After making sure that Ero and the guard were gone, AJ was finally able to turn his full attention to what he needed to do. He invoked his magic sight, which allowed him to see the weaves and energies around him. By doing that, and knowing what he was looking for, he could almost see the ryursa spirit inside of each man like a poison.
How the hell was he going to manage to get them out of there? To do so without damaging them was going to make the job infinitely harder. The ryursa didn’t just live inside their host, they immersed themselves in every part of their hosts. What he’d known of them before had been from stories and warnings. What he knew now, what he’d gained from Ero’s mind, told him that this was going to be so much more dangerous than he had thought. He was afraid of what he would have to do. So far as he’d been able to glean, the only way to call them back was through the same magic that had called them to begin with. Blood magic.
Blood magic was typically a practice that involved the blood of others, a sacrifice, to make it work. To call these spirits, they had used an unwilling sacrifice, bleeding her dry while calling the spirits to come and feast on her. Once they’d arrived on this plane, they’d been bound until released into Nick and Kevin. To practice blood magic was like deliberately putting a taint on your soul. You were forever scarred by doing what you did to another being.
Something occurred to AJ, just barely formed, and he quickly pulled himself from the link with his friends before they could sense it. Just as quickly, he put a block over his bond with Brian, something that they rarely ever did. But he didn’t want them to read his thoughts before he fully ran through them. There was a strong chance that they wouldn’t like what he was going to do.
He ignored them as they staggered at the sudden loss of the link, and worked to right themselves. He had no time to spare to pay attention to them, even if it was what his heart cried out to do. Instinct always demanded that he take care of Brian. In the back of his mind he chuckled at himself at how hard it was to not help his lover.
Right at the moment, he needed to think, though. So he turned off all the things that were Alyck, and made himself be only a mage, only an elf, only the trulion. This was not a matter for hearts. This was a matter for brains and magic. Yes, he would be saving his friends. But more than that, he would be saving an entire people.
Now that he was alone in his mind, he took a step forward, away from them, and let the thought grow. Blood magic was what had called them, and his impressions and Ero’s memories told him that blood magic should be the only way to call them back out and send them home. But, there was a reason that no host was ever someone of immense magical strength.
If the person who was host was strong in their magical powers there was always a chance that they could fight the creatures from inside of their bodies. None had ever survived trying, but all the knowledge that he had of this from his studies over the years suggested that no one had ever dared to put them in anyone who was magically strong. There was always the fear that using a magically strong person, they would either gain control and turn them back around, or that they would be able to banish them.
None of those theories had been tested, but there was enough whisper about it that no one had ever tried. AJ knew his strength; he had seen it grow and grow recently. To his knowledge, there was now no one alive that had more strength than he did. Not even Roth. If there was a chance that he could take them into himself, entice these beings to use him as their host, then maybe he would be able to fight them off from inside of his own body.
As it stood, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to remove them from Kevin and Nick without doing the one thing in the world that he never wanted to do. Blood magic. What he was thinking to do would take a lot of his energy. It would be dangerous even if he was fully rested and energized. Now, it could potentially be lethal. If he lost control of them, they would have to kill him. But if he didn’t do this, and left them inside of his friends, he had no idea how much longer his shields would hold. If they got free, the entire castle would die. Then, since the mage who called them wouldn’t be able to send them home, they would terrorize the entire world until something killed them off.
AJ turned to look at Brian. He could see that his lover knew something was going on. But he could also see the love and trust in Brian’s eyes. In that look, AJ knew that whatever decision he made, Brian would support him in it. He stepped further away from them, going to stand between the two shields; between his two possessed friends. This was the right thing to do. He had to try.
“If this doesn’t work.” He called out to them softly. “Kill me.”
Shock covered most of the faces present. All except for Brian. His look never changed, not a single ounce. AJ opened their bond for a minute, enough to send all the love in his heart to his partner. He got the same in return, as well as a burst of energy. That love and energy filled AJ to the brim, making him sigh. In that one move, Brian had given AJ almost all of his own energy, to guarantee that AJ would be able to do what was needed. It left him almost empty. But he was still linked with Howie, and was already replenishing his own reserves. The sun overhead helped with that.
Howie raised a hand, making as if to step out toward him. It was Brian who stopped him. “What do you mean, kill you, Alyck? What are you going to do?”
“He does what he has to, to save all our lives.” Brian said softly. In the instant that the bond was opened, he had gleaned what AJ was going to do. He didn’t like it, but he trusted AJ with his life. In this, he would serve his purpose as baka. He would keep his trulion safe so that he might do what was necessary.
He turned his eyes back to AJ. “If you fail, I guarantee, you will not harm another. On this you have my word. Even if I have to see to it myself.” In a much softer voice, one filled with love, he added “So shall it be, song of my heart. May your song always sing bright and true, and never falter.”
“May your song sing bright and true.” AJ replied gently, casting another shield. This shield kept the others out, as well as magic in. None of this magic would seep out to them so long as he maintained the shield. Through it he could see that Brian held weaves at the ready to shield the instant it looked necessary. One last pulse of love, then AJ closed their bond off tighter than ever before.
Raising his hands above his head, AJ spoke in elvish, speaking the words of power that would aid him in this. He called each element to him, using them to establish a line to Kevin and a line to Nick. His mind shuddered under what was waiting there, and the taint of the blood magic, but he steeled himself against that and waited until the lines stopped fluctuating and finally became smooth and seamless.
Now came the most uncertain part. He had no idea if it would work, but he knew it was his only hope, however slim it was. To do it, he would have to be crude, though. Channeling a weave of air, AJ sliced it across first one forearm, than the other. Blood welled up from the cuts, dripping to the ground. He used another weave, a form of what Roth had done, and changed it to sit on the outside of the cuts so that they continued to bleed. The weaves would fade within a few minutes, and his body would heal again. Hopefully a few minutes would be all he needed.
Holding his arms out on each side, one to each friend, AJ spoke again in Elvish, using the lines that he had to his friends. He called to the ryursa, beckoning them with his blood. To his surprise, he felt a strong thirst in them, stronger than what he’d expected. It was almost as if the magic in his blood was like a drug they craved. “Come to me!” he commanded them in elvish. “Come to me, and feast here! Leave the poor hosts, and their mortal blood, and come feast on one whose blood replenishes even as you drink it! Come feed on one who is stronger in power than any you have ever known! Come to me!”
The last call was so laced in power, so full of command that the ryursa did not resist. As he’d hoped they now traveled along the lines he’d established, heading straight for the cuts on his arms. Even bracing for it, nothing could have prepared him for the feeling of them filling him. As alert as he was, as magically sensitive his powers made him, he felt every little spirit as they burrowed into his body. He felt their nonexistent teeth as they latched on to his veins.
He threw his head back, screaming to the sky with the pain of it. His entire body felt as if it was on fire from the inside out. Being tiny spirits, there were hundreds inside of him. But he held his mind together. Somehow he managed to stay centered even as the pain tore through him. Even as he felt himself grow physically weak.
Once the last of them had crossed the lines, AJ released those lines and used air to shove his two friends outside of his shield. He knew Brian would understand what that meant. Someone would take care of them. He had no time to worry about that now. He drew his shield in closer, grounding it around him, tying it to the earth so that he didn’t need so much energy to maintain it. It was a small globe, just tall enough for him to stand, wide enough for his arms to stretch out.
AJ pulled himself deep inside, same as he did when he meditated. Same as he had when he’d worked to break Roth’s web. He gave up control of the physical, paying no attention as his body dropped to the ground on its knees, or as his head flung back with another loud scream.
All of his attention was focused on the inside. He couldn’t spare any to focus on the external aspect of things. He had to pay attention to the ryursa. Understand them, so that he could remove them. Here was where he had no immediate plan. How to fight them off, he wasn’t quite sure. What were their weaknesses? First he had to test, had to see what affected them and what did not.
The very easiest way to do this was by channeling his magic. He opened himself more, letting the magic pour into him. He went through his elements, finding none that they reacted to. Indeed, most seemed to make them hungrier. Then he tested spirit, and was amazed as they recoiled from it. With their own magic they tried to fight back and push the spirit away.
Of course. They were evil spirits…it was logical that they would react to pure, good spirit this way. It was the antithesis to what they were. AJ forced the pain down, even as it tried to cripple him under its weight. He pushed it aside and made his mind think past it. Then he opened his body to spirit, letting it fill him, letting his own spirit permeate every inch of him.
All over the ryursa recoiled from him, but with his shields up they had no way to run. AJ kept the spirit flowing inside of him, his energy burning away at the effort of maintaining all of this. With a gasp he knew what he had to do, and hurried to do it before he was totally drained.
He brought himself back to his physical body, just enough to raise a hand and hold it out in front of him. From the dregs of his memory he pulled the incantation that he needed. A bar of light slit the air in front of him, almost blinding in its brilliance. Lighting cracked the ground around him, both white and black, dark and light. Shouting the last word of the incantation, AJ fed it his energy and watched as the bar of light split, opening a small hole in the fabric of the world.
On the other side was darkness, a plane that none wanted to ever see. It was the plane that mages used to banish a spirit that possessed another human. It was the place that these beings had come from, and that they always longed to be free from.
AJ gathered up the magic of spirit that he had let fill himself, gasping at the strength that it took to do so. He wouldn’t be able to hold on to all of this much longer. The gateway in front of him shifted, trying to close, and he fed it more of his much depleted energy to force it to stay open. Then he gathered the spirit in him, turning it to almost make a net.
The ryursa were forced inside of that net, shrinking away from it so that they did not touch it. They shrieked at him, horrible sounds that seemed to echo inside of his skull. As they were herded outward, they tried to feast more on him, tried to take more on their way out. But he inexorably forced them out. Then he stretched the ends of his weaves, making a tunnel to the gateway.
Strength waning, AJ threw his all into what he was doing. He pushed the end of his net so that the ryursa had no choice but to reluctantly be forced back into their plane. It seemed to stretch on for hours. Days. All sense of time seemed to disappear. All he could focus on was forcing them into this gateway, inch by inch. They fought him with their own magic, pressing evil spirit against pure spirit.
Finally, finally, he got them inside. Now it was just a matter of closing the gateway without letting a single one escape. Or without letting any part of him be touching it. Otherwise, it could suck him inside as well. He watched carefully, knowing that his energy was almost gone, but knowing too that he had to do this right or it was all for nothing.
Crying out the command, AJ started to close the gateway. One spirit tried to push through, and he pressed his own spirit weave at it, forcing it back in and then yanking back at the last possible moment. The bar of light shot across his vision again, and then disappeared. He blinked a few times until it cleared from his eyes, and then quickly did an internal and external check.
Only once he was sure they were gone did he start to relax. The instant he relaxed, his shields finally broke. There was no more energy inside of him to hold them up. With a jolt he slammed back into his body, all the aches and pains coming back to life. Without his energy reserves, he had no way to quickly heal his body.
Pain took him the rest of the way to the ground. To his hands and knees. Tears dripped from his eyes and sweat marred his brow. His hair fell around him, a curtain against the light that hurt his eyes. Hands were suddenly on him, gathering him close, and AJ had to resist screaming. Every inch of his insides hurt. Not just physically, but the core of his magic hurt as well, stressed beyond its usual point and without anything to help heal it over. Not only that, but the burns on his outside, the burns that he’d received from Brian’s defenses, still hadn’t healed. They protested to physical contact.
Another shrill scream tore from him, buffeted by a sob. Brian was cradling him close, pillowing AJ’s head against his chest and stroking his sweat dampened hair out of his face. He was saying something, but AJ couldn’t focus on what it was. Finally it broke through. “Dammit, Alyck, open the fucking bond you shit!”
If he’d had the energy and hadn’t been hurting so much, AJ would have laughed at hearing Brian talk that way. Instead it was almost more than he could manage to open their bond back up. But he did, and suddenly he was filled with having Brian back with him. Love filled him to his core, and heartache at what Brian found inside of him. A small inflowing of energy, but it was barely enough to keep him conscious.
“Get me a healer, now!” Brian shouted to someone. Then he was leaning back over AJ, holding him close. “Just you hold on, Alyck. You hear me? Hold on to me. We’re going to get you fixed up right, ok? I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
AJ tried to smile at him through the tears, but the movement caused all his aches to flare to life again and he let out a weak scream. His body was even too tired to scream or cry. He felt like he was floating. The only thing that kept him grounded was the feelings that came across the bond from Brian. They were a light in the pain and darkness.
Another light came up on his senses, and AJ, still trapped inside of pain, started to react defensively. But Brian shielded him quickly, and hurried to speak. “It’s a healer, Alyck. Just a healer, honey. Let them in, let them help you. Trust me that I won’t let anyone touch you inside or out that might hurt you. Trust me, song of my heart. Song of my life.”
With a sigh, AJ did just that. He gave himself over to Brian, trusting him as he trusted no other. When the light came again, AJ let it in this time and didn’t bother to fight it. When that light filled him, urging him to sleep, he followed it down into the darkness of sweet, sweet slumber, where there was no pain.