The Wall and the Stone

Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

Shahen looked up and down the sides of the road. One hand he kept tucked into the pocket of his robe. The cool metal of the talisman he'd tucked away there brought peace to his mind and a steadiness to his thoughts. As his fingers traced its familiar curves, all thoughts of the war in the North, of Tranos’s growing power, and the strange preacher with his dire words against the Immortals fled away. He lifted his eyes and settled his gaze on a wall where the stones were layered and staggered in an almost perfect pattern.

His friend Teff stood beside him and the two men together studied the wall.

“It’s so tall.” Teff said, and Shahen nodded in agreement. “And we’re so few.”

Shahen agreed again, but smiled as he answered “Few now, and each as small in our way as one of these stones, but look what the stones can do when they join together.” He turned from the wall and beckoned. “Come, my friend. Let us go into the garden. The rest will be here soon.”
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

Shahen stopped on his way home from work to admire the wall. Two extra talismans weighed his pocket down, but his heart felt feather light. The wall was beautiful, and he lifted his hand to touch a few of the stones with a satisfied smile.

The man's arm was badly broken. Too poor to hire a healer, and too proud to seek help from one of those gifted adventurers he'd turned to friends and neighbors instead, and so eight of them had gathered together in Shehen's tiny kitchen. Eight men and women with the barest scrap of magic, a whisper of power so faint it wouldn't be heard even in silence who had agreed to try his plan. They stood around the injured man in a solemn but excited circle, and each closed their eyes to the world and their ears to their patient's cries.

“Slow and patient, friends.” Shehen's voice was quiet and steady as he began chanting, and one by one the others joined in.

“Right his arm and ease his pain. Join together, whole again.”

Over and over the words rolled through the kitchen, voices rising and falling in what became an easy rhythm as they each put their small magic to work. It took half an hour, and by the time they were done each of the eight faces was chalk white and drenched with sweat, but their patient was whole, and smiling.


Word spread quietly among their neighbors from there, and two more young men with their own small gifts had asked to join them. Shehen waited at the wall for them now, with their talismans and a growing hope for the future.
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

Winter and spring passed quickly, and their numbers grew from the original eight to more than twenty. Healings were common now, and while they still tired the group, they were more than willing to take the strain as the story of their rituals and ability grew among their neighbors. Shahen found himself sought out at home and in his shop for help with small troubles, from sickness to plants that wouldn't grow to making homes more secure. He knew that the magical walls their group could create wouldn't stop someone strong enough to be an adventurer, or some of the rampages which had attacked the city in his lifetime, but they would stop common thieves, and rats, and that was more than enough.

He found himself on quiet nights beginning to stray from his home and shop. He lingered in the plaza to watch the adventurers run trough, or rest from their battles, and he listened. With his eyes closed or turned to the sky he listened to news and stories and weary breaths, and with his mind on his neighbors he put the news together in his mind.

There had been war in Tranos. Anyone with a pulse had heard about the giant Khatarans and seen the soldiers leaving town to help defend there. What few had paid attention to at the time was the politics in that far away city. As he sat in the plaza Shahen began to hear more of it, and the words “Tri-Guild Council” sent a thrill of dread down his spine. His father had told him stories of the last time that group had held power, of the war between the cities and the rise of the Lady of Light to defend them.

The more he heard, the more he worried, and the more he wished his small bit of magic was stronger. Still, he and the others met in his kitchen to heal and practice and consider.
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

It wasn't working.

Shahen looked at the woman beside him and watched the sweat drop from the end of her nose. Across the circle the other four kept their chant going while their faces grew red, then white. The man on the kitchen counter was still shivering with a violent fever, still moaning in an ugly counterpoint to the chant.

“We need more people!” the sweat soaked woman next to him whispered before diving back into the chant.

No one else can come. This man is going to die in my kitchen, on my table, because he has the bad sense to take a turn for the worse while many of the circle are out of the city. Shahen's thoughts were spinning in circles as he tried to catch his breath. He had gone longer without a break than any of them, but dizziness finally overcame him and he reached out to brace himself against the table.

He felt a sharp sting, and a shiver of release, and suddenly the tiny trickle of power flowing from him became a stream, and he stood straighter and stronger. Without pausing to wonder he took the hands of the people on either side of him and rejoined the chant.

It only took a minute more to break the fever. The stream sputtered back down to a trickle just as the man on the table began to breathe easily, and Shahen felt behind him for a seat. His hands were shaking as he lifted them in front of his eyes. One was bloody, a long, shallow cut covering the palm. He looked down at the table near their now resting patient and saw the bread knife laying there, also bloody.

“What happened?” The voice belonged to the woman. She gathered her damp hair into a bun as she asked.

Shahen looked at the knife, at his hand, and at their newly healed patient.

“I don't know.” The words came out a whisper so he cleared his throat and tried again.

“I don't know, but I will.”
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

Shahen took his hands from the center of the circle and looked at his palms. They were smooth again and whole, no longer roughened by the various healing cuts which he'd made. His hands had snagged fabric as he worked for a few days as he experimented with adding his blood to the group's small magic. “It's like I'm pushing a cart, and suddenly there's a wind behind me to help for a while” he explained to the others. Each of them had tried too, pricking fingers and palms and arms during the chanting and each had the same experience.

There was something about adding their blood to their magic which made it stronger.

“Maybe we should ask one of the teachers in the Wizards' guild about it!” one woman began. The others hushed her quickly. There was no way to be sure how any of the Guild-People would react to their lesser neighbors having this new power, and no one was in a hurry to find out.

So they added blood to their practice. It let them do larger, harder things, and then they could use their own small power to heal the carefully made wounds. They'd been doing this for weeks when Shahen finally asked the question so many of them had been thinking.

“Does it have to be our blood?”
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

They argued about it for weeks. Meanwhile dozens of small hearings and minor works of magic flowed from their little circle, and their hands grew scarred with the ritual cuts that gave them greater strength. At first Shahen’s was the only voice speaking about using blood from outside of their group, but as the weeks wore on more and more began to waver.

Finally one day one of their own was on the kitchen table with a broken leg, badly beaten and bleeding. On the other side of the room, two men held a third under guard. The man had mugged several in their neighborhood in the last few months but this was his first time being caught. The woman who had struck him as easy prey lay quietly moaning on the table while the argument raged over her head.

“She’s not the first one of us he’s harmed, and we could lose her if we don’t have enough power!”

“No. If we bleed our own selves that’s one thing but to hurt one person to help another…? We can’t!”

“Let the one who hurt her give us what we need to help her.” Shahen’s voice was quiet but insistent. “None of us has enough energy left to give without endangering ourselves, or her, but this man is whole, and guilty, and here. It’s a fitting punishment and will heal our friend.”

He wan’t known for eloquence, but the circle had turned to him for leadership from the start, and so that night for the first time an outsider bled strength into their healing. Two held him still while a third cut deeply into his hand, and as the power flowed from him and through them, the woman on the table sighed and the set of her face eased.

When their work was done they stood around the table, the mugger still under guard.

“Do we let him go? He could hurt someone else.”

“What right do we have to hold him?”

Questions and thoughts flew back and forth for a long time before Shahen spoke again. “He’s hurt many, many more than just this woman, and how do you think he’ll paint us when he’s free? Will we be friends and neighbors who took his blood justly to heal his victim, or monsters who assaulted him for some kind of dark magic?”

“And why didn’t you think of that before urging us to bleed him?”

Shahen sighed and placed his scarred hands on the table. “Because she mattered more in the moment. You all felt how strong using him made us, stronger than anything we’ve felt bleeding ourselves. We needed to make her well, but now it’s time to think of the outside world. Will they understand us, or condemn us? Take your time and think friends, and come back tomorrow with your answer. I’ll keep him here until we decide.”

When the decision came it was unanimous. The mugger was never seen again and the circle’s magic quickly gained in strength.
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

It didn't take long for the strong arms and magic of the adventurers to dispatch most of the ants, but it was long enough. A small group of the multi-legged enemy broke off and rampaged through the neighborhood. Baskets and carts were overturned as people fled toward their houses. Most made it inside to safety, but it was the middle of the day and the streets were crowded. By the time Shahen and his circle heard the screams, more than a dozen were already wounded in the streets. They watched in helpless anger as the ants moved toward them, swarming over a statue and toppling it over.

“To me! Waste no time!” The circle beckoned the few straggling runners behind them and then grabbed hands and began their chant. Shahen faced the ant, his hands clutching at his neighbors' as three of the ants rushed them. Their words rose in pitch and speed as fear fueled their small power. The circle breathed as one, spoke as one, and as one they broke hands, drew tiny blades from their sleeves, and bled themselves before clasping hands again.

The blood-power rushed through them, and their words and magic rose together to a peak as the ants reached them. Shahen felt a snap as the power formed a shield of solid air between them and their enemies. Ant heads butted against nothing. Ant legs skittered over the shield in confusion and frustration, and behind the shield the chanting of the circle and the sobs of those they protected continued.

The woman on Shahen's right suddenly wobbled and fell, and his hand reached for the next person over. A few more of the circle fell moments later, but they just closed ranks and gritted their teeth over their words.

It may only have been thirty seconds that they stood there chanting and keeping the ants at bay, before the creatures grew bored and moved on.... but it felt like six years. Finally though the ants Did move on and as one, the circle collapsed. Only Shahen and one woman still stood, both pale and shaken. They looked at their fallen friends just recovering, at the wounded in the street, at the damage done to the neighborhood and then finally at each-other.

“No one is going to come help with this you know.” The woman's voice was hoarse from use.

Shahen nodded and asked the question he saw in her eyes. “We're spent. Where are we going to get the power to heal these people?”

Two sets of eyes narrowed. Two mouths tightened. Four hands clenched, and two voices spoke.

“Wherever we can.”
Last edited by Shahen the Tailor on Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

It felt like there was no end to the wounded. Some of their own found themselves on the table being healed, and more were out looking for likely people they could “ask to donate to the cause” but the aftermath of the ant attack was like the tide coming in. Shahen's hands ached with fresh wounds, as did everyone in the circle still standing. He had sent five men out to find more people to bleed, and each time they'd returned with someone who'd been known to trouble the neighborhood. Finally though they'd run out of likely people, and it had been hours since they'd gone out this last time.

“We're losing him” said the woman who'd stood at the end of the battle with him. Her face was drawn with exhaustion, and her voice shook. No wonder, for on the table now was a young boy of less than eight. He'd lost consciousness an hour ago but kept whimpering.

Shahen sighed. “I know, but we need to hold on until they bring ano-” There was a commotion at the door and he broke off. “That must be them!”

The five hurried into the kitchen, dragging a sixth man with them. He was large, and shivering in a drenched tank top. He struggled, nearly taking two of the men off of their feet. “LET GO!!!” His roar brought Shahen up short, for he recognized that voice.

“You brought Charlie?”

One of the men shrugged as much as he could while holding the barman's arm. “He was the first person we found who wasn't already hurt.”

Shahen took another look at the boy on the table and sighed. “This isn't going to go easy for us.”

“You have that right. Kidnappers! Thugs! Let me GO!”

It took just a moment and a step for Shahen to be standing directly in front of the disheveled barman. His voice, a contrast to the roar, was almost whisper soft. “Now you listen. You wouldn't have been my first choice but people are dying and I mean to keep them alive. Now you can quiet yourself and let us take what we need, just a bit of blood is all, or you can keep on as you are and we'll take it from you cold.”

Charlie blinked, and his scowl deepened. “That lad there is one of them?”

“He is.”

“You and I aren't done, any of you... but help the boy and we'll deal with it later.”

Shahen grunted in agreement and pulled the tiny knife from his sleeve. He began the healing chant immediately and within a moment six other voices joined his. And then he made the cut....

and felt something stronger than he'd ever felt before join them, giving them strength and speed and even renewing the chanters as they worked. Shahen shivered and felt the woman beside him do the same, and the boy was healed in mere moments. Someone brought in another wounded neighbor, and another, and more until Shahen lost count, and they were all healed without anyone tiring.

When the chant ended and the last wounded person was whole again, Shahen and the circle found themselves facing Charlie. “Well?” the barman asked.

“Thank you for your help.” Shahen answered sincerely. Then with a quick nod he added “Take him. We need to keep him!”

Seven to one, the fight was brief.
Shahen the Tailor
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Re: The Wall and the Stone

Post by Shahen the Tailor »

“It's getting harder to get rid of the bodies” one man complained. “The last time we left them on the street, some of those adventuring people found them and we're not ready for that!”

Shahen sighed. More and more, the Circle left decisions up to him. Maybe he'd asked for leadership but that was before he'd ever lived it. “There's a whole ocean not far from here. Tie stones to them and toss them in.”

The man nodded and left to see to this latest crop of drifters and street clutter, but he was quickly replaced by the woman Farrahn. Iron haired and titanium willed, she'd become his right hand lately and it was to her he gave the trickiest problems. “How are our guests?” he asked.

“Unruly. One of them's beginning to see our way of thinking but the other two.... We might eventually sway the chandler but I doubt that barman is ever going to budge, and all three have talent enough that we could really use them.... not just their blood Shahen.” Farrahn's sturdy cellar had been converted into quite an able cell. It was she who had discovered the knack of testing their acquired people for magical ability of their own, and they'd decided to keep those ones and recruit them rather than drain them like the rest.

“He'll come around once he sees the good we can do. Just think Farrahn, we have enough members now that if another wave of ants came we could protect the whole west side! It won't be so very long before we can take keeping this city safe into our own hands, and not a moment too soon.” The woman nodded and headed back to her guests.

“We just need a few more people” Shahen murmured to himself as the silence of his house closed around him. “We've scoured our own neighborhood.... now it's time to draw a little attention.”

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