Chapter 13 #3
Not that Eadwolf could see it open within him, that conduit to the abyss. He just felt its effects immediately.
From every cut that still lacerated his skin began to seep his own vitality. It didn’t burn. Didn’t freeze. Didn’t tug or spurt. It just… flowed, like blood into warm water, drifting out from his essence toward where Harald stood.
A tiny but constant flow.
Eadwolf’s throat constricted. He tried walking backward, and as he retreated, the drain grew less.
But it didn’t stop.
The realization hit Eadwolf like a blow to the head. The entire time he’d theoretically have to fight Harald, this drain would be taking place. Sapping him of his will, his essence. Only by defeating Harald would he end the threat.
Against his will, his every instinct urging him to escape the Well’s draining effect, he studied Harald with Wolf Sight and Hunter’s Mark.
“You’re not embracing it!” he called.
“Should I manifest my abyssal coils?”
“No! You’re still thinking of the drain as something you do to people.
It’s not. It’s something that happens around you.
The Well is an aperture. You don’t need to reach for anyone.
You just need to open it, and proximity should do the rest.” Eadwolf resisted the urge to growl as that gentle drain continued.
“Think of it like gravity. The Well is gravity. You don’t point gravity.
You just are it, and things fall toward you. ”
Harald bowed his chin. Struggled, hands clenching into fists.
It took all Eadwolf’s will to just stand there, feeling his vitality leach gradually out of him, wisp by wisp.
“Form isn’t something you summon, it’s just what you are.
Imperium isn’t an attack you unleash; it’s the space you control.
The Well isn’t a drain you direct. It’s a connection to the abyss you just bloody open in your chest. Each follows the same structure—stop thinking of consolidated power as the old powers stacked together.
Start understanding it as a new thing with a unified nature. ”
Then with a gasp, Harald’s head jerked back up. “There! I see what you mean—”
But Eadwolf didn’t hear the rest of it.
The pressure on him had just tripled. The very air felt carnivorous, and a chill began to steal into his flesh as he found himself growing numbed by the drain.
Worse, his Eternal Hide was no longer sealing the last of the cuts as it should.
The lacerations weren’t closing anymore.
He raised his hand to watch a long, razor-cut along its back just…
stay open and red and raw. After years and years of being protected by Eternal Hide, of coming to take its power almost for granted, to watch a cut just…
stay open… and to feel his vitality bleeding out through that wound…
It was terrifying.
Eadwolf lowered his gaze and stared at Harald. The youth was standing with his fists raised, head tilted back, eyes closed.
Terrifying.
Where Imperium had changed the very air, the world around him, and slashed and weakened his body through its assault, Well of Starless Dominion was draining him from the inside.
There was no defending against this vitality drain.
And there was a sublime, haunting synergy between the two—the more Imperium wounded a foe, the faster Well could drain them, empowering Harald, which in turn would make Imperium stronger.
A cycle.
A self-sustaining, self-enhancing cycle of death.
“Enough!” His voice wavered more than he’d like. He steadied it. “That’s enough.”
The drain on his essence, his soul, lessened, then ceased altogether. Eadwolf exhaled in relief and began to walk back to Harald.
“That was fantastic!” Harald sounded genuinely enthused, which was somehow even more horrifying.
“I could feel the Well’s power just pouring out of me.
Or opening so that everything could pour in.
You’re absolutely right. It’s its own thing.
It’s there. Right now.” Harald placed his hand over his chest, and his expression sobered. “I’m holding it shut, but it’s there.”
Eadwolf took a shaky breath. “You’re a natural. Just needed a nudge.”
“One left,” said Harald. “Crown of the Abyssal Tyrant.”
“Right.” Eadwolf studied the boy. Abyssal Imperium allowed him to be more dangerous in a fight. The Well made him more efficient at defeating his foes. Form made him harder to kill.
But Crown?
It would make Harald more compelling. More able to bend others to his will, to inspire loyalty, suppress dissent.
Blank refusal arose within him. He might have spared the boy’s life tonight, but to empower his ability to command others, to bend the world to his desires?
That was a step too far.
He’d nothing against training raiders to be the best fighters they could be.
But he’d play no part in creating a tyrant.
“I think we’re done for tonight. You did well.” To show good humor he clapped Harald on the shoulder. “But enough for one night.”
“All right.” Harald tried to hide his disappointment but failed. “Thank you, Eadwolf. For this, for helping Anna, for…” He shrugged. “For being a good friend. I won’t forget it.”
“You’d better not,” rasped Eadwolf, turning to walk away. “For all our sakes.”