Lost Portals

by Bruce X Brown

  Captain Kalek escorted her down into the dank cave-like structure of the prisons, “My Lady Blades, I would never question your judgment,” the Captain smiled grabbing a torch from the wall and lighting it. “But your soldiers, they were quite wild. We had to sedate them to stop them from attacking the guards… There is also a lot of resentment from our soldiers. During the battle, we were able to overtake them but it came at great cost to our soldiers. Those were our brothers. You at least surrendered, ma’am. But these two fought to the bitter end. The only reason that we didn’t kill them already is that our beloved governor Ven insisted that we keep them alive until we sort things out. I would advise against releasing them.”

  Lady Blades took a torch from him and helped him light one of his own, “Noted, Captain. I know that you and many of your guards resent us after the battle in First Town. I assure you, our stay among you will not be very long. I just need them for my own protection while I am here. As you probably know, the High-Born want me and the governor dead. These two… they’ll listen to me. I am still not sure how many elves remain loyal to their High-Born masters. I need someone I can trust, Captain Kalek. I’ve consulted the governor of my plans to release them if that makes you feel any better.”

  “My Lady, I am only concerned with your safety, the safety of our beloved governor and the new Mana-Born elves. Your soldiers are undisciplined and wild,” the Captain said turning a corner deeper into the prison.

  Lady Blades stared at the Captain for a beat and then finally replied, “You refused to become Mana-Born, Captain Kalek. Why?”

  Captain Kalek was silent, “As I told, my beloved governor, I chose to serve him with my natural Tree of Life given abilities. The god, Elias, the First High-Born demands it. I’ll serve in the tradition of our ancestors with the blood, sweat, and tears of an Elven Reich knight. If I don’t have my tradition then I don’t have anything… AH! Here we are. Be careful there, my lady. That one’s devilish flames might burn you alive. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

  She scanned her soldier’s system stats:

  Jah (Jaheim Bokem)

  Level 4, Fire Mage

  Level 1, Warrior

  HP: 100/350

  Mana: 200/450

  Skull Face

  Level 3, Warrior

  HP: 150/400

  Even though they had lost the battle, both of them had leveled up from all the kills they’d gotten.

  Captain Kalek opened up the cage of Jah and Skull. The two were heavily sedated. They sat on a bed cut from the walls. They moved slowly and they looked groggy and dizzy.

  Lady Blades used a vial of smelling salt she’d gotten from the apothecary to wake up Skull Face. He jolted to his feet and hit his head on the low stone ceiling.

  “Ouch!” he yelled gripping his head. He had his fist up ready to fight.

  “Skull!” Lady Blades said, “Wake up. It’s me. Calm down.”

  “Lady Blades,” he shook his head and blinked hard. “Thank god!”

  The big man gave her a big hug. She didn’t hug him back. He looked her up and down, “You ok? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

  “No, I’m fine. Now, get ready to go. The Captain is letting you out.” She said, “Stand back. I’m going to wake up Jah.”

  Lady Blade opened the vial of smelling salt near Jah’s nose. As soon as his eyes opened, he charged up by breathing in mana. He was on his feet. The fire on his arms burned off his sleeves, his eyes glowed red as he was about to torch everything.

  Lady Blades had two blades at his throat, “Power down, Jah. Don’t make me kill you.”

  “Lady,” Jah said his voice shaking. He powered down and embraced her. The heat from his arms smoked against her velvet black dress. She put her swords away. He grabbed her face and kissed her mouth. She closed her eyes and savored the kiss. Her delicate hands stroked his dirty black beard and she exhaled.

  Captain Kalek cleared his throat to remind them that they had an audience, “Ahem!”

  She savored the kiss and opened her eyes, “Let’s go.”

  “Did we get the portal mage!?” Jah asked, “It’s time to go home, Lady.”

  “We will, Jah,” Lady blades said rubbing his arm.

  “Lady, we lost four of our brothers! We are outnumbered! We need to go NOW!” Jah was in her face towering over her.

  “Stand down, Jah,” Lady Blades said. “We will not leave until the mission is complete. I don’t care if that means we live here forever! The mission will be complete, do you hear me?!”

  “You know we’ll follow you.” Jah said, “but if we are this disposable what makes you different from your bastard ex?!”

  Chapter 43:

  To the Celestial Parasite

  Priest jogged up the hill of sand. Gem was at his side with swords drawn. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Master,” she said. You need protection.

  Priest sighed, “ok, look, you can come. Just give me distance and put your swords away.”

  As they got closer, Priest realized that the person waving was in a dusty protective body suit. He was wearing round dark shades and holding a metal staff that was taller than him. Under a tattered brown cloak, they could see an athletic build. His wild hair was white with dust. He moved a black cloth from his mouth to speak. He spoke in a guttural and angry sounding language but his body movements were open and peaceful.

  Priest could see very little of the man’s stats:

  Proprietor Forj

  Level 20, Host of Wyrm

  “Level 20, Host of Wyrm?” He thought. Priest was cautious but not afraid. If this being had wanted to take them out, he would have done it already.

  “Hello. I’m sorry we don’t understand,” Priest raised his hand. “Hold on I have a spell for this.” Priest began to breathe in mana to activate tongues and comprehend language. It was one of a few basic spells given to those with the Game Master role. Once activated it allowed the GM and those within the group to understand the target language for up to one hour.

  “No need,” the man said reaching out his hand. “I am fluent in common. I am Proprietor Forj.”

  Priest took his hand, “I’m Priest and these are my companions.”

  Proprietor Forj bowed to the Gem then to the group as they approached, “I saw your skirmish from here. You were fierce with the nomads…”

  Priest answered, “Yes. But we were just defending ourselves. What are those things? Are they human?”

  “Human… yes, but barely. Sad creatures, really. The descendants of those unworthy of Wyrm, left to wander and scavenge,” Forj said shaking his head. “I see that one among you has been bitten by the creatures.”

  “Yes,” Priest said. “Is there something we can do to fight the infection?”

  Proprietor Forj smiled, “We have something for her within the City of Wyrm.”

  Forj yelled over the wind and sand that picked up, “You are travelers, I presume. I am told that you have ventured here from another place through a portal?”

  “You know about portals?” Priest asked.

  “Of course. And the multiverse. Wyrm knows all. Just over this dune,” he said.

  “We only have about 1 hour and we have to return to our portal before it closes,” Priest said.

  Forj nodded, “Actually, the City of Wyrm is not far from here. You are my guests. Allow me to show you?” He led the way down the slope of a dune then began to climb another larger one.

  He went over the hill and down the other side where a craft was waiting. It was a ship, an old Spanish galleon, floating above the desert. It had sloped oaken hull and tapering top deck. The 3-masts were scraping the sky with a complex webbing of ropes and rigging stretching down to the hull.

  The ship had an anchor down in the sand. The chain was taught against the dug in anchor below as if the ship would fly off into the fast-moving clouds above the sea of sand.

  “I call it the Kraken!” Forj smiled. “She’ll take us to the City of Wyrm. F
ollow me.”

  They walked aboard the ship. The wooden planks creaked with each gust of wind. Forj went to the stern of the ship and got to the helm. The sails unfurled, the anchor lifted and a mass of tentacles erupted out of the front of the ship reaching deep into the sand 30 meters below.

  Sam’s eyes bulged in terror. The huge tentacles reached far into the distance and deep into the desert floor to gain purchase. The tentacles chose the direction of the gravity-defying hull while wind pushed the ship forward. They climbed in altitude. The mast creaked with each gust of wind. The ladies looked down over the sides of the ship and into the sands far below. The tentacles disappeared into the dust storms.

  Gem moved slowly away from the edge of the ship, “too high…” her face looked green. She looked as if she might vomit. Samantha grabbed her hand and had her sit down. It felt like a hot air balloon ride. She wondered if the elves had ever been higher off the ground than a few stories or on a mountainside stationary and not flying through the air like a bird. Gina was sitting on the deck with her back against the base of a mast. Sena was sleeping in her arms already looking like a corpse.

  “Tentacle powered airship,” Priest said to Noelle. “You don’t see that every day.”

  Forj laughed, “The power of Wrym allows us to float. The tentacles keep us grounded and guide us to the city. The winds are in our favor pushing us forward.”

  “What is Wyrm?” Mela asked.

  Forj smiled and ushered them over to the side of the ship, “The ship knows the way from here. Let me show you our world, travelers.”

  The ship was now high above the desert dunes just beneath the clouds. He pointed into the distance, “Do you see the other cities and strips of land moving?”

  Mel caught a glimpse of a mountain range and a rain forest moving in the opposite direction as a frozen tundra, “Yes, I see them.” Gigantic tracts of land with different biomes moving in different directions.

  “Here!” Forj said pointing off the edge of the ship practically going overboard. “One comes near us, now.”

  A massive strip of cultivated agricultural lands moved by them. It was in parallel with the sand dunes. A vulture from the dunes circled over both lands for a moment. One moment it was over baron sand dunes inspecting the carcass of a sand scavenger’s remains, the next it was over green grasslands. In the other land, they could see domesticated cows grazing on farmlands, sheep were being herded next to a township of homes on the outskirts of a city. The entire area of land moved passed them and then sunk away into the distance leaving a deep grey-brown canyon in its wake.

  “We have been blessed to have our world chosen to be a Host of Wrym,” Forj grinned.

  Priest looked at Forj seeing himself in the black mirror glasses, “...host? You mean like a parasite?”

  “A sacred parasite,” Forj said excitedly. “And we have been given the opportunity be in a symbiotic relationship with her holy infestation.”

  Mela and Priest stared at each other. Mela looked like she wanted to cry for a second. But instead, she went to the side of the ship and threw-up.

  Gem rushed to her side, “Madame!? So sorry. We are not used to being in the air. It’s a shock to us.”

  Mela sent a message to Priest via GroupLink, “We’ve got to get out of here. Back to the portal.”

  Priest responded to Mela on GroupLink, “Calm down, Mela. We need that antidote. He seems peaceful. We’ll get back.”

  Forj on GroupLink to all, “I promise you no harm.”

  Everyone looked at Forj. This being was inside their GroupLink somehow. It seemed like such a violation.

  Forj said aloud, “I promise you all that no harm will come to you. We will see about finding a cure for your sick companion. No doubt, you are shocked by the divinity of Wyrm. It is understandable. And I apologize for the altitude, we’ll go lower. For those curious, I can show you more of her power.”

  Priest asked, “How are you able to tap into the GroupLink without an invite?”

  Forj frowned, “I apologize for that. My attempt to calm your fears back-fired. Nothing within the Host is hidden from her holiness. Ah, here we are. We’ll be landing soon. Let me show you more. Please, follow me.”

  The ship began to descend. Forj led them into the captain’s room just below the helm.

  The room was strewn with artifacts from different eras, different lands, and different worlds. Against one wall was a map of sand dunes they flew over right next to snowshoes for an icy climate. On a desk against the wall was a display of a chunk of green glowing meteorite. Samantha recognized a signed baseball next to the meteor. There was a fish tank with swimming amphibious primates sitting on the edge of a rock. Across the room was a glass jar swirling with gas with a spidery creature inside of it.

  Noelle looked closer at the little creatures. They seemed just as curious as she was. Noelle recoiled when she saw their eye sockets full of worms.

  Forj smiled, “They are intelligent creatures, by the way. Hosts of her holiness.”

  The other ladies walked into the captain’s cabin and followed Priest closely.

  Priest was drawn to a large hologram of a globe in the center of the room, “This is your world?”

  “Yes,” Forj said.

  Upon closer inspection, the planet had moving weather patterns over it. In the tan and green continents, Priest could see the land undulating and writhing with worms covering every inch of land. It was squirming like a planet full of maggots. They were circling and wiggling worms etched into the landscape of the Earth’s entire surface.

  Priest felt his skin crawl at the sight, “The land we’re on now… This desert, it’s on the back of one of these worms? All those strips of lands we saw moving, the Earth’s crust is crawling with these… creatures?”

  Forj nodded and waved his hand over the globe, “We are here. This is our mother.” The globe spun to a desert in the middle-east moving next to green strips, white-capped mountains, and other deserts.

  Priest nodded, “That explains the earthquakes, shifting sands, and moving city.”

  Forj waved his hand over the globe and it swirled around showing worms on the ocean floor, “She came to our solar system some centuries ago.”

  Chapter 44:

  Chosen by Her Holy Infestation

  “Why did it come here?” Mela blurted feeling sick again.

  “She…” Forj corrected her adjusting his shades.

  “She,” Mela said. “Why did she come here to your world? This destroyed your world… an infestation. What is it...? I mean, what is she?”

  Forj smiled, very patient with her, “She chose us. Please excuse what may sound like arrogance, but she found us worthy. Of all the worlds, in all the solar systems, in all the galaxies scattered across uncountable universes, she chose us. She is a transdimensional god. She feeds on the resources of galaxies. We can barely understand her power, but from what we have seen she is omnipotent. She is able to operate in multiple dimensions and galaxies at once.”

  Priest interjected, “But what about those people in the desert. The scavengers…”

  Forj sent messages over GroupLink to explain better:

  Forj: Yes. The Scavengers… A sad development.

  They all saw a visual of a scavenger woman and child fighting over the rotting carcass of a sand rat.

  Forj: There are scavengers on each mother. Their ancestors chose not to become hosts. They are the remnants of humanity. They are now a fading disease on our Host world.

  They saw a giant worm erupting from the ground of some futuristic cities. Skyscrapers on fire and crumbling as the crust of the Earth was displaced. Humanity barely survived. Feral humans fighting to survive in the smoldering remnants of their cities now on the back of an intergalactic god called Wyrm.

  Forj: She is all-knowing and existing in multiple places at once.

  They saw giant red sun surrounded by 35 planets and light years away, their own sun, Sol, a tiny yellow star circled by 8 planets. Wyr
m occupied Earth, Mars, and Saturn.

  Forj: Dipping into her awareness is why I knew of you travelers. But understanding her full awareness and power is completely beyond the scope of mankind.

  They saw an impossibly large worm-like creature in the vacuum of space consuming a black hole with its massive circular maw that was an arrangement of trillions of sharp teeth.

  Forj: Wyrm is a force of nature. An extradimensional being beyond antiquity seeding the multiverse. Only the chosen may be a host of the holy parasite. She is but one of many beings beyond even our highest notions of divinity.

  Gem was crying, “But how is it possible for us to be so small…”

  The ship shook and came to an abrupt stop, “Aw, we’ve arrived. Shall we disembark?”

  Priest felt uneasy, he watched his party shuffle out of the side of the ship thinking of lambs being delivered to a slaughterhouse.

  Forj turned to Gina who was still carrying Sena, “Would you like help carrying her?”

  Gina shook her head, “No, I’ve got her.” Sena cradled in her arms sleeping like a baby.

  They saw the City of Wyrm. It was a gleaming crystalline metropolis. Spires piercing the clouds, floating pyramids with beams of light fixed on the pearl walkways below. Vegetation and fresh water cascading from every window and rooftop. Obelisks of light that seemed to distort the reality around them.

  No one moved or said anything, until Forj broke the silence, “Welcome to the City of Wyrm.”

  Quest Complete: Visit the City of Wyrm

  Congratulations! You have successfully, visited the City of Wyrm.

  Your team has disturbed a nest of nomadic sand scavengers and lived. The party known as the Family Cult has stumbled upon the life-sustaining biome of a Wyrm planetary parasite to witness the City of Wrym. Rejoice! One mortal among you is worthy of the immortal Wyrm’s holy infestation. The antidote for the Omega virus is here!

  Reward: Each participant earned 15% of the total experience points necessary to get to the next level of all primary classes; You earned 10 system credits; antidote for member infected with the Omega virus.