“What is that creature that attacked us, and why does it not follow beyond the stairs?” Be’naj demanded while scratching the skin of her arms. She had stayed back in the shaft containing the secret stairs until coming forth to speak, and spread her wings once she had the room to do so.
“My dear Celestial – would that I could slay you myself,” M’thenzor decreed. “It has been an Age since I’ve bathed in the blood of your kindred.” He looked from Be’naj to Thaelios. “You keep poor company, Silver-skin. But no matter, I shall be free soon enough.”
“You understood her?” Thaelios asked.
“Of course. I said I was only permitted to speak Infernal – that doesn’t mean I can’t hear perfectly well.”
“So?” Thaelios raised his eyebrows. “What’s the answer?”
“How should I know?” M’thenzor scoffed. “I’ve been trapped in this Circle for centuries. We are in the Hall of Doors, however. That fool Trigilas and his minions entreated with scores of beings from the nether realms. I am still here, after all. There could be others, and there’s no telling what laws and stipulations they are bound by.”
“Ask him how to use the Portals,” Saffron said once the fiend was finished.
Thaelios nodded, never removing his gaze from the creature’s face. “Can we use the Planar Gates to leave, and if so, how do we control where we end up? Also, what is your home plane?”
“Why, planning to come visit?” M’thenzor’s face screwed up slightly after his comment, as if uttering it brought discomfort. “I’ve already told you, but I traveled here from the sulfurous wastes of Malbolge, if you must know. You can depart Tarmuth through its Gates, though not without cost.
“Each portal is generally attuned to a group of planes with the most basic shared characteristics of the cosmos, relative to your Prime. There is a wheel corresponding to each that provides choices for more specific locations, though those realms themselves may be infinite.”
Thaelios nodded, having already guessed as much.
“However,” M’thenzor continued, perhaps guessing at the level of his acquired knowledge, “you will first need a key to activate any of those portals, and it rests in another dimension itself.”
“What?” Surely he’d caught the fiend in a lie. “How are we supposed to retrieve the key from another plane if we need the key in order to travel to another plane in the first place?”
“A hidden chamber, mirrored to this one, can be reached through the Summoning Vault, where lies the Tablet of Broken Names. Follow the stairs in the secret room to a lone portal. Passing through will take you to the realm of the key.”
“And how do we activate that portal, if the key is on the other side?” Thaelios wondered if the hellish denizen was talking in circles purposefully to run out his sentence without truly helping.
A grin spread across M’thenzor’s face. The gesture held a definite suggestion of malice. “That is the part I sincerely regret having to miss. There is a basin near to the gate. Opening the portal requires that the heart of a willing sacrifice be placed in the basin.”
Thaelios felt as though all his insides were about to drop out. “You’re not serious,” he said sternly.
M’thenzor simply nodded, the horrifying smile still stretched across his face.
“That’s sickening. Who would devise such a mechanism?”
The devil shrugged. “Someone who did not want Planar Gates to be used on a whim. It seems extraordinarily prudent for a mortal if you ask me.”
Thaelios shook his head, unamused. “I didn’t.” He glanced at his companions, who had taken seats on the floor but looked eager for an explanation of his conversation. How would he tell them this? “Then what?” he directed toward M’thenzor. “How do we use the key once we have it?”
“It is dimensionally anchored to its resting spot, and will return there after an hour from its removal. You place it into the basin within the room whose gate you intend to use and simply step through. You may even come to visit me in the Nine Hells, if you wish. I’ll keep a seat warm for you, Silver-skin.”
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?” Thaelios asked. He desperately wanted at least part of the fiend’s instructions to be a fabrication.
“I suppose you don’t, but that means nothing to me. I am answering your questions as I must, but whether you act on what you learn is beyond my caring.”
Thaelios looked down at the diminishing outline of the pentagram – more than one side of the star had already vanished. He turned to his friends again. “He’s told me how to activate the portals. Is there anything else you’d like me to ask?”
The light on the dagger in Saffron’s hand blinked out, though Rhazine’s lantern still burned. The shifting of shadows seemed sinister, given their company. While the others were thinking, something popped into Thaelios’s head. “Did Trigilas himself trap you here? If so, for what purpose? Surely not to merely answer my questions a thousand years later…”
The smile drained from M’thenzor’s face. “Aye, Trigilas summoned me. I only hope his spirit has survived long enough for me to claim my vengeance once released.” The devil winced again following his declaration. “Your ‘Father of Spells,’ as I heard him called, was insufferably insolent, though admittedly brilliant as well. He sought magical knowledge from whatever sources he could, and I turned out to be one of them. Through all our dealings, I never discovered how he manifested my Truename… He was obsessed with banishing the Juda-cai from your realm, and I had much to teach him on that matter.”
“The Juda-cai? So you mean the god’s Avatars did in fact walk upon Elisahd?” Thaelios never believed the stories as a child, though his interactions with Cauzel had started to change his mind.
“Oh yes,” M’thenzor confirmed. “Though the Juda-cai are not your gods any more than I. They have walked upon many worlds. Or, their Avatars have, for they possess no bodies themselves.”
“What do you mean?” Thaelios asked.
The fiend looked down at the pentagram, then back at Thaelios, who thought he saw him roll his eyes. “The Juda-cai live in a realm called Ishmere, where nothing is solid. Therefore, they have no bodies.”
“How? What?” Thaelios couldn’t figure out exactly what he wanted to ask. Perhaps this line of questioning wasn’t the most useful given their predicament. “Is there any magic you can teach me before you leave?”
“Oh, an ambitious one, after all? How surprising. I almost never get that request.” M’thenzor flinched again, dipping his shoulder slightly. His voice had lost some of its calm and he spoke more quickly when he resumed. “I can’t answer that very well without knowing what you already know. Are you even a Shaper? I suppose one of you must be, for I noticed your little light spell expire. Come to think of it…”
The arch-fiend suddenly lifted his arms perpendicularly and clenched his clawed fists, grimacing. A pair of previously unlit braziers along the wall behind M’thenzor leapt alive with purple flame, and the devil laughed.
Dyphina, closest to the flames, squealed and stood up upon their ignition.
“So, you have disabled the Dampening Stone.” M’thenzor looked at Thaelios with what he interpreted as newfound respect. “You must possess a modicum of skill, then. I can tell you it won’t last long, though. The Heart of the Abyss churns in those stones, and your mortal magic will only affect them temporarily. Once it’s powers return, you will be unable to open the portals.”
“What?” Thaelios had not calculated such a complication. The sacrifice stipulation seemed bad enough.
“Don’t you think the other mortal Shapers trapped here would have simply used the portals to escape were they able?” The devil seemed in good spirits again. “Don’t worry, I am still limited by Trigilas’s binding and cannot use my magic to harm you.” He looked down at the pentagram again, which Thaelios noticed was losing its third edge.
“Now you tell me?” Thaelios huffed and located Saffron, switching to Illanese. “We
can use the Planar Gates to leave, but must do so before the Dampening Stone becomes active again and may not have much time.”
Saffron peered at the stairs. “What about the beast roaming above? Did you learn of a way to defeat it? I’m not sure I can best it with merely a dagger.”
“He didn’t even know what it was, so I don’t think he’s going to be much help with that,” Thaelios responded. “I grabbed Cauzel’s spellbook, though, so maybe there’s something useful in there. Give me a moment to look.” He extended his arm, which held both his mentor’s spellbook and the tome from Trigilas’s bookshelf, and passed the latter to Saffron.
“What are you searching for?” M’thenzor asked, leaning forward but unable to pass the circle of salt around him.
“Something to keep us safe from whatever bit Phaerim,” he replied, still scanning the book’s contents. It took a moment before he registered that he’d just stated his companion’s name aloud.
“And what was it that bit Phaerim?” the fiend asked. Thaelios could hear the smile in his voice without looking. “Can you describe it to me?”
Thaelios glanced at his friend, who was none the wiser. From the strain on his face, he seemed to still be struggling with the pain from his injury. He chose not to respond to M’thenzor. He kept skimming through pages while Saffron worked on getting the others ready to move again.
After several minutes, Thaelios came upon a promising lead: a protection spell, intending primarily to ward against mental possession, also reported to prevent physical contact from beings not native to the plane of the casting. “Is there another exit from this room?” Thaelios finally asked in Infernal, raising his eyes to meet those of the looming fiend. “Other than the stairs?”
M’thenzor’s mirth had once again dissipated, perhaps intuiting that Thaelios had come upon a solution. “There is not. Trigilas wanted to keep me all to himself – for as long as he could, anyway.”
Thaelios nodded. “Gather around, everyone,” he said in Illanese. “Saf—” he caught himself, nearly using another name, “could you ask our Begnari friend if she has some salt stowed in that pack?”
“Certainly,” she replied before relaying his request.
Excited to see Rhazine nod, Thaelios buried his nose in Cauzel’s book to make sure he understood the nuances of the incantation while she retrieved the necessary ingredient. When he was confident he grasped it, he asked everyone to join hands in a tight circle. After packing the books into Rhazine’s backpack, he sprinkled salt around their circumference, then ducked under arms to stand in the center as he recited the spell.
Once finished, he held his breath, waiting to see if the Dampening Stone was still neutralized. Satisfaction welled inside him when he saw a white vapor rise from the circle of salt in a curtain around them. It evaporated almost immediately, but Thaelios was sure it’d worked.
“Keep holding hands, but you’re going to have to trust me,” he announced. “As long as we’re in contact, the beast won’t be able to touch us, but the protection will break if you force aggression upon it first. If we remain calm, we should be able to simply walk on past.” Thaelios left out the part where this would only work if the creature was indeed from another plane.
“So, what now?” Dyphina asked.
“Up these stairs, then back to the other stairwell,” he answered.
“And that’s going to get us through the portals?” Even with her wings folded, Be’naj had to stretch to keep hold of her neighbors.
“One thing at a time.”
“You still haven’t told them what’s coming,” M’thenzor mentioned from behind. “I think Phaerim deserves to know you’re marching him off to his death.”
“Nobody said that,” Thaelios snapped back in Infernal. It was true, though – the hardest part was yet to come.
“We’ll have to go slowly,” Phaerim said, as if on cue.
They broke their circle with Thaelios taking Phaerim’s hand and bringing up the rear. Saffron led, climbing the steep stairs back to Trigilas’s quarters, with Rhazine’s lamp stretched in front of her.
“I hope you’re right about this, Thaelios,” she said as they ascended one deliberate step at a time, for Phaerim’s benefit. After the infuriatingly awkward process of climbing the narrow passage sideways, with hands occupied and a crippled member, the group reached the level ground of the main floor.
All was quiet – the beast was nowhere to be seen, though Trigilas’s room was in disarray. Furniture had been toppled, and what was left of the bedding was shredded. Saffron peeked out the door into the corridor beyond, and whispered that all was clear.
Soft-footed as they could, the party snuck down the passage toward the dining hall and the spiral staircase. Saffron led the living chain, and all Thaelios could see from the back was the illumination of the lantern, interrupted by the vague forms of bodies passing between him and the solitary light source.
Though he’d been unconsciously waiting for it, Thaelios still jumped when a hungry snarl erupted from the cross-passage ahead of him. Dyphina was the most exposed and screamed as the beast lunged toward her.
“Don’t let go!” Thaelios reminded her, though he couldn’t really tell what was happening. The progression of bodies and light stopped.
“What’s happening?” Saffron queried anxiously. “Is everyone okay?”
“Dyphina?” Thaelios asked, his own voice nearly drowned out by the aggressive vocalizations of her attacker.
“She’s fine,” Phaerim answered for her. “It can’t touch her.”
“Let’s keep moving,” Dyphina finally said, her voice higher-pitched than normal.
They shuffled forward again, and once Thaelios reached the intersection, he saw glowing red eyes lighting up the beast’s alien features as it paced from one side of the hallway to the other, little more than an arm’s length in front of him. Its teeth were thin and pointy like elongated needles, overlapping what served as lips. The skin of its face looked shiny and hardened – as the spell seemed to prove, it was obviously not of this world.
It followed Thaelios as he cleared the side-passage, gurgling its desired menace and keeping his nerves on edge. He hoped the spell maintained until they’d gotten below, or he’d be the first one to fall.
Before long, they turned to wind around the long table, and Thaelios checked the ceiling to see if the shimmering ribbons were keeping watch. Only darkness hovered above, however, and he was glad once they began circling their descent. Once on flat ground again, he felt confident telling his companions they could separate. Phaerim had been limping severely during their journey and promptly sat on the floor as soon as they’d all let go.
Rhazine’s lamp seemed to be growing dimmer, and he wondered if she’d brought more fuel. The increased darkness seemed to be making everyone sleepy, for both Saffron and Dyphina stifled yawns. Thaelios couldn’t say for sure how long it’d been since he’d last tranced.
“How are you holding up?” Thaelios asked Phaerim. His friend’s eyes looked sunken and sad.
“Not great,” he replied. “My leg stings something awful.”
“You probably need to rest,” Be’naj contributed. “We all do.”
“You may be right, of course, but we can’t afford to,” Thaelios countered. “Not yet.” He raised his voice so that everyone took notice, “We have to activate the portal before the Dampening Stone prevents us. If not, we may be buried down here as sure as the Cult of Broken Names.”
Saffron sighed. “All right, then, what do we do next?”
“That devil said the key we need to use the Planar Gates resides in an extra-dimensional space. We’ve got to find that doorway first, and he said the way there was hidden in the Summoning Vault.”
Saffron shook her head. “You Eladrin certainly love hiding things, don’t you? Alright, lead the way before this lamp goes out. Unless, of course, you’d like to give us more light?”
Thaelios frowned. “I’d prefer to save my strength if it�
�s all the same. That protection spell exhausted me. I don’t want to drain myself further in case we have dire need of magic.”
Saffron pursed her lips and nodded. “So be it. Let’s get moving, then.”
At her urging, Be’naj and Dyphina helped Phaerim stand again, and they followed her through the rubble-strewn gap in the southern wall. Thaelios followed blindly, focused on figuring out how to deliver news of the price they would soon have to pay.
This time, they steered clear of the dais and its gilded pedestal, keeping to the left of the columns as they traversed the enormous hall. “Spectacular,” Be’naj said, extending her wings in the wide open space and staring toward the ceiling as she walked.
“Where do you think it is?” Saffron asked as they reached the other end of the room. A golden cupboard rested against the far wall, bearing three vertical, textured doors.
Thaelios was curious about its contents but wasn’t sure he should open it. “Supposedly the chamber mirrored the one M’thenzor was in, so it should be behind the eastern wall …”
“M’thenzor?” Be’naj asked. “Is that the name of the fiend? He made my skin itch awfully bad.”
“Is it better now?” Saffron asked.
Be’naj nodded and smiled, leaving Thaelios to roll his eyes and walk over to investigate the wall. Its black stone was flecked with small patches of grey and smooth to the touch. Phaerim leaned against one of the columns, just on the edge of Thaelios’s peripheral vision, while the others milled about somewhere behind.
“Saffron, could you bring the light closer?” he asked. Keeping his eyes on the wall, he searched for signs of irregularity as the glow of the lamp drew closer. He ran his fingertips along the cold surface, hoping to find creases that might betray a door’s presence.
A metallic clang sounded behind him, followed by Dyphina’s voice. “It’s locked.”
Thaelios looked over his shoulder and saw that she was referring to the golden cabinet. “Then it should probably stay that way,” he said, returning his attention to the wall. Finally, his fingers felt a slight vertical ridge in the stonework, though the darkness prevented his eyes from discovery, even knowing where to look. “There!” Satisfaction relaxed the tension in his shoulders momentarily, though it returned as he realized it meant the fiend had been telling the truth.
The Hall of Doors Page 4
