by Davies, Sean
“Oh, sorry,” Jonathan said, remembering that it was her first time, with the exception of being dragged into the Gloom skies by the Twins. “Place your book on the desk, open it to any page, and place at least one hand on it. Then focus, I guess.” He looked around. “Where is your book, anyway?”
“In my armour.” Alice pressed on the side of her thigh and a small rectangular compartment opened outwards like a trouser pocket.
She pulled her book out of the compartment. It was currently the size of a very small jotter pad as she had used its own magic to resize it, and she placed it upon the desk. Alice ‘willed’ the book to its normal, much larger size and opened it down the middle.
Jonathan picked up the duffle bag and handed it to her. “Be careful in there. If things get too much, just forget the ingredients and run.”
She was touched by his genuine concern but too embarrassed to show it. “I’ll be fine.”
Alice put the book of Basic but Potent Defence Potions into the duffle bag, rested her hammer against her hip, and placed one hand onto her book. She gave Jonathan a fleeting glance before the world spun violently around, becoming an incomprehensible blur. Her stomach churned, and then suddenly with an unpleasant jolt she was standing alone in the Gloom.
It was frightfully dark. Her book was radiating a strange golden glow but it did little to contend with the surrounding shadows, so the first thing Alice did was rummage around in the duffle bag for a flashlight. She couldn’t find one anywhere, but remembered that she could summon a mage light orb to follow her. Sometimes she forgot that she could do magic, although the thought of it still made her uncomfortable.
Alice flicked open her hand and a glowing white orb burst into life. It flickered and faded intermittently, highlighting her rookie attempt at magic, but it was still good enough to illuminate her surroundings.
The room was a complete tip. The walls were smeared with brown mouldy residue, the furnishings were falling apart, the windows were smashed or completely absent, dust was everywhere and lingered in the air, and the floorboards creaked dangerously under Alice’s feet.
She shouldered the duffle bag and carried her hammer in both hands, poised ready to attack any of the Gloom’s denizens who were dumb enough to get in her way. Her rookie attempt at a mage light orb bobbed along by her side like a faithful pet. Creeping out of the room and leaving her book behind, as she had heard that it would be completely immobile after crossing into the dismal dimension, Alice could see that the rest of the house was just as dilapidated. The paintings hanging in the house were horrific renditions of torture, carnage, and butchery. She scowled in revulsion as she passed by one of a horde of maggots erupting from a creature’s body. The mouldy wooden step crumbled under her suit’s weight, and she slid and smashed her way down the stairs on her backside.
“Fuck!” Alice spat, her face covered in dust and flecks of broken wood.
She picked herself up off the floor, dusted herself off the best she could with her gauntlets, and left the building through its half smashed front door.
Her eyes went wide at the sight that was before her. Alice was standing on an extremely steep incline, with dark looming mountains behind her and the house, and a forest of multi-coloured and dead trees in front. The ground was a strange mix of patchy purple and blue grass and blackened and cracked grey earth, and the sky was a complete overcast of dark misty purple clouds, only broken up by the gaping hole and strange cracks that emanated from where the reflection of the capital should have been. Horrid looking towns and villages could be seen in clearings. Green fire glowed, and wispy grey and green smoke rose from the inhabited areas. In the far distance underneath the hole of nothingness in the sky was an equally disturbing gap where something should have been, and Alice found herself staring into the space where the Gloom equivalent of the Capital was meant to be situated. Her mind had trouble discerning whether or not she was looking at a black space, a white space, both, or neither of them. It was just pure incomprehensible nothingness.
She shook her head to snap herself out of her reverie, got the potion book out of the duffle bag, and made her way down to the forest at the end of the rundown garden. When Alice reached the tree line she stopped to open the book, and flicked through the folded pages to find out what she was looking for.
“Stonebark: uncommon, found in random patches on any Gloom tree, harmless,” she read to herself quietly to fight of the crushing feeling of isolation. “Mankroot: rare, the roots of a highly acidic green shrub, grows in random locations, handle with care. Psychothorn: common but deadly, grows in bushes and hedges, slithers and attacks like a snake. Its red thorns secrete a psychoactive chemical that causes extremely irrational violent behaviour, usually targeted at oneself.”
Alice flicked through a few more of the folded pages. There were moulds, fungi, plants, insects, monster organs and more. It seemed that everything in the Gloom had at least one useful application, and several more deadly ones.
She made her way into the strange forest. Although she found it foreboding, it was also a unique and indescribable experience seeing a different world. It made her feel like being a child again, like everything was new to her.
A large red moth-like insect fluttered past her, leading a pack of smaller green ones behind it. Alice watched in amazement as they flew by. One of the small green moths separated from the pack and got itself tangled in a sparkling white web. It was immediately set upon by a hideous green and brown half-crab, half-spider creature, which was covered in tiny blue mushrooms, and was easily the size of a grown man’s hand. It wrapped the unfortunate moth in a cocoon of web so quickly that Alice’s eyes could barely register the motion. Before the crab-spider could do anything more, the red moth and the pack had doubled back to look for their lost comrade. Alice thought it would be the end for them all, but rather than fall prey to the crab-spider’s web, the red moth launched a hail of tiny needle-like barbs from its wings that punctured the crab-spider’s shell. It dropped to the floor, landing on its back, and its long carapace legs curled up. It twitched and convulsed as its shell began to crack, and with a nasty popping sound the crab-spider burst in a small explosion of greenish brown pulp. Alice watched in horrified awe as the red moth nibbled its cocooned comrade free. The pack then gently glided down onto the crab-spider’s remains like a group of parasailers, and began a ferocious feeding frenzy. With spine-chilling certainty, Alice realised just how careful she would have to be in the Gloom.
Alice got to work examining the trees for any hint of Stonebark, and collected any other reagents that she came across in the meantime, putting each item into a different case, pouch, or vial. The duffle bag contained all of the necessary gardening tools she needed to harvest them. Eventually she found a patch of stone-like bark, about a foot long and half as wide, on a mangled old tree with a few lingering yellow leaves. Using a knife, she cut carefully around the patch and put it into a metal case with a foam padded interior.
Surprisingly, Alice felt highly revitalised. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the potion that Jonathan had given her, or the fact that she was now technically an empowered Supernatural thanks to the Twins, or a combination of both. With the orb of magelight bobbing by her side she made her way deeper into the forest, taking extra care to stay in a straight line from where she had entered, just in case things went wrong and she had to make a quick retreat.
She found a little clearing with a pool of foul black Gloom water. In its dark depths, a weird glowing plant swayed, and next to it were some wet looking shrubs that were like a cross between broccoli and spinach. Alice recognised them from the book; they were Mankroot plants. For a moment she considered picking them up with her gauntlets to get at their roots, assuming that her power armour would be able to resist their acid, but she soon dismissed the careless line of thought. Picking up a long discarded branch from the ground, she poked one of the little green plants. The soggy looking leaves contracted and then expanded, oozing an unpleas
ant translucent green liquid that burnt its way up the branch. Alice quickly threw it to one side, and by the time the acid had worn off, only the very end of the wood remained. Glad that she hadn’t acted on impulse, she got some enchanted rubber gloves out of the bag and stretched them over her gauntlets. They were regular elbow length yellow gloves with some tiny blue runes glowing up their arms. Alice reluctantly got on her knees and moved closer to the awful plants. Hesitantly she put her hand around the closest one, causing it to secrete its lethal acid, and sighed with relief when it didn’t burn her arm off. Alice plucked it out of the ground, tore off its roots, placed them in a pile beside her, and threw the acidic plant into the black water where it steamed and fizzed dramatically as it sank. She repeated the process until all the plants had been uprooted and tossed into the Gloom water. Then she placed all of the roots into a brown leather satchel and washed her gloves in the rank smelling black water before placing them back in the bag.
Next, she decided to search for some Psychothorn. There were some prickly bushes not far from the clearing so she made her way towards them. The bushes were riddled with thorns, horrible twisted vines with blade like barbs, but none that matched the description of a Psychothorn. Alice waited for a moment as she stared into the tangled depths of the gnarled plant life. For a moment she thought she saw snakelike movements and a glimpse of red thorns, and she tried to work out how she would get a hold of it. Then she heard a growl from behind.
Turning quickly, she saw a six legged dog-wolf ready to pounce. It had black patchy fur over blue half-rotten flesh with a small amount of mushroom growth here and there, four red eyes, and a strange jaw that opened horizontally and was filled with brown and yellow fangs. A long dark blue tongue waved side to side every time it opened its mouth to growl.
Alice dropped the bag and raised her arm, not wanting to waste even a split second to get her submachine gun out of its holster, but the dog-wolf was on her before she could even let off a single bolt of energy. Thinking fast, she grabbed the dog-wolf by its front most pair of legs as it smashed into her. She moved her head as far back as possible to avoid its clamping jaws, and then threw herself backwards to the floor, using the creature’s own momentum against it. She used her strength to guide it into the thorn riddled bushes and let go of its legs. Laying on the floor, Alice watched upside-down as the beast was punctured dozens of times by the knife length thorns, and it let out a wail that echoed throughout the forest as blue and black blood gushed from its wounds. Alice gasped. It was still trying to get to her.
She rolled onto her front and got herself off the floor quickly. Meanwhile, the dog-wolf was tearing itself free, completely oblivious to the thorns ripping at its flesh. Alice got her hammer and prepared herself to strike as it pounced again, but the moment never came.
A long vine, covered in small but razor sharp red thorns, lunged at the dog-wolf’s throat as it was halfway out of the bushes. The Psychothorn constricted until the beasts eyes were bulging. Alice could see red liquid trickling down from its neck, and soon the dog-wolf was wailing its ear ringing howl again. It wasn’t long before the poison kicked in and the creature began tearing away at its own limbs.
Alice put the dog-wolf out of its misery with a downwards swing from her hammer. It flashed with white light as the hit connected, as it always did against a supernatural foe, and the headless remains slumped to the floor.
“Good doggy,” she mumbled jokingly.
In a lightning fast blur of speed the Psychothorn flung it’s self towards Alice’s face, but she was ready. Dropping her hammer, she caught it just inches from her face and snapped it into pieces until it moved no longer. She gathered up the pieces, found a case for them, and moved on.
She felt rather proud of herself. At the rate she was going she’d have the whole book covered, and then maybe the Trinity wouldn’t ask her to go back to the Goddess-damned awful Gloom in a hurry. Alice was looking forward to rubbing Cherriesa’s face in her success when she got back, but the more she thought about it, the more she realised that she didn’t want to leave. She was going to stay. She felt good here.
The sound of raised voices from the distance snapped her out of her crazy daydream of staying. What was she thinking? The Gloom was definitely affecting her mind, but she would worry about it after she’d dealt with whatever was closing in on her. Alice could make out extremely unpleasant profanities being yelled, howls, barks, and the trampling of heavy footsteps. It sounded like all of the nearby villages she’d seen had emptied and converged onto her position.
She backed off quickly, toying with the idea of taking them on, but ultimately decided to heed Jonathan’s advice and cut and run. Alice jogged through the forest, looking back every now and then to see who and what was after her. She caught flashes of more dog-wolfs and Freaks moving in between the trees, but these weren’t the Freaks she knew. These ones looked more humanoid with actual flesh, but it was pallid and as rotten as their strange hounds. They too had fungi, moss, and mould growing on them, and over their heads were manky material sacks. Most of them were wielding axes, scythes, shovels, pitchforks and anything else they could turn into a weapon.
Upping her pace, she realised a stupid mistake that she’d been making for the entirety of her trip. She hadn’t dispelled her mage light orb. Hating herself for her lack of subterfuge in the foreign and dangerous world, she dismissed it and ran back to the house with only the faint illumination of the dark purple sky to see by.
Alice stormed back up the hill, glad to see the house, and she charged inside. Using her wrist lasers she blasted the house’s horrible paintings, setting them ablaze even more than she’d imagined it would, to give herself some light as she carefully made her way up the mostly broken stairs. The sound of yelling lunatics and howling creatures was getting louder and louder, but she couldn’t risk going up them quickly and falling on her ass again. She was quickly developing a fond hatred for Gloom stairs.
She let out a sigh of relief when she got to the top, not even checking to see if her pursuers had made it to the entrance. She charged into the room her book was in, awkwardly held her hammer and duffle bag in her spare hand, and placed the other on its glowing pages.
“Get me the fuck out of here!” she said through gritted teeth.
With the usual stomach spinning, vertigo inducing blur of motion, Alice was standing back in the real world.
Jonathan was waiting in the room and was clearly worried. “Are you okay? You’ve been gone hours!”
Alice was surprised. “Was I really? It didn’t feel that long. It was okay until the end though. I almost had a nasty run-in with the locals.”
“You want to be careful of how long you spend in there,” Jonathan advised. “It drains the energy of humans, but fuels Supernaturals in an addictive way.”
Alice nodded. “Yeah, I picked up on that. I’ll remember for next time if there is one.”
Jonathan gestured towards the duffle bag. “How did you get on with the gathering?”
“Quite well, I think.” She wasn’t sure just how much they had expected her to get. “Didn’t manage the whole book but I got most of it.”
His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Most of the book? You weren’t supposed to try and do the whole thing! No wonder you were there for ages.”
Alice shrugged. “The more the better, right?”
Jonathan sighed but couldn’t argue. The Supernatural half of the resistance needed all the potions they could get their hands on.
They made their way back through the network of portals (Jonathan insisting that he carry the bag even though he clearly struggled with it whereas it barely phased Alice), until they were back at the Trinity’s sanctum. This time Jonathan accompanied her, and lugged the bag of alchemy ingredients and tools up the marble steps.
Silvario and a now thankfully fully dressed Cherriesa were milling around their sanctum, awaiting her arrival.
“Ah, Alice, thank goodness you’re safe,” Silvario said
with relief. “You were gone so long we were beginning to worry.”
Alice looked at Cherriesa and she looked far from concerned.
Jonathan struggled to put the bag on one of the Trinity’s antique tables. “She’s got quite the hoard here, Masters,” he wheezed.
“I hope it helps,” Alice said. “Now I really have to get back. I must find out what’s going on in Tropica.”
“What do you mean?” Silvario asked, genuinely confused.
For some reason this bothered Alice. She could almost sense bad news on the horizon. “I haven’t heard from them in a while…” she said slowly, almost afraid of what would be said next.
Cherriesa laughed loudly, but after a nasty glance from Silvario she reduced it to a girly giggle.
“Your General Azalea has been in full control of Tropica for quite some time now,” Silvario said in a gentle tone. “She’s rallied the whole continent together against the Archmage, Supernaturals and humans alike.”
Alice was gobsmacked. She could feel the heat rising from her body, up her neck and into her face. She seethed with anger. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
Cherriesa was in stitches. She was holding her stomach and laughing so hard that it looked like it was hurting her. “We assumed that you would be in control of your own subordinates!” she struggled to say in between the laughter.
Alice moved towards her, grip tightening on her hammer, until she felt Jonathan’s hand upon her shoulder. “Did you know?” she asked, looking deep into his eyes.
Jonathan shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry Alice, I didn’t.”
“I’m sorry too,” Silvario said softly. “We thought you knew.”
Alice was so confused and angry. Her head was spinning, and she didn’t know what to do next.
“Maybe you should have another bath to relax,” Cherriesa said snidely. “Except this time, invite Jonathan in to do the hard work for you and save the effort fantasising.”