Chain of Bargains dm-5

by Jeff Inlo

  The draevol nearly disregarded the elf. The words were pointless bravado, nothing more. Of the four that once confronted it, it feared the elf the least. As a demon, it could see into her heart and inspect the essence of her power. Her magic was puny, especially compared to the two wizards that had left to deal with other dilemmas.

  The demon's own magical prowess was superior to the elf's as well, and it felt no peril from emerald energy-the power of nature. Disease could overcome field after field and forest after forest. The monster possessed the power to wither the entire valley, and there was nothing the elf could do to stop it.

  The demon also viewed the elf as a minor annoyance in comparison to the delver. The elf lacked the physical talents of Ryson Acumen, who was immensely dangerous with his speed and quickness. The threat of the delver went far beyond his physical abilities. Any demon could sense the pureness of his heart. The magic that was deep inside that particular delver was endowed with a grace of its own, the kind of benevolence that could shatter a demon's diseased existence with but a wave of the hand.

  In an act of obvious arrogance, the elf had sent the delver away as well, and Ryson Acumen took with him the enchanted sword. Such a weapon in the hands of one with incomparable speed could have destroyed the demon in mere moments, but the elf relegated the delver to face the inferns, a tactical error in the eyes of the fiend and a waste of true power. The draevol probably feared Ryson more than any other, save for perhaps Enin, and it was pleased to see him leave. If Holli spoke of a favor, it was a favor to the demon that she sent the delver to battle its foot soldiers.

  No, the true dangers to the demon had departed. The elf's strength was her tactical awareness, her ability to lead, but she had proved lesser in that regard than the demon expected. As a direct menace, she was nothing more than an insignificant irritation, and the draevol revealed its disrespect with a booming voice of impatience.

  "Be gone elf. You waste my time and I warn you, I have little patience for such annoyances."

  "That is how you view me? As an annoyance?" Holli demanded.

  Unable to ignore the request of a brave soul who stood before it, the demon was forced to admit certain facts. Agreements and considerations-even if not entirely spoken-held significance. Despite not wishing to waste precious time with the elf, the existence of more favorable circumstances came at the elf's bidding, not its own. Acknowledging the benefit it received from Holli's actions, the draevol offered but one consideration in return.

  "No, not a complete annoyance. You have given me what I want. You have sent the others away and allowed me the opportunity I need to escape and cover my trail. I give you your due in that. Do as I once suggested, go home. I will allow you that as part of a new bargain."

  Holli would have none of it. She did not send the others away for the demon's benefit. She did as she saw fit, and she based her decisions on the dangers they faced. Though she wished to face the draevol on her own, she knew she sent each individual to confront a challenge based on their abilities. It was her good fortune that left her alone with the demon.

  "We have no agreement," she announced with authority, making it clear she renounced any unspoken contract, "and I have no intention of allowing you to leave."

  It was not quite a sigh of exasperation that came from the demon, more of an irritated grumble. Its own red eyes glared down upon the elf before it, and the fiend painted a picture of the truth.

  "I am a demon plague mage and you are nothing but an elf sorceress. You cast the green energy of nature, I can sense that in you, but I am the power of disease, decay, even death. You have no chance against me. If you wish to deny any agreement, so be it, but leave while you can."

  "You think I will rely on my magical abilities?" the elf questioned.

  "What else do you have? As an elf, you are potentially more dangerous than an ordinary human, but I am not human. If you had planned to match me in a contest of physical abilities, why would you have sent away the delver?"

  "I did that for him."

  "How noble of you, but you are wasting my time. Leave now… elf… sorceress… whatever it is you wish to consider yourself. I no longer care."

  Holli, however, found the demon's viewpoint of the truth more than lacking. She was not prepared only to battle a draevol, she was ready to accept everything she was.

  "I am not just an elf sorceress… and I am not just an elf guard. I am both, and I will use all of my strengths against you."

  Jure never considered questioning the elf guard. Though he believed he was better suited to deal with the draevol than Holli, it was not his position to question her orders. Instead, he focused all of his energy on locating and neutralizing the inferns that surrounded the edges of the Great Valleys. It was a daunting task, and it would require all his concentration and energy. Arguing tactics with the elf was not only out of character for the elder wizard, it was a pointless endeavor.

  The thought of an infern, or even hundreds of inferns did not trouble him. They were half-demons, very quick, and masters of demon fire, but his natural power originated from blue energy, the power of water. While he mastered his control over all the hues, his control of blue magic remained extensive. Even demon fire would not be able to cut through his defenses.

  Unfortunately, the challenge rested not with defeating inferns, but in overcoming space and time. When the full force of the Heteera's magic flowed within him, his perception of the valleys extended to every border. He had seen the number of inferns and the vast stretches of land they covered. If they were set to unleash their fiery wrath over all the regions they guarded, the Great Valleys would soon be surrounded by demon flame.

  Heteera's great flow of magic, however, no longer coursed through his essence. He had to rely on his own ability to reach out to the energy and utilize it as efficiently as possible. Reaching each destination and confronting every infern, that was his true dilemma. He could not fly like Enin. It would consume too much energy, and he would need every ounce in the battles to come.

  In a decisive move, the elder wizard decided to utilize two of his superior abilities. He would concentrate on shifting dimensions to overcome the obstacle of space. Once upon his adversaries, he would depend on his skill over the element of water to engage his foes.

  His first target set, he teleported himself to the southwestern edges of the Great Valleys, to the border of the Oachet Mountains. He would begin his assault there and ride the waves of blue magic and dimensional travel around the entire outer borders.

  When he set his anchor point for where he would arrive, he did not place it on the ground. Instead, he placed it high in the night sky so that he would command an expansive view below him. Of course, because he couldn't fly, he would not simply float above the mountains indefinitely.

  The moment he appeared over the Oachets, he began to plummet. At his age, he did not seek out such thrills, but he could not deny the exhilaration of soaring through the air as if he was indeed flying of his own will. As he dove downward, he could see several inferns marching across the forest floor below. He couldn't miss them. They glowed bright in the dark night of the wilderness. They would have appeared like flickering white stars in a black sky had they been surrounded by darkness, but fires spreading through the trees created an orange glow that looked more like sunset breaking though late afternoon clouds.

  The half-demons had already begun their work by setting the surrounding forest ablaze, and the roaring flames were only part of Jure's challenge. The smoke billowed up quickly, filled his nostrils with the smell of sulfur. Thankfully, a northeast breeze kept the haze from engulfing him. It still managed to mix with the night sky and decrease his visibility. He wished his awareness had remained as extensive as it did when he removed the goblin threat, but without Heteera's magic, his perception returned to its normal state. It was enough, however, to target his enemies.

  The inferns never looked up, never concerned themselves with what was above them. They were, in fact, t
he very same inferns Holli and Ryson had spotted upon their arrival into the Great Valleys, but they no longer cared about watching for the activity of others. They were also no longer bound to the dwarf plan of ensuring humans fled west through Pride Gap. Even monitoring the pass became inconsequential. The draevol had delivered its message to them telepathically, and the half-demons took to their newly appointed task with overwhelming zeal.

  They spit fire from their mouths like dragons, and the demon flames spread quickly across even the healthiest sections of forest. They walked through the fire without harm, as they were resistant to the flames, and they spread out through the blazing trees to inflict even greater devastation. They ignored each other, they ignored the smoke swirling around them, and they ignored trees bursting apart from the boiling sap within thick trunks. They were only interested in inflicting their tortured existence upon the lush lands around them, on turning everything before them into a blazing inferno.

  As Jure sailed downward through the sky, he spied a wide and mighty river back in the lowlands of the valleys. Despite the darkness, he could see the running waters that created a clear path past farmlands and small towns. The rippling surface reflected the starlight and the sheer expanse of the waterway filled the elder wizard with confidence.

  He called on the river's power, allowed the energy of the water to be both his sword and his shield. He cast his spell in mid-fall and torrents of liquid rose up out of the river bed and soared above the surrounding lands. It was an incredible sight, like a waterfall that traveled across the sky.

  The great mass of liquid met with Jure just before he reached the ground. It surrounded him but did not engulf him. It encased him in a pocket of air at its center. He never reached the ground for the water of the river held him aloft over the tree tops and above the flames that flared even higher.

  Taking the shape of a colossal multi-legged creature-something between a long-legged spider and a giant squid-the enormous accumulation of water began its defense of the land and its assault on the inferns. It kept its core high above the ground as several legs or tentacles stretched downward onto the forest floor. It was completely immune to the demon fire as its form became so dense it cooled itself before any part of it boiled away into steam.

  The liquid titan struck out at the inferns first. Its fluid appendages stretched out far quicker than the inferns could move. Even those that attempted to fly out of its reach were plucked from the sky. It took hold of each infern within its vast range and ended their wave of flaming destruction.

  The magical entity did not treat the half-demons with the same care it had shown Jure. It engulfed the monsters in its appendages, overwhelmed them with the fluid of its body. When the inferns opened their mouths to spit out flames, the water pressed the fire back down their throats. Dousing the half-demons internal flame was only the start. Jure's creation applied extreme force upon the monsters it held within its form. It tightened its grip and exerted great pressure, as if the inferns were sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean's depths. The force became so overwhelming that the half-demons caved-in upon themselves until they imploded into wet cinders.

  With the inferns destroyed, the magical creature of water turned its concentration onto the fires spreading across the forest. The flames burned white hot, for they were born of demons' blaze, but even demon fire could be extinguished by sufficient force. The entity of water could focus its watery essence with frightening efficiency and engulf each flaming tree or clamp down upon every burning blade of grass. It moved swiftly across the wall of fire, directed onward by Jure's will until every flame was extinguished.

  The size and the great speed of the liquid creature allowed it to complete the task in mere moments. The peril in that one area had been faced and defeated, but many other inferns waited all around the Great Valleys, and there was little time for celebration. The watery entity lowered Jure to the damp forest floor, and then, at the wizard's command, sailed back across the lands until it returned to the river banks from which it came.

  Turning his attention to the neighboring hills, Jure spotted another bright orange glow burning through the trees to the northwest. He called upon another teleportation spell. Compacting space through a tunnel of magic, he placed himself back in the sky over the new fire. He spotted another grouping of inferns setting the trees around them ablaze.

  He repeated the entire process; summoning a water entity of great power and unleashing it against the inferns and the demon fire that burned through the forest

  When he was done, he teleported to the next blazing glow and attacked once more. Each assault was frighteningly efficient, ensuring that every infern was eliminated and each smoldering ember was extinguished.

  He traveled all around the Great Valleys, covering the vast region with the power of teleportation. It required vast amounts of energy, but each time he called upon some great river in the distance, he requested additional support. He connected with the intrinsic magical energy within each drop of water. The rivers willingly obliged, eager to help the wizard save the valleys it had helped construct ages ago. After every conflict, the flowing waters rewarded Jure with a renewing surge of magic.

  The effort continued throughout the night, but became more difficult as morning drew near. The fires he reached at the later stages of the conflict had much more time to burn and consume the lands. The final two blazes were titanic struggles and Jure was forced to call on multiple rivers. He created several water entities to battle both fires and inferns, and despite the reenergizing power of the magic he received, he almost collapsed from exhaustion. He fought the last handful of inferns on pure will alone, but before the sun rose, he had defeated them all.

  Huntston suffered more than any other town in the valleys, even worse than Ashlan. The concentration of goblins was the greatest in the mines under the town between the Twin Rivers. When the dark creatures were released to create havoc, they raged with a fury that surpassed anywhere else. Every soldier was killed, every shop ransacked, and every home overrun. While many of the citizens were forced out into the wilderness to the west, nearly half were killed within the town's borders.

  Of course, there was no warning. When Strog Grandhammer realized the delver and the elf had escaped, he issued the order to begin the uprising. He communicated that directive to goblins in the mines and word spread quickly through the horde. While the draevols used telepathic spells to broadcast the message to goblins across the region, the multitude under Huntston reacted immediately.

  When Enin reached Huntston, he quickly reviewed the damage, or rather the lack of it. Even for a wizard capable of extravagant spells of immense power, the initial scene surprised him. A bizarre outlook of inconsistency filled every street corner. An eerie silence prevailed, and a lonely calm pressed itself across the empty roads. Though the goblins had delivered severe destruction when they first released their rage, most of it had been washed away by powerful magic.

  Enin knew that Jure had cast potent spells to undue the devastation, but seeing it in front of him left the wizard stunned. There were small traces of damaged property, but they were few and immaterial, unnoticeable in the dark of night. It was almost as if a crew of highly skilled dwarves had rushed into the town and reconstructed every building. Still, Enin knew that the goblin horde had raged through Huntston, for though most of the structural damage had been undone, there were other signs of ruin that could not be ignored.

  While Jure did a great deal to restore and repair the buildings and to heal the wounded, he could do nothing for the dead, and many had died there. The corpses remained in the streets-unmoving shadows littering paths in every direction-the one clear reminder of the carnage that had taken place. Huntston was structurally repaired, but spiritually decimated, the lives of so many cut short by goblin crossbows and short swords.

  There were very few survivors to attend to the dead, though a few bodies had been covered by blankets, and some were held tightly by loved ones. For the most
part, the town remained empty. The goblins had been defeated, but the darkness of night reclaimed the land once Jure's spell of light ended. Only a few residents had ventured back to their homes, most remained scattered far to the west, uncertain of what to do.

  With a simple sight spell, Enin raised his perception over the region. He could see the people had stopped fleeing. Some were even trekking through the darkness, hoping to return to the town, but they were doing so carefully, almost grudgingly. When the wizard put it all in perspective, it was not hard to understand.

  The citizens of Huntston had spent many seasons learning to ignore the presence of the goblins. They were told it was for the best and received orders to accept the situation. These orders came from people that were supposed to protect all of the residents, that were charged with doing what was right for the entire town. Unfortunately, the majority of the people had come to realize much too late that those in charge were far more concerned with their own well-being. Their own captain of the guard cared as little for them as he did for a handful of weeds growing in a patch of dirt behind an abandoned home.

  There would be many abandoned homes after the goblin uprising, and Huntston would struggle for many cycles of the seasons. Few would ever forget that it was there that the unrest began. The story would spread of the dwarf mines below the town of the Twin Rivers, where wealth was used to purchase the assistance of corrupt humans. The blood that flowed from Huntston washed over all the valleys, and created a wound that would take the longest to heal.

  Enin felt for the town. He had seen much of the same back in Burbon, Pinesway, and Connel. When the magic first returned to Uton, the people of those towns suffered greatly. He helped save Burbon, helped rebuild Connel, and finally brought Pinesway back from extinction. He hoped the same could be done for Huntston, but before it could be salvaged, it needed to be spared.