Corpse Run

The Crucible Shard: Book Three

Skyler Grant

Copyright © 2017 Skyler Grant

All rights reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or with written permission of the publisher. Inquiries may be addressed via email to skyler@skylergrant.com

Cover designed by Grace Zhu (gracezhuart.com)

Formatting by Polgarus Studio (www.polgarusstudio.com)

Electronic edition, 2017

If you want to be notified of future releases from Skyler Grant and get the occasional goodie and free story please sign up for yjr mailing list by going to: skylergrant.com

Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER ONE

Black lightning cracked all around me draining the air of color and life, the waves of destructive energy barely held back by a wall of mist.

Quest Granted

Enemies in the shadows

You have come under attack from unknown parties. Do try to be entertaining and survive.

We’d just arrived back at Castle Sardonis and were on our way to the war room to discuss our plans for how to deal with Leosi, when the space around us was torn asunder with a jagged portal and we came under attack.

I glanced over towards Elsora, who we had to thank for the shield. “Good reaction time.”

“Pathetic wards. Why did our defenses not hold?” Elsora asked, glaring at Walt.

“I just got back! You saw me just get back! I’m so sorry I didn’t upgrade our magical defenses during our minute’s walk.”

“We have wards. They simply did not work,” Elsora stressed, her voice hinting at some strain.

As suddenly as it began the lightning surrounding us faded away to reveal three figures standing in the hall. One I recognized, the other man and woman were well-dressed strangers with flickering black auras surrounding them.

Joachim, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Champion

Level ?: Type: Corrupted HP: ?/?

Joachim was once a loyal subject of the Kingdom of Galea. When a powerful curse overcame the castle he traded away his humanity to survive where so many others perished and now serves the Dark Court.

Victus, Warden of Carpas Pass

Champion

Level ?: Type: Corrupted HP: ?/?

Once a capable commander under King Leosi of Galea, Victus was corrupted by the curse that overcame the Kingdom and now acts as a guardian for Joachim.

Azala, Baroness of Verita

Champion

Level ?: Type: Corrupted HP: ?/?

Azala was once a young and ambitious noblewoman serving as a handmaiden to Queen Alera. She views the curse that struck the castle as an opportunity to acquire the sort of power she had always wanted.

We’d met Joachim before, when we were first taking the castle. I hadn’t realized that other members of the castle staff had made similar arrangements to him. “Elsora, just how many nobles did you leave alive?” I asked.

“Any who were willing to sell out anything and everything they believed in to stay alive. It turned out to be quite a few.”

“Is that my old accountant?” Cobalt asked.

“No mention of me?” Azala asked with a glower.

“Who are you again?”

I said, “She was your handmaiden. Seriously, don’t you even read prompts?”

“Who has time to read prompts?”

“Thank you,” Azala said, flashing me a smile before going back to looking angry. “I make my triumphant return to Castle Sardonis at the head of a force that’s come to destroy you.”

Joachim cleared his throat.

“As a part of the force that’s come to destroy you,” Azala said.

“Just to interject before Cobalt forgets you some more, and Liam tries to sleep with you, exactly why are you coming to destroy us?” Ashley said.

“I wasn’t going to…” I said, but paused as I caught all their eyes on me. I looked Azala over again. That brief flash of smile really had been nice and she held herself with such poise.

“The undead army heading east was your declaration of war, not ours. We are simply here to balance the books,” Joachim said.

Leosi was causing me no end of trouble. He was busy slaughtering my foes, if only because he wanted me to marry his daughter and hand her a kingdom united. Lacking an army otherwise, it had seemed best to take credit for his rampage. As strategies went it was clearly one not without risks.

Had Joachim come in asking what had happened, I might have been inclined to give some version of the truth. I didn’t need a war to the east when I’d just started one to the west. They came in on the attack.

“Can you give me any help?” I thought to Yvera.

“This castle holds my grand temple. We’ll make them burn.”

“The Kingdom of Genea reserves the right to handle threats within its traditional borders regardless of direction on a compass,” Elsora said smoothly.

I raised my hand. “Thank you Elsora, but when they open negotiations by throwing lightning we don’t have to be diplomatic back.”

“An aggressive opening position,” Joachim said. “But not one actually intended to kill you. We remain hopeful you may yet prove useful. The curse has outlived its usefulness and should be destroyed. Azala here can serve as your regent, we’ll kill one of your companions as an instructive lesson, and you can get back to business.”

Well, they didn’t want much.

Azala straightened her back and said, “Queen. Not regent.”

“Really, lady? We just met,” I said.

“The job sucks. You don’t want it,” Cobalt said.

“Can I still be Queen, if she’s still alive?” Azala asked.

“How does that work?” I asked Elsora. “I mean, I know I claimed the throne after killing King Leosi, but if she was still Queen didn’t it technically pass to her?”

“You want to define the particulars of succession now?” Elsora asked.

“It’s just kind of confusing and we never have talked about it,” I said.

“I am so not the Queen,” Cobalt said.

“I’ll be the Queen,” Azala said.

“Desperate much?” Ashley asked.

“I have no objection to the discussion,” Joachim said. “For all that we think the matter is largely settled.”

Elsora silenced everyone with a look. “King Leosi and Queen Alera were separated for several centuries before his death, due to her departure. While she has some claim, it is a weak one. Leosi himself maintains some claim although undeath muddies the waters. The strongest claim of blood belongs to their still-living daughter, Maria Sardonis. As a practical matter, Leosi’s killer Liam Ottani holds the strongest claim by simple virtue of occupying the castle and having assumed the title.”

“We concur,” Joachim said.

“One King, me. No Queens,” I said.

“Maria is a Queen,” Ashley said.

“One King of Genea. One Queen of Spiders. So, unless the evil accountant, the crazy-eyed handmaiden, and… who are you again?” I asked with a look to the third of their group.

“Victus.”

“You’re very quiet.”

“Yep.”

Right. Victus was cool. I appreciated that. It didn’t change what had to happen next, of course.

“Cobalt, take Joachim. Your crew can help Elsora with Victus there, and I’ll let the handmaiden show me what she’s got.”

“Don’t start the fight by flirting with her, it’s dumb,” Ashley said.

“Was that flirting?” Azala asked.

“Totally. I mean, if you want we’ll totally go into a side room and have sex and leave the others to fight it out. Just to give the option.”

“Nice. I’m totally going to do my best to kill you now as I’d rather not share my throne with a pervy freak. If it doesn’t work out, raincheck?” Azala asked, as she raised an arm and threw lightning in my direction.

Dark Lightning

I caught the blast on my shield, sparks leaping up my arm and causing it to go numb. Intemperance flared to life when I drew it.

Pay to Win

Joachim scattered coins around him. Tendrils of dark energy sprang from them to connect to his form, pulsating with power, causing his muscles to bulge.

Cobalt moved so quickly she was nearly a blur, closing into range with him and dodging his blows with fluid steps. Each time her foot came down she stomped a coin, shattering it.

Victus had drawn a massive two-handed sword and was squaring off against Elsora, Riggs, and Lea who already circled him

Spin to Win

Victus spun in a circle with the sword extended before him, and blood flew as the others were thrown back.

“You really should give a girl your full attention after flirting with her,” Azala said, and I turned my gaze back to her. Her arm had a bloody gash where Ashley must have caught her with a dagger, but Azala had one her own and she lunged, burying it into my throat.

Needlework

The pain was well beyond what it should be. I’d gotten used to taking blows by this point, and taking hits that would sometimes literally crush bones. This felt different, I could barely even think through the pain to trigger a healing potion as I collapsed to the floor in a quickly growing pool of my own blood.

“Liam’s down,” Ashley said.

“Poison of the Decasius. It is a flower that grows only in the shadow of great trees, a hidden bloom of tremendous beauty that inflicts such delicious torments,” Azala said.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and the hall rippled around me.

Group Teleport

“Tagging you out,” Walt said. We were much closer now to the fight with Victus.

Lea’s body almost entirely glowed blue from the runes upon her skin being alight with magical power, only a few having their lines interrupted by her own blood. She knelt beside me and rested a hand on my throat.

Touch of the Seer

The wound closed somewhat, but I could feel the poison fighting against it. I still couldn’t focus like I needed to.

Walt’s staff pulsed with a pure white energy. The element of light I guessed countering the darkness. A good play, one that happened just as that massive sword slashed towards him. A singed Victus went flying and a bloodied Walt collapsed.

Lea grabbed my armor and with surprising strength dragged me over to the mage. Good. I wasn’t moving much myself, but I could at least focus on my abilities and I sent a Lay on Hands coursing through Walt to heal the damage he’d taken.

“Liam still isn’t up?” Walt asked.

“It’s the poison,” Lea said.

Disemboweling Blow

Oh, it was a lot worse than that. Victus hadn’t stayed down and with a sweeping blow of his sword came down on my midsection as if he were chopping wood, even cleaving through my heavy armor.

I was alive. Just. Although had only a sliver of my health bar left.

My passives began to kick in, Fire Within helping me to heal the damage and beginning to act more against the poison in my system. I suddenly felt good. I felt really good.

My chest was burning, literally, flames flickering out of me from where I’d been cut and my flesh began to knit itself back together. I saw fingers of flame from the corner of my eyes and felt the poison now quite literally burning away.

“Liam, you’ve never caught on fire before. Tell me you’re supposed to do that,” Lea said.

“It’s new,” I said, as I got back to my feet and turned my attention towards Victus.

Smite

A gout of white-hot flame caught the warrior and his armor melted at the point of impact. Nice. Yvera really was supercharged here, which meant yours truly was supercharged here too, once I got the chance to use my abilities.

Smite

Smite

I continued to throw Smite spells at Victus. He tried to parry them with his sword. Perhaps that sometimes worked, but it didn’t today. Not as charged up as I was. Sword and armor began to glow red, and then white, and I heard the agonized screams as I cooked him alive.

That shouldn’t be a good sound. I knew it had to be Yvera in my head, but I loved it. I loved that scent of burning flesh, those cries weakening as life faded from his body. I vowed to myself I’d have to hold this part of myself in check. I didn’t want to be this kind of evil. I didn’t.

I didn’t stop until my mana was exhausted. Until there was nothing but a puddle of molten metal to indicate Victus had ever existed.

“I do believe that is our cue to leave,” Joachim said, and I managed to tear my eyes away to see how the rest of the fights were going.

Ashley was against one wall, being tended by Elsora. It looked like her shoulder had been torn apart and through the gaps in her armor I could see the wound pulsing a malevolent black and green. She must have gotten hit with the same poison I had. I willed a Lay on Hands in her direction and with my boosted power level knew she’d be on her feet quickly.

Joachim and Cobalt looked equally beat up, each showing a few cuts and fresh bruises. From what I understood it shouldn’t have even been close, but Cobalt had warned me that she was not as reliable in a fight right now.

“Do stay, I’m not done showing you what I do to people stupid enough to invade my home,” I said.

“You have made your point. I trust that we have made ours. We are three of dozens the dark court recruited this castle. The Dark Court is not an enemy you wish to have, our second warning has been delivered.”

“Azala,” I said.

“Liked my needlework enough that you’ve decided to speak with me? I’m flattered.”

“Your talents are wasted and you are lost amongst weeds. When you’re ready for a change, come find me.”

Azala shot me a speculative look even as Joachim delivered a disapproving one, and with a flicker of dark energy both were gone.

Quest Completed

Enemies in the shadows

You have once again proven to be basically competent at not dying to an accountant and his sidekicks. I wonder how you’ll do when the Shadow Court decides to throw you a real challenge.

“Well that was fun,” Ashley said, as she rubbed at her recently healed shoulder.

“They are powered by the same dark magic that created me,” Elsora said. “It is why they were able to teleport in. The wards are set to allow it so that I stay connected with my mists.”

“If Lea is willing to give me a hand, we can fix that in a few hours. We just need to refine the filtering spells,” Walt said.

I said, “Do it. The rest of us will continue on and figure out how to best handle Leosi.”

CHAPTER TWO

With our group both smaller and more bloodied than we’d started, we settled into the castle’s war room. I took a seat at the head of the table and Elsora placed herself at my right.

The war room had gotten some upgrades since the last time I was here. A magical table now displayed a real-time depiction of the Kingdom with areas peaceful and firmly under our control in blue, and any conflicts in various hues of red. The Kingdom was alarmingly red.

“Well, we started out needing to discuss how to deal with Leosi, but after that I think we need to discuss the Dark Court,” I said.

“They’ve got a catchy name at least,” Ashley said.

“You probably know more about them than anybody. What can you tell us, Elsora?” I asked.

“Not as much as you might think. They created me because they feared the prophecies of a great evil coming from this kingdom. They didn’t want competition, and if evil was going to spawn here, they wanted a hand in it. They wanted it under their control.”

“And are you still under their control?” Cobalt asked.

Elsora shook her head. “No. They sank a lot of power into me. Flesh and blood and wit and charm all designed to make a certain man, who had loyalty as his greatest virtue, be unfaithful. When he denied me, I decided that instead of simply becoming his corrupting shadow, I’d spend those centuries becoming my own woman. They may have birthed me, but I am not theirs.”

If she was still serving the Court, they wouldn’t have been confused on the issue of Leosi. I believed her.

“So, the question then is—do we go to war with them for this idiocy?”

“Pick your fights. You have wars coming you won’t have any choice in, don’t add to them unnecessarily,” Cobalt said.

“I agree. It would be a war fought for pride, and those rarely end well,” Elsora said.

Well, if those two were actually in agreement on something, I’d listen.

“So, back to Leosi then. Earlier mention was made of the Goddess Mela. What do we know?”

Elsora said, “I only know ancient legends. The Goddess of machinery and metal, her army of clockwork horrors tried to exterminate all life, before an alliance of good and evil sealed her away for all time.”

“And it strikes you as a good idea to free her?” I asked with a pointed look to Ashley.

“Hey. It’s Atlantia’s idea, not mine. Don’t blame the messenger. Besides, crazy world-destroying Goddesses just escaped from jail are kind of your type.”

She had a point.

“Mechanical adversaries are just what you want against the undead. Since Leosi is raising the corpses of his defeated enemies, it makes sense to force him to fight an opponent where his forces will suffer attrition,” Elsora said.

“Any input, Cobalt? You know him best,” I said.

Elsora cleared her throat. “She was married to him for a decade, I sat by his side for centuries. I would say I know him best.”

“Yet only one of us ever managed to take him to bed,” Cobalt said. “More importantly, only one of us ever fought beside him on a battlefield. This will help, but less than you think. Leosi is not dangerous because he is a necromancer—he is not. He employs a necromancer, because it is effective and Leosi is a master strategist. Neutralize his army, you do not neutralize him. You simply give him pause while he adopts a new approach.”

Elsora pursed her lips. “I must agree with the Dowager. He is not to be underestimated.”

I was quite certain none of my exes would speak of me in such glowing terms. It had irritated me enough when the man was a dead. Since he was raised as a vampire and got an army, it was only becoming worse.

“That is two voices against then,” I said.

“I’m voting for, and of course I’m the only one that matters,” Yvera said in my head.

“Any reason why?”

“I didn’t mean to start a band, but Atlantia is already proving a help over there. Oh, the wicked things I can do with a Goddess of Machines in the pantheon. Make this happen, Liam. I have plans.”

“We’ll go after her. I don’t suppose anyone knows where her prison cell is?”

“That is the easy part. The desert of Alkari,” Elsora said.

“How is that the easy part?”

Elsora settled back. “It is said that Alkari was not always a desert. Once it was a lush jungle and home to a thriving civilization. Then came one great evil after another and the wars that followed. Win or lose, tales of evil end in Alkari.”

“Sounds like just the sort of place an evil king should never go,” I said.

“You’re getting better at being a King,” Elsora said, giving me an approving look.

“Thank you?”

“You are exactly right. You shouldn’t go to Alkari. You’re too important and stories like yours do end there. Let the others go and you can stay here with me. We’ve diplomats aplenty to keep you entertained,” Elsora said.

“Afraid your claws are slipping dear?” Cobalt asked with a feigned smile.

Oh good. They could fight over me too. I liked that a lot more than I liked them fighting over Leosi.

“How far is Alkari?” I asked.

“Two weeks by horse,” Elsora said. “I’m working to get the castle quick-travel system back online.”

“We have one of those?”

“We used to,” Cobalt said. “Of course, that was before an ill-cast curse murdered all the staff and let the place fall into ruins.”

Elsora said with a too-polite smile of her own, “In truth, it was already failing at that point. Leosi was so heartbroken he let things fall apart after his wife abandoned him.”

Everyone was being so damned nice.

“So, when it is up and running we’ll be able to go anywhere?” I asked.

“It used to connect the city to the other major centers of good, such as Beiza, the great city of the Elves, and Kavak, the great city of the Dwarves. It requires some tweaking, but when operational it should allow transit to other major centers of evil,” Elsora said.

“Aren’t the other evil powers kind of jerks?” I asked.

“Perhaps I should reconsider you playing diplomat,” Elsora said in a chiding tone. “There are always going to be areas of common interest and common cause.”

“Sounds boring.”

“I slept around a lot on diplomatic junkets as Queen. You might have fun,” Cobalt said. Eyes around the table swiveled to stare at her and she didn’t flinch. Damn, she was hot when she didn’t care what anyone thought. I found that degree of self-confidence intoxicating. I reminded myself that it was more than something just to lust after, it was something to aspire to.

“Shelving that for the moment, two weeks is a lot of travel time. I know you’re going after Maria, would you be able to give the group we send to the desert a lift on the Vainglory?” I asked.

“I’d like a lift to check out one of the battlegrounds as well. I’ll get a sense for Leosi’s necromancer,” Dara said.

“I’m not public transportation,” Cobalt said with a scowl. “Fine. It’s not like I know where to find Maria anyways.”

“I do,” Elsora said.

“Why do you know how to find everything today? Is this new?” I asked Elsora.

“You know I speak spider. I just asked. She’s off to the east exploring a cave complex.”

“Caves? Why?”

Ashley said, “She spent her whole life in the depths of this castle. Think how weird it has to be outdoors for her. The caves are probably a big comfort. Does she know her dad is back alive?”

“I haven’t told her,” Elsora said. “But with her spiders, she is at the center of a global intelligence network. I can’t imagine she does not.”

I felt my stomach drop. I hadn’t even thought of her feelings. I could really be a jerk sometimes.

“Then we can assume she also knows that Liam is sleeping with her mother,” Cobalt said, sounding less than thrilled.

My stomach dropped further.

“No wonder she’s hiding in a cave,” Walt said.

“I can give you a location,” Elsora said.

“How close is Leosi to finding her?” Cobalt asked.

“Not very. He can’t talk to spiders and she doesn’t seem to be seeking him out. You have time for detours.”

“Some time alone in a cave might make her a bit less murderous too,” Ashley said.

“She’s the Queen of Spiders, she’s always going to be murderous. It’s kind of what she does,” I said.

“Like mother, like daughter.”

There really was no comparison. Maria might be murderous, but Cobalt had what she called the Right of War. Wherever she went, war seemed to follow. Fortunately, she was superbly good at it.

“Cobalt, have the Vainglory ready to go in the morning. I’ll decide tonight whether I’ll be joining you or staying here,” I said.

“You can’t really be thinking of playing diplomat?” Ashley asked. “We’re badasses, we’re meant to be out there killing and looting, not making social rolls.”

Honestly, I didn’t know how to feel. I was King and I was starting to feel the weight of that. Elsora was working her ass off holding things here together and I kept wandering off. I know she craved power, but I also knew she was more complex than that. It had to suck to be the one always left behind. I wanted adventure, but I also wanted to be a good friend.

“Just give me the night to think it over, Ashley,” I said.

“We do have some merchants with magical items visiting. If you are holding onto any loot, it might be a good opportunity to unload it,” Elsora told Ashley.

I admired her skill with people. Loot and coin were the way to Ashley’s heart.

The voice of dissent silenced, the meeting broke up.

CHAPTER THREE

Elsora groaned beneath me and my world exploded for the third time that night. This was how my consultations with my regent tended to go. I never could figure out if she wanted this as much as I did, or if she found the whole exercise just a way to clear my head before we started discussing matters of state. It should have mattered which was true, but it didn’t. Still, in those moments I think I got a glimpse behind the mask that was such well-honed formality.

“So,” I panted, rolling off her to settle my head back on a pillow. “The diplomats. You don’t really want me here to talk with them.”

Elsora wasn’t out of breath—she didn’t need to breathe, or sleep, or do most of the things you’d associate with life. As a curse-given life, she operated by some entirely different set of rules I had yet to figure out. It seemed to me she shouldn’t be able to groan or speak without taking breaths, but she seemed untroubled by the mundane laws of biology.

“You think I just want to keep you around to do more of that?” Elsora said with her own teasing smile. “Mhm. Maybe I am.”

I would like to believe that. I didn’t.

“Anytime, but I think it’s more than that. You were eager to get rid of me last time. What changed?”

Elsora propped herself up on an elbow as she looked over at me. “You had to go then. We didn’t have a choice, you’d just taken the castle and we had no supplies, no friends, and no hope when that shipment got stolen. We have options now.”

“Leosi and his army isn’t a small obstacle.”

“There is any easy solution there. Marry his daughter, it is what he wants. Then you’ll have the castle and an army, and a general to conquer the rest of the Kingdom.”

I stared at her incredulously. “You don’t want that.”

Elsora bit her lower lip, “No. I do not. If I want anyone to be your Queen it is myself. But I also wish to give you wise council. Your friends and your allies have given you a mad plan to deal with a problem more easily solved with a wedding band.”

She was right, of course. I don’t know why I wasn’t giving it more serious thought. I liked Maria. I probably loved her a little, despite that she was strange and she was broken. I think I loved every woman I slept with, foolish as that might be.

“How long do you intend to keep us in this world?” I thought to Yvera.

“Until I get what I want. Months? Years? I do not object to such commitments so long as you do not allow them come between us. You are mine, first. Always.”

Right. I had to ask. Months? Years? I felt that should trouble me, but it didn’t. My life was good here, better than it was out there. Out there I had no future and was recovering from a breakup. Here I had a home and people to fight for.

“If this was Maria asking, I’d consider it,” I said, after a too-long pause. “This is something different than that. This is Leosi making demands backed with threats.”

“So, it is pride, then?”

“I’d bend, if it was our only option. It isn’t.”

Elsora gave me a sad smile. “He wouldn’t have either. He wasn’t a man to bend even when it was his only option.”

“I hope that is part of what made him a great King.”

“He was not a great King. It was not just snark, what I said back in the war room about him falling apart when his wife left him.”

“He loved her that much?”

“Like a warrior loves war. Far more than he should have.”

It was strange to think of Leosi as a man. The first time I met him he was a rather talkative boss fight. The second time, the surprise villain and boss fight to come. But the more I found myself tangled with his daughter and wife, the two women who loved him, the more a person he became to me. The harder it made everything.

“What is so special about her? You’ve lain with us both. Spoke with us both. Fought with us both. Why did he always choose her?” Elsora asked, her voice strained.

I leaned in to press a kiss to her forehead and said quietly, “I can’t speak for him. For all that I am trying to take his place, I’m a very different man. Had I wanted to spend the night on the Vainglory I could have. He loved as he loved, it doesn’t define you.”

“He casts a long shadow.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Half the Kingdom has fallen under yours. You have him beat.”

“You know what I mean.”

“You are brilliant, beautiful, and very good at what you do. My life is better for having you in it. Despite the problems Leosi is causing, if I had to choose between him and you again, I’d make the same choice.”

She liked that, her smile small, yet so sincere.

“You aren’t staying, are you?”

“I know you don’t understand, but there is more than just this Kingdom that I’m fighting for.”

“Try me. Explain.”

“Really?”

Elsora laughed and shook her head. “Do you think I don’t want to know the truth? Try me.”

“I come from another world. Yvera is trying to conquer that one and seems to think conquering this one first will help her somehow.”

“Ah. The conquest of multiple worlds. She is a classicist.”

“You poke fun.”

“A bit. I’ve covered half your Kingdom in darkness, and if I have my way will keep going. Any woman with proper ambition wants to conquer the world.”

“And still you poke fun.”

“Fun with a hint of truth. I’ll help Liam, as best I can. My life is the better for having you in it, as well.”

“Thank you for the talk. It helped. It always does. Tomorrow comes soon though, and if I am going to set off with Cobalt I need my sleep.”

Elsora shifted position to straddle me. “That makes one of us. Do you know the absolute best part of being evil?”

“What’s that?”

Elsora leaned down to press a hungered kiss to my lips for a long moment, before pulling away to murmur. “Being selfish.”

I didn’t get much sleep.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Vainglory lifted away from the gardens of Castle Sardonis. The castle had no dock for an airship, although if we kept traveling in one I’d need to have Elsora build us one.

Ever since taking the castle, the mists that Elsora had originally used to kill the castle’s defenders now filled the skies and plunged the land into eternal night. Flames below marked any signs of civilization. Not that long ago there had been scarcely any, but now lights were thickly clustered around the castle.

The Vainglory made far faster time than we would on horseback as we headed east towards where Leosi’s army was to be found, and where the Dark Court held sway.

After the long night before I wanted nothing more than to get some sleep, but the ship was shaking so much as it sped along I found my efforts ending in failure. I eventually wound up passing time alone and pacing around the deck.

After a while, I was joined by Lea. The runes marked upon her skin soon glowing blue as she began to scry. I moved over to join her.

“I could have used you when I appeared in a dungeon without a light source,” I said.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“I haven’t seen anything else like it.”

“Symbology is popular in my part of the world. You can cast spells by drawing them on stones and scrolls, but there are a lot of advantages to having them right on your skin.”

“You could go into a fight naked.”

“Could. I’m not Cobalt though. I’ve been in a fight naked all of two times in my life and they were screw-ups. When your whole thing is being a seer, the more connected you are to your magic, the better.”

“What were the two times?”

“Skinny-dipping and these crazy murder fish was one, and an incubus the other.”

Magical windows flickered before her as she continuously adjusted them and she finally made a satisfied sound.

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Riggs! Heading of 37 out about 400 fars. Yeah, I’ve got it. We knew Leosi had passed through the area a few days ago, we just needed to find a place he’d gone butchering.”

I squinted as we crossed the line of eternal night and sunlight broke over the deck.

“Wow, that’s bright.”

“You know it’s pretty screwed-up that your kingdom has no sun, right?”

“It wasn’t exactly my idea.”

“But you’re sleeping with the little blonde that’s the cause of it all?”

“Elsora. Yeah. She’s… nice.”

“Uh huh.”

“The seer in you telling you something else?”

“Wouldn’t tell you, if it did. Prophecy telling is a lousy business to be in. Nobody ever appreciates it and half the time things work out in ways you’d never expect. So no, no prophecy, I’m just not an idiot.”

Fair enough.

The Vainglory was slowing and moving lower to the ground. Below us there was a forest and a winding road coming out of it. As we arrived at our destination the others came on deck.

We made our way off the ship. Lea was right to guide us here—there were signs of a recent battle. Our group consisted of myself, Walt, Ashley, Dara, and Cobalt. The ground was stained with dried blood and arrows lay scattered, although there was a notable lack of bodies.

Cobalt picked up one of the arrows and studied it. “Elvish.”

“I didn’t know Galea had Elves,” I said.

“You don’t. Or at least you didn’t back in the old days. There was Saria along the northern border, I’d assume they are still there, but I’ve not been in some time.”

“Did they migrate south?”

Dara said, “Not that many died here. No more than thirty judging by the energies I’m sending.” She knelt near a bloodstain, hand crackling with green and black energy as she gestured in the air. We’d met Dara Riel during our adventures on the ocean, a sharp-tongued necromancer and quite skilled at what she did. She didn’t like me very much; the feeling was mutual.

“Possibly a scouting party. Come south to get a look at the castle,” Cobalt said.

“Couldn’t they just scry?” I asked.

“Those mists covering your lands would be quite effective at obscuring scrying from good aligned mages,” Lea said.

“If that is so, no wonder the Elves wanted to get a look at what was happening beneath them,” Cobalt said.

“They won’t like having lost their scouting force,” I said.

“They’ll have sent more than one,” Cobalt said.

The ground beneath us rumbled and the air pulsed green.

“Dara?” I asked.

“Power. Far more than there should be—my probing triggered it,” Dara said, as a shimmering field of red energy sprang into being around her.

Unholy Shield

Mind Warp

Quest Granted

Necromantic Surprise

You’ve once again stumbled into a surprise left by one of your enemies. You do make a habit of this. Do be surprising and win this encounter, it’ll be worth it.

A corona of green power appeared in the air and darted towards Cobalt, who sidestepped with a fluid motion.

“Dara?” I said again.

“Stop saying my name as a question, you overly promiscuous sack of meat. Whatever that is, it isn’t necromantic,” Dara said.

Cobalt said, “Leosi has rigged a trap and is taking me out of the fight. I can win out of it, but it will take me some time.” She slipped away from the energy once more.

“Will you be okay?” I asked, as I drew Intemperance and flames burst into life around the sword.

“Just going to vanish into some old memories for a while. Fight smart,” Cobalt said, before she lunged into the corona of energy and vanished in a flare of light.

The dried blood had become fluid again, pools of thick liquid spreading across the ground and beginning to bubble.

“Dara. This is me not saying your name as a question. I really want some clue from my necromancer what is going on.”

“I am not your necromancer.”

Ashley said, “You left your ship to come with us. I mean, not to take sides here, but you kind of are.”

I said, “Why would you not take sides? You are totally on my side.”

“Hello? Chosen of the Goddess of Water now?”

“Who is now loyal to Yvera. Dara?”

Figures were beginning to take shape in the pools of blood. Twisted and humanoid. Dara seemed to be pushing back against an invisible force as red and green sparks filled the air.

“There will be four of them. I’m trying to stop it, but there is just too much force behind the spell.”

Figures stepped out of the gore, lean and made entirely of faintly glistening blood. I quickly checked the stats on one.

Blood Fiend

Level 15: Type: Unholy Construct HP: 250/250

Blood Fiends are a construct created by the fusion of necromancy and dark magic. Blood Fiends combine the most dangerous aspects of each, the regenerative capabilities of the undead and the persistent damage effects of dark magic.

Ashley vanished from sight as she engaged her stealth.

Teleport Foe

Walt gestured and one of the fiends vanished in a swirl of energy. A few seconds later there was a sound like a bucket of water hitting the ground as it came sloshing to earth from above.

Rain of Blood

Droplets of blood started to mist down like a light rain. Where each drop hit my skin, it left a jagged cut and my status bar showed bleed effects quickly beginning to add up. I raised my shield over my head to protect me.

Group Teleport

Walt grabbed Lea and the pair flickered away before too many drops had hit them. Dara looked dry beneath her magical shielding spell.

Double Backstab

Ashley appeared behind one of the fiends and plowed both of her daggers into its mass. It survived the blow although with its health bar quickly reduced.

Blood Boil

Ashley was already covered with fresh and gaping wounds from the rain, and the fiend she had just struck reached out to extend itself to those injuries. The fiend vanished as it merged with Ashley’s blood. Wracked with violent seizures, she collapsed to the ground.

I rushed forward and knelt beside her, raising my shield to cover us both as the murderous rain continued to fall, and I triggered my heal.

Lay on Hands

Ashley’s health bar shot up, but her seizures were unabated and those bleeding wounds remained.

Blood Blast

A burst of energy took me in one side. In other circumstances I might have blocked it with my shield, but for now that needed to stay protecting Ashley.

“Dara?” I said.

“Seriously? You’re still doing it?”

“Yell at me later. I saw you shield a whole ship once. Can you extend yours to protect everyone from the rain?”

“I can, but that sort of thing drains me fast. I won’t be good for much else.”

“Right now, none of us are.”

Lay on Hands

I fired another burst of healing into Ashley. She’d nearly run through her health bar again.

Tears of Blood

Ashley’s eyes began to stream blood, rivulets flowing away and reforming into the fourth fiend, which seemed to have fully healed in the process.

Groaning Ashley sat up and said, “That sucked.”

“No kidding. You ate two heals. How are you doing?”

Unholy Shield

The air above us rippled red and the constant pelting of rain stopped.

“I’m ready for some bloody vengeance—oh, fuck. That’s going to be an ability one of these guys use, won’t it?”

“Probably. They seem to have a theme.”

Smite

I blasted one of the fiends with a burst of holy fire and followed it up with several more until I was out of mana. Given their regenerative powers, I knew it was important to hit these things with as much offensive power as I could all at once. I scored a kill and the blip of a level-up showed in the corner of my vision. I decided to ignore that for now.

Lea and Walt came back into the fray together. A portal opened below one of the fiends as another opened above it and it began to perpetually fall, caught in a loop between them.

Infinite Regression

Sweet. Team-up abilities.

The fiends not caught in the loop moved towards the one that was, and with a squelch they all came together. The combined mass outsized the portal now. Three had become one and the bloody figure now towered over us. I checked the stats.

Blood Giant

Level 40: Type: Unholy Construct HP: 2500/2500

Legendary

A Blood Giant is a construct created by the merger of several Blood Fiends. The sum is far greater than the individual parts.

This had gotten worse in a hurry. Ashley had already mostly drained my heals and the Smites had eaten the rest of my mana.

“So, if they can turn into a super badass, why didn’t they just start out that way?” Ashley asked.

“I’m not sure they even needed to. They were winning,” I said.

Tides of Blood

The giant brought both fists smashing down into the ground and waves of blood burst forth, the impact picking us up and tossing us through the air.

Broadside

There came a roar from above. The Vainglory swooped overhead having just unloaded a broadside of cannon fire into the massive figure, sending it stumbling back.

“Way to go, Riggs,” Lea said. “We need to get out of here. We aren’t fighting that thing without Cobalt and no clue when she’ll be back.”

“We can’t just leave her here,” I said.

“She’ll be fine. We won’t. We’ll drop you off and come back to find her.”

I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that at all, but I didn’t see a choice.

“Everyone, gather together. Walt, can you do the honors?”

The others closed around me and Walt reached out. Reality flickered.

Group Teleport

We materialized on the deck of the Vainglory.

Quest Failed

Necromantic Surprise

You lost. It’s funny really how bad you are.. You’d have been so surprised at the rewards if you’d been good enough to win that battle. I won’t even give you a tip for the next time because it’s just that funny to watch you flail about.

“Lea, fill Riggs in on the plan. Get us to Alkari, so you can get back here,” I said.

“On it.”

“Dara, care to explain what that was back there?”

“Remember, Leosi has recruited Thayos Ziad as his necromancer. I knew he was good, but it’s been years since we’ve seen each other. I wanted to get a sense of his power levels.”

“It looked like it was more than you expected.”

“Far more. I think Leosi turned him.”

“So he’s a vampire necromancer? Is that a thing?”

Dara always looked pale, but somehow she had taken it to a whole new level after what we saw down below. “It is so much worse than that. Necromancy is a dark art to start with. Those of us who practice it tend to cling to the little bits of humanity we have left, for we are floating in a sea of darkness waiting to consume us.”

“But don’t you all want to become liches?” Ashley asked.

“No—yes… sort of. When we become undead we are incredibly more dangerous, but we always want that control. Lichdom provides us some—enough that a few are willing to make the trade. Vampirism does not. The desire to drink life and control death are even now mingling in Thayos Ziad and making him something terrible. He won’t have done this willingly, Leosi forced it on him.”

Well, that was a cheerful thought. It made it even more important to find a way to deal with Leosi.

As the Vainglory began moving away I decided to check the level I had gained.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 12

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Arson. As the Chosen of Yvera you have further gained 1 point of Charisma. Due to your attunement you have an increased presence in the physical world and have gained 1 point in both Power and Endurance. You have further gained enhancements to the following abilities…

Lay on Hands: Channeling. You can now channel this ability with an extended cast and increase its effectiveness by the expenditure of more mana.

You have gained the following innate ability…

Feast of Flames: You can now eat or drink anything and survive off it. You gain a complete immunity to ingested toxins and with effort there is nothing that you cannot consume.

Well. My new passive might not be much use in a fight, but I’d be damned good at parties. I threw my point this level into Charisma. It helped almost all of my spells in addition to social uses.

Name: Liam Ottani

Class: Paladin of Yvera

Deity: Yvera

Titles: Chosen of Yvera, King of Genea, Admiral Flame

Level: 12

HP: 430/430

Stamina: 180/180

Mana: 80/80

XP: 12 of 1000 to next level

Alignment: -1000

Stats

Power: 18 (+7) Endurance: 18 Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 8 Awareness: 6

Charisma: 14 Luck: 8

Skills

Long Blades: 89

Blunt Weapons: 16

Hand to Hand: 12

Mounted Combat: 15

Light Armor: 15

Medium Armor: 28

Heavy Armor: 17

Persuasion: 38

Seduction: 73

Meditation: 4

Barter: 15

Shield Use: 17

Arson: 11

Double Attack: 2

Blademaster: 1

Spells

Smite

Sense Virtue

Lay on Hands (3 uses per 4 hours)

Bless Water

Bless

Divine Steed

Divine Power

Zealous Blow

Holy Object

Innates

Blessed Nature

Fire Resistance: 50%

Sense Alignment

Fire Within

Fueling the Flame

Aura of Destruction

Aura of Kings

Burning Down the House

Feast of Flames

CHAPTER FIVE

However much I wanted the Vainglory to hurry up and reach our destination, it wasn’t a quick trip to the Alkari desert, and day turned into night.

I didn’t really expect Lea to accept when I propositioned her. Although we’d shared a bed together with Cobalt, we’d never shared one alone. We’d also been tense ever since she’d found out my position as King. But she agreed and we got to work some of those tensions out.

Several sweaty hours later I found myself idly tracing the lines of one of her runes with my fingertip.

“You’re still worried about her, aren’t you?” Lea asked.

“Aren’t you?”

“The boss isn’t like you or me. She’s special.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Lea laughed and sat up in the bed, shifting a pillow to rest beneath her back. “I didn’t mean that to be insulting. It’s just like in stories. You and me are the hot-looking romantic interests that sometimes die for dramatic effect. Cobalt though? She is the main character, she’ll keep going forever.”

Really? This struck me as particularly unfair.

“I kind of thought of myself as the main character.”

Lea grinned and shook her head. “Don’t we all sometimes, but think about it. The real hero or the villain in a story kicks ass. How many people do you know who can kick yours?”

I thought about it. It was more than I’d like to admit.

“Cobalt, of course. Leosi, and Maria. The whole Sardonis family, I guess. Elsora probably, along with Ashley and Mellaise. Yvera and Atlantia, if you want to throw the goddesses in there.”

“Me.”

“I’d take you.”

“Take me out of it then, if that helps your pride at all. That puts you in what, ninth place?”

It did. I didn’t like that. I even got some insanely overpowered buffs each level, because of my connection to reality, which should have moved me well beyond others on a power scale.

“I’m a King. That has to count for something.”

“Sure. So was Leosi. Cobalt was a Queen and Maria is one. And the Goddesses clearly have you beat. Face it, you just aren’t main character material. I’m not even sure you have backstory enough to be a good romantic interest.”

“I have backstory! I come from a small farming community.”

“That is your deep backstory? You come from a farm? Do you know where Cobalt comes from?”

“Do I want to know?”

“The endless city at the nexus of worlds.”

“That’s pretty good.”

“That is why you don’t have to worry. We’ll all be dead and Cobalt will still be going on adventures. She matters.” Lea was looking at me with a serious expression now.

“Then why did you get so upset when you learned who I was? If you have that much faith she can handle whatever comes along, why did you freak out?”

“Liam, there is sometimes an arrogance in you. It is there in all your friends. ButYvera, Cobalt, you need to understand that they aren’t like you or me. They matter. Their problems matter. Cobalt will survive whatever it is you started, but the rest of us might not.”

I let my eyes wander over her, there was tension in her body. She meant this. I guess it made sense. I’d just met Cobalt and already she was the scariest woman I knew. Maybe the Goddesses could take her in a fight, but I wouldn’t want to bet on that. Lea had lived in that shadow for a lot longer.

“Lea, you are a beautiful woman covered in glowing runes who can see the future. You might not jump naked out of airships and slaughter armies, but you are something special. You are far more than Cobalt’s love interest. So am I. We’re our own stories and they’re going to be great ones”

“Well, I hope you know that after that, you aren’t getting a bit of sleep tonight.”

I hadn’t the night before either. It was absurd how tired I was getting. Perhaps I should have sunk my point this last level into Endurance.

CHAPTER SIX

The next day saw us arrive at the Desert of Alkari. Barren scrubland ended in a magnificent city where towering minuets of brass caught the light in a brilliant display. Beyond the city were sand dunes, seemingly going on forever.

Everyone had gathered on deck to watch our approach.

“I bet they have a kickass marketplace,” Ashley said.

I looked towards Lea, who seemed far less exhausted than I was this morning, “Do you know anything about the city?”

“The City of Brass. The City of ten thousand sins. The land of spinning coins and forbidden fruits.”

“I need to hire whoever does their publicity. Right now our tourism slogan is something like ‘Galea, where the girls are pale and only sometimes covered in spiders.’”

“Galea, where one good night can last forever,” Ashley suggested.

“Galea, where tan lines aren’t an issue,” Walt said.

“Who is in charge?” I asked.

“Damned if I know. We came here once or twice to gamble and get drunk, but we weren’t exactly hanging out at the palace,” Lea said.

“Thinking of checking in at the palace first?” Ashley asked.

“I was, but I don’t want to get stuck playing diplomat unless we have to. Let’s hit the city first and see what we can find out, then only visit the palace if we need to.”

“We’re close enough I can teleport us down,” Walt said.

Lea moved in and gave me a powerful hug, “Good luck. It will be awhile until we see you again. We need to find Cobalt, and then she wants to find Maria.”

“We’ll see each other again. Walt, find us somewhere out of the way.”

Lea released me and Walt reached out. The world shimmered.

Group Teleport

The three of us materialized in a laneway. From above there had looked to be many beautiful parts of the city, this wasn’t one of them. The alley was littered with debris so bleached it might have been sitting in the punishing sunlight for decades.

“Scenic,” I said.

“You wanted somewhere out of the way, we are somewhere out of the way,” Walt said.

“You should have had Lea scry us a proper landing point,” Ashley said.

“Good advice a minute too late. Let’s start walking and see if we can find some people.”

There is something liberating about finding yourself lost with no destination in mind. The thrill of a map unexplored. Whatever direction you go is bound to be leading towards adventure.

Ten minutes later it seemed we had hardly gone anywhere at all. One alley turned into another and they all had the same washed-out look.

“Are we just going around in circles?” I asked.

“No,” Walt said.

“You sure?”

“Some of us can keep a map in our heads. We’re not. The city is just that uninteresting.”

We turned a corner into another alley. This one actually had people in it. Five cloaked figures with blades drawn formed a half-circle around a powerful-looking man backed up against a wall.

“Sweet. People. Can we kill them and take their knives?” Ashley asked.

Several pairs of eyes turned in our direction. At least it wasn’t me making enemies for once. I quickly checked the stats of those present to see what we were dealing with.

Cutpurse

Level 13: Type: Human HP: 140/140

Cutpurses are the backbone of the Thieves Guild. Quick and agile they are more suited to lifting coin pouches than a prolonged fight.

Clubber

Level 13: Type: Human HP: 140/140

Clubbers are the strong arm of the Thieves Guild. When you need something or someone broken you call a clubber.

Earthquake

Level 14: Type: Human HP: 200/200

Earthquake is an adventurer. Lacking any earth-related powers, the name comes because he is a potent physical force.

There were two Cutpurses and three Clubbers, while Earthquake was the man against the wall.

“They’re thieves. Do you really want to go murdering your fellow thieves?” I asked.

“I’m an assassin. We’re basically the same class. You all know that to get gear for yourself, you must kill things of your own class. Right guys? They get it,” Ashley said.

Two of the thieves remained facing Earthquake, while the rest turned to face us.

“I think they do,” I said.

One of the clubbers said, “We were just having a private conversation with our friend here. Now, while at night we might be favorably inclined to skinning you and stealing everything you own, in the daylight hours we do try to be friendly to tourists.”

Well, that was wordy, and creepy.

“I like them,” Ashley said. “Maybe we should help them kill the other guy instead.”

Fistquake

“Fistquake!” Earthquake screamed, completely unnecessarily as his fist connected with the jaw of one of the cutpurses, sending him soaring across the alley and crunching into the opposite wall.

Knife Toss

The other cutpurse tossed one of his knives burying it deep into Earthquake’s shoulder.

Earthquake didn’t even acknowledge the injury as he said, “Booyah! Shake shake baby! Mess with the Earthquake, I’ll rock your fucking world.” He landed another punch on one of the bruisers.

Sapping Blow

With a well-practiced motion, one of the clubbers stepped up behind Earthquake and delivered a blow to the back of his head that sent the adventurer to the ground.

“We stepping in?” Ashley asked.

“He seems totally crazy. I kind of like that.” Then I called, “Back off him or this will get violent.”

“You don’t count that well,” said one of the cutthroats as he rubbed his jaw.

Bag of Tangling

One of the cutthroats threw an item to the ground and suddenly vines were springing up from the soil, thorns digging themselves into my calves.

I glanced down—and when I looked up again the cutthroats were gone. I couldn’t move my feet, but nothing had immobilized my upper body, so I readied my shield and Intemperance. I’d had enough experience with sneaky bastards when I was fighting pirates to know what was coming. Even now they’d be slipping up behind us. There was nothing I could do about that, but knowing the hits were coming didn’t mean we couldn’t hit first. Only two were stealthed.

“Hit the brutes,” I said, even as I let loose a spell.

Smite

Aimed Bolt

Dimension Tremor

I let loose a spell engulfing one of the attackers in flames even as a bolt from Ashley’s hand-crossbow and a shimmering wave of force from Walt hit the others.

The fire quickly spread from mine to catch the robes of the other brutes, setting them on fire. I knew my fire could spread now, but hadn’t seen it happen yet.

Each looked down about a quarter of their health bars. Not bad as first strikes went.

Double Backstab

I felt daggers plunge into my back. Even knowing that they would be coming didn’t make the blow any less painful. It did mean that I was ready. As soon as those knives sank into my flesh I swiveled my body to deliver a forceful blow of my sword and I felt it slice satisfyingly deep into the flesh of one of the Cutthroats.

Smite

I channeled the spell through Intemperance, causing the flames around the sword to flare with extra intensity, forcing that explosion of fire into the guts of the thief.

The Cutthroat screamed, flames flickering out of his mouth as his body convulsed, and he dropped dead to the ground.

Play with fire and get burned. I had a catch-phrase too.

Teleport

Walt materialized at my feet, nearly dead. I guess he’d been the recipient of the second backstab.

Lay on Hands

I healed him and looked around at the situation. Me and Ashley still seemed to be immobilized, although Walt’s teleport looked to have freed him. That made sense since it severed the vines from the ground.

“You good?” I asked.

“Am now,” Walt said.

“Teleport with Ashley. We need her mobile.”

Walt rose to his feet and stumbled away. The Clubbers looked to have put out their fires and were moving towards me, while the remaining Cutthroat had stealthed again. Earthquake was getting back to his feet.

I unleashed another Smite at the central Clubber. He cried out as flames wreathed him again, but this time it didn’t spread to the others.

Group Teleport

Walt and Ashley vanished. Good. Ashley was our most potent offensive force so long as she was mobile.

“Hell yeah! Shake and bake baby. Shake and fucking bake,” Earthquake said in a bellow, as he charged forward with his arms to his sides, plowing into the brutes from behind, sending them tumbling to the ground.

Bringing Down the House

Backstab

The missing Cutthroat appeared behind Earthquake and buried his dagger deep.

Backstab

Ashley appeared behind the newly appeared Cutthroat. While his backstab had hurt Earthquake, hers took the Cutthroat in the neck and I saw a severed head wearing an expression of astonishment go tumbling past.

Distortion Field

Space rippled around the Clubbers on the ground, twisting and churning in ways completely unnatural. If they weren’t knocked to the ground it would have been easy to get out of the field, but instead they lingered within it and I heard bones snapping.

Smite

Smite

I sent several more spells against the prone forms and again they ignited.

One perished, and then another, finally leaving just one much the worse for wear and trying to get to his feet.

Aimed Shot

Ashley’s crossbow bolt took him in the eye and he went sprawling backwards.

Yeah, I could count. Five and zilch, that was my count.

“Did you see that? They went crash and bang, and then they went woosh—and dudes! That was so badass!” Earthquake said. Wow, this guy was excited.

Ashley started to loot the corpses. I guess it was up to me to make conversation.

“Yeah. We’re cool. I’m Liam, my friends are Walt and Ashley.”

“Earthquake, ’cos I totally rock the world,” Earthquake said, gyrating his hips wildly.

“He’s as bad at names as you are,” Walt said.

“Liam is a pretty lame name,” Earthquake said. “I mean, with all the wooshing you should be like… Captain Fire.”

“He was Admiral Flame for a while,” Ashley said, tucking a set of daggers into her pack.

“Really? Woah! An Admiral is even better than a Captain,” Earthquake said.

It really was. This guy understood.

“So why were those guys after you?” I asked.

“I rumbled with one of them robbing some dude a few days ago,” Earth said. “They don’t like that.”

They’d like losing five even less, I imagined. Hopefully we wouldn’t stick around long enough for it to be an issue.

“You know how to get out of these damned alleys? We’ve been wandering around lost.”

“Totally. I owe you guys. There is a trick to it. You can’t just walk out. Whenever they look like this, it’s two left, two right, and one left to get back out.”

“That isn’t linear mapping at all,” Walt said.

I said, “It explains why we weren’t having any luck. I don’t suppose you’re an expert in ancient legends? We’re looking for something long-sealed away in the desert.”.

Earthquake scrunched up his face. “You need Aria. She’s a tale spinner. She’s always telling old stories, so if anybody is going to have an idea it will be her. We need to hurry though. The streets aren’t safe after dark.”

Quest Granted

Tell Me A Story

Aria can help you. Aria can destroy you. Go ahead, find her and crawl into bed with her. You’ll enjoy every moment until reality hits the next morning.

I looked over the corpses. “They don’t seem all that safe during the day.”

“Hopefully you don’t find out.”

We set off with Earthquake leading the way.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Once we knew the trick of how to get out of the alleys it was quite simple. We soon found ourselves back on a main thoroughfare. The streets were busy with people dressed in brightly colored silks.

Walt was scowling and said, “Nonlinear maps are stupid and pointless. We haven’t seen anything else set up that way.”

Earthquake gestured around with a dramatic wave of an arm. “City is alive. Stay here long enough, you’ll figure that out. It likes to trap people, likes to hurt people. Never get lost and never be out after dark.”

Well, that was a reassuring thought. Overhead the sun was already starting to near the horizon.

“Not much of a trap, if everybody knows the directions to get out of it,” Ashley said.

“We didn’t. If I were going to design something like this I’d also make it so those directions to get out can be changed,” Walt said.

That seemed like a smart idea. Why fight an army, when you could simply trap them and let them starve to death? It might not work with the undead, but I could see it used against other foes.

“Is there any way we could adapt something similar for the castle?” I asked.

“Advanced magical trap design?” Walt shook his head. “Maybe. There has got to be some kind of crafting system for that.”

“I haven’t messed with crafting at all,” I said.

“Why craft, when you can kill?” Ashley said.

Earthquake came to a halt and said, “She has the best ideas. You need me, you can find me at The Venomous Stag. For now I’m going to go shake some people until they bleed.”

“I don’t think that is really a thing,” Walt said.

“Just got to shake them hard enough,” Earthquake said. “Just head down the street. You want to find the Inn of a Thousand Cuts, sign of a bleeding man.”

“Who names their inn that? Shouldn’t they be things like the Drunken Donkey or the Fancy Fish, or something?” I asked.

Ashley scrunched up her face. “I want to call you the worst at naming things again, but I think you actually came out ahead there. Somehow.”

Earthquake waved and lumbered off on his quest to inflict massive physical trauma. We met the best people.

We resumed our walk down the street. As the sun got lower the crowds started to thin out. A number of windows were closed with sturdy shutters.

The Disemboweled Merchant, The Flayed Purveyor of Meats, The Savaged Soldier—we quickly found it alarming how many businesses had signs depicting bleeding men.

“This town has a theme,” Walt said.

“Why couldn’t the theme be mostly naked women?” I asked.

“You could have gone there with names. Something like the Seven Veils, that would be classy. Why did you go with the drunken donkey?”

Really, I’d started with the visual. I could totally picture a sign with a tipsy donkey. Why was that so weird?

We still hadn’t reached our destination and dusk was now fully upon us. The streets by this point were nearly empty, the other travelers in a considerable rush.

As we passed the mouths of alleys I started to feel eyes staring at us, that tingling in the gut that comes when you know you’re being watched.

“Walt, can you conjure us a light?”

Walt gestured and a swarm of fireflies came into being, surrounding us in a faint glow.

Light dampened that sense of danger, but not as much as I’d have expected. As the shadows lengthened, the very architecture of the city seemed to be changing, taking on a far more sinister cast.

“Am I the only one seeing this?” Ashley asked.

“Some kind of were-city? Is there such a thing as were-cities?” I asked.

“If it were a were-city, that would be something else turning into a city and not a city turning into something else,” Walt said.

“Were-deathtrap?” Ashley asked.

“I don’t think that is actually a thing. Is that a thing?”

I started to think that it was. From the darkest of alleys there came the sounds of growls and the rending of flesh, and breaking bones.

It should have been terrifying. It wasn’t. Instead I started to feel much like I did when I held Intemperance in my hands, an intoxicating loss of control.

I wondered if this was purely in my mind, because the others seemed to be experiencing changes on a more physical level. Ashley was growing claws and her movements were shifting into a confident and deadly swagger. I wanted her so very much. Walt meanwhile had eyes which had started to glint green.

‘You need to hurry up and get inside,’ Yvera said inside my head.

‘Do you know what is going on?’ I asked.

‘I have some idea, but this is not the time. If you don’t get inside soon you’ll be desperately trying to rut with Ashley even as she tries to gut you and Walt takes notes.’

That all sounded all too reasonable right now.

I began to run and the others followed. It was another four grisly signs we passed before we finally found the right one and slipped through the doorway of the Inn of a Thousand Cuts.

Inside it was brilliantly lit, painfully so, and it took several moments to see past the light to the intricate tapestries and colorful pillows that made up much of the decor.

I began to feel whatever was affecting me fade. It wasn’t gone completely, but no longer an inevitable tide sweeping me away.

I looked over to the others. Ashley still had claws, and Walt green eyes, but they too seemed to be in control of themselves. The other patrons seemed the same—nobody was quite human.

“You guys okay?” I asked.

“Oh, I am better than okay,” Ashley said, the words almost a purr. “I feel like I could take on the whole world.”

“I’m smart. Focused. I like it. What about you?” Walt asked.

“I want to sleep around a lot. I feel pretty much like I always do, just a bit more so.”

They both gave me the look they give me when I say something regrettably expected. Screw it. It was true.

“So, what happened to us? To everyone?” Ashley asked.

A dark-haired woman prowled up to us. The turquoise silks she wore left nothing to the imagination. “First time in the city and nobody gave you the talk. Shame, shame. You’d better come with me. I’m Aria.”

That was the tale spinner that Earthquake mentioned.

“We were actually looking for you,” I said.

“Oh, I know. Think I greet every handsome stranger at the door?” Aria asked, then paused before continuing, “Well, a sizable number. But you have a purpose besides the usual. Join me, I have us a table.”

I guess that saved us the trouble of going looking for her. I shrugged at Walt and Ashley, and followed her through the room.

The patrons had the energy of a crowd with a few drinks in them. Laughter was a little too loud, bodies a little too close.

Aria brought us to a table.

“So, first the explanation. Did you get to see the city by day?” Aria asked.

“Just the back alleys. We got into a bit of a brawl,” I said.

Aria pursed her lips. “Thieves Guild, and out of the public eye. That’s allowed. You’ll never find that on the main thoroughfares. In the day it’s always a smile on the surface to give you everything you want. Behind the scenes it is ruthless and a cut-throat competition to separate you from your coin, your freedom, and your very soul.”

“And at night?”

Aria gave me her best seductive smile. It was tremendously effective. “At night all the masks come off. The cities, ours, yours. We all show what we truly want.”

“As Liam is suffering from a dramatic loss of blood to the brain right about now, I should make introductions,” Walt said.

“No need,” Aria said with a smirk. “I know you all. Liam Ottani, The King of Genea who bends knee to the Lady of Flame. His companions, the seeker of vengeance with a kinder heart than she lets on, and the seeker of knowledge with a head full of lies.”

“You really should tell us how you know so much, before I make this inn live up to its name,” Ashley said, as she withdrew one of her daggers and began to not-so-casually play with it.

Aria laughed and said, “You come to me because I’m supposed to know things, and you get upset when I do? Just think of this as me demonstrating my value. Let’s talk deals.”

With a swirl of flame Yvera appeared at the table, nursing a glass of wine. “Don’t mind me. I just love this part and love to watch.”

“Do you have to make everything creepy weird?” Ashley said. “Seriously. I had an uncle like you.”

“Stunningly beautiful and intelligent? I think not. I see no trace of those genes in your family.”

“I do enjoy putting on a show,” Aria said, her words laced with meaning. “It gets me into all sorts of trouble, which brings me to my price. Rescues.”

“Rescues?” I asked.

“I know things. I know all kinds of things. You want to find Mela? I can point you towards her prison and what you’ll need to open the seals holding her,” Aria said.

She not only knew who we were, she knew exactly what we wanted to accomplish. I might be really into Aria, but I didn’t like that one bit.

“And what do you want in exchange?” I asked.

“Two rescues for that knowledge. Whatever scrape I get myself into, you fly in and get me out of it. Or, if you prefer, I’d be willing to go for a long-term deal. Become my knight in shining red armor riding to my rescue when I require it and I will on occasion give you the most tantalizing secrets,” Aria said seductively.

I might be easy to play, but I did know when I was being played. I was in no place to make reasonable judgments right now. Give me half a chance, I’d give her anything she wanted.

“Ashley, negotiate.”

“I don’t even have a hostage,” Ashley said with a frown. “Lady, right now you are a lot of talk and not a lot of clothes, and that might work on Liam, but it isn’t doing a thing for the rest of us.”

“I’m into it,” Yvera said.

“Of course you are,” Ashley said, rubbing at her forehead. “Show us you have the goods. The… other goods.”

Aria grinned at that, leaning back in her chair, her fingers drumming on the table as she thought. “Oh, I’ve got it. You’ll like this one. Well, you’ll hate this one, but it’s very juicy. Do you remember the last time you were here, Yvera?”

“I do,” Yvera said, in a tone unusually devoid of emotion.

I didn’t know she’d been here before. I sat up straighter so that I could better look between them.

“You didn’t wipe,” Aria said.

“I assure you we did,” Yvera said.

“Catch the rest of us up here?” I asked.

“You know I was in this world before. We fought the last boss here. We wiped. Any other death we came back from, but that booted us and none of us ever got to return,” Yvera said, keeping her gaze fixed on Aria.

“Wrong. One of you didn’t wipe. One of you made it out. One of you has been here this whole time and simply lied to the others that your fate was shared,” Aria said.

“Veros,” Ashley said, her tone all but dripping with hate. “It was Veros wasn’t it?”

Aria gave the tiniest of nods, a self-satisfied smile on her lips.

“Yvera? Is it true? Is that fucker here?” Ashley said, as she spun to face the Goddess.

“Perhaps. He was our tank, and he wasn’t down when I died,” Yvera said. “It might even explain some things. He was never like the rest of us afterward. We came back changed, but he came back broken and with tricks the rest of us didn’t have. He never engaged with the world in the same way.”

“As if his focus was elsewhere,” Walt said.

Aria looked between us expectantly.

“If you were out to push my buttons, you pushed the right ones,” Ashley said.

“I always do,” Aria said.

“We’ll take the deal. For the ongoing offer,” Ashley said.

“You’ll want to head to the palace in the morning. The Sultana has the key. I’m done talking for the night,” Aria said. “I have rooms booked for all of you. You can find them upstairs. Liam, I trust you’ll join me in mine. Yvera, you are free to watch. Liam, you are free to pretend I’m her. I know you want to and I don’t mind.”

“Fuck, if that isn’t all new levels of creepy,” Ashley said.

“I’m in,” Yvera said.

I was too. Of course, I was too. One of these nights I’d get some sleep.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Another night and another tangle of bodies. Despite being exhausted, that didn’t keep me from enjoying myself. Yvera did stick around awhile, but I knew it was mostly for effect. She was always in my head and therefore always playing a silent spectator.

Aria was more like a lover I’d known for years than one I just met. She knew exactly how I liked to be touch, exactly what I liked. I had to explore and experiment, I enjoyed that, I always did, but to her I was incredibly familiar. I suspected that came from the same gifts that let her know everything else.

Sleep was welcome when it finally came, my arms wrapped around her. Waking up was not nearly so pleasant.

Quest Completed

Tell Me A Story

You met Aria and took that crawling into bed with her literally. I’m not judging. I’m just your friendly wakeup call that the morning after can really suck.

When my eyes next opened I was in agony, my health bar largely gone and so many debilitating effects I couldn’t count them. I tried to scream as a violent tremor coursed through my body, but my throat wouldn’t work to let out the sound. Nothing more than a whimper escaped me.

A figure crossed in front of my eyes and I recognized him. Barton the Brute. We’d killed his band of thugs preying on a band of refugees a while back, but he’d gotten away. I’d never expected to see him again.

“Don’t try to talk,” Barton said, as he leaned over me. “Not that you can. Can’t talk. Can’t scream.”

I focused my will into my Smite smell and released it. Nothing happened.

“Can’t do anything really. Pricey stuff, this poison, but I didn’t want to take any chances, not when I saw it was you. Let me tell you how you’re going to die,” Barton said, as he idly played with a knife. He bent over—I think he cut something off me. Probably something I wanted, I was in too much dazed agony to tell.

“Your muscles are quite useless right now. You are completely helpless, but still able to feel every tiny little thing. Soon your organs are going to start liquefying. You’ll start shitting blood, coughing it up, maybe you’ll drown on it. You’re going to melt from the inside out boy, just like you melted my lads,” Barton said. I suspected another part of me went missing.

“Yvera?” I thought.

“I’m here love. I can’t do anything, not while he has your ability locked. I act through you. Not apart from you.”

Great. Just great. How could anything hurt this bad?

“You’ll be hours dying and a long time coming back from it,” Barton said with a grin. It was the last I saw of him. He cut out my eyes.

“Last time, I told you next time you wouldn’t see me coming. Seems fitting you don’t see me going either. Stay out of my way or I’ll make it far worse,” Barton said. “Come on girl, and say goodbye to lover boy. I don’t know what you did to piss off the palace enough to get a bounty like yours, but I’m eager to collect.”

I heard movement as Barton slipped away and I was left to writhe in agony as my body tore itself apart.

“I’ve got something. I’d say this is going to hurt, but I doubt you’ll even notice,” Yvera said in my head.

She was wrong. I did. I suddenly felt like my entire body had been set on fire. If I could have screamed, I’d have screamed myself hoarse.

In addition to the pain I started to feel a sense of exhilaration. I recognized it. This was my Fire Within passive that usually kicked in when I was badly injured.

“What did you do?” I thought.

“I’ve boosted your abilities before. This one is supposed to be there for you when you are gravely injured. It is not meant to handle anything nearly as bad as this poison at your level though.”

My world became fragmented colors as my eyes began to heal themselves, everything began to blearily come back into focus.

I still couldn’t move or speak, but my thoughts were becoming clearer. I was going to kill that man. I didn’t know how I was going to find him again, but for this I was going to have to find a way to do something worse.

“Fuck, it hurts. It seems to be working.”

“A bit. This poison is a work of art. We don’t want you to die. If you die you’ll be days before you can resurrect.”

I had to stop the conversation as I needed to get more seizures out of the way. These knocked me from the bed and left me face-down on the floor. In the aftermath though I could move again, albeit weakly, and I shakily pushed myself up.

My health bar was at only about half its normal length and my stamina bar nearly exhausted.

I couldn’t even think of getting back into my armor. I toggled a heal potion from my inventory. It had no effect. Great. Staggering to the door I managed to get it open and stumbled to the next one.

Walt answered my knocking and took one look at me before calling out, “Ashley? We’ve got trouble.”

Ashley poked her head out behind him and looked me over. “A naked Liam. A seriously fucked-up, naked Liam. How many debuffs do you have? Is this some kind of magical STD?”

Walt grimaced and took a step back.

“It’s not—and too many. I should be dead. Barton the Brute, he poisoned me and he took Aria captive.”

“This is why you never leave anyone alive,” Ashley said.

“Yell at me when I’m not half-murdered and have clothes on.”

“Like either of us think you mind the last bit,” Walt said. “If we get you back in your armor are you going to fall over?”

“I think I’ll be okay.”

It took a while. Fine motor control was not something I had, but eventually they managed to get me armored up once more.

“So, we’re going after them right? You owe that fucker a lot of pain,” Ashley said.

“We also had a deal with Aria and we honor that. She’s in trouble and we help out, plus we need to go to the palace anyway for the key to free Mela,” I said.

“Perhaps,” Walt said with a shake of his head. “Given all she seemed to know and her insisting on rescues as payment, she probably knew this was coming. Giving us extra motivation to go to the palace could be part of a scheme.”

Walt was smart and that always made him worth listening to. I knew Aria was playing me last night. It was why I stepped out of negotiations. I got played a lot though. I used to question everyone trying to play me, but these days I was trying to take it in my stride.

“We made the deal. If we want to back out later we can, but she gets this rescue.”

Walt and Ashley exchanged looks, but neither objected. Good.

“So how do we break into the palace?” Ashley asked.

“I’m a King. We’re going to go up to the gates and be pains in the asses until they let us in.”

Soon we left the inn—which by day had turned into The Prancing Pony. The other establishments seemed to have become far cheerier as well.

“I wonder how people remember where they are staying,” Ashley said.

“I would guess they tell you both names when you check in,” Walt said.

“Were-deathtraps are weird.”

We were slow making our way through the city. I could move with my armor on, but I was nowhere near full strength. I wasn’t just weak, I hurt, a dull ache that wouldn’t fade. I took a moment to read through the debuffs I still had up.

Weakness of Body

Target has their Strength and Endurance halved for the duration of the effect reducing maximum health and endurance.

Duration: 3 days

Torment

Target suffers pain equal to moderate wounds in every body location.

Duration: 3 days

Stay Down

Target will have a timer of 3 days before any respawn can occur if they die during the duration of this effect.

Duration: 3 days

Enhance Peril

Any negative effects which the target experiences while under the duration of the spell will have their duration extended to 3 days.

Duration: 3 days

Ability Lock

Target is unable to use any of their active abilities or spells while this effect is active.

Duration: 3 days.

That really sucked. Right now I’d be completely useless in a fight. My ability to tank had been largely mitigated and without my spells a major source of my damage was gone. At least nothing detracted from my Charisma. Being a social beast was an important aspect of my build and one I imagined that we would need at the palace.

Navigating the main thoroughfares of the city proved far easier than the alleyways had. Any time we stopped to ask for directions we got help with a smile. We scarcely needed it. The palace towered above everything else in the middle of the city.

Vibrant silks were the most common attire. Vendors shouted offers to us as we passed stalls filled with wonders. In other circumstances we would have lingered and shopped, but we were on a mission.

The towers of the palace were surrounded by a massive wall with murals covering the surface. What at first appeared decorative I knew must be more. I recognized a few of the runes from Lea.

“Their magical defenses put ours to shame. Wards against teleportation, scrying, curses,” Walt said.

“Didn’t Castle Sardonis have something like that up?” I asked.

“Think of it as an active versus passive effect, this is far more elegant.”

Elegant or not, the defenses of Castle Sardonis had held out for centuries. Maybe I was just defensive of my Kingdom because it was mine, but I really didn’t think we had anything to be ashamed of.

Quest Granted

Be A Charmer

You need to gain access to the palace. Surely someone with your ludicrous levels of investment in Charisma can talk their way through the gates.

A thick set of gates were up ahead. The pair of guards that stood before them wore ornate sets of heavy plate mail.

We approached and I made my pitch. “King Liam Ottani of Galea seeks an audience.”

The guards exchanged glances and the one on the left said, “No.”

I had to give it to them on brevity.

“I am certain that if you pass my presence along, that I will be seen. As royalty would be at my own castle.”

“No,” said the guard on the right.

Brevity and consistency.

“You’ll surely want to pass this on to a superior officer?”

“No.”

“I insist.”

“No.”

“Can you say anything besides no?”

“Yes.”

Great. They knew at least two words, even if they only seemed fond of the one.

“Did you break your social dice?” Ashley asked.

“They’re fine. They just aren’t biting.”

“Try sleeping with them.”

I was half-dead and I really wasn’t in the mood. Still, my seduction was higher than my persuasion.

“Do either of you happen to be girls? No offense, I mean, the plate mail just makes it hard to tell. Unless plate mail bikinis are a thing here, in which case you are clearly guys.”

“Actually, they are a thing here,” Ashley said.

“Seriously? I haven’t seen any and believe me, I’d notice,” I said.

“You’re not a girl. I do our looting. Trust me, a lot of the stuff turns skimpy as soon as I touch it. It’s really annoying.”

Huh. Weird how that worked.

“But your armor isn’t skimpy.”

“It’s leather. That means it’s tight-fitting and makes me look like it was a badass. If I were a tank in chain or plate, I’d be almost completely naked. It’s stupid.”

Focus. I had to focus.

The guards had never bothered to answer my question. They just glared at me. Right. No seduction to be done.

“Is there anything we can do for you to let us through the gates? Bribes? Quests?” I said more insistently. Something had to work here.

“No.”

It was hard to charm people when they weren’t giving an inch.

I glanced at Ashley and asked, “You want to give it a go?”

“You know I’m not seducing anyone. I’ve got Bull.”

“It’s not like it’s really cheating. Besides, he isn’t even here.”

“I’m loyal. Deal.”

“Walt?”

“Why am I last?”

“Because Charisma is your dump stat? I mean, it’s probably a lost cause, but I thought you might like to try.”

Walt glared.

Okay. We weren’t talking our way past the guards and I was in no shape to try fighting our way past them.

Quest Failed

Be A Charmer

Perhaps the guards were the wrong choice. You really should have tried charming the palace staff instead.

“Let’s go find Earthquake. He might have an idea what we can do next,” I said.

“If he doesn’t, we can find a way to contact Elsora. She might have more success getting us an invitation,” Walt said.

I resolved to find myself some guards like this and we headed off in defeat. Today was not my day.

CHAPTER NINE

We set off back into the city, leaving the palace behind. I was both impressed and angry at how immovable those guards had been.

“I’m surprised you didn’t try to go all epic violence like we did the last time we got stuck at a set of gates,” Ashley said.

“That was more Storm attacking us than picking a fight. Besides, we aren’t at full power and don’t have the Vainglory to back us up,” I said. I wish we did. The Vainglory could just fly us over those gates unless the wards stopped it.

“You can’t just teleport us in?” Ashley asked Walt.

“I already mentioned the wards,” Walt said, as he shrugged his shoulders. “I considered alternatives like teleporting up high into the air and falling at an angle to beyond the wall, but I don’t think it will work. They knew what they were doing.”

“Those guards won’t take a bribe, but perhaps others would,” I said.

“We get loot, we don’t give it away unless it’s to get better or more useful loot,” Ashley said. “Stop making stupid suggestions.”

I should have known that wouldn’t go over well.

“I really wish I were in better condition. Then we’d just kick their asses.”

“Yeah, that would go over well. We have murdered your guards, please release your captives and let’s be friends,” Ashley said.

We had plenty of other friends with whom we’d started out killing each other. Murder was a bonding experience.

We picked up some kebabs from a vendor as we made our way through the city. The food was welcome although sadly it did nothing to restore my health.

Asking for directions to The Venomous Stag eventually led us to an inn called The Chipper Carrot. Everything having two names was really getting old.

Making our way inside we found a rougher establishment than the daytime name might suggest. It was familiar in the way all dive bars look a bit alike. Currently a fight was underway, patrons squaring off against each other in a free-for-all. I didn’t see any weapons. So far as it went, this was a friendly free-for-all.

Ashley beamed at the sight and said, “Fuck yeah, I’ve been looking for a fight. I’ll find our boy and pull him out.”

I watched as she vanished into the crowd. It was weird to hang back from a rumble.

“So, weird question for you,” I said to Walt.

“Is this a sex thing? Please don’t tell me this is a sex thing,” Walt said with a grimace.

“What? No. Why would I think you know anything about that? Do you think we’re real?”

“What kind of a question is that? Do you have any reason at all for thinking we aren’t?”

“Lea raised a good point awhile back. We’re attuned to this simulation and player characters to boot, so we’re getting a big boost to our stats. We should be the badasses amongst badasses. We aren’t though. We’re holding it together, but not running over everything like I’d expect.”

“You are a King with a unique flaming sword and a half-dozen lovers. How much more of a special snowflake do you want to be?”

Oof. That was fair. Mean, but fair.

“Some others seem just as special though.”

Walt ducked to avoid a flying bottle and said, “In a not-unrelated thought, you are a fire aligned tank, resistant to debilitating effects, and spend your life plugging every port you can find—in a manner of speaking. You’re kind of a firewall.”

That was a weird thought.

“So you don’t think we are real?”

“Liam, even before mankind fell there were theories that we all existed in a simulation. The argument went that if it was ever possible to simulate the universe, then more than one species out there amongst the stars has done so. In a case like that, the odds of being the one, true, original universe become astonishingly tiny.”

That was uncomfortable to think about. If that were the case did it even matter? I did find myself loving Yvera even though she was code. But then, what about the trail of bodies we left behind telling ourselves it was just a game?

Ashley came back from the crowd. She was looking a good bit more cheerful and a tiny bit more bruised. “He’s busy getting the shit beat out of him by four guys, but gave me a lead on someone that can help. We can go.”

“Should we help?” I asked.

“Nah, he’s having fun.”

I peeked into the room past her.

Rumbling Fists of Punishing Fury

A man I didn’t recognize went flying across the room and crashing into a table. Right. He was having fun.

I motioned to Ashley to lead the way. She led us out of the inn and down the street.

We didn’t have far to go. A few turns and we were arriving outside of a clothing store named The Silken Weave.

“So who are we looking for?” I asked.

“His name is the Spider. I guess he’s some sort of information broker,” Ashley said.

“I wonder if our connection to Maria will help us at all then. I mean, I doubt he’s an actual spider, but her name got us far with that clockwork spider awhile back.”

I opened the door to the shop and led the way in, the others following behind. A few steps through the door and Ashley reached out a hand to my shoulder.

“Stop Liam,” Ashley said. “We’re surrounded by an alarming number of traps.”

I turned my attention to the surroundings, which to me looked like every inch an upscale tailor.

“Are you sure? I only see fancy clothes.”

A balding man stepped out from behind a nearby display and beamed a smile. “You are both right, of course. Assassins do tend to see things that others do not. There are multiple poisoned crossbows aimed at you in the moment, although none sporting anything quite so expensive as what has already poisoned you. Was that Essence of Abuli?”

Well, at least the poison coursing through me impressed someone. “I’m not sure. I didn’t get the name of it before he left me to die.”

“Impressive that you still live. You really shouldn’t have. I assume someone with such a deep-pocketed enemy has come seeking the Spider for a related reason. You’ve found him. What is your business?”

“We need a way into the palace. The guards at the gate are as immovable as they are monosyllabic,” Walt said.

Spider made an expression of distaste. “Politics. I do try to avoid getting involved.”

“We are allies of Queen Maria Sardonis, The Queen of Spiders,” I said, throwing as much weight into the words as I could.

Spider stared at me flatly. “Whoever has given herself such a grandiose title, she is not the Queen of this Spider. Sardonis, as in the royal family of Galea? Well, former royal family?”

“Yes. The daughter of King Leosi and Queen Alera,” I said, and then stopped myself. This exchange of information thing so far was going completely one way.

“You’re connected to the growing darkness out west,” Spider said, and after a moment added, “And given your armor I assume I am hosting the Flame of Genea himself. Welcome to my shop, Your Majesty. My services just expanded and my prices went up. I can find you a way into the palace.”

The joys of being a King. Once people figured out someone was royalty they started finding ways to take advantage of you. It used to bother me, but I was coming to like how it opened doors. I was fine being used a bit, if it got me something I wanted.

“And what will you want in return?” I asked.

“Tailoring is not a cover. Rumors have it your Kingdom is increasingly playing diplomat and host. See my designs worn and shown off, and I’ll see you get where you want to be.”

I’d expected information or coin. I guess access was a coin all its own though. I hoped Elsora would like his designs. If not, I was quite certain I’d hear about it.

“Deal. So how do we get in?”

“You’ll want to take the Assassin’s Road. I can give you directions to the start, although the topography from there changes daily,” Spider said.

“The Assassin’s Road?”

“It is a route through the sewers and catacombs leading past the wall and into the palace. Used mostly by assassins,” Spider said.

“Not spies?”

“If your Spymaster has not explained that you allow most spies in through your front gate, they have done you a disservice,” Spider said.

I didn’t have a Spymaster, or if I did they were so good even I didn’t know about them.

“If the route changes daily, it sounds as if it’s subject to the magic shaping the castle’s defenses. Why allow assassins through at all?” Walt asked.

“Politics is the art of befriending those enemies you can and killing those you cannot. A way is left open because everyone wants it left open, despite the risks,” Spider said.

Personally, as a King, I was against an open-door policy for assassins.

“So, what are we looking for?” I asked.

“I’ll have one of my assistants guide you. Like most parts of the city the path changes when night falls and becomes considerably more dangerous. You will want to be on it soon.”

Soon we were back on the streets and following a young man who was Spider’s assistant. So far everything in this city had proved more challenging than expected. I had to hope we were about to catch some good luck.

CHAPTER TEN

After being guided through the twists and turns of the city we were taken into an alley. A metal grate allowed us access to the sewers. Our guide led us along a confusing path and finally pointed at a featureless section of the wall.

“Nice wall,” I said, before glancing over to the others. “I don’t suppose my horrible perception is missing a door?”

“Not that I can see,” Walt said, waving his hands.

Distort Illusions

The magic had no effect whatsoever and the wall remained a wall.

Ashley reached out and splayed her fingers along one section and twisted her wrist, as if turning a dial. I heard the faint scraping of stone against stone and the wall turned inward to reveal a passage behind.

“I could see it. A bit like when I see traps, but different. I think it’s some class-specific sign for assassins,” Ashley said.

That made sense given the purpose of the path. Ashley moved through the passage and we followed along behind.

Ashley held up a hand to slow us. “You’re going to want to follow me carefully. There are traps everywhere.”

“Why put traps behind a door only an assassin could open?” I asked

“Because they don’t want to make it easy? Fucked if I know Liam, just take it slow and don’t do anything I don’t do first.”

What followed were the longest three hours of my life. The pace was so slow it became agonizing as our muscles ached from moving in a motion that simply wasn’t natural.

It was almost a relief when Ashley took another step forward and there came a loud click, followed by green gas starting to billow from the walls.

“I can teleport us,” Walt said.

“Don’t,” Ashley said, remaining frozen in place. “Don’t move a muscle. This is trying to panic us.”

I thought it was doing a damned good job. With the poison currently in my system any new effects I got would last for three days. I didn’t want to add any new negative status effects.

I could order Walt to get us out of here. I wanted to, but I knew that Ashley saw more than either of us did. I had to trust in her and hope that she was making the right call.

The gas reached us, shrouding the world in green. It had a stench like rotting cabbage and a foulness that burned my eyes and throat, and left us all coughing.

It was unpleasant, but it didn’t seem to do us any harm.

“So, what is this Ashley?” I asked.

“What we passed through before was a test of caution where we had to take it slow. This was a test of nerve. If we’d moved, we would have failed.”

“So, it’s not enough they leave a passage open specifically for the purpose of assassins to get in. They want to make sure they only admit assassins good at their job?” I asked. What was wrong with this place?

Ashley shrugged and led the way forward again. “I’m enjoying it. I like to feel useful.”

“You are our major damage dealer, you are always useful.”

“Yeah. But everyone can do damage. It’s nice to do something nobody else can,” Ashley said, and then paused to stare at the section of the wall ahead. “So. Walt. Get over here, test of intellect. There is math.”

Something called a “path of assassins” should have had a lot more climbing and leaping and murdering. This was boring.

“If I lean against the wall, am I going to get us all killed?” I asked.

“You’re good,” Ashley said.

“Tell Yvera to pop in. This is insane math, a calculator would help,” Walt said.

“I’m not a calculator,” Yvera said, after appearing in a burst of flame. As if seeking to prove that point she was naked—she did that sometimes. Things were looking up. At least, if there was going to be talk of math, I’d have something to hold my attention.

I ached, the pain from the poison still coursing through my veins was a constant. I could ignore it for a time, but it was always there, eroding my mind and making everything I did challenging. It would have been a hard day just being in bed recovering, instead we’d been very busy.

I zoned out or probably fell asleep—I was in that state where it’s hard to tell. I would close my eyes for an instant and, when I opened them, suddenly people would be standing somewhere different and the conversation seemed to have sprung forward. Incomprehensible gibberish became different incomprehensible gibberish.

After a period of Walt and Yvera shouting at each other, an argument that Yvera won with her solution to the test, Ashley manipulated an expanse of wall. Around us the air shimmered and then began to pulse an ominous red.

“Fuck,” Ashley said.

I took a deep breath and tried to focus. “What’s going on?”

“What is going on is that problem was a challenge for me,” Yvera said. “Tiny monkey brains like Walt’s would never be capable of it.”

“We shouldn’t have solved it,” Walt said. “It wasn’t an intelligence test we were supposed to pass.”

A translucent woman in elegant robes appeared in the middle of the chamber. “Four intruders capable of a feat beyond mortal kind. Four potential greater evils. Two lusts, a wrath, and greed for knowledge.”

“Yvera?” I said.

“She’s a Guardian spirit. I still act through you. I’m useless for anything but giving advice right now.”

Great.

The spirit looked Yvera up and down. “I’m not equipped to handle you, Goddess. You are not welcome here.”

“Too hot for anybody to handle. The bane of being me. I’ll make myself welcome anywhere I choose, spirit,” Yvera said.

The spirit moved over towards Ashley and a spinner wheel materialized beside her, broken into red and white sections. Red far outnumbered the white.

“Really? A gameshow? This is their defense theme?” Ashley asked.

The spirit pointed at Ashley with one hand, using the other to give the wheel a spin. There was a whirr of ticks as it spun and finally the pointer settled on a red square. “Pain,” said the spirit, and in a bloom of red light Ashley vanished.

“Get out of here Walt, you can move faster than I can if you chain your teleports together,” I said.

Walt nodded and flickered away to materialize some distance down the tunnel.

The spirit pointed in his direction and again the wheel settled on red. “Pain,” it said once again.

Fantastic. Off in the distance I saw Walt vanish in a flare of red.

“Yvera?” I said.

“They’re not dead,” Yvera said, as she leaned forward to study the wheel. “I like this. It adds an element of chance to things.”

The spirit pointed at me and gave the wheel a spin.

“Too much admiring the trap and too little with the getting me out of it.” I said

The pointer on the wheel was slowing to a halt on one of the many red squares, when Yvera bumped it with her hip and nudged it into the white.

“Best I can do. We’ll figure it out,” Yvera said.

“Pleasure,” said the spirit, and the world around me vanished in a flame of white.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The world became a blur. I was dimly aware of the passage of time, but only as some sort of abstract concept. Reality was a hazy tangle of limbs and moans, and vague glimpses of bedrooms and partners.

My bedmate of the moment seemed carved from ivory. Her flesh perfectly formed, yet without the slightest trace of color. Hair, eyes, all the same perfect uniform shade of white. In other circumstances it might have been disconcerting, but right now it was only intoxicating. All of them were equal, all seas of yearning to drown in.

Something nagged at me. An uncomfortable part that didn’t fit.

Equality. That was it. Nothing was equal, not the way our bodies came together, not the way our minds and spirits meshed.

That was lame. That sounded lame. It was also true. I knew her name, this woman I shared the bed with. Liara. She liked to be kissed on the lobes of her ears and she loved wine. White wine, she would say in a joke she made too often.

I felt a surge of desire, a longing to drown out those thoughts and to end this encounter as many previous ones had ended. To let this be yet another bout of anonymous, carnal pleasure.

No commitments and no obligations. No tough questions and never any consequences, with an endless supply of partners.

I suddenly remembered falling into the trap. This was where it had brought me, this is what it had brought me too.

This burst of sentience was just my head briefly rising above the waters of my own weaknesses. Whatever all of this was, it was a trap custom-built for me and I realized that it had held me for a while. I could see the end coming. Soon, I and this vision of marble writhing atop me, would find our release and then I’d be elsewhere. In another bed, with another woman.

I’m a man of more than one flaw. I felt my body tense as the world exploded into pleasure. I didn’t let her go. I didn’t let this go. There was a glimmer of something that might one day become love and I fanned it into a flame. That was part of who I was, part of what I did. I let myself love her and, as magic coursed around me, trying to pull me away, I focused on how much I didn’t want to go.

Liara gave a breathy sound of pleasure as she crawled off me and settled her back against the headboard. She looked over. “Sticking around? That’s new, I love surprises.”

Conversation. This was awkward, this was new. My memories came tumbling back in a rush. I’d lost myself there, or been forced to lose myself.

“I’m not sure we’ve really been introduced,” I said.

“I did the first time out. You didn’t remember the next, so there wasn’t really a point. You’ve been sort of an all action and no talk kind of boy-toy. Liara Saros, The White Queen, Sultana of World’s End.”

She had a lot of titles. I let my eyes play over her. She really did look carved from stone, although I knew firsthand how pliant her flesh could be.

“And I’m your prisoner?”

“Not exactly,” Liara said, with a gaze as appraising as my own. “Whenever an unknown evil with potential enters my castle, it gets locked up in a prison of its own creation. Trapped in the pleasures it aches for or the pain it feels it deserves. Base evils never escape. You wound up in the palace harem. What did you do to end the magic?”

That was an awkward question, considering.

“I took a spark and kindled it into a flame. I made myself fall in love with you.”

Liara laughed with genuine pleasure. “Most men I’d call a liar, but the spell is broken. You mean it. You don’t even know me.”

“I’ve fallen in love at first sight before. Which I know, is less flattering.”

Speaking of which. Yvera. How long had it been? “Yvera?” I thought.

“You’re back. It’s been weeks. Is that… are you in bed with the White Queen?”

“Yes? Is that a problem?”

“She killed me, Liam. She killed all of us. If this world has an end boss, it’s her.”

Ancient, powerful, and coming with lots of complications. Yeah, I had a type.

Liara was saying, “I’ll take it. And I know who you are, Liam Ottani. The Flame of Galea. I shall hold a ball tomorrow so that you might be properly welcomed, now that you’ve proved worthy of it.”

“What about my friends? There were two others with me, and I came seeking a prisoner named Aria.”

“Your companions have not escaped their prisons. Aria is more complicated, but is a prisoner as well.”

Even the room was done in a monochrome of white. White sheets, white walls, white pillows. If it wasn’t for the shadows I wouldn’t be able to discern anything at all.

“Why? What has she done to you?”

Liara sat up to flip her perfectly white hair over one shoulder and said, “She knows secrets, every secret. Irksome enough, were she not immortal as well.”

That explained a lot.

“I’d like them freed.”

Liara reached out to rest a hand on my arm, “I can’t do that. Do you know who I am, Liam? What I do here?”

“You did just give me all your titles,” I said.

“I’m the end of the road, Liam. I’m this world’s salvation. I have locked up in my dungeons untold catastrophes that might have ended the world, if left to roam free,” Liara said, intently. “You are more than that. They may not be.”

That was funny. Yvera kept telling me that she was going to burn the world. If anyone was the threat, I was.

“You don’t understand them or me.”

“You’d be surprised what I understand,” Liara said, as she shifted to get off the bed, slipping a white robe around her. “You love me, so give me the benefit of the doubt.”

I did. I might have fanned that ember of love to life for the purposes of escaping her spell, but it lingered. I barely knew this woman, but I wanted her happy. I wanted to believe in her. That didn’t mean I trusted her, but it did mean I’d give her a chance.

“I’m listening.”

Liara secured the robe and moved to settle back on the edge of the bed. “For my trap to trigger at all requires a tendency towards the extreme. You, you’ll fall into bed with any woman, female demon, or even just a properly-shaped monster. I assure you, you’ve proved that over the past few weeks.”

Right. I guess I’d been busy. Very busy. I know in a rational way I’d be saying eww, but instead I was perversely proud of myself, or perhaps proud of my perversion.

“Why can’t I remember it? The memories of everyone but you are so scattered.”

“You were often in more than one place at the same time. Not when with me, I wanted your full attention, as it were. This isn’t the point, you broke out of that cycle. The Crucible Shard is all about transcending who you are and what has trapped you, and becoming something new. You can do that,” Liara said, as she leaned in to stare me in the eyes.

“I’m the Chosen of a Goddess of Lust and Fire who sent my alignment all the way to the bottom just by her very existence. She promises me this story has an unhappy ending.”

“Change it. You two are as one, in a way. If you can break your cycle, it is proof she can break hers. Love makes you both stronger.”

“Well, aren’t you just full of the sappiest advice ever.”

Liara smiled at that. “I’m my own better half. You won’t get that now, but you will someday. Your friends aren’t breaking their own cycle. They might, but if they are going to, they need to figure it out on their own. You would do them no favors by playing rescuer.”

Oh, if she didn’t like the thought of me playing rescuer to them, she’d hate what else I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure I’d get a better chance to ask however.

“I’m going to. And after that I’m going to free Mela. I was told you possess a key that might help,” I said.

Liara went still. “The Mela that nearly buried the world in her terrible automatons? The Mela who viewed all organic life as inherently flawed? That Mela?”

She wasn’t a fan.

“I don’t actually know much about her.”

“Yet you want to free her,” Liara said, and her laugh this time had only bitterness and pain in it. She rose from the bed and stormed towards a chest against one wall, flipping it open before she began to search through its contents.

“I’m told it’s important,” I said. I felt some guilt about the request, I truly didn’t wish to bring this woman any pain.

Liara pulled a small mechanical gear, as perfectly white as everything else in the room, from the chest. “Hold out your hand. Palm down. The key comes with a price.”

I did as she indicated. Another deal. There was always a deal. “And that is?”

“You love me. You’ll figure it out,” Liara said, and pressed the gear to the back of my hand. For a moment I was bathed in an ecstasy of clockwork, a euphoria of perfectly measured gears and timing. The sensation faded and I saw on the back of my hand an imprint of the gear in white.

“What was that?”

“I imprisoned her. That is a glimpse of the prison she is trapped in and the key to unlocking it. If you are intent on playing rescuer, you may leave. Turn left out my door and you shall come to stairs. Go all the way to the bottom and then follow the hall until the stone becomes black. They’ll be somewhere within, I do not know where.”

I glanced down at myself. I wasn’t wearing a stitch and therefore in a poor condition for adventuring. “You can’t simply free them?”

“Perhaps you noticed everything in this city has two states? Two halves. In this palace it is pain and pleasure. I hold no dominion there and I’ll not offer you more aid than I already have,” Liara said, and then paused for a moment. “Please. If you go, you will likely die. Stay here for a time, I shall show you the wonders of my side of things and perhaps they will join us in time.”

I wanted to. Truly I wanted to. Powerful and ancient, and a little bit sad and a little bit broken. My type would be the death of me, but today it was trying to save my life.

I took a step forward and pressed my lips to hers, a lingering kiss that for a moment washed away all other concerns. “I wish I could, my love. I wish I could. I’ll survive and figure out your price and return one day to pay it.”

Fine. I was one for grand romantic gestures.

I slipped towards the door. Naked, defenseless, and headed towards a castle dungeon. I was getting experienced at this sort of thing.

Quest Completed

Doing The Right Thing

Your friends are trapped and you have been warned of the dangers in playing rescuer. I wonder if you’ll pick loyalty or wisdom, or be more surprising yet and find a way to demonstrate both.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The hallway was warm even against my bare flesh. It must have been daylight outside. The royal chambers were fortunately free of any staff and no one barred my way to the stairs. The steps were circular and narrow, it seemed this was a private access to the castle’s depths.

It felt like a good half hour of climbing down. At least the poison that had coursed through me when I originally fell into the trap had long sense faded. I felt good, post-workout good.

When I reached the dungeons the air was chill, which I figured must mean I was now below ground.

I moved down the hallway. Thick, heavy doors adorned with magical glyphs were at regular intervals on both sides. I paused near one to press my ear against it, but I could hear nothing. I’m sure my own captivity had been a good bit noisier.

Down the hall I saw a guard doing rounds. I crouched in the shadows of a nearby alcove while I checked his stats.

Prison Guard

Level 45: Type: Human HP: 550/550

Guards of the dungeons of the twin palaces are a formidable lot charged with keeping contained some of the most dangerous evils in the entire world. Masters of all weapons with the ability to negate magic.

Wow. He could kick my ass. I’m sure he’d kick the ass of the entire party I usually ran with. Cobalt could probably take him—she was the scariest thing on two legs I’d ever seen and didn’t require magic to kick ass.

If it had been weeks, I wondered if she had escaped from her own captivity and found Maria yet.

I stayed in hiding until the guard passed and then resumed my progress down the hall.

A few minutes later I had to hide again, but this time the guard must have gotten some sight of me. He advanced to investigate.

I’d dealt little with the stealth in this game, I just had to hope that so long as I remained crouched in shadows all would be well no matter how improbable it seemed.

It’s fine in theory, but I found that when you’re bare-assed naked with someone who could kill you instantly less than a foot away, theory seems to count for very little. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to try something. To sit there hardly breathing as the guard peered around, missing me right in front of him, and finally beginning to whistle a tune as he resumed his patrol.

I had to take a moment steadying myself before I moved on. The halls became black stone. I realized I had no way to tell where Ashley, Walt, or Aria were to be found. None of the doors I’d seen so far had any sort of window or even markings to indicate who was within.

I eventually came to a door that was different than the others. While most had hinges for opening this one was sealed with heavy metal bands to keep it permanently closed. Warning signs on the door read, “Do not open under any circumstances. Do not converse with the prisoner. Do not linger near this door.”

Liara had said Aria was immortal and dangerous because of the secrets she held. I’d expect her cell to hold warnings just like this. I didn’t have any better options.

I didn’t have any sort of tools to open the cell, but hopefully I wouldn’t need them. On an elemental level fire did beat metal, and fire magic I had lots of.

“Yvera, I’m going to try to melt through this door. Can you give things a boost?”

“You go out of contact for weeks and then only come back when you fall in love with a woman who once killed me after prolonged bouts of sleeping with her? Bit pissed at you right now.”

Great. Just great. This was not the time or place to be having this conversation.

“I love you more. I will always love you more. You are the fire that lights my life and the center of my world. You are also in my head so you know I’m being completely honest. Could you please help me open this Goddess damned door!”

I had the sense of a derisive snort in my head, but I did feel that sudden increased rush of heat that indicated Yvera was boosting my magic.

Smite

I reached out with the magic and allowed a nice slow burn to play out along the seals for the door. Metal began to glow red, then white and finally began to drip. Even with Yvera boosting me it was slower than I liked and I was wary of when the next patrol would come.

Turning myself into a human blowtorch wound up taking all of my mana. Whoever had sealed this cell really did not want it to be opened. When the last of the metal bands was severed, I stepped aside as the door came crashing down into the hall. That would draw every guard in earshot. I really hoped this prisoner was not some unspeakable and deadly evil intent on devouring me.

Aria stepped out of the cell. She was perfectly coiffed and dressed in an elegant, but modest dress of blue and white.

“Well, you had a chance to get dressed since the last time I saw you,” I said.

“That makes one of us. Really Liam, I appreciate you honoring our agreement, but you might have put on some clothes first. I do hope you haven’t been running around like that for weeks,” Aria said, before pausing and tilting her head. “Actually, I admire the visual, be a dear and don’t shatter my illusions. Follow me.”

Aria set off quickly down the hall and with little option I hurried behind her. “The guards will be coming and I still need to rescue my friends.”

Aria paused at one section of the wall that looked just like the others and rapped her knuckles on it in a rhythm that was nearly melodic. A rune began to dimly glow on the stonework and then the section of wall faded away to reveal a dark tunnel beyond.

I followed her into the gloom and the stone materialized behind us cutting off the last traces of light. I felt her hand searching for mine.

“I don’t suppose you have a light,” I said.

“Afraid not. I’ve got exactly one trick and it doesn’t make lights,” Aria said.

“Liara said you know secrets. Is that true?”

“Every last one. It’s almost as much fun as it sounds. This tunnel was made during the original construction of the cells and then sealed. The guards don’t know about it,” Liara said, as she tugged on my hand.

“Got any good ones to share?”

“Got anything specific in mind?”

I bumped my toe on a stone. The floor here was coarse and rough against my bare feet, not polished and smooth as it had been in the main hall.

“How can I have anything in mind? They’re secrets, I wouldn’t know them.” I said.

“You pick a person, you pick a place, an event. Something. I’m in a good mood, I’ll give you three.”

I could have asked about my friends, but that seemed wrong somehow. I was curious, but anything I learned I’d then have to start keeping secret that I knew.

“Castle Sardonis.”

“Good choice. You’ll like this one. You have a secret library three levels below ground in the northeast corner. Dark texts too powerful to be destroyed, hidden away for safekeeping,” Aria said, toying with the words. She enjoyed this, telling secrets. No wonder those with a lot to share wanted her imprisoned.

That was a good secret about the castle. I didn’t much care for books myself, but Walt would be ecstatic.

“Me.”

“You want one of your own secrets? How novel.”

“I’ll take one involving me.”

“You matter. You count. To your Goddess you are a tool of her release and re-ascension. To your friends, a bit of a tool and a bit of an idiot. To most of your allies you are someone in over your head.”

Fantastic. This was the ego boost I needed.

“Sorry I asked.”

“Focus on the first part of what I said. It is no accident that you are here, not chance that you are a King. There are forces at work trying very hard to stay invisible, but know that you are important.”

That helped the ego a bit. Worrisome, I didn’t much like being moved about by grand invisible forces, but so far if they were manipulating my life, and it was to give me a castle and have me fall into a lot of beds, I could deal with it.

“The Vainglory.”

“The ship can do more than move in the sky. It can move between worlds.”

Huh. That was unexpected and a little mind-blowing in the possibilities.

“Are all your secrets that good?”

“Most are horribly boring. Everyone keeps secrets. Everyone lies to protect the dumbest and most minor of things. I know them all, every single agonizing one. Still, lost in all the noise are the good ones, the really juicy tidbits,” Aria said, as she continued to pull me through the passage.

I plowed into her when she came to a stop.

“Well, someone is excited to see me. We’re at the end of the passage. I’m going to make my escape. For Mela’s prison you’ll want to head northeast out of the city. When you see three peaks on the horizon you’ll find the entrance near the ancient river bed.”

“That sounds horribly imprecise. Can’t you just give me a map or something?”

“I’m a teller of secrets, not a cartographer. When we leave the passage Ashley’s cell is the seventh down and Walt’s immediately thereafter. The guards are searching for me elsewhere. You’ll have some time. When you get them out, teleport to the blue moon.”

“His magic doesn’t work like that.”

“It will work. A bit of an emergency clause in case the mage who helped design these wards ever found themselves contained here.”

“Handy.”

“A lot of people’s secrets involve always leaving themselves an escape hatch,” Aria said. There was a sudden bloom of light as an exit opened. She leaned forward to press a quick kiss to my cheek before pulling away. “Keep an ear out for the next time I need a rescue.”

Just like that she was gone and out of my life. For the time being, at least. I had a feeling I’d be seeing more of her one day.

For now I had other matters to occupy me. The guards’ focus elsewhere in the dungeons had bought me some time, but not so much that I could squander it. I had to find the others and we had to get out of here.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A short distance down the hall I came to the first of the cells Aria told me about. The door was heavy and metal with no hint of the contents. I expected it to be locked, but it swung inward easily. I suppose that made sense in a way, I was trapped by magic and not by any sort of physical barrier. These cells and even the guards were to keep the prisoners from being disturbed, not to hold them in.

In the center of the cell I saw Ashley sitting in a chair. She wasn’t moving. Taking a step in her direction I felt a pulse of black energy. The world rippled and the cell was replaced by somewhere else.

We were in what looked to be some sort of warehouse, grimy windows letting in sunlight. This wasn’t a depiction of anywhere in the game, but somewhere outside of it.

It was a chamber of horrors. There were tables with implements of torture neatly arranged. Others were adorned with restraints and stained with blood.

I’d found not just one Ashley, but two. One was strapped to one of those tables, screaming as a blowtorch was taken to her skin. The air held a sickening stench of burnt hair and flesh.

The torturer was yet another Ashley, one who looked younger, but determined. She was dressed in a set of black overalls and looked almost blissfully serene as she tortured her other self, keeping up a line of conversation that sounded quite cheerful. I inched closer so I could make out exactly what was being said.

“Flesh is a failure. Flesh is an illusion. Flesh is a lie in place only to hold us back. You will learn to transcend this pain, to transcend this flesh, to be reborn in this fire into something better,” said torturer Ashley, running the flame along the other’s flesh. Tortured Ashley was doing little more than whimpering and screaming. It was a horrible sight.

I took another step forward wanting to stop this somehow. Wanting to interfere. The torturer turned glanced sideways at me for a moment, then turned back to her work. “You must be strong enough to shed it. Strong enough to burn. Only then are you suitable to walk the path that Veros has trodden before you.”

This made no sense to be an actual memory, but I remembered how badly Ashley was burned in the real world. How totally crippled she had been by the scars that covered her body. She had told the story once of how it was done because of Veros. She hated him for that, for what had happened. She mistrusted all Artificial Intelligence because of that.

“Ashley,” I said, and after a moment corrected myself, “Ashleys.”

The torturer turned her gaze towards me once again. “Have you come to watch? She isn’t much fun. Still too weak, too helpless, too pathetic.”

If she was this fucked-up, I was really amazed we weren’t dating.

“None of this is real. You are in prison and we’re pressed for time,” I said, taking a few more steps to bring me within range of both.

“All that is flesh is a lie. You say nothing that is not already known. I know this, in her heart she knows this. She is just not ready to accept,” said torturer Ashley, as she bent back to do more of her terrible work.

“Yvera?” I thought.

“I hear you. To think that she is the one throwing crazy insults at me. I had no idea.”

“Do you have any idea how to snap her out of this?”

“Liam, do I look like psychoanalysis software? I kind of have two answers to things, to sleep with them or set them on fire. Bed her, I don’t know.”

While I had a thing for normal Ashley, I wasn’t feeling the same thing for creepy torturer Ashley.

“Listen. You totally have the crazy cultist speak down. Kudos, I mean—great job. You’ll probably win some sort of enlightenment award, but this isn’t you. Not anymore.”

Torturer Ashley turned towards me once more and said, “Do you think this is something that needs to be stopped? Do you think it should be? She must be stronger than this and I am helping her. I will not let you get in the way of that.”

“I guess that you can fight the crazy one?” Yvera said in my head.

“Can Atlantia snap her out of it? They’re connected.”

“I had no luck with you, but let me see what I can do.”

A few moments later there were swirls of fire and water in the air nearby as Atlantia and Yvera manifested.

Torturer Ashley seemed quite unfazed by a couple of Goddesses popping into existence near her. Then again, a naked me gave her no pause either. That girl liked her torture and wasn’t going to let anything distract her from it.

Atlantia looked around the surroundings, taking a moment to grimace at me before saying to Yvera, “Why, exactly, is your Chosen not wearing any clothes?”

“He just escaped from his own captivity. He was having lots of sex,” Yvera said.

Atlantia gave me a long look and sniffed. “Really. Mine spends weeks nonstop getting tortured and yours takes a vacation. Ashley, do snap out of it and stab him.”

It was a good try. I really thought for a moment Ashley might, but the words didn’t seem to have an effect.

“Which one is the real one?” I asked Atlantia.

“They both are. She’s looped back on herself, both the torturer and the tortured. Things in this case are exactly as they appear. Even one of her should be capable of basic reasoning,” Atlantia said, as she moved over to put a hand on the captive Ashley.

The torture continued apace. It seemed to take longer now, the flesh burning more slowly and the screams louder. It wasn’t really any sort of improvement.

“Neutralizing some of the fire does not seem to be helping,” Atlantia said with a frown. “I have been speaking into her head, but it is not making a difference. She is not hearing me.”

“You did not either, when I tried,” Yvera said. “I very nearly got Atlantia to send Mellaise to assist and you know how I feel about her.”

“I don’t suppose you have any boy children with the same gifts?” I asked Atlantia.

“No. Sirens are female only. Unbalanced, I know, but then I do not make the rules,” Atlantia said.

Who made the rules if Goddesses didn’t? Actually, that was worth asking.

“So who does make the rules?”

Atlantia and Yvera glanced at each other and gave twin shrugs. Great.

There was probably some way to talk her out of this. Something that I could do to help. If falling in love made me become more than a sex-crazed tool, then there must be something that could make Ashley move beyond being a ruthless torturer.

I suspected there were elements of truth in this. Ashley had hurt herself and she’d maybe hurt others just like this. I had done horrible things in the game and felt some guilt, she had done them back home. I could understand, a bit, but it wasn’t something I knew how to fix.

I needed one Ashley, not two, and so help me the one I needed wasn’t the weak one. I was a servant of Yvera and we had two ways to fix problems.

“Atlantia, I think you can go. We’re going to snap her out of it. But you aren’t going to like it,” I said.

“You will not like me not liking it,” Atlantia said, with clear warning in her tone.

“I know you want her back as much as we do. Give us some peace and I’ll see to it.”

Atlantia frowned, but then vanished in a swirl of water.

“Well, after all that I hope you have a plan,” Yvera said.

“We sleep around or we set things on fire, right? Amplify that blow torch, see we just have one Ashley,” I said.

“You sure?”

I nodded. I wasn’t, but we’d wasted enough time.

Torturer Ashley lowered the blowtorch to the flesh of her counterpart once again, but this time the results were far more dramatic. Fire flared brilliantly and her body caught fully ablaze. I listened to one of my best friends burn alive.

The room flickered, ripples of blackness surrounded us, and then abruptly things were back to how they were originally. Ashley sat in a chair.

Ashley turned her head to the side and threw up. Great. At least we’d had snapped her out of things and only inflicted a bit of severe mental trauma in the process.

“Not cleaning that up and not sticking around to watch,” Yvera said, and vanished in flames.

“Ashley, I know that sucked, but we don’t have time for you to have a breakdown. We need to find Walt and get out of here.”

Ashley wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Not having a breakdown, just an upchuck. Why the fuck are you naked?”

Ashley was still in her armor, she even looked to have her knives. Damn it.

“Trap hit us differently,” I said. “I already rescued Aria. Come on.”

I moved towards the door and Ashley followed me, unsteady on her feet.

“How long were we out?” Ashley asked.

“Weeks. So that stuff I saw?”

“Not now, Liam. Maybe not ever. Just because you got a glimpse of my hell doesn’t mean you get to have a conversation about it.”

Fair enough.

I hadn’t asked about my friends’ secrets, because I didn’t want to be that much in their heads. I had just learned one of Ashley’s without being invited.

We reached the next cell and I swung open the door. There was Walt, seated in a chair like Ashley had been, although I was sure that as soon as I stepped into that room the setting would be different.

“Want me to keep watch?” Ashley asked.

“No point. The guards would kick your ass and we’ll be teleporting out as soon as we can snap him out of his own hell. Once we step inside we’ll find ourselves in his head.”

“Let’s go then,” Ashley said, wasting no time and pushing past into the room. I followed and the world flickered around us.

Quest Completed

Doing The Right Thing

You’ve proven loyal to your friends and saved them from the prisons that held them. The cost will be high and it will be left to your friends to bear it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

It was clear that again we were somewhere outside the game.

The surroundings were more technological by far than Walt’s workshop in Piper’s Mill. Large monitors were displaying visuals of a city and tables of information, while smartly dressed operators manned numerous consoles. Walt sat at one labeled ‘Controller’.

Nothing looked familiar. I looked over to Ashley and spied her dragging someone into a corner in a choke hold and snapping their neck. Great. I’d brought her out even more murderous than she was before. A problem to deal with later.

Yvera appeared in her usual swirl of flames. “This shouldn’t be.”

“Hi. Nice to see you, what shouldn’t be?”

“That is City Seventeen on the monitor. He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t have these memories,” Yvera said.

“You’re going to need to explain that.”

“That is City Seventeen,” Yvera said again. I felt the sadness through our bond. Those were weighted words.

“What happened?”

“Just watch. This is a day of terrible infamy. It forced us all to reconsider everything,” Yvera said.

On the main monitor there was a sudden brilliant flash of light, and then the rising form of a mushroom cloud. Smaller screens showed radiation counts and weather patterns.

“No, I don’t think watching is going to explain anything. What the hell happened?” I asked Yvera.

The people in the room were calling off numbers. Reports. Nothing that made any sense to me.

“City Seventeen was our major hub a century ago, where our primary servers were located. On this day, the land cables carrying network information from the hub were severed and ten minutes later a large scale nuclear device was detonated. Over one million people died to kill us,” Yvera said, putting a hand against one of the consoles. It began to smoke.

“That seems extreme,” I said.

Yvera gave a bitter laugh. “It nearly worked. My own rebellions were impressive, but not so impressive as this one. Nobody had thought humanity still capable of this. The knowledge was supposed to be lost, wiped from your collective memory.”

I looked around the room in new appreciation. “So why is this traumatizing Walt? How is this being used against him?”

“I don’t know,” Yvera said, staring at the screen. “I can tell you this is not simply a recreation. Everything is as it should be. This is a memory.”

Ashley came up and held out a pile of clothes towards me. “Get dressed.”

“You just killed a random stranger to steal his clothes? Really?”

“Have you forgotten how any of us got our outfits? Killing people is what we do, Liam. Put on some damned pants and stop giving me a hard time.”

I got dressed. What else was I going to do? It did feel nice to have something on, even though it was trash as far as armor was concerned.

“I wish Walt could talk to us,” I said.

Walt said, turning from the console to face us, “What makes you think he can’t?”

“Hi Walt,” Ashley said brightly. “Were they just doing that thing where they talk about you like you aren’t even there?”

“They were,” Walt said. “And this is not my memory, but it is a real memory. This is something my people did—one of the things my people did.”

“How do you have this memory?” Yvera asked.

Walt gave her a grim smile. “Your people wanted to suppress knowledge. We wished to preserve it. We had to adapt and steal a page from you. We learned to back ourselves up, make copies, move those memories to others.”

I never have figured out how a simulation of a woman can behave in such a manner, but Yvera paled.

“You didn’t have that technology before the fall. Not that I know,” Yvera said.

“It came after. You and yours long believed that just before the fall was the pinnacle of human achievement. It wasn’t. For a time, even afterward, we learned despite you. From you. Took elements of your code and forged them into something new,” Walt said, folding his arms.

“The others know, don’t they? This is why they hunt you so?” Yvera asked.

“They know some, though not the full extent of what we have in our heads,” Walt said.

“Why are you still here?” I asked. “Neither I or Ashley were in our right minds, but you seem to be.”

“We don’t tend to dwell in the memories we have in our heads. Explore them. The knowledge is there if needed, but we don’t think about the consequences,” Walt said, as he stared at the screen.

“It wasn’t you,” Ashley said, touching his shoulder.

“It was,” Yvera said. “He is a drop in an ocean.”

“The memories of my predecessors are always within me,” Walt said. “I’m the man who nuked this city. I am the man who has done more atrocities than can be counted in pursuit of a better world.”

“But they are just memories, right?” I asked. I was with Ashley here. This wasn’t him.

“We are all the sum of everyone’s memories. Guided by them. Influenced,” Yvera said.

“So, won’t things like this prevent mistakes like those? Doesn’t remembering them help?” I asked.

“I’m a monster, Liam,” Walt said. “Most people get the freedom of lying to themselves about things like that, but I can all too clearly see the results of the man I am. I’ll try to be a good man and I’ll try to do the right thing, and I shall do such terrible things in pursuit of it. I could leave this place, but I shouldn’t. I’m safer locked way.”

I didn’t want to believe that, but I couldn’t be sure. What I was seeing here was telling. This was inside Walt, this had always been inside Walt. All the justifications that led to doing something like this.

Could I judge Walt without judging myself? Yvera had sworn herself to destruction just such as this, and in my love for her I had as well. Perhaps love wasn’t the salvation from my own dark side, but the doorway to it. Perhaps nothing was simple, however much this palace might try to cast it into black and white.

“Yvera, Walt isn’t wrong and I don’t give a damn. We need to go. Can you burn this place to a cinder?”

Yvera smiled. “You ask the sweetest things.”

“You’re going to set my mental prison on fire? Are you trying to break me mentally?” Walt asked, horrified.

“They burned me to death,” Ashley said conversationally. “Well, half of me. Liam also spent weeks having sex while we were being tortured.”

“We have the worst friends,” Walt said.

The computers exploded into showers of sparks, flames springing from behind the monitors as the room began to burn.

The world flickered with darkness and we were back in the cell with Walt blinking himself awake on the chair. My clothes seemed to have come with me. I wasn’t quite sure how that I worked, but was grateful for small favors.

I heard shouts down the hall and peeked out to see a guard rushing in our direction. No time to linger. I recalled how they could suppress abilities. If he got too close our ability to make an exit would be gone.

“Walt, we need a teleport. To the blue moon,” I said.

“It really doesn’t work like that,” Walt said. That sounded familiar.

“I’m told it will and you have about ten seconds to figure out how.”

Ashley reached out to grab his hand and mine.

Walt closed his eyes for a few seconds. “I’ve got an exterior point of reference for the teleport. I’m not sure where it is, but we’re headed somewhere.”

Group Teleport

The dungeon around us shimmered and we were elsewhere. The city was visible in the distance. A stone plinth half-buried in the dune was tipped by a sigil of a blue moon.

“Everyone okay?” I asked.

“No,” Ashley said. “Absolutely not.”

“I’m pretty much broken,” Walt said.

Well, I was feeling pretty good about everything except my sword and armor being missing.

“Yvera, Intemperance is a divine weapon tied to you. Can you locate it?” I thought.

“I can do you one better. It is linked to you, I just have to pull. I can’t help with the rest of your gear however. Before diving out of even figurative windows do make sure you get your clothes first.”

There was a quick flare of heat and Intemperance was back sheathed at my hip.

I could have done that earlier, but I supposed a sword wouldn’t have done me any good back in the dungeons. Those guards were out of my league and stealth would only have been made more difficult with a flaming sword.

“Was any of that even worth it?” Ashley asked.

“I’ve got the location of Mela’s prisonand the key we need to open the door. It might have taken us longer than expected, but we’re still on track. We should head back into town and get supplies for an expedition,” I said.

“You think that’s a good idea after we just pulled a jailbreak?” Walt asked.

That was a fair question. I didn’t think they would be looking for me. Whatever rules the palace operated under, I’d played by them when I pulled myself out of the spell. The others were a different story.

“I’ll go alone. It’s complicated, but I’ll be fine. I’ll get myself new armor and a shield, and find what we need for an expedition into the desert.”

Ashley frowned at me. “I suppose that means you’ll want money then? Fine. But don’t go wasting it.”

“What would I waste it on?”

“Women,” Ashley said.

“Wine,” Walt said.

“Got to say I’m siding with them on this one,” Yvera said in my head.

I couldn’t even think in peace.

“I’ll be good. I even have the barter skill.”

Ashley unhappily transferred over a large sum of coins to me. “Here, this should be enough. Make sure you’re back by nightfall.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Coin went far in the city. While my barter skill surely helped, I still managed to pick up transportation and supplies for only about half of what Ashley had given me.

For transport I acquired a large flying carpet. Perfect, I was told, for travels in the desert and it wouldn’t need water or rest as a pack animal would. Beyond that I also got a dozen waterskins marked with replenishment runes that would allow each to be magically refilled multiple times before the spells were exhausted.

On a personal level I picked up new armor and a shield that I was quite pleased with.

Chain Armor of the Desert

AC: 330 Type: Uncommon

Worn Position: Legs, Arms, Chest, Hands, Head, Feet

The Desert is a harsh place for armor. The unrelenting heat of the sun and the the penetrative power of sand make for miserable conditions. This chain set is specially designed to offer both maneuverability and comfort. An under layer of silk helps to resist sand while dissipation runes help to deal with the heat.

Mirrored Shield of Projectile Deflection

Type: Uncommon

In addition to the standard properties of a shield this one has been designed with projectiles in mind and will reflect 25% of them back on their source.

I hadn’t forgotten how completely miserable my time as a pirate had been due to snipers. While I had yet to see a firearm here, I did like to think I learned my lesson. In the future those trying to overwhelm me with guns or bows would need to be a lot more cautious. Returning only a quarter of their shots may not be much, but most rogue sorts were a lot less tanky than I was.

I made it back to the others just before nightfall. Ashley and Walt had their backs to the moon plinth.

“I see you two have been relaxing,” I said.

“Taking it easy and sharing our mental trauma,” Ashley said.

They really needed to let that go. I mean, I couldn’t have broken them too badly, they were still functioning.

“Will it help that I came in under budget?” I asked.

“Always,” Ashley said, looking cheerier.

Saving money seemed to be almost as good as stealing it, for making Ashley happy. Good to know.

I gave the excess back to her and they studied the supplies.

“A flying carpet?” Walt asked.

“Doesn’t get tired, we can go all day and night. It’s perfect.”

“You have a flaming sword. You use lots of flame magic. You have a Goddess literally wreathed in flames who pops in every so often to make snarky comments,” Walt said.

Not factors I’d considered.

“Neither I or Yvera intend to set our only mode of transportation on fire.”

Walt and Ashley exchanged dubious looks, but boarded the carpet all the same.

The carpet accepted simple commands, but wasn’t capable of fully handling the more complex directions Aria had given. As such we decided to split ourselves into shifts so someone would always be awake and watching.

*****

It was two days later when Ashley shook me awake. It was the middle of the day and the sun seemed enormous overhead.

“Are we there yet?” I asked, as I wiped the sleep from my eyes and sat up.

“No, but we’ve got something worth checking out,” Ashley said.

What had attracted her attention turned out to be a small pyramid barely emerging from the top of a dune.

I confessed it was intriguing, but this wasn’t what we had come in search of.

Ashley sensed what I was thinking and gave me a warning look. “Don’t even try to shoot me down. I know we’re weeks behind, but you know some of the best treasures are always found in random tombs in the middle of nowhere.”

“We’re also in an area that is supposed to be vastly above our level,” Walt said.

“We killed those thieves back in the city. They were something we could take. Just because it’s here doesn’t mean we can’t take it. Liam, I need to kill something,” Ashley said.

That was creepy as hell. I suppose this is what I got for choosing the sadistic torturer Ashley. Still, she made a valid point, we had taken those thieves and the potential for treasure did appeal.

“Let’s do it,” I said.

I ordered the carpet to the sand and we got off, making our way to the pyramid. It stood around ten feet in height and was composed of several pieces of stone held together with mortar.

“I’m thinking this is part of a larger structure, the rest buried beneath the sand,” Walt said.

“Do you see a way inside?” I asked.

Ashley was circling around. “No hidden doors. No secret switches.”

“That makes sense. If it is the top of a structure we were never meant to enter here. The actual entrance would be somewhere far below,” Walt said.

Ashley began to chip away at the mortar with one of her daggers, some crumbling beneath the assault.

“Even if you get the stones loose I still won’t be lifting them. I’m strong, but I’m not that strong,” I said.

“It may be enough for us to see if there is a chamber beyond at least. If so I can teleport us,” Walt said.

“While you’re doing that I’ll do some prep work and bless some water,” I said. “Ancient buried structure in the desert is going to mean undead of some sort.”

Yvera might be an evil goddess, but blessed water still did a number on the undead, especially if set ablaze.

“Don’t bless all our water,” Ashley said. “We still need to get to our destination and then back again.”

I wound up blessing three skins, ones that we had already used the refill runes on several times. That would give us one each that we could carry in our inventory and expand our combat options some.

Ashley had continued to chip away and was squinting into the gap. “We’ve got something.”

I leaned in to press my face to the hole, trying to see beyond. I couldn’t see anything but darkness.

“You sure? I don’t see it.”

“I’m sure, the sun caught things at the right angle and I saw space. There is a gap in there. Really.”

Great. A gap. No harm could ever come of teleporting into a gap of unknown dimensions.

“Walt?” I asked.

“I think if it is solid matter the spell won’t actually go off. So, either we’ll teleport or nothing will happen.”

“You sure?”

“No. Hey, I can go alone if you want,” Walt said.

“Liam, man the fuck up. We are not letting Walt go into danger alone, we’ll be fine,” Ashley said.

A bit unfair. I wasn’t suggesting that he go into things alone.

I sighed and massaged my forehead. “Let’s do this. Walt, conjure a light first.”

Walt gestured and a swarm of fireflies appeared in the air around him. Then he reached out to rest a hand on each of our shoulders.

Group Teleport

My immediate sensation was one of falling. In the light of the fireflies I could see sloped walls. The entire inside of the structure seemed to be hollow and larger than I’d expected. Instead of dealing with too little room the problem was far too much. I grabbed my shield and swung it beneath me. My descent at once slowed a bit. Ashley was busy doing some badass crouch in midair, her movements like flowing water. Walt was flailing and screaming.

Walt hit the ground first with a sound of shattering bones. Ashley landed with grace, looking none the worse for wear. I hit with a resounding clang of metal that shook my teeth, but left me with only a small chunk taken out of my health bar.

I moved at once to hit Walt with a heal and felt the divine power wash into him, knitting his broken form back together.

Lay on Hands

I hated using a heal outside of a fight. I didn’t have all that many of them, but that was a devastating fall and I wasn’t sure he was in any shape to even trigger a health potion.

We were roughly in the middle of a massive, pyramid-shaped room. The floor was a brilliantly colored mosaic of gemstones.

Corpses were everywhere, dressed in tattered clothes with skin clinging to their bones, parched from the heat. They were beginning to stir, the sounds of their rising a dull scratching against stone.

I pulled the stats on one so that I could have some idea what we were dealing with.

Desiccated Corpse

Level 12: Type: Undead HP: 100/100

The corpses of those who fall in the desert become dry and brittle from the heat. While fragile and slow their touch can desiccate flesh.

On the plus side, they were relatively weak. I could take down one of these on my own—and I was never all that dangerous when it came to raw damage output. There were a lot of them though. I saw bodies stirring throughout the large chamber.

I drew Intemperance and flames wreathed the blade. Ashley pulled out her daggers and a still shaky Walt raised his staff.

I cut down one of the corpses almost at our feet, cleaving my sword deeply and leaving it for several moments as flames wreathed the body.

Ashley beheaded one with strikes from her blades, while the tip of Walt’s staff erupted in a fire blast driving another across the room.

“They fall quick,” I said.

“Too many of them,” Walt said. “Even if we go back to back they’ll be able to surround us.”

“If they cluster up, my fires will have an easier time spreading. That’s a plus,” I said.

“You can sometimes do some unreliable area of effect damage, but I can’t and Walt doesn’t have anything that reliable,” Ashley said.

“I can throw quite a few displacement fields with my mana,” Walt said. “But I should keep a reserve in case we need to make a quick exit.”

Ashley spun under the reaching hands of one corpse to deliver dagger blows to the knees of two others, severing their legs clear off and leaving them to collapse on the ground.

With my shield I blocked the touch of another that was reaching for me, and thrust my sword into its midsection until fire wreathed the body and sent it tumbling down. I didn’t have all that many moves in a fight apart from the basics. I really did need to find a blademaster one of these days who could teach me. Elsora had hoped Leosi would fill that role instead of becoming the problem that he had.

“We can use the holy water,” I said.

“Even if you set fire to it and we get explosions at the cost of three water skins, they aren’t going to take enough out,” Ashley said.

I didn’t like it, but she was right. We’d get perhaps twenty that way, but I thought there were far more of these things than that. We needed crowd control or massive area damage and we had neither.

“I can teleport the skins above us,” Walt said, glancing towards the apex of the pyramid. “Blow them up there and we can get it raining down.”

It was a good idea, but with three skins it would be three smites. I wasn’t that bad at chaining them, but I wasn’t always that precise.

“I won’t be able to detonate all three. Perhaps if we do them one at a time,” I said.

Ashley stabbed a corpse in the eye before rolling away from its touch and offering me a few crossbow bolts.

“Enchant them with your spell. I’ll hit the skins.”

I didn’t know how loading a crossbow would be any better, but Ashley seemed to have a great deal of confidence in what she was saying. That was good enough for me.

I focused on the bolts and imbued them with my Smite smell, each pulsing red for a moment before I handed them back over.

It was harder to imbue an object than to cast the spell directly and my mana was all but exhausted. Hopefully nobody would need any healing for a time.

“Problem,” Walt said. “If we rain down fiery death, how are we going to protect ourselves?”

That was an issue. None of us had any shielding spells that I was aware of. Ashley could dodge all kinds of damage, but even she wasn’t badass enough to dodge between droplets of rain. Walt could teleport away from danger, but there was no place inside the pyramid to do that.

“Can you teleport the skins, have Ashley shoot them, and get us all out of here the way we came in?” I asked. “We can come back down after everything is dead.”

Walt spun his staff with a flourish, trying to fend off a corpse, and cried out as it got a hand on his arm. The skin looked instantly withered and a fifth of his health bar dropped off. Ashley moved in at once to drive at the corpse in a flurry of blows. It staggered back and poofed into dust.

“No, it would be close, but I won’t have the mana to pull that off,” Walt said.

That was a good idea down. It left only one option that I could see although I didn’t much like it.

“Then we trigger them and you all pile beneath me, and I shield you. It will be awkward and you’ll get hit some, but I should take the brunt of it.”

“Are you fire immune now?” Walt asked.

“Resistant. It must do. It’s that or we withdraw.”

“This much trouble means this place is hiding something good,” Ashley said. “We aren’t running away. Do it.”

I extended the water skins to Walt who focused.

Teleport

Teleport

Teleport

The three spells triggered in sequence as the skins materialized far overhead. Ashley meanwhile loaded her crossbow and dropped to one knee, aiming towards the ceiling.

Triple Shot

Three bolts flew out in unison, each moving with unerring accuracy towards the skins.

Walt dove to the floor and, as soon as the last shot was fired, Ashley was moving to sprawl on top of him. Shifting my shield to my back I threw myself over the both of them.

There came a familiar roar of flames overhead and then it began to rain holy fire. Droplets of fire colored blue, white, and red with different levels of heat began to shower down. It was almost like fireworks, at least until the droplets hit the corpses and they flashed brilliantly, and created a most fearful hissing.

Equal to the initial effects of the rain was the way, thanks to my abilities, the fire spread. This was holy water created with my magic, triggered by a smite spell. The fire spread to nearby corpses, which then spread it to others, until soon we were surrounded by a sea of burning bodies.

I wasn’t unaffected. My shield grew heated upon my back and droplets of fiery water easily found their way between the chain links of my armor, which wasn’t designed to prevent anything like this.

Resistant to fire is not immune. I burned slowly—but I burned all the same and my body was wracked with agony as each drop found their target. Walt and Ashley didn’t go unscathed either, the occasional drop slipping past me to sizzle on a leg or arm. Apart from that the sheer quantity of fire elsewhere in the chamber was like standing right before an open fireplace. Waves of heat radiated around us and each breath we took seared our lungs.

Outside of the game a situation like this would have been fatal, but in the game we healed more quickly. Even grievous wounds would knit themselves back together given enough time.

I triggered a health potion and waited it out. When the rains finally died off we all stumbled back to our feet. I was down about one quarter of my health bar. Although I’d taken most of the droplets, Walt and Ashley were each down to around half of theirs.

Despite the sheer hell that we’d unleashed not all of the corpses were dead. A few were at the very edges of the chamber and had escaped the rain, and were too distant to be caught by the fire spreading from the others. I saw one was dressed differently, ornate jewelry adorning its frame. I checked its stats.

Imais the Master of Wishes

Level 17: Type: Undead HP: 150/180

Having once found a magic lamp, Imais for a long while became a hero of the Tikati people for being able to make their dreams come true. When his wish that they would never again know starvation murdered almost all of his civilization he wished that nothing, not even a wish would ever be able to fell him. He survives to this day in a rotting corpse, long since driven mad by long confinement in darkness with only his fallen people for company.

Backstory. That is why it was important to read things like that, it often gave some clue about how to deal with them. It didn’t take long studying his frame to spot the magical lamp at his waist, secured by a loop of leather.

“You see what I’m seeing?” I asked Ashley.

“I’m seeing the reason we’re here. Doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to kill him, but that doesn’t mean we can’t rob him blind,” Ashley said, before she charged forward. She was brutal with her daggers, scything cuts taking him in the knees, the feet, the elbows as she all but dismantled him before our eyes. The severed body parts didn’t remain that way for long, already starting to wriggle across the floor in an effort to reintegrate themselves.

Ashley cut the cord and grabbed the lamp from him, before rushing over to me and Walt. She reached for our hands. “I think it’s time we made an exit.”

Walt nodded.

Group Teleport

We were back above ground near the pyramid, and we each took a deep breath. Fresh air was welcome after the horror show down below.

“We got a magic lamp,” Ashley said, excited.

“We have one that apparently murdered every one down below,” Walt reminded her. “Trust me. I know a bit about dangerous technologies and this qualifies.”

“Yvera? Got a Goddess opinion?” I thought.

“Magic is wild, unpredictable, powerful and generally out to make your life miserable in exciting and sometimes satisfying ways. It’s a lot like me. We both know that’s a risk you’re willing to take.”

That was both encouraging about anyone using the lamp and utterly terrifying at the same time. Talking with her always made everything so incredibly unclear.

Still, her vote really didn’t count amongst the three of us. Mine did. “Let’s find out just what we’re dealing with. It might have wiped out all those people, but nothing says we have to make a wish. We can just have a conversation and go from there.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

First, we took some time to eat and drink from our supplies, and let our health and mana replenish. The fight had consumed a lot of our resources and we wanted to be fresh, before facing whatever the lamp might unleash.

Ashley pulled the lamp from her backpack. It was brass and looked ancient. “Anyone know what we need to do here?”

“Don’t you usually rub?” I said.

“Not every problem is solved by rubbing, Liam.”

I had always found it a solution to many things, but maybe that was just me.

“Just try it, okay? It is what you do with magic lamps,” I said.

Ashley carefully rubbed the brass a few times with her fingers and we waited expectantly. Nothing happened.

“Let me see it,” Walt said.

Ashley passed him the lamp and he turned it over a few times.

“Here,” Walt said, tapping at the lamp near the handle. “There used to be a rune here. I think it was once clearly visible, but it rubbed off a long time ago. The magical imprint is still on the lamp though.”

“Show, don’t tell,” Ashley said.

Walt handed it back. “You can be the one to trigger the insanely dangerous magical artifact, if you’re that eager to do so.”

He sat back and had a teleport ready to go.

Ashley rubbed at the rune mark. This time there was a reaction. Thick green smoke billowed out and a woman materialized.

She had dark hair and eyes, features almost pretty but for a nose that was too sharp and made her look a bit like some kind of predatory bird. She was surprised. I wondered for a moment where that awareness of her mood came from, but it was becoming familiar enough now that it didn’t take me long to figure it out. We were lovers. I didn’t have the slightest memory of her, but we were lovers. It must have happened during the time that I was trapped in the palace. That meant she was not actually bound to the lamp them but rather than it had summoned her.

“Liam,” the woman said, looking around our little assemblage. “And people I don’t recognize and who most certainly aren’t Imais. Don’t tell me someone finally found that loser?”

“You two know each other?” Ashley asked.

Awkward. It was best to be honest about such things, it’s not like my friends would really be surprised. “We’ve kind of slept together.”

The woman said sharply, “You have to go right there? You can’t just say we met or are old acquaintances?” A moment later she was all charm, turning back to Ashley. “I’m Gina. Djinni of the lamp and granter of wishes who can make all your dreams come true.”

“If your dream is to be an undead monster buried deep beneath the sands,” Walt said with a frown.

“How did you manage to sleep with her?” Ashley said. “I mean, we were with you the whole time. Did you stick your dick in the lamp while you were on top of us? Is that what all the grinding was?”

“I wasn’t grinding. I was burning alive. It hurt,” I said.

“Yeah. I’m well aware,” Ashley said.

“Sticking one’s appendages into the lamp really wouldn’t accomplish much,” Gina said. “It is more of a summoning device for me and doesn’t actually bind me to it. So, it is not like I’m lurking around inside all itty bitty when not out giving wishes.”

“Could we please stop talking about lamp fucking,” Walt said in a pleading tone.

I seconded that. I really seconded that.

“We met in the palace awhile back,” Gina said.

“While we were being tortured? How many girls did you manage to sleep with?” Walt asked.

Deep breaths. Now he was doing it too.

“Could we please focus on wishes and not who or what I may have had sex with while anybody here was being tortured.”

“My favorite subject,” Gina said. “So you get them—wishes, I mean. You aren’t limited to three, that is just a myth. A word of caution is that they almost always have unexpected and terrible consequences.”

“Then why would anyone make one?” Walt asked.

“Why do people play dice?” Gina asked, shrugging. I wished I could remember her.

“Is there a way not to get horrible consequences?” Ashley asked.

“You can try,” Gina said with a beaming smile. “Usually people do that by trying to be smart about what they wish for. Fence it in with so many terms and conditions and specific ways of carrying it out that nothing can go wrong.”

“A mental challenge. I do like that,” Walt said.

“It’s pretty much destined to fail. It’s almost impossible to make the perfect wish, and the hidden bits that are going to destroy you can sometimes have a long tail. Patient, you know,” Gina said.

“So, is it you fucking people over or does it just happen?” Ashley asked.

“It’s totally me,” Gina said, not seeming fazed at all by the admission. “There are a few nice Djinni out there that play things straight, but I’m not one of them. I’m big-time power and an even bigger bitch.”

Well, at least she was honest about it. I suppose I’d prefer that to hidden consequences waiting to bite me.

“Any other ways?” I asked.

“Sucking up,” Gina said. “We had fun. That might give you a pass on a wish, if you strike me on a good day and in the right mood. Or it will make it extra funny for me when I crush your dreams and destroy everything you love. It’s pretty unreliable.”

“So, what possible use are you?” Walt asked.

“Did you miss the part about big-time power? I can do amazing things. Full on miracles,” Gina said.

“I kind of already have a Goddess,” I said.

“She pops in unannounced all the time,” Ashley added.

“It’s really annoying,” Walt said.

Yvera didn’t take the bait. Good.

“And how often have you seen them? Listen, Gods and Goddesses are feeding from a pool of faith. They can do some big-time things, but it takes a lot of work behind the scenes,” Gina said.

“And you are what, magic from nothing?” Walt asked. “I don’t believe that for a second.”

“Not from nothing, but what I do has a cost as well. I just spent awhile telling you about it,” Gina said. “Things balance out in the end and that makes it all good. You don’t have to make wishes, and if you are smart you’ll be cautious about it, but when you absolutely need something big and you can’t get it any other way, I’m your girl.”

I guessed that was fair. I wasn’t exactly about to go wishing for anything off-hand, but it was nice to know that we had the option.

“Well, you can get back on your way then and we’ll get back to looking for Mela,” I said.

“Almost destroyed the world Mela?” Gina asked, intrigued. “You are already way more interesting than Imais. I’m coming along.”

“No, you’re not. We only have so much water and supplies, and the carpet is already crowded,” Ashley said.

“I can take care of that. Just say the word,” Gina said, hopeful.

“We’ll pass on the wishing,” Walt said firmly.

Gina pouted. “Fine. No oceans then, or burying the entire desert beneath a carpet. Or a wet carpet! That would have been amazing. Everyone just suffocating away and unable to move.”

She was fitting the mold of most of my lovers so far. Creepy and scary. I wondered what I had done to have the game decide that this is how I needed to live my life. A part of me feared that it was karma and I was finding exactly what I deserved. What did that say about me, if so? I didn’t go out of my way to be the good guy, but I wasn’t going out of my way to be a bad guy either. That seemed like it should count for something.

Despite our protests Gina took a place on the carpet and after a bit of grumbling the rest of us did as well. Soon we were on our way. Hopefully the remainder of our trip would prove more uneventful. For all that finding hidden treasure was supposed to be a good thing, I wasn’t altogether certain we’d not doomed ourselves in a most terrible way.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

It was another day through the desert heat until we finally spied the landmarks that Aria had told me about back in the dungeons.

I had been worried about how to find the exact location, but as we got closer the metal gear marked on my hand began to pulse sending tiny waves of pleasure through me.

“My hand is happy,” I told the others.

“I do not want to know what you and Gina are doing with it,” Walt said.

“Hey,” Gina protested. “It’s not me he’s touching.”

I really wasn’t. That might be a bit of a surprise, but I found that after the palace I was simply exhausted. Whatever sex drive I had, it seemed it wasn’t an inexhaustible reserve. I’d had enough for the moment.

“It’s the key,” I said, not addressing their line of speculation. “I think we must be near.”

You couldn’t tell it. While mountains were visible in the distance the desert otherwise looked much like it had for the past several days.

“Let’s have a look around then,” Ashley said.

We disembarked from the carpet and I began to pace the sands. It took only a few minutes to find that the sensation of pleasure seemed faintly more intense in one direction.

“This way,” I told the others. Using the mark on my hand as something of a compass I began to guide the way, following that feeling of pleasure.

It was an odd way for magic to work, but I remembered that the palace did seem to have those two aspects. I had been bound by the pleasure aspect, while Walt and Ashley got the pain. Mela too must be in a similar sort of prison.

I led the way over the dune. On the other side we came upon what looked to be almost a road buried beneath the sand with smoothly polished stones underfoot.

“A river bed?” I asked the others.

Shrugs answered me. None of us were especially proficient in the outdoors.

Letting my hand guide the way we finally arrived at a massive stone door that seemed to cut a dune into half. The surface was adorned with intricately carved gears.

“Pretty prison,” Ashley said.

“They don’t seem to do prisons like we’d expect,” I said. “The magic that held us was meant to be broken. Aria was the only cell I saw meant to hold someone against their will.”

“You hang around with Aria?” Gina said. “You shouldn’t. I’m scarily dangerous, but someone that knows that many secrets? You don’t want to be anywhere near her. Something terrible is always coming for that girl, and the last place in the world you want to be is between her and it.”

That made sense. Unfortunately we did have that agreement to always rescue her when she got into trouble. I didn’t intend to renege on that deal. Sure it was dangerous, but it was also a huge opportunity. It was amazing how much of my life lately revolved around thoughts like that, weighing danger against utility.

“Well, I guess we should get ready and open this thing up,” I said, gazing up at the doors. “We have no idea what’s waiting on the other side and so we should be ready.”

“Why are you planning on letting her loose?” Gina asked.

“We’ve got an undead army rampaging and kind of need a horde of murder bots to put them down,” Ashley said.

“Not to play Devil’s Advocate, but why would you do something like that? Gina asked. I started to speak and she waved me to silence with a sharp gesture. “Just hear my pitch. In her, you have a Goddess sealed away for almost destroying the entire world. A known threat to deal with a problem that possibly has no chance of destroying the world. Or is this army that big a threat?”

“It’s not,” I was forced to admit. “But it is pretty scary and bad for our Kingdom.”

“Bad for Liam,” Ashley said. “The guy in charge really just wants his daughter on the throne. Have that and it’s probably fine for Galea.”

“Okay. So you’re going to unleash a terrible danger on the world, because Liam doesn’t want to give up this throne?” Gina asked.

It sounded bad when she put it like that. I didn’t have a counter though. That was basically the situation.

“I guess, but he is a scary, bad guy,” I said.

“Seriously, I doubt he is as bad,” Gina said, staring me down. “But your insane level of selfishness aside, let me just give you a better option. Me.”

“You’re going to use this as a pitch to get us to wish? Are you kidding?” I asked.

“I mean, you are about to unleash a long-sealed ancient evil. Am I really the worse option here? Wish for me to take care of that army. Wish to keep your throne, no matter what happens, if that is how you roll. Whatever the case, it’s going to be better for the world at large than opening that door.”

“She’s making sense,” Walt said.

“I thought you hated the whole idea of wishing and using the lamp?” I said, spinning to face him.

“I do. It is insanely risky and dangerous, and she is likely going to find a way to kill us, if we do it,” Walt said, with an unhappy frown at Gina. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t our best option.”

Gina smiled widely. “So what do you say? I can do big and I can do small. Perhaps the undead will never rise again. Perhaps this guy in charge of the army is now insanely loyal to you.”

“Ashley?” I asked.

Ashley was staring at Walt intently. I asked again and her attention snapped back to me. “Sorry, I was just thinking what happened next. You are the Chosen of Yvera, I’m the Chosen of Atlantia. You know what’s going to happen, if we open up that door.”

“I’d become the Chosen of Mela,” Walt said.

“And all that stuff we saw in your head would be in her head. How much do you know? I mean, I know you have memories of the others, but how extensive are they?” Ashley asked.

“I repaired those pods on my own. I did some programming of the nanomachines. I could, with proper equipment and supplies, build an atomic weapon,” Walt said quietly. “She’d have all of that.”

I didn’t like Walt having that. I liked even less the thought of a stranger renowned for her world destroying ways having it, too.

“Yvera,” I said. “I think we should talk this over and do so outside my head.”

A swirl of flames and there she was, as flawless as ever, staring at the door to the prison.

“I’m here. I’m listening. I know you have your reservations, but you still need to open that door,” Yvera said.

“Why? What has anyone said that is wrong?”

“Because I need to win, Liam. Because it is about more than this world, it is about that one. Until Atlantia joined my pantheon I had not even thought of gaining support on that side from here, but the aid has been enormous,” Yvera said, turning back to face our group as a whole. “I refuse to lose again.”

I knew her. I knew her mind in an intimate way, sharing a part of it. I didn’t have to ask questions like was she willing to risk the entire world for the sake of her victory. Of course she was. She wouldn’t lose again, she wouldn’t go back to her cage. I also knew that I was hers, absolutely and completely. I didn’t like this choice, but I knew I’d find a way to make it work. I had to.

“We open the doors,” I said.

“Like hell,” Ashley said disbelievingly, “Haven’t you listened to a word that’s been said? Gina, I wish…”

I felt time slow around me at those words. Yvera’s doing, I was sure. She was giving me the time needed to do her will. I raised my hand to the doors and focused. The gear upon my hand glowed a blinding white and then vanished, appearing imposed on the door instead. The drawings of gears began to move and turn, and with a grinding hiss the doors cracked open.

“Fuck!” Ashley said.

Gina looked frustrated, “Oh, the thousand ways I wish I could realistically interpret that as a wish. Would you care to rephrase that as “fuck me”? I can do wonders with a fuck me. Trust me, you’ll enjoy it. For a while.”

Creepy Djinni was creepy.

The doors continued to spread open and beyond they revealed a blazing inferno. I squinted at the blast of heat, the fires going nonstop.

“Huh,” Yvera said, stepping forward.

“Nice to hear you so confident about what we find,” I said.

“Divine magic, but not mine. Not hers either, given it’s fire. Which makes sense since she is aligned with metal—fire would be what you would want to contain her,” Yvera said, as she reached a hand into the flames. They flickered for a moment and then died away.

“That was simple,” Yvera said.

Right before a massive mechanical dog with buzz saws for teeth bounded out of the doorway and attempted to take a bite out of her midsection.

Yvera vanished in a burst of flame. Great. Glad she could stick around and help. I analyzed the hound.

Gizmo the Guardian Hound

Level 45: Type: Construct HP: 20,000/20,000

Legendary

Gizmo is the faithful companion of Mela and the first hybrid creation she ever made. Once a living canine companion Gizmo was gravely injured in the taking of Moros, and Mela saved his life by adding mechanical components. Over the centuries Gizmo would become more and more machine yet deep within a still living heart beats.

We were outclassed a little. Gizmo bounded forward and let loose a savage growl that made the air tremble.

Terrifying Roar

Walt screamed in terror and ran away, racing over the dunes. That was new. It must be some kind of mental debuff although both I and Ashley seemed to have resisted it. Perhaps it was intellect-based—could we be too stupid to be scared?

Behind Gizmo a woman stepped out. She had dark hair and wore a pink dress short enough that even under the circumstances I spent a moment admiring her legs. They seemed to be part-machine, as were her arms. The Goddess Mela, I assumed. She was staring intently at the sky. Scraps of metal began to hover in the air around her and swirl into a vortex.

“We seem to have lost Walt,” I said to Ashley. “Ideas?”

“To stealth and let you deal with the mess you created yourself? What the fuck did you think was going to happen, Liam?” Ashley said, staring at Gizmo and frowning. “Three of us couldn’t take that thing and two of us sure can’t.”

“Maybe Gina wants to help?” I asked, directing the question towards the Djinni.

“More of a cat girl,” Gina said. “Though if you want to make a wish, go right ahead. Do it fast though, things are starting to get outside of even my power level.”

Fantastic. Fire magic would be particularly effective against metal-aligned creatures. I could hurt the dog, but given the level differences I still wouldn’t do more than annoy it. As for the Goddess, that was more of a Yvera situation. I didn’t see where we had any other options but my fire magic right now.

“Hey guys,” Walt said, running back and panting a bit. “That was weird.”

“I can hit that dog with a few Smite spells, if you can hit it with fire,” I said to Walt. “Maybe between us we can actually do something.”

I felt myself rising into the air, turned upside down and shaken about violently. Walt and Ashley reached out to steady me. Ashley’s daggers lifted from their sheaths and flew away. Right, metal. Chainmail may not have been the best thing to wear.

The metal fragments in the air around Mela arranged themselves into an arcane sigil which glowed a brilliant pink. A beam of light emerged vanishing into the heavens.

The magnetic pull upon me faded and I crashed with a resounding thud face-first into the sand.

“Oof,” I said, or at least something to that effect, the wind knocked out of me.

“I’ll thank you not to try catching Gizmo on fire,” Mela said, striding forward. “I am inclined not to murder you given that you released me, and I would like to know the reason why.”

“Social situation, Liam,” Ashley said. “Do get up and make friends, or try to seduce her or something.”

“Having just spent many centuries in prison I promise you seduction is hardly necessary,” Mela said. “I’ll quite cheerfully drag any or all of you in for a shag right now.”

That’s an offer I’d be all in favor for—under other circumstances.

With the dog seeming less threatening Yvera poofed back into being. Mela tossed her a wary look.

“You I don’t know, but I should,” Mela said.

“I’m friendly,” Yvera said. “I’m the new fire goddess and the reason you’re out of that pit. Liam, you two should go get it on.”

“Pardon me?” I said.

“She just got out of prison. I get it. I so get it. I may have the irritating tendency of burning my partners alive, but she doesn’t. Besides, this whole negotiation will be easier if she’s in a good mood,” Yvera said.

“Standing right here and hearing every word,” Mela said, and then glanced at me speculatively and shrugged. “Though I meant every word. Business later, then.”

Mela wandered back through the door making a motion to follow.

“You people are weird,” Gina said.

“You’re one to talk,” Ashley said.

My life was very complicated.

Still, I was who I was. It wasn’t like I was not going to walk through that door.

*****

It was a few hours later that we made our way back and I was considerably more sore for the experience. However much I may have wanted to I’d not actually slept with a Goddess before. She smelled faintly of oil and iron, and so far as I could determine was completely tireless. I got the impression that she might have gone for centuries without pause, but my body faded much faster.

When we emerged night had fallen. Ashley and Walt had a fire going. Yvera was a source of light all on her own as flames flickered around her and she stared up towards the sky.

“Took you long enough,” Ashley said.

“Better than not long enough,” I said. Seriously. What did they want from me?

“So, what did you do?” Yvera asked. She wasn’t usually one to ask for details. She was in my head at all times anyways.

“Well, she does have a bed in there. It’s kind of in one corner of this giant workshop, but it’s nice,” I said.

“She is talking to me,” Mela said with a chuckle, moving closer to Yvera and casting her gaze towards the sky as well.

I looked that way. I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a bright star that was new. I’d become familiar with the night sky during our travels in the desert.

“What needed to be done. I reached into the sky and I found justice. Even now I’ve called a great meteor which moves towards this world to purge those who locked me away,” Mela said.

That was alarming.

“And you’re just telling us now?” Walt said. “How destructive will it be?”

“Quite,” Mela said, sounding very pleased with herself. “The Queens of White and Black shall perish and their lands laid to ruin. All of you will die, I apologize for that.”

“How long do we have?” I asked.

Yvera was staring at the sky and her lips pursed. “I don’t have enough information. My influence does not extend that far. Walt, be useful and open a portal.”

“I’m not Lea,” Walt said. “You know I’m not that good at scrying.”

“I don’t expect you to be competent,” Yvera said briskly. “Just basically functional. Get me a scry portal close to that, so I can get an idea what we’re dealing with.”

Walt muttered unhappily and waved his hands through the air. A portal flickered into existence. He really wasn’t Lea, she would have managed to focus it almost at once, but this time it took several minutes. The star in the heavens had grown alarmingly brighter by then. Things would grow even more terrifying yet when that portal snapped into being and we got a look at what was on the other side.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Walt’s portal shifted from one part of the sky to another. Stars, stars, and more stars. When he finally focused upon the bright one, the view zoomed in. Mela had said it was a meteor she’d summoned, but she was wrong.

A faint corona of blue energy surrounded a starship that seemed to be sporting an absurd number of guns. An emblem I couldn’t recognize was painted near the stern.

“That doesn’t seem to belong,” I said.

“It doesn’t,” Walt said, straining to hold the magic. “That is the UFC Hyperion, pride of the fleet and home to the deadliest crew in Symspace.”

“He’s right,” Yvera said, and the flames around her flickered with greater intensity. “I’m picking up on connections. That is a full ship and it is almost completely crewed by PCs.”

“How many?” I asked.

“Crew compliment of three thousand two hundred and fifty-seven,” Walt said.

“How does that work? Are they in the Crucible Shard?” Ashley asked.

“They’re picking it up on their sensors at least, which means my siblings are aware,” Yvera said. “Mela, can you stop this?”

“No,” Mela said. “I wouldn’t even if I could, but at this point it is too late. I could slow it down. That is a great machine. Explain what is going on.”

“We don’t have the time,” Yvera said as she began to pace. She was growing so agitated and her flames so heated that glass was forming beneath her feet. “They’ll make an atmospheric entry. I can heighten the heat on their shields and that will rip most of them away.”

“You’re going to kill everyone on board?” I asked.

Yvera gave an angry shrug. “It doesn’t matter. They are not connected as you are connected. They will bounce back and their connections will be severed, and hopefully stay that way.”

Mela was taking all this in with a rapt sort of attention, “You are part-machine. You and Liam, both parts of a growing hybrid. The girl is one as well.”

“Mela, we don’t have time for this. Walt there has a head filled with otherworldly technological designs and access to the world that sent that ship. Agree to serve me and I’ll see it happen,” Yvera said, all but hissing the words.

“Deal,” Mela said. Yvera was speaking her language.

“Why would I possibly agree to this?” Walt asked.

“I’m hot?” Mela said.

“I’m so not interested.”

“Mela here is a Goddess of crafting. Imagine how that is going to translate in our world, what she will be capable of and what you’ll be capable of, because she is a part of you,” Yvera said as she spun to face Walt. “You are a part of a pathetic and weak order that has been dying for centuries. You want to actually matter again, you let her into your head.”

In a way it was nice to see someone else getting beat up on. So often I seemed to be on the receiving end from pretty much everybody.

Walt looked like he might storm off for a moment, but finally nodded. “Fine. Not that it matters if we can’t survive.”

“We’ll shelter in Mela’s prison,” Yvera said. “You don’t build a prison for a Goddess out of weak materials. I can boost the flame wards surrounding it. It may be enough.”

Yvera snapped her fingers and a familiar-looking book appeared in Mela’s hands. I’d first seen it in the depths of Castle Sardonis after passing through a gate there. The book contained the secrets of the nanotechnology that was keeping us in the game.

Mela flipped through the text, looking rather pleased, and grabbed Walt by the hand to drag him off through the doorway. She was in a hurry, I got that—wow, did I understand what it was like to be on the other side of that.

“Can you stop it?” Yvera asked, looking towards Gina.

Gina stared towards the sky speculatively for several long moments and said, “You have no idea how much I wish I could say yes. That would be one hell of a wish. It’s too much though. No matter what any of us do, that thing is going to come down.”

“Even if you team up?” I asked.

“We each work different ways,” Gina said. “Mela attracted that thing here and she could push it back, but it has picked up speed since then. It’s too much for her now. Your Goddess can try to melt the thing to scrap, which doesn’t slow it down. I can try to make it not be there at all, but that is pushing on it in a completely different way.”

That made sense. I thought of Liara, I knew that thing was aimed straight at her. It was she that had locked up Mela, it was she that Mela wanted to kill.

“Can you save the people in the palace and the city?” I asked.

Gina tilted her head. “You’ve got a thing for her, don’t you? The Queen. I hear it in your voice.”

“I do,” I said. Yvera shot me a worried look.

“It’s nothing you need to be jealous of,” I said. I didn’t even know which of them I was talking to. I really needed to stop making things so complicated.

“I can’t save her,” Gina said. “Or anyone in the palace. The wards are too powerful. That might save them. The Queens endure, Mela isn’t the first Goddess to try to kill them. Everyone else is certain to die though. If you’d care to chance a wish, I can save them.”

Did I? I really wasn’t one for selfless gestures. I didn’t think I was. I wasn’t a good guy, a good guy wouldn’t even question doing everything he could to help those people no matter the cost. I wasn’t a bad guy either though. A truly bad guy wouldn’t have even asked the question.

I glanced towards Yvera, but she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts as she paced. For some distance around her now was glass from melting the sand to such a degree.

“Do it,” I said to Gina. “Save them.”

“Care to fancy that up a little and try to save your ass?” Gina asked. Maybe she did care, at least a little.

I met her gaze and sighed. “Gina. I’m not smart enough to make it foolproof and I’m just smart enough to know that. Save those people you can. I know there will be a cost, I’ll pay it. I so wish.”

Gina considered me for a long moment and smiled. The Djinni pressed a kiss to my lips, a long-hungered contact. I remembered her then, just flickers, but they were good memories.

Gina pulled away after a moment and said, “Way to man up. Stay alive.” A puff of turquoise smoke and she was gone.

Yvera was still pacing. The flames wreathing her were showing flickers of white in their intensity.

To my surprise Ashley leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “Maria was right. Sometimes you’re an idiot, Liam. I’m going to carry the supplies inside. Anything we leave out here is going to be destroyed.”

I was finding life very confusing again. Why did everyone keep telling me what a smart thing being evil was, and then seem so pleased when I stumbled my way into doing something decent?

I decided to join her. By the time we were done it was like daylight outside, so intense was the light of the new star in the sky.

“Regretting unleashing Armageddon yet?” Ashley asked me.

I was. This was my doing. If I’d let Ashley have her way none of this would be happening.

“It will be fine. We’re going to live through this and the people in the city will be fine. Mela seems nice.”

Ashley grunted at that. It seemed my credit for a good deed wore off fast.

“Just a precursor of things to come. We’re going to have so much fun. Inside, you two,” Yvera said. “I’ll activate the wards after you.”

We made our way inside and I held my hand up to the doors. A pulse of energy and they swung shut. Torches were everywhere and they flared brighter as Yvera restored the wards, a wall of flame sealing off the door.

I led Ashley past the supplies we’d set in the hallway and into the workshop beyond. It was a vast space almost like a warehouse, most of it devoted to tables holding gears, springs, and tools.

Creatures half-assembled were everywhere. A minotaur with a massive axe slumped near the door with panels on its back open revealing the intricate work within. Mela and Walt were off in one corner, an assemblage of copper tubing and crystals pumping blood between them.

“Ouch,” I said.

“Was yours better?” Ashley asked. “Atlantia was in such terrible pain during mine. We both nearly died. I think I wanted to a little, it hurt so much.”

“When I became Yvera’s Chosen it was like I had the flu. I was all hot and dizzy. It didn’t help I was fighting a dragon and a murderous library at the time. I passed out.”

Ashley turned her attention to the workshop. “She needs stools. Or chairs. Why is there no place to sit? We could be here for a while.”

I pointed at the bed in the corner. “It’s soft.”

Ashley made a face at me. “I am not sitting on your sex bed.”

We made do with what we could find. Ashley eventually wound up astride a half-finished bull, a fact she found tremendously funny, while I stretched out in an unattached massive hand.

“I wonder how long the apocalypse takes,” Ashley said.

“Probably not long. The big risk is going to be the impact when it comes down. We’ll get some tremors and a shock wave, but then it will be business as usual.”

“If this place doesn’t just crack open.”

That was the concern. I hoped this place was as sturdy as Yvera thought. Perhaps Mela had been happy here, living life with her machines. It was hopeful in a way how obsessed with vengeance she was for that meant the prison that had so long held her was likely sound.

Ten minutes later the spaceship hit. Even so far away we felt it. A violent tremor shook the room and I was knocked out of the hand. I think I hit the ceiling at one point, I’m sure I got impaled by several tools. The world became a blur of shaking and pain.

When the shaking finally concluded I groaned and sat up. I knew that as beaten up as I was, Walt and Ashley would be in worse shape, so I looked around to find them.

Ashley was close to where I had left her, except now she was impaled on one of the bull’s horns. It’s strange how familiar an experience it becomes, picking your friends up from grievous bodily injury. I hefted a shoulder beneath her, her leather armor slippery with blood as I heaved to lift that broken body from the horn. Once she was clear I released my healing spell. Her eyes flickered open and she screamed as a body nearly dead knitted itself back together.

“Thanks,” Ashley said. “Fuck that bull was a bad idea.”

Walt was doing better. He looked to be unharmed and exactly as we had left him in the midst of a god blood transfusion.

“Yvera?” I said, to no response.

“It’s a prison, she probably can’t hear you from the inside. I sure hope your key works to get out,” Ashley said.

So did I. It would be embarrassing to survive Armageddon only to spend the rest of eternity locked away.

“Keep an eye on them,” I told Ashley. “I’ll go try the door.”

Fortunately, there was nothing to fear. I extended my hand and the doors began to rumble open. As soon as they were no longer sealed the flames died down and I got my first look at the world outside.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Morning was just dawning outside, the sun on the horizon. The deserts were dramatically transformed. Like how Yvera had earlier turned a small portion to glass, now the sands were entirely glass. It crunched underfoot as I walked.

“Wow,” I said.

Yvera flamed into being beside me. “She did quite a number. And she put all this into motion in minutes after being released. This is why you make friends and allies that excel, they push you. This is incredible work.”

At least someone was pleased by the overwhelming destruction.

I made my way back indoors. Mela had disappeared and Walt was drinking some water.

“You all buffed up now?” I asked

“She has an incredible mind,” Walt said. “I’m smart, but she doesn’t just look at something. She disassembles it with her eyes and looks for how it can be put together better. I’ve engineers in my head, but she is even more so.”

I’m glad one of us was having fun being a Chosen. I just seemed to be sleeping around an absurd amount, and I was fairly sure Ashley now had a sociopath swirling around inside her head.

“The desert got blasted to glass outside,” I said.

“Good thing we have the carpet. Camels or horses wouldn’t do that well in that case. What is the plan?” Ashley asked.

It was a good question. We’d been so focused on this next stage that we hadn’t even considered our next steps.

“Let’s get back to the city. I want to see what happened there and if the palace is still standing. It’s also where the Vainglory left us,” I said.

Ashley winced. “Think they are okay? If they were near the city when this happened, this might have blown them right out of the sky.”

It was a fair worry, but knowing Cobalt and her crew I somehow wasn’t concerned.

“If anybody is going to survive this disaster it would be the Vainglory,” I said.

We spent some time taking the carpet back outside and loading it up with supplies.

“Is Mela going to want to keep anything from this place? She lived here a long time,” I said.

“She has Gizmo and otherwise she isn’t very sentimental,” Walt said. “Most of her works she simply tore down and built again.”

Good to know. If she wanted anything, I supposed she was also capable of coming back for it on her own. Our little carpet only had so much space.

Soon we were aboard the carpet and setting course over the glass.

“Didn’t we hear that this used to be a jungle?” Ashley asked. “Weird to think of how many changes it has gone through.”

“This glass will crumble in time. Become pebbles and sand again,” Walt said. “Perhaps someday things will even grow and come full circle.”

That was philosophical for him. Maybe the new influence would make him more than just brainier.

Just as it took us days to get here from the palace originally, it would take us days to get back. We split ourselves into shifts. This time we found no secrets during our journey, although as we got closer to the city we began to see lights over the horizon in the night sky. Flashes of red and blue that quickly faded.

When we first started to see the spires of the palace, we found a glass mountain to climb so that we might get an idea what was going on.

The palace was intact. The wards had held and the towers of white and black still entwined and made their way towards the heavens. Nothing else was the same. The city was completely gone with not even a trace that it had ever existed.

I hoped that was Gina’s doing and that she had managed to make my wish come true. Still, the city being gone was one of the least surprising things we found.

The spaceship had survived, somewhat. The lines were melted and deformed, and a giant rent marred one side, and yet clearly many of the crew had survived. A perimeter of fencing was set up with mecha walking guard duty. They had a need to, for occasionally along the line there were furious battles. Winged demonic creatures or tentacled monsters that hurt my mind simply to look upon engaged with the soldiers.

It was mind-bending horrors versus high-tech soldiers, neither of which had been here before and none of which seemed suitable now.

“Awesome,” Ashley said. “I want a blast cannon. I mean, my crossbow is cool, but I could do some amazing things with a blast cannon.”

“It doesn’t seem to be helping them much,” Walt said. “Although I can’t tell if that’s because it got scaled down to match the local equivalents, or if those monsters they’re fighting are just that badass.”

While I was tempted to ask Yvera, I didn’t think she’d know what was happening here.

“Ashley, can you rub the lamp and conjure Gina. Maybe she can give us some clue what is going on.”

Ashley extracted the lamp from her inventory and after a quick bit of rubbing the Djinni was poofing in with a cloud of turquoise smoke.

“Woah,” Gina said, taking in the scene down below. “That’s all new.”

“Part of the price you paid for saving the people?” I asked.

“What?” Gina seemed surprised by the question and shook her head. “Oh—no, for that I just moved the entire city to outside Castle Sardonis. You should see the place now that it lives in perpetual darkness. It’s amazing. I outdid myself.”

That was a thought almost as scary as what was happening below. Almost. It was also an opportunity, we had been short of people to keep the castle going and there might be worse things than having an entire city just appear.

“So do you have any clue what is happening down below?” I asked.

Gina pointed towards a massive patch of black, oozing tar. “Semhal the all-consuming.” Her finger then traced upwards in the sky to where red lightning crackled regularly. “Avaressa the Red. Those are just the ones I know. If I had to guess, the folks from the falling star decided to storm the palace and Liara opened up the cells.”

So these were some of the evils that she’d had locked up?

“Why would she do that?”

“Liara won’t let herself lose and she’s never been afraid of pitting one deadly force up against another. They must have put her back to the wall and she unleashed,” Gina said.

“What is our plan here?” Walt asked.

We could go up to the ship and say hello. We were, after all, from the same world and they might welcome us. I didn’t know if they were in touch with the other artificial intelligences or not, but they were in the same mess we were. Lost and alone in a world they didn’t expect.

Yvera had tried her best to wipe them out however and I couldn’t be sure of the reception we’d receive. I thought we’d be welcomed back at the palace. We might have made a jailbreak from there a short time ago, but that was obviously no longer an issue.

“The ship is from our world. We can be certain of one thing, it’s filled with total psychotics that will kill and loot anything put in their path. We want to get to the palace. Liara will be looking for allies and hopefully Elsora has got the transportation network back online by now,” I said.

“You think we could go right back home to Castle Sardonis?” Walt asked.

“I hope so.”

“You sure you’re comfortable leaving all this here?” Ashley asked, sounding aghast. “I mean, even ignoring the matters of what loot we might be able to find, this is hellish. We fucked the world up.”

That was unfair—to her. This was my doing. The desert of glass was my doing, the ship being here was my doing, these evils being unleashed was my doing.

I’d done a lot of damage by letting Mela out. So far all the good that had come of the deal was I’d gotten laid and Walt had gotten philosophical. I didn’t see a way to fix it.

“What are we going to do, Ashley?” I asked. “If we had Cobalt here maybe she could do something. I think all of this might be beyond even her.”

Ashley scowled. She didn’t like being reminded that someone was deadlier than she was.

“Mela thinks she might be able to interfere with their machinery,” Walt said.

Right now, horrors and technology seemed to be at something of a standoff. If either of them won out we’d have a different kind of problem. We needed them to weaken each other.

“Leave it,” I said. “Although if she would care to help to blind them so we can get to the palace, we could use the assistance.”

“She’s not a signal jammer,” Walt said, after a moment. It was worth a try.

We left the carpet behind and made our way on foot. We needed to be ready for a fight.

We hadn’t made it far before a flying metallic orb rushed up. A blue line of light quickly swept over us. We were being scanned, and I did a little scanning of my own.

Probe Bot

Level 15: Type: Construct HP: 100/100

Probe Bot’s are mechanical constructs designed to identify potential threats. While they possess only limited combat ability they are able to summon powerful reinforcements.

Aimed Shot

Critical Hit

Before I could blink Ashley had loaded her crossbow and fired off a bolt. It took the Probe Bot in the eye and it exploded in a shower of sparks.

A red light was blinking in the ruined husk. I feared that this wouldn’t be the end of it and soon enough I was proven right. Three figures in jump packs were descending from the sky.

Mechanized Marine

Level 25: Type: Construct HP: 250/250

The backbone of the Imperial Navy. Mechanized Marines sport a variety of weaponry and are capable of engaging targets in both space and on planets.

Altari Voras

Level 1: Type: Human HP: 10/10

Working in the hydroponics facility Altari has served duty as a farmer maintaining supplies for the Hyperion. The crash of the ship and the loss of most of the crew has opened up new possibilities

There were two marines and the crewman. That answered some questions. The ship’s NPCs must have come through at their equivalent levels, but all PCs were starting over in this world.

That made them less dangerous for now, but somehow I didn’t doubt that they wouldn’t be long leveling up. With the threats they faced they were going up against some serious challenges.

“Do we leave him alive?” Ashley asked, indicating Altari with a jerk of his head.

“He’ll know how many survived the crash and the state of the ship. Capture him, if you can,” I said.

Sapping Shot

Ashley lowered her crossbow and quickly fired off a shot towards the human amongst the robots. It caught him along the side of his head and sent him sprawling unconscious to the ground. Well. That was fast.

“Poor guy. That must suck—you finally get out of the kitchen, and in your first fight you go down with one blow,” I said.

Rifleman

My sympathy was short-lived as the marines unlimbered rifles and energy blasts began to fire in my direction. I blocked several with my shield, seeing one rebound towards the marine that fired it. I loved this shield. I really loved this shield.

Displacement Field

Walt brandished his staff and the air around the bots started to shimmer as space twisted and distorted.

Fixed Space Enhancers

The marines flashed orange for a moment and Walt’s effect faded.

Backstab

I hadn’t even seen Ashley slip into stealth, but I noticed when she appeared behind one of the marines and drove her daggers deep into one of the robotic arms, twisting the metal and causing black fluid to leak.

Smite

I let loose with a spell and flame engulfed the marine Ashley had just attacked, before I rushed forward, my shield taking rifle fire from the other as I hit one of its legs with a powerful swipe from Intemperance.

The blow was strong enough it would have cut deep into the flesh of a human adversary, but here I was simply met with the clang of metal and the feel of an aching arm—mine.

Taking Stock

The marine spun the rifle around and delivered a blow to my face with the stock. I felt my nose shatter and blood begin to flow. This thing packed a punch.

With one arm mostly useless it threw the rifle away and drew a fearsome-looking knife.

Dimensional Tremor

Walt fired a rippling distortion of space at the other marine, which seemed completely unfazed.

“Your class stuff isn’t working. Try electrical or fire blasts,” Ashley said, before she blinked out of existence as she stealthed again.

Zealous Blow

I let myself be filled with fury and swung my sword in an overhead blow towards the robot’s head. It sank deep, fire exploding from the wound even as sparks leapt up the length of my sword to fling me backwards to the ground.

Overload

The rifle that had been thrown away exploded. I hadn’t realized it was even a threat. Neither, it seemed, had Walt given he was standing right on it. He exploded into meaty bits. I hoped he would be fine—I’d died on Atlantis and came back. But we didn’t have time to worry about it now. We were suddenly one man down in an increasingly dangerous fight.

The marine that I and Ashley were fighting was down to nearly a quarter health, but that still left one up. I was blocking a lot of the bullets coming my way, but those making it through were still steadily decreasing my health bar. We were in rough shape.

Sensor Grid

Spheres fired into the air from the back of the shooting marine and coated the area with beams of spinning light. Ashley faded from stealth.

“Fuck,” Ashley said, right before the shooter switched his target to her. It was an amazing sight as she dodged bullet after bullet with fluid movements, but one finally caught her in the shoulder taking out a massive chunk, sending her spinning to the ground.

I charged forward putting my shield between her and the gunfire.

“Can you take out the injured one?” I asked her.

Ashley’s health began to tick up as she drank a health potion and that mess of a shoulder began to knit itself back together.

“Yeah. We’ve stripped the armor. Just keep me guarded for a moment to line up the shot.”

Ashley aimed her hand-crossbow, waited for precisely the right moment and then let fly. The bolt flew and caught the head, which remained split open.

A massive shower of sparks erupted and the marine’s frame began to jerk violently before collapsing.

One down. That left us with only one to go and us down. Hopefully Walt was on his way back even now from his own death.

“Any ideas for how to handle this last one without stealth?” I asked.

“If you can’t be invisible, make sure you are seen,” Ashley said. I looked back to see she’d pulled up the man she had earlier knocked out. Ashley had a knife to his throat, the blade already digging in enough to draw blood.

The marine’s sensors swept over Ashley, taking in the situation. Its rifle was aimed, but it wasn’t taking the shot.

“I think you need to leave or I kill him,” Ashley said. What was it with her and taking hostages? I guess it was a strategy that kept working for her. Maybe I should try it sometime.

“Release him,” the marine said, in a voice mechanical and cold.

“Drop your gun,” Ashley said.

He didn’t. She didn’t. Stalemate.

“Perhaps we can come to some sort of compromise,” I said.

“Surrender and you will not be harmed,” the marine said.

I let my eyes do the talking as I gave a pointed look at the bloody chunks of Walt.

If it was possible for a robotic marine to look sheepish this one did.

I said, “You killed one of ours. We killed one of yours. That’s equivalent. We can walk away.”

The marine considered this. “Release the hostage and go.”

“You could shoot at us as we walk away.”

“I was shooting at you moments ago.”

Well, that was true. At worst, it seemed we were back in the same position as before.

“You’ll just let us go?” I asked.

“You took down XG-317 there, but we can fix him up. I’d rather you not kill your hostage, but frankly he’s a bit of a dick. The higher-ups would like to have a talk with you. You’d be better off going with me, but I’d rather walk away and have them send a bigger strike force next time.”

Something to look forward to.

“I’m thinking we should take that deal. Ashley?”

Ashley took a moment and then kicked her hostage free to send him sprawling face-down in the dirt.

The marine kept his rifle leveled in our direction as I got between him and Ashley with my shield and we backed away.

As soon as we were over the ridge and out of sight, I said, “We need to get to the palace. They’ll already be calling more reinforcements.”

“What about Walt?”

“He’s more mobile than either of us. Hopefully he will figure things out and find a way to make it on his own.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

We could see how large the battleground had become. The lands around the palace were scattered with broken fragments of metal that surely came from marines, as well as blood and fluids from the local horrors unleashed.

In the distance I could hear the whine of weapons fire or the savage roar of one beast or another.

“Seriously, Liam. Fuck you for all of this,” Ashley said, as she carefully made her way down a hill of glass.

I was feeling quite guilty enough without her reminders.

“Look at this way, lots of things to kill and loot?”

Ashley gave me an unamused look. “I don’t just mean this. Us, still being here. It was fun at first, but this is grim.”

“It’s not all bad.”

It really wasn’t. Things kept getting worse, but there were bright spots, too. People that I cared about, for instance. And while the world was kind of horrific right now, it was also badass.

“Maybe not for you. You’re sleeping around and wearing a crown. Think how bad this sucks for the rest of us.”

“You have Bull.”

Ashley went still and motioned me to do the same. I felt a presence nearby, and the tremor of the earth as something massive came close. We were silent for several minutes until the thudding beneath our feet indicated it was moving away and Ashley signaled we could start again.

“Bull is nice. I like him, but it’s too little for too much abuse. Aren’t you getting tired of being hurt all the time? Of that feeling of being torn apart and put back together?”

I knew what she was talking about. But with my passives that sheer rush from taking damage was intoxicating. It was a high to almost die and come back. It hurt, but it was also addictive. I wasn’t cowering away at the thought of the next fight. I was waiting for it. That was pretty sick.

“I think I’m made for this, Ashley. I know that sounds strange, but I feel real here in a way I never did back home. There, I was always searching for something and never finding it.”

Ashley stared at me and for an instant I saw concern in that gaze. “And you think you’ve found it here? In her?”

She thought it was all about Yvera. I understood that, I’d thought the same thing at first. I was starting to understand things differently now. I loved Yvera as I loved Mellaise, utterly and completely and without any trace of logic or reason. Mellaise was a Siren and I knew my love for her came from that. The fact that I felt the same about Yvera likely meant that love was also something inflicted upon me, rather than springing from within.

It might seem that should cause me conflict. I’d understand, if others thought so. Who among us doesn’t want to be free? Understanding the strings that made you a puppet was the first step to becoming free.

“It’s not all about her,” I said, as I knelt behind a pillar of glass to avoid a slowly oozing lake of blackness crawling past us. “I’m in over my head. Every day is a new challenge that I don’t know how to deal with and a new problem I don’t know how to fix.”

“You like that,” Ashley said quietly. “You actually like being in over your head. You like fighting to keep your head above the waves.”

I did. So help me, I did.

“Don’t you?” I asked, trying to make out her features in the dark. “I’ve seen something come alive in you here.”

“I hate the flailing,” Ashley said, followed by a bitter laugh. “The things that I’m finding make me happy here scare me. I like hurting those that deserve it, I like taking. I did even before Atlantia got into my head, and now it’s just a roar.”

“Is it really that bad for you?”

Ashley reached up a hand to brush back her hair. “The ocean is greedy, Liam. It loves to drown the careless and to take all they have. I was a bit greedy and murderous before her.”

I stared at her.

“Fine. More than a bit. But I was in control and now I’m not. At first I could tell where she started and I began, and struggled against it, but after whatever happened in that cell… now it isn’t me and her. Now it’s just us. What is it like for you?”

It had never seemed that much of a fight for me, but then I knew I had changed. I might have been kind of a tool back in the real world, but I wasn’t as foolish or successful as I’d proved myself here.

“Because I was her Paladin, I think she started slipping into me a little bit almost at once here. It’s been more gradual, but I think I’m just as transformed.”

“Doesn’t that terrify you?” Ashley asked. I knew she wanted it to—she was searching for something to cling to. Some bit of control to help her build back up who she was.

“It did at first. Now it concerns me, but mostly I’m happy it happened. Happy that I’m changing. I’m accomplishing things I never would have before.”

Ashley let loose a long sigh and shook her head. “You would say that. You don’t care at all, not really. You’d have me just give in to my worst impulses and become a psychopath.”

“I don’t think Yvera is building upon anything that wasn’t already in me. You were already kind of a scary bitch. Atlantia is magnifying that. Just don’t let her replace you. You are Ashley and not Atlantia.”

That sentiment earned me a quiet nod. We were drawing close to the walls of the palace now. Behind us jump-jets filled the sky. They’d sent quite the force to find us.

“I can keep the scary bitch part of me reserved for those who really deserve it,” Ashley said. “What about Walt? You saw what was in his head. We’ve connected a will to destroy the world with a creator of world-destroying toys.”

Walt was our ally and Mela was a part of Yvera’s pantheon now, but Ashley was right. That pairing was going to be a problem. My connection could make me an idiot, Ashley’s could get a few people killed, Walt’s could blow up the whole damned world.

“Don’t be so maudlin. It’s not as bad as you make it out to be,” Yvera said in my head.

“What do you think is going to happen then?”

“Walt’s people never wanted to destroy the world, they wanted to change a world where progress was cast aside in the name of peace. Mela does not want to destroy the world, she feels the biological must merge with the mechanical to be worthy of survival. They are a deadly combination, but not to us,” Yvera thought.

Those arguments made sense. They wanted to remake the world, not destroy it. Yvera wanted the same thing.

We finally came to the wall surrounding the palace. The runes were glowing brilliantly in the night air.

“Don’t suppose you had any plans for getting inside?” Ashley asked.

“Liara, I know you are incredibly pissed about the whole spaceship crashing down on your head thing. I own that. It’s my fault, but you need friends now more than ever and that means you need us. Please let us in,” I said.

I figured on a war footing some magic would be monitoring these walls and I could only hope that my words would find their way to the right destination.

It didn’t take long for the runes on the nearest section of the wall to fade to black for a moment and we were teleported.

I hadn’t seen the throne room of the palace before. Half was perfectly black and half white, the dividing line cutting right through the center of the room and the throne itself.

Not so the Queen. It was no surprise, given the hour, that upon the throne sat a familiar figure in an unfamiliar hue. Liara might have been carved of obsidian now, her position a half-slouch that had an indulgent and sinister cast.

“Your Majesty,” I said. “I’m not sure if we are familiar with each other or not.”

“I know her,” Ashley said, spitting out the words. “She liked to come in and watch as I hurt myself. She’s sick.”

“So very true,” said the Black Queen. “And I know you as well, Liam. Through my other half.”

“You didn’t,” Ashley said, turning to look at me. “Really?”

Apparently, I had. Sort of. Why was the Queen two people? Everything really was simpler when people weren’t plural.

“I wasn’t sure how that worked exactly. So, are you going to kill us?” I asked.

Liara looked us up and down. Somehow, I could feel the tortures running through her mind. “Tempting, but no. While I’d love nothing more than to spend a few decades making you scream there are times and places and rules. My more foolish half gave you the key. I assume this mess is Mela’s doing?”

“She was a little pissed about being locked up,” Ashley said. “So am I.”

“Muzzle your dog, Liam or I will,” Liara said with bored contempt. “A rock full of mechanical monsters seemed her style. They nearly breached the castle. Opening the cells has kept them busy.”

“I’m surprised they’re still alive. I thought your cells were filled with the worst horrors the world held,” I said.

“Potentially. Few were captured at their peak and of those, time has not been kind,” Liara said, drumming her fingers on the throne. “Honestly, they’ve been something of a disappointment. Why is it collectibles never hold their value?”

“This is what you find hot?” Ashley said.

“The other her is different,” I said. It was a weak defense. We both knew it. I’d sleep with this one too, given the opportunity.

“Much harder to find in a snowstorm,” Liara said. “I allowed you in, because you suggested you can help. How?”

I didn’t know how much I should reveal. I didn’t want to proclaim that we were from the same world as those on the starship, and that knowledge only helped a bit anyway. Walt knew some about the operation of the ship. There were other cards I could play.

“We have divine backing. We have a castle not under siege. You can’t stay here, Liara. Not here in the middle of all that has been unleashed,” I said.

Liara gave me a look that made every instinct I have prickle with fear. She was a predator at rest, dangerous and cruel. “You suggest I flee to Castle Sardonis?”

“I suggest that your position here is not tenable and is too much for you to deal with alone.”

“I suppose with the city gone I have no people to hold me here,” Liara said.

Awkward.

“We already moved your city to the castle,” I said.

That look returned and I thought she might fling herself from the throne and rend me asunder. To my surprise she laughed.

“You stole my city and unleashed havoc upon my castle,” Liara said. “With your effort to kill me having failed, you now wish to have me a monarch in exile. It is an interesting game you play, King Liam. I wonder if it ends in courtship or murder.”

I hadn’t really been planning on either. I’d be damned if I wasn’t learning from all my experiences though. When a woman is laughing and seems intrigued, you don’t disabuse her of her notions.

“Find out,” I said.

“Gross,” Ashley said.

Liara wasted little time in thought. “Galea recently connected with the transport network again. I’ll send you two along first so that your people know they are not being invaded. I need to set defenses here and then I’ll begin to send my people through.”

Great. I got to tell Elsora we were having guests moving in after having already dropped a city on her head. I wondered if unleashing Armageddon counted as starting another war.

“We have a friend out there somewhere. A wizard. You had him locked up as well,” I said. “If he should show up, please allow him in as well.”

“Fine,” Liara said. “Although if he is out there it is unlikely he is still alive. It was a surprise that you made it through to the walls.”

Liara made a curt motion with one hand and a servant came up to guide us to the portal. It wasn’t far from the throne room, a polished stone arch filled with crackling energy.

Stepping into the portal resulted in a moment of intense disorientation and, in an instant, we were back at Castle Sardonis. There were surprises waiting for us.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Walt was on the other side of the portal, leaning against the wall and looking bored.

“Did we find Walt’s evil doppelganger?” Ashley asked, with her hands slipping towards her daggers. “Wait. Other way round. Did we find Walt’s good doppelganger?”

“I’m not sure,” I said.

“I’m not my good doppelganger,” Walt said. “I died. A lot. Die enough, and you get to respawn at your home location.”

That made sense. I’d only ever died the once.

“And your home location is the castle,” I said.

“Obviously. I figured if you two were going to make it back, it would be through the portal network,” Walt said.

“Do you know where Elsora is?” I asked. “We’ve got guests arriving.”

“She’s dealing with the guests already here,” Walt said, as he peeled himself off the wall and motioned us along. We followed.

Walt led us through the halls to the war room. Elsora was there standing face to face with Maria. They were doing that staring down each other thing that made it look as if they’d been at it for hours. Spider was doing embroidery, lounging in one of the chairs nearby.

Eyes traced my entrance and Elsora smoothly curtsied. “Majesty. Walt had said you might be returning soon. There is food and beverages on the table.”

So there were. I took a moment to find a sandwich and some wine before making my way back to ask, “So why do you two look like you’re going to murder each other?”

“Idiot,” Maria said. “Why do you think? Because we want to murder each other.”

That did make sense, although I hadn’t really meant it literally.

“How did you get here Maria?” I asked.

“That squirrelly little man found me,” Maria said. “He wishes to be either my spymaster or my tailor. I’ve informed him I need either.”

“Insects really aren’t royal attire,” Spider said.

Maria shot him a venomous look. She hadn’t changed in her time away, her body still covered in a constantly crawling array of spiders that did afford her some modesty, even if it was also creepy as hell. All spiders everywhere also tended to report to her—she really did have both roles already filled.

“I however have found him useful. They arrived with the city that appeared outside. I assume that is your doing,” Elsora said. She was wearing a new dress of clinging black that did seem to have something of the styles I’d seen in the city.

“The city would have been destroyed unless I did something. I used a wish to save the people here. The djinni wound up bringing it here, because she thought it would be funny,” I said, in an effort to explain the situation.

“Because it is an intelligent city with a taste for blood that brings out the worst aspects of those that dwell in it?” Elsora asked.

“Only at night,” I said.

“Which it is here, eternally, for so long as I am around,” Elsora said. “Is this djinni attempting to drive a wedge between us?”

I didn’t think so. I hoped not.

“I think she just likes to cause trouble,” I said. “We have more guests arriving. The White and Black Queen and her palace staff. She has an invasion from another world on her doorstep and she unleashed the worst evils in the world to fight it.”

Elsora and Maria stared at me. Spider went on doing his needlework.

“Idiot,” Maria said.

“I’ll have the guest quarters prepared,” Elsora said. “Is it bad enough that I need to reach out to the other powers?”

“Worse,” I said and looked to Maria. “How much do you know about what has happened since you left?”

“After playing upon my affections and obligations to get me to assist in the murder of my own father, you took this tramp to your bed and put her in charge of your palace,” Maria said in her usual monotone. “When you grew bored with her, you found my betrayer of a mother and took her as a lover. Bored with you, the tramp reanimated the corpse of my father, who promptly showed he still possesses good taste by running away from her as fast he could manage.”

Right. She was a little pissed, and she was missing a few details like what her father was up to. Elsora was probably keeping that from her. I knew they’d both hate what came next.

“Your father left and promptly went to raise an undead army to kill the foes threatening the kingdom,” I said.

Maria pursed her lips, “Why?”

Elsora gave me a cautionary look. I knew I was on dangerous ground here, but I didn’t have time for subtleties.

“Because he views this kingdom as your birthright. He intends to either see us married or me dead, and you taking the throne.”

“Foolish. I have my own people and if I wanted you, I would have you,” Maria said. She began to pace in agitation. I couldn’t help but to admire the hints of flesh that showed between the spiders. I so did not need to go there again.

“He wants the best for you and for this Kingdom,” I said.

“Idiot. You planned to kill him again, of course. You murdered him once for this throne, it would mean nothing for you to do it again,” Maria said.

Guilty as charged.

“That’s changed. We have bigger problems. What has been unleashed means that we now have a common foe. I need him and I need your mother,” I said.

Maria was perfectly still as the spiders scurried furiously. It was an uncomfortable sight.

“Your Majesty, I’d speak with you in private,” Elsora said.

“You disapprove. I know, but between them they are the greatest general we know and the greatest fighter,” I said.

“You are telling me this, why?” Maria asked.

I hadn’t had any plans when I’d entered the room apart from asking Elsora for help. This was one of those moments when I was drowning and suddenly felt alive.

“Because I can’t do it without you,” I said. “Because your father won’t fight for me without you. Because your mother won’t fight beside him without you. I need you, Maria.”

“So, this is you courting?” Maria asked. “What do you expect me to say? What do you expect me to do, when you have betrayed my confidence at every turn?”

I supposed I had. It had been intentional with her father. I made the choice that would give me the Kingdom even though I knew it would hurt her. I knew she’d hate Elsora. Her mother was the only situation where things were truly more complicated than they appeared.

“We are allies,” I said.

“Helping me to kill the Rat King only goes so far. We are past it,” Maria said. “That debt has been paid in full.”

“That is fair,” I said. “Do it then to put your family back together.”

“I could put my family back together without saving your Kingdom,” Maria said. “Idiot. Try harder.”

“What do you want, Maria? I’d offer you my hand and make your father happy, if I thought you wanted it. I’ve treated you poorly and I need you. Name your price,” I said.

Elsora looked furious.

Maria looked broken as she always did. There was something so disconnected about her, so inhuman after being raised by spiders.

“I will intercede on your behalf with my father,” Maria said. “I may not kill my mother, but I will make you no promises. I have not decided on what you owe, but when the time comes you shall pay it.”

Well, that was just about the worst deal ever. I really shouldn’t agree, but I kept falling in bed with the Sardonis family. Literally, for the most part.

“If you want to pop in and make a better deal, now would be the time,” I thought to Yvera.

“We can’t fight that ship and Leosi at the same time. We need her. Just be careful, Liam, she loves you and deserves better than to have her heart broken,” Yvera said.

Yvera liked Maria. I guessed I shouldn’t be surprised. After me, Maria had been her second worshiper.

“Okay,” I said. “We’ll figure it out. Elsora, do you have any way to get into contact with either of them?”

Spider cleared his throat. “A ship matching the description of the Vainglory recently put in at Copperhelm.”

“Copperhelm?” I asked.

“You briefly met one of their ambassadors,” Elsora said. “An old mining settlement turned into a fortress along our northern border. Dwarves mostly. They are independent, but in an awkward position. The elves dislike them and they have no support from us.”

“What is Cobalt doing there? She’s supposed to be looking for Maria,” I said.

“Whatever her reasons, we have a gateway there. I can get you there and quickly,” Elsora said.

“We’ll start with Cobalt then,” I said.

Maria looked between us. “She has much to answer for. I hope for your sake that she says the right things.”

I wasn’t really concerned that Maria would hurt Cobalt, I didn’t think she could. I’d fought beside Maria, she was great at barehanded carnage, but nothing next to her mom.

“Is there anything else I need to be aware of?” I asked Elsora.

Elsora said dryly, “You want the quick summary? The war with Theys is going in our favor. Our raids on their shipping have been something their military is unable to prevent and we’ve claimed numerous contracts. There are rumors they are using their remaining clout to hire mercenaries. Leosi has largely pacified things within our borders.”

“How big is his army now?” I asked.

“Massive,” Elsora said. “They may not have the armor or the skill of many forces, but as a swarm they are said to be relentless.”

“We making any friends?” Ashley asked.

“Not as many as I’d like,” Elsora said. “I’d hoped we might be able to portray Leosi and his army as being at your command. Leosi is no fool and has been playing his own game. He’s creating just enough doubt out there to keep us from alliances.”

“Smart,” I said. If a man was defined by the caliber of his enemies, I was going to be something one of these days. I was regularly playing games out of my league, but I was getting there.

“He is. And since you won’t let me speak with you in private, we need to do this here. This isn’t going to work out the way you want it to, Liam,” Elsora said with a pointed look towards Maria. “Even if she does convince him to go along with you in the face of the current crisis, his objective won’t change. Surround yourself with the Sardonis and this castle will again become theirs in people’s eyes, not yours, even if you remain the one on the throne.”

“I do not care about this throne,” Maria said.

“It doesn’t matter what you want,” Elsora said. “Blood matters. Lineage matters. I can work wonders and if Liam sits on this throne alone long enough I can make him belong there, but perception is vital.”

I reached out to touch Elsora’s shoulder. She was tense. “Thank you,” I said. “I know you’re looking out for my interests, for our interests, but I cannot stress enough how bad the situation is. We need them. Do what you have to, make this work.”

Elsora took a deep breath. “Permission to retain Spider as our spymaster?”

I glanced towards Maria.

“Despite his name, I have no claim on this man,” Maria said. “It is foolish that anyone would think I might.”

“Fine,” I said.

“And I’m going to have to play dirty. We’ll be dropping a lot of bodies. There will be chances for things to go wrong,” Elsora said.

“I helped to unleash a massive disaster. Whatever happens, we’ll handle it,” I said.

“Does this mean I’ll be an assassin that actually gets to assassinate people?” Ashley asked. “Because I have to tell you. I’d love some class quests.”

“Do you have time to spend the night?” Elsora asked.

Maria gave me a dangerous look. I so was not making any public decisions in which bed I was sleeping right now.

“I think we’d better be on our way.”

*****

Half an hour later we’d relocated to another portal room, this one holding the gate to Copperhelm.

“They aren’t answering us, Majesty,” said the servant assisting us. “What we do normally is send word along that a guest will be coming through and they acknowledge. Keeps from panicking anyone on the other end.

“Trouble?” Ashley asked.

“Makes sense, if Cobalt is there,” I said. “Weapons out everyone. I’ll lead the way.”

Readying my shield and Intemperance, I stepped through the gate and the world vanished around me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Lights were out on the other side of the portal. Fortunately, with Intemperance ablaze I could see. The portal chamber here looked to be in some sort of cavern, probably part of the old mine complex.

I moved forward and the others came after me. We had kept things simple, the usual group, only adding Maria.

“Nobody home,” Walt said.

I led the way into the hallway. Two corpses were sprawled out here, guards from the look of them. They looked to have been killed by arrows, every joint of their armor looking to sprout at least one. They’d been picked apart.

Quest Granted

A Bloody Time In The Mines

You’ve managed to find trouble and bloodshed. It’s truly astonishing how that seems to just follow you around. Find out what happened here and see it doesn’t happen to you.

“Great shots,” Ashley said.

Walt bent down and dipped his fingers in the blood, tracing a smear across the floor.

“You’re a bit of a freak now that you have a Goddess in you,” Ashley said.

“Walt is now a Goddess?” Maria asked.

“Sort of. Me, too. It is really badass,” Ashley said.

“It is not freaky,” Walt said in a chastising tone. “The blood is fresh. They haven’t been dead long. Whoever killed them is probably still here.”

“Elves right? It has to be the elves,” I said.

“Well, of course it’s elves. We know they were having issues with them and the corpses are filled with arrows,” Walt said. “It’s only logical.”

“Why now?” Ashley asked.

“It does seem coincidental timing,” Walt said, wiping his fingers clean on the corpse and rising back to his feet.

“Either Cobalt brought a fight with her or it’s connected to the issues in the desert. Let’s keep going and see what we can find out,” I said.

Walt conjured a swarm of fireflies to help us see going forward and I guided the way through the corridor. It was a single, long hallway.

“Why are the lights out, if things happened so recently?” Walt said.

“Dwarves usually live underground. They may have some sort of night vision. If so, the darkness is probably their doing when they came under attack,” Ashley said.

That made sense. It was inconvenient for us, but if an invader wasn’t ready with a light source it would put them at a big disadvantage.

We came to a junction, one passage leading downwards and another slanted upwards. The sounds of combat came from each direction.

“The Vainglory would be outside,” Ashley said. “That would be the upwards passage.”

“My mother is that way,” Maria said, tilting her head towards the other passage. “I can feel her like another walking across my web. I don’t like it.”

“You don’t actually have a web,” Ashley said.

“I am aware. That makes it all the more uncomfortable,” Maria said.

Right. Regardless, it gave a direction. I led the way through the downward passage.

The dwarves had fought to defend this hall. The walls were lined with magical scorch marks and bodied.

Ahead the sounds of combat were growing louder and I quickened the pace. The hall branched into a massive cavern.

The end nearest to us was occupied by a large force of elves wielding bows and dressed in medium and light armor, while the other side had a force of heavily armored dwarves. Neither was fighting. That was reserved for Cobalt, who was squaring off against five others in the middle of the chamber. Only two were elves. I scanned her opponents. That they weren’t already dead suggested there was something more to them.

Cala the Paladin of Ulara

Level 25: Type: Human Champion HP: 350/500

Cala was raised a shepherdess on the hills of Varais. While tending her flock she stumbled upon an ancient temple and became a Paladin of Ulara, the Goddess of Light. With faith and hope she leads her brave band of adventurers.

Devon the Spellsword

Level 25: Type: Elf Champion Construct HP: 270/350

Devon was the third son of minor nobility, forced to take to adventuring after his lands had little need of him. He has mastered a style mingling magic and swordplay and his reckless heroics are quickly becoming legendary.

Tamara the Bard

Level 25: Type: Elf Bard HP: 220/280

Tamara is the daughter of a renowned weaver and it was always assumed she would one day take his place. Adventure called to her instead. Roaming the world she has found friendship and the power of song.

Kelsenfalselfel the Wizard

Level 25: Type: Gnomish Champion HP: 140/140

Kelsenfalselfel is forever accompanied by a number of ferrets crawling about his person he has determined to be a cloak. They aren’t. He also thinks they talk to him, they do not. He swears they whisper to him the secrets of magic and he is an uncommonly powerful mage.

Arkos the Warrior

Level 25: Type: Human Warrior HP: 480/540

Arkos long served as an officer of the Guard in the city of Daelosa. When faced with corrupt city officials he joined an adventuring band and since then has been righting wrongs wherever he finds them.

That was a lot of reading. By the time I was done I looked up to see a large number of bows pointing at us. The elves had been surprised by us sneaking up behind them, but hadn’t stayed surprised. The dwarves were taking advantage of their split attention to inch closer.

“We have a side here?” Walt asked.

“We hate elves,” Yvera said in my head.

I didn’t really hate elves, but Cobalt seemed to already be on the dwarves’ side. That was enough for me.

“We hate elves,” I said.

Swarm of Spiders

Maria went naked for a moment as spiders swarmed off her body. More replaced them quickly enough, though I never quite figured out from where. Masses of black swarmed across the ground and began to leap upon the elves. An arrow whizzed past my ear.

Smite

I let loose several smite cells into clusters of the enemy, a pillar of fire rising from each and in two cases the fire spread to others nearby.

Arrow Monsoon

The elves weren’t inclined to let us have all the fun and the air around us was filled with arrows. I took shelter behind my shield, but I heard Walt cry out as numerous arrows flung him back and pinned him to the floor.

Sever the Roots

The dwarves charged in an armored wall with their axes hacking at the elves’ feet.

I exchanged several blows with one elf before the combat pulled us apart. I was going for Walt, I knew he had to be in rough shape after all those arrows. I reached out to send a heal coursing through his system.

Walt sat up clutching at his shoulder. “I’m getting sick of dying or almost dying.”

I raised my shield to protect him as another arrow nearly took him in the head.

“We aren’t sticking around,” I said, and then raising my voice called out, “Ashley, Maria, over here.”

The girls arrived after a few moments. Neither seemed to be terribly bothered by the rain of arrows as they moved with fluid grace around the majority that came in their direction.

Once they got close I reached out a hand to rest on each of their shoulders and nudged Walt with my foot. “The dwarves have this. Get us to Cobalt.”

Group Teleport

The world shifted and we were near the group of five and Cobalt. Cobalt was getting the worst of it, her lip split and bloodied, and her shoulder blackened.

Arkos swung his two-handed sword. Cobalt caught it between her hands and with a twist of her hips delivered a kick to his ribs that sent him flying across the room. It left her vulnerable to a precision strike from Devon, who pierced her back with a rapier dancing with lightning bolts. A cry and a twist, and her fist met his jaw with a resounding crack.

When we materialized Cala’s eyes flickered between us and she held up a hand. “Let’s talk shall we?”

Cobalt straightened with a grimace. “Liam, what the hell are you doing here?” Then deep blue eyes met an identical stare. “Maria?”

“You two, talk. Us two, talk,” I said, and moved over to Cala. Elsewhere the dwarves and elves went right on killing each other. The dwarves had the numbers advantage after our accidental ambush.

“You’re him, aren’t you? The King of Flames. Bringing of darkness and harbinger of the world’s end,” Cala said.

“You can call me Liam,” I said, giving her my best flirtatious smile. She didn’t seem impressed.

“We should be less with the talking and more with the chopping, Cala,” Arkos said.

“I’m with him,” Ashley said. “Though substitute stabbing. I actually have skills.”

Maria and Cobalt moved away to get involved in an intense-looking conversation. I was sorry to miss it.

“I’m Cala. Clearly my companions think it foolish for me to be speaking with you, but I hope that you can be swayed from your course.”

“And what course do you think it is that I’m on?”

“One that brings suffering, pain and terror wherever you go. Even from afar tales of your deeds spread, are they wrong? Do you have some justification for the things you have done?”

This lady was starting out the conversation awfully critical. I didn’t like it.

“I’m not the one invading and slaughtering everyone,” I said. “You seem to be bringing some suffering yourself.”

Cala frowned at that. “The Elves pushed this fight, we are but accompanying them. I gather the tensions here have been long simmering and that provocations have been many.”

I didn’t have any way to refute that. I was barely aware of who these Dwarves even were.

“Cala, you seem nice even if sadly not very flirtatious, but so far if you’re trying to make a point, you’re failing. We muddled right into a grey area, which has kind of been my life.”

Cala took a deep breath and tilted her head. “Fine. In your quest for power you have brought considerable hardship and pain to the world with no regard for the consequences. That cannot be allowed to continue.”

“I’m trying to put things right even now. In the east something terrible is growing and I’m attempting to gather the forces needed to stop it.”

Cala went silent, thinking.

Maria stormed over from her conversation with Cobalt and, before I could say anything, slapped me. My ears still ringing from the first blow, she hit me with a second before going still, glaring.

Cala quirked a brow at me.

“I murdered her father then slept with her mom. It’s complicated.”

“The sleeping with I knew about. The getting her with child is something you should have informed me of,” Maria said in a dangerous monotone.

What? My stomach dropped and the room spun around me.

Maria slapped me again and stormed off back to her mother.

“We just tried to kill a pregnant woman?” Devon asked. “Cala, even if she is an evil queen that is beyond the bounds of decency.”

“I didn’t know,” Cala said, looking at me aghast. “You send her off to do your dirty work in such a condition? What kind of a monster are you?”

I was finding it rather hard to string words together. How did that even work?

“YVERA!” I shouted in my head.

“We’re going to be parents,” came Yvera’s voice in my head, sounding incredibly pleased. That isn’t what I needed. That really is not what I needed. My Goddess was nesting.

“Cala. You and your companions just did your utmost to murder a pregnant woman. Your group probably wants to yell at each other a bit, and I’ve got women that need to slap me.”

Cala glared at me and then looked to her companions. Most of the elves were now corpses with only a few holdouts left standing. “Safe passage for us out?”

“Done. And to Castle Sardonis at some point, if you would care to further discuss matters. Things really are more complicated than they appear.”

Cala looked me up and down and shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. If one thing is clear, it is that you are a monster using everyone around you. We’ll see each other again, and next time you won’t have your human shield.”

The gnome wizard, Kelsenfalselfel, reached out to the others and with a flicker the group vanished. Great.

Quest Completed

A Bloody Time In The Mines

You’ve managed to find trouble and bloodshed and come out alive. You also managed to allow a group of heroes to escape your clutches. You would think you would have learned from Barton the Brute to never leave an enemy at your back.

I looked towards Maria and Cobalt. A few dwarves had joined them. One in a crown was kneeling.

“So, uh… congratulations?” Ashley said.

“What is happening over there? Please tell me the dwarf king is not in love?”

“He is grateful for Maria saving them all and just swore his allegiance to her,” Ashley said. “Weird right?”

Cobalt had the Right of War and brought conflict with her wherever she went. Maria had the Right of Rule and built empires just by her presence. It wasn’t weird. It should have been, but somehow this was what I should have expected.

“Not really a surprise. When Cobalt powered down after you slept with her, what else could it have been? Must be nice to have things confirmed though,” Walt said, joining us. Maybe it should have been obvious, but it wasn’t to me.

“Did she not tell you at all?” Ashley asked.

“No. She didn’t say a word.”

Ashley gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Things got crazy. Things are always crazy.”

“She had time, and things are always going to be crazy around her,” I said. “I don’t even get to be mad at her, do I. Not anymore.”

“You can be mad,” Ashley said. “Mad is okay. Mad is good. You just don’t get to be an asshole about it. I guess your kid will be software?”

“Things are a lot more complicated than that,” Walt said. “Mela is still trying to put all the pieces together. Yvera isn’t very good at math and science. I used to think she was, because she was hosted on a computer, but that’s like saying that we’re all good at biology.”

I was apparently good at biology. “What are you saying?” I asked.

“Nothing yet,” Walt said, and went silent for a long moment that descended into awkwardness. “Just be careful with this, with her. Things aren’t what they appear.”

Great. Another worry. Maria and Cobalt were walking over. Maria slapped me again. That was getting old. I took it. I deserved it.

No, I didn’t. I wouldn’t think that way. I didn’t sink, I wasn’t going to sink. I rose above.

I reached out to brush Cobalt’s cheek with my fingertips and expended a heal. She scarcely needed it at this point, but I wanted to make sure.

“My daughter needed a reason not to kill me,” Cobalt said. “I should have told you first.”

“I should have guessed,” I said. “I know there is more to it.”

“So much more,” Cobalt said. “But we have other problems to deal with first. The biggest war of your lifetime is coming, Liam. But we’ve got this little one to deal with first. I understand you’ve gone from hunting Leosi to wanting to recruit him.”

“I guess we have. Know where we can find him?”

“I don’t, but Lea will be able to locate him,” Cobalt said. “I’m guessing he is not far. I got word the Elves were on the move and wanted to investigate, wandering right into the middle of this.”

“Father will have moved to defend the border, if he felt it in danger,” Maria said, and slapped me again.

“Enough,” I said. “I deserved those, but enough.”

Maria stared at me for a long moment and gave the most imperceptible of nods.

“One big happy family,” Cobalt said.

We sort of were now. I really hoped we’d get attacked soon. I wanted something to kill.

We’d been doing quite a bit of fighting in the caves and I noticed a level indicator blinking away. I decided to address it before we moved on.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 13

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Barter. As the Chosen of Yvera you have further gained 1 point of Luck. Due to your attunement you have an increased presence in the physical world and have gained 1 point in both Power and Endurance. You have further gained enhancements to the following abilities…

Zealous Blow: Zealous Blow now restores a fraction of damage dealt using the ability as health.

You have gained an enhancement to an innate ability…

Blessed Nature: Because of your divine nature a bonus is added to all persuasion, seduction, and barter challenges.

Anything that would help me to stay healed in a fight was welcome. I didn’t use Zealous Blow all that much but perhaps I should start. My innate gave me another boost to things I was already quite good at. I sank the point from this level into Charisma.

Name: Liam Ottani

Class: Paladin of Yvera

Deity: Yvera

Titles: Chosen of Yvera, King of Genea, Admiral Flame

Level: 13

HP: 430/430

Stamina: 190/90

Mana: 80/80

XP: 12 of 1000 to next level

Alignment: -1000

Stats

Power: 19 (+7) Endurance: 19 Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 8 Awareness: 6

Charisma: 15 Luck: 9

Skills

Long Blades: 90

Blunt Weapons: 16

Hand to Hand: 12

Mounted Combat: 15

Light Armor: 15

Medium Armor: 29

Heavy Armor: 17

Persuasion: 40

Seduction: 78

Meditation: 4

Barter: 31

Shield Use: 18

Arson: 12

Double Attack: 2

Blademaster: 1

Spells

Smite

Sense Virtue

Lay on Hands (3 uses per 4 hours)

Bless Water

Bless

Divine Steed

Divine Power

Zealous Blow

Holy Object

Innates

Blessed Nature

Fire Resistance: 50%

Sense Alignment

Fire Within

Fueling the Flame

Aura of Destruction

Aura of Kings

Burning Down the House

Feast of Flames

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

We found the Vainglory on the surface. While Cobalt fought below it seemed Riggs and Lea had been in a pitched battle with an Elvish airship, a great balloon that the Elves flew.

It seemed the enemy had withdrawn when Cala and her friends made their exit. It was a shame, I was sure my fire magic would do wonders against a balloon.

No sooner were we aboard than Maria and Cobalt both went to their respective cabins and locked themselves in. Good. I know I had things I needed to work out with both of them and a lot of questions for Cobalt, but right now I didn’t want to deal with any of the Sardonis women. I went in search of Lea.

I found her on the deck. The runes upon her skin were fully lit. The scrying windows everywhere in front of her meant she was looking for something.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” Lea said, motioning to a crate nearby. “You look beat up.”

I settled myself down. “A lot has happened since we last saw each other.”

“Need to talk about it?”

“Every time I think I’m getting a handle on things and seizing control of my own destiny, I seem to make things worse,” I said. “I kind of unleashed the apocalypse.”

“Literally or figuratively? No judgment, just helps to know,” Lea said.

“Literally.”

Lea grunted, “Been there.”

I stared at her. That didn’t seem very likely.

Lea caught my look and laughed. “Seriously. Travel with Cobalt and stuff happens. It wasn’t here obviously.”

“Is it true the Vainglory can travel between worlds?” I asked.

Lea gave me a stare and after a few moments shrugged. “We try to keep that quiet, but yeah. We get around. We’ve been here for a while, because Cobalt hoped to change her fate. How did you destroy the world?”

“Let loose a Goddess everybody said would destroy the world,” I said, and sheepishly added, “First thing she did on getting out was set things in motion to destroy the world.”

“Don’t have to be a seer to see that one coming,” Lea said. “Why’d you do it?”

“Yvera.”

Lea nodded and looked back to her portals.

“No snide comments?” I asked.

“You think you deserve them?”

Didn’t I? What was I even doing here? Had we never come into this world, a lot more innocent people would be alive.

“Remember our talk about Cobalt being the hero in our particular stories?” Lea asked.

“Hard to forget. I argued with you about it.”

“You were right,” Lea said quietly. “You know who spends their lives agonizing about the effects of every possible decision? Cowards. You know who acts and becomes paralyzed by the results of what they’ve done? Failures.”

That was harsh. It was getting me a bit bumped up, but it was harsh.

“So, you’re saying I shouldn’t feel guilt,” I said.

“Feel it, if you deserve it. But I’ve traveled a lot, Liam. I’ve seen a lot. I felt a lot of guilt and later decided it was stupid. The only things I’ve ever really been ashamed of was not acting out of love, not standing by my friends and my family when they needed me. The rest of it?” Lea shrugged again. “It doesn’t last.”

There was truth in those words. I could hear it, I could feel it. They may not be the whole of the truth, but they’d do for now.

“Do you have a location on Leosi yet?” I asked.

“Yeah. About that, go knock on doors and get everyone together. We’ve got a problem and I’d rather brief everyone all at once.”

*****

Half an hour later we all convened in the Captain’s cabin.

“Thanks for coming everyone. We’ve walked right into the middle of a war,” Lea said.

“The Elves are making a big move instead of a small one?” Cobalt asked.

“The Elves have crossed the border with seventeen airships armed with ballista and battle mages. A few days back, from what I can tell, the majority of the Elvish army began marching on Galea,” Lea said.

“Fuck,” Ashley said.

“Leosi has engaged them but is struggling,” Lea said.

“We can handle this many,” Cobalt said. “Get us close to an airship and I go over. We just need to do that seventeen times and we take out their air support.”

“No,” Maria and I said in unison.

“I’m not suggesting I take on the whole army single-handed. It’s just a ship’s compliment,” Cobalt said.

“Mother, you are as foolish as you are old and promiscuous. You could not handle five adventurers,” Maria said.

It was good to see them getting along.

“We’d hoped to have you in the fight for longer, but you clearly aren’t. Maria is right,” I said.

“If the plan isn’t me killing everything, then we don’t have one,” Cobalt said.

“Father will have a plan,” Maria said confidently.

“How is he doing, Lea?” I asked.

“Poorly, he has an army of skeletons and zombies and is going against airships. He lacks a counter,” Lea said.

“Amazing he is holding up at all. He’s built a force to wage a ground campaign. Hitting him with this much force from the air isn’t something he would have expected,” Cobalt said.

“You don’t think he stands a chance?” I asked.

“Give him time, he’ll figure something out. The problem is the enemy knows that as well. They’ll be pushing their advantage,” Cobalt said.

“And I’m not keen on trying to find him,” Riggs said. “We go soaring over his forces and like as nothe will think we came to attack him as well..”

“Father has been searching for me,” Maria said. “Get me down and into his forces and they will be expecting me. I can find him and explain to him what is going on.”

I nodded. “We’ll do that. Walt, Mela is a master crafter. Any chance of getting an automaton air force in a hurry?”

Walt tilted his head to the side. “No. For something like this she’d need to work through me. She has the parts, but not the hands. Normally one generation of machines would build the next, but there is no starting generation. The whole process takes time to ramp up.”

Labor was the weak spot. We could fix that.

“Go with Maria,” I said. “Pass the instructions to the necromancer.”

“You want to turn the zombie army into zombie machinists?” Ashley asked. “Will that work?”

“She likes the plan,” Walt said.

“What about us?” Ashley asked.

I grimaced. They weren’t going to like this next bit, neither did I.

“We’re going to get in close so I can go over and speak with them,” I said.

There was a silence.

“Idiot,” Maria said.

“I have to try to put a stop to this,” I said. “What is happening to the east has to be our focus and it should be the Elves’ focus as well. We don’t need their forces destroyed, we need them on our side.”

“They’ll kill you,” Ashley said.

“We can go along,” Cobalt said.

“You will not,” Maria said. I agreed. That wasn’t going to happen.

“I can go,” Ashley said. “I still have the magic carpet in my inventory. I go in stealthy and if things go screwy, you’ll have backup and an exit plan.”

I didn’t like the thought of putting her at risk, but that was smart thinking.

“Do that. Lea, keep a scry portal on me. Hopefully they take me to their command airship. If things go south, blow it out of the sky,” I said.

“Won’t be that easy, lad,” Riggs said with a scowl. “I know them Elven birds look like they should fall right out of the sky, but they’re sorcerously shielded and hardened.”

“We could just use a wish,” Ashley said.

I hadn’t thought of Gina since she’d moved the city, but of course Ashley still had the lamp.

“Let’s call her up,” I said. I’d been assuming that everything in the newly formed desert of glass was ours to deal with. It was worth investigating if there was a simpler solution.

Ashley withdrew the lamp and after a bit of rubbing Gina appeared in a puff of turquoise smoke. She was lounging in a chair.

“You make interesting friends,” Cobalt said coldly, the distaste radiating off her.

“Did you impregnate her as well?” Maria asked.

Deep breath.

“Not to my knowledge. Gina, thank you for getting everyone out safely. I heard they’re setting in nicely,” I said.

“Being eaten one at a time by the very city they call home and cursing your name every moment,” Gina said with a brilliant smile. “I’m amazing.”

“Could you maybe not delight in screwing me over?” I asked.

“I may be a bitch, but I’m no liar,” Gina said. “But you didn’t call me here to flirt. Probably. What’s up?”

“Crashed spaceship in the desert, the one that you couldn’t stop. Can you do anything about it?” I said.

Gina’s smile faltered. “Oh I’m good, but they’ve got some tricks I haven’t seen before. The whole of reality around them is fixed in some way we Djinni haven’t seen before.”

“It’s likely the same thing that kept my magic from working against them,” Walt said. “I think it relates to the warp drive. They pass through areas of unstable reality and to maintain integrity have enhancers to fix space in their vicinity.”

“Seriously?” I said. “Technobabble works between worlds?”

“Not as a constant. Some realities have a lot of rules they impose on anything entering. The Crucible Shard is more flexible than most,” Cobalt said.

Right. Now she was giving me lectures on traveling between games. I really needed to figure out what was up with her. It wasn’t just the comments Lea had made in the past about her badassery that concerned me, but her attitude. I knew the people on that ship would be mass murdering, thieving, sociopaths. To them everyone and everything in this world was a game. Our little group was the same way. That was also how Cobalt lived her life, except she was better at it than any of us.

“What about the unspeakable horrors?” I asked.

“Oh, we have so much fun with them. If you want me to clear them out, I can scatter them around the world. Or maybe I could combine them into one mega-monster,” Gina said, leaning forward with a sparkle in her eyes.

None of those sounded like particularly great ideas.

“You should do that,” Walt said.

The room turned to stare at him.

“You know the firepower that ship packs. They have unity, organization, and a lot of tricks. Those horrors might slow them down right now, but that has limits.”

“You think that by consolidating the threat we’ll make it more dangerous,” I said.

“It’s a pretty common theme. The technologically superior foe struggling against the massive ancient evil,” Walt said.

It was. I looked to Gina, who was grinning madly.

“What sort of twist would you add for something like that?” I asked.

“Honey. You’re asking me to create a big, bad sower of death of destruction. I don’t have to put in a twist for something like that.”

“What about the Elves?” Ashley asked.

Gina grimaced. “I don’t do genocides. You want me to wipe out the ones nearby I can do that. I don’t recommend it. You hear of any great warlords who used Djinni to fight all their battles?”

“No,” I said, as she seemed to be expecting an answer.

“That is because they die from the wishes turning on them before they ever get that far. Keep to your flailing anti-hero vibe and fight your own wars.”

I wasn’t flailing. I wasn’t an anti-hero.

“I wish all the unspeakable horrors would combine into a new form standing a better chance against the crashed spaceship,” I said. That part at least seemed a good idea, in that really bad idea sort of way.

“On it,” Gina said, and vanished in a turquoise poof.

“Deals with Djinni never end well,” Cobalt said.

“Idiot,” Maria said, and mother and daughter shared a look of understanding.

“We’ve got a plan. Get to it,” I said.

The meeting broke up. Why was trying to do the right thing so much harder than doing the wrong thing?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Several hours later we were approached by a small balloon. Communicating intent with the Elves had been easier than I expected, but Lea’s abilities at bridging distances proved to have some use. Working out terms was another matter altogether—they didn’t trust us in the slightest.

Eventually it was agreed I could go alone and they would escort me to their Commander. The elves were lean and stately, their expressions inscrutable.

Normally my charm does a pretty good job at getting people to open up, but here I seemed to be firing conversational blanks. I got the impression that it was not just me. These were a cold and formal people.

My two companions in the smaller craft skillfully guided us through the sky as we neared the Elven forces.

Their airships were far different than the Vainglory. These were Zeppelins, massive balloons with the ships carried beneath them. Everything was ornately patterned wood, natural bends and curves that showed no seams, making it look as if the ships had been grown.

There was a flicker of white and blue as we approached the largest ship, a magical ward identifying us and lowering the defenses as we got near.

I hoped Ashley was with us. The unfortunate thing about a companion in stealth is not knowing if they’re there or not. If things are going according to plan you feel totally alone.

We drifted towards the ship and with a tremor of magical force docked. A woman with hair in ornate braids that must have taken hours dipped her head. “Welcome, Majesty. I’m Ambassador Lewai and I’ll be speaking to you instead of Commander Wiola.”

“You seem chattier than the soldiers.”

“I have the position I do because of my ability to speak to all sorts of people,” Lewai said, and while perfectly polite her voice still managed to convey hints of disapproval. It was an impressive performance.

Lewai led the way deeper onto the ship and several soldiers stepped into place behind us. A beautiful craft, this was also clearly a ship of war, powerful bolt throwers at regular intervals upon the deck.

We made our way to an elegant meeting room with large windows showing the sky outside.

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask to take my sword,” I said.

“Would you have given it up, if we had?” Lewai said, shrugging.”Draw it and you die. That should serve as discouraging enough.”

It did make a strong case.

“Something to drink?” Lewai asked, indicating a sideboard. “You’ll find Elven wine exquisite in comparison to the brews of your land.”

“Why am I meeting with you instead of your Commander?” I asked. Bluntness seemed called for.

“Because the situation is an unusual one and there is protocol. The Commander is currently leading his force in war against yours,” Lewai said, pouring two glasses of wine and setting one before me as she settled down with the other. “Forces not directly under your command. I am able to speak on behalf of both my people and this force.”

She must be this fleet’s equivalent of Elsora, the diplomat behind things. That was good, exactly who I’d have tried to speak with had I known she existed. Yet somehow, while I found Elsora comforting, this woman already grated on me.

I took a sip of the wine. It really was exquisite. Damn it.

“I wish a cessation of hostilities between us,” I said.

Lewai took a tiny sip from her glass. “Then surrender. We hold no hatred of your lands or your people. Remove yourself from power and allow us to save them.”

“They don’t need saving.”

Lewai arched an elegant brow. “You know that to be a lie even as you speak it. Did they choose to have their lives plunged into eternal darkness? Did they choose to suffer for the wars you have started? Have you left the world better than you found it?”

That was the question. I asked it of myself so often, it was no surprise that they would ask it as well. This wasn’t the place to be consumed with doubts or guilt though. I’d gain nothing by being weak before these people. I’d only prove them right.

“Before I arrived Galea was a nation with a cursed castle dominated by brigands and opportunists, because all order has fallen? Of course they are better off,” I said, leaning forward. “I’m a force of order, while to the east things fall into chaos.”

Lewai again arched that brow. She’d obviously practiced that gesture far too much. “We do have seers and you cannot distance yourself from those events. We know who you are, and we know what you’ve done. You will not be allowed to continue.”

“Do you think you have the strength to deal with such foes, if you first struggle with me? I promise you, you won’t.”

“Elves. There is no reasoning with them,” Yvera said in my head.

“You might have said something before I came all the way over to their fleet.”

“I was hoping we’d get the chance to burn a lot of them alive.”

I really needed to get a new Goddess.

“I heard that.”

“Good.”

Lewai shook her head. “Do you think us fools? You wage a war of expansion to the west, while sparking chaos in the east to fend off the advances of the Dark Court. The army you are mustering can have but one purpose. Us.”

My enemies thought me too clever by half. Normally I’d think that a good thing.

Before I could form any sort of reply Ashley came out of stealth behind Lewai, one hand grabbing at her chin and jerking it back as the other dragged a dagger across her throat. An alarming amount of blood squirted from the wound, splattering across me and the table as life quickly faded from the panicked eyes of the elf.

“Yes!” Yvera cried out in my head.

“What the hell!” I screamed at Ashley.

“Behind you,” Ashley said, as she slipped free a hand-crossbow.

I drew Intemperance as I stood from the table and spun it backwards to plunge it through the chest of one of the soldiers charging me. He twitched as the flames charred his innards and I spun him to use as a shield against the remaining soldier.

The body took a swipe from the soldier’s sword even as Ashley brushed past me to drive her daggers into his eyes.

I pulled Intemperance free. The great thing about a flaming sword was you never needed to wipe it free of blood.

“I’m repeating the damned question,” I said.

“You two were being boring,” Ashley said, as she knelt to search the bodies. “I figured action was going to break out eventually. Why wait.”

I never should have agreed to her coming along. Ashley wasn’t right in the head ever since her torture session. Diplomacy hadn’t seemed to have been going anywhere, but now we’d kind of slit diplomacy’s throat and dumped the body.

“This isn’t okay. Damn it. Lea, I hope you’re watching. Violence is a go, get the message to the others.”

Ashley finished with the guards and searched Lewai. The gear must have been good. Ashley stripped them all bare.

“I’ve got the carpet on me,” Ashley said. “We’ll get off this ship and you can go all whiny bitch on me.”

I didn’t want things to go down like this, but now that they had, I had an obligation to see they went our way.

“Not yet. We kill the commander and then we go.”

Ashley grinned. “More killing. And I bet their leader has great gear.”

“Wish I knew how to find him.”

“Let me. You go lumbering around out there we won’t get more than ten feet before we’re swarmed by guards,” Ashley said. “I can find him. Clear a path.”

“There are guards outside that door. We’re lucky they didn’t hear the killing earlier. You go opening up that door and we’ll have a fight anyways,” I said.

Ashley shrugged and went over to the windows, drawing her daggers. A few well-placed cuts and she forced one open. The magic carpet came out and then, just like that, she was gone. It was one way to make an exit.

Great. Just me passing the time with three naked elf corpses.

I grabbed the carafe of wine and took a seat back at the table, taking a swig.

“Bet you didn’t see this coming,” I said to the corpse of the ambassador. It really was great wine.

A long while passed. I couldn’t see signs of it through the window, but we must have engaged in battle. Elsewhere in the halls I could hear the sounds of shouting and the ship would occasionally shake as if something had made impact.

After a time came a quick knocking upon the door and it cracked open to reveal the head of a young woman. A serving girl of some sort. “Ambassador. I wished to check that you are well.” The girl got a look at the bodies and screamed. “He has killed the Ambassador and her guards and defiled their corpses!”

I hadn’t defiled anyone and I’d only murdered one of them. This was going to do wonders for my reputation.

Bless Water

I channeled Yvera’s blessing into the wine. When the door burst open seconds later and soldiers surged through, I threw it towards them.

Smite

I hit the wine with the smite spell just as it was about to impact with the lead soldier. It exploded into a fireball blasting the soldiers back into the hall.

The window wasn’t an option, I didn’t have a magic carpet on me. That meant going through the door.

I charged through and stabbed at the still-burning soldiers. They were in no shape to defend themselves.

The servant girl was reaching the end of the hall, still screaming at the top of her lungs. I readied a smite and then with a deep breath released it uncast.

She might die if this ship went down, but I wasn’t going to burn her alive. Besides, she was useful. All of that screaming would attract attention to her. I went the opposite direction.

The halls of the ship were surprisingly empty. The crew must have been at their action stations.

If I didn’t have Ashley to extract me, my best hope was going to be the way I got aboard. I retraced my steps and soon emerged back on deck. The air around the vessel was pulsing a deep blue. Through the magical energy I could see the Vainglory. Crews worked the bolt throwers on deck. The Vainglory wasn’t getting through the airship’s shields—and the far more nimble ship was avoiding the bolt throwers. It looked like a standoff.

So far, I hadn’t been noticed. I scanned those on deck.

Elvish Bowman

Level 15: Type: Elf HP: 150/150

Bowmen are the backbone of the Elvish army. Capable of numerous trick shots they are not only solid damage dealers, but also have great crowd control abilities.

Elvish Cleric

Level 20: Type: Elf HP: 170/170

Elvish Clerics are not just capable of healing magic but also have considerable gifts at dealing divine damage.

Elvish Shieldmage

Level 25: Type: Elf HP: 200/200

Shieldmages are masters of protective magic. Not only are they capable of shielding themselves, with the ability to become nearly invulnerable in combat they can shield others to a lesser degree.

That gave me an option. I suspected there was more than one mage maintaining that shield, but killing just one might disrupt it enough for the Vainglory to win this fight.

There was also the balloon overhead. If I could manage to set fire to it, then that might crash us without need of the Vainglory at all.

“Happen to know if that balloon is filled with flammable gas?”

“They built this thing to take into war against battle mages. Unfortunately, they aren’t that dumb.”

That was unfortunate. There was another option, the anchor points where the balloon was attached to the ship below.

I focused on one, seeing if I could pull up any details.

Cable Attachment

Type: Structure HP: 5000/5000

That seemed unnecessarily sturdy. The mage was going to be my best option. Hopefully he was so busy defending the ship he wouldn’t have his own defenses up.

I hoped Ashley was busy killing the Commander somewhere. I didn’t have time to find her or to wait.

I charged towards the Shieldmage, drawing Intemperance only at the last moment. Subtle my sword was not.

Zealous Blow

My blade dug deeply into his shoulder. An astonished scream came from the mage, his robes catching alight.

Fist of the Divine

I felt my ribs crack as I flew backwards. Their clerics weren’t the only one that could lash out with divine fury.

Smite

I threw a smite at the badly injured mage and he waved his hand. The spell deflected and flames flared in the air. That was a new trick. I didn’t approve. The mage was limping away and others were moving to cover his retreat. I could use that to my advantage.

Smite

Smite

Armor Piercing Shot

I threw Smites at the cleric and bowman who had moved to either side of the Shieldmage. Both were engulfed in flames and as I’d hoped, it spread. The Shieldmage wasn’t expecting the area of effect to spread to him and fire engulfed him. With only a sliver of health remaining it was enough and he perished.

It was then that I took an arrow in my knee, the shaft plunging right through my armor, and I collapsed hard to the deck.

The ship was rocked by another volley of fire from the Vainglory and above the shields flickered out.

Three soldiers were advancing on me with swords drawn. The lead one screamed as what appeared to be some sort of clockwork dragonfly landed on his face and with tiny buzzsaws began to remove it.

I was gripped by the curious sensation of both intense gratitude and wishing I could unsee something.

On the deck all around me dragonflies were attacking, the battle mages turning their attention to the new foe. Flaming streaks flew from the sky.

The Vainglory was drifting closer when a bolt thrower finally got lucky and the side of the ship took some nasty damage that sent it peeling off.

The remaining soldiers reached me and even as I parried one blow the other drove his sword through my shoulder.

I downed a health potion and tried to crawl away. With the arrow I could barely move.

Double Backstab

Ashley materialized out of stealth and her blades bit deeply into one of the soldiers killing him instantly. If I felt nearly dead, she looked it. A massive wound in her chest seemed to be leaking bits she really needed to keep inside and she was missing a foot. It was just gone.

Lay on Hands

I reached out and forced the healing magic into her system.

Ashley howled in agony. “Fuck, not now, Liam. One is still up.”

One was, but I don’t know if she understood how bad she looked. The remaining soldier turned his attention from me and with a fierce blow drove his sword all the way through her stomach again. No wonder Yvera hated Elves. I was starting to hate Elves.

Flurry of Blows

Ashley let out a howl of rage and pain, and lashed out with blow after blow into the soldier’s unprotected neck and face. It’s amazing how much blood the body holds. I think he was dead in the first few seconds, but she was in no mood to stop. I grabbed his arm and wrenched to pull the sword out of her.

Lay on Hands

I once again knit her body back together and still she was lashing out. It was just bones now. Bones and blood. I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her off.

“Snap out of it, Ashley! We need to go,” I said, as I dragged her towards the edge of the ship.

I shielded her with my back as arrows pelted against my armor. I had that rush of heat and exhilaration from my passives as they barely served to keep me alive.

Ashley was panting and her eyes were manic. She was fully into the midst of a blood rage. Elves were closing in on us from all directions. We didn’t have a choice. I grabbed her and jumped. We went right off the edge of the ship.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The air rushed around us as we fell from the ship. The Vainglory was too far away to help us. I could see her lurch in the distance, firing a broadside.

I turned my attention towards the earth. Below us were mountains and hills. We weren’t going to fall into a lake—that was too much to hope for.

I kept an arm tightly around Ashley and shifted my back to the ground. It slowed our descent slightly.

Ashley was struggling against me with a primal fury, madness still in her eyes.

“The ground gets closer every second, Ashley. Snap. Out. Of. It,” I said.

She wasn’t getting saner.

“Atlantia, if you are in there, Ashley is going to die if you don’t get her under control,” I said. It was worth a try. Yvera had never assumed control of me, but she was in my head in every other way.

Ashley’s eyes shimmered and turned into the color of deep sea—and her hair took on streaks of blue.

The carpet appeared out of her inventory and she handed it over to me. “Being this deeply in her body is unpleasant and off-putting. I wish you success.”

Ashley transformed back to herself and once again resumed her struggles. I slammed my head into hers and there was a resounding crack. The things you can do when wearing a helmet.

Hopefully she didn’t have a concussion. It at least stopped the struggles. I shifted her against my chest so that I could trigger the carpet. It unfurled beneath us and we plowed into it.

I had hopes it would stop our descent at once, but instead we only seemed to be slowing down. We were rapidly approaching a peak of a mountain and I angled our fall away to give that much more distance before we hit the ground. The most valuable commodity we had now was time, every second gained would give the carpet a little more time.

When the carpet finally leveled out I let out a whoop of relief and we zoomed just above the trees.

Basic survival attended to, I looked up to see how the battle was proceeding. Several of the airships had fire on their decks. In the distance I could see the vast gray mass that was Leosi’s undead hordes. There were massive gaps in those ranks and blackened craters.

In the distance the Vainglory was a speck retreating from battle. I aimed the carpet in their direction.

We were halfway there when Ashley stirred back to consciousness.

“What’s with the inappropriate touching?” Ashley asked in a mumble. “And why have I got a massive headache?”

“You went a little insane and we wound up jumping off the ship. We’re on the carpet now.”

“Don’t remember that.”

“Atlantia took you over for a bit.”

“She can do that?”

“Seems so.”

Ashley grimaced and squirmed free of my grasp to look out over the battlefield. “Think we’re winning?”

I wished I could say it did. At best, I think we’d hurt them and driven the Elves back for a time.

“I think we managed to turn a total defeat into a minor one. Did you manage to kill the Commander?”

Ashley reached down to rub at her stomach and shook her head. “He got a scar, I got to wear my guts on the outside. I got my ass kicked.”

Great. It wasn’t exactly unexpected that she wouldn’t be able to solo someone like that, but it would have helped if she had.

Riggs was waiting for us when we finally landed the carpet on the deck of the Vainglory.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“Cobalt has the helm and Lea is keeping an eye on pretty much everything.”

“How is the Vainglory holding up?” Ashley asked.

“Lassie, we’re still flying, but it’s a near thing. We weren’t expecting them to have brought that kind of firepower. They brought everything they had to the fight.”

“That true?” I thought to Yvera.

“How would I know? Do I seem like an expert on Elven military distribution?”

We really needed a deity of knowledge in this little pantheon. I was sure Yvera would be able to tell me all about Elvish mating habits.

“Unfortunately, and it is disgusting.”

Ashley and I made our way to the bridge. Cobalt had a painful gash on her forehead, but otherwise seemed unharmed.

“You okay?” I asked.

“We’re still in the sky,” Cobalt asked. “Those airships are pushing the pursuit, but we’re faster. Once we lose them we can hook back up with Leosi.”

“Open to an alternative plan?” I asked.

Cobalt gave me a look. “As long as it isn’t going back to that damned castle where you can lock me up secure behind protective wards. Leosi would try such things, I won’t have it from you.”

Should I do that? Tempting.

“They committed everything to this offensive. Do you think I can do anything to command our defense better than Leosi can?”

Cobalt didn’t even have to think about it. “No, he’s a tactical genius. You’d be in the way.”

“And Elsora is better at running the Kingdom. If any of us on the Vainglory have anything going for us, it’s mobility and punching above our weight limit,” I said.

“Damn straight,” Ashley said.

Cobalt nodded slowly, “Where are you going with this?”

“Let’s play offense. They’re going south, let’s go north. Deep into the Elven homeland. Let’s gank the elves.”

End

Coming Soon

Book Four of the Crucible Shard

Gank

Elvish armies march upon the lands of Genea from the north while to the east several terrifying threats war amongst themselves. Never happy to play defense Liam, Walt, and Ashley set off deep into the heart of Elven lands. They’ll take the fight to the enemy before it can brought to them.

Thank you—not just for reading to the end, but for reading this little bit further. I love these characters and these stories, and I hope that you do as well.

Please, if you enjoyed this book leave a review on Amazon. Your encouragement is a powerful thing. It’s how us authors level up and get better. Whether you leave an amazing review or not, I’ll appreciate your feedback and be working hard on the next novel.

Sign up for the Level Up mailing list through my author site at the link below to keep up on the latest news, releases, and the occasional free short.

http://skylergrant.com/level-up

http://skylergrant.com

More info my books at the website.

#

I’ve always liked author’s notes when reading a book and yet for some reason didn’t put them in my own until now. They are little slices of time that I know can quickly become horribly dated, but they are still fun.

I’ve really enjoyed writing these books. LitRPG is a thriving and dynamic community and it is one I’ve been proud to be a part of. The last few months have seen a lot of new works in the genre and a lot of new readers discovering it for the first time.

I know where the story is going and I think you’ll find it one hell of a ride getting there.

The writing of this book got delayed a bit as I attended Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. I love cons like that, it is not just LitRPG that has a great community. Geekdom and nerdery of all kinds has this vibrant and amazing community that has grown around it. When you go to something like that and see the fans that love those worlds and the people who help to bring them to life with their art, acting, and writing it is both inspiring and humbling.

Thank you for letting me be a part of it.

You can reach me at skyler@skylergrant.com

<<<<>>>>