Call of the Abyss [Book 2 Complete]

Gliding down from her perch on the branch, Julia made the call of a gliding lizard by blowing into her hands. This was what she worked on primarily during the ride over, whenever she needed a break from trying to "feel" the Song—which was a test of her patience.

She made it by forming a fist with her left hand, using her thumb and forefinger to create a small hole to blow into, and vibrating her flattened right hand against the balled fingers of her left fist—sort of like she was trying to shake something off her hand. When she made a sort of hum into the hole her left fist created, the right hand vibrating against the left created an effect that mimicked what lizards did with their expanded throats.

The call was a signal to gather the group while they were moving silently. It was a standard affair for the Zal'Nadir, apparently. Now that Julia was here, she questioned the wisdom of making lizard calls while in a deadzone—were there even any lizards left in the area? Wouldn't making their call just bring unwanted attention?

It was what they'd agreed on in advance, however, and Julia had no other ideas at the moment that would be less obvious.

She waited at the base of her tree while the others gathered around. Elulis, Sahveth, and Ithshar gathered quickly, while it took a few minutes for Jallis to return, as he was also scouting. Julia went over what Trixy was seeing, briefly mentioning the lack of life in the area as well.

"Indeed, the lack of life bodes ill. That no scavengers have come for the bodies is also not good. Is their absence due to the lack of life in the area, or is there something about the corpses that they instinctively avoid?" Sahveth wondered.

"It is a fell omen, but our mission does not change. We will learn nothing pondering uncertainties from a distance," Elulis groused. She seemed eager for their destination—surprising considering there was likely a fight waiting for them.

"We will proceed, but we will do so cautiously and together. Julia, will you instruct Trixy to maintain a vigil on the nearest dwelling?

"We will approach as a group. Be alert to your surroundings, everyone. An attack could come from anywhere, at any time," Ithshar concluded.

"Before we proceed, please allow me an extra precaution," Julia requested as she snapped her fingers. A pulse like a small shockwave swept through the group, but it was so quick that it could've been mistaken for a gust of wind.

"...did you do something?" Elulis asked, examining herself from top to bottom—likely not finding anything out of the ordinary.

"Yes, I used a bit of Space Magic to track all four of you. Your positions in space are now locked in my mind, so I will be able to locate all of you no matter how separated we may become," Julia said with closed eyes. She spun around five times and pointed a finger at each of them, saying their names to indicate she could sense their locations.

They advanced forward as a group, all walking atop the water. Sahveth took the lead, his giant shield raised defensively as he walked. Elulis stood just behind him, her own buckler held forward.

Julia and Ithshar were behind Elulis and walking side-by-side, while Jallis took the rear. It was difficult to plan an effective formation when they didn't know the enemy's location (or if they were even present), so they went with the tried-and-true: melee combatants up front and protecting the rear.

As they neared the first homestead on the village outskirts, Julia began to see strange hazes in the air. Since her evolution, both her mana pool and regeneration had been greatly augmented—so much so that she now had Truesight permanently active.

She might disable it if she ever found some place she could feel totally safe, but its cost was so low now that her regeneration outpaced it completely. Rather than losing mana with it active, it just slowed her regeneration slightly.

In the air, she began seeing wisps of purples and greens. These were not like the flares of color that she'd occasionally see from the marsh trees—they seemed to give off flashes of mana and magic just by existing. These wisps were foul in a way that nearly made her physically recoil. Her body instinctively wanted to avoid them.

It was like when an animal dies, and its carcass gives off the smell of rot that makes the primal part of one's brain want to get away from it.

"What do you see, Julia? Enemies?" Ithshar asked, noticing Julia's focused gaze.

"Not exactly. Perhaps the remnants of them. There is a…foulness in the air. Traces of death and…some kind of stale rot linger here, despite the steady breeze," Julia replied with a wrinkled nose.

She couldn't physically smell it, of course, but Truesight had a way of translating what she saw into sensations her other senses understood. It was like she could smell the colors in the air.

"I see. Keep an eye on it, but be wary of attack. We have strong senses, particularly for the reek of death that the nashiin carry, but you are the only one that can see them so clearly," Ithshar warned. Julia nodded, and they returned to their wary silence.

They arrived at the dwelling without further signs of life (or unlife), and discovered the first of the victims lying against the door to the dwelling.

This particular dwelling (Julia was hesitant to call it a "house," being that it was so very different from what she was used to) was a modest structure. Well, modest for a building wrapped around a giant tree. There was a small A-frame just above the waterline, with a small dock and stairs leading from under the water to the front door.

The A-frame backed up to a square building that sat snug against the trunk of the tree. Julia wasn't completely sure why, but there were ropes connecting the square building at the waterline to a larger structure far up in the branches of the tree—a lift, maybe? The square building might have an open top to support this theory, but she couldn't tell from this angle.

Regardless, the corpse against the door was…strange. There was…something festering in it. Admittedly, other than the nashiin, Julia had not seen a great many corpses before (if the nashiin even counted as corpses), but this felt…not right.

What she expected to see from a corpse was—well, nothing. Mana should fade fairly quickly, and dead bodies shouldn't absorb any mana passively. Thus, there should be no presence of mana in a corpse.

Perhaps, if it had been dead for a while, the environment would leech mana into it (just like the ground or rocks or any other inanimate object), but that would be environmental mana—it would be pretty obvious.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Julia saw largely what she expected—an absence—but there was a sickly green in the corpse's chest—no, its core. The green mana in the body gave Julia a visceral disgust, like hearing a thick, wet cough. It evoked a sense of sickness and pestilence from her instinctively.

She clamped down on the wisp of nausea swirling in her gut and inspected the rest of the corpse.

It appeared to be a young man—in his mid-twenties, to Julia's eyes, though that meant next to nothing with elves, who apparently lived hundreds of years even without Attributes being factored in. He wore the flowing garb that Julia had come to expect from the marsh, and it appeared in good condition—no rips, tears, or holes to suggest a struggle.

He lay against the door in an upright-but-slouched posture, as though he'd just sat down to rest and fallen asleep. His head hung low, his chin on his chest, and his arms hung limply at his sides. There was no odor, which Julia was positive she would notice were it present—she didn't know a great deal about corpses, but everyone knew how much they stank.

Strangely, although he appeared to have died so recently that there were none of the hallmarks of decay, there were some artifacts that would suggest he'd been dead much longer than he appeared.

His skin was sunken and sallow, as though the fat had melted out from under the skin and colored its surface. His nails were…long. Julia remembered that corpses were sometimes thought to grow claws, but she had also heard that it was just a myth due to the nail bed retreating after death—where did she hear that? From Braden, maybe?

These nails were not just long from a retreating bed, though. These were claws. They extended out well past the tips of the man's fingers and had an intimidating curve to them. Julia had not seen a great many of the elves that lived in this marsh, but the ones she'd seen did not have nails like this.

"A ghûl," Ithshar said from Julia's side, making her jump a little. She'd been so taken with investigating the corpse that she'd forgotten she wasn't alone.

"What? This is one of your people, isn't it?' Julia asked, confused.

"It was. You've fought them plenty, yes? You're aware how many undead are out there? How do you think they built those numbers?" Ithshar asked, looking out to the marsh with a grimace.

Julia once again clamped down on a wave of nausea that threatened to make her retch. All those undead, the nashiin…they were elves from the marsh?

She knew that some of them were summoned, particularly the powerful ones like the Barrowlords, but she hadn't thought about the rank-and-file. She realized that she'd just been assuming they were all summoned undead.

"How many have you lost?" Julia asked quietly, afraid of the answer.

"Prior to the nashiin's arrival, this marsh was host to around two-and-a-half million elves. It is hard to get a reliable census right now, but estimates put that number at less than one million—perhaps closer to half a million," Ithshar said matter-of-factly, attempting (and failing) to mask the pain in her voice.

Julia was stricken with grief. How could that be true?

"But…you…the borders. You still maintain the borders of the marsh. How could it be possible to…to—" Julia stammered.

"To be so decimated? True, the borders are more-or-less maintained, but we've paid a heavy price for that maintenance. You arrived in Veshari to military law, did you not?

"I'm aware that much of our culture seems unique to outsiders, but do you think us so different that our Assembly would immediately cede absolute power and authority over to the military? It took many struggles and many lives to arrive at the current state of emergency," Ithshar explained.

This made sense, Julia simply hadn't thought about it before. She was angry at herself for being so self-obsessed. She'd only been occupied with her own problems and worries the entire time she'd been in the marsh, and yet, even with potentially a fifth of the population remaining, the elves had taken care of her and been empathetic to her struggles.

Ithshar put her hand on Julia's shoulder. "Do not burden yourself with the actions of others, Julia. You've arrived in the midst of an emergency, but it is not of your making. You bear no responsibility for our struggle.

"There is a way that you could help, however, and that is by discovering what the nashiin have planned here. They have been picking us off for a few months now, but they ceased assaulting border villages at least a month ago. They have seemed content with how far our borders have currently shrunk and have not pushed further.

"Their tactics up to this point have largely been striking the most vulnerable and isolated of us, drawing us out into areas they control, or intercepting groups of us as we get desperate due to the siege. I worry that this change of tactics could be a prelude to something dire," Ithshar concluded, pointing to the corpse Julia had been investigating.

Nodding, Julia refocused. She couldn't do anything about the past, but she might be able to help the present. Reexamining the corpse, she noted many of the features she'd seen on the ghûls previously now that she was looking for them. However, something was still off.

"So, this person is becoming a ghûl, you say? Why is there…I don't know how to explain it—the sensory information my Truesight gives me is difficult to put into words—but there's something different within this corpse.

"The feeling I get from the nashiin, including the ghûls, is one of death—not of finality or ending, but of change. The mana within this one, though…it reeks of disease, rot, infection, pestilence…it makes me instinctively want to avoid it.

"It's sort of the feeling you might get if you see someone who's horribly ill—you instinctively want to recoil away from them lest you catch whatever it is they are infected with," Julia explained, standing up away from the corpse.

Ithshar's brow furrowed, and she motioned the party back. Once everyone was a good span-or-so away, she pointed her finger at the corpse. A small fleck of silver light shot from the tip of her finger and struck the corpse in the chest.

The spark caught instantly, and the corpse flailed and thrashed as its clothing—no, its flesh—burnt. Suddenly, it pounced upright, eyes glowing with a green fire, and spread its arms wide open. A burst of black smoke billowed out of the ghûl, though it looked like a green cloud of sickness to Julia's Truesight.

"That cloud is dangerous!" Julia shouted. The smoke largely rose into the sky, but some originating from its legs and feet (was it coming out of the ghûl's pores?) came billowing out of the marsh water. A few small fish, some of the only life still present in this section of the marsh, floated to the surface, unmoving.

Ithshar spread the fingers of the hand she'd been pointing with and fanned the fingers of her other hand out behind them. The fire burning the ghûl burst into a great conflagration that rose into the air, as though chasing the sickly smoke. A great silvery-white inferno scoured the ghûl and all traces of its pestilence out of the world before vanishing, as though it never was.

"Our mission has changed. We know what they seek. We must eliminate every single ghûl from the area," Ithshar said with gravity.

"What exactly changed? Why does a new type of ghûl frighten you so?" Elulis wondered.

"This was not a ghûl created for fighting. This was an infiltrator. Imagine if they managed to convert even a few towns around the marsh into these horrid creatures.

"Imagine all of them, with their very skin spewing pestilence and rot, racing toward Veshari. It would be neither weapon nor claw we need fear—it would be the very air itself," Ithshar finished, a somber silence washing over the group.

Julia understood the gravity of the situation, but she was distracted by a memory that came bubbling to the surface of her mind.

"My Lord dislikes this swamp; he grows disinterested and underestimates you as a result."

The Barrowlord had said that as she and the Thornalûn fled. Was this the consequence of their lord growing "disinterested?" Was this a signal that they were preparing for a final push into the marsh?