But Death is Not Forbidden

by Kip Terrington

  The Covenant Dungeon of Os once again bids farewell to you, honorable adventurers.

  Os wasn't too frustrated with that engagement, but felt that she should have done better. It was nice to eat Grork. His memories came much faster than the others, though she still did not get all of them. When she learned about Bork, she was so distracted she let her troll get a scimitar stuck in his chest. The dumb beast wasn't even going to remove it. The troll was just going to continue to fight that way until it bled dry. After she had finished with Grork’s memories, she had once again taken control of the troll. Due to the damage she had already inflicted on the big obsidian golem, Os had thought she would be able to win the engagement. Unfortunately, the little whiner had gained enough mana back to become a serious danger. The floor boss was defeated, and Os couldn't help but feel that the dark fairy had lived up to her end of the bargain. A deal was a deal, even if it was unspoken, so Os had let the loot speak for itself. When she did this, she got another message which was, again, more felt than seen.

  Minus 1 to Chaos points.

  Plus 1 to Order points.

  Os could tell it was the UI interacting with her. Why it had decided to give her these updates she didn't know. It didn't bother her; on the contrary she liked it. Something about the rules, using numbers, and categorizing things seemed to fit her view of reality.

  Chapter 15 - The Lady of Blood

  Gravin Moon.

  Former Capital of Lecrocha.

  Day eight, in the evening.

  Rook stepped out of the portal and saw that he had ended up at the outskirts of the ancient ruins. He had decided to take one of his more defensive physical forms. Not because maintaining a physical form would be safer. It definitely wasn't. It was because he didn't want to startle her. Coming in the guise of a knight in shining armor would let her hear him coming and hopefully tell her something about his intent.

  He began walking through the weathered stone ruins. Looking around, he considered how no one observing it now would have ever guessed that this was once the capital of a powerful nation. Sure, a nation based on torture and suffering, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Especially since, in this nation, the beggars were sacrificed on the conveniently-placed altars at every major intersection. Granted, even in the nation's hay day, there were bleeding heart liberals pushing for legislation to ban sacrifices on Tuesdays. Though it had been radical thinking, it wasn't what actually pushed their nation into the decline. Rook knew this only because he had actually played a part in the decline of this nation, mostly an accidental part.

  It wasn't long before he came to the steep incline leading to the Grand Palace. It was no longer grand, or even a palace, but he had seen it at its pinnacle, so it was hard to replace the mental image. Carefully, but persistently, he made his way up what once had been stairs. He could feel the pulsing place of power that still resided in these ruins. Though the building around it had decomposed, the power node had not lost its potency. Making sure to not be quiet, Rook made his way to the room containing the intersection of ley lines that formed this place of power. There was no opposition. The ruins seemed abandoned, though Rook knew that there was at least one occupant. As he came up to the door, he decided it would be appropriate to use the greeting that his servant Joe had given him only days earlier.

  “Greetings, mighty one. I humbly beg your pardon for arriving unannounced. It seems my page got lost somewhere along the way. It is so hard to find good help nowadays,” Rook said as he came upon the cloaked figure sitting in the center of the room. Though Rook did not register smells as others did, anyone else would have caught whiff of an intriguing combination of blood and tears. The cloaked figure did not acknowledge Rook’s greeting or even his presence.

  “It's been an incredibly long time. You might not remember me. I am Rook, a being of contention,” Rook said, but still there was no reply. Rook waited, hoping the silence would increase the contention in the room and finally merit a response. Unlike Joe, Rook had no aversion to silence.

  Minutes passed…

  An hour.

  At this point, Rook realized waiting in silence would not do him any good.

  “Maybe it is not I that you have forgotten. Perhaps you've forgotten your own name? It has been a prodigiously long time. In the hope of future collaboration, let me give you what you may have lost. I greet you, lady—,” Rook said before being interrupted by an inferno of fury. The cloaked lady stood and fire burst from her. An awful burnt copper smell filled the room. Her cloak had apparently been drenched in blood which was now boiling from the heat. The figure of bloody fury stood before Rook and screamed a command.

  “DON'T YOU EVER USE MY NAME!” the lady of blood said.

  “My mistake, mighty one,” Rook said, not missing a beat. The lady sat down again. The fire went out and her robes turned to a light yellow color. Apparently the fire had burned off all the blood and restored the fabric.

  “Don't call me that either. We both know there's more jest than respect in that,” the lady said.

  “Then I shall just call you, lady,” Rook said, giving her a slight tilt of his head.

  “If I thought that there was a way that I could kill you now, I would. I'm sure that I could injure you severely, but within a millennia you'd be back up to your normal strength. There's a part of me that wishes to do it for the mere enjoyment of it. But if I expended that amount of energy, even here in my place of power, the cost would be tremendous. To make up for the loss, I would be compelled to sacrifice too much innocent blood. So, even though you would be weakened, I would be doing your job for you, creating greater contention in the world. For all I know, that's why you're here. Maybe you want to rest, and you're hoping that I'll injure you, knowing what it'll cost me. I'm going to have to disappoint you. You might as well leave now, I won't be making a deal with you,” the lady said.

  “Once again, you have completely misunderstood me,” Rook began before being interrupted again.

  “I understand you perfectly. You are Rook, the Betrayer of Hope. You are the architect of broken relationships, from individual ones all the way up to breaking bonds between empires. You are the whisper in the ear to kingslayer and kinslayer. You are the Killer of Kindness. You are the Death of Duty. You are the Ender of Honor. You are the Dunce of Destiny,” the lady finished. Rook frowned under his faceplate.

  “That last one is not one of my names. I may have forgotten a lot of things, but I don't forget the core of legends about myself. All of this is beside the point. I'm not here to make a deal with you, only to present you a chance at freedom,” Rook said. The lady began to laugh, though there was no joy in it.

  “How exciting! Freedom! I would love that. Do you have an army with you? That's funny, I didn't sense their approach. Burnt Blood! You might not acknowledge the name, but you truly are the Dunce of Destiny. If you think I will fall for your lies again, then the name fits. Consider this the beginning of that legend, Dunce of Destiny. If you wish to waste your breath, than by all means, waste it,” the lady said. Rook controlled his fury. He could deal with insults, but only when they were followed by results.

  “You're not my friend, and you're right that I'm not trustworthy. Only, I owe you a debt. A long time ago, we made a deal and I did not keep my end of the bargain. Apparently, I am an entity of balance. It's only in the last few days that I have understood what this meant. Over the millennia, I have become more and more out of balance. For this reason, I have become weaker and weaker. I had actually made peace with the fact that I was diminishing, until I was given a gift of a new magic. This new magic quantified our very reality. I have since learned it is called the UI, short for User Interface. This tool gave me a list of everyone who owes me and everyone that I owe. By paying my debts and collecting what I'm owed, I can be great again. The high potential of the gift I had received, however, created an even greater imbalance.

  “What's worse, the individual who gave it to me, Joe, formed a contract with me to become
my servant. This means it's going to be incredibly difficult to pay this debt. I made an error with him when I allowed him to know my nature. He capitalized on my vulnerability by cementing the servant contract, and then informed me that he would contend with me. Joe made it clear he would never obey my commands, but instead would contend with injustice already present in the world. He was able to grasp that because I am a being of contention, he fulfills his servant’s roll by disobeying what I truly wish him to do. This means that, in reality, he does whatever he wishes and my debt to him increases. He has struck me the most grievous blow that I have ever received in all of my long history. To top all that off, messages I have recently received from the UI now imply that I would have eventually received this gift for free! I feel like a man that used the last of his coin to buy a house, only to find out the next day that the government had decided to provide free houses to everyone that didn't have one. Obviously, I hate this Joe because of what he has done to me. Only, I cannot strike out at him unless I wish to injure myself with more debt. …Which is where you come in,” Rook said.

  “I was just speaking out of anger when I gave you the name the Dunce of Destiny, but apparently this Joe has made it a reality. He's done what I couldn't. I don't even know him, but I'm grateful for what he's done. I won't kill him for you. I won't try to trick him into releasing you from your debt. Pretty much whatever you want from me, I'm not going to give it to you,” the lady said. Rook didn't respond immediately. If the lady could have seen his eyes, she would have realized he wasn't paying great attention to her. Rook was accessing the UI, trying to find a very specific setting he had discovered earlier.

  “I’m sorry. I'm still getting the hang of this UI. On a positive note, by revealing to you my humiliation at the hands of Joe, I paid a little bit of my debt to you. But, as I said before, I'm not here to make a deal, only to provide you with an opportunity. Whether you take advantage of the opportunity or not, I will have provided you the chance to be free. While this may not completely absolve me of my debt to you, it will make headway,” Rook said.

  “You talk and talk and talk, but it's always just air, never any substance,” the lady said.

  “Fine,” Rook said. At this point, Rook sent a command though his HUD. Blue letters popped up over his head.

  Key NPC, Rook

  Catalyst of Contention

  “Am I supposed to be impressed? Some blue letters popped over your head, I see that your name is there and your aspect. This is not moon shattering,” the lady said.

  “It may not be, but it's more than you think. It also describes my race, Catalyst. We are an ancient race, as old as thought. What is important is the first two words, Key NPC. This designation signifies that I have great power to affect this reality, and in some cases give direction to the UI. Normal NPCs can't see the blue letters above people's heads. I assumed that the UI would designate you as something special. I was right,” Rook said.

  The UI, which at this point was spreading from person to person, had assessed the lady and on Rook’s strong HUD recommendation, sent her a message informing her of her new status. Immediately, she stood, trying to figure out where the attack was coming from. Fireballs appeared in her hands, but she didn't use them to attack.

  “How dare this UI greet me as a bound Champion. I know what I am, but I don't need to hear anyone else say it, or write it as the case may be. How do I get rid of this HUD?” the lady asked, having read the UI describe the Heads-up Display.

  “If you really want to, you can make it transparent by going into the settings and making the appropriate changes. Though, in order to do that, you have to learn how to use the HUD and by that time, you'll have recognized its value. This User Interface gives us much greater control over our own abilities skills and magic. Here, I'll show you,” Rook said.

  “I have a message. It opened. I just thought about opening it and it did. You sent me a map. It has a blinking dot on it with Joe's name right next to it. There, I was able to close it. I don't need this. I'm not going to do anything to him for you. I have all the time in the world but none for you. Leave,” the lady said.

  “I'm just about to leave, hear this last little bit and I will never bother you again,” Rook said.

  “Liar. But, if hearing you will get rid of you sooner, say your last piece,” the lady said.

  “I am a liar. Although by telling you such, I prove that it's not always true, even though it is true at times. Sorry, that is not the last bit that I meant to share. Here's the last bit. I'm going to tell you about Joe. He's a Champion, like you. Though whoever pulls his strings is giving him a lot of latitude. He swore to me that he would fight injustice and contend with evil wherever he went. He said that I should either follow him or be crushed beneath his feet. He's a goody two-shoes, like you used to be. He truly believes that whatever he puts his mind to, he can accomplish. What's more, I believe him. If you tell him your situation, he will do everything in his power to free you from it. I don't want you free, but I do not have a lot of options when it comes to paying my debt. Right now, he's not strong enough to do what you need done, but he will grow. In order to pay my debt, I'll help him do that. I'll be the unseen hand providing the challenges he needs. You're one of those challenges. If you do what is in your best interest, my debt to you will be fully paid and I will also have made a payment on my debt to Joe,” Rook said.

  “Unless, of course, I go to his place of power and destroy him and it. Is that what you're really trying to manipulate me to do?” the lady said.

  “That's not what I'm trying to get you to do. I would still owe the debt to him, or rather his heirs. The truth is, someone's going to destroy him eventually anyway. He has an impressive castle, but as far as I can tell, almost no people. I was only able to evaluate him in spirit form and he doesn't seem that impressive. I'm hoping I can make him strong enough to win a few fights and create some contention. And, if you're willing, free you. I believe he has the determination and possibly even the luck to do just about anything, but in the long run, I don't want him to survive. If you decide to destroy him early, that's up to you. It would mean that I get to keep you around and all the bloody contention that goes with that. I've given you the map of his location. By doing that, I've paid part of my debt to you and even to him. If no more comes of it, I'll pay it in another way. As long as he doesn't figure out a way to block the mark I've put on him, you should be able to find him at your leisure,” Rook said, then dissolved into mist and floated away on the breeze.

  “I hate you, Rook! You won't always get the last word!” the lady said through gritted teeth.

  Chapter 16 - Approaching Doom

  Day nine.

  GONG

  The Abiogenesis Bunny Generator has made the Evening Bunny.

  Spooky was there to greet Grork as he respawned at their place of power. Unlike Moes, the goblin was not shocked when he came back to life. As his feet hit the ground, he looked up at Spooky with a bored expression on his face.

  “Did you get snake skin?” Grork asked.

  “Right back to work, excellent! Your priorities are assigned perfectly. To answer your question, yes, I did. Unfortunately, the strength of the scales is making them very difficult to work with. I may be able to form them into a composite shield, but I'm not sure. Go down and see Bork. He's been wondering where you went. Also, here is your part of the loot,” Spooky said.

  Item: Set of Paired Companion Rings.

  You have found a Set of Paired Companion Rings. These two rings must be worn by two different comrades. When the rings are within 100 feet of each other, all stats are increased by two for both ring bearers. When the ring bearers are farther than 100 feet apart, the link provides them with a limited amount of mental communication. If one of the ring bearers dies, the one left alive will be filled with a Righteous Fury. To avenge the death of their comrade, they will reach down inside themselves and find whatever hidden power or strength they might need. Restrictions: can only be wor
n by the goblin race.

  Pick up Set of Paired Companion Rings? Yes/No

  Grork looked at the rings’ properties, raised one eyebrow, nodded, and left to go see his comrade. He didn't say goodbye. He didn’t express his gratitude for the items. He just turned away from Spooky and walked down the stairs.

  Spooky watched him go, feeling a sense of appreciation for how he didn't waste time on ceremony. She pumped her wings and headed in the direction of the windows, quickly picking up speed. Just before she could become a bug on the windshield of the dome, a tiny door opened up, allowing her to fly through at top speed. She headed to the hill where her angels and Obsidian One were digging. The addition of the five new angels had noticeably increased the speed with which the trench was being dug. Within the next few days, it will be fifteen-feet deep and ten-feet wide. It wouldn't be a large enough deterrent to stop a determined enemy or even a single giant, but everything she could put in the path of an enemy was helpful. Over time, Spooky hoped to widen and deepen the trench to make it a true obstacle.

  She had a simple philosophy, taken from military leaders. No matter how inaccurate their grammar was, she held tight to “always be fortifying.” The dirt that had been taken out of the trench had been used to form a mound running the length of the uncompleted trench. The mound would be a lot more comforting if she had soldiers to stand behind it. Suddenly, Spooky felt an itch on the back of her neck. She turned her head in the direction of the mountain the yeti chief had climbed. She saw nothing. Each day she had used her powerful sensors to check for the approach of the yeti tribe. There had been plenty of movement on the mountain, but she hadn’t known if it had been from the yetis or from other large creatures. She was taking a risk, assigning all of her angels and Obsidian One to dig this trench, but what good would scouting do if she didn't have even basic fortifications? Spooky couldn't keep from rubbing her eyes as she did a quick double-check. She noticed her processor was running slow again. Leaving her workers to continue, she headed to her basket for her defragmentation.