Elyza emerged into the glade as the sky was turning from orange to black. She had thought that crossing the barrier would become easier the more times she did so. However, even after a week of constant traversal, the persistent grip of anxiety refused to loosen its hold on her. The sight of grass lazily swaying in the wind helped sooth the uneasiness that clung to her.
With dinner slung over her shoulder, a sizable wild boar she had tracked down. She was able to take the boar as he slept, so most of Elyza’s hunt was spent skinning and draining the blood. Hunting was a daily ritual for her, a practice she was keen on preserving. When she had voiced this desire, Alex had surprisingly agreed, citing something about ‘keeping instincts sharp.’ The first week she was there, he had accompanied her hunts, often following their sparring sessions.
However, Elyza yearned for solitary hunting, for it was a time when she could truly relax, and more importantly get some time away from Alex. To her surprise, he readily agreed, much too quickly, with the only condition being that she would be responsible for cooking her catch. Although she suspected that he might be scheming something, a week of seemingly ordinary behaviour persuaded Elyza to dismiss the thought.
Glancing towards the spot where her lecturer had been just an hour earlier, repairing ‘Geoffrey’, a name Alex had given the training dummy to ‘humanise’ it. The dummy had endured a fortnight of Elyza’s spell experimentation, held together by a precarious combination of rope and nails, barely maintaining a humanoid form. Alex was shooting arrows into Geoffrey’s head, a new rope attaching it once again to its body.
The boar on her back was starting to get heavier, prompting Elyza to consider stashing it at the house before reporting back to Alex. He had asked her to keep an eye out for anything strange roaming the forest on her hunts. With the key to the house in hand, she reached for the door handle, only to find it creaking open on its own. Immediately, Elyza knew something was wrong; the door had done so, except for Alex. She knew it was nearly impossible to force open, a memory of an unfortunate night fresh in her memory. And according to Alex, she had the only key to the house.
She should have informed him that something was wrong in the house. But Elyza rationalised her decision to venture in alone, by convincing herself that Alex must have left the door open. Lowering the boar carcass next to the door frame, keeping the meat from touching the ground, she retrieved her spear—now snapped in half from the day’s sparring session. Using the broken weapon, she carefully nudged the door further ajar, her senses attuned to any disturbances within.
Stepping into the unusually dark house, its lights yet to flicker on in the early evening, Elyza surveyed the room, closing the door shut. Scanning the room, there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary—her study pile of books scattered across the table, the sofa neatly lined with her spare weapons, and the floor adorned with her attempts to memorize Druidcraft runes. Elyza waited for something to jump out, something that would reveal what was wrong, but the room defied her, remaining still. With a sigh, she tossed the spear onto the sofa, she probably just needed more sleep. But, just as she was about to step outside, a low creak echoed from above.
Elyza thought that somebody was on the roof, attempting to use the falling dust to pinpoint their position. Observing the ceiling, she noticed no dust descending, meaning the intruder had stopped moving. But something looked off. Alex had started teaching her how to spot illusions, mostly so she could distinguish between his and those of others. Her eyes had been trained to spot any imperfections in the foreground, any peculiar alterations in contours, discrepancies in the environment’s behaviour, and even anomalies in the way dust particles seemed to float. And she was. Something was clinging on to the ceiling.
Gradually, Elyza began deciphering the monstrous form of the creature. And it noticed, deactivating its camouflage, revealing sandy, scaly skin. Bulging chameleon eyes fixated on her, darting around as it studied her. The monster jumped down from the ceiling, towering above her as it stood on its hind legs, causing Elyza to take a step back, on her guard.
To her surprise, it seemed to possess intelligence, as it started to barter with her, trying to sound intimidating, “I’m only here for your master. If you can fetch him back to the house, you can leave here with your spine in one piece.” He was lying. Elyza knew just by looking at him, as soon as she turned around he would attack her nevertheless. Instead of responding, she readied herself for a fight.
The reptilian launched a punch at her face, a malevolent grin stretching across its visage as it lunged forward. The grin quickly faded when Elyza easily caught his fist. Having honed her reaction time through the spars with Alex, the reptilian’s substantially stronger punches appeared sluggish in comparison. Startled that she was able to stop his punch, he tried to lunge and bite her head off. This allowed Elyza to use this lapse of judgement to grab his neck and arm, throwing him over her shoulder. The reptilian crashed through the main door, the impact shattering it into pieces, landing on the cobblestone footpath.
Elyza rushed outside, muttering a sorry to the door as she crossed the splintered mess. Before he had the chance to get up, Elyza shouted, “Morglawdd o lafnau gwynt!” A barrage of blades formed from the air before her outstretched hands, before surging towards the reptilian. Despite the increase in their numbers, the trade-off was a reduction in the speed of the blades, allowing the reptilian to avoid his demise. Nevertheless, his escape came at the steep cost of sacrificing half of his tail, eliciting a painful growl marked by a blend of rage and anguish. He retaliated almost immediately, his maw gaping open as his elastic tongue shot towards Elyza with the speed of a whip. There was no way to dodge it, she had to try and cut the tongue when it struck her.
As she reached for a knife from her hip holster, a black barrier shot up from the ground, shielding her from the attack. It vanished just as rapidly, revealing the reptilian ensnared by shadowy ropes, with Alex standing in front of him. Elyza jogged up to him, still on edge, not trusting the strength of Alex’s constructs.
Alex’s face remained concealed behind the same illusion he had employed during the encounter with the Countess. “I’m sorry, but who are you? I think I would remember inviting a giant gecko to my house,” he mocked the restrained intruder.
In response, the reptilian emitted a low growl, retorting, “After you tortured me to the brink of insanity, after I regrew my arms from the stumps you left them as, no one would hire someone who got beaten by someone they had never heard of. I spent years searching for a person that didn’t seem to exist. But after six years, you will finally feel the pain you have caused me.”
“That doesn’t exactly narrow it down, but thankfully, there are only a few reptilians that have tried to thwart my efforts in rescuing a kidnapped child,” Alex responded with a subtle smile, with enough cockiness in his voice to give Elyza the urge to punch him. He added, All I can offer you is the regret that the present me wasn’t the one you encountered back then. I would’ve prevented years of suffering by cutting you down right then and there. In my youth, impatience often got the best of me. To be fair, I was mostly in it for the money.”
Alex’s deliberate taunting successfully ignited the reptilian’s anger. A bit too well. The reptilian leaped out of his binding, attempting to crush Alex’s face with his jaws. Reacting swiftly, Elyza moved to plunge a knife into the reptilian’s head before its maw could open. But, with a snap of the fingers, he was once again restrained, this time with black chains wrapping around his mouth as well.
“I should probably kill you now. You did try to kill my friend. Unfortunately for you, though, I’ve been teaching her how to interrogate someone, and you’ve made things much easier for me.” Alex declared with a calculated calmness, getting closer as he continued, “Because I know for a fact, you could not have found this place without somebody telling you.”
The muzzle on the reptilian dissolved as Alex turned around to address Elyza. His smile, subdued now that he wasn’t playing Nemo, he instructed, “If he’s reluctant at first, pull out his…” pausing momentarily to figure out his lefts from his rights, “…right eye, and he’ll get right to talking. Come back after you learn who’s helping her, and anything else you can find. I’ll start cooking the hog. Do you fancy a roast, or perhaps soup?" Before Elyza could respond, he decided, “I’ll do both.”
Alex walked past her, leaving Elyza alone with the reptilian, who shouted after him, “Coward!” She didn’t witness how he responded, but whatever he did, seemed to further enrage the reptilian. The creature redirected its fury towards Elyza, clearly desperate to break free from its restraints.
“Look at you, acting like his personal pet. Do you have any idea about the horrible things he’s done, the number of people he's killed? You’re being trained by a psychotic mass-murdering demon, and I’ll bet he hasn’t even told you his real name.” the reptilian spat, attempting to incite a reaction from Elyza.
Elyza shuffled closer, intrigued by what the reptilian had to say. “Speak what you know, lizard,” she prompted.
The reptilian was too easy to anger, as a frustrated growl led to his words, “Do not belittle me, tree-hugger. Unlike your master, I prefer people know who killed them before they die. I am called Ocul Jerrawa, son of the Agura tribe.” His voice carried a mixture of defiance and resentment.
“I see,” Elyza played along, “You may call me Elyza. Now, tell me what you know.”
“The man who calls himself ‘Nemo’ does so to hide the fact his real name is… Bob,” the reptilian declared, his tone serious.
The amount of self-control Elyza was expected to have not to burst out laughing was scarcely met by her. “I see. Who were you hired by, and why are they after… Bob.”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“They say he stole something from them. What? I couldn’t care less. I only wanted to tear his head off. I took the contract because it paid big, but imagine my surprise when they told me who I was to kill. The contract is open, so just go inside, slice his jugular open, and I’ll be happy enough to split the reward. Just let me smash his head into an omelette afterward, and I’ll forgive you for throwing me,” Ocul’s tone laced with a peculiar mix of savagery and casual indifference.
Elyza attempted to convey an unprovoked killing intent, a sensation she had only heard Alex describe once before — ‘an exertion of overwhelming bloodlust, of causing irreparable harm, something that should only be noticeable when you want to instil fear.’ She remembered feeling such an emotion when facing Hastings, so Elyza tried to emulate it.
“It appears to me that I will be the one doing all the work, and that seems unfair. The only thing stopping me from selling you as leather is I do not know who your employer is. Let us see if we can fix that.” she asserted. Elyza didn’t have the ability to observe her own face, so she had no idea if she had successfully expressed what she wanted. However, a fleeting look of fear, quickly concealed by Ocul, confirmed that the desired effect had been invoked.
“Think before you speak, elf.” Ocul spat back, “Be glad my arms aren’t free to rip your insolent tongue out of your mouth.”
“You should follow your own advice, lizard.” Elyza replied calmly, as she prepared to cast, fully aware of what was to come, “Tell me who your master is, and I’ll allow you to live.” She lied.
His fury made him predictable. Elyza observed the tension in his jaw, and she cast instantly, “Gabháil-a-ceangail.” As fast as his tongue shot out, so was it ensnared by the blades of grass she commanded. The vines pulled the tongue to the ground, covering it with dirt, and the reptilian panicked as it tried to retract it.
Approaching Ocul, Elyza traced the edge of her knife along the length of the slack tongue, threatening to pierce the flesh. She noticed that one of his eyes, the right one, was fake, but the pupil still dilated as she got closer.
“I would prefer to cut this thing, if only you did not need it to speak. It still might get separated; people tend to clench their jaws when they feel pain.” she informed him. She pried open his right eyelids, both of them, to reveal a mechanical eye the size of a grapefruit, darting around in panic. A wet exhale was all Ocul could manage as he tried to protest, or so Elyza assumed. The eye was surrounded with some transparent liquid, and looking through the pupil, it seemed to be mostly made of bronze.
She pushed the eye up, creating enough space for the flat of her knife to wiggle beneath it and attempt to use it as a lever. Pulling down on the knife, causing the eye to bulge. Gripping the bronze orb firmly, she yanked it free. There was more resistance than she expected, and as she held the reptilian’s eye in her hand, she realised why. The mechanical eye had a tail, a replica to act as an ocular nerve, covered in puss and blood. Throughout this, Ocul writhed in pain as much as he could in the chain restraints, unable to scream or vocalise his agony.
Elyza nonchalantly discarded the eye, turning her gaze back to Ocul. “I trust my demonstration motivated you to talk.” awaiting some form of agreement, which came in the form of a reluctant nod and a feeble attempt at uttering a strained “Fine”.
Dispelling the Druidcraft caused the vines to withdraw back into the soil, freeing his tongue to slither back into his maw. He wasted no time spitting out the dirt that had coated his tongue, accompanied by a string of curses, “You tree-fucking, knife-eared …” and a couple of more incomprehensible insults. After allowing him enough time to catch his breath, Elyza pushed her knife against his jugular, reminding him of the situation, encouraging him to talk fast.
“After you kill him, these chains will disappear, and there would be nothing to stop me from ripping both of your eyes out.” He tried to threaten her, to which Elyza simply pushed the knife deeper, piercing the skin, causing greenish blood to trickle out. His tone became more panicky as he continued, “If you kill me, I hope you know necromancy,” he stammered, his voice tinged with urgency, “Otherwise you’ll never uncover who hired me.”
“How do you know I do not?” Her words were carefully chosen, designed to sow doubt in Ocul's already uneasy mind.
“Y… You’re an elf.” Ocul responded in disbelief, staring at her for the signs of a bluff, which remained stoic. Not wanting to have his body be a puppet by forces he couldn’t comprehend, he finally relented, “Alright, I’ll tell you. But promise that you'll show me his decapitated head before you kill me. Grant me some satisfaction, so I can find peace in my next life.”
Elyza’s demeanour remained unchanged, providing the illusion that she was contemplating his request. “I agree,” she lied, her voice laced with cold assurance.
“When I went to the meet-up site, there was a hooded man waiting for me. He called himself ‘Sauran’ and handed me a map to this place. I couldn’t see his face, but the robes he wore resembled a priest’s outfit. That’s all I know,” Ocul revealed, seemingly accepting his fate. He wasn’t showing any signs of lying, at least the ones that Elyza knew of, so she was forced to take his word.
As she strolled back to the house, tiny spheres of light floated up from beneath the cobblestones, mimicking the glow of fireflies, illuminating Elyza’s way down the footpath. Approaching the doorway, the tantalising aroma of Alex’s cooking reached her senses—a harmonious blend of roasted pork, tomatoes, and some others that she couldn’t recognise. Stepping over the wreckage of the door, she found Alex stirring a bubbling soup in a large pot.
For a fleeting moment, a morbid thought crossed her mind – it would be effortless to walk up behind him and plunge a knife into his neck. But as quickly as the thought came, Elyza forced it out of her mind. The rational part of her knew that there was no way Alex wouldn’t figure out what she was trying to do.
Almost as if on cue, Alex commented on her arrival, “Came back faster than I erwartet hatte, what did you find out?” He had spoken in two different languages in perfect fluency, first in Elvish and then in Latin. Elyza was in the process of learning both, so although her brain couldn’t translate a small part of what he said, she understood what he wanted to say.
“In English?” Elyza sought clarification, and he nodded for her to continue. “He says the man that contacted him was a priest named ‘Sauran,’ gave no other physical description. It is likely that the priest is part of a larger organisation after you.”
“Do you think he’s hiding something?” he questioned the information, not even bothering to look behind him.
She thought for a moment before replying, “I believe his hatred of you is greater than any sort of loyalty he possesses.” Alex finally turned around, matching her gaze, trying to look into her, for some reason.
Elyza held the gaze, for enough time that it started to make her feel uncomfortable, before he suddenly exclaimed, “You pass.”
“Are you not going to interrogate him as well?” Elyza asked, confused, before changing her question, “How do you know he does not have anything else of use?”
“He can’t. I mean, I don’t think I gave him anything else to hide.” Alex replied, cracking his knuckles as he tried to remember.
“What do you mean by that?” She immediately responded, worry filling her mind as she contemplated the possibility. “Are you the priest? Did you hire him for the sole reason of using him as an interrogation subject?”
“No!” he sounded genuinely offended, “I made him, I mean,” Quickly readjusting his statement. “He’s an illusion that I formed.” Alex said, as if it was a daily occurrence.
Elyza was shocked, absolutely flummoxed, as she racked her brain for any signs she might have missed about Ocul being an illusion. “But I could hear him breathe; he bled when I nicked him; he reacted as if he was alive. Of course, he was not generating body heat, but reptilians are cold-blooded, so I did not pay any attention to it. Unless you were disguised as him during the interrogation, how is that remotely possible?”
Alex had a giant smile on his face. While she wasn’t a big fan of his long-winded explanations, this time she wanted to know what he had done, and she had given him permission to go full professor mode.
“So, as we’ve discussed already, illusions are generally in the form of ‘targeted hallucinations’, basically making people perceive reality differently. This includes your standard spells like invisibility, disguising things, creating fake people, entrances, traps, and other similar things. That’s why they tend to break when you interact with them, what you’re perceiving clashes with reality and the illusion fails. Since mana also has some density, it also feels weird when you interact with one. But with the use of certain runes you can condense it in a way for it to start mimicking certain surfaces, like skin or scales or rocks. Further, with enough time, and a lot of magic circles, you can make it so that the illusion changes when certain requirements are met. Combine these two properties together, and you can basically make anything seem real, granted that you have enough mana to form it, knowledge to make it believable, and a looooooooot of time.”
He paused, taking a breath, swigged from his flask, and continued, “And I mean an excruciating amount of time. That illusion of Ocul, based on a friend known by the same, took me a week to make.”
“That does not seem that bad,” Elyza remarked.
“Yes, but that was after I cheated,” Alex admitted, “I didn’t actually condense any mana. I created a shadow puppet, cast a layer above it, and connected the two, so that the illusion could influence the movement of the puppet. That took around two days, so actually creating the illusion took me five days. And it only has a lifespan of an hour max. This isn’t even near the apex of what you can do with illusion magic. I’ve heard of some masters of it who spend years on a spell to create individuals that didn’t even know they were fake.”
Elyza quickly realised he had gone off track. “Thank you for the explanation. But who is ‘Sauran,’ another friend?” she interjected, swiftly changing the topic before he embarked on another monologue.
“Ah, ‘Sauran’ is Ocul’s pet wyrm.” Elyza found the concept humorous, causing Alex to defend his choices, “Hey, I was in a time crunch. I had to draw from my own experiences to create a plausible scenario; otherwise, I would’ve done this next week. But I needed to assess your progress before I left.”
“Wait, is that why we sparred for four hours today? Why are you leaving? If you are going for a job, I would like to join you.” Elyza asked, the conversation generating more questions than answers.
“Don’t worry, I have to go meet Liliana, I’ll be back in a week, max. You can relax, train more, or whatever. But we can talk about the details in the morning. For now, let us feast.” Alex replied as he lifted the pot off the fire.