by Stone Thomas
Instead, all I could muster was, “I’m… sorry.” I retracted my hand, but the gray-skinned girl snatched my wrist and dug long fingernails into it.
“No one who touches these breasts regrets it,” she said, pressing my hand back against her chest. Her other hand reached for my upper arm, then pulled me forward. I tumbled through that rift and landed on the cold, damp ground along with my spear.
I glanced back for a moment to catch sight of the tired archers guarding Valleyvale. Brion stood with his arms at his sides while cretins and human fighters charged across the clearing. Energems lit up lilac, sending tendrils of purple magic to the ground that formed new explosive rabbit minions.
The imperial dagger stared at me for a moment, her mouth agape, before turning toward the trees and disappearing into the night. The rift woman ignored the ball of light that raced through the air while the rift sealed itself over, snuffing out my view of the city I wanted to save.
+11
I couldn’t stop that ball of light from tossing itself through the gap behind me just as the rift stitched itself closed, healing like a wound in the fabric of reality and sealing me in a dismal void where the ground was black and the sky was as red as wine.
“Tell me they are magnificent,” she said, throwing my hand from her chest.
“Your breasts,” I said, stammering and unsure, “are magnificent.” A few glowing orbs hovered near her, adding to my overall nervousness.
“Yeah, well, if you’re going to have a weakness, make it something half the world doesn’t have two of.”
She flapped her large, leathery wings, forcing a gust of air in all directions. The floating orbs of light blew off into the distance. I watched them travel toward a cluster of other luminescent globes, then wander in separate directions as if they had minds of their own.
The dark landscape was pocked with other clusters, some larger than others. There must have been thousands of bobbing, glowing bubbles filled with ancient fighters harboring the unnatural urge to climb inside their prey.
She put her hands over her face. “I shouldn’t have said all that. Now I’ll never know if you meant it genuinely.”
“I did,” I said. “Unless that makes this worse. Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I was reaching for your arm, but… mistakes were made.”
“What?” she said, peeking through her fingers. “No, he won’t.” She paused. “I’m not asking.”
“Not asking what?” I asked.
“Forget it.”
“I’m Arden,” I said.
“Yes,” she replied. “I’ve been watching you.”
“And you are?” I asked. She smiled and shook her head. “Hey, you know my name!”
“Yeah, but your name doesn’t mean anything,” she said.
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” I asked.
“Because it’s true,” she said. “My name is from the old language, where words have power. Yours is just made up.”
“What is this old language?” I asked.
“The language of the gods,” she said. “It died out ages ago when newer gods realized they’d attract more followers if they just gave in and spoke the common tongue. No one wanted to attend temple services in some stodgy old dead language.”
“Not entirely dead,” I said. “I met an elf who seems to know it too.”
“Elves! They’re funny. We have them here too, but only the lumentorstarkgeistbegonnen kind. You know how it is.” She glanced over her shoulder. “What? Come on, I’m sure he knows that much.”
“I don’t,” I said. “I don’t even know that much. What is a lumentor… stargen… groggen?”
“Lumentorstarkgeistbegonnen,” she repeated. “It loosely translates to all the good light has gone out and now this is garbage. It’s the name for those glowy bastards.”
“I called them the same thing,” I said.
“Lumentorstarkgeistbegonnen?” she asked.
“No, glowy bastards.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, they used to be souls, but they went rotten with rage and hate. Are you sure you really meant it?”
“Meant what?” I asked.
“About these,” she said, cupping her breasts from beneath and glancing down at them. “I can’t tell if I’m aging well and there aren’t exactly a lot of people I can ask for honest feedback around here.”
“I did mean it,” I said. “And why are there rage-rotten souls here?”
“You’re right,” she said, “he is slow on the uptake. This is hell, Arden. Welcome to the land of the dead!”
As she said that, a bolt of lightning snaked across the sky, flashing a brilliant light across the flat, moist earth. It looked like a world made of black mud, with clumps of dead grass and a few straggly trees spaced far apart. Just as quickly, the light vanished, plunging the world back into the muted contrast of dark sky against darker ground.
“But, I’m not dead,” I said. It felt more like a question.
“No,” she said. “You wouldn’t be much use to me if you were.”
I stole another glance at her leathery black wings. “If this is hell,” I said, “does that make you some kind of demon? Or a succubus that sustains herself on the sexual energy of her prey?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she asked.
“I mean, I wouldn’t not like it,” I said.
“I am a demigoddess, daughter of the goddess Valona. She maintains the separation between worlds, and directs souls to the appropriate afterlife. At least, she used to, back in the good old days before… Well, something happened a long time ago, and now I need your help.”
“Yes?” I asked.
“Yes what?”
“You were going to tell me what happened,” I said.
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Oh,” I said. “It felt like you were about to launch into some backstory that would orient me toward the way to help you out of this hell.”
“I know he needs to know,” she said, “but I don’t want to scare him off. Not yet.”
“Who are you talking to?”
A spot in the sky began to burn brighter red, then orange. The demigoddess saw it too. Before she could answer me, she muttered something and jumped high into the air. Her wings thrust once, forcing her further up and then she was airborne, swimming through the darkness toward a hole in the sky that turned from orange to yellow.
Rising from the ground and heading right for the sky was the glowing orb of another lumentorstargar… a lumentor. As she approached the ceiling of the sky, the burning spot tore open into a jagged pocket of dark blue with wispy clouds.
It was the birth of a new rift. She reached toward the lumentor, summoning it to her arms. The globe didn’t give in so easily, evading capture until the last moment. The demigoddess held the orb steady until the rift sealed itself away. Then she tossed it back toward the ground.
I had so many questions for her. She ran a hand through her long white hair, then she snapped her attention behind her. She summoned another lumentor to her chest, then flew further into the dark.
So much for conversation. If I wanted answers, I’d have to follow her. I lifted a foot, but something had latched onto my boot. It was a long, sharp finger of some kind, crawling up my heel from the underground. My boot made a sucking sound as I lifted it from the thick muck, then I kicked that boney claw off of me. It sank back into the ground and I walked in the direction the demigoddess had flown.
The first few paces were fine, walking in the utter darkness, hoping I didn’t bump into any scraggly old hell trees. The next few paces were pretty boring, as I realized I couldn’t see enough of anything to keep my bearing. The last few paces were full of futility. Then I stopped.
There was something breathing nearby.
I turned my head slowly toward the sound of massive lungs pumping hell’s air in, then out. Everything was black. I crouched down, hoping to cast the outline of this breathy beast against the burgundy sky.
>
There it was, the shape of a horse’s head and torso that reflected no light.
Oh, and it had wings. Neat.
I took a step toward the animal. It grunted at me, but I pressed on. My spear was still in hand, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Finding that demigoddess required a resident to guide me there. This dark horse was my best bet.
“It’s okay, shadowy hell horse,” I said. “I just want to climb on top of you and ride you into the sky. No biggie.” I put a hand against the animal’s side. It breathed deeply and kicked up its front legs, but it didn’t run.
I took that as a good sign. There was no saddle, so I bent my legs and launched onto its back as best I could. No sooner did my front land against the horse’s back than it bucked and threw me to the ground. It galloped away a few paces then stopped.
“If a stranger tried to climb on your back, I’m sure you’d do worse,” a raspy female voice said in my ear.
I spun around, but saw no one.
“I’m not there,” the voice whispered, “I’m everywhere, love.”
“Me too,” I said. “So don’t play games with me.”
She laughed in a slow, scratchy chuckle. “I don’t play games, I tell tales. You may call me Savange. I am one of the swarthlings.”
“Arden,” I said. “You know something of horses?”
“I may be a hoarse whisperer,” she said, again directly into my ear, “but that’s no horse. It’s the negasus.”
“Fine,” I said, “negasus.”
When I spoke the word aloud, the horse creature whinnied and clapped its hooves against the ground.
“Not like that!” Savange said. “That word has power. You need to speak it carefully or not at all.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “It’s from the old language.”
“Precisely,” she said. “Just like Reyna’s own name. Or hasn’t she told you?”
“Rey— No, she hasn’t,” I said.
“There I go again, saying things I shouldn’t.” She laughed. Her voice was young, and yet old at the same time. “When you use the old language, you have three choices. First, you can steady your mind. Clear it of all intention. Speak flatly and the word is just a word. Second, you can focus your mind on the word’s power. Then you can start to control the effect of it, channeling your energy and emotions.”
“And third?” I asked.
“That’s what you’ve been doing,” she said. “Something reckless and in-between. Try it again with the negasus.”
I looked at the horse and tried to stay calm, to erase any meaning from my speech. “Negasus.” The horse snorted air out of its nostrils, but didn’t seem too bothered. That was a start in one direction. Now for the other. I wanted that beast to take me to Reyna, if that really was the demigoddess’s name. If I could trust this shadow spirit whispering scratchy somethings into my ear.
“Negasus!”
The animal bowed its head and folded its front legs under itself. I walked toward it, then climbed onto its back.
“Very nice,” Savange said. “I think I’ve proven my worth, don’t you? Take me with you when you leave. Into the world of vibrant light. My sister lives in Reyna’s shadows, won’t you let me play in yours?”
“And if I say no?” I asked.
“I stay here, in the world of folding stillness. And you, my dear, stay blind. There’s no profit in that, for either of us. Let me dwell in your shadows. You have no use for them.”
I sat atop the negasus, not sure what direction to go. The ground was black, the sky wasn’t much brighter, and blind was an apt description for my situation.
“Can you guide me to the demigoddess?” I asked. “Can you get me home?”
“The first, yes,” she said. “The second is up to her.”
“I want to see you first,” I said.
“You can’t see me. I’m nothing to look at. I’m a wispy shade that gazes through lies. I’m an ethereal presence obscuring truths. I’m a force, and forces can’t be seen or touched. Only felt.”
“And heard,” I said.
“Such as it is,” she replied. “But once your shadows give me passage, yours is the only ear that will know my words until I leave you.”
“This is a temporary arrangement,” I said.
“All things are,” she replied.
“Fine. You can—”
The sentiment, apparently, was enough. No sooner did I give her permission to join my shadows than the world around me began to change. The ground, once black, picked up a brilliant sheen, like it was covered in morning dew glistening in the day’s first light.
The sky, once a dark burgundy, grew brick red, then candy apple. The outlines of clouds appeared, large and burnt orange.
“This is a world of secrets,” Savange said. “Secrets I live to tell.”
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“Darkness is a force I know all too well,” she said. “I can bend it toward and away from the darkness you cast in your wake, but only for you. The world is as it was, it’s your perception that changed. Now ride your steed into the sky.”
I glanced down at the horse between my legs, finally seeing its full form in the improved light — or, rather, diminished shadow. Its black-feathered wings rested behind me, and further behind those the horse’s body seemed to dissolve into a flickering cloud. It had no rear, no tail, and no hind legs. Its torso just tapered into nothingness, a formless billowing fog.
I focused on the bright red sky and whispered, “Negasus.”
The creature leapt and flapped its wings, carrying me and my shadowy swarthling companion into the air. Despite our speed, the air didn’t rush against my face. There was no wind here, only a lingering chill that hung heavy.
Another bright spot erupted a mile ahead, orange and yellow as a rift cut a gash in the barrier between worlds. Reyna held a lumentor in her hand as the rift tore wider apart, but before she could toss it back to the ground, the bubbled soul ruptured, releasing a fiendish beastkin warrior that crashed down on cloven feet.
“Oh, gods.” Reyna stared down at the man as he shook his mace toward her and yelled. “Things always get messy when they break prematurely.”
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“Reyna!” I yelled.
She stiffened in the air, frantic eyes scanning the sky until they found me. Her body twisted in a vain attempt to regain her balance.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Savange said. She half-laughed in a raspy grunt.
“Oh gods,” I said, “Her name has meaning and I… I just… What did I do?”
“Nothing more than startle and offend,” Savange said. “Controlling a lesser animal is one thing, but it takes tremendous power and intention to bear down on a person with her own name, let alone a demigoddess. Power and intention you utterly lack.”
Still, offending Reyna had distracted her, and I couldn’t let her crash on my account.
I steered my negasus as quickly as I could, closing the gap between us. I positioned myself beneath Reyna, catching her across the back of my steed as we tumbled toward the ground together. It wasn’t a smooth landing, but it was one that didn’t break any bones.
“Who told you my name?” Reyna asked, panting as she climbed to her feet. “It’s ugly, and old. A stiff clipping of a corpse language even the gods abandoned.”
The beastkin marauder charged toward us. His body was a glowing white outline of his former self, complete with two curved horns protruding from his head. His eyes and ears were like mine, but his nose and mouth were shaped like a goat’s.
“It’s a ramkin,” she said. “Stubborn and hard to Encapsoulate.”
“How do we stop him?” I asked. The ramkin lowered his head and ran toward us with a mace in his hands. I knew his weapon and his horns wouldn’t harm us physically, but after watching one of these escaped souls climb inside another person’s body, I felt a little squeamish about making any contact at all.
“I have to try again,” she sai
d. “I’m not sure I can hold him away from the rift long enough, but I can’t leave it unattended or—”
We dodged as the ramkin lowered his head and catapulted toward us. In the sky, the rift seemed to attract some attention. A few small creatures with wings of their own flew toward it, then vanished as they escaped into my world.
“—or our natives will get through,” Reyna finished. “They’ll die if they leave the protective shadows of our home, but they don’t know that. They’re drawn to the light. It’s my job to turn them back toward the darkness.”
The demigoddess took flight, then held her hands together as if in prayer. The ramkin’s body glowed brighter, the lines that formed his shape bending and rounding as Reyna attempted to trap him inside the spherical shell that kept so many of these other souls under wraps. She almost succeeded, but the ramkin slammed his mace through the shell and shattered it into a burst of glittering fragments. They fell to the ground and extinguished.
“Let me help,” I said. “I can skill you up, make you strong enough to keep this lumentor at bay.”
“Lumentorstarkgeistbegonnen,” she corrected. Then, turning her head, she said, “You’re right, he’s not like the others. He’s still too strong. Okay, Arden. Help me.”
Help me. Her mouth formed the same shape now as it had when she first begged for my help during the attack on our infirmary.
I snapped open her skillmeister menu as quickly as I could, then I got to work, throwing in a Skiller Instinct for good measure.
Words and numbers illuminated in my vision, making it hard to keep track of the ramkin’s movements. I dodged while I set up Reyna’s upgrade, letting the charging lumentor barrel past me.
“If I unlock Hell Bent,” I said, “you’ll still have enough XP to improve Encapsoulate. A lot.” Not to mention the 291 XP I’d earn just for doing my part. “You’ll have to adjust to a huge bump in Focus though.”