by Milo Woods
“Hmm? It appears so. Anyway, I thought you should know that.”
Seeko looked down. “It was you. You took me to Earth.”
“I’m well aware that you think it was me. But I assure you I would remember that. Regardless, I came here for another reason.”
“What?” The more Yoshino talked, the less Seeko understood. None of this made any sense.
Yoshino smiled. “It’s the same reason as last time. I came here to test you in combat.” He laughed. “You didn’t even try last time. Let’s see you do better.” Yoshino summoned a sword out of thin air, like last time.
Thoughts rolled around in Seeko’s head. Who was he? All along, he thought he was a normal boy who had been adopted on Earth. He suspected he might be Physis’s son, but to hear someone actually confirm this … Why? Why? Seeko couldn’t contain himself, shouting, “Why?”
And then Yoshino was on him. Seeko barely had time to react he was so fast. Seeko avoided Yoshino’s blow, drawing his blade simultaneously. He swung at Yoshino …
… who dodged it effortlessly. Yoshino raised his sword and struck Seeko’s, pushing back with the strength of a bull. Yoshino swung again and they began exchanging blows. Seeko was clearly outmatched, always on the defensive against Yoshino’s relentless assault. With a roar, Seeko ignited his blade, and a green blaze surrounded the short-sword.
Yoshino hesitated. “Magic? Excellent! Hit me with your strongest spell, then!” He moved away and threw open his arms, inviting an attack. Was it a trick? Regardless, the flame from Seeko’s sword jumped into the air, becoming an emerald snake. The fume of fire plummeted into Yoshino, bathing him in an inferno of light.
But when the light faded, Yoshino stood as if nothing had happened. He was frowning. “How disappointing. You’ll need to become much stronger if you’re going to be the Hero of Endetia.” The sword in his hand disappeared, faded back into the air from whence it came. “I hope that one day you will be powerful enough to actually fight me.”
Seeko was trembling. “I’m not done yet! You think you can just mess with me like this? I hate you!”
Yoshino placed a hand to his head. “You hate me? After everything I’ve apparently done for you? Come now, be human.” He flashed his teeth.
“You brought me here! This is your fault!” Seeko reached deeper into himself than ever before. The spark reacted to him and soon Seeko was brimming with power. He unleashed an infernal torrent of jade flame into Yoshino at an astonishing speed.
Yoshino’s eyes went wide as Seeko’s magic flew toward him. Then he shifted and was at Seeko’s side. The fire flew where he had just been and collided with the ground, extinguishing as it fanned out in all directions.
Seeko fell, his spark fading and his life with it. Yoshino caught him before he hit the ground. “Can’t have that now,” he said. “Maybe you are hero material, what with the ‘win at any cost’ mentality and all. Here …”
Seeko’s spark flared back up and the cuts on his shoulder and arm disappeared. Yoshino was healing him?
“Good luck on your quest, Seeko.” Yoshino stood Seeko back up and turned him toward the peak. “Oh, and when you run into Vishoni, give him my regards.” Then he was gone, teleported away.
Seeko stood for a while, reflecting on what Yoshino had said. Seeko was a Kismetian. He was Physis’s son, then, he knew. Seeko’s thoughts triggered his memory, and before he could react, he was reliving it …
Two people are talking to one another. One of them, a tall man with white hair and red eyes, gestures angrily at a necklace in his hand. The other man runs his hand through his black hair. He glances at me. The white-haired man shouts at the other. He points his palm away from him and a black oval appears opposite. The man smiles and reaches for my hand. Together, we walk into the darkness …
… and appear on the other side. Street lamps glow on a rainy street. Small apartments line the streets, windows alight. The man looks to me and changes appearance, a suit on his body. He pulls me to the closest door and rings the doorbell. It sounds off and he is gone. I am alone at the door, and it opens …
Seeko was pulled out of the memory. The Dris family had found him that day—a poor boy with no home, no memories. Yoshino took him there … and then forgot about him? Or was it really a Yoshino lookalike? But the memory … it looked so like him.
Seeko rose and looked in the direction Mori was said to have gone. He guessed he should go the way Yoshino wanted him to. He had no other choice really; he was still lost. Seeko headed in that direction with a shrug.
Eventually, the ground sloped upward, slowing Seeko down. Finally, I’m climbing this damn mountain, Seeko thought. Still no sign of Mori, though. The forest thinned as he climbed higher and soon the sun was once again visible in the sky. Seeko waved at the shimmering star with the passion of seeing a loved one. And then he moved on, climbing ever higher, searching for Mori.
Soon enough, he had to stop, for a cliff rose above him and his surroundings, climbing far to his left and fading on his right. He sat against the cliff wall for a while, catching his breath again, then headed to his right, in order to climb the mountain ever higher.
He reached the end of the cliff face and rounded it. Not long after, he rose above the canopy of the surrounding forest and looked over it. The sinister trees stretched far into the horizon, ending only at the shimmering Lake Mediose. Seeko looked into the sky, seeing the ring faintly between clouds. The radiant sun was beginning its descent, soon to hide behind the mountain at Seeko’s back. If he didn’t find Mori before the sun set, he’d never find her.
He climbed until darkness shrouded his path, trapping him on the mountainside. Above, the planet’s glowing ring arced from the forest into the mountain, silhouetting it in light. The ring and the stars were his only companion in the dark of night. He wanted to use his magic to find Mori, but he also didn’t want to alert any demons. But, as the darkness settled in, Seeko grew more and more worried. He needed to find her.
Seeko called upon his spark and launched a green flare high into the air, where it burst into a bright emerald explosion. Better be ready for anything, Seeko thought. He withdrew his bow but kept a grip on the magic. With luck, Mori would see it and investigate. Seeko moved to put a nearby outcropping at his back, scanning the area for movement as he did so. He continued his scan for upwards of five minutes before giving up. Guess she didn’t see it. The good news is at least nothing else did—
His thoughts stopped as movement invaded his peripherals. He went on guard, ready at a moment’s notice to summon fire from his hands.
The movement of the mystery creature stopped, most likely when it detected Seeko near it. Seeko froze and squinted in the darkness to get a better view. Still no movement. Seeko crouched down, trying to hide himself in the background. Please don’t be a demon please don’t be a demon please don’t be a demon … He continued to scan, eyes moving like wildfire. Finally, Seeko caught motion, a slight shifting of weight. It was hunched, hiding in the grass, but Seeko smiled at his awareness. He fired a single fireball at his foe. The mound caught fire, emerald flames licking the night sky.
Then the fire went out, replaced by steam and smoke. Seeko readied himself for another assault, but paused, waiting for the figure to become clear in the smoke.
“Seeko, stop!” It was Mori. She came out of the smoke unharmed.
“How did you know it was me?”
By now, Mori was at his side. “Who else uses green fire? I saw your flare earlier.”
Seeko looked down. “Sorry for attacking you.”
“It’s okay. You didn’t know for sure that it was me. I would have done the same thing if our roles were reversed.” She placed a hand in his and squeezed.
Seeko smiled, squeezed back, and then released her hand. “You won’t believe who I ran into,” Seeko said after a moment.
Mori waved him away. “Yoshino, right? I ran into him earlier. He said that the portal is at the top of this smaller peak, so at le
ast we don’t have to climb all the way to the top.”
Seeko looked up toward the mountain. “You trust him?”
“He led you to me, didn’t he?” Mori frowned. “I don’t think he’d lie about this. And besides, it’s the only thing we have. I don’t want to have to climb this entire mountain, do you?”
“I guess it’s worth a shot.”
“Okay. This looks like a good place to camp. We’ll head out in the morning. You take first watch this time, Seeko.”
Seeko made a face, but its meaning was lost in the darkness. “Fine.”
/ / / / /
The next morning came quickly. During the night, Mori had replaced him as watchman and he fell asleep instantly. Now she was waking him and he felt as if he had gotten no sleep at all.
“Wake up. You don’t want me to pour water on your head, do you?”
Seeko was out of the blanket in an instant. “Never!”
“Calm down, fool. I wasn’t going to splash you.”
He looked to Mori, who was not amused. He cleared his throat. “We better get going, right?” As he said that, a shade covered his body. He looked up, looking for the source of the darkness, and his eyes grew wide.
A giant balloon of water hung overhead, suspended by magic. It fell to the ground as he noticed it, drenching Seeko in frigid water. “Ha-ha. Very funny, Mori.” He shivered and looked around, but couldn’t find her. “Mori?”
Seeko looked farther up the mountain and saw her red clothing. “Let’s go!” she shouted back. “What are you waiting for?”
She was so lucky that fire couldn’t be easily used for pranks. “Coming!” he shouted back, trying to scheme up a way to prank her anyway.
“Hurry up. I think I found something.”
Seeko was at her side again before long. She laughed at his wet clothes, then dried him off and returned the water to her water-skin.
“What did you find?” Seeko asked.
“Footprints. Human, fresh.” She pointed to the ground. “Someone else was here lately.”
Seeko stared at the footprints. “Does it matter?”
“If it’s someone like Yoshino, yes.”
“So we’ll just be on our guard, then?” He walked up the mountain again, leaving Mori facing down the slope.
Mori let out a whimper. “Too late, Seeko.”
“What?”
He found her facing the cause of the footprints. A man stood not five feet from Mori, strong and tall. The man cocked his head.
“Hello. My name is Vishoni.”
/ / / / /
He was a tall man with wise eyes, showing age beyond his young years. His face was more pointed than most, and his long black hair was done in a ponytail. He wore strange garb that revealed more than Seeko would have liked: he only wore pauldrons and a chain connecting them, and nothing more than a long loincloth covered his lower half. In addition, the top of his ears were pointed.
Vishoni nodded off to no one. “You two are looking for the portal? I can lead you to it.”
Mori backed up a step. “How did you sneak up behind us?”
“Magic!” A strange spasm twisted his head in a bizarre way. He shook his head.
Seeko came up next to Mori. “We can’t trust you. You’re crazy,” he said.
“No! You need me to show you the way. It is difficult and treacherous.” He nodded again. “What choice do you have?”
Seeko squinted at him. “We can just go to the small peak without you, you know. We do have that choice.”
Vishoni laughed. “I can’t take no for an answer … It demands that I take you … So let’s go!” He ambled down the slope, back the way they came. “Come now!”
“You’re going the wrong way! “Seeko shouted. “The mountain slopes this way!”
But he waved them off and continued to move.
Mori and Seeko exchanged glances. “Should we trust him?” she asked him.
“No. But he at least looks like he might know the way.”
Mori nodded. “Let’s go, then. Don’t want to lose him.”
Seeko recalled Vishoni’s pointed ears as they rushed to catch up to him. But he’d already seen giant cattle-foxes, men teleporting, and battles being fought in his name. So, pointed ears weren’t that weird, right? “Are there elves in Kismetia?” Seeko whispered to Mori after a minute, afraid that Vishoni’s ears gave him super-hearing.
“Why are you whispering?” Mori said. “And what’s an elf?”
“Shhh! He can hear us with those ears!”
Sure enough, Vishoni twitched eccentrically, perhaps eavesdropping.
Seeko dropped his voice even further: “Elves are like humans, but with pointed ears. Also, they’re usually better than us in most stories about them, but they don’t really exist on Earth.”
“There aren’t any elves on this planet; we don’t have crazy things like that here.”
Seeko pretended she didn’t just say that. He dropped the subject when Vishoni tweaked out again.
The path they took sloped downward for a while then curved back upward and around the mountain. In multiple places, it became nothing but a narrow pass, and at other places, the path was bordered with cliffs falling far into the forest below. Seeko was glad they had followed him. They would have never found the way otherwise. But why was he helping them?
Another few hours passed and the sun reached its peak. This high on the mountain, the sun’s heat avoided the trio, leaving Mori and Seeko shivering from the cold. Vishoni, however, was unaffected, giving the lame excuse of “I’m used to it.” They passed snowdrifts, and a chilling breeze picked up. Before long, Seeko saw their destination, the smallest of the three peaks. Seeko worried about what could be at the top of the peak. A super-powerful demon? A bunch of those bat things? He prepared for the worst. But his fears were unfounded and soon they stood at the summit. Seeko examined the portal before him.
The darkness, the abyss, was a slowly spinning sphere that stood about seven feet high. Dark reds and purples invaded it and twirled around it like ribbons caught in the wind. The portal stood in a relatively flat area, with the mountain sloping away gently in all directions. It was a portal to another world, just like the one on Earth. There were several snowdrifts at the top, but the portal itself was on dry ground. Seeko saw bleached rocks nearby, but paled when he realized what they really were. Bones.
Vishoni gestured to the portal. “There it is. That is where we come from.”
Seeko’s eyes widened and he backed up a step from Vishoni. “You’re a demon? So, you can look like a human?”
Mori, too, looked shocked. “I didn’t know that, either. So why haven’t you killed us already, monster?”
Vishoni’s right hand trembled, but he seemed to have better control over whatever was wrong with him than he did earlier. “Please. Not every demon, especially the sophisticated Akeni and the winged Syran, are mindless killing machines.” His hand flew to his chest. “This is different. I want you to free me from this … this prison.”
Seeko rose an eyebrow. “What?”
“I am the guardian of this portal, and I am bound to it as surely as you are bound to the ground.” He looked to the sky with longing. “No matter where I go, I always find myself back here eventually.”
Seeko took another step back. “What exactly do you want us to do?”
Vishoni ignored him, instead approaching the portal. “I want to have fun, to frolic, like my brothers. I want to be free!” Only then did he stare at Seeko. “I want to play a game.”
“What does this game have to do with the portal?” Seeko asked.
“Everything!” Vishoni seemed to be losing his inner struggle and was now grinning.
Seeko looked to Mori, who only shrugged.
Vishoni continued. “All you have to do is touch me. Then I will tell you how to close the portal. Sounds easy enough, right?” Vishoni screamed and fell to his knees.
“What’s happening?” Seeko shouted.
&nbs
p; Suddenly, a pair of bloody bat wings burst from Vishoni’s back. Another pair soon followed, and Vishoni visibly shook as the wings unfolded. His wings looked like those of the bat demons they’d already faced. Vishoni flapped the wings once, blood flinging in all directions. Then he looked up and smiled again.
“Save me, hero!” he cried out, no longer smiling. “Save me from … myself!” With that, he took off, cackling like a madman.
13: Necklace
22 Rynr, 112 AV: Day 91
“You mean physically touch you?” Seeko shouted so that Vishoni could hear him.
“Yes! Exactly!” Vishoni flew higher and summoned darkness in his palm. It compressed quickly and he launched it at Seeko. “Take this!”
Seeko ducked and avoided the black orb. “You’re going to attack us too?”
“It wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t!”
Seeko’s response was green fireballs, which Vishoni evaded.
Vishoni landed on the ground and sent a shock wave of earth in all directions. The wave of earth rose higher as it flew away from him. By the time it reached Mori and Seeko, it was as tall as their knees and sent them sprawling.
“What element is he?” Seeko shouted as they regained their footing.
Mori shrugged and shot water at an amazing speed toward Vishoni. But the demon took off again, dodged the water, and countered with a wave of ruby fire, which he sent toward Mori. Seeko raised his hands and bent the flame, sending it back into Vishoni. A surprised Vishoni was hit square in the chest and plummeted. He struck the ground at an awesome speed, and dirt and dust flew in all directions. When it cleared, however, he was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is he?” Seeko shouted.
A loud snap from behind answered him and he reflexively ducked—which was for the best, because he barely avoided a dark whip aimed at his head. Apparently, Vishoni could teleport and use several elements. Seeko and Mori were vastly outmatched. And he was only messing with them. If he were to fight them full on, he would kill them in seconds, Seeko figured.
Vishoni soared past him, blasting Seeko and Mori with his wake. He flew upward, dodging Mori’s water lashes and Seeko’s fireballs. Then he stopped and fired dozens of small black spheres from his fingertips, laughing as he did so. The spheres shot downward like meteors, forcing the duo to dodge. Still, Seeko was clocked in the head and slammed into the ground with a thud.
