“When did she get so fast?” Philiastra wondered as she threw out a handful of seeds. They sprouted in the air, growing into great vines that wrapped around the demi-god, binding him tightly. He shifted into mist, slipping through the gaps, but Agaprei lobbed an ampule that exploded within him, setting his wraithform alight.
Roaring in anger, Master Kynigó spun into a tornado, extinguishing the flames and nearly blowing the girls away as they clung to heavy objects to keep themselves on the ground. The tornado splintered, and when Master Kynigó reformed his body there were not one, but dozens of him throughout the room, each one with a dripping dagger stuck in his back.
Agaprei slashed at one, but her blade passed through him like a shadow, as two more copies grabbed her from behind.
Philiastra fired an arrow through one, and was pounced on by three others.
Erolina punched, kicked, and swung the mace at the end of her hair, her powerful attacks slipping through their shadowy bodies without any effect as they surrounded her. Desperately she tried to leap up to higher ground, but they caught her by the legs and dragged her back, a dozen of them barely able to hold her down.
“You impudent wretches,” the copies all spoke in unison. “Did you really think your pitiful skills would be a match for a demi-god?”
“Maybe you should ask Skotádi.” Erolina lifted her arm free, three copies clinging to her as she slammed the rune on her gauntlet.
Her dagger inside the true Kynigó exploded inside his ribcage, bone and black organs spilling out of the gaping hole blown in his torso as he screamed. The copies all evaporated into mist, and the girls rolled to their feet.
Master Kynigó stood there, shaking with rage as the broken bones and liquefied flesh slipped back up into his chest and became whole again. “You foul witch, THAT HURT!”
He threw out his hands and every surface came alive with alchemic circuits. The girls rose in the air, struggling to move without anything to touch off of. His arm stretched out into tentacles of mist, wrapping around and binding them. The girls struggled and fought, but even Erolina was unable to break the spectral bonds.
“Kynigó STOP!”
The demi god turned to the open chamber, there he saw Storgen had managed to climb up all the way to the top of the pedestal, where he now held the crimson gemstone in his hand.
Master Kynigó sneered. “What do you think you are doing, XVII?”
“What are you doing, Storgen?” Agaprei grunted.
Storgen cracked his knuckles. “I'm going to solve this violence the only way I know how. With more violence!”
He held up the stone triumphantly. “Let them go, Kynigó, right now, or I will smash your beloved stone to pieces.”
He smirked. “You think you have the strength to break it? You are welcome to try. I doubt even casting it into the sun would unmake it as this point.”
“Okay, fine. Then let them go, or I’ll steal your precious stone. I’ll disappear into the labyrinth. I’ll cast it into the depths of the ocean. You’ll never find it again, not in a million years.”
Master Kynigó’s heterochromatic eyes bulged in irritation. “If you are going to bluff, my little novelty, be prepared to have your bluff called.”
Tendrils of his mist rose up and forced their way into the girls’ noses and mouths. They let off smothered shrieks and gurgled screams as his essence violated their beings. Their bodies jolted and lurched as they settled to the ground, moving in jerky, unnatural movements.
“What’s happening?” As she watched in terror, Philiastra’s arm moved of its own accord, drawing an arrow from her quiver, and holding the point just before her own eye.
“I…I can’t control my body!” Agaprei’s arms throbbed and buffeted as she drew her dagger and pressed the blade up against her own throat.
“I can’t absorb it. He’s even taken command of my magic!” Erolina groaned and strained, fighting against her own limbs as she tapped a rune, her gauntlet unfolding into a loaded crossbow. Sweat rolling down her face, she placed the tip of the bolt against her chin and held the trigger ready.
Master Kynigó gave off a superior sniff. “If you leave with the stone, I will kill all three of them before you’ve even taken a step.”
Storgen looked back at him with cold eyes. “Let them go, or you’ll never see your stone again.”
“I can live with that. The question is, can you live knowing you let them die? Oh, don’t worry, I’ll make sure to broadcast the sound throughout the tower for weeks for you to listen to, until it’s burned into your mind, seared into your memory.”
For several long moments, Storgen and the demi god stared each other down.
“Fine, then,” Storgen said, breaking the silence. “If you kill them, you die, too. I’ll rush you with this stone in my hand, and we’ll see what happens to that divine body of yours when it is cut off from all magic. Are you willing to risk losing your immortality?”
Master Kynigó laughed, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth. “You’re a fool. Haven’t you noticed yet? The stone doesn’t work when you touch it.”
Storgen glanced down and noticed it was no longer glowing. “What?”
“Your own curse interferes with the mechanism. When you touch the stone, the components made from your blood revert back to their base state, and the entire system goes completely inert.”
Storgen balled his fist. “Blast, I can’t even have the advantage even just this once, can I?”
“Face it, you’ve lost, XVII. You’ve got everything to lose, and nothing to threaten me with.”
Philiastra wailed in fright as she gripped the arrow shaft with both hands and stabbed it closer, so close the barbed tip nearly touched the surface of her quivering eye.
Erolina grunted, her finger pulling the trigger, the release pin slipping away from the bowstring.
Agaprei shrieked as she pressed her dagger even tighter against her throat, a drip of blood trailing down.
“All right, all right, STOP!” Storgen yelled, setting the stone back down onto the pedestal. “There’s a way for both of us to get what we want.”
Master Kynigó looked at him, his red and blue eyes flicking about suspiciously. “There is?”
Leaving the stone behind, Storgen began to climb down. “Instead of a threat, let me make you an offer. Your research was always hampered by my escape attempts. Decades lost because I wouldn’t submit.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “And?”
Storgen drew closer, holding his injured side. “This is about me, isn’t it? It was always about me. They don’t concern you and you know it. Let them go, let them leave the tower safely, and I will give you what you always wanted. An endless supply of cursed blood to work with. I will return to my cage, and I will never ever resist or attempt to escape again.”
“You expect me to just allow things to go back the way they were? You killed my brother.”
“Don’t give me that. You hated your brother.”
“Between hating someone and not caring if some whiny little speck throws him into cursed woods and kills him, there is an enormous chasm of difference.”
Storgen stepped up and held out his hand. “I give you my word. My solemn oath. Just please, let them live, and you will have your novelty forever.”
“No, don’t do it, Storge!” Philiastra gasped, the tip pressing even closer.
“You don’t have to do this,” Erolina pled, the trigger pulling even farther.
“Don’t go back to the cage,” Agaprei whispered, the blade pressing even tighter.
Storgen looked at them fondly. “It’s all right, just go on without me. I’ll be all right.”
He glanced over at his cage. “This is my home, after all. You belong in the sunlight, and I belong in the dark. That’s the way it is supposed to be.”
“But…you’ll be in pain.”
Storgen’s eyes became teary. “I’ll be happy, knowing the people I care about are safe.”
Storgen held up
his other hand in a fist. “Don’t worry, I have everything I need right here.”
Storgen held out his hand even farther. “Please, these are my friends. Just let them live, and you will have everything you ever wanted.”
Master Kynigó reached out to take Storgen’s hand, but then grabbed him by the throat instead.
“You dare to offer terms to me? A deity?”
Storgen coughed and hacked as he was lifted up off of his feet.
“You don’t offer me terms, you grovel at my feet. The only reason any of you are alive is because I was holding back nearly all of my strength. Do you not realize, I could have vaporized all four of you at any time?”
Kynigó squeezed Storgen’s throat even tighter. “But I didn’t want to accidentally kill my precious sample. You mortals are so unbelievably fragile, it can be extremely difficult to loose my powers without shattering your tiny little shells.”
His red eye pivoted on its own and looked at Agaprei. “And why would I ever release her, when she has the same curse as you do? Do you think I’m mad? Now, I can get twice as much blood as before. After I kill the amazon and the forest nymph, I’ll put her in a cage even smaller than yours.”
His blue eye pivoted over to Storgen’s old cage. “But, don’t worry, instead of mounting your drawing for you to look at all day, I’ll mount her cage there instead, so you can look upon her frozen, imprisoned form every time I wake you up. Isn’t that wonderful? You’ll be together after all. Oh, I’ll never unfreeze both of you at the same time, of course, I’ll grant her the privilege of gazing upon your frozen face while I drain her blood, and vice versa. You’ll both spend the next thousand years three feet from one another, but never actually being able to touch or speak. Isn’t that lovely? I’d say that is the perfect punishment for daring to escape.”
Master Kynigó squeezed even tighter, Storgen’s face beginning to turn blue. “Just think, if you had never run away, I never would have known about her. Now, she is sentenced to the same purgatory as you were, and it is all…your…fault!”
“No!”
Kynigó’s voice dropped into a low growl. “You should have known, I don’t make deals with my enemies.”
Storgen looked back defiantly. “Neither do I.”
Storgen opened his fist, and something fell out, something sparkling, something glowing with a bright crimson light. Kynigó’s blue eye flicked to the falling object, it was the stone. His red eye looked back to the pedestal, where a heart shaped ruby sat.
“A fake?”
The stone roared to life at the demi-god’s feet, scattering the magical vapors that held the girls. They dropped to the floor, coughing and wheezing.
Master Kynigó screamed, his gray skin cracking and flaking away as the stone negated the magic that ran through his body. Dark energies sprayed out through the forming fissures, scattering in all directions like a great sandstorm.
The last of his skin flayed off, revealing quivering muscles and tendons, his eyes quaking in agony.
Storgen dropped to the ground and punched him in the face, flicking his bloody head hard to one side.
“Never…”
Storgen kicked him in the stomach, folding Kynigó over and making him retch.
“…threaten…”
Storgen kneed him in the chin, breaking Kynigó’s jaw and flicking his head back, blood splattering everywhere.
“…the…”
Storgen punched Kynigó hard in the throat. He gagged and wheezed in agony.
“…women…”
Storgen grabbed the sides of Kynigó’s head and pulled it back as he kneed him in the face, shattering his nose and cracking his skull.
“…I…”
Storgen spun around in a roundhouse kick, catching Kynigó behind the ear and wrenching his spine with a satisfying crunch.
“…LOVE!”
Storgen leaned in and gave one final punch, cracking Master Kynigó’s sternum, and sending him flying against the wall. Storgen watched with fire in his eyes as the broken body slumped down and collapsed to the floor.
The girls sat there, breathing heavily. Erolina and Philiastra were suffering hard from the effects of the stone, but even through their discomfort, they could not take their eyes off him.
Agaprei put her hand on her chest. “Storgen, you…you saved us.”
Erolina coughed, trying to force her body to speak. “Did you just say that…?”
Storgen’s knees gave out, and he fell on all fours, sweat dripping off of his face. “Oh, my gosh,” he gasped. “I was so…so scared.”
Erolina looked at him softly and decided not to press the issue. “You are the most amazing man I’ve ever met.”
Philiastra sat up, trying to stop her fist from shaking. “I thought I was going to die. I thought I was never going to see my forest again…”
“It’s terrifying,” Agaprei admitted. “It’s nothing like a duel. I’ve never been in a fight like that before. One hair’s breadth, and we would have all died. I still can’t believe we made it.”
Philiastra’s eyes began to fill with tears. “I thought I was never going to see my tribe restored. I thought the last thing I was going to see, was that arrowhead sinking into my skull. And then there would never be any forest nymphs ever again…”
She covered her face and began to cry. Storgen scooted over to comfort her, wrapping his strong arms around her. “It’s okay, Phili. We were all scared.”
Philiastra hugged him back, as Agaprei and Erolina looked on in displeasure.
Agaprei rummaged through her pack and pulled out her water horn. “This calls for a toast.”
“No, wait!”
Storgen snagged the water horn from her as she took a drink.
“What?” she asked, water dribbling down her chin.
Storgen furrowed his brow. “It isn’t spoiled?”
She swallowed and wiped her chin. “No, why?”
“Huh.”
“Maybe with both Skotádi and Kynigó dead, the tower doesn’t foul things anymore,” Philiastra wondered.
Agaprei took the horn back and held it aloft in salute. “Well, whatever it is, let us celebrate. Storgen is forever free from the tower.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Erolina grabbed the horn and took a long satisfying drink. “His days of being hunted are at an end. I have hereby fulfilled my oath to protect him from them.”
“Is it really?” Storgen asked in disbelief as he took a drink. “Won’t someone else try to recreate their success?”
Philiastra sniffed and wiped her cheek. “No, Skotádi and Master Kynigó were fiercely secretive. There are thousands of secrets that went into the processing of that stone, and those secrets all died with them.”
Storgen slowly began to smile. “Well, then, that is a reason to celebrate, isn’t it?”
As Philiastra took a drink, they all began to clap and cheer.
Suddenly there was a tremor, and the tower shook dangerously for a moment.
They all froze in place.
“Maybe we should hold off on celebrating till we get back outside,” Storgen suggested.
“Good idea,” Erolina added, trying to fight past the effects of the stone and rise to her feet.
As Agaprei packed her things, she heard the sound of something scraping the floor as it was picked up. “Philiastra, what are you doing?”
They all turned to see Philiastra holding the stone, her legs wobbly as she slowly backed away.
“Master Kynigó has been punished for harming the forest,” Philiastra explained. “Justice has been dealt, and now I must return to the forest.”
Storgen furrowed his brow. “But, why are you taking that stone with you?”
“Because that was her plan all along,” Erolina announced, pulling her spear out of the body of the ptóma. “She’s working for a male forest nymph named Wei, he sent her here to retrieve the stone for him. Everything she told you was just a ruse.”
“Phili’s my best
friend, she doesn’t need to lie to me.”
“I saw it with my own eyes.”
Storgen tried to laugh it off. “It’s not true, right Phili?”
Philiastra was silent as she backed farther away.
Storgen grew concerned. “Right, Phili?”
“I almost died just now,” Philiastra blurted out. “There’s only two of us, only two forest nymphs left in the whole world. That means my race almost ended just now. Can you even fathom that? Can you even comprehend how serious that is? To see your entire species on the brink of extinction? We need this stone to create a sanctuary, a safe place where we can rebuild our numbers, so that we can protect the forests from our enemies!”
“And who are your enemies?”
“You are, all humans!”
Storgen was visibly hurt. “Phili, I said I would help you make a new forest. We grew Mikródéntro together. She even recognized me.”
“She’s forgotten all about you!”
Storgen froze.
Philiastra wiped her cheek. “She has a duty to her kind, a more weighty duty than you can ever imagine! She can’t afford soft feelings anymore. It would be…too painful. So, she seared you out of her heart. You are an enemy to her now, nothing more. If you drew near to her, she would attack you.”
Storgen reached out to her. “Phili…”
“Don’t call me that! The girl you knew is gone! She was soft, she was weak; so I discarded her. I am a warrior of the forest. I am the will of the trees, and the forest needs the Forest Nymph tribe to return.”
“Phili, you didn’t have to lie to me. If you wanted the stone, you can have it.”
“I’m afraid I cannot allow that,” Erolina announced sternly.
Storgen looked confused. “What?”
Erolina took a couple of shaky steps forward, struggling against the effects of the stone. “War is upon us. The armies of Sirend and Reinala are already moving, and my people do not have the strength to defend themselves. I have been assured that if I return this stone, my tribe will be safe.”
“By Lord Krýo Fidi?” Philiastra accused.
Erolina raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, don’t think I didn’t know,” Philiastra said. “You thought you were far enough from the trees to avoid being heard, but you forget root systems spread out far and wide. “I heard him give you your orders, and you obeyed like a mongrel dog.”
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