Cleansing Fire

by D. L. Harrison

  Lara sighed, “At least we got them all to run before they started to destroy the city.”

  Steve said, “We should just go. I wouldn’t expect to be thanked, those soldiers heard us talking about the dragons waking up being our fault.”

  I nodded, “What about the dragons, shouldn’t we tell the Captain at least, that he has them under his command?”

  Steve shook his head, “The guards will report that too, they know.”

  “Alright, let’s get out of here, build a house, get our new concepts integrated, and take some time off. We’re all kind of burned out.”

  Gwen replied, “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  “After that we can decide where to go next.”

  Everyone murmured agreement, and they looked as tired as I felt.

  Chapter Fourteen

  That first day we got a lot done. Dan and I went over the mental plans I’d made for a four-bedroom ranch beach house, including that hot tub in the back. The ladies of course got their input too on all the rooms’ layout, from the kitchen to the bedrooms and baths, and everything in between, though they kept my basic design and layout of the overall house.

  Once that was done Dan got started on building the stone foundation and walls, kitchen island, fire places, counters, and all that, while I headed to the forest.

  My water power tools of course, could be a lot bigger than just a square foot or so now. It took a bit of concentration to strip a tree of limbs, remove the bark, cut it down, and slice it into boards all at the same time in quick succession.

  It didn’t take me long at all to gather enough wood for a roof, floor, doors, and furniture throughout the whole house, from the four bedrooms to the dining room, living room, and kitchen.

  While we did that, the ladies went shopping for linens, bedding, spices, dishware, soaps of all kinds, and pretty much everything else a house would need. The skeleton and basics of the house were finished that first day.

  I hadn’t tried to meditate on all those sub-concepts yet, I was saving those for last. I was disturbed, we’d been hoping for a less morally dubious set of circumstances on the continent after the war, but I thought it was worse. I was also conflicted. It’d been far too easy in justifying getting involved with that battle, and in killing a bunch of human soldiers to end the battle. It was something I’d never wanted to do. Building was kind of a Zen thing, while I tried to work through it.

  I knew all the arguments, the invaders needed to be stopped, and were both ruled by, and were themselves greedy men. Did it matter that they weren’t goblins, they were causing the same kind of suffering and death to the people of Lerus. Still, it wasn’t quite that easy to accept. Intellectually yes, emotionally not so much.

  It wasn’t ready of course, not in one day, so we spent the evening and night at the inn in the city. We just relaxed, had some drinks, and spent time together talking about anything except what we’d just gone through, or our abilities. When we turned in, Gwen and I made love that night, both to express how we felt, and to chase away the horrors of the last few days.

  The second day I continued to work on furniture, getting all the wood ready was the easy part, assembling four-bedroom sets, dining and living room furniture, and odds and ends for the house was another thing all together. Bed frames, cedar chests and wardrobes, dressers, tables, chairs, and so much more. Even simple and smaller things like cutting boards for the kitchen, and large wooden spoons.

  The others did all the enchanting that day, outside of what I had to do with water magic, which was the one sphere not duplicated by the others. Dan made seven fire enchantments out of apprentice level stones, they didn’t need to be any better than that just to heat four tubs, an oven, and a heat spell to keep a freezer and fridge cool.

  Lara made light enchantments for all the rooms. They’d come on automatically if we entered the room, or we could turn them off or on manually with a thought by connecting to them mentally.

  Cassie built that air enchantment for the hot tub air jets, and also a few for the house that would regulate air temperature in the rooms, and also keep the air fresh if we didn’t have the windows open. She did that in the kitchen as well, to filter out smoke during cooking. She also built an intercom system of sorts, the same way a communicator worked.

  Light and Darkness Spheres wouldn’t do much for a house, so Gwen and Steve did some more shopping, and then started on their skill and sphere concepts.

  The house wasn’t quite done after two days either, but it was done enough to have a party dinner and spend the night there for the first time. I’d made sure all the beds were done, as well as the dining room table. Not to mention the roofing, floors, shutters, and doors. I’d gotten a bunch of the other furniture done as well, but not nearly all of it.

  The third day I built all the water enchantments, for the four tubs, hot tub, and for running water in the kitchen. The bathroom ones on the tubs would also power the water for the sinks, and the kitchen one was also an ice cube maker.

  Dan built a disguised vault in the storage basement, and Gwen used darkness magic to make anything inside of it undetectable. The last thing we wanted was someone level twenty-one or above walking by and feeling a vault full of magical stuff. We didn’t have anything to put in there yet, but all new loot would go there for a while, until it got full enough that we’d go back to splitting things up between four instead of three. None of us saw a reason to transfer anything from the Western and Southern kingdom vaults, or from the one in our glade.

  The fourth day, I finished up the furniture, and got started on my concepts. Most of the others had already gotten a good head start on that, if not finished it, but there was still plenty to do in the house on the decorating and accent level, which kept them busy.

  The sub-concepts for the four level changes weren’t all that groundbreaking, just minor things that added a point per level to my base damage on attacks, or defense and healing spells. They also further clarified the major concepts I understood already. Still, neither was it simple, it took me just about five hours to merely integrate the concepts, then another hour or so in putting them into practice. Eventually, the three spheres and four skills all went up by four.

  Which bagged me another two hundred and eighty thousand experience. My mana majorly jumped again of course. Fifty thousand mana to play with in battle which would take about six seconds to regenerate, a fifty thousand mana reserve in case we were in deep shit, and one hundred and sixty-two thousand in my mana shield.

  Status.

  Name:

  Jason

  Classes:

  None.

  HP:

  17,200

  Regeneration 1.5%/sec.

  Race:

  Half-Elven / Half Human

  Mana:

  262,880

  Regeneration 1.9 (3.3)% /sec.

  Platinum:

  66

  Stamina:

  8601

  Regeneration 1.2%/sec

  Gold:

  448

  Level:

  39

  TNL: 348,420 / 3,100,000

  Silver:

  55

  Strength:

  15

  Bronze:

  47

  Agility:

  14

  Intelligence:

  21 (33)

  Willpower

  12

  Wisdom:

  19 (27)

  Magical Spheres:

  Fire:

  Expert level 9 (39)

  Water:

  Expert level 9 (39)

  Air:

  Initiate level 1

  Earth:

  Initiate level 1

  Light:

  Initiate level 1

  Darkness:

  Initiate level 1

  Life:

  Expert level 9 (39)

  Death:

  Initiate level 1

  Skills (Combat)

  Combat Skill Name

  Descrip
tion

  Level

  N/A

  Skills (Non-Combat)

  Skill name

  Description

  Level

  Sneak

  Allows you to move silently.

  Expert level 9

  Builder

  You can build a large mansion.

  Expert level 9

  Hunter

  Your skills at tracking and killing animals.

  Expert level 9

  Meditation

  Calm and focus your mind.

  Expert level 9

  Not bad at all. The last few days had been crazy, but on the other hand we’d never leveled so fast either. Just two more and we’d hit master levels. I was really looking forward to it. We didn’t have any gems for equipment upgrades, but us being able to teleport around and who knows what else when I could combine spheres was very attractive. The new ship, and the new equipment could wait for grandmaster. We’d been lucky enough to improve our equipment every other major level jump as well, I didn’t think a lot of other undying parties could say the same.

  Still, we weren’t quite ready to move on yet, we’d spent four days building a house and updating our skills. At that point it was time to relax and enjoy the new house. At least for a few days. We were burnt out, we’d gone the first thirty levels at full speed ahead. We’d wanted more relaxation time during the next ten, a better life balance, but despite those intentions we’d had to step things up further, due to our conscience and the mistakes we’d made, we’d raced through the expert levels faster than any other levels. Just two more, and we’d be masters. In short, it was time to take a break, smell the roses, let ourselves get a tiny bit lazy with a healthy dose of selfishness, and put a little balance in our lives. Recharge the batteries. Not for too long, I knew we’d start to get bored in a few days, a week at most, and then get back to it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Two days. Not three, or a week, because as usual, shit happened. Still, two glorious days, where Gwen and I spent every moment of it together. The rest of the party we saw at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but other than a few relaxing hours a day with our party to build relationships and just plain have fun together, the lion’s share went to the love of my life, as the other two couples did the same.

  We talked about the future, about our houses, was this what we really wanted? It was the plans we made so long ago, and it was what we wanted. More balance, but we were generally happy with how things were going. We talked about our futures too, the far futures when we got back to Earth. We were both excited about the idea of starting a family, and the idea of waiting fifty thousand years to do so was really the only daunting thing about it.

  We also made love often, and usually spontaneously and at the drop of a hat. The hot tub was used often as well, in shifts. After the first time we’d accidentally interrupted Dan and Cassie in the hot tub, doing things that should be in private between a couple because they’d lost track of time being lost in each other, Gwen had spent an hour putting up a privacy enchantment on it. I was sure we’d use the tub as a group at some point, just to relax I mean, but those two days there was a lot of couple time.

  Let’s just say I was glad my water enchantment made it a self-cleaning hot tub, and I’ll speak no further of it.

  It was the evening of that second day, and we were in the aforementioned hot tub enjoying the water jets. She was leaning back against me, and she sighed a bit decadently.

  “I love this new house, and you too.”

  I laughed, “Awesome, good to know where I stand in the priorities.”

  Her laugh was tinkling, but she pinched my leg.

  “You come first of course, who’s going to build the next house?”

  I chuckled, “Bad woman,” and nibbled her shoulder.

  She shrugged, “I wonder if we need more. We have one by a major city, one in a beautiful forest glade, and one by the beach.”

  I shrugged, “I’m sure there’s snow either far north or south, we could have a skiing chalet.”

  She snorted, “I’m not strapping pieces of wood to my feet.”

  I laughed, “Why not, your agility in this world would make you better than any slalom skier in past existence.”

  She pinched me again, so not fair.

  “My point was,” she said in dragged out exaggeration, “I love you, I love this, and I love our life in this world. It’s just some of the violence I could do without.”

  I quipped, “Yes, like pinching your husband.”

  She snorted, and then pinched my leg again. I supposed I did deserve it, for ruining the moment.

  I bit her neck, softly, which made her moan. So much for revenge.

  “I love you too. Just some of the violence?”

  She shrugged, “I like the challenge of it, and the rush of adrenaline and endorphins, but I really didn’t like hurting other humans. We’d done it before, with the corrupt and traitorous guards and nobles in the southern kingdom, but a full out battle against soldiers far too weak to challenge us was something else. I’m not that upset about it either, they were evil men, but I think that bothers me too. Not being too upset I mean. Shouldn’t I feel guiltier? I guess that’s on Gaia though, she set it up that way.”

  I frowned, “To a certain extent, but some of the fault falls to humanity itself I think.”

  She tilted her head, and she glanced back at me in question. I took the opportunity to claim a kiss from her soft lips.

  Then I shrugged.

  “It’s what we are, as humans. Some are good, some are bad, or let dark ambition and greed take hold. She built a world that has a lot more reality in it than our old one did. Humans band together against evil races and a common enemy, but without that common threat it’s not too surprising two human kingdoms are attacking each other without evil races nearby to worry about. When two humans disagree, if one has evil in their heart they’ll fight, and get hurt. If rulers do it, they have wars. I can’t imagine it’s about resources, with magic that isn’t an issue really. Gaia just built a world around how she sees humanity. Violent. Not all, but enough of us to stir up some shit storms. I can’t say that she’s wrong.”

  Gwen said, “The old world, the original Earth I mean, wasn’t so bad.”

  I nodded, “We’d advanced enough that resources were enough, and we were reaching out to the stars to make colonies, so even space to live and overpopulations pressures weren’t as big a concern. There wasn’t much to fight over anymore. Yet, crimes of passion still existed, if not major wars, or petty crimes like theft. Also, law and punishment cut down on those kinds of things, and our civilization was strong. I don’t really feel guilty about what we had to do, not anymore. I just… worry power will corrupt us. I wonder if that’s the real reason masters and grandmasters don’t involve themselves in battle directly, at least the major ones between kingdoms. The destruction and death would be immense.”

  She sighed, “I’d like to deny that, but I can’t deny the thrill of battle. Crimes of passion… I also couldn’t deny that if you ever cheated on me, I’d kill you, over and over, painfully.”

  I laughed, and held her tighter, “Good to know, I love you too. I’m not worried.”

  I kissed her neck again, and then nibbled on her ear.

  She sighed in pleasure, turned around to face me and straddled my lap as she activated the privacy enchantment, and we didn’t speak again for quite a while. Gwen was a very passionate woman.

  The six of us were chatting over dinner, about where to go next. It was also the time when our vacation was cut short. To be fair, we really did think we were done with the last quest and its fall out, the popup even intimated that, but there was one more loose end we didn’t see coming at all.

  Dan said, “The continent is huge, we’ve only been to one kingdom, even if we’ve seen a lot of them, or all of them, from the sky.”

  I nodded, “But how many quests will there be at our level, I bet a lot of them are below our
level, or most of them anyway. Like that attack we drove off. I see your point though, we could go to another kingdom, just not Velus.”

  Lara snickered, “Yes, let’s avoid that one.”

  Dan shrugged, “If we poke around, the goddess will provide.”

  I pondered that a moment.

  “You’re probably right. I think we’re probably done with Lerus, but Gaia or the other gods usually guide us to where we need to be. Like finding those ships.”

  Steve’s eyes narrowed, and then grew distant.

  “Shit.”

  “What is it?” Lara asked.

  Steve sighed, “Ancient red dragon, attacking Lerus. So much for going back to sleep until he can find a mate to make more baby dragons.”

  “How?” asked Gwen.

  Steve shrugged, “They’re my undead dragons, even if the captain can control them, they’re still mine and I can still see through their eyes. I’ve been keeping an eye on them, and the city. I wanted to make sure Velus didn’t just attack again as soon as we left.”

  There was silence for a moment, I wasn’t sure what to say either.

  Steve sighed, “It’s pissed. It’s eaten a few people, but it’s killed a lot of others. It also destroyed the southern wall again, and the poor bastards just got it fixed.”

  Cassie frowned, “How do we kill an ancient dragon that grandmasters can’t kill. We’re almost to master, but we’re still just experts.”