A Long Time from Home Ch. 10

Author's notes:

About the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

===========================

Flashback story so far:

After having taken a test (the Quaestio), where it's determined, that Ivah is extraordinary gifted with Ars Mentalis (The Art of the Mind) Ivah is selected to go to a training castle called Arcem Discendi in the Far East (Lescare).

There he is trained in combat, investigation, Ars Mentalis, Vis Vitae and, using both powers, as a Healer, and develops a relationship with both a Baylon woman, Verina, and a half-Lescarian, half Baylon woman named Jia.

Serving as healer and protector, Ivah escorts Jia's sister, Hao, to her wedding in the capitol in Lescare. Among the people in the group is a Lescarian clan leader called Sun Wukong, who is leader of the Monkey-clan. For that reason, he is called 'the Monkey King'.

Sun Wukong prove to be an able fighter and healer and helps the rest of the group as they assist a village, that have been attacked by bandits.

==============================

Chapter 10 -- Flashback: The Peaches of Immortality

Lescare

"This is a bad idea." I told Sun Wukong, as I looked at the imposing mountain-top castle.

He looked at me with a dare-devil grin on his face. "No, it's a very good idea. Nobody would ever suspect anyone of doing such an insane act."

I silently agreed. Scaling the walls of Mount Kunlun, the fortress belonging to Xi Wangmu aka. Queen Mother of the West was really an 'insane act' as Wukong had said.

Not only did the fortress have incredibly tall walls, but the outer walls were also standing on top on a mountain, making the approach and scaling of the wall even harder without being detected.

Unfortunately, during a drunken night at Hao's wedding, I had shown Wukong my natural ability to levitate and that was the reason why he had asked for my help.

The walls were magical and would dispel any attempt to scale them, using Magic or Vis, thus Wukong had concluded, that a Mentat with a natural ability to levitate had to be the best possible way to do it fast and undetected. He might even be right about it, but the walls were just the start at it was rumoured to be an exceptionally well defended castle.

"Yu Rou better be here." I stated. During Hao's wedding a woman called Yu Rou, who were a handmaiden of the Queen Mother of the West, had caught the eye of Sun Wukong and being his charming self, he managed to seduce the woman. However, during the week-long celebration, he had realized that it was more than a casual fling: He was in love and wanted to marry her.

Yu Rao had been exited and happily agreed, but when Wukong had asked Xi Wangmu, the Queen Mother of the West didn't give her consent immediately. Instead, she had set a challenge for Wukong to prove that he was worthy, by simply saying that if he could give Yu Rao a kiss, he could marry her. That would have been a rather easy challenge, if Xi Wangmu haven't ended the sentence by teleporting the young woman away, making her disappear in an instant.

Wukong had officially requested my help, allowing me to contact Arcem Discendi and get permission to help him.

Later, I had used the Inquisitor tracking spells to figure out where the young lady had reappeared, which was in a small village at the foot of the mountains. Of course, since it took five days to travel there, she was long gone when we arrived, but according to the locals, she had travelled into the mountains. A week, some fights against the local bandits and a lot of travel later, we were here.

"She's waiting in there." Replied Wukong and gestured at the direction of the walls. "We just need to get to her."

I accepted the statement with a nod. Besides being an excellent Martial Artist and a Vis user, Sun Wukong knew some human magic and had some very useful natural abilities. One of these, was an ability to sense the direction to people he knew as long as they were within a day's travel and while the same could be done with Ars Mentalis or Ars Magica, his ability was totally undetectable, like any natural ability is.

"We'll go in tonight then." I said and sat down in the bushes we were hiding in. "There's no way we'll get inside undetected during the day."

"Good point." Wukong sat down next to me. "Let's wait."

Night-time came and with it a thick layer of clouds, that obscured the moon and made it even darker than usual, as Sun Wukong and I stalked closer to the walls.

The darkness didn't bother us, as we both knew the 'cat's eye' Vis trick that enabled us to see in the dark as well as a cat. Unfortunately, we were pretty sure that at least some of the guards knew that power as well and consequently both Wukong and I were dressed in dark clothes, to minimize the chance of being seen.

Somewhat to my surprise, getting over the walls went exactly as we had planned it, as I levitated us upwards until we reached the top of the wall, where we threw our cloth-wrapped grappling hooks over the stone works and dragged ourselves onto the top of the walls.

"See?" whispered Wukong with a grin that was barely visible in the dark night. "It worked."

I just nodded in reply. Even a whisper could carry a long way.

We both walked over to the other side of the battlement and looked down into the courtyard.

A few guards walked on patrol on a large open space, that lead up to another wall, but otherwise, the courtyard was empty.

Luckily, the wall curved and at the ends of it, it connected with the inner walls. Not a design I would recommend on open land, but as the castle was built on a mountaintop, with only the front gate needing extra protection, it made sense.

It also gave Wukong and I an easier option to sneak into the castle, instead of trying to cross a patrolled courtyard and through the guarded inner gate.

Again, it went without a hitch, which made me slightly nervous, and a glass later, we were crouched on the inner wall, looking at the main building of the castle, that had been hidden by the walls.

Dimly lit by the moon through a slight hole in the clouds, it was more a palace than a castle and it looked beautiful. At least four stories tall and built of stone and wood, everything above the fortified ground level was richly decorated with statues, jade carvings and colourful paintings.

The space between the palace and the castle walls was a giant garden, with grass and small cobbled paths in between islands of flowers, trees and bushes, most of which bore fruits or berries. There was even a small stream running through it, adding to the idyllic sight.

I shook my head in wonder. In the lowlands, this would have been a masterful piece of engineering. Here in the mountains, it was incredible.

Xi Wangmu a.k.a. the Queen Mother of the West, had already demonstrated her ability to use magic by teleporting Wukong's love interest away, but she clearly wasn't the only one able to wield magic.

The hole in the cloud cover disappeared along with the moonlight, leaving the garden in darkness. Several bit oil lamps lightened up some key points on the palace, but otherwise it was blessedly dark, making it a lot easier to sneak into.

I looked around to make sure no guards were near us and then whispered. "Where is she?"

"Upper left part." He replied in a low voice, still looking at the palace. "Let's go get her."

I levitated us both down to the ground and then we used the bushes to our advantage, hiding us while we carefully made our way through the garden, stopping only when a four-man patrol came walking, looking like they would rather be in a warm bed.

To our surprise, the patrol decided to take a break where two garden paths crossed near the small patch of bushes and trees Wukong and I were hiding in.

There was no way to leave our hiding place without being seen, so we settled down to wait.

A low rumbling sound made me stiffen and curse silently, as it dawned on me it was my stomach growling. I doubted the sound could be heard by the guards, but it was inconvenient none the less.

Luckily, there was no reason to go hungry in a fruit garden and hidden by the bushes I reached up in the low growing fruit trees and plucked some peaches before I sat down again. Even in the low light, I could see Wukong's shoulders shaking, as he laughed silently.

Smiling, I handed him one of the fruits and watched the resting patrol, while we ate.

As it turned out, the peaches were extremely delicious, with firm, yet soft and delicate flesh and a lovely aroma. They also had smooth skin, unlike the velvet skin of the peaches I was used to.

We were finished eating before the patrol was finished resting, so Wukong got us a second batch, which we devoured as well, before the patrol finally continued their walk.

We did the same, sneaking through the rest of the garden and then levitating up to the third store, so we could climb onto a balcony. It took almost a glass, but there was still lot of time left when we started our search for the young women, Wukong leading the way.

Fortunately, the palace was almost void of guards, which made sense, as they were supposed to guards the walls and entrances, and with most of the palace population asleep, we eventually found a staircase leading to the next floor and went up.

Wukong turned right and shortly after that, stopped in front of a large door, constructed from jade. He paused for a moment and silently opened the door, allowing us to look inside.

Unlike the rest of the palace, which had been mostly dark, this room was dimly lit by oil lamps, and we could see at least six beds in there. All of them occupied by people who were either sick or wounded in some way. Two young women were sitting in chairs by a table, obviously keeping an eye on the patients, but as we looked, they stood up with worry painted on their faces. To my relief, Yu Rou, Wukong's bride to be, was the woman on the right.

Wukong moved through the room so fast, it almost looked like he had teleported. He ended up next to an utterly surprised Yu Rou, giving her a quick kiss, before he said, "Hello darling."

She squealed in delight as she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss, in a most un-Lescarian way.

The other woman saw it as well and shook her head in disapproval, as she reached up for a thick silk cord of a type I'd seen before. Usually, such a cord was connected to a bell somewhere, either to call for assistance or alarm.

She jumped away when my throwing knife slammed into the wall, cutting the cord in two as it buried itself in the wood.

Despite being occupied with Yu Rou, Wukong heard the noise and looked questioningly at me.

"She was reaching for the cord." I explained.

He nodded and turned his attention back to his love. "What does that cord do?"

"It sounds the alarm." Answered Yu Rou with a frown.

Turning his head, Wukong looked at the maid. "Don't do that."

Since he had his head turned away from me, I couldn't see his facial expression, but he must have looked fearsome, because the maid turned and ran. Unfortunately, it's not easy to run in a long dress and she had only taken two steps, before her foot caught the hem of the dress, causing her stumble and fall, landing on an occupied bed.

That in turn caused the patient to wake up screaming in pain, as her body hit him in the bandaged stomach area and when she hurriedly moved away, I could see blood starting to seep through the cloth.

"Oh no!!" exclaimed Yu Rou, panic in her voice.

Wukong sighed and looked at me. "Could you do something, please? I don't think Xi Wangmu would be pleased if her people die as a result of this."

Agreeing with his statement, I nodded and walked over to the wounded man.

It didn't take long to determine, that the man was gravely wounded in the stomach and the maidens fall had caused the wound to reopen. Now it was bleeding, and he would die soon if nothing was done.

To make matters worse, the wound would take half a day to heal with Vis, making that type of healing unusable as there simply wasn't time to use it before the man had died. That the man also had numerous broken bones and other damages consistent with a fall from a great height, was inconsequential in this case. It was the stomach wound that was killing him and with the severity of the wound, it was a small miracle that he was still alive.

"Not good." I said to Wukong with a grimace. "You have to guard me, because this is going to hurt like a trip through the Courts of the Underworld."

The maid who had caused the whole situation, looked at me with disbelief in her face. "You can't be serious! He's impossible to heal!"

"Partly correct." I answered in Lescarian as I sat down beside the bed. "He can't be healed... but I can heal myself."

The maid watched me wide-eyed, as I placed a leather strap between my teeth and lay down on the floor. With the damage the man had taken, sitting up would only complicate matters.

Using an Ars Mentalis trick to increase my tolerance to pain, I took a deep breath to steel myself, placed a hand on the patient and activated Tralativa: The Ars Mentalis trick that would transfer his wounds to me.

A shimmering field surrounded us both for a few heartbeats and then I clamped down on the leather strap to avoid screaming in pain, when it felt like I was stabbed in the stomach with a sword. Bones cracked and snapped like dry twigs inside me, while muscles and tendons were violently ripped apart along with the nerves.

The pain was excruciating, spiralling out like liquid fire from my stomach to embrace my upper body.

It took a few heartbeats to get the pain under control, but I finally managed to block it and started to focus on the wound in my stomach area.

Mental energy poured through my body as I closed the ruptured blood vessels to stop me from bleeding to death, while working on the rest on the stomach wound. Slowly, severed muscles fused seamlessly together, tissue reconnected, and skin healed, as I weaved the mental energy into the pattern of healing.

When the stomach wound was healed, I went to work on the broken bones and damaged tendons, again fusing and reconnection what was broken or severed.

When I opened my eyes again, the morning sun was shining through the now open window shutters and a mild breeze brought fresh air and the scent of flowers into the room, where it mixed with the smell of blood.

Looking down, I discovered that my dark clothes were soaked in blood from the wound and used an Ars Mentalis trick to clean my clothes, so I wouldn't look half dead to the casual observer.

Sun Wukong and Yu Rou was sitting by the table, talking with an elderly man, while the maid was sitting on the edge of a bed, looking bored. She did however notice me opening my eyes and stood up, looking at the other three. "He's awake... Can we call the guards now?"

Yu Rou looked at Son Wukong, who nodded and said, "Yes. The Queen Mother of the West set this challenge. I have meet it and I will meet her as well."

The maid nodded and walked over to pull at the remains of the silk cord.

Looking over at me, Wukong grinned. "Bai Bao, you're insane, you know that, right?"

I shook my head. "What? For healing a person?"

"No, for taking the wounds on your own body."

"It was the only way to do it." I replied and as I was speaking, it dawned on me, that the elderly man was the one I had healed. "May I ask how you got those wounds, Sir?"

He laughed at the question. "Yes. There was a party, I got drunk and decided to get some fresh air. Fell of the balcony and landed hard."

"And don't they have a healer here? I mean, this is Mount Kunlun, the fortress of the Queen Mother of the West, the most powerful Vis user I know of."

The elderly mans slanted eyes twinkled with humour, as he said, "The assistant healers are gathering herbs in the mountains and the Master Healer is me." He bowed. "I'm Bian Que."

For a moment I sat there, stunned. Bian Que was legendary in Lescare as a healer and I had even read some of his recipes for using healing herbs, that Anqi Sheng, the Master Healer at Arcem Discendi, had been kind enough to lend me. However, the lack of lifesaving healing suddenly made sense. While Ars Mentalis could only be used to heal the healer, Vis healers couldn't heal themselves.

"Honoured to meet you, Sir." I said and stood up, so I could return his bow properly.

Wukong looked like he was going to say something, but the arrival of the Palace Guards interrupted him. They were less than pleased to find two armed men, who had managed to sneak into the middle of the palace undetected. We were quickly surrounded and were told to surrender our weapons, which we did without complaining.

As always when he wasn't using it, Wukong's magical staff was the size of a Lescarian hairpin and the guards gawked, as he used slight-of-hand to make it seem like he pulled out of his ear. It became even worse, when he carefully placed it on the ground, where it extended to its real size, which meant it was a little taller than him.

The guards jumped backwards at the sight of the expanding staff, but when nothing else happened, they got their courage back and tried to pick it up.

I stifled a laugh when they couldn't lift it. As all magical Baylon-made weapons given to non-Baylons, Wukong's staff was keyed to him, meaning that it could only be used by him. There were many different ways to ensure this and the enchantment on Wukong's staff was rather genius in my opinion: If anybody else tried to use it, it would become extremely heavy, making it impossible to use in combat or even lift.

As a weapon designed for Ordo Gladius, the enchantment on my sword was less severe and didn't activate until someone tried to use it, enabling Inquisitors to give up their swords in case the situation demanded it. Like now. However, any non-Baylon trying to use it in combat, would get an electric shock strong enough to rattle an elephant.

The guards gave up on trying to lift Wukong's staff and left my sword on the floor as well. Instead, they escorted everybody through the palace until we entered a large room, equipped with a throne like chair in the far end.

Richly decorated with jade, gold and silver, it was without a doubt one of the most beautiful rooms I had ever been in. Even the furniture was made from carved dark wood and the vases and fruit laden plates was exquisite in their quality.

As we stopped in front of the throne, a jade door in the wall behind it was opened and a group of people came in, led by two beautiful maidens, dressed in silk ropes.

However, the woman that followed them, made them look ordinary.

Where they walked gracefully, she glided. Their beauty was brilliant, she shone like the stars on a cloudless night. More women followed her, but I ignored them and glanced over at Wukong. He gave the slightest of shrugs. Whomever she was, she wasn't the woman we knew as the Queen Mother of the West.

Studying the women escorting her, I recognized the second last woman as the one we had seen during Hao's wedding. The question was, if she had pretended to be the Queen Mother at the wedding or if she was doing it now. Reacting on a hunch, I closed my eyes for a few heartbeats, focused on seeing the Vis and then opened them again.