Since the crystal was protecting our magical items from the void of the desert, I had pulled my jacket out of the Shashilly Bag so I had access to the Dimensional Pocket. The magical garb also had a cooling and heating option to keep me comfortable, but I wasn’t currently wearing it because everyone else was suffering. Instead, I had another trick up my sleeve.
Closing my eyes, I imagined pushing the heat out of my body like steam. It was an old trick I had learned from wandering witches that spoke in riddles. Not magic, but more a state of mind kind of thing. It stopped being so effective if you had to keep using it over and over again, but it wasn’t getting terribly bad just yet.
I grabbed a crystal that had been chiseled into the shape of a pen and tossed it into my Dimensional Pocket. While I wasn’t sure if it was magical or not, I was grabbing everything I could for transportation. Paper went into a bag to check on the way back, everything else went into the Pocket. It wasn’t very elegant and the end result looked a lot like the crime scene after a smash and grab, but the job was going smoothly.
We did take the time to peruse the documents at least a little bit, though it wasn’t all written in Imperial Standard. Most communications and memos were since that was what everyone here learned, but many of the notes and what appeared to be manuscripts and essays were in a language that none of us knew. Many of the runes matched with what I had seen from the cult’s ritual circles, but that didn’t help us much.
It was strange, though; the more I looked at them, the more I began to understand. A chill passed through the base of my neck as I read through what appeared to be a nonsense complaint about someone messing up Abara’s falafel by doing… something. Only bits and pieces were coming to me at a time, which was as frustrating as it was worrying.
And the knowledge always came with that damn chill. It had started after my first meeting with Himia, first as something like a bug bite before becoming this milder version. At the time I didn’t think about it; I could have known that the trowel from the dungeon was a Stone Scraper by making an educated guess. It wasn’t the first time I had come across one. Now that I had time to look back and think about it, I knew it wasn’t a guess. I had known.
Then it just kept happening. When I figured out that CC had turned Carimella Rose into a dungeon, when I identified the Blackwood Queen as a Nymph that didn’t exist on our continent, the runes both back in Athir and now.
The feeling had even led to me knowing that the chicken in the Dungeon Master’s stupid world was a Temporal Dire Chicken. I most certainly had not encountered or even thought of such a thing before. Why would I have? It was completely asinine.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. Whatever it was that injected knowledge directly into my mind was at least helping. That was the only reason why I wasn’t ranting and raving about what the Dungeon Master had done to us again, even though I considered this mental tampering just as bad as Himia digging up our pasts using illegal magic.
It was helpful. I still planned to yell at them when I next saw them but, right now, it was helpful.
I shoved the falafel complaint into the document bag with exactly the amount of care it deserved when I heard Cojisto and Moose’s footsteps approaching me.
“So, I know we haven’t really been quiet about it, but we have a report,” he said.
Turning to face the shirtless Human, I looked past him at their efforts. The tree-like crystal had been knocked over and its leaves had pierced the top of the cages in the far wall, which had startled everyone into a combat state, but the duo hadn’t been able to move it since then.
“I think I get the gist of it,” I sighed.
“Yeah, but I think we’re going to need about five more moose if we want to move this thing,” he continued. “Or maybe forty guys. I dunno, moose to men isn’t an exact science.”
I frowned, eying the crystal. “I wasn’t expecting it to be that heavy.”
“Yeah, me neither. I was wondering why you had Justisius asking about whether or not the sultan will let us leave with it, but we’re not getting this thing out of here without his help,” Cojisto said, wiping the sweat from his brow. “And across the desert. Abara really had it easy just… popping it through a portal or whatever he did.”
“You think he might have used a smaller crystal to create a space of temporary magic to get it in here?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.
“It’s something I thought about when Dalsarel mentioned pruning, yeah,” he answered. “There’s no way Kabare’s guys were going to sneak this into the palace. I know lots of stealthy people from my adventures but there’s just no way. Getting it through the desert would have also been a huge pain, too.”
“Yeah, good thought, Cojisto,” I said, and the man beamed at me. “Take a break for now. Get yourself and Moose some water. I know he’s probably suffering more than the rest of us in this heat.”
The two nodded and left the room. I turned to check on Ferrisdae and Dalsarel. The latter whispered something I couldn’t quite hear, and the Forest Elf looked simultaneously amused and scandalized. That was a development I appreciated. If they were at least pretending to put generations of ugliness behind them, then I didn’t need to worry.
Seeing Cojisto wipe the sweat from his brow reminded me that I was also hot, making me aware of it again. Closing my eyes, I went through the visualization process again.
There was only one entrance to this room so there was no breeze. A few cooling crystals were set up, but they couldn’t keep up with four active people and a moose. Ferrisdae had ditched her starry robes ages ago and had given Dalsarel some of her spare clothes, ill fitting as they were, so the Dark Elf wasn’t stuck in her armor.
A wave of heat accompanied a loud explosion, interrupting my efforts to ignore the temperature. Cojisto, smoking, stumbled back into the room. The skin on his chest was burned and cracked. “Abara!” he yelled through the pain as he rushed back through the doorway.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
My first instinct was to unsheathe my sword, but I didn’t. Instead, I started pulling as much of the papers and parchments into my bag as I could. Not gently, either. I knocked over quills, ink bottles, and an ornate hourglass in the process. Whatever it took to keep a spell from turning the documents to tatters, that was what I was going to do.
I heard Cojisto swear in the next room and a new source of light appeared above me. Abara peered out of a portal on the wall. He looked down at the room, eyes narrowed in rage. His attention seemed fixed on the crystal. Without hesitation, I grabbed the hourglass and threw it.
Surprise crossed his features in the split second he had to react before the item broke on his face, throwing glass and sand in his eyes. The Gnome screamed in rage and the portal disappeared.
“Grab what you can and get out!” I ordered.
The Elves didn’t have to be told twice. They took whatever they could and ran towards the exit as a portal opened up in the middle of the room. On the far wall, the cage creaked as the base of the crystal fell in. The magical energy spiraled, slowly taking up more floor space.
Unsheathing my sword, I stepped towards the portal and prepared for combat. This one was different, though. Black fog made it hard to see what was on the other side. Like Abara was using some kind of magic to obscure our sight. Taking a gamble on being able to finish this once and for all, I jumped.
And landed on solid ground as if the portal wasn’t there.
“Bullshit,” I spat as I swung my sword towards the ground.
Just like the crystal, the blade went through just fine. Whatever magic the Gnome was using prevented me from going through it. Like he had put a restriction on me specifically. Or, perhaps on people in general.
Smart, all things considered, but wholly frustrating. The portal continued to grow, hungrily taking in everything that wasn’t bolted to the walls. While the cages certainly were a part of this category, the crystal that had fallen into them was not. They strained loudly as the metal warped and came apart from the stone.
A plan came to mind as I watched this all happen. Despite not being able to go in myself, I wasn’t helpless, and with luck this could be another opportunity to find one of Abara’s safe houses. I grabbed a bulky, unused scroll from a table before it tipped in. I reached into my Dimensional Pocket and pulled out a pastel blue knit cap.
It said #1 Dad in bold, black letters on it. I didn’t carry a lot of personal items with me, but this would be easy for Sophia to Scry when we next meet, and then it would only take a few moments whether Abara was there or not.
Unfurling the scroll as quickly as I could, I flattened the cap and began rolling it inside. The portal covered most of the room now, and I went for speed over quality. Running towards the desk that looked like it was going to get sucked up last, I opened up the largest drawer. It was filled with odds and ends for writing, and I struggled to fit the scroll in.
Damn near growling from frustration, I dumped the contents onto the desk, ignoring the ink that got everywhere, and shoved the scroll into the bottom. I then unceremoniously covered it up with everything and jammed it back in. When it wouldn’t fit, I took a few things off of the top and threw them through the doorway into the next room.
Dalsarel moved out of the way while Ferrisdae held back an already healed Cojisto. He looked both disappointed and frustrated, but didn’t push past her to get back into the room.
“Everything magical goes into Shashilly Bags now!” I ordered, turning around to check the crystal’s progress. “Prioritize the Dimensional Pockets!”
The table behind me disappeared into the portal. The amber crystal was hanging almost at a ninety degree angle. Honestly, the magical power on display was more than I thought Abara was capable of, though I had a hunch that he was probably siphoning off the mana from the crystal on the other side to fuel the portal further. That was what I would wager on, at least. Advanced, but well within the laws of magic.
Following my own orders, I pulled my backpack off as I ran to the doorway. I set it down on solid ground and started shoving my jacket into the woven Shashilly Bag inside. Ferrisdae was doing the same, throwing her robes into Cojisto’s bag after removing the crossbow.
“Better close them up fast,” Dalsarel warned as the sound of metal warping became louder.
I had just closed mine when I heard a scream tear through the palace. No, not just heard, felt.
My body shook as the sound bounced around inside of me. I grit my teeth in pain, falling to one knee, and looked behind me for signs of danger. No one else was reacting the same way, so it had to have been a targeted attack. It made me think that Abara had to have seen what I did with the cap.
The crystal fully fell into the black portal and the scream stopped. Blood pumped through my ears, accompanied by a ringing, and I slowly stood up. Everything except a few pieces of metal cages had been stripped from the office. I had been expecting Abara to torch the place to keep us from getting his secrets; this had been a surprise.
“Well, shit,” Cojisto said.
“And there goes my magic,” Ferrisdae complained, clutching her chest.
“The first shock is always the worst. Nothing to do except wait for it to be over,” I told her.
She nodded, leaning against Cojisto for support as she had a hard time breathing. I had no idea how long it would take for her wellspring to run dry, given all that had happened to her, but I hoped it wasn’t long.
Moose croaked, and his Human translated. “What happened to you, Badger? When you fell just now.”
I frowned, turning back to Moose. Now that there wasn’t any magic in the air and Abara couldn’t strike at us, I took the time to think it over. What had happened to me didn’t make sense as an attack unless it was done through sheer anger, but Abara didn’t lash out, he went after everything else. Casting a spell while using a portal that complex also seemed far-fetched.
So I thought about when it happened. The crystal had been almost completely engulfed. It wasn’t putting out nearly as much mana as it had before, but there was still a lot of magic on this side that needed it to survive. I had heard the Dungeon Doorknocker when I used it at the Dark Elf Quarry, proving that I was becoming more in tune with dungeons than I ever had been before, so perhaps that had been the scream of this one in its last moments.
“Either it was an attack from Abara or another of the Dungeon Master’s so-called gifts,” I unhappily answered. Standing up, I brushed myself off and slung my backpack on. “There’s nothing left for us here. We’ll tell Justisius what happened and then start heading back to Alashroe. With any luck, we’ll have the location of Abara’s next safehouse soon.”
Cojisto raised his hand. “Can I at least get a new shirt? Mine fell into the pit.”
Dalsarel looked like she had something to say, but I had no patience. “Get it fast, meet us by the palace entrance. Ferrisdae, you’re with me if you’re feeling up for it.”
“I am,” she answered. It felt forced, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.
“Good. Moose… probably best if you don’t step outside just yet. Stay hydrated and cool. Dalsarel, I don’t know what you want to do from here, but you’ve been a big help and I owe you a lot for helping Ferrisdae. You’re welcome to accompany us.”
She thought about it for a moment. “I think I will, thank you,” she said. “I’ll help Cojisto find some new clothes while you two do your thing.”
“Good enough for me,” I said, clapping my hands. “Alright, move out, I want to get out of here by nightfall.”