Curselock

Chapter 89: Mother Bear

Leland didn’t notice the being until it was upon him.

A sea of furry ice was all he was able to take in before the surrounding silent monsters reacted. Each roared, growled, cackled, or whirled through the stands charging the new threat like their nests were being razed. There was no order, no evidence that the monsters within Ice Castle were abiding by some hidden rule book. They simply rushed to the sandy floor, unabashed by the presence of their dead King.

No, the monsters had eyes elsewhere.

It rode the cold winds, drifting through the ebbs and flows of reality like a skiff braving white water rapids. It appeared – it allowed its presence to be known, frozen fur and all. The being, larger than the mighty moose King, stood at the center of the arena having finished its spell. It arrived in such a position that it loomed over the mentally shocked Jude.

The collapsing wave of monsters attempted to pounce. They jumped from the stands, only the quickest reaching the sandy pit before a blast of irreputable precise cold eclipsed them.

The monsters fell over, their bodies breaking into frozen glass-like shards. Leland didn’t notice. Neither did Glenny. Their attention was on the behemoth standing over their friend. The anger and pure unfiltered artificial rage had instantly defused, gone with only the trace of blue glowing wisps to support the claims the emotions were present in the first place.

Now, instead of the heat of the Berserker Lord, there was only gentle cold. Leland scrambled to draw power, he trusted his grimoire to skip to the correct page. His hand moved, refreshing Harbinger Halo with the contract of the Magic Lord. Next came his summoned soul of the Damned and its offering of a lost human soul. Leland reached out to take it, the thoughts of his newest spell, Soul Fire, coming to mind.

His Legacy guided his hand and he wished the being before him to burn—

“Stop Leland!” The voice came from Gelo, who was now racing across the sand toward where Leland and Glenny stood.

Almost instantly, the violet haze of confusion and instinct came crashing down. Leland shuddered at the sudden lack of adrenaline, the pain from his battle with the wraith making a comeback. He groaned in pain, never taking his eyes off the being that inspected Jude.

It was huge. That much was certain. Ice grew from its body like strands of hair or rather fur, encasing its body in a thick armor. Blue and pure white mixed together gave the monster the appearance of a daytime sky or the tide of a warm-water sea. It had claws, yes, but they were retracted as if giving the appearance that it meant no harm.

It was evident that the being could kill everyone in an instant without even a thought.

But now looking at the beast without the grip of battle on his mind, Leland knew that wasn’t going to happen. At least, if Gelo was to be trusted. Which, he thought to be true.

“Leland!” Gelo announced from his side.

He spared a glance, finding the same blue as the beast standing over Jude at the tips of the cub’s fur. Leland slumped a little, a deep breath pumping through the pain of his arm.

“Your mother, I presume?”

“Yes!” Gelo answered quickly, as if Leland’s hand still gripped a lost soul.

With a mental command, the Curse Legacy banished his summons back to where they came from, thanking each with a silent word. His crows and the soul of the Damned answered earnestly, bidding their master farewell with nothing more than a sigh of relief. The battle was over, they were not needed any longer. The spirit wisps decided to hang around, however. They were, after all, not truly one of his summons.

The wisps moved around, each spreading the song of their presence with different chimes. Some drew closer to Gelo’s mom, others backed off as if to watch remotely. Some even drifted to Leland, setting up on his shoulders and head like birds sitting on a branch.

Gelo didn’t so much as glance at the spirits as they moved, instead focusing on Jude while speaking. “She’s going to help him. She said his heartstrings woke her up.”

Glenny was the one who responded. The rogue had fallen to his butt, the end of the battle acting like a wrung out sponge to his energy. There was a bit left over, but not enough to do anything more than talk and breath. His cloak had been run dry, an effect echoed by the starry pattern disappearing from the void-like black fabric.

“What does that mean?”

The cub hesitated. “I don’t know.”

Now it was Leland’s turn to speak up. “You don’t know?”

“Mother’s way of speaking is different from mine. Something about ‘understanding the world’ and how she now ‘views life differently.’ She often confuses me, but I know she’s going to help him.”

A low rumble made the sand of the arena jump. The boys tensed and briefly they looked to find the source. They only found ice cubes with monster chunks in the center. The rumble grew, however, and finally a chuckle expelled through the air.

“My daughter proved her own path today, something I missed last we spoke,” Gelo’s mother said. “For not my error, this warrior’s wounds would be null.”

“You didn’t make any mistakes,” Gelo quietly said.

“Foolish child,” the mother said tenderly. “The same mistake has been made over countless years. Does it go unsolved if forgotten? No. Does it fix on its own if never brought to attention? No. You proved as such.”

Gelo didn’t respond.

The mother bear craned its neck slightly, catching Leland and Glenny’s eyes. “Suffering for my error is only resolved by penance. I will save this one, Jude, for his wounds only formed because of his relationship with my daughter. The rest of my penance will be served later.”

There was a long pause. “May I proceed?”

Leland didn’t hesitate. “Yes! Please, help Jude. Please.”

During all of this, Jude had not once stopped cleaving his axe into the corpse of Ice Castle’s King. Not once had he looked around, not once had his emotionless face hinted at anything other than broken resentment.

Gelo’s mother leaned into this fact. She touched him with a single massive paw. Magic, power, will, filled the arena. Life resounded against the cold, ushering it away like sand on a beach. A hint of ice formed below Jude’s feet, a snowflake spiraling into something unique, something deeper than a single fleck of snow.

It was not cold, the warmth emanating from Gelo’s mother banishing the thought, but it was still ice. The snowflake grew and grew, pushing aside the corpse of the King before taking Jude’s weapon. It was gentle, calming even. It touched his boots and blood stained fingers, slowly warming his body from the frozen prison he had been trapped in just minutes before.

The ice turned to a sapphire hoarfrost, cocooning his body in something deeper than simple cold. There was no fear of frostbite, there was no certainty of freezing to death. Not while a Thaumaturge of such absolute magic guided him.

Jude collapsed, which was quickly followed by a deathly scream. Glenny and Leland lurched to help, but Gelo blocked their path. She whispered something about trusting her Mother, and that was that. The boys resolved themselves to watch their friend cry out in pain.

A minute passed before the screaming quieted. The frost had consumed Jude completely at this point, but Gelo’s mother had never once broken her presence. She continued to pump her cold yet warm magic into him, even as his body convulsed and seized.

Then, like a yelp in a silent room, there was sound. It wasn’t Jude, it wasn’t even words. No, it was music, long slow hums each higher or lower in pitch than the last. The song was soothing, Gelo made sure of that. She had heard Jude’s harmonica playing back in the island forest. She had been drawn by his tune, she only hoped to do the same.

Gelo hummed and hummed, slowly walking closer to her collapsed friend before resting beside her mother. She wasn’t sure if he could hear her song but the tremors eventually stopped and Jude’s breathing slowed and evened out.

Even after the frost began to melt, even after her mother removed her touch, Gelo continued. She didn’t ask for permission, she didn’t need to. She left her mother’s side, and snuggled against Jude’s healing body. She continued to hum but now like a cat purring into their owner’s chest.

“He’ll be awake sooner than later,” Gelo’s mother said. “We shall wait here for him. In the meantime, I think there is something to be done.” She looked at Leland as she spoke, her glistening blue eyes stealing a glance at his frostbitten arm. “A simple fix, yes, but not by my hand. After all, you have a reprieve, why not make the most out of it.”

Glenny frowned at this, about to argue something but Leland spoke first.

“Yes I agree.” He turned to Glenny. “Get some rest. I’ll be back before you know it.”

He then took a moment to thank the spirits for helping, making sure each went back to their realm without issue. Then he thought about Gelo’s mother and her seeming knowledge about his abilities. In the end, Leland didn’t mind the Guardian Spirit Beast knowing about his contracts, not with everything that had happened.

The herb competition, the battle in the cave, the dungeon… There were many things Leland strived for. One being to make sure his friends were healthy and happy. Seeing Jude broken and defeated reminded him of what he needed.

With the grit of magic in his voice, Leland beckoned an audience with the Lord of Nature.