“We’ve been separated from the others though,” Rienna unhappily noticed. Dinsch nodded, seeming to be relieved that Rienna wasn’t actually mad at him after all. He wouldn’t have pointed it out to her, but she was noticeably more like a woman since she had let men get under her skin, to put it nicely. It wasn’t unheard of for women to say a thing and mean another, not intentionally but to avoid talking about things that bugged them before they were ready, if at all. He really didn’t have the right to call anyone out on half-truths though, considering how he glossed over the truth about Kahtya. He also didn’t let anyone know how it still hurt him that he had to kill her. He had never really had the time to confide in his best friend Krose about it either. Time was not something they ever seemed to have a lot of. Just thinking about things made him suddenly think of something else.
“I guess you’re worried about Ashe, right?” Dinsch blurted out.
Rienna seemed surprised that he asked and silently interpreted it to mean he felt like he had invaded her territory with that kiss. She smirked.
“As if I could think of him after a kiss like that,” Rienna teased, not sure why she felt the need to do so. Dinsch’s shock made her laugh and she shook her head and her mood sobered again.
“I do miss him, but my unicorn friend warned me that we should be wary of this place. It looks sleepy, but the illusions here can be deadly. She told me we could dispel them by…” Rienna felt a little silly saying it. “By telling them they aren’t real.” She shook her head. “Doesn’t that sound terribly simplistic and childish to you?”
Dinsch blinked intentionally a few times as he thought about it. “Like telling the monsters under the bed they aren’t there,” Dinsch gave as an example, slowly enough that she could hear the disbelief.
Rienna laughed but nodded.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself… But please stay close to me, Dinsch; apparently, this place has some very convincing illusions.”
Dinsch, like most of his animal ancestors, did not disguise his unease at that, twitching and fidgeting with visible anxiety. Illusions were powerful tools of fear and he did not take Rienna’s warning lightly.
Krose’s introduction to Elcarim had been among the more unfortunate but his head had made contact with a rock and it had been lights out. When he woke, evening was creeping in and his head was pulsing with waves of dizziness and nausea and he had weakly gained his feet, only to be rewarded with the urge to vomit into a nearby bush. He looked around unhappily and noticed he was alone in a strange place, not quite sure how he got here, wherever here was. He sat against the tree as the evening pushed closer to night and as much as he hated to admit it, it seemed that his only option was to summon Lumina, the elemental that had killed his friend to give him his magical gifts.
He had scarcely even thought of Lumina before the being appeared before him in a flash of light that brought back his nausea, which resulted in greeting the elemental with another sickening round of heaving. The bright golden woman in front of him did not look at all the same as the one he loathed in his head. He thought maybe it was two women but realized it was just his sight doubling from the onslaught of pain. This one had long wavy hair, more slight of figure and a kind face.
“You don’t look like Lumina,” Krose accused, his voice wavering, drunk with nausea.
But the elemental laughed sweetly, seeming to expect the accusation, tossing her wavy hair girlishly.
“We told you before that the Lumina are many,” Lumina scolded him lightly, even waving her finger at him. She stepped forward, placing her hand on his head and glowed brighter. Her hand seemed to draw the pain and sickness away as he gained his feet, but she started to fade.
“I hate you all,” he admitted unhappily, but she ignored it.
“This place is illusion, Krose, and forcing me away. No time… Be careful!” Lumina was trying to warn him as she faded away. So much for getting any answers and he had no idea what the hell any of that meant. He hated how damned cryptic elementals could be. He was certainly no closer to understanding anything. His head was a muddled mess and the last thing he really remembered was watching Chevalle, that cold general bitch, dying in Myceum. More correctly, having her head splattered with a bullet.
He looked around and started walking in a random direction. He debated sitting there and waiting for a while to see if his friends might find him but the place gave him the creeps. The air here was thick and he could feel the pressure, which told him wherever here was, it was obviously high altitude. The clouds above were huge and close, an odd sight to see when you are used to them being so far above. As night came, he did not see a moon at first, but when he did, it was as stunningly gigantic as the clouds. After some time, he could see a light in the trees and swore he could see people dancing there. The closer he got, the more he was sure he could see women dancing in the nude and his curiosity got the best of him and his steps quickened. When he got close enough, he was thoroughly aroused by all the beautiful raven-haired women giggling and running about a huge campfire bouncing around unabashedly. He watched their breasts bounce and their hips sway in that way only a woman could pull off. When they saw him, they did not startle but invited him to join them. He was reluctant, if only because he felt the voyeur and there was no hiding the erection he had invited with enjoying the scene.
He stood stunned as they stripped him bare (but for that stubborn ring that didn’t budge) and their hands stroked him, top to toe, hard and soft and thorough. He was drunk on ecstasy as the women rode him one after another, feeding him juicy meats and fruits while he recovered from each climax, another ready to go once his erection came back. He was sure this place was some kind of warrior’s heaven and he didn’t even notice when one of the women had bound his hands. He started to panic as he realized his feet were being bound as well and they were raising the pole he was bound to. He noticed there were two great poles on either side of the fire that looked like it could balance the pole he was on to be roasted as if on a spit. It did not take long to see that they had intended to do just that and he struggled frantically to free himself.
The women were no longer beautiful but became grotesque creatures with morbidly distended guts and covered in bubbling blisters and oozing scabs, laughing and licking their cracked lips, anticipating the taste of his cooked flesh. Their hands and feet were twisted like the claws of a great bird and their lumbering gaits were unnatural and lurching in direct contrast to the fluid sensuality from before. He looked at his own body and could feel the heat of the fire and saw the blisters forming on his body. He started to scream in terror and closed his eyes. Lumina’s words came to mind in his panic and he screamed them, wanting to figure out what she had meant.
“This has to be an illusion! This can’t be real!” he shouted repeatedly and he could feel himself falling off of the spit as hysteria brought him close to screaming. He could not bring himself to open his eyes and he knelt on the ground, sobbing like a scared child until he could. When he opened his eyes, there was no fire but the remains of a huge beast that had been torn into maggoty, putrid chunks laid there. More of the fetid hunks of meat adorned the stump where there had been the food the women had fed him. His stomach roiled and he made himself puke. Great gobs of rotten black meat and dying maggots came up and he sobbed with disgust, making himself puke until it was little more than clear bile that dribbled out and hung from his lip stubbornly. He tried to catch his breath as he crawled away from the morbidity here, heading towards where his armor had been discarded. He was heaving and sobbing, trembling in wretched disgust.
Krose heard a shriek and he curled into a fetal position in his terror, shrinking away from the touch of a hand in his horror, but his vision cleared as he heard Verity’s voice trying to comfort him.
“No, no, you’re not really here, you’re an illusion,” Krose babbled out and Verity was terrified for him, noticing his groin and mouth were smeared dark with the rancid blood of the gore all around them.
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But she did not disappear and she kept trying to calm him.
“No, no, sweet Krose, it’s me, Verity. I would never hurt you, please, let’s get away from this awful place and get you cleaned up,” Verity said calmingly.
Verity hid the gruesome scene from Krose with Mirage and led him away from the nightmarish area, back the way she had come where there had been a still, clear, shallow pond. They had not even bothered to grab his armor; like all of their magical things, it would come back to them later anyway.
Once there, she led him into the water, her being fully clothed and gently washed the blood away until he was clean. He sat there quivering and rambling unintelligibly and she continued to stroke his head and calm him with soft platitudes. He started to tell her about it but she shushed him and told him it was over, that they would be careful from now on. From what she had seen and gathered, she already knew she needed no more details to be spooked or sympathetic to his fear. In fact, her empathy was overactive and his terror was becoming contagious.
Once he was calm and asleep under a blanket, she noticed a strange glow and saw that it was Finn carrying a white wooden staff. She had anticipated this before but finding Krose had made her forget all about the Mother telling her earlier. Her heart soared and she ran towards him. Once she caught up, she leapt into his arms and started to lay kisses all over his face in her happiness. She wept and grabbed his hand.
“Finn, I found Krose and he was so scared; this place is a lot more dangerous than it looks, so we need to be careful! The Mother had told me to expect you because of the staff you carry, but she couldn’t stay long…” Verity said in a rush, then gasped as his hand clamped down on her wrist so hard that she cried out in pain. When she spun about, she saw that his face was becoming grotesque and black and falling off in great chunks.
She screamed but could not break away, tugging so frantically that she seemed to be okay if it tore her arms off when one of Krose’s daggers planted itself in the thing’s chest. The dagger caused the wretched being to release her and melt into a sick black puddle as she clumsily scurried in a crab-walk to get away from it. This time, it was Krose comforting her as his dagger reappeared in its sheath and they held each other for comfort now.
“I was trying to tell you, Verity, but we have to stay close now. This place is full of illusions that repel intruders and we have to be strong and careful to get through this without going mad. Lumina had been forced to leave me too soon before she could tell me, but I figured it out. Thank the gods I figured it out,” Krose told her, his eyes still haunted by his own experience. Although, he berated himself for being so careless as to go along with the illusion to begin with. The sickening feeling was returning. Did that count as both necrophilia and bestiality? He really hoped not.
“Does that mean we can’t sleep without fearing this place?” Verity asked unhappily, and they flinched with fear at another glow appearing close by. Krose’s Lumina had reappeared, flickering like a sputtering candle, but he drew his dagger distrustfully, an involuntary whimper escaping Verity’s trembling lips.
“I won’t fall for another illusion! Begone!” Krose shouted, but Lumina rolled her eyes now.
“Be at peace, my child, though I know it does no good to say it. The illusions might be able to chase me off, but they are not limitless and the energy it takes to frighten you means it will not be back to haunt either of you for a long while. If not for the place sleeping, you would be driven mad by the endless onslaught of illusion. You must make haste to find Viper and beat the next illusion. I will make you both rest now and I will guard you while I induce the sleep; we are not entirely cruel creatures. It does me no good to see either of you dead since this time is so crucial. You will be on your own after this and the illusions may not come back for a while but do not think this place is entirely safe still; be on your guard anyway. Your enemy has plans of his own,” Lumina warned.
Verity and Krose were too wired and frightened to think of rest, but Lumina’s magic lulled them both into peaceful sleep as she promised and she indeed guarded them until it was time to wake them by dawn. After all, it did not benefit the elementals to lose their heroes here. Their lives were definitely in the elementals’ own self-interest.
Chapter 2: The Dreaded Ex
Rienna wasn’t entirely at ease even though she wasn’t wandering Elcarim completely alone. Neither she nor Dinsch had any idea of how to go about finding their friends or Viper for that matter and the whole idea of a hidden land booby trapped with illusions didn’t sit well with them, guarded with the warning or not. This place was outside of the realm of humans, a place that was as unpredictable as the elementals. This was also a realm that even the elementals had been wary of. The night had come and gone and they had slept in shifts to be careful but neither of them felt safe in any event. Not knowing what illusions might come was a terrifying prospect and no one liked the idea of your worst nightmares appearing before you real enough to drive you to madness. Both were anxious to find their friends, get rid of Viper and make Elcarim, no matter how beautiful, a distant memory.
They approached a clearing by midday and noticed a strange spot in the middle that was not the same lush green grass as the area around it. As they approached, they noticed that the dirt spot in the middle was in the strange shape of an X. Both held their breaths uneasily but Rienna released hers and stepped forward, causing a strange miserable sound to slip out of Dinsch’s mouth. Rienna stood on the X and nothing happened so she smiled as they both released their pent-up breath. Rienna’s relieved laughter was cut short as the ground swallowed her, leaving no evidence she stood there. Dinsch had a moment to wonder if this is what his friends had seen when Girdinus had first taken him, but the moment had passed quickly in his concern for Rienna. Dinsch panicked and started to dig at the X, hoping it would be her he found and that he didn’t just dig his way through the continent first to fall a long, long way to his death.
“It’s just an illusion,” Dinsch cried out, but Rienna did not reappear and his cheeks grew wet with his tears as he dug for her. He cursed both of their stupidity for not being more careful. I mean, come on; when has an X on the ground ever been a good thing? And on an untouched floating continent at that!
Rienna wasn’t sure if moments or days had passed when she opened her eyes to pure blackness. She opened and closed her eyes, unsure if she was really doing so, since what she saw was exactly the same. It was a strange sensation, true pitch black. Even when you think the world is dark as you sleep at night, you always see even the tiniest bits of refracted light, faint shadows, all things that tell you that it may be dark but there was still light. In pitch black, there is absolutely no light and you get the sensation that the entire world is only as far as your own skin, that the weight of darkness is painted firmly against your eyes and you lose the sense of your own limbs. It causes a kind of shock that robs you of direction and balance and as the shock persists, your eyes start to move involuntarily and rapidly as they search frantically for light. Rienna whimpered with desperation, wanting confirmation she was not robbed of her sense of sight and noticed she could still feel and breathe, smell and taste, if only her own fear. She could feel damp rock at her back and noticed that her hands must be shackled above her head to the rock behind her. She struggled in futility with her eyes still wide open and hysterically searching in vain.
In front of her, a set of glowing red eyes appeared suddenly, maybe a couple feet away and though it made her shriek and try to look away, her eyes so desperate for light kept forcing her to look.
“This isn’t real, it’s not real!” Rienna pleaded, but there was laughter now and a dim light suddenly illuminated the cavern and Rienna gasped at the familiar form. Her heart seemed to miss several beats before she could feel it catching up rapidly.
“NO, no, you’re not really here! Why isn’t this going away?” Rienna whined as tears rolled down her face, the illusion not cooperating.
“My lovely, lovely
bride,” came the menacing version of Belias’s voice now, still in the formal soldier’s uniform that he wore on the day of their wedding, the day she had been widowed when he died. It was a corrupted version of it though, seemingly dipped in black tar and stained. Belias had always been a stickler for keeping his clothes impeccable so it was unsettling. She had seen him once after his death when Sea Star had first found her and he had told her to live and to forget about him. Now, despite his kind gaze, she was in anguish anew as he refused to disappear like a good little illusion.
“It must disappoint you that I am not an illusion for you to wish away so easily,” Belias mused, the sweetness now disguising a touch of venom.
“Belias, you told me you would find peace,” Rienna pleaded again, through her tears.
“It was not my promise to make, my love. Do not blame your flaky elemental for the misunderstanding, but her waters have been tainted by Viper’s malice for so long that her information just isn’t to be trusted anymore,” Belias told her, his voice strange and unfamiliar in its cadence. Rienna could swear she heard strange echoes around them that sent cold fear through her. If Night or Pierait had been there, they would have recognized those voices.
“What are you? Are you really Belias?” Rienna whispered, sure that whatever the answer was, it would cause her no peace.
“Of course, my love, I will always be your Belias, no matter how many men you fuck,” Belias’s words had started out saccharine but the last three he had punched out coldly, each one hitting her as if he had planted his fist in her chest and squeezed her heart with it.
“Never mind that, my lusty bride; you can’t possibly think that I was going to our marriage bed pure after all,” Belias drawled on and she realized that she had indeed thought that he was. Rienna had never once noticed him talking to any other women and right now, she wasn’t convinced that this thing was Belias at all, just a thing that wore his form to torture her.
The Truth about Heroes: Complete Trilogy (Heroes Trilogy) Page 53