The Seeds of Evermore

by Andrew Haines

  She looked at him, “It might not be flammable. I doubt that the poison itself would effect that Spriggan, I designed it for human combatants, like that sorcerer.”

  “Well time to find out.” He dipped part of the ripped cloth into the vial. He made sure to get enough on there before putting the cap back on and placing it back into his bag.

  “Uh guys?” Charlotte started, “Whatever you are going to do, do it fast, the water has started to ripple again, and I think that Spriggan is coming back!”

  Tuomas swore as he tried to get the sparks catch the cloth on fire. “Come on, come on!” he yelled.

  The surface of the water split again and the Spriggan rose from the depths. It howled at them and its hand began to twist and turn, as if starting to cast a spell. The wind began to howl around them. “Tuomas!” Alissa yelled with fear.

  “I’m trying!” He yelled back, “Don’t just stand there! Stall it!”

  A bolt flew through the air and hit the Spriggan from Charlotte’s position. Alissa pulled out a hidden dagger from her thigh guard. Taking a deep breath, she aimed trying to take into account the air movement around her. Sighing, “Here goes nothing,” She threw the dagger towards the Spriggan at an angle.

  The dagger whirred past the Spriggan and splashed into the water, Alissa had missed, “Damn it!” She yelled in frustration.

  The sound of the fire starter clicked, “I told you it wasn’t flammable!” Alissa howled back at Tuomas.

  Under his breath Tuomas continued, “Come on, come on,” the cloth caught fire, “Got it!” He exclaimed, “Stand back I have one shot at this!”

  The others made sure to move away from Tuomas as he knocked the arrow on the bow.

  Alissa looked confused when she saw the arrow lit, “That shouldn’t have worked,” she whispered to herself.

  Tuomas let the arrow fly, his aim would place the arrow in center mass of the Spriggan. The arrow hit the Spriggan right where Tuomas had aimed. “Burn to a crisp you piece of shit.”

  The Spriggan howled at the pain the fire was causing it. Charlotte expected the Spriggan to plunge back into the water, but to her surprise it ran towards them over the top of the water, “She’s coming for us!” She hollered out to the others.

  Alissa held up her wooden shield up against the Spriggan. She braced for the force of the Spriggan’s weight, when she felt another hand brace against hers on the shield handhold. Looking back for a moment she saw Donovan up against her to help hold the force of the Spriggan. “Eyes front!” Donovan yelled out to her, putting his weight on her back to help counter the dying Spriggan. She looked back towards the Spriggan and leaned into her stance.

  Donovan braced Alissa as the Spriggan hit the shield as dead weight. The force that hit the shield cracked the wood down the center. The Spriggan cried out as its barky skin burned and its leaves caught fire. Charlotte moved quickly and engaged the creature from the side, piercing its wooden hide. It groaned like a tree trunk and sappy material spilled from the wound. The burning Spriggan slumped down to its knees.

  Tuomas took the acorn out of his satchel pocket and moved away from the pond of water. “I’m going to summon that fairy thing.” The others nodded as they watched the corpse of the Spriggan begin to char and turn to ash.

  Tuomas used the heel of his boot to dig up a spot to place the acorn in. Once he thought the hole was deep enough, he placed the acorn inside of it. He carefully scooped the dirt back on top of it, making sure to cover all of it with no part showing. Standing he saw the Fairy appear out of the forest in front of him and the others. “You have done well, I didn’t expect you to succeed. Most mortals don’t have the ability to hurt a Spriggan let alone kill one.” It paused for a moment, “Very well, you held up your end of the deal, and I shall keep to my word.” It held up a patchwork bag, its arm extended to Tuomas. He took it and nodded in gratitude. “Now.” It started again, “Leave my forest, and do not return here, I don’t like visitors.” The creature rose its hands, and began to speak in its tongue they did not understand.

  With a delicate movement of motions with the chanting, they all felt themselves being swirled with an odd feeling. Charlotte closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she saw all of them standing on the edge of the forest where they had entered. Looking around all four of them were there, along with their horses. “That thing teleported us to the edge of the forest.” She started, “Wish we had that ability.”

  Tuomas looked around, “That was freaky. I would rather not do that again.”

  The other two agreed with Tuomas, “Whatever.” Charlotte rebutted, still thinking that having a power or spell like that would have been much more useful than the horses getting place to place.

  Tuomas took out his map from his satchel after setting the bag of ingredients on the ground. He opened it up, “Well if we are at the edge of the forest it should only be a few hours back to the town.”

  “We should get back as soon as we can.” Alissa responded, “I don’t know how long it will take me to make this potion, if I can make it at all that is.”

  Tuomas looked up from the map, “I know how to get the recipe. It should be smooth sailing from here, until we lure Scott into a trap to give him the potion.” He tucked the map back into the satchel and grabbed the ingredients bag back off of the ground.

  They mounted the horses and began back towards town. Everything is coming together, not too much longer now: Charlotte thought: I almost have him back.

  The two hour ride back to the town felt short, they were all excited and full of anticipation. They took a breather and let the horses rest before the last few hours back to Crystle and back to everyone to tell them what had happened and what other plans were now in motion.

  The four of them were sitting in the in talking and eating. The barmaid gave them the discount again, and refused the full payment from Tuomas. She claimed that business was better because of them and wanted to show them her gratitude. They had been served boar and potatoes, just like their first night in the Inn all that time ago. “It feels so weird to be back here after everything has transpired over the last few months.” Alissa said, “I know we were here a few days ago, but for some reason, it feels different this time.”

  “It’s probably the food, this was the exact same meal we had the first day we were trapped here.” Donovan responded before putting a chunk of meat into his mouth.

  Alissa nodded slowly at his response, “Maybe,” She looked at Charlotte, “I just can’t stop thinking about what Scott told us on that day. About his time in Cogs of War and what he had been through.”

  Charlotte looked at her with a smile, “I have been thinking about that since he told us.”

  Alissa looked at Tuomas, then to Donovan who continued eating, “I wonder where we would be if he didn’t fall of the cliff.”

  Donovan made a loud gulping sound, “Don’t start thinking about that. That is a spiral we should avoid at all costs. That’s what I did right after we lost him, why I spent so many days at the forge.”

  Tuomas chimed in, “A different spot, and probably no farther than we were when we defeated them.”

  “But he took on that Fire Drake alone.” Alissa countered, “I don’t even want to think about how that would have actually gone if we had to face it.”

  “Then don’t!” Donovan responded he started to sound like he was annoyed, “Can we not talk about this? I would rather not feel depressed again, and I finally have been able to come to terms with what happened on that day.”

  Alissa didn’t continue talking about Scott or the events that led up to him falling from the cliff. They finished rest of their meals and headed back to their horses. When they were approached by a single man. “Excuse me, message for you.” the man handed Tuomas a letter and left without another word.

  The others looked at him. He shrugged and broke the wax seal that kept the letter folded.

  24:

  Tuomas read over the letter before stating anyth
ing that was in it. “This is weird. It is from the King. Why would he be sending anything to me?”

  The others looked at him, waiting for some context of what was going on. “Sorry.” He continued, “I was thinking out loud. This letter is from the King of Crystle, addressed to me personally. He has a proposition for me, well us, the group. He doesn’t go into detail and it looks more like he needs help answering a question about what has been going on around the lands. Like I said he isn’t specific about the details but wants us to come to the castle at our earliest convenience for him to discuss these matters. As he states it.”

  They stood there in silence, contemplating what Tuomas had said. The silence broke when Charlotte spoke, “So why us?”

  “I would like to know myself.” Tuomas responded, “We really haven’t done that much that would get the attention of the king to request an audience specifically for us. Or at least I don’t think so.”

  “Well then we go ask him ourselves when we get back.” Alissa commented, “There may be something we missed that we may count as insignificant where the King does not.”

  The others nodded at her statement. “Okay let’s make this ride, we need to get back to the city and work both of these things soon.” Tuomas said putting the letter into his satchel.

  Mounting their horses again, they began the last leg home to Crystle.

  ***

  They arrived back to the city where their first thought was to go the Inn where they would find Nick at to fill him in and head to the castle to find Elana and meet the King. They strolled in with all of their gear off of the horses and Nick was behind the bar area in an empty Inn. The Inn is empty except for him. Good, we don’t have to usher out any patrons: Tuomas thought as the door creaked open. He tapped his foot loud enough for Nick to hear it.

  Nick looked up from the task he was doing to see everyone standing there. “Why are you guys back? You left like, what, four days ago or something?” He asked them with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Long story, we need to get going to the castle and you need to come with us.” Tuomas answered, his voice slightly excited, “Like right now.” he gestured Nick to follow.

  “Right, then tell me on the way up.” Nick said hobbling around from the bar, “Don’t leave out any details.”

  They backtracked out of the Inn and headed towards the center of the city where the castle was standing. The stone brick that was used to build the monstrosity that the castle was much larger than anything that they had seen in the rest of the city, even the defensive walls were not the same size. Tuomas said that he got the idea from old architectural designs that he saw in a historical exhibit.

  He didn’t remember when the designs were made but they were from a central European country from the mid-1900s. The stone was smooth to the touch, a misleading feel to the grey- gritted tone and texture they gave off to the naked eye. Colossal towers rained above them. “I now understand why we could see these things from outside the city walls.” Alissa said as they stood at the foot of one of the watch towers.

  Standing in front of the doors that lead to the inner chamber, were four guards in full plate armor, halberds in hand, “Halt, state your business here.” The one to the immediate right of the door asked in a booming voice and the party approached them.

  Tuomas ruffled through his satchel and pulled out the note from the King, “We have been asked for an audience before his royal majesty.”

  The guard took the note for a moment. He looked at the wax seal, and the signature at the bottom of the letter. Upon his completion, he handed the letter back to Tuomas and nodded at the other guards, “Proceed.”

  The two guards closest to the door pushed open the wooden doors and allowed them to pass. Once they were all through the door, the wood creaked behind them as the guards pulled the door closed. They walked just over ten feet when they saw two familiar faces, Elana and Sir Belthor were there talking with each other outside the King’s throne room. Elana turned her head, and her eyes widened, “What are you all doing back here?” She completely changed away from whatever she and Sir Belthor were discussing.

  “Long story, but two things that are quite important.” Tuomas started turning his attention to Sir Belthor, “First off, Sir Belthor?”

  “Yes?” Sir Belthor acknowledged.

  “The Almerian Kingdom is gone, not a soul left.” he paused, “Alive that is, undead is a different story. The sorcerer is running rampant in the other kingdoms.”

  With no other questions he responded, “Understood, I will make sure to send out scouts to our border.” he saluted and dismissed himself to carry out the rest of his duties and report the news that Tuomas had just informed him about.

  Tuomas looked back at Elana, “We got what we needed. Not in the most conventional way, but we didn’t have to deal with the undead more than we needed too.”

  Elana walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, “I am glad you all safe.” She looked at the others, “But that doesn’t explain why you are here.”

  Charlotte spoke up, “Tuomas received a letter from a courier while we were on our way back to Crystle. It was from the King requesting our presence.”

  Elana had a puzzled look on her face, “I don’t know why he didn’t tell me, or at least let me know that he sent that letter to you, it would have been much faster if he had done that.”

  “Well I can think of one possibility.” Tuomas said, “The timing was abnormally perfect, just minutes before we left the town, and knowing that we would be right there at that time is almost close to a video game level of programing level, knowing where we are. Drake could have had a programmer set this up since we have meddled with his plans, this could be a trap, and I just now realized this.”

  Charlotte shook her head in disapproval, “No, I don’t think that would be the case, Drake holding up Liz’s messages is one thing. But making this a trap with all of these people being controlled by an A.I. that would have messed something up in the world without…” She put up her hands to add quotes to her words, “Turning the world off.” She put her hands down, “I think there may be something else going on here.”

  Alissa and Donovan agreed with Charlotte; Tuomas stood there thinking, “Eh, I couldn’t say for sure. But if that is the case, you are right and there may be a different hand behind this.” He looked at the throne room door, and gestured toward it, “Shall we?”

  The six of them entered the throne room and the King was sitting upon his throne, “Tuomas Fidlin!” his voice boomed through the stone room, “Welcome, please come closer and your companions too, we have much to-” he froze in place mid-sentence.

  The whole room froze around them, even Elana froze, but the others were still coherent. “Uh well, okay…” Donovan started, “Trap it is.”

  “Not quite.” A voice echoed through the room. A flash of light illuminated the throne room. A humanoid shape stood in front of them. A blue hue came off of its body, “Hello everyone, it is so nice to finally meet you all. I hope this isn’t too quick for you to process, we don’t have long. And I shall also apologize in advance.”

  “Uh what is going on here?” Alissa asked, “And who are you?”

  “I am Archangel, this world’s caretaker.” the humanoid stated, “Like I said, we do not have long, may I continue, time is of the essence.”

  They nodded, “Thank you. Oh where to begin…” it stood there in silence for a moment, “Right, well first off I hope you are all ready to have Scott back, it is rightfully time that you were all rejoined together for the next step is upon us.”

  Charlotte mouth started to form words, “Please wait my dear, let me finish, my dear.” Archangel asked.

  She stopped before the words echoed from her mouth. Archangel continued in a monotone voice, “All that has been done here has been set in motion by me, and it is time to put you up the test of this world, I ran the calculations but Scott will not be able to do it alone, no matter how strong or dedicated he is. A
team, his team, you all.”

  Archangel moved around the room as he talked, “There is much that still needs to be done, oh yes, and the moment I lift this time freeze you will need to retrieve him, for he has found it, the god killer, the sword Exuberus. It has the strength to free this digital world from the virus goddess that has been plaguing it. You will save it and move to the next one.”

  “Next one what?” Tuomas asked.

  “We’ll get to that later, I am almost out of time.” Archangel continued, “You will find him in the cabin you told Liz to take him to Tuomas, go there fix his memory and prepare for the Goddess of Demonica, Hela.” Archangel moved towards Tuomas, “I took your ingredients and placed the potion in your possession, now go retrieve Scott.”

  “Wait are you responsible for his memory loss?” Charlotte asked demandingly to Archangel.

  “And if I was, what do you think you can do to me?” Archangel responded, “You are not being rash my dear, and I would put that anger to better use towards the last major trial of this world.”

  Time began to move again around them, “-discuss, I have a favor to ask of you all.” the king started right where had been before the time stop.

  They all took a moment to readjust, Elana looked at them, and whispered to them, “Answer him!”

  Tuomas looked at the king trying to grasp what had just happened, “Of course my lord, what is it that you wish for us to do?”

  The king looked upon them, “The masked man, I need you to remove him. He has become a problem, he is throwing the cosmic balance out of order in our world. At least that is what my magical advisors have been telling me. I am hiring you to remove him by any means. You will be awarded ten thousand gold each.”

  They all stood there, “Ten thousand?” Nick said under his breath, “Holy hell that is enough to buy the Inn three times over.”

  Tuomas looked at the others with a face that read, no way is this a coincidence, “We accept my lord.”

  “Good!” the King spoke in excitement, “That will be all, I have other tasks I must see to.” He waved his hand at them to be pardoned from his presence.