by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
It was Wednesday of the first week back at the Varle Academy after the summer break, and I was sore as hell.
The previous day’s physical training had been especially brutal because our combat trainers, Gerelda and the Major, had foregone our usual routine in favor of making us run laps around the entire campus for most of the day. We only paused to take lunch and water breaks. I guessed they figured that everyone had been lazy during the summer holiday. Maybe that was true for most, but my friends and I had done more than enough work during the break.
The baths that night had been one of the best I’d ever had, but now, a day later, my muscles felt like gelatin.
Thankfully, today was not so physically taxing. It was mid-afternoon, and I lounged around the study hall with my friends and fellow summoners, Layla and Braden. We should have been in our Summoner class, but our teacher, Rori, had been absent. He’d left a note saying that he had some important errands to run and that we needed to read a chapter on monster magic and the weaknesses of monsters. Technically, we wouldn’t formally learn monster anatomy and their strengths and weaknesses until the next level of summoning classes, but I appreciated that he was trying to push me since I knew more than most of the students in the upper-level summoning classes. Hell, under my tutelage, even Braden and Layla were coming along faster than the students in the higher classes.
Still, we did the readings in silence and jotted down relevant notes. It gave us something to do, and review was always good, anyway. Even Layla, usually the one of us quickest to find anything to do but study, did it without complaint, and I was happy to see her more readily embracing her studies.
My fingers had begun to cramp from all the writing when the loud whine of the response team horn cut through the silence of the Academy. Only this wasn’t just any response team siren. It was the one meant for my squad specifically.
Layla’s eyes widened as Braden’s attention snapped up from his books to look at me. “Does that mean what I think it does, Gryff? Has a portal opened up somewhere?”
I was already up out of my chair and on my way to meet up with the Monster Response Squad as I answered, “It does. I have to go.”
I was about to rush out the door when Layla stood abruptly, grabbed me by the tunic, and gave me a quick, deep kiss.
“For luck, Gryffie. Come back in one piece, okay?”
I smiled warmly and winked. “Thanks, Layla, I will.”
We both laughed a bit at that, as much to ease our nerves at the danger I was going into then because it was truly funny, and I got back on my way.
To no surprise of mine, I ran across Nia Kenefick as she jogged toward the response team meeting area under the arena. Nia was many things: elemental mage, scion of the noble Kenefick family of monster fighters, fellow response squad member, and the beautiful woman I had just consummated my love with a few nights ago. We gave each other a smile and a nod as we veered down a long sloping ramp that ran beneath the wall of the building and spiraled into our little headquarters. There was an exercise room, an armory, and a locker room where response squad members could store their armor and uniforms. In the center was a recreation room that we could unwind in though I didn’t spend much time there myself.
Arwyn, Orenn, and Varleth, the rest of our squad, was waiting for us, already dressed in their cloaks and armor. The color of their cloaks marked their magical specialties, Arwyn as a healer and main support, Orenn as a metallogue, an adept who could turn his body into steel with the strength to match, and Varleth as our banisher, the crucial lynchpin who could close the portals that connected the Shadowscape full of monsters to our world.
They sat in the ring of sofas that circled the hearth at the center of the room. As we entered, Arwyn, our leader as well as one of my teachers and, secretly, my lover, shot to her feet.
“Good, you’re here.” She grabbed two of the packs at her feet and tossed them to us. I caught one, then another. The first was my standard pack that had all my gear including my gas mask for the Shadowscape, some flint, a lighter, among other tools and helpful bits. The other bag was huge and heavy, and she must have seen the strange look on my face because she added, “Your armor is in there. You can change on the way.”
It was obvious that, as always, there was no time to waste. Considering that if a portal was open, every second could mean more monsters were released into the world to kill, maim, destroy, and otherwise cause problems, I couldn’t blame her for rushing us.
The moment Nia and I had our packs, Arwyn marched out of the room and up the ramp we’d come from, our entire team falling into step behind her.
From there, things went in the same hurried fashion as our first mission had gone. We took a carriage to the airship depot in the middle of the Enclave, then rode up the lift to the airship without so much as a word.
The airship we boarded was smaller than the one we’d taken to Helvetia. This one was slim and sleek and didn’t have a large cargo hold. In fact, the lift placed us right in the middle of the back cabin where a squad of four soldiers sat and chatted. They gave us a nod as we passed through into a connecting cabin similar to the one on the first airship.
As we reached our seats, Arwyn dropped her bags into the cargo hold and looked over at us.
“It’d be best if you waited for us to take off before you change into your armor,” Arwyn said as she began strapping into her own seat. “These smaller ships tend to have bumpier starts.”
That was a fair point, so I took my seat next to Nia and strapped in. Moments later, the ship lurched and shot up with a violent jerk that didn’t sit well with the lunch in my stomach. I didn’t think Nia would appreciate me spewing all over her shoes, especially now that we’d become lovers, so I fought back the nausea and managed to keep it down.
With one last rumble, the ship’s ascent stabilized and then it shot forward with all the grace of a launched arrow. Not only was this airship smaller and sleeker, but it was a hell of a lot faster too, and the countryside streaked past the porthole by my head.
Once the ship was cruising comfortably, Nia and I had a chance to change into our gear courtesy of the onboard restrooms, and a few minutes later, our team was now reassembled. We all sat save for Arwyn who stood before us, ready to brief us on the current emergency.
“Okay, now we can begin.” She folded her arms behind her back and paced back and forth before us. “Our mission this evening takes us to the town of Harrow’s Gullet where a rift opened a short time ago. Reports say that the rift didn’t produce a large initial force of monsters and the ones that have come through are mostly grade E and D. The casualties are, thankfully, low for now.”
She stopped her pacing as she turned to face us. “There was a small unit of soldiers passing through the town, so they were able to keep the damage down to a minimum, but we don’t know if anything stronger has come out since our last communication from them. Hopefully, they can hold out until we arrive. When we do, we will assess the situation, and if it is stabilized, we will enter.”
I nodded. It was rare for a rift to open so late in the day since they would disappear by sundown. That worried me though I wasn’t sure why.
“Any questions?” Arwyn asked as she glanced down the line of us. I couldn’t think of anything to add, not until we saw the situation on the ground, and neither did the others, so after a moment of silence, Arwyn nodded. “Excellent. For now, get ready. We’ll be at our destination within the hour.”
She disappeared to the cockpit and left us to wait and prepare. Varleth was his usual grim self as he took out his sword and a whetstone from his pack and started to sharpen it in his seat. Orenn, usually more jovial, had already begun to focus on the mission ahead as he simply leaned his head back and closed his eyes
. As for Nia, she walked her fingers along my wrist before intertwining them in my hand. She gave it a squeeze.
“Ready for another fight?” she asked with a wry smile.
I sighed and leaned my head back. “Honestly? I’m tired, but I’ll be ready.”
She gave me a long, appraising look. “You’re in this military life now, Gryff. We don’t get many breaks. You’ll be tired all the time, but you’ll need to have the fortitude and willpower to forge through it.”
“I know.” I squeezed her hand and cracked a smile. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I don’t,” she said with a knowing smile.
“I’ll have plenty of energy after this fight for other, more important things.”
“Ha,” she scoffed, but I could see her lips curl up a bit as she tried to fight against a pleased smile.
For the rest of the flight, I told her and Orenn some good stories from my childhood, embarrassing moments and the like. Nia laughed and smiled the whole way while Orenn let out some chuckles and some amusing commentary of his own. Varleth, well, he occasionally glanced our way and scowled like the curmudgeon he usually was, but at least he never told us to be quiet.
When the hour was done, and the sun was nearly set, Arwyn came back to us. “We’re about to land, team, so get ready.”
I turned in my seat to look out the window at the town, and my breath caught in my throat. The town itself wasn’t so big, only a dozen or so wood and brick buildings clustered around a single street and town square, but it was what the town was built into that made it a sight to behold.
Harrow’s Gullet was appropriately named, for it was built amongst the bones of a massive creature. What I guessed was the ribcage of the monster jutted out of the ground on the edge of the town, and walls of wood were built between each rib. The entrance to the town was built into a huge skull the size of a house, long and toothy like an alligator.
There were leg bones visible from the air too, but they weren’t incorporated into the town. Instead, they served as lonely bone monoliths rising out of the earth around the village.
Nia smiled as she saw me staring. “Those are the bones of a Ytaborro, ‘walking mountain’ in the old western language. Several of them came out of the first rifts, but they all wandered off. None have come out of a rift ever again. Some think there are still some of these gigantic creatures out there wandering the world, but one hasn’t been seen in decades.”
“I don’t know how I’ve never heard of those.” I let out a low whistle.
She shrugged. “They weren’t particularly violent, never destroyed cities, and as I said, it’s been decades. They’ve been lost to history, mostly.”
“Huh, let’s hope it stays that way.” I couldn’t even imagine having to fight something that ginormous. Such a massive beast could knock down the walls of Varle with a single swipe of whatever appendage they had at the end of their arms.
From what I could tell, there wasn’t much damage to the town itself. One house along the main square where the rift was located was in ruins, but I spied no fires. In fact, as we slowly descended, I didn’t see any monsters at all. People were milling about, but no one was in a panic.
We landed at the head of the town right outside of the skull gate, and then Arwyn led us to the back cabin where we climbed down a hatch where the lift had been. The ship landed on four mechanical legs that the larger ships didn’t have. There were four soldiers were waiting for us, rifles at the ready, and Arwyn gave them the usual orders to sweep the town for any monsters or survivors while we went toward the rift.
“There’s only a half hour until sunset, and we have no idea where the catalyst is.” Arywn turned to look at us. “I think we simply watch it from outside and wait for it to close naturally.”
When we didn’t object, she turned to the soldiers surrounding the rift and gave them similar orders. Once that was done, they would take turns on patrol to look for any monsters that had escaped while the others slept in the inn to stay fresh.
A half hour later, I was bored out of my mind because not a single monster had come through. Even still, I was glad I was there because watching the first rays of moonlight strike the rift was amazing. It pulsed in the silvery light before evaporating like it was never there at all.
“Okay. Seems we got lucky.” Arwyn nodded, and her shoulders relaxed as she looked at us. “We’ll stay the night to make sure it doesn’t reopen in the morning. It probably won’t, but I’d hate to head back and have it open up again when we could stay here through the night. We’ll know as soon as the sun peeks up from the horizon.”
I let that roll around in my mind as we crossed through the immense skull gate, even bigger from the ground where a single tooth was as big as I was, and we entered the town. A few citizens were out and about. Some helped carry the bodies of the dead while others sat in a daze. Maybe there weren’t as many casualties as usual, but I doubted that mattered much to these people, especially in a town as small as this one.
A triage tent stood on the inside of the skull gate. There, the town doctor did his best with the injured. He wasn’t a mage though, so all he had to rely on was good, reliable medicine and technique. Arwyn prepared to get to work healing the wounded, the ones she could still save, that is. Even her magic had its limits. Before she went to it, she turned to us.
“Go wait for me at the inn,” she began, then turned her eyes to our metallouge. “Orenn, get us some rooms and some food.” Arwyn turned to the rest of us. “If you see anyone in need of help, feel free to do so, unless they need medical attention, in which case send them here. Dismissed.”
“Yes, ma’am,” we all said in unison.
Truthfully, there wasn’t much more we could do at the moment. It seemed most everyone from Harrow’s Gullet was either dead, gone, or clustered around the triage tent. Nia, Varleth, and I waited out front of the large two-story inn that sat along the town square. A short time later, Orenn emerged from the building after his negotiations with the innkeeper, but before he could even say a word, Arwyn joined us as well. Despite the darkness of dusk, I could see how tired she looked, but she didn’t let herself get down. She was always smiling when outside of battle, and I truly admired that about her.
With her hands on her hips, she glanced at Orenn. “What’s the situation, Orenn?”
“They’re cooking fish for us, so that’ll be good.” The metallouge smiled. “And there are four rooms, so some of us will have to share.”
“Excellent, let’s get settled then.” Arwyn led the way inside. “Food and rest will do us all wonders in preparation of what we will face in the morning.”
We followed her inside eagerly. The inn itself was as nondescript as they came, only a scattering of round wooden tables clustered around the room. The bar and the kitchen entrance were against the right-hand wall with a crackling hearth on the wall opposite of that. A small stage for a bard stood in front of us with doors on either side as four wooden posts supported the ceiling.
Orenn showed us down a hallway where our rooms were, and we gathered into a small huddle for Arwyn to hand out room assignments.
“Gryff, you bunk with me,” she told me before glancing over to the others. “The rest of you, pick any other room you would like.”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” If Nia found it odd that Arwyn chose me to bunk with instead of her, she didn’t let on, and neither Orenn nor Varleth said a word. Instead, the two men rushed as fast as they could to grab their choice of room while Nia shouldered her bag and picked one of the spare ones. Arwyn and I stowed our gear in the last room, and after we all settled in, we went down to the common room and had a brief meal of cooked pickerel from the nearby stream.
As we ate, Arwyn cleared her throat. “I want you all to get some rest right after we eat. If the rift opens, it’ll be first thing in the morning, so I want you awake an hour before that to be on hand in case any initial monsters swarm out. Any questions?” We shook our heads. “Good.�
��
Dinner went by mostly in silence after that. It didn’t help that there were only a couple of other patrons, and they were just as silent as we were. Orenn did tell us of some bit of mischief he got into at a pub in Garvesh Enclave over the break, but we weren’t very receptive. I was interested plenty, but Varleth and Nia both seemed dismissive of it, and Arwyn was smiling to be polite. Orenn kept on though, either oblivious or uncaring of their disinterest.
The somber atmosphere was rather disheartening, but good people had already died, so it was understandable.
Once dinner was through, we all went to our rooms and retired for the night.
“I know you probably wanted to stay with Nia, but I needed company tonight,” Arwyn said after she closed and locked the door. “I hope an old gal like me still interests you.” She wasted no time stripping off her armor, and then her clothes.
“You aren’t many years older than me, Arwyn,” I chuckled as she pulled her shirt over her head, her luscious breasts bouncing from the effort. “And you most definitely interest every part of my body and mind.”
“Ahh, your words are lovely to hear.” She slid seductively up to me and slowly pushed me onto the bed, her gentle fingers against my chest. “But I think we’ve talked enough.”
“If you say so.” I grinned as she climbed on top of me and slowly guided me inside her.
I could tell the beautiful redhead wanted to moan as I grabbed her hips and pulled her down deeper onto me with each rocking motion, but she clamped that down, no doubt trying to make sure Nia and the others couldn’t hear us. After all, technically speaking, students weren’t supposed to have sex with their professors.
But that’s exactly we did for the better part of an hour until she’d climaxed a fourth time while I made slow deep thrusts into her from behind. Her mouth hung open as she glanced back at me, and the expression on her face was such an elegant mixture of pleasure, sweet agony, and desire that I couldn’t hold on to myself anymore, and we both finally groaned as I filled her trembling body with my seed. Afterward, we cuddled naked and sweaty together before falling asleep in each other’s arms.
