The Lirkud, or Sandray, is a monster resembling a ray fish of the oceans but adapted to the conditions of the deep places of the Whispering Wastes. These magnificent beings float effortlessly a sword’s length or two above the scorching dunes, gliding with an eerie grace that belies their substantial size. Their wide, flat bodies are covered in scales that shimmer in the desert sun, giving them an alien aspect in their sandy environment. Long, trailing fins ripple like silken banners in the wind, aiding their smooth and silent movement through the air.
It is said that many tribes that inhabit the Wastes, the Nas Al-Rimal, have learned to domesticate these monstrous creatures, using them as mounts to traverse their harsh land. That of course must be a lie, for it well known that the Lirkud delight in the flesh of man.
- Monsters of the Mortal Realms by K. D. Fidditch.
Though still somewhat disbelieving of Larynda’s sudden growth spurt, I could not help how pleased I was with the result of my Sage’s Sight. Sweet blessed progress, my Identify spell had evolved into a more useful version of itself, though it cost almost double the amount of Mana to use.
I could now see the spells they possessed… but was that all?
“Hello!? Are you alright? Guess, you did remember me, after all,” Larynda said weakly, dusting herself up as she got up.
I looked her up and down, taking her choice of attire in. She wore light robes, cream in the main, but fashionably mottled with splashes of oranges and light reds and cinched at the waist with a silken sash.
I was going to ask her something, but instead, I turned to the Necromancer. “Is this sudden rapid growth, an elf thing?” I asked curiously in a voice still hoarse. He was exactly as I remembered him. With robes of a somber hue, he was the very picture of a practitioner of the dark arts.
“It’s not an elf thing, or at least… well I don’t know…” she began to answer for him. “Now, you will need to take this in very slowly. Please try to stay calm. You have been asleep for a very long time.”
“And, should have been for much longer!” harped Vincenzio shrilly. It was a far remove from his usual collected self.
“What are you talking about!?” I exclaimed, the words taking more out of me than they should have. I fought back a cough. “Water… some water, please. I need some water,” I croaked, my voice sounding hollow.
The warm healing liquid from before had not been enough to quench my thirst. But even as my deep thirst demanded satisfaction, the gears in my mind had already started whirring away. At the same time, my eyes roved over faces, searching their expressions for clusters of deception.
Larynda smiled, an expression that made me believe it was her. “Of course, how inconsiderate of me!” she chuckled, her voice taking up a sing-song tone.
Taking up a glass beaker from a nearby workbench, she closed her eyes as in prayer and began to chant. She chanted familiar-sounding words that I imagined I understood, but when I focused upon them their true meaning eluded me.
The beaker slowly frosted, starting to fill softly with a clear liquid.
A whiskered and furred creature poked out of the front of her robes, sniffing the air curiously as if sampling the magic. Suddenly, Vincenzio rapped her around the head, interrupting her spell. With a shrill squeak, the animal retreated into the depths of Larynda’s clothing.
The Water Calling has been broken.
“Stop trying to show off. Time after time. What has one told you about using your magic for mundane tasks? Every time you call upon, you come closer…” he scolded, his usually sallow features flushed with a tinge of color.
“What has one told you…” Larynda echoed mockingly. “I know, I know… Why must you treat me like a child?”
“And, to this day you do not listen. That is your answer,” he barked back.
I clapped my hands with all the force I could muster, the strength of it shocking even me. Immediately, the pair’s attention was completely focused on me.
“Water, please. And, an explanation before I knock your skulls together,” I stated evenly.
I intended it as a joke, but truth be told I was sorely tempted to do it. After all, I had just had the worst sleep of my life.
“Yes, of course,” admitted Larynda sullenly, moving off to fill the rest of the beaker from a flask.
I waited in patient silence. The levity of their earlier exchange now forgotten, Larynda presented my drink to me with both hands. Raising it to my lips, I drank deeply, uncaring of the stale taste. Uncaring even if it were poison. A part of me had almost expected her to kneel, for in that moment, the air seemed to thicken, laden with a gravity born of years of long-held anticipation.
“So, what has come to pass? You say it has been a long time. How long?” I questioned, draining the beaker.
“Five years to the day, almost,” pronounced the young woman wanly.
My thoughts paused with her pronouncement. The shock of it was muted but still felt, blanking out my mind for a second. The Necromancer looked as if he were about to explain further, but a look from me silenced him.
Limited though it was, I would place the greater trust in the person who had awakened me.
I closed my eyes, sifting through their recent words. “That you are a woman almost fully grown gives truth to your words Larynda. But what Kidu? Elwin? What of them? And the Lady de Aserac? Why are they not here,” I inquired mechanically, robbed now of my irritation and ire.
Larynda drew a small wooden stool and sat down, forming a triangle and resting her chin on her hands as she looked at me. Her voice grew distant, remembering a painful memory.
“Kidu has gone to fulfill his En… or burden of honor, or duty, it doesn’t really translate well,” she stated, almost spitting out the words. Looking away, she adjusted her sash and calmed herself. “He, we, I mean, heard the news that there was a group of North men, former slaves that fit the description of his old friends, escaped all the way here. Apparently, they got into a bit of trouble with drink and the Dust. Got into a lot of debt with the dens and became indentured servants. Their contracts got sold to a merchant who had business in Aranthia. And, since you were not getting up anytime soon… he went to go find them. That’s pretty much what happened to him.”
She turned away for a moment, studiously looking at a preserved specimen floating in a glass container on a shelf. “He promised on his spear that he would return. If he finds them… he has the right to become an En. His tribe will have to call him Enkidu. He left me, us, two years ago for words and a title…”
I shared a glance with the Necromancer who simply nodded and shrugged. If I remember correctly, there had been a quest to find Kidu’s companion. A quest I had ignored for I thought it would have taken me years. Damn, this world and its stupid penalties! Was this a form of karmic retribution for wrong quest or dialogue choices?
The child, no adolescent, seemed too lost in the memory. Her expression had grown clouded and distant. It was time to jog her back into the present.
“And Elwin?” I insisted, a little too sharply.
“After Kidu left and you being in your state. Uncle left a bit to do a bit of this and that or whatever he calls it. Have no idea what he is really up. Comes and goes like a cat. Sometimes stays for a day, sometimes a week before he’s off somewhere else doing whatever it is that he’s doing. He said he’d be back for the tournament if he can be believed,” she said with an indifferent shrug.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The Necromancer smiled thinly. “One rather liked that rapscallion. He had a good sense of humor at least, not like the big one. That one was trouble through and through,” he commented, drawing a hot look from Larynda.
Vincenzio answered the young woman’s look with an unblinking one of his own. “What’s with that look? That is the truth of the matter as one sees it. One never did understand why you liked the big one… perhaps it is because you hair was of the same color. Humans really do have a tendency over bonding over the silliest of things like that. The foreign barbarian really could have washed it more often. Now talking of hair, did you know that Elwin fellow once asked me…” he rambled on in his raspy voice.
He had left me before so I had never expected much from the slippery Rogue in the first place. Past behavior was, after all, always a good indicator of future action.
“Cordelia? What of her?” I cut in demandingly.
“She…” they both started to answer at once as if in unison. Vincenzio indicated for Larynda to continue.
“Since you have been… asleep, she went off with a bunch of adventurers. Slew this, slew that, all in the name of Avaria, of course. You know how she was. Gold rank adventurer now and very popular with the local folk. By the way, we dared not tell her location. With the Green Road now all year round there is an almost constant stream of foreigners into the city wanting to buy up Dust…”
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean the Green Road is… I mean what has any of that got to do with what happened to Cordelia?”
“Well, since travel is now easier to Al-Lazar, crossing the Wastes is a cinch, relatively anyway, which means there’s more traffic and trade. Most of that from the Kingdom of Aranthia by the way. The desert is almost blooming all year round, well along the banks of the river at least! And that meant that… The tribes of the deep desert, the Nas Al-Rimal, wanted their cut of the flowing wealth for they believe the sands to be their realm. The inundation of water cutting through the sands theirs by the right of heaven. So, in their greed started to harass and attack the trade route. They strike with almost impunity for they can easily escape back into the deeper parts of the Whispering Wastes…” Her words were an outpouring. A spring flood.
“But what has that got to do Cordelia?” I asked again irately.
“I was just getting to that… the Church of the Avaria declared the Lady de Aserac excommunicated. Yet, this worked against the high ecclesiarchs, creating a rift with their believers for she is seen as almost a living saint. Not to mention, her rank as a Gold Adventurer…”
I had to force myself not to roll my eyes. At least she no longer talked in her childish manner which was an improvement of sorts.
“So?” I asked, looking to the Vincenzio to hopefully expand upon this.
The sallow man smoothly took up the baton of explanation. “That Cordelia person accused the leaders of her Church of being but worldly priests, unable to hear the voice of her goddess and devoid of spirituality. Anyone else would be simply laughed at or accused of heresy and madness, but the little Aserac was not just anyone. The daughter of an Aranthian Duke and a bearer of one of Avaria’s cursed blades to boot, her words bore too much weight to be simply ignored. The Church demanded that she prove herself. To prove that she truly heard the words of the Goddess. A compromise had to be reached to heal the deepening schism, or so my sources tell me,” he said with a knowing smile.
He made a broad sweeping gesture with his arms. “They gave the woman a holy mission, something deemed almost impossible. They demanded that she convert the tribes of the desert to the light of Avaria. Or failing that, deliver Avaria’s false judgment upon them. I dare say that they thought that one way or another they could get rid of at least one nuisance to them. I do so love it when the servants of the false gods fight among themselves. By the way, I was always wondering what sort of ace you had up your sleeve. Too bad you did not utilize her properly,” the Necromancer finished with a thin-lipped self-satisfied smirk on his face.
Damnit, another companion lost. Had my starting party just been completely taken away by the game? Was this the part where the real story began?
“Friends are not things to be used,” came my cliched response. Even to my ears, it rang hollow and trite.
There was a lot to take in, but I found myself strangely able to quietly process it. Had I grown as a person? Or was this just my Wisdom and Intelligence attribute playing their parts?
“So, she is lost to us on a futile quest or mission?” I concluded, more in statement than in question.
“Good riddance too,” snorted the Necromancer
I smashed my fist down. More to make a point than in actual anger. “What do you mean good riddance? They were my friends and allies. They believed in me… or did anyway. Now they are scattered to the four winds… and I do not know even where to begin,” I spat out.
Vincenzio raised an eyebrow. “The contest has yet to even begin and you are already bemoaning your fate. What use are you to us…” He coughed, casting a guilty glance at Larynda before continuing.
“And you lied to me,” I confirmed, realizing now. Far too late.
“I assure you, I did nothing of the sort. I promised an easy way to grow in power. That I have provided…” Vincenzio replied as if affronted.
“Do you think me a fool, barbarian savage? Lies of omission are lies nonetheless. Do not presume to gainsay me in this,” I said flatly with a cold smile, already calculating if I could kill the Necromancer. With Larynda, victory was all but guaranteed and at level thirty-one Vincenzio would bring me a bounty of experience points.
“Barbarian savage!” he protested, disbelieving of my insult.
I stood up, finding that I had complete control over my body. Rolling my shoulders, I found that no cramps or aches afflicted me, nor sores or creaking bones. No, my superior Constitution was no doubt responsible for that.
He must have seen something for I saw the lines of his face grow taught. Though he hid it well, I detected the faintest whiff of fear. “We have an accord…” he protested.
“That we do. It is the only thing that is saving you now…”
The pale man’s eyes bulged. “One will not be threatened!”
“...that is saving you now.” I plowed on, “You have followed through to the letter of our agreement, if not the spirit of good faith…”
I fancied I saw Larynda smile secretly at this declaration.
Looking at the Necromancer with suppressed anger, all I could think about was the general unfairness of it all. If I had not been as fortunate, or as quick thinking, I would have lost my very body to a long-dead shade.
“You would have had me sleep for hundreds of years, trapped in that nightmare? Or, if I failed to defeat Fen, she would take over my body? You forgot to mention that part of the trial. Answer me, and answer me true or things will not go well for you. This is not a threat, but a fact backed up by the power I now wield.”
He shrugged indifferently. “It was the only way. Have you not thought upon the scale of the adversaries you will face? That is my answer. Surely, all things are justified toward that higher purpose?”
Unarmed though I was, it would be an easy thing to end him. Dark magic or no, I knew that the magic of my path was darker still. And, though it was now in the memories of a fading dream, I had once slain a legend.
“I will allow you the grace of explaining your actions,” I offered.
“I can do that for him. He’s a…” Larynda started, but one look from me silenced her rambling.
“It was simply the only way to hide that realm in which you trained from the eyes of the gods. It has to be constructed with a curse as its base calculae… a blessing would have drawn their attention.”
I motioned for him to quickly go on. My patience was rapidly growing thin.
“The conditions of the curse, was for Fen to take over your body should you fail. A consolation prize of sorts should you not have any true potential.”
“And why was I not informed of this,” I questioned.
“One would not think to know her mind, but that in my humble opinion would have cast a shadow over the whole process. I wanted to give the best chance. Believe it or not, I wished for you to have the best of chances. By Fen’s estimations, she deemed that it would have taken her hundreds to impart a fraction of her true skill upon a talentless individual…”
“Enough with the attempts at casual mock. I do not need any more reason than that which I already possess,” I warned. “And you Larynda, did you not know about any of this?”
She answered immediately with a shake of her head, “No, at least not until it was too late, I mean.”
“Then Vince… continue with your explanation,” I suggested in a somewhat neutral tone.
He winced at having his name shortened and I took some petty enjoyment from his discomfiture. You get back what you put out into the world.
Also, it was good to know what angered a man. To know of what levers and buttons to press to achieve a desired result. It gave you control over, no matter how small that control might be.
“If Fen said it would take a hundred years, then it would take a hundred years to bring you up to muster. Know that she sacrificed a portion of her soul to build that place. Every year in that realm would have given you a better chance, to hone your skills until you became powerful and skillful enough to overcome her. Larynda interrupting the process limited the time that was available to you, dangerously so. Because of her actions it is a miracle that it you and not Fen that is standing before us. That is the unvarnished truth of it. One assures you of this.”
So that was why things seemed so rushed towards the end. Was Fen trying to fulfill her purpose, or was she simply eager to walk in the world of the living once more? Having grown doubtful of human nature, I would have wagered on the latter.
"Perhaps I am Fen, pretending to be Gilgamesh. What would you do then? Would you even be able to tell, I wonder. She was a skilled liar and almost as adept in deceit as she was with a sword," I put forth to Vincenzio, trying to gauge his reaction.
To my delight, his fists tightened at his sides.
“Then it is a good thing that I have beaten the so-called curse, and well within schedule, too. Miraculously so,” I observed smoothly, giving Larynda a small wink. It would do no harm to have her on my side.
“Just so,” he swiftly agreed.
“Do not think to ever try to deceive me again. Now, then. Tell me what else has changed in this accursed world,” I demanded.
I had a feeling that I was forgetting something… or someone…