by ilo man
Fin ran after him, pulling Vinnie along by the hand. As soon as they were through the tower’s door, a set of stone steps greeted them. They hugged the outside wall, a column of seamless stone on the inside. Fin bound up them two at a time. Vinnie soon struggled to keep up with her, the steps sapping his energy fast, as though the air was thicker inside. He let go of her trailing hand and sat, gasping for breath, trying to recoup some energy.
Fin vanished around the tower’s never-ending curve.
“Catch up with me,” she hollered.
Vinnie pushed himself up, scaling the steps. When he eventually arrived at the tower’s top, he saw Fin looking out of one of its windows, Spordamant standing on a chair next to her.
“So what’s all the fuss about?” he asked.
Fin turned, her face pale. “Its Sivatious,” she whispered and looked back out.
Vinnie strode across the messy, round room, avoiding the piled up tomes, unraveled maps, tipped over mugs and…several lurking rats. “Man, you gotta clear this place up.”
“I’m a wizard,” said Spordamant. “We’re all scruffy sods on account we think we’re superior to you common mortals.” He winked at Vinnie. “At least that’s the picture we paint. Everything is not what it seems.”
“Fair enough.” Vinnie squeezed in next to Fin, resting on the stone sill. “So, what are we looking a—?”
The words became stuck in his throat. In the distance, he saw two vast, black mountains, ominous, bleeding evil. Over them, storm clouds had gathered—growling black thunderheads, from which bolts of lightning exploded down, faraway thunderous grumbles no more than a whisper from where Vinnie watched. It wasn’t the clouds though, nor the thunder, nor the lightning itself, more the color of it.
Violet infused them, the lightning purple, mauve, and indigo.
“He’s found it,” Fin whispered.
“What?” Vinnie asked.
“Hell’s Bane,” Spordamant hissed. “He’s found it, and so he’s found the force that will bind his armies. Once his mastery of the artifact is complete, he will march south with all his dread troops marshaled to one purpose.”
“Our destruction,” Fin said, just as another flash of brilliant purple lightning filled the sky. Vinnie swore the swirling clouds pulsed and grew.
“Shit,” he said, finding no other words that suited.
“Ale, anyone?” asked Spordamant, as he turned, jumped off the chair and kicked out at the mess. “We’ll go nip downstairs, this is my…study area, bit messy.”
Fin turned, still ashen. Vinnie grabbed her by the arm. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just didn’t think he’d uncover it so fast.”
Vinnie led her along, following the curious wizard back out of the scruffy room. He skipped down a dozen steps and then stopped and turned to the inner, stone, wall and walked straight through and vanishing. Vinnie shrugged and followed, fully expecting to get a bloody nose and hear the wizard bellowing with laughter.
To his surprise, he passed through the wall into one of the smartest, tidiest rooms he’d seen since coming to the land. The wizard had his back to him and appeared to be uncorking a bottle of red wine.
“Take a load off,” he said. “Either sofa, pick one. Wine?”
Two sofas faced a central hearth, a rug on the floor complete with a curled-up, black cat. The hearth had a sandstone mantle with knickknacks displayed in a regimental fashion. A mirror hung above, ostentatious, but not pretentiously so, perfectly complimenting the entire room, which Vinnie likened to new-money-chic.
Spordamant turned with two wines in hand. “One for each, any special request? My alchemy skills are still the best in the land.”
“We’ll have the wine, make a change from ale.” Fin’s words sounded out, but they were devoid of emotion, detached, distant.
“Pull the table over, and please use the damn coasters. It’s what they’re there for. Now, nibbles, or should we get to it?”
“Get to it?” Vinnie asked.
“Form plans, Vinnie-me-lad, form plans. We’re the light; the dark’s been plotting against us. Their armies are about to march, so, time to do a bit of plotting ourselves.”
“You mean, you haven’t been preparing for centuries?” Vinnie said, incredulously.
Spordamant stared at him like he was an unwelcome fart. “Just why would we have wanted to do that, then?”
“Isn’t that what wizards do?”
Spordamant laughed. “Not in XdCeX—too much fucking to be done. Why the fook would we want to be worrying about what might or might not happen?”
Vinnie scrunched his forehead up. “Because it’s happening? Because what might or might not is?”
Spordamant started nodding. “See yer point, laddie, see yer point. But!” he held up an orange finger. “We didn’t.”
Vinnie felt his anger rise. “What do you mean, you didn’t?”
“I built a big castle,” Fin pointed out. “And I’m feared throughout the land.” Again, Vinnie noted, said like a bewildered child.
“What about the King? What about him—this stripper of esteem, this fearsome leader? What about him?” Vinnie’s eyes ranged around in desperation, wanting something, any morsel of hope.
Spordamant pursed his wide lips. “Not so much. Yes, it’s within his powers to strip you of your esteem, and yes, he’s king, but he lives right on the southernmost tip of the island. You can’t get farther from Sivatious if you tried.” Spordamant leaned in. “To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t why he moved the capital there. Sivatious’s supply lines alone are going to be impossibly long—I’ll bet that’s what he’s banking on.”
“So…”
“So we’re screwed,” Fin muttered. “But we can fight, Vinnie. We can find a way. I have to find a way.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“So, you and Sivatious…” Vinnie stared out at the sprawling land below. A peaceful scene, so idyllic, and graced with rolling vales and dales, vibrant forests and groves, winding rivers and placid lakes. It was hard to imagine a terrible army plowing dark destruction through its middle. Beyond though, the Twin Mountains drew his gaze and put a lump in his mouth, a flutter in his heart. He gripped the grass as if his life depended on it, the drop perilous. She’d wanted to show him, show him the land as she saw it, the conflicted land.
And so they now sat on the very edge of the escarpment, its precipitous drop before them. At some point her hand snaked into his, and Vinnie felt an instant companionship with the supposedly fearsome Wanton Witch. Whether it was his compassion attribute kicking in, or whether it was that hint of vulnerability she had, he couldn’t tell.
But he felt something.
Quite what, remained to be seen.
They’d left the strange wizard to his own devices, another that Vinnie thought was not truly committed to this land. To plot and plan when both seemed futile—Sivatious would march, and dark would rule, evil pulsing from the mountains on Vinnie’s horizon, the abomination—the victor’s lair.
Fin shivered as if the images his question painted in her mind truly revolted her .“A long time ago, before he went mad.” She smiled. “I’m his number one target—nothing like a lover spurned.”
“And you fell out over a crystal core?”
She huffed, the type that’s accompanied by a rueful smile, the taste of good memories the bad ones had long since washed away.
“The gam—“ she stuttered, nearly mentioning the forbidden, “the land was new at the time with so many secrets to explore. Love blossomed, every shoot fulfilled. We played hard back then, Vinnie, hard. We built bodies that could withstand hours of pleasuring, but even given the paradise that surrounded us, something was missing. We humans, we need more than love—we need some measure of conflict, and the land provided it with the crystal cores.”
“How so?”
“A treasure hunt, no more, a seemingly innocent treasure hunt. You know the measure of the prize; you found the last
one. The land announced the cores had been scattered randomly around—five in total. Each core held a sprite, a demon, a representation of one of the native inhabitants. Yours has a demon, an emissary of the underworld, mine was an elf—thus the magic within the castle. The king has a giant, thus his ability to move his capital at will and construct great monuments.”
“And the other two?”
“Sivatious’s? A goblin and an orc. The orc gives him his power, his army, but it is the most precarious of all the cores—the core master erratic, brutal, and quick to temper.”
“And the goblin?”
“Little is known about her. I think she enables Sivatious to find other artifacts, other powerful banes, like Hell’s Fire. Spordamant reckons its crafting, that the banes exist a little like the cores, latent, inactive, and only coming alive when the mix is correct and sealed with the goblin’s touch. The truth is, we don’t quite know.”
“So, you uncovered the first core and Sivatious—”
“Tried to steal it. He was bored. He’d had his fill of love and wanted another challenge. He wanted to form a guild with his cronies as he had in other lands, then coin and coin until he was so powerful he could crush any.”
“What stopped him?”
Fin pushed herself away from the cliff, drawing her knees up to her chin and clasping her hands around them. Vinnie was only too happy to copy her.
“Everyone in this land can coin, that’s a given—that’s why we never bothered. What held Sivatious back was a lack of warriors. This place wasn’t meant to be a land of conflict. To stay interesting, it had to become one. Once he’d recruited a few henchmen to play, he sought out more crystal cores until only one was left hidden—yours. Then he built his forces. Sivatious is patient, very patient.”
“And he fell out with you because you wouldn’t give him your core.”
“What can I say? I’ve got a thing for elves.” She winked, a smile on her lips. “Come on, Angel’s gonna be itching to smack you about a bit, Fallon should be around, and Marlo and Mary-Lou will be cooking up a feast. He’s a big old beast, Marlo, looks fearsome, but he has a huge heart.”
“I think your inner Wanton Witch needs to come out. I think you need to reassure your people.”
“Why?”
“We won’t be the only ones to have seen the storms.”
Fin nodded. “The question is, will they stand and fight, or run south, flee, and just quit when he comes?”
Mary-Lou was a stand-up girl. The minute Vinnie saw her, his dick stood up. Her jet curly brown hair, powder white face and crimson lips reminded him of a school sweetheart in an old 2D era film. She had a habit of leaning right into Vinnie whenever she spoke, gifting him a view of a full cleavage, and wafting a hint of her strawberry scent over him. She was a player and was the type of player that Fin had talked about.
“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Mary-Lou as she scrubbed the dishes. “I’ll not be hanging around to be pillaged by some mouth-breathing orc—fuck that. I joined this game for some fun, nothing else.”
“So you won’t fight?” Vinnie asked while drying her rolling pin.
“Fight? Why would I want to be doing that? Skewering someone with a sword, seeing their blood pulse and pump—where’s the fun in that? Well, doing it’s fine, but getting stuck with an arrow or getting cleaved in half by a rusty machete—not why my presence graces this land, I don’t mind tellin’ you.”
“But Sivatious?”
Mary-Lou turned hands on hips. “Real life—that’s why I came here, to experience real life, real love, not the plastic bubble I live in…you know…” and she winked while jerking her head backward.
“I understand,” Vinnie muttered, and while it made no sense, it made more sense to him than most else he’d heard. His life, back in the world, wasn’t real—Mary-Lou was right. He had no friends there—the closest being Felicity, and if he lost it all, all his wealth, he’d lose her in an instant.
Here, it was different, from Velvet to Lavender, Atrixa to Fin, Angel, Fallon, Marlo and now Mary-Lou—they were all more real than real people. “I’m going to find a way we can defeat Sivatious and still have fun,” he declared, meaning it, but with no clue how to make good on his bold claim.
Mary-Lou shrugged. “If you make it fun, I’ll stick around. Wouldn’t mind seeing Sivatious and his henchmen getting it stuck to them if I’m honest. But,” she pulled up close to him, her breath on his face, “If some stinking hulk of a dark-driven degenerate waves his weapon at me, I’ll be off.” She clicked her fingers right in front of his eyes. “As quick as a flash. Fun Vinnie, a girl’s here to have fun.”
So that is the key, Vinnie thought. He threw down his drying cloth and sat on the pantry table. He brought out his pipe and filled its pot, lighting it and puffing away. Mary-Lou filled two mugs with ale, sat beside him and they pondered together.
“We’d need a base,” Mary-Lou said, now clearly on board.
“What about this place?”
She shook her head. “They’ll siege this place. There’ll be trebuchets on the riverbank, rams by the castle gates. We’ll be starved out then killed, or worse.”
She painted a grim picture.
“So, not here?”
Mary-Lou shook her head. “There’s no fun in login—err—waking up and being stuck in a sieged castle every day.”
Vinnie nodded, holding the end of his pipe pot in contemplation. “So, we need a base, one we can attack from, but one that Sivatious can’t siege—like Robin Hood’s forest lair?” Vinnie fancied himself a shining light in a world of darkness.
“The Sherriff of Nottingham finds his little village and destroys it,” Mary-Lou pointed out. “Slaughtered everyone.”
“So, no Sherwood, and we haven’t got the troops for an out-and-out battle. How about Roarfoarst?”
“The lost dwarven city? Too dark, too dank. We need somewhere out in the open, yet not. There,” she patted Vinnie on his leg, “get thinking, fun, defeat, vengeance—that’s all I ask, and I know I speak for a few of us.”
Vinnie tapped his pot out and sank his ale. “One way or another, I’m going to work it out. I’m going to find a fun way to beat Sivatious.”
She slapped his back. “Fun, Vinnie, it’s all about fun—it’s why we play. Don’t let Fin and her ways stifle your fun, or worse, blunt your desires.” Mary-Lou jumped up, cupping his junk with an outstretched hand. “I’m staying in Marlo’s room; he rarely sleeps so I’ll probably have it all to myself…all night long…all lonely, lonely night long.” She leaned in, lips to his ear. “Come and visit me, let’s have some fun. No one need know.”
Vinnie asked himself why-oh-why but knew the answer; this was the game she liked. He furrowed his brow. It was the game he liked too. “Why not?” He muttered, and turned on his heels, fair skipping out of the room. Fin wasn’t exactly giving him the instruction she’d promised, that everyone had promised, so why not?
It was time for him to have some fun too.
Little Red laughed in his head. “She’s getting to you.”
“Who?”
“Fin.”
“Rubbish.”
“We’ll see. So, this little plan of yours…”
“Yes?”
“You should go visit Tinderell.”
“Tinderell?”
“Fin’s elf, the one that built all this—surely she’d have some ideas.”
“Tinderell, eh? And where would I find the ancient elf?”
“She lives at the top of our tower—a few flights up. Plus, you should get back to the tower before you’re missed.”
Vinnie muttered his spell, and with a pop, he appeared back in his room.
“So there you are,” said Angel, all skimpy tunic and bra and lying on his bed. “We’re supposed to be training.”
“Here?” Vinnie asked.
“The floor above’s empty; we could train there. As long as she doesn’t cop an attitude.”
“She?” Vinnie as
ked, very nearly stretching to a two-word question.
“Tinderell. She lives above—”
“So I’m just finding out. The floor that’s off limits. What’s she like?”
Angel sat up, patting the bed. “Come and sit, no harm, no foul.”
“No foul,” Vinnie repeated, and sat next to her, immediately falling into her smell. Earthy, that was Angel, earthy and gritty, her virility nearly stifling him.
“She’s a high elf, so you’d expect a mystic. She’s old, so you’d expect wise. She built all this, so you’d expect intelligent and resourceful.”
“So she’s all of those?”
Angel tilted her head one way then the other, screwing her face up in a bid to find the answer sooner. “She’s more…is that it? It’s like she built this whole castle and then, once she was done she thought, is that it? Have I done what I was meant to do? What now? That kind of thing.”
“So, she’s still hungry for more.” Vinnie was rubbing his metaphorical hands. If he had a magical elf that could help him with his plan (that he’d yet to form but was damn sure a magical elf would help), then the sky was his limit. “I need to go see her now,” he said.
“You wanna fucky, fucky first?” Angel asked.
Vinnie double took. “But Fin?”
“Screw Fin, I ain't hanging around here if it's going all medieval inquisition. Sod that. I mean, I’m up for a bit of rack, the odd whip and maybe, just maybe, some chains n’ shit, but I’ll be buggered if some dread-breath orc is gonna get hot n’ heavy with me.”
“What if it was fun?” Vinnie asked.
“You’re fuckin’ sick.” Angel smacked him.
“No,” Vinnie sighed. “What if I found a way to defeat Sivacious while having fun and stuff.”
Angel shrugged. “Well, sure, I’d hang around then. Do we get to watch them suffer?”
Vinnie was beginning to wonder who was the light and who was the darkness in this land, but Angel was pouting now, and she had her shoulders arched forward, and they were pressing her tits toward his face.