The Chained Maiden: Bound by Hope

by Ian Rodgers

  As soon as the dome fell, the ring Dora had tossed hit the floor, bounced once, then expanded rapidly into a swirling grey vortex.

  “Run!” she shouted, and the group needed no other prompting. Spiral screamed at them in fury and pointed at the fleeing men. With cries of demented joy the demons sprinted towards the now defenseless slavers.

  “Holt, you’re in charge now. Keep them safe and tell Reed I’m sorry I can’t take over as he wanted. Monk boy, grab my daughter,” Scarrot commanded, tightening his grip on his whips. Enrai nodded solemnly and grabbed her by the shoulders. The half-orc’s eyes widened as she realized what Scarrot was planning.

  “No! No, you can’t!” Dora screamed. She tried to reach out to him, but the scarred orc just shot her a sorrowful, yet tender, look.

  “B’ghez Ildora, akz mwerol,” Scarrot replied in orcish, and her eyes widened.

  “No! No, please! You can’t do this! You can’t leave me!” she cried, struggling to break free of Enrai’s arms. The Monk only held onto her tighter, preventing her from slipping out.

  “I love you, Dora. And I’m sorry,” he said, repeating his words in Common. She screamed and cried and tried to escape the Monk’s grip, but she failed.

  Scarrot turned away and raised his whips. The demons beyond the fading membrane of protective light howled and brayed, foul curses dripping from every slavering maw as they charged at their prey.

  With a wordless battle cry, Scarrot leapt at the press of demons and threw himself into them. Shocked at the suicidal bravado the orc displayed, they hesitated, granting him a chance to lay into the horde without retaliation for a few moments. His bladed scorpion whip rent flesh, scales, and chiton asunder with every stroke. Each successive strike it delivered was bloodier and more gruesome than the last blow. In his other hand, the corded leather whip stung and struck joints and eyes, stunning and blinding demons, leaving them open for his barbed whip to flay them alive.

  He was a whirlwind of snapping, crackling, blistering death, and Scarrot roared defiantly at the demons as he spilt their ichor.

  “Let me go, Enrai! Let me go!” Dora wept, even as the Monk dragged her back towards the portal. Besides the two of them, Holt and Ain were the only ones left.

  “I can’t do that, Dora!” Enrai said apologetically.

  “NO! You’re not leaving!” Spiral shouted angrily. He raised his right hand and pressed it against the wall.

  Immediately the stone began to shift and bulge before a dozen large tumor-like growths erupted from the wall and spat out hideous, deformed creatures. They were all the same color as the stonework of the wall, and Dora, Scarrot and Holt recognized them as the same sort of monsters that had attacked their campsite.

  The artificial monsters surged forward, trying to reach the half-orc.

  “Blind them with the storm’s light! Thunder Flash!” Ain shouted, sending a wave of piercing white light at the monsters. They stumbled but just kept charging.

  “No!” Scarrot cried, trying to turn around and defend them, but a demon blindsided him and clamped insect-like mandibles onto his left arm. He lashed its face off, but another demon lashed out and scored a deep wound on his right side with its talons. He was being overwhelmed. Holt grimaced at the thought of leaving but snapped the orc a salute when his boss shouted at him to run.

  “Farewell, my brother in all but blood! You will not go unavenged! This I swear!” Holt vowed, before leaping through the vortex.

  “Stop this!” Dora cried as she was dragged away towards the portal. One of the stone monsters lunged at her, but Ain shattered it with a massive blast of lightning. It simply began to rebuild itself, though, the broken pieces reattaching themselves before their eyes.

  “You won’t get away, girl! You and everyone you know and love will die, and it will be all your fault!” Spiral roared. He raised his right hand, and concentrated. There was a hum, and the light around him distorted and warped. Seconds later, a spear made of light appeared above his palm. He tossed it at Scarrot.

  The spear flickered and moved faster than any of them could register. One second it was in the cultist’s hand, the next it was piercing through Scarrot’s chest. He staggered and coughed out blood, sinking to his knees. The demons screamed in triumph and began to tear at him even more ferociously.

  “NO!” Dora screamed. She managed to get her right arm free of Enrai’s grip, and thrust her hand out, as if trying to grab the dying orc and shove the enemies away.

  Somehow, the latter actually happened.

  A pulse of silver light erupted from her outstretched hand, and it slammed into the demons, burning them to ash. The rush of holy energy swallowed the strange stony monsters chasing after her and reduced them back into ordinary stone.

  Spiral tried to resist, but the purity of the magic was too much even for him, and he screeched in pain as his black cloak boiled away into wisps of dark mist, and five long cracks split his mask.

  It shattered, the pieces of his silver faceplate falling to the ground. Spiral howled in pain and fury, and Dora recoiled in horror as he glared at her with a blurred face that looked like it was rapidly melting away.

  “You! YOU! I’LL KILL YOU!” Spiral screamed, lunging at her. But Scarrot tackled him to the ground. Even with a huge hole in his chest, he somehow managed to protect his daughter with his last breath.

  Dora screamed and cried, but Ain and Enrai finally managed to drag her into the portal. The last thing she saw was her father wrestling with the agent of the Void. And, for some reason, as the portal closed, it slowly turned silver.

  ∞.∞.∞

  There was a lurching sensation in Dora’s gut, and she was thrown violently to the ground. Her knees sunk into something soft and grainy, and she fell face first into a sand bank. Ain and Enrai’s landing was not any better. They too sprawled senselessly onto the sand, but ended up in a tangled heap entwined with each other.

  As they struggled to untangle themselves, Dora tried to run back to the portal to try and save her father, but it was too late. The vortex was already gone, leaving nothing behind but a ripple of displaced air.

  “No…” Dora wept helplessly. “I couldn’t save him!” She looked to the side where the impossibly beautiful painting lay, and she scowled fiercely.

  “Stupid goddess… Chosen One? What in the Hells gives her the right to decide my fate like that? I have nothing to show for it but this dumb painting and a dead father!” she tried not to cry, but in the end her tears poured like rain down her face.

  Ain and Enrai, finally untangled, shared concerned looks with each other. They weren’t sure if they should try and comfort her. However, they soon found a reason to get her attention.

  “Um, Dora? I hate to interrupt your grief, but, uh, look up.”

  The half-orc sniffled and glared at the pair. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m… grieving?”

  She stared at the horizon. Not at the odd blue and white colored sand. Not at the impossibly crystal-clear water that filled her vision. Not even at the palm trees that were too perfectly straight. No, what she, Ain, and Enrai stared at was a pair of moons, both of them blue, that hung in a sky filled with unfamiliar stars.

  “I don’t think we’re on Erafore anymore,” Enrai said slowly. Dora and Ain could only nod dumbly in agreement.