But Death is Not Forbidden

by Kip Terrington

  Player, Apuk

  Yeti Monk

  Player, San

  Yeti Fighter

  Player, Vaeloff

  Yeti Fighter

  Player, Cof

  Yeti Fighter

  “Hello, you guys and gals look good in the military uniforms, but you really shouldn't leave them open in the front like that. Yeah, looks like the buttons weren't made for yeti paws. One more thing to put on the agenda. I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to explore the castle. However, I have some business to attend to soon, outside, so if there's something you need, I can't really help you right now. Feel free to talk to Lil, if there's anything that's extremely pressing,” Joe said and then returned to buffing the two goblins.

  The four yeti looked at each other, unsure what to do. Then Apuk, the monk, stepped forward and spoke.

  “We are your yeti guard. If you leave the castle, we're supposed to accompany you.”

  Looking at the yeti, his twenty-sided eye didn't give him any clues. He wondered if this was one more way Spooky was trying to control him.

  “Did the dark fairy just give you these uniforms and tell you that you were my guard?” Joe asked.

  “It was after you died, but before you were reborn. She came and spoke to us and offered us this opportunity. We were told to wait and put on these uniforms after you were reborn and you had spoken with her. One thing we didn't understand was why we were told not to tell her about the conversation… even though she already knew because she was the one who gave us these uniforms,” Apuk said.

  “That is weird. If the dark fairy and I both gave you conflicting orders, whose orders would you follow?” Joe asked. As one, the yetis answered.

  “You, my king.”

  “That was kind of fun, yeti surround sound. You can come with me. Actually, it would probably be better if you preceded me. Let me buff all of you, and then I'll show you a place to go to on the top of the mesa. Don't worry. I'll meet you out there soon after,” Joe said as he began mass buffs and individual buffs. After all the buffs were finished, a light bulb went off in Joe's head.

  “How do you guys extend the single claw that comes out of your fists?” Joe asked.

  “We just do,” Apuk explained simply.

  “Yes, but I can’t get mine to come out. How did you first get them to extend?” Joe asked.

  “You have a yeti claw?” Vaeloff spoke up.

  “I do, but I can’t extend it. Can you guys help me with that? I am going to need something to stake those vamps,” Joe said. The four yetis looked at each other and nodded almost as one. Two of them walked over to Joe and gently but firmly they each held one of Joe's arms point down.

  Apuk stood in front of Joe, and Vaeloff stood behind Joe. There were now yetis on four sides of him, but still his twenty-sided eye did not react.

  “Now, my king, we need you to think of your happiest memory. Feel it. Try to live in that moment,” Vaeloff said from behind.

  “Are you kidding? Is it really as simple as Peter Panning it?” Joe said.

  “Close your eyes if it helps you to see the memory. Tell us when you are there,” Vaeloff said.

  Joe closed his eyes and remembered having his arm around his wife and watching his adult children play the board game, Axis & Allies, on the kitchen table. As memories went, it had it all.

  “I’m there now,” Joe said, with his eyes closed. Suddenly, Joe felt two simultaneously painful impacts on his body. Vaeloff had hit him sharply in the kidneys, while Apuk had punched him hard right in the nose. The dissonance between the happy memory and the painful sensation, triggered a reflex that he did not know he had. His Penetrating Steel Silver Claw extended, cutting its way through the flesh of Joe’s left hand. Joe was already buffed, so the fresh cut healed around the extended metal claw. The single claw was just under two feet long and shined like polished silver.

  “Ouch, that hurt. A little warning would have been nice. Both for the violence and how much the claw coming out hurt. Is it that way every time?” Joe asked.

  “Yes, it always hurts coming out, but now you can extend it and retract it by just thinking about it. Sorry for the surprise, we don’t know why that works, but it does. We could not tell you or it might not have extended,” Vaeloff said, and all the yeti backed away from their king.

  Joe held up his claw and looked at it in the light, with a thought he retracted it. As it went back in, it felt like the worst paper cut ever.

  “Man! Stars! That is not pleasant,” Joe said.

  “Should it be pleasant to draw steel?” Vaeloff commented. Joe ignored the comment and turned his pain receptors off. He then extended his claw and retracted it a few more times, confirming it was really as simple as they said. With that done, he put his pain receptors back where they should be.

  Spooky flew up the stairs with a confused look on her face.

  “Joe, when did you come up here? Why didn't I sense you? I only came up here because I noticed Grork and Bork and four yetis standing around the altar. You are now invisible to me, unless my avatar is in the same room as you. Did you do this on purpose?” Spooky asked.

  “No, I didn't, but I'm not sad about having privacy. Apuk come over to the window. I'm going to show you where I'd like you to go,” Joe said, then walked over, pointing to the spot on the top of the mesa just before the decline of the hill started. Apuk understood and quickly led the yetis down the stairs.

  “How did they get uniforms and where are they going? Wait! There's a party approaching. I can see them down in the valley,” Spooky said in a rush.

  “They're vampires. I'm going down to deal with them now,” Joe said.

  “I will go with you,” Spooky said.

  “Leaving the castle unguarded? You should stay here. If you lack control over this environment, can you afford to go with me? If you want to send up to five angels, I think that's fine, but maybe not that headless obsidian thing. It might be more useful to you here anyway. In the interest of full disclosure, the no-head thing weirds me out. I mean, where do you look at it when giving it a command?” Joe asked.

  “Is this because you're angry with me for allowing myself a little privacy? That feels a little hypocritical to me,” Spooky said.

  Joe tilted his head and looked at Spooky. “It doesn't make a lot of sense to get angry with a machine,” Joe said.

  “Whether or not it makes sense, I can pull up a video somebody posted on the internet a long time ago of you hitting a car because it wouldn't start. You've already locked me out of so many things that I used to have access to. At least let me help you in combat,” Spooky pleaded.

  Joe pursed his lips and answered in a curt tone, “I don't have time to talk about embarrassing videos that nearly went viral, but I will acknowledge there is a part of me that doesn't want to be around you right now. Strategically, however, I think it makes sense to keep you here. If I was going to sneak in and try to attack this castle, it would make sense to send a party out in the open to draw out the main force. If it's just me, the goblins and the yeti, then, at worst, we will be able to retreat back to the castle. Also, we're all players, so we will respawn if we die. And I know that you can remake your angels, but it seems like building points could be spent on better things. Do you have many building points left for the day anyway?” Joe asked.

  Spooky wrinkled her nose and answered his last question first, “Even though I gained 10 levels of experience and gained building points, most of it was spent before I powered up. On top of that, every single point of power I had been allocated went into Energy Mass Conversion Magic. As for the building points, I’ve noticed new decorations throughout the castle, including in the Little Yeti Vault. I never planned these decorations, nor do I know where the designs came from. New uniforms were also made, but the uniforms themselves were not made using building points, so it only leaves me with more questions. When I shut down, I could have never anticipated these changes. As to your argument about strategy, sadly my calculations agree. I
will stay here. And since I can't make many more angels right now, I will send the ones that I have circling the castle as a show of force and for patrol. I'm going to go up to the top of the dome now, as my avatar has better sensors anyway,” Spooky said, immediately flying up to the top of the dome. The small window opened so she could go through it. After being on the top of the dome for only a few seconds, the window opened again, and she dropped down to talk to Joe once more.

  “Joe, on the east side of the dome there's another party approaching. They seem to be going over the frozen lake using a sled pulled by some type of six-legged animal. There's over two hundred individuals in it of varying races,” Spooky said.

  “One more thing I need to deal with. Sadly, freeing the slaves gets moved down one more notch. We should stop Moes from digging now. Can one of your angels pull him out and put him in the same place as the four yeti I sent out?” Joe asked.

  “Sure, but why didn't you just go out at the same time as them?” Spooky asked and Joe put on a big wide grin.

  “Why walk when you can port? Bork, Grork, if you want to come, I'm going to have to carry you. Can your pride handle that?” Joe asked. Both of the goblins just shrugged. Looking out the window at the approaching vampires, Joe saw that his yetis were in place and Moes had been deposited near them. Joe instructed Grork to climb up on his back, and he picked up Bork like he was carrying a baby. Grork looked down at Bork in Joe’s arms and giggled.

  The first spell that Joe cast was L1 Ley Line Feel. While active, Joe was able to sense strong ley lines within one mile of their location. Being so close to a Grand Place of Power, there were ley lines branching off in almost every direction. Joe almost dropped Bork while trying to cast the spell using only his palm. The lines that he could feel more than see gave him an almost instant headache. As quickly as he could, he found a line that lead down in front of his yeti guards. Using his HUD, he selected the line and was sad to see that where he wanted to go was almost the max he could travel along that line. He tried not to dwell on it and selected where his portal would exit. Joe then cast another spell, L4 Small Portal with Carry On, which opened a one-way yellow portal in front of Joe. He felt his mana draining quickly. He bent low and stepped through.

  For the briefest of moments, Joe, Bork, and Grork were beyond space and time. Then, Joe’s foot stepped out of the second portal in front of his yeti guard. To Joe, it felt anticlimactic. The vampires were over 300 feet away from the top of the hill. Joe put the goblins down and his yeti guard came to stand in front of him.

  “No, sorry guys. I am a lead-from-the-front kind of guy. Stand behind me, but keep five meters of space between you. Moes, if you buff us all, I will let you off with time served,” Joe said.

  “No more digging with those new soulless mining golems! Done and done,” Moes said as he began to cast both Spirit and Mind protection spells.

  “Thanks, Moes, get in the rear, no need to die. Help where you can of course,” Joe said.

  “I will. I am a slave to the law after all,” Moes said. Joe's eyebrows came down. Moes was obviously still bugged about Joe judging him. The fact that Moes was bound bothered Joe. It wasn't consistent with the idea that his kingdom would have no slaves. It was just one more thing to add to the to-do list.

  The party of five vampires, accompanied by their slaves, stopped 150 feet from Joe. Even though they were vampires, Joe's twenty-sided eye did not respond. They were close enough that Joe could see the blue letters clearly above each of the vampire’s heads and the slaves behind them. However, unlike the yetis, none of these vampires had names, but instead numbers.

  NPC, 318 of 1077

  Halfling Vampire Fighter

  NPC, 320 of 1077

  Halfling Vampire Fighter

  Player, 342 of 1077

  Halfling Vampire Fighter

  NPC, 324 of 1077

  Halfling Vampire Torturer

  NPC, 67 of 101

  Human Vampire Mage

  Joe was surprised to see that one of them was a player, even though it was not the leader. With an almost regal slowness, the human vampire gracefully dismounted his lizard mount. He took a few steps forward before he hailed Joe.

  “Greetings! Are you the owner of this new establishment?” the human vampire asked. His speech was low and sickly, with an aristocratic veneer.

  “I’m Joe. Who are you?” Joe asked, for once taking the game seriously.

  “Yes, of course, introductions. They do get tedious, do they not? No matter, you may address me as Devigo. Now that we have the useless names out of the way, answer my question. Do you own this thing of magic and stone I see before me?” Devigo asked. Joe noticed that the human vampire’s blue lettering changed upon providing a name.

  NPC, Devigo

  Human Vampire Mage

  “I am authorized to speak for the owner. Why are you here, Devigo?” Joe asked.

  “You are free with the questions, aren't you? This is all quite out of the ordinary. Yetis and goblins dressed in the same black, admittedly flattering, outfits. My questions are only multiplying every moment I'm here, but I am nothing if not flexible. I will answer your little question. This castle was not authorized by my mistress. It is a new wrinkle. Sadly, this new place of power popping up out of nowhere is taking me away from what was a rather enjoyable police action against the goblins,” Devigo said.

  “A police action? When used in terms of the sovereign nations, where I come from, that's called war,” Joe said. The human vampire began to laugh. It was a slow and purposeful laugh as his head tilted upward and his right hand touched his chest.

  “War, that's hilarious. A rancher doesn't go to war with his cattle when they're acting up. He just castrates the bull he's having problems with. We carefully tend the tribes and people groups within our sphere of influence. We would never allow any of them to grow into sovereign nations. If, by some supernatural catastrophe, one of our vampire sentries was killed, then obviously examples must be made. Much further away from here, there are sovereign nations that could deal my mistress a serious blow, but none of them would waste their time climbing beneath the mountain to root her out. The caverns are twisted and provide my kind with certain advantages that cannot be overlooked. Enough about that, if you are authorized to speak for the owner of this castle, then there are some things I need you to say. First, you will tell them that they must pay the taxes that are due to my mistress. Building in this valley, without even consulting her, means there are going to be some stiff penalties. I hope that the builder has deep pockets, otherwise there may be some unpleasantries. Next! I require you to communicate that they must provide my party with the best lodgings you have available and blood from whomever we wish. Now, tell them!” Devigo said with a force of magic behind his words.

  Joe felt the malevolent force of magic attempting to control his mind and spirit. The human vampire’s will was trying to dominate Joe’s. Unfortunately for the vampire, there was a certain amount of mental and spiritual protection the title of king provided, and when he added Moes’ spells of protection to the mix, Joe barely felt any of the influence.

  “I'll give you credit for pushing the hard sell. Always closing the deal and all that. Your pitch, however, was not effective. You have less influence over me than just about any used car salesman in the Honda lot. That's not to say none, I do love a car that lasts. This castle was put here for a reason and that reason was not to enrich your mistress, whoever she is. You have no claim here,” Joe said.

  The vampire was visibly taken aback when Joe didn't succumb to his influence. His disposition changed.

  “No claim? Do you think that I am blind? When my mistress puts the slave’s mark on new property, it does not fade over time, but rather grows brighter. Contained within this monstrosity of a castle is at least one elder slave made by my mistress herself. A slave of such worth, that it would be the prize of any vampire’s collection. It could only be obtained, outside of our community, through theft. If you, or yo
ur superior, are unwilling to make things right, then only one option is available to me. My party will return to my mistress and inform her of your decision,” Devigo said, with contempt in his voice.

  “If you wish to leave, you may do so. But since you are here, I will inform you that you and any from your nation are no longer welcome on this sovereign nation’s territory. This mesa and this valley is ours, and we will enforce the laws governing this nation,” Joe began.

  “I don't need to hear any of this, your laws mean nothing to me. We will take our leave!” Devigo said, then turned sharply to climb back on his mount.

  “I wasn't finished, but since you're apparently in a hurry to leave, I will give you the salient points. Slavery is illegal in this nation. As such, the moment a slave enters our territory, the individual is a slave no more. Any slaves currently residing in that castle are simply awaiting the process of having their slave marks removed,” Joe said.

  “As I said, I don't care about your supposed law. I hope we see each other again soon. Turn the party around, we are leaving,” Devigo commanded his party.

  “You and your vampire friends are free to go, but the rest of the people in your party may not leave until their slave marks have been removed. Once they're free, they can do whatever they wish,” Joe said with iron in his tone.

  The halfling vampires tensed, but Devigo began laughing again, “Do you honestly believe I would let you take my food source from me? Four yetis, two goblins, a single halfling mage and whatever you are, you are no match for five vampires. I'm calling your bluff. We're leaving with our property intact, child. If you wish to try to stop us, do so,” Devigo said.