The
Iron Reaver had lived a long time ago. His history didn’t
really matter anymore, since all the places he once made famous were
no longer civilizations. He and his armies broke them. The old
Dwarf was a tough bastard, apparently, and ruled from his throne
city. He had some kind of engineer guild under him, and they made a
bunch of secure dungeons and cities. Brilliant work, the
secrets long buried and hidden. Exactly the kind of thing he wanted
to study. The risk of death and dismemberment is of course a
problem, but that’s the life he chose. These thrones were never
exactly the same, and many had been raided or broken down over the
years.
Dorian
Meer wanted that knowledge, how these dwarves were so effective.
They only used steel and iron, and yet their creations were
holding up to the test of time better than any Elven ruin. Of
course, he was going to allow his allies to plunder it. There was no
question on that. But he wanted the mechanisms and engineering
marvels intact. They needed to be intact. “Hey! Thurn says
we’re here.”
He
looked up, and smiled. The real reason he could even afford
this. Alexandra Heliot, whose red hair hung down her entire
back. Curvaceous and taller than him by a couple of inches, she
was a gladiator by trade. She had entered the slave arenas as a
free woman and come out the other side victorious. There were
some scars, but he didn’t seem to mind. Her popularity and
winnings had paid for this entire venture. He personally
thought it was his winning charm, but she had the winning smile.
Jarsk
Thurn, on the other hand, was a drunkard and a grave robber. Kind
of what they needed here. He was tall, dark haired, and rippled with
muscle. His job here was simple. Break down doors that no one
else could, lead them to the secret entrances. His share of the
loot from this was going to be the smallest, but the man only needed
it for drinks anyways. He had five older brothers, and yet he
was the only one ‘without an arrow in the knee’ to be able to go
with them. And yet Dorian didn’t believe that. The man
looked older than his skin. He had seen some things in these wastes,
and it was his skill that had guided them safely here so far.
“Finally!
It’s about time!” The screeching voice of their magical
expert spoke up. Lenna Shadewake, as she called herself, was
part sorceress and part rogue. Shorter than five foot, she was
often confused for a man. The pixie cut blonde hair didn’t help
with that. Lenna was his old flame, and hotly jealous of
Alexandra. She was also the only mage or
rogue that they could find willing to spend months out on this kind
of adventure. After the month and change it took to get here,
he was fairly sure that Lenna just wanted to get back at him for
breaking up with her.
“Where
is it?” Dorian asked. This landscape was confusing, covered
in mist and rather cold. Thick rocks stuck out from the mist,
and the highlands here had the shadow of what was once habitations.
Old mounds that could have been buildings lined the old road leading
into the city, but now that they were inside the place it was
impossible to tell. “All I see is mud and stone.”
“Ai.”
Thurn’s word for everything under the sun. “Over there.”
He pointed at a row of nearly identical stones running along the
road. Just like everything else around here. He stopped in
front of what was conceivable the millionth stone he had seen. “Ai.”
There was nothing here. Just a couple of mounds of stone and grass.
Yet Thurn seemed to know what he was doing. Dorian waited
patiently, as the man hammered a few stones with the backside of his
enchanted iron axe. He would pick up one featureless rock, replace
it with another, until they were in an arrangement that looked
exactly the same as it did before. “Ai!” He pronounced
gladly. Then he kicked
the middle stone.
The
entire hill before them collapsed inwards, stairs and thick iron
railings extending out of the mud like bones. Dorian leaned
forward, hearing the creaking and clanking that arose. There!
Completely hidden, yet the mechanism rose out of the mud without any
problem after what had to be hundreds of years. With a flash of
magic, the mud concealing the entrance sucked away into the walls,
revealing dark stone steps, going down into the deep. The stone was
black, almost reflective. Dorian ran his hand over it, the smooth
stone cool and comforting.
“Stay
your hand.” Lenna called. Dorian froze. “Don’t lose your
fingers.” The part-time Rogue stepped forward with a stick,
jabbing the featureless stone just inches from his hand. The
entire face of the stone rippled, as rusty needles sprayed out. A
burst of fire came from her hand, the short woman lighting up the
black stone. “Thurn, you can read the stones here, can’t
you?”
“Ai.”
The man nodded. “Don’t know the meaning but me Da showed me
all the dangerous ones. T’was before he become a stonelion.”
“Stonelion?”
Dorian asked carefully. Thurn had been mentioning creatures
that he hadn’t known about for weeks.
“Ai.”
Dorian’s least favorite word. “Big. Mean.” Durn wasn’t
overly descriptive about it. As per usual. Why did he even
bother asking him? It was just going to be some other thing that
bore no further thinking. “This stone is black iron. Won’t
break.” He tapped the walls. “No one knows how it was done.”
The
real
reason Dorian was here. He, unlike the rest of the College of
Whispers, thought that the secret to its creation lied in alchemy,
and not magic. His opinion wasn’t very popular, and if it
wasn’t for Alexandra they wouldn’t be here. “Have you heard of
any golems or native eidolons made from this?” He asked.
“Ai.”
Shouldn’t have bothered.
“Hey!”
Lenna screeched. “There is a door up ahead. But it’s
through some gloom spell that you can’t see through. My magic
vision spell lets me see through it, but the door is just on hinges.
It’s not even locked.”
That’s
when things got a bit more troubling. Lenna couldn’t figure
out what was the problem with the gloom. We found it out rather
quickly. Our weapons became invisible, and only their comfortable
weight in our sheathes told us that they were still there. Thurn
was not happy about this, grumbling about how he wasn’t going to be
able to throw his spears if he couldn’t get them back. But past
the gloom, Dorian could hardly wait for Lenna to declare the way in
safe before pushing in.
The
interior of the doorway became a gigantic room. It was too dark
to see beyond Lenna’s flames. But the sound of his feet echoed
across the black stones, and then something echoed back. “Lenna,
how bright can you make this?”
“I
can keep up the flames for hours, but we will need torches.”
“They’re
invisible!” Alexandra announced, holding something in her hand.
“Mine are invisible, like my weapon!”
“Just
light them. Not like we will recover them later.” Thurn
muttered.
“These
can be refilled!” Alexandra hissed at him. “I brought lots
of oil to refill them.”
“Wait,
I hear something.” Lenna spoke up. She opened her hands
wider, and light filled the entire space, a gigantic room shaped
almost like a wide set of stairs. At the top of the stairs,
they could see things moving towards them. Skeletons, but with some
kind of dark magic upon them. “Undead!”
“Ai!”
Thurn bellowed. “They’s is other adventurers!”
The
skeletons weren’t that hard to deal with. Every adventurer
had dealt with them at least once in their life. Alexandra
disarmed them with her trident, Lenna would smack them with her
dagger, and Thurn was able to break them down with the pointed part
of his axe. Magical weapons could destroy them, or at least do
it much easier. His crossbow was virtually useless. “Their
armor,” He said, as soon as they were down. “It looks like
it was torn apart by something powerful.”
Thurn
was running his hands over the shredded and destroyed metal plates
that they once wore. “Ai.” Oh, the day was still young. “They
bought armor in my hometown. That’s our blacksmith’s mark.”
He said that with a bit of melancholy. “I’ll bring back
something to bury.”
Dorian
found one of the skeletons had been wearing slightly better clothing.
It too, looked shredded. But it had something that interested
him much more. Journals. They were filled with diagrams and
some kind of notes about the place. More importantly, it had a lot
of the dungeon mapped out! Dorian cackled in excitement as he
read through the journal.
“What
is it?” Alexandra asked, her voice quiet.
“It’s
a journal. From this group, and what they went through. As,
uh, as well as two other groups before them.” He pointed at the
shape of the room. “Apparently this entire place, it’s a
giant circle. Geometric perfection, maybe a mile across.” He
read further. “It also has a few warnings, but there is a language
barrier.” After Lenna shined her light on the book, he was able to
make out some of them. “Something about hair entering people.
Another about being smitten by slime.” Thurn shuddered about the
hair business. “But it does show me where the other adventurers
went.”
“Ai.”
Thurn said, in a different tone this time. “Why return here?”
He
flipped to the last pages of the journal. “Ran out of food.
Weapons still invisible.”
“Ai,
ai.” Thurn murmured, as he continued his preparations. “Brought
lots with us.”
With
one more check of the journal, Dorian slipped it into his vest
pocket. “Alexandra, do you want to try one of those torches?”
With some fumbling, the redhead managed to get oil into the invisible
torch. The flame lit, a gentle light that only carried a few
meters. This place seemed to suck up the brightness greedily. “Lead
the way, Thurn.”
“Ai.”
He walked forward, taking them up the stairs quietly, coming to the
first part of why this place was called a maze. Four tunnels
went out from this direction, three of which had markings on them.
“Never this. Bad. Dangerous.” He pointed at the leftmost door.
“Bad, Scary, Bad.” He pointed at the second, third, and
fourth. “This Bad.” He pointed at the second door. “Least
bad.” Thurn’s vocabulary never failed to amuse, Dorian told
himself, before nodding and stepping forward behind Lenna. “Duck!”
Alexandra called. Up ahead, there were what looked like dark stone
flowers hanging from the ceiling. Thurn was warding them away from
himself with his axe, which the stone flowers seemed to avoid.
Alexandra was avoiding them and driving them away with what he
assumed was her trident.
Lenna
stepped into the tunnel, counting on her shortness of height. Dorian
was keeping his crossbow out, mostly as a club. The stone flowers
seemed to not like him too much. That all changed when Lenna
stepped directly under one. It shot out, clamping down on her head.
The ‘petals’ of the flower wrapped around her scalp, looking like
a sickly elven hat. Lenna screamed, and ran forward. The
flower hit its maximum length and then let go, releasing her. As
Lenna ran, hair poured out from the flower like a river. She had no
idea of what was happening in the dim light.
With
a roar, Dorian swung his crossbow at the flower. It cracked,
shattering and breaking off from its stem and falling onto the floor.
All of the flowers above started hissing, and Dorian started
running. Alexandra tripped him. “Get down. They can’t hit
the floor. Crawl.”
As
one group they crawled, Lenna whimpering something as she moved. The
hall was almost sixty feet of snapping stone flowers, and every foot
of that was a slow crawl. At the other end, there was a small
room with a stone table set into the center. They all took a moment
to breath, and Thurn was hissing in pain. There were angry
marks on his bare arm from where one of the flowers had bit him. The
petal marks were red and weeping pus already. “Lenna,” he
called, before looking over at her. She was clutching rivers of
thick blonde hair. He couldn’t see how long it was, but she was
panicky. “Lenna! Thurn is hurt!”
That
shocked her out of whatever funk she was in. She crawled over,
the hair dragging behind her. She reached into her pack, pulling out
one of many vials of liquid. She murmured words of magic as she
poured it over the mark. Thurn was silent, stoic as the wound
swelled up to twice its size before finally returning to a normal
bruised color. He sighed in relief. “T-that’s good.”
Lenna whispered.
“Your
hair,” Alexandra spoke up. “It’s longer than you are
tall.”
“It’s
heavy!” Lenna spoke up. “It’s like its made of metal.”
She picked up a section of the hair, letting it hit the ground with a
crunch. “Wait.” She muttered. “When its off the ground
it gets lighter.”
“I’ll
help. It’s resisting my knife.” Alexandra said, sitting
down with Lenna to control what had to be ten feet of hair. Dorian
stepped over to Thurn, who was wrapping his swollen arm. He was
looking at the path ahead, twin tunnels splitting off.
“Ai.”
His word for everything. “No marks here. Just guess.”
Both
tunnels looked the same. They both curved away from the center
of the maze. They had no features to speak of. It was too
suspicious. “After those flowers, I am willing to bet these
tunnels are trapped.” He drew his crossbow, before loading an
untipped crossbow bolt. A string was tied to it, and then to the
base of the crossbow. “Ten feet of string, and you load the
tip with a rock.” He shot twice. The left tunnel let the rock he
shot bounce a few dozen feet before coming to a stop. The right
tunnel shimmered
before the rock turned to dust.
“Ai.”
He and Thurn both murmured. By the time they had surveyed the
non-murder tunnel, Lenna was able to stand. Her new hairstyle
was impressive, he had to admit. A thick updo followed by a braid
going down to her ankles now decorated the short woman’s head. The
moment the braid left the ground, she stabilized. Whatever had
enchanted her hair, it stopped working the moment her hair left the
ground.
“Which
way?” Lenna asked, looking a lot better.
“Ai.”
He and Thurn pointed, Thurn looking less than pleased at his
imitation. Thurn led the way with a huff, tapping his axe
against the wall as he went. Lenna was walking along, her head bowed
by the new weight. For as long as he had known her the woman
hated her hair. Hated dealing with it, hated having to worry about
it. Now it shined, and he had a very good view of the giant braid.
Alexandra gave him a look over the shorter Lenna’s head,
flipping her own red mane of hair in response. Oh, she was probably
mad that he was looking at his ex girlfriend. He kept his eyes on
her swaying hair for the walk down the tunnel.
It
went on for a bit, until it came to a circular room with almost the
exact same layout as the room they had come from. Thurn looked
at Dorian. “Shoot rock.” Dorian sighed, before taking aim with
his bolt and launching a rock down both hallways. Both hallways
let the rocks fall. “Deeper into the maze?” Alexandra asked. “Or
back away from the interior.”
“Deeper.”
Dorian muttered, seeing odd groove marks in the tunnel leading back
towards the outer areas. He didn’t like it. Thurn again led
the way, tapping his axe along the way. His axe struck the wall, and
thick black tubes of energy flew out and struck him, grabbing him by
the legs and dragging Thurn away. Faster than a man could run,
faster than a wolf even! Alexandra held her hand out, stopping
anyone from following. “Lenna, stop the trap.”
Lenna
took her sweet time doing that. But once her tools had jammed
the trap, she nodded to them. “Thurn!” Dorian yelled, not
hearing any of the screams you would normally expect. “Thurn!
Jarsk!” He yelled again, moving down the tunnel behind Lenna’s
bobbing braid. This tunnel went on for hundreds of feet, before
plummeting steadily down. It became a slide, and as a group they had
to carefully make their way down to the bottom. There, they
found what was left of him. His armor and gear were all laid out at
the bottom of the slide. There was a dead end, with a break in the
wall, more like a crevice. Jenna tripped over his invisible
axe. Alexandra loaded up his bag, and left his armor. Curious, his
bandage looked like something had burst out from it.
“The
walls.” Lenna murmured. “They can move. Look, the drag
marks on the floor.”
Alexandra
tried to open the crevice, or push on the walls, but they did not
give. There was no sign of anything here that they could use.
The only reaction anything had was when the enchanted axe struck the
wall. A flood of black liquid issued forth, hissing as anything
but the dark stone of the dungeon was consumed. Alexandra was able
to dodge backwards out of it fast enough, and Dorian was far back
from the edge. Lenna was the one who suffered, as the boiling
black liquid splashed upon her robes and shoes. Her hair touched the
walls of the tunnel for a second, and she lost her footing for just
long enough that she slipped. Alexandra pulled her arms,
getting Lenna out of the muck before she could be sucked under.
“Climb!” She yelled, as they had to climb up the slick slide.
At
the top of the slide and back before they had lost Thurn, they
collapsed in a heap. Everyone was breathing hard, and Lenna
hissed as she kicked off the smoking remains of her boots. Her
robes had melted from her ankles to the knees, and after her boots
were kicked off her boney feet those legs were revealed. There
was no blemish or scar from the liquid. “Thank the Gods. You’re
alright.” Dorian admitted. He looked up to see Alexandra less than
amused. “We all made it.” He offered, seeing Alexandra’s
features soften. They had left Thurn’s armor down in that tunnel.
It was too heavy for them to carry out.
“Now
what? We just lost our guide!” Lenna screeched, letting her
hair thump onto the floor heavily.
“Best
chance we have is to mark where we have gone, find another guide, and
come back. We should take things carefully. Perhaps bring back
a digging team.”
“It
took us a month to get here, and it will take another two months to
return. Thurn will be long dead by then.” Alexandra pointed
out.
“If
he isn’t already!” Dorian yelled, losing his hair thin control.
“But at least I won’t lose everyone to this place!” He
led the way back, underneath the flowers and helping Lenna with her
extra weight. They nearly fled at a run back to the exit, and
found only a smooth wall. The door had gone, and even Lenna’s
dagger could find nothing in the wall. No gaps, no breaks.
Their exit was gone.
“Is
this the same place?” Alexandra asked, slightly panicked. Lenna
was in full blown panic mode. “Did the walls move?”
Moving
walls. For some reason that caught his attention. “Lenna,
stop for a second!” He yelled. She did, still distraught. Dorian
put his ear up to the stone walls, but he could barely hear anything.
A long scrape, here and there. “It’s a mile across.” He
murmured, stepping away from the wall while Lenna clawed at it with
her enchanted dagger, and Alexandra tried carving into it with the
enchanted axe. “We wouldn’t even notice it.”
As
a child, he had experienced a wonder of engineering that could rotate
carriages inside of cramped spaces. It would spin the carriage,
on giant wheels. A Dwarven idea given form. Alexandra stopped
swinging, hissing as she stood next to him. “What’s going
on in that brain of yours?”
“We’re
on a giant dwarven mechanism. So large that it could rotate
without us noticing. Moving so slowly that no one would be able
to see. We are on a giant rotating circle, and it is moving so
slowly that we won’t notice. We cannot notice, for we are now
part of the maze.” He opened the journal. “A perfect circle. A
mile wide perfect circle.” He opened his mouth in awe. “Those
brilliant runty bastards.”
“Lenna,
stop!” Alexandra yelled. “The door will come back
eventually.” That got Lenna to pay attention, her blonde
braid bobbing over to them. Dorian did his best to keep his
eyes from wandering. “Dorian says we are on a mechanism.
Something that spins.”
“But
I can’t tell how fast it spins, or when the door will reappear.”
He stated.
“Can
you see which way this is spinning?” Alexandra asked.
Dorian
nodded, pressing his ear against the walls again. He threw some
rocks into the air a few times, testing where they fell and what
direction they did go. He felt comfortable in his guess. “It
is rotating to the right. Which means that the tunnel we went down
was away from the rotation, and the door we need to exit from.”
“So
we could wait for the door to come back,” Lenna muttered, looking
at the wall which was not in motion or visibly moving. “Or chase
after it?”
“I
say we chase after it.” Alexandra decided. “After we find
Lenna some shoes.”
“I
have some slippers in my bag.” She whined. “But maybe those
skeletons have some good boots.” She ended up having to use
her slippers, as the boots were too large. It was with some
trepidation that they returned to the four tunnel split, and looked
at the right pair of tunnels. All they had to go on was Thurn’s
warning of scary and bad to describe these tunnels. His rock test
offered nothing to go on, and both featureless tunnels were the same.
“You pick,” He offered Alexandra. She might know more
about all of this.
She
sniffed at both of the tunnels, before nodding. “The scary
one. I’d rather face something fearful than another trap like the
one that got Thurn.” Lenna walked forward, leading the way down the
tunnel and looking for traps. Dorian and then Alexandra
followed behind her closely, matching her steps. After the tunnel
sloped upwards a bit, they came to a new room. This one looked like
a workshop, with a kiln and advanced equipment. Tarnished brass
sheets with dwarven writing on them hung on chains over the kiln and
other areas, with simple instructions on the operation of the
equipment. “Look at this!” He murmured. “A smithy!”
“But
where is the wood and oil?” Alexandra asked, digging through piles
of rusted metal. “Or the tools?”
“I
don’t see any metal or materials to work with.” Lenna said,
tiredly. She let her massive mane of hair droop onto a table,
coiling it so that she didn’t have to work as hard to hold it up.
Dorian clipped his crossbow back into his belt, before entering
the workshop. Only one other tunnel branched off from this point,
and they had been underground for hours already. He couldn’t
understand the old writing, but he could see the pictures.
“The
tools are invisible.” Dorian grinned, looking at the walls. “Feel
for them on the floor!” Lenna carefully looked, poking things more
with her slippered feet than anything else. Alexandra gave him
a smirk as she bent over and went digging for invisible tools.
Dorian could hear Lenna panic, and twisted to face her with his
crossbow. She was shrieking about something and pointing. A
monster made out of rusted metal, chains, and a black iron mask rose
from the corner.
It
made no noise or call for anger as it charged forward. Lenna
raised her tiny little enchanted dagger, and shouted magic words as
it flew from her hand and stabbed the creature in the mask.
Alexandra barreled into it, her trident stabbing and getting
caught in the chains. The creature seemed to only have eyes for
Alexandra, wrapping around her and attacking her from all sides. As
it turned, Dorian was able to see a dwarven mechanism on the back.
“Lenna!” He pointed, shooting one of his crossbow bolts at the
target. Her knife soon joined his, carving into the brass. He
tried to take a step back, to get a better angle. His foot tripped
over something, and the rest of the fight he missed out on. When he
finally got on his feet again, Lenna had destroyed the mechanism on
top of Alexandra, and its mask was stuck to her face. She
looked like some kind of Southern reveler, wearing a mask over her
features.
Her
hands were grasping the iron mask, trying to pry it off. Even
though it lacked any form of mechanical catch it adhered to her face,
covering her from forehead to chin. Her hands were reaching,
not a sound coming out. Lenna was on the floor, her hair having
fallen to the stone and become an even greater weight. Large
red welts covered her ankles and arms, and the remains of chains were
all around her. Alexandra rolled, coming to a standing position.
The mask held her chin tightly, and she ran up to him, not a sound
escaping from her. He could see her eyes inside the mask, more
panicked than he had ever seen.
More
importantly, he could see the mask described in the wall behind her.
“Hang on! I can break this!” He fumbled on the floor for
what had tripped him, feeling that it was a spike of some kind. Not
what he was looking for. Lenna joined him in his search, and
together they eventually found the whole array of tools the brass
sheets described.
At
the center of the helmet was a small slot, where a pointed instrument
could fit. Discovering which one it had to be took hours, hours
that Alexandra spent unable to speak or do anything more than look
through the thin slots of the mask. He didn’t know how long
it took, but eventually he found the right tool. With a sharp crack
the mask broke in half. Lenna kicked one of the halves beneath
a table, and the other she stepped on. Dorian couldn’t care
less. Alexandra’s face was like an entirely different woman. Not
a scar, not a scratch, and so youthful that she never would have been
accepted at a knightly gathering as she had in the past. Or at
least as she once was. Her lips were plump, almost a glossy look.
Her face looked to be in a permanent state of innocent surprise.
Alexandra
gasped, looking up at him with what appeared to be lines of kohl on
her eyes. Her hands felt across her face, almost making sure it
was still there. “Dorian!” She murmured. “Thanks!”
“This
area should be safe enough now.” Lenna sighed, rubbing her neck.
“We need to take a rest.”
Alexandra
nodded, digging out some of the rations from Thurn’s pack. They
spent an hour resting and eating, though Alexandra spent a lot of
that time looking through a piece of polished silver at her
reflection. Lenna was testing her knife against a section of
hair, but after five minutes of her hair stubbornly refusing to be
cut by her enchanted knife she gave up. Her slight snoring
followed, the exhaustion of the hike catching up to her. Lenna could
fall asleep anywhere and doing anything. Alexandra only slept when
she was at wits end. Today, she did so. Her torch started to
gutter out, and Dorian didn’t want to dig through his girlfriend’s
belts to find the oil to refill it.
So
instead, he looked for whatever lit this place when it was in use.
There were no scorch marks on the ceilings to suggest torches
in use, but this place had to stay lit somehow. No one could
survive in this darkness. The sheets of brass seemed to have no
clues. But what they did show him was how to make were basic pieces
of armor, or gear. The Iron Reaver would probably have set this
up so that his spoils of war could work the forges.
He
glanced at Lenna, and smirked. They probably had to make this
work for idiots, and he wanted to see if he could replicate their
work. His entire goal here was to see how they did their work.
Why to this day their artifacts were so unique. He picked up
the invisible hammer and started following the instructions. All it
took was one of her tossed off slippers and some kind of special iron
table. The metal, it formed around where the hammer struck. If
the tuning fork instrument was next to the hammer, instead of
crushing metal it would rise up from the table and form into another
shape. Some of it shaped around the slipper, and it became a
boot. The metal was thin, and in some places what filled it in
wasn’t actually metal. It was like leather, but not. Lenna didn’t
even rouse as he borrowed her other slipper to make the second shoe.
It
took almost two hours, and as long as he was working the forge ran
hot. It lit up the tunnels, even though the torch had gone out.
He only realized that he had spent that much time when the
unblemished face of Alexandra appeared in front of him. “What
are you doing?” She hissed. Lenna didn’t even notice.
“Her
boots got ruined, so I made her new ones.” He tried to explain,
motioning to the hammer and tuning fork. “This place, it can
make whatever you want it to! As long as you understand how to make
the metal come forth, you can make anything!”
She
was looking at what were becoming shin high boots. “Can you
try to make a javelin?”
Lenna
woke up in the middle of his shoddy attempts to make a weapon.
Whatever this forge was, it couldn’t do it. Any attempts to
make a weapon or sharp object would make the metal fall back into the
table as if it had never been worked. Alexandra lost her
excitement for this room fairly quickly after seeing that it couldn’t
make any weapons. Lenna, on the other hand, stared with awe at the
dark boots that were before her. “Where are my slippers?”
She asked.
“They
are incorporated into the design, so that your feet don’t get
chafed by something unfamiliar. I am not a great tailor, but I
thought this might help you in this place.” The less said about
the odd metal raised heel, the better. Lenna pulled the boots
on, grinning as the slippers inside accepted her feet.
Lenna
came over to him with her hair piled into her hands, and stood on her
tiptoes to hug him. “You’re always so thoughtful.” He
swore he could feel her lips on his neck for just a moment. “Thank
you.” She whispered.
Alexandra
offered everyone a round of water. She had a gourd that
contained much more water than it seemed to. Or that was how
she explained it. She for once didn’t complain about Lenna’s
closeness. Lenna seemed to adjust to the added height given by
the boots, and they didn’t actually have a perfect fit. Her
calves had a lot of wiggle room. They set out into the next tunnel,
Lenna’s new shoes making small metal noises as she walked.
Alexandra had lit her torch again, and this time the tunnel led
safely to another chamber. This tunnel’s trap had already been
disabled by someone else. Their invisible tool had left an
indent in the wall from where the trap had been disabled.
Lenna
made sure this was fully disabled before stepping past some kind of
pressure plate. There were no markings on the walls, and he had
tried chalk and even a dagger to mark them. How Thurn’s
people did it he didn’t know. “Up ahead.” Alexandra called.
“Take this.” She handed him the enchanted axe. It was a
heavy weight in his hands, and Alexandra clapped him on the shoulder.
“I don’t think your little knife is good for backing me up. Not
to mention your crossbow will run out of ammo eventually.”
“Thanks.”
He said, not quite thankful. He was no good with axes or
barbaric weapons like this. He hefted the heavy axe with both
hands, the tool unfamiliar. He couldn’t even know how far to
swing this thing, not being able to see the axe head. “Wait,
what do you see?”
“The
way out, I think.” Lenna interrupted, pointing at where the tunnel
had taken them. It was a room with four tunnels and one large
archway leading out towards another entrance hall. “Look!”
She pointed, and they could see down a large section of stairs. It
led outwards towards a wider hall, the light no longer lighting up
enough to see it all.
“Lenna,
use your light spell.” Alexandra asked, carefully. Lenna
nodded, before casting her spell. An orb of bright light moved
forward, making Dorian blink. After so long with just an oil
lamp, this bright light was enough to be shocking. What was more
shocking was the giant skeletal creature hovering just over their
heads. It was like a fish, except that its ribs were as long as
the hall was tall. “Oh Gods.” The skull of the creature, shaped
like a bird, turned around from where it hovered over a doorway. The
teeth were as large as spears. “Run!”
They
ran, everyone moving as fast as they could. Coming back to the
room they just came from, they could see some new devilry surrounding
the tunnel they had arrived through. A dark mist had surrounded
the left pair of tunnels, and looked like it had tendrils reaching
out to grasp out at anything that came close. Lenna made a
split second decision and dove into the rightmost tunnel, sloping
heavily down and almost making them all trip as they ran. Lenna’s
new boots were doing something for her. She almost outran
Alexandra with them! For some reason her legs were looking less
bony, too. He put that out of his mind, not wanting to be caught
staring.
“What
was that th-” Lenna began, as her boot landed on a section of the
floor. It shifted, and without a word she set off at a run. A
puff of smoke hit Alexandra, who was not as prepared for the trap.
They followed Lenna up the rest of the tunnel, coming to a stop
at a circular room with a large table and three more tunnels.
Alexandra was coughing, having trouble breathing. “She’s
choking!”
Getting
her armor off seemed to make things worse and not better. She
coughed harder, her lips and throat swelling up. Dorian did the only
thing he had been taught and tried to breath for her, kissing his
girlfriend and pushing air into her mouth. Her response was
more passionate than he expected! She was eager, and seemed to have
no problem breathing through her nose as she kissed him back. As
soon as his lips left hers, however, the coughing and gasping
returned.
“Oh
that is a nasty curse…” Lenna started saying, but Dorian could
understand the picture well enough. Their hands roamed and he
lost track of all else for a great amount of time. When Alexandra
could finally breathe without gasping for air, he was utterly
drained. His pants were off somewhere, and the only article of
clothing left she had was an armored skirt. That mask had done more
than soften her face, it had made her entire body get worked over!
He
took a look at his girlfriend, her kohl rimmed eyes innocent and
glad. She giggled, before realizing where they were and neither
of them could remember how long they had been here. They were
able to find most of their belongings, though Dorian wasn’t able to
find his belt or his knife. Alexandra lost a javelin and her
undershirt. When they both had gathered their items and
dignity, they finally looked for Lenna.
They
found her, robes more damaged and covered in scrapes. Shattered
chunks of stone surrounded her, and she leaned down onto her legs.
The robes were tattered up to the thighs now, and Lenna’s
legs were looking better than ever. How that was possible, he
didn’t know. “Are you okay?” Dorian dared to ask, Alexandra
looking embarrassed that they had not been helping her.
“No.”
She answered honestly. “I just killed a wolf made out of
stone.”
“Sorry.”
He offered, helping her to her feet. “We just couldn’t
stop.”
“I
could see that!” Lenna screeched. “I had to protect you
while you just ignored me, for hours!” Her arms were wrapped in
bandages that looked suspiciously like Alexandra’s lost shirt.
“But I did explore some of the area.”
“Uh,
sorry again.” Dorian started, but then just trailed off as he felt
awkward about it. “Well, uh, what did you find?”
“Two
traps. Disabled them, but found out that they reset or trigger
automatically if you disable them. But I found something you
might like.” Lenna stood up, her hair needing a hand as she did so.
Dorian couldn’t remember her thighs being as plump as when
they were courting, but it might just be his imagination. Still,
he followed Lenna and her shoes down the hallway. She was walking
gingerly, and he could see her shoes looked different. Almost
like the chunky boot heel had shrunk. He put it out of his mind as
Lenna walked down past a pit trap. A few sparks sprayed from her
shoes as she landed on the other side of the pit trap. Dorian
narrowed his eyes, seeing that some metal was being left behind on
the floor. Her shoes really were changing.
Alexandra
gave him a shoulder pat as she also leapt the distance, and he
brazenly followed. His jump was not as good as either of his
fellows, and he tripped on the other side. No one laughed, for which
he was grateful. But Lenna showed them something extraordinary
as she moved down the tunnel. It ended in an archway, twisting and
wending its way. “This is…” He murmured, as the oil lamp
was no longer the only source of light. Giant glowing glyphs were on
the ceiling, and casting their light along rows between what had to
be buildings inside the mechanism. They had windows and
everything. Lenna led the way towards one of them, carefully. Her
legs were swaying in front of him, and he had to shake his head to
get the image of that out of his mind. The long braid and legs on
display were too distracting.
They
all peaked into the windows, grinning. The buildings were two
story creations, with just archways connecting them to streets. They
were not good defensive positions. Dorian couldn’t see what each
shop was dedicated to, but he could feel Lenna and Alexandra staring
at him. They were here for loot, and a return on their money
they invested. Looking around, he could see that some of the shops
were just tailors or craft workshops. Not the return they were
hoping for. “Aha!” He pointed to an engraver’s shop. “Dwarven
writing, it should be lightweight and hold its value.”
Lenna
and Alexandra brightened, following him into the shop. They
found bronze scroll carriers with Dwarven runes on them, which
Alexandra took. They didn’t dare open them here. The second
story of the building had a small living area, and a hatch that could
be closed over the stairs leading down. The only lack of
security were the wide windows. Lenna had stuffed her bag full of
some gold and silver that she had found in the living area, as well
as an old map scroll. He himself went into the crafting area,
and saw something more interesting. “This isn’t written in their
language!”
“What
is it?” Lenna approached, holding some kind of knick knack.
“Lizardfolk
language.” He murmured. “Perhaps it is some kind of lexicon
for understanding the dwarven one! I speak a little of it, I
should be able to translate it.” And translate it he did, taking
hours to do it under the light of the lamp. When he finally got
it, the scroll glowed, and turned to ash. “Too bad.” Alexandra
tutted. “Can you speak Dwarven now?”
“I
hope so!” Dorian stood up, before feeling the magic come upon him.
With a wrenching feeling he could feel something burst from his
lower spine and back. His pants ripped, as a tail that should
belong on a lizardfolk now rested on him. “Oh Gods!”
“It
was bound to happen to you eventually,” Lenna whined. He turned
around, holding his pants up and looking at the large tail now
hanging off his behind. It was… not uncomfortable. It felt
like it had been there his whole life. This spell must have been
written into the scroll, but he didn’t understand all of the
nuances of lizardspeak. “There is a tailor shop across the
street. Let’s go there and get your pants fixed up.” Lenna
offered, looking across at the other shop. She was probably after
more loot, which he was fine with.
Dorian
was not here for gold or riches. He wanted to understand these
people. With trepidation they crossed the small path, ducking into
the opposite shop. It was a tailor, for certain. There were
closets full of hanging clothing covered in dust. He went for the
tools of the trade, and immediately set to sewing something
functional out of his ruined pants. The tail was odd to walk
with, and let him lean further forward when he ran. He might be able
to keep up with his fellows if they ever needed to run. Lenna
disappeared upstairs to probably take everything of value, while
Alexandra presumably stood guard by one of the windows.
They
were doing what adventurers do best, as he looked up and saw her
digging through different hangers and piles of items to find things
she wanted. He spent a good ten minutes adding fabric to the
back of his trousers and working around the tail. When he had
finished, Lenna was grinning about some kind of find, and Alexandra
was grinning as she packed some kind of outfit she found into her
bag. “You look happier.” Lenna smirked. “We could raid
all of these shops for stuff to sell!”
“But
this won’t fund another expedition.” Alexandra pointed out.
“This place needs curse breakers and mages of a better
caliber.” Than Lenna, she meant. Lenna wasn’t happy about
her presumptions. “We need to go deeper into this place and find
the throne room. If we prove it exists, we can fund the next
expedition and more.”
“You’re
right.” He wasn’t going to understand this until he found some
engineering guildhall. Something that he could study and learn
from. Lenna stiffened, looking behind him. A shadow had crossed
over the window, and they could see a long spindly leg place itself
down gingerly as something moved above the building. “Run or
hide?” Whatever that was, it was very large.
“One
exit.” Alexandra whispered. “Wait.” The monster stopped
moving, standing above their building. Alexandra’s hand held
stiff in a fist, signalling them to be quiet. Still, the monster
remained. “Run,” She whispered, pointing towards a street
that angled uphill. Possibly to the center of this place. On
an unspoken countdown, all three of them broke cover and sprinted.
Dorian smirked as he pulled ahead, the tail letting him lean ever
more forward and run faster. He was in the lead for once in his
life!
Then
it was all stolen from him, as something stabbed him in the tail.
There was a sharp pain for a moment, and then he was
imbalanced. Alexandra caught him, dragging him along as something
with four giant legs and pincer teeth attacked something on the
ground behind them. Lenna was still with them, as he could hear
her shoes hitting the floor. The only thing that was left behind was
his
tail. It had fallen off. The creature was tearing it to
shreds, and Dorian pulled himself up to run with the others. Lenna
pointed, and an old faded sign with an unmistakable beer bottle on it
was up ahead in some kind of alleyway. Lenna kicked the door
open and dove in, as Alexandra and Dorian followed.
They
all slammed the large door shut, sighing in relief as the door
closed. They were in some kind of inn, though anything edible
or drinkable had long gone. “You’re glowing.” Lenna
mentioned. “Dorian, you’re glowing!” Sure enough, he was.
Though in a few seconds he stopped glowing as a replacement tail
sprouted from his backside. When he stood back up he could see
that he was now eye to eye with Lenna. He used to stand taller than
her by inches!
“The
spell! It must pay a price for replacing the tail.” He
realized.
“That
tail saved us. It drew the monster away from our position.”
Alexandra said, patting him on the shoulder. His girlfriend was
now taller than him by more than a half-foot! That was an oddity he
couldn’t quite get used to.
“This
place is an inn.” Lenna sighed with relief. “That means
water and beds.”
Alexandra
hefted her weapons. “We should clear every room, then. Then
we can take a break. Go over what we have taken.” That took
a while, even though the place only had four rooms upstairs. Lenna
found plenty of coinage and valuable tools that would fetch a decent
price back home. Alexandra discovered how to make the baths
work, and he was politely kicked out of that room to watch the door
while she and Lenna restored some of their sanity. When the
women returned, their gear looked clean and free of grime. Lenna’s
robes looked different. The tattered bottom edges were now a loose
skirt, probably the product of magic. It did not stop him from
looking at the both of them as they descended the stairs. Then it
was his turn. Truth be told, after a bath he felt a lot more alive
and well.
They
spent ten hours there, going over much of the things they had taken.
They couldn’t read what the scrolls said, so it was a
guessing game as to which had the most value. The coinage was a
mixture of gold, bronze, and silver coins taken from all over the
coastlines. Only some of the coinage was the valuable black iron of
the locality. Some jewelry had been found, but it wasn’t made
here. It had markings of being Verusian, powerful even back when
this place was alive. It would sell, but nothing here was going to
be worth the time and effort they had come here with and they all
knew it.
So,
they slept in a pile of beds and recovered. When they were able
to leave, they went through a back door. It went out an
alleyway, and into an empty street. This one curved upwards and away
from the center of the mechanism. The buildings here looked
residential, multi tiered and open to the elements. They
carefully made their way past a row of bakeries and granaries. All
were dark and empty. Nothing moved here, and the dust of their
civilization just left more questions than answers. When the road
leveled out, it ended at a giant wall. An absolutely huge
interior wall. Guarding it was another one of those four legged
monstrosities. It wasn’t moving.
“Come
on.” Alexandra said quietly, moving them into the closest building.
It let them take cover in a residential building and give them
view of the creature’s legs. For an entire day, it felt like,
they stood watch. Not once did the creature leave or move. A second
one moved by, but it was still a bad sign.
“I
have an idea.” Lenna said proudly. “We use another tail and
run for the doors it’s guarding.”
“Rip
off Dorian’s tail?” Alexandra mused. “He might get even
shorter.”
“I
vote we don’t do this plan.” Dorian spoke up.
“I
vote we do!” Alexandra said happily. “You’re outvoted.”
And
that was how he had his tail ripped off by an over eager girlfriend.
Dorian watched as the painful process culminated with the tail
being thrown down a side street, in view of the beast. It
twitched, and then leapt sixty feet to pounce on the fallen tail.
Dorian started running as fast as he could, as Lenna and Alexandra
broke ground and ran to the wall entrance. He was already
glowing by the time they had arrived, and he used one hand to hold up
his pants while the other held the enchanted axe. When the glow
ended, he could feel smaller, but not in height. He dove into
the opening door just as the creature noticed their presence. It’s
claw swept into the room they entered, forcing the door widely open.
Alexandra didn’t bother slowing down, running past stone statues of
guardian spirits. They activated, spraying liquid fire down
upon the floor. It hit her, and Dorian was the one to grab her this
time and drag her to safety. They took cover in a row of fluted
columns, patting out the fires on Alexandra’s armor and clothing.
Some of Thurn’s pack was also aflame, and Lenna put it out
quickly. Alexandra hissed in pain as Lenna healed her wounds, but
the damage had been done.
Alexandra’s
main trident was halfway melted. Her armor wasn’t any better,
and the broken remains were tossed aside. Her skin was angry
and red still, and they spent a few minutes in the shadow of the
pillar looking after her. He didn’t care about what happened
to him, he just followed Lenna’s instructions and helped patch her
up. “Lucky I have burn salves.” Lenna muttered, pulling small
vials out from her bag. “But getting out of here is going to
be harder.”
“Not
if we follow the spin of the mechanism.” Dorian replied. “There
is a tower here, near the ceiling. I want to see if I can measure
the spin from the top of it.”
“We
need to find a place to let Alexandra heal.” Lenna countered. “Not
put ourselves at further risk!” He nodded, grabbing his girlfriend
in his arms and helping her to her feet. Lenna took the other
shoulder, and between them they were able to get into the cover of a
large colonnade. “Looks like we might take your tower.” She
pointed, and there was an iron fence surrounding most properties
here. The fence around the tower had a breach in it. They were
able to crawl with Alexandra through the breach, and into the
shattered doors of the tower. “You make sure this place is safe.
I’m going to take care of Alexandra over here,” She motioned
towards some kind of side chamber. “You make sure this place
isn’t going to kill us.”
This
place had been pillaged by someone, Dorian saw. Everything of
value had been peeled off the walls. Even the furniture had been
taken apart for anything of value. He found the source of the
problem quickly enough. Four skeletons from those who had come
before were scattered around the room at the top of the tower, and
surrounding those corpses was a gigantic ball of malicious magic. An
ooze. The bane of many adventurers, they would destroy any weapons
that came into contact with them. Unless heavily enchanted, the ooze
would simply absorb it. It was guarding the upstairs, and he knew
just how to get Lenna onboard with fighting it.
“Someone
else came here first.” He said to her. “They’ve died upstairs
and left all of their loot in a pile.” Lenna stood up straighter,
her braid swinging. “The ooze that killed them is still up
there.”
“Ooze?”
She looked doubtful now. “How large?”
“You’ve
got your magic and you can wipe it out from a distance!” Dorian
said, making sure that Alexandra wasn’t watching him shower his ex
girlfriend with praise. “I bet if i just hold its attention
with my crossbow you can blast it with your magic.” She leveled a
glare at him. “It’s about the size of a horse.”
“You
do know that oozes duplicate if you shoot them with arrows?” She
asked.
Dorian
looked crestfallen. “Well, uh, what about the axe? It’s
enchanted.”
“It
might work. But I don’t want to take that risk. I’ve
put Alexandra to sleep, and we can rest up for now.” She said. “As
soon as she is better we can take on that ooze.” While Lenna did
that, Dorian tried to secure their position and close off the outside
world. Nothing was moving, sadly. But he did figure out what
his newest tail had taken from him while he was doing that. His
waist was as small as Lenna’s now. It was concave, unnatural.
Thankfully his shirt concealed it, but at this rate he was going to
shrink away into some pubescent nothing. He had to tie his belt
an extra two loops tighter just to keep his pants on. Even so, the
baggy ends kept getting stuck under his shoes.
Alexandra
recovered a few hours later, much to Lenna’s relief. When she
rolled off the small bundle of furs they had made for her, she
reached for her weapons and realized she wasn’t in danger. “Is
everyone alright?”
“We
made it. You were the only one to get struck by those defenses.
The fire melted your armor, but we grabbed your weapons.”
Alexandra
nodded. She reached into her pack and grabbed a few rations to
eat, passing them around. “That’s alright. Armor can be
replaced. I guess I’ll use my backup.” She had an entire
duplicate armor in her bag, and took her time adjusting it. Dorian
helped her get it on, seeing the remaining welts on her skin looking
painful. “What now?” She asked, after she had recovered her
gear.
“There
is an ooze in this tower that Dorian wants us to fight.” Lenna
interrupted with a screeching tone. “He wants to see the
top.” Her legs were looking even plumper now, filled out in a way
that she had never been. The boots he had created for her were
a perfect fit now.
“Sounds
good.” Alexandra stood tall, and fluffed her hair before grasping
her trident. She was on her spare weapon now too, which allowed
her to carry another thirty pounds of loot out of here. “I fought
many Ooze in the arena. I think this one should be easily
enough dealt with. Dorian, don’t shoot it. Just keep it away from
Lenna. Oozes are slow, and you can outrun them easily. The
issue is actually killing them. The best way to do that is to light
them on fire. If this ooze is immune to that, then Lenna will have
to use some of her frost magic.”
Lenna
looked less than confident about that. They swiftly moved up
the stairs, Alexandra in the lead. Dorian was less than focused
with that in front of him. It was a surprise when Alexandra broke
into a dash, picking up fallen rocks and sharp objects to stab the
ooze with. Furniture and other objects were also used, the
giant spherical enemy looking unphased. Some of Alexandra’s
precious oil was thrown onto the ooze, along with a lit match. The
Ooze just seemed to absorb the fire, and wasn’t affected. “Lenna!”
Alexandra called. “Take it down!”
Lenna
just seemed frozen at the top of the stairs. She didn’t raise
her wand, or do anything. Dorian shook her shoulder. “Come
on! Take it out!”
“I
can’t.” She whispered.
“Why
not?!” He yelled, watching as his girlfriend kept circling the
creature.
“I’m
a fraud.” She said, quietly. “I don’t know all that
magic. Most of that was just enchanted stones I bought to convince
you I could.”
“You
aren’t a real wizard?!”
Lenna
looked crestfallen. “I’ve got one stone left for ice magic.
Make it count.” She placed the stone into his hand. He
snarled, smashing the stone against the axe. It would give it a
temporary spell effect. Lenna had lied to him! She said she
could handle magic, and she had been lying this whole time! He
was furious! It was that cold fury that carried him right into
combat, and buried Thurn’s enchanted axe into the ooze. The
creature shuddered, and then burst like it had been filled with air.
He was showered with its innards, covering him and the area directly
around the target. It all boiled into the air in thick clouds
of purple smoke, coming off of his skin and clothes without making
them stain.
He
took a deep breath, looking around at the room. Alexandra gave
him a nod, grinning. Lenna didn’t meet his eyes. He didn’t
want to deal with that yet. He sighed, sitting down. All of his
strength just seemed to leave him, as he looked down at what had to
be his first melee kill. The glow of the frost magic left the
axe, which wasn’t broken. “Thurn’s axe really is as good as he
said it was!” Alexandra beamed. “Great strike, Dorian!”
He
glanced back at Lenna. “Couldn’t have done it without
Lenna’s help.” He offered, seeing the fraud mage look back up at
him. “Let’s see what these people had.”
They
found the sweet spot. These adventurers had found a Dwarven
incense lamp, as well as a set of weights and measures for their
currency. Seven different platforms existed to compare living
currency to. It was a rare object for anyone to find. Lenna held it
aloft with a sharply pitched cackle. Coins were in every bag,
along with waterskins and wineskins. A giant jeweled goblet was also
in their bags, though Lenna was distrustful of it. They wrapped that
in one of the dead men’s cloaks and placed it in their bags.
Strange black metal gauntlets had survived the ooze, where
nothing else had. These were also placed in a bag, and it was a
jubilant moment as they all divided up their new take. With
everything they were heavily loaded, and had enough to justify
returning.
“Look.”
Lenna mentioned, pointing out of the windows at the top of the tower.
“You can see it spinning.”
The
walls of the cavern could be seen from the top of the tower. More
importantly, he could see them subtly shifting. “I can measure
this!” Dorian said, excited. “I can measure how fast its
moving, how long we’ve been here, and find out when the door will
reappear!”
Easier
said than done. Dorian spent three hours just doing all of the
math in one of his travel journals. Even then, he had gotten
three answers and had to guess which one was the most correct. Lenna
and Alexandra seemed to be in high spirits nonetheless, as he
approached them. His fingers were covered in soot and ink, but he
held up the book to them. “Two days, and that door will
reappear.”
“Really?”
Lenna smiled. Alexandra also gave him a smile, her face so
innocent that it was off-putting. “It’ll take us a while to
get back there. How long until it comes back?”
“Another
five days after that.” He admitted. It was a guess, and if
Lenna was going to lie about being the wizard they needed he could
lie about not knowing for certain. “But that gives us a day
or so to go deeper, or four if we take our time.”
“Unless
we find a lexicon or guild hall you are looking for, I think we have
gotten all we can carry and still run.” Alexandra added. “We
should take it safe, and escape with this. We can fund another
expedition to find the throne room later.” He turned his head,
looking towards the fort that rested at the very center of this
mechanism. Everything he wanted was inside of it! He was so
close! But he glanced back at his fellows. Lenna’s hair had
touched the ground again, and she had given up on trying to pull it
off. She just let her head be dragged to the floor. Alexandra’s
perfect face was frozen in its position, and he couldn’t tell what
she was actually feeling anymore. She couldn’t help but smile at
him, her glossy lips promising joy. Not that it wasn’t a bad
thing, but it made understanding his girlfriend that much harder.
This wasn’t something that they could fix here.
The
longer they stayed here, the worse that things would get, and so
Dorian did what he thought was best. “I’m going to sketch
some of this, and then we are going back. We need to have a solid
plan for getting past those gates.”
“I’ve
got some rope we can let down the wall and climb down.” Lenna
perked up. “If we can just climb to the top of that inner
wall, or make a hole into it, we could make it easier for the return
journey.” She pointed to a building that touched the wall. “If
I were a secret way out of the inner walls, I would be inside that
building.”
“Sounds
good.” Dorian stated, his vision swimming in and out of focus for a
moment. He would tell Lenna about that, but he was less than
trusting about her at this moment. “We just have to get
there.”
The
streets here were empty, but too clean to truly be considered such.
They finally were able to see why. Some kind of wheeled
mechanism rolled through the streets, an equal mix of spears and
brushes of all things. It moved along, sweeping the street for
anything alive and anything that could be picked up. He tried to
document it, but Alexandra pulled him down from the window before he
could get a better look at the thing. “Don’t risk it.”
She warned him. “We’re all getting out of here.”
They
waited a while for that thing to leave, before crossing the street.
The building they arrived at was a large atrium with
outbuildings, surrounding a few giant mushrooms. Out of
paranoia they avoided them. Stairs in the back of the building led
upwards, and Lenna had to disable a trap on them before they could
move upwards. Dorian’s vision was swimming again, and he had
to blink many times on their way to the uppermost section of the
building. The highest they could get was a third floor gallery with
a window facing the wall.
Between
his crossbow and Lenna’s rope, they were able to get a hook over
the wall. Getting that hook to get stuck in something? That
took a few shots. His arms were shaky before they started climbing.
Alexandra went first, her lithe body moving up the rope with
confidence. Lenna went next, confident until her hair touched the
top of the dark stone walls. Then Alexandra had to help her up
to the top. Dorian climbed last, arriving on top of the wall. It
had sharp spiky crenelations, and wasn’t meant to be walked on top
of. You had to straddle it, with six inch spikes being the only
feature on top of the sloped stone. In the distance they could still
see the four legged monster still reaching for them through the gate,
to which he shuddered.
This
time the crossbow wasn’t able to get a good shot off. They
attracted attention from something. Rolling down the top of the wall
was an orb, covered in holes for the spikes to fit into. A
baleful red eye was set into the center of the orb. “Lenna, do you
know any wind spells?” Alexandra asked, grabbing Dorian’s
crossbow.
“Not
what you have in mind!” She yelled back, as Alexandra threw the
crossbow like a javelin. He could hear his beloved weapon crack
as it was impaled onto a railing in one of the residential buildings.
Alexandra threw her net over Lenna and leapt into the air,
hoping against hope that the rope would hold. But Dorian could see
that there was nothing to anchor that rope. With a heave he
threw himself onto the rope on the other side of the wall, providing
the leverage necessary for his friends to go down the rope.
The
orb glowed, before releasing a spell at them. Dorian cried out
in pain as he let a few feet of rope go out, the spell going over the
heads of his friends. The tension on the rope tightened as they
got to the destination, but that still left him with nothing to
anchor him. If he tried to go down that rope, he would just
fall forty feet to die. As he thought this, the Orb arrived. It
silently rolled along the top of the wall, cutting him off from his
friends. Then it turned again to face them. Dorian glared. He
was an alchemist, and he had what it took. Reaching into his belt,
he grabbed a light steps potion and a strength reinforcement vial.
He wasn’t a great alchemist, and he would be feeling the ill
effects later. But right now he needed
this.
His
feet could find purchase anywhere, now. His arms bulged with
muscle, and with that he ran up the wall and used the Orb as the
counterweight. He overestimated, coming around so fast that he
overshot the swing and swung over the top of the other half of the
rope. He dangled like a ripe fruit, the ropes rubbing as he
slid down towards his friends. And yet the baleful eye of the orb
settled upon his friends still, the entire orb glowing blue. Thunder
crackled, and he knew that thing was about to launch a lightning
spell at his friends. They were still recovering, and Lenna was tied
up in the net still. Trying to free someone from an invisible net
sounded impossible.
So,
he pulled on both ropes. Just before he would have slammed into
his friends he wrenched himself into the air, tail and arms fully
extended. The spell hit him like a sucker punch, instantly
touching every inch of his body and burning out anything it touched.
The bright light was the last thing he knew.
When
Dorian could see again, it was a creamy pair of thighs that his face
kept bouncing against. Something was wrong here, and he could
tell that. His eyesight was improved, a bit. Even in the darkness
he could make out some shapes. Beyond the dim light of the lamp
he could see details he couldn’t before. More importantly, he was
now a bird. Wings, feathers, and a bird tail. No more lizard
tail. That was a plus. Twisting his head, he could see that he was
wrapped up in something invisible, and was strapped to the bottom of
someone’s bag. Judging by the frilly skirt and thighs, he was
being carried by Lenna. Her shoes were clicking against the floor
louder than they did in the past, and with just a thought his new
bird neck rotated enough to look down her smooth calves to the boots.
The heels, for that was what they were now, were like spikes
coming off her foot. And even as he watched, more metal was flaking
off from them.
Lenna
had changed the way she was walking, too. Her hips were swaying
side to side, the long braid swinging back and forth while her skirt
fluttered around a rear end he remembered being much smaller.
Twisting his neck again, the net shifted and he was given a
view up Lenna’s brief outfit. Lenna wasn’t wearing a single
stitch of clothing underneath that fluttering skirt! In awe, he
simply stared at the sight of what resembled a perfectly grown peach
until someone grabbed him by the tailfeathers.
“Looks
like someone is awake.” Lenna stated, blushing. He was freed
from the net with a moment’s effort, and Alexandra offered her arm
for him to stand on. However he ended up a bird, it seemed to
come with all of the understanding of how to use it. With a hop he
made it over to her wrist, stabilizing his hop with a pump of his
wings.
“What
happened?” The voice that came out from him was higher pitched, but
still recognizable as Human. Or capable of human speech. “I’m
a bird!”
“Celestial
Hawk, actually.” Alexandra clarified. From her wrist he had a
fantastic view of her kohl rimmed eyes and glossy smile. “You’re
immune to lightning.”
“What.”
He was honestly confused. He felt less confused when Alexandra
hugged him to her chest. Her very reasonably large chest.
“You
saved us! You turned into a bird somehow and intercepted
everything that Orb tried to hit us with! Because of you we
made it back to the tunnels!”
Lenna
wouldn’t meet his eyes, but he looked back at her. “How did
you get past the four legged monsters?”
“We
didn’t.” Lenna interrupted. “We had to go out a new set
of tunnels.” She pointed around them, where three tunnels
converged. “We just went through a trapped pressure plate
chamber and are running out of items to disable them with.”
“So,
we aren’t following the way we came? How long has it been?”
“Hours,
Dorian. Just a few hours. Perhaps more than a half day.”
Alexandra stared at Lenna, who was still blushing. “Lenna
also has to apologize to you.”
“For
what?” He murmured, turning on his perch to face her. “What
did you do?”
“You
were dying. You weren’t completely immune to the lightning.”
Lenna said, looking uncomfortable. “I am almost out of
poultices and my limited healing magic couldn’t effect you. So I
performed the Familiar rite.”
“You
turned me into your personal familiar?”
“It
was the only way to save you! I don’t know how to fix birds,
and you were sparking! You couldn’t move and we couldn’t
tell if you were breathing or not! So I did it.” She hmphed,
hair twitching. “I can free you in a year’s time.”
“A
year?” Alexandra gasped. “Why so long?”
“A
rite of Familiar is renewed once a year.” Dorian answered for both
of them, somehow remembering from his studies. “If it is not
renewed I would be released from the arcane bond that was forged.”
“But
you lose the ability to speak. A Familiar can speak, while a
normal animal cannot. Before I did the rite you couldn’t say
anything.”
“Lovely.”
Dorian chirped. “At least you both made it past the four
legged things that chased us.”
“We
are taking a break now.” Alexandra decided, making Dorian almost
fall over as she sat down on a large table in the chamber between the
tunnels. Dorian was deposited into her lap, where he tried not
to scratch her. Lenna sat near them, trying not to feel excluded.
For some reason he could tell
that she was feeling hurt by this. He was kind of angry at her
for all of this, but couldn’t blame her for it. Especially
when he got to see whatever was happening to her new rear end.
Across from him, he could see Lenna pull at her skirt, trying to
cover her thighs. She never had any problems before this with
them being on display, so something had to have changed. He was
getting quite the thrill out of watching her try to keep that skirt
down.
Lenna
glared at him, covering her exposed thighs with her hands. How
could she have known? He grilled his mind, trying to remember. Then
it hit him. A wizard and their familiar shared senses. She could
see through his eyes. With an internal smirk he settled onto
the plump thighs of Alexandra, rubbing his feathers into her. Lenna
dared to glare at him. It was her own fault for doing this. As
Alexandra prepared food for everyone, Dorian practiced making Lenna
uncomfortable with his eyes during the meal, looking between her
exposed thighs and her hair. Alexandra said nothing during the
process, the permanent innocence of her face hiding all that she was
feeling.
Lenna
stood up as soon as the small meal was complete. “Alright!
We are leaving.” Her skirt and hair swirled as she stood, and her
blush was still present. Dorian could feel Alexandra move him
to her shoulder, the padded material of her armor forming a more
effective perch. It also gave him a pleasant view into his
girlfriends cleavage. His new eyesight was getting a lot of good
use, but his attention was dragged away by one of the tunnels.
It
brightened for a moment. “Which way do we think leads out of
here?” He asked quietly, as something seemed to be getting closer.
Lenna pointed towards the bright light.
“Let’s
go the other way.” Alexandra offered, leading the way. Creatures
that gave off light were always bad news.
“Wait!”
With his new eyesight, he could see the floors and the pressure
plates that followed. More importantly, he could see and feel
something moving in the air here. “Lenna, I can see traps.”
Using
his eyes, she was able to find out that there was invisible slicing
blades spinning around in the tunnel. Using her hair, they
would let one end touch the walls and then ‘catch’ an invisible
sword on it until the weapon shattered. The noise didn’t seem
to attract the attention of whatever was putting off light in the
other tunnel, and they got through the invisible trap. Judging
by the bones on the floor here, someone else had lost a hand.
“That’s promising.” Alexandra pointed out. “Someone else came
this far.”
“I
guess.” Lenna murmured, annoyed that her hair had resisted the
weapons of the trap. “I can see where another trap was
disabled.” She pointed at a broken needle shoved into an innocent
slot in the floor. “Be careful around it.”
They
moved around it cautiously. Even so, it wasn’t carefully
enough. The pin had been false. The wall itself was the
pressure plate, and the tunnel rumbled as the walls unfolded. Lenna
was in the lead, while he and Alexandra were moving slowly behind.
Alexandra was the one carrying most of their stuff, and she was
moving slower with it. He felt bad just adding his weight to
her load.
Slots
opened in the walls and two small bat like creatures darted out.
They had bat wings, but the center of their bodies were just
featureless spheres. Nothing in this place was kind or made
without reason. The creatures hovered outside of the range of their
group, a single green eye looking at them at the center of the
spheres. Every time someone took a step forward, they would
flutter back out of possible attack range. Alexandra said nothing,
carefully drawing one of her javelins. “Go.” She whispered.
This
new body had reflexes that he could use. With a leap, he
charged into the air and flapped his wings. Talons extended, he
tried to attack the flying creatures. They fluttered out of his
strike range, dodging upwards in a way that a hawk could not simply
adjust to. One of the spheres screeched and died, a javelin
piercing it. Lenna started whispering the words of magic to activate
her magical dagger, and the other sphere glowed. It shot
towards Lenna in a flash of magic, hitting her in the face.
With
his hawk like vision he could see it slip into her mouth. The
bat wings turned to ash as the creature became one with Lenna,
slamming her mouth shut against her wishes. Her lips turned
purple and were forced into a slight smile, then froze into that
position. Lenna clawed at them, flaring her nose as she had to
breath through it. Alexandra retrieved her javelin before
coming back over to Lenna, who was still clawing at her frozen lips
and mouth. Dorian landed on Alexandra’s shoulder as soon as he
could.
They
could hear her trying to talk past whatever the creature did to her,
but her lips stayed in that stubborn smile. Dorian thought that
the purple was a good color for her, and with that thought she gave
him a deep glare. ‘You would, wouldn’t you!’
“I
heard you.” Dorian spoke up. “I heard you in my head!”
Lenna
huffed through her nose. ‘Mages can call to their familiars,
but you have to concentrate.’ Her voice echoed in his mind. ‘That
was a magebinding trap. They won’t last forever, but it still can
last days.’
“Lenna
says she can’t move her lips until the trap that hit her runs out
of magic and dies. Days at least.” He translated for
Alexandra. She nodded, and helped Lenna to her feet.
“Then
we should keep moving.” Was her only reply. At the end of the
tunnel, there was a large platform. It had five tunnels coming
off of it, all leading down long slides. A rope had been tied
to a central pillar, but the frayed ends of it going down the middle
of the five paths showed what may have happened. “Lenna, see
if anything is trapped here.” Alexandra asked politely. His ex
girlfriend darted forward, hair bobbing as she looked over the room
and gave Alexandra a thumbs up.
‘Tell
her the rope was cut by something from below. Bad sign.’
Lenna whispered into his mind. “She doesn’t like the third
tunnel, with the rope.” Dorian helpfully said. With his
eyesight, he stared at each of the tunnel openings. The tunnels on
the right had spikes in the walls, further down. Some were
shifting and turning into spikes or cutting blades. “I also think
the ones on the right are a very bad plan.”
They
settled on trying the left pair of tunnels down, since they didn’t
appear overly threatening. The second of the five tunnels was a
slide, and once on it they would be unable to stop. Climbing down
was futile, as Lenna’s metal shoes couldn’t find traction. She
slipped, sliding down the tunnel, with Alexandra quickly following
her. Lenna hit some kind of magic trap too fast, and went through
what looked like a spider web. The slide kept going at a steep
pace until it ran into a wall, and all three of them ended up
crashing into one another at the bottom. Dorian had to pull himself
out from under Alexandra’s pack.
Everyone
was hissing in pain, and Lenna reached down to take off her shoes.
The boot heel had shrunken down to the smallest of spikes, a
style of shoe he hadn’t seen outside of Verusian noble houses.
They called it a stiletto or something. They looked taller,
too. Lenna flared her nose in frustration as she took her boots off,
when the cuts appeared. That spiderweb she passed through
seemed to have been made of razor wire of some sort, as her entire
outfit started flaking apart. Her muted scream accompanied her hands
holding the scraps to her chest, where the most of the cuts had
occurred.
Her
robes fell off of her like confetti, and the straps to her pack
shredded. The boots were held across her chest, preserving her
modesty. Not that she had much to show off, anyways. ‘I
heard that!’ Her thought roared, as Lenna blushed.
“The
web, it’s replacing itself!” Alexandra called, already standing
again. This was something he could deal with. With a bit of
effort he was able to disable the trap, Lenna ordering his talons on
what to do. Then he had to wait at the top of the tunnel for
Lenna and Alexandra to crawl out. Lenna ordered him to turn his
head, which he did. If she didn’t want him to look, so be it.
When he was allowed to look again, Lenna was pulling her boots
back on. She had grabbed a duplicate copy of her robes from her bag,
this pair going all the way down to her ankles. Her feet were
arching nicely into those boots, though. Alexandra was looking
exhausted, having carried their bags up the tunnel.
“We
shouldn’t rest here.” She stated. “We need to keep
moving.”
‘Dorian,
you should scout ahead.’ Lenna’s voice came to him, as she stood
up on her heeled boots. Sparks kicked off the backs of them,
which Dorian decided not to comment on. ‘I can see what you see,
and you can check for another trap.’
Alexandra,
once looped in, agreed with Lenna’s logic. The slide would be
dangerous and hard for them to stop or slow down enough to avoid a
trap. So, he flew down. All he saw were featureless walls and
floors. At the bottom of the slide, there was a path leading ahead.
It was flat, and very normal looking. Lenna and Alexandra slid
down soon after him, Lenna tripping on the landing. Her scream of
pain rocked through his head, making him close his eyes before
whatever trap went off fired. He knew one had because of the
sound of something clicking, but when he opened his eyes he could see
nothing new. Maybe a few sparkles in the air, but that could be from
dust.
“What
was that?” He asked.
Alexandra
was clutching her skirt, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t
know. I think I stepped on something, but all I felt was a breeze.
I’m fine, let’s go.”
This
specific tunnel went on for a few hundred feet, meandering before
arriving at a long pit. At the other side of the pit was
another archway, but the pit was filled with water. Forty feet long
and an unknown depth, Dorian couldn’t see the bottom even with his
vision. “Oily water.” Alexandra brought up. “Something
more than water in there.” She dipped one of her javelins in, the
brackish water rippling and flowing off of it as she brought it up.
“Deep, too.”
‘You
can fly across.’ Lenna spoke to him. ‘But it looks like the pit
was the trap, and it filled over time. I think i see a lever on the
other side.’
“Don’t.”
Alexandra muttered. “This place reminds me of oil. Oil,
Lenna your shoes! Stay back!” Lenna followed what she said,
her heels stepping away from what could be flammable.
“Hang
on.” Dorian said, hopping down to the floor. Without fanfare
he sniffed the water. Even tasted it a little. “Something
died in here, and you just can see rot. Probably another adventurer.
Alchemically speaking it won’t light on fire. We just need
to swim across.”
Lenna’s
annoyance spiked, but Dorian didn’t even give her a glance.
Alexandra was easy to guess her reaction. With a shrug, she
was already undoing her armor and packing it into her bag.
Shamelessly she had nothing else to put away. Lenna, blushing,
followed soon after. Alexandra tied both bags she was carrying
together, securing them about her wrist before hefting them and her
weapons. Lenna’s pack was less securely tied down, but she
held it aloft all the same. He didn’t give her a glance, knowing
that Alexandra would take offence. She made sure he was looking at
her.
Being
a bird had its benefits, oh yes it did. He coasted over the top
of the water, wind under his wings and completely unhindered.
Alexandra and Lenna swam, one arm holding their bag and the
other moving them through. For a distance of only forty feet, they
seemed to tire from it quickly. The reason why showed itself
soon enough, as bright green fluorescent leeches were all over them.
“Strength sappers!” Alexandra yelled, quickly ripping them off
herself. Lenna made no noise, and quietly peeled them off her
skin. Breathing hard, both women withdrew from the edge of the pit.
They looked pale, their skin drawn and tight. “I can barely lift
my bag,” Alexandra admitted, once they were gone.
Then
she hiccuped. This normally wouldn’t be notable, except that
she coughed a number of sparkles from her mouth at the time. They
glowed, floating through the air towards Alexandra’s bare back.
She tried to catch them in her hands, but they didn’t seem
concerned by the effort. Worst, she was hiccuping more.
“Lenna!”
Dorian said loudly. She had been getting her robes back on, and
wasn’t paying attention. She ran over, her robes barely
settled by her waist when Alexandra’s hiccups stopped. All
around her, there were bright little sparkles. A bit of wind was
kicking up around her, and the red hair was whipping around. Lenna’s
robes got pushed back, and Dorian made the mistake of trying to ward
off the wind. As a bird, he had these wonderful things called
feathers. He was caught and sent him into the walls, hard.
Or
would have, if Lenna didn’t catch him. With a final gust of
wind that knocked their bags over and sent a few last leeches sliding
back into the pit, there was a flash of magic. When the spots
cleared Alexandra had a bright pair of butterfly wings coming off her
back. Warm colored marks on her skin showed where the magic had
marked her, and Alexandra looked in shock at the gigantic bug wings
that were already brushing the walls. “Oh gods.”
‘Wow.’
Lenna murmured in his head. He himself offered a chirp at the
magnificent view. Alexandra covered her skin, looking at the
massive wings.
“This
isn’t too bad.” She offered, reaching for her bag. “I
still feel weaker, though.”
“Lenna
also got weakened.” He translated the profanity ridden thoughts.
“But she wasn’t carrying as much as you.”
There
was a hissing noise as Alexandra tried to pick up her armor. She
gave a slight grunt of pain as she let go, her fingers looking
slightly burned. “I’m part fae.” She shuddered. “I
can’t touch iron.”
“Your
armor is made from steel though!” Dorian muttered. “That’s
not iron!”
“Iron
burns
fae. It’s why the ancient Verusians developed iron weapons!”
Alexandra folded her arms, sounding annoyed for the first time in
days. “I just know that’s what this place did to me.”
Lenna
nodded, the most she could communicate right now. “So what
can we do to help?” Lenna’s question was translated.
“Fixing
this kind of magic is not expensive as long as we get to a priest in
a hurry.” Alexandra said, her face softening back into its innocent
shape. “We should just leave the armor. It’s just dead
weight to us, and we can always afford more when we return.”
Lenna
had to be the one to pull the armor out of her bags, while Alexandra
dug out spare clothing. The raid on the tailor shop earlier
seemed a good decision, as she pulled out a halter top covered in
dwarven runes, as well as a pair of pants so tight that she couldn’t
lace them together in front. Lenna gave him an annoyed glance
for staring too long at the sight. Lenna had to repair damaged
straps on her pack, but a last check over was enough. The three of
them wandered forward, coming to a large stone cavern. This
room looked incomplete, with only one other door in it. Large chains
ran across the floor, connected to the necks of skeletons that had
long since lost cohesion. Lenna still gave them a wide berth, as
they tried to cross the room. Someone must have triggered
something, because an iron gate slammed shut over their destination.
The
chains rattled, as three sets of them stood up on their own. Shadows
seemed to float through the air towards them, the chains connected to
them rattling. More importantly, there was plenty of room on
those chains to reach them. Alexandra stepped forward, her outfit
barely keeping her decent as she swung her trident at the shadow.
Her weapon became visible for the first time since they had
entered this dungeon as it was cut in half, the trident tip passing
through the shadow without a problem. Alexandra wasn’t phased,
stepping back away from the counterstrike. “Ghosts!” She
called, not looking over her shoulder. “Only magic weapons can
harm them!”
Two
of the ghosts centered on her, while the third went after Lenna. The
resident mage was silent, as she tried to run away from the swift
moving ghost and tripped on her boots. Long cuts opened along
her back as her robes offered no resistance. Instead of blood,
soulstuff came out of the wound and swelled into the ghost. “Lenna,
give me your knife!” He called.
‘Arretum!’
She yelled into his head. ‘Say it!’
She
slid the knife over to him, the ghost not even concerned. He
grabbed it with his talon, before clearly pronouncing the words.
“Arretum!” The knife glowed, taking flight and carving
through the ghost like it didn’t even exist. There was a
clatter as something fell to the floor in addition to the chains, but
Dorian didn’t concern himself much. The knife was responding
to some kind of connection. With his improved vision he could see
the outlines of these ghosts, and sent the knife in towards the
creatures. Alexandra hadn’t been touched. She was used to
fighting human opponents, and she danced around their weapons and
attempts. Dorian smiled internally as the knife broke both ghosts
down to nothing, and the chains finally went silent. The knife,
now out of enemies, flew to his side and stopped moving.
“I
thought you said like five words to activate that thing!” He told
Lenna. “You made that seem like it was hard!”
Lenna
couldn’t move her lips, but she hmmphed and folded her arms.
Another damned lie. Dorian was realizing more and more that
Lenna had been two faced to him for months. Years, even. He
held up the small dagger in his talons, giving an experimental slash
with it. His body overbalanced and fell over because of it. Great.
Carrying this would be impossible. Lenna looked apologetic and
retrieved the knife, while Alexandra was picking up the weapons the
ghosts were using. “Ghost glass!” She said happily. “We
can use these!” Maybe once they could see the weapons he would be
happier about them. Alexandra nodded to herself, her eyes more
confident. “Fragile, but they sell for a large amount of
money.”
The
promise of riches raised their spirits a bit. Lenna found the
release switch for the gate that had blocked their exit, and they
considered leaving. “Perhaps while the doors are blocked we
should rest in here.” Alexandra voiced. “I know I’m tired, but
what do you think? Lenna?”
Lenna’s
permanent smiling lips could explain nothing. But she nodded
once, grabbing a blanket from her bag to rest. ‘You can warn
us or use the dagger if anything happens.’ She mentally spoke to
him. ‘Don’t let us sleep too long.’
Alexandra
was pale and shaken by all of this, and she needed no urging to
sleep. Dorian dutifully kept watch, as much as a man turned
into a hawk could stay sharp. The lamp went out in the darkness
of the chamber, and he still kept watch. As a hawk it was difficult
to stay awake when the light went out, almost impossible. But
he was better than that, not when they had come this far. So against
whatever biological imperative birds had, he stayed awake in the
dark. He didn’t know how many hours it had been when he noticed
Alexandra stirring. Part of staying awake had been a monumental
effort to find things to be distracted by. A redhead in a loose
halter top was plenty helpful for reasons to stay awake.
“I
can’t see.” Alexandra muttered. “Did the lamp go out?”
“Verily.”
Lenna said. “I can speaketh!”
“Finally.”
Alexandra said warmly. “Though your old Verusian is very out
of practice.” There was a squeak from Lenna as Alexandra used
her boot to light a match, and lit the lamp. All three of them
looked at each other, making sure they all were the same as they had
been on the previous night. Lenna’s lips were still purple, a
glossy color in the low light. Perhaps a bit more swollen, too.
Alexandra’s face was still one of innocent delight, clean and
unblemished for all that they had journeyed here. Her body had
changed in no other ways than the butterfly wings, which she couldn’t
control. He was still a bird. An annoyed bird. “Open the gate
and let us continue.”
A
light round of food and water and they all moved forward. Lenna
was rubbing her lips with the back of her hand, while the other held
her dagger. Alexandra was using two of the ghost glass weapons,
as she was down to those and the enchanted axe. Her javelins
had been used up and her tridents were destroyed. The new tunnel
seemed as incomplete as the rest of this area. Dorian had to be
carried by Lenna this time, as Alexandra’s halter top didn’t
allow for a hawk to perch on her shoulders without hurting her.
Lenna, however, had a wide pack that he could sit on happily.
In
the tunnel he thought that his eyes caught something in the distance,
but when they light came forward nothing was there. Just a long
tunnel, which seemed to get longer by the minute. Longer and longer
it stretched, going for miles. Just going on and on and on, looping
into colors and swirls of glory. That dream ended when he fell
beak first into the floor. An illusion! He’d been caught up in an
illusion! Stumbling, he looked around to see Lenna whispering words
of magic for a cut on Alexandra’s neck, and a pile of steaming
remains next to her. “Thanks, Lenna.” Alexandra said
proudly. “I couldn’t figure out what was happening.”
Lenna
looked strangely proud. “I’ve never been able to break an
illusion before. Maybe having a familiar helps more than those
academics let on.”
“Good
job.” He carefully admitted. “Does that mean you can cast
things like teleportation and other grand magicks?”
“I’m
not going to try in a place that likely has confounding and
unfindable magic on it already.” Lenna countered. “Let’s
go. It’s been almost a day already.”
The
tunnel went up, sharply. It arrived at a scene of horrific
destruction. Three bodies lay draped over a fourth, the strange
bones looking more like a bird than a human. “Harpy.”
Alexandra said, nodding. She picked up the skull and looked at the
sharp teeth. “Dhampir Harpy. A difficult opponent.”
“For
all we know that was one of their friends before whatever happened in
here did.” Dorian added. “But more importantly, I can see
where the survivor went.” He pointed a talon towards drag marks in
the dirt. “I assume they went somewhere they thought was
safe?”
“Let’s
hope so.” Lenna spoke up, her lips pouting as she looked between
the other exits in the room. “I can tell that these places
are full of pits or worse. Blood stains on ceilings is never a good
sign.”
“The
way this guy went, I can’t see anything.” Dorian said, hopping
forward to the tunnel. Where it started, there was a cloud of
darkness. “It’s a spell!”
“A
Darkness spell. Anything in there gets blinded and kind of
numb.” Lenna clarified. “In this place? Anything can
happen.” She looked at the drag marks. “But they went into
this when desperate.” There were darker marks in the dirt. “He
was bleeding out.”
“I
say we go the same way.” Alexandra said. She waved one of the
bones inside the darkness, and drew it back without blemish or mark.
She threw it, but there was no noise of the bone hitting the
ground.
“Silence
spell, too.” Lenna shuddered. “I can’t cast anything once
we are in there. Or see anything.”
Alexandra
gave a smile. “Follow me, then.” With that, she stepped
into the darkness. Lenna picked him up, drawing him into her
arms. Her hair bobbed as she followed Alexandra into the dark.
Dorian knew nothing about his time in this place, for it numbed
all senses. He could breath, and he could taste dank wet air. That
was all. It had to be minutes that he rested in Lenna’s arms.
Unseeing and unfeeling, they passed through dripping water and other
surprises he could not fathom.
When
they came out on the other side, they were drenched. Being a
drenched bird was very high on his list of things to never occur ever
again. Lenna’s hair dried instantly. This was perhaps the
only good thing that happened, because Alexandra must have gotten hit
by some kind of horrid spell. She had left her boots behind, and a
pair of black furry hooves decorated her ankles and feet.
Strangely
she wasn't at all angry. Alexandra was just kicking them back and
forth, waiting for her things to dry. “Are you alright?” He
asked, hopping across the floor and leaving wet prints on it.
“Alexandra?”
“This
is inconvenient, but I can manage.” Was her only reply.
“Alexandra,
you would normally be angry and yelling by this point. You've spent
years getting those ankles to look right, and now they're hooves.”
Her face remained cheerful and for eyed. “Why aren't you angry?”
Besides what was happening to her, hey boyfriend was a bird for at
least a year.
“Whatever
that mask did, I can't actually feel anger. Rage, agony, hope? I
can't feel any of those things. I can remember them as concepts but I
cannot feel them, or remember feeling them.” She remained in that
innocent look as she explained that. “As long as we get out of here
I logically know we can fix this.”
Dorian
didn't have hands to wrap around her. More than anything right now he
needed to show her that he was going to fix this! To his
surprise, Lenna sat down next to Alexandra and wrapped her arms
around her. “Dorian loves you, and he won't let this stand. We will
get out of here, and we will fix our problems and be rich.” Lenna
didn’t like hugging anyone. It was just something she did not
approve of. “This is what the big lug would do if he had arms. He
really does love you.”
Lenna
was deeply uncomfortable admitting that, but Alexandra’s eyes
misted as she gave a real smile. Dorian was picked up and
squeezed into cleavage as Alexandra held him. The moment ended when
the lamp started running low on oil, requiring them to have to care
about the real world again. Lenna offered her arm to Dorian,
and Alexandra filled up the lamp before holding it aloft and a ghost
glass blade in her other hand. A bit more confident, they moved
forward into the only tunnel that wasn’t blocked off in this
section. Two had some form of trap that had crushed the tunnel
from above, and so Lenna in her own expert opinion decided to not
travel through.
Her
legs had developed a new walk in her boots, her hips undulating back
and forth as she walked. She was probably the one holding him
so he wouldn’t stare at her as that happened. But she was also the
one who felt the tripwire first, and threw out her arm. Dorian
went through the air to be caught by Alexandra, who hissed as his
claws cut her arms out of reflex. Up ahead, the walls came alive and
moved, as the two sides of the tunnel slammed into the center,
catching Lenna. Her stiletto boots slipped as she tried to
avoid them, and the walls wrapped around her like a stone blanket.
Only one booted heel stuck out, and Alexandra grabbed it with all her
might. The shoe slipped off, revealing Lenna’s foot. The
skin was darkening to a blue, with white marks running like tattoos
down to the curved arch of her foot.
“She
could be turning into a Draugr or something.” Alexandra said,
pulling him back with the boot in hand. She dropped it, placing
it and the lamp down on the floor so she could fight if needed. The
walls seemed to get more loose, and even bleed. After a few
minutes the walls shuddered and died, releasing Lenna from their
grip. Or what might be Lenna. The blue skinned and elven eared
woman that stood up from the remains of the walls looked imperiously
back at them. And then, when she tried to take a step without a
boot on, flailed and crashed with a yell.
“Lenna?”
Her butt looked pretty good at this angle. Her robes were
tight across it.
She
gave a glare as she stood up, one hand covering her rear end as she
stood up. “It’s me.” She said, her voice a whisper of a
difference from normal. “Can I have my boot back?”
“It’s
her.” Dorian declared. Alexandra relaxed, setting him down so
Lenna could get her boot back on. Her new skin color must be
signifying of being a different race, and through his eyes Lenna was
able to feel and realize her new ears and skin coloration. Wind
was whipping around her constantly, forcing Dorian to keep his wings
tucked near her. This had a fantastic effect on her robes, as the
bottoms fluttered loudly.
“Lenna,”
Alexandra seemed to help her robes settle. “You have boobs.”
Lenna
looked down with glee, only to see that she barely had any now. She
had gone from flat to something resembling very slight curves. She
deflated upon realization that they didn’t do much for her. The
only sound as she glared down at that was the whipping robes.
“Typical. Even a trap that changes my race won’t give me what I
really want.”
“Don’t
say that in a place such as this!” Alexandra chided, her own torso
only covered by a halter top that she freely left to sway. There
was sideboob aplenty to stare at there. Lenna stood up, still making
noise from the winds that surrounded her. Alexandra brightened.
“Wait, you’re a sylph! You can see in the dark! I fought
one in the arena once. He was a tough fight.”
Lenna
nodded, glancing down at her robes that noisily fluttered in the
wind. A wind she couldn’t get rid of. “I can’t sneak
like this. I’m changing these.”
Dorian,
as her familiar, could clearly see her focusing. She was
imagining a utilitarian skirt instead of the loose robe ends. Thick
and covering the knees, with pleats to resist the wind. As she
started uttering words of magic, Dorian thought she should have done
better. The image distorted, as his thoughts mixed with hers
and the spell fired. Her robes shrunk, becoming a frilly little
skirt in front, getting tighter and longer in back. The skirt
barely covered her thighs, while the back could barely touch her
knees. The material was thick, and heavily ruffled. The rest of her
outfit had changed to match. It looked like a ruffled party
dress, with long sleeves and gloves, and the ruffles silently moved
in the wind. It tightly hugged her body, showing off her nice hips
and legs. Hells, he could even see the shape of her belly
button in the fabric. Every inch of her creamy thighs was on
display, and when the spell completed and she looked down Lenna
immediately went red in the face. “Dorian!” She hissed
shrilly. “I can’t cast that more than once a day!”
The
boots, the dress, and the hair made Lenna look like a Verusian
streetwalker. He also selectively preened a few feathers as she
yelled at him. “Your magic seems to be stronger now.” He
answered carefully. “Before you couldn’t do things like
this.” It really was. In the past she could only affect one part
of her outfit.
“That
doesn’t matter!” She hissed. “Don’t do that again!”
“He’s
your familiar.” Alexandra said softly. “When you perform
magic you’ll need his input.”
Lenna
shuddered as that statement was processed. “That scares me
more than you know.” She tapped her stiletto heels onto the floor,
sparks coming off from them. “Let’s keep moving. I don’t
want to imagine another five days in this place.”
The
end of the tunnel came to an archway, with four other familiar
tunnels. Familiar because he had seen these marks before. “I
know where we are!” He yelled, flapping his wings to get ahead.
Lenna was letting him walk on his own now, but the gusts of
wind provided lots of lift for takeoff. He had also got a fantastic
view of her swaying walk from behind. He knew she was unhappy
about it, but for some reason Lenna felt even more uncomfortable if
he stared at Alexandra’s body. “This is where we started!” He
yelled. “We are in the right place!”
This
was the same room that Thurn had declared the tunnels as Bad and
Scary. Down the left tunnel, the stone flowers could be seen
hanging from the roof. Lenna say those and bit her thumb in their
general direction. Alexandra walked at a more sedate pace, with
Dorian hopping along behind. The old stone table was right where
they had last seen it, along with the piles of skeletons near the
door. A door that was not there. “Dorian you said it would
be here!” Lenna screeched.
“Just
calm down and sit down somewhere!” He complained back. To his
surprise and Lenna’s, her body did as it was told and sat down
right where she was standing. Her short skirt did nothing to
hide her as she sat down, legs crossed. Her hands were the only
thing preserving her dignity as she made muted noises of complaint.
“We are here a few hours early.” Or, if his calculations
were wrong, five days too early. He did not want to tell them about
that problem and how he had three different guesses.
“I
can’t stand back up!” Lenna screeched. “Dorian what did
you do to me now?!” Well, this was a fun surprise. If she was
telling the truth, and he didn’t think she would fake this, she
must have a compulsion to obey. There was no way he wasn’t
going to take advantage of this.
“Whatever
happened you did it to yourself!” He screeched back. “You
were the one who fell into that trap, and now you’re a sylph. Just
a bit more patience and we can get out of here.”
“Ai.”
A voice murmured. Everyone twisted back towards the archway
with the tunnels. That was Thurn’s voice. Sure enough, they
could see Thurn’s head in the darkness. Lenna made a larger
attempt to close her legs, but they might as well have been as heavy
as her hair.
“Thurn!
You’re alive!” Alexandra said warmly.
“Ai.”
He repeated. Oh, how Dorian hated that word. It could
mean everything and nothing all at the same time. Of course,
what came around the corner was anything and everything he loved and
hated about Thurn. Thurn’s face was now mounted on the body
of a giant cat. The skin was scaled, or thick bones that covered the
exterior. The skin looked like granite more than flesh. A
giant barbed tail came off the end of the body, looking more like a
dire flail than anything normal. “Ai?” The head rotated in
a full circle, making Dorian shudder.
“Stonelion.
He’s a stonelion.” Alexandra took a step back. That
movement alone was enough for Thurn to notice, and he leapt. The
giant claw tore large cuts along Alexandra’s bare midriff, and sent
his girlfriend rolling down the steps towards Lenna. Dorian
leapt into the air, a hawk’s cry leaving his new mouth and getting
the attention of Thurn.
“Arretum!”
He yelled, Lenna’s dagger coming alive and carving into Thurn’s
face. Thurn seemed to feel none of it, leaping into the air.
Only Dorian’s ability to see helped him dodge the attempt, and the
giant cat like Thurn slammed into a wall. The wall didn’t
even seem to buckle. Thurn caked off a few scales, but his head
swivelled, staying locked on Dorian. If that wasn’t a reason to
flap his wings harder and faster he couldn’t find one. Alexandra
was trying to stand back up, while Lenna remained sitting cross
legged on the floor. “Get up, Lenna!” He yelled.
Lenna
unfroze, finally able to preserve her dignity. She rolled to
her feet, careful to lead with her giant hair and get it off the
ground first. But Thurn noticed when her stiletto heels caused
a spark on the floor. Even with the knife, he no longer had eyes for
Dorian. Exactly what Alexandra was waiting for. She reared
back and threw one of her weapons, the heavy object sailing through
the air as Alexandra’s fingers smoked. She must have touched
something iron. The effect was obvious, as Thurn’s face caved in.
The impression of his very own axe went right into his head, and yet
the cat body stood tall. Even with the head of Thurn brutalized
it was still coming. This time for both Lenna and Alexandra.
“Cast
something!” He yelled.
“I
can’t!” Lenna claimed. “I can’t hurt that!”
“Try!
You’re a sylph now!” Thurn was looking between
Alexandra and Lenna. The decision for who it would attack was
made for him when another weapon buried itself into Thurn’s face.
Alexandra braced herself after her throw, as the stonelion
Thurn came at her again, this time tearing her arms and thighs.
Sylphs were creatures of the wind and the air. Lenna had to
try something.
Unfamiliar
words of magic tumbled from her glossy purple lips, as she held her
hands out towards the creature. Dorian flew near her, seeing
that she was focusing on the ruined face of Thurn. He too, angled
his eyes on the ruined form. Together, they could both imagine
clearly the invisible axe buried in his brain. “Arva Aresh Ur
Karem; Reticala Fulgur!” They chanted together, the words tumbling
forth. His own body lit with magic, as did Lenna’s. From
both of them, gigantic bolts of lightning angled out and struck
Thurn, impacting the enchanted axe still buried in his skull.
Shocks rattled the entire room and a thunderclap of noise
followed, sparks flowing down the body of the stonelion.
The
lamp was crushed as the beast fell, Thurn’s axe exploding with
magic violence along with the ghost glass blade buried next to it.
This seemed to be the final straw, as what was left of Thurn’s
body turned black. Sparks stopped flowing, and the afterimage of the
lightning dominated his vision. Dorian glided to the floor, his
body seemingly spent of all strength. He knew that Lenna was alive,
and gasping on the floor. Alexandra was close to the stonelion when
they struck it, and he landed to look for her. Found her he
did, as Lenna murmured a light spell and used him as a focus.
Alexandra
was holding herself on the floor, her outfit somehow having resisted
the claws of Thurn. Her skin was torn, but she wasn’t dying.
Instead, she was smiling in relief. “I never want to fight one of
those ever again!” She admitted. “They are as scary as
Thurn made them out to be!”
Lenna
wasn’t even capable of casting a spark of magic after all of that,
and by the light of her last spell they lit a torch. The oil
lamp had been broken, and the spare was just too much effort at this
point. Lenna collapsed next to Alexandra, and they both tiredly
wrapped her wounds. For good measure a bit of alcohol was
poured on. The door was glanced at every few moments, but it
stubbornly remained a blank wall. He made sure that he was sitting
next to Alexandra’s face, as close as he could. Lenna was
close too, her hair weighing her down too much to allow her to try
moving further.
The
torch would last for an hour at best. They all knew it, but
didn’t care. They all stared at it as it burnt down to embers. As
the last piece of charcoal started to darken, they could see the
walls change. “Only in darkness it appears.” Lenna murmured.
“Dorian I can see the door! It’s closing, hurry!”
Packs
and exhausted individuals crawled forward, through the shrinking
doorway and its associated gloomy magic. Alexandra was the
first through, before reaching back and grabbing Lenna’s braid and
holding it aloft so she could crawl through as well. Dorian
hopped through, seeing the dark tunnel ahead. He recognized the
symbols that Thurn had kicked and hopped over to push it with his
beak. With a grinding noise the tunnel opened into darkness.
“Oh.” Alexandra huffed. “It’s night.”
The
sky was pink in the distance as they climbed the slick black stone
stairs and arrived under the stars. Almost as soon as they had
left, the entrance was swallowed up by the hill behind them. Gasping
for breath, Lenna started laughing. “We made it.”
“We
did.” Alexandra, too, was laughing. “We can go home.”
“Damn
straight.” Dorian sighed. “But we know this place now.
Lenna can actually cast magic, and Alexandra knows what to look for
when we hire more people.”
“More
people?” Lenna sighed.
“Hey!”
He gave a tired complaint. “The Iron Reaver’s throne and
horde are still in there. I plan on getting you all in there,
and coming back out of here alive. This time with all the
riches you could ever need.” And he would understand their
technology. This place had secrets, and Dorian would be damned
if he did not do his best to take them for himself. “We are
coming back here, and next time we are going to be even better.”
The first rays of light from the sun crested the hills, getting lost
in the perpetual fog that was here. It was a promise, he
decided. There would be a next time. And next time, he would have
his body back. They all would.
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