Emptiness

by Viktor Zólyomi

  `It seemed to me like it fired them much faster than a sling or a crossbow could.'

  `Indeed! Them bullets are veeeeeeeeery fast... and a lot of them come out of the barrel, too!'

  `Where did you get this thing?'

  `It's from another world, boy!'

  I figured he'd say something like that. An extraplanar weapon.

  `Another world, huh?'

  `Yes, from another plane of existence. A world where weapons like this are more common than axes in a dwarven village. The people I got it from called it a machine gun, but I prefer to call it something else. A lead-breathing hand-dragon...'

  `Fitting name...'

  `Damn right! With all the noise it makes, even a dragon can feel ashamed next to it... It eats up a lot of ammunition quickly, but it's very effective. Hey, you wanna try it out now? Meliorath told me to give you one after we reach the city anyway, you might want to practice a little.'

  So, this is the weapon she bought for me? Interesting. He hands me the lead-breathing hand dragon and shows me how to use it. It seems complicated at first, but it is actually pretty simple. He shows me how to load it, and how to make it fire.

  `See this thing here? This is the trigger, much like on a crossbow. You just pull it back, and whoosh! Blink just once and a dozen bullets already left the barrel and tore into your opponent! Come on, try it out.'

  I walk next to one of the dead bandits and aim the barrel at the corpse. Then I pull the trigger. With a lot of noise, the weapon breaths out all the lead inside and shreds the corpse full of holes in no-time. When the weapon stops firing, I release the trigger, and give the hand-dragon back to Aaron.

  Then something comes to my mind. The bandit leader had an enchanted armor. Although the enchantment was rather light, it would take powerful magic to pierce it. My own enchanted sword, which can cut through steel, could not pierce it. The bullets of this weapon shredded that armor to bits...

  `Is this thing magical?' I ask.

  He shakes his head.

  `No... That's what makes it the weapon of the future! Imagine, anyone strong enough to hold it steady can use this thing, and it does so much damage in just a few seconds that you wouldn't believe it if you hadn't seen it! These bullets can pierce through all but the thickest armor, and can greatly weaken magical shields as well. You fire enough bullets at a mage protected by the most powerful of spells and he'll soon be standing there defenseless. If you've got at least one more bullet left, you can easily put him out of his misery with a precisely aimed shot to the head...'

  An interesting, intriguing weapon that Meliorath purchased for me from the smuggler. Not bad at all... Too bad her purchase will be wasted. Likely I'll never get to use it. A pity...

  `You are right, this is the weapon of the future...'

  `Now come along, boy! We need to move on.'

  Easier said than done. The bandits are all dead, but all our companions were also slaughtered. Just the two of us left, how do we move on with the caravan? We can take only two wagons, and that's just half of the shipment. How is he planning to deal with this?

  `Bloody bandit scum! Pfeh...' He moves towards the nearest wagon and, after kicking one of the corpses, he climbs up to the seat.

  `Hop on, boy! I'll ride this thing, you sit next and keep watch as we go.'

  `What about the rest of the shipment?'

  `We have to leave it behind, there's not enough of us to ride four wagons.'

  `We are enough to ride two...'

  He jumps off the wagon and walks to me.

  `It's too risky. We are more than one day away, and we can't ride without stopping. One of us must stand guard at all times, and riding two wagons just won't let us!'

  Leave it behind, just like that? Odd to hear that from such a greedy merchant. I wonder...

  `How will you explain that you only brought a quarter of what was ordered?'

  `I'll just tell them the truth. That bandits attacked us. It's very common in these parts.'

  `I take it you're assuming that the wizards of Re'Cas will be lenient?'

  `Ha! The mages and leniency... Bullshit! They'll only pay me for what I deliver!'

  `So why would you give up on your payment so easily?'

  His face turns red as he looks at me with anger. Shortly, his anger vanishes and he smiles.

  `I see you are not just a fierce fighter, but you've also got a sharp mind! Very well... You know what, after this battle, you've earned my respect, so... come along, I'll show you something.'

  He leads me to the side of the wagon and removes one of the pouches on his belt. He glances around for a while, and then looks me in the eye.

  `You ever seen one o' these, boy?'

  Of course. It is a magic pouch, similar to my own. But I choose not to tell him that. I shrug my shoulders.

  `Sure. It's a pouch. Who hasn't seen one?'

  `Ha! It's no simple pouch boy! This, is a magic pouch. It can carry so many things inside that you wouldn't believe.'

  He waves his hand towards the wagon.

  `All the stuff we are carrying there, is just for cover. The real shipment is right here, in this magic pouch. Sure, I'll get some coin for the wine as well, but this is what my customer in Re'Cas really wants.'

  With that, he opens the pouch and places it on the ground. He begins to pull the mouth open, and extends the pouch. Soon it becomes so large that even a barrel could fit through the opening.

  `Hold this, will ya?'

  He hands me the mouth of the pouch, and then reaches into it. He grabs something and begins to pull it out. It is a large crate. Looks pretty heavy.

  `All right, boy! Lemme show you what we're really transporting here.'

  He opens the lid of the crate and reveals its contents to me. What I see is... shocking... For a second, I wonder what I have apparently fallen into.

  `Is that what it looks like?'

  `Yep...'

  The crate is packed full of large metal objects, each consisting of a long thin metal barrel with a handle and a few additional extensions on it.

  `Lead-breathing hand dragons, boy! And bullets. Lots of bullets.'

  `How much?'

  `Two dozen crates.'

  `Enough for an army.'

  `Exactly.'

  `Do you know who's buying?'

  He shrugs his shoulders.

  `Well, Meliorath bought one for you, with some ammo. The rest... I don't know who it is exactly. One of the wizards, from the city, that's all I know.'

  `You're delivering it without even knowing who it gets to?'

  `Why not? I'm a merchant. I make a living by buying and selling merchandise. It's that simple, boy! Besides...'

  Here, he lowers his voice.

  `I'm not too fond of the Supreme Council, to be honest.'

  `Barely anyone is. So what?'

  `Like you said, this stuff is enough for an army. I somehow suspect that this army is going to attempt a coup d'etat in Re'Cas.'

  Yes, Aaron. I guess you could put it that way. Although I doubt you'd like this kind of coup d'etat...

  But the shipment will never make it to Re'Cas. Meliorath planned everything so well, but not well enough. There is something she does not know, and now it's far, far too late...

  `That'd be something to see...'

  `You bet, boy! Now come on, I'll show you the other half of the shipment...'

  This shocks me even more. There is another half to the shipment? What could it be? As I keep pondering over the things that I had just learned, Aaron shoves the crate back in the pouch, seals it and hangs it back on his belt. He takes another pouch off his belt, and opens it the same way.

  `Come on, hold it steady, will ya?'

  I hold the mouth of the pouch and he drags a metal barrel out of it. The barrel has a small hole on the top, sealed by a flat metal cup. He twists it and opens the hole.

  `Now this, boy, is something you need to smell.'

  I lean close and smell the contents of the barrel. W
hat I smell is... disgusting. It reminds me of lamp oil, but it is somehow different.

  `What the Hell is this?'

  `The people I got it from had a weird name for it. They called it something like napalm. I just call it, the fluid of Hellfire...'

  `Hellfire?'

  `Yeah. When you light the fluid in this single barrel with a torch or something, it'll ignite into a firestorm that can turn an entire village into ashes. Powerful wizards can cast mighty spells and do the same, but... you don't need to be a powerful wizard to use this. All you need is a spark...'

  `I suppose you have more than just one barrel in that pouch?'

  `Five dozen barrels, boy!'

  Five dozen barrels! Enough to burn a smaller land... What have I fallen into?

  `Them wizards are in for quite the fireworks, boy!'

  `I can imagine...'

  `So, now you see that I'm not losing much by leaving three of the wagons behind. This shipment will earn me a kingly sum, once I deliver it. But we must get to Re'Cas first, and in one piece.

  Alright, let's go! Do keep this between you and me, boy! And don't forget, if you ever need extra ammunition, or you wanna get some more extraplanar weaponry, you just come to me, and I'll get you whatever you need for a fair price. Deal?'

  `Whatever.'

  `Alright then, let's move!'

  He rolls the barrel back into the pouch and we are soon on our way to Gatestown with one single wagon. He rides, and I keep watch for bandits. But no-one comes, and I am left alone with my thoughts. The knowledge of Aaron's real shipment weighs heavily on my mind. Meliorath has planned it all well. I am to enter Re'Cas and slay the members of the Supreme Council. In the mean time, Aaron smuggles a load of extraplanar weapons into the city, without even being aware of her plan. Weapons enough to exterminate all of Re'Cas! Meliorath must have several agents in the city by now. She clearly intends to wipe out the entire city after the Council falls. And then...

  Checkmate!

  Dragon-kind shall rule this world...

  A nearly perfect plan... But she chose wrong. She doesn't know, that we will never make it into the city. She doesn't know what will happen in Gatestown. And even I do not know what will happen to Aaron's shipment after the things that are to come... Anything could happen, anyone could get their hands on these death-weapons...

  Where will this lead?

  And what do I care?

  The Amulet of Darkness

  Somewhere in the world of Kh'Tal, eight years ago (10 years, 4 months, and 9 days before Twilightfall)

  It was a long and difficult journey. It took several weeks to find the ruins. My supplies were insufficient. and I was forced to hunt game on several occasions in order to feed. Water was at least plentiful, as streams were common in those parts. Even if they hadn't been, I could have collected rain water every day.

  When I finally found those ruins, I had a painful reckoning. For even with the aid of the little crystal sphere that Doorn had given me it was quite a chore to find the entrance to the dungeons beneath the ruins.

  Ruins...

  The word ruin does not even begin to describe the state of that once great castle, if it was ever as majestic as Doorn claimed. It was no more than a pile of rubble. Not a bastion, not a square foot of wall was left intact. Amidst all that rubble, finding the entrance leading underground was not easy. The crystal was of no help there. By the time I arrived at the ruins it was glowing so bright that it was no longer of any help to me. I was already too close to the amulet for the sensitivity of the crystal sphere. So I had to find the entrance by more mundane means.

  I actually spent two days searching for the entryway under the rubble. I did manage to use some basic telekinetic magics to move around the bricks, but I only used it in the most difficult places. I did not have enough magical energy to waste on this, I needed to preserve it for the battles ahead. Perhaps a powerful mage could have found the entrance faster.

  The entrance was no more than a trap door. I expected something different, like a stairway leading to a huge wooden or stone door, but it was just a trap door.

  Beyond it, a ladder was leading down to what appeared to be some old wine cellar. Shelves were filled with bottles of wine even then. It was surprising to see how that cellar was so well preserved along with all its contents after having seen the remnants of the castle itself. Most surprising of all was that there was nothing else down there. By nothing else I mean that there were no further doors or even trap doors. It was just the cellar, and nothing more.

  I started thinking that perhaps I was in the wrong place, that the entrance to the dungeons was elsewhere, still buried under the rubble, and I cursed that little crystal stone for not being able to guide me any more. Then I decided to examine the walls.

  After a few minutes, I found a small gap through which I felt a cool breeze touching my hand. A secret passageway, I thought. After clearing the dust on the wall at that place, I found that the gap was too small to indicate a whole door frame. The suspicion in me would not die however, and I used some magic to remove one of the bricks from the wall. I peered inside, and saw a large empty space behind that wall.

  With magic I removed enough bricks to crawl inside, and once beyond the wall I lit a torch. I found myself in an abandoned corridor, which must have been walled up long ago. I decided to explore the place.

  *

  Abandoned it seemed upon first glance, and abandoned it was indeed. For over an hour I wandered within and found nothing. It proved to be much less labyrinthine than I expected, with just a few turns and dead ends here and there. Eventually I found my way into a chamber here and there, but all of them were completely empty. I was almost about to give up and leave, try to find another entrance, when I stumbled upon a very strange chamber.

  It was very dark, but there were braziers by the walls. I lit them with the torch, and looked around. There was a huge stone door at the far end of it. In the center there stood three stone statues. Each depicted a lizard-like humanoid figure. They had no wings, or tails, but their bodies were covered in scales and their heads were of a very distinct shape.

  Half-dragons.

  That was intriguing, for two reasons. Half-dragons are a weaker species of dragons in Arghard. I knew that dragons were native to Kh'Tal as well, but to my knowledge there were no half-dragons around. So why would there be statues of them in this place? I had to assume that whoever lived here was an Arghardian himself, or at least a native of a world where half-dragons did exist.

  The other reason why the statues were intriguing was that they had the appearance of warriors. In fact, one of them was armed with a flail, another with a quarterstaff, while the last one was unarmed.

  The Amulet of Darkness is guarded by a powerful mage called Drabangar. Drabangar himself is guarded by his three guardians. This is what Doorn had told me. Three guardians. There I was, standing before three statues resembling what could very well have been the guardians.

  A warning to would-be intruders, I thought. A warning of what awaits beyond the stone door. But I was severely mistaken.

  As I began to advance to the stone door, one of the statues - the one carrying the staff - began to light up in a reddish light. I was still at least fifteen feet from the statues, but I decided to stop. The statue continued to light up, glowing ever brighter. Then suddenly, the stone surface shattered and revealed the flesh and blood creature that was hidden beneath.

  I quickly understood the source of the glow. The weapon of the half-dragon was glowing with a strong, reddish light. His scales were also red, but not glowing. His eyes were yellow. He - or she, it could just as easily have been a female for all I know - made a slow step forward, and raised his weapon high above his head. He let out a loud war cry, and then proceeded forward.

  So, the first guardian attacked me.

  *

  His speed was intimidating. He was faster even than Doorn. Much faster. Doorn's warning resounded within my ear: The weapons the guar
dians possess can kill you in one hit. Do not let them strike you...

  So, I had to stay quick on my feet. I had to parry his blows and keep my distance. Our duel mimicked my duel with Doorn enormously. So, I understood that Doorn had made me face that test specifically to prepare me for this fight. I passed those tests, but there was a huge difference. It was not enough to force the guardian into defensive fighting, no... I had to kill him. Yet, he was so much faster than Doorn, that I was glad I could hold my ground and survive.

  Then I realized there was another difference. Doorn forbade me to use magic in his test, and I began to understand why. By defeating him without magic I learned how to overcome an opponent in such a duel with my fighting skill alone. Now that I was facing a stronger opponent with a more dangerous weapon in the same situation and thus the stakes were higher, I could use magic to counter the unfair advantage my opponent had. So, I did just that.

  Magic proved to be the decisive factor in the end. The minor little additional weight that would tip the scales in my favor. First, I cast a spherical magical shield around myself, just to be sure. I knew I had to keep my magical shield as strong as I possibly could, but I was careful not to use up all my magical energy.

  Then, I hasted myself to match the half-dragon's speed. That was truly the key moment in that duel. Once I was magically hasted, he was no longer so much quicker than me. Our speed was pretty much equally matched. Then all I had to do was the same thing I did when I fought Doorn and then take it one step further.

  Staying on the defensive I observed his fighting style. After I felt I understood how he fought, I counterattacked, and tried to force him into defensive fighting. It worked. I dealt him blow after blow and he could not counterattack. All I had to do was break through his defense and kill him.

  That proved difficult however. I could not haste myself any better, and he was still fast enough to defend himself. I could not count on him getting exhausted with time. I had to think up something else. I resorted to a different kind of magic this time. With illusionary magic, I created another sword in my left hand. It was not real, it could do no damage, but it looked real. It could fool someone who does not know that it's just an illusion. I was basically bluffing, and hoping he would buy it.