Minzkala

by Amy E Hix

  “Has anyone not been inside the Coterie?” he asked as he drew out the assignment from the parchment case.

  “I haven’t,” Jaerra and I said in unison.

  Solecreation looked up in thoughtful contemplation, “All right. Jaerra and…”

  “Call me Turk, everyone does,” I quickly told him.

  “And Turk,” he continued, “Though the holographs are not real, you will see real results from your attacks. For instance, Jaerra, when you land an arrow onto your target, the holograph will receive it and will react according to the hit.

  “In addition, the hits you take will seem real, after all, the absence of pain is the best incentive out there,” he grinned and paused to think of anything else, “That’s it for the basics. Depending on our assignment, let’s see here… Yes, we will be running a Rescue Mission. One of our team members will be held captive… here let me read this,

  In the tower of Maelan, Grosteques have taken your Pyromancer captive. They plan to gain information from him/her, and this will most likely turn to torture or death if you cannot reach your team member in the time allotted. Once that person is retrieved, you must return to safety in the Arcane Atrium.”

  He placed the assignment back on the table and looked at us, “Now for strategy. In my experience, and considering the Grosteques aren’t altogether intelligent, the Illusionist, Wingaeltan, should start us out by entering the tower in the form of a Grosteque. This will allow us to locate Aurala first.”

  Wingaeltan nodded in acknowledgement to the instructions, “Sounds easy enough, and you can just call me Winge.”

  “Very well,” Solecreation was making a few notes to the parchment and looked to Winge once more, “Once we know where Aurala is, make your easiest exit, even if it’s out the window, and get back to the team. If Aurala is higher in the tower, it may be easier for you to levitate us up into the window, provided there’s a safe place to float across. Jaerra, you have a set of cables, right?”

  “Yes, I do,” she tugged on the grappling hook strapped to her belt.

  “Great, that’s Plan B,” Solecreation turned to Ryan, “We’ll need your submission spell for the guards once we get inside.”

  “I’ll be on it,” Ryan assured him.

  “All right. Anywhere there are Grosteques, there will most likely be Demon Masters. It will be important for these to be our main targets. Kill them first and then we’ll take care of the little guys…

  “Guess that’s pretty much it. I’m bound to make a few adjustments as we need them, just make sure you’re paying attention to anything I have to say throughout.”

  We all nodded and started gearing up for the run. When all the teams had been called, we began to walk toward the entrance to let the leaders know we were ready.

  “Ok, you guys don’t leave me hanging in there,” Aurala instructed.

  I couldn’t help but smile, “Glad it’s not me, I know that.”

  We lined up across the front of the stairs that led to the Coterie. Captain Kellerson approached the podium once more and addressed the crowd, “Team One will now attempt to complete their assignment. You will be able to see everything that goes on through the holographic projectors that have been placed above the center of each table. Pay close attention to this team’s performance and learn from any mistakes you see.” Then he looked at us and said, “Enter at will.”

  Natasul raised his stave into the air, “Grant us strength. Grant us wisdom. Grant us courage.” A sandstorm of colorful sparks filled the air around us and immediately I felt a surge of power, my mind fully alert and ready to respond instantaneously to anything that came my way. We stepped inside the portal doorway and were transported into the middle of a large field.

  To the left in the distance, I could see the Tower of Maelan, with flying Grosteques in the skies above it. There was swamp with a small bridge to cross in order for us to reach the tower. To our right was a set of walls that carried a Rhalas flag atop, obviously the Arcane Atrium.

  The timer above the entrance to the Atrium already showed less than fifteen minutes and it was counting down. Aurala was no longer with us.

  “Let’s move,” instructed Solecreation, and as we set out, he continued, “We’ll take the bridge, even though I know what’s there. The other groups can learn something.”

  “Now we walk, but should we run, hasten us to get this done.” We started moving across the field with great speed after Winge’s words.

  Solecreation glanced at him as we ran with very little effort at all, “Nice one.”

  When we reached the bridge and began to cross it, a giant Ogre Shaman revealed himself. He was guarding the path across and immediately released a dust cloud into the air around us to try to confuse our movements.

  “Split up and get out of the dust,” Solecreation shouted.

  We did as he instructed and found clean air. Jaerra and I stepped backwards out of the cloud as Alysias and Solecreation immediately charged the Ogre, swords drawn.

  Ryan stepped out to the side where he caught sight of the target and let out a paralyzing blow that stunned the Ogre just as Alysias and Solecreation were in range to strike it with their swords. The first two blows hit it hard, but the Ogre was still in good condition.

  Natasul stayed where he was and tried to do something with the dust, “Westerly fair, clear the air.”

  The wind caused the dust to disperse and now Jaerra had a clear shot at the Ogre. Her poisoned arrow hit it directly in the chest and a few seconds later, the poison began to weaken him.

  The Ogre bludgeoned Solecreation across his left shoulder, causing him to draw back in agony. Alysias hurled herself through the air, flipping over our enemy and landing on the backside. She immediately stabbed straight into its ribcage with her left-handed sword. The Ogre turned to deal with her next.

  I focused my healing on Solecreation and the mangled flesh on his shoulder started to disappear. Solecreation yelled out a war cry before the healing was complete, lifting his sword above his head with two hands.

  The Ogre turned back around when he heard the war cry, giving Solecreation the perfect shot. He hammered his sword down with all his might into the Ogre’s chest, and it went down.

  “Easy enough, but we’ve lost some time,” breathing heavily now, Solecreation raised his sword toward the tower, “Let’s go!”

  We moved on toward the tower. We ran into a few hills surrounding it.

  “We’ll stay here. Go on, Winge,” Solecreation let us all catch our breath for a few minutes while Winge carried out his part of the mission.

  Winge stepped out from us and waved his right hand over his face, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he was in the form of a Grosteque.

  He immediately flew into the air and slipped in amongst the other flying Grosteques. He circled around the tower, glancing in the windows, but he saw nothing of Aurala. He went inside the top like he was going to work his way down.

  That made sense; he could move faster on the downward slope. It wasn’t until we were back in the courtyard that I learned everything Winge had done while he was in there.

  Walking on all four legs through the corridors of the tower, Winge listened for any clues as to where Aurala might be. After traveling down to the fourth level, he noticed an Ogre Demon Master standing in the middle of the room. Great, he thought. He knew the Ogre would notice he wasn’t truly a Grosteque, but didn’t want to seem suspicious with his movements, so he said he stood still for a thirty count and looked around a bit.

  There was a door in the side of the stairs, but he couldn’t make out if it was an adequate space to hold a prisoner or not. Still, the Ogre present seemed like he might be guarding something.

  Winge slowly turned and walked back up the stairs slipping back out the window up top. He wanted to make sure about Aurala’s location, so he looked over at us and motioned
for us to wait. Then he flew down to the window just below the Ogre and began to check the lower levels.

  “What’s he doing?” Natasul asked.

  “Hmmm…Not sure,” said Solecreation. He took out his field glasses to check our time. “We’ve only got seven minutes left. If he doesn’t make it back in at least one of those, we’ll have to go in anyway.”

  Just as soon as those words came out of Solecreation’s mouth, Winge popped back out of the tower from the same window he had entered.

  Reaching the hill where we stood, he reported, “She’s on the second floor and she’s guarded by an Ogre and two Grosteques.”

  “Let’s move,” Solecreation ordered unnecessarily, for we were already on it. “We’ll take the main entrance on the ground level and just fight our way to Aurala. Cut through those bushes so they don’t see us.”

  Winge hastened us once more and our movements began to speed up. It would serve us well to be a little faster while fighting, too.

  “They tried to trick us…put an Ogre on the fourth floor, too. When I checked the second floor, it was like Aurala knew who I was and lit up a fire spell in the window of the door when the Ogre’s back was turned.”

  “Yep, pyros can detect magic and their ability distinguishes between good and bad magic,” Solecreation informed Winge. “Run straight past the two door guards and we’ll fight them inside to avoid being spotted from above.”

  As we approached the entrance, Ryan held out his hands, pointing one toward each of the two guards. The Grosteques were petrified immediately, without a single growl.

  We were able to finish them off with ease as we continued to file inside the tower. I felt a small surge of victory.

  On the staircase there was another Grosteque. Alysias rushed in and stabbed it before it even noticed we were there. One slice of her long blade was all it took.

  Upon reaching the second level, the Demon Master turned toward us and commanded the two Grosteques with him to attack.

  Ryan focused on the Grosteque to the left, submitting its actions to aid the team and causing it to attack the other one.

  The Ogre raised his hands into the air slowly, causing us to rise from the floor. Then he flung his arms outward, and we were slammed into the walls of the tower.

  As we were getting back on our feet, another Grosteque from the stairs noticed the commotion and flew into the room. It landed on Jaerra’s back preventing her from shooting her bow. I tried to heal her in time, but the filthy demon was too fast. With its claws and teeth, it ravaged her until she fell to the ground.

  Ryan threw his paralyzing blow on the Grosteque while Winge ran over to open the lock on the door in the wall. Aurala jumped out to join the battle, her first fire spell used to blast the Grosteque on Jaerra.

  The beast was dead. So was the one being attacked by Ryan’s enslaved demon. I kept healing Jaerra all along, but all my efforts still left her lying on the floor.

  Solecreation had been keeping the Ogre busy, and now all our attention fell on his target. We got the Ogre down without incident and then killed Ryan’s enslaved demon.

  Solecreation knelt beside Jaerra and grabbed her jaw, slightly turning her head upwards, “She’s dead.”

  All faces fell to the floor. We exited the window from the second floor, and Winge levitated us all the way back to the courtyard. I don’t think any of us felt like being strategic and getting extra points from kills on the way out. We had blown it. A death was a major penalty.

  Two Grosteques spotted us, but with the haste, we had no problem outrunning them. When we reached the Arcane Atrium, the area around us began to glow with a blue aura and we were transported back to the courtyard outside. Jaerra returned to our sides.

  “While the mission was complete, this team is left without a sense of victory,” Captain Kellerson addressed the crowd.

  We all realized that what he said was true. Each life was precious, and though we knew we could never prevent every death in a real battlefield, our goals in these practice rounds were to try our best.

  Captain Kellerson must have known how we felt because he didn’t critique anything else; he just called for the next team and went on with the event.

  Back at the table, Solecreation wasted no time in comforting us, “Given a more important goal, like rescuing the King of Rhalas, we did great out there. But it’s hard when you spend a life to gain a life of equal significance. How do we choose whether Aurala or Jaerra dies? We’ll get it right. Take some time tonight to reflect on what we could have done better out there, and we’ll share ideas before we go back through the Coterie tomorrow.”

  “What do you say we run a couple of practice rounds in the morning?” Natasul suggested.

  Solecreation nodded, “Yeah, I’ll check on that.”

  We continued to watch the other teams in the Coterie, some succeeding, some failing. There were only two teams that really bombed their missions. Most of the other failures were due to minor problems. We did notice one thing while watching the teams: if there was a bridge, it was avoided to save a little time.

  But no matter how hard I tried throughout the event, I couldn’t keep from feeling like a failure; after all, I had been assigned to Team One, and the crowd expected us to be the best. I was the one responsible for keeping teammates alive.

  I just knew they all blamed me and my catastrophic healing performance. I should have been working on Jaerra from the moment I saw the Grotesque fly onto her. For some reason, I thought I had a little more time, so I was keeping my attention on Solecreation while he fought the Ogre.

  What did I ever come back for? To become more of a failure? And why was my life so full of ups and downs? All I wanted was a little normalcy. I had that back in Turchaesh.

  No one said anything about anyone’s mistakes. I’m sure it was partly because we all wanted to maintain a good working relationship with one another, and partly…mostly, because we knew that it was wrong to think that way in the first place.

  It was a condition of the spirit that plagued all of us. I knew it, but it’s just so hard to fight the urge to preserve an image you’ve worked your whole life to portray.

  Maralune was full of people who couldn’t even recognize the condition. People who muttered out slogans like “Trust no one but yourself” and “It’s a dog eat dog world out there”. People who would blame a hundred people for their mistake before taking responsibility for it. I don’t think we would have been chosen to fight for Rhalas if we didn’t at least admit our flaws. The “I” mentality is not good for any team.

  So instead of blaming, I think we all began to try to rethink things. I know I personally made a conscious effort to put away self-preserving thoughts and began to look at what I could do differently next time, which was a lot in my eyes.

  Alysias tried her hand at comforting us, too, and said, “We did have two that had never run it before.”

  “And all the other teams got to see what to expect before their runs,” Ryan replied.

  Ryan was a Halfling from Ewiniar, dressed in black heavy leather over a red canvas shirt. His cloak was lined with bright red embroidered designs throughout. He had done well in the Coterie.

  Demon Masters were rare to find in Maralune. The typical DM, as the class was called, was an evil self-involved loner. They would slip away from society to enter the lairs of demons and set up shop.

  Ryan was strong in the ways of the Ancients. He seemed to be silently focused on this performance and never looked to gain acclamation from other people. He was quick to support his teammates, often pointing out strengths that had been overlooked.

  Throughout the evening, Natasul sat back from the table to keep his conversation with Solecreation between the two of them. No one took this as an insult, however; most of us knew the two were good friends and probably had more than just matters of the Coterie to discuss. I overheard a
little of what they were discussing.

  Natasul had become interested in Jaerra’s performance on the battlefield. Though she had been attacked and had even felt death, she never once complained as he put it, “almost all women and most men would.”

  Solecreation teased him for liking her when he said this, which made Nat clam up for a while afterwards, worried that someone else had heard the comment. I pretended I didn’t.

  I had thought all I could about the Coterie. I finally concluded that there was nothing my healing spells could have done for the mortal wound the Grosteque made on Jaerra. Had I been in Minzkala, I would have received the gift of laying on hands. Heh, sorry. I guess I still have a little of that begrudging spirit left in me.

  Instead, I decided to suggest we go out together and take our minds off things, “Anyone want to go for a drink when we get out of here? We’ve got free-practice all morning tomorrow.”

  “Count me in,” Solecreation was never one to turn down a nightcap.

  Natasul said he’d go, too, “Yeeaah, buddy. A good strong ale sounds really good right now.”

  No one turned down the proposition. It would be nice to get to know these guys a little better before we really got into the action. We needed some time to bond a little.

  Fourteen

  Art’s Place

  Turk

  After the last team had completed its run through the Coterie, we all headed over to Art’s Place in the Garden Park District. Solecreation led us there. He knew the off-beat places to go. Most of the pubs downtown were far too crowded and normally ended up with disorderly conduct violations from at least a few of the patrons. Art’s place would be busy, too, given the sheer numbers of warriors in the city, but we would get better service with less hassle.

  When we got there, lively music was playing in the arboretum. It was nice. Stone tables and benches with ornamental black iron ivy were spaciously positioned throughout. Tiny lights lined the arboretum skyline, and the trees and shrubs around the edges provided seclusion from the rest of the Garden Park businesses.