by D. R. Rosier
He was also very reluctant to attack his own people. He knew it was stupid, but there could be some ignorant ones in the mix, just following orders to arrest him. Maybe if they turned themselves in they’d have a chance to escape later. Maybe. It would also put them inside the fortified church of light building, which might turn out in their favor. Maybe.
Damn, his plans seemed to be getting more desperate by the moment.
Before he could decide, three high cleric masters walked into the building rendering his thoughts moot, he couldn’t face three other masters.
“Surrender Carlton, and you have my word none of you will be harmed. Resist, and we’ll simply end you and your three accomplices.”
Cory said, “Sir?”
He looked and saw they were clearly ready to die for him. He wouldn’t allow that to happen, life was hope. They would go peacefully, for now.
He ordered, “Surrender.”
Chapter Eight
I was lost in the movements of our bodies, as Lila and I came together again and again. Lila was a goddess between the sheets, with literally thousands of years of experience, and I was lost in the sensations of her beneath me, moving with me, as I lost myself deep in her eyes.
More than that, the feelings that passed between us seemed to enhance the physical pleasures we shared, I loved my angel, and even if she hadn’t said it yet, I knew she loved me back. She was so responsive to my every touch and movement, and I was lost in the dance of our bodies, and in the connection of our souls and hearts.
When I felt her tremble, and she gasped my name, I couldn’t hold myself back any longer, and emptied myself as bliss transported us both to shared ecstasy. I kissed her softly as we drowned in the aftermath of post coital bliss, and then rolled off to the side before I pulled her against me.
She said softly, “I love to be one with you. It’s so different now, without the lust for power, and the self-hatred mixed up with the anger and hatred for others…”
She cut off her speech as I kissed her once again.
I said, “I love you Lila. I wish you didn’t have to do what you’ve been doing. You are mine, but I promise not to take you for granted. You’re an amazing creature.”
She smirked, “Be careful, you don’t want to give me too big a head master. And… I love you too Nurien.”
I felt like my heart might explode, hearing her say that for the first time, even if she’d intimated as much many times before. Then like a bucket of ice water I felt it at the edge of my reach, right outside the keep were five masters from Jennesar, and I listened to their conversation.
“I’d love to hold you for a long time, and make love to you again, but there’s trouble from Jennesar again.”
It was true we’d already done that for hours, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever want to stop.
She kissed me and shooed me out of her head as she broke the spell, and then followed our bond back. I could feel her deep concern as she entered my mind, just like she used to. Every thought, and everything I could sense was hers to feel as well.
Suddenly I wondered if prudence had been the right course, I could certainly use some master level floors right now. My only choice would be to fight back, and kill them, exposure or not.
Lila said, “That’s not true, not the only way, let me take care of it.”
My first thought was hell no, but as I followed her thoughts I understood her point. She could fight the five masters, and she might even win. Plus, if she did so before they entered the dungeon, there would be no way to connect me to the incident. If she died, I’d just make her a new body. Such a simple thing, but my mind shied away from it. Death was never simple, and the pain of it would be excruciating.
Lila laughed, “I’ve lived through more deaths and physical pain than you could imagine over the millennia. No, the only thing that could truly hurt me would be to lose you.”
I still wanted to argue, but I knew it wasn’t an argument I could win. The feelings of fierce protectiveness and anger at those that threatened me came across very clearly.
“Alright my angel, go for it.”
I felt her flee my mind back to her own body, and then she teleported right to the middle of the crowd, with her sword out. She looked human, if exceedingly beautiful, the wings were put away. I also knew, that now that she’d been to the capitol of Jennesar, she could teleport back just as easily when the fight was done.
“There you are,” Lila said confidently, “Did you think you could hide from me?”
The men, one of which had been about to attack the princess, turned to the new arrival. One of them opened his mouth, no doubt to ask what the hell she was talking about, but she lunged forward at a speed beyond human perception and took the man’s head before he could speak. Three of the other four men drew a weapon, the fourth started casting.
“You’re going to live just long enough to regret that,” one of the men said.
Lila grinned and slid forward, but the master swordsman was alert now and managed to parry as the other two moved to surround her. She was incredibly fast, and honestly it was a thrill for me to watch her kick ass, and use the body and power I’d given her. That initial rush however had been part magic, and so far, she’d not used the spell again.
The master mage was finishing up his own spell, I recognized it and I was sure Lila did as well. As he finished she managed to dodge two attacks, and hold up her sword between her and the mage. She muttered a three-word spell, and the mage’s bolt of dark magic, which would have caused torturous pain as it slowly disintegrated Lila’s body, instead bounced off her blade and back right at the mage.
I would have cringed at his screams, if I’d had body at the time.
Her brief pause to repel the curse cost her though, one of the masters wielding a mace slammed it into her side, and sent her flying ten feet. The armor I made her was fine, but the impact was still felt. She managed to roll up onto her feet using all that inertia to her benefit.
She sneered at the three remaining as they warily moved to circle her again. She was like me now, a being of a higher plane, perhaps not as strong a one as I was, but she had access to many of the same talents. Including not needing to speak out long spells. I watched as she formed a spell’s pattern directly with her mind, and fed magic to it. Then with a wave of her sword, which was pure theatre, a net of darkness shot out and wrapped around the wielder of the mace that had just struck her.
Then it tightened, slowly, as she continued to fight off the last two, the other one slowly died as his armor’s enchantments were eaten by the dark magic, and his body was compressed, bones cracked and then were ground to powder, as his body was slowly crushed into something unrecognizable.
The other two masters were a little freaked out, which just made Lila grin wider as she blocked, spun, dodged, and parried all their attacks. That part was actually turning me on, but the mess of flesh, bone, and blood still being contracted kind of counteracted that effect in my mind. It was almost with sense of relief that the thing went up in a flash of intense fire, incinerating everything inside the net.
“What are you?”
Lila replied, “Your death.”
She lunged forward, parrying his sword stroke with her armored forearm as she ran him through. Four down, one to go. Four masters down, and she’d only taken one serious hit, thanks to the armor imbued with protections from all six elemental magic spheres, the other hits were light. She was fierce though, and I was enjoying the show.
I just wished I could participate, I was tired of hiding, but I reminded myself again, I couldn’t afford any more enemies. But soon my time would come, and hopefully I’d find allies as well. I may have been powerful, but I held no illusions that I could fight the entire world.
The last one fought with a desperate intensity and shocking violence. He lasted almost ten seconds before he lost his head. I felt Lila’s satisfaction as she cleaned her sword on the man’s garment and then slid it nonchalantly back into her s
heath.
Donnell cleared his throat, and the princess and her party looked like they were in shock.
“Who are you?”
Lila smiled, “Just passing through. Have a nice day.”
Then she disappeared in a swirl of rising shadows, and I heard her giggles in my mind…
Catalina shook her head, “Did that just happen, I thought that asshole was going to kill me. Who was that?”
She’d been so sure they’d back down, that they wouldn’t risk war, but when she’d identified herself the men had seemed to become more emboldened. It worried her, the only way that made sense was if they wanted a war.
Donnell shrugged, “A master assassin perhaps? It was clear she had dark magic, and was suppressing her aura somehow. She suggested they were running from her, but that didn’t really fit, did it?”
Catalina shook her head, and then looked down as a disturbing thought occurred to her. It was rather convenient, wasn’t it? Another attempt by Jennesar to destroy the so called dungeon, and that woman showed up right before they went inside? Nah, that was paranoid, wasn’t it? Had she said that to muddy things? Or maybe she really was chasing them, but they weren’t running like she’d thought?
Donnell said, “Felt the dungeon grow again, so watch out in there until it can be rated again. My guess though is what was there is the same.”
Jerrold nodded slowly, “Thank you Donnell, we’ll give a report when we come out.”
They started to walk toward the dungeon entrance in the temple, and she laughed a little, as it occurred to her she kind of trusted the fake dungeon, since she was willing to go inside of it after all. It was very clear the thing could kill her at the drop of a hat. She was more powerful than she was when she’d started, but the dungeon was gaining power far faster than she was.
Mina asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, just glad to be alive.”
She winked at mina as they walked down the stairs, and into the teleportation alcove.
Jerrold asked, “I think we’re ready for seven, unless you want to do the elementals again?”
She knew they were about the same difficulty, and Jerrold had improved too, matching that level’s official designation of Journeyman five. She thought she was maybe a three, though she hadn’t gotten checked recently. Same for Suzy. Only Mina came in at the bottom half of Journeyman in the group now, and that wasn’t a big deal.
“I have a bunch of air elemental stones I’ve never even had to tap once, I suppose I don’t need anymore.”
Mina laughed, “Me too, but water ones.”
Suzy gave us a mock glare, which we all understood. Light and dark stones were the rarest of type, and the dungeon didn’t have those at all.
“Fine with me, my magic will be more effective against demons anyway.”
Jerrold replied, “Don’t be too sure of that, the seventh floor is journeyman five, but after that they’re in the adept levels. These levels and monsters will look like the old four through six, but be a lot harder than you remember.”
Suzy shrugged, “Agreed, but even if they are more resistant to light magic, my spells will still be more effective against a dark mob than an elemental.”
Jerrold grunted agreement, “Here we go,” and selected the seventh floor.
Teleporting was a bit disorientating, but it only took her a moment to accept the new view and location. At least they were safe in these alcoves, they couldn’t even be ambushed by other adventurers, because the teleport wouldn’t work unless the target alcove was empty. They were more than alert as Jerrold opened the door and they walked into the first room.
It was a high but small cavern, with stalactites, and it didn’t take long for the imps to start shooting fireballs down from the ceiling. She felt a rush of heat, but no true damage as her shield of air, and Suzy’s shield of light deflected the magic. Jerrold and Mina were even more well protected, the former with highly enchanted armor, and the latter with a water shield.
She’d forgotten how much she hated the little annoying imps, they were a pain in the ass. They needed to hurry and kill them, before the weak but plentiful fireballs broke through the shields by simply how much the imps were hitting them. On the other hand, she had an image of her explosively large air bolt taking down half the stalactites and impaling her own party. They weren’t all that large, and looked more like hanging spears. Which was of course, the point of them.
Damn dungeon was evil.
She had an idea, she’d been working on a variation. She cast the spell and instead of one very large air bolt, the power was broken up into thousands of little needle sized air bolts, which were actually extremely sharp at the end. Then she let the spell loose.
The air needles separated as they rocketed up into the ceiling. Some of them struck into the imps in several places, some of them into the stalactites. After piercing into the stone and flesh, the magic released all that air pressure.
Crack! Boom!
A dome of ice appeared above her, and she smiled at Mina.
Jerrold yelled, “Are you crazy!”
She laughed.
Jerrold growled, “This isn’t funny!”
She laughed harder, “But… look,” she managed to get out.
Jerrold looked around, and his forehead creased in confusion, as all he saw was blown apart imps, and dust.
She explained, “The spell blew apart the stone. Although, the ice shield is nice, we would have been covered by dust, and bloody parts of imps otherwise.”
Jerrold’s eyes narrowed, “Was that a new spell?”
She shook her head, “No, I modified my air bolt spell, it wasn’t hard.”
Jerrold laughed, “When’s the last time you were tested?”
She shrugged, “Why?”
Jerrold said in surprise, “Because spell modification takes adept level control and knowledge.”
She froze. She’d actually known that, but hadn’t connected the dots. Had she truly advanced that far? When this started she was rated at Journeywoman level one, could she have really advanced a full rating, five levels? In just a couple of months?
“How is that possible?”
Jerrold shrugged, “I wouldn’t depend on advancing that fast all the time, but maybe all that time you studied meant only your control was in a deficit. It’s possible that since your power levels exceed adept, all you had to do was advance control. Which, casting all day in life and death situations will do quickly.”
She wondered if he was right, probably. She’d spent years studying in the library while not being allowed to practice her magic that often.
Mina took down the ice shield, and they found a few silver coins, and a ring of some kind. That went in the loot bag, to be identified at the end of the day. Then it was time for the next room…
Carlton started to regret not killing them all, innocent or not, as the inquisitor’s cuts all over his body stung as he lay face down in his cell, and the dark bruises ached and pulsed. His body hurt everywhere. With magic, torture was hardly necessary, but the inquisitor seemed to have enjoyed himself quite a bit.
He couldn’t heal himself either, since the cell suppressed the use of magic, drained it off with enchantments before the spell could properly form. Worse than his own torture, he shut his eyes tightly as he heard Selwyn’s screams. They hadn’t even asked him any questions yet, it was pointless. Or maybe, it was to break him down, for what reason he didn’t know. Perhaps it was just cruelty, he knew Jennesar employed such techniques to ensure obedience in the peasants, and Verin planned to convert all of Nysten by the sword if necessary. He’d been a fool to think he could get away with it, his plan had been desperate and foolhardy. Right then, he just wanted to escape and free his people, and get very far away. He didn’t have a clue how to do that though, this dungeon of horrors wasn’t the jail he remembered from his time in the crown city so long ago.
He wasn’t even sure how long he’d been here, a few days maybe? It was hard to t
ell, pain and time just ran together and blurred in his mind, especially without a window to gauge darkness and sunlight. Perhaps the worst part was that he was a master. It allowed the torture to go further without risk of death, his body and magic were extremely strong, and bounced back fast even without healing. Right then though, it was hardly keeping up.
He clenched his teeth as he heard Diana’s piercing scream suddenly cut off. He was horrified, was she dead? He felt a surge of guilt for getting them mixed up in this mess. He heard the cell door clank as a key was used to unlock it. He didn’t bother looking, and instead said a prayer to Boduna to accept their souls and care for them. Had she already received Diana’s?
Norris’s gruff voice cut past the pain and pity, “Well, get the hell up boy, I’m sure as hell too old to carry your ass.”
He turned his head in shock, and was speechless at Norris standing there, with Diana next to him. She looked like shit, but Norris had obviously healed her as well.
Diana said, “Time to go sir.”
He coughed up some blood as he got up, but as soon as he was out of the cell he felt healing energies flow through him.
“How?”
Norris snorted, “Questions later, we still need to get the other two, and escape.”
He grunted, “Which way?”
Norris led them a few cells over, and he winced as he saw Cory was a bloody mess on the floor. He imagined he probably didn’t look any better. He wasn’t sure how any of this was worth it. They did get a confession, but it was worthless. Or was it? His mind spun as he and Diana rushed over and dragged him out of the cell. His healing spell joined Norris’s, and Cory’s wounds faded quickly leaving behind perfect skin, and clearing away the young paladin’s paleness. Cory must have lost a lot of blood.
Cory woke up and hugged Diana fiercely.
“Thank you…”
Norris cut him off, “No time for that, Selwyn, then escape.”