“It is hard to say for me, as we count time by different standards than on your Earth.” She frowned slightly, regarding Aaron’s body. “All I can say is that he lived a longer life than you could know.”
“Where does it go now?” I asked, swallowing hard and peering into Aaron’s open and empty eyes. “Where does his soul go?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Ori admitted, and her voice was closer to me. Was she walking toward me? “Your souls are unlike ours. When our body dies, our souls are visible, nearly corporeal in essence. Yours are flighty, hard to pin down. Where do your people believe they go?”
I blinked again. It was getting hard to keep the tears out of my eyes. “I’m not sure,” I answered. “It depends on who you ask. To peace, I guess. I’d like to think they find their way to peace.”
I felt Ori’s hand in mine, her fingers wrapping around my glove and squeezing tightly. “Then perhaps he has made his way to his love once more. Perhaps the sprites have him now. It is certainly a kind thought.”
Still looking at the giant, I muttered, “I’m so sorry.” A soft ping echoed in my ear as that apology, heartfelt beyond my ability to express, pleased whatever powers judged these things, causing my Sanctity to surge past 50%.
“Do you think we blame you, Iron Jack?” Ori asked. I felt her hand on my chin and gasped as she lifted it, turning my gaze to hers. Her thumb brushed tears I had no idea I had let loose from my cheeks. She shook her head. “But none of that is what builds my confidence, Iron Jack.” It was the second time in a row she’d used my player name, the second time she’d called me “Iron.” “The thing that brightens my outlook, makes me believe the Principalities may have been right in their choice of you, are these,” she said, turning her hand to me and showing me fingers damp with my tears. “Compassion is the mark of not only a warrior but a king. This death may be hard for you. The first true death always is, but don’t fear it. It makes you stronger. It tempers you.” She squeezed my hand again. “It forges the iron into steel.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted, sighing heavily and shakily. “I have a family, a sister and nephew. I have a life, but so do all of you. I can’t abandon them, but I don’t want to leave all of you to die either. I didn’t know that before but, looking at Aaron – at Flexmaster – I know who I want to be. I know the kind of person my family deserves. When I was a kid, my best friend’s name was Trevor. We went everywhere together, did everything with each other. One night, we were having a sleepover, and he dared me to run through the woods behind my house with him. I was afraid though, and I told him I wouldn’t. Trevor wasn’t afraid of anything though. He darted off through those woods and I watched him disappear into them, wishing I could be like that.” I nodded firmly. “I want to be the kind of person who runs through the woods at night. My family deserves that.”
“Does that mean you will help us?’ Ori asked, her gorgeous lips spreading into a hesitant smile. This was it, the question I’d been tossing back and forth in my head. There was an entire race – several races – depending on me, but I had peeps back home too. I needed to be fair to them, to be fair to both of them if I could.
“It means I’ll do everything I can to help you secure the Skull Throne within reason, and then, when I’m sitting on it, I’ll help you find the right person to help rule you guys, a person like Aaron, a person like Trevor.” I squeezed her hand in response. “But it can’t take forever, and you have to help me get home after that. That’s the deal. Understood?”
Ori nodded. “Understood,” she said. She raised my hand and, as if to seal the agreement, kissed it lightly. Her lips sent jolts and tingles through my body and for a long moment, I couldn’t stop looking at her.
“Is all okay, Iron Jack?” she asked, looking up at me with bright eyes and inviting lips.
“Everything’s perfect,” I answered, breathing heavy.
As if to mark the sealing of the deal and my acceptance of this great responsibility, my Sanctity suddenly jolted back to maximum, and a new quest update flashed across my eyes.
Quest “Hero of the Principalities” updated!
Hidden objective completed: You have chosen to assist the champions of the realm to secure the Skull Throne!
The Principalities smile on you!
You gain 2 Essences of the Principalities! 5/100 Essences until a new Attunement unlock.
Just then, a rustle came from the woods. Ori and I pulled away from each other, snapping into more action oriented poses.
Hecate came tumbling into view, huffing hard and obviously winded.
“Did you find the Jackal?” Ori asked, visibly relaxing.
“Oh, I found him,” Hecate grimaced. “And you’re not going to believe what the little bastard is up to. Come on. I’ve got something crazy to show you.”
15
We followed Hecate through the woods as the words Ori had just told me rang through my head. I had spent my entire time in this place not only thinking I was in way over my head but having Ori think it as well. The idea that she would start to believe in me, not because I did something right, but because I felt bad about doing something wrong, seemed a little off to me.
No matter. I was happy to have her confidence, especially since I had decided to stick around here until we took down the Shadow, whoever the hell that was. The kiss hadn’t hurt either.
Looking over at the armor-clad angel woman, I found her looking back at me.
“What?” I asked, swallowing hard as I kept pace right behind Ori.
“I just want to make sure you’re all right. There is no shame in needing a break. If you’d like to stop for a moment or two–”
“I’ve taken enough breaks,” I said, shaking my head and sighing at her. “The break I just took ended up with a kid from New Jersey dying. I don’t do well with idle hands, I guess.”
“That’s good to hear,” Hecate said, not bothering to turn as she addressed me. I could only imagine what she was going through. I had just murdered her former FWB. She must have been really pissed at me. “Because I think you’re going to be pretty busy going forward.”
“Forward to where, Hecate?” I asked, jogging just a bit and settling beside the ogre. “Where are we going?”
“Just a bit further,” she answered, pushing back a few errant tree branches. “When I went after him, it was because I was angry. Flexmaster was my friend, a very good friend. He had been here for a long time, and like you, he was only in this situation because I put him in it. I wanted Jackal’s bones to crunch in my teeth.”
“Ew,” I muttered but allowed her to continue.
“But, as I followed his scent, a question started to tug at me.” She looked at me. “The Jackal said he wanted some elixir, right? Something Aaron had stolen from him and drank?”
“Yeah,” I responded. “And he must have broached the subject with Aaron as well because he knew what I was talking about.”
A jolt of guilt ran through me right then. The idea that I had been able to speak to the guy only moments ago, and now he was a corpse staring up into the sky shook me.
I had done that, and nothing I would ever do would be able to fix it. All I could do was continue, to finish what Aaron started and hopefully make his death meaningful in some way he’d never be privileged to know about. The soft ping of a Sanctity gain alongside a red message in the upper part of my vision reading “Your Sanctity is already at maximum!” was oddly reassuring.
“That’s the thing,” Hecate said, taking a hard right, which I followed. “I checked his blood for magic. The elixir was ninety percent Fellfar Root mixed with run of the mill giant's blood.”
I shuddered. The giant's blood would have made him large, though it wouldn't have had a lasting effect. The Jackal must have mixed it with the root to mask the taste and consistency, tricking Aaron into thinking it was something much more valuable.
“Fellfar Root?” I asked, scrunching my nose at her as I spoke. “Isn’t that fairly co
mmon?”
“They’re like weeds,” Ori said. She had begun flapping her wings and now fluttered alongside us, barely off the ground. I looked up at her. She was a vision overhead. “They grow everywhere. Why would the Jackal make such a scene to get back weeds?”
“He wouldn’t,” Hecate answered. “Which means something else is at play here. I got to thinking maybe he’s up to something.”
“Maybe,” I answered. “But maybe not. After all, he’s a trickster. Usually, he’s pretty satisfied just to cause trouble and spread confusion. At least, that’s the impression I got from the other side of the screen. Maybe he just wanted to see us in shambles.”
“This is different,” Hecate answered. “Sending questers down the wrong path or selling them useless spells is one thing. Killing someone, especially someone whose true soul is on this plane, is something else altogether. Aaron might have left his post; he might have given up on the reason we brought him here. We still brought him here though, and that means he was under the protection of the Principalities. Killing him is technically an act of war, and I just don’t see the Jackal starting a war with the Principalities on his own.”
“I mean, I guess that makes sense, but he did. He did trick me into killing Aaron,” I answered.
“But did he do it on his own, or was he under the direction of someone else?” Hecate asked.
“I don’t know the answer to that question,” I admitted, looking over at her.
“I know.” She grinned. “But it turns out that I do. I followed the bastard’s scent. He tried to hide it with herbs and common glamours and the like, but I’m the best tracker in my village. It wasn’t difficult for me to get through them.”
“And what did you find there, Hecate?” Ori asked, rolling her eyes. “Unless you intend on spending the rest of the day talking about your long and varied list of accomplishments.”
Hecate looked over at me. “She’s not the easiest person in the world to satisfy, is she?”
I looked over at her, grinning. “I’d like to invoke my 5th Amendment rights on that particular question.”
“I don’t know what that is, but all right,” Hecate said, rolling her eyes. “The point is, I did find the Jackal, and he wasn’t alone.”
Hecate turned to Ori, then to me, a stupidly proud grin plastered across her face as she pulled a bunch of branches out of the way and motioned to a decidedly empty field off in the distance.
“As they say on your world, Iron Jack, check it out,” she said.
I leaned forward, peering off into the distance as far as I could without thrusting my head out of the treeline. “What am I supposed to be looking at exactly?”
“What now?” Hecate asked, looking out into the distance and then back at me. “You don’t – you don’t see that?”
“If by ‘that’ you mean an empty ass field, then yeah I totally see it. Something tells me that’s not what you’re talking about though.”
“You don’t have Piercing Goggles, do you?” Ori asked, shaking her head at me all disappointed because she obviously already knew the answer.
“Seriously, IJ?” Hecate asked, apparently deciding she now knew me well enough to try out a new nickname. “They’re 200,000 coins and exceptionally useful.”
“I know that,” I muttered, crossing my chest with my arms. “But that’s a lot of money.”
They had a point. Practically every player in KOH wanted Piercing Goggles. They allowed you to see through simple glamours and spy the etchings of some spells cast on other players. Hecate was also right about them being useful, but what could I say? I wasn’t big into magic, and there were more than enough people in my guild to deal with that kind of stuff. Besides, 200,000 coins could buy a lot of really cool stuff.
“Take mine,” Hecate said. Tapping the side of her face, the world shimmered, and the Piercing Goggles appeared on her face, where they had been sitting unseen.
“Oh no. I couldn’t do that,” I said, waving my hand.
“Shut up and take the stupid goggles,” she said.
“Fine,” I muttered. Rearing back, I slammed my fist into her gut and swiped the goggles from her face.
She leaned forward, retching. “What in all the realms did you do that for?” she asked, clutching her stomach.
“I…you said to take them,” I balked, slipping the goggles on.
“So you punched me in the heart?” she asked.
I blanched. Attacking someone was the only way I knew – in-game – to take ownership of their possessions. It never occurred to me that Hecate would (or even could) just give them to me.
"Sorry," I muttered. “Your heart is in your stomach?” I asked, looking up at Ori. “Did you know about this?”
“Of course I did,” she answered. “I’m not a simpleton. Now do as Hecate asked and look out there.”
I turned toward the field to find it completely changed. There must have been a glamour in place because, in place of where nothing had been, now sat an entire village.
Row after row of makeshift tents lined the field. On all the tents lay a specific symbol; a black circle with a squiggled line jutting through it. Men and women walked between them, all dressed in black armor. They were Knights, like me.
“What is this place?” I asked, staring at them.
“Wait for it,” Hecate said.
Then, at the top of my vision, a bar appeared which read:
Darkness Fort, Outer Lair of The Shadow
“The Shadow?” I asked, feeling a tightness of apprehension in my chest. “Like, the super evil and mega powerful ‘The Shadow?’”
“One and the same,” Hecate chimed in. “So do you feel like kicking some ass?”
16
“So like, I just want to make sure I’ve got this right,” I said, my glance flickering between Ori and Hecate. “You want me, a guy who – up until a couple of minutes ago – only had a stick to defend himself, to run out screaming into enemy territory and kill everybody out there like I’m freaking Mel Gibson in Braveheart or something.”
“That depends,” Hecate said, folding her arms over his chest and tapping his foot against the ground. “Is this ‘Mel Gibson in Braveheart’ a great hero in your world?”
“Well, I mean, not lately.” I shrugged, sighing heavy and feeling in over my head. “The point is I don’t think I’m really ready for something like this. I almost died taking on Aaron for God’s sake.”
“But you didn’t,” Ori said. “And, like I told you, that’s no small feat. Flexmaster was one of our great heroes, perhaps the greatest we had ever seen. To defeat him so handily and so quickly–”
“It was a fluke!” I said, lifting my hands as if this was common knowledge because it really should have been.
“A fluke, Iron Jack? Really?” Hecate said, shaking her head at me disgustedly. “Don’t be crass. The man just died.”
“Wait,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “What does the word ‘fluke’ mean here?”
“Nothing I would repeat in mixed company. That’s for sure,” she answered, turning away from me all judgmental and whatnot.
“What I meant to say was that it was a mistake, a twist of fate that probably won’t happen again,” I said, turning to Ori.
She blinked at me, shaking her head. “Why would you say that, Iron Jack?”
“Because it’s true, Ori. I’m sorry, but it is,” I answered.
She touched my hand. “Other heroes speak of their accomplishments with great fervor. They stand in silent celebration as songs are sung in reverence to their greatness. Yet you wring your hands and deny that which is plain to see for anyone who cares to look.” She squeezed my palm. “You had no greater naysayer than she who stands before you now. To say you were a disappointment was an understatement the likes of which I cannot adequately describe, but I have seen you now, the real you. When will you see yourself, Iron Jack?”
I stared at her for a long moment, a tornado of mixed feelings running through me. I had alwa
ys wanted to hear what Ori was telling me now, that I was the best there was at what I did (Wolverine, yo), but now that I was hearing just that, it somehow rang hollow. This was real, and it was really dangerous. Could I allow myself to go through something like it?
“You should put that on a bumper sticker,” I muttered, looking at the ground.
“What’s a bumper?” she asked.
“It’s not important. The only thing that is important is that you understand I can’t do this,” I said, setting my jaw and my stance firmly.
“Of course you can’t,” Hecate said, spinning back around to me. “At least not with that attitude, and not by yourself.” She shook her green head, emerald locks shaking as she did so. “But you’re not by yourself, Iron Jack. You’ve got me, handsome ogre extraordinaire, and you’ve got Ori, who is a pretty effective badass herself. We’re not going to let you die out there, not for an outpost anyway.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “You said this is the Shadow’s outpost. Doesn’t that mean the Shadow is here?”
Hecate laughed at me, chuckling so hard, she almost bowled over. “Not a chance. This place is way too out in the open.”
“In the open?” I balked. “This is in the middle of nowhere and hidden by magic.”
“Magic every player – with the exception of you – has the ability to see through. No, Iron Jack, this is a statement. This is basically a manned flag, here to let people know the Shadow holds dominion over this place.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said, shaking my head hard and getting to pacing again. “I’ve been through this game forward and backward. I’ve heard of every demon, evil spirit, and other bosses the realms have to offer. Never, in all my time in this game, have I ever heard of the Shadow. If he was the kind of guy who had dominion over places and if his forts were so out in the open like this, how come I’ve never heard of him?”
The Skull Throne: A LitRPG novel (Kingdom of Heaven Book 1) Page 11
