The Archaic System - 50 Valerian's Resolve

Before the echoes of his scream could fade the man lost consciousness again. After he returned to unconsciousness I tried to take control of the Razarac vines. If I gained control I could make them shrink and remove them from his body. Unfortunately, Castor was prepared and significantly stronger than me. His robust energy firmly held the vines in place keeping my energy away. I couldn’t move a single leaf.

Castor shook his head, anguish on his face, “Stop Valerian,” somehow he was the one who sounded defeated, “The Razarac vines are touching his core. We think he could die if you move them at this point.”

The ‘core’ he’s talking about must be the human heart. After looking closer I realized it didn’t matter, he would die soon even if his heart was undamaged. I don’t know how much Castor understood about human structure, but its closer to a Fey than a G’eth. According to Troy, human bodies have many organs that work together to keep humans alive. If any one is damaged or destroyed they can die and most of them are in the torso area. A Razarac vine was growing in the humans middle torso on the right side. It looked particularly gnarly and many of his organs were probably already beyond repair.

I recognized that I couldn’t do anything to help this human. I had no healing abilities and even if I was willing to use the Geodenisis Arboreth sap I had Castor would probably stop me. Corytheius would certainly never allow it. The only thing I could do was talk with Castor and hope for an opportunity to end his suffering sooner. I slowly calmed myself down, more outburst weren’t going to be useful for anyone. Hardening my resolve, I focused on facing this situation.

For the first time in my life I used a cold tone with Castor, “You keep saying I don’t understand. So explain.”

Castor looked shocked for a moment, then he nodded his head. It seemed he understood I would never be able to look at him the same way I had before.

He took a formal tone, “First, this man was involved in the explosion. He wasn’t the main culprit, he was a scout left behind to study us and report back the results. We were able to… get a lot of information from him, but for some reason he can’t stay conscious long enough to respond to questions. He just wakes up, screams, then goes unconscious again. We fear if we move the Razarac and he dies we won’t get the answers we need.”

“How does that involve me?”

He visibly winced at the sharpness in my voice, “You have spent a lot of time with humans, more than most. Unlike the G’eth I had sent to gather information, you have a good relationship with a human. He’s explained human stuff to you correct? You may notice something we missed.”

I nodded stiffly.

“Corytheius had mentioned before you arrived that if you or Troy were here, you might be able to understand more than us. When you arrived and Corytheius told you to talk with me I knew what he wanted. Not just for you to help us, but to also let you know that the real world is dangerous. That horrible things can happen anywhere, even here.”

The last bit of hope I was clinging to, that Corytheius didn’t know about this, disappeared. My resolve weakened. I felt heartbroken, at the same time I felt conflicted. I understood what Castor was trying to say. I believed he acted in the best interest of the village and that he didn’t enjoy doing this. I also wasn’t so naive that I thought everyone outside the village would act justly. I just thought we were better than them, that we acted justly no matter what, that we wouldn’t stoop to such despicable methods. I was wrong and it hurt.

“He worried about you after you left. He worried you would underestimate the danger.”

My mind struggled to reconcile what was happening and the image I had of the G’eth I respected. I understood the reason’s for their decisions, but I couldn’t agree with them. I knew I was inexperienced, but this went beyond that. I couldn’t continue focusing on this, I needed to focus on the situation in front of me. I pushed out my emotions and feelings, hardened my resolve, and focused back on the situation.

“What do you need to know? It seems you already have a lot of information.”

Castor relaxed a little, like he had been anxiously waiting for me to ask that, “We did, but a few things still don’t make sense. For instance, how did they cause the explosion? It occurred in the room we store our sun stones. A large amount of the stones we retrieved on the last mission were destroyed. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t even known humans caused it.”

Castor pointed at the half-dead human as he said ‘him’.

“You didn’t ask him how they caused the explosion before he lost consciousness?”

“No, when we captured him he insisted he was just a hunter. Under threat of execution he revealed he was part of a group of humans that caused the explosion, but it wasn’t his plan. After he refused to tell us more unless we released him, we brought him here. When the questioning resumed I was more concerned with understanding who was behind it and why they did it. I was still working on the why they attacked when he first went unconscious. We didn’t get to the how, we thought we could figure out that part on our own if necessary. However, that has proven to be more difficult than we imagined.”

“I will do my best to help you find the answer.”

Castor was ecstatic, “Thank you! I know we are asking a lot, but,”

I cut him off, “On one condition,” I pointed to the human, “Kill him. Now. He’s suffered enough.”

Castor hesitated for a moment, then he raised his arm. The exposed leaves of the Razarac near the mans chest and face gathered into two thin spikes. Castor silently nodded toward me then swept his arm in front of him. The two spikes pierced through his head and chest simultaneously. This was all I could do for him. Give him the quick death he deserved.

“Ok, let me see what he had and anything found around the explosion.”

As we walked away the corpse was slowly dragged into the earthen wall by the Zerden roots.