by Jez Cajiao
“No, I’d have hit you with a heal, don’t worry,” she said seriously, flying forward and shifting back to her full size, although dressing far more demurely. “Healing does clear it out, especially the ‘Cleanse’ spell that Nerin taught us. Actually, the ‘Cleansing Fire’ would have done it as well, but when I got to you, you were already meditating, and I thought it was wearing off.” She smiled then, evilly.
“Besides, I’d been thinking about that form and wanted to see if you liked it, and the outfit…?”
“Oh, well, gosh, I wonder if I liked it…?” I said quietly and very sarcastically, gesturing to the tentpole in my trousers. “You know these pants don’t stretch right? And that the chainmail over that section rubs? Or at least, it damn well does when I’m practically forcing my way through them!”
“I’ll make it up to you…” she purred, grinning naughtily and licking her lips. I grinned in response, and we started moving to the far corner of the room so that we’d be out of sight of everyone, just in case… when Grizz stuck his head in.
“Hey, boss!” he said, grinning. “Looks like you’re awake, and that’s great timing… food’s ready!” With that, he ducked back out of sight before Oracle or I could get a lightning bolt ready.
“I swear he knows…” I muttered, shaking my head, as Oracle laughed and stood on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.
“It’s okay; we’d have gotten caught anyway, and you know it,” she said, grinning unashamedly. “But, you know, not that it would have stopped me…” With that, she laughed and jumped back before I could grab her, moving for the door.
I swore under my breath and rearranged myself again, thinking calming thoughts for a few seconds before giving up and walking through to sit with the others.
I ignored the looks on Lydia, Miren, and Jian’s faces, and before they could say anything, I spoke up as I plonked myself down on the floor.
“Well, I don’t know about you lot, but when that asshole hit me with his ‘Dominate’ spell, it nearly killed me. I don’t see how anyone could resist it, so I don’t think we need to talk about it again, understand? Nothing you did was your fault.” I reached out and took the dripping meat skewer that Yen passed me, lifting it over the fire, with fat dropping and popping on the flames.
Tang grinned at me shamefacedly, and I winked at him, nodding that we were okay, and he let out a long sigh, straightening up and seeming to relax until Yen elbowed him and glared him down again.
We ate in companionable silence, mostly, the day having been a lot more intense that we’d expected it to get, and once a guard rotation was agreed upon, we all relaxed, confident that with one person on guard over the balcony and the section where Giint had climbed up earlier, and one on the stairwell, we were reasonably safe.
Oracle had been sitting with me, cuddled up to my side, and she snuggled into me as I rolled myself up in my bedroll to sleep.
At first, it was almost impossible to drop off with the feeling of her body so close to mine, and my mind started to go down another route, so when she got up and kissed me, I grinned at her and was about to climb out of my bedroll, when she shook her head seriously, leaning in for a single chaste kiss before breaking free and whispering to me.
“Better if we behave… I don’t need sleep, and as much as I love being cuddled up to you, I’ll go take a flight around the cavern and see what I can find out.”
She shifted again, this time to her smallest size, and flew for the balcony doors, flitting outwards and up, disappearing from sight as I sagged backwards regretfully.
I started to settle back down, but as I did, a thought struck me, and I knew I couldn’t sleep, not yet. Tomorrow was another day, and it was a day we were going to be facing without potions. That alone left me with no choice, and I sighed regretfully as I began clearing a space in the bedroom where I could make some potions up.
The next hour passed both quickly, as there was so much to do, and horrifically slowly, as I was exhausted, and that goddamn potion Tang had given me was making me twitchy, I swore to myself. I kept getting the feeling that something was watching me. Watching and waiting for its chance to do… something.
I made a large batch up, scouring through the ingredients, and managing to make both a mana recovery potion that I got six small vials out of, and a health recovery potion that I made two batches of, getting seven in the first batch, but then over-boiling the second, and losing the lot.
I sighed, trying to hide my anger and anxiety from Tang when he came to check on me, and I packed the potions away carefully, leaving two of each out on the side, just in case.
When I finally laid down, I found myself unable to sleep, a nameless dread filling me, making me feel like something was about to attack me at any point, until Tang came and sat nearby and built up the small fire.
The light seemed to banish any evil miasma, and I swiftly fell asleep.
The rest of the night passed quickly, until in the early hours, I was awoken by a terrible feeling of foreboding.
“Jax!” Jenae called, startling me from sleep. I jumped, having just started to wake, searching the room for a threat and went straight from sleep into full-blown paranoia stage.
“Jenae?” I said aloud. “What happened, where’s Oracle?!”
“Jax, Oracle’s fine, but… I have bad news, and as my Champion, you need the warning,” she said, and I blew out a breath, kicking my bedroll aside and speaking loudly as everyone looked to me.
“Up and at them, everyone. Shit’s hit the fan,” I growled.
“Jax, I don’t have long; I’ll explain at some point, but time here doesn’t flow the way it does for you there, and there are things‒beings‒that I cannot allow to know of our return yet. I saw an opportunity to check on you and found a stain in the realm headed towards you. You fought a SporeMother once, so you know how evil they can be. There are seven aboard a ship somehow, with ships full of mortals traveling as escorts to them. There is also a creature that is neither mortal nor immortal controlling the creatures. I cannot tell you more about it without tipping my hand. I sensed that they are young, immature, but several have begun to produce DarkSpore. They will reach the Prax in six hours, and the devastation they could wreak upon your people…”
“Shit!” I snarled, thinking fast. “Are they alone? Is it one ship, or…?”
“There are seven; five appear to be of Narkolt, one bears the flag of Himnel, and the ship that carries the largest of the creatures bears no flag but is clearly leading the fleet.”
“How big are the ships, I mean…” I said, pausing and trying to think of the best way to phrase it.
“They are all cruisers, save a single fast scout. Your fleet is larger, but with inexperienced hands commanding, and with the Battleship to protect, you will not win without great casualties.”
“Fuck,” I grunted, my mind spinning as I tried to think of a way out. If we could get back up, then we could run for it. The ships were supposed to be worked on to be ready to take off today anyway, but we’d need to get the Legion back out of the city…
“Jax!” Oracle said, flying in the window, eyes wide in concern. “The gnomes! Giint is leading them; he’s bringing them straight for us!”
“Shitfuck!” I snarled eloquently. “What else could…” Grizz’s hand slammed over my mouth, stopping me before I could say the words that guaranteed a worse event coming. I glared, then realized what I was about to say and nodded in understanding as he grinned and stepped back, releasing me.
“Sorry, Jax,” he said simply, and I shook my head.
“It’s fine, I know why you did it. Right; Jenae, is there a way off the Prax? From down here, I mean?” I asked. There was a long pause before she responded, concern clear in her voice.
“There is a chance. It’s not nearby; it’s on the far side of the Prax, and you’d need to cross through the undead territory, where a Lich holds sway, but yes, the Gnomish Airship is still there. It was prototype that appears to have been well ahead
of its time. Although it is archaic in comparison to more recent designs, it is Gnomish…and therefore far better built. It lies hidden behind a barricade on the north of the island, but if you could reach it… There may be sufficient manastones in the Vault to enable you to power it again,” Jenae said, the excitement giving way to concern. “Jax, the ships are hidden by a powerful illusion; the Legion is unaware of them, and as slow as the Battleship is, its only chance is to flee, and flee now.”
“Right.” I bit my knuckle as I thought. “We’ve got six hours; six hours from now until the ships make landfall, and DarkSpore would tear through the Legion as it is now, with hardly any spells… they have to leave.”
“Jax, this is the Legion; they can take down any monsters…” Grizz said, clearly offended.
“And how many would die? How many citizens?” I asked him grimly. “No, the Legion needs to go, and we need to go as well. We’ve got six hours, that’s hardly any time, but we need to escape the gnomes, cut our way through the damn Lich and its forces, and find that Vault, then the ship, and get the hell out of here. I don’t know if we should hope they follow the fleet or stay here, but either way, we’ve only got the one chance. We have to cut our way through them.”
“There is a path, high above. It is narrow and crosses through collapsed sections, but Oracle could make it through to speak to the Legion. I cannot help further; they hunt for me, and I must flee. Either way, Jax, I am sorry, but I must leave you. Good luck, my Champion,” Jenae said, and the sense of her presence faded as I looked around at them all, wishing now that we hadn’t stopped for the night, or that I’d taken the time to make more potions. I’d planned to do it this morning, but now it was too late.
“Right, you’ve got five minutes. Loot the shit out of this place,” I ordered. “Anything magical, any potions, or valuables, get them here.” I pointed to the floor before me, then turned to Oracle, reaching out to her. She flashed to full size and landed, reaching out to me as well.
We held each other for a few long heartbeats, then I released her, and she stepped back, knowing what she had to do.
“I’ll go to them, give them their orders and get them moving, and then I’ll come find you…” she started to say, and I shook my head.
“No,” I said simply. “You’d never be able to find us; you know it as well as I do. You go with the fleet, you command them in my absence, and when you can, you said once you could communicate with Seneschal and Heph if you got high enough. Get them free of the trap, then go high, get Decin and Oren out to join the fleet. Those extra ships could make all the difference. Then run, go straight to the Tower. The cities know who we are by now, and they’ve clearly picked a side, or they’d have not joined forces.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” she said, tears running down her cheeks.
“I know, and I don’t want you to, but it’s what you have to do, or they’ll all die. Go. I love you, but go!” I said to her, kissing her fiercely one last time.
“You better win this!” she said, glaring up at me, and I grinned at her as she shrank to her smallest size and flew out of the door. The pair of us knew the risk we were both taking; without her support, we could all die down here in the dark, and without my direct mana, she would die within days.
“I will.” I said quietly, as she took one last look back at me, then vanished upwards in a blur of light.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I pulled up the notifications that had been pulsing away, guessing at what I’d find, and dismissing the unimportant details, like the experience notifications, until I saw it.
Congratulations! You have made progress in your Quest: ‘Fix the Fixers’
The Goddess Jenae has commanded you to explore the Sunken City, a site you now know to be the Prax ‘Glorious Retribution.’ Upon further investigation, you’ve found a lost tribe of gnomes, a species renowned for their standoffish nature, their unwillingness to allow their technology to be investigated by others, and their borderline drug-fueled insanity. Jenae wishes you to further investigate the tribe, healing any you can, and adding to your people.
Discover the secret of the gnomish regression: 1/1
Recover Magical Artifacts and Technologies: 2/?
Retrieve Manastones: 17/100
Retrieve Spell and Skillbooks lost in the Prax: 0/37
Recruit additional citizens: 1/?
Recruit skilled crafters: 1/?
Find the ‘Master’ and free the Gnomish tribe: 1/1
Bonuses will be given for exceeding these numbers.
Reward: Improved technological capacity in the Great Tower, Possible technological boosts to the fleet Unknown, 250,000Exp
*
Congratulations! Because of recent events, the Goddess Jenae has upgraded your Quest: ‘Fix the Fixers’
You have discovered the chilling secrets of the Prax ‘Glorious Retribution,’ discovered a working, if unpowered, portal, and killed the ‘Master’ and his unwilling servants. Due to the level of difficulty involved, and the bravery shown by your acceptance of the realities of your situation, the Goddess Jenae has increased your rewards and has altered the Success Conditions of the Quest.
1) Recruit the Gnomish Survivors: 1/27
2) Recover sufficient manastones to power the ship ‘Interesting Endeavors’
3) Eliminate Bartholomew the Lich
4) Find and prepare the ship ‘Interesting Endeavors’ and use it to escape.
5) Bonus Condition: For each SporeMother killed, receive 10,000xp.
Reward: Improved technological capacity in the Great Tower, Possible technological boosts to the fleet, Survival , Gnomish exploration vessel ‘Interesting Endeavors’, 500,000Exp
Accept? Yes/No
I grunted as I looked it over. I still needed the Spellbooks, regardless of them being missing from the newly updated quest, as I needed to find out about the Valspar, but the rest was interesting, to say the least.
“Says here that we’ve found seventeen manastones so far; is that right?” I asked, and Lydia nodded, pointing to a collection of them in the pile that was growing by my feet. They glimmered faintly, their light almost extinguished, and I sighed, hoping there were more with a greater charge.
“There’s another six there; might be that there’s more, though, don’t know fer sure yet…” she said, and I nodded, letting out a deep breath.
“Bane, get your arse out there and see what you can find out; see if they’re hostile, or if they’re coming for tea,” I snapped as I picked up the manastones, dumping them into a separate bag quickly, then starting to sweep the rest of the loot into other bags, including the ‘keys’ for the portal. Lastly, I moved to the wall of the bedroom, having noticed things hanging there when I was inside earlier.
I checked quickly, pleased as I recognized some of the equipment. Standard camping gear, a bowie knife, a collection of books, all well-worn and old, but definitely from Earth, as well as a handful of more personal items, such as jewelry, random letters, and, joy of joys, a map! It showed the City of Fellmore, wherever the hell that was, but still.
You have found a Map! Do you wish to add it to your own Adventurers Map?
Yes/No
I selected yes, of course, then put it in the bag, along with a few random bits of loot, a diamond the size of a hen’s egg, two rubies that seemed to glimmer with an internal light, and a weird mesh that took me several seconds to figure out what it was. I’d almost given up, not wanting to waste the mana to examine it, when I suddenly recognized the pattern of holes.
When I did, I hit it with an ‘Examine’ immediately, before cursing as I realized the size of it.
Glove of Spell Augmentation
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
This mesh glove was made especially for a single user, Marn of Bhutan, and grants the user a 10% drop in the mana cost of spells, along with a 25% increase in spell strength, due to the alignment of chakras.
Beware: Other users
may not experience the full bonus that this item granted to Lady Marn
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Unique
Yes
87/100
100/100
It would have been both cool over my gauntlet and extremely useful, given that it was made of tiny, interwoven black rings , but even without it, my hands were far too big for it. I looked around quickly, then grinned as I spotted Miren.
I slipped the glove into a pocket and went back to stuffing everything into bags, finding dozens of drained manastones laid about randomly.
“Well, that’s a relief,” I said, picking one up and examining it, seeing the cracks that ran through the remaining powdery crystal. “I take it this was how he was powering all the spells he was throwing at you?” I asked Yen, and she nodded.
“Most likely. The number of spells he used… I’d not expect a mortal to be able to cast anywhere near that, and certainly not the variety. Fair enough if he was a Pyromage and had been hitting us over and over with low-level fire spells only, but he was trying all kinds of things. No way he was powering the spells himself.”
“Okay, sounds good. Tang, can you get the potions from the table; who needs potions, people?” I called out. “I managed to get six mana and seven health made up last night, so…”
“What potions?” interrupted Tang.
“The ones on the table?” I called back, looking over at him in confusion.
“There are no potions on the table…” Tang replied, before taking a deep breath and calling out in a voice that was tinged with concern. “Who stripped and looted the body of the red mage?”
