The Dungeon Con_One Foot in the Grave

by Marty Myers

  It also set out what conditions between the Darkness and Light would have to come about for there to come to be another Great War between them. Since that time many skirmishes had been fought by both mortal and immortal but the conditions for another all-out war had not been met. Also, it was during the Second Ban that the Angels of the Lords of Light were officially split into the greater and lesser hosts. To personally serve one of the Lords was to be in the Greater Host, while the rest of the angels like himself were of the lesser host and the names of the lesser host were rarely called out to and their other celestial duties were usually few and far between or mundane beyond belief.

  Those angels who had originally sided with the Lords of Darkness became known as fallen angels and sometimes were allowed to return to the lesser host if they recanted their affiliation and were deemed worthy of serving in the Light once more. Many did not and over time they became almost as beastly as the demons they served in the Darkness with.

  Apostaphus himself currently sat watch on one middling sized kingdom upon the northern face of the world. He floated along in the guise of a white puffy cloud on high. This kingdom he was set to watch over had just recently been a place where one of the minor skirmishes between Light and Dark had happened. Apostaphus had hovered far overhead during the battle hoping some good cleric or priest would miraculously think of him and call out a plea for his personal intervention. More likely by far the name of one of the greater host would pass their lips instead he thought somewhat enviously.

  Being a lesser angel he was not allowed to just rain lightning down and smite all those associated with the Dark by himself. If only he could have lent aid by healing the wounded or revealing to the men where those last Dark Ones were hiding upon the field instead of having to sit here waiting for their call. He could even be fortifying their morale with his presence and shielding their battle line from mystical harm since the first charge of the Forces of Darkness upon the battlefield if they would let him. But no one below called out to him or to another of the rest of the lesser host. Instead, there were some prayers to the Lords of Light themselves and some pleas for good fortune and renewed health at the beginning of the battle to those who were well known among the Greater Host. Then as the battle progressed all at once someone down there who had the ear of one of the Greater Host must have called upon a major boon because a massive celestial bolt slammed down into the center of the Dark’s forces all but finishing them off. Meanwhile, Apostaphus quietly helped with a few heals to answer those pleas he finally heard and then lent a magical assist when a devout cleric ran dangerously low on essence during a spell. Afterwards, during the cleanup of the battlefield, he sat high in the sky for the rest of the day doing nothing much at all.

  A few weeks later late at night he felt a pinprick sensation of pain somewhere to the east as Dark magics of some type disturbed the essence of the world. Still in the form of a cloud he sailed across the sky up into the mountains at the edge of his assigned kingdom. Looking down he could not find anything out of place. There was the vaguest hint of darkness on the wind, like a smudge here and there but it wasn’t clear what had happened to cause it or even exactly where it was. He resolved to hang around for a while and see if anything else would happen to give the Dark One’s position or identity away.

  A few more weeks later even he was tired of looking at the mountains and had begun to drift back towards the center of the kingdom when he felt another much greater disruption of the world’s essence. A tear in the worlds veil from something outside forcing its way in. As he frantically sensed about, it was as if whatever it was had totally obscured its destination. To Apostaphus senses, the disturbance smelled demonic. Frustrated he thought, If I can not find where it went perhaps I can find where it came from. He searched around until he found a faint trail leading up through the firmament and dropping his guise as a cloud he swiftly followed it.

  Long ago he had been a true messenger of the gods in the most literal sense, so traveling great distances at preposterous speeds was an ability he took for granted. But the trail led so far out that even for him the journey took some time to complete. The trail was definitely demonic, Apostaphus could sense that it was a summoning, so that meant that someone had called forth a demon into the world. But as he neared the pinhole the beings intrusion had poked through the firmament and studied it. He became certain it didn’t come from one of the hellish dimensions demons normally came from. Demons and Angels traversed space in entirely different ways, but the angel had seen enough demons teleport and even dimensionally teleport upon the ancient battlefields in the great wars to know the smell of the hell realms. This was markedly different. It had very little essence trailing from the origin point. That might signify that the demon had taken steps to hide its origin or that the summoner had obfuscated it during his ritual. Either way, the trail and the pinhole were quickly fading away.

  Apostaphus had to make a choice now. Either he would let the trail go or he would have to follow it before it grew too cold. He drew forth a flare of his power and trumpeted out a call to let the other angels of the hosts know of his intention to follow and without awaiting a reply sped through the closing hole in the firmament. A short time later he was not there to hear the holy bells of all the world ring out in warning.

  Chapter 10

  After a long time Apastophus arrived at another world, the trail had barely held together long enough for him to follow it here. From high above he was stunned to see lights shining from many unknown sources upon the face of a this world. He flew down quickly to try to catch the last of the trail and found himself in the rain above a city the likes of which he had never seen before. Metal and glass buildings that were built surprisingly tall were plentiful here. Odd carriages swiftly swept past with bright lanterns shining in front of them instead of horses. A few mortal men were walking besides the roads the carriages traversed or climbing in and out of the few that were stopped. Apostaphus felt tired from his travels but focused once again upon finding the trail of the demon he had been tracking. It was so faint now that he could not trace it any further so he flew lower yet searching and finally alighted on the branch of a tree to rest his wings for a while.

  “ Get Down from there! You’re going to fall.” He heard someone shout up at him not long after he settled in the tree. He looked over at a woman approaching him in amazement as she coached and encouraged him to descend to the ground. “ You can see me,” Apostaphus, asked? “ Of course I can see you,” Francis said. “ What did you think you were doing standing way up there without holding on to anything. You could get seriously hurt from a fall like that.” “ Fear not, for I would not have been hurt.” The Angel spread a set of big white wings from behind him and glided down to land in front of Francis. “ It has been so long since anyone has been able to see me oh mortal. I am Apostaphus, an angel among the lesser host,” he said. “I have just newly arrived in this place and am searching for signs of a demon who may have visited thee or thine.”

  Francis couldn’t believe her eyes or ears. It took her a full minute to think about what he had said and for it to make much sense to her. It was almost as if his voice held extra notes in it and even strange syllables spaced out amongst the regular vowels and consonants adding extra meanings to his words. She wasn’t even sure he was actually speaking English to her at all.

  Apostaphus was very weary from his long journey although he tried to not let it show. No one other than his fellow angels had actually seen him in so long that he almost felt self-conscious standing here talking to this woman. From the looks of her staff and robe, she might be some type of cleric or what passed for a holy person here in this world. which would explain why she could hear him and felt comfortable enough to speak out to him, but it still was a mystery how she could be seeing him.

  He peered closer trying to see if he could figure it out. His soul sight showed that she had very little essence within her, but he could see she did have a decent enough affinity
for the Light. Sadly he could feel hardly any essence flowing in this world for her to gather to herself. He did see several fresh blessings and spells upon her and a couple foreign holy symbols amongst her belongings. Finally, she spoke again, “ I am looking for a demon too. It has taken a man from here and I want to get him back.” She thought for a second and then pulled out the piece of paper Madam Farsi had given her. “ This is the demons sign. I believe it is scratched into one of the trees somewhere here. Can you help me, please?”

  Apostaphus listened to the holy woman’s pleas and looked at the glyph. It was definitely a lower demon’s mark from one of the kind that was often used to deliver messages and run errands for greater demons and other dark masters. It must have either been summoned into this world by a mortal or somehow found its way here on its own. This was so remarkably far from home that it’s having reached here from there and vice versa seemed unlikely.

  The holy woman having supplied the mark of the demon he was looking for and telling him of its deeds here did make him kindly disposed to her pleas. “ I would like to help you lady. Beg pardon what do they call you,” Apostaphus asked? “ I am called Francis Mcgillicutty,” Francis said. “But you can just call me Francis.” The Angel then continued, “ I will help you look for the mark.” Apostaphus then flew back up into the trees again searching for the mark he now knew to look for. Francis hollered up a few more directions and It wasn’t long before he had found it as its resting spot was as she had described it to be in a crook of an oak tree.

  The Imp’s scent and essence were still faintly lingering upon the mark. Although they were growing weaker as this worlds lack of essence dissipated them. Looking at it eroding under this worlds conditions and then back to the woman he rethought his judgment of her strength. To have much of any essence gathered unto herself here in this place was likely an accomplishment, he thought.

  Meanwhile, Francis was watching him fly around in the trees while nervously looking at the few people that there were out on the streets go by totally ignoring him. It was hard to believe they couldn’t see him up there with his big white wings and white robes and with him making no effort at all to remain hidden. They didn’t even seem to notice when his actions shook the branches about and dumped water off of the leaves and onto the sidewalk.

  It was weird, everything about this whole day was weird. But Madam Farsi had said if she wanted to succeed in finding Hank she would have to be very open-minded. Here it was, the moment where she could either accept that the world was completely different than she thought it was and began finding out all that that meant or she could give up, turn around and pretend there was nothing more to the world than the mundane and never find Hank. Thinking about it like that her resolved hardened about her like armor. “ Whatever it takes,” she said quietly to herself.

  Apostaphus meanwhile had studied the mark long enough to set it into memory. But what to do with it. He thought of using it to call upon the imp but he was not recovered from his long trip and if the demon had indeed returned to his world as he suspect then the distance between the two would weaken his summons too much and since he had no hold over the demon other than this fading mark it would likely successfully resist being pulled here. That would just alert the imp and maybe cause it to flee further or hide its presence even more strenuously than it already was. He could destroy the mark, but that too might be sensed by the imp and alert it that he was on its trail. No, even though it irked him he must leave it to be eroded naturally over time. Hopefully, he could find another way to find this demon from here or once he had returned to his own world.

  Apostaphus turned and flew down to Francis. “ I have found the mark, but it is fading fast from this world. I am sure it will be gone shortly. Can you tell me anything more about the demon’s actions here.” Francis paused once more to parse the angel’s words. Again she was struck by his unearthly voice and its effects upon her. “ This is not where the man was taken from. I can show you where that was if looking at it would help. The place is across town so you would need to come with me.” “ I will follow you Francis,” Apotaphus said. They walked back to where her car was parked. Francis looked over at madam Farsi’s place, but the sign for the madam was turned off. She felt a sense of urgency come over her and decided to worry about returning the poncho and staff later.

  When she climbed into the car however, Apostaphus did not follow her. I shall fly above you Francis he said as he looked through the windows of her beetle. “ I doubt I would fit as I am in this carriage. Fear not I have eyes better any birds in the sky and shall not lose sight of your conveyance.” Seeing that he was serious and probably right Francis started the car and drove to the convention center parking and worriedly climbed out of her car. If the angel didn’t appear, there was nothing she could do about it, she thought. Apostaphus, however, arrived within a minute of her parking.

  Luckily there was some sporting trade show scheduled here this weekend. So Francis bought them tickets out front and showed Apastophus the way. Only after noticing everyone ignoring Apostiphus did she stop to wonder why she had bought two tickets but then put it out of her mind. The crowds were not as bad as last weekend luckily and they were able to make their way fairly rapidly.

  Apostaphus was surprised by his first look at the inside of this worlds buildings. This Hall was huge and had far fewer columns than he had expected to find holding up the ceiling. It was also much brighter lit inside than he was used to mortal habitations being. It appeared to be an indoor market catering to warriors and their families by the looks of the knives and other strange weapons he saw the people looking at as he and Francis swept past them.

  Occasional gleaming boats and Carriages were displayed amongst between the vendors as well. Some of these were in so outlandish of colors. They had been polished so bright that they sparkled and shined and he found himself slowing and almost stopping to take look at them. It was at this exact moment that two completely different unexpected things happened. Francis impatiently whipped around and grabbed hold of his hand to drag him along to the room Hank had disappeared from and the whole of the lesser host of angels was called out to and summoned to return home.

  Apostaphus was shocked! The power and need implied by the call of his brethren had not been used in this manner since absolutely pivotal moments in the great wars. His form practically rung with the might of the angelic summoning and the massive infusion of magic’s of the Light filled him as he sped across creation far quicker than even he could cross it on his own. Equally shocking was the panicked hand holding onto his as Francis was drug along with him. She too was being bombarded by the extreme surge in mystical celestial energies which were coursing through him to her and surrounding them both. Her mortal form was filling like a bucket dropped into a well or a pond flooded by a storm and would soon burst at this rough treatment. Yet he could not let go of her now, for they were already transported too far up into the firmament. As he looked down on Francis her world was receding in the blink of an eye.

  Apostaphus could not bring himself to let this Angelic intervention kill her. Instead, he brought her close in a hug and wrapped her in his wings to try to shield her as much as he could as she cried out. At the same time, he tried reaching into her aura and giving the wild energies there an overflow to pass out of instead of bursting and destroying her. Unexpectedly the energy passed down his own magical probe and into him linking them together. This did indeed stop her from bursting as the energies cycled through them both as they flared and surged with the call of the angelic choir carrying him homeward.

  Francis was stunned, she had acted on instinct snagging Apostaphus’s hand just as she had grabbed countless people in similar circumstances when trying to get through a crowd or to urge them to go faster to where she wanted to go. She hadn’t thought about the consequences for grabbing a hold of an angel. Now she was paying for it though, as what seemed like thousands of volts were blowing through her entire body making it lock up on her. He
r nerves felt like they were frying as they fired off repeatedly. She could hardly see or hear for the explosion of light engulfing them and this terribly beautiful sound that went on and on until she thought she couldn’t bear to hear it anymore.

  Then she was pulled up against Apostaphus as he held her and wrapped them inside his wings. Now she felt something other than pain as he did something she felt but could not see and the pain receded. The light was no longer blinding once his wings shaded her and the volume of the sound went from an eleven on down to what she thought of as a six. Apostaphus gave her a soul-searching look and she tried to force an apology from her lips. In response, Apostaphus gave her a smile. She was trying to apologize to him, he felt it thru the bond that was forming. There was no apology needed, he knew it had been an accident and gave that reassurance back to her with as much positive emotional reinforcement as he could.