Diane and Kat- the Bound Bands

by Michael Hudson

  Abigail glanced between the two of them, before resettling herself. “Alright, I’ll speed up. Besides, I’ve had my fun.” She cleared her throat, before tapping against the temple’s walls with her broom. “When they finally got here, the same place that his lady slipped away at, Carnick demanded they halt. Here would be her tomb, but it would also be their last home, and his last way of protecting her.”

  “While work began on digging out the subterranean levels, Carnick sought a body that would not decay. With the help of court wizards and master masons, he found it. As the final touches of the tomb were made, so was Carnick’s, supposed, stone body. The golem then took the body of the queen, and with the magic and supplies given to him, made the five deadly trials of the temple: Infancy, Fantasy, Reality, Eternity, and Death.[7] ”

  Kat raised an eyebrow. “So there is a deadly trial called death? Well, I’ll give them points for creativity I suppose.”

  Diane ignored the comment, her eyes already narrowed as she processed the new information. Even if she doubted Carnick being able to switch his spirit to a new body, the trials sounded real, and were a staple to most dungeons like this. Of course, since neither had heard of these before, she had no specific supplies to combat them, which left her uneasy. “What can you tell us about these trials?”

  Abigail opened her mouth for a moment, before her eyes slid to the side, and she lowered her head. Her fingers drummed on the side of her broom as the sound of her clearing her throat filled the silence. Kat stepped forward, already opening her mouth to demand the truth, before Diane put a hand in front of her companion.

  “Abigail, why don’t you tell us what you know over that wonderful cornbread you mentioned earlier?”

  The girl shifted her weight a bit, before looking to the temple. “Sure, but it’ll need to be on the house, because,” she paused again, before feeling a hand gently pat the top of her head.

  Kat grinned down at her, before stepping past the young lass. “Hey, don’t sweat it. When we come out, we’ll tell you about just how not deadly those trials are, alright?”

  Abigail smiled, before turning to Diane, who placed a hand on her shoulder and gestured for her to lead the way. “Please, don’t feel sorry for them. It’s an occupational hazard for us, and we’re used to it at this point.”

  The blonde woman nodded, before slowly walking forward and leading them down the path to the cottage that her family lived at. The whole way through, her steps were made heavy by a simple desire. For them not to go, not when they had been fun, and kind of nice, even the rude knight, because if they went in, she doubted they would come out.

  Because no traveller, scholar or raider, that had entered those golden doors ever came out, not for three hundred years.

  Infancy

  Clang. Whoosh.

  Diane and Kat looked behind them as the sound echoed from within, their hands still on the heavy, golden doors. A ball of magical fire had lit itself in the middle of the room, bathing the large, circular chamber in blue light. Diane let out a small whistle, congratulating the builders on their forethought to use enchanted flames, as other, more common means would have gone out by now. Kat on the other hand, let out a groan. “You know, if they were going to automate anything, why not the door? Pushing hot, heavy metal while full of cornbread and tea is not my definition of fun.”

  Diane nodded as she slowly walked over to one of the walls, her hands tracing the carving as she tried to make it out. From what she could tell, it was of a farmer, tilling his land. “Well, if the legend is true, Carnick wouldn’t have wanted that door to ever open again, so I’m personally surprised that it isn’t made of something heavier, or welded shut.”

  Kat nodded as she slipped her hands behind her head and looked to the flame in the middle of the room. It gave off a bit of heat, but for the most part, it was fairly small, which was odd, seeing as most royal buildings tried to blind you with the largest braziers in the land. “Say, do you think it would burn me if I touched it?”

  A scowl crossed Diane’s face as she walked along the wall. From what she could see, the regular tale of Carnick, the brave knight who never felt fear, had been a lie at the beginning, as the carvings depicted something else. A scared, quivering boy, barely in his teens, who only met with the princess because she needed supplies. She barely even heard Kat as she followed the story carved into the wall, but still managed to say, “Don’t be an idiot.”

  Kat rolled her eyes at the insult, knowing it was minor at best, before she drew her blade and stuck the metal in the flame. While it happened slower than with most fires she had fed her steel to, it still began to make the blade glow with the power of the fire. “Hey, after we had to leap through a firepit for a quest, I always at least wonder.”

  “I suppose.” Diane smiled as she saw the tale end with Carnick riding with his princess, and turned to her companion, who was making her way over to the other side of the chamber as well. “I would highly recommend taking a look at the walls. They’re quite entertaining.”

  Kat kept her arm rigid as she held her blade perpendicular to the ground and shook her head. “Maybe once we’re done. We lost a lot of time with that Abigail girl, and while she was fun to mess with, I would rather…” She looked into Diane’s regularly blue eyes, and saw purple. “Umm, Diane?”

  Diane blinked as her head became fuzzy. She had just touched the door that led out of the first chamber… or had she? It was weird, because she swore she had. The sorceress gently shook her head while closing her eyes. She took one step back, but instead of the tap of sole against rock, there was the crack of brittle bones snapping beneath her feet.

  Her eyes flicked down, and she watched as she slowly brought her foot out of the skull she had stepped in. For a moment, Diane wondered how she had missed the corpse, before looking up, and seeing more. Bones and bodies lay strewn across a plain of scorched Earth, flames still fresh on most of their bodies. Her eyes widened, but instead of shrieking, she smiled.

  She took a step back, her mind reeling at what she saw, and what she knew she had done. She of course knew that something was wrong, because she would never act like this. She wouldn’t just burn everything in sight, even if her powers allowed for it. Sure, it was something Diane had always feared, but she wasn’t even tired, and this level of destruction-

  “Hurk.”

  Diane spun around, having felt herself step onto something… soft. Looking down, her body and mind froze. Blood oozed down the side of the woman as she clutched at the wound. Diane could see sparks of her magic coming from the wound, but her smile didn’t, no, couldn’t leave. The words that came out of her lips were not her own, and even though she fell, she now could see herself standing over the soon to be corpse. “Really, we should have known this would always happen. You’re simply too stupid to keep up with me.”

  The red headed girl reached up for the Diane that wasn’t her, and the real Diane tried to grab her fake one’s leg, but simply fell through. She knew how this dream ended, and she refused to let it happen. Even as her companion begged for help, the fake her raised a hand covered in lightning.

  Diane tried reaching out to her barbarian, to help her, but just as she had with herself, she merely slipped through Kat. She was face down in the dirt of the scorched land when the spell came, and despite feeling warm drops of liquid against the side of her face, she stayed still. She would not look, would not see the heartbreak she had caused in one moment. She would not face the stoic, or even happy face that had done these atrocities.

  Diane could feel her own gaze fall upon her and stayed still, for she would rather die than become the emotionless monster that stood above her, and haunted her dreams. She shut her eyes, and accepted the heat.

  ======+++++======

  Kat tilted her head more as she pushed against the door herself, but found it stick fast. “Great. Now I’m gonna need to wait for my sword to cool down to use both hands. Unless you see somewhere good in here to put it. I don’t rea
lly want to just lay it down on the ground.”

  “Of course. Carnick and his lady were perfect for each other. Complimentary sides of a coin, two parallel lines that would stay by each other for eternity.” Diane placed a hand on her face as she slowly shook her head. “Why did I ever consider walking in here with anything less?”

  Kat looked over to Diane, one eyebrow raised as she came closer. She brought her fingers up to her companion’s face and snapped, before waving the open hand in front of her. “Hey. Yoo hoo, anyone ho-”

  Smack! “Will you please act like an actual woman for once instead of a needy pup?”

  Kat stepped back, holding her hand as she blinked a few times. Her confusion quickly converted itself to rage, and she stomped back to being right in front of Diane. “Hey, what are you talking about? You’re acting weird, so I asked a fucking question!”

  Diane rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. Her gaze looked down upon Kat, but not in the normal ‘she’s taller than me’ way. No, these eyes told her she was nothing, and turned Kat’s blood to ice. “Really? Because most children can’t curb their tongue, beg for little treats that they don’t need, and get angry at the drop of the hat, all things that describe you. And honestly, I’m sick of it.”

  The muscles in Kat’s hand that were holding the broadsword stiffened, and for one moment, her vision turned red. One swing at this range would be all it would take, and with how Diane wasn’t even looking at her, the hot headed warrior bet she could do it too. The thought was gone as fast as it came though, as she knew something had to be wrong. This wasn’t Diane, but her fears going rogue. She didn’t know why it was so vivid though. “Oh yeah, like you’re fucking perfect? Last time I checked, you needed me to protect you, so maybe you should be-”

  “Since when have I needed you?” Diane stepped forward, now looking Kat dead in the eyes as they came only inches apart from one another. “I can control the elements themselves, have surpassed most mages in existence in spellcasting ability, and what have you done? Gotten your ass kicked by a master swordsman, won’t let yourself use what you were born with, and just keep playing a knight when all you are is a dirty, disgusting, barbaria-”

  “Shut up!” Kat reached over, her other hand taking ahold of her blade, before she rose it high above her head. The blade was warm, so warm that she could feel the white hot metal beating against the her back. “Y-you need me! We’re partners! And… and I could prove why in one swing!” Kat’s body was shaking as tears came down her face, and her mind begged for an apology from Diane.

  The sorceress merely tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes still level with Kat’s as she said, “Really, we should have known this would always happen. You’re simply too stupid to keep up with me. So go ahead, kill me, if you can’t stand losing me.”

  Kat’s hands clenched the blade with all she had, the heat against her growing by the second. Her instincts demanded she do it, that she cleave the thing that was hurting her, and was making her so angry. She opened her eyes again though, and looked into that face she had spent so many nights staring at. Whether it was to help her sleep in the cold, or make sure the one she had pledged her services to was safe, Kat hadn’t always known. She did know that she could not harm it, and let the blade fall from her hands, and clatter behind her.

  The screeching of steel against stone cleared Kat’s vision for a moment. Diane wasn’t standing in front of her, but instead was laying on the ground, sobbing as the blue fire came ever closer to consuming her. She glanced to her own side, and saw the blue flames beginning to approach again, just as they also faded from her vision. When she blinked, the fire was gone, even from the center of the room, and she heard the mocking words, “You couldn’t even do that right. Really, I should just put you out of your misery.”

  Kat shut her eyes, stopping her blood from boiling. She would not let her rage take over, not now. Instead, she reached to one of the pouches on her belt, and took out a single piece of white parchment. With a solid smack, she attached it to the door, before collapsing to the ground. Her fingers were numb from how much energy the seal had taken, but she could feel the magic on her dispelling and being sealed back into the doorway.

  Diane slowly pushed herself up, off of the stone, trails of smoke slipping away from her body as she looked up. Tears fell down her face as she crawled closer to Kat, who was still breathing hard, and the two met each other with a firm embrace. “I… I thought I had lost you. Th-that I had lost myself.”

  Kat patted Diane’s head, before giving her beloved’s forehead a soft kiss, and squeezing her tighter. She didn’t even care if it was possibly uncomfortable, as she just needed to make sure she was there, and herself. “Yeah, well, fear magic will do that to you.”

  Diane glanced up, a question in her eyes as Kat groaned and leaned back. “I fought it, and saw through the spell when my blade hit the ground. That stupid fireball up there,” she weakly pointed at the glowing ball in the middle of the hall, “apparently is there to kill anyone who succumbs to their fear.”

  A small chuckle escaped Diane as she slowly sat beside her companion. “Well, couldn’t have been too hard for you then. I mean, your deepest fear is becoming a crazy cat lady, and I doubt that would do much to you.”

  A weak smile crossed Kat’s lips as she looked away. “Say, dispelling that really seemed to take it out of me, and it’s kind of late in the afternoon. What do you think about just setting up camp, and heading to bed?”

  Diane slowly nodded as she felt the weight of the pack stop herself from standing. “Some help up? What I saw is leaving me a touch weak.”

  Kat stared at where her blade was on the ground for another, still envisioning what she had almost done, before turning back to Diane. “Yeah, I’ll help you up, but I need you to promise to be on your guard now. It seems like Carnick made some really nasty traps for us.”

  Diane nodded as she jumped to her feet with Kat’s help, and walked past to start the fire for the night. “Luckily we have each other, and that should be enough to get past anything that tries to take us down.”

  Kat blinked slowly, watching as Diane set up camp, before looking to the ground and whispering, “Yeah, together.”

  Spirit Trip

  Kat sat in a field, her head resting on the stomach of one of her wolves while she stared into the setting sky. She recognized the scene from her youth, before she was a knight. She wasn’t there to daydream, as she had so many times before. No, she was with her clan’s wolves to calm herself, for soon she would be taken to her ancestral grounds.

  The younger version of herself rolled over, allowing the wolf’s musk to be all that filled her nose. It was dirty, and stank of fresh hunts, but to her, those were the smells of home. Even when her dad got back from his raids, he would smell just the same. These were the days before a nice, lilac shampoo was what told her good times were to come. The thought of the change brought a weight to her chest though, that her younger self couldn’t understand. Just like she wouldn’t the next day when she would be tasked to kill the very wolf she now laid upon. “If only I could warn you-”

  “-That you’re an idiot?”

  Kat tried to react, but the words came with a solid boot to the front of her face, and she found herself falling through the ground. Darkness was the first layer as she shut her eyes, and brought her hands in front of her face. Something slammed into her chest, fastening itself to her body as she violently spun in the nothingness, and she could feel the battleaxe of her youth fall away from her.

  She opened her eyes as trails of green blazed through the black, following after a large wolf that streaked through the aether. Kat instinctively reached behind her, soon finding the hilt of her sword on her back. As soon as she did though, the wolf barked, and the shockwave threw her against an invisible wall.

  Another bark pushed her into what felt like heavy stone, pinning her in place. Its force felt like a hundred rocks on her chest, crushing her, threatening to cut off h
er breath. She tried to look at it, but was even so helpless to its will that all she could see was a giant green mass. Her heart hammered in her ears as she shut her eyes, waiting for the wolf to consume her.

  “Are you really this weak?”

  She opened her eyes to the words, only to see the flat of a blade coming straight at her. She was still trapped underneath the howl, and so the sword came against her temple with all the force the wielder could muster. Upon touch, it felt like like being punched by about a thousand drunk assholes at once, and it threw her through the stone.

  The next thing Kat knew, she was rolling upon hard rock, tumbling over her herself as she was launched along the ground. She only came to a stop when she crashed into a firm pair of legs. Her body felt like it had just fallen down a mountain, and she swore she must have broken something, but just didn’t know it. All of this was minor compared to when she looked up, and saw a man with a feather in his cap, while a blue fire burned above him. “Aren’t my spirit trips supposed to only involve animals?”

  The spirit pushed her away, applying enough force to toss her a good twenty feet away. Kat landed with another groan, but this time didn’t just stay down. She knew she had to face what was there before her, no matter how annoying. “So, how have you been, Mazu?”

  The man across from her, maybe in his mid-fifties, rolled his shoulders as he stretched out his neck. His short, blond hair was kept neat by a tie in the back that forced it down, though to Kat, that wasn’t nearly as stupid as the glorified red robe he wore. He then smiled at her, and drew the blade at his side, the weapon shining in the light. “Because we met, fought, taught, and then dueled. Experiences like those form who we are, how we fight, and what makes up one’s spirit. I am simply the one who thought it would be best to motivate a pup to remember her place. Would you not agree, Katherine?”