by Jez Cajiao
“Expensive, but effective,” Grizz said, stepping up and holding the naginata out to me. “They create a pair of books that are absolutely identical, then use a lot of magic to pair them up. Whatever you write in one appears in the other, and vice versa.”
“Sounds useful...” I said, and Grizz grimaced.
“Yes, and no. Like I say, awfully expensive, plus there’s no security on it. You’d never know who was on the other side.”
“That’s why we used cyphers and confirmation codes,” Hannimish said woodenly. “That way, you can confirm their identity.”
I shook my head, thinking of easily half a dozen ways to get around that in seconds, but I kept my mouth shut.
“So basically, you were ordered by… who? Someone in your city?” I asked, and he cleared his throat and wiped at his eyes before responding.
“City Lord Rewn. We are distantly related, and old friends. He ordered me to attempt to reach an accommodation with you regarding your rank and position; we were to turn to violence only if you attacked first. Lord Ren seeks allies against Himnel, not another enemy…” Hannimish said, clearly shifting his voice to a more formal and less… hurting… timbre. “I am empowered to request a meeting with you, at a neutral place, where you and Lord Ren could reach an understanding.”
“Ha, after this?” I grunted, lifting my left arm into the air where he could see it, waving the truncated stump around. “You think I’ll trust you now? Besides, half of the ships on their way here, filled with the fucking SporeMothers, are from Narkolt. You want to explain that?” I asked, then I turned to Grizz without waiting for an answer. “Grizz, search that cocksucker. Find the Diary and pass me that goddamn knife… carefully,” I said, moving to the side and sitting on a low wall, the shock and horror of what I’d just done finally catching up with me.
I squashed it down, ignoring the pain and the horror that I’d just maimed myself, and told myself firmly that I’d be able to be healed. I had an amazing pair of healers; Hellenica had already regrown one hand for me. There was no need to be worrying about this shit… not right now.
Hannimish started talking again, but Tang and Grizz, seeing the state of me, shut him up and led him and his guard aside, searching them roughly and making sure they were disarmed.
Grizz stomped over, crouching down in front of me and offering a healing potion. I eyed it and snorted, mistrusting the bright, glimmering liquid.
“The good lord Hannimish actually told me which pouch had their best potions; there’s a pair of these and a pair of mana, all ‘Greater’,” he said quietly. “How are you doing, boss? I want to send Tang back to get the others and bring them here; that okay with you?” He popped the top off the potion and held it up.
I took it, drinking half of the ruby liquid, and feeling a new heat radiate outwards from my belly, banishing a portion of the lethargy and shock I suddenly realized I’d been sinking into.
“Yeah… yeah… you do that, Grizz. Thanks, man,” I said, passing it back to him. He stoppered the bottle and set it down on the wall next to me, before offering the mana potion next.
That, I drank all of, feeling my mana leap upwards and the regeneration increase at a phenomenal rate as he passed me the last item. Joshua’s accursed dagger.
Death’s Kiss
Further Description Yes/No
Damage:
25-500
Details:
The ‘Death’s Kiss’ dagger was crafted long ago by an order of assassins serving the Empire. This weapon is inscribed with the motto of the assassins ‘Carpe noctem, die causa vivendi’ and can be used to inflict the following wounds:
Fester: Inflict a gradually building fever, the original attack has a 50% chance to numb and seal the wound, leaving the victim unaware of the injury. Cost 250 mana
Necrotic Feasting: This wound will spread, dissolving the flesh of the victim, this wound cannot be stopped so long as there is flesh to convert, only slowed. Cost 150hp
Infected: Gives the victim a 50% chance of the wound becoming infected and requiring special healing. Cost 50hp
Poisoned: 25% chance to cause additional 5-15hp damage to the victim per strike. Cost 75mana
Special attack: Cursed! For 100HP and mana, the wielder can inflict wounds that cannot be sealed, bleeding the victim to death, or until this curse is removed by use of CurseBreaker. Wielder receives 10% of the bleed effect as additional health until this effect is dispelled.
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Legendary
Yes
67/120
30/500
I read and reread the details, wondering what the hell ‘CurseBreaker’ was. I called to Grizz, seeing that Tang was already gone, and Stephanos had moved over to stand guard over the prisoners in his place.
“Grizz, we need something called ‘CurseBreaker’; no idea what it is beyond that…” I said, and he nodded, moving back to the corpse and starting to search it quickly.
I saw the look of pain on Hannimish’s face as Grizz so casually and roughly tore through the pockets, bags, and other belongings. I scowled, understanding the feeling of horror somewhat, but dismissing it, as Joshua was a fucking prick.
Grizz started tearing things free, passing them over to pile up next to me, and I went to work.
Boots of Bloody Stepping
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
Gain +3 to speed when these boots have recently been splashed with fresh sentient blood.
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Rare
Yes
57/100
N/A
Midnight’s Vision ring
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
Gain +200ft to DarkVision
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Rare
Yes
95/100
N/A
Ring of Healing
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
+250HP in instantaneous healing, single use per charge
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Highly Rare
Yes
92/100
2/5
Barbed Dagger
Further Description Yes/No
Damage
10-25
Details:
This dagger has been enhanced with serrated teeth along the rear of the spine to do additional damage
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Uncommon
No
77/100
N/A
Coif of the Night’s Warden
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
Gain +5 to defense when equipped. Collect two further pieces of the Night’s Warden Set to receive further set bonuses
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Rare
Yes
52/100
N/A
CurseBreaker
Further Description Yes/No
Damage
1-4
Details:
A specially created companion to the ‘Death’s Kiss’ blade. When ‘CurseBreaker’ is returned to its place in the hilt, any wounds that have been inflicted by ‘Death’s Kiss’ will cease to have magical aspects.
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Legendary
Yes
67/100
N/A
“Well, thank fuck for that,” I breathed, turning the dagger over and over as I examined it. ‘CurseBreaker’ was a thin metal rod, about half as thick and long as my little finger, and after a few s
econds of careful searching, I found the slot. At the base of the weapon, a thin metal plate had been hidden, and when I touched the rod to it, it slid aside, revealing a narrow hollow, clearly meant to house it.
I slid it in and let out a sigh as another prompt popped up.
Congratulations!
You have broken 17 continuous infliction wounds spread across the following victims:
Al’an Triniar
Rennical Tosa
Proma Ris’aun
Wellin Jeffer
Bane Ter’Jax
CurseBreaker will no longer funnel health to the following bearer: Cletus Thane. Do you wish to break the bonds between Cletus and this weapon, allowing another to wield it fully?
Yes/No
I selected yes, and I felt the dagger shudder strangely, seeming to become lighter in my hand.
“Who the hell were they?” I muttered to myself, having recognized only Bane’s name amongst them. Then I shook my head and took the sheath that Grizz offered me for the dagger. I swept the rest of the gear he’d stripped off Joshua up, dumping it in the bag, and forced myself to my feet, grimacing at the phantom feeling of still having the rest of my left arm. Again.
I forced it out of my mind and walked to the Vault, inspecting the walls where they glowed gently. Oracle would have cracked this in a second, I just damn well knew, but I didn’t have her, so I was going to have to figure it out.
I walked slowly around it, Grizz walking with me, watchfully staring out at the darkness. Idly, I played with the Midnight Vision ring as I went, slipping it on and off my little finger in my pocket, as Grizz carried my naginata for me.
After two complete circuits of the small domed area, I was still none the wiser, and I finally stopped at a cleared section, noting the marks on the floor nearby showed that something had stood here for a long, long time to wear grooves in the metal like that.
There were four patches, two further apart at the front, and two closer together at the back, with rough patches where they’d been shifted again and again over the years…
They almost looked like...
“A chair…” I muttered, straightening up from where I’d been crouched to examine them. I looked around and spotted a chair where it sat against a stack of old bones and general detritus.
The room gave the impression that it’d become a mixture of a throne room, a bedroom, and a marshalling hall for the Lich, with piles of random shit everywhere; collapsed small walls, and weird items, including a wheel of bones joined together with a seat in the middle that made me think of a waltzer at a fairground. I shrugged dismissing the details, as I strode over and grabbed the chair, before having Grizz gently but firmly take it from me and carry it over.
I looked at it as he turned it over, then put it down in what must have been its accustomed position. It grated into place, crumbs of bone filling the grooves, but once it was there, there was nothing else, and I frowned, thinking I was missing a latch or…
“God dammit, I’m an idiot!” I cursed myself and I closed my eyes, concentrating. I shifted my consciousness sideways somehow and focused, activating an Ability.
As soon as I felt ‘Seek That Which is Hidden’ activate, I reopened my eyes and froze. The entire room blazed with a soft golden light.
Sections were brighter, or dimmer, but the small pagoda in the center, the structure that that I’d been circling, shone like the sun. I stared at the building, before seeing movement out of the corner of my eye.
I looked over to my right and lifted my eyes upward, then froze as a feeling of existential dread filled me.
The ability showed that which was hidden, and right now, what it was showing me, amongst other things, was that the dark walls of this place weren’t walls.
They were glass, or something like it, and the darkness was caused by a combination of being underwater, a buildup of scum slowly growing across the glass over the centuries, and because an enormous creature currently slumbered against the side of the city.
I couldn’t make out much beyond long tentacles, teeth, and a humped body that looked like a mix between a dragon and a bulldozer. The thing was easily as long as a football field, without counting the appendages.
I turned back from looking out, and stared at the Vault, determined that I would get inside this thing and escape the goddamn place fast.
“What’s up, boss?” Grizz asked causally, looking out at the darkness and lifting the magelight he wore attached to a hoop around his neck. He started waving it, trying to make out what I’d seen, when I hissed at him.
“Stop it, you goddamn fool!” I snapped, and he looked hurt.
“I was just…” he started, and I shook my head putting my finger to my lips and glaring at him. As soon as he stopped, I nodded and whispered to him.
“There’s something out there, and it’s about the same size as the fucking battleship. It’s asleep and pressed up against the walls. They’re also not ‘walls,’ so much as teeny fucking tiny windows… so let’s not wake it up, okay?” I said, and he blanched before nodding firmly and starting to quiet people down.
I turned back to the Vault and glared at it, stamping closer from the chair. Clearly something, presumably the Lich, had sat here staring at the Vault for a huge amount of time. There were shattered bones everywhere, and bonemeal, the ground-up bits of bone, scattered around, so he’d tried brute force, and until now, at least, that’d not worked.
I circled it again a fourth time, and finally, I noticed something different.
There was a small indentation on the side, scratched and battered and familiar. I stared at it, wondering and trying to figure it out, until I started to hear the sounds in the distance that indicated the gnomes were approaching.
I looked to Grizz in horror, and he nodded, turning and sprinting for the exit.
I turned back to the recess, knowing instinctively that it was there for something to be attached. I squinted at it, ran my fingers across the edges, and swore as it nicked me. I lifted my finger away and saw no blood… but I could have sworn…
No.
I stopped myself, looking from my uninjured finger to a single glimmering, silvery drop that slowly vanished into the recess.
It wasn’t a wound I’d felt, it was a drain.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The missing part was a manawell, like those back at the Tower, similar to the wells I’d found when I first met Oracle and the others. There was a missing section designed to hold the manawell, and it looked to have been torn off in a fit of rage.
I spun around, scrutinizing the floor, searching.
“Boss, you okay?” Stephanos asked carefully, still watching the prisoners.
“No,” I said firmly. “You remember the manawell from the Tower?” He frowned thoughtfully, then shrugged.
“Sort of? I mean, I saw one, I think, once?”
“Dammit. Okay, you’re looking for a bowl; just think of it like that, a damn bowl, and one we need to find right goddamn now!” He gestured at the prisoners in question. “Leave them,” I said simply, then raised my voice, figuring if the creature out there had ignored the fight earlier, a moderately loud voice was unlikely to get its attention now.
“If any of you move, you’re dead,” I declared, and then I started searching.
A few minutes passed before Yen and several others arrived, the horror that was clear on their faces making me grimace over my lost forearm all the more, until they too started looking in earnest. Yen jogged up to me and nodded in respect.
“Bane’s alive,” she said without preamble. “Whatever you did, his wounds have closed. The last time Arrin hit him with a heal, they just sealed up like normal. He’s unconscious, still gravely injured, drained, and in no fit state to be upright for a month, let alone fight anytime soon, but he’s alive and stable. Arrin’s unconscious as well, although I think that a combination of overuse of mana channels and exhausted relief.”
“Thank god,” I breathed, pausing and cl
asping her shoulder. “Well done, Yen!”
“It’s my job, Jax, that’s all.” She shrugged but looked pleased with the words.
“Well, I need you again…” I admitted, gesturing around the detritus-strewn space. “I need to find a bowl; it’s a manawell, but it’s most likely that you’ll recognize it as a bowl, about this big…” I explained, miming the size with my hand and stump, “and we need to find it fast.”
She nodded to me, then sprinted back to the gaggle of gnomes and our team, who were peering cautiously into the room.
She spoke quietly for a minute, gesturing and clearly passing on the rough dimensions I’d given to her… then the group scattered, gnomes sprinting away from each other at high speed.