Galen Vesa

Inane chant filled my ears with the buzz of annoying insects as my body hung spread in chains over a granite slab set in the center of a magic circle. Fitful runes danced in the air, fueled by gurgling voice of a hooded figure orchestrating the ritual.

How did this happen exactly? Have we truly walked into it? I can’t recall the exact moment it happened but… Where were we? The center of the tomb? I remember walking down the ramp, towards larger, unlit chamber. Dosie limped beside me, supporting herself with my spear. Carl and Leon walked before us while the brothers kept the rear guard.

The center had the shape of an upturned, black pyramid, Floating in the endless sea of dark. Its shape betrayed only by the eerie glow of Cherenkov radiation or a magical equivalent of it. Some… silhouettes were gathered in the middle of it.

“Welcome faithful servants!”

A voice beamed from beyond the darkness.

“Drop your weapons and bring the woman to me.”

One by one swords and shields clattered and rung against the stone. With empty eyes my companions turned towards me.

Oy, roomie, I’m gonna need your help here.

Erta?

Her presence was gone, crushed by the alien spell. Without her, the enchants faded away from my body. Frozen in place I watched Leon’s fist approach my chest. My knees buckled beneath me and yet again darkness claimed me. When I came to, I was already stripped bare and chained over the altar. Blood and manna dripped down in a steady stream from the many cuts on my limbs.

From the circle bubbling smoke began to rise and swirl around me then gather within the shiny blade the hooded man held. The stench, I held my breach fighting against the putrid air.

The chanting grew stronger as the blade rose above the hooded man’s head. He squeezed the handle with both his bony hands and arched his body, preparing to deliver the final blow. His face turned into a mask of insanity if I ever saw one.

So, this was the way I am suppose to die? Perhaps that job truly was cursed. My enchanted eyes focused on the blade, moving faster and faster, down towards my heart accompanied by the thundering roar of the insane crowd.

My consciousness began to flutter just before I felt the blow. Heavy weight smashed my chest and cracked my ribs to the cry of unimaginable pain followed by complete silence.

But the cry did not escape my lips.

“…Mother of the holy light, hear your children cry, for I am a lantern for your light to shine in the darkest day in the deadliest night. O mother, your light brings peace, conquers night, defeats death. O mother protect thy in your light…”

Dosie whispered, spread over my body, the dagger stuck deep into her back.

She took one more breath before blinding light erupted from her surrounding us with a cone of brightness, pushing darkness aside.

And then her heart stopped.

Her magnificent ears went slack just when she draw her final breath. On peaceful face her lips no longer moved in a silent prayer. Her fur brushed against my check while her empty husk slid off and collapsed upon the ground.

Putting her life aside for a stranger. Such foolishness.

And I felt nothing. Nor could I understand the look in Leon’s eyes when he saw Dosie with the knife in her back.

That roar. No human throat could produce such sound. As if his soul got shredded apart by his lover death. Oblivious of wounds, Leon plowed through the hooded crowd. Nor spells nor blades could stop his wreath, propelling his dying body.

The knight raised his bloodied sword over the one that killed his love, the mage blew away his arm and half of his chest, yet the warrior still managed to crush the mage skull, his giant fingers closing around it with sickening squelch before death claimed them both.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Whatever magic bound the dead, vanished along the mage. The dead, howling, marched towards us.

*Galen! Thank heavens, you broke the seal!*

The dragon’s presence assaulted my mind since the mage spell no longer bound her or my mana. Around us, cries of terror spread as the dead flooded the center.

“Erta, it doesn’t look like I will keep my promise. I know my presence hampers you. If you can get out of here, do so. Don’t mind me.”

Erta did not answer. Instead, the feeling I received…

“You were this fond of me? How unusual. Have we not met just a while ago? Why would you? I have no family. No friends. No place to call home. This is not even my world. “

*Silence you dolt!*

Carl's body fell by my side. Last of the living died with a sword in his hand as I hanged in my chains. Only the thin glittery line of the golden blessing Dosie left, kept me away from the dead.

“Go already. There is no hope in this place. “

And she moved, calling my name. Warm blue flame spread throughout my veins and surrounded my body, bit by bit eating away at my consciousness.

Melting away , I felt my soul trembling and flickering like an autumn leaf in the wind just before it snaps away from the tree.

Inside the inner space, Erta stood beneath the mana orb in her dragon form, growing, getting ready to devour it, syphoning raw power in a way that would burn my body to the bone. She knocked me out of “the driver seat” before any pain could set in.

“I think you are mistaken. I am here.”

Out in the darkness calm golden light shone, strangely pleasing to my eyes. The source of it? A woman smiling gently at us.

“Who’re you? Another part of me or just a figment of my imagination?”

“Who knows?”

Her smile became even warmer. Not a reaction I would expect. Well whatever. In a moment it won’t matter any more.

“You’re forgetting something.”

I studied her face. Pale and beautiful like a porcelain doll with life breathed into it.

“What do you mean?”

Instead of answering, she hummed a melody I…

Where have I heard that melody?

“Perhaps you are not so daft after all.”

She graced me with one more smile and left as abruptly as she appeared, although the melody remained, bouncing around in my mind.

One of those melodies.

People often complain about having a tune stuck in their heads but, just imagine a choir of voices singing a song in your noggin. It spread like wildfire.

Even Logic on her frost covered throne let her cold fingers drum against the crystal armrest.

At this point there was nothing I could do about it although another issue arose.

“You know, getting erased out of existence takes much more time than I thought it would.”

Erta ignoredme. Not even looked at me. I went closer and pat the tip of her tail.

“You suck at this frightening, don’t-give-a-damn-about-humans, dragon thing.”

Shining beads of light were dripping down her snout. Dragon tears. Big scaly softie.

*Forgive me… I… I cannot…*

Her body collapsed to the form of a woman. A woman with broken, bleeding heart and eyes full of pearly tears.

I hugged her. Men are expected to do so in times such as this. At least in the movies they do, still the purpose of the gesture eludes me.

I won’t say I understood her pain. I didn’t. But I was there with her. I watched her burn alive the man she loved. The memory replayed itself over and over in her mind. I still remember his begging eyes and her pain as world around her turned to dust.

And I selfishly made her swear to do the same to me.

She had her face buried in my chest while the mana hanged over me in ominous way. Storms on the orb seething anger at me.

I knew. I felt her pain and yet… I made such an unreasonable request.

“I can’t say I fell remorse but, I promise, never again shall I break your heart.”

I whispered softly into her ear.

The dragon pushed herself against my chest, her fingers digging into my back with renewed ferocity. Yet her sobs calmed a bit.

“How long do you think we have until that blessing wears off? It seems to be keeping them away.”

*… does it matter?*

“Not really.”

With my inability to use my mana and her unwillingness to take over, we could only wait.

In silence broken only by a muffled sobs I gazed upon the mana, perhaps larger than the sun itself. When did all this power gather? Circling it, a small scarlet gem shone, no more than a spec of dust compared to all that power. A dragon soul. Erta’s soul. So, beautiful.

Out in the distance, way beyond the mist, a melody hummed itself to life by myriad voices. My voices. Caught bare and unprepared, my lips moved on their own and the melody escaped out of my mind onto the wild.

I am no singer alas… the voice…

All around us, mysterious runes left by the witch came to life, dancing in shades of rainbow. The mana rippled as the power surged, the cracks winding before my very own eyes. The little shrub bobbed and shivered then shot up, up towords the sky. Its crystal trunk grew, its branches spread…

*That tune… Galen, how?!*

Swept within the torrent of singing voices my body hummed. Its voice, so different from mine. What came from those enchanted lips had no false note in it. I hummed alongside the voices and at the same time I heard, who sang that? A master songstress?

The voice that echoed through the tomb, bounced off the walls and returned to my ears, how could it belong to me?

The witch, what has she done to this body? My lips now moved on its own, repeating the tune time after time while my heart skipped a beat. Then again. And another one. A force I could not stop pulled me back to reality. My body still hanged in the chains above the altar but none of the dead dared to cross the golden line surrounding me.

Somewhere at the edge of the mist, I’ve heard a new voice joining in. It did not hum like all the others. She sang and my lips followed.