by Jamie Hawke
He shook his head. “No. I made my one cultural reference for the day. Just… do what I said, it’ll guide you.”
“Ah, okay.” I turned back to the mists, really wanting to delay it longer, but also eager to get my stats up so we could return to Earth and fight the gods and Legends. “I guess this is it, then.”
“Good luck,” Pucky said.
“Kick ass,” Nivian added.
Arthur simply waved, then added, “Have fun storming the castle,” and winked.
He might have been locked up here, but at least he knew his eighties culture. I’d have to ask him about that—maybe a little stint on Earth during that time?—but it could wait until I returned.
For now, I had some grinding to do.
50
Stepping into the mists had the exact feeling I’d expected it to—bone chilling unease, mixed with a thrill for the fighting to come. After what Pucky had thrown at me, I wasn’t super worried about some old Shades. So I drew Excalibur and walked on, anticipating the fight with tense muscles, breathing heavier than it needed to be.
But nothing came.
At first I was on edge, thinking they were all waiting just out of sight, about to strike at any minute. Some sort of massive Shade ambush, and that I’d been led astray by Arthur. Soon, I stopped caring, more enthralled by the sights of this place. While mostly it was hard to see anything other than the mist, at times it would give way to reveal tall hills, and—when I was lucky—even taller statues. Grand, monstrous carvings of what was at one minute marble, at another gold. They would actually change before my eyes, too, not just from one statue to the next. The perfect reminder that this wasn’t my world, and that my understanding of how the world worked meant nothing here.
I passed under one statue that showed a woman’s upper half but a snake’s sinuous body lower down, the tail wrapping around a hill full of trees. Another stood over me, so that as I passed beneath, I looked up to see its massive stone cock aimed down my way. That was disturbing, to say the least, and I had to think how horrible it would be to stand there in the rain, water cascading off of it as if the giant were peeing on you. How anyone could’ve ever carved something of this magnitude was beyond me, but then I realized they didn’t have to. This was a land of magic, after all.
For a while I walked on, finally sheathing my sword to give my arm some rest. The ground was uneven, in places giving way to small drop offs, so that I had to be careful where I was going. Another statue appeared as the mist gave way, this one like an ancient guardian looking out over the direction I was heading in. Maybe toward something in particular, but the mist didn’t allow me to see. Walking past, the mist started to cover him again, but I stared up in awe. He looked like a great king, actually, more than a guard, now that I was at an angle to make out a shape on his head that could’ve been a crown.
And when I’d walked far enough, I saw what he was actually looking at. Kneeling over a river, wings spread out behind her, was a glass sculpture of a fairy queen. I could almost imagine the light hitting her wings and sending colors cascading through, if any light ever reached this place. A thought that raised the question—had this place once been free of the mists? Arthur spoke of the mists as something to use, a training ground of sorts.
But that didn’t mean the land was better with them there, or that once this hadn’t been the most beautiful place to ever exist. It was while I was staring at the beauty of this sculpture that I felt the gust of wind that blew the mists to cover her, then the chill.
In a matter of seconds, the mist was so dense around me that I could barely see my hand when outstretched. As I looked at it, something moved out there. Darting. Fast.
“What do we have here,” a voice asked. “Walking among us?”
I spun, drawing my sword, and that’s when the first attack came. While on Earth and when visiting the spirit realm before the Shades had been mostly nebulous, formless creatures of dark, but that wasn’t the case with these things.
This was clearly a Shade, in the brief moment I saw it while the thing charged me and I cleaved half its arm off with my sword. Gray skin that drooped, shadows moving around it as if alive, and then those black eyes. Like the onyx of my aunt’s necklace, but less heart-warming. Hands grappled for me, catching me off guard. It took a moment to find myself, to bring my elbow up and then kick it off so that I had room to come in with the sword and finish him off. Another came, then one leaping out of the mist from above—where I assumed must’ve been a concealed ledge.
By the time the third fell, I had my groove back and was taking them down left and right, glad to finally be doing what I’d come here for. My prana levels were skyrocketing as I found a whole group of Shades, throwing out my group shot skill over and over, and using my magic shield when needed.
When the first group had all fallen, but another was coming from my right, I pulled up my stats and amped them up with new upgrades, seeing then that I still had a skill point from before. I’d totally forgotten about that. I decided to wait again, to see where I’d need it after my grinding, as what I had so far should’ve been plenty for this.
But for the moment, I upgraded strength, speed. When I did, I realized there was more to this than I’d seen before. Maybe it had to do with the level, or my new connection to the spirit world? Strength was now at two-hundred and thirty percent of where I’d started at, speed at one-hundred and ninety. Not bad!
A roar sounded and the Shades were upon me, the first two meeting my sword in the form of a thrust to a gut and then a slice to a neck. A head went rolling, more prana in my system.
On some level, I started to wonder if I should feel bad about this slaughter. After all, back on Earth they’d appeared as basically shadows, not these living creatures. Then again, they were trying to kill me, so there wasn’t any real reason why I should care.
This was grinding at its best, and because it wasn’t just like in the video games, it didn’t get to the point where their deaths started to decrease in value. Every upgrade of mine made them easier to kill, but I didn’t get diminishing returns of prana. That meant my motivation level didn’t falter, the only thing slowing me being stamina.
Seeing as I could upgrade stamina whenever I had a downbeat, as long as I had the prana to do so, I didn’t have much to worry about in terms of staying in the game. More fighting, more slicing, more running through the mists and shouting at them to come back and fight me as they ran.
And run they did. New groups of Shades would show up, but soon I’d either killed all those in the vicinity, or they’d run off. It had been such a relief compared to the lack of action before.
When a pause came, I noticed the chill was gone, and the voice returned. “Ooh, and he’s good with a sword, too. We like that.”
Another spin, eyes searching, and I stopped as the mist parted to show the glass statue. Had it just moved, or was it the mists around it moving? Both, according to my eyes, but vision could easily play tricks on someone in this situation, so I started moving back in that direction to be sure.
The mist was heavy again and I kept walking, but was certain I’d been going in the right direction. There was no statue, only the river. Even as the fog cleared around me, all I saw was open air.
Strange, but then I heard a thud, looking into the water to see a face looking up at me, something in the water pounding on it as if on ice, but the water was flowing freely. She had no strong features and was transparent, like glass, so that I barely noticed her, then she was gone, swept away with the water.
I reached, too late, then stood and ran along the river bank.
More Shades appeared, but I cut through easily enough, not giving up on the lady in the river. Prana flowed into me and I focused on my mission, adding points to speed as I ran so that I was able to pick up the pace, and then, at a point where the river bent, I leaped in, grabbing for her.
My hand went through the water and she vanished, the mists suddenly swirling in and twisting around
me, laughter carried on the wind.
“Oh, he is so chivalrous,” a voice whispered, a giggle following.
I spun, scouring the mist for any sign of something, even a shade or ghost. Nothing. “Who’s there?” I asked, pulling myself out of the river.
Instead of an answer, a Shade appeared, knocking me back into the river so that Excalibur was knocked from my hands. The water was freezing, my lungs seizing up in the cold, and I thrashed about as the Shade took me, pushing me down.
What struck me more than the cold, though, was the look of this thing in the water. On Earth they had appeared as mostly shadows and in the Fae world as strange, almost alien creatures. Not here though. Here they looked like men, men that maybe they had once been… but with pure, black eyes.
I’d lost my sword, but pulled up my arm in defense as he came in for a strike—it hit as I rolled, pinning him to the rocks at the bottom, shield at his neck. A good yank and then I released it as he vanished, giving up the green prana.
Turning, searching for Excalibur, the green light caught on its reflection. There was that transparent woman again, dragging my sword away from me downstream!
What the hell had Arthur done to me, letting me go into this place? I swam after her, nearly giving up, when I remembered my Tempest training. The water shot me forward so that I had her in my grip, but she slipped away. That didn’t stop me, and as I was propelled forward I managed to get around her, hands on my blade, and she was gone.
Rising out of the water, I stood on the river, holding my sword, pissed that I was so cold and wet.
“Who the fuck are you?” I shouted, taking a step onto land and holding my sword out in challenge. “Show yourself!”
A disapproving tsking, then mists formed as the figure pushed herself out of the water, too, walking toward me. Three Shades appeared, but she waved a hand and colorful balls of light appeared, attacking them, so that they vanished a moment later.
The lights came over to her and landed as the mist formed around her body, no longer translucent flesh. At that point they were close enough for me to make out that the light was actually little fairies, and now that they were on her, moving into her, she had more and more color. Even her wings were lighting up, the mist taking color as it became her clothes.
She stood in front of me, arms spread out, and said, “Well, impressed?”
Of course I was, but instead I asked, “Should I be?”
“Honey, you stand before the queen of fairies.”
I frowned, thinking how that meant something very different where I came from. “And that would make you…?”
She frowned, waving my question away. “This is my domain, not yours. My house, once upon a time, and you should be telling me what you’re doing here. I owe you no explanations.” She glanced at the sword. “With that, no less.”
Meeting anyone in a place like this didn’t inspire the most confidence, so I decided to play coy for now.
“I’m here to kill Shades, nothing more.”
Her frown showed she disapproved. “And if you were told to stop?”
“By you?”
She nodded, regally.
“Sorry, but I don’t know who you are. Queen… of fairies, yes, I got that much. But… whose side are you on?”
“Are there sides now?”
“You’re aware of the war.” It wasn’t a question, but an observation regarding the knowing look in her eyes. She nodded. “And you haven’t picked a side?”
“I have not.” She stood, staring at me for a moment, then vanished.
“What?” I said, confused by her action. “That’s it?”
Nothing. I spun around, expecting her to show up out of nowhere, to test me somehow, but she didn’t return. My body was shaking with the cold, even more so since I was still wet, so I wanted to keep moving. After a few minutes of wandering around the area, even finding an empty cave and taking time out to sit and consider this weird experience, I returned to the grind, searching out and cutting down any Shades I could.
I spent a good half hour after that searching for Shades, but at the end had only found two, neither of which were much of a challenge.
Applying their prana to strength—figuring more muscle meant more warmth, I said fuck it. Two-hundred and sixty percent strength, now. Still not sure what to think of the whole situation, I decided I’d had enough. There was no way I’d dry off out here with this heavy mist, , and I wanted to ask Arthur what he knew about the fairy queen.
51
Arthur had said to use the sword to find him, so that’s what I did. Sword held out, focus on it, I started walking. At first nothing happened, but when I turned a couple of times, in one direction the mists visibly parted and the sword started glowing, blue lines of light moving along the blade.
Good thing, too, because making my way out of the mists proved to be quite the maze. I don’t know how I’d managed to walk around some of the hills and straight walls—or cliff faces, it seemed in some cases—but the way back was full of them. If there was a normal concept of time there, I would think it took a good half a day for me to finally get to a point where the mists let up and I could see the trees and hills beyond.
Talk about a relief. Being surrounded by thick mists like that for hours on end starts to wear on anyone. While my recent training and knowledge that I would soon be put to the test helped me through, I was pretty sure that one more minute would’ve caused me to take my own damn sword and slice off an ear. Or something else equally insane.
I had just made it over to the trees, thinking I’d take a rest there, when I noticed the smell of fire. A moment later I saw the flames, small, flickering pleasantly in the dim light. The opportunity to dry myself left me feeling ecstatic, but I was surprised to see a campfire burning, and at first prepared for the worst. As I drew closer, however, a red cloak became visible followed by a flash of white I’d come to associate with Elisa. Likely some sort of ward.
“What’re you doing here?” I asked as I emerged.
“Figured you might want some company when you returned,” Pucky said, dropping down from a tree nearby. Her eyes roamed over me and she grinned. “Getting buff in there.”
“Thanks.”
I glanced around the fire, noting a much larger party than I expected. “Who…?”
“Ah, yes. Let’s introduce you.” Pucky led the way, with Elisa standing at my approach, giving me a pleased smile, and then gesturing to three men all in white. They looked familiar, though I wasn’t sure where from.
When she said, “I’d like you to meet three of my brothers,” it clicked.
“How’s that… I mean,” I turned to them, offering my hand to each in turn. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. But how is it that you’re here?”
“It’s like Arthur,” Elisa replied. “Because they reached a certain level of enlightenment before… being defeated, they’re able to remain here.”
Arthur grunted at that. “A true blessing.” His voice betrayed his sarcasm.
“You’re still with me, at least,” Nivian said. “I for one would rather that than the alternative.”
He offered her an apologetic look, then nodded. “Me too, of course. I just mean, it’s a strange sort of existence, being unable to fully operate as a human, unable to return to the real world.”
“But this is real,” I protested, feeling sheepish for saying so. “Isn’t it?”
“In a way.”
“And you’re not exactly ghosts, right?”
Arthur shared a look with the brothers, one that said they weren’t quite sure of the answer to that.
“We don’t know what we are,” the eldest of the brothers said. “We’re vaguely aware when we’re called upon for help, though in truth we never leave this place.”
“And the other brothers?”
“Off on a quest,” the younger brother replied.
“This place,” Elisa interjected, “is like Earth, but with a much smaller, and much more magical,
population.”
“One difference,” her eldest brother added, “is the fact that here, magic isn’t hidden.” He looked at me for a moment longer, then leaned in, voice hushed. “And what are you hiding? What’re your intentions with our sister?”
“You seem romantic with more than one of these ladies,” another chimed in. “How exactly does that work?”
“I…” Shit, how was I going to explain this one?
“Brothers,” Elisa said, and she was glaring. “My personal life is none of your business.”
They frowned, but seemed to be okay with dropping it for now.
“At any rate,” the oldest brother said, “at the moment, our brothers are searching out a legendary item said to have the power to bring people back from this world to yours. Back from the dead, some say.”
I turned to Arthur and Nivian at this, excited at the chance for them to be together again in the real world.
Arthur shook his head at my look, though. “Rumor of anything like that existing doesn’t mean it truly does. We have magic, but that doesn’t mean all magic is possible. Truly bringing someone back from the dead…”
“But you returned from here once before,” I protested.
His voice was much more sorrowful when he said, “That time was different. I had entered of my own will, not… defeated, as I was this time.”
I got the implication there—that something similar had happened with the brothers. Not wanting to pry, I nodded, lowering myself to sit by the fire on one of several logs they’d pulled up around it.
“He’s curious,” the older brother said.
“Might as well tell him,” the younger replied.
With a sigh, the older brother turned my way, leaned forward, and said, “Never, and I mean never, try to fuck Rapunzel.”
“Stop it,” Elisa said with a laugh.
“I still blame her for it!” her brother said, his face only betraying the smallest hint of a smile. “You think she has a lot of hair upstairs? Try downstairs! I was trying to work my way into her entrance, but man—”
