The Forsaken Hero

Fable swept across the hills like a summer storm, leaving trailing eddies of writhing grass in his wake. The ground flowed smoothly beneath his tremendous paws, each bound eating up dozens of feet at once. Korra and I lay side by side, reclining against the slope of his shoulders. His horns served as a potent windbreak, shielding us from the worst of the air resistance and noise caused by traveling at such absurd velocities.

"Astral Breath. That’s the name of the spell the demonkin taught me," I said, looking out at the passing scenery. A small copse of trees appeared, passed, and then disappeared as a blip of brown and green on the prairie.

Korra frowned, tapping a finger to her chin. "Astral Breath? I’ve never heard of anything like that before, not even from the upper church echelons. If there were such a spell to heal one’s soul, wouldn’t there be some records of it?"

I shrugged, idly rubbing a horn. "The magic system in this world is super underdeveloped. The gods brought magic to mortality, but they only gave the bare minimum. The inhabitants are left to figure it out for themselves. I can only assume there are countless spells scattered throughout their domains, but the gods themselves are the only ones privy to them. I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn arrays have been invented before, just at a different time and world."

"The things they don’t tell you in church," said Korra, shaking her head. After a second of quiet, she glanced at me, face turning serious once more. "Now about this Astral Breath. If you can already cast it, why are you so stressed about it?"

"Souls are extremely personalized and complex, almost to the point of being incomprehensible. Any magic that deals with them has to be so simple it can be applied on a universal level. When it comes to interacting directly with an individual soul, there can’t be any one spell. Astral Breath is the framework, a first aid kid if you will. It has all the runes, circles, and functions necessary for mending damage to the soul, but it’s all useless if you don’t know how to apply it."

She nodded slowly. "Like clay." I gave her a blank look, and she giggled, reddening slightly. "You know, like what sculptures use. They have the clay, but if they aren’t very good, they can’t form it into the intended shape. It’s just a lump."

"Um, yeah, I guess." My tail flicked back and forth, but I soon gave up on understanding the analogy and moved back to my explanation. "Without a pattern, I can only guess what my soul is supposed to look there. There are so many patterns, facets, and depths that I wouldn’t even know where to start. Stitching it all back together would take me hours, if not days, during which I’d be completely vulnerable."

"If that’s all there is, then there’s nothing to worry about. Fable and I can protect you," Korra replied confidently. "With my unique abilities and fighting style, I think I could hold off a sixth-level demon for some time, and kill it if Fable helped me."