“Ryker?” Edwin asked.
“Church,” Ryker mumbled, his trot slowly developing into a fast jog.
Turning down a boulevard, Ryker could see there were people standing in the street facing the construction area that the church had simply taken.
There was the rumbling murmur of a crowd and what sounded like a single voice shouting above the tumult.
“What the fuck?” Edwin said loudly.
Ryker didn’t stop till he was at the edge of the crowd. He wasn’t able to see what was going on and started to elbow and shove his way into the crowd.
From Wynne’s disposition, he’d got the impression he really needed to be here for this and to be seen. She had a better grasp of politics and things of that nature than he did.
He’d trusted her so far.
Getting to the front he finally saw, and heard, what was going on.
Vicar Chadwick had a young woman on her knees in the middle of the temple grounds.
She was sobbing with her hands to her face, hunched over.
The vicar and several priests stood around her, as well as a paladin of their order.
“—e audacity to profane these grounds with her filthy disbelief of the light. And the light will administer its truth to the city of Dungeon!” called the vicar. “Despite the dark dungeon’s hold over you all! The light will grace you and accept you. You need only follow its teachings. To listen to the will!”
Raising his arms above his head, the vicar seemed to open himself up to the heavens in that statement.
“And so, we will now execute this creature with the grace of the light, and send her soul, cleansed, to the heavens,” the vicar called, turning to the paladin.
Oh fuck that.
Ryker stepped forward into the space between the crowd and the church and detonated a formless spell construct of air.
It was nothing more than a bit of matter traveling fast. Faster than most people would expect. If it got above a certain point, it made a boom that could actually kill.
The explosive detonation of the spell shut everyone up immediately.
Before the screams could begin, Ryker held up his arms.
“STOP!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“I am the rightful Count of Dungeon. You will do nothing to my citizens without adhering to the laws that I hold here.”
Vicar Chadwick had spun on his heel at the boom. He now stared at Ryker as if he were a serpent.
“You have—”
“Shut your mouth, you damn zealot!” Ryker cried. “I did not give you permission to speak in my presence. You will listen to me, and obey, or I’ll toss you and your followers out of the city. I am the rightful ruler of Dungeon, husband to Diane, and you have no power here that I do not hold over you.
“First, provide me the written legal writ of what she has done, evidence, and statements from witnesses. Or are you going to tell me you have none of these things, and were going to execute someone without a hint of legality? If that’s the case, who’s next? Who will the church kill simply to kill?”
Chadwick was trembling now.
“You will resp—”
“Answer me, vicar!” Ryker shouted over the man. “Do you have any of the proof that the law requires there to be, even for the smallest of crimes? Or are you saying your religion gives you the right to do what you want? And that the citizens of Dungeon are your slaves?”
The murmuring of the crowd had changed pitch and cadence. Now there were whispers that the vicar did indeed view them as slaves. That he wasn’t following the law. That he didn’t care about the queen or her rules.
As if suddenly realizing his position was untenable, the vicar grew still, his eyes flat.
“Fine. Take the woman,” he said, his voice carrying little further than Ryker.
Said woman got to her feet instantly and scrambled away, vanishing into the crowd. No one needed to tell her a second time.
“You have no idea—”
“Yeah, I do. And I really don’t care. I’ve already broken most of your tools that you used. Do you have any left? I’ll be happy to take care of those too, if you like. Though I warn you now, I grow tired of this game. You will respect my rule, or I’ll use one of my own tools,” Ryker said.
“Is that a threat?” Chadwick asked darkly.
“Yes. It is. It’s a threat. Treat it as one. In fact, treat it as a promise, a guaran-fucking-tee. Want me to write it out for you instead?”
Chadwick gave him the same cold, dead stare he seemed to be born with.
“You have no idea—”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Ryker said interrupting him. “Got anything else more original in there for me? I’d like to go get lunch and I really don’t have the time to deal with you,” Ryker said. He turned around and threw an idle wave over his shoulder.
“The church will save you all!” Chadwick shouted at the top of his lungs. “We’ll save you from this dark dungeon whether you wish to be saved or not! I’ll destroy it with my hands personally!”
“That sounds a lot like a declaration of war to me, Wynne. What do you think?” Ryker sent to her.
“I would agree. That makes our options much more valid. The cost on mana is much less since it will be easier to adhere to the rules,” she said immediately.
“I know you’re avoiding talking to me about those rules, my queen. At the start you made them seem like they were much easier to deal with. We’ll need to have that conversation sometime. For now, what can we do about the church?” he asked.
Wynne didn’t immediately respond, but he could feel shame through the bond. Fear and longing tinged it as well.
His statement must have knocked her off balance more than he thought, because those felt rather alien coming from her.
“We could simply attack the church grounds. The costs for monsters would be much lower. And building avatars specific to that end would be quite cheap. It’s well within our mana budget,” Wynne said.
He didn’t like that idea. He nodded his head as Edwin said something and gestured to the road. Ryker followed him, thinking.
“No. I want to… I want to declare the temple grounds as a battleground. Smash a sign down in front of it declaring that. Yeah. Yeah I like this. Have the sign read that we’ll be battling for control of the temple. Then start sending low-cost, low-ability monsters to fight anyone in the battleground who is part of the church,” Ryker said.
“You… want to turn it into a fight?”
“Yeah. King of the hill style. Then, if they defeat the first wave, we’ll send another wave of stronger monsters, then a stronger one, then an even stronger one. If we kick them out of the temple, we’ll hold it while they prepare a counterattack. It provides a way for them to win, which makes it even cheaper, right?”
“That it does… and what happens if they win?”
“They won’t. Worse case, you send my avatar in, and I turn the place into an inferno or a crater. I don’t count, remember? Going to abuse that.
“Now, time for lunch. See you later, my queen.”
Chapter 30- Growth -
Meino was chewing happily away on what could only be oats. Her battle axe resting against her side. She towered over him as he sat there, contemplating his options.
Looking to the source of his consternation, Ryker sighed. In front of him was a work table, empty of anything, except for the core that held Robyn.
He was due to see Diane in an hour or so and had time to kill.
A cracked oat bounced off his head and landed on the back of his hand. Glancing up at her, he stared.
“Sowwy,” she said around a mouthful of oats.
“Chew with your mouth closed,” Ryker said absently, looking back to golden glowing core.
He looked down at the broken oat and went to flick it, then paused.
Can you make a paladin fall?
A wizard or mage that falls ends up as a warlock or a necromancer.
What about a pala
din? Could she be a death knight, minus the dark pantheon?
And how would I do that?
A single large armored minotaur finger brushed the back of his hand, moving the oat off. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better. Are you okay?” Meino asked.
“Yeah. Just a little… worn. Thanks for asking.”
One of Meino’s big hands landed on his shoulder and clamped down on him. Then something warm and wet slithered from his temple to the back of his head.
Somehow managing to not flinch away, he glanced up at Meino, only to find her tongue en route to his head. It pressed to his hairline and went from the front to the back.
“Uhm, Meino? What are you doing?” he asked. She tilted her head to one side, shifting it as she went in and licked him again.
“Fixing you. You seem anxious,” she said, continuing to groom his hair.
Great.
“Charlotte, you busy?” Ryker called out to the dungeon through his control spell. Meino’s lips nipped at something in his hair before her tongue came out to plaster his hair down to his skull again.
“It’s not my turn, but I can gladly make time if you need me. We’ll have to make it quick and fun, I have a task I must complete soon,” came the response.
“That actually does sound tempting, but I need help with your thoughts instead. I was wondering. You sorted through all those contract killers’ memories, yeah?”
“Oh? Yes. I did. They were quite helpful for my team and I. It helped us to refine some abilities, and learn others.”
“While you went through it. Did you find that the church had used them extensively?”
“Very. They were very reliant on silencing those who spoke up against them. Even people in their own church.”
“Ah. Great. Could you bring me all of their cores?”
“I will. You will owe me a favor for this though.”
“That’s fine. Did the two dungeon cores work out, by the way?”
“Very. I now have two Lieutenants under me who serve my will. Tris and Marybelle are very jealous. I would expect them to be trying to get the same soon.”
Looking up at the big Minotaur above him, he cleared his throat.
“Charlotte is coming,” he said.
“I know. I heard,” Meino responded, continuing to work at his hair. Though he got the impression she wasn’t going to stop there and planned to do the same to his face and neck.
“Ah… alright. Do you think… maybe you should stop?”
“No.”
“Would you stop just for a moment when they enter?”
“Okay.”
So weird. She’s so different.
They didn’t need to wait long before Charlotte showed up with three of her people. They were carrying large sacks and began setting them down around the table.
“Great. Thanks, I appreciate it,” Ryker said, making eye contact with each fairy avatar as they dropped their bags off.
In no time at all, they all left, leaving Ryker alone with Meino. Who immediately went back to her work on his head.
“She wants you,” said the Minotaur, her nose snuffling against his scalp once. “She doesn’t understand it.”
Considering they keep telling me Fairies shouldn’t have desire, yeah, I imagine.
“Uh, okay? I didn’t realize you could tell.”
“Smell it,” Meino said. Her long tongue slid over the back of his skull and down his neck.
Feeling very weird about the whole thing, but unable to stop her, Ryker did his best to ignore her.
He opened up his control spell as he looked over Robyn’s prison. The mana being fed to it was minimal. Little more than a trickle.
Opening up that flow, he began to feed it more mana, until he could feel Robyn’s mind coming awake.
He didn’t stop adding to the flow until it felt like she was fully awake, and at her peak performance.
Then he dove into her core directly with his senses.
He appeared in person in front of two large doors. Looking up above him he couldn’t see much, other than that it was a very large building.
Opening the doors he stepped inside and looked around.
Robyn was standing in the middle of what looked like a cathedral. All around her were pews, iconography of her religion, and absolute silence.
Until the heavy door behind him banged shut.
“Ryker?” Robyn asked, her eyes locked on him.
“Hey Robyn. How are ya,” Ryker said, smiling sadly at her.
“Where… am I? I remember… laying down to rest in the forest. We were on a mission. Now I’m… where I am shouldn’t be possible. What’s going on?”
As she spoke, her building around them became nebulous and reformed itself. Apparently her emotions and thoughts controlled it all.
“You died,” Ryker said simply.
“I died. Then… why am I here? Why are you here? Are you Ryker?” she asked, the questions coming rapidly one after the other.
“You died, and you came here. This is an in-between sort of place. A liminal plane. Your soul was departing, and I… brought you here instead. As to who I am, yes, I am indeed Ryker.”
“You brought me here!? You’ve enslaved my soul!” she shouted at him.
The walls vibrated, and the golden light that had permeated the cathedral flashed.
“Not at all. I’ve done nothing to you, other than speak with you. And I have no plans to do anything else. But I wanted to share some things with you.”
“You have nothing I could want. You’ve denied me my proper place in the heavens!”
“Ah, well, about that. It seems that might not be entirely the case. I’m going to provide you with the memories of some of the church’s people. You’re welcome to go through them as you see fit, or not at all. I at least wanted to provide you with the chance to see how your church handled its business before I sent you off to join them,” Ryker said.
Looking to one side, he cast a fraction of himself back into the world. He quickly tied all the cores in the room to Robyn’s, linking them in one way.
Completely as they existed without any changes or gaps.
“Meino, would you mind putting all those bags into a storage area? Have Arria make one for you. Just something out of the way so people can’t trip over it or see it, but it remains here,” he said aloud.
“Sure,” she said against his skull.
Pulling himself back into Robyn’s core, he was surprised to find the pews were now filled with countless people.
They all stared straight ahead, ghosts of who they were.
“Well, let’s see if I can’t find something obvious for you. And then you can take care of the rest from there,” Ryker said.
Robyn was stunned. She looked from face to face around her. She clearly recognized some of these people as well.
Picking one at random, Ryker laid his hand on the man’s shoulder.
Immediately, his life began to play itself out just in front of the pulpit.
Well that was handy. I assume Robyn is filling in some of the blanks unconsciously for what’s needed.
“Let’s speed this up to an hour or two before his death. I think that’d—”
The memory blinked, and flashed out, it immediately started up again.
The view was filled with Chadwick talking to them all in a room.
“—ake it quiet. It needs to happen. It’s my will for this to happen,” Chadwick said.
“Ah, yeah,” Ryker said, nodding his head. He paused the memory where it was. “So this is one of the people who either tried to kill me or Adele. For no reason other than resisting. I’ll leave you with this one to start with. I’ll check in from time to time to see how you’re doing.”
Before she could argue, or respond, Ryker simply fled.
And immediately snuck back in without entering the core.
He watched her from above, his presence hidden and undetectable. She was his construct, if he wanted to hide from her, he could.
“Heavens’ blessing, what has been done to me?” Robyn asked no one.
When no response came, she dropped to one knee and began to pray.
Nothing happened.
She stood up and tried to channel her celestially endowed powers.
And again, nothing happened.
“I don’t… I don’t… I can’t feel it. I can’t feel anything. I truly am beyond the light of the heavens,” Robyn said.
She fell to her knees, and pressed her hands to her eyes.
With a thought, Ryker made the memory flicker. Just enough to maybe catch her attention.
Her head immediately swung towards it. She stared hard at it, but made no move to activate it.
“You should be leaving,” Meino said, something pressing into his cheek.
Ryker blinked out of the core, out of the dungeon sense, and opened his eyes.
Meino was leaning over him, her tongue moving up over his cheek.
“You wanted to only be here an hour. Your time is nearly up,” she said as she finally pulled back from him.
“Uh, yeah. Thanks,” Ryker said. “Don’t let anyone in here, and tell anyone who tries that I’m conducting an experiment and not to mess with it. Alright?”
“Mm,” she said.
Getting up to his feet, Ryker sighed and straightened his vest.
He actually felt a bit better for some reason.
Maybe… the grooming helped? Err. I need a comb, my hair is dripping. And a towel, maybe.
“Uh, thanks… Meino.”
She nodded her head, and smiled at him.
“You seem better now. You can touch my chest if you like? You liked that before too.”
“Ah… another… time… maybe.”
It was time to go see Diane, and he didn’t really want to consider what Meino was offering.
That was a little on the deeper side of strange for him.
Diane, though, he could give her his regards.
Maybe even twice if she had the stamina. She was only a young noblewoman after all.
He didn’t want to break her.
***
Ryker had perfected the art of using his control spell in any position, at any time, and without any effort.
He was able to cast himself into the ether of the dungeon without anyone being the wiser.
Dungeon Deposed Page 32
