It was not Bachchan or Misra fast asleep just a few paces away, but Tamboli.That…actually made the most sense.Shitty soldiers, shitty leader.Bachchan and Misrahadprobably refused to do it, and were being punished.At least he didn't have to kill one of the generals he didn't hate.
Slinking slowly up to the bed, he drew his knife and drove it straight through Tamboli's right eye into the brain.He barely had time to realize anything was wrong before he was dead.
As Dipak started to withdraw, gleaming orange caught his eye.Brightorange, the kind of vivid color he didn't see anymore.Yanking down Tamboli's shirt, he stared at the faintly-glowing orange stone around his neck, secured by a surprisingly thick chain.So it wouldn't easily break.He turned the chain around until he found the catch, which was locked into place.Whatever this charmed stone was for, Tamboli didnotwant it getting lost or taken.
He should have been as cautious with his life.
There was no time to look for the key, so Dipak brute forced it with a smaller knife, as locks were never as secure as people liked to think.Thankfully, Tamboli hadn't been smart enough to have the lock enchanted.
Taking it, he stuffed it in his pocket and continued his work, killing every officer in the inner circle.
What troubled him, though, was that there was no mage past a healer that he left alone.
No mage, and a strange orange stone.
He'd done all he could do here for now.Slipping into the dark, he reappeared outside Pitambar's house.Euclid immediately stepped outside, closing the door behind him, and rushed over to him."There is new magic on you."
"I took it off the general after I killed him," Dipak said."I came here for a better look."
Euclid waved a hand in the air with a casual negligence that was hotter than it had any business being, and a globe of brilliant, painfully bright light filling the space in front of the cabin.Revealing in far greater detail the large, orange amulet.Quartz, if he had to guess, the orange entirely from whatever had been encased within it.Carved on the front were markings that Dipak did not recognize, despite the fact he was no slouch in magical knowledge.
"This is a soul keeper," Euclid said, more worry in his voice than Dipak had ever heard, even including when he'd told Euclid about the flame ogre."Someone placed their soul, their consciousness, in this blessed quartz for safekeeping.They would only do that if they feared there was no other way toreturnto human or whatever they are.Aware, in a way beasts aren't.So they have transformed, or were forced to…" His eyes widened."Flame ogre!This is the soul of whoever was turned into that flame ogre!"
"What.The only transformative magic like that I know of are Fiendish Hounds and, well, you."
"My ability to shift between my dragon and human forms is something else entirely.It took many years and a great deal of practice to be able to do, the kind of time that most beings simply do not have.Spectral shifters like what you call Fiendish Hounds are changed by spectral magic, which is not a true shift, but a corruption of the soul that forces the body to match.This, though… this is something between the two.Magic forcing a being, probably a human, into a new form.But a flame ogre isn't human, and a human can't survive as one.If they simply changed the human with no safeguards, it would destroy everything that makes a person a person.Like trying to shove a dragon into a barrel.There's too much for the vessel; either the vessel will break or the dragon will die.So they contained the humanness of the victim here.But that is high level magic, far beyond what humans typically do.It's akin to…" Euclid stopped, face filling with horror.
Dipak was afraid to ask."Akin to what?"
"A blood curse," Euclid said on a sigh."Someone blood cursed by a being of higher magic to take the form of a flame ogre, staved off only by consuming the untainted blood of a family member."
"Oh, gods.That thing is Madhav?"
"Yes, and he must have finally run out of time.So he stashed his humanity in this amulet, entrusted it to that general you killed, and I guess ensured that he was brought along to destroy the forest in quest for me."Euclid's mouth twisted, bitterness in his voice as he said, "The most frustrating part is that no part of me would resolve his curse.He could eat my bones, drink my blood, consume every last one of my organs, turn my scales to powder and mix them into a stew, and he would still be blood cursed.But I haveknowledgethat might have allowed me to break the curse, or at least tell him how to break it."
"I'm sorry, we humans really do seem to be the worst."
Euclid kissed him."No, do not think that.Every clutch has at least one bad egg.There are dragons who have sold out their own because of a trade they considered too fine to resist.Those dragons do not live long once their treacherous ways are known.For every bad human, there are at least a thousand good ones, and every now and then there is a jewel like you."
"Flattery will get you everything, dragon."Dipak kissed him one last time before turning back to the matter at hand."So what do we do now?"
Before Euclid could reply, a booming, bone-rattling roar filled the air.
Dipak was going to throw up."Madhav got free of his bindings.How?Shit, shit,shit.Take us there, now.We have to stop that thing."Because if a fire ogre got into the forest and set loose, not even a frost giant would be able to stop those flames.The forest would burn and be gone entirely in just a matter of hours.
Euclid grabbed his arm and whisked them away.
They arrived in the middle of the camp to find chaos and death.The ogre had torn through it in a rampage, ripping, crushing, and breaking everything in sight.The few soldiers he could still see alive were huddling together behind a pile of debris that might have once been food supplies.
Going over to them, Dipak said, "What happened?"When they only gawked at him, some clearly realizing who he was, but most of them simply in shock, he barked out, "Report!"
One of the soldiers pushed clumsily to his feet and gave a faltering salute."We don't know, sir.I was fast asleep, then I heard screaming.I grabbed my sword and ran out of my tent.The general's tent had been destroyed already, and it looks like the magic and chains both broke.I do not have magic knowledge enough to know why, but those chains should have held.They were made from mountain steel."
"Mountain steel is fine for most ogres," Euclid said tersely, "but not one that runs extremely hot and can summon fire at will.The fools should have used frost steel."
"Doesn't matter now."Dipak drew his bow, though it wouldn't do much more than slow the stupid ogre down and piss it off.Still, all that mattered right now was drawing its—
"Damn it," he said."The ogre probably sensed that the amulet was far away.That's what pissed it off enough to break free.I bet there were spells for such a thing, should the general try to stab him in the back or the amulet be taken in battle.This is my fault."