Elpis

by Aaron McGowan

  “Here it is,” Jujor said at last. He held up a book titled The Elpis Stone.

  Terico exerted every fiber of his being to keep from screaming. “Why didn’t you check that book first?”

  “Seemed too easy,” Jujor said. “But at any rate, this book was compiled from a wide variety of sources, so there isn’t much we can say for certain about the Elpis. It’s a very powerful Nexi stone at any rate, but has been broken up into multiple pieces. Some say two, some say four, some say many.”

  “The village was destroyed just for a Nexi stone?” Terico asked.

  “Not just any Nexi stone,” Jujor said. “This stone gives one the power of a god. Your father was very wise to not reveal anything about its location to Delkol. If there is a piece of the Elpis in this town, Delkol would be able to use it in his looming war against the Fiefs Kingdom. I don’t know just how powerful the stone is, but the ancient tales all agree that it can be used to wipe out entire armies.

  “In other words, imagine what Delkol and his men did to this village—and replace Edellerston with the entire Fiefs Kingdom. And perhaps every other kingdom he seeks to take over after that. It would be the end of an entire age.”

  Jujor stopped to let this sink in. Terico stared toward the flickering flame of the candle, and imagined the fires of Edellerston spreading across all of Fiefs—and then the entire world.

  He remembered his thoughts following Delkol’s massacre in the castle. Delkol killed everyone, and nobody could even lay a finger on him. In fact, this was just a game to him. A very easy game. One that he always won, and always enjoyed winning.

  “Do you think he found it?” Terico asked.

  Jujor flipped to another page of his book. “I don’t think so.” He turned the book toward Terico to show him a page of writing accompanying what appeared to be some kind of map. “This is a special kind of map that can only be understood by cryptologists... such as myself. Of course, I’m a poet first, cryptologist second.”

  “Does it show where the Elpis fragments are?” Terico asked, leaning closer.

  “Possible locations,” Jujor said. “But as it turns out, Edellerston is sitting right on top of one of these little triangles.”

  “There are a lot of triangles on the map, though,” Terico said. Just glancing at it, there had to be at least hundred of them spanning the entire continent and several islands.

  “Only certain ones are accurate though,” Jujor said. “And the tiny circle at the bottom right corner of that triangle means the stone is either in the sky or beneath the earth.”

  There was nothing but constant precipitation in the sky above Edellerston, but there was an extensive network of caves. “It must be underground somewhere. It’s not in this little room of yours, is it?”

  “No, I’ve never seen the Elpis before,” Jujor said, “but I have a good idea where a fragment of it may be. Far below us there is an underground city known as Emoser Helena. When I was young, I worked in mines near a town a few days’ journey from here. Though I never set foot anywhere near Emoser Helena, I learned from other miners all the legends regarding the city.”

  “You never searched for it, though?” Terico asked.

  “No reason to,” Jujor said. “The place had most certainly been looted clean centuries ago, and nobody was certain where its precise location was. This book shows that there is a city below here, and I imagine that is Emoser Helena. And I would bet my entire whiskey collection that we would find the Elpis there.”

  “I’ve been in the caverns many times,” Terico said. “I’ve never gone too deep, though. The farther down you go, the worse the monsters get.”

  “Yes, I imagine the entire city is overrun with monsters,” Jujor said. “Or rather, the forsaken. Back in my mining days, my team once dug a little too deep, and were attacked by forsaken... Not an experience I wish to repeat.”

  Terico knew the forsaken were monsters that were neither alive nor dead, and therefore were impossible to kill. They were creatures of nightmares, far worse than any monsters Terico had fought off with Turan on their brief incursions underground.

  “If I can get the Elpis fragment, I’ll have something Delkol is seeking,” Terico said. “If it will bring me closer to him, I will definitely obtain it. Even if I have to fight through a swarm of forsaken to get to it.”

  “Much easier said than done,” Jujor muttered. “If it weren’t for Febraz, I would’ve been killed by those things. Though speaking of Febraz...”

  “Who is this?” Terico asked.

  Jujor turned from Terico and sighed. “He’s an acquaintance of mine. He would have some soul catcher Nexi stones, which we could use to fend off the forsaken...”

  “Soul catchers?” Terico had never heard of a Nexi stone called that.

  “The forsaken have some semblance of a soul, and these stones are used to tear it out of them,” Jujor said. “They’re very rare, and very pricey. In fact, I doubt Febraz would give away a soul catcher for any simple sum of money.”

  Terico certainly didn’t have any money, and he doubted Jujor had much either. “I will find a way to get one.”

  “Don’t think you’ll be able to steal one,” Jujor said. “Nothing gets by Febraz without him knowing. His senses are sharp, even for a vampire.”

  “A vampire?” Terico said in a raised voice. “You’re friends with a vampire?” Terico had never seen a vampire before, and he had counted himself fortunate. Every story he heard about vampires was a dark, foreboding one, almost always ending in misfortune for all parties that encountered them.

  “It’s okay, you’ll see,” Jujor said. “Tomorrow we can head to the city of Merze and find him. He’s a trader there, and if I play my cards right he should be glad to see me again.”

  At last, a plan was formulating. Terico wasn’t sure how much he could rely on old Jujor, but going to Merze and obtaining the soul catchers would give Terico something to do. If it would enable him to obtain the very stone Delkol was madly searching for, then it would all be worth it. It would surely ensure that they meet again, at the very least.

  And I will be ready for him, Terico thought. The next time we meet, you will draw your final breath, Delkol Shire.

  Jujor let Terico use his bed that night, considering how Terico exhausted himself while Jujor rested most of the day. The old man said he’d take care of burying the rest of the dead, considering there wasn’t too much more to dig—it was mainly a matter of going through the farmlands and gathering the rest of the corpses.

  Terico awoke the next morning and walked up the stairway to find Jujor with a cooking pot atop a small campfire. Breakfast turned out to be a horrendous, sloppy mush of some kind. It was a nondescript dark brown, and tasted like soggy rye bread.

  “Eat it all,” Jujor said. “You’ll need your strength today.”

  “I think I’d be better off not eating it,” Terico said. He forced another spoonful of the stuff into his mouth, and had to fight his gag-reflex to push it down his throat.

  “That’s the best I can afford, so don’t complain,” Jujor said.

  “Perhaps you’d afford better if you didn’t buy a dozen bottles of every kind of liquor in the kingdom,” Terico said.

  Jujor shoveled a couple bits of his slosh in his mouth, slipped out a small square bottle of dark violet liquid from a trouser pocket, and washed the breakfast down with a few deep gulps of hard liquor. He wiped his mouth and laughed. “Ah, good thing I have elvish scotch to get me through this.”

  After breakfast and at Terico’s insistence, the two searched once more through the entire village for any other survivors, or any clues regarding the Elpis or the whereabouts of Delkol and the Brotherhood. Nothing turned up, so they walked back to Jujor’s hideaway to gather supplies for the trip to Merze. Jujor had a pack which he stuffed a book and a couple small scrolls into, along with some foodstuff and a few small bottles of liquor.

  “You have a sword?” Jujor asked.

  “Yes, a strange one lef
t by a Brotherhood fighter I killed,” Terico said. He had searched the remains of his home for his own sword, but the Brotherhood had stolen it, along with all the Nexi stones and the potions and medicines Father and Mother had made. They did a thorough job of taking every usable weapon in the village, along with any magical items and medical supplies that could be of use to them.

  “You’ll just need some Nexi stones, then.” Jujor handed Terico a small bag.

  Terico untied it and heard the rocks inside shift in his hand. He opened the bag and found four lightly glowing Nexi stones—a deep blue one for water, a white one for light, a green one for vines, and a light blue one for ice. They were all very basic, but Terico understood that in the right hands, the simplest of Nexi could be used to overcome enemies who used even the strongest, rarest stones.

  “You know how to use them?” Jujor asked.

  “Of course,” Terico said. He had taken plenty of Nexi exams in school, and though he wasn’t one of the best in his class, he still felt he was competent. Fighting monsters had certainly given him lots of practice, much of which was a lot more practical than the tasks he was given at school.

  “Good, let’s get walking, then,” Jujor said. “We won’t get there until tomorrow afternoon, most likely.”

  The trip to Merze was uneventful, save for the disconcerting lack of moisture in the air once Terico was a few kilometers away from his hometown. Jujor explained that in most of the land it didn’t rain as much as it did in Edellerston, and he felt it was safe to say that it was the only town where the air was always a bit wet.

  Once they passed the vast fields surrounding Edellerston, Terico and Jujor continued down a windy dirt path that slinked through a thick birchwood forest. The thin white trees were covered with vibrant green leaves, their brilliance enough to take Terico’s mind away from his situation a little bit.

  Most of the time, though, Terico’s thoughts drifted to his parents, to Suran, to Turan, and then to Delkol. And at times he wondered about Jujor as well. The circumstances behind Terico’s chance meeting with the old man were certainly unusual. So much so, that Terico couldn’t help but wonder how much more to Jujor there was than he was letting on.

  From time to time Terico tried starting a conversation with him, but Jujor wasn’t one to reveal much of anything about himself. Instead he preferred to learn more about Terico, which made Terico feel a little uneasy.

  “If you want my help, I need to know everything I can about you,” Jujor explained. “It’s not going to be easy, going against Delkol. But if we can get the Elpis before he does, we should be able to keep him from wreaking too much havoc.”

  A part of Terico wanted to focus on just finding Delkol and figuring out how to defeat him right away, but if what Jujor was saying about the Elpis was true, then there was a lot more than just Terico’s vengeance at stake. If the entire Kingdom of Fiefs was in peril because of this Nexi stone, it was best that Terico do what he can to keep Delkol from obtaining it.

  The temperature transitioned between moderate and cool once evening passed, so Terico didn’t need a blanket to sleep. After he and Jujor stopped to rest to the side of the trail for the night, they helped themselves to some bread and cheese and continued their journey to Merze.

  The trail eventually turned out of the forest and into long stretches of dark grass, weeds, and small bushes. Terico tried again to find out a bit more about Jujor. “I know you said you want payback for having the pub destroyed, but is there any more reason you have for helping me with this? Have you lost anything to Delkol before?”

  “I just wanted a peaceful, unassuming place where I could live quietly,” Jujor said. “I’ve lost everything else in life, boy, so having the one piece of joy I had left taken away from me... I’d say that’s enough to rile an old man to action.”

  Terico didn’t feel like this was a full answer, though. “There has to be more to it than that. It’s obvious you’re knowledgeable in a lot more than just mining. My thinking is that the main reason for your underground chamber is to keep those old books of yours hidden. You know details about things few people have even heard about. And the fact you’re so freely telling me all these things about the Elpis... I can tell there’s a lot more to all this than you’re letting on, but still—you’re sharing a lot of valuable information with me. I’d like to understand why.”

  “Of course I’m not revealing everything,” Jujor said. “All old people have their secrets, you know. But it’s true, there are more reasons for me to help you than I’ve mentioned. But the main thing is... well, the town burned down, and there isn’t much of anything left to do there. And to be honest, I see myself in you somewhat. It seems we were fated to meet, boy.”

  Terico decided it was best to not push Jujor further, though it was clear there was still more that needed to be unraveled about Jujor’s past. He may have been a miner at one point, but he was likely a number of other—and more significant—things as well.

  They arrived at the city a bit before noon, making better time than Jujor had expected. Merze turned out to be even larger than Terico imagined it would be. Dark stone buildings rose up three to four stories all around him. A great river ran through Merze, requiring all manner of wooden bridges to connect one side of the city to the other. Some were wide enough for a half-dozen carts to pull through, while others were just wide enough for one person to walk across.

  Other than the disparity in size, the most striking difference between Merze and Edellerston was the lack of clouds above Merze. There had always been at least a few puffy clouds above Terico’s hometown, but at least this day in Merze the whole sky was entirely blank. The sun seemed to illuminate the sky a blinding light blue, and Terico couldn’t stand to gaze up at it very long.

  Every step down the central cobblestone road sent a barrage of sights and sounds rushing at Terico. All manner of people walked by in every direction, speaking with one another, dealing in business, greeting each other, hurrying to their appointments. At one moment a group of tall, long-haired elves rode by on brilliant white horses, and at the next Terico spotted a group of human children starting a game of ball—right in the middle of the street, to Terico’s amusement. People and carriages simply made their way around the children kicking a small orange ball back and forth.

  To either side of Terico, traders sold all manner of goods, calling out their wares and prices to the passing masses. A one-legged man in his thirties sat atop his little wooden stand, selling thin quilted blankets. Beside him rested a long stand manned by a couple boys a little older than Terico, selling a variety of clay pots, cups, and other vessels. They had deeply tanned skin, and wore cloaks covered in thick multicolored zig-zags, along with black headbands and all manner of beaded necklaces. Terico wondered where they were from, but Jujor was already leading him onward, where Terico found a group of elven and human farmers working to sell a number of chickens, pheasants, and ducks they kept in small, individual wooden cages.

  Jujor guided Terico down a thinner lane between long, vine-speckled brick homes, which apparently housed many families in separate rooms. Terico could hear some people holding a boisterous conversation, though he couldn’t make out the words amidst the constant chatter of the people outside. For a moment he could smell the scent of freshly-baked bread, but it dissipated quickly. Terico tried to figure out what kind of bread it was, but didn’t see any stands selling any baked goods.

  They continued on through the city, eventually passing between a number of tents run by eigni—people who had light blue skin but no noses. One of Terico’s teachers was an eigni, and a man very knowledgeable in the application of Nexi stones—but it was rare for anyone in Edellerston to see any others. At Merze, there were apparently many eigni—selling, buying, and trading their goods just as the humans and elves did.

  “Looking for some good shoes, boy?” an eigni man asked Terico. The man was probably in his late twenties, and wore a red long-sleeved turtleneck shirt and long dark gre
en skirt, along with a white ruffled tie clipped just below his neck. He held up a pair of shiny brown boots and cast a small, toothy grin.

  “No, sorry,” Terico said. Jujor pulled him forward so they could keep making their way through the crowds of people.

  “Febraz is just ahead,” Jujor said. “We will have to be careful how we approach him.”

  Terico thought over all the things he knew about vampires. They didn’t like sunlight, didn’t cast reflections in mirrors, and couldn’t cross rivers or moving water in general. But most significantly, many of them preyed on people in the night, seeking to sink their fangs into the necks of unsuspecting passers-by and suck their victims dry. Supposedly vampires could live off the blood of animals, but from the stories Terico heard, it seemed most would prefer to kill humans and elves for their meals, giving themselves a boost of powerful energy in the process.

  “Here he is.” Jujor pointed to a closed tent just ahead of them.

  Terico was a bit hesitant to meet this Febraz, but there was no turning back now. If he couldn’t face a vampire, how would he be able to face the hordes of forsaken? Or the Brotherhood? Or Delkol? Perhaps Febraz would lash out at him, but he would be ready. Terico had his sword sheathed at his hip, and several Nexi stones in his trouser pockets. Perhaps Febraz was volatile—monstrous, even—but he had something Terico aimed to get, no matter the cost.

  In front of the tent sat a small boy, likely no older than ten. His stand was covered with a variety of oddly-colored Nexi stones, as well as a number of chalices, goblets, and sparkling pendants. He wore blue and yellow robes, and had pointed ears. Terico knew vampires had slightly pointed ears, and he understood that they were nearly immortal, too. Was this little boy Febraz? For all Terico knew, this child was a thousand years old.