by J E Mueller
“Agmon?” he guessed.
I nodded. “Um, so is that an escape route?” I hoped, otherwise we were both fairly screwed.
Benz nodded and offered a hand up. I glanced back at the door as wood started to split. Turning back I accepted the hand, and I was quickly pulled up. The mirror-door closed of its own accord and I found myself in a dim space that was only big enough to crawl in.
“What are you doing up here?” I had to ask.
“Same as you.” He shrugged. “I saw some light, decided to see what was going on, and now that that mystery is solved…” Benz started to crawl away.
I followed, figuring it was my best bet on getting out somewhat safely. “Why did you help me?” Again, really. It seemed like he had purposely kept me hidden earlier from the other gravelly voiced guy.
“It’s a complicated world and I’m not one to deny someone help when it’s that simple.” He didn’t even pause to look at me. “I can’t say I’ll promise the same in the future, but you’ll see there are a lot of moving parts here, and they all want us dead. I didn’t survive the last maybe four years here by rescuing every last soul.”
I nodded to myself. It seemed that he and Clove had a lot in common.
“Why the separate alliances if everything is equally out to kill everyone?” It seemed like a good question.
“I saw you with Clove earlier.” Benz stopped his crawling and sat so he could see me. “I suspect you were with her when that Agmon attacked. So tell me, why did it go after you instead of her if things are equally after us all?”
I tried to talk several times before I gave up trying to answer reasonably. “I don’t know.”
“Exactly. Nothing is fair here. Nothing is equal here, and none of it makes any sense.” Benz resumed his crawling as if that was answer enough.
“Okay, that doesn’t make sense, and that doesn’t explain the separate groupings,” I called out.
Benz paused but didn’t look back as he gave a sad laugh. “Because some of us want only the strongest to survive, some of us want all of us to survive, and some of us don’t want to be bothered at all. So people spread out because they all want to handle it differently. Is that a good enough answer?”
It was, but I didn’t like it one bit.
“And which one are you?” I asked instead.
“I don’t know anymore.” Benz continued crawling for a moment before moving a tile. “Catch you later.” With that he let himself drop down and vanished from sight.
I crawled over to the hole and carefully stuck my head out but didn’t see Benz anywhere. Thankfully, I also didn’t see the Agmon anywhere either.
Carefully, I lowered myself down until I was dangling by my fingertips and let myself drop to the ground. While I was hoping for a graceful heroic landing, I instead stumbled and fell flat on my butt. At least no one was around to see that. Carefully, I glanced around for something I might recognize, but all these halls were wainscotted on every single floor. The only differences were the occasional artwork we passed but I hadn’t paid enough attention to that earlier.
Cringing at my own idea, I tried to think loudly at the voice for help. Whoever they were seemed to know what was going on and where to go.
Turn around, go left.
Its instructions were clear, at least, but who were they? I turned to follow the directions.
We haven’t spoken in years. It would take too long to explain.
I couldn’t help but pause. What did that mean?
Exactly what it sounds like. You’ve been here before but you remember nearly nothing. Now press on, there are too many creatures afoot, and you’ve yet to remember how to fight them.
Well, the voice was right there, but I hated the lack of information. Everything seemed to be one new bit of information and then two steps back. I supposed I should be grateful for at least this little bit right now. I had noted in my journal several people were disappointed I had forgotten them. This was clearly one of those people.
I followed the instructions until I hit an intersection. In the distance, I could hear Mare and Clove just off to the right side of the crossway. Carefully, mostly to make sure there were no more of those Agmon creatures nearby, I approached them.
“Well, the one that chased her is dead, but she wasn’t anywhere to be found. Where do you think she went?” Mare asked, her voice sounding tired.
“You’re the Tracker, where did she go?” Clove replied sharply. “It’s not impossible she woke up.”
“No, her trail just vanished. It didn’t dispel like it would if she woke up. She must have found one of those passageways,” Mare declared.
“How long will it take for the trail to reappear then?” Clove asked.
“Probably a minute or so after she leaves whatever magic passage she got stuck in…” Mare’s voice trailed off. “Oh, she’s actually almost back here.”
Well, that sounded like it was safe enough to catch up to them. I picked up a more normal pace until I reached them.
When I turned the corner Clove had her arms crossed looking annoyed. Mare didn’t seem bothered at all though.
“Well, how did you escape?” Clove asked dubiously.
“I found this passageway behind the mirror after I tried shoving all the other furniture in front of the door.” I shrugged. Something in my gut made me withhold the hearing voices part. I didn’t think they’d believe I was crazy, but I also didn’t know what else to say about it to them.
“Awesome.” Mare gave a nod of approval. “Shall we continue on, then?”
“What happened to that creature?” I asked, wanting to at least know it was gone.
“It’s incapacitated.” Clove shrugged and started to lead the way. “They’re very hard to kill, but at least it’s immobilized enough so it won’t bother us anymore today.”
Mare gave a shrug as she followed behind Clove. “There seems to be just one more. Good thing you were in a passageway. You got to miss the screams.”
I slowed my pace. “The screams?” Because missing screams was so comforting. What caused them? Did I really want these answers?
“Oh, yeah, the other Agmon got someone. It’s a terribly painful feeling to have your entire soul and magical essence ripped out and drained,” Mare summed up. “So this time, don’t look at the creature. It will be better if you avoid eye contact with them.”
“Is that why it came after me?” I asked curiously. “And why would it care about a Dreamer? Isn’t my soul not entirely here?” Maybe? It made sense to me that it wouldn’t be since I wasn’t exactly dead-dead.
“They say the eyes are the gateway to the soul.” Mare shrugged. “The creature itself feeds off of both magical essence and souls, so maybe you just have some great untapped magic it was craving?”
“Is there any way to say that without it being creepy as heck?” I shuddered at the thought.
“Not really.” Mare chuckled and motioned for me to be quiet.
Up ahead I could hear the sound of scratching along a door. This time, I had no issues with hanging back while the other two summoned their weapons and went off to fight. I was not ready to be creature chow. Possible dream or not.
Mare and Clove took off running and I could hear the sounds of blades meeting blades. As much as I wanted to look, I dared not. I had already done enough stupid things for one day, and I wasn’t sure fate would be kind enough to provide another escape route.
I didn’t like hearing the sounds of battle and not knowing what was going on. There were several cries of pain, and I was certain the Agmon had hit a wall more than a few times from the sounds of things. Finally, after what felt like too long, I could hear Mare call to me that it was safe.
Chapter 4
The butterflies in my stomach were too much. I peered around the corner. Both women had cuts along their arms. Some were bleeding worse than others. My eyes went from them and their injuries to the creature laying with a sword through its head on the floor.
Cl
ove didn’t bother to wait for me to approach and walked over to the door that the Agmon had been tearing its way into. “Hey, who all survived?” she called into the door.
There were more than enough holes to see in, and I shouldn’t have been surprised when someone peeked through one to look out.
“Just Lo, and Sans here with me,” the voice replied tiredly.
“Well, coast is clear. Let’s see what’s going on.” Clove sounded rather annoyed.
“Sure, I’ll unlock the door, but it’s not going to just open anymore with how broken it is,” the voice retorted.
Mare sighed and walked over with her blades and, with a combination of force and blade, got the door open enough to get in. I hesitantly followed behind the two.
It seemed weird that Clove was so angry at them for not instantly opening the door and praising her, but then again, I was starting to see that as part of her personality. At least she did help save them, no matter the internal reason.
Once inside I saw a very similar room to what I had stumbled into. There were chairs that were once pushed up against the door and a rather torn up desk, likely credit to the Agmon. There was also a mirror across the room and I wondered if there was a passage there as well or if that was only a here-and-there type of passage thing.
Clove stepped in and introduced us. The first person she pointed to was clearly healing someone on the floor. From the amount of blood everywhere, it looked like they were lucky to be alive. “Remi the Dreamer, met Lo. He’s our resident healer. Cane.” She motioned to the person closest to the door who had been talking to us. “Is our artifact finder, and Sans, as you’ve heard, should be able to figure out your gift when she’s more whole.” Sans was the one being healed and I wondered why she jumped around so much in her introduction. Did she want to highlight why we were actually here?
Cane had her short, crazy curly blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She still looked a bit on edge from their run in with the Agmon, but overall I couldn’t see any noteworthy injuries.
Cane gave a slow nod. “I’m guessing you’re not here to join the artifact hunt, then.”
Clove shook her head. “Not today. Kaden couldn’t figure out what this Dreamer could do.”
Sans looked up from the floor, exhaustion lining her face. She still had blood matted in her blonde hair, but she looked like she was starting to do well enough. “Kaden couldn’t or didn’t want to?” she asked for clarification.
“Couldn’t, according to him.” Clove frowned at Sans. “And I’d like to get to the bottom of both problems at once.”
Sans motioned for Lo to move. “Let’s figure it out, then.”
“You’re not done being healed!” Lo protested loudly.
“I’m fine enough to figure out something this simple,” she huffed and tried to get up.
With a sigh, Lo helped her up. Sans shook while trying to stand. It didn’t appear she was well enough to be up and moving yet, but Sans seemed to refuse to acknowledge that fact.
“Well, come here.” Sans motioned for me to come to her.
I obliged but stopped a foot short of her. “Is this going to hurt again?” I cringed at the memory of the last jolt.
“Well, pretty much.” Sans managed a smile.
Sighing, I closed the distance and offered my hand. The second she grasped mine firmly I felt a jolt that hurt as much as the last time. I shook my hand out, trying to make the feeling of pins and needles vanish as Sans considered the answer.
“Well?” Clove asked impatiently.
I raised an eyebrow at Clove but turned to Sans to see what the verdict was.
“It’s not that it’s really unclear but, I see why Kaden wouldn’t get it. He hasn’t run into this before,” Sans stated thoughtfully.
“Okay, at least that clears him a bit, but details already.” Clove crossed her arms as she went from angry, annoyed, and impatient to purely curious.
“The problem is, there are options,” Sans stated slowly as she considered her words.
“What do you mean options?” Clove’s frown increased as she spoke. “We don’t do options here.”
Sans tried to move, but stumbled forward, causing Lo to reach out and help give her support. Sans tried to wave him off once more but shrugged and continued. “You see, there is a limited supply of gifts. It feels endless, but it’s not. I can see the list in my head. I can see how many possible healers are left, how many sword options there are available here, and so on. When I zap someone I go from seeing the list to only seeing one and a tick mark bringing the number down. Like when I met Lo there were four healer spots open. Then after I zapped him there was three. Now, I see it’s been ticked down to two. Likely on Benz’s team. Anyway, magically I can keep track of it all. If someone were to die, the slot comes back.”
“Okay, I know that already though.” Clove motioned for Sans to continue.
Sans motioned at me. “She didn’t. Patience, Fearless Leader.” Sans gave her a scolding look before turning toward me again. “When I see you the list springs from one gift to the next – fluctuating among several gifts. We know the rules though: one combat, one side gift. No more, and no less. So, this doesn’t make any sense.”
“Oh. I suppose that doesn’t,” I agreed, rather disappointed to not have any real answers.
“It makes me uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason behind it. We’d be better off finding what’s-her-face.” Sans looked to Clove for the answers.
“That muck-spout Benz did something to scatter them. I’ve no idea what. Finding one of the Creators is next to impossible. Not to mention our Tracker doesn’t even know how to pick up on them.” Clove banged her fist against the wall. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but the frustration was clear.
“Sadly, it’s true. Even I can’t find them.” Mare nodded and sighed dramatically, trying to lighten the mood.
That was exactly what this situation needed. Instead of defeated, I tried for something hopeful. “Maybe I can try some of the things suggested?” I asked Sans. “Maybe it’s not really set since I’m a Dreamer.” That sounded reasonable, at least to me.
Sans nodded thoughtfully. “Usually I can figure out Dreamers, but I don’t try it all that often, so maybe. That just might be it.”
Mare suddenly moved from where she was standing, halfway out of the room, to look down the hall causing the room to go quiet. “And we should go,” she declared, almost ordered.
Clove waved for Mare to head out. “Lead the way.” She summoned her blade before motioning for us to head out next.
As I stepped out of the room I noticed the blade was no longer in the Agmon’s skull, having been summoned to Clove. Something made my gut twist as I walked away from it. It felt like now it could pop up at any time.
But it was dead now right?
“We were doing so well on that artifact hunt too,” Lo stated as both he and Cane helped Sans out of the room.
“What were you going after?” Clove asked curiously.
“Not sure exactly but I saw Luke, Ayleth, and Drue hunting for it as well. We all had the area figured out and would have likely been squabbling over it had that stupid Agmon group not gotten in the way,” Cane explained.
“How many Agmon?” Clove had a great question. Considering we only knew for sure where one was dead, and where one was incapacitated. I did not want more to be on our trail.
“Four total,” Cane stated. “The one that killed Luke was the same one that trapped us. We misremembered the room with the passage.” Cane shrugged and continued on. “We did see Benz lure away the one that had trapped the other two, but that didn’t save us any grief obviously.”
“Benz might have killed it.” Clove shrugged. “Or he’s finally dead and out of the way.”
“No, I saw him in the passage,” I stated.
“What?” Clove demanded.
I shrugged. “Not much else to say. He showed me how to get out and took off again.”
“That’s it? He’ll probably try and get you to return the favor later.” Clove shook her head.
“Since I’m new to this, aside from the whole aspect of your side and his side, why all the hate for Benz? It’ll be good to know why to avoid him,” I asked, hoping to play to her ego.
Clove sighed but didn’t answer for several minutes. We were actually back on the first floor from the third when she replied. “It’s a complicated situation that isn’t worth explaining at this moment.”
Cane, Lo, and Sans all glanced back in shock.
“Well, I never expected that to be the answer.” Lo chuckled without humor.
“Usually there’s a better speech.” Cane shook her head.
“And another piece fits together.” Sans smiled widely.
“What?” Lo asked Sans.
“Secrets,” Sans replied.
“Anyway,” Clove stated, her annoyed tone sounding over everyone else, “What about this artifact now?”
“Right.” Cane sighed and took over the conversation once more. “It turned out to be a bracelet and we still can’t figure out what the damned thing does. The other group found us just as we were trying to get it to do something.” Cane pulled a rose gold band out of her pocket. I could see something etched into it but couldn’t make it out from where I was walking. Cane handed it to Clove as we all continued on. “Have fun.”
“Why can’t artifact finders be gifted with knowing what they do?” Clove grumbled to no one.
“It would be too easy then.” Cane laughed. “Anyway, half the fun is solving that mystery.”
Clove gave Cane a dubious look. “If you insist.”
“How do you figure out what these random artifacts do?” At least this seemed like something I could get a full answer on.
Cane smiled tiredly at me. “Trial and error.”
Of course, the full answer might, in fact, be rather lame. “Oh.”
“Don’t sound disappointed.” Cane laughed. “Some things have launched fire. Some teleported. Some have made people for incorporeal a moment. It’s wonderfully exciting and rewarding when you finally figure out what a thing does.”
