Into the Hells

by Christopher Johns

  Her green eyes opened, and I swore I could see a snowflake in them. Maebe’s clothes fluttered in an unseen wind, and a blast of frost and ice shot from her feet toward me. I bounced back out of the way, just barely getting clipped by a jagged spear of frozen water. A massive chunk of my health sheared off of my health bar, and I growled at the suddenly-numb feeling in my leg.

  I cast Heal on myself and negotiated the swiftly melting ice. “You okay?”

  Her eyes glowed for a heartbeat, blazing with icy-blue power, then returning to her normal, deep green coloring. “I have never felt better.”

  She closed the distance between us, the cold following her noticeably. “You do exceptionally well with children, though at times, you can be a bit clueless.”

  I had to laugh at the observation—it was true at times.

  I had always felt so out of my depth with my son; though I knew I loved him more than anything in the world, I always felt inadequate. I couldn’t help the hard look in my eyes, the self-doubt and hurt there.

  She grasped my hand and pulled me closer as her eyes searched my face. She took her other hand and pressed it against my cheek softly.

  “I forget that you are a father already at times.” She pulled me into a hug then let me go. “We will sit together this evening, and you can talk about him tonight. I would enjoy hearing of this little one.”

  “I’d like that,” I replied simply. “Now, I need to dig a hole near the village.”

  Maebe eyed me, then shrugged when I did the same in response. We chose a large portion of open ground between the tree line and the village’s wall. It was roughly eighty-five yards between them and likely a perfect spot to build our hole.

  Using the shadows and some of her newly strengthened ice magic, Maebe and I dug our hole.

  We treated it with care, being so close to the village, we didn’t make it very deep at first. The closer to the wall we got, the more shallow it was, and the further away—it grew steadily deeper. Not too deep, though—only enough that a tall person would be about chest level with the water.

  Once that was finished, I upended the flask into the hole and watched as a torrent of water gushed from the mouthpiece. It kept coming until the water almost reached the sides of the hole. Magically—because you know, magic—the water stopped.

  The water was crystal clear, and seconds after it settled, steam began to rise from it.

  I felt a tap from inside me, and my tidal tattoo itched fiercely.

  This is a reward for all of you. While you were in my realm, I noted that your people had a source of pure drinking water, but nothing like this from your memories. This water promotes not only relaxation but healing as well. It will stay pure, but being exposed as it is, it will invite trouble.

  “Thank you. This will help the village greatly.” I hesitated, and the Water Primordial interjected.

  The great monetary sum was the Dragons’ hoards. There will only be another reward should you prove your worthiness to me once more. Do not push your favor, droplet.

  A cold chill ran through my veins, and I simply answered, “Yes, ma’am.”

  Maebe blinked at me and pointed at the water. “This is the reward?” I nodded. “That is all?”

  I nodded once more, and she pursed her lips. “I suppose the monetary gains promised came from the Dragons?”

  “Sure did,” I answered tersely.

  Maebe’s smile over that was unsettling. “I like the way she thinks.”

  I shook my head, and we began walking toward the village gate. The walk was short, thankfully only a five-minute stroll. The gate, a large metal affair made wholly of steel as thick as my arm and shot through with veins of Fae Iron, stood closed before us. There was a glaring crystal next to the gates on the right side.

  Two human guards watched us walk up to it, obviously noting that we could see the gate, them, and the wall.

  “Good day,” one of the older guards spoke casually. “Please, place your palms against the crystal.”

  This was new but not unexpected—though I was worried. Had I been included in the spell to protect the village? I mean, I could obviously see it.

  Maebe smiled and took my left hand and pressed it against the crystal. The large gem warmed against my skin, and the guards relaxed a little. Maebe did the same, and we were admitted into the village.

  “We collected some of your blood from the bandages. There were many.” Her tone was playful, but I sensed the reproach in it. Noted.

  We headed back through the square, then headed to the Tavern. I cast Mental Message to Sam Wildheart, the village Mayor, “Sam, it’s Zeke. We have a gift for the village near the spot outside that the children go to for classes. Don’t ask where it came from, but you may want to get someone to cover it and include it in the fencing.”

  A few seconds later, he replied, “I will go now to observe what fresh wonder befalls this village.” The man chuckled. “Thank you, my friend.”

  I smiled as we stepped inside. The room was well lit, and the air was rife with the scent of well-cooked food and booze. There was music playing in the corner, and I was surprised to see that Bokaj was playing his guitar—no song I knew but strumming a playful tune despite the look of consternation on his face.

  His fingers danced along the cords, and his strumming seemed well paced. I wasn’t going to interrupt him.

  I grabbed some drinks from Willem and ordered the special for myself and Maebe.

  That night, as my friend played the confusion in his soul for all to hear, I told the woman I cared for about my son. She listened intently and laughed when he would be obstinate, which could be a lot. He got his stubbornness from somewhere.

  It wasn’t long before we went to bed, and darkness took me. My thoughts on him and turning toward the north where we were going to be heading soon. Someone among the high elves knew of a way into the Hells. And we were going to find them. One way or another.

  Chapter Thirteen

  At breakfast, the group ate while the task before us came into focus.

  Breaking into the Hells to get Balmur meant a trip to see the high elves.

  James sat at the table, now wearing a vest to keep his wings from flaring out behind him too much. The others had been surprised and happy to see him, and they were definitely happy that he wasn’t evil. Muu was still slightly miffed about a ruined nap and a seemingly wasted trip, but he dealt with it.

  We both decided to leave out the whole fighting thing, just as a point of keeping the drama down. It did nothing to tell the team what happened because it didn’t matter now.

  “When are we leaving?” Bokaj asked, going straight for the throat.

  “Xiphyre promised my new weapon would be done last night. He mentioned something about Vilmas needing his help too.” I grinned as Muu mentioned the two enchanters working together.

  “What’re you smiling about?” Yohsuke asked.

  “Vilma’s promised to enchant a couple rings for me, and I’m going to ask them about a design idea that I want to do before we get to the Hells.” I began to wolf my food down hurriedly when I felt a thud on my head.

  “Muu, your weapon is completed at the smithy with Thogan and Rowland. It was too much to take it from them after they had worked on it so lovingly.” I turned to see Xiphyre, fresh and rested, fluttering behind me. “You enjoy your food properly, tails. I brought the items. Vilmas exhausted herself last night over these, so you be sure to write her a nice thank you note to find when she wakes up.”

  I coughed and nodded. He pulled the two rings out of thin air, as if by magic, with a flourish and handed me the diamond ring first.

  Mage’s Well

  Stores up to 500 mana. 0/500 available.

  A ring made by the earth itself.

  Ring crafted by Time, cut and enchanted by Grandmaster Enchanter Vilmas Brighteyes.

  “She’s a grandmaster now?!” I whispered to myself and raised my eyes to a proud Xiphyre.

  “And it was the other
ring that did it!” Xiphyre tossed the freshly cut but unadorned Sapphire band at me and I caught it deftly.

  Clarity

  50% resistance to all charisma-based charm spells and mental attacks.

  The wearer of this band becomes resistant to the wiles of the mind placed by another. When attacked the band is even said to glow as a warning.

  Ring crafted by Time, cut and enchanted by Grandmaster Enchanter Vilmas Brighteyes.

  “Holy fuck!” I slipped the rings on to my empty left hand.

  Warning!

  Finger accessory limit has been reached. 4/4 rings. Any additional rings added will not work.

  Huh. Well, that would’ve been nice to know sooner, but still, we could work with this.

  “Bokaj, try to charm me.” He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Fucking do it, man!”

  I saw him focus on me, then he sighed. “You know you can be so stupid sometimes?”

  I felt the hair on my arms and neck stand for a fraction of a heartbeat. “Yeah I know. I can be like that sometimes. I’m sorry, ma– Hey, my ring’s glowing.” I looked up at him, and he was grinning from ear to ear. “You asshole! It worked! Well, it didn’t, but it did!”

  “Awesome, man!” He smiled. “I take it that ring is supposed to help with charms?”

  I nodded. “It’s a warning system too. Also, four ring max for items. Xiphyre,” I looked at him, and he raised a brow in question, “can you make everyone a ring similar to Clarity?”

  “I could,” he shrugged, “but you’ll need rings with sapphires on them, and they will need to be of a higher quality.”

  Muu whipped out three silver rings with sapphire stones in settings on them. Of those, Xiphyre took the best one. I pulled out five similar rings, and three of them were sufficient. Yohsuke pulled out a platinum ring with the entire front of it a solid sapphire—that would work. Jaken pulled out a silver and gold pendant from around his neck that had a large sapphire stone nestled in the center with the ring around it to hold it in place.

  We stared for a second, and he shrugged, “What? It was really pretty.”

  The rest of us laughed at his expression, and Xiphyre just rolled his eyes. “I understand you have an interest in enchanting, Zeke? Listen, and I will explain as I work what I am thinking when I work on these items. Same as I taught Vilmas.”

  And he did just that. Xiphyre explained that for the enchantment to take on this kind of item, they couldn’t be visibly engraved. It had to be done inside the band. I looked inside my own, and sure enough, there was a tiny engraving that I couldn’t even begin to know what it was. Still, the knowledge was useful.

  “The intent to this is to increase the wearer’s mental faculties enough so that they can rise above the attack.” He reached over and tapped my ring. “We also want to add the aspect that alerts the user to the attack, just in case. This can be useful in case of someone else being targeted specifically.”

  He worked methodically but not slowly. Each time he touched an item, his focus was laser dialed. Even as he explained the nuances to the craft and the different things to look for in the items to check quality, he worked perfectly. It was awe inspiring.

  No wonder Vilmas had gotten to grandmaster; under his tutelage, I could probably get to master swiftly.

  After he finished, the others happily equipped their new rings. Muu’s was the lowest percentage at forty-two percent, James, Bokaj and the extra ring we took for Balmur each had forty-nine percent resistance, Yohsuke’s was fifty-five percent, and Jaken sat pretty at seventy percent due to the high quality of his pendant and the gem within.

  I was a little jealous of the other two, but then again, it was Xiphyre. There’s no way Vilmas could compete as a fresh grandmaster. The Fae was likely centuries old with decades upon decades of experience that she just didn’t have yet. Perfectionist or not.

  I looked at Maebe, wondering if her glamour would set the ring off, but it sat against my furred finger with no light at all.

  “Clever boy, this one.” Xiphyre patted my shoulder. “It will not allow you to ignore a glamour unless said glamour is hostile or meant to lure. She has no desire to do so that I’m aware of.”

  The queen bit an apple and looked at Muu. He suddenly went slack-jawed and began to walk forward toward her with his left fist glowing like a beacon. Then he stopped, just as confused as before.

  “Oh! A test. Good idea!” He laughed nervously. “Well, time to go get my new weapon! Later!”

  He fled the tavern without so much as a glance back.

  “What did you make him see?” I asked her as the others began to gather around Xiphyre excitedly with questions.

  “What you see.” Her dark green eyes met mine, and I swear I saw the stars on her skin begin to glow and move as if in orbit.

  “That’s cruel.” I swallowed heavily.

  She finished her apple and stood from her chair slowly before coming to stand in front of me.

  The warm scent of the fruit on her breath was enticing as she whispered, “The cold and dark are always cruel, mortal. Even when there is warmth, they are watching. Waiting.”

  Her finger touched my nose and drew me out of my sudden stupor, my left hand a beacon now as well.

  Her smile was triumphant. “I like that they work so well.”

  “When we get on the road, I want to try and consolidate what we’ve got going on spell wise. I know it’s something we try to do when we level up, but it may help us plan a bit better.” I turned to watch Yohsuke stand and look at the rest of us. “We can’t go into this much potential enemy territory the same way we have been. Also, we up our training to include team tactics. Three on three.”

  “What sparked this?” Bokaj wondered at him with his hands in his pockets. “Not complaining about it, I agree, but why now?”

  “We’ve been here months treating this like some kind of fantasy story,” he waved at the emptying tavern, “like some kind of movie. This is a game. We’re gamers. We should be acting like it. We have our bearings. We’re a helluva lot stronger than before, and Balmur needs us to refocus. We need us to refocus. That fight with Riktolth sparked that in me. We keep getting fucked up because we allow it.”

  Not for the first time in both my time on Earth and here in Brindolla, I saw Yohsuke’s eyes flash dangerously. “We got shit to do, and these assholes won’t make it easy. We work on our shit, fix it, and fuck everyone else up” He punched James in the shoulder and pointed at me. “That means back to basics for the three of us. We need to make sure our civvy friends can hang. They don’t have to be Marines, but they will sure as fuck train with us like they are.”

  For the first time in the years since I had gotten out, I uttered, “Oohrah.”

  James nodded, and we left the tavern to go get Muu.

  Getting to the smithy wasn’t hard. We found Muu on his way back with a big grin.

  “Well, let’s see it.” James motioned for Muu to show off.

  Muu reached behind his back and pulled out a nasty-looking battle hammer. The handle of it was the same green Fae Iron as my right forearm and hand, though it was wrapped in a familiar, black leather hide.

  Muu began to point things out starting there, “So this is the Dragon’s hide that I was able to skin. Untreated but enchanted so that it will stick in my grip. The Fae Iron haft connects to the Dragon’s tooth by being hammered into it and around it. The joints of the metal starting at the center toward the pick portion are covered in scales from the tail that have been treated with a special resin to be harder than they were on his body, and the ones on the end are sharpened.”

  He motioned to the front hammerhead portion of the weapon. It was filed down a bit but not too much. It was roughly eight inches in diameter and covered in what looked like a black and red metal cap against the yellowed fang.

  “The cap is made of a mixture of some of its blood and a certain, crazy-poisonous wood resin that I happened to find lying about.” He whistled a little, and Bokaj sm
iled.

  So they had used sawdust created by the wood that Bokaj had collected? Or maybe it was sap? I wasn’t a woodworker, so I didn’t really care, but the idea was interesting.

  “It’ll make things being healed hellacious.” Muu’s grin widened, and I felt my own lips quirk.

  “We ready? Everybody stocked on potions and whatnot?” I raised my eyebrows, and Bokaj held up a hand to show he had them. “Cool. When we get there, we can put on our new gear—no. Now. Let’s do that now.”

  I opened my inventory and began to look through the gear I had available. Yohsuke clapped me on the shoulder and slid an object over to me. It was a green, hard leather cuirass that would fit over my current armor, but just barely, it seemed.

  Druid’s Blessing

  +20 defense, +10 to Nature Spells

  A green leather cuirass touched once by the Mother. It is said to keep her chosen from harm, so wear it well!

  Leather Cuirass crafted by Grandmaster Leatherworker Lymanil Gresh’n and blessed by Mother Nature.

  “Oh shit! Thanks, brother.” I pounded Yoh’s fist and reached into my own inventory and slid him an item in trade. It was a wicked-looking dagger called Nocturn’s Sanguine Slasher. This was an area I would need to improve on. I had originally taken the item to study it and see if I could figure out how to make it better—or something similar for my own weapons—but Yoh could use this more.

  Nocturn’s Sanguine Slasher

  +13 to Life Stealing spells

  Sanguine Syphon – Two (2) times daily, wielder can summon the freed life essence of those around them to recover their own.

  Dagger created by Master Smith Samron Shillyorc and enchanted by Master Enchanter Lilith.

  “Fuck, man.” He shook his head as he looked it over. “It’s cool and all, but I don’t use normal weapons.”

  “I think it would be better for you to have it than one of us because you have those kinds of spells. Not to mention, you would be able to have a spare weapon in case we don’t have access to magic,” Jaken advised as he slipped another longsword and sheath into his belt on his left hip. This one sat above his current weapon.