SS [51] The Word Wasn’t Translated

Bjorn hadn’t known there were more assassins outside when he had fled out to the balcony. Not until he nearly ran into their fleeing form. They had however seen him which was likely the reason they had decided to retreat instead of continuing to attack their target. 

They had darkness cloaking magic similar to his own and even he found it difficult to keep track of them. The problem for them was that he had their scent. They weren’t going to escape him.

As he followed he noticed Soren had also joined the chase. The man used some form of material energy he had not seen anyone else wield. Prana was used to fuse parts of the soul into weapons. Chakra turned intent into elements. That left ki and lifeforce as possibilities. From what he understood lifeforce was the most versatile of all material arts. So he decided to watch Soren to determine which energy he possessed.

Soren used slips of paper to arrange his energies into specific patterns. It was like an externalization of a mage’s spell form. Alien to Bjorn’s senses even as he witnessed it. Once he saw Soren create a bow and arrows using the odd energy he was certain it was lifeforce. 

After they dealt with all of the assassins he didn’t quite know what to make of the man. He was strong, the bow he used and the arrows they fired were deadly even to him. From range he would be someone any member of their team should be weary of. He doubted even Aurelius could dodge the arrows reliably.

Bjorn watched the man from the edges of the crater caused by Soren’s last attack. Both of the assassins he had managed to kill at his feet. The druid was cautious, for good reason, Bjorn had managed to stay out of his perception and whatever ability he was using to track the assassins.

One of Bjorn's heads turned to a thread of the familiar bond where he felt Tanisha rapidly approaching. He wasn’t sure if she would attack Soren. While he knew she had self restrain her hatred for druids was palpable.

“You may want to take a step back.” Bjorn said.

He didn’t hear what the druid said back as Tanisha had appeared using her Rift Forged Teleportation. Her golden eyes shone bright in the moonlight as she stepped forward and scanned the area. Her eyes landed on Soren and her jaw tightened. 

Soren tensed and lowered his stance ever so slightly. Not enough to seem hostile but enough to Flash Step away should he need distance. 

Tanisha walked over to Bjorn, her eyes shifted between him and Soren before coming to rest on him.

“Are you okay Bjorn?” Tanisha asked.

“I am, I went to investigate our host. I was suspicious.” Bjorn said.

“You did what? How? You are kind of… large to be sneaking around.” Tanisha said.

“I am big boned, but also stealthy.” Bjorn said. “These assassins tried to kill Yrsa when they saw me they ran so I chased them down. Soren finished off several as well.”

Tanisha looked down at the assassin corpses at his feet. Both of them were dwarves and they had nothing of interest to either Tanisha or Bjorn. 

“We will talk about what you found out later. Should I kill the druid too?” Tanisha asked, her voice neutral.

Bjorn searched her eyes for a moment.

“No.” Bjorn said.

“Gah,” Tanisha groaned. “Fine but you know we can’t trust his kind, right?”

Bjorn thought about the druid man standing nervously in the clearing. Tanisha’s hatred reminded him so much of his old self. As Isin, he wanted nothing more than to kill the Angels. Even when he was with his family safe in the city he had built.

The Angels were monsters. But the druids. They seemed like people to Bjorn. All the ones they had met up until Soren had been soldiers fighting a war against an enemy they had fought for generations. Bjorn didn’t want Tanisha to fall down the same path of hatred he had fallen into. He didn’t want another genocide to mar his soul.

“He is just a person.” Bjorn said.

Tanisha just shook her head as if the idea itself was blasphemous. 

“We will talk about it later.” Tanisha said.

She walked toward the forest edge and Bjorn followed behind her.

“Wait,” Soren said.

“What is it, druid?” Tanisha asked sharply. “I'd prefer not to speak with your kind.” 

Soren stood there for a moment conflicted. Bjorn could see the man struggling with the words or whether to talk at all.

“You should leave as soon as possible,” Soren said. “Yrsa is—”

“I don't need your concern,” Tanisha interrupted.

Her voice carried enough contempt to end the conversation.

“Come on, Bjorn.” She said.

As they left the clearing, one of his heads glanced back. Soren remained standing where he was, watching them disappear into the darkness. Trying to warn someone who clearly didn't want the warning. Bjorn found himself respecting that even if Tanisha didn't.

***

The stables had been loud all day, crowds of servants and curious guards had come and gone. It wasn’t surprising since several drakes had been rotated out of one cage where they would roar in fear in a bid to escape despite their handlers’efforts to keep them calm.

Tanisha had somehow convinced the guards to let them train with the estate's drake mounts. Unfortunately, the animals were terrified of Bjorn despite his efforts. King of Reptiles just wasn’t an ability he could turn off or on. He had always had it and it was just as much a part of him as his scales.

The upside was that these were highly trained animals not civilian mount. Both them and the handlers were disciplined enough to recover once Bjorn backed away. The mounted guard even appreciated training, getting the drakes used to overcoming fear was paramount for when the threats were real. 

The only plan Bjorn could come up with was to suppress his aura more and more.  He could make it nearly undetectable to most magic senses aside from someone seriously searching with far less tack than is socially acceptable. Even so I was becoming far more obvious that

“This is going to take awhile.” Bjorn hissed.

“We need to try and figure this out if you want to go to the city, Big Man.” Tanisha said.

Tanisha sat cross legged on the ground with Anasuya in her cernunnos form sat on her lap. Tanisha was putting a few braids in the little girl's long hair.

“For me this isn’t a spell, it is just a part of being what I am.” Bjorn said.

“People hide pieces of who they are all the time.” Aurelius added.

Aurelius was busy brushing Smjor’s fur with a large brush.

“That is being a social chameleon, not trying to suppress a natural magic effect.” Tanisha said.

“Ehh… “ Aurelius said, holding the exclamation. “The more magically dense we become, the differences between the two are closer than you might think.”

“Are you talking about aura?” Tanisha questioned. “Bjorn already suppressed his aura and it still affects the drakes.”

“Aura, yes that is part of it, but not fully what I was talking about—Smjor hold on I will get the other side wait-wait!”  

Aurelius quickly jumped over the lounging ox panther and started bruising the other side of his fur.

“You are really good at taking care of them.” Tanisha said.

“Several of the caravans I guided had ox panthers. They are robust and easy going when you know how to keep them calm. Smjorn is probably the most gentle I have ever seen.”

“And Duna?” Tanisha said.

“She is… independent.” Aurelius said with some consideration.

The group looked over to the ox panther in question. She sat apart from the group licking her paw while her sharp eyes watched them closely.

“Yeah, she is shy,” Tanisha admitted. “I will brush her later.”

“I will leave you to it.” Aurelius said.

“So if aura isn’t what you meant when you said people hide parts of themselves what do you mean?” Bjorn said getting back to the topic. “Aura is something I can easily manipulate, either because animal magic makes it instinctual or because I am a True I am not sure. If this power isn’t connected to my aura how can it be affecting the drakes?”

 “Remember when Tanisha first met me?” Aurelius said.

Aurelius’s aura was the subject of many conversations. His power is primana but back when they first met him at the Yuhia border fortress, it was called chaos magic. He wasn’t as skilled controlling it back then which made him feel the same as monsters.

“I remember.” Tanisha interjected. “I thought you were a monster pretending to be an elf. The fact that Fuyumi was calm was the only reason I trusted that you weren’t.”

“Yeah,” Aurelius scratched the back of his head. “That is how a lot of people were. However, have you noticed anyone react to me that way while we have been around any of the dwarves? Even when we fought the monsters in Drakvik and I was definitely unleashing my aura.”

“Actually, no. Nobody has. I assumed it was because your control got better. ” Tanisha said.

“Fuyumi taught us better control so we can learn how magic flows from us into the environment. Aura is like our weight on the world around us. The more magically dense we are the more the world bends. This is why normal people can be injured or killed by the aura of a sufficiently powerful mage alone. It is also why a mage using their aura to suppress the aura’s of other mages is rude and makes you feel unsettled or defenceless. Because we get used to the world bending to us even subconsciously. When that buffer is gone we are forced to face the will of someone more powerful.”

“That is aura suppression.” Tanisha said thoughtfully. “Wendigo use it as a show of dominance in some circumstances. It forces capitulation without having to fight. Aura battles alone can avoid conflicts coming to blows.”

“Yes, many cultures do that as well.” Aurelius said. “Alternatively, monsters don’t really utilize their auras strategically except in some unusually intelligent types. Most of them just flood the area with their aura without secession.”

“We are still talking about auras but you said my problem isn’t related to aura.” Bjorn said.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t related to your aura. I said it was related to what you reveal.” Aurelius said. “When people sensed me years ago, they felt chaos. Not because of my aura alone, but because I revealed too much of what I was. Fuyumi didn't simply teach me to suppress my aura. She taught me how to choose which parts of myself reached the world around me. My aura is unusual but not in the same way it used to be. The drakes aren't reacting to your aura, Bjorn. They are reacting to a truth you are broadcasting without realizing it.”

Bjorn tilted his head. “And what truth is that?”

“That you are their king.” Aurelius smiled. “You know that you are a Divine, we know that you are a Divine. You are projecting that weight into the world and because of your nature as a Divine the drakes know you aren’t just any predator.”

Bjorn fell silent. He had long since known that he was a True. He and Failsafe discovered that barely a week after he had hatched. Somewhere along the way that truth had solidified. Making that one thing a truth he could rely on made everything else make sense when it definitely shouldn’t have. 

He was a man that had just woken up as the hatchling of a True Immortal Hydra. He was bonded to a wendigo who was just left to die by her family after they gave them an impossible task. He had just learned to accept the world as it came. 

That was how he had survived as a hatchling. A small hydra hiding along riverbanks. A creature constantly surrounded by things stronger than himself. But he was not that hatchling anymore. He was not hiding from wolves. He was not fleeing treants. He was not desperately trying to survive one more day.

He didn’t have to make his scars visible. He wasn’t some dog sized lizard barely able to control his venom. Yes, somewhere along the way he had accepted he was Divine. What he hadn't accepted was what being Divine actually meant. 

“We are ready to try again whenever you are,” one of the dwarven guards called from beside the drake enclosure. “Approach slowly.” 

Bjorn let out a breath and loosened the tight control he had of his aura. He still kept most of it contained but he let a respectable amount of the world feel his weight.

“Big Man, what are you doing?” Tanisha questioned.

“I am letting go.” Bjorn said simply.

He took a step closer to the cage then another and another. The drake grew agitated at first especially as he was only a few yards away. However the deathly fear slowly faded. By this point before they would have had to stop and Bjorn would have to take steps back so they could calm the animal. Now it simply looked uncomfortable. Not trying to escape. The green scaled mount laid down flat on its stomach lowering its head in almost a pleading supplication for its life.

He stopped advancing on the creature and backed away letting the animal calm down as he retreated back to the group.

“It worked.” Bjorn said growing more excited. “It worked. It actually worked!”

He reared up on his hind legs. Anasuya was just excited and flew up into the air circling him.

For the first time since arriving in the dwarven kingdom, he could see a path toward controlling the ability. His understanding was still crude and his control far from perfect, but a drake bowing was a tremendous improvement over a drake trying to climb through a wall.

“Great,” Aurelius said. “Now we only need to repeat that another fifty times to make sure it was not a fluke.”

Bjorn immediately deflated.

“Right,” he sighed. “Let us go again.”

***

With Bjorn finally able to walk freely in the city of course they wanted to venture around, buy supplies and prepare for their journey further through the Isopike. Leaving the estate was more of a hassle than Bjorn liked as apparently Yrsa didn’t want them traveling around without escort as the least she could do as their host. 

They had to wait at their wagon for nearly an hour for the escort. He decided to explain the situation he had found out while snooping around the office. 

Nothing he had was conclusive but he believed that Yrsa was in a lot of trouble politically. She was an unmarried princess with little political sway and no powerbase in Highhall. The oligarchs were circling, and House Potwarden in particular appeared intent on securing a marriage with her. The manor guard answered to the oligarchs, not to her. He even had suspicion that the assassination attempt had some of the guards involved.

“That is a lot.” Aurelius said.

“The guards being compromised is the biggest concern I think.” Tanisha said. “If someone inside is trying to get the princess killed then who knows what else they will try to do.”

“It might be why Soren warned us to leave.” Bjorn said.

“We aren’t going to listen to a trjahorr,” Tanisha muttered.

“Woah, Tanisha, don’t call him that,” Aurelius said.

Bjorn's mind wondered as to why the word wasn’t translated. Maybe because the word in its native tongue was an insult without other equivalents. Is that how that worked? Something that is adopted instead of translated? Failsafe was quietly working on something and hadn’t responded in days and Bjorn didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. So if he wanted to know what it meant he would have to ask.

“I don’t know what that word means.” Bjorn said.

Tanisha chuckles, “It means—”

“It is a slur.” Aurelius cut her off. “You shouldn’t be teaching Bjorn that.”

“It is an accurate description of a sá er leggr með trjám like him!” Tanisha rolled her eyes.

There it goes again.

“He is not that bad of a guy.” Aurelius said he turned back to Bjorn. “What do you mean he warned you to leave?”

 “You didn’t tell him?” Bjorn questioned.

“Last night after Bjorn dealt with the assassins he said we should leave the manor as soon as we could. Or something like that.” Tanisha said dismissively.

“Why?” Aurelius asked.

“Dunno,” Tanisha shrugged.

“Tani.” Aurelius said almost pleadingly.

“What?” Tanisha said innocently.

“Okay-okay,” Aurelius pitched the bridge of his nose. “I know you don't like him, but please try to work with me here. I know Soren. He wouldn't say something like that for no reason. He knows something, and he is not the type to speak in riddles. As team leader, if you hear something like that, you need to tell me. ”

“Fine.” Tanisha said.

“We are foreigners here, if they kill the princess after several strange people were suddenly allowed to stay in with her we might be the scapegoats.” Aurelius said.

“Yrsa still hasn’t given us whatever reward she wants to grant us.” Tanisha said. “It might be rude to leave without accepting. Even if she is an expelled member of the royal family we are travelers in this kingdom. If we offend her it could be bad for us. So we will stay one more night, keep her protected and tomorrow we leave no matter what.” 

“Is that wise? I don’t know a lot about politics but that sounds risky,” Aurelius said.

“Good thing you are with a former noble and current royal then,” Tanisha said. “Bjorn managed to stop one attack on her life without being detected. Another one would be unlikely so soon after the first. Unless they really want her dead. It seems more like they want her scared.”

“So one more night?” Aurelius said.

“Unless she gives us the reward early,” Tanisha said. “If we need to escape I can make a portal. I have been excited to try.”

The sound of approaching footsteps drew everyone's attention. Soren was making his way toward them with one hand raised in greeting. He wore a bright orange tabard bearing the crest of the dwarven royal family across both chest and back. An anvil crossed by two swords sat atop a mountain peak embroidered in gold thread. 

“Hello guys, sorry for the wait,” Soren said. “Where would you like to go?”

Tanisha grumbled and jumped up into the wagon. Aurelius walked over to him and grasped his forearm in a firm shake. Bjorn on the other hand stood up and jumped into the wagon after Tanisha to make sure she was okay. This was going to be a hectic supply run.