by Skyler Grant
“Nobody wants to be the next witch trying something clever. I’m in a foul mood and hate magic users at the best of times,” Ashera said.
“You’re really badass,” Ashley said.
“And you are still wearing my ring,” Ashera said.
Another of the witches tried to cast a spell. This time Ashera cut off both her hands before driving the sword through her heart. It all happened in an instant, she was so incredibly fast.
“Come take it,” Ashley said.
I wanted to scream at her not to, and Ashera was again a blur as she moved. Ashley let her. Blade clashed against blade before Ashera pulled back.
“Interesting,” Ashera said, before absently decapitating another witch. We were starting to run out of witches. Sara at least seemed to still be alive, and her severed hand was slowly inching its way across the floor towards her. I had seriously creepy tastes in women.
“What is it?” Ashley asked, turning her hand to study the ring. “I can feel the city. This place.”
“My first love gave me that ring,” Ashera said with a wry smile, and a glance my way. “Before betraying me. I’ve got a type.”
“More to the point, how are you two going blade to blade?” I asked.
“I’m tied to the city now. I’m so powerful,” Ashley said with a dreamy sort of smile.
“I needed to make certain,” Ashera said, and let out a breathy sigh. She stepped forward and pressed a kiss to my lips for a lingering moment. “Thank you for helping to make it possible.”
I was getting one of those sinking feelings in my stomach that I got when things weren’t going to plan and I was about to be tossed a curve ball.
“I think I’ve missed something,” I said.
Ashley looked at Ashera, her face puzzled. She said, “Yeah. You’re not supposed to be happy about this.”
Ashera said loudly, “Do you think I want to be bound to the center of reality? Does anything about me scream that I want to be a stay at home mom?”
I’d never really thought about it. It just seemed obvious that she must want this life, given her power.
“You don’t?” I said.
Ashera shook her head before killing another witch, a quick thrust through the throat this time. “It feels like I’ve been bound by my own oaths forever, certainly long after they grew tiresome.” She gestured at everything around us. “I assume this is all part of a plan from my other half?”
“You know about her? I assume Diamond told you?” I asked.
“I’m the most formidable woman in existence. Never assume me stupid. Diamond did help to shed some light on your current plans. Myself and my discarded other half are an old story. So, you and I are married, Liam?” Ashera said.
“Well, I and Elsora are,” I said.
“How like my first husband, thinking you can marry half a woman. He got his wish, but you’ve wedded the both of us like it or not. If it makes you feel better about the whole thing, I intend to be thoroughly unfaithful,” Ashera said.
“I guess that makes us even. Sort of,” I said. My head was spinning.
Ashley interrupted, “Hey, can we put your family drama aside and deal with me having stolen your city in an amazing display of badassery?”
“One moment,” Ashera said with a tilt of her head to Ashley. She turned back to me. “This girl may be strong enough to take the ring, but she isn’t strong enough to hold it. My other half must have a better plan than this.”
It didn’t seem the sort of thing you should normally tell your arch enemy. But things seemed to have moved far beyond the normal here.
“All twelve moons are now under the rule of those with the Rights of Rule and War,” I said.
Ashera laughed, a surprised and delighted sound. “I’ve been replaced, but our blood will continue to hold the center of reality even after setting me free. What were your oaths to us, husband?”
This I definitely didn’t want to say, but the words escaped me despite my efforts to hold them back. “I offered to always accept your deceiving nature. I demanded that you, Ashera, live. I vowed to love you no matter what evils you did.”
Ashera’s smile turned a bit wistful. “Not quite so foolish as the vows of my first marriage. Foolish enough, I fear. What were mine to you?”
I again tried to stop the words, but couldn’t. “To accept my infidelity. To love and protect all my children as if they were your own. You demanded I support your schemes whatever they turn out to be.”
Ashera gave a tiny nod. “Where you did not quite manage to snare yourself, my other half snared you instead.” She strode over to Walt, grabbed his Death-hand and began to examine it.
“You really shouldn’t touch that,” Walt said.
“I’m just studying the pieces I put on the board for this final move,” Ashera said. Releasing the Death-hand she went to Yve and looked her up and down, “Plucky heroine in over her head? You don’t exactly fit with the rest of them.”
“Entertainment software turned sentient, turned fire goddess, turned smoking hot young woman,” Yve said.
“I like you,” Ashera said, before pacing back to face me. “So here is the situation. You’re going to hate every bit of this, you’ll be powerless to stop me, and you’ll love me and my other half completely afterward.”
“My vows,” I said.
“Not just yours,” Ashera said with a shake of her head. “The ones you bound my other half with as well. I spent a very long time tied to this place. My first husband didn’t like a woman smarter than him—able to see the future better than him. He thought me filled with lies and deceit. For his sake, I cast off those parts of myself and threw them into the void.”
“But they didn’t die,” I said.
“No part of me is that easily killed. One day he would leave, but I was still trapped by vows I’d sworn,” Ashera said.
“So why all of this? Why the armies? Why the spectacle, if this escape is something you wanted?” I asked.
“While I’m still its ruler, I was bound to protect it. To defend it from all who come in anger, no matter the cost.”
“But if you are also bound by the marriage oaths of your other half, wouldn’t she be bound by yours?” I asked. “To protect this city?”
“When I took my place here I didn’t want her part of that. My other half never ruled here, I alone did,” Ashera said
“Until we just replaced you,” Yve said.
Ashera turned to look at Ashley and shook her head. “So close, and yet so very far.”
We barely saw Ashera move. Suddenly her blade was at Ashley’s throat and sliding across.
A new Goddess Ashley might be, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Ashley’s eyes were surprised and confused as she slumped over, hands reaching up to grab at the ruins of her throat as her lifeblood spilled across the floor.
“No healing her,” Ashera snapped, as Yve took a step in her direction. “Not that you have the power to really do that.”
Ashley gurgled and thrashed, her body occasionally giving flashes of divine power as she tried to stitch herself back together.
“Why?” I asked.
“You know the answer to that. If you’re honest about it,” Ashera said.
I did. Oaths. Ashera and the Silver City couldn’t be destroyed individually, both always had to perish. In order to save my daughters the Silver City had to die, condemning Ashera to death. An alternative was to replace Ashera first. Elsora had long worked on this plan, and I’d made her promise to save Ashera as well—and now it made sense that she had already planned to do so.
Veros had surely been cultivated for just that purpose. The perfect villain to take over Ashera’s connection at the center of reality, and then be murdered along with the destruction of the city.
But we hadn’t done what Elsora wanted, we’d killed Veros and his power passed into Ashley, who Ashera claimed wasn’t strong enough to take her place. Still, I’d made Elsora promise to save Ashera. Made an oath
.
Ashera was watching my features and she asked, “You understand?”
“This was the plan all along,” I said, feeling sick. ‘But not like this.”
“No, not all of it,” Ashera said with a weary sigh, and she looked over to Walt. “You understand it all?”
“I do,” Walt said.
“I don’t,” I said.
Walt said, “Murdering Ashley won’t destroy that ring on her finger. Not like it would with Veros. It is a thing of life and memory, and honor. If things were left like this, ultimately Ashera would be forced to reclaim her place and all that we’ve done would be for nothing,” Walt said.
“So, you just murdered one of my best friends for nothing,” I said. I should be furious. I wanted to be furious. I couldn’t be. I loved Ashera and Elsora, purely and completely. I couldn’t help it, I’d sworn oaths and they bound me tightly. I wondered how long Ashera must have felt something similar binding her here.
Walt said, “Not for nothing. To inspire me to swap fates with her. I can do it—you saw what the Death-hand did with the dagger. It can do the same with the ring. If I swap fates and destinies with her, the ring will merge with the Death-hand and when I die the Death-hand goes with me.”
“And what about Ashley?” Yve asked quietly.
Ashera told Walt somberly, “Nobody is going to make you do it. This is a choice, Walt Death-hand. You can let her die and soon enough you won’t remember you had ever done so, because you won’t remember anything.”
Yve suddenly moved in and hugged Walt tightly to her chest. “I really didn’t like you. You know.”
“I know,” Walt said.
I saw what Yve knew. He was going to do it.
Walt let Yve go and reached out to clasp the Death-hand with his other hand, and a blinding burst of blue light erupted from it. Walt took a few steps forward to kneel beside where Ashley gurgled and thrashed, and touched the Death-hand to the ring still on her finger. The metal glowed and melted as the two fused.
It happened in an instant. Ashley was abruptly smaller and less divine perfection as she became human once more. Walt became an idealized corpse.
The Death-hand sparked blue, and with a crackle of power vanished from his body. The Death-hand been eating Walt’s memories for a long time. Eventually he was going to have a clean slate and a fresh start. I think he’d been looking forward to it. Just not like this.
Yve helped Ashley to her feet. She was looking about her in confusion, “Who are you? Where am I? Who am I?”
The ground rumbled ominously beneath our feet as the palace shook with a massive quake.
“That will be the Silver City starting to tear itself apart. My sympathies for your friend, husband. He died a hero and I shall see songs are sung of him. I’m off as far as my feet can carry me in search of some adventures long since denied,” Ashera said.
“Take me with you, I want out of here too,” Yve said, slipping her arm into Ashley’s. ‘You want to come along, Ash?”
“Yve, I need you. Don’t do this,” I said.
Yve glared at me, “Fuck off, Liam. You’ve used up every one of your friends and spit them out. Walt is the dead hero of this little story and I hated him, and I’m tired of being on the wrong side. Ashley deserves a happy ending and so do I.”
Ashera watched this exchange silently. When it was done she still said nothing, only stepping forward to take Yve’s other arm.
In a flicker of silver all three were gone. Just like that.
Sara rose to her feet, her body put back together. A few shaky steps took her to Walt’s corpse. The blood seeped and flowed upwards into her flesh. Her features didn’t quite take on the perfection Ashley’s had when she obtained divinity, but it was something close.
“Did you just devour the divine essence of my fallen friend?” I asked.
The witch’s hand slid into mine, “He was done with it and I’m your friend too. Let’s get out of here before the whole place comes down. You’ve got a wife and kids to get back to, and I’ve got some more underlings to recruit.”
So I did. There was no time for either of us to mourn who we left behind.
Chapter 32
Elsora was waiting for me when I got back to Castle Sardonis. My daughters weren’t there, each had brand new worlds to tend to. The Silver City filled the sky with its flames. It was a moon on fire, pushing aside even Elsora’s darkness for a time.
“Join me,” Elsora said, as she settled back on a chaise looking up at the sky. I did and she pressed up against me.
I just felt so weary. We’d won the day, but at such a cost.
“You lied to me,” I said. It didn’t need saying, but I did it anyways.
“I usually do.”
I forgave her those lies. I always did and I always would.
“The children?” I asked.
“All the other moons fell. Hubris has a new scar to teach her Diamond is not to be underestimated. Pestilence somehow walked out of a planetary invasion with a pet pony. I can’t imagine how that happened,” Elsora said dryly.
“You probably planned it. You’re fond of her,” I said.
Elsora snuggled closer as we watched the heavens burn.
“You don’t hate me?” Elsora asked.
“You know that I can’t,” I said.
“I know it’s not the best ending. I tried, I really tried, but most alternatives were so much worse,” Elsora said quietly.
That I believed. This was a happy ending, for the most part. Almost everyone had their happy ending, almost.
“So what happens now?” I asked.
“The Silver City burns high in the sky,” Elsora said. “A sign of empires falling. The twelve moons aren’t quite equal, we are the first among equals.”
“So, we echo the loudest. People changing their fates?” I asked.
“Oh, more than that. So much more. Soon the physical laws people have lived by their whole lives will start to break down replaced by those of games. New magic and new rules. Such spectacular power will be in people’s hands for the first time.”
“There will be chaos,” I said.
“That happens when you tear down the old order. People will get stronger—they need to get stronger—because the influence of the other moons will start to reach them. The monsters are coming for them,” Elsora said.
I could visualize that. So many new stories were about to start.
“Yet they’ll have hope,” I said.
“Always. No matter how terrible things are, there is always going to be heroes to hold back the tide,” Elsora said.
I thought about that. I really thought about all that entailed.
“All because you wanted a way to free your other half,” I said.
“Is that what you think? Perhaps it was all about you. Perhaps I looked at all the possible futures to find a man that would love me despite my nature, a man who would do anything to protect his family. Perhaps this is all a love story?” Elsora said.
“Flattering, but I don’t think you’d do all this for love alone,” I said.
“Then consider that a master strategist is not one who wins a single game at once. She plays and wins several at once.”
That I could believe—of her.
“I feel like I should be saying some game-related catchphrase like “game over” right about now,” I said.
“Not this time, love. Just sit back and watch the heavens burn.”
The End
Author Notes
Seven novels, and here ends the Crucible Shard. It has been one hell of a ride. When I started these I was writing Dungeon Crawl while working long days of technical support, fitting in the writing before my shift. These days I am now writing full time.
I had always wanted to be a writer but had always found the traditional route something I didn’t want to pursue. I’m a big television fan and so many of my favorite shows get canceled before they really have a chance to find their feet. I’ve always wanted to b
e able to tell stories on my terms, and end them as I thought they should be ended. Self-publishing has allowed me to bring a story like this to you.
Some of my most memorable moments gaming were spent playing the Wing Commander games. You’d often be flying along doing a patrol and suddenly you get the choice, the novice pilot is in trouble. Do you abandon your mission to go help him or not? You had to decide right then, in seconds, and the consequences were real. If you saved him he had a fair bit of conversation in the game. He had a love, a life, he mattered. If you let him die that mattered too with tears and heartache.
A lot of the thrill of LitRPG is making choices that matter and often that is done with stats. A driving focus of these books has always been to try to make those choices involving the human element. Liam would again and again choose to complete the mission over helping the people he cared about and it broke them. It broke almost everyone around him. Maria was never quite right after he chose to kill her father, and had he chosen otherwise the future of these books would have been far different. The tale of a hero instead of a villain. Yet in the end Liam stepped up and made the choices that were best for his family.
This ends the tale of the Crucible Shard for now. This isn’t the end of me writing. Coming soon I’ve got a cyberpunk novel that I’m very excited about. LitRPG tends to dominate the cyberpunk lists and while making use of that technology misses many of the great themes of cyberpunk which has long been exploring what happens to the nature of man as technology grows. I’m mixing the two and I think you’ll love the result. I’m also working on an Urban Fantasy novel that isn’t LitRPG in the slightest, but if you like the idea of an adult magic school in a modern world where all the monsters are real I’ve got one hell of a book for you. Join the mailing list and I’ll let you know about those launches and any others.
Books of the Crucible Shard
Buy now or read through Kindle Unlimited
Book 1: Dungeon Crawl
Book 2: Spawn Campers