Chapter 27: Near Death Experience

I could feel the energy soaring over me, melding, becoming one with me. In the darkness, I could feel the energy wanting something from me. But I couldn’t do anything, it was taking control of me, consuming me. It would become me and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

But I could, it was trying to tell me what to do. But what was it? It was so hard to focus. Everything seemed to be everything yet nothing all the same. I just wanted to stay in this darkness, to let myself be eaten and destroyed. That was the easy option, and the easy option sounded so nice. Peaceful.

“Peaceful?” A voice asked. Where did it come from, deep within this darkness? Yes, but at the same time not quite. This darkness was something else that I couldn’t quite grasp.

Where am I? The thought was so sudden and seemed to make my head hurt. What am I? That question seemed more pertinent. Because what I was, was here. Here was me. But who was me? La’Quet? No, that was someone else, someone that I became.

But who had I been before?

An image of a painted white farm house in a wheat field came to mind. That was home, I knew that. I had seen that before. But the people within were so hazy, I was so hazy. All I could see was La’Quet, but that wasn’t me!

Right?

I thought of the large, wooden ship that had crashed ashore the beach I had woken up on. Why had we been on the boat to begin with, where was I going?

I wanted to know. I needed to know. And I wouldn’t find those answers here, within myself. I had to break free, I had to take control of the energy.

I reached out, not with my hands as I did not have any here, but with my mind. This place, a part of it was my mind and I could use it. The energy shook, stuttered. The energy was confused, it wasn’t used to this.

I forced my will upon it. It stopped altogether. It was shaking. It was scared. As it should’ve been.

The energy began to flow away, to flee from me. I couldn’t see it in this darkness but I knew it was running. I followed it, it never had a chance of escape. My mind, no, my spirit grasped the energy and forced it into me. I felt my mind buzz, the walls of the darkness shake and crack. But it did not shatter.

I would live.

A light came through the cracked darkness. No, not a light. A sense. I knew peering into that crack would be foolish but even so, I couldn’t help myself. I peered through the crack into the great expanse I could never understand. A true expanse of nothingness, somehow darker than the darkness in here. Yet, within that nothingness was something. I felt the entire room quake in fear as something revealed itself. It was so massive it consumed my vision - Is this vision, do I have eyes?

I felt my mind shutter and gooseflesh break out on my cracked walls. But there was something else inside of that massive being, something I had to see. I focused on it and found there to be something else, something I could understand.

It was a consciousness. I realized then that out there in the aether were four consciousnesses. One very small one, two the size of my own, and the gargantuan one.

What are they?

I couldn’t know. But I could feel them. The two human sized ones touched one another and then, suddenly, were gone. To where, I had no way of knowing.

The massive consciousness did not care about this mysterious disappearance. It seemed it did not care about anything at all. It simply continued to move along the vast emptiness of wherever we were. Its form went by my room, just barely avoiding me. I had the feeling that was a good thing as the longer I looked at that thing, the more fear began to rack itself within me.

I couldn’t stand this anymore and closed my eyes. The energy I had captured within me lit up. Under my will, I forced it to open my eyes.

#

Light filled my eyes as they opened. For just a split second, I felt every single square inch of my skin tingle and the water that covered me felt overwhelming. But then it was gone, the spark of whatever I had was gone. I lifted myself out of the water as quickly as I could, putting my staff up like a sword just in case anything came after me but nothing did. I looked all around me and saw Gronan hacking through the last scale creature and Finn coming toward me.

“You okay?” He asked but didn’t let me answer before he asked, “How did you heal so fast?”

I looked down at my side and saw four holes in my shirt where I had been stabbed. Inside the damaged cloth were four, circular scars.. “How long was I out?” I asked, feeling the scar.

He gave me a strange look, “Just a few seconds.”

Just a few seconds? I had been in that strange, dark space for just a few seconds? I didn’t try to make any more sense out of it, I’d think about it later. Instead, I got up and went to the woman on the small island.

“Please,” She said with utter terror in her voice. “I didn’t want to lie to you about it being safe. The creature had its blade on my throat. It was going to-”

“It’s okay,” I said, cutting her off. I put my hand out for her. “Take my hand, I’ll help you up.”

She shook her head, “I can’t walk.” Her eyes glanced toward her foot and I saw a gash that went straight through her achilles heel.

“Gronan?”

Gronan was already next to me and on it. He knelt down beside her and put a healing hand on her foot. The wound healed nicely.

“Th- Thank you,” She muttered, taking my hand. I pulled her to her feet but they began to buckle. I caught her by the waist and she put her weight on my shoulder. “S- Sorry. It still hurts.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I told her. “You’ve been through a lot. There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“Seems the wound severed a nerve,” Gronan said, still kneeling down and inspecting her leg closely. He touched a finger on her leg.

The woman let out a sigh, letting go of me. “That’s a lot better”

Gronan got up and put his healing hand onto her shoulder. Quickly, all of the other wounds healed. “That seems to be everything. No other nerve damage or anything else that might require closer attention. Except for your mental state, which I can’t cure.”

“Thank you,” She said and sudden tears began to form in her eyes. She wiped them away, “It’s been a long couple of days.”

“Just doing my job, ma’am.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“What are you doing, Finn?” Hazel asked sharply as she came to us.

Finn was in the river, looking through the water. He knelt down and pulled out the top of a skull with several bite marks breaking through the bone. “Found the other Adventurer.”

“Ugh,” The woman said and looked away. “It was horrible, that one creature killed him and then...and then he...changed.” More tears came to her and this time they didn’t stop.

Faster than I thought possible, Finn had thrown aside the skull and was beside her. He put a hand to her back and spoke to her with kind words, “Sit down, take your time.”

She did.

Gronan pulled his backpack to his shoulder and pulled out a rag. He gave it to the woman. “Here, to wipe your eyes.”

She nodded.

“Is there anything else here of danger?” He asked.

She shook her head.

“The creature took the Adventurer’s Soul,” Hazel said. “I have read about it before. It makes them more powerful and changes them on a fundamental level just like us Adventurers.”

“That’s interesting and all,” Finn said. “But I’d like to know how La’Quet here found out how to use his staff,” He looked at me, squinting his eyes at me. “I thought he didn’t know how to use it.”

“I thought you trusted me,” I said.

“I don’t trust anyone but Hazel.”

“Why are you being such an ass?” Hazel asked.

“No, it’s a valid question,” I said. I gripped the staff tightly. I could feel it then, the energy beginning to flow from my hands into the staff, recharging. “When the shilner stabbed me. I felt its energy soak into me and I was able to harness the power of the staff. I think that’s what happened anyway. When I killed it, I guess my Soul Hunter ability took its soul and made it mine, which let me heal so quickly.

Finn looked more uneasy now than he had before. “Shilner? How did you know the creature’s name?”

Shit. Well, I guess I had to come out to them about it sooner or later.

“Um, well since I’ve arrived in this world I’ve had a bestiary pop up in my vision that tells me what a creature is when I encounter them,” Finn's face looked shocked and unbelieving about what I had just said but before he could speak more I continued. “I’ve also been able to see contracts without looking at the contract papers. My best guess is that Milanda is doing it.”

To my surprise, Finn’s shocked face quickly grew understanding. “And that’s how you knew that the reward changed for the bird hunt contract,” He concluded.

I nodded, “Yes.”

He scoffed and stepped away from Velajn toward Hazel. “How the hell can we trust him, I mean, he kept something crucial like that to himself!”

“I didn’t want you to think I was weird,” I defended.

He reeled back to me, “You are weird! Look at you, you have a metal eye in your chest,” He poked the object with a judging finger. “And you shoot lightning out of your chest for Goddess sake!”

His harsh words caused spittle to fly into my face and I could feel the energy building within me.

“Finn,” Hazel put a hand on his shoulder. “Stop, La’Quet is a part of our group-”

He pushed her hand away. “A part of our group? He came to us two days ago, he’s not a part of our group! He doesn’t deserve to be!”

“He saved your life on the bird,” Gronan pointed out.

“If he didn’t, he would’ve died too.”

“That might be true,” I said, keeping my eyes trained on his “But if it were you that had gotten on that bird first, I would’ve jumped onto it to help you.”

“Trintshit,” He grumbled.

“Don’t believe me if you don’t want to. And if you don’t want me on the team, so be it, I can go. But if I stay, I will not betray you, I don’t want to hurt anyone here.”

He continued to stare at me for several moments before he broke them to look at the woman we had just saved. His voice changed immediately to that of a soft, gentleman, “Would you like to come with us?”

She nodded, her eyes wide as she watched us Adventurers yell at each other. I couldn’t help but wonder how much fear it had to cause, watching four people much more powerful than an average person argue.

“Good, let’s take you back to your future husband then.”

The fear in her eyes doubled once he said that. “What?” She scrambled to her feet. “No, you can’t! I can’t go back!”

We all looked at each other.

“Why not?” I asked her.

“It’s why I ran away, okay? I don’t want to marry him.”

“Is it arranged?” Hazel asked.

She nodded.

“Just as we thought, he is a rich boy,” Finn said. “But he works at a sawmill, who’s his parents?”

“I don't know, but he’s the nephew of a smuggler and loan shark. My mother couldn't afford the loan she had been given and….” She trailed off.

“But the loan had hefty interest,” Finn said knowingly.

She nodded.

“She couldn’t afford it, so she offered your hand in marriage instead,” Finn concluded.

“I shouldn’t have run,” She said with a defeated sigh. “I have to go back to him, if I don’t then my mother’s debt won’t be taken away.”

“You won’t have to go to him,” I said. “We could go to the smuggler, maybe convince her somehow to let your mom off.”

“It won’t work.”

“It’ll have to.”

“What’s the smuggler’s name?” Finn asked.

She seemed hesitant to give the name, as if just uttering the words would call them here. But after a moment, she obliged. “Robinja BellaJix.”

As soon as the words left her lips, the siblings both recoiled as if they had been shot.

“That snake,” Hazel hissed.

“You know her?” She asked.

“We know her alright,” Finn answered. “Don’t worry about going to your fiancé, you can stay at our house while we settle this,” He looked toward me, “Right?”

“Oh, sure,” I pointed to her, “Don’t freak out.” The robe flew off of me and she stumbled backward, letting out a terrified scream as the robe went stiff next to her and the portal made its appearance. This time the portal was just in front of the front door of the house.

“S- Sorry,” She said, gazing into the portal.

I chuckled, “That’s okay, I don’t think even most Adventurers are used to portals to other worlds.”

She gazed into the portal. “Is that where you all live?”

“It’s a new home, but yes. The person who built it lives inside.”

She broke her eyes away from the portal, back to us. “I don’t know, I could just stay here.”

“You do not trust us,” Hazel said more than asked. “I understand. But we can not let you stay here, it is dangerous. Would you rather trust us and stay in there or hide away in the town, hoping your fiancé does not find you?”

She looked back to the portal. “Fine,” she said defeatedly.

Hazel came up to her and put a hand to her back. She and Finn have very similar ways of comforting someone. “Do not fret, we will be inside when it becomes dark. This is no trick, we wish to help you.”

She nodded shakily. “Okay, I’ll go, thank you. Thank all of you for saving me.”

“You’re welcome,” I said.

“Still just doing our job,” Gronan responded.

“Go get cleaned up and rest,” Hazel said. “You will feel much better.”

She nodded and without another word, stepped through the portal. The robe snapped back to me and pulled itself over me once again. As it did, text came to my vision:

Quest Updated:

Optional Objective Acquired - Velajn and her mother’s hands have been forced by the devious Robinja Bellajix. Find a way to fix this issue.

Meet the local guard station receptionist for further instruction.

“I haven’t heard that name in quite some time,” Hazel said, a dark anger settling in her eyes.

“Should we tell the fiancé we found her?” Gronan asked.

She shook her head, “No, I know that family. We do not want to anger him.”

“Not until we want him to be pissed, that is,” Finn said.

“Then what should we do?” Gronan asked.

I spoke up, “Well, the weird boxes told me to go to the local guard station.”

“And we can trust that?” Finn asked sharply.

Hazel nudged him, “Then that is where we will go.”

As we walked back to town, I asked. “What did Robinja Bellajiz, Bellajinks?”

“BellaJix,” Hazel corrected.

“Thank you, what did the Robinja woman do to you two? How do y’all know her?”

“It is complicated and violent. It would take a long time to-”

“She’s a part of what killed our entire family,” Finn said dryly.

“Yeah...that.”

“Oh, I see.” I decided not to prod any further, whatever happened they’d tell me if they ever wanted me to know. Right now, walking through a forest with blue and red blood covering us didn’t seem like the kind of time to start asking these hard-hitting questions.

Eventually, we broke through the trees. The sun was beginning to set, causing an orange hue to spread out across the sky and light up the river a similar color. I couldn’t help but stop for a second to breathe it all in. This world was so brutal yet then there were times like this, when the light hit just right, that made everything seem so picture-esc.

This world. This wasn’t Earth, but yet here I was once again, seeing another similarity.