Stephen woke with a throbbing head, in a dank cell. Moldy straw and a grimy chamber pot were the only comforts. A thin window was set high in the stone wall, and the other three sides were rusty bars. The door on the front of the cell had a sturdy lock. Fifteen feet away, the hunchback sat on a stool watching him. The moldy smell that had been ever present remained strongly.
“I’m thinking it would have been better if you hadn’t let us in,” Stephen observed with a grin to the hunchback.
“I’m thinking you were taken pitifully easily,” said the servant sourly. “Most travelers we catch make it to the vampire brides at least. You’re weak.”
“Yes, I suppose I am,” said Stephen, standing and walking over to the bar. “Perhaps we have that in common.”
“This is where you charm the jailer and get him to release you?” the ugly man asked. “Pathetic. Nothing original about you, is there?”
“How is Rurth, my friend who the werewolf attacked?” asked Stephen.
“Dead, same as the other two,” said the servant.
“So, what happens now?” Stephen asked. “You’ve captured me. Do you expect some sort of ransom? What’s it going to cost me to leave?”
“Maggard will go through all that,” the servant replied. “Once you’re… softened up.”
“Perhaps I could pay my ransom to you directly?” suggested Stephen.
“Here it comes,” muttered the hunchback. “Gold?”
“More than you can carry?” offered Stephen.
“Women?” the servant asked.
“Scores,” Stephen agreed.
The ugly man continued, “A healthy body?”
“Why not?” said Stephen. “Just help me get away.”
“Pathetic,” said the jailer and went back to glaring at Stephen. With a sigh, the dimensional traveler passed out again on the straw.
***
When Stephen woke up again, his head was hurting worse than before. Approaching the bars, he said to the jailer, “I’m hurting really badly from you clubbing me on the head. Could you get me some medical attention? Some sort of healing?”
The hunchback smirked at him and continued watching him, unmoving.
“Food? Water?” Stephen asked. “If you wanted to kill me, you could have done it and saved yourself having to move me to this cell.”
“There’s water in your trough,” said the servant. “Help yourself.”
Stephen eyed the dirty, stagnant water in the rough basin, then staggered back to the unpleasant straw to sleep again.
***
When Stephen woke a third time, his head was pounding and his vision was blurry. He felt worse hunger and thirst than he’d ever experienced in his life. Crawling over to the bars, he pulled himself up and looked over at the servant.
“Please,” he croaked. “Clean water and something to eat. I’m really sick.”
The jailer said, “You’ve got everything you need.”
Holding onto the bars to steady himself, Stephen moved to the trough and cupped some water in his hands. Green algae grew on the sides and bottom of the trough, and a thin film covered its surface. He slurped some water and gagged at the taste. Lowering himself back to the floor, he crawled back to the straw.
He woke up some time later, vomited, then passed out again.
***
Stephen was shaken awake. The hunchback was roughly pulling at his shoulder. He looked up at the servant in confusion.
“Apparently we should be changing the water in the cells more often,” said Maggard, who was standing behind the hunchback. “Live and learn.” The jailer thrust a tin cup into Stephen's hands and, once he realized it was water, he greedily sucked it down. “More,” he begged, holding the cup out.
“That’s enough for now,” said Maggard. “I’d like to discuss a trade with you.”
Stephen brightened. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Your cards,” said the count.
“Which ones?” asked Stephen.
“All of them,” said Maggard.
“For what?” asked Stephen, trying to understand what they were discussing.
“For another cup of water, for starters,” said the other dimensional traveler. “And for the opportunity to discuss your release. I’d also be willing to walk you through my process for creating the library artifacts, which I believe is what originally brought you here.”
“I can’t,” said Stephen, on the verge of tears. “I promised my friends I’d never trade them away.”
“Are they better off if you die and they disappear?” asked Maggard.
“Maybe,” said Stephen, on his hands and knees on the cell floor, looking up at the other traveler. “There are fates worse than death.”
“I’ll let you in on a secret,” said the well-dressed dimensional traveler. “Everyone breaks. Everyone. If you want to suffer for a while before you give me what I want, that’s fine. I have things to do while you rot in this cell. We can talk again when you’re ready to be more reasonable.”
Pain flooded Stephen's side as he received a sharp kick from the hunchback. He fell back onto the straw. Something cracked inside him as he received another kick, then the former graduate student passed out once more.
***
Stephen was shaken awake by the servant and saw Maggard standing in the open cell doorway again. Stephen briefly thought how he might be able to escape if he could get past them, then thought about how he didn’t know his way through the castle and couldn’t even stand.
The hunchback gave him the tin cup and Stephen started to drink, then had it knocked out of his hands. He gave a cry as he saw the spilled water soaking into the floor of the cell. Thirstily, he looked at the stagnant basin.
“Are you ready to trade yet, or do you want to make yourself sick drinking from the trough?” Maggard asked.
“Trade, yes,” croaked Stephen. “More water first.”
“After,” said Maggard. Leaning down, he clasped Stephen's forearm, and the two dimensional travelers found themselves in a trading dimension like Stephen had experienced before. Maggard glanced over Stephen's cards and said, “Trade them all to me.”
Stephen crawled towards the other man’s cards, trying to focus on them. The first in the line was a card for one of the bats that had attacked Shomos.
image [https://i.imgur.com/Zzk6iBs.png]
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“Make the trade,” said the pretend count. “I won’t have you play games with me.”
Looking at the next card, Stephen saw a battery.
image [https://i.imgur.com/7G8jSDC.png]
“Fine, you brought this on yourself,” said Maggard and ended the trading session.
Back in the cell, Maggard told his servant, “Try not to kill him,” and turned to leave as the beating began. Stephen passed out after the first couple of blows.
***
Stephen was woken by shouting outside the dungeon. The hunchback had come over and, from outside the cell, was trying to see through Stephen’s window to figure out what was happening. Every part of Stephen’s body hurt. He thought back to Maggard’s claim that everyone breaks. He couldn’t remember if that was true or not about torture. Just hold out until you faint again, he thought. How many more times can they do this? He thought about trying to beat his head against the cell and hasten his demise, but couldn’t summon the energy to stand up, let alone violently throw himself against something.
The servant seemed reluctant to open the cell, but suddenly gave a cry. Stephen looked up and saw that the stone wall was melting at the top, near the window. The gray stone first bulged, then began to slide down the wall like molasses as it lost its form. Finally, it gave way and slopped into the cell, running like sour cream. The gray liquid poured onto him, and he felt cold dampness as it coated him.
Is this a hallucination? he thought to himself. The jailer had run away from the cell and was pulling the chain for a warning bell.
A ten-foot creature, of vaguely humanoid shape made out of mud, swept into the room on a wave of dissolved concrete. Parts of its body seemed to drip down as it moved forward, ignoring Stephen, and passed through the cell doors. Mud was left on the bars and in a trail behind it as it moved towards the jailer.
The hunchback saw it, stopped ringing the bell, then ferociously attacked it with his club. The club sank into the mud elemental, which then enveloped the servant. Parts of the jailer’s body appeared as it moved, then got pulled back into its form. It moved towards a wall leading deeper into the castle, which dissolved at the elemental’s touch into the same gray, stone-like mud that his cell wall had become. Passing through the hole in the wall it had created, the creature left the jail.
A shout in some foreign language sounded next to Stephen, and he looked up to see an elf, clearly of the same species as Feyrith, standing over him. After shouting and waving, the elf began to pull Stephen out of the stone mud that had half covered him. Aided by four other elves who came running down the incline that was left of the stone wall, they pulled Stephen free, then began fighting their way back out the short, sloping tunnel leading outside.
Stephen struggled weakly, trying to stand and help them, but they quickly realized he needed to be carried and ignored his struggles. As they pulled him out of the dungeon, he saw they were at ground level of Maggard’s castle and the sun was dimly shining in a Clodor mid-morning.
An enormous bird, with a wingspan around fifty feet, sat on the ground on the other side of a trench that surrounded the castle. Poles had been placed across the moat, and the elves acrobatically carried Stephen across, sharing the load of his weight as each balanced on a single pole. A platform had been constructed on the back of the bird, and Stephen saw Feyrith and Falco peer down at him. A group of other elves were on the platform, bows drawn, scanning the nearby vicinity.
“Dimensional travel and let’s get out of here,” Falco cried down. He was surrounded by the force field he’d used in Phodynn.
“I can’t use any of my dimensional traveler abilities,” said Stephen weakly. Falco couldn’t hear him, and the elves transporting him didn’t understand. They hauled Stephen up with them as they began climbing the ropes that were hanging from the platform, while elves at the top of the platform pulled the ropes up.
As soon as Stephen’s porters had gotten hold of the ropes, the bird launched itself into the air. Stephen saw elves that had been left behind on the ground took up positions to defend their retreat.
As they reached the platform on the bird’s back, elves up top grabbed Stephen and the climbing elves and pulled them the rest of the way. On top of the platform were straps that could be grabbed as needed. The elves took Stephen to an area where a number of straps let him be tied in place, and they secured him. Feyrith and Falco were in similar harnesses. Neither was particularly close, so Stephen couldn’t make himself heard when they shouted, again asking why he hadn't traveled. The bird kept climbing in altitude as it flew away from Maggard's castle.
A green sphere floated in one part of the platform, apparently unsupported, and every fifteen seconds or so a group of elves would appear from it and move to assist the other elves who were defending the bird. Maggard’s giant bats had been launched and were moving in on the bird, but as soon as they entered range, the large number of elves hanging off of the giant bird showered them with arrows. The giant bats seemed indifferent to their own lives, but the elves were able to knock them out of the sky as quickly as they could approach.
Finally, Feyrith disconnected their straps and carefully made their way over to Stephen. Leaning close, they asked, “Why don’t you travel out of here?”
“Maggard is Count Lowther,” croaked Stephen. “This whole dimension is a trap for travelers. Like Avin’s. He poisoned me to prevent me from using my traveler abilities. I need water. And healing. And food. Please.”
Feyrith went to get provisions, and Stephen continued talking, not realizing the elf had left.
“He killed Shomos,” said the former graduate student. “And Rurth. And Blargh. I couldn’t release them and bring them back. He took all my material aspects, so I can’t even cast any spells. There was nothing I could do. He wanted my cards. I don’t know what he was going to do after he got them.”
Feyrith returned and gave Stephen a sip of the most delicious water he’d ever drank. Greedily, he tried to get more, but Feyrith controlled the elegant bottle and just let him have small sips. As he drank, his wounds began to close and his cracked ribs knit themselves back together. Stephen felt better than he had in days.
Falco shouted, “Incoming!”
Looking back the way they’d come, Stephen and Feyrith saw three dragons, made of bones, flying after them. Riding each of the dragons were Shomos, Rurth, and Blargh. Their injuries remained, clearly worse than should be possible for anyone to continue moving, and their skin had a green hue.
The elves valiantly fired at the undead monstrosities, but their arrows went through the bones of the skeletal creatures. Some arrows hit the zombie riders, who appeared unbothered. Purple, eldritch energy began to swell in Shomos’ beast’s chest, visible from the outside through its rib bones, and Feyrith shouted something in another language. Just as the vile stream sprayed from the beast's mouth, their bird veered out of the way and dodged the spray.
Feyrith handed the bottle of healing water to Stephen and moved closer to the edge of the platform near the oncoming, undead dragons. The other two dragons had begun preparing their breath weapons, and Feyrith unleashed healing energy at one of them. The skeletal dragon's skin began to regrow, interfering with its flight and causing it to begin to drop. Flesh was regrowing around it, encasing its chest, neck, and head as the dragon healed. The eldritch energy burst out of the creature as it exploded on contact with the flesh. Rurth, sitting on the falling dragon, had the blast consume him and, after it passed through him, he was left as an animated skeleton, still riding the dragon that had blown off its healing flesh. The dragon beat its skeletal wings and began to climb again.
Blargh’s dragon blasted them and, with Feyrith distracted by Rurth’s dragon, their bird mount wasn’t able to fully dodge out of the way. A screech came from the enormous bird as its left wing was caught in the purple spray and the flesh was consumed. Meat was stripped away from the wing, and the bones that remained fell apart and away from the beast. The platform tilted violently as the left wing stopped supporting it and the bird began to spin. Feyrith, untethered as he focused on the other dragon, pitched over the side.
As the bird went into a roll, some of the elves prioritized firing useless arrows at the dragons over grabbing a handhold and were thrown off the platform. Most of them managed to grab onto straps as the bird spun, and the platform tilted downwards. Stephen, who had been taking swigs of the healing water, lost his hold on the bottle as his stomach rolled, and the bottle flew away from him, plummeting towards the ground that was now above him. Recovering most of his strength, he screamed at Falco, “Do something!” The other traveler, who had been sitting in his harness, winked at him. The green sphere remained in place, relative to the platform, and continued to spew elves, who appeared, then immediately began to fall towards the ground.
Below and around them, many elves were in the air. Some managed to grab onto the giant bird when it tilted past them, but most were free-falling. The bird’s spin brought Stephen and Falco right side up again, and they saw the three skeleton dragons closing. As they came into view, a lightening bolt flew from Falco, lit up Shomos’ dragon with a blue charge that ran over the entire mount and the druidess’ body, then jumped to Blargh’s dragon, causing the same effect, then jumping to Rurth’s and coated it in crackling electricity. It then jumped back to Shomos’ and continued the circuit. The dragons and riders smoked, and the bones became more charred with each circuit.
The attackers were, again, blocked by the bird’s body as it swung out of view of them. “That’s some attack,” shouted Stephen in admiration. Falco smiled and gave a small shrug. “If it had a further range, I could have got them before they got the bird. We’re still in trouble here,” said Falco. “Can you come to me, or should I come to you? My force field should shield us when we hit the ground.”
“I’m feeling better, let me try to come to you,” shouted Stephen back. Unhooking himself, he began climbing across the platform, moving from strap to strap, towards the other traveler. When Stephen was about ten feet away from him, the bird had spun to be roughly right side up, when suddenly the bird and the platform disappeared around them and the two travelers found themselves in free-fall. The three dragons were charred and crumbling, but had still been closing on the bird. The lightening bolt continued to electrify them.
The green sphere, which was falling at the same speed as the bird had been, spit out one last cohort of elves then vanished.
Suddenly, Stephen felt his awareness of his cards return. All of them were uncharged, but he could feel them again. Releasing Shomos, Rurth, and Blargh, he saw the riders on the dragons suddenly vanish.
“I’ve got my powers back,” he shouted at Falco, over the rushing wind. The other traveler had been angling his body to try to move closer to Stephen as they fell together.
“Great,” Falco said. “Feyrith must have released their bird. Maybe so it wouldn’t fall on us. Regardless, they’ll be able to leave before they hit. We should too. You go first.”
Stephen had been directing power into his dimensional travel ability. He felt a wave of nausea as he looked at the ground rushing up to meet them. Falco got close enough to him that his force field enveloped Stephen as well.
“We should be ok when we hit,” he said. “But if you can leave, do so immediately. Don’t talk about it, just go.”
Stephen’s dimensional travel ability reached full power, and he unleashed it and returned to his pocket dimension.