Endless Online: Oblivion's Promise

by M. H. Johnson

  Meta-Magic Feats: Stabilization Rank 2 / Spellboost Rank 1 (150% for triple cost) / Psiboost Rank 1 (125% for double cost)

  Personal Resonance Mastery Rank 5

  Greater Oathbinding Rank 1

  Jordian Magical Arts Learned

  Creation - Rank 2

  Destruction - Rank 1

  Manipulation - Rank 2

  Transformation - Rank 1

  Fire - Rank 2

  Water - Rank 1

  Earth - Rank 2

  Herbam - Rank 1

  Jordian Spells Learned

  Firestream Level 20 C/F - Cost 5 Mana

  Explosive Retribution Level 30 C/F (Must save against Oblivion when casting.) - Cost 40 mana.

  Condensation Collection Level 5 M/W - Cost 0 mana.

  Stoneflow. Level 1 M/E - Cost 0 mana.

  Dwarven Catalyzation Level 20 C+M+T/E - Cost 20 mana.

  Automative Folly Level 20 D+M+T/E - Cost 20 mana.

  Plentiful Bounty (Greater Ritual) Level 40 C+M+T / E+H - Cost 150 mana. (20%+ Critical failure risk: This spell is far beyond your abilities!)

  ______________________________________________________________________________________

  8

  Valor groaned, rubbing his throbbing head, propping himself up on his elbow, gazing about the room he found himself in, placed but feet beside Elisa, still mending from her injuries. Val gazed down at her and smiled, certain that she was recovering. He swallowed and forced himself to look down at the awful mess that his legs had become, carefully twitching no thigh muscles lest pain be his reward, only to gasp as he pulled off the single thin sheet covering him.

  His legs were smooth and whole, without blemish or scar. He flinched involuntarily as he forced himself to touch them. No pain, no numbness. They were perfectly fine. He made himself stand, satisfied at last that he wouldn't collapse in an agonized heap. It appeared that the remarkable recuperative powers he had in this world had healed him completely once more. A boon for which he would be forever grateful.

  He spied what looked to be a dwarven outfit laid out for him, donning it quickly and dipping his head into the adjoining room, hoping to see Ava working diligently on her experiments only to smile at him, but her quarters were sealed tight, and he didn't sense her beyond the door.

  He then peered into the next room, comforted to see his friends looking in good health, Gregor and Halvar both conversing over one of the dwarven cubes at an animated clip. Val blinked and tore his eyes away, knowing the headache he'd get just glancing at the holographic image it would try to display upon his mind. Sten, wearing his armored jacket once more, was the first to spot Valor, grim countenance lighting at once with a smile.

  "Our newest companion, back from the brink of dire peril at last! How are you feeling, Val?" He looked pointedly at Val's legs before handing him a flask of cool water.

  Val took a deep drink, knowing he had to measure his words carefully. How much could he say and be true to the fragile friendships he had formed, while still holding tight to the dwarves' trust?

  "I'm feeling much better," he admitted. "Honestly, the agony I had felt in my legs, so reminiscent of what I had suffered back on Earth... I can't tell you how grateful I am not to be cursed with endless pain once more."

  Sten nodded, handsome features lit by a wry, knowing smile. "And yet you pull through without scrape or injury after a single day's sleep. Nowhere near as badly injured as we had been given to fear, considering how carefully your girlfriend and her pair of helpers had put you to bed, how they tried over and over again to make sure we understood not to touch you in any way."

  Val chuckled awkwardly. "What can I say? I'm a fast healer."

  "Very fast," Halvar agreed with a welcoming clap to Val's shoulder.

  "Inhumanly fast," Gregor grumbled. "What? You all know it's true. I'm not even saying there's anything wrong with it, mind you. But it isn't exactly natural."

  Halvar grinned. "It's good to have you back, lad."

  Val smiled, warmed as he always felt by the giant's good-natured manner. "It's good to be back, Halvar. Quite an adventure, but we made it through."

  He raised a polite eyebrow. "Do tell."

  Val nodded to the giant of a man. "I accompanied Arilius, that's the older dwarf, to the various arboriums they had..."

  "Arboriums?" Gregor frowned, tilting his head at the word.

  Val nodded. "Think a vast, contained, multilayered garden/hydroponics center using mystic lights to achieve rates of growth far beyond what even a typical summer day would inspire."

  Gregor blinked. "Fascinating tech."

  Val nodded. "Yes. They were running sub-par, so I offered to use my Silbion stores to boost their performance. It was a wild success. I did have to go throughout the city, and at one point one of their automatons did fall on me."

  Halvar smirked. "I've heard of those things. The few successfully rebuilt or kept in collections are notoriously buggy. Interesting as a curiosity, but highly unpredictable. To find that the dwarves themselves don't have perfect control over the silly things comforts me somehow. Still, they tend to be small, from those I've seen. How did you manage to get your legs so badly injured?"

  Val grimaced. "I was flat on the ground and the slightest bit winded by that point. I guess you could say I'm not quite the athlete I would like to be." All of which was technically true. Had he been a bit stronger, a bit faster, a bit more graceful, maybe he could have avoided injury altogether. As it was, he had been just fast enough to save Arilius's life, and his own.

  Gregor laughed at that. "Our daring spider killer and ghost slayer gets put in his place by a screwy automaton. I knew there was some sort of balance in the world." His grin was actually friendly. "Don't feel bad, kid. We all have clumsy moments sometimes. Whenever you slip and fall on your face or your experiment blows up for no sane reason, just think of it as the universe keeping you humble. No one wants an arrogant know-it-all. Not even the fates themselves, I think."

  Val dipped his head, not saying a word.

  Sten peered closely at Val. "So. Your mission with them was an unmitigated success, it sounds like."

  Val grinned. "The Silbion worked, much as I had hoped it would."

  The captain smiled. "That's what I had hoped to hear. So we have proven our friendship beyond question, I trust?"

  Val swallowed, nodding. "I believe the will grant us favored trading status, Captain."

  The captain's grin widened. "Excellent. Well, please tell our hosts to come up with a list of anything they might need from the surface world, anything at all, and I'm sure arrangements can be made. I know Silbion's near impossible to gather underground, but I don't suppose you queried about any Elementium stores they might have, or... dare I say it... Valorium?" The entire party gazed silently at Val with those words before the captain broke the tension, shrugging his shoulders. "Though I'm sure other arrangements can be made, if such elements are not available. There is quite a sizable market for dwarven artifacts amongst collectors, after all."

  Val bowed his head. "I didn't think to bring it up in the middle of our mission, but I shall ask the dwarves about what goods they might like to trade for, when next they choose to speak with me." Val hoped he had made it very clear that the ball was in the dwarves' court, not his own. And if he did have influence, he'd rather not advertise that fact. He wanted Sten happy, but he didn't want to put this city he had striven so hard to save in any debt or disadvantage because of that.

  Sten nodded.

  Gregor let loose an explosive breath. "Honestly, Captain, so long as we can get out of here in one piece, especially with the fortune in ore Val is carrying, I don't mind if they don't wish to trade for even a single one of their blasters."

  Sten frowned. "I'm sure we don't have to worry about such a crass farewell from our new friends, do we Val?"

  Val smiled. "No, Captain. Oaths mean something to the dwarves. It's the only reason why they were unprepared for their enemy's blitzkrieg assault, a
thousand years ago. They had never encountered treachery on that scale before." Val's brows furrowed. "And they will never let themselves be so vulnerable again. But they would not break faith with us, especially after you had all agreed to be oathbound."

  Sten and Halvar nodded, Gregor grimacing and excusing himself. Val guessed the small man still didn't like being bound by things he had little control over, even if the oath was the only thing that would facilitate them leaving the city among the living.

  Sten patted a comfortable looking seat next to him, Val noting the extra accommodations the dwarves had brought them since their first encounter. He sunk into the plush chair gratefully, blinking in surprise as Sten handed him the tome Elise compelled him to study, even in his dreams. "No reason not to make use of the time, Val, and this is one of the few tomes I know you can read. Getting more comfortable with both dampening your magic and reading will only help you, once we return to the outer world waiting for us above."

  Val blinked, staring at the captain.

  Sten's smile was almost fatherly. "I can imagine why you might want to stay, never having seen the world above, finding a beautiful lass who finds you appealing down here in this lost city as well. But we do have to head to the surface, both so that we can supply the dwarves with whatever items they need, and so that we can sell the Elementium your wonderful talents have helped us realize from this venture, which you alone can store in such concentrated form. Even fully purified, it is still hundreds of pounds." A playful wink belied the seriousness of his tone. "Besides, we're not the only ones who took a vow, Val. You did as well, and I think I know you well enough to know that you will keep your word and see this through to the end."

  Val swallowed, knowing that the captain had outmaneuvered him before he could voice a single protest. He forced himself to nod. "Of course, Captain."

  Sten chuckled softly. "Don't worry. If things go as I hope they do, we'll be back in a matter of weeks, all of us profiting mightily from this venture. Now quit your sighing, and study the charts. You know that's exactly what Elise would want you to do."

  Val swallowed and nodded, and he hadn't been sighing. Just accepting reality. He took a deep breath and let himself sink in the latest chart he had been examining in his dream. It was exactly as he had imagined it, and slowly he began the rigorous process of mastering the complex web of interwoven information, concentrating on focusing upon the ebb and flow of arcane energies coursing through his body even as he studied the tome.

  Hours seemed to pass by in minutes, even Gregor impressed by his focus, and Val was certain he could never have mirrored the feat while a student. The discipline he had learned over the last three years combined with increases in willpower and scholarship had probably been the deciding factors. But at the end of the day, he was still Val, and it was his simple desire to better himself that pushed him onward.

  Someone knocked sharply on their door. Sten nodded toward the entrance. Val opened it, blinking at the sight of a pair of powerfully built dwarven guards in full, shimmering suits of armor, each carrying a brightly glittering poleaxe. Their gazes were those of hardened veterans.

  As one, they bowed low to Val, and he could sense the hot tension in the room behind him immediately fade to nothing.

  "If you will follow us, Valor Hunter?"

  Smiling, Val did just that, assuring his friends that he would be back as soon as he could, enjoying a walk through a city now filled with shimmering light, the darkness dispelled, at least in this quarter of the kingdom.

  Dozens of dwarves were now strolling along the thoroughfare, no few gazing at the city with awe and wonder even as he was, others working industriously at what seemed to be maintenance or repair. Yet no matter how preoccupied they seemed, when their eyes caught Val's they uniformly slammed fist to heart, bowing low before him.

  Val blushed and bowed his head when children started doing it as well, feeling both humbled and unworthy. He was just grateful to see the city alive and vibrant, filled with light and life where there had only been stillness and darkness just days before, the sound of dwarven children playing in the wood-lined park that had been a near lifeless arborium just days ago washing over him along with the rich scents of loam and pine. He felt an indescribable ache of wonder and joy as he watched the children at play.

  "This way, Champion," said one of the dwarves escorting him.

  Val blinked at the title but nodded as they made their way forward again, now coming before a magnificent amphitheater of the same wondrous bronze-gold alloy as made up most of the city. Val blinked as the roar and cheer of numerous dwarven voices could be heard.

  He was inundated by brilliant lights as he entered the building, squinting as he saw what might have been hundreds of dwarves seated in the first few rows, the structure so large that it could have held thousands. He then turned his gaze to meet the faces of none other than Aurilius, Astmar, and Ava, the trio smiling so warmly as he approached them, all of them seated upon grand, oversized chairs upon a raised dais, wearing the most elegant clothes Val had ever seen, and Val didn't even need to see the golden circlets upon their brows to understand at last.

  His friends hadn't simply been the chance-thawed caretakers of this ancient city.

  They were its rulers.

  He had made love to a princess, and fought beside a king.

  Val trembled and wept for joy even as the crowd's approving roars washed over him, feeling a sweet sense of peace, of completeness, at having accomplished something so very sacred as rescuing this city from the saddest of endings, his dark skills brought to noble use at last.

  The warm gazes of Arilius and his family touched Val deeply. To rescue those in need, and be found worthy in turn had been his heart's desire for so long, warped as his causes had become under the mercenary machinations of the world he had called home for the first twenty years of his life. No longer. Here, as nowhere else, perhaps, he could be the hero he had always dreamed, always yearned to be.

  "Rise, Valor Hunter, stalwart brother-in-arms to your king. For your bravery in battle, for your dedication to my people in their time of greatest need, I bid you rise and accept the title of Champion. Hero of the dwarven people!"

  The crowd roared with Arilius's words as Val stumbled to his feet, legs shaking as he approached the king, Arilius's eyes gazing into his own as his brilliant sword flashed in the reflected light, whipping down with chilling speed before tapping first one, then the other shoulder as gently as a summer breeze.

  Congratulations! You have earned the rank of Champion of the Dwarven People! All dwarves have a modified +6 reaction to you!

  Val, suddenly dizzy, would have lost his balance if the king hadn't gently gripped his shoulders. "You saved my people. You saved my family. We will never forget what you have done for us. Our home is your home, for so long as you wish it."

  Val bowed his head. "No greater gift could you give me than letting me see your city bright and prosperous, full of children at play, where before there had only been stillness, all life frozen away."

  Arilius Battleborn grinned at that. "And even now, as he is crowned Champion of our people, he asks for nothing! A hero born in a world of mercenaries, cutthroats, and treacherous snakes! Let us honor our hero, then, with a boon worthy of his namesake!"

  The crowd roared as several armored dwarves marched up to the dais, bowing low before the king as they lowered a sturdy looking chest of Elementium infused bronze.

  The king handed Val a key. "Open it, Champion, and gaze at your prize."

  With trembling hands Val did so, the key sliding smoothly in the lock, opening with the softest of clicks. As if on greased hinges, Val effortlessly opened the lid, gasping in wonder to behold half a dozen shimmering orbs filled with lights that dazzled and swirled, as if galaxies spun in their core.

  With trembling hands, Val picked one up. "My king, dare I ask what this is?"

  The king roared with laughter. "They are the greatest prize of any you will find in t
he human worlds, Valor Hunter! These are Valorium starship cores. As pure and fine as any the damned Highlords used to sail the heavens in their dreadnoughts a millennium ago. Millions of strands of Valorium carefully woven to such perfect symmetry that no ship will sail the heavens farther or faster than one with a dwarven core in its heart!"

  His mirth turned hard. "And knowing humans as I do, as brilliant as they may be at memorizing volumes of information, it is at the expense of all creativity. Their modality assumes that perfection is already present in their damned two-dimensional depictions, and even for the centuries I studied your people, never did they advance in any art or science beyond a snail's pace."

  He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Which is just to say, I would not be surprised if these Valorium Cores are still the most suited of any you will find in ships sailing the heavens, well capable of keeping even dreadnought class ships aloft, even within docking distance of a planet!"

  Astmar nodded. "They were forged with dedication and care, specifically to the specifications of the Highlords who had requisitioned them. Part of the trade negotiations that ended in utter and absolute betrayal, and the attempted genocide of my race."

  Astmar's hot gaze held Val's own for some moments before he bowed his head. "And it was you, the youngest human I ever met, that saved my daughter. Saved my race. For that, Valor Hunter, I and my people will always be in your debt."

  Val swallowed and bowed his head. "I can only hope that your righteous wrath extends only to the bastards that seek to enslave everyone, both dwarf and innocent humans just living their lives and caring for their families alike." Val gave a bitter shake of his head. "I wouldn't even have come to this realm, had a monster wearing a human's guise not kidnapped dozens of my own, having no less intention than sucking their Psions dry over years of hideous bliss and torment, only to cast them aside like dried fruit rinds when they had been drained to brittle, decrepit, brain-dead husks."

  The cheering crowd had gone deathly silent. Astmar's eyes glared into Valor's own. Val swallowed, suddenly afraid that he had overstepped himself.