‘I am not going anywhere near that thing,’ Ruby shouted, a little too loudly.
The drake cocked its head, attention wavering from the hunter on the roof. Vadania used the opportunity to slice a nearby claw that gripped one of the chapel’s crumbling towers. The drake screeched and lunged faster than the elf anticipated. She avoided its teeth, but was rammed against the opposite tower, swiftly ducking to avoid its swiping claw.
‘Look Ruby, our friend is in danger, we need to help now.’
Sawwse breathed in two lungfuls of forest air.
Ruby poked the gnome in the stomach, releasing the air.
‘Don’t call it over here. Seriously.’
Sawwse was surprised by the genuinely nervous face on the wrinkled man in front of her.
‘But can’t you just turn into a bear again?’
‘It’s not that simple.’
‘Ruby, can I ask you something?’ Corinne broke the tension. ‘Are those ginkgo berries I can smell in your bag?’
‘Yes, I collected them earlier... Why?’
‘Corinne, not now with berry regulations. I thought you were coming up with a plan. We might be a bit short on time here,’ said Sawwse, impatiently.
‘I did come up with a plan, but I think we may have to adjust it due to unforeseen circumstances.’
Corinne pointed behind them to the chapel. The drake’s nostrils flared as its head peered over the side of the chapel. It then slid its body over the brickwork. Stone flaked off the chapel’s bricks as the drake’s scales brushed against them. The drake sniffed the ground before its gaze settled on Ruby.
In an instant Ruby’s bag and clothing fell to the ground, hostless. A small tawny sparrow-like bird flew out of the clothes and into the trees nearby.
‘Well, that’s just fantastic,’ Sawwse muttered.
Sawwse and Corinne began slowly pacing backwards, without taking their eyes off the beast.
Jumping from the roof of the chapel, Vadania’s short swords caught a ray of light, causing them to glow. She landed on the drake’s back, piercing its scales with all the force she could muster. The monster howled its harsh cry. With great strength, Vadania began drawing the swords down the drake’s spine, carving a ‘V’ shape with her blades.
The drake rocked back and forth furiously, eventually bucking Vadania off its back. As she fell, its tail whipped against her side, shattering three of her ribs and launching her inside the chapel. The screeching drake was too large to enter the church, so it thrashed around the building in its rage instead, trying to reach Vadania, who lay just out of reach.
Sawwse knew it was only a matter of time before the drake broke through the chapel walls. ‘Think Sawwse, think,’ she told herself. ‘What can you do in this situation? That thing isn’t calm enough to send to sleep.’ She rubbed her neck, still sore from Ruby’s de-gydifying potion. ‘That’s it.’
Sawwse whispered her plan to Corinne, who nodded in agreement. Slowly, the gnome retraced her steps back to Ruby’s amorphous bag.
The drake was still focused on Vadania. It had begun ramming its shoulders into the gate of the chapel, unfixing the bricks from one another.
Reaching into the bag, Sawwse felt all manner of textures: rough, soft, coarse, slimy. She tried not to think about what her hand was coming into contact with. After a few moments she found what she was searching for. Removing it from the bag, she lifted up a large glass jar and observed the gydi seeds within. She loosened the lid and hurried silently towards the cerulean beast, with Corinne close behind.
The walls of the chapel looked increasingly less stable as they approached. Sawwse waited until Corinne had her book to hand. Once ready, Corinne began channelling the air around them into a gentle breeze: not powerful enough to attract the drake’s attention, but enough to take the light seeds on their way. Taking off the lid of the jar, Sawwse shook them out into the mage’s current of air.
Floating placidly, two of the gydi seeds gently bumped into the drake’s back. It spun around quickly and caught the rest of the seeds in its snout. The drake flared its nostrils and breathed in the seeds. It immediately stumbled, one way and then the next. It screeched its wrenching howl again before shaking its head, trying to shake out the dizziness.
Sawwse and Corinne were relieved the plan had worked, until they realised the drake was continuing to stumble towards them. They scrambled backwards, but the beast had now managed to lock onto their scent despite its nausea and disorientation. It craned its neck and snapped its large, sharp teeth at them. They jumped backwards out of the way, once, twice and then BOOM! A cosmic-sounding explosion.
They were both forced onto their backs by the sound, feeling the ground continuing to vibrate underneath them. The drake was knocked off balance too. Spinning around in confusion and fear, it hardly felt the two clean swipes to the neck that finally ended its life.
Vadania stood over the drake’s body as its deep red blood spooled out of the wounds.
‘You may not be a dragon, but you are dragon-kin, and that is crime enough.’
The elf walked over to Sawwse and Corinne, helping them to their feet.
‘I owe you an apology.’ She knelt on one knee, eye-level with the gnome. ‘You both helped greatly, thank you.’
‘It was nothing, really.’ Sawwse mock-brushed dust from her shoulder.
‘The biggest assistance came from that explosion,’ Corinne added. It was clear that she was still feeling the effects of the sound, hunched as she was, hands over her ears.
Vadania stood again and looked over in the sound’s direction.
‘Yes, that is a worry.’
‘Is it safe to come out yet?’ said a tiny, chirping voice from the branches of the tree above them. It was too quiet for Corinne to hear, and Vadania had already walked back to the drake. Sawwse looked up and gestured to the felled beast.
Ruby hopped down from the tree and bounced on the ground into her clothes. The legs and arms extended first followed by an inflating of the centre. A few seconds later a sandy-haired head popped out of the cloth.
‘Phew, that was a close one.’
Sawwse made a non-committal noise.
‘Any idea what that noise was?’ Ruby asked, scooping a few things back into her bag.
The gnome shrugged. ‘Not sure.’ She was annoyed at Ruby for leaving them in the lurch like that. Corinne walked over to the elf, and Sawwse followed close behind, leaving Ruby to finish packing her bag. The sandy-haired woman watched the three of them walking away and sighed deeply. She began to plot where she should go next, when Sawwse turned around and called after her.
‘Are you coming then?’
Ruby gathered her bag and ran to catch the others.
Vadania explained to the others that the city of Zell had posted the request for the monster to be slain. The dilapidated chapel housed a well that the city needed to use for their water supply, and had been unable to access since the drake’s occupation. Once defeated, they were to take a trophy to the city and claim their reward.
‘When they said “trophy” I believe they may have been referring to a small part of the beast, to evidence that you have defeated it.’
Corinne could hear the bulky mass Vadania was dragging across the forest floor behind them.
‘Yeah, I’m sure an eye would have sufficed.’
‘Or a tooth.’
‘Or a claw.’
‘Or a tongue.’
Sawwse’s annoyance at Ruby didn’t last very long. They were both back in cheeky form, making each other smile.
‘There is a talented blacksmith in Zell,’ Vadania said, lugging the drake’s body. It slowed her pace, but showed the others just how strong she must be.
‘That sounds like the beginning of a rhyme,’ Sawwse began, mischievously. ‘There’s a talented blacksmith in Zell.’
‘Who creates armour to make you excel,’ chimed Ruby.
‘She hits metal by da
y-’
‘Very well, some would say-’
‘But when speaking, sounds just like a bell!’
Sawwse and Ruby skipped in front of Vadania, giggling, continuing to add nonsensical rhymes to their strange story. The elf considered these small creatures with bemusement. It’d been a while since anyone had made her laugh. There wasn’t much room within her personal quest of vengeance for amusements. However, their attitude was so infectious that she decided to try one of her own.
‘There’s a talented blacksmith in Ze-’
Mid-rhyme, a large five-pronged leaf flew from the ground and smacked flat against Vadania’s mouth. The two impish members of the party burst into laughter, but were abruptly cut short by two more leaves that sealed both pairs of mischievous lips.
‘Shhh,’ Corinne whispered, holding a finger up to her own lips.
Vadania’s furious eyes first darted to the mage, and then she too noticed something awry and switched focus to a patch of trees up ahead. She slipped her arms out of the straps holding the drake and drew her twin blades. Sawwse and Ruby quietened obediently, slowly shuffling behind Vadania.
‘Who goes there?’ Corinne called out.
There was no response, so the company cautiously moved closer. They felt the atmosphere change. There was an aura or presence of power greater than any of them had ever experienced before. It electrified the air, charging it with possibilities.
‘We seek safe passage to Zell,’ said Vadania, on the off-chance this was an unusually powerful forest troll from whom they needed to request entry.
No response. And then, just ahead, a thunk.
The adventurers moved forward to investigate. An unconscious figure lay slumped against a tree.
‘M-Mirrah!’ Sawwse exclaimed, her heart leaping and fluttering uncontrollably.
Mirrah’s clothes were tattered and covered in dust. A large, bloody gash in her side soaked through her green dress. The gnome ran to her. She placed a hand against Mirrah’s cheek, but immediately recoiled as a shock trembled through her body. This was not the reunion she’d hoped for.
‘Who is this?’ Vadania demanded.
‘She’s a friend, well, kind of. I met her in Pettibeck. Corinne, can you help her?’
The trainee mage knelt beside the gnome and placed her palms above Mirrah’s motionless body.
‘I will try to assess the damage.’
‘G-guys?’ Ruby squeaked, unheard by the others. ‘Guys,’ she said again, louder. ‘What’s that in her hand?’
Clutched in Mirrah’s hand, was a glowing, obsidian statuette.
‘But why would she-,’ Sawwse faltered. ‘That’s the second idol.’
Chapter 16: Tempus Incognita
Location has gone. Now I become unmoored from time. I am out of sequence.
Swirling clouds of purple solar dust dance against the darkest black of space, keeping a cosmic tempo. Continents shift and converge, rupture and diverge, before unburdening themselves of their lava and gases, in fleeting planetary moments. Insecurities grow, ideologies solidify, and armies form: masses of grey figures move in unison across golden yellow fields, leaving decades of ruin. A dull ache in the head transforms into a growing numbness of the mind.
I am now. I am now. I am now.
My feet fall onto hard ground. Rapier unsheathes. My sister falls backwards from the cliff. I reach out my hand, but she’s gone.
I am then. I am then. I am then.
Time cannot be constrained. To coerce it into a linear, unified scale is impracticable. When temporality is restrained in this way it begins to burst at the seams. Time speeds and slows, splinters, cracks, fissures, refracts, and grows. Ghosts haunt the past, the future spins wildly on its axis, and the present teeters over a chasm.
I am now. I am then. I will be.
It is curious. Though my mind fades further, a melody persists. A slow, melancholy tune, and with it, an affective transient encounter. Sawwse Bohge. A smile brightens my face, but then…
Another phasing begins. I’m on an island. Or at least, there is a sea. The horizon blurs first, followed by the trees in front of me. I sense the atmosphere around me becoming heavy, dense. My bones grind in their sockets and my body folds inwards, disappearing momentarily into the ether. Here my joints no longer ache. My mind does not split. I am out of time. I am out of place. Here, I am a feather falling in a windless sky, unburdened from my body and my thoughts. If only I could stay here. But then, I am thrust back to the physical realm at such force that I burst apart.
The explosion has destroyed everything. I sit and listen to the aftershock whining. Tears roll down my face. What good will that do? Will that bring them back? Bring them back… My sister falls from the cliff. It is the leverage the Ancient Device needs.
The fog in my head clears for the briefest of moments. I remember this place. Out of the whole world, I have phased into Zell. Why has my body brought me here? I walk through the city, electricity flowing through the air and into the ground. I walk to the blacksmith’s forge. She lays frozen in place, shocked into a paralytic death. I carry her body away, and return to the still-hot forge. My fingers draw a pattern in the air and it falls away like sand. A statue of darkest obsidian: one of my three keys to the Device’s location. Damn it! It’s clear to me now. My betrayer’s curse and the Ancient Device’s magic are working together to bring me to ruin. I must tell M-. The fog starts to descend. Damn it all!
I stumble into a forest, a walking bomb. With what remains of my mind I try to take on my body. I cast a spell of fixity on myself and fall into a coma. I know not how long it will hold me, but at last there is peace... for a while.
Chapter 17: Zell
The city of Zell was completely decimated. Houses and shops lay in ruin. A perfect line ran through every building, halving them, leaving them dissected like dioramas. The few people they saw were lifeless, bodies on the ground. Dark clouds of electrified grey smoke filled the air, crackling and sparkling. The adventurers stood at a distance from the danger, staring in shock and silence. They had left the comatose Mirrah resting against a tree near Vadania’s drake carcass. Corinne had managed to heal part of her deep wound, but the damage was too complex for her skills. The adventurers had rushed to Zell in order to find a cleric but found only devastation.
It took some moments for them to recover from their shock. Once they had, Corinne started nervously thumbing through her spell book.
‘There must be something in here that can help,’ she said.
Vadania tapped the ground at the edge of the city. ‘Feel the ground,’ the elf suggested. There was a curved line in the earth, clearly delineating the destruction.
‘This was an immense power,’ Corinne replied. She turned to face Sawwse. ‘For your friend to have survived this...’ she trailed off.
‘How is it that you know her?’ Vadania began, in an interrogatory tone.
‘Now, wait a second. This wasn’t her. She’s a victim here,’ Sawwse replied defensively.
‘We need answers,’ the elf said.
Vadania stormed past Sawwse back to the spot where they’d left Mirrah. Sawwse ran to keep up with her. When they arrived, they found a portly man bent over Mirrah’s body, seemingly jostling with it. Vadania drew her swords and the man spun around at the sound of steel. A look of panic shot across his face.
‘Don’t hurt me, I’m a monk,’ he protested. He wore a religious habit: a clay coloured tunic with a pointed hood.
‘That’s your reason?’ Vadania growled.
‘What were you doing?’ Sawwse asked, taking a step towards the monk.
‘I was seeing if this woman needed any assistance,’ he said. ‘Is she a friend of yours?’
‘Yes,’ replied Sawwse instantly, ‘and yes, she needs a cleric’s help quickly.’
‘Ah, I’m afraid I am not that kind of cleric,’ the monk said, flashing an apologetic smile. ‘I meant, er, spiritual assistance.’
‘Did you witness what happened to Zell?’ asked Vadania abruptly.
‘Yes. I was returning from meditation in the forest. I had just reached the edge of the woods when I saw a blinding flash of light. It seemed to cut through the air. I was confused, but I didn’t realise anything was wrong until that huge boom. The force knocked me back into the woods. I must have hit my head on something and passed out.’
The monk rubbed the back of his head.
‘When I came to, I stood, stupefied. Staring at the utter horror of it.’
‘Did you attempt to look for survivors?’ Vadania asked. She looked at the monk with scorn, untrusting.
‘There’s no way I could. I’m simply a monk. I don’t know magic.’
Leaving Mirrah once again, the elf marched the monk and Sawwse back to the edge of the city.
‘Changeling, can you search from the sky?’ Vadania asked as she reached Ruby, who shifted around uncomfortably. Sensing the reason for her apprehension, the elf glowered at Sawwse and added, ‘I think we have already met the cause of this devastation.’
The gnome, who remained oblivious of Vadania’s insinuations about Mirrah, now stood staring at the lifeless bodies that lay on the ground within the city.
‘You know how this happened?’ the monk asked, shocked.
‘We haven’t drawn any conclusions yet,’ Corinne answered, unsure to whom the new voice belonged.
‘Okay, I’ll have a look,’ whimpered Ruby, after a pause. Her eyes became beadier, swivelling in their sockets and drawing round the side of her face. Ruby’s mouth extended into a short, sharp beak, and plumage flushed over her body. She shrunk and shot up into the air as a falcon, taking care to fly over the smoke clouds.
The monk seemed to watch this transformation with faint amusement.
‘Do you find something about this funny?’ Vadania asked sternly.
The monk shook his head, no. Meanwhile, Corinne painted a symbol on the air and incanted something from her book. A yellow film of energy rippled over her body.
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