But the company was in unfamiliar territory, space which had him bewildered up to now – being inside a mighty being’s mind. Tartarus was not on the level of a cosmic entity, but its primordial nature made him apprehensive. There was no way he was going to let the spirits out in such an unknown environment. Another matter was his guides, the existence of whom was still unknown to the company. Tyler trusted them to make their usual observations and do their best to protect him. Again, the same considerations which attended his concern for his wards also covered Hal and X. He preferred to wait until things were clearer before conferring with them. The stabilizing wave coming from the lamp of Thanatos might provide a solution to giving him more leeway in his actions. Still, he’ll risk discussing the subject with his guides after the lantern had been used for some time.
The company continued to maintain its typical defensive formation, constantly wary about the Punishments that roamed the land and the beasts of the different biomes. Tyler wondered about the latter. As the terrain shifts, are the animals and plants also transferred? Or the changes mere localized barriers that serve as portals? Or are they creations of Chaos? The mage immediately dismissed the last notion. That would make the natural flora and fauna actually magical in origin. It’s a hugely impractical idea. The drain on the ambient energy of the realm itself would be enormous.
“Archmage, if I may?” called out Thyma. The mage had seen her conferring with the dragoness for a while.
“Yes?” replied Tyler.
“I just wanted to point out that a strange force seems to speed us along. A barely noticeable trace, but it’s there,” said the Oracle.
“Don’t mind it. Somebody just wants to help. And Habrok, we’ll be coming to a small forest in a while. A good place to replenish provisions. The woodland should be stable, so don’t worry about getting dragged to another area,” advised the mage idly.
At his words, the companions glanced at him as one. The mage merely waved a hand, indicating they pay no heed to his curious words. Gullin looked like she wanted to ask more questions but fortunately changed her mind. Tyler didn’t feel like explaining. Without the Greek deity of death around, Tartarus might be listening. At least nobody asked him about the lamp, though he could see glances thrown at the object from time to time. A few miles later, after a winding route past hazy hills and bizarrely transforming terrain, the party arrived at the forest mentioned by Thanatos. Tyler halted at the edge of the road and looked at his companions. Their view of woods didn’t change or shimmer. The mage glanced at the most powerful in the company in terms of magic – Thyma and Gullin. A nod from the Oracle and Tyler led them into the waiting trees. The ranger and the Valkyrie immediately moved forward, looking for an ideal camping site.
An hour after, they were all gathered around a campfire, with provisions and water refilled. It didn’t surprise the mage that small game was plentiful and that Astrid found a perfect brook beside their camp. The apparently serendipitous circumstances got a questioning look from Kobu, which Tyler studiously ignored. Once the company was settled and had begun to bring out their sleeping gear, Habrok got the first shift in sentry duty. Tyndur wanted two guards at a time, but the mage said they’d be safe in the area. It was another comment which got him glances from the rest. Thankfully, nobody asked him how he knew about the forest and why he deemed the company safe. The young man knew it was trust, and his companions had learned that he’d tell them what they want to know when the time was right.
Tyler went to sleep immediately. It avoided any chance of inadvertent disclosure of information, and more importantly, he was also tired. Being in the cursed domain was stressful enough, and moments of quiet reflection only brought out his fears about Eira. An idle mind was fertile ground for terrible things to rise in one’s imagination. He did take a small risk in giving instructions to his guides to scrutinize Tartarus’ chaotic nature and see if they could somehow use it. It was quickly followed with hurried instructions to Birki to keep his wards inside, be wary about the energy of the place, and, if any got inside the staff, to isolate it. The mage didn’t want any risk from barely understood energy. And it was power born out of chaos. It didn’t sound as if any good would come out of it.
***
The night and most of the morning of the following day passed without incident. Tyler began to wonder if Thanatos somehow got the Punishments to be diverted elsewhere. Or the small lamp was more than it appeared. It was conceivable that it also hid them from Tartarus’s denizens or even the chaotic being himself. Then suddenly the company heard a familiar voice. It was shouting curses in a manner too fast to follow and the din came from the right side of the road.
It was Asag.
The problem was, though they could hear him, they couldn’t see where the colorful language was precisely coming from. The loud expletives also faded in and out. Everyone looked at each other, and the glances finally settled on Tyler. The mage signaled the rest of the company to stay on the road and, holding the lamp, ventured where they last heard the rock demon. He sensed somebody beside him and saw it was Thyma.
“I have to come. You don’t know anything about this place or the characters in it,” advised the Oracle with a wide, meaningful smile.
Tyler merely nodded and moved forward. As they continued, the vagueness of the nature of the land disappeared, dissipated by the lamp’s power. However, the mage continued in a straight line. Walking in a meandering way might lead both of them astray, even with the artifact in hand. After about a hundred yards, an open stone structure appeared about thirty feet away. It looked like boulders were erected as posts, and then others were laid horizontally across the stones.
A miniature Stonehenge, though in better condition, observed the mage. He could see individuals inside the circle. Some were seated, others were standing. A few were brawling. Everybody appeared to be talking at the same time, regardless of whether or not anybody was listening. Right in the middle was Asag. The demon was screaming at an old man dressed in a tattered blue Grecian toga. As they walked faster, the pair saw the rock demon raise his warhammer and smash his conversation partner into the ground.
“Shit!” shouted Tyler involuntarily. He could see Asag was mad, but to do that to an unarmed old man was something else. But the Oracle didn’t say anything and merely kept pace with the mage. Before the young man’s eyes, Asag’s victim merely reformed its shape and then started yelling at the demon. Shocked, the mage halted and then looked at Thyma. In the meantime, the mage saw the rock demon raising his weapon again.
“Gods detest philosophers. That’s a gaggle of them right there. Free to argue with each other. There’s nothing worse to such people than arguing with others who won’t listen. Such individuals also have their own extreme opinions, deaf to all other arguments. And that’s for eternity,” smiled the Oracle.
Now that’s Hell, thought the mage immediately.
Tyler saw that the rock demon didn’t notice their arrival. Asag was too furious and bloodthirsty to care about what was happening outside the stone circle. Seeing that his victim was still unharmed, the deity began using his warhammer on nearby phantasms. His shouts of frustration echoed through the area. It would have been a murderously vicious scene, if not for the fact that the demon’s victims kept on re-materializing. Apparently, the locus of the inmates’ reformation was also the same structure.
“You better call him,” said Thyma. “He can’t destroy souls cursed to be in Tartarus. Asag could stay there for an eternity and not make any headway in what he’s doing.”
The mage started to move toward the structure, but Thyma’s hand held him back. She warned that madness for mortals reigned inside the circle. Unless they had predetermined its boundaries – where the souls couldn’t cross – it would be better to call out the rock demon. Tyler’s loud shouts reverberated several times before Asag finally got wind of their presence. With a genuinely glad smile, the deity let out a deafening shout of joy and immediately marched out. But not be
fore hitting left and right every one he encountered on his way to them. A few steps outside the circle and Asag found a bearded individual waiting for him. Surprisingly, the rock demon didn’t raise his warhammer and instead exchanged a few words with the soul. The entity walked with him and then stopped as Asag continued on to the waiting pair. Nonplussed, Asag made to go back to the person, before Thyma called him back with the advice that he wouldn’t be able to bring out the person. A few seconds of indecision and then the rock demon went to them.
“You can’t imagine how happy I am to see you after experiencing what this crazy realm had to offer!” cried out Asag, extending his arms to Tyler. The mage immediately held out his hands, palms out, and smilingly shook his head. The blasted demon could crush him inadvertently.
“What happened to you?” The last thing we saw was Kerberos swallowing you whole!” asked Tyler, still puzzled on how the rock demon survived.
“Hah! I started tearing him apart from the inside, from the throat down to the body. You can’t imagine how bad and smelly that mad giant of a dog was, Archmage. Fortunately, my warhammer and magic attacks shredded the mutt from inside out. You should have heard it scream and howl,” said the demon happily.
“What happened to it?” asked the mage.
“Dead, I guess. It finally fell down, and I carved out an extremely messy opening. I walked through this damned confusing landscape and found myself in that madhouse,” said Asag with disgust.
“You can’t kill Kerberos, Asag. Kerberos is Hades personified in this realm. The guardian would regenerate somewhere. Still mad but whole,” warned the Oracle. “But I believe that even if out of its wits, I guess he’d recognize and avoid you. Or if the grudge he bears is great enough, be ready for another battle. Yet I doubt the latter.”
Asag cursed in response. He obviously wanted another bout with Kerberos. He complained that he didn’t think the guardian played fair, but the demon god muttered something about equaling the size of the Hound of Hades the next time they cross paths.
“What’s that about bringing one of those souls?” asked the mage. It was a peculiar act by Asag, and for the life of him, he still couldn’t understand why.
“I wanted a souvenir. That one was agreeable enough, but the others kept on barging into our discussions,” replied the demon smoothly.
Tyler asked who the favored soul was, though he doubted favored could be used in Asag’s instance. Favored for the demon generally meant not being the subject of a warhammer’s head. A fellow named Democritus, replied Asag. At the name, the Oracle laughed.
“I should have expected that,” said Thyma. “He was called the laughing philosopher, or the Mocker. Democritus, though a deep thinker, always saw the comical side of life. The man despised fame and was considered to be exceedingly well-traveled.”
“His sin?” asked the mage.
“Unfortunately, he came up with a theory which held that everything was made up of something called atomos, tiny units of indestructible matter. Probably an expansion of his mentor’s theory, another philosopher called Leucippus. I don’t think he’s here. Tartarus doesn’t group together souls of like minds,” explained the woman. “It wouldn’t be a punishment otherwise.”
“Laughing philosopher, huh? I guess that’s why he was on the outside looking in. Must be hooting his guts out at that spectacle,” observed the young man.
“I like him. Not like the others. His comments were cryptic, but he didn’t bother me, unlike the rest of that gaggle,” said Asag.
“What did he tell you?” inquired Tyler, who was overcome by curiosity. Anybody who Asag didn’t smash within the first five minutes of a conversation was an interesting fellow.
“Well, I asked him about this place, and all he told me was – of a truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well. A satisfactory enough answer,” remarked the demon.
The mage stared disbelievingly at their companion, then he looked at the chuckling Oracle. Asag saw the man’s confused face and smiled.
“It’s a simple enough answer, Archmage. We’re in a well, a deep one. We need to climb out and break the legs of the ones who dug it,” explained the demonic deity.
***
The trio made their way back to the road, helped by the lamp of Thanatos. Asag gave the artifact a glance, but didn’t ask about it. Yet the deity was silent all the way back to the group. Tyler assumed that their walk back gave the rock demon time to think about what he had experienced. But he saw that Asag looked around from time to time, even watching the far horizon and the dim skies. If he didn’t know any better, he’d assume Asag was half-hoping for a particular monster. The mage gave a final glimpse at the stone structure housing the cursed souls. He never thought the pursuit of philosophy could be so damning. Shaking his head as he considered how the Greek pantheon would react to how the modern man of the Second World thought, Tyler walked beside the Oracle.
“Thyma,” he asked, “all philosophers end up here?”
“Not all. Some poets do end up in Hades and a few even grace the Elysian Fields. You do know the principal failing which made them cursed,” answered the woman. “Yet even poets who extol the virtues of the gods end up here. I suppose their natural bent for philosophy was considered an aggravating circumstance.”
“Like?” asked the young man.
“Well, you have Pindar. Beautiful poems portraying the debt of man to the gods –
But when there comes to men
A gleam of splendour given of heaven,
Then rests on them a light of glory
And blessed are their days.”
“See? Wonderful lines. Prayerful, I must add,” replied Thyma.
“What happened to him? Why Tartarus?” asked Tyler, wondering at what could possibly condemn a man capable of creating such worshipful lines.
“The bugger entered politics,” came the Oracle’s succinct and colorful reply.
***
A happy reunion resulted from Asag’s return. Interestingly enough, the mage observed the rock deity wore a silly grin as he received the welcome of the companions. Tyler thankfully reflected that Asag was now indeed back and once again part of the company. Whatever reservations the others had about the demon were gone. The mage had to admit the deity did a lot for the company. Some actions were foolhardy, yet nobody could say that Asag didn’t risk anything during their journeys. Being a mouthful for Kerberos was but the latest sacrifice he made even if it was the result of a reckless and stupid deed.
All of a sudden, the company felt a noticeable surge of power around them. Their view of the surroundings became hazy for several seconds, though the ground beneath them remained firm. At the strange spectacle, weapons were brought into ready positions, and Tyler immediately strengthened the magical shield protecting them.
“Hold! We’re shifting locations,” cried out the Oracle.
Thanatos, thought the mage immediately.
The enigmatic occurrence stopped, and their vision cleared. The company found itself still on the road. Again, it traversed once again a desert, and in the far distance was the sight of a massive stronghold on top of a mountain, surrounded by wooded hills. Tyler immediately asked his guides for information.
“A high possibility exists that we’re looking at the stronghold of the rogue Titans,” said Hal.
“I wonder why Thanatos took the risk of transporting us this quickly? The energy required must be considerable,” wondered Tyler.
As if in reply to his question, a series of massive explosions erupted to their rear. The company looked back. The horizon was aflame, and huge bolts of power could clearly be seen in the skyline. The rogue Elders, the dark ones, had entered Tartarus.
How the hell? wondered the bewildered mage. From what Thanatos said, the invaders didn’t have a chance of entering the damned realm. Then he suddenly realized that, for its own reasons, Tartarus, the fickle being that it was, deemed it interesting to allow the rogue Elders to cross the threshold of the cursed dim
ension.
Just wonderful. The fucked-up bastard probably got bored and wanted to see a war, concluded Tyler angrily.
Chapter Five
Night
The company glanced back at Tyler. The mage could feel the vibrations of far-off battles under his feet. He didn’t doubt that massive releases of magical power were being exchanged. But the Titans were now on their home ground, and the mage felt it gave the defenders some advantage. If not additional reserves of magic, then desperation would make its mark. Yet the questioning looks of his companions needed to be answered.
The Accidental Archmage: Book Eight (Where Titans Walk) Page 5
