BANG-BANG-BANG!

The cramped corridors of the Lamakai shrine echoed with the sounds of hammering on the single wooden door upstairs.

Esther looked at the prophet in alarm and saw the silver-scaled snake-man look up in disdain. His long, forked tongue flicked out to taste the air.

“Sesuuk! Is that them?!” Esther frowned, wondering whether this was a good idea at all. She had spent the last day or more gathering her strength, resting, eating, and drinking an awful lot of that weird bubbling potion the Lamakai kept in constant supply for her.

Which, it has to be said, tastes pretty good, she thought as she considered taking another sip from the flask at her side. No. That had to last her the next day’s travel. At least that was what Sesuuk had told her.

Over the course of that day, Sesuuk had also brought her other items that he said would be invaluable for their journey—two changes of light, almost gossamer shifts and sturdy leather over-jerkins and greaves.

‘I have no idea how the heat of my realm will affect you, but I promise you this is the best material, even if it has little armor value,’ Sesuuk had assured her.

There were rations too—although Esther never felt hungry after drinking the potion—as well as a long knife, boots, and a replacement staff shod with metal at both ends.

‘I believe a polearm will be your best weapon. However, you won’t need it with your abilities!’

It had taken a while to gather all of the necessary items because it seemed that the topside realm had lost its collective mind again, according to what Sesuuk had told her. Blackwood was in uproar over the two dead guards, and now a full-scale search for Esther had been initiated by Mayor Marr and Captain Goreth.

Now, however, the search had come here.

“We will have to move quickly. The portal takes a little time to open,” Sesuuk said, picking up his own small pouch and slinging it across his shoulders as he strapped his long scimitar to his hip. Its scabbard was white leather, but there were strange, angular symbols stamped down its length that made Esther’s eyes hurt when she looked at them.

“The portal, right. Jumping through a portal. This is normal,” Esther grumbled, part of her still wondering if all of this could still be some really intense hallucination. She took another sip of the potion and instantly felt a surge of confidence and power. At least the hallucination had really top-notch consumables.

“This way. The door at the end.” Sesuuk walked out of the small room and into the corridor underneath the temple.

A voice shouted through the door, “Sesuuk! This is Laurie Marr! We have reason to believe that you have Esther down there, and we need to talk to her NOW. If you don’t open this door for us, we will break it down!”

The thing was, Esther had always kind of respected Laurie Marr and found the woman to be more or less friendly. She was a strong, resilient woman who knew her own mind and put her people first. She was fair but wouldn’t take any rubbish from anyone. And that included the sister of the city’s patron.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Feeling bad about how Laurie might feel about her paled in comparison to the idea that the mayor would probably throw her in chains, and that was the least bad option she had, right.

Esther didn’t blame the mayor or the guard captain for chasing her, but she wasn’t going to turn herself in until she was cleansed of the dark magic that had made her kill the guards.

“Do not worry, my child,” Sesuuk began.

“Less of that ‘my child’ talk, if you don’t mind. It makes you sound creepy and weird,” Esther snapped.

The Lamakai prophet frowned a little, but then he shook his head as if it were nothing. “The shrine has a Level Fifteen field, so that reduces the amount of goons that she can have with her. I presume that it’s just her and Goreth and a handful of others!” He tilted his head. “I could tell my guards to resist them, of course…”

The prophet seemed to be considering the idea very seriously, Esther thought in mild horror, even if it meant bloodshed on the stones of his shrine with Blackwood citizens fighting other Blackwood citizens.

“I don’t want anyone else to get hurt,” she insisted.

“No, that would be a bad idea, I suppose. No need to make enemies, is there?” The snake man flashed a sidelong look at Esther and made a strange hissing noise, which Esther had come to believe was his form of laughing.

“To be honest, I’m getting the impression that you and I make enemies too easily anyway,” Esther grumbled.

Sesuuk laughed again, even as the banging on the door above continued. “Yes! Yes, quite true. Now, come quickly.” The Lamakai hurried them both to the end of the corridor where there was a room with what looked to be a low stone well in its center. Above that was a swirling sphere of purple-and-pink energy.

“Oh…” Esther could feel the power of it as soon as she entered the room, like a wave hitting her and then receding. “I guess that wibbly-wobbly thing is the portal?” She stared at the glowing orb with furrowed brows.

“What? Wibbly-wobbly?! Pfft!” Sesuuk appeared annoyed.

Esther could see that the orb was, in fact, made of several circles of bright celestial energy, but they were forming and reforming so quickly that they created an amorphous orb.

“Close the door behind you. We don’t want just anyone stumbling into my home realm, now do we? It would be dangerous for them,” Sesuuk said. As soon as Esther had closed it, the door’s gleamed with a strong, crimson glow. “My people do not exactly have the kindest disposition to interlopers.” Sesuuk busied himself around the portal room, turning to the low stone tables and gathering objects that Esther couldn’t see.

This is it. This is me leaving Blackwood… the entire realm, really. Esther thought. She was only doing it in order to find a cure for the qlippothic energy. She was doing this so she could return here and to her brother fully healed.

Then everyone would accept her, wouldn’t they? When they saw that she had gotten rid of the curse that was inside her, they would have to forgive her for her actions.

Esther took another sip of Sesuuk’s potion and felt her veins sing with power. She instantly felt a lot more confident.

The Lamakai was mumbling and making gestures before the portal, appearing to paw at it in mid-air. It expanded until it covered the entire well and was tall enough to walk into.

“Well? No time like the present, is there?” Sesuuk said, extending a hand toward Esther.

She got the impression that wasn’t the phrase he had wanted to use, but her brain had translated it to the closest human equivalent. His native words felt a little less benign. She looked nervously at the well behind the curtain of celestial energy.

“It’s quite alright, look!” Sesuuk took one step forward until he was halfway into the portal. “See? Now do you want to be healed of this terrible burden or do you not? What position will you be putting Finn in when he returns if you haven’t attempted to cure yourself?”

His words slapped Esther in the face. The Lamakai was right of course, but she still felt a surge of anger.

Her brother would defend her, just as he always had, no matter what.

Wouldn’t he?

For an awful moment, Esther wondered just what the new and improved Finn would do if he came back and discovered that she had killed two innocent people. Would he defend her against this realm he had helped create? Or would he have to side with them, the ones he had spilled blood for over the last year and a half?

Esther couldn’t bear the thought of him having to make that choice.

She took another swig of Sesuuk’s potion and, feeling suitably emboldened, strode forward into the portal to the Elder Realm of the Lamakai. She didn’t even look back.