by David Burke
Lash paused and studied him for a moment. “Maybe you are right. But if you are a god, then why do you have an essence wheel? I have only ever heard mortal casters talk about it like that. As far as I know, celestials and fiends don’t talk about their essence like that.”
“And Krig told you everything about himself, did he?” Kyle retorted.
Once again, before she could answer, he continued. “No, I know that he didn’t. Look, I’ve never been a god. I don’t know how it works. I just know what works for me. Either way, you can’t deny the power you feel in me.”
Lash’s nostrils flared as she took a deep breath. “I will give you the benefit of the doubt and not strike you down as a fraud. I will do so only because I feel the power within you… and for Qua’ardet Flammaurorae’s sake. She may be a celestial, but she was my comrade in arms.”
Her lips tightened and her gaze intensified. “But if you want me to believe this tale, then you will need to restore my bond to its fulness.”
“Can I trust you?”
“I guess we will both have to figure that out,” Lash replied. “Now you better go and meet with Lady Meeka. As long as you are playing the role of a slave, then you have to come whenever she calls. Who knows? After the way I found you this morning, you might even like what she has to offer you.”
Kyle didn’t need any more complications with the women in his life.
He held one of his hands out and focused his mind. He drew War Essence to his wrist where one of the manacles sat. With a push of his will, he surged a very small, very tightly focused Rage Burst. The manacle shattered into a dozen pieces which all flew a few feet away.
He smiled at her and said, “That is who I am. Now, I want to know who you will be, if I restore your bond.”
She stared at him, her gaze searching his for a long moment before saying, “Your eternal servant, with my very soul.”
As Kyle turned and walked away, he heard her whisper in a voice she probably thought was too low for him to hear, “And all my body.”
Interlude 2 - Wraiths of the Past
Far from Verden, on the fringe of the known universe, there are planes that the gods never visit, have no control over and largely, try to forget about. It was here that an ancient enemy festered—creatures who were anathema to all life, at least as it currently existed across the rest of the planes.
Here, things lived that existed before the birth of the universe, before the gods came to this corner of reality, before even time itself. They were the children of the void, manifestations of its hollow, insatiable emptiness. Except that they weren’t really alive.
They were the opposite of life. Not undead, for that was merely a state of being where the body had ceased its normal functions, but the soul remained stuck within. Those were still creations of the gods and part of the normal flow of essence.
No. These creatures here had never lived, not in the way that animals or birds or even fiends existed. The closest thing to them were the Aekor, which were a hybrid. But only creatures of the void truly felt comfortable out here. In these border planes, they consumed and ate away at any bit of essence, devouring the very thing which gave birth to life and leaving all about them barren.
Even inanimate objects were eventually destroyed.
It was that hunger which had driven them to pursue Skylar when Krig had told her to leave him on Dod’s plane. She had second guessed him and shifted into the void, trying to remain close and be ready in case he needed her. Dragons were the only race that had an innate ability to cross the void—that space that existed between the universes of reality—the great nothingness which balanced out all that was.
Then, when Krig had made his move to escape his siblings, the vast amount of divine energy he expended ripping his way through the void to some other universe had buffeted her. It sent her reeling through the void, until she was lost in nothingness. As the void itself began to burn away her essence like a caustic acid, the dragon had been forced to flee to the closest plane.
For three years now, she had been essence starved, barely able to absorb enough essence on these fringe planes to hide from the wraiths before leaping to the next plane. Her hope was that each jump brought her closer to the part of this universe which was still controlled by the gods.
She needed to find out what had happened to her beloved master. She worried that he had been harmed, but he was the war god. He was power incarnate in her mind.
What worried her more, was how easily the wraiths could track her. She had never been able to hide from them for more than a few days at a time. Worse, if she pushed her luck, she often was forced to fight these shadowy creatures.
Skylar was hardly one to shy away from battle. She wouldn’t have been the war god’s favorite mount if she were, but these fights drained her of the essence she needed to make good her escape.
Three years of running, hiding, and fighting had taken a toll on her. Her normally cheery personality, so different from most of her kin, was wearing thin. She needed to be rescued. Her mind cried out, wondering where Krig could have gone, and why he had abandoned her.
Chapter 12 - Indecent Proposal
A few paces outside the training hall, Kyle heard Hilde’s voice, not inside his head as had been the case for so long, but from right beside him.
“You handled that well,” the celestial’s voice said from out of nowhere.
Kyle stopped and whipped his head around, looking for Hilde, only to hear her giggle with girlish delight. The problem was, that when he looked, there was no one there.
“Oh, too precious. I forgot that you don’t know anything about some of the more subtle uses for essence.”
This time, he pinpointed her voice. It was coming from almost right beside him. Quick as a snake, his hands both shot out and he grabbed onto where her voice was coming from. At least that was his intent. There was a whoosh of air and he felt the brush of soft skin that, judging from its extreme warmth, could only be Hilde.
From the dust that stirred up all around him, he was sure she had taken to the air to escape him. He focused his senses and could tell that she was somewhere in the air above him, maybe fifteen feet away but that was about it. He’d definitely need more essence circulating to be able to sense anything more definitive.
“Okay, so you can turn invisible. That’s great. I thought you didn’t have access to your Deceit Essence,” he said.
Like a zipper was opening in the air, suddenly flames appeared only to be pulled back, revealing Hilde as she glided to the ground on her extended wings.
“It isn’t invisibility, and it isn’t Deceit Essence. I just have enough control of my fire to create a veil that turns all the light away from me in such a way that it appears I’m not there. I can do the same thing with Sky Essence, to mask any sounds I make.”
“That seems like quite the useful skill. I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned it before,” Kyle replied.
“I’ve been out of the mantle for less than twenty-four hours. You have no idea about all the useful skills I have.” Hilde winked at him as she said this last bit.
“I thought we were worried about the people here seeing you,” Kyle said.
“Oh, I still am… but I just reshaped my veil so that only you can see me. Maybe if someone were right behind you, they might see me, but there isn’t anyone there. Anyway, it was good, how you handled Lash. I still don’t trust her, but I was at least persuaded a little by her earnestness. You are still her god, though, and she has to accept that for things to work with her. This is not what you’d call a democracy,” Hilde said.
“Do you think it is possible that she was tortured for most of these last three years? That she had to watch her sisters die?” Kyle asked.
“Possible? Yes. Probable? Maybe. It would certainly be consistent with what I know about Begaer. Well, other than the killing part. That isn’t her style, but she certainly has been known to push a person’s mind to and
even past the breaking point. Rumor has it that she was able to twist the mind of a succubus, and those are some freaky fiends.”
“If that is true, then I can’t help but feel bad for Marie. It certainly explains her attitude, if she is acting from a place of hurt—not that I think it is my fault, or maybe even Krig’s fault.” Kyle shrugged. “He might not have planned well enough for what the other gods intended, but from what you have told me of him, he wasn’t the type to lead his team, or servants if you will, into a death trap,” Kyle said,
“That last part is true, at least. I don’t know what to say about Lash’s claims, other than that if they are true, we will need to find out what she had to give them to set her free. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” Hilde asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know. If she remains faithful, then I definitely owe it to her to find out how to reconnect to the splinter within her and complete it,” Kyle said.
“We agree about that much, but more because you are wasting your available assets if you don’t use all seven of your splinters. You have already placed partial divine splinters in Nyda and Kierra. Not finishing those would be the same as wasting those assets. If you do end up bringing Lash on board, then you will still have three more splinters that you need to bestow.” She grinned impishly. “I’m gonna get you a harem yet, just watch.”
Kyle stared at her for a minute. Her math was obviously off, but he didn’t think she had made an error in her calculations. There was something she wasn’t telling him, but her oath made him fairly sure it wasn’t anything malicious.
Ultimately, he decided to let her keep her little secret. “So, I assume you didn’t appear just to tell me you approved of how I talked to Marie.”
“No, as much fun as it was to startle you, I wanted to give this to you as soon as possible. I opened it up for you but didn’t bind it to me. Once you channel a small amount of essence into it, you will be able to bind it to yourself. Thereafter, it will only work for you… unless you die. After that, anyone with the requisite power and skill will be able to open it,” Hilde said. She held out the spatial ring for Kyle to take.
Once he had it in his hand, he sent a tiny amount of essence into it while slipping it onto his finger. It expanded to fit his larger than average hands without any difficulty and he immediately was able to view its contents inside his head.
This might not be a game, but having a ring of holding definitely reminded him of the thrill he’d found, if only temporarily, an important part of the gamer life.
He took a quick glance at the contents and was pleased. There was an assortment of weapons, but also some mundane things like paper and ink, a few changes of clothing, camping materials, a luxury tent, and a bed. Apparently, the nobleman he had taken it off of didn’t like roughing it out on his hunting trips. It also contained sixteen gold ingots, two mithril markers, forty gold crowns, two hundred silver coins, and two hundred copper ones.
If his math was right, and when it came to money, it always was, Kyle figured that was the equivalent of a little less than one point seven million dollars. So, once again that nobleman had either been filthy rich, or simply didn’t trust banks at all. That made Kyle realize he didn’t know anything at all about how banks worked here or if Verden even had such institutions.
He had just assumed their existence.
“Thank you, Hilde. This will help a lot. When I bound it to me, I gained an immediate understanding of how to make it work,” Kyle said.
“That is often the way that magical items work. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be worth nearly as much. I hope that makes up some for the funds that you lost. In the end, though, I don’t think money is going to be worth all that much to you, but I am sure you will find other uses for the ring. It definitely beats hauling everything around in a backpack,” Hilde replied.
Kyle couldn’t help himself, he laughed out loud. Who cared if any who might see him thought it odd that he might do so for no apparent reason? Let them think he was a little odd, he didn’t care.
Then she added, “I will go to our room and get your things ready for the dungeon trip. Don’t worry, I will be able to hide from most mortals. Lash might detect me, but she already knows that I’m here.”
Kyle nodded as she had already disappeared from his sight. It was a great gift and he needed to figure out all the possible uses for it. But again, another issue for later. For now, he had a meeting with Lady Meeka to keep.
Kyle walked up to the manor and was waved through the entrance by the first set of guards. There were numerous sets of additional guards now stationed throughout the estate, both inside and outside. He assumed that if he could see this many, there were likely others that he couldn’t see, at least without using his expanded senses.
It was tempting to peek with those expanded senses, but he would have to cycle his raw essence faster to make them work. Likely not worth the risk, even if it was hard to feel like he was limiting himself, only using part of his potential. That power had been eye opening, and not in the way that he’d expected.
Feeling so much stronger was great, but it was the expanded awareness that had really gotten to him. It felt almost like he’d spent his whole life living in a cardboard box. Then, someone had lifted up the box’s lid and showed him that there was a wide world outside; but, just as he got a whiff of fresh air and felt the warmth of sunshine on his face, they’d said that he needed to duck back inside the box.
It made him want to scream.
Even more so, because he knew that Lash and Hilde were right. With that power, he would be exponentially stronger, but he had nothing to compare it to. Kyle still didn’t think he was up to the level of a god, so he would simply have to bide his time and learn more about his power.
On the other hand, though, if Hilde or Lash thought he wasn’t going to keep experimenting with his essence, then they were crazy. He needed to do so and not just at safe, low levels. Kyle knew from his former life, that pushing your limits was the only way to become the best. Nothing less would suffice. He just needed to find a safe way to push those limits, and soon.
While he was thinking through all this, he allowed one of the servants to guide him to Lady Meeka’s office. He was strangely nervous about this meeting, although presumably, all she wanted to do was thank him for saving her life. There had been something about their last encounter which had put him on edge.
The servant, whose name he had forgotten to ask, said, “Lady Meeka left orders for you to be allowed in as soon as you got here.”
The guards stationed at the double door to her office seemed more alert this time, but as soon as they heard the servant, one of them opened the door for him and in he went. They hadn’t even asked him about giving up his weapons, not that he was carrying any that they could see.
Inside, there were no guards—at least none that were visible—or that is what he thought at first. Closer observation showed there were at least two guards out on the balcony, which was probably a wise precaution. Still, it was hard to pay much attention to them, when he saw Lady Meeka sitting at her desk. She appeared to have been reviewing some documents but set them aside when she saw him.
There was something about her that just drew all his attention. It was almost as if Kyle was seeing her for the first time all over again. She was definitely gorgeous. Whoever did her hair, had put it up and seemed to have gone with an even more ornate style than normal. Her toga-like attire was silky and clung to her skin in all the right places.
As he crossed over to where she sat, she stood up, saying, “I’m so glad you came. I have been wanting to thank you for the other day.”
“Some might say it was just my duty, but there was no way that I was going to stand there and let them attack you, or me for that matter,” Kyle replied, waving his hand as though it had been no big deal.
“Let me tell you, I take my safety very seriously. You can act cavalier about it, but it means something to me. I’ve been ponder
ing how I should properly reward you,” Meeka said.
“You could let me see Nyda. I had asked that you have her brought over here from the arena and I appreciate it, but in the time that I’ve been here, I’ve only seen her from a distance,” he replied.
“Wow, not all that good with the ladies, are we? I guess you’ve just relied on those scrumptious muscles and you rugged good looks to get lucky. Or maybe war elementals don’t think like that. Either way, here’s a tip… when one woman who might be interested is talking to you, it's never a good idea to lead with questions about another woman,” Meeka said. A wry grin twisted her beautiful face.
Kyle didn’t say anything and tried to keep his face as neutral as possible.
After grinning at him for a moment, Meeka walked around to the front of her desk and sat before him on its edge. Her toga wasn’t super long and showed off plenty of cleavage and lots of leg. “Are you sure there isn’t a more… personal way… that I could thank you?”
