by Adam Witcher
“Lead the way, barkeep.”
“Wait, don’t I get to know why you’re here? I just told you what I know.”
“Nope, that’s what the gold’s for. Where’s the basement?”
The barkeeper nodded his head behind him, muttering to himself. He led them down a hallway, where, behind a dilapidated set of lavatories, a solid black door opened onto a staircase. The barkeeper scowled as they walked through it. Isaac placed the coins in his hand as he walked through.
“Thanks, doll.”
The basement reeked of stale beer and mold. Large crates were piled into stacks. Shattered pieces of wood from kegs were strewn about. Walls were stained with moldy bricks. The basement wasn’t much bigger than Isaac’s house. They sorted through the crates for a few minutes, but nothing of interest turned up. They mostly contained glassware and cleaning supplies, which Isaac suspected had gone unused for some time.
“What in the hell did he think your dad stole?” Rhotha asked. “You couldn’t pay me to take this shit. And the ale stench is giving me a headache.”
“Just keep at it for a minute,” Isaac said. “The mine is obviously down here somewhere.”
After shifting crates around for a few minutes, Isaac found one that didn’t budge when he pushed it. He shoved it again, but it held like an iron slab. He tried to open the top, but it didn’t budge either. A crease ran along the side of the lid, one big enough to dig a blade into, so he grabbed his dagger and stuck it in. Using it as a wedge, he pried as hard as he could until it popped open.
He peered inside. The bottom wasn’t visible. All he could see was blackness. He reached an arm into its depths, and his fingertips dipped below where the bottom of the crate should be. A slight breeze grazed his hand and made it tingle.
“Here,” he said. Rhotha and Aerin joined him and stared into the abyss.
“So, what, we should just jump inside?” Rhotha asked.
“I guess,” Isaac replied. “Any volunteers to go first?”
Aerin didn’t answer. Her eyes water as she stared hungrily into the depths. She looked lost in it.
“Maybe we can fashion a rope from—”
He stopped when Aerin stepped inside without hesitation and disappeared into the darkness. Rhotha shared a blank look with him.
“I guess that works too.”
They peered over the edge and into the abyss again. Suddenly, a flash of purple shot from the darkness and lit up the basement. They stumbled backward in surprise.
“She’s not dead then, I guess,” said Rhotha. “Shall we?”
“Maybe that was her warning us not to follow.”
“Doubtful,” she replied. “In any case, there’s no way I’m not going in. The mystery might kill me if whatever’s down there doesn’t.”
With that, she sat on the edge of the crate, swung her legs over the side, and dropped in.
“Alright then,” Isaac said to himself. “Apparently the rope was a silly idea.”
He took a deep breath and jumped in. The moment he dipped his feet into the blackness and felt the breeze against his ankles, he lost his sense of direction. His surroundings were like the night sky with no stars, just endless nothingness forever. He tried looking at his own body, but even it wasn’t visible. He felt weightless, his stomach floating in a way that left him both exhilarated and nauseous. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was lying flat on his back against a hard stone. Above him, the lovely faces of both Aerin and Rhotha peered downward, bright in a deep green light.
He stood and gathered himself. They were in a narrow tunnel surrounded by black stone. Along the sides, bioluminescent mushrooms hugged the dark mineral walls, green tendrils drifting softly downward. They were impressively bright, so much so that Isaac could make out most of the details in the stone.
“What the hell are these things?” Isaac approached one of the mushrooms. It was nearly the size of his head. When he got closer to it, a faint buzzing became audible.
“No idea,” Rhotha said, “But I’m taking one. Could be useful in alchemy.”
She pulled a mushroom from the wall and stuffed it into her bag. Its glow was even visible through the fabric.
“I can’t decide if this place is beautiful, or if it gives me the creeps,” said Isaac.
“It has to be one or the other?” Aerin replied, caressing a mushroom.
“Let’s just find those gems and get moving.”
The tunnel only extended a few dozen feet in one direction, so they followed the passage the other way. It led them through more mushroom-lit tunnels for a few minutes before opening into a much larger, oval-shaped chamber. It was difficult to discern how huge it was, but mushrooms covering the walls on the opposite side were so distant that they appeared like a carpet or moss. Silhouettes of dark, jagged rock were scattered all around, but there was no sign of any gem veins.
Suddenly, a flash of movement appeared in a distant part of the cavern, just enough to block out their view of some mushrooms.
“See that?” Isaac asked.
The women nodded.
“Weapons at the ready.”
Isaac’s dagger’s glow was faint compared to the surrounding fungus, but it still had some power left. Beside him, Rhotha gripped her hammer with sweaty hands. A faint cackle echoed through the chamber, the voice like a blade scraping stone. It seemed to surround them. Isaac knew it was only an illusion, but it made him nervous just the same.
“Show yourself!” he called out. “We mean you no harm.”
The cackle echoed again. In another shadowy section of the chamber, movement flashed once more.
“Show myself?” the voice said. “You enter my home and make demands of me?”
“It’s a lovely home,” Rhotha said. “But we’re just passing through. I don’t suppose you have any spare phantasm gems we can take off your hands?”
“Gems, gems, gems,” the voice cackled again. “All your kind ever wants are gems. Nobody wishes to visit old Garramuch.”
Garramuch, Isaac though. Surely not. He remembered the name from Tonya’s story.
“Are you Garramuch?” Isaac asked.
“That depends on who’s asking.”
Garramuch appeared before them so suddenly that all three jolted and stepped backward. The old elf was in an awful state. His eyes were grey and sunken in, his form shriveled and hunched. Pointed ears drooped and folded over themselves. The elf was naked, his skin a nearly translucent grey. Isaac did his best to not look horrified at his appearance, but he suspected he wasn’t doing a great job. Garramuch didn’t mind. He cackled again, looking at them one by one as if enjoying their disgust.
“You’ll have to excuse my appearance,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting company.”
He burst out in laughter again, throwing his head back and howling with delight.
“How are you alive down here?” Isaac asked.
“Well you see, young one,” said Garramuch once he was done laughing. “When a mommy cave elf and a daddy cave elf—”
“Can it,” Isaac said. “You know what I mean. Surely you can’t live down here. Do you go up to the tavern for supplies?”
“Ah,” said the elf, moving toward them. “If you must know, phantasm gems have certain… restorative properties. They keep me looking young and beautiful.”
“Then you do have them!”
Garramuch sighed.
“Can’t you just let me have my fun? I don’t get a lot of visitors, you know.”
“We’re just here for the gems,” Rhotha said, grimacing.
Garramuch turned and paced away.
“No fun, no fun,” he said. “Just like the last one who came down here. What good is the joy of two visits in two weeks if the visitors are as drab as you lot. And that last one had the audacity to say he was a mayor. As if I was supposed to find that impressive.” He turned to Aerin. “Your father was rather dull.”
Isaac felt his heart skip.
“How’d y
ou know he was my father?” Aerin crossed her arms and glared.
“I know much more than that, my darling,” he said. “You can see through me.” He pulled his skin loose and held it up so they could see light through it. He laughed again. “But I can see right through you, too. Your little illusion spell doesn’t work on me. You’re an elf who travels with humans. Filthy, degenerate humans.”
He smacked a fist into his palm with the words ‘filthy’ and ‘degenerate.’ Then he fell over cackling again. The sound was getting grating, and Isaac began to lose his patience.
“Please just tell us where the gems are.” He rubbed his temple. “Then you can be alone for another hundred years.”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told that stupid mayor,” said Garramuch. “If you truly want phantasm gems, you’ll only find them when you look inside yourself.”
More incessant cackling. “Isn’t that just so poetic?”
The hideous elf snapped his fingers and disappeared into the darkness. The three were alone again.
“Great,” Rhotha said. “Now we can find the gems while discovering the true nature of friendship and getting in touch with our inner feelings.”
“Maybe he means we should cut ourselves open and look inside,” Aerin said, caressing her stomach.
“I don’t think it’s in our best interest to kill ourselves,” said Isaac. “Let’s just search the chamber and see if we can’t find anything.”
For the next hour, they scoured every inch of the chamber, but nothing turned up. Just mushrooms and dark rock. The search was tedious, and Isaac soon found his legs sore and weak from constantly walking across uneven ground. They walked along a far wall of the cavern.
“Suppose this dark rock stuff is the phantasm mineral,” he suggested. “Maybe just unrefined or something.”
“Nope,” Rhotha said. “It’s augite. I’ve used it in potions before. Reasonably useful, but not what we’re looking for.”
“Then what?” Isaac threw his hands up and sat on a flat stretch of augite. “There’s nothing else here besides these damn mushrooms.”
Aerin hadn’t spoken in some time. She trailed behind Rhotha and Isaac, closely examining the glowing mushrooms as she passed them. In a trance, she’d barely seemed present. While the others debated what to do, she peeled another mushroom off the wall and sat down to join them.
“Maybe it’s inside the mushrooms,” she said, eyes wide as she stared at it.
“I cracked one open earlier,” Rhotha said. “Nothing even hard inside.”
“He said to find them by looking inside ourselves,” she said.
Isaac and Rhotha looked at her, expecting her to go on, but she sat still for a moment. Then, she peeled off a piece of mushroom and took a bite from it.
“I wouldn’t eat that,” Rhotha said. “Wild mushrooms are usually poisonous.”
Aerin shrugged. “Doesn’t taste poisonous.”
“How does it taste?”
“Earthy… and bright. It isn’t bad.”
“Please spit it out,” said Isaac. “That’s a stupid way to die.”
She didn’t. A loud gulp escaped her throat as she swallowed it. As it moved through her throat and into her stomach, the glow was visible through her skin, then it stopped and hovered within her.
“You okay?” asked Isaac.
“Yeah,” she replied, standing up. “Actually, I feel incredible. Powerful.”
She grunted, then doubled over. Isaac rushed over and put a hand on her back.
“Throw up,” he said. “Quick!”
Aerin reached a hand toward her throat but stopped short. She looked down at her glowing stomach again. Her hand shaking, she touched her skin, and, to Isaac and Rhotha’s great surprise, reached through her skin and into her own stomach. When she pulled it out, the glow disappeared, and she held a sparkling gem in her hand.
“Oh my gods,” Isaac said. “You’re brilliant. And I thought it would kill you.”
“The trick is to not fear death,” she said with a grin.
“I’ll get to work on that.”
Beside them, Rhotha was already chewing up another mushroom. Isaac grabbed one and took a bite. It tingled his mouth, made his tongue go a little numb, but Aerin was right, it did feel strangely powerful. He swallowed and watched in amazement as it traveled through him. Once it settled, it solidified, and he doubled over too. The rock’s sudden formation felt like eating a massive meal way too quickly. He felt queasy. But when he reached in and pulled it out with an ethereal hand, the feeling disappeared almost immediately.
“This must be why his skin is translucent,” Isaac said. “I bet all he does is sit around and eat this stuff all day.”
“But what’s the point if all he does is stay here?” asked Rhotha.
Isaac gazed into the sparkling gem, which was cut into an elegant geometric pattern that seemed impossible. It reflected and contorted the light of the mushrooms in such a way that he imagined he could see an entire universe within it—stars, spiraling galaxies, life forces milling about. He had to tear his eyes away or, perhaps, become sucked into the life it radiated.
“I’m not sure there is a point,” he said. “Try not to stare too long. These things are powerful.”
Aerin stood frozen, gazing into a gem and ignoring everything else entirely. He had to say her name three times to get her attention.
“Let’s do this quickly and get out of here before we turn into Garramuch.”
Soon their bags were full, their minds woozy and rattled from looking at the gems. They moved back toward the tunnel that led them inside. Between the disorientation and the added weight, Isaac moved drunkenly across the uneven ground. Somewhere in the cavern, Garramuch laughed endlessly at their struggle.
“I’m starting to see why they outlawed this stuff,” Isaac said, seeing double when he tried to focus on a patch of mushrooms. “I feel fucked up.”
Eventually, they found the entrance, where blackness covered the rocky ceiling.
“How the hell do we get back up?” Rhotha asked.
“Here,” Isaac said, kneeling and holding out a hand. Rhotha, surprisingly light, stepped onto his hand and he lifted her upward. He held tight as she jumped and grabbed something above and lifted herself the rest of the way. He did the same for Aerin, then he was alone in the chamber with the distant cackles.
Garramuch suddenly appeared before him again.
“Going so soon?” the elf asked, cocking his head and grinning.
“You’re insane,” Isaac said. “I’m losing my mind after two hours. You’ve been here how long?”
“Time doesn’t mean much to me anymore,” Garramuch said. “And there’s no need to leave. Don’t you see? Everything is in those gems. Everything. You’ll be back. Nobody can resist them.”
He doubled over laughing again, this time harder than ever. He rolled back and forth in delight. A rope drifted from the hole, and Isaac was happy to climb it and escape. As he transitioned back into the normal world, Garramuch’s laughter slowly faded into nothingness.
15
“So how are we supposed to use these things?” Rhotha asked. “I’m ready for my phantom warhammer. Enchanting this thing over and over is getting old.”
They sat around Isaac’s living room table, a finely carved piece he’d stolen from the home of an elven judge two years ago. Though it was both women’s first times seeing his place, they didn’t marvel at his array of treasures. The real treasure lay piled up under a blanket before them.
The walk to his house from the tavern was short, but they were nervous considering what they carried, and the weight of it made it seem to take forever. On their way out of the tavern, the barkeeper scowled at their bulging bags, but Isaac tossed another coin on the counter to keep him quiet. Once they were safely behind closed doors, the gems covered to keep their strange effects at bay, they weren’t sure what to do next.
“I don’t suppose Tonya gave you any hints, did she?” asked
Aerin.
“Nope,” Rhotha said. “She couldn’t even tell me where to find them. Isaac, maybe you should ask Saldana.”
“Worth a try.”
His dagger was still glowing, but not brightly enough to form a portal. He reached under the blanket and grabbed a phantasm gem, then held it to the dagger. Nothing happened for a moment. The women watched, more interested in the gem itself than what he did with it. After a few seconds, though, the gem glowed more brightly. Isaac nearly dropped it as it trembled with energy. Then the light left the gem and surrounded the dagger. It sank in and disappeared. The dagger glowed much more brightly.
“Nice to know I don’t have to kill someone for that to work.”
He flipped the blade around to the hook side and swiped it through the air until it caught. When it did, he pulled open a portal, and white light spilled out.
Saldana didn’t notice him at first, just hummed to herself and brushed her long, golden locks. Still nude, Isaac took a moment to admire her enticing curves, which glistened as though she’d just stepped out of the shower. Did she ever wear clothes? Goddesses likely had no reason for such worldly possessions. Isaac certainly didn’t mind.
“Saldana?”
Startled, the goddess turned and saw him. She grinned.
“Why Isaac, I was wondering when I’d get to see you again. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” he replied, enjoying the view. “We found these things called phantasm gems. Know anything about them?”
He reached forward and grabbed a handful of the gems and showed them to her. Her eyes grew wide.
“So you did,” she said. “Incredible, just incredible. Yes, I’ve heard of them. But I didn’t think there were any left in your realm. That’s why I didn’t mention them before.”
“Somebody did a good job keeping them hidden.”
Rhotha and Aerin joined him at either side and beheld the goddess.
“So this is your friend, Isaac,” Rhotha nudged his shoulder. “Should we be jealous?”
“I mean, she is a literal goddess,” Aerin said with a shrug.