Legacy of Dreams: Freedom

by Thomas J. L. Green

  “Most magic users aren’t like us. We learned how to access magic extremely early and have all wanted to become adventurers from as soon as we found out what the word means. The rest came naturally as we grew up fighting each other,” Alfons conceded.

  “So… why did Magnus teach you to access magic so early?” Iowen got curious. Kids fight a lot so giving them access to magic doesn’t seem like a smart idea and Magnus sounds like a very intelligent man.

  “Because he uses magic to remember things and he wanted to teach us just that so we do better at school,” Battista smiled as he explained that.

  Oh.

  “We got a visitor,” Robert interrupted the discussion a second before the door opened.

  “I apologize for the interruption, but I need to steal Iowen for a while,” Lucas said with a wide smile as he opened the door.

  “Time to go to work. Please keep me my bed like it is, I will be back soon,” Iowen smiled at the brothers as she got up.

  “And thank you… for everything.”

  The brothers looked at each other in confusion.

  “We haven’t done anything,” they said in a choir.

  Iowen just smiled and left through the door to follow Lucas.

  “Do you feel better?” Lucas asked softly.

  “Yea, is it time already? I thought it would take longer,” Iowen returned.

  “The preparations went well; it's showtime,” Lucas announced.

  “So, what do you have for me?” Iowen asked.

  “A lot of rock climbing, actually,” they turned the corner and went to a side room. There was a pile of gear in it. Iowen looked at it. It was a pig pile of various climbing equipment. Among it was a featureless white mask, exactly like the one Lucas wore back when he killed the slavers.

  “What is this for?” she asked him, lifting the mask.

  “It’s for you. We do this as a part of the Order, this helps.”

  “How?”

  “Put it on,” Lucas ordered.

  Iowen did. To her surprise, she could see as if she didn’t have it at all. She could also see through her hood as if it was immaterial.

  “How the hell does this work?” Iowen was surprised.

  “One of the secrets of the Order. It doesn’t do much; you won’t see anything you wouldn’t see normally, it just expands the field of vision a bit and lets you see through things that are no more than a few inches away from it,” Lucas explained.

  “It makes you feel like you aren’t there like you are looking through someone else’s eyes,” Iowen breathed. Lucas also had his mask on with a hood over it. It made him look surreal. Like a frame made of darkness with a white disc instead of a face. She looked like that too now.

  “I hope you don’t expect me to start praying to the sun,” she tossed up as she was picking up the climbing gear. She took a pair of strongly adhesive gloves and shoes, a bunch of nuts to fixate in cracks of the cavern wall and the obligatory rope. She left half of the equipment behind.

  “That’s up to you. If you have problems with your faith or a lack of thereof, feel free to check in with a local priest,” Lucas said lightly.

  “Not bothered by the matters of faith, are you?”

  “That’s a job of other people; I don’t mess with their work and expect them to not mess with mine.”

  “So where exactly would you like me to climb?” she asked. They were walking through the off-limits part of the complex and approached the entrance to the underground city.

  “Climb the side wall of the caverns straight up to the bars where water drips. I need you to remove those; they should have locks so it shouldn’t be too hard. Then you climb down on the eastern wall and exit through the passage there,” Lucas explained.

  “That’s a lot of climbing. What will you be doing?” Iowen challenged.

  “I will be handling things down in the city. There is a time limit. We have two hours from the moment we enter through the door. Not a minute more,” Lucas stated.

  “What if I am late?” Iowen asked.

  “Then I cannot guarantee you will make it out of there alive,” Lucas replied coldly.

  “Sounds encouraging,” Iowen wavered for a bit.

  “Don’t worry, you will do fine,” Lucas tried to reassure her.

  She grabbed him for a hug. He hugged her strongly. Iowen pulled his mask sideways, did the same with hers and pulled out a sheet of silk. She kissed Lucas passionately, hoping to find solace in his arms.

  “Let’s go help some people,” she smiled before putting the mask on and led the way to the underground complex.

  There were three guards by the door this time around. She turned to Lucas to ask him something, but he just walked past her towards the guard.

  “Hey! What the hell are you doing here? Stop!” they shouted as they reached for their weapons. Lucas was faster. He disappeared and instantly appeared among them. The fight was done in an instant. Blood flew through the air as Lucas signed their demise with a dagger.

  “We are not coming to play nice,” he remarked as Iowen walked to him. They opened the door using keys of one of the guards to drag the bodies through them.

  “That was faster than I thought possible… how do you teleport like this?” Iowen mused.

  “It’s the main thing I do with my magic. It eats tons of strength and is hard to control when used in larger scales, but well… practice makes mastery.”

  In words of Battista Albertti, that is the one spell with a bunch of variations. I guess my dream of having a hundred different but awesome spell ends before it started.

  “How far can you teleport?” Iowen inquired. Lucas wasn’t always this talkative so it felt like a good opportunity to get a better idea of what he can do. Especially since she might end up in a situation where she shall need to run away from him sometime in the future.

  “Anything over twenty meters is hard, I can do more, but still the measure remains in tens of meters.”

  This feels like a really, really well-practiced lie.

  “When things suddenly appear in your hand, you don’t pull them out of a secret pocket but rather teleport them into your hand, don’t you? Where do you have them?” Iowen continued.

  “Good perception. Let’s just say I happen to be in possession of a certain powerful artifact that allows me put things into a space that is not visible, not tangible, but is always close to me,” Lucas answered in an evasive manner.

  That sounds like total bullshit.

  “More secrets? And here I thought we have enough of those between us already,” Iowen complained.

  “I will explain some other time. For now, this should be descriptive enough. If you are interested in how this works, look up some books about Dream World, which should give you the basics of what is beyond what you can see,” Lucas cut back.

  “Not going to explain me things and send me to look it up instead? Are you going back to treating me like an asshole?” Iowen demanded angrily.

  “No… I just see things differently, so I’m really bad at explaining it to… others,” Lucas breathed.

  “To humans,” Iowen filled in. Lucas didn’t reply.

  What the hell are you?

  They were done with the bodies, so they closed the heavy metal door behind themselves. Lucas locked them, broke a key inside the keyhole and put the rest of the keys into his pocket.

  “So much for having an escape route back to the arena,” Iowen remarked.

  “We won’t need be needing it, our exit is the eastern passage,” Lucas reminded her.

  Iowen looked over the massive cavern. It looked like before, except the water was pouring down wildly from the holes in the ceiling. Lucas turned to the stairs and went to descend toward the city at the central hill.

  “For Palai!” he whispered and then he was gone.

  32

  Iowen

  Iowen was making her way up the wall of the cavern slowly. The adhesive gloves and shoes worked great, but it was very far. She
has been climbing for about forty minutes and was finally close to reaching the bars through which the waterfalls were falling in. The city under her was quiet and peaceful, Lucas was apparently succeeding in staying undetected.

  Iowen got to the first set of bars. They were massive and sturdy, but they did have a lock at the side. Iowen examined the lock. It was large but primitive. She stuck her glove to the ceiling. She reached with her free hand into her pocket to take out a lock pick. It was easy to unlock. The second it did, the bars opened downward and the water started falling in much more aggressively of before.

  Uggh, what a stench.

  The water stank of fish and looked greasy. It also made the rocks more slippery than water normally does.

  Fish? This water is hell suspicious.

  She heard the distant shouting from below and realized she needs to move fast.

  I don’t have time to analyze this.

  Iowen went on to the second set of bars, then the third, fourth and the fifth. She quickly opened all six of them and went on to climb to the eastern side. The stench of fish was overwhelming and followed her as she went. She dodged the water, but her cloak likely got a bit soaked. Down under her, the people were starting to panic. The unregulated waterfalls were too much for the system of the water reservoirs to handle, so it was splashing all over the city. Screams filled the air and Iowen kept climbing.

  The water might mess up with the adhesive; I need to hurry.

  She climbed as fast as she could. Then, she heard the beating of wings behind her. Iowen looked over her shoulder and saw three creatures flying in the air.

  Well… fuck.

  The creatures were thin with leathery wings, their bodies scaly. They resembled men but had their mouths extended into long, vicious beaks and hands integrated into wings. Their legs ended with bird-like talons instead of human feet. Iowen looked down; she was still at least a hundred feet above the ground.

  Way too much to jump, I hope they don’t notice me too fast.

  Iowen sped up her climb to maximum speed she could. The birdmen were flying around the open bars but were apparently unable to close them.

  Can’t find the padlocks? It seems that someone dropped them… clumsy me.

  Iowen wanted to laugh but was too busy climbing. Soon, she heard the beating of the wings getting closer.

  Looks like I was noticed.

  Iowen attached her right climbing glove to her torso and drew her long sword. She kept climbing as if nothing was happening. The beating of wings was getting closer. Closer. Iowen spun to turn around and latch with her left hand on the wall. Claws clung to the stone as they hit the wall. Her head was in that location mere second ago. Iowen lashed with her sword. It was too heavy to use with one hand for long, but she didn’t need much time. The sharp blade cut the air and hit the creature from the side. It shrieked as the blade connected. Intestines spilled out as the creature detached from the wall and started gliding down.

  The second one was approaching her fast. Iowen hid the blade behind her back, so the creature didn’t get to see its full length. It descended upon her claws first. Iowen waited. When it folded its wing to strike, she slashed with her sword. The creature tried to block with a wing, but the strike was strong enough to break the bone supporting it. The claws dug into Iowen’s sides. Her armor took most of the impact, but they still managed to pierce through. The pain exploded through her body when the claws detached as the creature started falling. Her hand slipped and she bent away from the wall. The adhesive on the legs managed to hold, so she bent backward to reattach her arm, then flipped her body over to get the legs in position.

  The third creature hit the wall with talons not even a second after. Iowen stabbed up with the sword. The creature screamed but detached and went on for a second attack. This time it was coming at her with the beak. It aimed at her chest. Iowen swung her sword sideways to misdirect the attack. She hit the skull from the side. The beak buried in her left shoulder. Iowen screamed with pain. The creature went limp and started falling as the spray of her blood shattered its beak and froze its eyes and brain. Iowen quickly sheathed her sword and put back the adhesive glove on her right hand. She caught herself back on the wall and took a few minutes to calm down.

  I can’t move my left hand and I have about half an hour to get to the exit.

  Iowen did what she could to make her left hand unstick itself from the wall and fall by her body. With a few precise twitches, she managed to make the arm stick itself to her cloak. That made movement easier. Her shoulder was shooting pain through her whole body with every move. But she had to move. Slowly, she kept descending the wall. The panic in the city on the middle hill was becoming more and more palpable. The water kept pouring down in six massive waterfalls. The stench of fish in the air was becoming insufferable. Slowly and painfully, Iowen was descending by the wall of the cavern. There was no sign of Lucas. Then she heard another beating of wings and her heart almost stopped.

  That sounds way bigger.

  Iowen looked over her shoulder and saw a massive monster flying towards her. It vaguely resembled the others. It had a massive beak, two large fly-like eyes above it and a body covered by scales. It was staying up in the air by beating four massive wings. Its body was long, had four pairs of arms, two pairs of legs and a long tail.

  What nightmare did this crawl out of?

  Iowen looked around desperately. The creature was a less than a minute of flight away. The city was in chaos; men were moving around toward the gate in the eastern passage. She couldn’t see there over the cave wall, but when she focused on listening, she heard sounds of fighting.

  They wouldn’t fight among themselves..

  Iowen started sliding down the cavern wall to speed up her climb. She slipped and barely held onto it with only her right hand. The monster was almost at her. Iowen sprung her body upwards. She dodged the massive beak but got grazed by the head. The impact knocked the air out of her lungs and sent her flying. Iowen spit into its eye. The monster roared in pain at the same time as she hit the cavern wall and latched onto it. The greasy water splashed her as the monster hit the wall above her. The monster twisted its body for an attack. Iowen bent forward by instinct. The tail of the large monster hit the wall above her. It grazed the top of her head. The white mask shattered and pain burst through her. Iowen wailed and lost grip on the wall. She went into free fall. Midflight, Iowen saw the monster detach from the wall to fly again. Then she hit the ground. Pain echoed through her body as she heard her own bones break. She spit blood as her vision turned hazy with a shade of light blue. She turned her head to see it starting to make a turn. Men were running around her. They wore black. Some stepped on her, one even fell over her and quickly scrambled on his feet. She didn’t feel it anymore. Her ears were ringing and her body was in so much pain that getting stepped on changed nothing. She just traced the monster with her eyes. She saw how it made a turn. She watched it starting to dive towards her. Iowen watched it getting closer. Terrified… terrified of her own helplessness. Someone stepped over her and planted a massive pavise in the ground. The edge of a shield dug into the ground.

  A deafening boom sounded through the cave. The person and shield held.

  How?

  The person was massive, dressed in red and gold full plate armor with a helmet shaped to make a symbol of Palai on the front. She saw the person let go of the shield and unstrap a massive maul from its back. The maul looked like a large round black rock attached to a metal stick. It was like a huge lollipop. The person swung it left and Iowen caught with the corner of her eye how the maul met with the tail of the monster. The tail was thrown off and crashed into the wall. The monster roared and pushed forward against the shield once more. The knight rammed its shoulder into the shield and flung it up. The shield flew up and exposed the beak of the beast. The person swung the maul upwards, hitting the beak of the monster. Its head flew upwards. As it flew up, multiple large arrows hit it into the exposed chest. The mon
ster shrieked and the knight stepped in and hit it with a huge two-handed swing. Even through the ringing in her ears, Iowen heard the scream of the monster and its body breaking as it was sent flying backward. Other Palai soldiers started to swarm around her.

  “Wrap her up!” the knight shouted.

  I know this voice.

  The person leaped back to her and put her face in front of Iowens.

  “Is Lucas with you?” the person asked.

  Merewen?

  “Is Lucas with you? Blink once if yes, twice if no!” Merewen ordered her. Iowen focused and blinked twice.

  Soldiers came to her and started wrapping a heavy wet cloak around her.

  “Time is up, return to the gate!” Merewen ordered. She turned around to face the monster as it was getting ready for another attack.

  The soldiers started retreating and carefully carried Iowen with them. She saw the monster lounge at Merewen. She dodged and hit it with the maul again. The beasts head flew sideways with most of its body following it. Its tail now lay limp to its side. Merewen hit it again, then grabbed something from its body and pulled it out. It was a long black spear.

  That’s Lucas’ spear! Iowen realized and dread crept through her.

  Merewen hit the monster again and it leaped back to regroup its strength. Merewen looked at the spear, let the hand go slack by her body as she looked at the beast. Fire sparked from the fist holding the spear and it instantly enveloped it in flames. Her armor caught on fire and the air itself started to be filled with fire.

  Whale oil! That’s what has been pouring down!

  Iowen realized with horror as she saw the fire spread.

  “For Palai!”

  Merewen made a few steps and threw the spear forward. It flew far past the monster The small drops of oil sprinkling through the air caught fire as the spear split the air. Iowen and the soldiers were already beyond the gate. Her view was blocked by the soldiers piling the wet cloth, Iowen saw the entire cavern engulfed in an inferno and burning beast attacking Merewen. The screaming started.