//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: H A Z E // by Bandy //------------------------------// Slowly, taking great care not to harm the still-solidifying plaster around Hypha’s hooves, the trio made their way down a set of winding alleyways leading back to the courthouse. This town, Red explained, was a glorified rest stop, a place that just so happened to be at the intersection of several important roads. Its permanent residents, save the town’s judge whose food they’d pilfered, consisted entirely of ponies whose professions catered to traders and travelers. It was a nothing place, a convenient middle point between landmarks. “That’s why they called it Median,” Red said with a smirk. The alleyway deposited them behind the looming structure of the town’s courthouse. Hypha peered around the corner and saw several members of the pulling team lounging on the courthouse stairs. Several more were boarding up the window Red broke. They looked bored. “Okay,” Red started, “here’s the plan. You’re gonna fly up to the second floor and unlock the door from the inside.” Hypha paused for her to continue. Red and Blue stared blankly back at him. “Oh,” he said, “I thought there’d be more.” “Nope, it’s that easy. Think you can do it?” Hypha motioned to Blue with a plastered hoof. “Can’t she just teleport up there?” “It’s not teleporting. She’s not a unicorn.” “What is it then?” “Don’t worry about it. Can you do it or not?” Hypha looked up at the row of grimy glass windows. “What if they’re locked?” “They’re not.” Hypha frowned. “Whatever.” He took a deep breath, coiled his good legs, and leapt into the air. Almost immediately, a skull-splitting headache shattered his concentration. His hurt hooves throbbed. A full-body cramp seized his muscles. He gained about three feet of altitude before dropping to the cobbles like a sack of bricks. Red’s face twitched. “What was that?” “Muh, muh—” The urge to vomit washed over him. Hypha doubled over. Nothing came out. “Magical burnout.” “You just said you could fly.” “It’s not that simple.” “You were flying five minutes ago. You looked fine.” “I wasn’t flying, I was descending.” Blue stepped in front of Red, cutting her off before she could escalate things further. Blue nodded towards one of the buildings that shared the alley with the courthouse. A long tangle of ivy snaked up the full height of the building, leading to a decorative flower-lined balcony. “Good eye,” Red said, “I’ll get up there and jump to the roof.” She shouldered Hypha aside. “Good luck finding that temple, street trash. Your services are no longer required.” That seemed to set Blue off. She smacked Red squarely on the withers as she passed. “Hey! What was that for?” Blue nodded at the balcony, then shook her head. Red smirked. “Are you calling me fat?” Without waiting for a reply, Red campused the ivy in just a few seconds. The balcony creaked under her weight, but held. Red bowed theatrically. Then she put both front hooves onto the railing, intending to vault over. The railing buckled. Red let out a yelp of surprise and leapt back. Only her quick reflexes saved her from a nasty fall. Hypha’s heart skipped. Blue rolled her eyes. “I’m fine,” Red said, more to herself. “I’m fine. Just gotta...” Her voice trailed off as she appraised the gap. “Uh.” In short order, she was back on the ground, her face set in a firm scowl. “Okay, new plan. Street trash climbs up and glides over.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Up you go. We’re burning moonlight.” “Where should we meet up when you’re done?” Hypha asked. “Meet up?” “Yes.” Red stared blankly back at him. “To take me to the monastery.” “Right. Uh. Right here is good. It might be a little bit before we’re back, though.” “How long is a little bit?” “It’s a little bit. Be patient. If you bail, we’re not looking for you.” “I won’t.” “Good.” “Good.” “Good.” Blue put her leg on Red’s shoulder, which seemed to calm her down a little. “Alright, off you go. We’ll be waiting down here.” Using his teeth for leverage, Hypha was able to shimmy up the ivy. By the time he made it to the balcony, his whole face was stained green with ivy pulp. “The window—” He spat out a hunk of chlorophyll. “The window looks locked.” “It’s not,” Red said. “But what if it is?” Blue made a ramming motion with her shoulder, then flashed him a lippy smile. Whatever. With a hop, skip, and a painful application of earth pony magic, Hypha cleared the gap and sailed towards the courthouse window. His earth pony weight played to his favor for once. The whole window popped clean out of the wall. He landed in the hallway with the frame underneath him. The glass spidered, but didn’t break. He stuck his head out the now-bare hole in the wall to wave to Red and Blue. Neither waved back. Something about the smell of this place set him on edge. In the monastery, the monks burned oil lanterns and soaked torches in tar to generate light. This place was lit so brightly it almost overwhelmed Hypha’s eyes, but the air carried none of the telltale chemical smell he’d come to associate with light. The whole place must have been powered with crystal batteries. He couldn’t believe they had such luxuries all the way out here. He found a set of stairs and followed them down. At the bottom was a cavernous courtroom lined in stone and wood accents. The lights were low, but even in the dimness Hypha could make out a raised judge’s bench and a small seating gallery. He also saw a stone platform in the center of the room. Thick chains sat coiled on the ground atop it. They were dusty, peeling in places, and flecked with reddish rust and who-knew what else. One side ended in a set of manacles. The other was set into the stone itself. Their weight bent the room like a black hole bent space. Hypha felt himself pulled towards them. Just then, Hypha heard a noise behind him. He whirled around just in time to watch one of the members of the pulling team emerge from a back hallway. The dim light illuminated something long and curved clutched in the stallion’s hoof. The two ponies froze. Hypha’s heart pounded wildly in his chest. His inner voice screamed, Fly!, but he could no more move than if he’d been manacled to the floor. The stallion squinted. “Hello?” The voice split the dark room. Hypha jumped in fright, knocking the manacles off the pile of chains. They fell to the floor with a tremendous clatter. The stallion screamed and chucked the object in his hooves at Hypha. It hit him squarely in the chest. Warm liquid splattered everywhere. “Ghost!” the stallion screamed. He turned tail and ran back into the hallway. Hypha collapsed on top of the chains. For a split second, he was certain whatever the stallion threw at him had cut his jugular. He touched his neck, but found no wound. He licked a wet spot on his foreleg and found it tasted sweet. He picked up the object. It was the gnawed-on rind of a watermelon. More voices came from the back hallway. Hypha dove behind the judge’s bench just as a dozen more stallions from the pulling team poured into the room, knives out. “His clothes were all ripped up,” said the stallion who’d first spotted Hypha, “It looked like he just came out of the ground.” “Calm down,” said another stallion. “If he wanted to haunt someone, he’d haunt the judge.” “The judge doesn’t do any of the hanging.” “Look, you wouldn’t haunt the noose that hung you, right? So you wouldn’t haunt the hangman either, cuz you’re just doing what the judge told you to do. So chill out. No one’s getting haunted.” “You don’t get to decide that.” The stallion let out a soft sigh of annoyance. “Would someone turn the lights on?” Behind the bench, Hypha clamped his hoof over his mouth to stifle the sound of his breathing. The sight of knives sent chills up and down his spine. He waited until the pulling team turned their backs on him, then dipped down the back hallway. Outside, Hypha collapsed in the dirt, choking back sobs, curling in and out of a fetal position. Red and Blue exchanged a look, then wisely gave him some space. “Uh. Good job,” Red said when the worst of Hypha’s panic died down. “We got it from here.” “They’re all in there,” Hypha said. “In the courtroom.” “I said, we got it.” The sympathy vanished from her voice. “Remember, if you leave, we’re not coming after you.” With that, Red nudged open the door and slipped inside. Blue followed behind her, soundless as a shadow. The door shut behind them. And just like that, Hypha was all alone again. He put his ear to the door but couldn’t hear anything. Be patient, he reminded himself, and trotted off a little further down the alley where the shadows provided better concealment. He relaxed his magic for the first time in hours, but all that did was make room for an even worse headache than before. A unicorn probably would have collapsed by now. Only ruddy earth pony resilience kept him upright. He made a mental exercise of retracing his steps through the past forty eight hours in an attempt to distract himself. He made it as far as his second encounter with the snow leopard before the tears rushed in and buried him. Beneath it all, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he somehow deserved this. Every cut from every blade of grass, every split hoof, every ache in his brain. The hunger. The pain. The image of Wrender falling that wouldn’t leave his mind. It was his fault. All of it. If there was any penance to be found, he’d find it at the western temple. If he could save those monks from the same fate, then maybe this whole awful flight wouldn’t be in vain. One leg at a time, he raised himself into a standing position. This was his path now. The only path that mattered. Save as many monks as possible. He clutched the orange robes tightly in one hoof. The long and perilous journey had shredded them to ribbons, but as long as he still believed in what they represented, nothing else mattered. A tremendous crash from the other side of the courthouse made Hypha leap into the air. He landed on his front hooves and crumpled facefirst onto the street. As he stared up, dazed, he heard another crash in the square. Then a shout. Then an inarticulate cry of rage that could only belong to Red. As quickly as his plastered hooves allowed, Hypha ran around the courthouse. There he found Red and Blue fending off half a dozen stallions from the pulling team. The two mares beat a slow retreat across the square, darting forward to launch a flurry of blows on the nearest assailant before slinking back. Red had two bulging satchel bags slung over her shoulder. More stallions emerged from the courthouse. Most carried truncheons. Several had spears. Red and Blue redoubled their efforts to escape. Torchlit shadows flashed on the walls of the square like diving birds. Red and Blue were going to leave him behind, Hypha realized. A cold sweat draped across his neck. He needed to get to them, and fast. But as he started towards them, the torchlight in the square flared up, and the image of fire bursting through a bank of fog invaded his mind. His legs seized up. Fear squeezed the air from his lungs. Where’s Wrender? he thought. We need to... to... One of the pulling team—one with a spear—noticed him. The glint of metal in the firelight snapped Hypha back to the present. He threw the last reserves of magic into a shaky takeoff. The headache returned with a vengeance. He managed to stay airborne despite the pain, hugging the walls of the square, circling around the fight. He landed hard at the mouth of an alley, skidding to a stop beside the beleaguered Red and Blue. Red turned on him, ready to strike. Confusion flashed across her face as she recognized him. “You were—” Hypha wheezed. “Gonna leave me.” “Nuh-uh.” “Yuh-huh.” A spear hit the cobblestones between Hypha and Red. The impact sent the three reeling. In the moment they’d wasted arguing, the pulling team had closed in, sealing off the mouth of the alley with a wall of muscle and metal. The closest one took a swing at Hypha. Blue leapt forward and pulled him out of range. Another assailant thrust his own spear and caught Blue just above her cutie mark. It was a glancing blow, but still enough to draw blood. Blue jerked away, limping. Her face twisted in pain, but not a sound escaped her lips. The sight of blood on the spear broke something in Hypha. A fog rolled over his eyes. Torchlight tinted everything a rage shade of red. Hirruck’s voice came to him. Feel it. Receive it. Feel it. Receive it. He wheeled around to face the pony with the spear. Rage replaced fear. He raised his forelegs to the sky, then drew them into his chest. Glowing vapor clung to his fur, condensing into a point of light on his plastered hooftips. He drew a circle in the air, then punched it with all his might. A wave of energy rippled out from the point of impact, catching the three closest ponies. They seized up like they’d been hit by lightning and collapsed in bulky heaps on the ground. The buildings trembled. Windows shattered. The rest of the pulling team stopped short and backed away. The plaster on his hooves shattered. The dizzying ache of magical whiplash made his head spin, dulling the edges of his vision. He fell backwards, holding his hooves up, staring in mute horror at all the new cracks in the keratin. Blue and Red appeared by his side. Red hoisted him onto her back, muttering insensitive comments about his weight, while Blue lashed out at anyone who dared follow them into the alley. This was how they left the small, nowhere town of Median. As soon as the grass was tall enough to conceal them, the three fleeing ponies left the road. The grass whipped painfully at their faces, but they dared not slow down. Behind them came light and the distant sound of beating hooves. The grass, painful though it was, concealed them from sight. Pain descended on Hypha like snowfall. Softly, in tiny pinpricks here and there, single snowflakes tickling his fur. Then more. And more. And more. Until it buried him, and the weight of it made him gasp for air. “Please,” Hypha begged, “stop, stop, please—” Red and Blue ignored him. Once the sound of their pursuers dissolved and the lights of Median disappeared over the horizon, the trio finally paused to rest. From one of the satchel bags, Red produced a small lavender crystal that glowed when she shook it. That served as their fire in a flammable sea. Aside from a few bumps and bruises, Red was the only one of the three who’d made it out unscathed. She tended to Blue first. Blue’s wound was surface-level, but the amount of blood leaking into the fabric of her clothes demanded attention. Red casted a suspicious look at Hypha before peeling back Blue’s pants. Hypha, still writhing silently on the ground, caught a glimpse of Blue’s cutie mark. Some kind of white flower. Once Blue had been bandaged up, Red turned to Hypha. “Let’s see ‘em.” Hypha held up his hooves. Red’s lips peeled back in a grimace. “I don’t have any more plaster. I can’t set these.” “It’s fine. I’ll use magic to walk.” “When? Right now? You can’t even stand, idiot.” “I just need to rest.” He felt a surprising gentleness in her touch as she turned his hooves over. “They’re really messed up, Hypha. I don’t think they’re gonna heal right.” “I’ll be fine.” The scowl returned. “Idiot. You’re not thinking long-term. You might have just given yourself a permanent limp.” Anger welled up in Hypha’s chest. She didn’t understand the gravity of his situation. A limp was the least of his worries. “It doesn’t matter. We have to make it to that temple as soon as possible.” Red threw up her hooves and scooted back to the other side of the crystal. “Sure. What do I know, anyway? I’m not a doctor. Maybe you’ll magic them better.” She paused, considering her next words. “What did you do back there with the hoof smashy thing?” “That was rune magic.” The words took a moment to register. Then it hit him all at once. He looked down at his shattered hooves. I did rune magic. He tried to recall the already-fading memory of the fight. “Those ponies...” “It looked like they got electrocuted,” Red finished for him. Her face took on a darker look. “Who are you really?” “I’m Hypha. I’m an acolyte of the order of—” “Are you an alicorn or something?” “No—what? No. I don’t have a horn. Or wings.” “But you did magic. And you flew.” “I’m serious, I’m from the Stonewood—” Red snorted. “Whatever. Keep lying to us. We only saved your life.” “I saved your life.” “After you nearly got Blue killed. Those guys wouldn’t have gotten close enough to stick her if you hadn’t shown up and slowed us down.” “They wouldn’t have been after you if you didn’t steal from them. What did you take, anyway?” “None of your business.” “Who are you, really?” “Nobody. Don’t worry about me.” “You’re a liar.” “What are you gonna do about it, huh? Punch me?” She stood up. Stars flickered white-hot in the night sky. “Go on. Walk over here. I’ll give you a free shot.” Hypha gingerly placed his hooves beneath him. Pain shot up his arms the moment they touched ground. He yanked them back like he’d just touched a hot stove. “That’s right. You don’t know what you’re talking about, so how about you shut your stupid mouth before I leave you out here? You wanna be worm food? You wanna be fertilizer?” Blue intervened, rising to her hooves with a grimace and punching Red in the shoulder. Red turned the full weight of her furious gaze on Blue. “What?” Blue shoved Red in the chest and returned the look in kind. “You don’t get to push me like that. You wouldn’t have got stabbed if you didn’t save his sorry skin.” Blue reached out, and for a second Hypha thought she was going to hit Red again. But instead, she cupped Red’s face in her hoof and pulled her back so they were looking directly at each other. The look in Blue’s eyes shifted from anger to something else, something glassy, like water flowing over rocks, wearing them down. Red’s resolve shattered into a million pieces. “Sorry,” she mumbled, “I’m sorry.” Blue nodded to her open wound. “Right, okay.” Red fished a bandage out of her bag. The edge of the cut bubbled a little as she pressed down. She swallowed hard, and Hypha realized with a start that there were tears in her eyes. “I’m just upset cuz you got hurt. Sorry.” Blue put her forehead against Red’s. A tremor passed through Red’s body, from her tail all the way to her nose. Blue held her up, sturdy as stonewood. Then their lips came together in a slow, mournful kiss. That was the end of the argument.