Tag: 2023 Writing Challenge

27. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

I woke when I was unceremoniously dumped on the ground by Lyre. I sat up, rubbing my head and blinking against the brightness of the day. Lexie was shouting and waving enthusiastically, and I could see the rest of our group descending into the gorge, attracted by the gaping hole that we had crawled out of. Lyre flopped down on the ground next to me, glancing back at the vines that twisted out of the ground, pale purple and gold flowers blooming along them. Then he turned back to watch Lexie running to meet the others. “You’re both very powerful,” he said.

I studied the flowers – they looked like morning glories. “That was the first time I cast,” I said absently. Lyre looked startled at this news, but he simply nodded and finally stood up.

He offered me a hand, and I accepted his help up. “I’m sorry about wandering away from you before,” I said. “I wasn’t in my right mind.”

He shook his head. “I was leading us further into the spider’s den. If you’d been with me…” He shrugged, and I smiled at the universality of the shrug itself. We followed Lexie over to meet with the others. I thought I heard faint giggling and glanced back, but saw nothing.

We rested near the river for the remainder of the day. Now that I had apparently cast for the first time, Chase and Zolambi sat with me and attempted walking me through some magic lessons. It was hard attempting to capture that feeling again, but I was able to summon fresh water by that evening. Even sweeter than the cool water that I splashed on my face was the rush of the power I could feel surging through me – it was heady and overwhelming and almost addicting. I sat for a long period of time, just holding on to the power, looking down at my glowing hands.

That evening I was still wore out from using so much magic. I felt so tired that I was sure I would fall asleep quickly, but instead I tossed and turned restlessly, and it felt like I woke up at least once every hour. In a moment of lucidity upon waking, I wondered if it had been because of the spider bites or the webbing. At one point while it was still dark out, I woke up tasting salt and bile at the back of my throat and moved a short distance away from the camp to be sick.

As I stared at the ground in front of me, I used my newfound power to summon water to swish around my mouth and spit out as much of the awful taste as I could. I thought I heard something shift in the bushes ahead of me, and stared into the darkness. I was so focused on looking for the source of the sound that it caught me by surprise when a hand fell on my shoulder, and I jerked back in surprise. “Are you okay?” Chase asked, smiling sympathetically at me.

I nodded, wiping the wetness from my face. “Yes. Think it might have been the spider bite.”

She nodded. “Lexie has been groaning audibly and Lyre went to the river to stick his face in the water. We may have to stay here an extra day if you’re all feeling this sick tomorrow too.”

I sighed. Sticking my entire head in a bucket of ice water sounded like a wonderful idea, but the river would do in a pinch. “Is Lyre still at the river?” I asked. When she said he was and gestured to where, I wandered over. Lyre was laying on a large flat boulder that extended partially out into the current – he was on his back, his eyes closed, but he had one hand extended out moving slowly back and forth, fingers cutting through the water. I lay down next to him and dunked my head in the water, then sat up when I finally needed to breathe.

Lyre had opened his eyes, an amused expression on his face. “I saw your spider friend.”

“My what?” I asked, barely comprehending his words.

“The jumping spider. It’s been circling the camp, staying out of sight. I told the others to not hurt it.”

I shuddered. Even if it had helped us, my arachnophobia did not make this sound like good news. Changing the subject, I said, “Chase mentioned we might stay here tomorrow.”

Lyre frowned, sitting up. “We need to find Cassandra,” he said, suddenly all seriousness. He looked ready to march back into camp and demand we start going now, despite the dark.

“Are you two…” I paused, struggling to find the right word. Did they call it dating in fantasy realms? Would the concept translate if they didn’t? “Romantic?” I settled for the word belatedly, hating how it sounded but unsure of what else to say.

His mouth opened to respond, then snapped shut just as suddenly as he considered my question. “I care for her very deeply,” he said carefully. I raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue. “I am unsure how she feels,” he added, looking uncomfortable.

I nodded. “She’ll be fine,” I said after a moment. “We’ll find her in no time.” Then I stood to make my way back to my bedroll and some more disturbed sleep.

I had a dream of a dog my mom had when I was a kid – a large fuzzy mutt named Bane that was convinced he was a lap dog even though he had been nearly twice my size at the time. Bane loved to sleep right on top of me, leaving me uncomfortably warm and unable to move. It was such a convincing dream…

“And it’s not trying to hurt him?” A voice broke through my consciousness, and I tried to turn over in the bedroll. But something heavy was keeping me from moving. I opened my eyes.

The large, fuzzy thing on top of me wasn’t a dog. It was a spider.

I screamed.

It trilled and jumped. I sat up, my head twisting, trying to figure out which way it had gone. I could see that about half of the group around me were doing the same, but Peyton’s head was turned only in one direction. I followed her gaze, and could see the jumping spider duck out of sight in the branches of a tree. Several spots of light blinked into existence around me as my companions reached for their magic, and I heard the rasp of a blade leaving a sheathe. “Don’t hurt it!” I said, even though a part of my brain was screaming nonononokillit!

“Jeez, Lucas, you sounded like a little girl,” Lexie said, but I watched the light of magic disappear from her. She plopped back down into her bedroll and yawned loudly.

“I’m arachnophobic,” I said, maybe a bit defensively. Peyton smiled, then went back to the campfire – I could smell food cooking, and my stomach grumbled. I considered it a good sign that I was hungry – maybe I’d be able to hold it all down, and we could continue on our journey today.

We stayed in the gorge this time since we were already there, traveling in the shade of trees along the river’s edge. As we walked, I kept a nervous eye out for my new eight-legged friend, and thought I caught glimpses of it at times. I also held on to my magic and practiced summoning different elements as I walked. Raella was especially fascinated with my control of plants. Despite having never seen or heard of anything like it, I was able to intuitively grow vines to grasp or strike, grow flowers in the palm of my hand, and make wild vegetation flourish. “Can anyone else do stuff like this?” I asked her when I saw how interested she was in it.

“Nature magic isn’t unheard of, but nothing like this has existed in many years. It is considered truly divine – like the healing spell that Cassandra can use.” I handed the flower I had created over to Raella, and she studied it as it vined tenderly around her fingers until I let go – then it slowed and stopped growing just as it twisted around her wrist. “Any spell that proliferates life, whether it be flora or fauna, is divine.”

I considered that as I stared up at the leaves of the trees we were walking under. They were golden and red, fall colors. “When you say divine, does that mean there’s a god that oversees my abilities?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’ve studied the old gods most of my life. The texts naming them have mostly been lost to time, but some of the temple ruins still exist, and I have been able to guess at the domains of several. Far to the north, there is a land covered in ice that is nearly uninhabitable. But there is a small temple there that is warm and full of vegetation. There is a massive tree that grows there, and flowers bloom year round. I have seen it with my own eyes.” She lifted the small purple and gold flower that I had created. The gold glittered in the light of day as though it were made of something metallic, though the texture was soft and velvety. “Flowers like these.”

I considered that for a moment, staring at the flower thoughtfully. “What do you think that means? That the gods are returning?”

Her brow creased and she gently ran a finger along the edge of a petal. “Maybe,” she said thoughtfully.

It was a beautiful day but we lost daylight faster from being inside the gorge. Just as we were considering stopping to make camp, we ran into an obstacle – the gorge narrowed down quite suddenly, the river disappearing into an unforgiving cavern. “Maybe we could raft? Or swim?” Lexie suggested.

Raella shook her head. “No, that would require leaving the horses, and we’re not doing that. We’ll have to go up and around to continue our journey.”

Lyre frowned, turning to look at the edges of the gorge near us. “I don’t see an easy way up from here.”

“We may have to backtrack some,” Peyton pointed out. He groaned, turning to look back the way we came. “I suppose we’ll make camp here for the night?”

Lyre didn’t look happy about it, but we did stop for the evening there, deciding that we would travel the other direction tomorrow until we could find a place to exit the canyon and continue our travel from above. On the bright side, the compass spell showed that we were close. Lyre sat with the other former slaves, who seemed to be reassuring him that we were making the right decision although his expression was stormy.

I glanced around to the others in the camp. Lexie was chatting with Chase, who was preparing something for us to eat with Zolambi’s help. Greyjon was sitting near them, laughing at something that Lexie had said. Raella was sitting near the horses, reading a book. She had summoned a glowing orb to sit above her shoulder and provide light – it must not have needed her constant attention, because she was not surrounded by the light of magic.

Peyton had just finished laying out her bedroll, and stood – I thought she would join the others, but instead she walked over and plopped down next to me. She gave a brief, nearly imperceptible nod toward Lyre and the others. “I wonder what his relationship is with the other Grace. Cassandra.”

“I think he loves her, but he said he doesn’t know how she feels.”

Peyton turned to look at me in surprise. “Really? Did you ask him about it?”

I nodded. “The other night when we were having trouble sleeping. It kinda slipped out.” She studied me for a long moment, and I looked away, scanning the nearby trees for any sign of the spider. I hadn’t seen it in a couple of hours, and I wondered if it had maybe given up on following us. Strangely, as relieved as I would be at that, the thought was also a little sad.

As I turned back, I looked at Peyton – our eyes met. She opened her mouth as though she were about to say something, when Chase called out that the food was ready. Instead, her mouth snapped shut and she jumped up quickly, walking over to the others, jokingly shouting, “Finally!”

I stood and followed.

Since the former slaves had joined us, they had finally allowed Peyton, Lexie and I to help take a turn at watch. Mine was in the middle of the night, so my sleep was interrupted for a short stint of staring morosely into the night. The trickling of the water kept lulling me back to sleep, and it was a struggle to stay awake. Things seemed calm enough, and I was happy to go back to bed.

I woke in the morning feeling slightly jostled. I heard the familiar trill of the jumping spider, and sat up, rubbing at my eyes and trying to tamp down the flare of fear that rustled up my spine. I felt something fall off my chest and into my lap as I sat up, and I blinked down at it.

A dead rabbit.

I frowned down at it, wondering how it had gotten there, and then glanced up at the sound of the trill again. The spider was several feet away – I felt myself jerk back slightly despite myself, still completely terrified of the concept of a spider that large. It dipped its head very low to the ground, tapped its front legs several times and trilled at me again. Then it jumped away.

Raella and Peyton, who must have been on watch, approached me when it left. “What did it drop on you?” Peyton asked, sounding amused. I grabbed the dead rabbit by the ears and lifted it to show her. “Oh, it brought you a gift. Like a cat.” She laughed.

I sighed. “Think its safe to eat?” I asked.

Raella came forward and took it from me, twisting the rabbit as she studied it. “It didn’t bite it. Looks like it broke the back and the neck. Should be safe enough.”

Lexie wandered over at that point, and hearing Raella said, “Jumping spiders in our world don’t have poisonous venom. It just paralyzes.”

Raella scrunched her face. “Not sure I would risk eating something soaked in spider venom, even if it was merely paralytic.”

Lexie shrugged. “Fair,” she said. “So we’re having rabbit for breakfast?”

Raella nodded, tossing the rabbit back down into my lap. I sighed. “May as well not let it go to waste. A stew, perhaps?”

The others were stirring from their sleep. I felt a little guilty at the thought of just handing a dead rabbit to someone to take care of for me. “I don’t know how to…” I grabbed the rabbit, awkwardly holding it up, “to skin a rabbit?”

Peyton looked amused. “It’s not very hard. I’ll show you.” Of course she knows, I thought to myself. She went to grab a knife, and I finally pulled myself out of the bedroll. Raella drifted off to start waking the others.

“Think your spider friend is going to hunt for you every morning?” Lexie asked, plopping down on the foot of my abandoned bed.

“Maybe,” I said.

She nodded thoughtfully. “You should probably name it, if it sticks around.”

“Hmmm,” I considered. “Peter.”

Lexie frowned for a moment, then groaned and rolled her eyes. “You are such a nerd,” she said, having caught on. “What if it’s a girl spider? Are you gonna call it Gwen?”

“Or Jessica,” I countered, but shook my head. “Male or female, I think I’ll stick with Peter.” I glanced up to see that Peyton was gesturing for me to join her at the edge of the river. “How do you tell male spiders apart from female spiders anyway?” I asked as I started toward where she was. Lexie shrugged, then bounced up to join us.

I gave her a questioning look as she fell into step next to me. “I may as well learn too,” she said, though she didn’t look happy about it.

26. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

I don’t know how long I wandered. It could have been five minutes – it could have been fifty. I remember slipping into an alcove, a divot in the rock face, and finding myself on my hands and knees being violently ill. I closed my eyes and heaved until there was nothing left in my stomach. I wanted to lay down and sleep, but the smell was awful, so I shifted away and continued down the passage.

I found a chamber with more cocoons and a small pool of water. I collapsed next to the blessedly cool water and shoved my face into it – it smelled earthy and tasted like rock. I faintly wondered if it would make me sick, and then realized I didn’t care. I may have passed out momentarily.

I woke when I felt my body moving – something was dragging me, pulling me along by the hem of my shirt, pulling my face out of the water. I gasped, coughing on the water that threatened to fill my lungs, and pushed away from the edge. I wiped the wetness from my face. Feeling finally clear headed, I looked to see what had been pulling me.

Another spider. Fuzzy, striped like a tabby cat and about the size of a large dog, with two large front eyes that regarded me, its head tilting almost curiously. It seemed to be mostly legs and face. I screamed, and it jumped, back and up, landing on the ceiling far above and shifting out of sight behind a stalactite.

Some of the water I had inhaled wasn’t fully out of my system and the scream cut off into a coughing fit. I pulled myself back against the cavern wall, looking around at my surroundings. How had I gotten here? My mind traced back over recent events and I kept a wary eye on the stalactite the spider was hiding behind.

I could remember the attack on the camp. I had been bitten. I lifted my shirt and looked at the bite. In doing so, I remembered that I had also looked at the bite quite recently. It didn’t look as inflamed anymore. I poked one of the holes – it was sore, and I winced. I thought about when I had looked at it last. Lyre had cut me out of the cocoon I had been wrapped in.

Lyre! I dropped the shirt and looked around. He had helped me, and was trying to lead me to safety and I had wondered away in a haze. “Stupid, stupid,” I muttered to myself. “Damn it all,” I stood, wincing at the tenderness in my abdomen. How long had I wandered through these caves? How far had Lyre gotten before he realized I wasn’t following? Would he have come back for me, or continued to get the others and lead them back to help?

And what about the spiders? I glanced up at the ceiling again – the one that had dragged me out of the water had been poking its head out further, and dipped back into hiding as I turned toward it. It looked different than the ones that had attacked the camp – those had looked almost like wolf spiders, bristly and lean, with smaller eyes. This one had a broader face and larger eyes, and was fuzzier. I remembered the leap it had taken to reach the ceiling, and realized it was a jumping spider. A giant one. I shuddered in revulsion.

I hated spiders. My first serious girlfriend in college had raised jumping spiders, and I could acknowledge that they were cuter looking than most arachnids, but the instant chill of terror I had whenever there wasn’t any glass separating it from me was uncontrollable. She had built a terrarium for it, and had special ordered one that was quite colorful and large. But the moment she would pull the thing out of its enclosure so she could personally handle it, I would leave. She eventually dumped me for being, and I quote, “a pussy.”

I looked around the cave, and spied the opening I had originally come through. If I backtracked that way, maybe I could find Lyre? Or the way out? I drank some of the water one last time, and splashed some on my face and on my wound, the cold water a relief against the inflamed skin. Then I started out of the cavern. I glanced up at the ceiling where the jumping spider had continued to move, shifting out of my range of vision. I hoped it wouldn’t pursue me.

It was very dark just several steps into the passage. Turning back toward the cavern, I realized there was some lighting from within it, and my head swiveled, trying to locate the source. I finally figured out that the spider webbing glowed faintly. I gently ran my hand along a strand of it, and realized my fingertips tingled and numbed at the touch. I pulled my hand back quickly, wondering if the venom from the bite had caused my lapse in lucidity or the webbing itself.

Still, I needed the light source if I wanted to make my way out of this place. Feeling incredibly jealous of everyone else’s magical ability again, I poked one of the cocoons open very carefully with the toe of my boot, and found a longer piece of bone. I wondered what kind of creature it had belonged to. I wrapped one end in webbing, carefully, doing my best not to touch any of it with my bare skin. The entire time, I also carefully watched for any movement along the ceiling.

It was very dim light, but it was better than nothing. I started down the passage again. I vaguely remembered puking at some point along the way, and I kept the light low to the ground, looking for this sign of my previous passage. I walked quite far before I found it – maybe about thirty minutes away from the cavern with the pool. I sighed in distress as I kicked some dirt over it. So I had been wandering these caves for quite awhile.

I heard something skitter in the darkness, and felt my bowels twist in terror. “Please don’t shit yourself,” I said quietly to myself, lifting my dim torch up to try to locate the source of the sound. In the direction I was planning to go, the passage looked to be covered with many small glittering facets. I did not like it.

They moved toward me all at once, and as my eyes adjusted to the shapes around them, I realized they were the smaller cat-sized spiders I had seen before. I screamed – they were fast – and on me more quickly than I had anticipated. I slammed one off with the bone fragment, kicked another away from my feet. I felt something sharp pierce my hip, the flaring pain of the venom making me scream again as I batted the offending party off me. I slammed myself into the nearby wall, heard skittering and small screams and the disgustingly audible squishing noise some of them made as they died under my mad flailing.

Suddenly a loud hissing noise seemed to whoosh over my head, faintly ruffling my hair, and something larger than my attackers rolled into the fray. As I smashed another of the kitten sized ones under my boot with a squelch, I raised my light to see what was happening.

The jumping spider was attacking the other spiders. Several of them had turned to flee at its assault, and some of the others had decided to attack it instead. There was a mad scuffle, the smaller spiders making outright screaming noises as they fought – I watched the jumping spider rip one in half with its mandibles, and easily push the crushed remains of the body into its mouth. I shuddered and returned to smashing any that were near me.

It wasn’t long until I found myself twisting, trying to find any of the remaining little fucks to destroy, and realized they were all either dead or escaping. I could hear the jumping spider shifting in the dark behind me. I turned to see what it was doing. It was in the middle of eating some of the remains when my dim light fell on it, and it paused, turning to regard me carefully. I froze also, feeling the familiar tingle along the base of my neck, my unmitigated terror made physical. Something in the way my breathing hitched seemed to startle the spider, and it scooped up a few of the remaining bodies and jumped quickly out of sight.

It was so fast that I wasn’t certain if it had jumped back over me the way we had come or further back the way I wanted to go. I stared into the dark, feeling rooted to the spot. Everything about this was the worst waking nightmare I had ever faced.

After several long moments, I forced myself to move my feet, continuing along the passage. I had to get out of here.

I found the cavern where Lyre had freed me. The webbing covering it provided some degree of light, and I could see the cocoon that I had been freed from, slightly sunken in now that it didn’t hold a body. I stared at it for a moment, before moving on in the direction Lyre had been walking. I wasn’t sure how Lyre had chosen the direction, but I had an especially bad feeling as I continued. My makeshift light source was slowly becoming unnecessary, I realized, because the walls were more regularly coated in the webs.

The passage continued along a path, but opened on one side out into a small room. I realized the room was full of more cocoons, and what looked to be egg sacs. The chittering sounds of spiders echoed through the entire area. Everything seemed to be screaming that I was only walking further into the spider’s den. I stopped to investigate a couple of the cocoons, but nothing was really person shaped, and everything close enough in size was too desiccated to be alive still.

Now, more spaces opened here and there on both sides. It was almost actually bright. I continued to poke along, hoping to find Lyre. And then the passage ended.

It opened out onto a large cavern. I moved forward, bending low to the ground like that would hide me to whatever eyes existed in the cavern. Sounds echoed throughout – the space seemed vast. I moved quietly along the edge of the cavern, but could see a particularly bright spot out towards the center of the cavern – a whole concentrated nest of webbing.

Whimpering softly to myself, I moved toward it, and tripped. As I looked to see what I had tripped on, I found myself face to face with the jumping spider. I gasped and pulled away as it gestured frantically at me, and then I stood to run. As I got close to the more concentrated webbing, I could see a cocoon, half sliced open on the ground, a slouched figure sitting just within, eyes closed. I recognized Lexie.

For a moment forgetting my terror, I rushed forward and began pulling her the rest of the way out of the cocoon. Glancing around as I did so, keeping an eye out for any movement, I could see a rapier abandoned on the ground. Looking up, I saw another person shaped cocoon dangling above, attached to the side of a towering stalagmite. It shifted slightly.

Whatever inside was alive. Lyre, I realized. As I finished pulling Lexie from the cocoon and slung her over my shoulder, I heard the chittering grow loud around me. I reached for the rapier, standing to turn and look around. I watched as the shapes emerged from the darkness, the many eyes, the many legs. I felt my mouth gape open. There were so many of them! How had I even come this far without seeing any of them until now?

I could see the faint glow of webbing unfurling from the ceiling as some descended around me.  They all stayed a respectful distance away. I turned, intending to take the chance to look for a way to cut Lyre down, when from within the heart of the concentrated webbing, something huge shifted.

Massive. Larger than the ones that had attacked the camp and brought me back to this cursed place. Larger than an elephant. I boggled, wondering if it was even able to leave the cave system, or if the smaller spiders just brought it offerings. It looked as if it had been folded in tight at the heart of its lair, and had simply unfolded into a massive shadow. I stared into eyes the size of car tires and felt myself gulp, almost comically loud.

Just as it loomed over me, the familiar hissing of the jumping spider sounded. It jumped onto the back of its head, snapping at the large eyes. The massive spider let out a scream that shook the room, and everything got cacophonous as all the creatures around us screamed in response.

I turned back to the stalagmite, climbing up it just enough to reach Lyre’s cocoon. I swiped up with the blade madly, hoping I wouldn’t injure him. The cut was too shallow. Just at my feet, a spider the size of a mountain lion rammed into the rock below me, snapping at my boots. I kicked at it, screaming. It snapped again, and I timed jumping down onto its head with one of its forward lunges. The lunge carried me up, and I took a second desperate swipe at the cocoon in front of me.

Lyre tumbled out. I tossed the rapier, suddenly terrified of any of us landing on the blade in the fall, and Lyre, Lexie and I tumbled into a heap on top of the attacking spider. Several smaller spiders came rushing in, and I rolled, squashing as many as I could as I flailed.

All of the violent movement must have been enough to wake Lexie, who sat up, blinking groggily for a moment. As she took in her surroundings, her eyes widened in terror and surprise, and the glow of magic instantly surrounded her. “Yes!” I shouted happily as a burst of fire erupted, scorching the webs around us and sending spiders scattering and screaming. Then I realized the fireburst was large – too close, too out of control. I shouted, ducking away and shutting my eyes closed, waiting to feel the painful rush of the fire over my skin.

When it didn’t happen, I opened my eyes to see that the flames were crawling up the sides of some sort of glowing barrier. Glancing over, I could see that Lyre was standing over Lexie’s shoulder, his hand outstretched, and he was chanting, his voice resonant. As the flames died down, Lyre grabbed Lexie’s shoulder and said, “We need to go. Now!”

I nodded dumbly, starting to follow. But the scream of the massive spider caught my attention, and I turned to look – the jumping spider was almost impossible to see, it moved quickly, dodging the massive legs and mandibles, nipping at its larger opponent, and then jumping again. It was caught with the swipe of a massive limb mid-jump, and the massive spider moved to pin it where it landed. I watched the massive spider move forward to devour it.

The jumping spider hissed viciously, if ineffectually, in its enemy’s face. The thing had saved me a few separate times. It looked piteously small pinned under the legs of the terrifying visage that was moving in on it. Time seemed to slow for a moment as I stared, feeling an overwhelming surge of sympathy for the poor thing. I’m not even sure if I shouted words or just a random wordless cry, but I flung my hand out.

The light of magic sprung up around me. A strange sensation, a sense of power, swirled through me, filling me with a strangely euphoric feeling – it had been there all along, I realized vaguely, before I became engrossed with the effect.

Vines surged forth from the rocky cavern floors, a burst of unexpected greenery striking at the giant spider, eviscerating it. It screamed as it died on the ends of the plants, which continued to grow and carry it up bodily away from the floor of the cavern, spearing it into the ceiling above. Rocks crashed around us and sunlight flooded in from above, and as the sunlight fell on the vines flowers suddenly budded and bloomed all over.

I pushed forward, afraid for a moment at how much damage I had caused, but strangely there was one undisturbed portion of the ground. The jumping spider was surrounded by vines, but unharmed, standing in the middle of that spot. It twisted, first one way, then the other, waving its proboscis in the air as if in celebration. It tilted its head when it saw me, almost like a puppy. And then it jumped away, up through one of the openings, out of the caved in cavern and into the sunlight above.

I stared for a long moment, blinking against the bright light. I could still hear the skittering and screams of other spiders, but none of them seemed to be attacking. They were retreating, either further into the caves or out into the world above.

I felt suddenly and completely drained. I turned to see Lexie and Lyre climbing over some of the vines, looking around in awe. “You finally cast, Lucas!” Lexie said when she saw me. She looked pale, almost gray-toned. I nodded dumbly. And then I passed out.

25. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Raella had us cast the compass spell immediately. The image appeared, strangely small for the first time in many days, and more southerly in the circle. Cassandra was laying down, either asleep or passed out – she was bleeding from the head, but it was hard to tell how badly she was wounded. The pale elf tensed visibly. “She’s hurt,” he said, his voice choking on the words with a surprising amount of anguish. I studied him curiously, wondering what kind of relationship they had formed in the brief time we had been here.

Raella let out an angry hiss. “How did she get so far?” she said. “There’s no way the river took her that far that quickly.”

We stood for several moments, staring at the glowing image on the ground. With a sigh, Chase finally broke the spell. “We should continue on,” she said resolutely. Then smiling, she turned toward the three elves we had just met. “If you want to come with us, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Chase Glenn. I am a student of the Imperial University.” She curtsied, dipping her head courteously.

The three looked at each other, then the larger elf with brown hair cautiously nodded. “My name is Silden Vi’Aphil. This is Larina Eth’Adiol,” he took the hand of the female elf, who had bright blue eyes and short red hair. She smiled timidly at us, gripping his hand tight in return. “And that is Lyre Ik’Abalin,” he gestured to the pale elf, who tilted his head forward politely at his name, regarding us with pale gray eyes.

“Slave names,” Zolambi noted. “I am Zolambi Demn.” The pale elf – Lyre – gave Zolambi an appraising look, perhaps also recognizing a fellow former slave by name. I wondered what distinguished the names as slave names, but the introductions were continuing.

Chase gestured to Peyton, Lexie and me. “These humans are like your friend… Peyton Hobbs, Lexie Saint, and Lucas Kearney.”

“They’re from her world?” Larina asked, and she and Silden studied us in awed fascination.

Chase glanced over at Raella, obviously surprised that they knew Cassandra wasn’t from this world, then nodded. “She… Cassandra told you where she was from?”

“Not initially. She was very cautious, and claimed to have amnesia when we met her,” Lyre said. He looked back down at the river far below us again, a slight frown on his face.

“I am Greyjon Pellort,” Greyjon said simply into the following silence.

“You fight well,” Silden said. “Thank you again for helping us.”  Greyjon smiled at him in acknowledgment.

“And I am Raella Harn, Professor of Ancient Divinity at the Imperial University,” Raella said. She looked around at us impatiently. “And I think anything else we can learn from you can be shared as we travel.”

“I agree,” Lyre said, finally looking back to the group. “Let’s be on our way.”

We continued along from the cliff above, walking along the edge of the ravine. There weren’t enough horses for all of us to ride, so we walked, talking as we went. Raella wanted the slaves (or former slaves) to tell her everything they had experienced with Cassandra from the moment they met her. Lyre had been closest to her, so he spoke the most, though it was Larina that initially described the beam of light that delivered Cassandra into what she called the Cursed Sea.

I walked behind Lyre, studying him as he spoke, and tried to imagine what it must have been like for Cassandra, to literally wake up in this world lost at sea and try to make the best of it. She had been lucky to find people that she had grown close to at least – people that apparently cared for her.

Raella listened very carefully, asking a few pointed questions throughout the telling. Early on, when Lyre described casting a translation spell for Cassandra, she said, “She wasn’t speaking Blest?”

Lyre shook his head. “No. I gave her language lessons so she has a decent grasp of it now, but she spoke another language at first. She called it English.” Peyton drifted closer to walk next to me, absorbed in what was being said. “I also taught her to read.” He glanced back at us, frowning. “Did you not have to do the same?”

I shook my head.

Lyre squinted, like he was trying to remember something. “Hello. My name is Lyre,” he said, forming the words slowly, carefully enunciating. Raella’s eyes boggled as she looked at him, like maybe he had grown an eye stalk from the middle of his head.

“Yes, I know,” I said, feeling like I ended the statement with a question mark.

“Were you speaking English just then?” Peyton asked, catching on more quickly than I had. He nodded. “It doesn’t distinguish for us. It all sounds like English, whether you speak normally or not.”

“So that is what an otherworlder language sounds like,” Raella said thoughtfully.

“What if I speak in the elven tongue?” Lyre asked, and he did – the language rolled off his tongue smoothly, sounding nearly as perfect as Zolambi did when he spoke in Primordial.

I shook my head this time. “No, Primordial doesn’t translate for us.”

“Primordial,” Lyre repeated.

Now Zolambi piped up from behind us. “Yes, friend. Our tongue is called Primordial in the Empire.”

Lyre nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sure there’s going to be a lot for us to learn as well,” he said. He continued, telling us about Cassandra’s deal with the ship captain, and how she had begun working to earn her passage. He described the moment that Cassandra had first cast, and the magic lessons he had given her afterward at her request, the escape from the ship, and their trek to and across the desert. “On occasion, she would instinctually cast a new spell. The spell that saved her when she fell off the cliff earlier was one, as well as a true healing spell and a sleep spell.”

“True healing?” Raella asked.

“Yes. She can knit broken bones and close wounded flesh, and we have seen her clear an infection,” Lyre responded. He raised and clenched his hands, which were glossy from a gel that Chase had spread across the wounds he had received in his earlier fight. “She would easily be able to heal these burns if she were here.”

“I see. A truly divine spell,” Raella said, sounding impressed for once. “Then the head wound she sustained should be no trouble at least.”

Lyre let his hands drop back to his side, frowning. “She can’t heal herself.”

Raella hmm’ed, pursing her lips. “That is unfortunate.”

Mostly, their escape to the Empire was a desperate bid to safety, but it was also a journey to find out why Cassandra may have come to this world. “If you were looking for her, then you must know her purpose here?” Lyre tentatively asked.

“You’ve never heard any stories regarding this?” Raella asked, frowning.

“Some. Vague fairy tales about otherworldly beings sealing away monsters,” Lyre said.

Raella nodded. “That’s close enough to true.” And she disclosed everything she had told us about our mission in their world, keeping it rather succinct. As she finished, she asked, “This is very important. The being we wish to seal has been known to reach out to the Graces when they arrive in our world. Has Cassandra mentioned hearing voices at all?”

Lyre shook his head. He had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment, but he simply said, “Never.”

When we stopped to rest and have a luncheon in the afternoon, we cast the compass spell again. Cassandra appeared to be awake now, and was sitting cross legged, a cloak wrapped around her. The head wound must not have been as serious as we thought, the blood having been wiped away. She looked to be lost in thought. “That is a very useful spell,” Lyre said as it was dropped. “Can you find anyone with it?”

Raella glanced at us briefly as she responded. “Not just anyone. It is a spell specifically to find someone from their world.”

Lyre nodded thoughtfully, taking note of Raella’s nervousness. He changed the subject, glancing over at Larina and Silden to say, “Was that the Hunter’s cloak?”

Larina shrugged, but Silden nodded. “It looked like it. Maybe he’s helping us now? He did fight off some of the hounds.” Lyre frowned more deeply, seeming disturbed. Seeing his expression, Silden said, “I’m sure she is safe.”

“You seem very concerned for her,” Peyton noted gently.

“I am,” Lyre said, but didn’t elaborate. We continued after eating.

Lexie spent her time walking very close to the edge of the cliff, which made me a bit nervous. It must have bothered Zolambi as well, because he trailed just behind her, seemingly coincidentally, or at least a lot less obvious than I would have been. As the afternoon gave way to evening, she gestured down below. “What is that?” she asked. I stepped closer to look, as did some of our other companions. Some sort of white string was spread across the cliff face. Even further down amongst the trees and the rock formations closer to the river, there were whole clumps of the stuff. There was only one thing I could think of as soon as I saw it, and it sent a shiver up my spine.

“Webbing?” Peyton asked.

“It’s a spider den,” Raella said. “Though I don’t see the spiders.”

We stared in silence, trying to spot any movement from below. “We should probably move further along before we make camp,” Greyjon said. “We don’t want to be nearby if they come out to hunt at night.” I shuddered at the thought.

“How big do they get?” Peyton asked.

“Judging by the nest below… Big,” Greyjon said, and left it at that.

It started to get dark an hour later, so we stopped to make camp, hoping that it would be far enough away from the webbed lair. Greyjon decided to take the first watch, and accepted Silden’s offer to help. The compass spell was cast, and we were thankfully closer to Cassandra now. She was still sitting, staring thoughtfully into the middle distance with the cloak wrapped around her. From the size of her image, I guessed it would only be a day or two of travel to find her.

We settled in for the evening, eating and setting up our bedrolls. It was decided if a few of us each took a turn at watch, the bedrolls could be shared with our new guests. As I lay down to sleep, I turned on my side and stared at the crackling fire, and tried not to think about an entire den of giant spiders existing just north of us. Every strange noise in the night made me shiver, even if it was obviously unspiderlike.

I was finally starting to snooze when a strange chittering sound from out in the dark got my attention. My eyes flashed open and I stared at the fire. That, I thought, was definitely spiderlike.

I could hear Silden whisper something to Greyjon in the dark, though I couldn’t hear what he said. I heard the soft whisper of Greyjon’s sword leaving its sheath. I turned over to look toward where they were sitting – both were surrounded by the light of magic. I sat up to stare into the dark. More chittering – louder this time. From multiple spots around the camp.

Greyjon waved a hand up, a bright spot of light appearing above him, lighting the darkness around us suddenly and exposing the nearby landscape. I watched in horror as kitten-sized eight-legged shadows skittered away. And then I screamed as I saw something with too many legs shift forward quickly – something massive, maybe slightly larger than a bear. Its many eyes glittered in the light.

There was movement all around the camp as at least three more massive spiders moved forward as well. The rest of the group woke at my screams – several lights flared around me as everyone else reached for their magic. Whatever else they were doing was lost to me, because one of the spiders was barreling straight at me, attracted to my screaming. I instinctively propelled myself back, almost directly into the fire, and screamed again as I felt the flames lick my palms and back.

Panicked, worried that I had caught fire, I rolled on the dirt away from the flames (stop, drop, and roll, the mantra ingrained from elementary school, drifted through my head). Unfortunately, the roll brought me back into the spider’s grasp. I punched up as the legs surrounded me, my fists connecting with the bristly, leathery skin of the thing, and realized I was screaming, “No no nonononONONO!” as I struggled against it.

I was pinned. Its head dipped so close to me that I was looking directly into at least three of its large, glimmering eyes. I felt large fangs puncture my abdomen, and suddenly it was like my entire body was on fire, like the flames I had almost fallen into had seeped into my very blood. I screamed even louder than I thought I knew how to, until suddenly my tongue grew numb and my limbs grew heavy and my head felt fuzzy. This quick, I thought. I die this quick.

I heard screams and explosions in the camp, and more chittering. I could hear my name being shouted. I felt myself being lifted and carried, like floating in a dream. Names, I realized. I could hear multiple names being shouted, not just mine. Lexie?

I woke cocooned in sticky silk. My first instinct was to begin screaming again. Something slapped me – hard – across the face, and I stopped mid-shout, dumbfounded. “Stop making so much noise,” I heard a voice whisper, very close to me. I recognized it as Lyre.

Despite myself, I moaned and began to mumble a whole slew of absurdities, trying to shift to rip myself out of the webbing. It was hard to break through. “Spider web is some of the toughest material,” I muttered, and laughed a little manically.

The point of a rapier slipped through the web, nearly piercing me. I quieted immediately, holding very still. After a moment, Lyre said, “I… didn’t just kill you, did I?”

“Oh. No. Please get me out.”

“Okay, hold still.”

“I mean… I was. For that purpose. Hurry.” He obliged, quickly slicing through. Once there was a large enough opening, it was easy to slide out. I felt nauseous and my entire body felt heavy and fuzzy at once, like I existed in a deep fog. I pulled up my shirt to look at the bite – there were two large spots on my abdomen, both red and very inflamed, but nothing looked necrotic, nothing was turning white or black.

Lyre was still holding the rapier a little awkwardly. He looked paler than normal, like a ghost, probably owing to the similar bite wound on his shoulder. “We should get out of here,” he said.

I nodded fervently, but the motion sent my head spinning, and I winced. We were in a cave of some sort, and I could hear chittering echoing from within. Everything was covered with webbing, and there were other cocoons in the chamber. I wanted desperately to be anywhere but here. Lyre chose a direction to walk in, and I followed, hoping that he knew where we were going. But I took three steps before I remembered that I had heard a voice – Peyton’s voice – shouting my name when I had been carried away. And not just my name. “What about Lexie?” I asked groggily.

Lyre must not have heard me. He continued walking ahead of me.

I felt myself shaking my head, almost like in a distant dream, and the world blurred with the motion, shifting uncomfortably. I had always hated spiders, but I couldn’t just leave a little girl to be devoured by them. I mumbled as much out loud, then I shifted away from Lyre, moving in the opposite direction, sure that he would agree and follow.

24. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

If anyone knew about Peyton and I taking a stroll that evening, no one said a thing. We hadn’t stayed in a place large enough for us to make the attempt again, and we didn’t openly discuss it. I had long suspected that the compass spell needed our presence to work, so that meant that once we found our fourth person, we might all be able to escape together. That option gave me some peace of mind.

The routine for the next couple of days remained the same as it had been the entire trip so far. In the morning, we would cast the compass spell. We would spend the day traveling, listening to Raella’s history lessons, and then find an inn to stop in for the evening. Sometimes we trained a bit with our weapons. Sometimes Chase and Zolambi spent entire evenings trying to get me to tap into my magical ability. There had been no luck with that so far.

They would also cast the compass spell again before we settled down to relax, and discuss our route for the next day. “She must be crossing the desert,” Zolambi said as her course began to take us further south.

Greyjon frowned, studying a map that he had laid out on one of the common room tables of the inn we were staying at. “That’s a dangerous route. She must be incredibly powerful already to have survived this far.”

“Or she has powerful companions. It’s not an unusual route to take for certain slaves. I crossed the mountains myself, but it was summer and the passes weren’t snowed in. The border further north is more heavily patrolled though.” Zolambi absently rubbed at the rough skin of his scar. “If she does cross the desert, she’ll make it to the ravine. There’s a small walled town called Watter close to there. That will be our last inhabited stop, I think.”

“And if she does arrive with escaped slaves in tow?” Raella asked. “We weren’t planning on having many extra people with us.”

“Well, we can’t leave them behind, Raella,” Chase said with some exasperation.

Zolambi nodded. “We can travel back to Watter. They’ve got an organization that helps take in escaped slaves, and acclimate them to the Empire. Most of the border towns do.”

Raella stared at the map, and pointed to a town even further south. “Then certainly Veinwell will have that as well. Then we don’t have to make the trek back. We’ll be looping to the southeast after we find her anyway.”

I looked curiously at the map, seeing what was to the southeast of where we were going. I spotted the familiar name of Glyss along the southern border of the Empire, and remembered that Raella had mentioned that the ruler there had helped open up a friendly relationship with the dwarves. Unfortunately, the map didn’t extend beyond the current borders of the Empire, so I couldn’t see any specifics about the dwarven lands.

We traveled within sight of the mountains that Zolambi had mentioned and then began to take a more southerly course. The Elves called them the Elder mountains, and they terminated just above the desert, trailing off into the human kingdom that bordered there. Zolambi explained that further north, the range became truly massive in scale. Even though it was still autumn, I could see that the mountains were covered in snow. The grasslands gave way to the sparser vegetation of the desert, and the weather was a bit warmer than where we had started.

Watter was a small town, just as Zolambi had described, and not even large enough to merit walls. The inn had only two rooms, so we split them by gender. Lexie groaned about this. “Raella is going to drone all night,” she muttered angrily as she poked at her dinner. “I just know it.”

“Maybe we’ll ask Chase for some pointers on casting as soon as we get to the room,” Peyton suggested.

Lexie didn’t look fully convinced. She was already powerful magically, and picked up on spells easily. As soon as she was shown something, she seemed to understand how to do it. But she completely lacked fine control – if she summoned flames, it was always in a large burst. She couldn’t control the temperature of summoned water, and when she tried to move items through the air, they wobbled and on occasion slammed toward their destination with too much force. “I think Raella believes that’s a lost cause,” the girl said morosely.

Peyton shrugged. “We could say that we want to try to help Lucas again.” I felt the same swirling nervousness in my gut that I always felt when my lack of magical ability was mentioned.

Glancing up, I could see that they were both giving me sympathetic looks. I sighed. “Sure, I can be your excuse,” I said, feeling like there wasn’t much point to trying. I caught Peyton looking between Lexie and me, the hint of a smile pulling at the corner of her lips as we both pouted at our particular weaknesses.

“Well, maybe instead of any of it, we go to bed early. Tonight will really be our last night in a decent bed,” Peyton noted. We sat for a moment in silence as we considered that. We hadn’t known what to expect when we initially left the University, and I think the paved roads and inns had been a nice surprise. Now we were going to travel out into actual wilderness.

With a sigh, Lexie stood up. “You’re right. I’m going to see if I can pretend to be asleep before Raella gets to the room. Goodnight Lucas, night Peyton.” She quickly walked off to where the rooms were. I considered excusing myself as well, but Peyton beat me to it. She had already been done eating at that point and had just been sitting with us companionably, studying the décor of the room.

She stood and said goodnight, and followed the girl back to their shared room. I pushed the remainder of the food around on my plate, wondering if I’d actually be able to sleep tonight.

The next morning, Raella made arrangements for the wagon with our supplies to be taken to Veinwell, where we planned to go after our trek into the ravine. We traveled alongside the wagon most of the day. It was being driven by the innkeeper’s son, who seemed to be happy to get out of Watter for a time. In the middle of the afternoon, we said goodbye to the boy and left the road. I glanced back several times as the wagon grew smaller in the distance, heading further south as we began to make our way west and away from any signs of civilization.

That evening as we stopped to make camp, we called up the compass spell. The image was larger every day, especially as we had gotten closer to the mountains and the ravine that was south of them. It was easier to see what she looked like now, even though we didn’t know anything specific about her still.

Colors were hard to make out, because the image was made of light, so I had no idea if she had brown hair or blonde hair – but it came down to about her shoulders and was slightly curly. She looked disheveled and tired. She was dressed in the same breeches she had worn the entire time, and a tank top underneath a billowy shirt that looked like it belonged to a pirate. Another shirt was wrapped around her head with the sleeves pulled around her neck to hold it in place, probably to protect from the sun. She also carried a pack loosely over her back.

At the moment, she was in the process of testing an improvised crutch, walking back and forth on the ground with it. I could hear Chase gasp lightly from behind me when she saw what she was doing, and could see the frowns on everyone else’s faces. “So she’s been injured,” Raella noted impassively.

They kept the image up for several minutes longer than usual as we observed her. I could see where the pants had a rip high on her thigh, and that was the leg that she seemed to have trouble putting weight on. After testing the crutch, she set it aside and sat down to rest. Then she cupped her hands and brought them up to her face, appearing to drink from them. I paused, confused at what she was doing because she didn’t have any sort of canteen, until I realized that she must have summoned water directly into her hands. I couldn’t see the glow of magic because she was just represented here as a glowing form of light itself.

“Oh, she has learned to cast!” Chase said, sounding excited.

Even without any direct instruction, she had managed to learn to use her magic. I felt even more worthless for a moment, and a little embarrassed. What was I doing so wrong?

The bedrolls weren’t as comfortable as a modern sleeping bag, but were still better than sleeping on the ground. Zolambi, Chase and Greyjon each took a turn at watch. I offered to help at one point, but was told to rest instead. In the morning, the compass spell revealed that the other Grace was moving again. We continued our own journey, leaving the mountains behind.

The next day of travel wasn’t so bad either. We had eased into traveling through the previous days, thanks to the frequent stops and the wagon. A full day of riding still left me sore and a bit stiff, but I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I had initially worried. The increased exercise likely helped as well. That evening when we stopped, Greyjon provided some instruction with the staves again. He tossed them to us, as he traditionally did, and as usual, Lexie missed catching hers. She grumbled about it as she chased after the stick, which had rolled away a few feet. “Statistically, you’d think you’d catch it once by accident,” I said.

She used her staff and a gust of air to trip me before I was technically ready to start sparring. “No magic in these lessons,” Greyjon said, doing his best to hide a smile. “Though that is a good combination to keep in mind if you ever get into an actual fight.”

The day after that we reached the ravine. We traveled along it for awhile as we attempted to find a way down, eventually finding a trail of sorts. “It reminds me of the Grand Canyon,” Lexie said, marveling at the scale of it.

“Same process probably made it. A river and thousands of years,” I said, staring down at the river far below.

“I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon,” Peyton said thoughtfully. “I guess I’ll never get to see it.”

“Well, it’s kind of like this,” Lexie waved an arm to gesture at the view. Peyton chuckled. After a few moments, Lexie added, “I’ve never seen the pyramids. I always wanted to go.”

“Well, they’re not like this,” Peyton said. “But maybe this world has something similar to offer.”

We made camp when we reached the bottom. When we checked that evening, the other Grace was already sleeping. “She stopped early tonight,” Raella noted. The image was almost to scale, I realized. We were close. “Tomorrow we’ll travel further south along the river.”

We stayed in the gorge the entire next day, stopping often to check our course. She was close now. We’d be meeting her soon. Raella didn’t want to travel too far south if we could help it, and casting the spell again and again seemed to be taking its toll on them. We stopped earlier in the evening after finding a place that provided a reasonable path up toward the desert side of the gorge, and we camped for the night.

The next morning, we woke early to the echoey sounds of barking, and people screaming and shouting from somewhere above. I wasn’t sure if we were close – the canyons could have been amplifying the sounds for all I knew. And we couldn’t see what was going on towards the top of the canyons. We hastily packed our items and began to follow what passed for a precarious trail up. It took us several minutes to be halfway up – we were going fast enough, but it felt dreadfully slow hearing the shouts from above.

At one point as we neared the top, Lexie gasped and waved her hands, pointing toward a cliff face slightly south of us. We all turned to look, could just barely make out figures along the edge of the cliff. There were five individuals, four of which glowed from magic use. What looked to be several darting balls of fire weaved around the figures.

We reached the top of the cliffs, and Greyjon quickly mounted his horse, racing ahead to reach the figures – Peyton was immediately behind him, followed quickly by Chase and Zolambi. Raella lingered near Lexie and I, waiting as we mounted our own horses, not being as quick or practiced as our other companions.

As we approached, I watched a pair of figures and a smaller figure, what looked to be a dog, move dangerously close to the edge. I gasped as they tangled and then tumbled over the side of the cliff, and could hear Lexie scream something from not far behind me. I stopped my approach and moved to where I could see what happened to them, Lexie following my lead. Initially, the figures drifted apart in the fall, but then one of the people reached out and grabbed the other. The glow of magic sprang up around them, and their fall slowed dramatically as the dog hit the cliff face below them. They drifted off toward the river far below.

“Oh. That’s a really useful spell,” Lexie said thoughtfully, watching until they were out of sight in the water. I glanced up to see that Raella was staring down as well, watching them drift away. Her mouth was pursed as though she had tasted something sour. Our eyes met, then she gestured with her head and led the way toward where our group had joined the fray.

The fireballs were flaming dogs. A lot of them were dead – some frozen in ice, or disemboweled. By the time I arrived, the remainders of the pack were already yipping as they ran away. One of the strangers, an elven man with very pale features, was standing near the edge of the cliff, staring at the river below. He bent to pick up a discarded pack that was laying on the ground near him, and turned to face us. Raella quickly looked at each of the three figures, her brow furrowing deeper at every set of pointed ears she saw.

A tall, burly elf with brown hair was giving Greyjon and Peyton appraising looks. “Thank you for your help, strangers,” he said as Raella climbed down from her horse. Greyjon nodded in acknowledgement to him, wiping his sword off before sheathing it. Frowning at the gore on her own blade, Peyton followed his example.

“Was it a human woman that went over the cliff? A human that can cast,” Raella said bluntly, ignoring the thanks.

The pale elf frowned at her sharply. “Yes,” he said. He was looking at our group carefully, and I could see that he recognized that Peyton, Lexie and I were all human. “Her name is Cassandra.”

Cassandra. After all our time here, we finally had a name for our lost Grace.