Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2)

by Edmund Hughes

  He slowed down for a thrust, sucking on one of her nipples and giving it a tiny, teasing bite. Lady Prestia shivered and ran her fingernails across his shoulders, as though threatening to get equally rough in return. Ari tilted her head back and kissed her neck as he started to build back up to speed.

  Her legs wrapped around him, conspiring with her bucking hips to pull him deeper into her. Ari grabbed her by the waist and took her faster, enjoying the way it made her plump breasts bounce and jiggle. Lady Prestia’s moans slowly grew in pitch, until they were squeaking and breaking as they came out of her mouth.

  “Oh, Aristial!” she cried. “Yes! That’s it! You’re even better than Diya!”

  Ari opted not to make a big deal of that beyond giving one of her nipples a light tweak with his fingers. He was close, too, and after pounding into her a few more times for good measure, he grunted and pulled out. His seed shot out across her breasts and neck, and in the case of one aggressive glob, her chin. Lady Prestia didn’t seem to care, licking up what she could with her tongue and wiping the rest away with her gown.

  “When you return to Lord Diya, be sure to tell him about this in detail,” said Lady Prestia. “Don’t leave anything out.”

  Ari resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

  “So, about that key,” he said.

  CHAPTER 10

  Within seconds after the end of the sexual encounter, the room had faded back to the one Ari had originally entered. He was still on the bed, which was a good deal dustier than he remembered, and still mostly unclothed. Lady Prestia sat next to him, back to being a pink, ethereal, mesmer.

  “You must put a specific sequence into the puzzle lock to open the chest,” she said. “It’s the one that looks like three lines, followed by the linked circles, followed by the stars.”

  “Got it,” said Ari. It only took him a minute to figure out which of the patterns she was talking about, and the chest’s locking mechanism let out a satisfying click when he had them all in place.

  “Aristial?” called Eva, as she reentered the chamber. “Have you finished your investigation?”

  There was a dry, unamused tone to her voice that told Ari that his actions during the mesmer vision had probably been equivalent to his body’s actions outside of it.

  “Yeah,” he said. “About that. One thing kind of led to another, and—”

  “It is quite alright,” said Eva. “I felt as though it was prudent for me to wait outside rather than watching.”

  Ari resisted the urge to make a quip about having better manners than Kerys concerning the morality of peeping. Instead, he pulled the chest’s lid open and peered inside. He found the key right away, given that it was almost the length of his forearm, but there were other objects in the chest, too.

  “Can you tell us more about what these are?” asked Ari. He pulled out a small metal ring, three enchanted scrolls, and an ornate short sword in a copper and wood scabbard.

  The pink mesmer had briefly turned back into spherical form as he’d been digging through the chest. As she manifested, the confusion on her face was plain.

  “Are you a slave?” she asked. “Did Lord Diya send you?”

  “Yes, he did,” said Ari. “He wants to know about the artifacts in your chest. This stuff.”

  He lifted the scrolls, which he was most keen to know more about.

  “Artifacts?” said the pink mesmer. “The chest should be empty. But no bother. Please, come closer. We can speak on it once we’ve had some fun.”

  Had it been ten or fifteen minutes ahead of the current moment, Ari was halfway sure that he’d have been up for a second round. Eva cleared her throat, however, drawing his attention away from the promiscuous mesmer.

  “I doubt she will be able to tell you much,” said Eva. “We should take all of it with us up to the tower. We do not necessarily need to know what the scrolls do in order to make use of them.”

  “True,” said Ari. “But I’d still like to. Maybe we can make another stop by this room tomorrow.”

  Eva looked less than thrilled by the idea, and she started toward the chamber’s exit. Ari tucked all of his newfound loot into his pack and hurried after her.

  “There does not seem to be much else we can do for today, given the lack of progress we have made on the other two rooms,” said Eva.

  “Not necessarily,” said Ari. “I think it’s time for me to take another stab at the purple mesmer.”

  “Lord Stoneblood, I suggest against making another attempt at defeating it so soon,” she said. “You are not back at full strength yet.”

  “I might not be at full strength, but I’ve already seen what it can do,” he said. “Not to mention that I could always fall back on the scrolls I just found if I needed to.”

  “You have no idea what any of those scrolls do,” said Eva.

  “Which will only make it that much more interesting,” said Ari.

  “Milord!” Eva grabbed him by the wrist. “Aristial. This is not a game. You cannot stumble into a fight like this pumped up by your own stupid jests. I do not intend to watch you die today.”

  Her voice was serious, with a quiver of raw emotion lacing the edge. Ari stared into her deep blue eyes and saw such warmth, despite the coldness of the color. He felt his resolve melting at the idea of forcing Eva to aid him in a fight that she clearly doubted he could win in his current state.

  “You might be right,” said Ari. “We can wait. But only for now. There’s no telling how long we’ll have before that storm reaches us.”

  His words held a touch of prophecy as they made their way out of the spire’s depths and into the late afternoon sun.

  The storm clouds had continued to approach the tower. Moreover, they’d shifted into a crescent shape, which belayed any hopes Ari might have had of the spire being spared by a shift in the weather.

  “How much time do you think we have left?” he asked Eva.

  “Tonight,” she said. “Maybe some of tomorrow. Not much longer than that.”

  She seemed ready to grab his arm again in case their updated circumstances were enough to convince Ari to head back down into the spire. He gave her a reassuring smile.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I have a plan. I’ll need your help, along with Kerys’.”

  Kerys was waiting for them in the tower’s common room, sitting at the table. She stood up abruptly as they entered, and relief flashed across her face, followed by annoyance. Ari frowned and tried to think of what he could have done to set her off.

  “I’m glad that you’re both safe,” said Kerys, clearing her throat. “But can I ask you something, Aristial?”

  “Only if I won’t get into more trouble with you by answering,” he said.

  “Why is your tunic on inside out?” she asked.

  “Ah.” Ari looked down at himself. He was still unused to his new, secondhand tunic, and hadn’t noticed the protruding seams. To be fair, Eva hadn’t seemed to notice them, either.

  “Why were you taking your tunic off while down in the spire, Ari?” asked Kerys in a voice as sharp as any of the Mistresses.

  “One of the chambers in the spire had a fire trap,” said Eva. “Aristial opted to disrobe in hopes that he might keep the dry cloth of his shirt from attracting flames.”

  Ari was impressed the speed and smoothness of the lie, especially by the fact that Eva had decided to concoct it for him in the first place. He felt a little guilty, even, and decided that he’d tell Kerys the truth later that night if she was still upset.

  “Well, I’m just glad that you both made it back,” said Kerys. “The clouds have been getting closer and growing darker. I think we might need to start talking about what we’ll do when they get here.”

  “We’ll be long gone, assuming what I have planned ends up panning out.” Ari set his pack down on the common room table and started removing the artifacts he’d looted. “Take a look at these.”

  He spread the three scrolls out and slid aside so that Ker
ys could get a closer look.

  “Enchanted scrolls,” she said. “Like the ones you found back in the labyrinth near where we first found the tower.”

  “Exactly,” said Ari. “Just like with those scrolls, we have no idea what any of these can do. We have to put these to good use and take full advantage of their magic, which means figuring out what spells they contain.”

  Ari looked over at Eva, who was frowning as she stared down at the ancient rolls of vellum on the table.

  “I suppose I could attempt to translate these particular rune patterns,” said Eva. “I would need help in order to do it, along with some reference texts, if we can find ones of relevance upstairs.”

  “That’s the plan,” said Ari. “Kerys, can you help Eva dig through the books? You know our little library far better than I do.”

  “Of course,” said Kerys. “I’ll leave dinner to you, in that case.”

  Ari bit back his objection, knowing that it was probably the most helpful thing he could do given their circumstances. Besides, given how little food they had left, how hard could it be?

  CHAPTER 11

  “I’m… not sure if this is edible,” said Kerys.

  “It is,” said Ari. “It probably is. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be.”

  “There’s a reason why I hadn’t used those travel biscuits from the Ravarian cache in any of our dinners,” said Kerys. “They’re literally too hard to eat.”

  “That’s why I softened them with some water,” said Ari. “Then we’ve got lettuce and cooked seabird meat inside, along with a sauce made from boiled mango. It’s a sandwich, the first one any of us have had in weeks.”

  “You have to test flavors before just throwing them together,” said Kerys.

  “Maybe you can’t, but I’m a cooking prodigy,” said Ari. “I did all my own cooking down in the Hollow, outside of the communal meals.”

  Eva was the only one of them who’d ventured to take a bite out of the “sandwich” Ari had presented her. She nibbled on the corner of the waterlogged bread with dainty mouth movements before furrowing her brow and deconstructing it all into its base ingredients.

  “I appreciate the effort,” she said. “I’m sure with better supplies and cooking utensils, you would have a far better result.”

  “Is that sarcasm I hear in your voice, Eva?” asked Kerys.

  Eva didn’t answer, but the side of her mouth twitched slightly, and she pursed her lips.

  “You heathens can’t even begin to appreciate my genius,” said Ari. “Whatever. Let’s get back on topic. How go the translating efforts?”

  He’d brought the food up to the third floor to keep Eva and Kerys from having to leave their books in order to join the meal. Two of the three scrolls had already been slid to one side of the library’s stone reading table, and Kerys had used a small chunk of chalk to scribble messy words underneath each one.

  “It’s been a breeze,” said Kerys. “Eva might not remember the specifics of how to read and write Saidios, but she still has great intuition when it comes to this sort of thing.”

  “I have simply been pointing out the words I do recognize,” said Eva. “Kerys managed to find a book that has rune pattern diagrams drawn on some of the pages, and we have been operating on the assumption that it is a book related to enchanting.”

  “That seems logical,” said Ari. “Have you already figured out these two?”

  Kerys nodded. “We have. Though, what we know is only enough to give us a general idea of what they probably do. This scroll we’ve given the nickname ‘DEFENSE,’ because the words Eva recognized describing it were all related to deflecting magical energy and shielding against physical strikes.”

  “Interesting,” said Ari. “And the other one?”

  “We’re calling it ‘INSIGHT,’ though we’re a little less sure about what it probably does,” said Kerys. “Something related to magical observation and intuition.”

  “That’s a little vague,” said Ari.

  “The process is a little vague, milord,” said Eva.

  Ari shrugged, sliding his hand across the table and tapping a finger on the third scroll.

  “And this one?” he asked.

  Eva and Kerys looked at each other, and he couldn’t help but get the sense that they were reaffirming a previously discussed decision.

  “This scroll is more dangerous than the other two,” said Eva. “Kerys and I believe that the best course of action would be for you to drain its essence and not attempt to use it.”

  “I still need to know what its enchantment is,” said Ari.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Kerys. “It’s just a scroll with a rune pattern that the book had numerous warnings about.”

  “Why do I get the sense that you’re both worried that if you tell me about what this scroll does, I’ll end up doing something stupid with it?” asked Ari.

  “That’s a good question,” said Kerys. “Now just why would that be, Aristial?”

  Eva shot Kerys a glance and then leaned over to whisper something into her ear. After a couple of seconds, Kerys gave a small nod and slid the third scroll over to Eva, who placed a guarding hand over it.

  “Fine,” said Kerys. “We’ll tell you about the scroll, but Eva is going to hold onto it and decide what we ultimately do with it. The translation of the name of the rune pattern relates to fire, either ‘FIRESTORM’ or ‘FIREBLAST’ or a similarly descriptive title.”

  “We do not know enough about the scroll or the spell to know its range, or its radius, or its destructive power,” said Eva. “Kerys and I are concerned that if you attempt to use it, the results might prove more disastrous for you than your desired target.”

  “That’s a fair concern,” said Ari. “But also irrelevant. My plan doesn’t involve using any of these scrolls.”

  Eva’s brow furrowed, and Kerys leaned a little closer to him from where she sat around the table. Ari waited for a couple of seconds to build dramatic tension before pulling the ornate ring he’d found in the pink mesmer’s chest out of his pocket.

  “This ring is unenchanted,” said Ari. “I get the sense from the quality of the craftsmanship that it could be turned into a useful magical item with enough essence. What I think makes the most sense, given our current circumstances, is to use the essence of the scrolls to place one of these three enchantments onto it.”

  “We need all the essence we can get in order to reactivate the teleportation wards on the tower, though,” said Kerys.

  “That’s true, but we’re stuck at an impasse right now on the spire’s upper level,” said Ari. “We don’t have any other option other than to put what we have now toward making it further in.”

  “He’s right,” said Eva. “Though I think the wisest course of action would be for us to consider which of these three enchantments would help us most in our current circumstances.”

  “Agreed,” said Ari. “Which means that I also won’t be making a Ring of Fire for the time being.”

  He couldn’t quite manage to keep the disappointment out of his voice. The idea of having a ring that could blast fireballs or possibly even a swirling firestorm filled him with a sense of childish glee. Though, given how small the ring was and the small amount of essence they had to work with, Ari doubted that the finished project would have lived up to his expectations.

  “Fire is impractical,” said Kerys. “Defense, on the other hand, could be useful in almost any situation.”

  “I agree,” said Eva. “Assuming the enchantment works as described from our translation, a Ring of Defense could be exactly what you need to defeat the purple mesmer.”

  “No,” said Ari. “My intuition is telling me that a defense enchantment would be better suited for a piece of clothing or armor. Having it on a ring would limit its efficacy, especially if it’s an enchantment that activates automatically.”

  “You don’t know that for sure,” said Kerys. “Besides, if you aren’t going to use the fire or def
ense enchantment, the only one left that we have access to currently is…”

  Ari tapped a finger on the “INSIGHT” scroll and nodded.

  “Yeah,” he said. “This is the one we should use.”

  “Not to second-guess your decision,” said Eva, “but how is having more insight going to help you in a fight?”

  “I won’t just have more insight,” said Ari. “I’ll have magical insight. It works differently, I think.”

  “Aristial,” said Kerys. “I hate to admit this, but I think that the Ring of Fire might even be a better idea than this. It’s too much of a gamble. We aren’t even sure what the original text meant by the word ‘INSIGHT.’ There’s no way to predict how useful it will actually end up being.”

  “Look, you two have done your part,” said Ari. “This is a gamble, I won’t deny that. But it’s one that we have to take. It’s your turn to trust me, okay?”

  Eva frowned and shook her head slightly. Kerys sulked, folding her arms and leaning forward to glower at him from across the table. Ari flashed an apologetic smile as he gathered up the scrolls and approached the enchanting altar.

  The altar was made of stone etched with rune wards, each one triggering a different magical function. Ari started by placing the “INSIGHT” scroll on the table’s center and triggering the ward that stored an enchantment for later application.

  It was an unfortunate limitation of the table that it could only hold one enchantment at a time, which severely limited Ari’s default enchanting options. He made a mental note to start a collection of enchanted artifacts with useful enchantments that he might later draw from.

  Once he’d stored the insight enchantment within the altar, he carefully used the ward for draining enchanted objects to collect the essence from each one. As was usually the case with enchanted scrolls, they crumbled to dust as soon as the magic within them was expended.