by J. R. Ford
“No, you are,” I said stupidly.
He shook his head. “What lies has he told you? I am Pradeep Lokesh, and I imprisoned my brother beneath this castle when he refused to save my wife.”
22
“Hold on,” I said, trying to think. “You can’t be Pradeep. We just untransformed him.”
“Then Vedanth is free. Fine by me.” He gazed at the trollbat out in the storm, soaring toward the open window. “After transforming him, did you see him use any of my signature magics — Storm or Visceral?” Maybe-Pradeep’s fingers gestured a blur, too fast for me to parse, then he shouted and pointed with two glowing blue fingers. White light blinded me, and thunder cracked. I blinked away the ghost of a lightning bolt seared upon my vision, shot directly from his outstretched fingers at the trollbat, which now smoked as it fell toward the village.
“The basic Storm spell, lightning bolt, cast at level 3. There can be no doubt. I would heal you as well, to prove my skill at Visceral magic, but the price is too high. My markings are proof enough.” He clenched his fist, exposing red knuckles.
I racked my brain. “How then was Vedanth transformed in the first place, if you can’t cast Alchemy?”
“In our spat, he refused to cast spells. Killing him wouldn’t grant me a Null Droplet, so I took one of his hoarded Firehearts and used its mana to transform him. He couldn’t cast spells when transformed, giving him no hope to escape, and I gave him an ultimatum. He chose to languish in prison rather than abandon his castle. He’d rather leave Geeta to rot, his own sister-in-law!”
“So we need to go back and ask him to save Ana,” Heather said. “But we already told him. Why would he lie to us?”
“He has no interest in saving your friend, just as he had none in saving Geeta. Only in his vengeance and some half-mad obsession with a monster settlement across the pass.”
Monster settlement? Tomorrow’s problem. Ana was somewhere down there, only hours away from becoming a slug.
“Can we not talk to him about it?” Heather asked. Her eyes had lost their glow, but not their determination.
“He cares for but two aspects: his misguided cause and his vengeance against me. I bested him, and once he loses to me again, before all these viewers, he’ll never live it down. Go. He is my prey. If you interfere, I’ll kill you myself.”
Bizarre. I turned for the door. Then something caught my attention. Just audible over the storm’s wail, air thumped in the rhythmic beat of wings.
I turned to the window in time to see Vedanth arrive on the back of his silver dragon. Robes of yellow and purple flapped in the wind, and a wicked grin stretched across his face.
The dragon opened its maw, teeth glinting with coming fire. Heather stepped before me and sped through her somatic gestures as the dragon belched its flame. Just before it reached us, she stuck out a finger. The entire fireball erupted in a hiss of steam.
Pradeep leapt into action. He unleashed another massive thunderbolt, which struck the dragon in the neck and sent it reeling. It careened back, then forward again, crashing into the fortress. Claws ground against the windowsill, the massive beast trying to stabilize itself, but its rider was already in motion. He jumped through the window, hands gesturing, and a pulsating purple ring poured into existence just before his palm. He landed as if he had stepped down a single stair, but his hands continued their lightning incantations as the dragon spat flame at Pradeep. The warrior dodged away from the bursts of fire, but as they cleared, Vedanth thrust out a palm, ring and pinky fingers bent, another fluid circle appearing. A vibrant torrent surged forth and slammed into Pradeep, flinging him to crash into a bookshelf. The veins of his breastplate blazed ardent purple, and he was smirking.
He sprang up in an explosion of purple light, ten feet up, fifteen, hands gesturing wildly. Two sparks flashed, one on either side of Vedanth, then the space between erupted in flame. I shielded my face from the heat, but as it subsided, Vedanth stood unscathed.
The two brothers stood across the room from each other. My hands ached, coiled tight around my sword, but the Lokesh brothers seemed to be happy to have a chance to breathe. Each kept their eyes on the hands of the other.
“I can’t believe you!” Heather shouted. “We freed you, and you lied to us?”
“Sorry, Heather,” Vedanth said, “But it’s time for you to leave. I’ll come save your friend once I’ve disposed of my brother.”
“Don’t trust him,” Pradeep growled.
I saw a more glaring issue. “And if you die?” I asked. “He beat you once. Can’t you two take your beef off the grill for one minute to help us?”
“No!” they both shouted.
“Last time, I thought that if I didn’t cast spells, he’d have no recourse,” Vedanth said. “But he put me in chains! Hesitation is a mistake I won’t repeat.”
“Agree to let him go,” I told Pradeep. “Are you a hero like the people here call you or just a bloodthirsty killer?”
“I can give him neither forgiveness nor any opportunity to escape,” Pradeep seethed. “His monsters have killed too many.”
“Monsters I contained in neat little dungeons for you and Geeta to traipse through and fulfill your power fantasies. But if you kill me, there’ll be worse. There are monsters over the pass, ones I didn’t create, ones who will slaughter every player they can get their hands on!”
“Still sticking to your inane excuse? Even if those monsters existed, you could have come saved Geeta anyway! We’re family! Don’t we mean anything to you?”
“I have to protect this land,” Vedanth insisted. “You’re just bitter I got the better of her!”
“Slime which casts an Alchemy of transformation and a Hex to lock it into place? It’s overpowered! You knew neither of us were Nullifiers and specifically designed it so her amulet couldn’t help, then gave the Mollusking lightning resistance so my Storm spells did nothing!”
Those two sounded ridiculous. At least neither seemed to care at all about me or Heather. She began incanting the same symbols over and over, ready to transmute any elements launched our way.
I knew what had to be done. Vedanth had said it himself.
He eyed me. “Is that how it is?” We all moved simultaneously.
Pradeep threw something at his brother and charged, gripping a straight sword with a protective gauntlet. The yellow light of Vedanth transforming into a great brown bear sparkled on metallic marbles. I’d taken one step toward Vedanth before his roar stopped me dead.
Pradeep signed something, and the metal balls he’d scattered earlier sparked to life. Lightning jumped between them, coursing through Vedanth, whose massive frame spasmed. Pradeep cleared the field and crashed into his brother sword first. Blood painted Vedanth’s fur red, then he was a human on all fours.
My opportunity. I sprinted at him, Lightning Blade ready. He turned to face me, but then Pradeep was in his face again, and he had to dodge away. I chased, stabbing, but my sword became tangled in his cloak and a whirl tore it from my hand. I drew my dagger to follow, then yellow smothered my vision and I teleported two feet down.
Vertigo seized me. I tried to rest my head in my hands, but I had no hands, only hooves on the ends of spindly white legs. I screamed, and what reached my ears was a panicked bleat. My legs crumpled beneath me.
Something stroked my head, calming, then I was human again, curled up on the floor. I looked up to see Heather, the glow of Alchemy lingering around her hands.
She turned into a wolf and leapt with fangs bared. Vedanth weaved back and thrust a finger out, and she crashed to the ground as a human. The warlock dropped prone to avoid a sword-stroke from Pradeep, incanting a blur of shapes, and touched one finger to the floor. Heather and I splashed into knee-deep water, then it was stone again, trapping us.
Pradeep had hopped from the pool immediately, and Vedanth rolled away from another sweep of the sword-gauntlet. Pradeep’s next stroke clashed against a rune-emblazoned scimitar. The warrior’s bare arms we
re stained red to the elbows, and he continued the attack with unrelenting ferocity.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t move my legs. “Think you can transmute us out?”
Heather was already forming the somatic shapes. The stone around us flickered into water, and we clambered out.
Pradeep and Vedanth were intensely engaged. The two darted across the room, blades whirling in too quick succession for me to predict, and to make matters worse, the dragon had begun breathing fire at Pradeep. He had to duck away from the torrent, sweeping his sword in a wild parry, then blasted lightning which disappeared into another violet ring.
I took a deep breath. “Stay here,” I told Heather, drawing my rapier.
“No way. I’m your only protection.”
“Let’s go, then!”
“Stay out of this!” they both shouted as we neared, but we disregarded them. Vedanth blocked a strike from Pradeep with a violet ring, then Pradeep twisted and sent a crackling fireball at us. Heather intercepted it and transmuted it to water, but Vedanth’s hand was a blur, moments from blasting us away. The purple circle poured into existence.
I closed in before the liquid could leap for me, deflecting Vedanth’s outstretched arm with my dagger and stabbing up with the rapier. My blade jolted as it pierced his cheek and up into his skull. The dragon screamed and launched itself from the windowsill.
Vedanth had said it himself. I could only acquire a Null Droplet by killing a mage mid-cast.
I stepped back as blood poured from the hole in his cheek, watching as dark beads manifested and drew toward the wound. They coalesced into a purple globe swirling with energy, about the size of my palm, which plopped to the floor.
I scrabbled for it. “Obtained Null Droplet. Crush to gain level in class: Nullifier.”
It squished beneath the pressure of my fist, as if it were a liquid trapped in plastic film. It burst with a soft pop, and its contents squirted onto my palm.
Exhilaration flowed through my veins like ice water. My fingers twitched in anticipation. A notification appeared: “New class: Nullifier, Level 1. +500.” In the upper left, an empty bar appeared, reading “0/100.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Pradeep grumbled. “Do you know what you’ve cost me?” A dark look had crossed his face.
I squirmed back and tapped my index and middle fingers into my palm furiously. Double-tap on the “Spells” tab. My eyes raced, searching for the spell Vedanth had used when dismounting his dragon. Nullify momentum required three somatics, then that palm-out pose with ring and pinky fingers bent.
“Looking up how to protect yourself?” he growled. “Nothing could save you if I decide I want you dead.”
I inched away, grabbing Heather’s arm. She held the Lightning Blade defensively, though Pradeep paid it no heed.
“And do you?” I asked.
“I said I’d kill you if you interfered.” His lips twitched into a smile. “Do you know what you’ve cost me, by taking my brother’s life?”
“Bragging rights?” I shimmied back, toward the windowsill. “A few thousand rupees?”
“Worse, my vengeance. And I’ll have it, even if it must be a surrogate!” His left hand began casting.
“Jump!” I shouted, then, still holding Heather, broke for the window. Together we threw ourselves into the void.
Air rushed around us and crashing water filled our ears. Heather screamed, holding me tight. My free hand tried to make the shapes the UI had indicated. A ping rang clear in my head as I adopted the first pose. Another with the second. For the third, I had to twist my hand an unnatural way, twining my middle finger over the ring. I strained, knowing how quickly the ground came to meet us. Looking down was a mistake. We fell toward sharp rocks on the edge of the waterfall pool. Finally, the third ping sounded, and I slapped my hand on top of Heather’s, ring and pinky fingers bent in the Nullifier’s execute command, watching the circle pour into existence. With a dizzying sensation, we stopped dead, then stepped lightly onto the stones a couple feet below.
Heather’s grip tightened around my arm, and I looked toward the village.
Everything was on fire.
23
Bodies lay in muddy streets, their garb barely distinguishable beneath the muck. Some wore the deep blue of the Azure Lance, others yellow apprentice robes.
Despite the rain, the stone buildings were raging kilns; the wooden, bonfires. In the stormy street, figures battled. Lightning outlined a Lancer thrusting her spear into a robed figure. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed the Lancer had fallen, a sword-wielding apprentice standing over her. I raced through the UI and memorized the positions for nullify spell.
No time to practice. A couple of apprentices stumbled toward us, their swords and robes bloody. One noticed us and charged.
Heather began gesturing, but the apprentice closed in too quickly. I feinted, disengaged, and stabbed him in the gut. As he fell back, I noticed his friend had extended his arms toward me in unfamiliar gesture, each swirling around the other. The space between his hands glowed electric blue. His face was tight with concentration, though he wavered as his companion bled in the mud.
I threw my dagger at him. It spun haphazardly and bounced off his chest without as much as bruising him, but it made him flinch. That flinch bought me the time to signal as his hands erupted in fire, which he flung my way. Ping, ping…ping, and when the fireball touched my null ring, it dissipated. In the corner of my vision, my mana bar filled, from 20 up to 40. Heather loped past me in bear form and mauled him.
When I retrieved my dagger, I realized my palms were purple, not just the one that had squished the Droplet. Heather untransformed, handed me the Lightning Blade, and asked, “Where’s Ana?”
“This way.” We ran past the burning inn, its heat scorching through the rain’s chill. The outhouse was whole, but something caught my eye. Globules of glistening slime smeared the stone in a path that led around the other side of the inn.
My blood froze. “That way.”
The slime trail led back to the main street. Rain and smoke still smothered the scene. Then, lightning struck. The thunderclap made me cringe away.
Smoke whirled, revealing Edwin standing over Absame on the edge of a ridge. The large man twitched in the mud at Edwin’s feet, his azure tabard burnt black and his chainmail filthy. Edwin turned to us, a huge grin on his face. A vein on his throat pulsed blue, the same marking that Pradeep bore.
“Jealous?” he asked. “The power of the Storm’s Breath is mine. This is what true strength looks like. You’ve failed.”
“If you think we’re going to roll over and die, think again.” My words came terse.
Edwin could tell. “Scared for your dear Ana? Do you regret betraying me yet, whore? Tell me!” He shouted the last words at Heather, who shrank back. “Well, now you’ll watch your friend die. What’s left of her, anyway.”
A couple of bedraggled apprentices emerged from a smoky alleyway. One held Ana’s torso, the other, the slug tail where her legs had once been. Her arms were stuck to her sides, and her human flesh had adopted a dull grayness. Slime oozed from her pores. The apprentices dumped her with a plop, then wiped their slimy hands on their robes, disgust on their faces.
Edwin sneered at her. “Not so proud now, are you?”
Ana looked at us, her bulging eyes brimming with tears and rainwater. Her tail squirmed. Her mouth barely moved, but her whisper cut through the clamor. “Pav, Heather…I can’t feel my legs…but I waited for you…”
Her words gripped my heart in an iron vice. She’d been prepared to log out rather than let Edwin see her powerless and humiliated. The fact that she’d chosen to remain, trusting in us to return, tore at my heart. My fingernails dug into my palms.
“Now you can watch me kill this worthless creature.” I had no spells which could stop a sword twenty paces away. Neither did Heather, as far as I knew — even Vedanth had needed to touch me to polymorph me.
He didn’t even look at her. He
kept his eyes locked on Heather’s, as he raised his hand and one of his goons prepared to strike.
A poleax sailed from the smoke and punched into the apprentice’s chest. He screamed, and Edwin turned, as Farrukh charged. His arm was in a sling beneath his soot-stained mantle, but nevertheless he tackled the remaining apprentice. The two tumbled away from Ana, wrestling.
I took my cue and sprinted for Edwin, Heather a split second behind me. He cycled through some symbols, and I matched him. Ping, ping, ping, and when the lightning came, I was ready. I lunged between his two outstretched fingers and Heather, and his lightning bolt dissipated into my null ring.
Edwin took a step back and flicked out his whip, drawing me short. We both raced through our gestures, but when two sparks flashed near me, I ducked toward Ana rather than nullify his spell.
I’d promised we’d all live, and only the uncertain hedge their bets, but still. When I touched the circle of nullify spell to her flesh, my mana gauge rose — 80/100 now, vibrant purple on my UI. Heather could finish the job later.
Edwin cursed and drew his sword in his off hand. “Make them watch their friends die!”
From the corner of my eye I saw Heather shift into wolf form and attack one of the remaining apprentices. Farrukh and the other apprentice still wrestled on the ground, both shouting in pain and rage.
Heather could protect Ana. Farrukh would be fine, probably. I focused back on Edwin. I wished I’d had time to better peruse my spellbook.
“All right,” Edwin said, licking his lips. “Come on, then, you worthless coward.”
I darted forward, dodged back to avoid the whip, and closed in again, incanting nullify momentum. Edwin swung with sword and whip at the same time. My blade parried his, and a defensive ring stopped his whip dead. I riposted, but he shoved my point aside, then my sword was too far past him to do anything. So I punched him in the face.
