by Charles Dean
"Lee," Amber said, stopping him. "Before I die, I need you to know something: I'm happy that I loved you." Despite her injuries and the lingering cold, she spoke with strength and certainty in her voice. She reached up with one hand, grabbed his collar, and used it to pull herself up and into a kiss.
Lee embraced the kiss and held it as long as he could before she let go. Her head rolled back lifelessly, and her body sagged in his arms. “No, no, no, no! This can’t . . . Please don’t . . . Augustus! Augustus, please! Don’t let her die. Augustus do something! Take her to my world. Take her there and heal her! Take her there and save her,” Lee begged, but he got no response back. It was just silence as he stared down at her through tear-filled eyes, unwilling to look away.
“I’m sorry,” Devin said from behind him after a minute. “I’d have bled out quicker for you if I could have. Then you could have healed her, and she might have lived, but . . . no sharp objects on me.”
Lee turned to find the man lying in a pool of his own blood, but he turned back to Amber, ignoring the Herald altogether.
“For . . . what it’s worth . . . thank you,” the fallen Herald said, uttering his last words and then fading from life.
You have killed Devin, Herald of the Goddess of Ice. Your party has received a world stone fragment, a child’s pacifier, 1000 gold and 12000 Experience. Your share of this is a world stone fragment, 334 gold and 4000 Experience.
You have absorbed a fragment of the world stone. All of your primary attributes will receive a 5% passive boost. Your intelligence will also receive a 5% passive increase.
Divinity Power: Life in Death activated.
You have reached Level 26! Your level increase has boosted all primary stats by 1. Your current Power, Toughness and Spirit have been adjusted to 36. You are 33999 Experience away from Level 27.
You have defeated the Herald of the Goddess of Ice. As the slayer of a Herald, all of his excess faith shall be awarded to the god you serve. You have also been granted the final boon of a now-dead goddess: Bowl of the Ice Queen’s Pudding. When consumed, this chilled dessert will give a massive percent-based increase to the Power and Toughness of the one who ate the most of it.
“Lee.” Ling’s voice broke the sudden silence that had fallen on the park.
Lee looked up and saw General Brigid leading a band of around a hundred soldiers into the square. He didn’t know when she had left the main hole in the wall that the dragons had opened to circle around the fortifications and discover the undefended gate, but she had enough people to easily mow down whatever stragglers were left over. Her eyes met Lee’s, and she stopped cold, holding his gaze for a moment. Her eyes darted from him to the corpse he was holding and then back to him again.
She raised her sword, stopping all the troops behind her with one gesture, and examined the battlefield. Lee hadn’t been paying attention to anything else since his fight with Devin had begun, and the once-beautiful square wasn’t a pretty sight. Over a third of his people from Satterfield lay dead, either covered in ice needles from the giants or from countless spear wounds. Devin’s own men had roughly been cut in half, and those left didn’t seem to be in top fighting shape. She looked back at Lee, staring at him for a good minute while her men waited to find out if she would order an attack. Without so much as a word, she only turned and left, likely realizing that she had only been used as a pawn in another’s war, her troops following behind her.
Both Devin and Lee’s men refrained from fighting, instead facing the invading army as if they were a united front. When the troops were finally gone, both groups looked at each other and then to Lee, but he didn’t say anything. He simply stayed put, holding onto Amber.
“Drop your weapons, fall to your knees and surrender. No one else has to die!” Ling ordered, and Devin’s former soldiers hastily complied. After their weapons were collected by the remaining people from Satterfield, Ling went over to where Miller, Dave and Pelham were standing and watching Lee quietly.
“Lee . . .” Ling knelt down next to him, hugging him from behind. “I’m here for you,” she said.
Lee didn’t acknowledge her. He collected himself and stood up with Ling, wiping his eyes dry before turning to see the enemies he had fought kneeling down on the ground with their hands up. They were watching his every movement.
“We won,” Dave said. “I never thought I’d live to see that bastard die, but here we stand.”
Miller came over and grabbed Lee into a massive bear hug, one that nearly broke his back in the process. “Tonight, before we drink our victory, we’ll drink for Amber.”
“We’ll drink for Kate. We’ll drink for everyone who died today,” Lee answered back when Miller’s hug loosened, and he could breathe again. He then turned to his troops. “Tonight, we’ll drink for those we lost, and tomorrow, we’ll drink for the hope they sacrificed themselves defending. So many good people died today, and so many beautiful futures were lost, but what we’ve accomplished will save so many more. I want Augustus to bring them back, but he promises that they’re in a better place now . . . as hard as that is to accept. The only thing we can do now is build upon our victory. All we can do is make the most of the lives they protected and honor them with our deeds and actions. The man we killed today, the man they risked everything to destroy, hated Humans to his very bones. So long as he lived, we would never have been safe, and we would have one day been wiped from this world. It is no exaggeration or small statement when I say that they died so that we could live. We owe them everything, and we must strive every day hereafter to show them the value of what they safeguarded.”
Lee took a deep breath when he was finished with the speech and looked over at Miller. It was hard to control his breathing. He was torn up about what had happened, but he knew this conversation wasn’t one he could put off. As great as his sorrow was at losing Amber, arguably the person he loved most in this world, his rage at Miller’s deceit was there in equal quantities. But he had to swallow it. Some part of his heart might curse Miller till the day he died for not telling him what Devin could do, but the rational part of his brain knew better. He could only imagine what Miller felt after losing someone he had loved for years if he felt this way after losing someone he had known for such a short period of time--and to a much harsher betrayal. It left his emotions so twisted since he wanted to hate Miller, but knew he shouldn’t, and because he wanted to forgive Miller, but couldn’t.
“Lee, I’m--” Miller started, but Lee stopped him cold.
“We’ll drink tonight as brothers who lost women to the same goddess,” Lee said, suppressing his wrath with all his might but not letting it go. It was the only thing that was preventing him from breaking down at the moment. “But,” he continued in a voice so soft that the troops couldn’t hear him, “tomorrow, I don’t want to see you. I’ll need some time.”
Miller, who usually argued with Lee about anything he didn’t like, just nodded.
Then, not exactly knowing what he was doing, Lee emptied all of the sand from his inventory onto the ground in front of him. He had gathered a good chunk of it from a creek bed on the way back to Kirshtein, hoping to make it into glass knives he could give Amber, but he was just unloading it onto the ground now. He closed his eyes and reached out with his spirit, infusing the sand with his mana, with his soul, and recounted the last loving smile that Amber had given him as he lay dying. He gave the sand his everything, and when he opened his eyes, she was there again, immortalized in a beautiful glass statue.
The glass face was every bit as loving as he knew the real-life counterpart had been. He had made the statue so that she was standing atop a burgeoning wave as she looked down on them in a ballroom gown. Then, influenced by his thoughts of her and his own world, he had given her a set of wings. She was the woman he had rescued from servitude, but she was the angel that had saved him, and for that, he felt that even the angelic grace he had given her statue wasn’t enough. Satisfied as best he could be with the work, b
ut not being able to look at it, he picked up her corpse and began to walk away.
“Lee, don’t you need to settle accounts with Connacht? They’re going to expect you to be here when they finish handling the wounded in Kirshtein,” Ling said hesitantly.
“Let them,” Lee responded as he clutched the body tighter and walked away. “They can expect whatever they want. Tonight, I’m taking her home, and anyone who wants to bury their dead too can follow me. Until I get her back to Satterfield, politics can wait. Connacht can wait. They let a monster exist within their walls for so long and grow so strong that she had to die for them.” Lee paused, trying to control his temper. “I don’t care what happens to them at the moment.”
“I’ll take care of everything,” Miller volunteered and then turned to the people. “If you’re taking bodies back to be buried, you should go now with him. If you’re staying, I know a bar that welcomes anyone who serves Augustus like brothers. We’ll sleep there tonight.”
Ling’s eyes passed back and forth between Lee and Miller, and then she followed after Lee. She didn’t say anything the entire trip back to Satterfield. She just stayed quietly by Lee’s side as he carried Amber.
-----
When night came, Augustus returned with it. “You’re awake.” It was more of an observation than a question since the drunken god likely knew he was unable to sleep.
“I am,” Lee answered. He had been staring at the empty spot next to him that was typically occupied by Amber. No bed had never felt so alone, so unfriendly, and so uninviting and empty as it did now.
“Are you going to be alright?” Augustus asked.
“I don’t know,” Lee answered honestly.
“I know it’s hard to hear,” Augustus began, “but it’s going to be okay for Amber. Non-player souls don’t die. She didn’t really die in this contest. After things are over, I’ll make sure to find it. I’ll make sure her soul finds a new body and a better life in a world without these hardships.”
Lee laughed silently, his chest rising and falling with the laughter. He closed his eyes and squeezed them shut to stop a tear from forming. “You’re going to feed me those same lies I gave them? You’re going to trick me like I did those people from Satterfield? To comfort me with the story of my pet going to a farm upstate? We both know better. I know better. There is no afterlife that you’re in charge of, Augustus. She’s just dead. She’s dead, it’s my fault, and there is nothing I can ever do to fix that.” The thought of his actions, his hesitation to kill the Herald--it ate him up. The fact that he had to tell the same lie Augustus was feeding him now to those people in Satterfield was just one more dagger among many that had wedged itself in his gut.
“You don’t have to believe me, but I’ll still help her. I’ll save her soul and give her a happy life. Not just for you, but for her,” Augustus promised. “You can rest easy knowing that.”
Lee sighed as he rolled over, turning his back away from the empty spot that Amber’s absence left. He felt betrayed. Augustus was feeding him these lies--lies he was certain were only being told out of goodwill to comfort him--but he felt worse for the fact that he wanted to believe them. In his heart, he had already accepted what Augustus has said. Like water in a desert, his heart swallowed it whole without worrying about where it came from or what the price was, and his mind agonized over his gullibility and the fact that, deep down, he knew it was a lie--a lie he couldn’t stop himself from believing.
It didn’t take much longer to reach Satterfield and bury Amber’s body properly next to some of the others who had died in Kirshtein. The townsfolk erected a memorial for those who had left and didn’t come back, and while the newly-built remembrance wasn’t much, a small obelisk that Lee had helped them craft with the names of the fallen etched across it, it was the best they could do and more than Lee asked of them. He was grateful that they didn’t demand more from him, and he was grateful that Ling stayed with him during the whole process. She was always there, willing to help with everything he needed before he even asked. She made his meals, poured his beers and silently watched as he grieved--not that Lee had said a word to anyone but Augustus since leaving Kirshtein--remaining just as quiet as Amber had been prior to their adventures with the Cragaboom.
The messenger Connacht had used to keep tabs on Lee showed up at Ramon’s bar the same night. “You’ve got bad timing,” Lee said as he saw the man approach him. “I’ll return soon. For now, please let me rest.”
“I have a message for you,” Connacht’s man said, extending a scroll. “You need to return sooner than you’d like. There is a meeting between the houses to discuss the battle. The nobility’s infrastructure is crumbling after the death of the lead house’s champion, and we could use your presence to fortify our position. Connacht sends his apologies, but Kirshtein is still in chaos, and the people still need your services.”
Lee raised an eyebrow. “My services? I just get people killed. Or haven’t you heard? Are you hoping I’ll kill off someone else? Did you want me to get Connacht killed?”
The man didn’t even blink at Lee’s words. “Without religion, there is no stability. With their Herald dead, there is a hole in the city government that the members of the council will soon fill. There are other religions, ones easier for the state to control, but we think it is in both your and Connacht’s interests to represent Augustus in the coming debates. You are best prepared to represent Humanity in the decision concerning how to handle the aggressors that attacked our city yesterday.”
“You mean the ones we brought to attack that city?”
“Yes, those people. Their general will surely not be done with us, and we are worried they will take this deceit as an act of war against them. We are not confident that Kirshtein can survive a full-scale war at the moment, especially considering the power Brigid of Kildare represents, and the council is desperate for leadership. Connacht feels this is a good chance for you to assert yourself further in Kirshtein.”
Lee looked down at the drink in front of him, his fourteenth of the day. “I’ll think about it.”
“Sir, I think you really--” The man tried to press his point further, but Ling jumped between him and Lee, drawing her sword.
“He is done speaking with you,” she said coldly, holding her blade level with the man’s neck. “I think it would be best if you left right now.”
The messenger hesitated, but seeing the determination on Ling’s face, he turned around and departed.
“Thank you, Ling,” Lee said, getting up and returning to his bedroom. His morose mood had left him short of sleep, and the man’s pestering had taken away the little energy he had left for the day. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She followed him up the stairs, opened the door for him, and then, when he went inside, she gave him a look he didn’t quite understand. She stood there, her gaze flickering back and forth between him and the bed, chewing on her lip.
What is she thinking?
“Would you . . . like me to sleep with you tonight? So that you don’t feel alone?” she asked, going from her awkward lip bite to a frown to a deep breath.
Oh, would I like you to try and take Amber’s place? Lee interpreted the sentence in his head. “No, I think I’m okay,” he said. “I need to talk to Augustus anyway.”
“Okay.” She nodded a few times, looking defeated as she shut the door behind her and left for the night.
“You needed to talk to me?” Augustus’s voice appeared in his head. “Do we have more to discuss? I thought you were doing that whole lugubrious moping thing, and I was just gonna leave you be until you got it out of your system.”
“Got it out of my system?”
“What? Don’t act like you’re special,” Augustus said in a condescending tone. “You think others haven’t lost loved ones? Haven’t lost family members? We all have. But as hard as it is to come to terms with the loss, we all move on. I should have just let you figure this out on your own, but if you’re going to mope
around at the expense of Satterfield and Kirshtein, I’m going to have to step in. I’m sorry that I have to do this.”
“Do what?” Lee asked, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he already knew the answer: he was being warped back to the real world.
Epilogue
Name: Lee
Race: Human
Class: Herald - None
Level: 26
Health: 360/360
EXP: 3001/37000
Primary Stats:
Power 36 (39)
Toughness 36 (39)
Spirit 36 (39)
Secondary Stats:
Charisma 25
Courage 20
Deceit 26
Intelligence 161 (177)
Honor 3
Faith 32721
Personal Faith 233
Skills:
Unarmed Combat Initiate Level 7
Swordplay Novice Level 8
Sneak Journeyman Level 2
Cooking Initiate Level 7
Trap Detection Initiate Level 6
Knife Combat Initiate Level 8
Mental Fortitude Initiate Level 1
Sleight of Hand Initiate Level 3
Blood Shield Initiate Level 3
Glass Smithing Initiate Level 10
Divine Skills:
Golem Sculpting Journeyman Level 1
Appreciative Drunk Novice Level 8
Nectar of the Gods Initiate Level 4
Spirit Smithing Initiate Level 3
Faith Healing
Divinity Powers:
Life in Death