by Logan Jacobs
Its upper body was like a man’s torso on some super serious, professional wrestler level steroids. The muscles on his biceps were nearly as big as my head, and he had washboard abs so defined they looked like a caricature. A giant wooden club was clutched in his right hand, and he must have stood at least eight feet tall. His legs were just as bulky as his arms, and he was dressed in some sort of strange skirt with brown leather sandals on his feet. They melded to the rock as he knelt there, teeth bared and murder in his dark brown eyes.
As much as I still lacked knowledge on a lot of things Fae-related, this was a creature I knew from my human education.
A minotaur.
“How dare you enter sacred ground!” the minotaur roared as he leapt forward and raised his weapon.
He brought his club over his head in a huge arc and made a very valiant attempt to bash my skull in. Thankfully, I was much quicker on the draw. I called upon my Hand of Blood and halted his arm just inches from my face.
The minotaur’s brown eyes narrowed in confusion for a brief moment as I held him there, but my defence lasted less than a millisecond. All around me, it felt like time itself slowed down. Then, the minotaur’s pale, bulky arm seemed to glitch and phase out of existence, like a computer screen when it overloads on data. It completely vanished in front of my very eyes for a millisecond, before it returned, still moving in slow motion. Even worse, the magic caused my Hand to lose its hold. Just then, time sped up again and returned to a normal pace, and the huge wooden club made a beeline for my head.
I rolled out of the way fast and ended up on the minotaur’s left as the bludgeoning weapon barely missed my face.
The minotaur bellowed angrily and took a swing at the rest of my team.
“HC, what the hell just happened?” Ariette grunted as she blocked a fatal blow with her sword.
The minotaur grunted, pulled his club free, and turned on Edora. The Unseelie dodged his blow as she blew a stream of fire from her Hand, but the flame seemed to do nothing to our enemy’s thick skin. The minotaur’s entire body shimmered and glitched again, just like it had when I used my Hand.
“I don’t know!” I said to Ariette in confusion. “It was like he snapped my connection. Like he’s magic resistant or something. He glitched out like he was one of those Ghoul’s Bread mushrooms.”
“We’re in the metaphysical realm now, the laws of physics don’t apply here,” Kalista called back to us. “Apparently, neither do the laws of metaphysics.”
I turned to see the tiny dwarf scramble up a rock right behind the minotaur, her violet eyes large and angry.
“Get out!” the beast bellowed again.
He spun the club in front of him dangerously, but Maaren was right behind him with her axe. She let out a loud cry as she brought her weapon back over her head and threw it forward with all her strength, right into her opponent’s back. The battle-axe spun through the air like an oversized throwing star intent on severing the minotaur’s spinal cord.
As the first blade made contact with the beast’s fleshy back, he glitched out and disappeared for a millisecond. That fraction of a second was just enough time for the axe to swish harmlessly through the empty space. The weapon missed it’s target and instead headed right for Danira.
The sly old commander threw up her Hand, and a wall of ice formed in front of her body. The axe hit the wall with a loud “thunk” and planted itself firmly in the structure. Spiderweb cracks shot through the wall of ice, and then the entire thing splintered into a million pieces.
“Holy shit,” Maaren breathed. “It’s almost like he’s teleporting back and forth through the different astral planes.”
Just then, Ariette began to assault the minotaur with a barrage of lightning bolts. They split and cracked through the air and hit him everywhere, his head, chest, legs, back, any space the blonde could get to. But with every strike of lightning, the beast shimmered and glitched out of the way.
I raised my gun and unloaded a stream of bullets directly into the beast. I aimed at his head, his heart, his eyes, and every single vulnerable piece I could think of, but nothing seemed to land.
The minotaur was now glitching so fast it looked like he was teleporting around the room as he moved. The lightning bolts and bullets passed through him harmlessly, and Edora joined in with her own Hand of Fire.
The only positive was that, as long as we couldn’t hit the minotaur, he couldn’t hit us.
“Foolish Fae, your spells are useless against the Guardian of Souls!” the minotaur roared in answer to Maaren’s question. “Do you really think a creature with the power of the Astral Plane would succumb to your pathetic spells?”
The creature let out a mighty roar, and then he started to move.
He was slow, at first, like he trudged through quicksand or had been put in slow motion. But then, after a few more instances of the phasing, he picked up speed until he could swing his club with dangerous velocity once more.
“Oh, shit,” Edora hissed as the club came toward her. Her fire stream ceased, but she wasn’t quite quick enough to leap out of the way. The huge piece of wood made contact with her ribs, and a sickening crack echoed off the rocks at the impact. The Unseelie was thrown through the air, unconscious, and her body was headed for a handful of jagged rocks.
“I got her!” Maaren exclaimed as she reached out and grabbed the falling Fae with her Hand of Air.
A pocket of wind swirled around Edora for a second, and then her trajectory was halted, and she was lowered to the ground safely.
Just as I let out a sigh of relief, the minotaur turned on me and swung his club in a giant arch. Ariette’s sword flashed above my head as I ducked down low, and I heard a clang as the club was deflected by the flat of her blade.
The elf pushed the club upwards and away from me with a loud grunt before she took the opportunity to swipe at his stomach.
Unfortunately, the minotaur was too fast. He didn’t even need to glitch out of existence. Instead, his bulky body avoided the blade gracefully, like a ballerina doing a dance routine.
While he was distracted by Ariette’s blade, I took another shot at the minotaur with my gun. The creature let out a grunt as he disappeared, and for a moment I thought I may have finally got him. I was brought back to reality when I heard the projectile hit the ground a few hundred feet away. However, when the minotaur returned to the world of the living, I noticed something.
There was a small cut in his side, just where the bullet should have connected. So he can get hurt.
I looked over at Ariette and Maaren and then nodded toward the wound. They both nodded understandingly before they had to duck out of the way of the deadly club once more. Ariette popped up and began to lunge at the creature, who easily dodged her attacks with his quick-phases.
While Ariette had him distracted, I dashed over to Maaren and Danira. Edora was still crumpled on the ground, and Kalista was pressed flat against the rock, waiting patiently to surprise attack the minotaur.
The dwarf swung her axe at the minotaur every time it got close to her, but she never quite landed a blow. She would then huff and press herself down against the rock, waiting for her next chance. It would have been rather comical if the situation weren’t so serious.
“I need you two to go distract him,” I ordered the hunter and the commander. “If he’s not focused directly on me, I think I can connect with his blood.”
“On it,” Maaren whispered back. “Let’s go, Danira.”
Danira and the hunter weaved through the dark grey rocks and then split up on either side of the minotaur. With a loud cry, Danira shot forward and surrounded the minotaur’s head in a swirling ball of icy water.
His face was distorted through the liquid, but I could see that he struggled to breathe. His swings became clumsier as he tried to glitch in and out of existence to escape the water, but to no avail. Each time he reappeared, the commander would just use her magic to surround him once again. A smile spread across Danira�
�s face as she realized we’d found another weakness.
At the same time, Maaren dashed over, picked up her fallen axe, and joined Ariette in hand-to-hand combat with the beast.
As soon as I saw the minotaur was good and distracted, I called on my Hand and instantly felt for the creature’s blood. As long as he was focused on my friends, and not me, this could work.
As I watched my friends continue their assault, I willed the beast’s blood to freeze up. I almost willed my Hand to rip the blood from the beast, but then I remembered the ominous warning we’d been given. Anything that is alive in the Valley of Light needs to stay alive. Not to mention, this guy could tell us where Verituck was. It was better to just hold him as long as I could and try to pry out some information.
I watched as the beast flickered in and out of existence much more slowly now, and I took a breath as I timed my own attack. I let him flicker for another moment, and then the second he was solid, I connected with his blood and willed his entire being to freeze. He tried to glitch again, but this time, he couldn’t.
I’d caught the bastard.
Everything went dead silent for a long moment. Ariette and Maaren stopped the fight and stepped back as they breathed heavily. Danira let the ball of water fall to the ground with a giant splash, Kalista pulled her axe back against the rock with a clatter, and then Edora let out a long, soft groan. All of my concentration was on the minotaur, and my Hand vibrated violently as I struggled with his own interdimensional magic. The beast was large enough I could feel the effort begin to exhaust my Hand, and sweat dripped from my brow as my breath came harder and heavier.
Before I could begin my interrogation on the minotaur, time seemed to move in slow motion again. I felt a giant pushback against my Hand, almost as if somebody had physically placed their palm against mine and shoved forward with every ounce of strength in their being.
“Oh … no you don’t,” I grunted.
I put all my concentration on my Hand, absolutely determined not to let the minotaur win. He was impossibly strong, and I watched in dread as his limbs started to move at a snail’s pace. Another ball of water formed around his head, but he didn’t seem to care.
The minotaur was starting to break out of my spell, and he was now focused solely on me.
It was at the moment that Kalista leapt from her perch on the rock, axe in hand, and let loose a righteous battle cry.
“For the Racmoth!” the dwarf shouted out as she catapulted herself onto the minotaur’s back and wrapped her tiny arms around him. “Harooooooo!”
“For the Racmoth!” the rest of my friends yelled out in unison.
The sudden assault caught the creature off-guard, and I felt my hold on his blood begin to strengthen. Danira and Ariette joined in as massive lightning bolts clashed against him with loud cracks, and he let out a small whimper.
This monster must have been getting weaker, because it now seemed like my friends’ attacks were actually doing some damage.
Danira swirled her hands as a giant, turbulent ball of water formed around the beast’s head, and Kal went to town with her fists and feet and axe as she struck the minotaur’s hard skin.
My hold on his blood returned to full force as the minotaur fell to his knees, and I was gonna make sure he stayed there. I felt my Hand vibrate as I forced his torso and limbs to freeze up completely.
By now, the minotaur was putting up next to no struggle. It would have been very easy to kill him right now, in the mighty beast’s pathetic weakened state, but I wasn’t going to do that. We needed him alive.
The minotaur turned to me, his face still obscured in water, and opened his mouth to speak. Through the water, all I could hear was a gurgled mess of sound. I finally looked at Danira and gave her a nod to let her know it was alright to drop the sphere of liquid.
Over to the side, I saw Maaren help Edora sit up. The redhead was a bit shaky, and she winced as she grabbed at her side. She might have a giant-ass bruise or two, but thankfully she was alive.
As soon as Danira’s water splashed to the ground, the minotaur gasped out a few long breaths. Kalista still had her arms wrapped around his neck viciously, with the blade of her axe pressed up against his throat.
“You’re the Racmoth?” he gasped out and tugged gently at the dwarf’s arms.
“Let him go, Kal,” I said slowly. “He’s not going anywhere.”
The dwarf stared at me for a brief moment like she was about to argue, but then she released her grip and slid to the ground with a soft thud. The hacker circled the minotaur’s body with a dangerous gleam in her eye and her axe at the ready.
I faced the minotaur head on as he looked me up and down. “Yeah, I’m the Racmoth,” I said slowly. “And we need something from here. A--”
“A spell,” he rumbled slowly, and a small smile twitched at his lips. “Or rather, an old wizard who knows a spell, correct?”
“His name’s Verituck,” I answered cautiously.
Even though the minotaur’s entire demeanor had changed, I wasn’t going to let my guard down. He had just been trying to kill us, after all.
“I know,” he answered. “I’m the Guardian of the Souls. They tend to talk to me. He told me you’d be coming. But I didn’t expect someone quite so … human.”
“Gee, if I had a piece of silver for every time I heard that one,” I said defensively. “Everyone seems to forget the Racmoth is supposed to be human.”
“Right, that’s true,” he answered cryptically. Then the minotaur stared off into the distance, into the dark depths between two rocks, and whistled.
I forced my Hand into a tighter grip on the creature’s blood, and his body tensed up even more tightly. “What was that?” I demanded. “Did you just call for backup?”
“N-no,” the minotaur admitted in a tone reminiscent of a toddler being scolded by his parents.
Just then, a tiny white orb appeared some distance away. Its glow was shrouded in the mist and gave off an ethereal halo that grew brighter and larger as it got closer. It was like the orbs we’d seen earlier, with the faces on them. This one traveled much more slowly, and as it came clearly into view, I could see the image of a human in this one as well.
And then, when it floated through the middle of the two craggy rocks nearest to us, it started to grow larger, and it began to twist and bubble. The glow of the orb diminished a bit as the ball shaped itself into a hunched over old man. He was completely gray and white and devoid of any lifelike colors, but he still glowed in this strange way. It was almost like light coursed through his veins where the blood should have been, and his entire figure was a strange mix of solid and transparent. His hair and beard were so long they both swept along the ground, and he wore plain, long robes that seemed extremely old fashioned in their make. He looked up at me with bright white eyes, and a look of complete astonishment settled across his features.
“Is it you?” the man asked in a voice so dry and dusty it sounded as if it hadn’t been used for millennia. “Are you the Racmoth?”
“Um, yeah,” I confirmed. “You’re Verituck? You used to transcribe the dragon spells?”
“Indeed I am,” he replied. “In the … well, not so flesh.”
The form of the wizard approached me in absolute wonder and reached a twisted, wrinkled hand out as if he wanted to caress my face. His hand carried with it a bone-chillingly cold gust of wind, and I pulled back unintentionally at his touch.
“Sorry,” he muttered as he snapped his hand back. “I forgot what it’s like for the living to be near us.”
“That’s okay,” I assured him quietly. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never met the soul of a dead guy.”
I studied his bright white eyes in wonder. I’d never seen a ghost before, at least not a real one. The ghosts in horror movies always looked so ghoulish, but Verituck looked nothing like that. In fact, he looked like any living being, just colorless and glowy. But he had this aura of wisdom about him that felt like it cou
ld only come from death and a very long time spent caught between the realms. Even as the wizard stared at me joyously, there was a heavy sadness that hung about his shoulders and his saggy skin. I knew the Valley of Light was supposed to be an honor for those buried there, but it just seemed cruel to condemn someone to eternity spent in a deep, dark pit.
“You have come for the spell, I assume,” he stated after a long moment. “I warned the Fae it would be needed one day, and that the dragons did not lie. And yet, they insisted on destroying everything.”
“You have it though, right?” Ariette asked quickly as she came up behind Verituck.
I’d nearly forgotten my team was there as I stared at the ghost of an ancient wizard who had long ago passed.
“I do,” Verituck replied, “but Racmoth, I must warn you, this spell is dangerous. The dragons created it specifically for you, and you cannot allow anyone else to use it. It kills the soul. According to all the dragon lore I read while I was alive, you are the only one strong enough to use it without being caught in the spell’s magic yourself. For anyone else, it would be suicidal. The spell is meant for the blood wielder who brings two species together.”
“Got it,” I replied calmly, even though I felt nowhere near calm. “That must be what Kajul was talking about when he said I needed to ‘do it alone.’”
I didn’t even know it was possible to kill a soul, and my stomach wanted to flip itself on its head at all the dark thoughts that flitted through my mind.
Verituck looked at me for a long moment before he glanced around at the rest of my team, who all waited fairly impatiently. Maaren was still knelt over Edora, who was still injured but surely now healing with her Fae powers.
Then Verituck sighed out a long, low breath that washed Ariette and I in a wave of icy air, and shoved a hand deep into the translucent pocket of his robes. To my absolute surprise, he pulled out a real, solid piece of paper that had been rolled up and tied with a small, red ribbon and held it out to me.
