Chapter 109

Chapter 109: 109 The days of that next week were uneventful - mostly fishing and walking and romping about in the water without a care in the world - yet they passed quickly, at least to Bran’s reckoning. Some days he woke with Misha still coiled around him and some days he woke alone, though with the knowing that the loong was not far away, but either way, he always began the day with one important ritual: scratching a mark onto a smooth stone he’d picked up the second morning. After his experience in the warped space of The Unity’s headquarters, Bran had gotten a little paranoid about keeping time and that paranoia served him well as he could say with relative confidence how long he and Misha had been nesting on this spot of beach. A week had passed now and apart from two short run-ins with little Haayi, nothing else of note happened. Well, apart from the slowly growing number of animals that seemed to be around. At first Bran found the sight of the large and powerful Misha patiently playing with a little sparrow to be adorable, but after they became a flock consisting of not just sparrows but crows and blackbirds, he began to worry. It wasn’t for the animals per se but rather concern for the current state of the world at large. What was happening that was causing the animals to gather in such numbers to a large predator, seemingly for protection? Was it the magic? Or rather, lack of magic in the world? The first night when Bran had tried to cook the fish Misha caught he’d discovered that he had completely lost touch with anything resembling magic. No flame, no fire, no cooking. That night they ate the fish raw. And Bran stayed up late that night pondering what had happened and continued to do so each night after, often only finally falling asleep a mere hour before the sun rose the next day. For the past seven years he’d been able to easily draw on power from inside himself to do whatever spell he wanted whether it be to power up his sword or to cast a memory spell, but now he couldn’t even summon a tiny spark. Moreover, he couldn’t even find the switch within him that had allowed him to access such power. At first, he thought that maybe it was because he himself no longer had easy access to magic thanks to the seal breaking since that seemed to be the true source of his power, the ’demon’ metaphor inside of him he’d told Misha about, but now he had to wonder. If it was just him that was cut off from magic, that was one thing - inconvenient, but ultimately not a big deal - but if the change went further than that, like if somehow the breaking of the seal on the Nameless Beast had affected the world it self... With that framing in mind, Bran again looked to the world and tried to see what was different and soon, as he had suspected, be began to notice things. He didn’t know how to describe it, or where the point and say ’look, that’s what’s missing’, but he could just tell that something, an important something, had vanished from the world. Much like Haayi’s inability to become human, and Misha’s near entire loss of humanity. And it wasn’t just that. While Bran didn’t have access to the power he’d had before, he was still able to use the techniques his aunt had taught him to sense the energy around him, to trace those invisible flows of energy. And what he ’saw’, disturbed him. Stagnation. Miasma. Death. A pure quagmire of slow moving energy that had nowhere to go and yet was needed everywhere. It was like the leylines of the world had been cut and now all that magical energy was pooling into invisible bruises, soft and painful to touch. A soft croon by Bran’s ear brought him back to the present and to those large eyes that watched him thoughtfully. Bran smiled. "I’m okay," he said softly. The serpentine eyes blinked then came closer as the loong bumped foreheads with him. He was grateful, so endlessly grateful to have Misha in his life, especially right now, even if it was as a silent companion. For years he’d sunk deeper and deeper into his own internal quagmire of lethargic detachment with no way, or even no desire, to crawl his way out. That had been why he’d returned to Pearl City in the first place. Malcolm had urged him to seek treatment when it became clear his symptoms weren’t getting better, but even as he’d landed in the place he thought of as home, he hadn’t had any desire to actually see it done. He’d wanted to come home, yes, but not to recover. He’d come home to die. Bran sighed deeply and pressed his forehead against Misha’s scaley side. Meeting Misha had changed all that. That chance meeting had given him a new, unexpected impetus to keep going, even if it was only for a little longer just to see this hapless boy make it. He’d been depressed, he now realised, hopelessly depressed for years and not even known it. When he’d talked to Misha about climbing mountains mentally and emotionally he’d been speaking from experience, even if it was experience from someone on the verge of throwing it all in and taking a plunge. And this was all why when Bran thought about there being hope for Misha, he wasn’t thinking that for his own benefit but for Misha himself. To Bran it didn’t actually matter if Misha ever regained his human form. To Bran just being with him was enough. He owed him his life after all. "Misha, do you think..." Bran’s voice trailed off as something flickered in the dark behind his eyelids. No, it wasn’t really in his eyes or from his vision at all. It was a spark in his inner spirit. Bran opened his eyes and looked up at Misha. "You’re..." ...At the centre of a vortex, he wanted to say but didn’t. He didn’t need to, the loong knew already. It hadn’t been noticeable before, but after quietening down and falling into a daily rhythm, Misha’s internal energy had started to circulate more strongly, strongly enough to affected the energy outside and around him. That was why the animals were attracted to him - he was the antithesis to stagnation. He let life flow and go its course. Bran cupped Misha’s long jaw in his hands, thumbing the soft scales at the edge of his mouth. "You understand what’s going on, don’t you?" A whisp of wind, a soft lover’s caress. The moment could have gone on forever. But it didn’t. Out in the dark came the crackle of hard soles on dead grass. Even Bran could hear it. Something, or someone, had also been drawn in. Bran grabbed his outer clothes and pulled them on as Misha silently uncoiled and stood at the ready, staring out into the darkness. Should they try to sneak off or stay to confront whatever it was - Bran kept silent and left the decision up to his partner. -- There was an ugly, metallic tang to the water that all who swam in it, whether they had tongues or mouths at all, could taste. From the tiny krill to the commanding but gentle whales, they all recoiled and moved as far as their bodily adaptations could allow them from the shore and the source of that scourge. Tuesday, herself right now far more fish than human, also balked at the stench but she finessed away all design to abandon her mission and pressed on ahead instead, reciting old jiaoren ballads to distract herself. And those ballads were especially needed today. There was something odd brewing to the south, Tuesday could feel it in the whispers of the ocean, and she needed all her strength just to drag the dead giant squid through the water behind her. She reached the climax of the ballad, twisted upward, then used her powerful tail to propel her up. The jiaoren’s head broke the surface of the water a few feet from the survey boat where Zhan crouched, earpiece on and communicator in hand. Tuesday heaved the dead giant squid up onto the deck of the boat. "What news?" she asked. Zhan listened for a few moments longer then replied to whoever was on the other end. "We’ll head there now." Then he turned to Tuesday. "There’s something happening a beach of an island near here. Yidi thinks we should check it out." Tuesday twisted in the water to look toward the speckle of islands south of them. "South?" "Yeah. Do you sense something?" "I’m not sure..." There came a resonant bang from somewhere beneath the deck of the boat and the whole vessel rocked in the water. "I’ll get this squid prepped," began Zhan, standing to pull over a crate and trolley to transport Tuesday’s bounty. "No, I have a better idea."