by Simon Archer
I smiled broadly. “Well, if you’re asking for it…” I rolled my neck as if I was preparing for the most elaborate riddle of all time, and then I spoke.
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
When in doubt, go with your Lewis Carroll, I always say.
Amalthea’s eyes widened as her mind raced. “I…” She cleared her throat and raised a paw. “Please, a moment for me to consider.”
I grinned and nodded. “Of course, though to be fair, perhaps a ten count is in order?”
The sphinx let out a soft grumble and waved her paw at me dismissively, so I nodded to Shikun. “Count it for us.”
The dragon-girl looked as confused by my riddle as Amalthea did, but she nodded and began to count very precisely, keeping time by tapping her toe claws on the stone. As she did so, the sphinx closed her eyes, and I didn’t need Libritas to feel the surge of magic in the room. Runes, sigils, and letters of all kinds native to Etria flashed through the air in green light around her without a trace of anything of Earthly origin. At that moment, I was pretty sure I had won, as long as someone hadn’t brought Alice in Wonderland with them from the Upland.
Even then, there weren’t many acceptable answers to the riddle. It was nonsense, after all.
At Shikun’s count of eight, Amalthea’s eyes snapped open again, and a combination of confusion and defeat were etched in those grey orbs. “I- I don’t know,” she whispered softly. “I don’t know. It’s not in the Record, and I cannot make sense of it.”
“So, you’re admitting defeat?” I asked carefully. The fact that she had been stumped seemed to hit the sphinx harder than I thought it would, and I didn’t want to rub my victory in her face.
“I…” Amalthea began before letting out a shuddering sigh, her tail drooping behind her. “I concede. I cannot answer your riddle, William Tyler, and so, bound by the laws of the Record, I must do as you have bidden.” With one paw, she cut a line through the runic matrix, and the sickly green glow snuffed out immediately. “The field is gone, and now, my paw.”
Shikun let out a cheer of joy and relief as she hopped in place next to me, and as Amalthea pushed her branded paw forward, I raised Libritas up, took a deep breath, and concentrated. I wanted Amalthea to be free, to be able to revel in the power to choose her path in the world, and to never be bound to these bastards ever again. As those thoughts and emotions surged up through me, the Brand of Freedom burst with renewed golden light before her runic tip sparked into a silvery-white radiance.
And that’s when an ear-splitting screech filled the room as the Weaver sprang from the shadows behind the sphinx, the Brand of Discipline reared back and ready to strike. For all that he looked like any other ettercap, the Weaver moved with startling speed and inhuman power… and I was his target.
The choice seemed clear cut: Carry through, free Amalthea, and have a molten-hot magical Brand burn through my flesh, or parry the blow and lose the opportunity. After all, who knew how long that ‘hold your paw out’ command would be binding for?
So I did what I had to do, to hell with personal risk. I didn’t waver as I thrust Libritas into the twisted thorny blackness of Amalthea’s brand. Even as I felt the surge of power run through Lib and me down into that infinite darkness, I fully expected to have some very important parts of my body incinerated into charred bits… but that didn’t happen.
I caught sight of Shikun interposing herself between the Weaver and me… and then the world exploded into silver-and-gold light. The dragon-girl’s roar of defiance before her former master played counterpoint to the trilling cry of pure joy that rose out of Amalthea, as before my eyes, the terrible scar that had stood out angry and harsh on the sphinx’s skin shrank beneath Libritas’s power. As her wound healed and new fur sprang up, the sphinx’s cry turned to a moan of ecstasy as her back arched upward and her wings fluttered out, crashing up against the walls to send both papers and torture instruments scattering.
That’s when it hit me, the on-rush of what was elementally Amalthea, channeled from her soul to mine through the conduit of Libritas. The weight of a century in chains dropped on my shoulders like an elephant, felling me to my knees as it blasted into my mind. But through all those many years of enslavement, manipulation, and corruption, there was a constant drumbeat of the sphinx’s noble heart, her dedication to her studies mixed with a desire to protect, to guard, for that was the ultimate purpose of all sphinxes. It was Amalthea’s solace, even if that principle were twisted to protect her terrible masters. To be a guardian was the thing that kept her sane through so many years of pain… and now… now, she was free. As that joy flooded her soul, it ripped through mine as well, and where one moment, I was ready to collapse under the weight of her pain, I found myself lifted up once more, buoyed by the sphinx’s newfound pride and happiness.
And then, as swiftly as it came on, the moment of sublime connection ended, and the real world flooded back in. Amalthea’s terrible brand was completely gone now, replaced by the golden spiral and silver circles of Lib’s rune. To my side, Shikun stood tall and strong, a roar still on her lips as the Weaver kept trying to push Karthas through her chest with all four arms.
“Why don’t you burn?” he hissed in disbelief.
By way of an answer, Shikun grabbed the Brand with both hands just past the head and yanked Karthas and the Weaver both to one side, throwing the ettercap to the floor as he desperately held on to his weapon.
“I am no longer your slave,” the draconian roared as she kept an iron grip on the Brand, “and you have no more power over me!”
The Weaver looked to be in utter shock and fear now, and it was about time I stepped in. I brought Libritas to bear in one smooth motion, her brand cutting a glittering silver trail through the air as I swung it towards Karthas. As I attacked, Shikun slammed a foot down on the Weaver’s chest as she pulled taut, trapping the corrupted artifact in place.
“I am sorry, brother!” Libritas called out loud as I struck true. A cacophonous sound like a thousand hammers slamming down on a thousand anvils exploded outward from where the two Brands collided, and amidst that tremendous reverberation, I swore I could make out a twisted scream of agony from Karthas. Barely a second after that tremendous burst of noise rang out, the Brand of Discipline simply exploded with the torturous screech of twisting steel.
The tremendous shockwave blew most of us back. I was thrown clear off my feet, tenaciously keeping hold of Libritas, only to collide with Amalthea’s very large and quite soft chest right before she was thrown over awkwardly on her side, barely curling her wings in to prevent a more serious injury. Meanwhile, Shikun managed to keep her feet though she was shoved back a good ten feet from the blast, her foot talons throwing up sparks as they found purchase in the stone.
The Weaver… well, he wasn’t so lucky. The bastard had no place to go, and the full brunt of Karthas’s detonation slammed into his chest and limbs. I didn’t hear the sickening crack of his exoskeleton shattering in a dozen places, but as I struggled to get back to my feet from what had been a perfectly cozy landing spot, I could clearly see where ichor and gore leaked out of those numerous wounds. The truly remarkable thing was that he still lived, his chest still rising and falling with labored, wheezing breaths.
While Amalthea recovered her wits and Shikun unstuck her claws from the floor, I made my way carefully to the monster’s side, still wary for one last trick from the ettercap. I expected to find blackened shrapnel from Karthas to be all over the place, but there wasn’t a single trace that the corrupted Brand had ever existed.
“Impossible…” the spider-man weakly clicked out. “I planned… for everything…”
“No,” I countered as I pointed Lib’s glowing silver tip at his face. “Sure, you thought you did, but you were so lost in your own arrogance that you were blind to just how hard people would strive to be free.”
The Weaver let out a wheeze before spitting a glob of his own blood up at me, one last spiteful gesture
. “You’ll learn… how naïve you really are… soon… Spare me the rest… of your prattle… and kill me…”
I shook my head as I pulled Libritas away from him. “Oh, no. I’m not going to do either of those things. I’ve said my piece, and as for killing you?” I turned away from the dying bastard. “That’s not my call.” My eyes drifted sidelong to Shikun who was now stalking toward the downed ettercap, righteous fury glowing in her eyes as silver flames snorted out her nose with each breath. “Shikun, he’s all yours.”
I didn’t bother looking. After all, whatever Shikun did to him, the Weaver deserved ten times over. I only caught a shrill plea for mercy from the ettercap, no doubt realizing that what was about to happen to him was far worse than the clean death I would have delivered, and a draconic roar as I walked over to check on Amalthea who was just now back to her feet and stretching her wings. My eyes were drawn to the strange halo that still hovered above her head, but instead of spikes and black iron, it was a golden spiral lined with silver swirls, an imitation of Libritas’s rune.
“Thank you,” a whispery voice called in my head as I came up to the sphinx. It wasn’t Libritas, it was very distinctly male, so I could only guess it was Karthas, at least what was freed from the Brand. “To you and Libritas both, William Tyler. Now, perhaps, true and pure Discipline can return to Etria.”
“You’re welcome,” I sent back. “I swear we’ll find a way to restore you.”
“Indeed, brother,” Libritas added. “Until then, I will try to bear your strength as well.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but a pulse of vibrant scarlet ran down the Brand of Freedom’s length and through me so fast that I wasn’t sure if Amalthea saw it. I sure as hell felt it though, as all the exhaustion, aches, and pains were purged right out of my body. That probably wasn’t the whole of it, but I’d talk to Libritas about it later. For now…
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked as I put a gentle hand on Amalthea’s marked paw, smiling at the electric thrill of the connection between us now. “That process can be, well, it can really throw you for a loop.”
“I am, thanks to you, William.” A simple smile played across the sphinx’s regal features as she sat up straight on her haunches and fluttered her wings once more. “The words to express the depths of my emotions at this moment would fill a chapter of the great Record in and of itself, so I shall not bore you with them.” Amalthea’s tail began to lash as a purr rumbled in her chest, and she leaned over me suddenly to plant a giant’s kiss upon my head.
I didn’t try to suppress the thrill that ran through me at the loving gesture, and as the sphinx rose back up, she flashed me a sly wink. “I believe that more than adequately expresses what words would fail to.”
27
“... and that brings us to now,” I said as I leaned back against the tree Petra had summoned up, the cool shade of its branches almost as soothing as her being there beside me. Her arm hugged around my waist, and I felt her head nod from its place snuggled up against my shoulder as I finished my little tale.
We were gathered outside the western wall of Kaulda, not far from where we had stood our ground against the Weaver’s army, and when I mean we, I mean the entire collected population of Kaulda, Aroch Steeltusk’s entire war party of orcs, and a surprising amount of ettercaps who begged for sanctuary and mercy in the aftermath of the Weaver’s death. Oh, and naturally Reggie, Petra, Shikun, Amalthea, and Libritas, the Brand ever present at my side. With that many people, well, this was the only proper place for what I hoped would be the first of many victory celebrations in the fight against the Black Runes in the years to come.
“Now, now, my boy,” Sir Thorpe said with a chuckle, seated upon a blue cushion across from Petra and me. “I feel as if you’re leaving out a few things, such as how did you extract Lady Amalthea’s… generous form out from those twisting caves?” He gestured to one side of the field where the lovely sphinx was holding a court of a sort, answering a litany of questions the villagers and tribesmen asked her, the air aglow with green sigils from her magic. “And what precisely did Lady Shikun do to that monster?” He didn’t gesture this time as the dragon-girl wasn’t among the partygoers. I’d find her after I was done here. “And what of Karthas--”
It was Suli who answered, her and Una having popped up out of the crowd of cheering, singing, and dancing people the moment I had begun my tale. Maybe that was the ferynx-girl’s special magic, the power to tell when an adventure was being recounted no matter where she was.
“Because that’s all boooooring, mister knight,” she moaned. Una nodded her agreement, even if I could tell that the orc-girl actually wanted to know the answer to at least some of those questions herself. “Nobody cares about the boring stuff, because Mister William whooped all the bad guys and saved all the girls!” She punched the air in front of her. “Just like I will when I become a hero-knight one day!”
Petra laughed at the kitten-girl’s enthusiasm before running her hand across my chest. “Well, I am simply happy that you and the others are safe and sound.” She pecked me on the cheek. “Not that I had any worries. Shikun and Libritas were not going to let you come to harm, and you were there to keep them safe.”
Una blinked at the dryad. “Then why did you ask Suli and me to keep you company while they were gone? And why were you crying and asking when they would be back? And--”
Petra turned a deep green as she began to wave her vines frantically at the little orc-girl to be quiet, and Reggie and I broke down into good-natured laughter as Petra closer to me.
“So, I guess you were a little worried about us, after all?” I asked.
“I… well, yes, but…” The dryad covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. “I just didn’t want you to think I didn’t believe in you, so I may have… exaggerated my lack of concern and--”
I cut her off by kissing that blushing cheek and then, when she pulled her hands away, those luscious lips. After a moment, I pulled away, leaving her with a soft smile.
“I appreciate it, Petra,” I said softly. “I’m just glad to have brought everyone home, safe and sound.”
“Indeed!” Sir Thorpe said with a clap of his hands. “Speaking of that, William, we must hold a council with Aroch, Sullah, and whatever representative the ettercaps present, the sooner, the better.” He met my glance with a serious nod. “We do have a world to free, and the sooner started--”
“The sooner done,” I finished for him. “I know.” With a wistful glance at Petra, one she returned, I slipped out of her grasp and stood up. “Let them know we’ll do it tomorrow, Reg. We can’t keep Aroch away from the rest of his tribe for too long. They’ve got rebuilding to do now that they’ve got their spirit back.”
The dryad reached up to squeeze my trailing hand with her vines. “And what shall we do with the rest of the day then, William?”
I squeezed those vines right back and flashed her a smile. “Celebrate, rest, recover, and then tonight… well, we’ll talk about that tonight.” A heated smile played across her lips at those words. “Right now, though, I need to see a girl about a thing.” I winked at everyone as I turned to walk away. “Wish me luck, I’ll be back.”
Petra caught my eye then and nodded. “Yes, take care of her, William, for the both of us.”
As I made my way through the throngs of happy ferynx, elves, orcs, ettercaps, and more, I had dozens of people cheer my name, salute me, want to shake my hand, and have a word, and as much as I wanted to find Shikun, I stopped for each of them. If I learned anything from this first week in Etria, it was that the only way to beat the Black Runes was through the hearts and minds of the people. The more broken communities we could restore and scattered people we could reunite, the more likely I’d have the chance to break the last of the chains that bound this world.
“Indeed, William,” Libritas chimed in my head as I finished a brief talk with Sullah and slipped out of the bulk of the crowd. “We will win because the Runes do
not realize the true worth of the people they crush under their heels. Now, as for our draconian, we need but follow the chain.”
“But don’t I need to see Shikun to, well, lock-on to her chains?” If I could have started with myself, it would have been easy, but I could never see my own chains save for how others linked to me. “Or has something changed because of Karthas?”
“Astute as always,” the Brand replied as I felt her magic trickle up my spine. “But it is more than that. Karthas has granted us a fraction of his power in his passing to the heavens, yes, but my strength is gradually returning with every act you perform that restores freedom to Etria.”
As she finished that statement, the magic settled into my eyes, and for a moment, I was practically blinded as my entire vision filled with a crisscrossing network of chains. They were everywhere, of every size, every metal, every condition, and I thought my brain would explode trying to process it all.
“Focus, William,” Libritas soothed in my ear, and I swore that I felt her presence there, stroking my back in slow circles. “Concentrate on Shikun.”
I closed my eyes, which didn’t actually help because there were so many chains that some literally ran through my eyeballs, and tried to think only about the dragon-girl. Surprisingly, it was way easier than I thought it would be. All it took was remembering the taste of her lips, then the swell of her curves, the hard planes of her muscle… and then the throbbing ache in my temple disappeared along with most of the chains.
I mean, I replaced that throbbing with another one much lower, but I could keep that under control for now. As I opened my eyes, the world was thankfully still much more chainless then it had been. All that was left was one woven platinum chain that stretched towards Kaulda.
“So, next time you unlock some new hyper magic power in me that could possibly cause my brain to explode, Lib, warn me first,” I sent with a chuckle as I took off after the chain.