Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  “Who needs history when we’re winning today?” Grax was obviously bored by the conversation.

  “We do, Grax. Those that don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” Cloutus stared at the feline pointedly.

  “I, for one,” Mayah jumped in, “don’t want everyone to see what I’ve got up my sleeve in the first round. We don’t even know how many rounds there are going to be. I want to hit them fast and hard all tournament long. Besides, by tomorrow Margaret will have some more skill with her bow. Her arm is going to be so tired when we get done. And then she goes straight into stamina training. The condensed course.”

  “The condensed course?” Margaret asked with a touch of worry in her voice.

  “Yup, after we go hunting.”

  “How many creatures are we going to kill?”

  “All of them. But first let’s spend a little more time trying to figure this out, shall we? Cloutus, have you ever tried storing a spell before?”

  “There are various methods such as scrolls and pendants that have been used for millennia.”

  “Has anyone ever tried storing a spell in the runiverse? The pocket dimension has no time and no energy loss, correct?”

  Mayah could see the gears working in Cloutus’s brain as he nodded.

  “That is how it has been explained to me.”

  “So, when people took enchanted items with them into the pocket dimension and they returned, the magics still worked?”

  “Yes, as far as I know.” He was beginning to catch up with her on this idea.

  “I think it’s time for an experiment.”

  “I think you may be right. What type of experiment do you have in mind?” He had the beginnings of a smile curling on his lips.

  Mayah looked at Cloutus and batted her lashes with the most innocent eyes she could muster. “The kind that might blow up.”

  The smile that was forming on Cloutus’s face fell rapidly turning into a frown. “How big of an explosion?”

  “Not sure.” She put her hands up and shrugged.

  “I have seen her perform miracles, Cloutus. At least hear her out.” Margaret reached over and put her hand on his knee.

  “That I am more than willing to do.” He motioned for Mayah to continue.

  “Okay, so what if you opened the rift and applied HOLD (E). Then... Mags can cast Resurrection Doll into the void.” She said the last rather quickly.

  Cloutus eyed Mayah with no small bit of skepticism.

  “There are a few probabilities that you may want to consider. One, using new and untested forms of magic is inherently dangerous. You might create a black hole or some such nonsense. Or two, the opposite may occur. You may rupture the runiverse and release a megaton of energy into our world. That would also not be pretty.”

  “Yeah, I’ve considered both of those possibilities and, with the pocket dimension being frozen in all aspects of energetics, I’m theorizing that even if there was an explosion, the rift would close and contain most of the blast.”

  Cloutus appeared to be rolling the idea over in his mind. She saw the hesitation disappearing from his face and she quickly added, “As the traders are so fond of saying, ‘nothing ventured nothing gained.’ Let’s give it a whirl.” Mayah’s fist made a short swinging punch across her chest for added emphasis.

  Now to gather a pretty supporter so he says yes, her inner mad scientist chuckled.

  “Mags, wanna help me make some noise?” Mayah practically squealed with joy.

  “They say that well behaved women rarely make history...”

  “Are you guys talking about history again?” Grax sneered from his seat.

  “We are not ‘guys,’ young man.” Margaret chided.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. Guys would have done it by now.”

  “...And failed,” Margaret snorted.

  “But, at least they would have some data in hand,” he snarked.

  “Wow,” Mayah scratched her chin, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Grax is right…”

  “That’s right… Wait, what? I am?” Grax stuttered.

  “We really need data in hand.” She turned to the gnome. “Cloutus, will you let us try this out? It could change everything.” She flung her arms wide to accentuate her words.

  “I’m leaning towards yes.” His hand stroked his chin, “But you’ll all help me clean up any mess?”

  “Of course, anything you need. Grax will help too.”

  “Why me?” He mewled.

  “I thought you were trying to raise your presence…” She winked at him.

  Grax stood tall, stuck out his chest and saluted. “Yes, I would be honored to help in any way I can.”

  “Okay,” Cloutus clapped his hands together. “Let’s lay out how you want to go about this experiment of yours.”

  “I’ll give Mags my enchanter’s gear and stand her just outside of the runeagram. You Open (Lf) the rift and activate Hold (E) as she casts, then we get to see if we’re successful. After that, we place a corpse or token on the runeagram, Open (Lf) the rift, hit Release (Lt) and see if it works.”

  “Sounds very easy when you say it like that. I hope it won’t upset you that I think I should wear my armor for this. I won’t be reborn if I die, you know.”

  “Excuse me...???” Margaret rose from her chair and stomped towards Cloutus protectively. “No, no, no!!! I will not do this if it puts Cloutus in mortal danger.”

  “No worries, Margaret, if that explosion makes it through my armor, the crypt will be gone as well. I wouldn’t feel a thing.”

  He went to stand beside her, “Besides, I actually feel quite confident about Mayah’s hypothesis. It’s at least worth a shot to get some data in hand. It could come in… well, handy.” His hand went to hers as he looked up into her eyes.

  “How can you be so cavalier with your life?”

  “You’re the one who said Mayah can make miracles. Have a little faith.”

  “Hmphhh... Well if you’re okay with it, I guess.” Turning to Mayah she said, “I will have faith in you dear, but I would hate to see Cloutus disappear.”

  She gave Mayah a “don’t you dare mess this up” look.

  “Just promise me you would find my body and use it as a doll to protect you. Even in death I would wish to serve such a fine lady.”

  “Stop it, Cloutus,” her anger started to wane as the flush rose to her cheeks again. “We’re going to make it out of this in one piece.”

  “That’s what I like to hear.” Mayah was getting pumped up as they walked into the crypt’s main chamber.

  “Okay Mags, here’s my enchanter’s garb. Is everyone ready?” They all nodded in anticipation. “After Cloutus opens the rift, he’ll count to three, and you’ll cast resurrection doll as he activates Hold (E). Got it?”

  She finished putting the visor on her head and said, “Got it.”

  “Remember, on three.”

  Cloutus hotkeyed his armor into existence. It was made of what looked like polished obsidian. It was like looking into the deep black of the midnight sky. There were stars twinkling in the depths of it. It definitely had some magic to it. Mayah stared at the armor, almost hypnotized

  “Armor of the Obsidian King,” Cloutus remarked. “Very rare, no one’s seen an Obsidian King in ages. Shame, they were powerful dolls. Are you ready, Margaret?”

  “Yes,” she shouted through the visor.

  “Then we are go.” He stood behind the ledger desk. “Activating Open (Lf).” The rift slowly cut into existence. “Activating Hold (E) in 1-2-3...” The shadows flew from Margaret’s hands into the rift, then stopped suddenly.

  “Done!” Margaret yelled.

  “Closing.” The rift blinked out, leaving a small orange crystal on the runeagram.

  “Did it work?” Grax was looking out from the shadow behind Cloutus’s leg.

  “I’ve never seen an orange crystal before. May I see it please?” Cloutus rushed over and picked up the crystal. His eyes went wide. “This is
the token for a spell. Take a look.” He handed the crystal to Mayah.

  Stored Spell Token

  Spell: Resurrection Doll

  Durability: 100/100

  She handed the token to Margaret and looked at Cloutus. “You know what this means, right? We can store any type of spell that has external effects. I wonder if it would work for a heal spell?” Her brain was racing with the possibilities.

  “But will it work to make a doll?” Margaret asked

  “We won’t know until we release it. Cloutus, do you have a corpse we can use?”

  “Yes, I do.” He reached into a small pouch at his belt and pulled out a blue crystal. “Place this and the spell token on the runeagram please.” He handed the crystal to Mayah who placed it on the runeagram.

  Cloutus then activated the runes and left a corpse unknown to them on the runeagram. It looked like a lobster covered in so many antennae they looked like hair. It had six almost human legs bent at the knee and an upright human-lobster hybrid torso. Its two arms terminated at the elbow and had one and half foot crab claws forming out of the elbows. Its head and face were a disconcerting jumble of drunken evolutionary choices. Every surface of its body was covered in a knobby carapace. A lobster centaur would have been a good name for it.

  “What is that, Cloutus?” Mayah wondered aloud.

  “It’s a Rheeghast. One of the foulest beasts in the Shadowlands of Techros. If this works, it will be a present for you Margaret. It’s level 72.”

  “Level 72?” Grax was shocked.

  “Cloutus, I couldn’t.” She wrung her hands.

  “But it’s level 72!” Mayah stared at Margaret, mouth agape.

  “It’s alright Margaret I have a stash of them. I’ve been at this necromancer thing for a while.”

  “Well… if you insist.”

  “I do.”

  “Then thank you, Cloutus.” She leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek.

  “Besides, at your level of necromancy it would only be about level 12. But it will level with you until you reach a sufficient level to make use of its full power. If this works then I will most certainly find other ways to thank you for bringing a lost art back to Majesta.” The blush was rising on her face and the stars were twinkling in Cloutus’s eyes and armor.

  “Okay, you guys ready?” Mayah called out, trying to avoid all the mushy stuff.

  “How come you get to call them guys?” Grax whined.

  “Because I was talking to Cloutus who is male and Margaret who is not. Keep up Grax.” Mayah whipped back.

  “Stupid girls always teaming up on me,” he growled underneath his breath.

  “I’m ready,” Cloutus said as he looked back at Mayah

  Margaret turned to her, “Me too.”

  Mayah placed the orange crystal on the Rheeghast and said, “Okay, Cloutus let’er rip.”

  “...Calling,” The rift opened back up. “Releasing in 3-2-1…” A pulse of shadow formed at the mouth of the rift and flowed into the rheeghast. The rift disappeared as the rheeghast stood on its legs and its pincer arms clicked in rapid staccato rhythms.

  “It works….!!! It works…!!!” Cloutus clapped.

  “Thank god for small things.” Mayah exclaimed.

  “This is wonderful, Mayah! Finally, the mystery has been solved,” Margaret said elatedly.

  “Not yet…” Mayah’s eyebrows were bunched together in concentration.

  “Eh… why not?” Grax asked.

  “All we’ve figured out so far is how a runist can activate a doll for a necromancer. We still haven’t figured out how to call an active doll forth.”

  “You’re right.” Cloutus looked abashed.

  “But not to worry,” Mayah said cheerily. She was feeling optimistic about this next part. “I think I have an idea. Margaret, release your doll.” The rheeghast fell to the floor like a limp armored noodle.

  “Okay Cloutus, store it again.” He complied and she collected the crystal.

  “Now we just need to create another orange crystal. If you two would be so kind?”

  “Of course,” Margaret said. They went through the motions of making another orange crystal and Mayah picked it up, holding it next to the blue crystal.

  “Okay, Cloutus back to you. I’m going to place both of the crystals on the runeagram and you know what to do.”

  “Yes, I do.” The gnome was looking a little too giddy. In his obsidian, star-flecked armor it made him seem devious and sinister.

  “Calling, opening.” Two rifts opened right next to each other and Mayah felt a pulse in her chest. “Releasing...”

  “Cloutus wait….” She was drowned out by a rapidly rising whine, then she felt the world shake. There was a bright light as she felt a blow strike in her chest knocking her off her feet, slamming her forcefully to the ground. Spots swam in her eyes and her ears rung. She rolled to the side and propped herself up on one elbow. She swiped some notifications away from her vision unread.

  “Is everyone alright?” she yelled. She heard coughing from the other side of the room. A chair moved and Grax crawled out from under it. He weakly waved a paw at her and waggled his jaw. Mayah yelled, “Margaret?”

  Her voice came from behind Mayah, over by the ledger desk, “Yes dear, I’m here.”

  Mayah pulled herself upright and sat on the floor. “Cloutus?”

  “Perfectly fine, Fluff.” Cloutus called from underneath Margaret. “Except for the elbow to the nose when I caught this angel falling from heaven.” He groaned when he pinched the bridge of his nose.

  Looking away, Mayah thought with a groan at the horrible pick up line, but she saw Margaret blush again.

  “Well, at least we all made it.” She forced a smile through her pain and then let it drop immediately.

  “Look!” An astonished Grax said, pointing behind her towards the runeagram. As she spun, she saw the rheeghast standing on the runeagram, clicking its pincers.

  “Oh my god…. IT WORKED!!!” Mayah clapped her hands together, beaming happily.

  “Praise Mortesom, it worked!” Cloutus said from underneath the papers that had blown off of the ledger, burying most of his and Margaret’s forms. Tears began running down his face. “I wish my father could have been alive to see this.” He wiped the tears with his fingertips to avoid gouging his face with the spikes on his wrists. “He worked on that blasted riddle for two hundred years, enchanting all manner of objects to get the desired effect of animating a doll on release. Who would have thunk it was as simple as just holding the spell? ‘Too many smart people are too stupid to tie their own shoes.’ That’s what he always said.” He looked at the ceiling through teary eyes. “Well Dad, looks like you were one of those smart people.” He laughed happily as his tears fell.

  Mayah looked at her boots and one of them was, in fact, untied. She hastily bent to retie it. Cloutus and Margaret began picking up papers. She quickly checked the ignored notification. Runes level 2, Nice… She minimized it with a thought. While doing so she asked, “So why is this so important?”

  “When Ba'alquion was defeated he was being supported by a large number of necromancers,” Cloutus replied his arms full of papers. “This caused a split in our kind that still ripples through today. The two factions were the Kol’rabeus and the S’karabeus. The S’karabeus were those who followed Ba'alquion. The Kol’rabeus became the protectors of Majesta. After Ba'alquion’s defeat, we waged the war of the undead.”

  He paused in his cleaning of the fallen papers and stared at his hands. He bent to pick up another paper and picked up the story again as well. “At first it was a mostly bloodless war, as undead were pit against undead. When the ever-hungry and bloodthirsty Wampyree joined the fight, the remnants of Ba'alquion’s other dark forces followed suit and forced the Majestans to war. With the blood drinkers out in the open, there could be no middle ground as the war spread across the continent.

  “The Majestans and the Kol’rabeus battled for twenty-three years. They were even
ly matched as the war raged across the continent, tearing the world and families apart. That was until the battle of Qwert’yasd.”

  He stopped and shuffled the papers he held absently. He gently placed them on the desk and leaned forward, gripping it with both hands. He looked up into Mayah’s and her friend’s eyes. “The S’karabeus suddenly disappeared from all the fields of battle. Without their support and leadership, the dark legions retreated to whatever safe haven they could find—that we could not. Majestans burned any encampment or enemy they found until peace returned to the land.”

  Mayah quietly sat in the one of the chairs that she and Grax had righted and continued to listen.

  “There was peace for some generations after that, until people began to hunt what was left of the Kol’rabeus, to which my family belonged.” He picked up another batch of papers and began sorting them. ”The Majestans blamed them for the atrocities of the S’karabeus. They believed that if they didn’t destroy all of the necromancers then they were bound to repeat the war of the undead.

  “My ancestors fled to where ever they could find safe haven, which never lasted. There weren’t many of them in the first place, and in the course of a few months they were whittled down from thousands until there were only one hundred or so of them left. They were hunted and those found giving them aid were slaughtered along with them. The people who chased them and herded them across the continent grew to a number near fifty thousand and called themselves the ‘Hand of Vidasom.’ With their numbers and organization, it was only a matter of course that they would find my ancestors.

  “My people battled that army with everything they had. Fallen enemies became undead servants. The Majestans were enraged by having to fight their fallen friends and family. They threw wave after wave of men against the necromancers. But each wave of Majestans was turned back as attrition kept growing the necromancer’s forces.” His eyes went dark and glassy. “The most horrid of superstitions and rage came to life on that field.” His hand trembled clutching the papers, creasing more than a few pages. He sighed and closed his eyes—on the inhale he opened his eyes and continued the story.