My Lover Who Kills Me
The cavern was a small, open space where Venry saw another set of doors. Three pairs surrounded them.
The one on their left was crushed by a cave-in. They could clear it out and assess the situation inside, but simply observing through the cracks, he could already see that everything inside was broken.
“We don’t need to go there,” Tea said, floating along as they passed through. She ushered them towards the pair of doors in front.
“What about that one?” Dystro pointed behind them towards another pair that was previously their right. It was still intact despite being moldy.
“It’s a cabin for in case a member of the Order needed a prolonged stay. It’s mostly just beds, a kitchen, and a restroom, nothing interesting.”
“Right…”
“What should we expect inside?” Venry asked, nodding towards the doors they were meant to enter. It looked the same as the one on the right, only worse. Mold had basically eaten any free spot on both doors, and the handles were no exception.
“I would expect some amorphous Nightmares,” Tea replied, rotating towards them. “It can range from something simple as a Rolling Mist of Death or a Deep Nightmare like a Mist That Carries the Nightmare.”
“I don’t know either of those,” he said, turning to Dystro. He gave a shrug.
“I will let you know once we’re inside. But you will have to open the doors manually.”
Venry invested meiyal in his Siffera while Dystro took the front. Longsword in hand, the former Lord Knight nodded to him before slowly pushing the door open. He peeked inside and closed it instantly.
“What’s wrong?”
Dystro blinked twice. He motioned to push the door open again, but ultimately decided against it. He turned to Venry. “I think I saw my childhood girlfriend.”
It was the Guard Knight’s turn to blink. He strode over, gesturing for Dystro to move aside. “What’re you on about?”
He placed his hand over the freezing handle and pushed slowly.
At first, he wondered how and why the room was well-lit. Meiyal torches was the most reasonable answer. After all, those devices could work perpetually as long as there was a constant supply of meiyal.
But that, in itself, was the problem. Meiyal torches could only function in normal meiyal, much like all the other meiyal-crafted devices. It was for this exact reason that the Iristan people still employed their beasts of burden despite their advancement in vehicular technology. The Nightmare Lands simply ate any device, structure, or construct with an interface. The only choice was to make those things within the Nightmare Lands itself using materials from the environment—like the Atlas Sid—provided that the materials were stabilized and that the people who worked on those things survived first.
Venry lingered on the idea just long enough for him to catch a small silhouette of a woman’s back. It was oddly, incredibly familiar. Light azure hair swayed slightly on what little breeze was present in the room. It barely touched her slender shoulders. It was then that he realized that the rest of her back was exposed. It took every bit of his willpower to pry himself before his eyes gazed any lower. He closed the door as quickly as he could without making any noise.
“That wasn’t your childhood girlfriend,” he told Dystro in between harsh breaths. “That was Princess Kristel Irista.”
“No, dude,” the Lord Knight complained. “I saw a woman with long, blonde hair. She was looking away, but I knew who she was just from the shoulders and umm…her butt.”
Venry wanted to argue, but Tea interrupted them first.
“If you both saw a different person inside the room, and if my calculations are correct, the Nightmare inside would be a My Lover Who Kills Me. It is a Deep Nightmare that usually slumbers, which makes us fortunate.”
“Fortunate how?” Venry asked, trying not to look at Dystro who suddenly had so many questions to ask.
“Yeah, how?” the bodyguard asked sarcastically, snickering beside him.
“This Deep Nightmare relies too much on its nature, knowing that its appearance turns to the person you love or care for the most, thus rendering you unable to harm it. But since our objective is only to confirm that the seal remains intact, all we have to do is enter the room quietly, quickly analyze the seal via the control panel, and then escape.”
“Easy for you to say,” Dystro complained.
“I understand your implications, Dystro,” Tea replied. “If you are unable to comply, I’ll have to rely on Venry. In the event that neither of you are brave enough for this task, then I’ll escort you two out of this place and file a report that two prospects have declined the Destruction Secrets Protocol.”
It didn’t matter to Venry either way. As far as he knew, there hadn’t been any form of communication from the Order of the Void, specifically from the Western Sanctum, for a few years now. Meddling with devices he had no knowledge of already seemed risky, not to mention adding a slumbering Deep Nightmare.
Mother Selfiya had warned him to be especially wary of those. Their mere presence could turn him into a Grinding Teeth on Living Flesh, causing him to eat everyone and himself to death. The fact that this My Lover Who Kills Me slumbered was a stroke of good luck already. And even he knew one should not poke the sleeping yuma who carried you on its back.
But he had to admit, he was already curious about the seal. A craving curiosity wishing to be sated. A drive rushing to know. The desire to look at Kristel, naked or no, dragged him by a thin noose. Who was he kidding? He wanted to see her naked, stripped of all—
“Hey!” Dystro hissed, shaking him awake. Venry blinked twice and almost yelped in a panic. “Quiet!”
“What is it?” he whispered back aggressively.
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“You were daydreaming,” said another voice, a familiar one. Mother Selfiya stood behind them, her Soul’s Walk taking the form of a humanoid Eternal Ice. She was almost transparent with mild formations of cold air rolling within her encased skin. “That’s not a good sign. It’s time for us to return.”
“But Mother Selfiya, what about the Protocol?” Tea pleaded.
“Sorry, Tea. With a Deep Nightmare inside, these two would be helpless against it. Even the twins outside would be powerless against it. You can add to your report that I instructed you to abandon it. As far as we’re concerned, this seal is compromised. What else would a Deep Nightmare be doing inside there if not to ruin everything?”
The Void Mother turned and began to head out of the cavern. “Come, you two. It’s almost dark, and I bring grave news.”
Venry followed, abandoning his curiosity. He realized he wasn’t actually that attached to the seal, nor did he want to look at a Nightmare impersonating the Princess. He’d much rather see the real her again. To apologize for abandoning his duties and to tell her news about the Order of the Void.
He made a step, but Dystro quickly pulled him aside.
“Hey,” he began. “You and I have to talk about this, you know? You and the Iristan heir? This is the juiciest gossip ever!”
The best course of action was to ignore this devious, sneering, mischief maker of a man. Venry knew this with all his heart. And yet, he couldn’t deny how much he wanted to talk about the Princess. How strong-willed she was, how committed, how dedicated she was to her Meiyal Arts. For someone so small—how adorable she was when he teased her about her height—to carry so much responsibility.
He couldn’t help but be amazed.
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Venry had just alighted the slab of Eternal Ice when he heard Mother Selfiya speak.
“You can’t stay the night here,” she began, addressing the twins. “There’s a Deep Nightmare sleeping just on the other side of that mountain. Granted it probably has been there for a while now, but there’s no telling when it’ll wake up, especially since you’ve made quite a disruption to the local Nightmare ecosystem already.”
They’ve returned to the stronghold on the same floor made out of Eternal Ice. The twins, Hal and Ral, were taking a break on one of the tables near the meiyal-crafted chest that Dystro left open. The two were in the middle of a snack and their hands froze in midair, mouths agape, and eyes staring quizzically at them.
“Can confirm,” Dystro said. He was the last to step off the slab and pulled it off the air-water Eternal Ice using his longsword. He started working on sawing it in manageable chunks.
“Warning,” Tea interrupted as she whizzed every which way, abruptly stopping and dropping onto Venry’s hands who caught her just in time. “Current area is outside of my jurisdiction. Automated shut-down imminent. Please store me in a secure place and call for me again when you find yourself near another Seal One. Thank you for your care.”
With that, the light from the Tour Expert Assistant vanished. Venry stored it inside his Spatiera.
“Did I hear that right?” Ral asked. He prepared two more sets of snacks for the newcomers. Sadly, Mother Selfiya’s Soul’s Walk couldn’t eat. “We have a Deep Nightmare and a Sealed One on this island?”
“One of the seals of a Sealed One,” Dystro corrected, looking smug. “There are eight for this Sealed One. The other seven are somewhere around the sea.”
“You don’t need to check for those,” Selfiya interrupted, taking a seat farthest away from the snacks. “I need you to move out as soon as the Floating Dream is done eating. Your destination will be Cape Talon. There you can properly recuperate. The people there are not averse to the Floating Dream and are in constant attack of lesser Nightmares lurking from the shores. They’ll happily take your services in exchange for lodging.”
“Isn’t that place within Irista Nation territory?” Hal asked. “Won’t we get in trouble?”
“It is, but we won’t get in trouble,” Venry replied. He took a biscuit and washed it down with iced tea. The incredible chill of the drink caused by one small cube of ice made him double check. Sure enough, it was Eternal Ice. The amazement took him a second to continue talking.
“Save for the High Palace, Cape Talon and Bloodaxe Fort next to it are the two most isolated places in Irista Nation. Being on the very edge of the Great Sea Dividyr, they’re constantly under attack by lesser Nightmares like Mother Selfiya said, mostly mermen and merwomen. It’s also the closest place in the First Settlement, meaning trainees from Irista Nation, Vyndival Kingdom, and I guess Oh’strol Continent back then, constantly visit during their breaks. It’s probably the second most diverse town in the entire Nation. We can blend in easily.
“I can also ask for a few favors. If I can reconnect with the High Palace Network, I can—”
“No,” Selfiya interrupted. “Don’t use the High Palace Network, or your M.O.B.I.L.E., Venry. You need to stay hidden.”
He instinctively shot a questioning look at her, realizing too late of how rude he was. She responded with a dismissive hand.
“I need you to understand, Venry. I have reason to believe that your entire government is compromised from the inside. And while you and I can place our confidence in Princess Kristel, the rest of her retinue are not clear of guilt. If we’re not cautious enough, they’ll catch wind of your survival and probably the rest of our plans. I need you to stay in Cape Talon and prepare for the right moment to strike.”
“And when is that?” he asked.
“Probably in a week or two…or three,” she sighed. “I know it’ll be a lot of waiting. I can’t get a firm grasp of their plan, but I know for sure now that they’ll be moving me to Befall soon. Their plan has something to do with the formal announcement of the next Monarch of Irista Nation, but that’s all I have with regards to their timing.”
“Why don’t we just rescue you from Befall? Or while you’re in transit?” Dystro asked this time. “Pretty sure the security will be most laxed during that time. Even if we cause a ruckus, we can probably still pry you out of there.”
“My rescue is the ultimate goal, but it’s not the priority right now. I need to be nearby when a Nightmare Incursion hits Eastrise.”
Venry had the mind to place his tea back on the table before shooting out of his chair.
“Calm down, Venry. It surprised me too.”
“A lot of people will die! We should prevent this rather than wait for it to happen!”
“We can’t,” Mother Selfiya remained calm, her voice was the definition of stoicism. “Please sit down.”
Venry took in a few deep breaths before returning to his chair, no longer in the mood for a snack.
“How do you propose we let them know? Or how do you plan on preventing this Incursion?” she asked. “M.O.B.I.L.E. communications are out of the equation. They’re being constantly monitored.”
“As soon as we arrive at Cape Talon, I can hire a yuma transit straight to the High Palace,” he replied desperately. “Since the Floating Dream just ate, we should arrive by sunrise tomorrow. If I take a yuma, and ask them to skip the proper channels, we should make it to the High Palace in less than a day.”
“Are you sure?” Selfiya asked. “Most yumas tire after three hours of flying, especially if they’re bonded to a weak practitioner.”
Venry regretted not bonding with a yuma. The only baseline he had was from Testra and Kristel. Testra was the fastest ground runner he had ever seen, which was probably twice or thrice faster than any common-bred yuma with aerial advantage. He might’ve been expecting too much.
“What if we bring the Floating Dream?” he asked, before shutting down his own suggestion. “That would garner too much attention.”
“And will make our enemies suspicious, yes.”
“So what if they’re suspicious?” Dystro asked. “Why does it matter if they know about us?”
“Because the Cult will accelerate their plans. They’ll know that we’re still unprepared and will take advantage of it. Or they’ll abandon it entirely and vanish for another decade or so. Either way, it’ll be more damaging compared to us waiting for the right time.”
“If they abandon it for another decade, wouldn’t that give us more time?” Ral argued. “We can spend our resources chasing them down.”
Selfiya nodded at him. “That’s a big if. And if it does happen, we won’t have a Visitor to take advantage of the situation.”
“What does the Visitor have to do with it?” It was Hal’s turn to ask this time.
“That will be too much information. I’m afraid I can’t tell you right now. But you have to believe me that he and his predecessors are the key to getting rid of the Nightmare Lands for good.”
“And we’ll have to sacrifice Eastrise for this?” Venry asked. He couldn’t fathom the need for this decision. It was outright illogical. Why let an entire city be destroyed for the sake of one man?
Void Mother Selfiya Lunasensia simply nodded.
Dystro timidly raised his hand. “Sorry, I still don’t get it. When’s the right time?”
Mother Selfiya sighed again. “This might still be rather confusing but believe me when I say that the right time is when the Visitor finally takes a peek at Destiny.”
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