Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens)

by Heath Pfaff

  It was at this point that a sense of panic struck the assassin. He began to run as quickly as his feet would take him across the unsteady floor. He dove over the crumpled shape of the fallen giant and was out the door and into the larger chamber beyond in a matter of seconds. This room, however, was faring no better than the last. The ground had begun to split and a dark, terrifying chasm now split the way between Xan and his destination. He knew there was no time for hesitation.

  Xan ran towards the widening dark chasm with every bit of strength he could muster. He launched himself into the air and stretched his body for the other side. The darkness spread beneath him, growing wider as he tried to pass across it. The jump, a difficult one to begin with, became even more so while he was in the air. He watched in terror as the ledge he was aiming for seemed to back away from him and before he knew it he was falling back towards the ground, only the ground wasn’t there to meet him. A small shriek escaped from Xan’s lips as he fell below the level of the floor, his fingers missing the ledge by more than an arm’s length. His demise seemed a certainty.

  For perhaps the first time in his life, luck swung in his direction. He struck a jagged outcropping and took a violent blow to his abdomen as his arms reacted on instinct to grab at any nook or small hold that he could manage. He'd stopped his descent just ten feet below the edge of the floor. If he'd believed in any of the local gods he might have given thanks, but as the only one he'd believed in was dead in the room behind him, he decided just to accept that it was good fortune. He was climbing upwards before he'd even managed to gather his breath again.

  He sprang up the last few feet of the newly opening chasm and stumbled back on to relatively level ground never bothering to look back down the way he’d come. He had no desire to see exactly how close he’d come to tumbling into the depths of Sentinel. Xandrith got moving again as quickly as he could. He was covered in new cuts and gashes, but the pain was a minor thing. His body felt strong and nimble despite its beating. In fact, physically he felt better than he had in as long as he could remember. As he stretched his legs to run he felt young again, as though he hadn’t been abusing his body beyond reason for years, as though he'd never undergone the extensive tortures of the mages. His metallic shoulder, normally the stronger of his two arms, now felt like the weaker. He felt reborn.

  The crumbling palace on the moon disappeared behind him as he dashed back down the hall which he’d first entered towards the box that would take him back to Kassa. The god was dead, their hope was crushed, but Xandrith felt alive and strong. And at least he had the knife. If it had been used to kill one of these god things, it might be used to kill the other as well. Perhaps there was hope to be found in that. What better hands for such a tool to fall into than Xan’s? Maybe, just maybe, things were working out exactly as they needed to.

  The final dash back to the Great Vault was over in the blur of a moment. The walls of the hallway were buckling and twisting, but the assassin put his immediate danger from his mind and dove for the box. The moment his hands touched it he felt his stomach drop and the sounds of the crumbling palace on the moon vanished to be replaced by a sensation not unlike falling from a very tall building. Xandrith was only too familiar with that feeling and it immediately sent him into a state of panic. He spun like a thrown cat, his feet trying to orient to a floor that couldn't be found. His body felt cold, and then he was burning up, and a moment later he was freezing again. Just when it seemed like it was all too much for him to take, the sensation of falling stopped and he found himself pushing up from the creaking wood panels of a floor.

  Xan’s arms and legs were shaky, but he forced himself to stand anyway. The stench of decay greeted him, and so he didn’t need to look around to know where he was, but the sights of the room he’d left only minutes before were welcome in a way. The slumped and seemingly dead bodies of the Drayid filled every corner of the room. Xandrith, though, was just happy to be back. His brief stay in the house of the dead god barely seemed real. He checked, and he could still feel the weight of the bone dagger at his hip.

  It had all been real, and that meant that what he’d seen was real. He would have to tell Kassa. She deserved to know what he’d found, even if what he’d found felt like a crippling blow to their quest. Maybe she would have some insight into what they should do next. Xan’s plan to find and attempt to kill the other god-thing wasn’t really much of a plan. Kassa would be more reasonable. She always was. Xandrith swept his surroundings with his gaze, looking for the former watch captain. She wasn’t in the room.

  ***

  Running. She was running as fast as she could, but she wasn't sure where she was going or why she was doing so. Haley's foot caught on a tree branch and she hit the ground hard, rolling across the uneven ground and coming to a stop against the trunk of a tree. She blinked repeatedly and tried to make sense of her surroundings, but even though she'd come to a stop the world was still spinning.

  "Where the fuck am I?" She asked, not sure who she was talking to or if there was anyone to hear her words. She put her hand out to steady herself as she tried to get back up. Her hand was covered in blood. She let out a sharp gasp and looked down at herself. Her clothes were covered in blood as well.

  Panic took hold of her and her head swam. So much blood. There was just so much blood. She tried once more to get herself to her feet, but her knees were shaking and her body felt heavy. I'm dying, she thought.

  A figure appeared above her, dark and intimidating. It seemed to emerge from nothingness, it seemed to explode from the void into existence. It shambled towards her. Haley screamed, an explosion of the last of her energy. Her voice faded, and with it her consciousness fled.

  ***

  “Kassa?” Xandrith called, making his way across the corpse littered room and heading for the open front door. “Kassa?!” He called again, a little more urgently. His heart was beating fast in his chest and the hairs on the back of his neck were all standing up. Something felt wrong, something besides being surrounded by the bodies of hundreds of dead Drayid monsters. He nearly ran outside on to the street, not sure what he expected to see.

  The scene beyond the door was disturbing. The Drayid’s bodies were piled on every surface, their flesh rotting and some of their mechanna bits still twitching and convulsing as whatever energy powered them slowly poured away. The smell was marginally better beyond the walls of the house, but the sight of all the death was unsettling even for someone trained in death's art. Xandrith managed to push the distractions away, however. He spotted Kassa standing with her back to him as she looked down the street. She didn’t appear to be doing anything, so Xan called out to her again.

  “Kassa!” He started towards her, though she didn’t turn to face him. That struck the assassin as odd. Why wouldn’t she turn to meet him? Certainly she would want to know what had happened. Was she afraid of what he’d have to say? Xandrith slowed his approach as he moved cautiously towards her back.

  “Kassa, I’m sorry. I made it to where he was, but when I got there …” His words faltered as he reached out to touch her shoulder. He didn’t want to tell her what he’d found. He wanted to tell her anything other than what he’d seen in that terrible place on Sentinel, but she needed to know. “When I got there he was already dead. He had been dead a long time.” Kassa didn’t seem to react. “We aren’t going to be able to rely on him to help us.” He lightly grabbed Kassa’s shoulder. “Kassa? What's wrong?” This time he was pleading with his voice. What was wrong with her?

  She turned. The movement was so fast, so precise, that it took Xan entirely by surprise. Black eyes met his, dark and empty as though they reflected the darkness of a world that had never seen light. Xandrith’s jaw dropped in recognition. He was about to speak, though he didn’t know what he was going to say to the husk, when he felt a cold and terrible pain in his chest. He looked down to see the hilt of a familiar knife, the one he’d bought for Haley, protruding from between his ribs. The hilt was already
caked in dried blood. His vision began to darken at its edges as he looked back up into Kassa’s cold and impassive face. How had she gotten Haley’s knife? How had the darkness gotten back into her? There were so many questions. Xan didn’t have time for any of them. His knees buckled and he slumped to the ground as the world went black before him. Death came quickly.

  Kassa watched the assassin’s body slump to the ground. She stood over him for several minutes before reaching down and pulling the knife from his ribs. No blood drained from the wound. He was truly dead. Somewhere deep inside of her a voice screamed in emotional agony, but the dark thing that had taken residence in Kassa felt nothing. She dropped the bloodied dagger onto the body and turned away. Her master still had things for her to do, even if the most difficult of her tasks was already accomplished. She'd confirmed the death of the master's nemesis, and killed the dangerous assassin as well. In addition, the deceitful trap that had been the Great Vault was completely destroyed and would never pose a threat again. If the dark thing could feel elation in its work, it might have done so, but instead there was only cold emptiness.

  It walked away from the chaos, set upon its next task. As it walked away impassive, deep inside it and locked away somewhere in the prison of her own mind, Kassa wept and raged in silence.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue: Death Has Come

  Through Woods Deep and Dungeons Dark

  Chapter 1: Cabin in the Fog

  Chapter 2: The Raft to Nowhere

  Chapter 3: Hungry Like A Wolf

  Chapter 4: Footprints

  Chapter 5: Hello Assassin My Old Friend

  Chapter 6: Vengeance, Thy Name is Xandrith

  To Cities Silent and Landscapes Lost

  Chapter 1: Annoying Little Crow

  Chapter 2: Everything Wants Us Dead

  Chapter 3: Gray Times

  Chapter 4: Incredibly Stupid

  Chapter 5: Will it Hurt?