Dungeon Master 8

by Eric Vall

  The Qianlong winced and hissed through her teeth but didn’t draw back in my arms. The dragon’s icy blue eyes were intent on the feline as she dipped the spoon back into the bowl and slathered on another layer of the green mixture. Before my eyes, the thick liquid dried and became flat against Heijing’s pale flesh. It was barely noticeable as the Qianlong lifted a small hand and tapped at the layers with her pointer finger.

  “There! It should be healed by tomorrow morning, no scar or sign that it was ever there!” Carmedy grinned as she dove back into her pack and pulled out an empty jar and cork stopper.

  The alchemist used the spoon to fill the glass jar, and once it was all inside, she stuffed all the tools back into her pack and stood. Carmedy’s emerald eyes landed on me for a moment, and her wide smile dropped suddenly. The feline’s brows furrowed as she took in the dark bags under my eyes and the uncomfortable way I held myself as I kept Heijing in place.

  “Master?” the alchemist asked in a quiet voice as her paw plunged back into her bag. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

  “I am quite alright,” I said as I mustered up the best smile I could give them at this time. “Just a bit tired.”

  “Horse shit,” Rana snarked as the fox grabbed me by the left arm and turned me toward her. “You’re not fine or alright, what’s wrong?”

  “Is there anything we can do?” Annalise asked in a hushed voice as she wrapped her hands around my forearm and looked up into my face with watering eyes.

  “Here, I have the perfect thing for you,” Carmedy said as she pulled out the heavy, silver bottle of Azoth and offered it to me. “Take a few sips, it’ll help. It doesn’t look like the Elders did any real damage, other than busting up your armor in a few places.”

  I nodded once as I took the Azoth from the alchemist and brought the lip of the bottle to my mouth. I tipped the bottle back and let the silver liquid flow out onto my tongue. I couldn’t describe the taste of the Azoth, it was as if every food and drink had come together as one single sustenance. As I swallowed it down, it left a slightly metallic taste on the tip of my tongue, and I shook my head to rid myself of it.

  I stood a bit taller as the Azoth took effect and rushed through my veins. I felt rejuvenated, almost as if I hadn’t been in a fight at all, and smiled down at each of my minions. I stretched my arms slowly and groaned as I felt each of my muscles tense underneath the taut flesh. I flexed for them as I grinned even wider, and my minions whooped together in celebration.

  “Do you feel better, Master?” Morrigan asked, her dark eyes glossy with concern.

  “Yes, very much so,” I nodded as I slipped my hand into Annalise’s. “Thank you, Carmedy. I know how much you hold the Azoth dear, and I am sorry that you had to waste it on me.”

  “It’s not a waste!” the alchemist protested vehemently. “You can drink all of it if you want to, nothing is more important than you are, Master.”

  “She’s right,” Haruhi agreed as she tilted her head and smiled sweetly at me. “If we lost you or if you got sick or injured…we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves.”

  “I am glad that you feel that way,” I uttered in a soft voice as I reached out and stroked the sage’s ears. “I too would be lost without each one of you. You are blessings, and I am thankful to have you by my side for the rest of time.”

  “Kazama,” Heijing stated in a firm tone, and I turned to her as she looked directly into my face. “That man you spoke to, it was Chirus, wasn’t it? Your father, correct?”

  “Wait, someone else was here?” Rana questioned as she turned her head and looked to her sisters. “We only saw the mages and the creepy Elder thing.”

  From the expressions on the rest of my minion’s faces, I knew that none of them had heard the voice of my father. It seemed to be for the better then, I didn’t want my precious minions to have any interactions with that terrible being. We would meet him in the heavens, but I never wanted them to hear his booming voice in their heads just as I did.

  “I didn’t see anyone else…” Carmedy muttered as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

  “To answer your question, Heijing, yes. That was my father you heard, Chirus, the god of victory,” I confirmed to the Qianlong with a curt nod and then turned to my other women to explain. “My father wasn’t here in any physical sense, he aided the Elders, giving them his power for the time being and attacked me specifically. I believe he wanted to fight me one on one and thought that he would nip this in the bud, defeating me once and for all.”

  “But he was sadly mistaken!” Rana cheered as she lifted a closed paw into the air. “You wiped the floor with his sorry ass!”

  “And we’ll do it again,” Annalise stated in a grave voice as she crossed the room and snatched up her discarded swords. “When we take to the heavens, we’ll destroy him for good.”

  “The god of victory will know defeat,” I boomed, and each of my minion’s looked at me with eyes that shined with admiration.

  The high queen crossed the blades over her chest and lifted her chocolate brown eyes toward the exposed sky through the broken ceiling. The swordswoman looked confident and intimidating as she swung both her swords down and slammed them into their sheaths. Annalise placed both hands on her hips and raised her chin in my direction. I examined them as they stood in a tight formation and smiled softly.

  I’d molded my women to be perfect cunning warriors, and that was just what they were. I’d groomed them, trained them, and aided them in this journey, and they’d blossomed before me like brilliant, bright wildflowers. Each woman had her own skill set that was unique and honed to perfection by my hand. We would storm the gods’ realm and rip it down by its heels. We would make the gods bleed and steal away their powers right before we took their lives.

  “What do you think he wanted from the Holy Order?” Heijing asked as she turned and looked around the room. “What could the Holy Order do or provide to the gods? They are mortals, it is well known that deities despise them more than any other living thing.”

  I came to stand beside the Qianlong and looked over each door that lined the room beyond. I slipped my hand into the dragon’s tiny one and clasped it tightly.

  “We will find out very soon,” I told them then turned toward Morrigan. “Call Fea and Macha to you, I have a task for them.

  It took a manner of minutes for the elven woman to bring her two bird companions to her side, and the two black ravens flitted down onto her shoulders. Fea cawed loudly as Macha nuzzled into the white-haired elf’s neck. Their feathers were dark and sleek against the bright light that filtered in through the broken stained-glass from above. I remembered a time when I’d first met my core four minions, and Morrigan had only spoken to the ravens during that entire time.

  Morrigan didn’t rely on them as much anymore, and it warmed my soul to see her open her heart and arms to the rest of us. Though the ravens didn’t stay by the elven woman’s side as much as they did before, their bond was still as strong as the first time I’d met them. The ravens chirped softly to Morrigan and then aimed their beady black eyes at me as I caught their attention.

  Eight doors ran along the wall ahead of us, and I examined their carved exterior for a moment before I turned and addressed my women. Their eyes watched me intently, and I folded my hands behind my back.

  “There are six of us, eight if you include Fea and Macha,” I stated, and the two birds cawed loudly in reply. “I want each of us to scour a room then report back with anything that you find. Tear the rooms to shreds if you have to, we need to find out why the gods decided to aid the Holy Order when such an act is unusual for them. If you find anything of interest, call out to me, and we will reconvene here.”

  “Yes, Master.” Annalise nodded once as she gripped Bloodscale by the hilt and headed for the closest door on her left.

  “Aye, aye Captain!” Rana chuckled as she saluted me and hustled off toward one of the doors left cracked open.

  Morrigan float
ed across the marble and opened the last two doors, each time one of her ravens flew in, and she left the door open for them. The elven woman headed toward the closest door and slipped inside silently.

  I nodded firmly and strode toward the open door directly in the middle. I threw it open and found a dark hallway lined with tall portraits beyond. There was only one door at the end, and I narrowed my eyes at it. I knew that the rest of my armies had done their tasks perfectly well, especially Makar who’d been in charge of sneaking in after us and taking out the rest of the mages hidden inside.

  I strode down the hall and took my time to take in each of the paintings hung on the stone. I could tell the men in the portraits were mages and Elders from the robes they wore, and I stopped in front of the largest one about halfway through. I didn’t recognize any of these men, and most of them must have been long gone with time, but I still felt hatred for them. They’d betrayed me and turned my dear Morrigan away when all she wanted to do was learn from them.

  I stood there for a second and listened to the faraway voices of my soldiers outside the fortress. They chanted in victory, and I smiled to myself as my arm shot out and knocked the portrait to the ground. The Holy Order had fallen, and so should its older leaders. With a loud scoff, I continued down the passage, throwing the paintings from the walls and stamping on them with my heavy boots.

  I froze for a moment as a sound jarred me from my mission. I squinted my eyes and listened hard to something in the distance, a voice calling from beyond the door at the end of the hall. Though I couldn’t sense the presence or its lifeforce, I focused in on its location. I strode toward the door with determination and placed my hand on the knob as its cold metal bit into my hand.

  I concentrated on the soft mewling sounds coming from beyond and ripped the door open. It nearly came off its hinges as I forced my way through and stepped into the cold, dank room. What waited for me inside made my eyes widen, and my eyebrows raise in surprise as my heart thumped hard against my ribcage.

  The first thing that caught my attention was the flowing blonde hair the color of wheat. The thin woman’s head slowly and painfully raised, and I took in her cornflower blue eyes as they watered with tears of pain. Her thin lips were pursed as she struggled in agony against her bindings. Her face, though dirty and smudged with streaks of soot, was still beautiful and radiant.

  She wore a plain white gown that was stained brown in some places from being in the dirty room for so long. Her golden hair was stringy and hung around her angular face as she stared at me in utter shock. My heart beat fast as I looked at her, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her face as hard as I might.

  The woman was tied to a rough wooden pillar with her slender arms lashed behind her, and from the look of her, she’d been here for a long time. Her bleary eyes focused for a moment as if she finally comprehended that I was real and not just an illusion. She was alive and real, flesh, and blood, and I had the sudden urge to reach out and touch her.

  “Isolda…” I croaked out through dry lips, and the woman’s brows furrowed in confusion.

  I knew it wasn’t my past lover, but the resemblance between the two women was jarring. This woman, Isolda’s descendant was tall like the woman I remembered from my past, and all of her features were exact copies of my first love. My heart ached painfully as I looked up into her waif-like face, and finally, the silence between us broke as the woman tied to the pillar sobbed loudly.

  “Help me!” she screamed as her feverish eyes pleaded with me desperately. “Please, save me!”

  I moved forward without thinking and came around the massive wooden column. I found her hands in the dim light and as the light above us shifted, saw the smattering of deep purple and blue bruises over her wrists. She’d been here for a very long time, trapped in this room and tied up.

  With a snap of my fingers, the ropes binding her slithered and moved like snakes as they dropped away from her bruised flesh. I rushed around the pillar right as she fell and caught her effortlessly in my arms. In an instant, her arms found my neck, and she held onto me with feverish intensity. Her cornflower eyes burned into mine as hot tears flowed down her dirty cheeks. I felt even more pain in my heart as I looked down into her ever-familiar face, and I hastily looked away from her.

  “Thank you, sir,” the woman wept softly into my chest as I turned toward the door. “What is your name? I would like to thank my savior properly.”

  I stopped and stared straightforward toward the hall. A cold chill washed over me as I thought how to answer, my minions called me Master, but this woman was not Isolda, and she certainly wasn’t one of my lovers. I doubted she’d ever heard of me or what her ancestor and I did together. I shifted her weight in my arms and looked down into her pained face as she stared thankfully up at me.

  “My name is Kazama,” I stated as I began to walk again. “Some call me Master, and I prefer if you do too.”

  “…Kazama…” she whispered as her bleary blue eyes barely focused in on my features. “That name …it’s so familiar…it’s on the tip of my tongue. How do I know you, Kazama?”

  “You don’t, we’ve never met before,” I told her sadly as I walked through the door and back down the hallway toward the sanctum.

  “No, that’s not what I mean,” she muttered as she shook her head. “I don’t know you but that name, it is so close and intimate to me…like a lost memory.”

  “Hush now,” I murmured in my softest voice. “You need to rest for now. We’ll heal you, feed you, and get you cleaned up. There is nothing to worry about now.”

  I tried not to let her words affect me. This woman shouldn’t remember me, shouldn’t know my name at all unless it was the dreadful stories spread around about my past. I kept my eyes ahead of me, and my arms locked around her as she fell silent.

  “Hey, Master!” Carmedy’s voice called out to me from one of the other rooms.

  “Yes?” I asked back directly into her mind.

  “I found something of interest!” the alchemist cheered.

  “I did too,” Rana said from farther away. “Looks like a bunch of weird maps and letters in a weird language.”

  “There’s nothing over here,” Annalise chimed in. “Just a bunch of dusty old books and creepy statues of Elders.”

  “I found some instruments that may be of use but not to our present mission,” Morrigan told me.

  “I also found a strange map,” Heijing uttered in her emotionless voice. “There is a summoning circle in this room. Master, I believe this is how they were conversing with your father.”

  “Alright, bring everything you have and meet me back where we started,” I instructed them. “Carmedy, we will also need more of your healing potions.”

  “Oh…okay!” the alchemist called back nervously.

  The walk to the door into the sanctum was long, but when I glanced down at the woman I carried, I noticed that she’d passed out from exhaustion. I quickened my pace and hurried out of the door onto the raised dais. Morrigan and Annalise waited for me outside, and their eyes widened in surprise.

  I moved toward them and carefully placed the woman on the floor. I knelt beside her and brushed her honey-blonde hair off her forehead. I couldn’t look at her for too long without my chest aching, but I willed myself through it as Carmedy burst through her door. The alchemist was skipping happily but stopped at the sight of the fallen woman and raced over with a concerned expression.

  “Master…” Annalise whispered as she bent down beside me. “Is this who I think it is? The woman the four gods showed us when we were back in Tintagal?”

  “Yes…” I nodded as I stroked the sleeping woman’s cheek. “This is Isolda’s descendant.”

  “She looks exactly like her.” Heijing’s cold voice cut through the air as she appeared out of nowhere and loomed over my shoulder. “She could almost be Isolda’s twin.”

  I didn’t answer, I didn’t want to speak as I stared down at the face I’d looked upon hundreds of
times so many years ago. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t Isolda, she wasn’t the woman I once knew and loved. I had never expected this feeling, I knew that we needed to save Isolda’s descendant, but I didn’t think it would have such a significant effect on me like this. I could barely stand to look at her, but at the same time, couldn’t peel my eyes away from her ethereal face.

  I’d put Isolda’s memory to rest the night that Heijing allowed me to speak to her from the spirit realm. I’d locked all of those parts of me away, resolved and finished, but here they were again, laying before me on the cold marble floor of the Holy Order’s fortress. It felt as if Isolda had been reborn somehow through her extended lineage, and she was here with me right now. I knew that couldn’t be true, but even the words she’d spoken to me had contradicted that.

  “Annalise, can you help me for a second?” Carmedy inquired as she knelt on the floor and laid out different bottles of ingredients in front of her. “She doesn’t seem to have any physical wounds, but could you look her over just in case? I’m going to start working on an elixir to heal anything wrong internally.”

  “Sure.” The swordswoman nodded as she slowly rolled up the sleeping woman’s sleeves and looked for any wounds other than the bruises around her wrists.

  “Is there anything we can do?” Rana asked over the alchemist’s shoulder.

  “No, not right now, but thanks for asking.” Carmedy smiled softly as her paws moved quickly and mixed different ingredients.

  My eyes locked onto the woman below me once more, and I felt the warmth of her soul emanate outward onto my flesh. I listened to the steady, strong beat of her heart and knew that despite her injuries, she would live to be healthy and strong after this ended. I drew back as her eyes suddenly fluttered open and found mine.

  “She’s awake,” Morrigan uttered, and all attention shifted to the woman slowly sitting up.

  “Stay still please,” Carmedy stated as she placed her right paw on Isolda’s descendant’s shoulder.

  “I know you,” the woman stated in a firm voice as her delicate hand wrapped around my forearm hard. “I know you, Kazama, god of the Underworld.”