His horses' hooves thundered against the dirt path as Ethan pushed himself up in his stirrups, racing towards the Hearg of Life. The cold wind stung his red eyes, puffy from tears of his admonishment.
He’d been overjoyed to return to Skaro. Torag’s excited greeting had reinforced how happy his previous time in Skaro had been. Their dinner at the inn had been the most fun he’d had since leaving Startesgarde for Grassmere.
But the anger and disappointment in his former teacher’s expression when he’d entered her longhouse, that pain ate into his soul.
Alera and Leah had had to carry him out of Hertha’s longhouse, her words hurt him more than the rock she’d thrown at him. The dark emptiness that he’d been able to even temporarily push away, threatened to consume him once again.
But as his friends helped him limp back out of the once warm and welcoming building, a flash of orange light caught his eye near the column of the Fire Vættr.
“The spark of hope,” Reás, the coal black fox stared at him with their eyes like embers. With a swish of their furred tail, the spirit had disappeared in a puff of grey smoke.
Ethan sprinted through the waist high grass leading to the circle of runes that had led him to the Hearg of Life months ago.
Where are the stones?! He frantically searched for the grey boulders that the symbols of each of the Vættir had been carved into. It didn’t take him long to find the first one. Scanning the open area, he saw the remaining three.
“Reás! Vewa! Grenat! Bríse!” He shouted are the top of his lungs, “allow me entrance to the Hearg of Life!”
For a moment, nothing happened as his voice echoed through the area.
“Reás!” He began his call again, his hands cupped around his mouth. “Ve-“
The golden aura signaling the portal of Ve’s Hearg appeared exactly where it had before when he’d be undertaking the Trial of Life.
Ethan didn’t wait for the encouragement of the Vættir before he took off towards the glimmering portal. Even if Grenat was no longer answering his pleas, the determined gift of the Vættr of Earth urged him forwards.
Instantly, he was plunged into a cold, barren world of twilight. The forest that had been a warm spring day the last time he’d been to the Hearg of Life, was gone. He stood in a flat plane of nothing.
“Hello?” His voice sounded oddly flat as he looked around the empty area he found himself in.
With no trees or landmarks of any kind to guide him, Ethan hesitantly took a step forward, his boots made no sound as they landed on the ground in front of him.
“Ve? Reás?” He shouted at the top of his lungs, but not even his own echo answered him back.
Ethan turned around, hoping that if he left through the portal he’d come through, he could enter again and find the place he was looking for.
But the glimmering golden portal was gone.
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath as he spun around in a circle, looking for anything he could find. The dim world stretched out flat for as far as he could see.
“Don’t do this! It isn’t you!” A high pitched voice echoed from his left.
“Who’s there?” Ethan gripped his seax as he spun towards where he’d heard the voice.
“Turn it off, Ethan!” The voice echoed from his right this time.
“You left me to die!” A second voice came from this left.
“Who are you!” He screamed as he sprinted back to his right.
“That’s the only one I’m giving you,” the first voice sounded deeper and more familiar as it came from behind him.
“You just gave up!”
“Where are you?” He shouted again as he skidded to a stop.
“Do you even have to ask?” The mysterious voice taunted him again from behind him. “It’s you and me to the end, brother.”
Ethan turned completely around as he finally recognized the voice in the void.
“David? He whispered, still not seeing anyone.
“I have been tortured for months and you never came because of a woman?” Came from his left.
“Tae-Won?” He shouted, spinning back towards the second voice.
“YOU GAVE UP ON US!” The combined screams of his friends echoed from everywhere around him in the darkness.
“I’m sorry!” Ethan shouted as he collapsed to the cold, dead ground. “I’m sorry.” His voice faltered into sobs as tears poured from his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t good enough,” David’s voice came from directly above him.
Ethan looked up a saw shimmering, ethereal images of David and Tae-Won.
“You swore to Leah, my wife, you would do anything to find me,” the specter of Tae-Won glared down at him. “But when it came down to it, you weren’t strong enough to even save yourself!”
“Tae-“
“My daughter is out there,” David shouted and gestured into the void. “You were supposed to help me get back to her, and you abandoned us!”
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“David, I’m sorry,” Ethan pleaded to the ghostly apparition of his best friend. “I… I couldn’t…”
“You are weak!” Tae-Won swung his fist down into Ethan’s face, knocking him flat onto the ground.
“We followed you here,” David accused him as he kicked at Ethan’s prone body, catching him in the ribs. “And when we got trapped here,” he kicked again. “We expected you to lead us home!”
I am pathetic, their words pierced Ethan’s soul. Even if these weren’t his actual friends, he knew the truth of what they were saying. I am a failure!
“I’m sorry!” Ethan howled in anguish.
“That isn’t enough!” Tae-Won spat on him. “Sorry doesn’t get me out of a dungeon!” He kicked Ethan. “Sorry doesn’t regrow my hand and my eye!” He kicked Ethan in the face as he continued shouting. “Sorry doesn’t get me back to my wife!”
“Sorry doesn’t get me home to my daughter,” David whispered.
“Sorry doesn’t do anything if they’re just words,” Tae-Won kicked him in the face again, shattering his nose.
“You’re right!” Ethan screamed through his sobs as blood poured into his mouth. “This is my fault!”
“Look at you,” Tae-Won pointed his stump arm at him and sneered. “You can’t even defend yourself. You lie on the ground in shame and defeat.”
“We never should have followed you here,” David crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “I should have listened to my real family.”
“Your determination to have it your way has damned us all,” Tae-Won spat on him again.
They’re right, Ethan’s memory flashed back to the conversation he’d had with all of them.
“Guys, it’ll be amazing!” He gleefully looked at his computer screen, the images of David, Tae-Won, Leah, Sam, Miguel and Daniel looked nervously back at him through their vid call. “You’ve all seen the beta footage, this will put every other game we’ve ever played to shame.”
“Dude, I don’t know,” the memory of David shook his head as he twisted a plastic doll in his hands. “It’s so expensive and I’d have to move away from Clara.”
“You wouldn’t have to go that far,” Ethan countered. “There’s a hub not far from where you live, and the cost isn’t that much more than we paid in rent in college. You’re already paying more than that to keep up two houses.”
“What about us?” Tae-Won looked at Leah next to him, they were the only ones together in one window. “We’d pay double to rent two rooms.”
“Look, once we’re in, I’m sure we’ll find some way to monetize our playing,” Ethan tried to sound confident. He hadn’t seen anything about being allowed to stream their content, but every other game on the market allowed it, surely with something as exclusive as the Tower viewers would be lined up to see the game.
“Look guys,” he sighed and continued quickly before anyone could call him out on his uncertainty, “I really want to do this, and I really want to play with all of you. Arianna works for Tilest and she was able to reserve enough spots for the group of us to get in, she assured me it’s safe and unlike any other game ever. I’m going to play The Tower.”
“Dude, you know I’m in,” Miguel grinned at him through his camera. “I’ll figure out the work details later, but this sounds incredible.”
“I’m in too,” Sam nodded in agreement.
“Only for you,” David shook his head and closed his eyes briefly. “I’ll give it one month, but after that, if it’s too much to be away from Clara, I’m out.”
“Thank you, David,” Ethan smiled at his closest friend.
Leah and Tae-Won’s microphone indicator muted as they talked back and forth silently in their window.
“I still don’t know,” Daniel rubbed his temples and looked confused. Of everyone, Ethan had the weakest relationship with him. If Daniel didn’t come, it wouldn’t really bother him, Leah and Tae-Won were who he really wanted.
“We’re in,” Leah interrupted Daniel as Tae-Won nodded next to her. “For a month, like David. But then we’ll reevaluate.”
“I guess I’m in too, then,” Daniel sighed, their consent enough to convince him.
“Thank you guys,” Joy and relief flooded Ethan as all of his friends agreed to play. “You won’t regret this.”
“I did this,” Ethan rolled over and pushed himself to his feet. “I will make it right.” He remembered the certainty he’d felt when he’d convinced his friends to join him.
“How?” Tae-Won demanded.
“Your plan is already faltering,” David shook his head sadly. “You won’t get the Skarobjorn to join you.”
“Then I will go alone,” Ethan straightened his back and stared into the eyes of the apparitions of his friends. “I made a promise to both of you, and I will keep it!”
“Empty words,” Tae-Won frowned.
“I will kill Paul,” Ethan ripped a seax from the scabbard and held the blade in his hand. “I will see you back in Leah’s arms, Tae-Won. I will see you back to your daughter, David.” He drew the edge of the seax down his palm, slicing open his skin.
The ground beneath him trembled as the drops of blood landed, but Ethan stood firm. In front of him, the apparitions of his two friends vanished in a cloud of mist.
“A blood oath, interesting,” the booming voice of Grenat echoed in his mind as the bovine Vættr of Earth burst out the ground in an explosion of rocks and dust.
“Mighty Grenat,” Ethan fell to his knee in awe that his oath had summoned the Vættr who had long since stop answering his please.
“Do you understand the significance of your act, child?” The massive stone bull snorted a cloud of dust as it gazed at him.
“I don’t care,” Ethan shook his head as he looked up in the glowing eyes of Grenat. “I will do whatever it takes to right my own wrongs.”
“You have invoked deep magic, an oath sworn in blood cannot be broken. Your life is tied to your promise.”
“Good,” Ethan clenched his cut fist, the pain reminding him of what he’d sworn to David and Tae-Won. “If I can’t keep my word to my friends, I deserve death.”
“Some would say you’re being careless with your words,” Grenat blinked rapidly as they appraised him. “Is this true, do you have a death wish?”
“No,” Ethan shook his head. “I don’t want to die, I want to do what I promised. I want to help my friends.”
“Hmmmm,” the Vættr of Earth lowered their head and touched the rocky tip of their snout to Ethan’s chest. “The strength of the Earth has returned to you, I see. Even without my help, you managed to find it again.”
“My friends reminded me of who I was,” Ethan looked to where the images of Tae-Won and David had disappeared from. “They showed me that my strength comes from them. Alone, I am nothing.”
“And the Vættir? Do you still reject our gifts?”
“I…” Ethan paused, trying to think of the right words. “I was lost, broken inside, and I lashed out to all who were trying to help me, the Vættir included.”
“Your determination has convinced me,” They stomped their mighty hoof on the ground, sending tremors through the desolate area. “We will see if my siblings are so convinced.”
Grenat reared back on their hind legs and bellowed into the air before slamming their mighty front hooves into the ground. Like a pebble in a lake, ripples of green spread from the epicenter of Grenat’s impact throwing Ethan to the ground.
“Ahh!” He shouted involuntarily as his body collided with lush, green grass.
“What?” Ethan looked around as he gripped the soft greenery between his fingers. Rolling hills covered in greenery formed from the impact of Grenat’s hooves. There were no trees to limit his view, but he found the light had brightened slightly.
“Grenat, what just happened?” He turned back to question the Vættr of Earth, but the spirit was gone. He was alone once again.