said if people blamed you, they were pathetic losers. It was just… really cool I guess."

"Oh…" That was the third time I had said that, but it had a different twang, a different energy and emotion. "I see… What about the last one? The woman?"

"Her? We don’t know. They found a dead torok in the woods, and Hackle didn’t claim it. That’s all we know."

"Really…" I said nervously. Then I collapsed, not particularly caring whether Lysan lived or died. If she were alive and waiting, I’d just have to kill her. If it were me and Kline and the lurvines… I could probably swing it. Probably. The problem was still those blind people. I felt awful about it to the point I couldn’t think about survival or… really anything.

"Where’s my backpack?" I asked. "Actually, just leave it. Aiden?"

"Yeah?" Aiden asked.

"When I leave, I want you to sell some stuff I give you. And when you do, I want you to give all the money to the blind people and maybe… I don’t know. This world has magic, right? I’m sure there’s some type of ultra-elite blind swordsman shit. I can practically see with my eyes closed. Get a teacher and teach them soul and mana sight… or something. Look…" I paused. "Find a way for them to live… Actually that sounds difficult. Can you figure out who I can ask?"

"No, it’s okay," Aiden said. "I got a guy who sells things. He’s pretty much using me, but he’ll beg and claw to do this for you. There’s profound benefits to people using you. You should try it."

I sent him a long, mocking sneer. "You still gotta work on that optimism."

"Trust me, I’m trying. But every time I get into the groove, some… challenging things happen. It’s… a great learning opportunity. Another five years of this, and I’ll be able to lie to my mother."

I blinked twice, shocked by the fact that he said that with a serious face. Then he cracked a smile, and we burst into laughter.

It was warm. Somewhere in that state of mind that could’ve trenched in deep with thoughts of despair, having a little positivity went a long way.

Blindness wasn’t a true hindrance in a world of magic.

Mana sight. Soul sight. Training. There were ways to see without seeing, and even if these stupid mother fuckers would just use it to learn how to kill things again, they would be able to enjoy their lives.

That’s all that mattered.

I sighed a breath of relief. I did it. Somehow, I did it—and we all survived.

4.

It took about four more hours before I left the tent, feeling like Alexander the Great as people greeted me. A large group of people were bandaged up or bleeding out, not getting a whole lot of help from anyone, and stragglers filed in from the forest. It was the last day—people would be leaving for the gate in a few more hours.

Hadrian had put some torok’s meat onto an open flame, but looked bitter it wouldn’t cook. Hell, it would probably take three days to cook that meat—maybe more.

I owed him, so Kline and I braved the stares from others as we approached.

"She’s awake," Hadrian said with a slight smirk.

I coughed and turned away, telling myself not to hate him and that arrogant smirk. "Thank you."

"For what?" Hadrian asked.

"Never mind," I said, turning and walking away.

"Oh, come now," Hadrian said. "It’s a simple question with a simple answer. For what? I’m sure you see many things I’ve done as worthy of praise, but I see none."

"Not saving my life?" I asked dryly.

"I recall you dragging yourself through the barrier without a party’s aid." Hadrian shrugged. And I wanted this meat. It’s the Dante’s policy to never feast upon another’s quarry. It’s shameful enough to fight beasts you injured."

I sighed. "So you did it for meat?"

"I recall telling you that."

"Meat that won’t cook for three days?"

"We’ve saved some, of course. Many backpacks worth."

I took a frustrated breath. "What about… protecting me from… that Melhan guy?"

"What do you mean? That man died in the torok attack." He narrowed his eyes. "Don’t you remember?"

I nodded. "Now that you’ve reminded me…"

"See? There’s nothing to thank me for."

I looked around at the others who kept touching their eyes to check that they were actually healed. "What about healing those people?"

"Oh that," Hadrian said with an evil grin. "I expect favor for that. So I suggest you don’t thank me."