Grimoire Bound

by Jeff Sproul

  "Let's go!" said Chaxin as he grabbed the bars, urging Verun to flee.

  "Not yet! We can't!" said Verun, who maneuvered around the burning body of the imp, trying to avoid its death throes. "It has to die, else there won't be enough!"

  "Enough what?" Chaxin asked, his eyes wide as he looked between Verun and the imp.

  "Just wait!" Verun growled.

  The imp's arms fell limp to the floor, coming to rest beside the dead man. Its dark, fleshy body was wreathed in flame. Chaxin covered his nose and mouth as dark smoke began to fill the cell and billow out into the hall. "Someone's going to notice!" said Chaxin.

  Verun stood there clutching the soul crystal he'd created. He stared at it, looking over to the imp every few seconds.

  The crystal glowed and pulsed.

  Verun's eyes lit up. "Now we leave!" he said and quickly spun around. He pushed past Chaxin and dashed down the hall.

  Chaxin was right on his heels. "Do you know the way?" he asked in a hushed tone. Luckily they were barefoot, so their footfalls weren't as loud as they would've been with boots on.

  "Yes, yes of course! Basic memory skills!" Verun said as he ran down the hall. They quickly reached a junction and Verun chose a direction, which Chaxin followed without question.

  Chaxin's heart pounded, his body aching from exertion. Would someone find them in the halls? What would happen if another imp came along? If the dead imp was found, would something worse than an imp come looking for them?

  "Help me! Please help! Get off me!" came a woman's shrieks from just around the left of the next junction.

  Verun suddenly pushed up against the wall. Chaxin rushed by him, then realized what he was doing. He pushed up to the wall as well, and watched.

  "Be very still, do nothing," Verun whispered.

  About ten feet ahead was the intersection.

  A gray imp entered their view. It appeared almost identical to the one they'd just killed. It strode slowly into view.

  Chaxin's breath caught in his chest as the imp turned to the left, away from them.

  "Please help, someone!" came the woman's voice, as a red-haired woman was dragged behind the imp.

  Chaxin watched as the imp pulled her along. He stepped towards her, but Verun seized his arm, preventing him from going any further.

  The naked woman grasped at the floor and sobbed as the imp took her down the corridor, away from them.

  "Come, now!" Verun whispered as he slipped around Chaxin and closed in on the junction. He peeked around the corner, and then looked down the other hall.

  Chaxin followed after. "We could've saved her!" said Chaxin. "And you could've gotten energy from that imp's death!" Despite the urgency of his voice, he still kept quiet enough so that he wouldn't be heard.

  Verun turned around, his eyes wide. He reached out and seized Chaxin's shoulder and held the crystal up to his face. "My mana is nearly depleted, and more soul energy won't remedy that. This crystal only has the capacity to send at most two people. And only just barely! I'm taking an incredible risk even allowing you at my side. Something could still go wrong, and my chances would be better if I only left on my own. Be thankful for that!" Verun hissed as he pulled his hand off Chaxin's shoulder and turned around. He slipped down the left corridor.

  Chaxin shook his head. Why couldn't anyone ever be saved? Why did it always feel as though they were doing the wrong thing? Why did people have to die, just so they could escape?

  This life was nothing if not unfair.

  He chased after Verun and watched as the man dipped into an open room with no door. Chaxin followed right behind him and found himself in a room similar to the one he'd appeared in.

  "This is… like a mausoleum?" asked Chaxin, still keeping his voice low as he looked around. The room was mostly unremarkable, but there was a slab of stone that was raised about an inch off the ground and appeared to be different than the surrounding architecture.

  "Yes," said Verun, as he went to the slab. Without delay, he began to write with the soul crystal. "Now be quiet. That imp will return to his post, and we need to be gone before then. I hate to tell you this, but that woman bought us our freedom out of here. Otherwise, we would've had to have dealt with that imp, which would've put us in greater jeopardy. We are much closer to other arrival rooms."

  Verun traced the crystal against the stone. His hand was beginning to shake as he did. "Damnable nerves," he muttered.

  "What should I do?" asked Chaxin, as the feeling of uselessness set in once again.

  "Be very quiet," Verun whispered. "And be ready to jump on this stone slab when I tell you to. If that imp returns, then neither of us are making it out of here."

  Chaxin loomed near the doorway, keeping an ear out for the familiar thumping of imp footfalls. The only sounds he could make out were those of the crystal scratching against the stone slab, leaving its metallic scrawl behind.

  Chaxin was filled with countless questions about what was happening. What was Verun writing? Where would they end up? How was this even possible? How had he seemingly used magic by merely speaking? And why did it give him a headache? Who the hell even was Verun? How had he died to end up in a damnable place such as this?

  He kept them all at bay, as his sense of survival overcame his curiosity. He wanted more than anything to return to a place that wasn't Purgatory.

  Thump, thump, thump.

  Chaxin's heart skipped a beat. "An imp is coming," he whispered.

  Verun slowly drew a square with an X, then traced another line to another square with an X. He knelt on the slab and looked up at Chaxin. "Get down here and place a finger over this X, but don't touch it until I tell you."

  Chaxin rushed over and only took a brief glance at some of the writing, but Verun's body was in the way of seeing all of it.

  "Where will this take us?" he finally asked.

  Verun let out a slow breath as the thumps got ever closer.

  "I should tell you, that what we're about to do… may not work," said Verun. "It should, and if it does, it means that our souls will travel very, very slowly towards our destination."

  Chaxin held his hand over the X meant for him. He turned his head to look to the doorway, then looked back to Verun. "So what? Shouldn't we get going?"

  Verun let out a brief sigh. "Yes, we can discuss it on our arrival. Hopefully our souls don't separate too far on the transit. On the count of three, press your finger to the X."

  Chaxin nodded. "Ready."

  Verun glanced to the doorway; the footsteps couldn't be more than a few feet away.

  Verun cleared his throat and then spoke softly, "One… two… three!"

  A form appeared in the doorway, just in the corner of Chaxin's eye. But upon hearing 'three,' he pushed his finger to the runic X.

  Then, everything went dark.

  Chapter 19: Passage

  Chaxin awoke to a hand smacking the side of his face.

  "Wake up, no time for slumber. Wake up, Chaxin," came Verun's voice.

  Chaxin's eyes slowly crept open, and he found himself looking up at Verun's face. He blinked and then glanced around in the dim light that barely seemed to come in from outside the mausoleum. The room was made of a brownish-red stone, and he seemed to be laying on a dais.

  "Are we still in Purgatory?" he whispered.

  "No," said Verun, who stood there wearing a pair of brown trousers, and a white tunic. "But I fear that we didn't end up somewhere much better."

  Chaxin slowly leaned up and took a look around the room. It was similar to that of the mausoleum he'd woken up in on the shore outside of Kamber, but the colors were different, and it seemed to be in decent condition. There was a slight dusty smell in the air, as well as a bit of that fresh air smell that he'd detected near the sea.

  "Are we near the ocean?" Chaxin asked.

  "Indeed we are," said Verun. He tossed a pair of brown pants and a white tunic, the same pair of clothes he was wearing, onto Chaxin's lap. "Put these on, and then com
e out here, but keep your voice down." Verun stepped away and walked just outside the doorway to the mausoleum.

  Chaxin quickly turned to the side and pulled the pants on, and then the tunic. Would he ever be able to buy his own clothes, instead of wearing whatever was lying around? He hopped off the dais and walked over to Verun. "How long have you been awake?"

  "Ten minutes, perhaps," said Verun, as Chaxin joined him outside the mausoleum.

  Whereas the mausoleum on the shore had been outside and built against rocks, this mausoleum seemed to be constructed out of a cave, or part of the ground. Once outside the doorway to the mausoleum, there was a wooden wall with an opened door, about ten feet away. Daylight streamed through, giving some visibility.

  Chaxin glanced back to the mausoleum and noticed that there was a strange symbol on the top of the doorway. It held no meaning for Chaxin, but he didn't remember seeing such a symbol on the shore mausoleum. "What's this?" he asked as he pointed to it.

  Verun looked to where Chaxin was pointing. "That's a destination marker," he said. "It differentiates that mausoleum from others as a destination."

  Chaxin gave Verun a quizzical look. "Please explain. I have a bunch of questions, and you're only making me think of more."

  Verun nodded. "There's quite a lot that needs explaining, and perhaps it is best that we take our time, but first, come with me." Verun turned and headed toward the open wooden door.

  Chaxin shook his head and followed after.

  The two of them passed into a wooden structure. There were benches and shelves, and all sorts of glass and mechanical instruments and implementations. To the far side of the room was a stairway that led down. There were three windows, one on each wall, except for the wall with the door they'd just walked through. The windows were hazed to prevent details being discerned, but they still allowed as much light through as possible.

  Chaxin looked around at everything as Verun went over to a stool near one of the benches and took a seat. "Please, sit somewhere," he said.

  Chaxin nodded and found another stool near another bench. He brushed it off, as it seemed to be dusty. He then placed his attention on Verun. "So, out with it. Where are we? How exactly were you able to get us here?"

  Verun nodded slowly, and his gaze fell to the dusty floor. "We are on the island city known as Trillin."

  "I've heard of that," said Chaxin. "That's where the ship came from, the one with the sarcophagi."

  "Many ships come to Trillin," said Verun. "It also happens to be the location of one of various workshops with which I am familiar."

  "Workshops?" asked Chaxin.

  "Yes," said Verun. "I'm loosely associated with a group of practitioners. They, or, I suppose you could say 'we,' call ourselves mitigators. We study anything we can find on magic, be it rune, or otherwise. We learn about every creature we possibly can, and we learn what such creatures are made of, and how that can be used to accomplish various tasks."

  Chaxin squinted, trying to follow with what Verun was saying, as best he could. "Ok?"

  "The rune magic I used to get us here was something similar to what I and the other mitigators use as a method of transport between specialized mausoleums. You saw the symbol of the one in there," Verun said, and gestured to the door. "That's how I was able to send us here. I figured that with my acquaintances here in Trillin, one of whom is the owner of this workshop, I would be able to find assistance. That brings us to our first problem."

  "Go on," Chaxin prompted.

  "As I said in Purgatory, the power in that crystal was only barely able to send us away from it. Usually when you die, your soul is sling-shotted across the Graymos, on the ethereal plane, or whatever you want to call it. And you end up, rather quickly, in a couple of days, on Purgatory. However, Purgatory is a place that draws everything to it, so we had to use every bit of energy in that crystal to send us away from it. Which happens very slowly."

  Chaxin blinked. "Slower than a few days?" he asked, catching on to what Verun was referring to.

  "I don't know how long precisely, but… time has flowed freely while we made our way from Purgatory. Until I speak to someone, I would surmise that it's been anywhere between one and five years."

  "Five years?" Chaxin's eyes widened. "But I just woke up on Wake… it was only about two days ago. You're saying it's been five years since I woke up here?"

  Verun nodded slowly. "I made a calculated gamble that a fellow mitigator would still be running this workshop to be able to welcome us. I wasn't positive that any of the other locations would still be in use. I still don't know how much time has passed precisely. I woke ten minutes ago and found clothes for us, but no sign of a journal, or anything."

  "Then why don't we ask someone?" asked Chaxin. "How big is this city?"

  "Oh, it's quite large, thousands upon thousands of people. It's the largest city on Wake."

  Chaxin's brows lifted. "So let's go find out how long it's been. Were you on Wake when you died?" asked Chaxin. "You never told me how you died, or where."

  Verun sighed and waved his hand dismissively. "My death is of no current concern, but yes, I was here on Wake. I imagine, within days of your own death."

  Chaxin stood up from the stool. "Well, we have some clothes, and your friend doesn't seem to be home, so let's check the city."

  "Stop," said Verun, looking over to Chaxin. Verun didn't move from the stool. "You're going to stay right here."

  "What? Why?" asked Chaxin.

  "Tell me, what do you hear?" Verun asked.

  Chaxin gave him an odd look, and then stopped to listen. There were no sounds whatsoever. "Um, not much of anything."

  "Exactly," said Verun. "We are located in a district in northern Trillin. There are streets and homes all around us. It's midday, at least. There's light out, and people should be going about their day. Animals should be making noise. People should be laughing and making all sorts of sounds. So why is it that we can't hear anything?"

  Chaxin looked up to the ceiling, then over to the windows. "Maybe everyone went somewhere? Or they're attending an event?"

  Verun sighed. "Unlikely."

  "Well, what do you propose we do then?" asked Chaxin. "We have to leave this workshop eventually. We can't stay here forever. So why don't we leave and figure out where everyone is?"

  "We need to take time to prepare," said Verun. "I've never heard silence like this in a place as large as Trillin. I doubt you've spent much time in large cities to realize how strange this is. So we're going to find what we can, prepare ourselves, and hope nightfall doesn't come too quickly."

  Even Chaxin didn't have to question why nightfall was bad. The merfolk attack, the disappearance of Jerem. The dark allowed creatures to move unseen. If Verun was right, and something was wrong in Trillin, then it was only going to be worse at night.

  "Alright," said Chaxin. "You said the owner of this place was one of your mitigator friends. Is there anything around here that can give us an advantage? Weapons, armor?"

  Verun looked around the workshop. "Now that you're awake and aware of the situation we're in, you can help me search this place. I'll get back to looking around in here, and you should go check downstairs. Whatever you do, don't leave the house."

  "Right, I got it," said Chaxin. He still wasn't entirely convinced that they were in some perilous danger. They seemed far better off now than they'd been back in Purgatory. At least here they didn't have to worry about some big gray imp dragging them away to be killed in an arena.

  But then again, he had no idea of what was really outside the walls of this home.

  He took one last glance at Verun before he made his way down the steps, taking them carefully. They creaked with each and every step.

  Verun pulled open drawers and rummaged around.

  Chaxin reached the bottom of the stairs and slowly looked around the new room he found himself in. There was a bed on the wall to his left, and a table in the middle of the room. There was a fireplace off to the side
, and a door that probably led out to the street. There were several hazy windows which allowed light to stream in.

  Chaxin went over to one of the windows and tilted his head around, trying to see if he could make anything out, but everything was far too blurry.

  He stepped away and glanced around some more. There were some cabinets and drawers, probably where Verun had gotten the clothes he was wearing. He went over to what looked to be a dresser by the bed. He pulled the drawers one by one and searched through them. More pants, tunics, some socks. He decided to take a pair of socks. He pulled another drawer and it appeared to be more of the same.

  He pulled open the last drawer and took everything out and tossed it on the bed, to make sure that he wasn't missing anything hidden away amongst all the clothes. But it appeared to be a dresser full of clothing.

  He sat on the bed and put the socks on, then noticed a pair of brown boots on the floor. He tried them on, and found that they were not the snuggest fit, but they were wearable. He laced them up and then checked under the bed, but there was nothing.

  A large chest sat at the end of the bed, and Chaxin made it his next target. He knelt in front of the wooden chest and opened it up without issue, as it had been left unlocked.

  Inside, he found a box which was as wide as his arm was long. It was half a foot tall, and about half a foot long. Much to Chaxin's dismay, it was locked. He set it out beside him and began searching for a key. There were rolls of cloth, which he took time to unroll, but they were merely wrapped blankets. Perhaps it got colder at night, or on some days.

  He found what amounted to a dozen candles, but no way to light them. He took all of the candles out and found parchment, along with several finger-length pieces of some black material which came to a point. Some writing instrument, it seemed.

  There was a folded piece of cloth which set over the entire width of the chest. He reached in, and pulled it up. On the left side of the chest was a pouch. He picked it up and realized it wasn't so much a pouch, but a quiver. He looked inside and saw dozens of metal bolts within. His eyebrows lifted and he then looked back into the chest. He'd only pulled the cloth partway, and then decided to pull it out completely.