Chapter 59
Enduring Mortal Foils
Sweat poured down his body like rain as Asher remained handstanding for nearly a minute, occasionally dropping and rising. Surprisingly, he’d obtained a rather chiseled physique; even though he started off in a good shape, considering the length of time and the sporadic workouts, it shouldn’t have been time yet. Under right lighting and with just the right amount of sweat and flexing, he projected a whole six-pack, something he only held onto for about two years throughout his entire life.
Without regular workouts and rigorous diet, it was relatively difficult to maintain top physique in a day-to-day life, especially so as he left his twenties and into the thirties. Soon, he found himself needing to work nearly twice as hard to attain the physique he could chisel out in half a year back in his early twenties. It was also around that time that he stopped trying to do so as it was unnecessary.
By the time he crawled into his forties, he was too marred by scars and injuries to ever properly make something out of himself. A shadow of what he was, a contrarian reflection in the mirror that only reminded him of all the things he had lost.
In this world, however, it seemed that his age did not manifest--though his appearance was similar to his last day on Earth, with each passing week, it felt, he’d aged a few years backwards. Not to mention that all his scarring was gone and that there was a distinct lack of mind-splitting headaches he’d get when a bad rain arrived.
As he was too preoccupied with recognizing other parts of this reality he didn’t think too much about it, but it certainly stirred and tickled the deep portions of his thoughts. He even wondered, ever so thoughtlessly, whether he was himself truly, or whether he was just a reflection of who ‘Asher Rune’ was on Earth, the bundle of thoughts and emotions who believed they made up a person.
Settling down with a gasp, he grabbed a jug of water and took a swing, chuckling at the bizarre thoughts. He’d always have them, even back on Earth, the strayed musings of the mind trying to contemplate things larger than itself.
He was taken out of the stupor by the sudden appearance of the goblin as well as Qyne almost simultaneously. It was a strange sort of serendipity that made him chuckle yet again. However, eerily enough, he saw a strange, fleeting thing: Qyne almost invisibly nodded toward the goblin in deference while the short thing entirely ignored her as though she were wind.
Though Asher knew that the goblin ‘serving’ him wasn’t entirely normal, it seemed as though there was much more to it than what met the eye.
“Why are you here?” he asked Qyne as he got up and grabbed a jug of mead before heading over to the bedroom.
“There’s a lot of chatter about you,” she said as she followed him, her wings causing a fluttery, buzzing sound.
“’s that so?” he mumbled. “Oh how it warms my frosted heart.”
“Another mere human overcoming the impossible,” she added.
“Is that why they’re cursing me?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. Empowering,” he tossed himself onto the bed and turned toward Qyne who remained hovering in front of him. The contempt lacing her words had thawed out ever since he threw her against the wall, though it remained buried well deep within her frosty gaze. “Still doesn’t tell me why you’re here.”
“One of the Lords who Cursed you bothers my Mother. I want your help--no... we can work together to make him suffer, and for you to emerge even stronger from it.”
“...” Asher fell silent for a moment, seemingly contemplating. He didn’t trust Qyne’s words as far as he could throw her but he also couldn’t just dismiss them. Not for the possible reward, but for the possible insights into this world. While his escapades with El were fun and decent learning moments, she only ever hinted a couple of times at the current or recent-ish matters of the world. “And you think doing this will make your mother take you back?”
“No,” she replied. “The only thing that would make her take me back... is me bringing the Ring to her.”
“...”
“But I am still her blood and, more than that, I am still a Fairy,” she added. “Exiled or not, I don’t want to see my kind suffer.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Your seeming honesty is refreshing, to say the least,” Asher chuckled, taking a sip of mead. “In a way, you reek of desperation. In another, your diabolical manipulation had leveled up. Hard to say which.”
“... I despise you, Asher,” she said, almost wincing at uttering his name. “I loathe you with every element of my being. I’d celebrate for a lifetime if I could see you stretched out by your limbs and ripped apart like a twig. But you must understand that I have been a Guide for thousands of vermin like you, humans beset with supreme pride, convinced they were the ones chosen by God. All died, writhing in pain, crying out for salvation, without ever having achieved anything.”
“...”
“All... except for you,” she continued, broaching closer until she landed on his nose, crossing her arms. “Though I still think you are a barren nincompoop who will soon become one with the soil, I am not folly enough to ignore what you have managed to achieve thus far. You don’t have to believe me--”
“--I won’t,” he interjected.
“But there will be no harm in trying.”
“Explain it, then,” he said, taking another sip.
“Egg the Lord on to offer you a wager,” she said. “But unlike what I did, it will be a wager with you, directly.”
“Right. Let me just take my phone out and hit the Lord up--oh, wait, I haven’t discover that spell just yet.”
“I’ll egg him on for you and make sure he proposes the wager.”
“... I am barely surviving as-is,” Asher said, smiling bitterly. “Hanging on by an ever-thinner thread... why in God’s green earth would I ever willingly increase the difficulty?”
“Because the rewards will pay out in equivalence,” she said. “Though this place is beyond deadly for you lot, it has never shorted those who overcome the challenges. Rewards are always equal to the suffering.”
“Ah, the good old carrot.”
“...”
“I’ll think about it,” he dismissed her vaguely. She remained atop his nose for a few seconds longer before she began to fade, leaving behind the parting words.
“I hope you will.”
Taking another swig of mead, he set the jug down and got off the bed, returning to the living room where the goblin was once again sweeping, seeming none the wiser about what had transpired in the bedroom. Asher observed the tiny creature for a little while longer, leaning against the door frame. The goblin didn’t so much as glance his way, seemingly wholly enthralled with the job of a glorified maid.
“What do you think?” Asher eventually broke the silence, prompting the goblin to look at him.
“About what?”
“Her proposal.”
“...” the creature stopped sweeping, the tired gaze shifting into a contemplatively bemused one. “Why do you ask me?”
“Well, asking the walls would have made me seem crazy. At least crazier than I am.”
“Asking me makes you seem even crazier than if you had asked the walls.”
“I’ll describe to you how humans have sex if you tell me,” Asher threw out a crazy proposal and yet the goblin’s reaction was startling. The round eyes widened further, a dangerous glint flashing through them, and the entire body visibly shuddered, like the jitters of a sugar crash.
“... I... cannot,” he seemed reluctant, grinding the words through the gnashed teeth. “I am not allowed.”
“... oh well,” Asher shrugged it off with a chuckle. “Can’t fault a guy for asking.”
“I can say this, however,” the goblin added suddenly before Asher could withdraw into the bedroom. “It is dangerous to antagonize them further. Though some appreciate the unbending bravado, they are few, and even they have limits.”
“I lived my whole life for the purposes of other people,” Asher replied. “Lived, killed, and died for them. And now, I am here, once again existing for someone else. I am not so stupid as to go out of my way to piss them off... but, here and there, I’ll throw a jab. I am sure creatures of godlike aptitude such as them will understand the barbaric frustrations of a lesser thing like me.” there was a mocking smile plastered on Asher’s lips, and even the goblin cracked one for a moment. A wave of energy suddenly swept outward and past Asher, and though he grew weary for a moment, nothing had changed. At least not visibly.
“The hubris and pride of a mortal does not diminish or disappear upon godhood, young human,” the goblin said suddenly, his voice eerily deep and booming. “If anything, it festers, like a growth that cannot be controlled. Two hundred years ago, the Empire waged war against the last Lord Paramount of the fading Kingdom of Dawn. Every time the Empire’s army advanced, the Lord’s armies retreated, went into hiding. At night, they came in flurries, nicking away. They would abandon castles, forts, villages, and even entire cities, leaving behind only women and children.
“For years,” the goblin continued. “They endured. Longer than any other army. One day, the Emperor’s brother personally led a force to try and make a breakthrough. Late at night that day, the man was killed in his sleep by having his tent set on fire.”
“...” Asher listened to every word carefully, imprinting it.
“The very next day,” the goblin said. “The Emperor himself appeared at dawn, riding E’bog, the Swallower of Sun. In four hours, he flew over the entire land of the Lord, burning down... everything. Every fort, every castle, every village, ever city. Over two hundred thousand innocent women and children were baked and burned alive. At the last city, the Lord himself appeared alongside his armies and offered unconditional surrender if the Emperor left the city alive. Did He, do you think?”
“He burned them all?” Asher posited.
“No,” the goblin said. “He burned only the women and children, and left the Lord and his armies alive. The Emperor then withdrew his forces from the lands and declared a Royal Writ, forbidding everyone from ever stepping foot on the now dubbed Forsaken Wildlands. Anyone who tried was executed on the spot. And anyone who tried to sneak in from the Wildlands was kicked back in. He walled off the rivers and the sea so that they would never escape. Every man of that army lived out and died there until there was nothing but ash and dust remaining.”
“...” Asher swallowed a mouthful, even he himself feeling fearful and somewhat disgusted at the levels of anger and vengeance.
“Remember that,” the goblin said, resuming his ‘job’. “When you find yourself feeling... inspired.”