Bloodflowers Bloom (The Astral Wanderer Book 2), D'Artagnan Rey [essential reading .txt] 📗

there is another magic to react to.” He placed his palms together and bowed his head. “Which hopefully means there aren’t illusions on top of illusions. Before you waste considerable mana trying to hack through them all, let me test something.”

“What are you doing?” the captain questioned as his body began to illuminate with blue light.

“I’ll be right back,” he stated and closed his eyes. “Watch over me for a moment, all right?”

“What for?”

“Projection!” he shouted before his body began to slump and Farah lunged to catch him.

With a swipe of her claws, Asla loosed another wave of her anima. Not much seemed to change from the last time, however. For a brief moment, the barrier around her fell but revealed only a slightly different alignment of trees, these with actual foliage. She hadn’t caught sight of any of her comrades thus far and the fruitless attempts had begun to tire her. If she continued with these random blasts, she would drain her magic too quickly and wouldn’t be able to keep this up.

“Asla?” Jazai called and she spun, surprised, and almost cut the forest down before her gaze settled on her friend—or, at least, a blue image of him.

“What the hells? Jazai?” She gasped and studied the projection warily.

“It’s neat, right?” He waved his hands enthusiastically. “This cantrip allows me to make a projection of myself using mana. It helps with a few things but getting past illusions is what counts right now.”

“Illusions? Plural?” she asked.

“Indeed. It’s a pain, isn’t it?”

“Honestly, I wish you had chosen a nicer avatar to meet me with.” Asla sighed and lowered her claws to her side. “Seeing you in this form is somewhat unnerving.”

“Sorry, but a pigeon or puppy is not available to me,” he replied dryly. “It naturally takes the form I’m most familiar with and isn’t an easy cantrip to use in the first place. I’m merely lucky I’m a diviner so doing things like this isn’t so taxing for me. I suppose I can try to change the form or would you rather I used that time to help get you out of here?”

“Huh. Yeah…uh, thanks. Getting out sounds more appealing,” she admitted and looked away for a brief moment. “So what do you need from me? I’ve attempted to break through but the illusion keeps reforming.”

“You may simply be slicing through different illusions,” Jazai told her. “But that’s neither here nor there. Right now, we are separated but that doesn’t mean we cannot interact. Farah should be able to use her magic to disrupt the illusion. She already found me,” he explained. “I needed to get a look at you and find out how these illusions are working here.” He extended a glowing hand. “Give me a small trickle of your mana. This will enable me to track you.”

Asla nodded and stretched her hand forward to direct a trickle of her mana to him. It appeared as a small orange orb and sank into his hand. “All right. Stay here. I’ll have Wulfsun do the same. With all your mana, I will be able to pinpoint where everyone is and Farah can bring us together again.”

“Okay—but wait. Does that mean you already found Devol?” she asked.

Jazai shook his head. “I couldn’t find him, I think he pushed ahead so we should probably hurry and regroup so we can go looking for him.”

The wildkin nodded furiously. “I understand, yes—go!” At that, the diviner seemed to fade and she looked between the trees directly ahead of her. She wondered if the other trees with the blue leaves she had seen were perhaps in the area where Devol was.

The Templar launched another burst of mana but nothing gave beneath it. He sighed and decided his best choice would probably be to press forward and see if there was some kind of threshold or perimeter where the illusion ceased.

“Wulfsun!” a familiar voice shouted. He looked quickly to where a projection of Jazai floated toward him.

“Jazai?” he asked. “Are you using a projection? It’s a clever choice. I assume it means this is definitely an illusion?”

“Mostly, it seems, but some of it is real.” The diviner held his hand out. “Quick, give me a little of your mana. I already have some of Asla’s. Me and Farah have a way to get through it.”

The man nodded. “All right, here tak—wait a minute.” He drew his hand back. “How do I know this isn’t another part of the illusion?”

“Are you kidding me?” Jazai placed his hands against his body. “I’m literally composed of my own mana. Can’t you sense it?”

“The Abyss is capable of all kinds of things,” he pointed out and raised his eyebrow. “Do you have proof it is you?”

“I honestly don’t have the time to rattle off a list,” Jazai muttered and extended his hand a little farther. “But what does it matter? You like to gamble, so come on!”

Wulfsun snickered, sighed, and moved his hand toward him. “Well, I guess it’s true. But hurry, will you?”

The diviner took his hand and drew some of his mana, and it formed a yellow orb within him. “I’m sure your plan would have been so much faster.”

“Get going,” the Templar snapped and the boy shook his head reluctantly and disappeared. The large man folded his arms and smiled for a brief moment. The apprentice was proving his worth, as much of a pain as he could be. He was certainly smart and gifted and deserved to be praised to his father the next time Wulfsun saw the man.

A few minutes passed and he wondered if something had gone wrong. He toyed with the idea of making another attempt, mainly to fill the time, but a bright flash of light erupted in front of him. With a muttered curse, he shielded his eyes but when it began to fade, he saw Asla, Jazai, and Farah emerge from the brightness.

“There you are. Well done!” He grinned broadly as he walked to them.