by Skyler Grant
The spirit looked Yvera up and down. “I’m not equipped to handle you, Goddess. You are not welcome here.”
“Too hot for anybody to handle. The bane of being me. I’ll make myself welcome anywhere I choose, spirit,” Yvera said.
The spirit moved over towards Ashley and a spinner wheel materialized beside her, broken into red and white sections. Red far outnumbered the white.
“Really? A gameshow? This is their defense theme?” Ashley asked.
The spirit pointed at Ashley with one hand, using the other to give the wheel a spin. There was a whirr of ticks as it spun and finally the pointer settled on a red square. “Pain,” said the spirit, and in a bloom of red light Ashley vanished.
“Get out of here Walt, you can move faster than I can if you chain your teleports together,” I said.
Walt nodded and flickered away to materialize some distance down the tunnel.
The spirit pointed in his direction and again the wheel settled on red. “Pain,” it said once again.
Fantastic. Off in the distance I saw Walt vanish in a flare of red.
“Yvera?” I said.
“They’re not dead,” Yvera said, as she leaned forward to study the wheel. “I like this. It adds an element of chance to things.”
The spirit pointed at me and gave the wheel a spin.
“Too much admiring the trap and too little with the getting me out of it.” I said
The pointer on the wheel was slowing to a halt on one of the many red squares, when Yvera bumped it with her hip and nudged it into the white.
“Best I can do. We’ll figure it out,” Yvera said.
“Pleasure,” said the spirit, and the world around me vanished in a flame of white.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The world became a blur. I was dimly aware of the passage of time, but only as some sort of abstract concept. Reality was a hazy tangle of limbs and moans, and vague glimpses of bedrooms and partners.
My bedmate of the moment seemed carved from ivory. Her flesh perfectly formed, yet without the slightest trace of color. Hair, eyes, all the same perfect uniform shade of white. In other circumstances it might have been disconcerting, but right now it was only intoxicating. All of them were equal, all seas of yearning to drown in.
Something nagged at me. An uncomfortable part that didn’t fit.
Equality. That was it. Nothing was equal, not the way our bodies came together, not the way our minds and spirits meshed.
That was lame. That sounded lame. It was also true. I knew her name, this woman I shared the bed with. Liara. She liked to be kissed on the lobes of her ears and she loved wine. White wine, she would say in a joke she made too often.
I felt a surge of desire, a longing to drown out those thoughts and to end this encounter as many previous ones had ended. To let this be yet another bout of anonymous, carnal pleasure.
No commitments and no obligations. No tough questions and never any consequences, with an endless supply of partners.
I suddenly remembered falling into the trap. This was where it had brought me, this is what it had brought me too.
This burst of sentience was just my head briefly rising above the waters of my own weaknesses. Whatever all of this was, it was a trap custom-built for me and I realized that it had held me for a while. I could see the end coming. Soon, I and this vision of marble writhing atop me, would find our release and then I’d be elsewhere. In another bed, with another woman.
I’m a man of more than one flaw. I felt my body tense as the world exploded into pleasure. I didn’t let her go. I didn’t let this go. There was a glimmer of something that might one day become love and I fanned it into a flame. That was part of who I was, part of what I did. I let myself love her and, as magic coursed around me, trying to pull me away, I focused on how much I didn’t want to go.
Liara gave a breathy sound of pleasure as she crawled off me and settled her back against the headboard. She looked over. “Sticking around? That’s new, I love surprises.”
Conversation. This was awkward, this was new. My memories came tumbling back in a rush. I’d lost myself there, or been forced to lose myself.
“I’m not sure we’ve really been introduced,” I said.
“I did the first time out. You didn’t remember the next, so there wasn’t really a point. You’ve been sort of an all action and no talk kind of boy-toy. Liara Saros, The White Queen, Sultana of World’s End.”
She had a lot of titles. I let my eyes play over her. She really did look carved from stone, although I knew firsthand how pliant her flesh could be.
“And I’m your prisoner?”
“Not exactly,” Liara said, with a gaze as appraising as my own. “Whenever an unknown evil with potential enters my castle, it gets locked up in a prison of its own creation. Trapped in the pleasures it aches for or the pain it feels it deserves. Base evils never escape. You wound up in the palace harem. What did you do to end the magic?”
That was an awkward question, considering.
“I took a spark and kindled it into a flame. I made myself fall in love with you.”
Liara laughed with genuine pleasure. “Most men I’d call a liar, but the spell is broken. You mean it. You don’t even know me.”
“I’ve fallen in love at first sight before. Which I know, is less flattering.”
Speaking of which. Yvera. How long had it been? “Yvera?” I thought.
“You’re back. It’s been weeks. Is that… are you in bed with the White Queen?”
“Yes? Is that a problem?”
“She killed me, Liam. She killed all of us. If this world has an end boss, it’s her.”
Ancient, powerful, and coming with lots of complications. Yeah, I had a type.
Liara was saying, “I’ll take it. And I know who you are, Liam Ottani. The Flame of Galea. I shall hold a ball tomorrow so that you might be properly welcomed, now that you’ve proved worthy of it.”
“What about my friends? There were two others with me, and I came seeking a prisoner named Aria.”
“Your companions have not escaped their prisons. Aria is more complicated, but is a prisoner as well.”
Even the room was done in a monochrome of white. White sheets, white walls, white pillows. If it wasn’t for the shadows I wouldn’t be able to discern anything at all.
“Why? What has she done to you?”
Liara sat up to flip her perfectly white hair over one shoulder and said, “She knows secrets, every secret. Irksome enough, were she not immortal as well.”
That explained a lot.
“I’d like them freed.”
Liara reached out to rest a hand on my arm, “I can’t do that. Do you know who I am, Liam? What I do here?”
“You did just give me all your titles,” I said.
“I’m the end of the road, Liam. I’m this world’s salvation. I have locked up in my dungeons untold catastrophes that might have ended the world, if left to roam free,” Liara said, intently. “You are more than that. They may not be.”
That was funny. Yvera kept telling me that she was going to burn the world. If anyone was the threat, I was.
“You don’t understand them or me.”
“You’d be surprised what I understand,” Liara said, as she shifted to get off the bed, slipping a white robe around her. “You love me, so give me the benefit of the doubt.”
I did. I might have fanned that ember of love to life for the purposes of escaping her spell, but it lingered. I barely knew this woman, but I wanted her happy. I wanted to believe in her. That didn’t mean I trusted her, but it did mean I’d give her a chance.
“I’m listening.”
Liara secured the robe and moved to settle back on the edge of the bed. “For my trap to trigger at all requires a tendency towards the extreme. You, you’ll fall into bed with any woman, female demon, or even just a properly-shaped monster. I assure you, you’ve proved that over the past few weeks.”
Right. I guess I’d been busy. Very busy.
I know in a rational way I’d be saying eww, but instead I was perversely proud of myself, or perhaps proud of my perversion.
“Why can’t I remember it? The memories of everyone but you are so scattered.”
“You were often in more than one place at the same time. Not when with me, I wanted your full attention, as it were. This isn’t the point, you broke out of that cycle. The Crucible Shard is all about transcending who you are and what has trapped you, and becoming something new. You can do that,” Liara said, as she leaned in to stare me in the eyes.
“I’m the Chosen of a Goddess of Lust and Fire who sent my alignment all the way to the bottom just by her very existence. She promises me this story has an unhappy ending.”
“Change it. You two are as one, in a way. If you can break your cycle, it is proof she can break hers. Love makes you both stronger.”
“Well, aren’t you just full of the sappiest advice ever.”
Liara smiled at that. “I’m my own better half. You won’t get that now, but you will someday. Your friends aren’t breaking their own cycle. They might, but if they are going to, they need to figure it out on their own. You would do them no favors by playing rescuer.”
Oh, if she didn’t like the thought of me playing rescuer to them, she’d hate what else I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure I’d get a better chance to ask however.
“I’m going to. And after that I’m going to free Mela. I was told you possess a key that might help,” I said.
Liara went still. “The Mela that nearly buried the world in her terrible automatons? The Mela who viewed all organic life as inherently flawed? That Mela?”
She wasn’t a fan.
“I don’t actually know much about her.”
“Yet you want to free her,” Liara said, and her laugh this time had only bitterness and pain in it. She rose from the bed and stormed towards a chest against one wall, flipping it open before she began to search through its contents.
“I’m told it’s important,” I said. I felt some guilt about the request, I truly didn’t wish to bring this woman any pain.
Liara pulled a small mechanical gear, as perfectly white as everything else in the room, from the chest. “Hold out your hand. Palm down. The key comes with a price.”
I did as she indicated. Another deal. There was always a deal. “And that is?”
“You love me. You’ll figure it out,” Liara said, and pressed the gear to the back of my hand. For a moment I was bathed in an ecstasy of clockwork, a euphoria of perfectly measured gears and timing. The sensation faded and I saw on the back of my hand an imprint of the gear in white.
“What was that?”
“I imprisoned her. That is a glimpse of the prison she is trapped in and the key to unlocking it. If you are intent on playing rescuer, you may leave. Turn left out my door and you shall come to stairs. Go all the way to the bottom and then follow the hall until the stone becomes black. They’ll be somewhere within, I do not know where.”
I glanced down at myself. I wasn’t wearing a stitch and therefore in a poor condition for adventuring. “You can’t simply free them?”
“Perhaps you noticed everything in this city has two states? Two halves. In this palace it is pain and pleasure. I hold no dominion there and I’ll not offer you more aid than I already have,” Liara said, and then paused for a moment. “Please. If you go, you will likely die. Stay here for a time, I shall show you the wonders of my side of things and perhaps they will join us in time.”
I wanted to. Truly I wanted to. Powerful and ancient, and a little bit sad and a little bit broken. My type would be the death of me, but today it was trying to save my life.
I took a step forward and pressed my lips to hers, a lingering kiss that for a moment washed away all other concerns. “I wish I could, my love. I wish I could. I’ll survive and figure out your price and return one day to pay it.”
Fine. I was one for grand romantic gestures.
I slipped towards the door. Naked, defenseless, and headed towards a castle dungeon. I was getting experienced at this sort of thing.
Quest Completed
Doing The Right Thing
Your friends are trapped and you have been warned of the dangers in playing rescuer. I wonder if you’ll pick loyalty or wisdom, or be more surprising yet and find a way to demonstrate both.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The hallway was warm even against my bare flesh. It must have been daylight outside. The royal chambers were fortunately free of any staff and no one barred my way to the stairs. The steps were circular and narrow, it seemed this was a private access to the castle’s depths.
It felt like a good half hour of climbing down. At least the poison that had coursed through me when I originally fell into the trap had long sense faded. I felt good, post-workout good.
When I reached the dungeons the air was chill, which I figured must mean I was now below ground.
I moved down the hallway. Thick, heavy doors adorned with magical glyphs were at regular intervals on both sides. I paused near one to press my ear against it, but I could hear nothing. I’m sure my own captivity had been a good bit noisier.
Down the hall I saw a guard doing rounds. I crouched in the shadows of a nearby alcove while I checked his stats.
Prison Guard
Level 45: Type: Human HP: 550/550
Guards of the dungeons of the twin palaces are a formidable lot charged with keeping contained some of the most dangerous evils in the entire world. Masters of all weapons with the ability to negate magic.
Wow. He could kick my ass. I’m sure he’d kick the ass of the entire party I usually ran with. Cobalt could probably take him—she was the scariest thing on two legs I’d ever seen and didn’t require magic to kick ass.
If it had been weeks, I wondered if she had escaped from her own captivity and found Maria yet.
I stayed in hiding until the guard passed and then resumed my progress down the hall.
A few minutes later I had to hide again, but this time the guard must have gotten some sight of me. He advanced to investigate.
I’d dealt little with the stealth in this game, I just had to hope that so long as I remained crouched in shadows all would be well no matter how improbable it seemed.
It’s fine in theory, but I found that when you’re bare-assed naked with someone who could kill you instantly less than a foot away, theory seems to count for very little. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to try something. To sit there hardly breathing as the guard peered around, missing me right in front of him, and finally beginning to whistle a tune as he resumed his patrol.
I had to take a moment steadying myself before I moved on. The halls became black stone. I realized I had no way to tell where Ashley, Walt, or Aria were to be found. None of the doors I’d seen so far had any sort of window or even markings to indicate who was within.
I eventually came to a door that was different than the others. While most had hinges for opening this one was sealed with heavy metal bands to keep it permanently closed. Warning signs on the door read, “Do not open under any circumstances. Do not converse with the prisoner. Do not linger near this door.”
Liara had said Aria was immortal and dangerous because of the secrets she held. I’d expect her cell to hold warnings just like this. I didn’t have any better options.
I didn’t have any sort of tools to open the cell, but hopefully I wouldn’t need them. On an elemental level fire did beat metal, and fire magic I had lots of.
“Yvera, I’m going to try to melt through this door. Can you give things a boost?”
“You go out of contact for weeks and then only come back when you fall in love with a woman who once killed me after prolonged bouts of sleeping with her? Bit pissed at you right now.”
Great. Just great. This was not the time or place to be having this conversation.
“I love you more. I will always love you more. You are the fire that lights my life and the center of my world. Yo
u are also in my head so you know I’m being completely honest. Could you please help me open this Goddess damned door!”
I had the sense of a derisive snort in my head, but I did feel that sudden increased rush of heat that indicated Yvera was boosting my magic.
Smite
I reached out with the magic and allowed a nice slow burn to play out along the seals for the door. Metal began to glow red, then white and finally began to drip. Even with Yvera boosting me it was slower than I liked and I was wary of when the next patrol would come.
Turning myself into a human blowtorch wound up taking all of my mana. Whoever had sealed this cell really did not want it to be opened. When the last of the metal bands was severed, I stepped aside as the door came crashing down into the hall. That would draw every guard in earshot. I really hoped this prisoner was not some unspeakable and deadly evil intent on devouring me.
Aria stepped out of the cell. She was perfectly coiffed and dressed in an elegant, but modest dress of blue and white.
“Well, you had a chance to get dressed since the last time I saw you,” I said.
“That makes one of us. Really Liam, I appreciate you honoring our agreement, but you might have put on some clothes first. I do hope you haven’t been running around like that for weeks,” Aria said, before pausing and tilting her head. “Actually, I admire the visual, be a dear and don’t shatter my illusions. Follow me.”
Aria set off quickly down the hall and with little option I hurried behind her. “The guards will be coming and I still need to rescue my friends.”
Aria paused at one section of the wall that looked just like the others and rapped her knuckles on it in a rhythm that was nearly melodic. A rune began to dimly glow on the stonework and then the section of wall faded away to reveal a dark tunnel beyond.
I followed her into the gloom and the stone materialized behind us cutting off the last traces of light. I felt her hand searching for mine.
“I don’t suppose you have a light,” I said.