Ashes of Verdenheld

by Jack Wright

  Caesia sighed anxiously. “That’s a cruel one… okay, there was this one time. I was… fifteen? It was when I’d just begun teaching myself electromancy. We were hosting Lord Arrenni for dinner and it was very important that my father impress him, as is the usual goal of these sorts of things.”

  “Okay…”

  “So there I am, eating my dinner in silence while my father tells Lord Arrenni how impressive the Arrenni fleet is. There was this brief pause in the conversation while my father got a refill for his wine. Of course, at this point my body decided it would be the perfect time to let one rip.”

  Eris chuckled quietly. “Oh no…”

  “That’s just the start of it. I was still getting the hang of casting spells at this point, you see.” Caesia giggled. “As if the gas weren’t bad enough, I simultaneously let slip a bolt of lightning out of my arse, igniting the fart and blasting a hole straight through my dress and obliterating my chair!”

  Eris blurted with laughter and keeled over onto the coffin lid in hysterics. “Oh my- oh, stars! I...I can’t-”

  “What’s more, the waiter jumped out of his skin and spilt wine all over my father!” Caesia cackled maniacally. “And the look on Lord Arrenni’s face! I got up from the wreckage of my chair, bright red bum exposed, excused myself and waddled out like nothing happened. All in all, a good time was had.”

  Eris was still wheezing with uncontrollable laughter, writhing around erratically like she was having some kind of attack. Caesia, a massive grin on her face, looked up attentively as Katar stepped back into the hall.

  “You need to go.” He whispered, searching the room paranoidly.

  Caesia elbowed Eris in the side in an attempt to get her attention. “Is there a problem?”

  Katar seemed strangely absent minded, considering how calm and collected he had been before.

  “There’s been a murder.” Katar hissed shakily. “You’d best go before people start pointing fingers, because a lot of them will be pointing at you.”

  Caesia jumped up eagerly and leaned down to grab Eris, yanking her onto her feet as she still recovered from her fit of laughter.

  Katar led them to the far side of the room. He constantly watched his fellow Ulkari, as if overcome by an obsessive paranoia. Caesia assumed that he was watching for clues as to who this murderer could be.

  “Down this hallway and on your left, you will find another stairwell.” Katar explained, approaching an archway at the other end of the room. “Take the stairs down and you will find yourself on a quite linear path to the Valley.”

  “We’re that close?” Caesia gasped. What luck, she thought.

  “I do warn you - the path to the Valley is perilous. Between you and the exit lies a powerful foe, lord of these honoured murderers.”

  “Falion Tarantis…”

  “Yes. He has caused us no issue by virtue of our chameleonic skin, but you will have to face him.”

  “We can do that!” Eris declared, a grin still plastered on her face, surprisingly confident given her last experience fighting skeletons. “No problem!”

  “Yeah, what she said…” Caesia muttered. “Thank you, Katar. I wish your people well.”

  With a quick smile, Caesia wandered into the hallway ahead, Eris in tow.

  “And good luck to you, humans.” Katar sighed, waving them off as he looked back fearfully over his shoulder.

  Eris stopped and turned back to Katar. After a moment of thought, she slung her backpack off her shoulders a wandered back. She approached him and brought forth a small object, wrapped in a crude brown cloth.

  “Hey, so… I was gonna save this to celebrate our victory, but I think you guys should have it.” She sighed, forking over the cloth covered gift.

  Katar glanced down at the gift and unwrapped the cloth, revealing a triangular brown loaf.

  “What is this?” He muttered intriguedly.

  “It’s cake!” Eris exclaimed. “I figure since you guys probably don’t get to eat much good stuff, you know…”

  “Thank you, human.” Katar smiled warmly. “You are truly the noblest of your kind.”

  Eris returned a grin and scurried back down the corridor to rejoin Caesia, who was watching in amusement.

  “That was adorable.” Caesia chuckled, smacking Eris playfully on the back.

  “Lightning ass…” Eris smirked, unable to shake the image from her mind. “You should try that sometime, bet the bad guys won’t see it coming.”

  “I’ll bear that in mind.”

  “So, can you shoot that stuff from anywhere on your body?”

  “Yeah, it’s just easier to visualise with my hands. I guess it wouldn’t be that hard to shoot stuff from my feet…”

  “That would be pretty awesome.” Eris smirked, imagining the many entertaining possibilities of places to shoot from.

  They headed down the hallway, the local undead already reduced to piles of battered bones on the ground. They turned into the stairwell on the left, onto another large, open spiral staircase.

  “Can’t believe we’re nearly out.” Eris sighed, delicately stroking her scar. “I thought we were totally lost!”

  “I know, right?” Caesia smirked. “Good thing this place is so linear, else we’d absolutely be lost.”

  “I guess when you build through a mountain, you don’t need much extra space.”

  “Indeed…”

  They turned the last spiral of the stairs, leading them straight into another hall, a similar size to the last. This one however, was far more magnificent. Strewn all across the room were the massive skeletal remains of dragons, worn and corroded by time. In the centre of the room were two adjacent statues of dragons, rearing up onto their hind legs in a ferocious roar. Between them was an ornate and beautifully carved stone coffin, inscribed with images like those on the walls. On the coffin lid was the faded six-pointed star of House Tarantis, each point representing a recognised school of magic.

  Eris looked with intrigue at the dragon bones. They were enormous, the skulls ranging from the size of a human to probably five times that - about the size she had imagined. Nonetheless, seeing them before her was quite intimidating. Their skulls were laden with row after row of massive razor teeth and their bones were rigid and jagged with sharp, protruding edges. Could she really fight something that big, that powerful, that deadly?

  “I think we’ve found our man.” Caesia muttered apprehensively.

  “Nothing gained, nothing ventured!” Eris yelled smugly in imitation, hopping down the last few stairs and into the room.

  Caesia rolled her eyes and begrudgingly followed her in. Almost immediately upon Eris setting foot in the hall, the coffin in the centre jolted violently open in a shower of dust and crumbling stone.

  “Alright. How are we doing this?” Eris questioned, yanking her sword from its sheath.

  “The books say Falion was skilled in pyromancy, so you just stay out of his way and I’ll blast him.”

  “And let you have all the fun?” Eris hissed with disappointment.

  “Yes, now go and stand behind something.” Caesia demanded, shoving Eris aside.

  As Eris stroppily wandered to the nearest pillar, the coffin lid was flung aside with a massive bang and Falion Tarantis arose with a handful of blazing blue flame. He was equally as battered and decrepit as the other skeletons, yet his armour was far superior. He was laden in heavy plate and a tattered, worn blue robe hung from beneath it. The silver paint had been worn from his armour, exposing the mossy green colour of schardenum. His empty eye sockets, glowing a throbbing blue, fixed upon Caesia.

  Caesia pulled back her arm and focused a great deal of energy into her hand. She released a powerful crack of lightning towards Falion, who raised his other hand in defiance. The lightning splashed worthlessly against a shimmering blue barrier.

  “Ah…” Caesia gasped.

  She froze in indecisiveness as Falion brought down his shield and hurled a dazzling blue fireball towards her. She
thrust out her hands and narrowly caught the fireball with a shield of her own. The magnitude of the spell shattered her shield in a shower of green sparks and knocked her off her feet, throwing her flat onto the frigid stone. In a daze of shock, she erratically rolled over and staggering back to her feet, panickedly darting for cover behind a pillar.

  “What was that?!” Eris yelled from behind her pillar, ducking back behind it as Falion snapped his gaze towards her.

  “It s-seems our friend was also quite the abjurer.” Caesia stammered.

  “Well what do we do now?”

  Eris flinched and instinctively covered her face as a fireball struck her pillar, blasting a shower of dust and debris all over her.

  Caesia paused in calculating thought, her mind rushing over ideas and possibilities. “Okay, I have an idea! Essence still remains within a dead mage, but-”

  A fireball exploded above Caesia’s head with a deafening bang, spewing a torrent of embers over her. She gasped as one of the embers settled in her hair and flared to life, panickedly patting her hair up and down.

  “-but much of it escapes as the body decays! I could try and wear him out, while you get close!”

  “And take him out when he’s out of juice! I like it!”

  “Okay, okay…” Caesia muttered, taking deep breaths and preparing herself.

  She leapt from cover and slung a bolt of lightning at Falion, who effortlessly dispelled it with a flick of the wrist. She pushed out her hands, ready for his counter attack, focusing her energy as hard as she could into a shield.

  The fireball came hurtling towards her and exploded against her shield in a violent flash of blue and green light, the force of the blow sending her skidding backwards. Despite the heavy blow, she remained upright with her shield intact. As Falion charged another fireball, she gathered her strength and reinforced her shield for another attack.

  With Falion distracted with barraging Caesia, Eris crept out from behind her pillar and moved carefully across the hall. Keeping her footsteps as slow and subtle as possible, she moved behind one of the dragon statues. Falion stood close to the coffin, only a couple of metres from her. She was in position.

  Caesia winced at the strike of another fireball against her shield, the sustaining of which was becoming an intense strain on her mind and body alike. Falion may have had little essence anymore, but with his mastery of the arcane arts he could nonetheless use that essence with extreme efficiency.

  Falion hurtled another fireball at her and cupped his hand once again to create another. As Caesia gathered her shield again, she looked up at Falion. Despite the skeleton’s empty, unemotive face, he was nonetheless visibly confused. He looked down at his hand to see only pathetic blue embers in his palm.

  “Eris, now!” Caesia yelled as she finally dropped her arms and fell to her knees in exhaustion.

  Falion span around in surprise as Eris leapt from behind the statue and cleaved her sword down heavily into his chest, slicing a shallow incision across the schardenum plate. The skeleton staggered back and reached for his own sword. Eris grinned in delight, it was finally time for a real fight.

  Falion drew from his sheath an ancient, masterly crafted sword with the golden hilt styled as the head of a roaring dragon. Beneath the dust was a shimmering silver that flared in the light of the torches.

  “Let’s go, magic man.” She grinned, raising her shield and bringing up her sword in readiness.

  Falion was confident, entering the fight with a thrust at Eris’ chest. She bashed his sword aside with her shield and made a low jab with her sword, which Falion swiftly intercepted. He was far faster than the other skeletons.

  The skeleton swiped up along the face of Eris’ shield, towards her head. She reeled back and Falion brought his sword down again against the rim of her shield, slamming it into the floor with a metallic bang and forcing Eris onto one knee. Trying to take advantage of Eris’ vulnerable state, he thrust his sword up into her stomach.

  She moved her sword to intercept his blow and the two blades locked, both opponents struggling in an attempt to overpower the other. Falion had one hand more to use than Eris, but his strength was limited by his lack of muscle. Eris pushed his sword to the side and smashed her shield into the bottom of his jaw, which cracked and fell from his skull. Falion reeled back and Eris leapt from her knee, making a swift thrust at the joint connecting his arm to his body.

  Falion’s arm fell to the ground with a clatter, his sword ringing as it struck the stone. Eris swung her sword at the defenceless skeleton’s neck. He caught her arm with his remaining hand and pushed back hard, the two of them entering another deadlock. Only this time, it was she who had the extra hand.

  Eris shoved Falion back into one of the statues and pulled back her shield arm. He was defenceless as she slammed the shield as hard as she could into his skull, fracturing it against the statue’s knee. As Falion’s grip slipped from her arm, she flung her sword to the ground and firmly wrapped her other hand around the rim of the shield. Cleaving down upon his skull with twice the force of before, Falion’s skull exploded against the statue in a shower of splintered bone.

  The skeleton collapsed onto the ground in a crumpled heap, the light fading from his empty eyes. Eris panted with exhaustion, the intensity of the fight having taken a lot out of her - but she had won and for that, she giggled with excitement.

  Caesia staggered to her feet, having spent every last bit of that bread’s energy. “Good work, team.” She gasped breathlessly.

  “Oh, stars!” Eris exclaimed concernedly as she turned to Caesia. “You alright?”

  Caesia was confused. She looked down to see that her shirt was spattered with swathes of blood. She lifted her hand to her face and wiped off some blood, the sight of which made her knees weak and her head dizzy. She had a gushing nosebleed all the way down her face.

  “Ah… I-I see.” Caesia stammered nauseously. “I must have gone a bit overboard.”

  Caesia wiped her face on her glove, blanketing her arm with a streak of blood.

  “When this is over, you owe me new clothes.” She demanded, unsure if she was joking or not.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Eris murmured dismissively, before quickly changing the subject. “That was an amazing plan, by the way.”

  “Heh, thanks.” Caesia mumbled shyly, still unused to being praised rather than scolded.

  Eris picked up her sword and slid it into the sheath. “Does this count as desecration?”

  Caesia giggled, trying to shake the blood from her hand to little effect. “Maybe. It’s probably even worse for me. House Lacroix married straight into House Tarantis at its founding, so I guess this is kind of like desecrating my ancestors.”

  “If your parents could see you now…”

  “If my parents could see me, I’d have been executed for poor use of manners.” Caesia laughed.

  “You know what’s really crazy?” Eris smirked excitedly.

  “Go on…”

  “If I listened well enough to what you’ve been saying, we just beat up a master wizard and came out of it with a nosebleed!”

  “Well, he was significantly weaker than he was as a mortal.” Caesia muttered modestly.

  “Yeah, but that’s not my point. What I’m saying, is that we worked as a team and absolutely destroyed that guy, even though he was so much better than us!”

  Caesia could see the renewed courage in Eris’ eyes, something she was pleased to see return. She had a point - through their teamwork they had defied the odds, which had certainly insisted that they would be killed. Did it mean there was still hope against the dragon? That was yet to be seen.

  “Hm, I guess you’re right.” Caesia smiled timidly.

  “We were awesome! That dragon doesn’t stand a chance.” Eris gushed, seemingly unable to stop moving, oozing confidence and excitement as she threw her hands about.

  Caesia knew the dragon would be vastly tougher to bring down than Falion, but she didn’t object. This was t
he spur of confidence Eris needed right now, to reignite her infectious confidence.

  “Indeed! Now, I think we’ve loitered long enough in this place, don’t you?” Caesia sighed, wandering over to the archway at the far end of the room.

  They stepped through the archway and entered another hallway, only this time there were no coffins, only a towering door at the end.

  “Okay, either this is really good or really bad.” Eris said, suspiciously surveying the hallway for traps.

  Caesia analysed the door closely and noticed an interesting detail. “Do you see that?” She gasped, pointing Eris towards the door.

  Eris looked the door up and down but noticed nothing but ancient carvings. “Um… no?”

  “Look, at the bottom of the door - light.”

  Eris squinted hard at the base of the door. There was a small slit of light shining beneath the door. Unlike the fiery orange torchlight, this light was a paler, more natural orange.

  “Eris… it’s the exit!” Caesia exclaimed with relief the likes of which she had never felt.

  Eris was speechless, she could barely believe it. It had felt as if they would never escape, that they had delved so deep that they would never see the light of the sun again. Sure, she already knew how close it was, but it never truly sank in until this very moment.

  Eris and Caesia turned to each other excitedly. Caesia could see the pure happiness in Eris’ face, how elated she was at the freedom she thought she’d never see again, a hopeful smile plastered on her face and her eyes welling with joy.

  In truth, Eris’ happiness wasn’t at the thought of freedom, but at how indescribably grateful she was to Caesia for helping her get through it all. The sight of her soft, ever-comforting smile filled her with confidence, with belief that they could yet triumph.

  At a nod from Caesia, the pair walked to their freedom down the cold, empty hallway. Like the tomb’s entrance, the door was built of heavy, carved stone. As they approached, Caesia analysed the carvings - they were warnings, scenes of burning soldiers and winged horrors. It did not deter her, she was long past being scared by a few pictures. What scared her was the real thing.