by Eric Vall
“No, I feel fine,” Heijing smiled as she took the alchemist’s hands and bowed her head. “Thank you for taking the time to heal me, it is much appreciated.”
“There’s no need to be so formal with us, Scaly,” Rana laughed as she bumped Heijing’s shoulder good naturedly. “We’re all friends here, most of us practically sisters.”
“Yeah…and if you could just call me by my first name, that’d be great, I’d even take Anna.” The swordswoman snorted, and I looked at her, confused.
“What do you mean?” I asked, and Annalise chuckled.
“Well, uh, Heijing found out who I am,” the swordswoman said awkwardly as her cheeks flushed pink. “And she started calling me High Queen…and Your Highness.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise as I looked to Heijing, and the Qianlong looked emphatically back. She blinked once and then looked to my minions with furrowed brows.
“Did I do something wrong by calling you that?” the Qianlong asked in her emotionless voice.
“No, not exactly,” Annalise giggled as she patted Heijing’s shoulder. “It just makes me uncomfortable, I guess. I prefer when people call me Annalise over High Queen or Your Highness.”
“I merely did it out of respect,” the dragon stated as she looked deeply into the swordswoman’s eyes. “You are in a position of power and respect, and I only acted accordingly, but I will take your request into consideration.”
“Thanks, Heijing.” Annalise laughed and finally, the Qianlong smiled.
“There is no reason to thank me, I am merely--” Heijing started, but the swordswoman chuckled and shook her head. “Alright…Annalise.”
“There you go!” Rana cackled as she bumped shoulders with the Qianlong again.
Annalise and Rana helped the Qianlong back into her robe though soon she’d need something new to wear. The robe and her bodysuit underneath were ruined beyond salvaging, but Heijing didn’t seem to notice. It wasn’t a problem we needed to take care of now and sensing the space around us, there were no towns near us for miles. I couldn’t admit it aloud, but I had to admit to myself that the Qianlong didn’t look unattractive in the singed robe. Heijing may have been tiny, but she was intimidating in her own way, and the burned and bloodied robe made it even more intense.
Heijing’s eyes met mine, and it almost felt as if she was reading my mind. She didn’t break the eye contact as she stared heatedly at me, but I turned my attention to Rana as the redhead spoke.
“Why did you come, Master?” the fox asked as she lifted her paws into the air and took some practice punches. “We could’ve beaten that guy to soot and ashes if we really tried!”
“We were getting our asses handed to us, Rana.” Annalise chuckled as she shook her head.
“Yeah, but we could’ve made a turnaround! Come back with a second wind!” the redhead cried even louder as she threw her paws into the air.
“I called him,” Carmedy broke in as she stood beside me and slipped her paw tightly into my hand. “As Annalise said, we were getting our asses handed to us on a silver platter, and Heijing was really hurt. That guy could’ve killed her, and we wouldn’t have been able to help her in the least bit.”
Rana was silent for a moment as she chewed the inside of her cheek, then she nodded sadly, and looked up into my face.
“Yeah, you guys are right, we couldn’t have done it without him,” the redhead admitted. “Thanks, Master, we all really appreciate it.”
“Your lives are more important to me than anything else,” I stated as I looked over each one of them. “I will protect you any time that you call for me, without question.”
I was reminded of the conversation I’d had with Morrigan earlier. The elven woman had accepted me without question, but would my other minions? Haruhi and Heijing already knew who I was but would Rana, Annalise, and Carmedy? They knew what they were getting into when they set me free from my dungeon, but they hadn’t accepted who and what I was.
Would they accept me, or would they try to turn away from the horror and pain that came with my past? I couldn’t stop asking myself these questions, I had never cared about what anyone thought, humans or gods alike, but these were my women. I loved them, trained them, and protected them. We’d spent so much time together since the beginning, and I knew almost everything about them, but they knew nothing of me. Nothing but the tidbits I had told them along the way, but there was no comparing the two.
I could assume that all of them knew of the horror stories that came along with the god Kazama. I’d seen and heard it in Morrigan’s voice as I told her who I was. The elven woman had heard them even up in her holed away society. If anything, the others had heard worse stories about me and what I did to the cities that displeased me. I couldn’t tell them now, not yet, but I would, eventually. I wanted to tell them all at once if I had to, and secretly, I wished I didn’t have to tell them at all. I wanted to keep them safe even if it meant keeping them safe from the god I was.
Chapter Fifteen
With Heijing fully healed and the god dead, we searched the dungeon for treasure, and we found it quickly. The god within, who Haruhi told me went by the name Ignis, seemed to be a hoarder of wealth. The piles of trunks stemmed all the way up to the ceiling in a hidden room within the nexus.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Rana didn’t seem as excited about the treasure as she once was. Her sole purpose of being on this journey was to find the sacred items and rescue her family. But the redhead’s eyes did widen, and she licked her lips eagerly at the sight of so much treasure. We began the long task of going through all of the chests for anything of interest.
I didn’t sense any of the sacred items like I did back in Galencia, but my women still enjoyed going through all of the treasure. It was part of the adventure at this point. Invade the dungeon, attack, kill the god, and then rifle through its possessions. I watched Heijing amused as she hung over Rana’s shoulders and watched the redhead shovel out handfuls of golden coins and silver jewelry.
This was the Qianlong’s first dungeon invasion, and all of it intrigued her. Her icy blue eyes sparkled in the dim light, and she inspected each piece the fox lifted up in front of her. That was one of the things I think I liked most about Heijing, the outside world was so foreign and alien to her that even mundane things were exciting.
“What is this contraption?” the Qianlong asked as she took a tiara from Rana’s hands and turned it over to examine the jewels pressed into the metal.
“That?” Annalise asked as she glanced over her shoulder and pointed. “That’s a crown.”
“What is its purpose?” Heijing questioned as she scrunched up her nose and placed an arm through the tiara’s hole.
“Well, from the size and shape of that one, it’s a tiara,” the high queen said as she straightened and moved closer to Heijing. “Tiaras are mainly worn by princesses or other high-ranking females.”
Annalise pulled the Qianlong’s arm out of the ring of the tiara and placed it firmly on the dragon’s head. Heijing made a face as she pulled down the corners of her lips in a grimace. Rana lifted her head and cackled loudly at the Qianlong’s strange expression.
“But I ask again, what is its purpose? Does it have magical abilities or protective spells?” Heijing asked as her hands lifted, and she felt the cold metal of the crown.
“No, no abilities.” The high queen giggled as she shook her head.
“It’s mainly just to show off your wealth to others,” the fox sneered over her shoulders, and Annalise gave a swift but gentle kick to the redhead’s bottom. “What? It’s true!”
“But you forget the true meaning behind them!” Carmedy called as she opened up a trunk a few feet away.
Annalise’s brows furrowed as she turned toward the feline, and the petite alchemist grinned excitedly back.
“And what’s that?” the high queen inquired in her raspy tone, and Carmedy giggled.
“Because they’re pretty! Duh!” the alchemist
grinned, and Annalise snorted and rolled her eyes playfully.
“Then its purpose is solely to exist? There is no actual use for it?” Heijing questioned as she lifted off the tiara and gazed down at it. “It is utterly useless then.”
“Didn’t you have a crown, Heijing?” Rana asked in a muffled voice as she dove face-first into the nearly empty trunk. “You were like a princess or something, right?”
The Qianlong paused for a moment and thought. Her icy blue eyes stayed hard on the tiara in her hands, and then she shook her head dismissively.
“Yes and no, I was the daughter of the Akalong and Qianlong war generals,” Heijing told them in a low voice as she viewed the sparkling jewels closely. “They were not a king or queen but were still considered to be royalty. They never wore crowns or tiaras, but my mother would wear a headdress and ceremonial robes during the festivals the city threw. I was often clothed in similar outfits as her, and this small piece of metal reminds me of those clothes in a way.”
“What would she wear?” Carmedy asked eagerly as she sat back on her haunches and smiled to the Qianlong. “I bet it was always stunning, the paintings we saw of her, she always wore red and gold, is that true?”
“Yes, red and gold were the colors of the Akalongs,” Heijing nodded with glossy eyes. “Blue and silver were the colors of the Qianlongs, it had been that way for thousands of years.”
“Red and gold are pretty, but the blues and slivers of the Qianlongs suit you better.” Carmedy smiled as she turned back to the chest and dug through a pile of books.
“That’s what my mother always said,” the dragon chuckled as she finally raised her head, and her eyes connected with mine. “She said I was always better suited for the Qianlongs than the Akalongs, and I guess she was right.”
“So, are you going to keep the tiara?” Annalise asked as she placed a hand on the Qianlong’s shoulder.
“It’s useless, an object without meaning or purpose,” Heijing muttered as she dropped her eyes back down to the tiara.
“Alright, well, hand it back, I’ll put it into the discard pile.” Rana chuckled as she reached over her shoulder and gestured for the Qianlong to hand it back.
“No, it’s mine now,” Heijing pouted as she jerked her hands away and forcefully placed the tiara back in her cerulean hair.
All of my women laughed in unison, and I joined in as I stepped closer to the Qianlong. I stood in front of her and adjusted the askew crown until it was perfect on her blue hair. Heijing observed me while I did, and when I finished, I gave her a small, tender smile. The dragon’s cheeks flamed red, but she didn’t look away, in fact, it seemed that she gazed up into my face defiant against her own embarrassment.
“Hey, wait a minute…” Carmedy’s voice called as she opened up a second trunk and pulled out a massive book. “This is the Holy Order’s sigil, right?”
The alchemist held up the book, and I hurried over to her. I took the old book from her hands and examined the front cover. Carmedy was right, this was the sigil of the Holy Order, and my heart pounded in my chest as I opened up the volume.
I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. Lain before me on the pages were the blueprints and inner workings of the Holy Order’s main base located in Galencia. My eyes widened as I flipped through the pages and stopped on one in particular. The outer and inner walls into the mage’s fortress were protected by powerful enchantments that prevented anyone from intruding, and right here on these pages was the ritual sorcery to break those enchantments.
“What is it, Master?” Rana asked as she hung over my shoulder and looked over the pages before me.
“This is it…” I murmured, then my voice rose in volume as I turned to my three minions and the dragon. “This is how we are going to get into the Holy Order and destroy them from the inside out!”
All of their eyes went wide, and Carmedy’s mouth dropped open. The feline scrambled up from the floor and grabbed onto my arm as she read from the pages.
“This is mage magic!” the alchemist shouted excitedly. “Morrigan could easily perform these, right?”
“Yes, she could,” I grinned as I snapped the book closed and looked each of my women in the eye. “This could change everything.”
“Oh, this is so exciting!” Carmedy cried as she jumped up and down. “And I was the one who found it! Yay for Carmedy!”
“Yes, excellent work, my love.” I smiled as I stroked her cheek tenderly, and the feline purred contentedly in response.
“That’s our pussycat,” Rana chuckled as she stood from the floor and brushed off her legs. “Sniffing out the good stuff.”
“This has lots of information on the Holy Order that we didn’t have prior,” I said as I lifted to book and showed all of them the cover. “I’ll need to give it to Haruhi to look over before we make concrete plans for our attack against the mages.”
“When do you think we’ll attack them, Master?” Annalise asked as she rested her hand against the pommel of Bloodscale.
“After we find the sacred items and get Rana’s family back,” I stated as I placed the book deep into my void pocket.
“So soon?” Carmedy asked with a tilt of her head.
“The Holy Order is holding one of Isolda’s descendants hostage,” I told them as I placed my hands firmly on my hips. “They’re using her as bait for me, and if they want a fight, then they’ll get it. I promised to keep Isolda safe, and I didn’t manage to do that, but I’ll keep that promise to her by protecting this woman.”
“That’s so romantic,” the alchemist sighed as she clutched her paws to her chest. “You’re the best Master that every girl wishes for.”
“Yeah, yeah, he’s pretty great,” Rana chuckled and then flushed red as she looked deeply into my eyes. “I mean, I agree with all those things too.”
With the book in my void pocket, I could easily transfer it to my original avatar, and I did just that as I stood with my minions. I knew that I needed to return to Morrigan and Haruhi soon, but seeing my other three minions and Heijing made it so much harder to leave. I sadly had to go, my other two women were out in the woods alone close to the city filled with Holy Order mages. I knew that they could fend for themselves, but I didn’t want to leave them alone for too long.
I said my bittersweet goodbyes to each one of them then closed my eyes as I began the process of transferring my essence back to my empty avatar. It didn’t take as long as the other times, but it felt as if years passed before I felt my essence sink into the empty shell of my avatar.
I opened my eyes and saw that darkness had fallen over the city of Galencia. There was a considerable time difference between the capital of the Holy Band and where my other minions were, but I hadn’t expected it to be this dark. Haruhi and Morrigan were both seated by a crackling fire as the sage offered the elf an open book.
The librarian’s ears twitched as I shifted my avatar’s body, and her hazel eyes lifted to meet mine. She smiled instantly and gave me a soft wave. I’d wanted to enjoy this beautiful scene for a bit longer without them noticing, but I couldn’t help it. Seeing the two of them together warmed my heart, and I felt my chest tighten with pride. Morrigan was still engrossed in the book and hadn’t noticed my presence as she tucked a lock of hair behind her pointed ear.
Fea and Macha were both perched high up in a tree and barely more than shadows in the darkness. A small cast-iron skillet was placed over the fire, and small pieces of meat sizzled inside. It smelled wondrous, and I leaned forward to look in as my mouth watered. It seemed that one of my women, probably Morrigan, had caught a wild rabbit for dinner, and it looked absolutely delicious.
“Ah, Master, you’re back.” Morrigan smiled as she leaned away from Haruhi and placed a thin finger in between the pages she was just reading. “What news do you have from the others?”
“Nothing really, they are very close to finding Rana’s family,” I said as I reached for a plate and began forking rabbit meat
onto it. “They were having trouble with a dungeon and requested my help.”
“I am glad that you were able to help them,” Morrigan uttered as she gave me the smallest of smiles. “Haruhi was simply showing me some spells from the book she brought with us. There are a few things that I think I could learn and use fairly easily.”
I stopped and reached into my void pocket before I dug into dinner. I pulled out the book and offered it to the two women over the fire. Haruhi jumped up excitedly and took the volume from my hands. The librarian eagerly took it and flipped through the pages, and then her eyes widened as her eyes fell upon the page I’d seen earlier.
“Master…” the sage whispered as she looked at me with a surprised expression. “This…this is a way to break into the Holy Order’s fortress. Where did you find it?”
“Carmedy found it in one of the trunks in the last dungeon,” I told them as I set my plate in my lap, and the librarian handed the book over to Morrigan. “Completely by accident, but it couldn’t have come at a better time.”
“This is fantastic,” the elven woman whispered as she ran her thin fingers over the drawings and diagrams of the blueprints of the fortress. “This…this is something I could destroy in seconds, it wouldn’t take much effort. You would think that the Holy Band would have more than a few enchantments to protect their whole stronghold.”
“They have grown proud and lazy. They believe they are the greatest power in the world... they are wrong.” I chuckled as I dug into my meal.
Silence fell over us as I ate the meal they had prepared for me and Morrigan and Haruhi dove into the book. They spoke quietly to each other as I ate and didn’t look up from its pages for a long time. I was glad to be back with them. Rana had her sisters and Heijing to protect her, but Morrigan and Haruhi were all alone when I left them.
As I ate, I formulated my plan for the next coming days. Haruhi, Morrigan, and I would infiltrate the next dungeon tomorrow morning and destroy the deity inside. I could feel the power of the remaining sacred items inside, and I would bring all of them together to create the holy weapon. Rana and the other minion’s should reach the place where Tuzakeur was hiding her family by late evening, and I would go to them and aid them in whatever fight that came after. Once Rana’s family was retrieved and safe, my other three minions and Heijing would join us here in Galencia.
