Into the Hells

by Christopher Johns

  “Lady Vilmas?” Rowland knocked softly.

  Vilmas looked to me, then when I nodded, called, “Come in!”

  “Ye sent for me? Hello, Zeke.” I could see a little disappointment cross his face, his lips turning down slightly and his eyes dropping a bit.

  “I did,” I smiled at him and cleared my throat. Vilma’s looked up at me, and I looked pointedly at Rowland.

  She blushed and hid her face.

  “Ever’thin’ aright, m’lady?” Rowland took a step forward, then another before kneeling beside her, opposite where I stood.

  He took her right wrist in his burly hands gently and prized it into his grasp. “Is there somethin’ heavy on yer heart, lass? Can I help ye?”

  Vilmas’s lips quivered slightly, and her shoulder shook. Rowland looked horrified.

  “No!” he whispered, tugging a perfectly white kerchief from his pocket with a flick and began to wipe her tears away. “Donae cry, m’lady! What’s got ye upset?”

  “Nothing, at least not anything outside meself.” She sniffled, then took her other hand away from her face. Tears fled her eyes, and she wiped them away swiftly. “I’ve been searchin’.”

  “Searchin’?” Rowland prompted as she turned introspective and silent for a moment.

  “For the words ta ask somethin’ of ye.” She looked at him, and he frowned.

  “If I could fetch ye the stars, m’lady, I’d build the ladder meself.” The smith smiled reassuringly. “If I could give ye the most precious thing yer heart desires, ye need only ask.”

  That made Vilmas start sobbing in truth with small, hiccuped giggles. Rowland gently padded the water from her cheeks. It was almost too cute, like watching a romantic comedy where you get all giddy and embarrassed and have to look away from the screen so it’s slightly less painful.

  Hey, I watch all kinds of things—get off my back, okay?

  “What’s weighin’ on ye?” Rowland asked her softly.

  Vilmas put a hand on his cheek, his beard sliding against her fingers as she cradled his face. Rowland looked alarmed, and his cheeks actually flushed at the contact, but he sat still, motionless as she stared deeply into his eyes.

  “You.” She sniffed. “You have been weighin’ on me. Thoughts of you and yer kind words. And yer sweet smile. And yer laugh, and I want ye ta know that I like ye too.”

  Her speech went, her composure went, but the entire time, her face grew steadily more determined.

  “Rowland, I wish ta ask ye—if ye would like to court me proper?” Vilmas shyly tried to hide her features with a hand as she finished the question, but Rowland had none of it.

  His huge grin, nearly splitting his beard, made me smile in return.

  “I’d never be more honored ta have a beautiful, proper lady such as yerself ta court. I’d sooner shave me beard daily for a decade as hurt ye on purpose. I’d lose me will ta forge if ye were to think me unworthy.” He stood and started to move his hands toward her, then stopped suddenly. “If’n I might be so bold, could I give ye a hug?”

  Vilmas looked startled and muttered, “I’d like that, but I’m still a bit too shy about it. Could I offer something else?”

  Rowland nodded, a serene look of understanding settling over his features, and he offered his hand, palm up.

  Vilmas looked askance of him, but he merely waited until she put her hand over his. He knelt, slowly—so he wouldn’t startle her—then placed his forehead on it.

  “I promise, Vilmas, that I will treat ye with respect and dignity ‘til ye choose me over another, or ye’ll have naught to do with me—I so swear on the Mountain.”

  Vilmas’s demeanor straightened, and she returned, “And I Vilmas, will endeavor to prove to you that I am worthy of your affection, until such time as you deem me fit for a bride or will have naught to do with me—I so swear on the Mountain.”

  “I bear witness to your oaths to each other and bind it as kin. An oath to bind as sure as the stone under our feet and along all of our Ways. May each of you find happiness,” I spoke, the foreign words pouring from my mouth unbidden. I felt a divine hand had been in this, and the awestruck looks on Vilmas’s and Rowland’s faces were enough to confirm that Fainne had inspired that somehow.

  Weird.

  Rowland bowed to his lady, and Vilmas waved him out of the room so that he could go and continue to hone his craft. But they had promised to dine together that evening. I loved it.

  Vilmas thanked me, and I noted that she looked a lot less harried than she had.

  “You’re welcome, but could I ask a favor?”

  “Indeed.” She looked at me as I pulled out the full sapphire and diamond rings. Her eyes widened, and she snatched them out of my hands. “Where did you get these?”

  “In the Dragon’s hoard?” I grinned, and she looked ready to steal them for herself. “Could you possibly enchant those for me? I’d be happy to pay you for the service.”

  “What did you have in mind?” She bounded over to her desk and swatted the clutter out of the way in favor of a clean sheet of paper and a quill.

  “Well, I was thinking that maybe something that could give me an edge in the Hells?” I pointed to the diamond ring, then the sapphire one. “These are high quality, right?”

  “No.” She shook her head and smiled. “These are uncut, but if I were to cut them properly, I could give you high quality rings. I have a couple of things in mind. Leave me, and I will have them done tomorrow. Let me have that bird back?”

  I dug the raven out of my pocket, and she tapped it. I yelped as the bird came to life and flapped its wings, looking at Vilmas expectantly.

  “Master Xiphyre, if you would—please join me in, oh, say, three hours’ time? I have a couple of items you would love to help me enchant.” She finished the message and tapped the bird once more. A spectral image of the bird separated from the raven in my palm and the bird stilled—wings spread wide. A few seconds later, it moved, and the wings fell back into place at its sides.

  “That is how you can tell the message has been delivered,” Vilmas explained when she saw my look of open curiosity.

  “That’s amazing!” I lifted the item to observe it again, but it was as still as it had been before. “Is there a cooldown?”

  Vilmas shook her head. “No. Just the cost. It was meant to be a powerful boon, as Maebe had requested.”

  “Thank you.” I gave her a pat on the shoulder and left with a smile. It was nice having friends who would work with you like this. Do so much to take care of you.

  So nice.

  I dropped by my own room to change out of my bloodied clothes and put on a fresh pair. I thought of having the shadows come and clean the blood from me but opted to at least wash my face in clean water. The water in the basin in my room was changed daily, somehow, so I stripped down and went to it.

  The water was serene, still, and silent. A preference I was happy to acknowledge after having been fighting for my life in the ocean only a recently. With a sigh, I dipped my hands into the water, and my conscious mind went with them.

  Chapter Twelve

  I blinked. The water all around me, clean and cool against my being felt nice but foreign. I began to panic but realized that I could breathe despite being underwater. I looked around at my surroundings, taking them in slowly.

  The bottom of an ocean greeted me. It looked like something one might see in a deep-sea documentary where the oceanic floor was supposed to be dark and murky, but this one was light. Coral reefs dotted the horizon outside the room I stood in, their colorful structures as large as whole buildings and skyscrapers on Earth dotted the horizon, but the coral that made this room was bone-white and shimmering somehow. Pearl, maybe?

  Finally, droplet.

  I turned to see a throne made wholly of coral and seaweed spun of golden light. On it sat a small figure that looked like a woman, her human features flowing somehow from a young to a middle-aged woman. Her hair was sea-foam green, and her eyes were a crystal
line blue like the Caribbean. She wore a toga of sand, seaweed, and small sea creatures that shifted in the water but stayed together.

  “Primordial Water Elemental?” I asked, knowing damned well that I was looking at her.

  I am, and I also am aware that I do not resemble the Flame nor the Earth and Wind Primes. They are not the caster that I am, nor did they have the beginning that I had. Now, for your gift.

  QUEST COMPLETE!

  You have completed the quest: On Cleaner Tides – The Primordial Water Elemental has ordered that you find the Dragon and rid the area of it in whatever way you deem necessary.

  Reward: What the Primordial deems “Handsome” and a hefty monetary sum.

  I dismissed the notification and watched as the Primordial stood from her overly-large throne and walked toward me, her features changing slower and slower until she looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties now. Her facial features were soft, not fat, but just soft. Unfinished or undeveloped. The rest of her was hidden beneath her toga of moving oceanic life and findings.

  You did not fail me, and your reward will be handsome. She lifted her hands to cup my face before she dropped them. This will be rather invasive and probably painful but worthwhile. Please, shift your form to that of a human.

  I did as she requested, and then she cupped my cheeks again. The water around us swirled as she stared into my eyes.

  The water gives life, and without it, the flow of the lifeblood in all creatures large and small turns to dust. To understand the depths that my magic runs, you must experience the loss of it.

  It was a weird sensation, the hydration of my body—the seventy percent of it that was all water—fleeing from my skin. First, the racking pain of cramps in my muscles, my legs and toes fighting to curl in on themselves. My arms folded into my body, and I cried out, desperate for any kind of relief from this pain.

  My voice came out a shattered gasp as no air could leave my body with enough moisture to make sound—even my vocal cords were dusty and barren.

  The water around us darkened and swirled faster, tendrils of it slashing forth, eating what little of my HP bar that remained after being turned into a husk of my former self. My muscles continued to deflate and waste. Finally, my body gave way and collapsed, but the Primordial held tight to my face. My life ebbed from me, and I knew nothing but agony.

  Now, understand the truth behind the gift and use it to your advantage.

  I felt the water pressing around me. Into me. Then I felt something soft against my mouth and opened my eyes to see the Primordial pressing her lips against mine. Her lips parted, and more water rushed from her to me. I noted that my HP was refilling faster and faster. My desert-like muscles and sinew regrew and moistened, coming back stronger than they had been before.

  Relief flooded my mind and with it—knowledge. The ebb and flow of tides. The ebb and flow of the water in the body—in all life—that all of it was capable of being manipulated and used to make the body healthier. Stronger. Even the spells that I knew already could be changed and manipulated—made stronger and more deadly now.

  I have strengthened your healing magics and other spells. When you leave my realm, take this flask and have your friends drink from it. Then pour the rest into a large hole outside the village. Dig it yourself if you must, but it will be worth the effort.

  She pressed a flask into my hands as I listened to her speak and nodded when she finished. Dumbly staring at her, I clutched the item to my chest.

  You may leave now, droplet. If you have need of my aid, simply call out. If I need you—you will know. Do not grow stagnant, but cut and carve your path in the stone foundations of this world’s history. Go.

  With a slight smile, she shoved me backward, and my conscious mind slid out of her palatial home and up. I blinked and brought my now-human hands out of the basin—the flask coming out as if it had been there before my dive in.

  I shook my head at the disorientation, and vertigo suddenly plaguing my mind and body. That had been real. Not only that, but I had come out stronger for it. Right?

  Looking, none of my actual stats had changed, but my water, ice, and healing magic were much stronger now. I grinned boyishly.

  Better distribute the quest reward then.

  I slid the flask into my inventory, washed my face with the water in the basin as I had meant to originally, and beckoned the shadows forward to clean my body. They slithered over my body and ate the salt and grime away, then left me standing nude and clean. I dressed swiftly and fled the room in search of my friends.

  I found Yohsuke pouring over a cookbook and had him drink from the flask after a brief explanation. His eyes went blank for a second, then he returned to us and grinned.

  “Oh, that’s cool as fuck!” He gripped his fist and growled, “The Overlord’s powers grow ever more!”

  “Fuckin’ nerd.” I snorted, and we laughed together. When we finished, a thought hit me, “Hey, man—what did the shadows give you?”

  He frowned, then held his left hand out, the arm of his shirt pulling back. There, along his gray-skinned arm, was a long band of curling, inky-black shadow.

  “It’s like a whip.” He shifted his arm and focused on something.

  I felt the tendril wrap around my own wrist and jerk me toward him before letting me go.

  “Did you not see me using it to avoid being crushed during that fight with the Dragon and the fish before that?” I shook my head, and he shrugged. “Yeah man, I been using that for a minute. It’s pretty fucking nice.”

  “And what about this?” I shook the flask in front of him.

  He shoved his hand on to my chest, and I felt a pulsing ebb of strength fled my body, my HP bar shrinking by about twenty-one percent.

  “Gave me an ability called Sanguine Tide.” I hid the wonder and jealousy I felt at that name and waited for him to continue. “I can already leech health through a spell of mine called Vampire’s Touch, but that increases my understanding of it and therefore strengthens it.” He tapped his own chest. “Had I been hurt, more than half of that health I stole from you would’ve been mine.”

  “That’s sick as fuck.” I cast Regrowth on myself and was surprised to see a tinge of blue to my green druidic healing energy.

  But the spell was vastly more powerful now. Going up more than double what it had been. Before, it had returned 3 HP per second for thirty seconds. Now? A full 6 HP. That would mean going back up by 180 HP after a mere thirty seconds. That was nice. The best part? There was no change in the mana cost. Still a flat 30 MP.

  “I’ll be back later, man. I gotta go find the others and share the love.”

  “Later then, puto!” Yoh called after me playfully.

  I called to the others telepathically, Where are y’all at? I have our quest reward.

  Muu and me are at the forge. They’re making him his order, and it’s fucking hysterical, Jaken answered.

  I’m borrowing some tools from Sarah to work this new wood into some arrow shafts, Bokaj grunted into my head, and I smiled. I’d visit him first.

  I knew Maebe would be with the children somewhere. The thought of it was both super endearing and troubling. I missed my son. His little smile when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. His inquisitive spirit and his immense sense of adventure. I missed Kayda too. The big, feathered pain in my ass.

  I scratched my chin, realizing I was still human, but not caring enough to change back to my fox-man form, I walked toward Sarah’s carpentry shop.

  I heard laughter inside and smiled. I walked in and found Sarah trying to help my friend dislodge a rather painful-looking splinter.

  “Seriously, just pull it out!” the ice Elf hissed at the human woman.

  Sarah, Rowland’s pride and joy, laughed openly at the sight before her, her black hair swaying as she laughed; it bounced as her head moved. Her smile deepened when she turned to see me. “Hello, Zeke.”

  “Hey, Sarah.” I waved a hand and cast Regrowth on my friend. Rather th
an the desired effect, he shrieked in agony, and his health fell by a huge chunk.

  “It’s the WOOD!” he cried. I bounded forward and—sure enough—the splinter looked to have grown more savage looking and dug deeper into his flesh.

  I took my right hand and grasped the sliver with my nails, gently at first—but rougher when I could hardly grip it—and pulled sharply. The thing fought like a motherfucker, and I had to pull with my whole strength before it finally gave. What was left was a bloodied hole in his hand and blackened lines running from the hole into his finger.

  I cast Purify on him and watched as the angry, black lines burned away. He groaned, and I cast Heal to be safe. His health leaped back up.

  Damn, man, another good return. Instead of the flat 100 HP healed, it was 200 HP now. Nice!

  Sarah came closer to us to see what was going on, her dark eyes sparkling curiously.

  I shoved the flask in his face, and he drank from it. The same blank stare fell over his face before he came back with a smile.

  “Deeper understanding of ice. Nice!” He looked at his hands. “Healing too. I’m not handling that shit without gloves now though.”

  I patted his shoulder once, looking him somberly in the eyes and said simply, “No glove—no love.”

  As he cackled and Sarah stood confused, I walked out the door laughing too.

  The forge was next on the list of things to do. I called to Muu and Jaken from outside. When they didn’t respond, I repeated the call over our earrings.

  They wandered outside, and each took a pull from the flask. Jaken got a boost in healing strength—duh—and Muu received a new type of skill that he said he would have to play with to fully understand, but it involved a more flow-heavy kind of fighting style?

  Fighter shit. Weird, right? Oh well. Now, for the last member of the party before Maebe.

  Hey—she fought too, and she helped us out. She counts.

  I walked into the center the village where Ampharia sat watching the eggs with Dinnia.

  “You guys wanna help me scramble an egg of my own?” I raised an eyebrow at them, daring them not to laugh at my humor. Ampharia simply blinked, and Dinnia looked confused.