Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 412 of 619

The ship rode low with steel and grain when Ajax turned from the dock. Before he could ready the northern hunt, Elara came to find him in the hall. Her gold band, the one that drank moonlight, hung dead on her wrist. She had spent it all blinding the root-beast at the grove line. "I can't cast again for days," she said. "Not if you need me in the north." That night a figure stepped through the sealed sea gate as if no iron stood there. A blonde woman in a gown that shimmered like a sky full of stars. Ajax knew her. She had come before, from Elara's order, to pay old debts. The Emissary. "You closed the last door," she said to Ajax. "That debt still stands." She took Elara's wrist and slid a second band onto her other arm, its stones already flickering with pale light. "Two bands now. Twice the moonlight held. Twice the power, and it lasts twice as long." Elara turned her arms in the lamplight. "They'll fill together?" "Yes, at the same time. More quickly.” the Emissary said. "You will not run dry in one fight again." She looked at Ajax. "Your healer is worth more to you now. Use her well." Then she was gone, and the gate stood sealed as before. By morning Chalam had already tested his own limit. His staff, the dryad's gift, held strong. But he set his numbered vials on the table and frowned. "Five vials," he said. "Filled and spent, filled and spent. Same as always. My staff cracks if I push it far. Yours does not." He nodded at Elara's wrists. "That's a good gift." Aldric bent over the two bands with a scholar's care. He turned Elara's arm without touching the stones. "Twice the charge, twice the reach," he said. "But she still needs the moon. Cloud cover, a long dark, and the bands run empty." He straightened. "It is power, not a well that never dries." Ajax weighed it. A healer who could blind a beast twice in one fight, then heal his men after. A wizard whose staff might snap in the north. He would not lose again to a spent band mid-battle. "Chalam," Ajax said. "You lean on the staff too hard, it breaks and leaves us blind. I want a better one for you." Chalam met his eyes. "There is a way. Aldric found it in the old texts. A staff bound to last—unbreakable—forged from the same grove wood. It would hold under any reading." He paused. "It takes time and the dryad’s help." "Then research it," Ajax told Aldric. "Both of you. I ride north with a healer who won't run dry. I want a wizard who won't break, either." Aldric closed his book. "I'll write to the grove at dawn." Elara flexed her fingers over the twin bands. For the first time in a year, she did not look tired. The north was held off for a while.