CRASH CRASH CRUSH

Nestemed hurled chunk after chunk of jagged aquamarine at us. I deflected one, then another, then ducked beneath a third. I didn’t know how well my aura would hold out against such a big strike, but I didn’t want to find out.

“Stop throwing those and get over here!” I shouted. I ran at her, dodging more hurled chunks as I went. Once she was in range I whirled around and slashed at her, but she simply dissipated in a cloud of fog.

“Behind you!” shouted Priss.

I turned around and saw Nestemed looming over me, her eyes glowing through her mask. I thrust at her without thinking.

POOF

She was gone again. I raised Bravesreign and looked around cautiously. She could attack from any angle, and I had to be ready. “Careful Priss,” said. “She’s being tricky!”

“Calling it tricky is an understatement!” yelled Priss. “Do you see her anywhere?”

I scanned the area quickly and saw fog coalescing near Priss. “She’s on your left!”

Priss turned to face the rapidly forming Nestemed and ran at her with a raised axe. “Don’t trifle with me!” shouted Priss. She swung her axe with a yell and cleaved Nestemed’s ghostly form in half. The fog dissipated again.

We both raised our weapons defensively. There was no telling where she’d next appear.

THUD THUD THUD

A towering column in the distance fell onto its side, then another, and then another after that. I squinted and saw a figure dashing between them as they fell. It had to be Nestemed.

“Get over here! She’s up to something!” I shouted to Priss.

“No, you come over here!”

I didn’t have time to argue, so I ran over next to her. We stood back-to-back and watched as Nestemed circled us in the distance.

“What do you think she’s doing?” I asked as my eyes darted left and right.

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good,” said Priss sternly. “Prepare yourself. I won’t be able to cover for you if you slip up.”

“Same to you!” I said. Did she forget how much better I was than her?

We stood there, waiting, as Nestemed finished whatever she was doing. A minute or so later she returned to us, thirty or so columns floating on their sides around her. “You will not withstand the weight of Sare Valtameri itself!!” she said.

WOOSH

She launched a column at us like a ballista bolt. It flew over our heads, just barely missing the tips of my tiara, and exploded on the ground on the other side. I grabbed Priss by the arm, barked away her objections, and dove behind Jedda’s aquamarine crystal.

CRASH CRASH KRAKOOM

Nestemed launched column after column at us, never letting up the assault. They’d go flying overhead, between the crystals, or even just smash against them. She’d pull them back, re-add them to her floating quiver, and launch them all over again. I hate to say it, but all we could do was hide if we didn’t want to get flattened.

“How do we retaliate against such an overwhelming attack?” asked Priss.

“Usually I’d have Sherri bust through with an invocation, but we don’t have that luxury!”

“She can invoke?” asked Priss, obviously surprised.

“Yeah, but she only knows two,” I said. I peered around Jedda’s crystal, then quickly drew my head back as another column came thundering by.

“Is that even possible? I thought invokers could use any if they knew how to invoke?”

“You’d have to ask her about it. I don’t anything about invoking,” I said. I looked at Jedda’s crystal and saw a bunch of deep cracks forming on its surface. “Hey, I have an idea!”

“I’m listening,” said Priss. She crawled up closer, but not before yelping as another column exploded against Jedda’s crystal.

“I think we can bust this thing open!” I raised Bravesreign and set its blade into one of the crystal’s cracks. It was the biggest, strongest wedge we could ever ask for. “Hit Bravesreign as hard as you can!” Priss nodded and swung her axe at Bravesreign’s pommel. She struck it once, twice, three times!

CHINK

The cracks spread across the crystal like it was a pane of glass, then all at once it exploded into a million tiny pieces. Another win for Darni Voker’s genius!

“Huh? What? Where the am I? Is this the other side!?” asked Jedda as she looked around wildly. She trained her eye on a column that was coming right as us and drew her arm back. “Blazing Buster Straight!” She launched her fist forward and smashed the column into a rain of pebbles.

“We’re fighting Nestemed! She froze you and the others in crystal!” I shouted.

“That witch!” said Jedda. “Thanks for the primer. I’ll get to fighting then!”

“A third intruder makes no difference! You shall fall all the same!” said Nestemed. “Freeze: Mists of Azic!”

She held her hand in front of her mask and mimed blowing on it. A gust of freezing, shiver-inducing wind rolled out and lingered over the area. The streams running along the columns froze into frigid veins and a thick layer of ice covered the ground. Running around would be far more difficult from here on. Luckily, I’d been getting better and better at skating around since learning a certain move!

“Brave Whirlwind!” I shouted. I ran forward, jumped in the air, then landed on the tip of my foot and skated along at lightning speed. Perfectly executed as always! I held Bravesreign out at arm’s length and spun around like a top while approaching Nestemed, who was only floating a foot or two off the ground.

“You dare approach? Be crushed by the pillars of Sare Valtameri!” said Nestemed. She raised her hand and lobbed a pillar from the right, then from the left. I skated between them, scoring their lengthss with Bravesreign’s tip as I went, and closed in on her.

“I’ve got you!’ I said as I got in range. I crouched in preparation for a leap. “Wulfen—”

“Did you think it would be so easy?” said Nestemed, cutting me off. She raised her hand, and suddenly a wall of glittering aquamarine extended from the ground. I slammed into it and fell to my rear like a stupid child. Yeah, there’s no way it’d be that easy.

Nestemed thrust her hand forward and pushed the wall away, and me with it. I went sliding along the chilled ground and slammed head-first Clance’s crystal. Though I was dazed and my head was throbbing, I was aware enough to see Jedda destroy a column that flew at me shortly after.

“I don’t think a frontal assault will work here, Darni Voker!” scolded Priss as she dragged me around the other side of Clance’s crystal. “We’re in her domain, and as such she holds all the power! We’ll have to smart about this!”

“I am smart . . .” I said as I rubbed the back of my head. It hurt, but I’d been bashed way harder in the past.

Priss shook me side to side. “That’s not what I mean, you loon! We need a strategy!”

“Do you have something in mind?” I asked. I shook my head one last time to get my senses back in order.

KRAKOOM

A spray of column pieces flew past as Jedda obliterated it. Priss set down her axe and grabbed two pieces of column debris as they slid by. “This is my plan. We let the Escallion woman distract her, then we come at Nestemed from the sides and get her like this.” She clacked the two stones together and dropped them to the ground. “Understand? I’ll take the left side.”

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” I said.

“And why wouldn’t it?”

KRAKOOM

“She’ll just make more walls like she did for me. Like you said, we’re in her house playing by her rules.”

Priss frowned. “Then how do you propose we defeat her?”

Just then, Jedda skidded past with her arms raised to defend herself. She was covered in thin scrapes and I could bruises forming all over her body. “You two come up with anything?”

“We’re working on it!” said Priss and I in unison.

“Well, you better be quick because she’s—”

Jedda was cut off by the impact of at least twenty columns smashing around us at once.

“Because she’s getting angry!” finished Jedda. She cracked her knuckles and readied herself to leap back into action.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“You challenge The Shaper, yet you hide from her wrath! Such pitiful intruders you are!” said Nestemed. She pulled more columns from around the hall to refill her supply and spun around angrily.

I turned to Priss and smiled. “You and Jedda get the others free. I’ll be the decoy.”

“Are you crazy?” asked Priss. “Do you wish to get slapped away like a fly again?”

“It won’t happen a second time,” I said sternly.

“How can you be so sure?”

“A Voker doesn’t fall for the same trick twice!” I said with a raised thumb. “Now get them free! Do Sherri first and tell her to charge up a big one. She’ll know what I mean!” I jumped out from behind Clance’s crystal and skated towards Nestemed, Bravesreign skidding behind me as I went.

I spun around one column as it came, jumped over another that rolled at me like a log, then vaulted onto a third with a flipping brute beater maneuver and ran along its length. I reached a still-standing column and stopped to catch my breath. “Your aim’s getting worse, Nestemed!” I called from behind the column.

“Silence, intruder!” she yelled.

CRASH

Two columns flew by, one of them grazing the column I was hiding behind. I looked around the edge and saw that Nestemed had stopped to wrench more columns from around the hall. An opening if I’d ever seen one, but she was too far away for me to reach before she could retaliate. I looked around the other side and saw Jedda and Priss working on freeing Sherri. Priss had set her axe’s blade along a crack while Jedda struck it with her heel repeatedly. It seemed to be working, but I had to buy them more time. I then took notice of the big bell and the altar where the other two Nestemeds had been. The ringing bell had caused them to freeze up before, so maybe it would work for us now.

I jumped from behind the column and skated along to the bell. Nestemed, who had turned to blow more freezing mist at Jedda and Priss, whirled around to track my movement. She held her hands towards the ground, then pulled them up over her head, wrenching four pieces of glowing aquamarine from below. They orbited around her rapidly, then fired at me one after another like a volley of arrows. These I could handle.

PING PING CHINK SWOOSH

I deflected two, parried one, and sliced through a fourth with a mighty roundslash. I reached the altar and jumped up onto it. “Let’s see how you like this!” I said as I readied Bravesreign to strike the bell.

“Do not! You are ignorant of the forces with which you toy!” said Nestemed gravely. I could detect a hint of apprehension in her voice. She held her hand out in front of her, palm-up, and curled her fingers in like claws. Five curved aquamarine blades, each at least eight feet long and a foot wide, swung up from the ground around me. I stopped mid-swing and tightened my grip as she floated over.

“Distraction created,” I said under my breath.

I flipped Bravesreign around, drove its point into the altar, and leaned against it like it was a big cane. I glanced to the side and saw an ice-flecked Jedda bash against Priss’ axe with her shoulder. The blade dug into Sherri’s crystal, shattering it into several large pieces. She stumbled forward and looked around frantically, probably freaking out at her sudden reanimation. I couldn’t blame her.

“Step away,” said Nestemed with great force. “None but The Shaper dare ring the sacred chime.”

“Fine, fine,” I said. I took a few steps back until my heels were at the edge of the altar. “You’re real scared of this thing, huh?”

“I fear nothing within the halls of Sare Valtameri,” said Nestemed, her eyes glowing. She floated up to the bell and placed her hand on its side. “The sacred chime, that which sings the tone of eternity. You, intruder, could never understand its majesty!” She looked at me, a stern frown on her face. “Step back. Now. Only The Shaper is permitted its grace.”

“Is it really that fancy? It’s just a big metal bell,” I said. I glanced to the side and saw Sherri charging up an arrow. Just a little bit more stalling!

“Its construction matters not, intruder. Its sound, that divine din, is what gives it worth. Never in the history of Valtameri has another produced such a timbre.” Nestemed rubbed the bell lovingly, then held up her clawed hand. “Enough talk. Be torn asunder, intruder.”

She jolted forward and grabbed me by the throat, raising me so my feet dangled. I flailed and swung Bravesreign as best I could, but it’s really hard to muster any strength in such a position. She clenched her other hand into a fist, and all at once the five aquamarine blades swung in to impale me.

“Let go of my partner!” shouted Sherri from across the hall. “By the hand of he who protects the innocent shall you fall! Pierce: Luxter’s Lucent Spear!”

SCHWOOM

The blades clicked against my runic aura and halted. There was a flash of purple, then a horrible stillness. Nestemed and I stared at each other, panic in her eyes and a confident smile on my face. She released me and raised her hands to erect a thick wall of aquamarine that rose around us, but she was just an instant too late.

ZAP KRAKOOM

An orb of soft purple light appeared above Nestemed and loomed over her, ready to smite. An arrow of blinding pink shot from it and pierced through her, exploding against the ground and destroying the altar. The aquamarine wall exploded outwards in every direction. I was thrown back as well, but I caught myself by digging Bravesreign into the ground as I flew. The impact had kicked up a cloud of sparkling dust that lingered in the air.

“No! No! None can stand against The Shaper!” wailed Nestemed.

Her silhouette writhed and convulsed in the cloud as it dispersed. How was she still kicking? Did she put up a barrier at the last second? I didn’t hear any invocation chants.

I approached cautiously, one step at a time, with Bravesreign at the ready.

“Be careful, Darni!” shouted Sherri anxiously.

“She’s right, Darni Voker! Do not do anything rash!” called Priss.

I glanced to the side and saw Sherri notch a set of arrows. Priss and Jedda were behind her helping Captain Kastel out from his crystal prison. He caught sight of me and adjusted his hat with a cheerful nod.

“Don’t worry Priss, I’ll be fine with Sherri covering me!” I said. I looked at Sherri and winked. “Good to have you back, Partner!” Sherri smiled, then focused her sights on Nestemed’s outline.

I inched closer and closer, as cautiously as I could, until the dust finally settled and revealed Nestemed’s tattered form. Her clothes had been blown to rags, her left arm hung limp at her side, and the left side of her mask had been fractured, revealing the top left quarter of her face. In her right hand was one of the bell’s long striking mallets. I could feel the loathing radiating from her as she glared a hole straight through my skull.

“End it, Darnini!” shouted Captain Kastel.

“That’s right! Run her through!” called Priss.

“Yeah, give her the old one-two!” said Clance. I guess they’d just freed him.

At this point, you might expect me to have some moral quandary about cutting down Nestemed when she was obviously down and out. To that I say “Get real!” She sicced her weird golems on us, froze my friends in crystal, threw me and Priss in jail, then got so upset she absorbed the other two when we wanted to free everyone and leave! She was a villain through and through, and villains get no mercy from me!

I skated at Nestemed as fast as I could, Bravesreign dragging behind me and sending up a spray of ice flecks as I went. “This is the end for you, Nestemed!” I shouted. I stopped skating and let my momentum carry me along as I drew Bravesreign back for my mightiest swing. “Bravesreign—!”

“If The Shaper must meet her end, then Valtameri’s preservation must too meet its end! Forgive me, my selves, for I bring the ringing of my demise!”

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

She struck the bell with her hammer so hard that’s long handle snapped in half. She turned to face me and held her arms out at her sides. The faint, ghostly arms around her extended coalesced into hazy mirages of Wood Mask and Bone Mask. The mirages hugged her tightly and closed their eyes. She froze, terror in her eyes.

“Ultima—!” I shouted.

“It is okay,” said Wood Mask’s mirage. “I know you only wished the best for us. You were more loyal to Valtameri, to our role as The Shaper, than I could have ever been. I am proud to have been able to call you my sister.”

“S-Sister!?” cried Nestemed. “What am I saying!? Have I gone insane!?”

“We are free now, Nestemed,” said Bone Mask’s mirage. “We needn’t live as one any long. Our centuries-long duty has finally come to an end. Let us pass on in the only way we know, together.”

Thick, glistening tears streamed from Nestemed’s exposed eye. She closed it and said, “Yes , let us go now my beloved . . . sisters.”

“—Edge!”

SCHWING

I whirled around and skidded to a halt just past her.

Nestemed let out a final, echoing shriek that made every muscle in my body tense until it finally floated off. I gasped and dropped Bravesreign with a clatter. It was over. We’d won.

I dared to turn around and see what remained of Nestemed and, to my surprise, all that greeted me was a cloud of rapidly vanishing fog. Her fractured mask lay on the ground near my feet. I picked it up and inspected it closely. It was exactly as it looked, a plain, though angular, stone mask with a glassy blue gem set into its front. I stuffed it in my satchel and patted the bag’s side. It just wouldn’t be right to leave it lying on the ground forever.

“You did it!” said Sherri as she half-ran-half-slid over to me. She hugged me across the chest and dragged me along with her as she slowed to a stop.

“Yeah, she was way easier than Gastima Est!” I said. I was smiling, but inside I was feeling a little conflicted. I’m pretty sure I was the only one who witnessed her final moments and heard her final words. “Hey, did you hear what she said at the end?”

“She said something?” asked Sherri. She put her finger to her chin and looked up at the ceiling in thought. “No, I don’t think I heard anything.”

“Gya ha ha ha!” cackled Captain Kastel as he shuffled over. “You did good work putting that masked maroon out of her misery, Darnini! Now we can explore the palace in peace!” He raised his fist in the air heroically and put on a stern face. “Just imagine the riches to be found!”

Priss, who was following behind him, grabbed him by the arm and frowned. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Kastel, but there’s nary a treasure in this whole structure. More importantly, do you not feel anything about what just transpired? No bewilderment, no shock?”

Captain Kastel put on a serious face. “You get used to wild sights when you’ve been on the sea as long as I have, Miss Afinsheer.” He patted her on the back so hard she fell to her knees. “And what do you mean there’s no treasure to find? That’s a downright load of seascum!”

“The captain is right!” said Sherri. She let go of me and faced Priss with a frown. “There’s no way a fancy place like this doesn’t have any loot in it!” Her eyes went sharp. “You’re not trying to keep all my loot for yourself, are you?”

“Don’t you mean our loot,” I said, leaning in.

“Y-Yeah, our!” said Sherri with a glance to the side. She tapped her fingertips together and refused to make eye contact.

“I agree as well, Boss,” said Tuet as he and Clance approached. They were supporting each other and looked extremely worn out for having done nothing. “It’d be a shame to return without a few keepsakes after such a perilous voyage.”

“What he said! We can’t return to Balistag empty-handed!” said Clance.

Priss rose to her feet and crossed her arms. She frowned and closed her eyes, wrenched her head every which way as she thought incredibly hard about something, then finally sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “I give up! You explain it to them, Darni Voker!”

Everyone turned to me expectantly. I scratched the side of my head and put my hand on my hip. “Well you see, Priss and I kinda explored a bunch while you were all frozen. There’s seriously nothing to take, unless you plan on bringing a golem home, that is.”

Captain Kastel’s jaw fell slack and his cap fell off his head. Sherri inhaled sharply and vibrated with unfettered indignation. Tuet and Clance tripped over each other’s feet and flopped down on the cold, hard ground. I scratched my head again and sighed. Yeah, I’d have reacted like that too if I’d been given the same news.

The captain was the first to recover. He snatched his hat from the ground and plopped it back on his skull. “In that case,” he said. He turned to Tuet and Clance, who were picking themselves up, and raised his fists with fire in his eyes. “You lads heard her! Let’s grab ourselves some golems!”

Tuet and Clance both saluted and said, “Aye aye, captain!” They looked at each other and grinned so dirtily I gagged. They obviously had some plans for those golems.

“Don’t go following other people’s orders, you loons!” said Priss with a stomp of her foot.

Jedda, who had been standing off to the side, suddenly chimed in and said, “You three might want to belay that order. We’ve got guests!”

“Guests?” I asked. I walked up next to her and squinted.

In the distance were countless contorted figures. Some were shambling around swinging weapons wildly, others were on their knees silently wailing to the sky, and a few were bashing their skulls against the remaining columns so hard the columns were breaking. Their movements were jittery and unnatural like they’d lost control of their limbs. All of them had glowing red eyes that pierced the fog.

“The Shaper has fallen!” they chanted. “The Shaper has fallen! Valtameri’s preservation is at its end!”