A Jaded Life

Chapter 1327

As one of my scrying constructs flared its wings in the wind, letting the draft from the mountains behind it carry it lower towards the forest, I could only feel a distinct annoyance in my gut. Usually, there was a certain lightness in my spirit whenever I flew, be it with my wings or when using the scrying constructs to observe the world from above, but right now, that was all gone. Not because I no longer enjoyed flying, I probably always would, just as I would likely enjoy high places forever. No, the annoyance was because my experiments had left nothing but the acrid taste of failure in my mouth and a sharp ache to plague my head. Maybe a few tears of Blood on my cheeks, as linking my sight to the magic-infused orbs of blood was easier said than done.

Linking the orbs to my eyes, that was easy. But to see through them? That wasn’t as easily done. It seemed to be a fundamentally different process from the one I used to link myself to my scrying constructs. One was a construct of Flesh, Blood and Magic, the other, merely a linkage of the mind. Stretching the mind beyond the flesh appeared to be comparatively simple, though that might be because I had worked with this kind of magic for so long, but to create a similar outcome through Blood Magic? That was, as of now, beyond me, even with the ritual I had used to create the Grandmother’s body as a base. Maybe because the ritual didn’t try to link blood, but linked the mind, meaning I might be pursuing a dead end from the start. There might not be a path to success in the first place, only one where I kept smacking my head against a proverbial wall.

By the time my headache got bad enough that I couldn’t produce sufficient focus to continue my work, quite a bit of time had passed, and I had nothing to show for it. So, I decided to use the tried-and-true method of creating scrying constructs and send out a flight of them to check on the giants.

Finding their little communities was quite trivial. After all, there were only three of them, and none of them had moved since I last visited. They still were exactly where I had seen them last, and it looked like they were thriving in the freezing winter. The snow between the trees wasn’t piled high enough to stop them. It slowed them down, certainly, but their size and incredible strength were enough to let them power through. Maybe their affinity to Ice and Cold also helped, making me briefly wonder if I should try to help them to deepen that affinity a little further, but I didn’t consider the idea for more than a moment. It just wasn’t worth it.

Disrupting their current state of life wouldn’t truly help them. They were thriving; their different shelters were stocked with enough food to last them into the summer, let alone to spring, driving home just how capable these beings were.

Looking through the scrying constructs and observing the different materials they had stored in their larders also made me realise that these were very much the local apex predators. That was especially true for the larger group, the one composed of five giants. Their larder contained, amongst a large quantity of meat, also the pelt, claws and teeth of at least three polar bears. Large ones, at least from what I could tell, though I had no real idea how big these things had been before the change.

The ones I could see here were all roughly the size of a car, maybe larger. It was difficult to tell, given that the giants had skinned them, but their pelts were easily four metres in length, and the jaws appeared to be big enough to crush a human head with ease.

And those weren’t the biggest furs that group had stashed away. They also had the fur and crown of a moose, at least I thought it was from one. The antlers alone were big enough to be used as shovels by someone bigger than me, though not quite by a giant, and the pelt was a little larger than the ones of the ice bears.

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Calling them anything but monstrous didn’t do these creatures justice, and yet, here they were. Stored as food by the giants I had guided into the region. I wasn’t completely sure what to think of this, but I realised that some of my worries about the small group of giants might be unfounded. They seemed to be doing quite well, all things considered.

That left only a bit of worry about their females, particularly those carrying young. They looked as if they were trying to smuggle boulders, making me worry that their birthing process might be just as hazardous as that of humans. But, at the same time, it was about the most natural and necessary process among all living things. If a species couldn’t procreate, it wasn’t long for the world. So there shouldn’t be any large problems, but that didn’t change my worries. Especially because there were only so few giants, I didn’t want to lose any of my investment in them, and having one or more of the females die off would be a major loss. A decimation, really.

Their numbers were already so low that genetic issues could arise in the future, but that could be said for any sapient species that arose after the change. Other than humans, all of these numbers were probably low, and some of the species out there might have come into existence after the change and would go extinct within a single generation. Some might already be lost, making me disappointed that I might never meet them.

Maybe I should start scouting a little when I have the time. Step through the shadows to one of the numerous points I knew well enough to reach, pick a direction and explore for a day or two, maybe taking Lia or Luna with me. Somewhat like a day-trip, only that instead of heading to the museum or the zoo, we would explore the countryside, trying to find some hidden community that was just trying to get by.

The idea of exploring the unknown touched something deep within me, reminding me once again that I wasn’t suited for a sedentary lifestyle. Sure, exploring the depths of magic was incredibly interesting, and I would probably never fully tire of it, but I also had that wanderlust within me, the need to find out what was hidden behind the next curve in the road, or what lurked in the valleys and between the hills.

I couldn’t help but grin to myself as I made a few of the scrying constructs I had used to observe the giants take to the sky, scattering into different directions. While I had explored some of the local area, I hadn’t been thorough, something I decided I could change right now. Simply to see what was out there, to learn and explore.

It didn’t take long for the scrying constructs to stumble over an anomaly, and I immediately realised just where my exploration had taken me. Sasha’s graveside wasn’t unchanged. The tree we had planted had grown, and while the gravestone was still standing, it was now incorporated into said tree. It almost looked as if the tree was embracing the stone, making my lips briefly twitch in amusement, before memories of my failure returned.

Maybe that was something I should keep in mind. That taking intelligent, even non-sapient, creatures like Sasha carried certain responsibilities. That killing a creature for food, or in the pursuit of an experiment, wasn’t truly evil, but causing one to die because one was foolishly negligent, that was just stupid and wasteful.

After another glance at the giants through the scrying constructs I had left with them, I let those constructs fade away, focusing instead on those I had sent out to explore. Then, I let myself fall into the shadows, using the scrying construct next to Sasha’s grave as a beacon, allowing me to emerge right next to it, though the construct was broken in the process.

Something I would have to work on in the future, so I could step into any of my scrying constructs without disrupting them; it could easily come in useful at some point. Maybe, or maybe not, it wasn’t as if remaking the construct was hard when I arrived at the point where I wanted to be.

But that was for later. For now, I simply bowed to the grave, something I would never have done while Sasha was alive, before making myself comfortable, simply talking to Sasha. Telling her about our experiences in the last few months, unburdening myself from a few of my worries and concerns. If nothing else, the tree we had planted here, and the gravestone marking her passing, were excellent listeners. And they would probably keep the secrets I shared with them to themselves. Take them to the grave, so to speak.