Sword Sirens

by Edmund Hughes

  The smile faded from Kerys’ face, and she looked visibly dejected as she made her way over to him. Ari winced, realizing how his statement must have sounded to her.

  “I am not teasing you,” said Eva. “You are strong, but you lack the necessary technique and tactics.”

  “You don’t say,” muttered Ari.

  CHAPTER 31

  He made sure Kerys stayed close to him as they passed through the door with the essence ward lock he’d opened on his last trip through the labyrinth. The crossbow traps on the other side were still deactivated, which was a massive relief, and he found the second locked door where they’d come to a stop at the end of the hall.

  “I think I have enough essence absorbed to open it,” said Ari. He could feel the essence tingling inside of him, from the tips of his fingers all the way to his toes.

  “This is a lock?” asked Kerys, examining the ward.

  “Yeah,” said Ari. “It’s how the Sai sealed off different sections of the labyrinth. I’m guessing that they all activated during the calamity that destroyed their civilization.”

  “We should check and see if the tower has one of these,” said Kerys. “And if it doesn’t, we should see about finding a way to create one. It would be useful for us to be able to lock the door without having to be inside and use the drop bar.”

  “That’s a really good idea,” he said.

  He turned his attention back to the ward, pressing his palm against it and willing the requisite essence out of his body and into the lock. It flashed with white light, and the door began sliding downward into the stone, revealing the next area.

  It was another hallway, but this one was rife with branching intersections, to the point where Ari wasn’t sure which direction to head in first. He passed through the doorway and then had a thought.

  “This is definitely the part of the labyrinth that we’re going to want mapped out,” he said. “Can you handle that, Kerys?”

  “Of course,” she said. “Let’s do a circuit of the full extent of this hallway without passing through any doors, just for now. That way, I can sketch out what they’re dealing with.”

  It took longer than Ari had been expecting. It was dark, but that wasn’t as much of an issue as the complexity of the branching paths. The hallway forked and turned at every opportunity, and they had to go slowly so Kerys could keep the scale of her map accurate.

  Eventually, they found their way back to the hallway they’d entered from. Ari took a look at the map Kerys had sketched out and frowned.

  “This is going to take a while to explore,” he said.

  “That is ideal, actually,” said Eva. “It means we’ll have more opportunities to find sources for essence.”

  “Any idea which door we should go through first?” asked Kerys.

  Ari shrugged. “All of them have essence locks. I guess it doesn’t really matter which one we pick. Though I only have enough essence left absorbed to open a couple until we find another source for me to draw upon.”

  He knew that technically, they had the option of returning to the red mesmer and seeing if it had respawned for him to fight again. The sensation of the flames and his burning skin was still fresh in his memory, however, and he wasn’t eager to opt into another duel with a pyromancer.

  “Let’s start with the one closest to the entrance, then,” said Kerys.

  “That seems reasonable,” said Ari.

  The door was to the far right of where they currently were, at the end of two branching intersections. Ari pressed his ear to it in case there might be any clue to what lay on the other side, hidden in the ambient noise. He couldn’t hear anything other than his own breathing and heartbeat.

  “I guess we’ll have to open it and be surprised,” he said.

  He pressed his hand to the lock and willed his essence into it. The door slowly sank into the floor, stone grinding against stone as it revealed what lay beyond it.

  It was another hallway, minus the floor. Ari blinked and squinted, wondering if it was a trick of the darkness. Kerys took a step forward, drawing up to the door’s edge and peering at the long, rectangular chasm ahead of them.

  “How are we supposed to get past this?” muttered Ari.

  “There!” Kerys pointed to a thin chain that stretched out across the chasm. Ari followed it with his eyes, eventually spotting a small platform moving along the chain in their direction.

  “This seems a little impractical,” he said. “Why would the Sai make a hallway with no floor? Let alone enchanting platforms to follow chains back and forth across it?”

  “I suspect the answer might be clear if we could see down to the bottom,” said Eva.

  “I think if we could see what was below us it might make more sense,” said Kerys.

  Ari laughed and shook his head as he heard both women saying essentially the same thing in near unison.

  “Right,” he said. “Well, I’m not sure whether crossing is something we’ll be able to do safely.”

  “Didn’t you say you only had enough essence to open one door?” asked Kerys.

  “Yeah, but I expected to find a storage room, or a bedroom, or something easy,” said Ari. “Not a room where we could potentially fall to our deaths.”

  One of the platforms was nearing the door, drawing close enough for them to step onto it if they decided to.

  “Do you still have the rope in your pack?” asked Kerys.

  Ari nodded slowly.

  “Then we should try it,” she said.

  “The rope won’t help if it’s just the two of us crossing,” said Ari. “But maybe…”

  He took the greatsword out of its scabbard, and Eva appeared in a flash of light.

  “This could work,” she said. “We’ll ride the platform across one at a time. You should go first, since you are the heaviest, and then Lady Kerys will follow, so that one of us can help her up with the rope if anything happens.”

  “I guess…” said Ari.

  “It’s a good plan,” said Kerys. “Especially if it lets us find a source of essence strong enough to activate some more of the wards in the tower.”

  He wasn’t entirely convinced, especially concerning the prospect of Kerys making it across under her own power. The practical issues of taking her into the labyrinth along with him and Eva hadn’t been at the forefront of his mind when he’d decided that she should come along.

  Ari took the rope out and tied it around his waist. It was long, but he could only guess at how far the platform would carry him through the darkened tunnel, given that the other side, if it existed, was too dim to be visible.

  “Kerys, if I fall from this platform and die,” said Ari. “Please embellish the story of how it happened if anyone asks. Make it so I went down bravely defending you from mesmers.”

  “Shut up, Aristial,” said Kerys. “But also, be careful.”

  He nodded as the platform came into range. Eva had looped the rope around her own waist, and she stood bracing herself against the chamber’s door, with Kerys also lending her own strength and weight to the challenge.

  The platform was made of opaque crystal glass. Ari knew that he only had a few seconds to hop on before it started moving again, but he still took the time to tap its edges with his foot, testing its balance. It seemed stable enough. He shook off his fear and climbed aboard.

  The platform slowly began to move, making a barely audible hissing noise as it followed the guide chain back in the direction it had come from. He was curious about how, exactly, it moved along the chain, and whether it was a mechanical or magical process, but the time for investigating that sort of thing didn’t seem to be right then and there.

  Kerys and Eva became darkened silhouettes behind him and faded from view completely. He couldn’t see the other side of the chasm, and he was beginning to worry about what would happen if he reached the limit of the rope with the platform still in motion.

  Then, as though spotting glowmoss while exploring an empty cavern, h
e saw it. The other side of the chamber was identical to the one he’d come from, down to the essence lock on the door. Ari stepped onto the solid stone floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I made it,” he called over his shoulder. His voice echoed off the walls a couple of times before the response came.

  “Good,” called Eva. “Lady Kerys will make the trip next.”

  “Alright,” said Ari. “I’ll brace myself against the doorframe here.”

  It was logical for Kerys to travel across the chasm after Ari and before Eva, but it still made him worry. She was light enough that Ari had no doubt that he could pull her up by the rope on his own, but they still didn’t know what was at the bottom of the chasm.

  He waited, feeling tension creep in with the silence. Had it taken this long for him to make it across? Had Kerys fallen in a way where she slipped free of the rope, preventing him from feeling it happen on the line? He would have heard her scream then, wouldn’t he?

  The platform came into view, and Kerys was standing in the center of it. She grinned at him and hopped off onto the other side with a lot less care than Ari had taken.

  “This place is kind of fun,” she said.

  “I’m not sure fun is the word I would use for it, exactly,” said Ari.

  The platform seemed to hesitate for a second on their side before reversing its direction, and Ari couldn’t help but notice that the hissing noise was louder than it had been earlier. With both ends of the rope now on the far side of the chamber, there was no easy way for them to get the makeshift harness back to Eva, given that the platform was just wide enough to make tying the rope around it nearly impossible for someone of human proportions.

  “I’m stepping onto the platform,” called Eva’s echoing voice. “I’ll be across shortly.”

  Ari waited at the edge of the floor, waiting and listening. An odd hiss came from the direction of the other side of the room, followed by an unpleasant grinding noise.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” said Kerys.

  “Be ready with the rope,” said Ari.

  He tried not to let his worrying dominate his thoughts as he waited for what felt like an eternity for the platform to come back into view. Eva was on it, though she was lying prone, rather than standing. The reason for her choice was evident in the way the platform seemed to be swaying and shaking, tilting from side to side with dangerous, unbalanced motions.

  “Eva!” called Ari. “Hang on! We’ll throw you the—”

  Some hidden mechanism in the platform’s design seemed to give out, and the entirety of it flipped upside down, leaving Eva dangling from one edge. There was no time for the rope. No time for anything. She was still twenty or more feet from safety, and her grip was already starting to give out.

  Ari reached his hand out in a desperate, pointless gesture as her hold on the platform slipped, and she began to fall into the blackness below. He let out a wordless shout, and tried to close his hand on her wrist, despite the distance in between them. He couldn’t watch her die. Not now, and not ever.

  There was a flash of light, and Ari blinked several times in stark confusion as he stared at his sword, which was currently grasped in his hand. He turned and looked at Kerys, who seemed every bit as confused as he was.

  “…Eva?”

  “I’m here,” she said, through the bond. “I remember this, though only vaguely. It is one of the abilities that becomes available as we strengthen our connection to one another.”

  Light flashed again, and Eva stood next to him in incarnate form, unharmed and smiling.

  “It is called ‘short ranged summoning’,” she said. “One of the first abilities a sword construct and her bonded master can acquire. You will be able to call me to your hand as a sword as long as I’m within view of you and as long as each of us has a minimal reserve of essence. It can be quite—”

  Ari pulled her into a tight hug, cutting her off. His heart was still pounding in his chest, and he had to take a slow, calming breath. He wasn’t used to having such a strong reaction to danger. He hadn’t felt like this since…

  Since the last time Kerys had been in danger.

  CHAPTER 32

  “I appreciate your concern, Lord Stoneblood,” said Eva.

  Ari pulled back from her a little, noticing the pleased smile she had on her face. He looked at Kerys and saw a mixture of annoyance and impatience in her expression.

  “We should keep moving,” he said. “This ranged summoning seems like it could be useful, though. Extremely useful. If I could trick an opponent into thinking I’ve been disarmed, I’d have a huge advantage.”

  “That is one of many ways in which we could use it,” said Eva. “We should consult more on its potential when we have the time.”

  “For now, though,” said Kerys. “We’re still underground, in a bad situation. I don’t mean to kill the mood or anything, but I feel the need to point out that we’ll have to find a different way to get back to the surface.”

  Ari scowled and glanced back at the platform. It was frozen in place where Eva had fallen off, and still upside down. It was too far away for any of them to jump to, and even if they managed it, what then?

  “We might be able to climb across on the chain,” said Ari. He immediately abandoned the idea after glancing at Kerys and seeing the uncertainty in her expression.

  “Most labyrinths have several paths to and from the surface,” said Eva. “I have no doubt that we can find another way up. Though it means that we’ll have to commit our current essence to opening any locked doors we come across.”

  “That’s not a problem,” said Ari. “At least, not for now.”

  He walked over to the door that was currently preventing them from progressing and opened it with a quick infusion of essence. It slowly slid down into the floor, stone grinding against stone, and revealed a rather comfortably illuminated chamber on the other side.

  Crystals were embedded in the ceiling, and from the rows of bookshelves lining the walls and floor, it wasn’t hard to guess the room’s purpose. Kerys let out an impressed gasp and immediately began running her fingers along the spines of the books stuffed into the nearest shelf. They were all in relatively good condition, certainly better than the volumes they’d found back in the tower.

  “This is incredible,” said Kerys. “It would take years to read all of the books in this room. I could—”

  “Hold,” said Eva. She gestured to the corner of the room, where the arrangement of bookshelves created a small enclosure. Ari furrowed his brow, only noticing what she’d drawn their attention to after a couple of seconds.

  There was a mesmer in the library with them. The dark blue glowing sphere slowly meandered from bookshelf to bookshelf, as though it was paying close attention to the current arrangement of books. It slowly floated free of the enclosure and hovered toward the center of the room.

  “It’s blue,” said Ari. “That means it’s harmless, right?”

  “The tone is what matters, more than the color,” said Eva. “Dark blue mesmers are not like the lighter colored ones encountered on the surface. It is possible that it means us no harm, but it is also possible that…”

  She trailed off as the mesmer flashed and manifested as a ghost. It was an old man with a long, probably once snow white, beard. He carried a walking stick and wore a robe, and looked about as threatening as an old dog guarding a door.

  “Hmmm…” said the mesmer. “Apriokos tol no kelvar?”

  Ari shot a glance toward Eva.

  "He’s speaking Saidios,” said Eva. “The language of the Sai. I can translate if need be.”

  “Ah,” said the mesmer. “My mistake. I didn’t realize that you were lesser folk. I can speak Subvios as well. I do not mind.”

  “That’s considerate of you,” said Ari. “Don’t mind us. We were just passing through.”

  The mesmer let out a soft chuckle and smiled at him.

  “Few come to my library in the first place, let alon
e pass through it,” said the mesmer. “Stay a while and listen.”

  “Uh…” Kerys pouted a little and shot Ari a pleading look. “Can we? Maybe just for a few minutes? Long enough for me to find an interesting book?”

  Eva had circled around the mesmer to the door on the other side of the room. It didn’t have an essence lock on it, and from the way she was pulling at the handle, it was sealed through other means. She shrugged as Ari met her gaze.

  “We could stay for a bit,” said Ari. “Assuming that you’ll help us head out through the back door of the library, once we’re finished.”

  “Not a fan of the platforms, are you?” The old mesmer chuckled. “I told Brecillius that they were impractical, but he assured me that as long as the enchanted safety net underneath stayed primed with essence, they were perfectly safe. The architect always gets his way, in my experience.”

  “Right,” said Ari. “So is that a yes? You can open the other door in the library?”

  “Of course I can,” said the mesmer. “I won’t do it without a price, however. You and your friends are rather young. I wonder how extensive your teachings of the Trium have been.”

  “The Trium,” said Ari. “Those were the old gods, weren’t they?”

  The old mesmer frowned at him. Kerys set a hand on Ari’s shoulder.

  “Martos, Vertos, and Zyvos,” she said. “I learned about them from Mistress Ada. They were the gods that most of the Saidican Empire worshipped.”

  “Eva,” said Ari. “I think you’re probably the one most suited for handling this conversation, then.”

  “I… will do my best.” Eva winced, looking a little uncomfortable. “Though what little I remember of my own life amongst the Sai leads me to believe that I was neither a priestess nor a learned scholar.”

  “I simply wish to discuss with you some of the basic facts of their lives,” said the old mesmer. “Too many amongst our great empire treat the Trium as imagined figureheads, names to shout out in times of heated emotion. Simply tell me who the Trium were when they walked the land as mortals, and I shall burden you no longer.”