37

A storm of shimmering blades struck at Miche, the instant he crossed the shrine’s portal. He ducked and shielded reflexively as blistering, micro-thin light-knives took off one arm and badly punctured his hip. Another swung down from above, and he…*

(He could not)

*Blink* Right. Fully shielded and ready, this time, Miche strode across the shrine’s portal. Dodged two of those blades, catching the barest quick glimpse of their fast- moving wielder. It was the…*

(Die because)

*Blink* This time, for sure. Shield spell in place and weapon in hand from the outset, Miche vaulted over the shrine’s deadly threshold. Dodged, wove his way through, hit the ground inside and then rolled directly into her lashing, silvery tentacles. Was pierced through the chest and thrust high up into the air. His limbs were wrapped tight and seized, then pulled taut. He got torn apart in a shower of blood and pain and ripped cartilage, by…*

(His vow)

*Blink* It was like being recycled over and over, with nothing but death at the end, every time… but he refused to stand down or back off. If this shrine was so well defended, then it must be extremely important, he thought. And so, he went back; conscious, shielded, armed with his spells and his energy sword, and deeply, hotly enraged. Miche lunged through the portal again, knowing the path of those crackling light-blades well enough to twist, duck and turn. Letting them hiss right past him, blistering skin but leaving him whole. He took the high road, this time, levitating to the chamber’s high ceiling, where he triggered the drop of a weighted and acid-drenched net. It struck hard and constricted, hauled in by the shrine’s deeply corrupted…*

(Would not let)

*Blink* He wasn’t going in blind this time, goddess or no, but he did thrust poor, spooked Nameless aside in the bare heartbeat he had before breaking back through. Then he was in and right at it again. All three light- blades were dodged (one… two… and now, from above, three). Next, he whirled to block and melt those lashing steel tentacles, using a powerful fire bolt. Soared into the air again, but not so high, this time. Came back to the ground about halfway across the stone chamber. His boot scuffed a black tile on his third rushing step. Bad… very bad… move. The floor turned into fragile glass underneath him, falling completely away. He had time for no more than a startled gasp, as poisoned spikes shot upward like spears. Miche evaded them, mostly. One of the slime-coated spikes scratched his thigh, though, filling the elf with burning torment like nothing he’d ever experienced. His vision blurred and then darkened, as he wretched up his own liquified viscera, then fell to the ground, yet again. But he’d seen her more fully. Saw the thing that was clamped on her ne…*

(Wouldn’t let him quit trying.)

*Blink* And more time, there he was at the shrine portal, as Nameless barked and leapt at him, fighting to block Miche’s entrance. Didn’t work. He was too stubborn, determined, or maybe too stupid to listen to caution and sense. Instead, the elf once again swept his friend out of danger. This time, he blasted a fire bolt in there before crashing through. Aimed high, right at the spot where vivid memory placed her control- collar. Materialized back at the base of the chamber, knowing just what to expect. Light- blades… one, two, three, check. Scything metallic tentacles… leap, duck, twist, blast and amputate. Avoid the black tile… levitate, tuck and roll in midair, skidding through ice bolts that hissed from the shrine’s blackened walls like a blizzard of daggers.

He made it almost across before aiming and casting another flame burst at the device that clamped her throat and compelled her to fight him. Hit, cracking the collar’s red power gem.

Then, armored guardians dropped down from the ceiling above. There were three of them; a trio of whirling, sparking and multi-armed robots, impossibly fast and seeking after his life (like everything else in this wretched, vile place).

Miche’s blade skewered the nearest robot straight through its dark metal carapace. That was one down. Another, he kicked directly into the path of a shrieking ice bolt. The third robot cut at his neck with a whip made of electrified cable. In that split instant’s “Oh, drek” awareness, the elf did not block the cable’s strike. He blasted the collar-gem a third time, instead. Shattered the thing, just as the robot’s whip coiled choking tight ‘round his neck. Miche managed to get his hands up, but not before it slashed through his armor and cut off his…*

(He had to win. Had to keep trying. It wasn’t her fault.)

*Blink* Miche awoke again. All at once fully aware and ready for battle… only to find himself lying stretched out on the floor, with his head (reattached) on her lap. She leaned over him, whispering a frantic healing spell. That collar was gone, though its mark was still there; a double row of deep, ugly punctures that leaked… not blood… but manna and showers of glittering code. She was crying, he saw. Her purple hair swung forward, making a curtain as the shrine goddess bent down to kiss him. She seemed to be faded and raveled at the edges, like a blurring, staticky image.

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Miche found the right faerie pocket. Groped for and pulled out that powerful cylinder… memory drive… glowing magical artifact. His hand shook as he touched its polished aluminum business end to the weeping goddess. Brushed her pale forehead.

Everything darkened at once. Went utterly black. Reset moments later, partly restoring the shrine and its hostess. Miche sat up, turning to face her with a loud grinding of armor on tile. He was entirely well, now. Perfectly healed… and she was still there. Not floating in midair above him or glowing unreachably bright.

Her lavender hair fell softly around a perfect face and beautiful figure. She wore only the wisp of a glittering dress. Still knelt on that chilly tiled floor to embrace him and sob.

Well, he did what he did and no excuses. First took the edge of his tattered and weather-stained cloak, then pulled it over her shoulders, too. Symbolically saying: “I claim and protect you. We are as one in future and blood.”

Then, for a while, there was nothing but love.

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Time flowed very differently inside of a shrine. He had no need to worry about what went on outside. He did fetch poor Nameless, though; dropping the blocking spell he’d reflexively placed on that nearly hysterical marten. Got the grooming and nose bump of his life, when at last Nameless was back on his shoulder. Next introduced the small creature… his friend… to the shrine goddess, telling her,

“This is Nameless, a creature of ill repute, great stench and low morals who has stood with me since first I came to this place, Goddess. I think that… like me… he does not know who he is or how he came here, but I also think that he has chosen to face this with me, as Firelord has and… as you have done.”

She was fully physical, still, able to pet and caress the chattering marten.

“He is cunning and brave, and I love him for your sake, Van.”

‘Van’ was a thing that she’d taken to calling him, which felt somehow right. He knew she was burning ridiculous manna and breaking some vital law to manifest herself in this way. She’d cheated, defying her own basic program to be with him, and Miche dreaded its cost to her.

‘Today, I will leave,’ he would say to himself, after waking from love and contentment. Only, he didn’t. Again and again, he did not. Loving a goddess did not end well, ever. But still, foreknowing all, he’d have thrown away everything else to be right here and now, with her.

Almost unnoticed, his map had updated. It was nearly accurate now, with shrines at Rainbow Bridge and Far-Keep lit up to reach, next. The one here in Gottshan was mostly restored, and he explored it between-times. The main chamber was carved out of marble and perfectly circular, with a bubbling spring at its hub. On the chamber’s rim, there was a ring of seven windows that opened onto different, wonderful views: enchanted forest, sunny meadow, quaint village, undersea garden, tropical beach, mountaintop aerie and grand, starry void. Between the hub and rim there were tables laden with food and drink that never turned stale. The food varied constantly, but it was always good and perfectly satisfying. There were couches, as well. Also, the shrine goddess’s burnished steel podium, right at mid-pool. That broken control collar rested atop her control panel; all (he thought) that allowed her to manifest for him, this way.

“May I know your name?” he asked, as they stood at the tropical beach window. (It was possible to go through, and they had… one lovely view at a time.) Her name was not Hana, for that was Lord Erron’s wife. This was a shrine hostess, the same one who’d used Erron’s memory file as a way to access Miche.

She turned her head to look at him, seeming complexly proud, loving and vulnerable.

“I have not got a name that would be easily said in your language, Van… but the closest to it is ‘Seralfea’. There. I have given you that, along with the updated map and renewed strength for battle. You will need it, my love, for the last… last… the final… you must know, Van! I…”

The elf placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head.

“No,” he said. “I will find out, myself, whatever its secret may be. I will die again many times without murmur… but do not harm yourself trying to warn me of danger, Fina.”

That name, Fina, seemed right to him, too, and it made her smile. Brought a warm and familiar light to her soft violet eyes, leading to further delay.

But the mark for her shrine on his map remained dim, not glowing like Crater-Rim, Exarod and Amur, nor black and corrupt as were Rainbow Bridge and Far-Keep. Clearly, his presence here was preventing Fina from taking up her full power and duties, keeping her shrine out of the system.

That was his fault. He needed to go, and he knew it. But then something else happened. There was a lightness about her, near the goddess’s belly. She did not swell, but their union had brought someone about. Their someone.

“I am pinned,” she said to him, later. (At the mountaintop window this time, dressed in furs and boots and warm clothing, both of them.)

“Not as I was when the dark one broke through and enslaved me. It is no collar control chip that holds me here, Van. It is you, and the little one. So long as I remain partly mortal, so long this whisper of love stays alive… but it cannot be born till the darkness has lifted.”

And that was just the spur that he’d needed. Miche nodded, squeezing her hand.

“Then I will go where I must and do what is needful. Will… you remain with me, after the child is born?” he asked, pulling both of his dearest ones close.

The goddess looked up at him, raw pain in her eyes and her beautiful face.

“I do not know, Van. It is not for me to say, nor can I promise you anything. I have broken protocol to be with you thus, and will do so still further, to keep our little one safe… But, oh, my love, I shall try. Is that not enough of a vow?”

He kissed the top of Fina’s head and her upturned face many times, pausing at last to say,

“Guard yourself well and stay hidden, both of you. I will repair the last shrines and then do whatever it takes to reach you again... And may all of the trouble that rises from this fall only on me.”

It was then, with a long backward look, that he finally departed her chamber.