by Jeff Sproul
As the two ghastly figures closed in, he realized that they weren't apparitions. They were people wearing black cloaks.
"You're still alive?" came a man's voice as he reached up and pulled his hood back.
It was then that Chaxin realized it was Vol, and Tiris was beside him. Vol hadn't let a second pass by after his question before he turned and lifted his bow.
Tiris did the same, and one after the other, the two nocked their arrows and let them loose in Deloris's direction.
"Yeah," Chaxin muttered, despite the fact that their attention had now diverted. He watched as each of the archers sunk an arrow into the skulls of the two merfolk. The hits caused both creatures to stumble, which opened them up to the ferocious attacks from Deloris's blade. She cut into them again and again, and just as the two monsters regained their footing and blocked with their claws, another set of arrows sunk into their heads. With just a couple more slashes of Deloris's sword, the two merfolk fell simultaneously. They smacked into the mud, their bodies motionless.
"What the hell happened to you two?" asked Deloris, as she looked to the two archers. She pulled her visor up and looked both of them over. "You and the others were supposed to retreat if the gate was lost."
"We lost the gate pretty quickly," said Tiris, who then pulled her hood down as well. "We weren't prepared to engage that many merfolk, even with the advantage of range and the wall. But we didn't see any shamans or chiefs in the initial attack. Just a lot of their warriors and a few alphas."
"Once we'd killed a dozen at range, the mist rolled in," Vol sighed, reaching up and rubbing his head. "We were firing blind until they started smashing the gate. Then, we fired in front of the gate, hoping to hit something. But they broke through and poured in. We were stuck on the wall for most of the night. The town seems to be in pretty bad condition from what we've seen."
"Yeah, it is," said Deloris. "Glad to see you two still around though. Most of us that are worth a damn have been scattered. A lot of the townsfolk have been killed off. Where are the others that were on the wall with you?"
"Some of them fell during the night," said Vol. "We just recently managed to make our way into town. The others broke away to check on their own friends and to help clear the town of merfolk before returning to the town hall. We just came from the clinic. Hard as hell to find our way around, though." He then looked over to Chaxin and managed a half smile. "You'd said that you'd left Chaxin at the clinic, so I expected to find him and the doc, but there was no one there. I did find my cloak, which was nice," he said as he reached up and tugged on the edge of it by his neck.
Deloris looked between the two archers, and then to Chaxin. "We need to keep moving. The town hall isn't far. Everyone would've headed there once the gate was lost. But as we've seen, not everyone realized that the merfolk pushed into the city as fast as they did. This fog really fucked us over."
"I bet one of their shamans conjured it from the tree line," said Tiris.
"Doesn't matter now," said Deloris. She gestured for Chaxin and the other two to follow. "Town hall first. We'll see if any of the council members are around. Then… we'll see if they have a plan. Usual formation. Chaxin, watch our backs. Make sure nothing sneaks up on us, but don't fall behind."
"Got it," said Chaxin, as he followed close behind the armored woman. She closed her visor again and headed forward at a brisk pace. The two archers were a single step behind Deloris on either side of her, their arrows drawn.
Some of his questions were gradually being answered, but as time went on, he found that he only came up with new ones. Perhaps if they got to the town hall, they'd find some rest and safety. Maybe someone could fill him in on what exactly was happening in this world.
Chapter 5: Town Hall
The group of four fought through several more merfolk, but they were fortunate enough to only have to combat one at a time. With the help of Vol and Tiris's arrows, Deloris was able to deal with the merfolk with relative ease.
"Here we are," said Deloris, as a large structure appeared as a dark silhouette in the fog.
The closer they got, the better Chaxin was able to make out the details of the town hall. It had a slanted roof and a sizeable chimney on the side. He'd seen various houses nearby, but this building was easily six times the size of any of them, and roughly three times the size of the clinic he'd been in.
The building itself was made mostly of wood, but had a stone foundation. Torches around the building helped illuminate the area despite the fog.
A figure appeared at the base of the steps leading up to the first floor of the town hall. He was nearly six feet and had deep brown hair, which was slicked back over his head. The sides were shaven, and a thin beard had formed along his jawline. Upon his bronze-toned form, he wore armor similar to the two archers. A pair of black cloth pants, and a gray tunic beneath a leather vest. His arms were on display, and while he looked to be strong, he didn't seem bulky.
"Figured you'd be too tough for a few merfolk to kill," said Deloris, as she pulled her helmet off and let it fall back with a strap secured around her neck.
The man held an intricate spear in his right hand. The tip was covered in a thin sheen of blood, but along the shaft were various metal portions and contraptions, which added more bulk to the weapon itself. Chaxin couldn't figure out the importance of it, unless it had something to do with enchanting and adding greater damage to the spear.
"I have no intention of being sent to Purgatory anytime soon," said the man, who stood resolute at the base of the steps. "I'm sure as hell not gonna let some merfolk send me there."
"How many are inside?" asked Vol, as the four of them slowly gathered near the tanned, spear-wielding warrior.
"Not sure," the man replied, taking a glance back to the town hall, before looking at the four of them. "Couple dozen, maybe forty?"
"And why are you the only one out here?" asked Deloris.
"Not everyone is in good shape," he said. "No one's seen Huril, and no one has much in the way of healing implements. So I'm letting the other capable fighters regain their health and stamina." His eyes then centered on Chaxin. "Who's the new face?"
Deloris stepped to the side. "This is Chaxin. We found him on the beach," she said.
"The beach? There were survivors from the ship?" the man asked.
Deloris shook her head. "There were no survivors from the ship, as far as we could tell. He came from the mausoleum."
"Well, I'm Kaiz," the man said. He then switched his spear to the other hand and extended his right. "Not sure what to think of your arrival. Doesn't make a lot of sense."
Chaxin reached out and shook the man's hand. "Nice to meet you," he said. "And… does that have something to do with what Tiris was telling me, about mausoleums and power?"
Kaiz glanced to Tiris, then back to Chaxin with a nod. "Yeah. I'm sure it doesn't make much sense to you, but basically… it's an impossibility that you appeared in the shore mausoleum."
"Wouldn't suppose you'd explain that to me? I haven't really gotten a lot of answers yet," said Chaxin.
Kaiz's eyebrows lifted. "Ah… well. Maybe you should head inside? This isn't the best place for holding conversations, since I'm supposed to be guarding the door." His attention then went to Deloris. "Gimbal was killed during the initial attack once the gate fell. Sandor and Jeneth are inside."
"Gimbal fell?" asked Vol.
Kaiz nodded. "He put up a hell of a fight, but there were just too many in the initial push. We lost a lot of the fighters. Including the Rip brothers."
"You're shitting me!" yelled Vol. "Both of them?"
Kaiz nodded again. "Perhaps Purgatory won't be so bad on them, if they manage to keep up their trend of sticking together."
"We're really down some of our best fighters then, aren't we?" asked Tiris solemnly.
"Well I ain't some pushover, you know," said Kaiz with a chuckle, but his tone quickly shifted to match Tiris's. "But yeah, it's bad. We lost some good ones. Not
easily replaced. But get yourselves in there. The council… well, the two of them that're left, will be pleased to know that four more people are still around. I think they're working on a course of action. But…" Kaiz took a moment to stare at Deloris. His brow furrowed and he took a step closer. "You got some new wrinkles," he murmured, before looking into her eyes and easing back to the spot he'd been standing. "Guess these merfolk really took their toll, huh?"
Chaxin looked to Deloris and noticed that her features had tensed. "A little more than I would've liked," she said. Then, she was moving again, heading for the steps. "Let's get inside."
Chaxin took one last glance at Kaiz and nodded to him. He followed after the other three, but stopped when he heard Kaiz speak up. "Chaxin, I know you ain't got much right now, but try and find a better weapon. I've seen too many new arrivals die with cheap swords in their hands."
Chaxin paused and turned around to Kaiz, but the man was already turned around. "Thanks, I'll see what I can do," he said, before turning back and chasing after Deloris and the archers.
The armored woman reached the top of the steps and raised her gauntlet to the double wooden doors of the town hall. She tapped three times with her knuckles and then pulled the door open. It lurched with a heavy creak from the hinges. She made her way inside, followed by Vol and Tiris. Chaxin was last, but he wasn't in any particular hurry. He felt some measure of safety, knowing that there were plenty of other people inside. The deaths that Kaiz mentioned had weighed on his optimism, but it seemed as though the worst had passed.
Once inside, Chaxin took in the full extent of the town hall. There were a dozen or so tables around the room. On the far side from the door were several steps that led up to a raised section with a large table and podium.
People in all sorts of clothes and armor were seated at the tables, or standing near the walls. The scent of cooked meats and baked breads wafted around as people ate at the tables. Some were talking or checking their armor and weapons. He noticed several people glance his way, but mostly they were looking at Deloris and the two archers. They weren't paying him much concern.
A wide aisle allowed people to move from the door towards the podium, without getting in the way of the tables.
The door creaked shut behind them, and Chaxin glanced back to see a man with a broadsword closing it. The man's head was clean shaven, and he had a patch over one eye. The man nodded to Chaxin, and he nodded back.
He continued after Tiris, who’d gained a little distance on him. Deloris seemed focused on approaching a man who sat at a table up on the raised section of the hall.
The man wore a dark green robe, with a rope tied around his waist.
Deloris ascended the several steps that led to the table with the robed man. In doing so, the armor she was wearing clanged louder and drew the man's attention. He had graying hair around his temples and a bald spot at the back of his head. "Deloris!" he said, rising from the table, where a map was laid out, depicting a large swath of territory. Chaxin didn't recognize anything on the map, but he didn't inspect it for long.
"It's good to see that you're still around, old man," Deloris said with a smile curling her lips.
"I'm just very lucky, it seems," the older man said with a returned smile. He then looked to Vol and Tiris. "Good to see that you two have made it as well. I'd feared that no one else was returning from the wall."
"We're tenacious," said Tiris, who then nudged Vol with her elbow.
"And who's this new face?" the old man asked, his attention now on Chaxin.
Chaxin stepped forward and offered his hand. "I'm Chaxin." He glanced over to Deloris, and then said, "I just got here. I appeared in the mausoleum by the shore."
The man's eyebrows lifted. "You don't say? Well… that is very peculiar. But before I get ahead of myself, my name is Sandor. I'm one of the three council members. Or, I suppose I should say one of the two, as it is only I and Jeneth who still remain." Sandor then gestured over to the far side of the map table, where a woman stood with two men in an apparently deep discussion that seemed to be about the map.
The woman was easily the more prominent figure, with a scar running down from near her right ear, all the way to her chin. It was wide, but it looked to be an old wound. She had somewhat darker skin, and black hair tied back in a short knot. She wore a pair of brown leather pants, and a green cloth tunic that laced down the center.
Sandor looked back to Deloris. "Why don't you three speak with Jeneth? She's heading up the plan for what's left of our populace. The more she knows, the better. I'll enlighten our newest arrival and get him up to speed so that he can help us in these trying times."
"Of course," said Deloris. She reached out with her gauntlet and squeezed Sandor's shoulder. "We'll speak later," she said, before turning and walking around the table, Tiris and Vol at her back.
"Here, come with me," said Sandor. "You surely have many questions, and even on a good day, of which there are few, it can be difficult on new arrivals."
Chaxin turned and followed as Sandor headed around the table and over towards the back of the hall where several bookshelves and an altar sat. Upon the altar was a closed tome which appeared to be very old, with intricate designs inlaid upon the cover. It was easily ten times the size of any of the other books that rested on the shelves. The shelves themselves didn't seem to possess many books. Perhaps twenty at most.
Sandor stopped near the altar and turned to face Chaxin.
"So, tell me what you know of our world so far, and I'll try to fill in the gaps while we still have time," he said.
Chaxin swallowed and collected his thoughts before speaking. "I arrived in that mausoleum on the shore. I came out, I was attacked by one of those fish people. Deloris, Tiris, and Vol saved me, but I was poisoned. Deloris took me to a man named Huril, who healed me up… but I don't fully understand how." It was then that Chaxin reached up and pulled the tunic down to show the runic writing on his chest. "Somehow I got this, which is apparently stopping the poison?"
"Oh my," Sandor murmured. He leaned in just a little and narrowed his eyes. "Time magic? Huril doesn't know time magic. Was someone else assisting him?"
"Um… well…" Chaxin pulled at his memories, trying his best to remember the hazy experience he went through while he was under the fever of the poison. "There was a woman, I think," he said. "Someone stopped by, and I think they gave something to him? I'm really not sure. I couldn't see too well at the time, and I only heard voices."
"A woman who can use runic time magic?" Sandor murmured and lifted his hand to rub at his bare chin.
"What's so special about time magic?" Chaxin asked.
Sandor inhaled slowly, then sighed. "Well, time magic is something that takes many years to perfect, unless you know the exact formula. Most people who know time magic don't share their formulas, because it then diminishes the value of their own capabilities. To put simply, time magic is incredibly rare and incredibly powerful, and those who know and understand its formulas closely guard them. To further explain that, I suppose I should next tell you how rune magic works… unless you understand that already?"
"Deloris told me how enchanting works," said Chaxin.
"Ah, good," said Sandor. "Enchanting is the application of rune magic. You can enchant weapons, armor, buildings. It's also how the mausoleums work. Mausoleums are enchanted with rune magic to accept wandering souls, such as yourself."
"Wandering souls?" asked Chaxin.
Sandor nodded. "We exist on a sphere called Wake. Wake is but one of many spheres, or worlds, as you might call them. There are… perhaps countless others. As I'm sure you know, when someone arrives by appearing in a mausoleum, they are naked and without memory. Most of us appeared here in much the same way. Some people appear in other spheres, but the rune magic on a carefully constructed mausoleum allows for your… soul to be drawn to it."
"My… soul," said Chaxin. "But… How… Where…"
Sandor held his hand up to silen
ce him. "We don't know where souls originally come from," he said. "Only that we arrive for the first time, and appear naked and without memory, usually around the same age that you are now. Roughly twenty years of age, as far as we can tell. But we don't know how our souls come into existence."
"We have to come from somewhere, don't we?" asked Chaxin.
"That is a topic of great subject and debate," said Sandor. "Greater minds have pondered the possibilities and various theories. There is little fact to support any of it."
"So, what's Purgatory?" asked Chaxin. "Is that another sphere? I've heard it mentioned several times, but only when someone's talking about a person that's died."
Sandor looked away and thought for a moment. "Purgatory is indeed another sphere. But Wake is a relatively small sphere, and Purgatory is on a massive and almost incomprehensible scale. It would be like comparing the size of your finger to the size of this building, but even then, I think the comparison falls short."
"I see," said Chaxin.
"But Purgatory is a place that all souls end up when they have been killed in spheres like ours. Somehow, when a person dies, their soul is ejected from our world and drawn to Purgatory. It is a terrible place that very few are able to overcome."
Chaxin found his eyes were wide as he stared at Sandor. "So when people die, they appear in Purgatory, like I appeared in the mausoleum? But… you can escape this place, this Purgatory?"
"That's essentially correct," said Sandor. "But I've never been to Purgatory. I think there are one or two around town who’ve been there and returned, but most are doomed to Purgatory for the rest of their days, or worse."
"Or worse?" asked Chaxin.
"There are rumors of a sphere that takes captive the souls that are drawn so low in Purgatory, that they can never escape," said Sandor. "When you die, you lose some of the levels and the experience you've gained. Some of that energy is absorbed by nearby soul crystals. Just as adventurers hunt monsters for their soul energy, we too expel that same energy, which can be absorbed. And if you go to Purgatory and lose all that energy… well, as I said, there are rumors of something worse, but I can say nothing more, as I don't know for sure."
