Void Mage: A Space Fantasy Adventure (Space and Sorcery Book 1) by Owen Norris

Author:Owen Norris [Norris, Owen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nerdsmith Publishing
Published: 2020-02-05T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

RAZE WATCHED AS the bloody dagger dropped from Lash’s listless hands. Her face was slack, eyes locked on the body in front of her. Then her legs gave out, dropping her to her knees.

Rushing to her side, not even noticing as his robe brushed the pool of blood forming on the floor, he threw an arm around Lash’s shoulders. Someone had given her an old marine training t-shirt and he felt the hard muscle beneath it. Looking into her eyes, he could see her internal struggle. Whoever this was, she had clearly known him and his death weighed heavily on her. Raze wracked his brains for something to say, but failed to find words that didn’t sound contrived. He was saved from the awkward silence by Lash.

“He was my brother.” Lash’s voice trembled as she spoke. “He was the first to discover my magic, to pull me from those who live below and raise me to the rank of sorcerer. I owed him my life.” Lash reached out and laid a hand on the back of the prone sorcerer’s leg.

Raze still had no idea what to say, but somewhere deep down he realized there was nothing that he needed to say. All Lash needed was someone to talk to, to talk it through with, even if that someone didn’t say a word. So he waited, squatting on the floor alongside her.

Eventually, she began again. “I can only barely remember what life was like below, the mass of orcs living on what little they could make, buy, steal or take. I don’t remember my parents other than vague, indistinct feelings. But I remember him, the first time he came to the below. He was enormous, a god walking among us. There was a space around him, a clear space wherever he walked.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked up, her mind reliving the memory.

“You don’t understand what space meant to a poor young orc. On the ships, having your own space, somewhere to call your own, was a luxury available only to the wealthiest or fiercest orcs. Everyone was packed in so tight, a seething mass of orcs trying to eke out an existence. Always looking for the next conquest, the next chance to be part of a raiding party and share in the spoils. To move Up.

“But it was all nothing to those at the top. Once I was plucked from the below, I found the truth. The orcs that I had grown up with were nothing more than feedstock for the ship. We were trained in funeral proceedings that drew the life from their bodies and fed it into the ship, the energy enough to keep it going until we reached the next planet we could devour. That powered the ship for another cycle, as we aimlessly traveled through space, always seeking another planet, more life to power the ship.

“The others couldn’t see it, but I could. We were stuck in a downward spiral. We destroyed life to power our own, but our life was merely one of survival.

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