Halcyon Rising_Bastion of Hope

by Stone Thomas

  She lifted a purple arm in the air and summoned a handful of lilac bunnies. The creatures materialized in puffs of smoke, just like Kāya’s dramatic entry into the temple.

  Vix didn’t lose a moment. She stepped forward and caught Kāya in an arc of orange light. Her war hammer slammed into the ground, sending a Twitch Hitter right at the floating goddess.

  Kāya didn’t fall into a seizure the way the cursed twolves had. She simply waved Vix off. “Silly foxkin, tricks are for rabbits!”

  I stepped forward with a Piercing Blow, but two anibombs cocked their eyeless heads to the side and exploded, blowing a wooden pew into a cloud of wood chips. I called off my attack to avoid getting caught in the blast.

  “Vix!” I yelled. “Stun these things so I can slay them.”

  She nodded and turned her attack toward two lilac foes. Before they could cock their heads, she had them twitching uncontrollably on the floor. I sank my spear into each of them in turn, releasing a gush of pale purple energy and ending the rabbits before they could blow us to splinters of bone and meat.

  That pale ooze lifted from the ground in thin strands and sailed toward my pocket, filling the last of our tiny energems with anibomb lifeblood.

  The last small monster, however, was free to do its worst. With a tilt of its head, its glistening rabbit ears flopped to the side and it burst into a ball of lilac flame. The destroyed remnants of the temple’s pews caught fire, adding black smoke to a room already hazed with purple from the anibombs’ summoning.

  The walls, ceiling, and floor all glowed gradually brighter as the bastion stone pumped its strengthening energy into the temple. With a large range of effect, the whole small village must be bathed in light.

  “Be gone, little nuisances,” Kāya said. A burst of purple smoke erupted, leaving behind a larger anibomb like the one Cahn had carried.

  “We have to get rid of that before it splits us up,” I said.

  Vix stood, motionless. “I’m too far away.”

  “Here goes,” I said. I pulled my arm back slowly, then launched my spear like a harpoon. It sailed through the air and sank into the solid form of chaos incarnate, slaying the anibomb before it could tear me and Vix apart.

  Kāya covered her ears with her hands. “My little toys have found someone new to play with.”

  Bombs erupted all around the temple in rapid succession. It was like one anibomb had set off the next and then the next. They were like dominos, but their crust wasn’t filled with cheese. It was filled with napalm.

  The front doors to the temple burst open, and in stepped the man Vix and I had seen at the front gates. He glanced at me, then Vix. “I got tired of waiting. Is this your temple?”

  “Yes,” Kāya said, at the same time that I said, “no.”

  “I found hostages!” a man yelled from the side of the temple. It was Carzl. He emerged from the stairwell that led to my least favorite place in Laranj’s temple. The catacombs.

  Then the walls began to rumble as Meadowdale’s buildings collapsed from the combined explosions.

  “This whole place is imploding before the bastion stone’s connection can complete!” Kāya yelled. “Fine, keep your lousy temple. I’m leaving.”

  She reached for the bastion stone with both hands, bringing the energem to her mouth and pursing her lips.

  “Oh, that’s nice,” she said, drinking in the stone’s energy. “Mmm, yes, oh baby, yum.”

  “She’s a little too into that, don’t you think?” Vix asked. I already had my spear raised. I wanted to throw it at the gem, but Nola had said not to kill Kāya. I wasn’t sure my aim was that precise.

  It took only a moment to empty the gem of its power. Kāya rose high in the air, a purple crystal forming rapidly around her body. It shattered just as quickly as Kāya evolved not once, but twice. Two bursts of purple light pulsed from her body and filled the room. Then she threw the spent energem against the stone floor where it cracked in half.

  I knew what that meant. Standing in the presence of divine evolution granted a lot of XP, but it felt dirty absorbing that experience from Kāya. It was too late though. She had set the village’s destruction in motion, destroyed the gem we had hoped to bring home, and she’d get away with all of it.

  Before she flew through the air like a paper airplane and out the front door of the crumbling temple, she summoned a final gift. Anibombs. Lots and lots of anibombs.

  +13

  “You!” I yelled, pointing at the man that detonated the entire town. “Freeze!”

  “You have no authority,” he said, his voice high and his pace quick, “to speak that way to an imperial lawmonger.”

  “These rabbits will explode if you don’t stop moving,” I said.

  “Oh,” he replied. “Clean this up, then. I’ll wait.”

  “Carzl, you said there were hostages?” I asked.

  “Downstairs,” he replied. “Behind an iron gate.”

  “You smell terrible,” Vix said, covering her nose with her arm.

  “It would appear,” Carzl said, “the hygienic facilities down below are lacking.”

  “I have to save them,” I said. “They are the closest thing to a ‘people’ I had for most of my life. I turned heel and ran last time, I can’t abandon them now. Vix, if you stun these monsters, you can all run out the front door and get out of the village before the temple collapses.”

  “Are you kidding?” she asked. “I’m not leaving you here. If you want to save those people, I go with you. What we do, we do together, remember?”

  “I’m coming too,” the newcomer said. “As an imperial lawmonger, it is my responsibility to investigate potential infractions of the universal imperial criminal code. Keeping hostages is one such crime.”

  “Count me in,” Carzl said. “To the rescue!” He disappeared the way he came, which was easy for him to do since none of Kāya’s familiars crowded the entrance to the catacombs.

  Vix lifted her hammer and sent out an arc of bright light, paralyzing two anibombs. It was the best she could do. With that, we ran, setting off the rest of the monsters and forcing two support columns in the temple to crumble apart. The ceiling tilted downward, the weight of the entire temple resting on only half of its structural supports.

  Leaping over destroyed pews, we made it to the catacombs’ entrance just in time. As we descended the first few steps that led to the underground burial tunnels, rocks and debris crashed outside the door’s frame, sealing us in the underground.

  We all stopped to catch our breath. “Tell me again,” I said, “who you are?”

  “I am Yurip Knobble,” the newcomer said, “imperial lawmonger assigned to this territory. After a routine audit at Valleyvale, I assumed this minor outpost would be an afternoon’s work at most. My optimism, however, has left me.”

  “How did you get in here?” I asked. “The front gates were locked.”

  “I have master keys to every official population center in my territory, as well as the emergency vault in the mountains,” he said. “Now, I really must speak with the man in charge as it seems criminal to leave a village in this status.”

  “There is no man in charge,” I said. “Meadowdale wasn’t large enough to have a mayor. We all just sort of lived. It worked out okay, though head priest Cahn usually got involved to settle disputes.”

  “Is he the one that collected and remitted taxes to the empire?” Yurip asked.

  “I wouldn’t know,” I said.

  “And who are you, that you know some things and not others?” he asked.

  “Arden,” I said. “I’m the head priest of—”

  “Halcyon!” Yurip said. “Oh, I’ve heard of you. You’re on my list. The mayor of Valleyvale has accused you of illegal skillmeistering. How do you plead?”

  “I plead later,” I said. “Let’s get on with saving the people buried in these tombs. Well, not all of them. Not the dead ones. They’d probably prefer if we left them in their tombs undisturbed.”


  “You’re not leaving my sight,” Yurip said.

  “Great,” I muttered, “Yurip Knobble has joined your party.”

  “What was that?” He practically squeaked with each word.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  We walked in the dark until Carzl pulled a small stone from his bag. He held it in his palm and took the lead, shining a faint light in every direction. “Torchstone,” he said, “enchanted in the elf lands. Not much magic left in it, but it should suffice for now.”

  “It really does smell down here,” I said.

  “Worse than Halcyon,” Vix said.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “We have too many people not to have a proper sewer,” Vix said, “but I’m not equipped for that. I build up, not down.”

  I heard a quill scratch against a piece of parchment. “Yurip,” I asked, “are you taking notes?”

  “Writing a citation,” he said. “It’s dark, but I could do it with my eyes closed. I’ve written a lot of citations for health and safety violations.”

  “Wonderful,” I said.

  “I rather think so,” Yurip said, still scratching away.

  Deep into the catacombs, we heard the weak, tired sounds of women young and old. This was where Duul had locked up the citizens of the village that he hadn’t turned into warriors. Here he kept women until the day he’d force them to carry his demigod children.

  “An iron gate,” I said.

  “Leave it to me,” Vix said.

  “A thief of some kind,” Yurip said. “Hmm.”

  “Ignore him,” I said. Vix poked and prodded at the lock with her lock picks. I just walked away.

  “I can’t get it,” she said. The tunnel shook with what must have been the further collapse of the temple overhead.

  I walked back toward her. I tapped her on the shoulder. I jingled a keyring with a handful of iron keys.

  “I used to work here, remember?” I asked. “I know where the keys are.”

  I unlocked the door and we proceeded into the catacombs, past the stone tombs of the village’s notable graves. Each held the long-decayed body of some adventurer or another who lost their life exploring and fighting for glory and profit. The more successful adventurers were buried in larger cities.

  It dawned on me that Cahn must have sold these burial spots to adventurers. He even found a way to squeeze gold out of death.

  Toward the very back of the tunnel, cowered against the wall, were old women, young girls, and everyone in between. “We’re here to rescue you,” I said. “All who can walk, help someone who can’t.”

  A woman stepped forward, into the dim illumination cast by the torchstone. “Is that the temple boy… Hardon?”

  “It’s Arden,” I said. “And yes, it’s me. I’m back, Rinka.” She threw her arms around me and began to cry. I didn’t know what to do. This woman had never spared me more than a passing glance in all my years in Meadowdale.

  “They took Parmo,” she said. “I don’t know where they all went.”

  “It’ll be okay,” I said. “He’ll be okay. Let’s get back to Halcyon to get you all cleaned up and fed. Then we can figure out what’s next.”

  The ground rattled again. A chunk of rock fell from the low ceiling and landed on one of the adventurers’ tombs. A cascade of stones rolled down the steps at the other end of the tunnel. It was the one and only way in or out of this underground burial system.

  “How exactly are we getting out of here?” Vix asked.

  Just then, the twolf pup jumped out of Carzl’s bag and ran up to me. I dipped down to pick him up.

  “We’re going to beg,” I said. “You know that one, boy? Beg?” Both of his faces just stared at me, mouth open, breathing quickly. “It’s okay, we’ll work on it.”

  “Ess!” I yelled. “Gi-ant queen! I know you’re listening. I have an offer to make.”

  I waited. I didn’t know if she was listening. I didn’t even know if she was done pooping out new gi-ant eggs. All I knew was that we were trapped under the ruins of the temple, and if someone didn’t burrow in here and lead us to the surface, the catacombs would implode on all of us. That, as they say, would be a bummer.

  The wait was tense. Here were twenty or so women that hadn’t seen the light of day — or a proper shower — in weeks. Suddenly we burst in and gave them hope. I really needed that hope to be worth something.

  Finally, something poked through the dirt floor. Powerful mandibles jutted from its jaw. Its antennae wiggled frantically. Then it dived back inside its hole. A moment later, the gi-ant Ess emerged from the underground, carried by two (rather unlucky) gi-ants that supported her massive abdomen.

  She glanced at the women before turning toward me. “I accept.”

  “Accept what?” I asked.

  “The offer of human flesh in exchange for your lives,” she said. “I’ll allow you to leave this place unharmed. For now.”

  “That’s not at all what I’m offering,” I said. “I’m offering you food. Not a desperate one-time meal of human flesh, but a consistent diet of fruits and vegetables, as your kind are accustomed to.”

  “You lie,” she said. “I should eat you all here while you’re trapped like pigs.”

  “You don’t want to eat us,” I said. “You said yourself, eating humans is a last resort. Come to Halcyon. Pledge your fealty to the goddess Nola. We’ll offer you shelter and food, if you promise to treat our people with respect and help us make the most of our new home.”

  “Halcyon,” she said. “Is that what you call your settlement on the hill? Gi-ants do love hills…”

  “You couldn’t fight us all down here even if you wanted to,” I said. “You’re starving, and still producing more eggs. Your children are suffering and weak. Cut the act, Ess. Leader to leader, I’m offering you a lifeline but I need your help to do it. Will you tunnel us to Halcyon?”

  “Arden,” Vix asked. “Are you sure we can feed them all? In addition to the Meadowdale refugees?”

  I shook my head side to side and said, “Yes.” The humans in our group were suitably confused, but Ess minded only my words.

  “You have a deal, leader Arden,” she said. “But tunnel travel is difficult. I want no complaints.”

  “Okay,” I said. And before I could open my mouth again, the room filled with gi-ants. They teemed from the tunnel underground and swarmed around us. They grabbed at our legs and threw us on their backs. Vix, Carzl, Yurip, and I were among the first dragged into the cold, dark tunnel that now ran beneath Meadowdale.

  The gi-ants moved with uncanny speed, filling the ground with insects and people before the temple could crash into a heap of rubble that would sink the catacombs further into the earth.

  I closed my eyes and clung to my gi-ant steed with all of my strength. We moved single-file through the underground passageway in a rapid parade, emerging when Ess directed the lead gi-ants to bring us aboveground.

  In the span of ten harrowing minutes, we had traversed the hour’s walk between Halcyon and Meadowdale.

  “Now,” Ess said as I brushed dirt off my entire body, “where’s our meal?”

  +14

  “Not so fast,” I said. “First, you’ll need to pledge fealty to Nola as new citizens of Halcyon. All bajillion of you.”

  “My children number in the hundreds,” Ess said, “but none will pledge. They do not speak, only listen. Where my loyalties lie, so will theirs.”

  I glanced at the refugees pulling themselves free of the dark tunnel, and the hard, shiny bodies of the gi-ants that brought them here.

  “Fine,” I said. “Your kids stay outside while you and the others pledge. Then I’ll send you up to the culinarian.”

  “This is an affront to the empire!” Yurip said.

  “In what way?” I asked.

  He reached behind himself and pulled a book out of nowhere. So it wasn’t just adventurers that knew that trick.

  “Citizenship is reserved for
humans, elves, and beastkin, per imperial naturalization order 52,” he said, his finger firmly pressed into the middle of a page packed tight with little words. “Plus, it says right here that only population centers named and approved by the empire shall have the right to welcome citizens in the human lands.”

  “Let me see that,” I said, taking the book from Yurip. I snapped the dusty old tome shut and handed it back to him. “No one asked you.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” he said. “The emperor asked me. This is my job.”

  “You’ve met the emperor?” I asked.

  “Well,” he said, “no. I haven’t. I’m several promotions away from earning that privilege. Promotions that will gradually bring me back toward the Imperial City after I prove my mastery of the law.”

  “Do you have the power to register Halcyon as an approved settlement?” I asked.

  “After an inspection,” he said, “perhaps. But the name Halcyon is not on the list of approved names. Available names include Grassyknoll, Hillshire—”

  “We’re not changing our name,” I said.

  Typical empire nonsense, Nola said.

  Nola! My mind raced with everything I had to tell her. I have so much to report back.

  You had a foreboding conversation with Cahn, brought an itemancer back here along with an ant queen and a lawmonger, and you saved the women of Meadowdale but Kāya ate the energem?

  A lucky guess, I said.

  Or I read your… you were kidding.

  Yes, I was kidding.

  “Yurip,” I said, “I’ve been thinking. Since we’re not a bona fide settlement, we’re probably not on your list of places to inspect. You’re a busy man, we shouldn’t keep you here.”

  “The entire Northern Sparseland territory is mine,” Yurip said. “All population centers herein are under my purview, and once I fill out the paperwork to remove Meadowdale from the list of active hospitable towns, my workload will be all the more accommodating.

  “This here will be my first new center to approve — or not — so I’ll stay and take my time with it.”