Because I am a bum!
Will post as scheduled next on 9/10.
Tag: Fantasy
30. Cassandra
It wasn’t long until the wine bottle was empty and Lyre was sleeping at the table, and I realized he really was an absolute light weight. I decided it was probably time to head to bed, and pulled him up to his feet. He drunkenly mumbled some mild protests but moved along as I instructed. “Do you need help?” Greyjon said, shifting his chair back so he could stand.
I waved the offer away. “No, it’s fine. You guys have a nice evening.” He looked uncertain, but didn’t insist further. The barkeep and the innkeeper had disappeared – with none of their usual clientele to tend to, I guess they didn’t see the point in staring at us the entire night. I realized I wasn’t really sure what rooms we were allowed to use. Not wanting to even attempt to drag Lyre upstairs, I decided to try a door just past the stairs in a short hallway. I hoped fervently that I wasn’t going to be walking into the kitchen or an employee break room of some sort, and pushed the first door I came to open.
I initially breathed a sigh of relief seeing a bed and what appeared to be a normal room, but froze when I realized it was occupied. Asterollan looked up, frowning – he was standing at the foot of the bed, his shirt halfway pulled off. For a moment I gaped – he was thin, practically all wiry muscle, and also covered in a shocking variety of scars. He looked as though he had been slashed and stabbed and then poorly patched up at least half a dozen times, and I could see a massive burn scar across his upper back. “Oh, shoot, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” I mumbled, and attempted to back out of the room, tripping over Lyre’s feet and falling over him instead in an awkward tangle of limbs.
Asterollan sighed and pulled his shirt back on. Then he came over and helped me to my feet, before pulling Lyre easily up from the floor into a fireman’s carry and plopping him down on the bed. I stood by the door for a moment, unsure of what to say or do. “Is he drunk?” Asterollan asked, sounding a little surprised.
I laughed, perhaps a bit nervously. “Yeah. I don’t think he has much experience with wine.”
Something in Asterollan’s expression softened. “No, I suppose he wouldn’t.”
For a moment I was struck with how strangely sympathetic his reaction seemed, for someone that hunted escaped slaves. I studied Asterollan for several moments – the quiet must have stretched a little too long because he looked up at me, a frown on his face that brought me back to the present. “I’m sorry for walking in on you,” I said. “Were you getting ready to go to sleep?” He nodded, and I grimaced. “Sorry,” I said again. I looked down at Lyre’s sleeping form. “I umm… I guess we’re stealing your room.”
He shrugged. “A bed’s a bed. I’ll be fine in one of the other rooms, I’ll just remember to lock the door next time.” He moved to gather his pack and cloak, and started to walk toward the door. Then he stopped, and turned back toward me. He seemed hesitant to speak for a moment, but then asked, “What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?”
“I peed my pants in a movie theater once because I didn’t want to miss any of the movie,” I answered automatically. I opened my mouth to elaborate more before realizing I really didn’t want to, and stared in wide eyed horror at Asterollan. How had I just let that slip like it was nothing? It hadn’t even been the first thing that crossed my mind, because I would never willingly tell anyone about it. I felt my face redden just remembering the moment. “That… I can’t believe I told you that.”
Despite my own embarrassment, he was the one who looked sheepish. “I think I owe you an apology. Raella noticed that I… compel the truth out of people. I was not even aware I was doing it.”
I froze for a moment, thinking of everything I had told him over the past several days. It was true that I had shared everything he had asked, even despite the lack of trust I initially had for him. Even things I would have felt more comfortable withholding. I nodded slowly, feeling strangely violated. “So you decided to test that by asking me about my most humiliating moment?”
“I needed a question that you might not choose to answer honestly. At first I had considered asking something more… intimate. But that seemed inappropriate.”
I sighed, feeling the same level of frustration I had initially had for him. I wondered what kind of intimate question he had considered asking, but did not want to be compelled to answer anything of the sort in the moment. “Is it something you can learn to control?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. I intend to try, but even if I can’t, well – perhaps everyone can stand to be a little more honest, and I prefer knowing the truth.”
I glared at him, crossing my arms. “If only we could all be privy to everyone’s truths.”
He looked ready to leave, but stopped at my statement and met my glare evenly, calmly. “Is there something you wish to know about me?” For a moment, I was taken aback. Seeing the expression on my face, he said, “It’s only fair. You have been exceedingly honest with me.”
I didn’t even pause to consider my question. “Why did you choose to be a Hunter?”
“Oh? Most women that have seen me without my shirt on are more curious about the scars,” he said, his tone unexpectedly teasing. I raised an eyebrow as I waited for his answer. He fidgeted, suddenly looking uncomfortable, and leaned against the wall. “I came from a very poor family. My father was always driving us into further debt, and when the time came to pay those debts, he offered my mother and I as indentured servants to the household of a minor lord and disappeared. Per the terms, we were legally bound to stay with the family for at least 5 years, but because we were looking at total poverty after that period, my mother extended her contract to 10 years.”
“So you were like slaves?” I asked. I settled onto the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb Lyre.
“Being indentured is a contractual agreement. We had more rights than slaves, and knew that our time in service would come to an end, and that we’d be well paid for it. But we did spend a lot of time working alongside the slaves. My mother always sympathized with them. She was a kind woman.” He paused, his gaze becoming unfocused and a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Whenever she had a chance to sneak away some sugar, she would make pulled candy. She would let me work it until it was set, then she would cut it in pieces and share it amongst the other staff and the slaves. She was always particularly fond of children.” I frowned for a moment, until I realized he was basically describing taffy, and I nodded in understanding although he didn’t seem to be paying attention to me.
He seemed especially lost in thought, until I finally said, “None of that explains why you would want to hunt slaves.”
His head jerked slightly as he refocused his eyes on me. “Yes… I was getting to that. There was a slave that managed to be freed – entirely by accident. She had placed her focus down, and another slave had picked it up and used it. When the shock of the Focus breaking had calmed, and the slave realized she was free, she panicked. She was too scared to run, but she was terrified of what staying could mean. My mother was trying to calm her and she lashed out, calling down a telekinetic storm that sent everything in the kitchen flying violently.” He ran his hand down the scar that crossed his face. “This was a kitchen knife. An entire cauldron of boiling water was upended on my mother.”
“But… that was an accident.”
“Yes, but not what happened next.” He grinned mirthlessly. “Two of the other slaves in the kitchen cowered, throwing up barriers to protect themselves, but one other saw the moment for what it was. He grabbed another of the slaves and shoved his Focus into their hands, threatened to bash their heads in if they didn’t try to use it. Then he had his freedom too. The first thing he did was kill my mother.” The mirthless grin disappeared. “Maybe he was taking pity on her. She was so badly burned from the water, she would have died – it may have taken hours, or maybe days. It doesn’t change the fact that I had to listen to her die screaming.”
I felt sick to my stomach imagining what that would be like – seeing your own mother die in front of you. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
His mismatched eyes met mine. “The slave escaped. He took the other, the one that had been freed first, with him. She was still in shock, I think. They ran. The other two slaves were killed so they couldn’t spread the knowledge of how to break the tether, and I believe he was caught and put on display as a warning.”
“What happened to the other slave?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps she made it to the Empire.” Asterollan pushed away from the wall. “I was very angry for a very long time. My mother had been a kind person, and she hadn’t deserved the life she got, or the end she met.” He paused again, drawing in a deep breath. Then he gave a half-hearted smile and added, “Besides, that moment ruined this beautiful face.”
I groaned. “It’s less charming when someone knows they’re beautiful,” I said.
The smile turned a little more genuine. “So you think I’m beautiful,” he teased.
“Yes,” I said immediately. Then I grimaced. “Damn it, I would not have normally said that at all. I think I’m owed another question.”
He snorted. “Ask away.”
“Can you see out of that eye? Or is it just… dead?”
He looked a little taken aback by the question and laughed. “Ah, so we get to the scars. Actually… I did used to be blind out of it. I spent so much of my life learning to overcome and adapt to that half-blindness. But shortly after I started hearing the voice… the vision returned.” He waved a hand briefly in front of his face. “A generous gift.”
“Binocular vision. A most generous gift,” I said – but not knowing the word for binocular I said it in English, and he looked a little confused. I hopped up from the bed and walked over to him, studying the scar on his face curiously. “I wonder, if I focused hard enough, if I’d be able to heal any of the scars…” I said as I reached up to his face.
He grabbed my hand before I could touch him. “I doubt it. And even if you could, I wouldn’t want it.” I tilted my head slightly. “We should keep some of the scars we earn by living.”
I thought briefly of all my own removed scars, and nodded. “I understand,” I said.
I looked at my hand, that he was still holding. “Ah,” he said, and quickly dropped it. Standing this close to him, it was easy to see that we were the same height, and I caught the scent of mint from the cloak he still held, hung over his other arm. He was staring at me intensely for a moment, and then suddenly asked, “Are you in love with the elf?”
A part of me meant to laugh it off and say that I hadn’t known Lyre long enough or well enough to love him. Instead, I simply said, “Yes.” The quickness of the answer, the fact that it was compelled by truth, the answer itself – it all completely surprised me. I stepped back for a moment, staring at the floor, and realized it was true. “Yes,” I repeated, slowly in consideration.
Asterollan smiled at me. “I thought so,” he said. “But I wanted to know for sure.”
I frowned at him. “I think you’ll be owing me a lot of questions before long.”
“I’ll answer them all truthfully,” he said. “But perhaps another night. I’m off to find a different bed.” I opened the door for him and stepped back, and watched him make his way to the stairs to find an available room. I could faintly hear laughter and groaning from the others out in the tavern section. I closed the door quietly and turned back toward the bed, to see that Lyre was sitting up, staring at me.
I froze. I wondered how long he had been listening and how much he comprehended in his drunken state. Regardless, it wouldn’t be a conversation for tonight. I walked over and pushed him gently back. “Go to sleep, Lyre. You’re drunk,” I said. He closed his eyes, nodding slightly, and reached up to place a hand over mine where it still rested against his chest. I stood like that for awhile, until his breathing grew even, feeling his heart beat under my hand.
With a sigh, I finally extricated my hand and walked around to the other side of the bed. Crawling under the blankets, I extinguished the lights, curled onto my side, and forced myself to sleep.
I woke suddenly in the morning to the sound of a familiar scream. It still startled me enough that I sat up, feeling alarmed. “Lucas,” Lyre murmured from where he lay above the blankets next to me. Right – Lucas and his pet spider, that he was terrified of. I chuckled and flopped back down onto the pillow. There was light coming through the window, but it was the dim gray of early morning, when the shadows of night still linger.
I yawned and rubbed at my eyes, my stomach lurching in embarrassed anticipation. “How much of last night do you remember?” I asked tentatively.
“It’s a bit of a blur,” he said, and I almost sighed with relief before he finished with, “But I remember that you love me.” I felt like curling up and dying of embarrassment for a moment. I stayed still, not wanting to look at him, but I felt him pull the blankets back. “Are you hiding on purpose?” he asked, sounding amused.
“Maybe,” I groaned. I turned to see that he was leaning over me, smiling.
Instead of the usual flutter of butterflies that I had expected, my heart instantly calmed at the sight of that smile. I smiled back at him. I felt it right then, the second before he said it – and strangely, despite the brief time that we had known each other, it felt right. “I love you too.”
29. Cassandra
I was having trouble sleeping.
I thought I had been close to reaching a place of safety, but there was still a lot of danger involved. Lucas’s brief conversation still sat with me, but it didn’t worry me the most. I had spent so much time on the run already… if I needed to escape again, it could be done. I had the feeling that Silden and Larina wanted to settle into a normal life of freedom once we reached the Empire, but I knew that Lyre would come with me, especially with how he had reacted to Lucas’s warning. That was a calming thought.
It was everything else that really bothered me. The evil we were meant to seal was still a vague description, hardly any more concrete than what Lyre had told me so long ago when he had guessed I wasn’t from this world. And the scar that I had spotted on Lucas… How had my experience here become so different from theirs? Did it even matter that it was?
But learning about the gods had really clicked things into place and sent my mind buzzing. Raella had pulled me aside at one point, asking about whether I had been hearing voices. It was the chance to come clean and discuss the matter openly, but I hesitated and shook my head. Asterollan, who had been with us as we talked, followed my lead, and did not mention the voice he had been hearing either. Raella warned us that it could be the evil entity that we were needing to seal, and stressed the importance of telling her if we should ever experience something of the sort.
But I knew it wasn’t evil.
Still… Had I been talking to a god this entire time?
In a way, it made sense, but I had never even considered it. The idea of divine beings actually interfering in worldly matters was strange, even a little unsettling. I had never been the religious sort, and back home if anyone had told me they were hearing the voice of God, I would have thought they were crazy.
My mind raced as I lay staring into the fire. Lyre was very close by – he had stayed practically within arms reach since we’d been reunited. It had only been a matter of hours so far, so I wasn’t feeling smothered yet, but I wondered if I would eventually. I half dozed, only to wake and find myself revisiting every moment I had interacted with the voice, straining to recall every detail. I remembered the smell of ozone, the soft breeze that seemed to drift out of nowhere, the power of lightning that seemed to come to me most naturally.
Late into the night, after waking for the umpteenth time, I stood with a sigh and walked over to the pool at the base of the waterfall. I could see that Chase and Zolambi were sitting up, and they watched me curiously, but neither made any move to stop me or talk to me. I splashed some water on my face and stared at my rippling reflection. “Who are you?” I muttered.
I waited a moment in anticipation of an answer. The ripples cleared, the water stilled. All I could hear was the usual sounds of the night – the waterfall and the sound of insects. When nothing happened, I stood, and turned back toward the camp. Fleetingly, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a figure standing behind me in the reflection of the water. I turned around to see if someone had walked up behind me, but I was still very much alone. When I looked back down at the water, there was nothing. I wondered if my mind was playing tricks on me. “At least give me a name,” I said in frustration.
I felt something, gentle as a breeze, brush my hair away from my ear. “T’keran,” it whispered, the quality of the speech more present than before. As I lifted my hand to that ear, my fingers brushed against something that sent a strange tingling sensation along my skin. I turned, startled, to briefly see a smiling figure as it pulled its hand away from me – a woman, overwhelmingly tall and thin, lit silvery-blue like a beacon, hair raising slowly around her. She loomed over me for a moment before disappearing, leaving me blinking against the sudden dark. There remained the lingering scent of ozone.
Looking over at camp, I could see that Zolambi was watching me curiously, not at all alarmed. Like he hadn’t seen her at all. I rubbed the still tingling skin of my hand as I started to walk back to the fire. “T’keran,” I repeated.
I didn’t sleep any easier after that, so I was awake to watch the spider arrive. I first heard something softly hit the ground, a quiet thump. When I opened my eyes to see what it was, I noticed that Lyre was sitting up, his head tilted in amusement. When I followed his gaze, I was shocked to see the spider – it was the size of a dog, and the thump had not sounded that heavy. I sat up quickly, but Lyre held a hand out to me. “It’s his pet,” he said, by way of explanation, as the spider carefully crept up on Lucas’s sleeping form.
“A giant jumping spider?” I said the phrase half as a question, and half in simple awe. It dropped something on Lucas, who stirred and turned to look up at it.
And then I jumped when he screamed. The spider jumped as well, up on top of the highest remaining piece of wall, and the others in camp stirred at the noise, waking. Lucas was mumbling in embarrassment under his breath, turning a bright shade of red, his eyes still wide in barely contained terror. “That’s his pet?” I asked Lyre quietly.
“He named it Peter.” I shook my head, watching as Lucas lifted the dead squirrel that had been dropped on him. He sat up and began to try to coax the spider down from the wall, still looking wildly terrified.
Since everyone was awake now, breakfast was prepared and bedrolls and camping gear stowed away. It was strange being in an actual campsite for once, with plenty of supplies and horses to pack them on. The breakfast, which included a stew made from the squirrel the spider had brought for us, was surprisingly delicious. But since my previous meals had been drier travel rations, I figured anything would have been an improvement. Lyre handed over my bag, with the things I had brought with me from the ship. I was glad that I hadn’t lost it all in my fall into the river. It was also strange being surrounded by so many people. I watched them interacting with each other – Lucas was still wide eyed as he talked the spider into staying nearby, and Lexie, the younger girl was teasing him. She tentatively petted the spider, which leaned into her hand with pleasure at the touch. “Awww, Lucas, he loves pets. You should pet him!” Lucas visibly shuddered in revulsion.
Peyton Hobbs stood nearby, which was very strange to me as well. She was watching the exchange, her head tilted slightly and a faint smile on her face. I stared for a moment – she was tall for a woman, something I had never noticed seeing her on screen before, and ridiculously beautiful even without make up. She glanced up, saw me staring, and smiled politely at me. I smiled back, but quickly glanced around at the others, feeling a little embarrassed to have been caught gaping at her.
Asterollan kept mostly to himself, I noticed. It was probably strange to be amongst elves when you hunted them most of your life. It looked like he had finished his morning ritual, so I walked over to him. I had slept in the cloak overnight, and figured it was now time to return it. He gave me a strange look as I handed it back to him, but took it without complaint, swiftly pulling it around his shoulders. “Thank you for letting me borrow it,” I said.
“Why didn’t you tell the elves about the voice you hear?” he asked, ignoring my thanks.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. He frowned. Feeling the need to explain more, I added, “At first I thought I was crazy. But now… maybe I’m just worried over how Raella would react.” He nodded in understanding. Then after a pause, I blurted out, “I saw her. The goddess that speaks to me. Last night.”
“What?” He stared at me, hard, his eyes searching.
“It was only briefly. She told me her name.”
We stood in silence for a moment, interrupted by Greyjon calling, “We’re packed up. Is everyone ready?”
I turned, thinking that Asterollan didn’t have anything to say, when he asked very low, “What was it? Her name.”
“T’keran,” I answered. He repeated it in a low whisper as we joined the others.
Raella obsessed over the map, marking the location of the temple ruins for a future visit. “It’s a great find for the University,” she said. We traveled directly east, hoping to eventually enter the borders of the Empire and hit a road that wasn’t far from it. Zolambi said that from the road, we could determine how far we were from our next destination, which was a small town called Veinwell.
Traveling with a larger group and horses was slower going. It took us a few days to reach the road and get our bearings. It was a simple paved stone road running north and south. As the others tried to determine our exact location from their map and a nearby mile marker, I stood next to Lyre as he stared down at it. Silden clapped him on the shoulder. “An Empire road,” Silden said. “We’re really here.”
We traveled south along the road. Veinwell was a small town, surrounded by a high stone wall. “Are they afraid of getting attacked out here?” I asked curiously as we stood just outside the gates. There was some hassle as the guards seemed reluctant to let a giant spider in the walls.
“Most cities built walls during the Fracture,” Chase explained. I remembered Lyre describing the Fracture as a massive civil war and nodded. Once Greyjon and Raella argued our way in, we traveled immediately to an inn just inside the town walls, where the group had agreed to meet with someone. He was young – hardly more than a teenager – and had brought their wagon ahead for them from the last town they had stayed at.
Raella secured our rooms for the night and the innkeeper cleared out the other clientele. There was some grumbling as the tavern’s patrons poured out onto the street outside. “All this for us?” I asked, feeling a little guilty.
“They’ve done this every time,” Lexie said, apparently already used to it. We were served a meal – perhaps the most delicious I’d ever had, but I suspected everything was going to taste delicious to me after so many weeks of hard tack, mystery soup, and jerky. As I tore into some bread – soft, warm bread, that I slathered with butter – they discussed the rooming situation for the night.
“They have 6 rooms in all,” Raella said, after taking a sip of her glass of wine.
Zolambi nodded to my friends. “If you three would rather get situated in you new home, I can take you to the organization that handles that for slaves escaping the human lands. They’ll provide lodgings for us for the evening.”
Larina beamed, squeezing Silden’s hand briefly. “We would love that,” she said. She glanced over at Lyre. “Though I don’t think all three of us will be going with you.”
Lyre smiled, half sheepish, half sad. “I’m staying with Cassandra,” he said simply. He placed a hand briefly on my shoulder as he spoke. Despite his previous promise, I realized I must have held some apprehension that he was going to leave me once we reached the Empire, an apprehension I didn’t realize was there until it melted away at his words. Glancing up from my food, I could see Raella’s lips thinned into a false smile.
Zolambi nodded respectfully to Lyre. When the meal came to an end, he prepared to lead Silden and Larina away, and Lyre and I followed them to the wide entrance of the inn. We stood for a moment in companionable silence, and then Larina stepped forward and hugged me. When she pulled back there were tears in her eyes, and despite myself I realized my own tears were starting to well up too. I hugged her again. “I’m so happy for you both,” I said very softly to her. “I’m going to miss you so much.”
Silden wrapped us both in a hug. “Thank you for freeing us,” he said, his voice slightly choking as he spoke. Lyre was standing back a bit, but Silden grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in too. I laughed at our awkward crush of bodies, and finally managed to push away. “Take care of her,” Silden said to Lyre.
Lyre grinned. “And you take care of her,” he said, nodding toward Larina, who blushed as she sidled up next to Silden.
Silden looked down at her, his eyes full of warmth. “Always.”
After a little more well wishing and goodbyes, they finally left, following Zolambi. Lyre and I watched them walk down the street before returning to the main tavern room, where most of the remaining group remained. Raella had retreated to the room she claimed for herself, and Lucas had also retreated to a room with his pet spider, which the innkeeper did not seem happy to have inside. From the way Lucas warily eyed the spider, I had the feeling he wasn’t very happy about it either, but seemed to be trying to make it work. I didn’t see Asterollan either.
As Lyre and I returned, I grabbed the bottle of wine that Raella had left behind and asked the barkeep for a few glasses. Peyton and Greyjon were talking companionably about past skirmishes he had been involved in as a Captain in a place called Kimber, and Chase was turning it into a drinking game at Lexie’s goading. She was taking a sip of her drink every time she suspected he was embellishing his story, and as he caught on, his stories became less believable. It wasn’t long before she was flushed nearly as red as her curls.
Lyre and I listened in, not quite joining the conversation, but laughing at some of Greyjon’s taller tales. I poured some of the wine for us. He looked at it curiously, tilting the glass to examine it. “Do you not like drinking?” I asked.
“I’ve served wine to Wrasker and his guests before. I’ve never had any.” He shrugged and took a long pull from the glass. I watched to see his reaction as he drank most of the cup. Curious, I sipped from my own glass – it was a very sweet red, but the burn of the alcohol was notable. It was strong.
I brushed my fingers on his wrist as he placed the empty cup down on the table. “You might not want to drink that so fast,” I said.
“It’s sweet,” he said, smiling softly at the glass. “Some of the slaves used to make their own liquor, but it was harsh. Bitter.” I felt a little relieved that he had some experience with alcohol at least. He poured another glass.
28. Lucas
The next morning we backtracked to find a place to exit the canyon. After we passed the place where the river went underground, we began to regularly stop every couple of hours to check the compass spell. Since it was an inexact measure, we wanted to be sure that we didn’t travel too far and pass Cassandra’s location. It was late in the afternoon when we were close enough to see she was a little east of us, somewhere down in the depth of the gorge, which had opened back out into a canyon with the river once again visible below. “I hate going up and down like this all the time. I will be so happy to be away from this thing,” Lexie whined as we found our way back down to the river.
Silden, Lyre, and Larina all seemed eager to find their friend, and once we had descended fully, they would call her name out on occasion. It was heavily forested in parts, making it hard to see where she might be. I kept an eye open for Peter also – half from wary arachnophobia, but now that I had named it, I found I was a little worried I would never see it again. It was quickly growing dark when something caught my eyes – the flickering of lights. “Are those lightning bugs?” Lexie asked curiously.
“No,” Peyton said, and I could see that they were shaped like moths. “Watch when they land,” she added, pointing to one that was drifting close to the bark of a tree.
We had all stopped to see what she was talking about. The moth landed on the tree, gently flapping its wings for a moment, before lifting away. Directly underneath it, a second, dimmer moth lifted away and fluttered into the air as well. A faint moth shaped impression remained in the tree bark. Raella lifted a finger to poke at the second moth and it disappeared as delicately as a soap bubble bursting. “Pseudomoths,” she said.
“Pseudomoths?” Peyton asked.
Raella nodded. “The Creator moth glows at night, so to avoid predators it uses magic to create duplicates. Pseudomoths, which will divert attention away from them by providing another target.”
“These bugs use magic?” Lexie said. She was examining the impression left behind in the bark, running her fingers gently over the spot.
“Yes. They have a touch of divine magic to them, and tend to live near temple ruins,” Raella explained.
“So there’s a temple nearby,” Zolambi said solemnly.
Raella nodded, and we continued walking. Larina called for Cassandra again, and Greyjon held up a hand, gesturing for us to pause. “I thought I heard…” he started to say, but then we could all heard it clearly.
“Larina?” a voice called back from somewhere ahead – the tone was more high pitched than I was expecting from the image we had seen the entire time. A light appeared in the dark, human shaped, moving towards us.
“Cassandra!” Lyre said, rushing forward.
“Lyre!” she called back happily, practically crashing into him to envelope him in a fierce hug. Dunno why he’s worried, she totally loves him too, I thought to myself as she pulled back, her hands drifting to his shoulders, beaming up at him. I watched him wince as her hands moved close to the shoulder that had been bitten by the giant spider. Although the venom was no longer in our systems, the wounds from the actual bite still existed – mine was healing, but still smarted with every twist of my torso. Lyre’s was likely similarly pained.
The smile faded from her face, replaced by a concerned frown as she saw his reaction. For a moment, the glow extended from her, encompassing him. I watched as an expression of visible relief crossed his face. After a moment, he lifted his hands – the burns he had recently obtained from the flame hounds were gone, and I realized the spider bite was also likely healed. “Thank you,” he said, smiling warmly at her.
I opened my mouth for a moment, wanting to ask if she could provide healing for us as well, but froze, not wanting to ruin their moment. Also, it felt awkward and presumptive to just demand healing from a person I had only just met.
“Oh wow, can you do that for me too?” Lexie asked, apparently not feeling any of my apprehension.
“If it’s not too much trouble, a few of us have minor injuries that could use your attention,” Peyton said, as Lexie moved forward eagerly.
Cassandra turned to us, seeming to realize for the first time that people other than Lyre existed. She looked over all of us in turn, recognition and confusion lighting her eyes when she saw that Peyton Hobbs had been the one to speak to her. Nodding shyly, she placed her hands on Lexie, and did the same thing she had done with Lyre, the glow extending to encompass Lexie briefly. Lexie rubbed the spot where her spider bite had been, grinning. “Wow. I need to learn to do that.”
Staring into her face, Cassandra said, “You’re from my world.” It wasn’t a question, but Lexie nodded. “How did you get here? How many of us are there?” she asked. “Do you know why we’re here?”
“I imagine we’ll have much to explain,” Raella said.
Movement shifted from the woods where Cassandra had emerged. “We should head to our camp. Then you can explain everything in comfort.”
At the approach of the figure, the former slaves in our group tensed visibly, and the light of magic sprung up around Lyre and Larina. “You,” Silden said, sounding angry though he hadn’t reached for his magic. It was a man, with long, curly golden hair that had been tied back away from his face. He wasn’t particularly tall, and had very delicate features that were marred by a wicked looking scar that crossed his face, running from his hairline to his jaw. I realized the eye it crossed was dead white and wondered curiously if he could see out of it.
“It’s okay. He saved me,” Cassandra said very quickly, rubbing Lyre’s shoulders in a calming fashion. “And he can cast too,” she added.
Lyre frowned down at her, and the light around him disappeared. Larina frowned, her head swiveling between her friends, before she also dropped her hold on her power. “You can cast too?” she asked slowly, edging closer to Silden and taking his hand.
In answer, the light of magic surrounded the man. “Impossible,” Raella said softly.
I was confused for a moment, until I realized that his ears weren’t pointed. He was human, like us. And he wasn’t from our world.
Their camp was set next to a small waterfall, on the stone floor of old ruins. Cassandra set about using her healing spell at first – healing the burns her friends had received fighting the flame hounds, and healing my spider bite. I lifted my shirt to check my abdomen, running my hand over the fresh skin in awe. Cassandra frowned for a moment, distracted by what I was doing, and I dropped my shirt, feeling a little embarrassed. “You’ve got a scar there?” she asked, her voice a little strange.
I frowned, then realized what she had seen. “Oh, I had my appendix out ages ago. I guess the healing thing doesn’t remove old scars.”
She seemed a bit taken aback by what I said, but simply nodded. “No, I guess not.”
We settled ourselves for the evening. Zolambi and Greyjon tended the horses and Chase prepared a meal, while Raella told Cassandra and her companions everything that they had told us about why we were here in this world. We ate when she was done, Cassandra half lost in thought and silent.
I was sure that Raella would have plenty of questions for Cassandra and the human, Asterollan, but she seemed more distracted by our surroundings. “These must be the ruins of an ancient temple,” she said when she had finished her meal.
“There’s another part of it. Better preserved,” Asterollan said. He stood, and gestured to show that he would lead the way for her.
Raella seemed hesitant to follow him for a moment, then nodded. He led her to a spot closer to the waterfall, hidden amongst the rocks, where an opening descended into darkness. Raella summoned her orb of light, and followed Asterollan down. Similarly curious, Chase followed behind.
I watched them go curiously, wanting to see what was so interesting, but also realized it was an opportunity to speak to Cassandra privately. Zolambi was conversing with Larina and Silden about what their future in the Empire would look like, and Greyjon was sparring with Peyton, his star pupil.
I tapped Cassandra on the shoulder. “Could I speak to you for a bit?” I asked, perhaps a bit more awkwardly than I intended. I gestured over toward the woods.
She nodded, hopping up from her place next to the fire. Lyre raised an eyebrow, and stood to follow as well, which I figured was harmless – if we were going to run away at some point, he would probably come with us. Lexie eyed us curiously, but remained seated. We walked around the outer edge of the crumbled stone walls, and I wondered vaguely what the building had looked like when it still stood. “I wanted to let you know that we… um, those of us from our world – have had concerns about what might actually happen to us here.” I turned to look at Cassandra as I spoke.
“What kind of concerns?” she asked. Now that she was face to face with us and not made of light, it was easier to see her features – the wavy hair was brown. The eyes were a very light shade of brown, almost golden, and unnervingly large.
“We think they’ve been hiding things from us, but we’re not sure exactly what it is. We know that we’re here to seal some old evil guy, but they’ve been very careful to guard our interactions with others. Like they don’t want to tell us what’s going to happen to us… after.”
Lyre frowned, staring at Cassandra as I spoke. “What do you think might happen? Why would they keep it secret?”
Cassandra waited for me to explain patiently. I shrugged helplessly. “We’re not sure, but we don’t think it’s good. We’ve been considering running away once we had found you. But if we do run away, it has to be all of us – I suspect they can use the compass spell to track us if any of us stay behind.”
“Perhaps we should go,” Lyre mused.
She considered what we said for a moment, frowning. “But, if we run away and the seal breaks, and this evil returns to the world…” She sighed, and shook her head. “We’re in this world now. Isn’t it in our best interests to keep it safe?” I frowned, and opened my mouth to argue, but she held up a hand. “Listen, I understand your concern. If it turns out to be more serious, like you suspect, I’ll go with you. We’ll run away. But we’re here now, and unless we get a chance to return to our world, this is going to be our home. Shouldn’t we help protect it?”
Lyre sighed as she spoke, almost like something about her frustrated him, but he didn’t say anything. “I’m not sure they’re… saving a place for us? They’re not going out of their way to make us feel like this is going to be home after we do the thing. I’ve got a really bad feeling about what that might mean,” I said. But even as I spoke I wondered how convincing I sounded. How to explain the strange pity the University students had for us, or the way our questions about life here after our quest had been avoided?
Cassandra nodded and glanced over at Lyre. “Did you ever hear anything about what happens to outworlders after they complete their mission?”
He shook his head. “The stories we had were vague, fairytales at best.”
She considered that for a moment. “Lucas, we’ll run if we have to. But I want to know more before we do.”
I sighed and nodded. “Fair enough. But at least you know what we’ve been thinking now.”
She placed a hand gently on my arm. “I am taking it seriously,” she said softly. “I don’t want to die.” For a moment, her words startled me. In a way, I realized I had been saying that might be the case, I had suspected it all along from the way we were being treated. But at the same time, my brain had never acknowledged the possibility that I might die.
She and Lyre returned to the fire together, settling down for the evening. I continued my walk along the edge of the ruined wall – from where I stood, I could watch Peyton and Greyjon running through the footwork he was teaching her. They seemed to be finishing up, and she was sheathing her weapon, placing it amongst her things. Then, much to my surprise, she beelined straight for me. She had a rag in hand, and was wiping her face with it. “I assume you told her our concerns,” she said in a low voice as she reached me, her lips barely moving.
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. Peyton was always so ridiculously observant. I nodded. “She wants to wait and learn more before we do anything. She said she’ll run with us if it seems bad.” I paused for a moment. “She said if we’re a part of this world now, it might be in our best interest to protect it.”
Peyton nodded, thoughtfully rubbing at her neck. I found myself staring for a moment longer than I probably should have, then diverted my gaze to the waterfall. “That’s fair,” she said. “And not wrong. If there’s no way home, and we’re stuck here… would it be better to protect this place at any cost? Or live in a ruined world that we allowed to be destroyed?” I sighed, feeling completely weighed down by the talk of death and apocalypse, and she chuckled. “It’ll all work out, Lucas.”
“How do you know?”
“I mean, we were summoned here. That makes us the heroes, right? We’ll find a way.”
I snorted. “I wish I had your confidence.”
Laughing, she turned away to head back toward the others. I crossed my arms and stared at the waterfall. I could see that Chase had returned to the others, but not Raella or Asterollan.
Curious, I descended the steps to where they were carefully, feeling my way in the dark. I could’ve used magic to light the way, but didn’t want to be seen approaching. Below, I found Raella and Asterollan standing beneath her orb of light, dark silhouetted shadows. I hesitated a moment, realizing they were having a conversation. Asterollan had just asked her a question, but it was too soft for me to catch.
She laughed softly after a long pause. “Ah, so that’s how you’re doing it.”
“Doing what?” he asked, sounding confused.
“You haven’t even realized. Of course.” She gestured up to the symbol the orb of light illuminated above – stained glass, taking the shape of a sword set in front of a blazing sun. “I do not know his name, but I know he is a god of justice… and truth. Tell me, when you ask people questions, do they usually give you direct and honest answers, even in situations where they normally wouldn’t?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Truth. Every time you’ve asked a question, I’ve recognized some degree of compulsion. You don’t even need to reach for your magic to cast it – your very presence as a Champion compels others to answer you truthfully. A powerful gift.”
“Truth,” he echoed her, and his words echoed faintly in the room. “What does it mean, if your gods are touching the world again?”
“They were never our gods to begin with.” She paused for a moment, before adding. “I do not know what it means. I do not know if it is something to be welcomed or feared. We have had to pull outworlders for so many years because we had none capable of divine magic in our own realm. But if the gods have returned to us…”
Asterollan shifted, crossing his arms in the dark as he gazed up at the symbol above. I moved back up the stairs, quietly. “I will go with your group. You may need me.”
I paused, waiting to see what Raella would say. I could see the glint of her yellow eyes in the dark as she turned to look at him. “Yes, we may,” she said, her tone uncharacteristically solemn. I continued back to the campfire, and considered what I had overheard.
27. Lucas
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.
mehryment 