Night Cursed

by Mark Albany

  “Fuck!” The Darkness flooded my body as I thrust my blade deep inside the first monster I encountered. A pair of snake-like heads snapped at me before the whole body turned back to stone. I twisted the blade, and the creature shattered into a thousand pieces. I let the chilly air surround my free hand, and I shoved it into the collapsing creature. The shards sped off faster than any arrow, shredding the animated statues behind it.

  A few seconds. I’d bought us a few seconds.

  “I didn’t know you could do that,” Eira said. She was floating a few inches above the ground. A light blue glow surrounded her. Something like lightning sparked from the aura which filled her hands each time she stretched them out to fire at the oncoming horde.

  “Honestly, neither did I.”

  I turned back around. The tunnel narrowed and straightened out. Dozens of doors lined the stone walls, leading down any number of passageways.

  “We’re going to get lost in here,” Leena said. She was out of arrows, and her fighting had gotten decidedly closer than she liked, I could sense. Kalna had lent her one of her daggers, which helped, but not by much.

  “No, you won’t!” Vasara’s voice boomed from the other end of the tunnel. Her hands were aglow with the same fire that I’d seen before, but the balls were smaller and glowed with more intensity.

  “Braks!” Jule cried.

  “Get down!” I roared in response, gripping my blade tighter with one hand as I raised the other. The Darkness drew from the light around us, darkening the room even though the torches were still lit.

  Vasara screamed as she released the balls of flame. Out of instinct, I pushed my hand forward, and a beam of light and energy shot from it. When it hit the fire, it didn’t cause the explosion I was expecting. Instead, it wrapped around it, holding it in place. I seemed to be controlling it with my extended hand.

  I could also tell that I was rapidly losing control.

  An idea struck me suddenly. It wasn’t a great idea, but it could solve at least one of our problems. I used all the willpower I could muster to keep my hold on the ball of flame, and I brought it in over our heads.

  It was a two-way connection, I realized. I could feel the fire starting to reach into my mind. The pain was similar to what I’d felt when Vasara had control of me, but it was more intense. While hers had been a controlled torture meant to break my mind, this just felt like it was tearing into me. It had a life of its own, and it would not rest until I set it free.

  At my command, the ball of flame flew toward the swarm of inhuman monsters that were charging at us. With a scream, I released the bond.

  The fireball collided with the monsters and released a thunderclap and a wave that hit me full on the chest. It knocked the breath out of me, sending me flying. I had a moment to realize that the force of the explosion would cause a cave-in before I collided with a wall and everything went black.

  It’s like you’re trying to kill us.

  Out of sheer curiosity, what happens to us if I’m the one that kills us, and you don’t have a living host to pass on to?

  I’ve never had that happen before. I suppose I’d be lifted from your body and passed into the next. The act of a violent death isn’t what transfers me into my next host. It only facilitates the process.

  I groaned softly, turning my head around. I couldn’t see anything when I opened my eyes. Nothing but blackness greeted me. Slowly, my eyes started to adjust, and I realized we were still in the caves under the castle, and not on the Peak. The conversation with Legent had been in my head.

  You used my given name. I’m touched.

  “Braks,” Kalna moved over to me. She knelt next to me and ran her fingers through my hair before leaning down to kiss my lips. I could taste a bit of blood from hers.

  “Are you all right?” I croaked, my throat feeling parched.

  She nodded. “Just a few bumps and bruises, but it seems we all survived. Eira tried to contain the blast and keep the rocks away from us, but I think the effort was too much. She’s alive but unconscious.”

  Our connection told me that Leena was alive and well too, though there was a pain in her side each time she took in a deep breath. A broken rib.

  I pulled myself up from where I’d been lying. My whole body was alive with all kinds of pain, but I could feel the Darkness surging through it, touching and healing what I could only assume were a multitude of injuries that I had sustained. Jule looked over at me, smiling. She was sitting next to Eira, stroking the ice woman’s hair.

  “She saved my life,” Jule said softly.

  “She saved us all, I think.” I pushed myself to my feet. Leena was looking at the collapse that Vasara and I had caused.

  “The monsters were trying to dig through it, but they stopped,” she said, keeping her voice firm. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her body, holding her close. She grunted softly as I squeezed a bit too hard.

  “I’m sorry.” I quickly pulled away and put my hand where she was injured.

  “It’s all right.” Leena leaned in to kiss my lips, too. “Kalna gave me something to dull the pain. One of her magic potions.”

  I chuckled softly, remembering how Kalna had once passed those potions off as oils or juices to keep us from knowing that she, like most elves, had a fairly strong connection to magic.

  “I’m glad you’re all right.” I smiled, running my fingers over Leena’s cheek before moving over to Eira.

  “Do I get a hug, too?” Jule asked.

  I grinned in response, reaching awkwardly over Eira to wrap the smaller woman in a tight, if brief, embrace. “I’m glad you’re all right as well,” I smiled before placing a light kiss on Eira’s lips.

  The ice woman responded with a soft groan, slowly opening her eyes and smiling when she could see me.

  “I was dreaming,” she said weakly. “We were all back in Radon. You were teaching me how to skip rocks.”

  “You were just terrible at it,” I replied with a wry grin, stroking her cheek. “But practice makes perfect. Thank you for saving us.”

  “My pleasure, as always.” Her eyes closed again. Whatever she’d done to keep us from being crushed under the mountain had drained her immensely. I tucked a strand of her purple hair behind her ear before rising to my feet.

  “Any sign of Vasara?” I asked, steel entering my voice.

  “She disappeared after the cave-in,” Leena answered. “She lacks in every single redeeming quality, and that includes courage.”

  “Either way, I need to find her before we can get out of this place. I don’t want her following us. I did something back there that stopped her attack, but I’m not sure how or even if I can do it again.”

  “Bitch needs to be put down,” Leena nodded. “Let’s find her and kill her.”

  “That’s my job.” I spoke firmly. “I need you all here to look out for Eira. We don’t know where those monsters went, and if they come back, you all need to take care of each other.”

  Leena and Kalna nodded. I picked up my sword and quickly brushed the dust and blood from it before slipping it back into its sheath. There were more reasons why I didn’t want them to follow me, but I wouldn’t actually tell them to their faces. For one thing, I needed to fight Vasara on even ground, and I wouldn’t put it past her to try and distract me by attacking them. I needed them clear of the action. I couldn’t fight her if I was trying to keep them safe as well.

  Secondly, there were parts of me I had to reach into in order to kill her, and I didn’t want them present for that. Not again.

  They understood, even though I didn’t tell them. The connection had its bad sides, and this was one of them. They wanted to come with me. They wanted to help. But they knew they couldn’t. They knew that coming with me to face Vasara might get us all killed, and they hated it. Especially Leena.

  And they knew I’d have to dig deep into the Darkness to beat her too, and as much as I needed their support to keep it under control for most of the time, contr
ol wasn’t what I needed just now.

  Ugh, back to Darkness.

  I gripped my blade tighter. A faint light emanated from deep inside one of the tunnels. It was difficult to even spot, but with my recent encounter with the Darkness and the state it had left me in, even the faintest glow would be visible to me. I’d been training, practicing, trying other applications of everything I’d been learning—especially regarding guided will and intent, as Kalna and Eira had shown me. The glow, plus the feeling of Vasara’s still-growing power, was enough for me to plot a course through the maze of tunnels that looked like they had been dug centuries ago.

  The light grew brighter, and as the power radiating from Vasara intensified enough to start hurting again, I could see the light’s source. A massive room opened out into an underwater pool. The water was glowing, not unlike the water I remembered Kalna using to heal me from the poison on the Trelan blades.

  Vasara was at the center of the pool, completely naked. The scars covering half her face covered half her body too. On the one side, she was virile and beautiful. On the other, her flesh was burned and blackened, the ruined beauty made worse by the startling contrast – the half image of what had been.

  “Braks,” she smiled, opening her eyes to look at me. “I’m so pleased you could join me.”

  “After what you did in the tunnels, it’s not like you gave me much of a choice,” I responded.

  “Will you join me for a swim?” She tilted her head. “The water is just wonderful.”

  “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline.” I held my sword up. “I don’t want to have to swim through all your blood.”

  She smiled, half beautiful, half horrifying. “So be it.”

  Chapter 25

  She extended her hands and slowly drifted out of the water, coming to a stop once she was floating a few feet above the shimmering surface.

  I gripped my sword tighter as the power started to gather in her hands. It was stronger now, and just seeing it with my newly-enhanced senses was painful. Even so, I brought the blade up between us, pooling some of the Darkness into my hands and transferring it into the weapon.

  She opened her eyes wide. Fire rushed through them like I’d felt when I’d been controlling her blast back in the tunnel. She appeared to be in all kinds of agony, but she was enjoying it, reveling in the pain.

  She’s gone mad.

  “No shit,” I mumbled, watching her power reach its peak.

  She screamed as she released it. Something like a tiny sun headed across the pool toward me. I flicked the blade, and the ice that had been gathered there slashed the fiery ball in half. Then in quarters. With a massive swing, I pushed the ball away, sending it sailing into the far wall. I felt a wash of heat even from that distance. It knocked me back a few steps, but as I saw her gathering her power again, faster this time, I readied myself.

  I gripped my sword with one hand, the other extended, gathering light in the way that it had before. The room darkened, even as the massive ball of fire was starting to melt the rock, sending sizzling streams of lava into the pool of water to cool.

  Vasara pushed her hands forward, screaming in anger and pain, launching another ball of fire at me. I reached out to hold it. The light flashed and wrapped around the flame, holding it firmly in place. Vasara’s eyes bulged as she saw the power stopping her attack entirely.

  A smirk touched her marred face before she launched herself forward, wrapping her hands around the light containing the fire. Agony shot through my body like a lightning bolt. I lost control of the ball, but she took it willingly, using the light to reach into my mind again, just like she did when she was torturing me. Through that connection, much clearer than the bond I had with Kalna, Leena, and Eira, she pushed herself inside me.

  “Feel my pain, Braks,” she roared.

  I could feel her pain. Images of what the God-King had done to her seared into my mind. All the pain, all the fear, all the horror, and above it all, her adoration for the man, soaked into me as I sank to my knees, screaming in agony.

  She twisted her hand, sending the ball of fire up into the ceiling of the room. Rocks plummeted down to crash into the pool. She floated forward, lifting me off the ground to smash and pin me into the wall.

  “Know me, Braks.” It was a whisper, but it shattered into my mind, making the pain worse. I couldn’t hold on. I couldn’t do anything.

  You don’t have to do anything…

  My eyes opened. That wasn’t Legent speaking. That was a new voice.

  All you have to do is let go.

  I gritted my teeth, fighting against the Darkness coming up like a raging volcano inside me.

  LET GO!

  I let go.

  Vasara’s intangible grip on me slipped away. The pain disappeared, and the images of the God-King’s torture chambers became a distant, unpleasant memory. The connection lasted long enough for me to feel the sudden disappointment in Vasara as she lost control.

  I dropped to the ground. Power rushed through me, healing me, filling me. There was something changing. My muscles grew bigger, stronger. My skin darkened, becoming more impenetrable than steel. My eyes had gone black. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but I did. There was something flowing through me, coating my bones, protecting me, filling my body with a sort of euphoria.

  It wasn’t me, I realized. Legent was feeling this, too.

  “Well, I felt everything you did, Braks.” I felt my jaw moving, but I wasn’t in control of what I was saying. “It’s only fair that I return the favor.” The voice was different, deeper. It reverberated through the entire room.

  Vasara returned to the water, floating over the surface, watching me change.

  “What?” she whispered. Even though she was floating above the pool, I was still looking down at her. She seemed small and insignificant now, like a bee that had lost its stinger. Angry, ugly and soon to be dead, but still an annoyance as it buzzed around.

  She filled herself with power again. As I approached, she launched a pair of massive, brilliant fireballs at me. Legent, who was in control of my body now, made no move to intercept them. They struck my black skin and fizzled out like a candle flame being doused by water.

  “What happened to you?” she gasped. “What are you?”

  “Who am I?” I heard myself ask as I stepped out onto the water, floating smoothly over the surface. Vasara tried to back away quickly, but I extended my hand, making a fist, and she froze in place.

  “You miserable little witch.” I could feel Legent’s disgust as we moved closer to her. “You’re a pale imitation; a shadow of a much greater power. You are a vessel that has sprung a leak. A useless nuisance to be put down. And you ask me who I am?”

  I wrapped my hand around her neck and squeezed. “We were made from the darkness before time. We were forged in the fires that made the stars. We watched as the world was made, and continued watching as our mother was subjected to the pitiful creatures that inhabit her.” There was a deep-seated anger in these statements that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

  “We are Legent!” I had no idea where any of those words came from, but the hand around her neck tightened until blood was flowing through our fingers, dripping red into the pool as I felt our fingers gripping her spine.

  Our other hand gripped her torso and tugged, pulling the spine out of her body, connected only to her head now. We tossed both pieces aside.

  I was losing my grip on what was real and what wasn’t. Warm water seeped around our new body as we sank into the pool. The water seemed to be growing brighter. The blood from the shredded carcass that was once Vasara seemed to make it glow more. There was power in this water, the power that had made her so formidable before. And I could feel it filling me, every pore being flooded with this new, wonderful, raging fire.

  My eyes closed, and everything went black. I felt no connection to the body that Legent had taken over…I could only feel myself floating in the blackness that surrounded me. There was nothing
that could hurt me here. The world was so distant. I could just relax and let everything just… slip away…

  I felt like I was trapped in a dream, but there was more tangibility to this than anything I’d felt in a long time. Had I been floating in the void of nothingness for centuries? Hours? Minutes?

  I wasn’t sure.

  A fire burned to my left. I looked down at myself, and there was something odd. I was in my own skin, but for flashes of a second, I could see the dark armor I’d cloaked myself with back in the cave. I was seated in a large, comfortable chair. Like with most dreams, I didn’t remember how I’d arrived there.

  “Hello, Braks,” said a voice. It was strangely familiar. The voice in the cave. The one that hadn’t been Legent. It was soft, soothing, almost hypnotic in a way. There were other memories too. Memories of fire and pain. Not my memories.

  “I hope Legent enjoys the little offering I sent him,” the voice continued. It was coming from a shadowy figure seated across from me. “While it gorges itself, I thought we might have a little chat. I had a feeling that your mind might have the time to spare.”

  “Who are you?” My voice was off, distorted.

  “You should know that by now,” the voice replied, sounding disappointed. “Your strength is brother to mine. Distant and far removed, but a brother nonetheless. I would have thought our connection would have told you.”

  The memories were Vasara’s. She’d told me that the God-King himself had been her torturer.

  “You’re the God-King.”

  “Now that we have the obvious out the way, what say you that we share a word until such a time that Legent needs you again?” the God-King asked.

  “I guess I have nothing better to do,” I heard myself say numbly.

  “Excellent.” He leaned back in his seat. “Legent is a great power, one of the oldest and most deadly, but by nature, it is a creature of chaos. A small, insane imitation of the power that I myself possess.”