by A. J. Markam
“It might be a while before I can bring you back here.”
She gave me a sad smile. “There’s nothing left for me to come back to.”
“Well, you can always stay with us,” Alaria said, and gave her a hug.
“Absolutely,” I echoed.
Eluun misted up. “Thank you…”
“Sure thing. You need to bring anything with you?”
“No, I’m fine.”
I turned to Krug. “Get ready. If the warlock’s still in Exardus, I’m going to summon all the pirates.”
“You really think that will make a difference?” Krug asked grimly.
“Well, it’s the only shot we’ve got.”
I looked back at Meera’s icon. The sliver on her hit point meter had increased the slightest bit, so she was healing. Maybe she’d managed to hide somewhere and was recovering.
I tried to activate my Self-Sacrifice spell and give her some of my own Health, but nothing happened. I hadn’t really expected anything, though. I’d always cast Self-Sacrifice when I was in close proximity to my demons, and it manifested through blue light crackling from my fingertips into their bodies. A distance of a thousand miles was apparently not conducive to the spell working.
The timer reached the last 30 seconds of the countdown.
“Alright, everybody ready?” I asked.
The entire group nodded.
“Eluun and Stig, you haven’t gone through a portal yet, so just know that we’ll be going through two of them: one to Abaddon and another to Exardus. Everybody line up and don’t rush – Krug, you go last, you’re the biggest – but get through the portals as fast as you can. You have ten seconds to go through. If you’re not on the other side by the time it closes, you get left behind. Everybody ready?”
Everyone nodded again.
The timer ticked down.
0:02…
0:01…
0:00.
Suddenly the counter on the ring icon went from ‘0’ to ‘3,’ and the timer beneath the menu reset to 24:00:00 and began ticking down again.
A window appeared: You may now cast Hell’s Pont.
“Here we go,” I said, and created a portal into Abaddon.
As we stepped through the wreckage, Eluun and Stig looked around in horror. I barely noticed their reaction, though – I was too worried about Meera.
I used my map to place the second portal right in front of Meera’s apartment building.
But when the fiery ring appeared, there was no apartment building…
Just a smoking crater filled with soot-streaked, jagged slabs of white marble.
“Oh my God…” I whispered.
“Meera!” Alaria cried out.
“Go, boss, go!” Stig croaked as he pushed against the backs of my legs.
He might have been insensitive, but Stig was right. We had to move – now.
At his prodding, I stepped through the ring. The others followed.
Once I was on the other side, I looked around in a state of shock.
The street was deserted. I don’t know if the area had been evacuated because of the attack, or if everyone was dead, but there was no other living soul around.
Everything surrounding the pit was largely untouched. The glass windows on other buildings were blown out, probably from a massive explosion, but the structures themselves were still standing.
Meera was still alive, though, according to her icon. Wherever she was in there, we had to get her out.
I snapped back into my right mind and immediately took charge. “Krug, you’re the strongest – start pulling away whatever wreckage you can. Stig, look in some of those holes and see if you can see any sign of her.”
Krug looked at me dubiously, but both he and Stig began their tasks. The pirate’s massive muscles bulged as he picked up a slab and tossed it off to the side. Meanwhile, Stig disappeared down a rabbit hole in the wreckage.
“What can we do?” Alaria asked plaintively.
Nothing, a helpless little voice inside me whispered.
Eluun stood next to Alaria, her blue features twisted with grief. I felt horrible for her – seeing the wreckage of the building probably reminded her of what had happened to her home.
But still, I had to save Meera, so I pushed all that out of my mind.
“Can you heal someone you can’t see?” I asked Eluun.
“I can direct healing waves towards a space without directly targeting one person. If there are any survivors in there, it will help them.”
IF there are any survivors.
I knew there had to be at least one.
“Do it,” I said.
Eluun fired up her powers and began to radiate healing waves of white light into the wreckage.
“Ian, why can’t you use your Self-Sacrifice spell?” Alaria asked.
I hadn’t even considered it, I was so shell-shocked by the destruction.
But she was right – I was close enough now that my magic would probably work.
“Good idea,” I said, and pointed my hands at the wreckage.
As I activated the spell, blue light crackled through the air –
And immediately bent 90 degrees, as though pulled by an invisible magnet.
I looked over in surprise to see what the hell was happening –
And my eyes were drawn to the cemetery down the street.
Because this was OtherWorld, every neighborhood had a graveyard so players could respawn close by. This one lay about 300 feet from Meera’s building. Almost a year ago, Alaria and I had faced down Meera’s angelic brethren inside its gates – and watched as the angels banished her from among their ranks.
The cemetery was just like the rest of the city: gleaming white. Massive stone obelisks stretched high above elaborate tombs, and there were several life-size statues of angels carved out of white marble, though at this distance they looked like tiny figurines.
There was even a twenty-foot-tall cross with an angel pinned to it.
…like a crucifix…
“Oh no,” I whispered, overcome by horror.
“What?” Alaria asked.
“That wasn’t there before,” I said as I sprinted down the street.
Alaria took off after me.
I heard Eluun shout, “Krug! Stig!” and then had the vague impression that they all came running.
When I reached the gates of the cemetery, I lost all strength in my knees and staggered against the nearest column.
Meera hung there on the marble cross, arms outstretched like Christ, head lolling to one side. Her armor had been stripped off and was lying in a pile on the ground; all she wore was the barest of shifts covering her body. The only thing that wasn’t white was the black Collar of Gorbolik, which she still wore around her neck.
There was no blood or gore in OtherWorld, and it was a good thing – because otherwise I might have thrown up.
Iron spikes pierced her palms and feet, nailing her to the marble. Her body weight pulled down against the spikes in her hands, wrenching her arms into a ‘V’ shape.
Her flaming sword pierced her body from underneath one side of her ribcage to the other. The burning tip extended two feet from her flesh.
She didn’t wear a crown of thorns, but there were dozens of jagged pieces of white marble embedded in her skull that peeked out of her golden hair.
I heard Alaria scream behind me, “OH GODDESS, NO!”
At the sound of her voice, Meera’s eyes opened into slits.
“…Ian…” she croaked, “…he was… here…”
More footsteps behind me.
“Oh no,” Eluun gasped, and she immediately began to cast white light into Meera.
What the fuck was I doing?
I cast Self-Sacrifice, sending blue light coursing into her.
Suddenly Meera shrieked. “AAAAAAAH!”
Having been at the threshold of death, she’d been too far gone to make any noise.
But now that we were healing her, she had
enough energy to scream – and the pain was excruciating.
“STIG, PULL OUT THAT SWORD!” I yelled. “KRUG, GET HER DOWN FROM THERE! PULL THE CROSS OUT OF THE GROUND AND SET IT DOWN CAREFULLY!”
Stig scampered up the cross, then grabbed the handle of Meera’s sword and pulled backwards, ‘unsheathing’ the burning blade from her body and jumping down onto the ground with it.
Krug raced over, wrapped his arms around the base, and heaved it up out of the ground.
Meanwhile Alaria flapped her black wings, flew up in front of the cross, and lifted under Meera’s armpits. She was trying to keep Meera’s body from pulling down agonizingly against the spikes in her hands – and to help Krug by reducing at least some of the weight he had to carry.
Krug strained to keep everything under control as he slowly lowered the cross. The effect of gravity as it went from upright to extending sideways into the air must have made the job ten times harder, but he managed to finally lower it to the ground – until the last few inches, when it fell with a booming CRACK.
Meera cried out on the final impact, but now gravity was no longer breaking her arms. Alaria gently let her lie back against the cross.
“Get the spikes out!” I yelled as I ran over next to her head.
With one hand I cast Self-Sacrifice, and with the other hand I tried to gingerly remove the shards of marble from her skull.
Then I saw it.
A small placard above Meera’s head, letters etched in brass.
4
NOT DAUGHTER OF CHAOS
BUT SON OF DARKNESS
NOT GODDESS OF NIGHT
BUT GOD OF NOTHING
What the FUCK?!
Rage filled me, and I wanted nothing more to find that goddamn warlock and torture him to death a thousand times over.
Krug yanked the spike from Meera’s right hand, then moved down to her feet.
Alaria wasn’t as strong as Krug, but she was able to wrench the spike out of Meera’s left hand within a few seconds.
As both Eluun and I poured healing light into her body, the agony on Meera’s face subsided.
The holes in her palms and feet closed up…
The wounds in her sides slowly sealed…
And the gaping cuts in her scalp disappeared.
“…thank you…” Meera whispered as she peered up at me, then smiled at Alaria as she weakly took her hand.
“I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry,” I whispered. My vision blurred as I picked the last shards from Meera’s skull, and I realized I was crying.
“…Ian… it’s not your fault… I refused to go… I told you I was staying…”
“I shouldn’t have left you.”
“…I shouldn’t have demanded to stay…”
Meera’s Health was rapidly approaching 80%, and we helped her up into a sitting position. She immediately hugged both me and Alaria, and all three of us held on tightly to each other.
I heard her speak over my shoulder, her voice full of gratitude. “Thank you, Stig… thank you, Krug…”
I looked over to see the two demons nod solemnly.
“And thank you, Healer,” Meera finished.
“You are most welcome,” the frost elf replied. “I am sorry our first meeting came as a result of such tragedy.”
“This is Eluun,” I said. “Eluun, Meera.”
Meera smiled wryly at the frost elf. “I wish our meeting had been in the Northern Barrens rather than here.”
“Did you see him?” I asked Meera.
“No. I saw the airships hovering over Exardus – ”
“How many?” Krug interrupted. “What type?”
I glowered at him, but Meera said, “Almost two dozen… I don’t know what types, but they looked fast and heavily armed. A blast from one rained straight down on the city – ”
Now I was the one to interrupt her. “What? Where?”
“I’m not sure, but it looked like it hit the center of Exardus – near that hellhole of a place you took me to, the one with all the demons.”
The Underneath.
Where Stig had been when he died.
“Hold on a second,” I said, then cast my All-Seeing Eye. Whatever it saw would be piped directly into my mind’s eye.
I started it directly above us, looking down at us like a bird hovering ten feet overhead, and then zoomed it straight up in the air until it had a view of all of Exardus.
Gleaming white buildings and towers…
The harbor with all its ships…
…and in the middle of the city, a charred hole the size of a football stadium.
It looked like a gigantic sinkhole had swallowed everything.
The bridge over the Underneath’s entryway?
Gone.
As was every building, shop, and piece of land around it.
Actually, I take that back: it didn’t look like a sinkhole.
It looked like a giant laser beam from space had incinerated everything in its path, because the ground and the bits of buildings on the edge were all scorched black.
“…he destroyed the Underneath…” I said in shock.
“What?!” Alaria exclaimed.
“He blew it up.”
“How do you know?” Krug demanded.
“I cast a spell that showed me.”
“I have to see this,” Alaria muttered, then launched herself into the air and flew straight up into the sky.
I turned to Stig. “That’s how you died – he destroyed everything down there.”
Stig’s lower lip trembled. “Boss…”
I thought he was going to lament the loss of life… all the people who had died…
But I forgot it was Stig.
“…where’m I gonna drink?!” he whimpered.
I gave him some side-eye for even saying that aloud, given what was happening.
“The Underneath extends a hundred feet underground,” Krug pointed out, like You must be mistaken.
“Yeah, and that fuckin’ warlock still turned the entire thing into a giant pit.”
Krug shook his head. “Do you know the kind of power that would take?!”
“He destroyed Abaddon – you saw it yourself. And the Kingdom of Frost.”
“But there was still wreckage. What you’re describing is entirely different.”
“Well, he still did it.”
Suddenly Alaria swooped down from the sky, wings flapping as her stiletto heels clacked on the marble street.
Krug looked at her questioningly.
“It’s gone,” she said in amazement. “It’s just one gigantic hole in the ground.”
Krug stared at her like he couldn’t believe any of what he’d just heard.
I turned back to Meera. “You saw the blast of light from the ship – then what?”
“I was at the window, watching it all happen – and then I felt hands reach over my shoulders and cover my eyes. I cried out and tried to turn around, but suddenly my entire body was in agony, and I blacked out. When I awoke, I was up on this… contraption, my hands and feet nailed to it,” she said, shuddering as she looked at the cross we’d rescued her from.
“What did you see when you woke up?” I asked.
She shuddered. “The dead.”
I looked around us. “Well, yeah, it’s a cemetery – ”
“NO,” she insisted. “Skeletons. They were looking up at me.”
“Revenants?” I asked, thinking of the leathery shopkeeper who had been at the warlock temple.
She shook her head. “No… blackened skeletons with no skin at all. They were wearing clothes, but those were blackened, too… rotting. Seafaring clothes. Like pirates.”
I glanced up at Krug.
“Don’t look at me,” he snapped. “I don’t know anything about it.”
I turned back to Meera. “But you didn’t see the warlock?”
“No,” she said, and her eyes defocused into a thousand-yard stare. “But I heard him.”
“Heard him?!”<
br />
“Behind me,” she whispered as she gazed into the distance. “Behind the post they’d nailed me to.”
“What did he say?”
She blinked once, then looked at me. “Say hello to Mr. Hertzfelder for me.”
Cold dread filled my stomach.
So he knew my last name, even though I rarely used it in OtherWorld.
The last videogame character who had called me ‘Mr. Hertzfelder’ was Varkus the goblin… and that hadn’t exactly been a positive relationship.
“What happened then?” I asked.
“All the skeletons turned into shadows and smoke… and were gone.”
Great.
Well, her description definitely fit with the ‘shadow’ part of the riddle, at least.
“What do we do?” Alaria asked.
“We keep after him.”
“Speak for yourself,” Krug said.
I looked over at the pirate. “Don’t you want to get the guy who murdered your crew?”
“Who you haven’t even resurrected yet,” Krug said accusingly.
“Because I can’t transport 50 people at a time through one of my portals,” I snapped.
“Well, we’re back in Exardus. Get to resurrecting.”
“Answer my question first,” I retorted. “You’re giving up?”
“It’s not giving up if it’s suicide.”
“I’ll bring you back,” I said, the same way you’d say I’ll pay you BACK to a buddy you asked for five dollars. “I can resurrect you a million times!”
“I don’t care to die a million deaths, thanks,” Krug sneered.
Motherfucker –
He was bailing on me.
But he was a captain now, and I knew what he really valued.
“So you’re gonna give up your ship? You’re just going to let Tarka have the Revenge?”
“Seeing as the warlock who helped her can destroy entire cities, yes, I’m giving it up – and so will the rest of my crew, once they know what happened. Bring them back.”
I shook my head in disgust. “You coward.”
Krug narrowed his glowing yellow eyes at me. “I’m not a COWARD.”
“No, you’re just going to run away from the guy who killed you, murdered your crew, and took your fucking ship.”
Krug was pissed. “He’s your problem, not mine.”
“I’d say when he killed you, murdered your crew, and took your fucking ship, he sort of became your problem.”