I shrugged as I stood up. “I guess the dungeon is the obvious choice. I’m not the lawmaker nor enforcer thereof so I may as well do the ol’ civic duty and assist in her arrest.”
It took a moment to stretch my awareness allllll the way back over to the castle, and then down into the dungeons. Cool, they’ve got a cell available for her, but just teleporting her back might be dangerous as she’s likely skilled enough to escape even with a broken arm… Silvia should be a good enough guard. Though I do need to disarm her first!
I snapped, and used Shifted steps to send Soraria a few feet to the right, while excluding all her tools, trinkets, and weapons from the spell. She vanished and reappeared in the following flashes, and all her stuff clattered to the ground where she once was.
“What?! I–mmmph!” Soaria tried to scamper to her feet now that she was out of arm’s reach, but Silvia casually smushed her under an unfurled wing.
“Shush! Master Boss is done talking!”
I pressed my lips together in consternation and stared at the quivering spot on Silvia’s wing where Soaria still struggled to escape. Ooookay then. Not how I intended that to go… But at least she isn’t dead.
“Hey Silvia?”
My dutiful and attentive owl perked up in a fashion more akin to a dog than a bird. “Yes, Master Boss?”
“Could you take Soaria there back to the Count and help make sure she doesn’t escape until I get back?”
“Yes!” In a metaphorical flash, Silvia changed into her full silver owl form, and snatched Soaria up off the ground with her massive talons.
She was a wingbeat away from soaring off into the wild dark yonder, when I shouted. “And make sure not to hurt her! We need her in one piece, ya’hear!”
The radiant bird flinched at my call, looked back by swiveling her head almost all the way around, and then took off at a much more reasonable pace.
I watched them go for a bit, more than a little concerned that Silvia was maintaining eye contact with me rather than looking where she was going, then turned my attention to Soaria’s pile of junk in the hopes she’d knock it off.
I’m sure they’ll be fine. She might be reckless and a bit dense, but Silvia's done pretty well so far. Now, Uriel? What’s all this anyway?
Uriel scanned it all in a few short moments. There were wires, ropes, spikes for climbing, little crystal lights, maps, ink and parchment of varying quality, trail rations, water skins, several denominations of money, and a whole slew of toxins and other dangerous doodads that she’d acquired or engineered which I quickly isolated and incinerated with, well, incinerate.
Then the glint of her otherwise ordinary looking onyx amulet caught my eye.
Uriel buzzed.
Amulet:
Name: Locket of the Lost
Mana: 500/500
Durability: 1000
Traits:
Disguise; Life Sacrifice; Woeful Warning; Tempor-itation; Edge of Eternity
My eyes widened. Whoa there, buddy! That’s one dangerous sounding item. Uriel what do those traits even do?
Uriel buzzed again, and again, and again, and again.
Life Sacrifice: This trait allows the wearer to spend their life force in place of, or alongside, mana to activate the item's other traits. This item shortens overall lifespan, others lesser tools may result in immediate bodily deterioration. Woeful Warning: This trait uses mana and life-force to reveal a potential premature ending to the wearer's life. Probability of activating: 10% Tempor-itation: This trait, like teleportation, allows the wearer and even others to magically change location. However the distance and number of travelers will alter the cost in mana and life force as well as the time of arrival. Edge of Eternity: This trait devours life force to permit passage to a forbidden relm beyond the world. The creator of this item lies trapped there as punishment for his pride and greed.
Oof. I grimaced at the idea of what the forbidden world might look like. That’s no bueno. A really dangerous item for anyone and– Wait. I’ve been up and kicking for a really really long time. I’m basically immortal. I don’t have a limit on life force do I?
The system whispered.
“Great!” I picked up the faintly glowing amulet and slipped it over my head. “Then in the interest of keeping everyone else safe I’m just gonna hang onto this.”
I felt the cold stone slip into place over my heart as I turned in the direction that Soaria’s memories showed Benedict’s base was in, and then I felt something strange.
Like ice water being dumped over my whole body, just, ya’know, without anything actually happening.
“Huh. Well that was weird.”
And then a black flash swallowed me whole.
#
Count Linus rubbed his tired blue eyes, and then glazed in the direction of Calden’s room before he set the document he’d just finished checking into the completed pile. I need to focus on restoring the city, on helping my people, but…
He leaned back in his padded leather seat, and sighed. “Calden. Our hope of resurgence. And I nearly lost him. Dorian trusted me, and I nearly lost him. Again.”
Anon’s amorphous form flickered in his mind’s eye. From the first time they met to their most recent interaction their form was always different to him, and each time it had suited the moment perfectly. From a regal and dominant deity, to a selfless warrior, and now to the very face and form of his departed wife.
He combed his fingers through his hair and held his head in his hands. “But who are they? And why help us? That priest from the slums claims Anon is the Creator, and now Carmella is saying the same. But Calden has always called Anon an angel that serves the Creator so one side has to be wrong.”
Stolen story; please report.
His thoughts turned to Lady Matweirden, to her lithe and powerful form, to the great displays of power she’d shown, and the wisdom of her doctrine of the strong protecting the weak, and the weak submitting to and caring for the strong. That is how it should be, but Anon doesn’t demand subservience as one in power should, instead they are almost subservient, freely giving of themselves even if it endangers their own life! Add in their near defeat and I can’t see them being the supposedly almighty Creator, however they don’t behave like a messenger or servant would either. Instead… The caring, compassionate, and ofttimes open ended words and actions of Anon whittled down all other input and left him picturing a gentle parent nudging and hinting at their children so that they can reach the answers on their own. Surely they aren’t a distant ancestor or ancient progenitor, but then what are they? And why do they care?
He muttered. “Care?” And Anon’s most recent message silenced his contemplation, and sent him to his feet. “Stay on guard? Stay on guard. We were told to stay on guard because you care. I don’t know why you care but that doesn’t matter as much as knowing that you do. And what you expect us to do with the information you give.”
His feet were moving before his tired mind could catch up, and he was out of his office and stalking down the long and mostly dark corridors of his Castle in moments. So then, since you care, and speak in riddles to get us to act, then I can assume that your prior warning wasn’t just for those out hunting the assassin, but for all of us… A satisfied smirk crept across his scarred face. See Gris! I can figure this out too!
It wasn’t long before he reached the room Calden was staying in, and, taking the sleeping boy’s comfort into consideration, just in case he was wrong, he turned the knob and cracked the door only enough so that he could see the bed.
Immediately, his smile twisted into a snarl at the sight of Shade reaching for the bed curtain. Anon.Whoever you are. We are once again in your debt.
#
Now is my chance! Now is my time! With this artifact I will strike down its master, and then bind them as Lord Durdanhal demonstrated! The church will grow stronger, and I will be one step closer to becoming an ascendant myself!
Benedict held his hands high as he chanted spell after spell, sweating slightly as he endured the strenuous process of single handedly combining chaos and order essence magic into the more formidable probability magic. He intended to increase his chances as much as he could in order to succeed in corrupting Anon’s artifact, and could have relied on his subordinates for help, but he desired revenge and glory, and could not achieve those things by relying on others.
“Warping will! Hnngh! Controlling command!”
He cast the spells in succession, bathing his raised hands in red and blue light respectively before forcing the two together. Sparks flew, and ever so slowly he managed to dye both lights purple.
Witness lay before Benedict, at the center of the room, at the core of an intricate magic triangle that had blood filled skulls placed at each point. The runes and glyphs drawn in yet more blood had been gathered from the most tainted monsters by the church before being carefully dyed with even more blight by the Ascendant himself.
Benedict lowered his hands and directed the purple power forth, striking the staff with his desire to change and control it.
The wooden rod trembled, likely from the concentrated magic, and as a purple glow set in, Benedict wiped his brow and started into a new chant. A custom chant made to harm the spirit in the most cruel ways. Made by the church to destroy what's pure and invite putrefaction. To activate the magic triangle and seal Witness’ fate as his steppingstone to glory.
He withdrew a dark metallic shard from his pocket, and raised it high as he stepped forward to plunge it down. “Complete corruption!” He shouted as it dug into the center of the wooden staff with a dull thunk.
The blood drawn triangle erupted with sickly light, torrents of smoky shadow rose up from the skulls and surged into the shard sinking it deeper and deeper into Witness.
Benedict laughed and wobbled slightly as the wood gradually started to turn black, wondering. Now, is this enough? I have two more shards. I could make it stronger still, but I need to keep in mind that I might need one to help subdue Anon.
#
Darkness churned around me, growing deeper and deeper, obscuring everything until even my expanded and sharpened senses couldn’t make out anything.
I felt the world around me stretch and shift, sorta like teleportation, but without entering that white tunnel, and instead of losing my sense of place I lost my sense of time.
Great. Just great! I put on an amulet and now I’m just as clueless about when I am as I was during the dark days of dust back on the old Earth! I crossed my arms and huffed. I guess this is what I get for toying around with something that I knew to be dangerous… But how was I supposed to know it’d activate all by itself?
From in the darkness, substance planted itself onto my feet, or perhaps I was planted onto it? But anyway, I landed and the dark light re-emerged from the gloom to reveal… “No. No, no, no. I can’t be back here! Anywhere but here! Why do I have to be back at the end of the old Earth? And why is it so much worse now! Why?!”
Dust, ash, soot, and grime. As far as the eye could see with no trace of any buildings, people, or plants anywhere. It was just as before, except for a couple horrible differences. The first, was all the grand fissures snaking all across the ground, revealing an abysmal drop all the way down into an empty black void. The silty surface substance sifted off the edges in streams in countless places, but no matter how much fell, it never decreased the amount covering the ground or filled in the abyss below. And the second difference was that the anomaly that lurked behind the sun and moon was much bigger and loomed on the horizon like a never ending sunset–because the sun was once again gone.
I could feel the loneliness from ages past seep back into me as I gazed at the grim horizon. Burbling up from the closed cracks in my heart my eternity of solitude stamped down on all the happiness I’d found traveling and exploring the new world.
“But that was just a dream. Just a dream. I fell asleep, dreamed it all, and now I’m awake, and the world’s even worse than it was before.”
I shut my burning, tear filled eyes, and reached to clutch at my rapidly tightening chest. That’s when I felt the cool surface of my newly acquired amulet.
It’s… It’s still here?
I held it in my palm and looked down. It was a little awkward given the angle, so I swapped to using my expanded senses, which I now noted were still functioning.
“It’s here… My abilities still work… That means I wasn’t dreaming! I can go back! I just have to–!”
Just as I was about to try activating the amulet with mana or life force, its flawless surface cracked and then the whole thing crumbled to dust.
“Shoot. Now what do I do?” I looked around, and sent out my sensory field in search of clues, but to no one's surprise, found nothing amidst the dunes. “It was worth a try. Uriel did say the amulet’s creator was here, right? Because this is the edge of eternity, right?”
I returned my attention to the waiting anomaly and sighed. “I guess that just leaves you.”
Without any other choice, I did the one thing I’d feared doing with my sharpened senses, and that was to use them to scrutinize and examine that thing. I knew it was aware, and watching, that it had some kind of influence over me and my situation, but I was terrified to find out what.
The dismal and barren landscape zipped past as I zoomed in on it as much as I could, but instead of reaching it, I felt my awareness hit a sort of wall. And that wall stopped me at the edge of the biggest ravine I’d seen yet–one with no apparent end. One with a sheer cliff face that held the only structure in this ruined place. A shattered throne placed to be centered right in front of the anomaly’s core. Hewn from ancient stone it was covered in grime and cracks, but was mostly intact, save from the back which had apparently fallen off into oblivion.
“Oh. That’s… I didn’t expect any of that…”
I lowered my gaze slightly, and noticed that a few feet in front of that solitary throne, in a blackened crater, lay a charred human skeleton, robed in tattered finery and bedecked in tarnished jewelry. That must be the guy then… Too bad he’s dead. Though maybe the anomaly can let me talk to him. That’s probably why it set all this up… Assuming it set all this up. Assuming it can do anything other than invade my dreams. Because this isn’t a dream.
I pinched myself just to be sure, but it hurt, and I didn’t wake. “Fine.” I gritted my teeth. “Then for the sake of leaving this place, and returning to those who need me, I’ll face you once again, ya big, grayscale, eye in the sky!”