Bel lifted the corner of the cloak, looking at where Ventas’ body had been moments ago. Lempo had removed all physical traces of the priest – and his soul too, if that was a thing.
“I guess that’s a sign that you’re paying attention,” she muttered to her mother.
Not that it does me much good now, she thought sadly.
Bel sighed as her snakes swished through the air, still twitchy from the end of the fight. She knew that she should get up and do something, but she was so drained that all she could think of doing was curling up into a ball. If only her mother was actually helpful.
“I guess you did send Ventas to help me,” she admitted quietly. “I just wish you weren’t so hands-off.”
As her adrenaline faded, her aches and pains came back. Her ankle still hurt from when Ken had pushed her over into a ditch. Her muscles were still sore from walking. Her face still hurt from where Rikja had punched her.
The memories stirred Bel’s blood. Sure, she was tired. Yes, she didn’t want to do anything. But if that meant that people like Rikja got their way, well, to hell with that. If goddesses wouldn’t help her, Bel would just have to help herself.
Bel got to her feet with only a little bit of pain. She’d learned from Beth that helping yourself meant taking whatever advantages were available. And that meant looting the room.
She looked around, surveying the battle’s aftermath.
Ventas' power had melted the lizard things into sludge, and the inquisitor and the patchwork giant were in a similar state. Their cores had broken and their essence had leaked out, dissipating into the air as it was reclaimed by Olympos.
The inquisitor had reduced his targets to nothing, but the other corpses still had cores that Bel could use. She had reached the peak threshold for her current core, but absorbing more essence wouldn’t hurt. She could vaguely recall a conversation between James and Ventas about growing new cores; whenever a mortal was ready to start a new path, the Divine Treaty would facilitate a communion with the pantheon. If she did that, she would be able to choose a patron, which would, hopefully, bring her new power.
She walked from body to body, stepping carefully around the pieces of people that the inquisitor had left behind. As her core filled and she approached what would have normally been the next threshold, she felt her core burst open like a flower embracing the sun. A wave of sensations tickled her inner self, sending shivers along her back and whipping her snakes into a frenzy. She could feel a strange something waiting for her, like a breath caught in her lungs and waiting for her to exhale.
She could already feel a stronger connection forming to… something? Someone? Like an itch waiting to be scratched, she felt something in her core, but she resisted the urge to begin whatever was waiting for her. While communing she would be vulnerable, and this would be a terrible time for that. She did feel like she was closer to the divine beings from her ritual, but she didn't know if that was a good thing. It certainly wasn't something she had to figure out immediately either.
Next was supplies. Bel walked around the empty cavern, collecting headlamps and relighting the ones that had gone out. The flickering glow of the candles didn’t provide much actual warmth, but it made her a little less afraid of the darkness and shadows.
The physical tasks were a balm to her singed nerves, but with that decreasing stress she felt weariness tugging at her body. It wasn’t the time to relax yet, though. She needed a plan.
Should I try to go through the Barrier? Maybe with that device that Crystal was setting up?
Or should I go looking for James? Or maybe–
“Bel!”
She spun at the familiar voice, her eyes wide with shock. “James! How–” Her eyes widened and her snakes waved through the air with excitement. “Beth!”
The sight of her family released her from the grip of stress that had been gnawing at her insides, and she rushed forward to fling herself at her brother. She squeezed him in a tight hug, but was dismayed when she found his torso was covered in a cold, metal armor that made the hug unsatisfying.
She turned to Beth with open arms, determined to get a hug out of her affection averse sister, but she gasped when she saw her sister’s state.
“Beth, what happened to your arm?”
Bel’s hand moved forward and backward, caught between the impulse to help and the fear that she would make something worse. “Is that our fault? Did it happen underground?”
Bel stared at the stump of her sister’s left arm. It was wrapped in enough cloth to hide the gory details, but Bel could see dark stains seeping through the fabric.
Beth lifted the stump and shrugged.
“Don’t worry,” she replied glibly. “It’s not so bad – your brother actually did a decent job patching me up.”
“It is bad,” James insisted. “Thank the stars or Lempo or whoever for Ventas’ instructions. I was actually able to tie off her arteries and stop the blood loss. She still lost a lot of blood before I got to her though, and–”
“I’m fine,” Beth blustered. “We should be worrying about our escape.”
The one-armed woman hooked her thumb back in the direction that they’d come. “What happened here? Is there anyone left?”
Bel shook her head. “It’s over. It was between Nebamon’s people–”
“The Dark Ravager’s people,” James interrupted. “Not that we know who he is. Some kind of demi-god.”
Bel shrugged. “Sure, it was a fight between those guys and one of Technis’ inquisitors.”
James’ eyebrows shot up. “Another one?” he asked. “There was one attacking the Dark Ravager’s camp. It’s probably why we were able to slip away, despite…”
He gestured at Beth’s condition.
He quickly changed the subject when he saw Bel staring at Beth’s stump again. “So why were they bringing you here?”
Bel shook her head, still caught up with concern for her sister. “They were going to take me through the Barrier when Technis’ people showed up and ambushed them.”
Her eyes moistened as she recalled what happened next. “Then Ventas showed up and took care of them. He sacrificed himself doing it though.”
Bel grimaced, and her lips trembled as a few tears worked their way down her face. James quickly wrapped her in another cold, metallic hug. At least his arms were warm – Bel leaned into his embrace and sobbed over his shoulder.
“Who’s Ventas?” Beth asked. “The guy from Clearbrook? The one who gave James the core that support healing?”
Bel nodded. “Yeah. He took care of Technis’ inquisitor and that patchwork giant, but he used abilities that made him sick.”
“Well,” Beth declared, “it’s too bad there was only one of him. There was still a hell of a fight going on back at their camp. I don’t know who's going to win, but we need to be gone before someone shows up to see what happened down here.”
James nodded emphatically. “Yeah, the fight outside was pretty epic, but I wouldn’t want to hang around here to explain what happened to the winner.”
Bel looked around until she spotted the round object that Crystal had been messing with. She picked it up from the ground and was surprised by its lightness. She had thought that it was metal, but upon closer inspection it was similar to a tortoise shell with intricate designs carved into its surface.
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Bel lifted it to show to Beth and James. “This thing has something to do with getting through the Barrier. Crystal was going to do something with it, but maybe we can use it too. I think they were going to put it up on a tripod.”
Bel looked around for the other piece that had been tossed around during the fight.
James glanced at it. “Is it some kind of anti-Barrier laser?”
While Beth took the device and stared at it, Bel sidled closer to her brother.
“Is she really okay?” Bel whispered.
“Hyped up on toxins that she’s directly transmuting from her blood,” James whispered back. “High as a kite and ornery as hell. She forgot where we were going three times on our way here, and we were following a map that we stole from the command tent. She’s gonna crash real hard any time now.”
Bel chewed on her lip as she looked at her now one-armed savior, then turned back to her brother with a critical eye. “And how about you?” she pressed.
She looked him up and down again carefully, taking in his ill-fitting armor. “Are you okay under that? Where’d you get it anyway?”
“Same guy who cut off Beth’s arm. Beth insisted that we weren’t leaving without some kind of trophy.”
Bel rapped her knuckle against a metal vambrace. “It isn’t too heavy?”
James shook his head. “Not really. I just took the arm and leg guards and his chest piece. Cuirass? Whatever, he had a helmet and a shield and some other bits and pieces that I didn’t know what to do with.”
He hugged himself and shivered. “I wish I’d taken a cloak or something though, it’s cold down here.”
“Is it?” Bel wondered aloud. She was worn so ragged that she could hardly feel her body.
James looked over to a few of the bodies, searching for a cloak that wasn’t shredded or coated in gore. Bel didn’t think that he would have any luck.
He shook his head as he looked around. “What happened to Ventas? I should pay my respects or something before we make it through the Barrier. We can’t bury him, but I at least owe him a moment, and who knows if we’ll ever make it back this side of the Barrier.”
Bel’s eyebrows arched. “You’re pretty sure that Beth will figure that thing out.”
“Well, yeah, sure – I mean, you’ve got goddess-given quest to get through, and all this stuff is clearly just the tutorial. We’ve got to get out of here and see the real world and start the main quest and all of that.”
“It’s not a game,” Bel snapped.
“Sorry,” she apologized a moment later, after seeing her brother’s hurt expression. “I’m just… this has all been a lot, and I’m not ready for joking around. I feel like it’s all my fault somehow, but I don’t even know why these people were after me.”
James waved her snakes away to give her a reassuring pat on the back. “Sorry sis. It’s just how I cope with all this crazy bullshit fantasy nonsense.”
“I know,” she sighed, “I guess I’m just not ready to joke about Ventas.”
James nodded silently. Bel pointed to spot where the priest’s body had disappeared. “Just his clothes are left. I prayed for Lempo to take his spirit quickly and he turned into dust and just kind of faded away.”
His eyebrows went up.
Bel shrugged. “I don’t understand it, so don’t ask. All that’s left is his pendant.”
Bel pulled up the small bronze pendant so James could see it. It depicted something with wings – maybe a bird, but the quality wasn’t great.
“That belonged to his niece, right?”
“I think so. Do you think he’d mind if I kept it?”
James gestured to the empty spot on the ground, and Bel could tell that he was about to say something glib. Seeing her expression though, he coughed quietly and lowered his hand. “Yeah, I’m sure he’d be okay with it. Why don’t I go pay my respects?”
With a nod, James went to the spot. Bel joined him, not knowing what else to do with herself. They stared in silence, and things were quiet until Beth broke the silence with an exclamation of satisfaction.
“Hey kids, I think I’ve figured it out,” she called.
James and Bel hurried over to her. Bel was barely awake, and her eagerness to leave was growing as more time passed.
Beth pointed at a few marks in the ground. “It looks like this thing has to be put into a specific spot to work right. They’ve probably passed through a bunch of times.”
Bel looked at the featureless surface of the Barrier. “So do you think there’s a cave on the other side too?”
“Makes sense,” agreed James.
“Should be,” Beth shrugged. “Anyway, we just put the tripod into the holes, put the disk on the tripod, and then charge it up with a bit of essence. It’s mostly full already. I’m guessing that they were just about to leave, right?”
Bel remembered the last moments before the fight, when Crystal’s rolled up body had been sent spinning through the air. “Yeah. Nebamon was busy gloating before Technis’ people showed up.”
Beth nodded and stooped to pick up the disk. She clearly forgot that she had one arm, and only lifted one side of it. She was unbalanced and nearly fall over, alarming Bel with her uncoordinated movements.
“I’ll get it,” James offered.
Bel grabbed the toppled tripod and put its legs into the marks on the floor, holding it steady while James lowered the disk into place.
Beth placed her hand onto the disk and closed her eyes as she channeled energy into it.
It was hard to see in the blue light, but Bel thought that Beth’s usually dark complexion was unhealthily pale. She resolved to force her to rest once they reached anywhere that was just a tiny bit safe.
The markings on the disk began to glow, and the blue of the Barrier dimpled in front of them. The dimple became an indentation, which then progressed to a circular depression tall enough to fit a person.
“We’d better hurry,” Beth declared. “I think it’s timed.”
The one-armed assassin walked down the tunnel, her single braid – Bel realized that one of them had been cut short – swinging to and fro as she stumbled over the rocks littering the passage floor. Bel hastened to her side to stabilize her swaying sister while James ran to support her other side.
Bel had never been so close to the Barrier before, but it was just as featureless from a snake’s length away as it was from ten thousand strides. She ran her finger over its surface as they crowded into the deepening cavity. Her hand met resistance from a material so smooth that she couldn’t keep her finger from sliding along it when she exerted any pressure.
James poked it too, but Bel smacked him when it looked like he was going to lick it. “Don’t be weird James.”
He snorted in response but restricted himself to poking at the Barrier as they walked through it.
The cavity deepened, allowing them to take one step. After a few tense moments there was space to step again. One dreadfully slow step at a time, they slowly moved through the Barrier. Bel glanced back and made a noise of dismay when she realized that the Barrier was closing in behind them. Soon the dark hole marking the entrance sealed behind them and the only things still visible was the opaque blue glow of the Barrier and the hard rock beneath their feet. Bel unconsciously clenched her hands until her knuckles turned white.
They had walked another ten paces when a tiny hole appeared at the farthest point of their bubble. James quickly stuck his face by the hole and looked through it.
“There’s more cave,” he announced. “And nobody waiting for us. Well, nobody in front of the hole.”
James looked back at them and then again at the hole. “I mean, there's stuff in there. Maybe I just couldn't see the guards. It should only be another minute, I think.”
Bel sighed with relief. “We’re almost out, Beth.”
The opening grew with each step until they could see a strange device on the other side, a matching pair with the disk that they had activated on their side of the Barrier. It shone with the same strange light, calling them toward freedom. Bel unconsciously pressed forward, eager to be out.
She drank in the view from the other side: empty rock walls; a few sacks made from a rough fiber; and, mounted upon a tripod and aimed at the Barrier, a large disk as tall as a man. The surface of the disk was covered in glowing filigree that moved in intricate, shifting designs that varied in intensity over time. Bel guessed that they had something to do with the bubble’s movement through the Barrier.
Once the Barrier was at their backs the opening disappeared and filigree on the large disk faded.
Bel jumped when a voice called out to them. She turned her head slowly, somehow surprised that there was someone on this side. Belatedly, she realized that it only made sense – who in their right mind would leave a device like this lying around?
There were only two people, a man and a woman, and both of them were…
Bel had no idea what they were, some kind of animal people again. It didn’t matter. Once her thoughts caught up with her she reacted instinctively. She pulled Beth forward as she strode towards them with confidence.
“Nebamon barbar bar barbar!” she proclaimed. It didn’t matter if she spouted nonsense, they wouldn’t be able to understand her.
The two strangers exchanged confused looks. By the time they looked back at her she had nearly reached them. One of them reached for her weapon.
Bel looked her in the eyes and glared. She pumped extra mana through the ability, not stopping until she saw the woman’s furry hand halt in midair. Then she snatched a knife from Beth’s belt and slashed it through the frozen guard’s neck. That broke her from her paralysis; she staggered backwards, her hands clutching at her throat.
Bel turned to the second one, but Beth was already pulling her dagger free from the corpse.
“Nice one kid,” she said with a smile. Bel handed her dagger back and Beth cleaned the blades.
“Holy shit, Bel.” James looked between her and the scene, his eyes wide. “What the hell was that?”
Bel turned to him. She frowned. Wasn’t it obvious? “The Dark Ravager’s people are guilty and must be punished.”
James stared at her with unblinking eyes. “What the hell was that?”
Bel tilted her head. “What do you mean? They were guilty. I had to punish them.”
“And that doesn’t sound strange to you?”
“No, it… hm.” Bel put her hand to her head. “Maybe a little?”
Both of them jumped at a loud clang. They looked over to see that Beth had toppled the large disk from its tripod.
She gave them an innocent wave. “Just making sure that we can’t be followed. If that doesn’t keep them away, then hopefully it’ll at least delay them.”
Bel nodded. That made sense.
Beth walked to the wall with the cloth sacks. She searched until she found a small pile of empty ones waiting to be refilled. Then she collapsed upon them with a heavy sigh, like an exhausted seal finally beaching itself upon a sunny rock.
She looked at them with bleary eyes. “I’m gonna pass out now. You two be good.”
The siblings exchanged looks of concern, but, by the time they looked back, Beth was already unconscious. Her face relaxed in sleep and she snored quietly.
James dropped his stuff and sat down. “By the Bargainer, this has been a crazy day.”
Bel nodded in agreement.
“Yeah,” she mumbled, “one crazy day.”