by Jeff Wilcox
“All right,” Dingo said as Xavier and Matt watched on. “You dip the bucket in the water, but as soon as you take it out, the water vanishes.”
I gave him an unimpressed look, assuming he was just being a pain. “Okay. I get a bucket and try again.”
“Don’t you already have a—” Matt started, but I snapped a hand up to forestall him.
Dingo glanced at Matt, then turned back to me and shrugged. “Okay. The same thing happens.”
I sighed, trying a new tactic. “I get a bucket. I dip it in the water and concentrate on the fact that this water will not be leaving the abbey. I then head down to the cellar.”
“The water remains in the bucket. What next?”
“Okay, I dump the bucket out and start cleaning,” I said.
Dingo grinned. “As soon as the water leaves the bucket, it vanishes into thin air, just like before.” Xavier and Matt let out little chuckles.
“Okay,” I heaved, “I get a fucking bucket, go to the spring, dip the bucket in, intending to keep it in the abbey. Then, still with the same intent, I head downstairs, where I spill it over the floor, still intending to keep it in the abbey.”
“The water disappears.”
I snarled something incoherent as Matt piped up, “Isn’t there a well of normal water or anything?”
Dingo nodded. “Yeah. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to drink.”
“Heh,” I laughed. “Imagine drinking the spring’s water and staying in it for a month. You step out and poof!—you collapse into a pile of dust.” We all chortled at that, and I got back to business. “All right, then. I get a bucket again, head to the well of normal water, fill it, and so on. Then I clean out the basement.”
Dingo shrugged. “Okay, you clean up most of the mess. The basement still stinks of death, although over time it should fade.”
“Yummy.”
*
After washing away the day’s ugliness in the healing spring, Kaiyr, Caineye, Wild, Vinto, and the wererats all collapsed onto their beds, utterly exhausted.
The next morning, their adventures began anew when Wild announced his intent to open the door with the brass lock, the one across the hall from the cellar. Astra joined the party, seeming in higher spirits than the previous day, and she watched, amused, as Wild set to work attempting to disarm the magical trap laid on the heavy door. Her amusement was rewarded when a pillar of fire appeared over the halfling’s head and roared down over him.
“Well,” Wild said with a mild cough. “That was rather unpleasant. I think I’m going to go take a dip in yonder pool. Be right back.” The others watched him skip down the hall, do a cannonball into the spring, and return a minute later, looking much refreshed.
“Okay,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Take two.” One gout of flame and one dip in the pool later, and he was back to try again.
Three, four, five times the halfling tried to circumvent the magical runes on the door, but to no avail. “All right,” he said, “This time I’ll get it. For sure.”
Astra chuckled. “Why, of course, Wild. I have a feeling about this one.”
Searching the door for whatever piece of the trap could be altered in such a way as to render it ineffective, Wild grinned and used one finger to smear away one of the runes. The thrumming of building energy emanated from over his head, but when he went to leap away, he tripped over his own ankle, falling flat on his back and taking the burst of fire right in his face.
Kaiyr leaned over Wild’s prostrate form. “He is unconscious,” he announced. He glanced pointedly at Caineye, and the two of them picked Wild up by his arms, carried him outside, and tossed him into the pool.
A moment later, the halfling surfaced, blowing out water from his mouth as the water erased the burns covering his skin. “I say,” he grumbled, “that trap is one nasty piece of work.”
Upon the group’s return to the door, Astra gave Wild an appraising look. His clothes were in shambles, most of them burned away. Luckily, his leather britches, boots, and vest had survived, though they were now a few shades darker than before. “Are you quite finished?” she asked.
Harrumphing, Wild crossed his arms over his chest. “If you’d like to give it a try, be my guest. I won’t be the one carrying you to the pool.”
Astra gave him a sensual wink, turned to the door, and drew her finger across one of the symbols. All the runes glowed once before going out, leaving a fine trail of dust in the air that quickly dispersed.
Wild just glared at her. “Well, then, Miss Fancypants,” he muttered, reaching for the lock with a pick. The lock sprang open, and the group stood back as he pulled the door gently outward.
Inside, an intangible energy made all the hairs on the backs of their necks stand on end. “It’s dark,” Caineye said.
“It is more than dark,” Kaiyr agreed. “Something is radiating darkness. Have you a light?”
Caineye nodded, drew out a stone, and cast a spell over it. Instantly, the pebble glowed with enough light to illuminate a tavern room. As he tossed it into the room, the party watched as the dark shadows drew away from it. Despite the darkness’ wariness of the light source, its luminance was greatly diminished.
Astra, too, peered around the corner and into the room. “There’s something over there,” she said, pointing at the farthest corner of the room. “What is it?”
Kaiyr stepped forward. “I will investigate. Stay back,” he cautioned the others, and without waiting for a response, he strode into the room, his hands out and ready to call in his soulblade at a moment’s notice.
He stopped to pick up the pebble and took it with him to examine the object Astra had seen. It was an egg-shaped object composed of pure darkness, he discerned, kneeling down to inspect the thing. His blademaster’s insight warned him that to touch the egg might be dangerous, and he kept himself a pace away from it. The light of the stone did not seem to touch the object’s surface, instead being absorbed into it, negated.
“What is it?” Astra called from the doorway.
Kaiyr paused, frowning. “It seems to be some kind of egg. It does not seem too dangerous to at least be this close to it,” he said, glancing around to make sure the shadows emanating from the egg were not trying to encroach upon him.
Astra, Wild, and Caineye entered, the druid ordering Vinto to stay back. The wolf complied without complaint, seeming utterly disinterested in the egg-shaped orb of pure blackness.
“What is this thing?” Wild wondered aloud, and his sentiments were echoed by Astra and Caineye. All of them crouched down beside Kaiyr to stare at the egg.
“A dragon egg?” Astra guessed, but even she did not seem confident in her estimate.
Caineye shrugged. “All I can tell you is it belongs to no natural creature.”
Kaiyr sighed. “We should not—Lady Astra! No!” He spied her hand snaking out to touch the egg on the ground. He snapped his hand out to stop hers, but he was too late, and the moment her hand touched the darkness, a pulse of energy threw the others away, to land on their backs three paces away.
Sitting up, Kaiyr watched in fascinated horror as the egg’s substance slithered up Astra’s arm, wrapping it in tenebrous strands and drawing her hand toward its core. The nymph loosed a shriek of surprise and pain, but a moment later, it released her, slithering back into itself and rippling like boiling water.
As Astra fell back and clutched her arm, the egg’s shadowy material swarmed up into a cloud, slowly taking on a new shape. The others made it to their feet and staggered back toward the door. Kaiyr grabbed Astra’s shoulders and pulled her with him, a sharp reprimand dying on its way to his tongue.
Once the party emerged from the room, the darkness finished coalescing into a feminine form. Obsidian skin sucked in the shadows that had originally filled the room, drawing substance from the irradiation as the new creature drew herself up to her full height.
She was small, just about Astra’s size, but a moment later, what Kaiyr had original
ly thought to be a cloak unfolded into a pair of wings covered in ebony feathers. White hair cascaded down from the dark angel’s head, and her eyes, when she opened them and looked around the room as though awakening from a deep sleep, glowed with silvery radiance.
“By the gods,” the blademaster muttered, recognizing the clothing and weapons on the creature’s body. “It is… Lady Astra.”
Her eyes locked onto his at the sound of the elf’s voice, and she opened her mouth. “Who are you?” she asked in a voice made of midnight and ice.
Kaiyr’s eyes narrowed. “I am Blademaster Kaiyr. Who are you?”
The creature grinned evilly at the elf. “I am no who; I am Nemesis,” she intoned.
“That doesn’t sound so good for our health,” Wild whispered to Kaiyr.
The blademaster ignored the halfling. “Very well, Nemesis. What do you want?”
Astra chose that moment to peek around the corner, and she let out a gasp of horror. The Nemesis’s eyes flicked to regard the nymph, and with a blur of motion, the dark creature’s rapier appeared in her hand. “I want for naught, mortal,” she replied. “But I must destroy that one. Move aside, or I shall tear a path through you.”
Kaiyr closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating. He reached into himself and pulled his consciousness to its full awareness, the blademasters’ level of heightened senses that bordered on prescience.
Training his eyes on the creature, Kaiyr cursed inwardly. His insight gave him the ability to better judge an enemy’s prowess, yet he could not predict the Nemesis’s moves, could not see her as-yet unfinished motions. She was not lying when she said she would tear a path through him.
Astra withdrew, and out of the corner of his eye, Kaiyr watched her meld back into the wall. The Nemesis strode forward as Kaiyr vainly strove to reason with it.
“Why must you battle the Lady Astra?” he asked.
The Nemesis sneered at him and did not stop advancing until her nose nearly poked his chest. “It is my purpose, mortal creature. Astra activated my shell, and as such, I am a perfect replica of her. I must destroy her. I will then summarily consume and become her. Move.”
Frowning, Kaiyr stepped aside, knowing he would barely have slowed her for a second, had he tried to do so. He bowed his head in shame.
Wild quirked an eyebrow at nobody then suddenly spun and rushed toward the back door and toward the spring. “Astra! Where are you going?” he shouted at no one.
The Nemesis, hearing Astra’s name, charged out of the room and followed in the wake of the halfling. Kaiyr and Caineye exchanged confused glances before giving chase.
Wild rushed around to the other side of the pool, but as the Nemesis entered, she skidded to a halt before the spring, staring down at it in horror. Noticing her reaction, Kaiyr, only a few strides behind, picked up speed and rammed into her from behind, connecting with his shoulder and sending the creature into the pool with a splash. Caineye met up with him and watched the spectacle.
The reaction was instantaneous. The Nemesis screeched in agony as the black substance comprising her seeped from her skin and into the waters of the pool. The whiteness of her hair and darkness of her wings bled away, leaving both a shimmering gray as her skin took on a normal, pale tone. The clothing burned away from her body as though the water was acid.
The creature’s screams died away, and she rose from the waters of the pool, standing on shaky legs. She turned back to Kaiyr with a frightened and confused look on her face.
“The water,” Caineye breathed in disbelief, “it’s turned black. Look at it, Master Kaiyr!”
The blademaster glanced at the water. Except for a few inches around the shaking girl’s body, the water had turned dark and dangerous. He looked back up at the new creature standing before him, only a stride and a half away. “Nemesis,” he said, his countenance grave, “your move.”
The girl blinked at him and looked down at her body, as if realizing for the first time that she had arms and legs, but she did not respond.
Caineye, Wild, and Kaiyr all exchanged confused glances. “What’s going on here?” the druid murmured, but neither the elf nor the halfling had any answers for him.
“Master Kaiyr! Caineye! Look! The water! It’s closing in on her!” Wild shouted, pointing at the ring of clear water around the winged girl’s body.
“You must get out of that water now,” Kaiyr shouted at her, beckoning for her to come to him. She stared blankly at him. Not flinching in the least, Kaiyr reached inside the torso of his robes and whipped out a length of strong but supple cord, throwing it to her. Still no reaction.
Pulling his cable back in, he expertly tossed one end, weighted with a small iron ball, up into the branches of one of the trees overhead. Then, wrapping one arm in the rope, he moved back to give himself space, dashed forward for momentum, and hopped into the air. The arc of his swing took him to the confused girl in the darkening pool. Swinging into her, he took her round the waist and hauled her up, pulling her out of the water. “Master Caineye!” he shouted, looking back at the length of rope that still trailed on the ground behind him.
“Got it!” the druid replied, taking up the cord and pulling the blademaster and the winged girl back to dry land. Kaiyr set the girl down and with a flick of his wrist brought his cord down from where it had wrapped itself around the overhead branch.
Wild rejoined them on the near side of the pool, and they all stared at the young woman before them. She stood in their midst, her arms curled defensively up between her bare breasts as she mutely returned the looks.
It was Kaiyr who spoke first. “Who are you?” he asked softly.
The angelic girl turned slowly to regard him with large, innocent gray eyes. She stared at him but said nothing, though her mouth opened slightly after a moment.
Kaiyr returned the gaze, looking into her eyes, searching for any signs of recognition, in her eyes. But the gray orbs in her pretty face just stared back at him, blank.
The blademaster held out a hand to the side of her face. Her eyes tracked it, though she seemed to have trouble keeping them trained on his fingers. After a moment, a happy look crossed her features, and she reached for his hand. The expression turned to one of confusion when she missed, then fear as she overbalanced and stumbled forward. Catching her and holding her upright, Kaiyr announced, “She seems to have no knowledge… a clean slate, like a baby.”
“A baby,” came Astra’s voice, and she stalked through the door. “A fully-grown adult baby, with wings, that just tried to kill me not a few minutes ago. Let me take care of this, Kaiyr.” Her rapier slid from its scabbard at her side, and in an instant, Kaiyr whirled to place himself between the stern-countenanced Astra and the girl.
“Lady Astra, please sheathe your sword,” Kaiyr said softly. “We have spilled enough blood on these holy grounds.”
Caineye nodded and placed a hand on the nymph’s shoulder, which she immediately shrugged off. “I agree, Lady Astra. I’ve seen enough bloodshed to last me a while,” he added. “Besides, the thing that tried to kill you was washed away by the magical waters of this spring. Your Nemesis is no more. Now we have… a child, I suppose.”
“A child who looks just like you,” Wild chimed in. “I wonder what’s with the wings, though?”
Astra pressed her lips into a line, a vein visibly throbbing on her forehead. “Whatever,” she hissed. “Just keep her away from me.” Storming off, she headed back into the abbey and headed for the dining room.
“Well,” Wild said mildly, “that settles that. What do we do now?”
Kaiyr found his hair under assault by the “newborn.” Catching her hand in his, he disentangled it from his hair and straightened. “I know not,” he admitted. “Let us take her to one of the unused beds and let her sit. She seems to have no balance.”
It took them several minutes, but eventually, the three of them helped the girl walk down the hall and into the main bedroom, where everyone except Astra and the wererats had been s
leeping. There were more beds than people, and they sat her down onto white sheets.
“What do we do with her?” Caineye wondered aloud.
“We cannot take our eyes off her,” Kaiyr said calmly, “lest Lady Astra attempts to murder her. Again.”
They all blew a communal sigh, watched by a curious, naked ex-Nemesis sitting on the bed. “I can’t say I’ll mind ‘keeping an eye on her,’ if you know what I mean,” Wild chortled, breaking the silence and earning a few reproving glares.
Suddenly, the girl reached up and tugged on Kaiyr’s robes. Her gray eyes looked at him with a puppy-dog expression. “Unnnh,” she said by way of explanation.
Caineye and Wild crowded over Kaiyr’s shoulder as the blademaster knelt in front of the girl. “What is it?” he asked softly, still trying to get a read on her.
She whimpered again. “Are you hurt?” Caineye asked, dropping down next to the blademaster. “Do you need to use the privy? What do you need?”
Then her stomach rumbled loudly. The three companions fell back, a chuckle escaping their lips. “I guess that makes things simpler,” Wild said.
“Yes, let’s get her something to eat,” Caineye agreed. “But first, clothes.”
After finding some suitable garments, they led her to the dining room on her wobbly legs and sat her down on a chair while Kaiyr went to make something to eat. Astra stood inside the kitchen, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed over her ample chest.
“Why are you caring for that… thing?” she demanded in a hiss. From out in the dining room, the girl let out a giggle, finding herself entertained with Vinto when the wolf arrived to join in the meal.
Kaiyr commenced in slicing some bread and cheese, and he gathered up a few nuts and fruits as he replied, “There is nothing else we can do until we learn more.”
“Blademaster, that thing tried to kill me,” Astra growled. “I don’t see a need to keep it around. In fact, I’d feel a lot safer with it gone, if you get what I mean.”
Kaiyr looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Lady Astra, I am astounded at how violent you are. Do you truly believe that the sharp end of your rapier is the answer to all your problems? The girl no longer knows what she was. She wears your face, yes, but that is all.”
