Absalom’s Fate

by J. D. L. Rosell

  “Alright then,” I finally said. “I guess I'd better give this a try.”

  Sheika nodded encouragingly. “We’ll be ready to move when you get back.”

  I smiled nervously and nodded. “Good.” I took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.” I focused on what I'd seen of the Specter form, and imagined my own body turning into one. It was a bit strange to think about, kind of like dwelling on yourself as dead, but I kept my thoughts focused on it. “Vad’vandul,” I said as clearly as I could.

  I felt the changes instantly. My body felt lighter, and as I looked down at my hands, they turned from solid to silver to see-through as mist flowed around them and left. On my hand, the Ghost Ring came into focus, becoming a band of burning moonlight around my finger. When I glanced at my cellmates, their astonishment showed my stark transformation had happened for them as well. I'd become a Specter.

  “Marrow?” Farelle asked uncertainly.

  I smiled. When it came down to it, she still cared. “It's still me, promise.”

  She nodded, and though her expression was still troubled, I could tell she got some relief from that.

  “Best go quickly,” Sheika urged. “I’m not sure how it works for Spectral transformations, but the ones I’ve done become more permanent the longer you stay in them.”

  “That would have been nice to know beforehand,” I muttered. My voice sounded strangely hollow to my own ears now that I didn’t have an actual body making the noises. Just another reminder that I needed to hurry.

  Giving a quick mock salute, I walked to the bars. Even that simple action was a bit hard to accomplish, as every step made me lift lightly into the air, my near-weightless body not dragging the way my normal body did. Standing before the cell bars, I took a deep breath — or at least tried to — and reached forward. My hand went through the metal without a bit of resistance. Not sure why I didn’t just fall through the floor if I could so easily go through surfaces, I decided not to question my new existence too much and stepped quickly through. I’d escaped the cell.

  But my companions still needed to be broken out, so I set off down the hall at a run in the direction that I’d seen the Valyn guards go. The run quickly turned more into Spectral skipping, the lack of gravity surprisingly slowing my journey. As I passed the cells filled with other prisoners of the sky elves, many heads turned to stare and watch my bunny-like progress. I ignored them, keeping my eyes on the doorway at the end of the hall.

  Reaching it, I slowed to a stop and listened. The sound of voices echoed off the stone from just beyond. I peered around the corner and saw two sky elves lingering near the wall not ten feet away from me. Drawing back, I considered my options. Neither of them had been looking in my direction, but that was no guarantee they wouldn’t look over. If I were them, I’d check the door to the cells often, just in case. There was no way to approach their backs. Unless… It occurred to me then. Their backs were to the wall — and I could move through walls!

  Almost giddy with glee at the possibilities being a Specter presented, I moved into the cell nearest me, to the horror of the cellmates. But I ignored their curses and went to about the spot on the wall I thought the guards were positioned. Still flinching at what I was about to do, I stuck my face through the wall. Blinking as I came through the other side, I saw I was only off by a few inches, and quickly righted my position. The guards barely shifted as they talked to each other, and with my face near their waists, the greatest danger I was in was getting farted in my face.

  I examined the thick belts bound about their hips and quickly spotted the sealstones hanging from their leather straps. Hoping this would work, I reached to draw out my now-phantasmal knife from my hip and — but no, I didn’t have a knife! All my weapons had been taken from me. I’d have to find something else to cut through the strap.

  Drawing back, I peered about the cell. The prisoners still crowded against the walls and eyed me warily, but they didn’t seem quite as scared as before. “Sorry to barge in,” I said in a low voice — I wasn’t sure how well the guards could hear around the corner. “But I’ll help you all escape if you can give me that secret sharp stone you’ve been stashing away.”

  There was a pause where nobody moved. Then, as if on cue, half a dozen hands stretched out, sharp stones in all of them. I grinned. If you can rely on prisoners for one thing, it’s that they’re always trying to plan their escape.

  Taking the sharpest one, I lifted in my Spectral hand, again baffled at the physics of what was going on. But no time to think about that now. Since the stone was still a solid object, I couldn’t push it through the wall, but had to move it around the wall through the doorway. It was a risky move, but one I had to take. After taking a look and confirming the guards weren’t looking in my direction, I inched the stone on the floor just around the lip. No exclamations — that was good. Putting my hand through the wall, I slowly moved the stone along the floor, moving centimeters at a time. I had to do it all by touch; putting my face through only increased the risk of being seen. But soon, I reached the point where I’d first entered with the guards, and I still hadn’t heard any cries of alarm. It looked like I was in position.

  With a silent inhale, I gripped the sharp stone and lifted it, then thrust my face through. No one saw me, so I lifted my makeshift knife and, with a slight cringe, lightly grabbed hold of the sealstone of the leftmost guard.

  The sky elf made a sort of grunt, if a people with as musical of voices as theirs could grunt, and shifted. I froze, barely holding onto the key. All it would take was one glance down to see what was happening. But he didn’t look, so I moved the stone to the strap and began sawing it slowly back and forth. Soon enough, the sealstone fell lightly into my hands, strap raggedly severed. Grinning, I drew it back, forgetting that the key didn’t follow the same physics as my Spectral body.

  The stone clinked against the wall as my hand tried to draw it through, and my hold on it slipped. I watched in horror as the sealstone fell to the ground and clattered against the stone floor.

  The Valyn guard whirled at once, and I peered up to see him staring down in shock. “A Specter?” he asked, bewildered. Then he saw his sealstone on the floor, and his expression darkened. He began speaking rapidly in a language I didn’t understand. I doubted he was uttering compliments.

  Not waiting to find out what they could to a Specter, I swatted the sealstone down the wall towards the doorway. The sky elves, quickly realizing what I was doing, went scrambling after it as they drew swords from scabbards. But I was quicker, and as the sealstone went before the doorway, I snatched it up and began bounding back down the hall towards my cellmates.

  The Valyn guards could bound too though. With big jumps aided by their wings, they were quickly catching up to me, and despite being Spectral, I feared the curved, bright falchions in their hands could still cut through me. Thinking fast, as I landed my next jump, I spared a moment to reach over and pull at the cell door closest to me. To my relief, the sealstone clutching in my other hand did its job, and the door sprung loose. As I continued moving by, the prisoners’ surprised faces left my sight, but I hoped they’d overcome it quickly enough.

  I opened cell after cell on my way down the hall. By the time I reached the latter ones, the prisoners were waiting. As I opened their doors, they came surging out, and though they quailed at the oncoming Valyn guards, few jumped back behind bars. “Back!” the sky elves shouted, fluttering to a halt before the bodies. “Back in your cages!”

  I smirked as I approached my own cell. Nothing would make them want to bust out of this prison more than those words. Sure enough, as I reached my former cell, I glanced back to see the two guards swallowed under the mass of prisoners. One Drakon lifted a stone and, roaring, brought it down with a squelch. I knew those guards wouldn't be getting up.

  My own companions were already waiting by the door when I opened it. “It worked!” Sheika practically squeaked, springing out as soon as she could.

  Gorget
ambled out after her, having to bend down to exit out the door, then stretched up to the ceiling. For the first time, I saw a smile spread over his face. “It is good to be free,” he rumbled.

  Farelle came last. Farelle, for whom all of this was confusing, but who kept her chin high and her wits about her anyway, even when she hadn't had a drink in too many hours. “We’ll talk when this is over,” she warned when she exited. But she gave me a brief smile, and now I knew we'd be okay.

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  At that moment, four Valyn guards burst through the doorway nearest us, and seeing as we were the first by them, they sprang to engage us. Gorget and Sheika exchanged a glance, then they ran to meet them, Farelle not far behind. I almost joined them before I realized I was still a Specter. Quickly muttering, “Nen’faldo,” I felt the transformation seize hold. While it worked its magic, I watched my three party members take on the guards.

  Sheika was first to the fight, dodging and rolling around the guards with incredible athleticism. Kicking the knees in of two, she sprang at the third and spun him to the ground. Gorget quickly followed up, bellowing like a bull and bowling over the two Sheika had kicked while wrapping the last guard in a deadly bear hug. Farelle came skipping over and gave the first two unfortunate guards a swift hoof to the head each, then waited as Sheika and Gorget finished off their guards.

  By the time I was Human again, the guards had been dispatched. I grinned. I had one kick-ass party.

  “Alright,” Sheika said, flexing her hands, which had been clawing out elven eyes a moment before. “Let's see what we can do.”

  Farelle and I each picked up a falchion, while Gorget picked up two. “Let's,” I said.

  26

  Beyond

  We made for where our stuff was kept, the one location Gorget had figured out during his long tenure as a prisoner. As we went, I freed the prisoners I hadn’t already. Soon, the racket of stampeding feet and sounds of battle could be heard echoing down the halls of the Citadel, people of every race fighting their way back to freedom.

  But while most prisoners headed down, our path led us up, and the clamor faded away, along with any chance for help. Thus when we encountered the first knot of six Citadel guards, we knew we were on our own.

  Still, with the party I was in, I wasn’t worried.

  I was completely vindicated in my confidence. As soon as the Valyn descended on us like locusts from the stairs above, Sheika cast a Mesmer spell that formed an illusory double of each of us, making us that much harder to fight. We took out half of them before they eliminated the doppelgängers, and by then they were outnumbered. With a dual sweep and a roar, Gorget beheaded two of the survivors, while I thrust my stolen sword through the belly of the last.

  +600 XP!

  Each guard was worth 300 XP, but anything earned by one was divided three ways among the players in our party. Still, if we kept encountering guards, it wouldn’t be long before I jumped another level.

  We took out another two groups of guards before reaching the room with our items. All of us sighed in relief at getting them back, Gorget most of all. It had apparently been more than a week in Earth time since he’d been trapped, so he’d been defenseless for a while. Now, he looked the most impressive of any of us, with a horned helmet casting his blocky face in shadow, and various sheets of blue metal alternating with black links of chainmail. And around his neck was, of course, the thickest gorget I had ever seen.

  But Sheika also looked terrifying and, if I had to admit it — not that I ever would to Farelle at least — more than a bit alluring. Her dark dragon-leather outfit and endless knives lent a dangerous gleam to an already deadly woman.

  Then there was Farelle and I, two low-levels in shabby gear compared to my companions. But the Ghost Ring was twined about my finger, promising future powers I still had yet to grasp, and my Satyr Companion wasn’t as sweet as she looked, nor near as innocent. When she recovered her flask, she damn near guzzled the whole thing down, then grinned and wiped her mouth. She almost seemed herself again.

  With our gear recovered, we now had to search for the sun-flier hangar. We went down hall after hall, clearing out the guards we came across. It was easier now that we had our items back, but our meters started to flag, particularly mana and spirit, and we started taking injuries. Farelle limped from a slash to the leg, and my shoulder pained me from a stab wound. For health, at least, we had a solution, as Sheika provided potions every time we needed them. Soon enough, Farelle and my wounds faded away entirely.

  Finally, after searching two whole floors of the Citadel, we found the hangar. Everybody’s mana was damn well bottomed out, though Sheika promised to fill us back up with potions. My stamina crept back up slower than usual, as I suffered from a Winded condition that impeded stamina recovery. I doubted the level 30-somethings were so bad off. Gorget in particular looked just thrilled to be free.

  Having recovered another magical stone that was apparently needed to fly the airships, Gorget ran out onto the hangar. “Come on!” he roared, waving us onto the flier he stood next to. As I climbed on, the cold wind tried beating me back. It was only then that I realized we had a big problem.

  “Who the hell’s flying this thing?” I yelled.

  Sheika slipped down next to me, huddling close, which Farelle didn’t look happy about. Still, I wasn’t going to protest a bit of extra warmth. “I told you Gorget was our ticket to the god-child, didn’t I?” Sheika said with a wink.

  Still not catching on for a moment longer, it settled in when the huge warrior climbed inside himself and immediately went for the pilot’s seat. “You know how to fly this boat?” I asked incredulously.

  He grinned over his shoulder. “How do you think I got here?”

  True to his word, the bubble began sealing over us a moment later, and it wasn’t long after that the airship lifted from the hangar. As he tilted into the clouds hiding the mainland, I stared back at our prison. I’d never run into my particularly vicious captor, but I figured he still had the bad end of it. He and the rest of the guards were prisoners of another kind there.

  Grinning, I looked forward, and damn near jumped out of my seat when a tower loomed out of a cloud not 30 feet before us. Gorget pivoted, laughing like a maniac as he dodged around the tall, graceful spires silhouetted against the bright moonlight. I held on for dear life. If we died flying because of this crazy man when we were this close to our goal, I didn’t know what I’d do. Cry, for starters, when I’d respawned.

  But we didn’t crash. Gorget somehow navigated the maze of elven high-rises in the near darkness, always ascending further and further up. Up to where Absalom the god-child waited — whoever he was.

  Farelle leaned into my right side. “Will you explain now?” she asked in a low voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “I guess,” I said, not bothering to whisper. With Sheika’s feline ears, she would no doubt hear us no matter how softly we spoke. I glanced at my mysterious guardian, and she shrugged. Maybe it would be fruitless, as her gesture seemed to imply. But I had to try anyway.

  So I launched into the whole explanation. My weird entrance into this realm (as I continued to explain the Everlands as a separate dimension from Earth); how I was stuck here; and how events had begun happening around and to me, drawing me further in and closer to the boy deity at the middle of it.

  “Absalom,” Farelle repeated musingly. She seemed to be taking it all rather well. But then, her Satyr goddess Yalua had no doubt already seemed real to her, so perhaps she’d always suspected the deities were more than metaphor. And besides, this explanation definitely put my affiliations in a more favorable light, which didn’t hurt things.

  “But why?” the Wilder eventually asked.

  “The question on all our minds.” Sheika shrugged. “Which I guess we’ll find out soon.” She pointed, and I looked to see a shape looming before us. In the mist, it was hard to tell, but I’d had the sense that we’d risen above everything else here, t
o a small island floating above the rest of the Valyn homeland. Now, we were not flying around the island, but towards it. We’d arrived at our destination. Namely, where Absalom waited.

  I glanced at Farelle. “You ready for this?”

  She tilted her head and smirked at me. “More ready than you.”

  All I gave for an answer was a derisive snort.

  Reaching the island, the sun-flier settled down on the ground, and I looked up before us. A huge palace rose from the gloom, illuminated by huge orbs of silver-pink light mounted all along an open stone courtyard. Though I saw no one around us, I kept a tight grip on my sword — I’d gone with the Jeweled Longsword of the Stars, for the bonus damage — and my fine iron knife. Who’d ever heard of a palace not greeting unwelcome guests with hostile guards?

  Gorget seemed to be thinking the same thing, for he frowned. “Where are they?” he muttered as he landed the flier and rose. Wind whistled inside as the bubble began to dissipate. “On your guard,” he warned, then launched himself over the side of the ship.

  I rose to follow, but Sheika stopped me with a touch on the shoulder. “Careful, Marrow. I can’t promise I’ll be able to save you if a fight breaks out.”

  Farelle put her hand on my other shoulder. “He won’t need it. I’ll be there.”

  As they stared — or glared — at each other, I shrugged. There were worse places to be than between two doting, badass women.

  “Neither of you need worry,” I said. “I’ll come back safe for both of you.” Then I gave an expansive wink.

  Their shocked faces were almost worth it, until two slaps knocked the grin off my face on either side. Maybe being between two women was a bad idea after all.

  “Sheika!” Gorget roared from the ground below us, and we all snapped back into focus. I drew my blades and quickly found the source of the giant’s concern. Descending from the misty palace above us were dozens of small, bobbing lights. Not dozens; hundreds. And it quickly became clear they weren’t being carried by themselves.