“You have… an animal underneath,” whispered Jessa.
Hal pushed his cock in deep. She reacted to it more now, her body bucking a little as though he’d touched something within her. Her face was scrunched up, and it brought him a surprising amount of pleasure to see.
He let himself move faster. He didn’t see Jessa’s hand as she retaliated, casting her own spell on him. She was with several men in this flash of erotic memory, and keeping up with them all, rather than being their plaything. The dirty kind of passion, full of deep-seated urges and pointless pleasure.
They were both breathing fast. Hal was intent to make her finish before he did, though he wasn’t sure why it mattered so much. He didn’t cast another spell on her, but he did strengthen his pace, half pinning her down as he continued his sexual onslaught.
Jessa came first. The sound of her cries of ecstasy seemed to come from every direction, from the walls of the realm itself. Hal held one of her breasts in one hand, and one of her buttocks in the other. He was pulling her body into him as much as he was thrusting forward, and pushed as deep as he could with the final, explosive movement.
“…Yes,” whispered Jessa. “You are young, but trainable.”
Her words sounded distant. Hal’s body was pulsing with pleasure, the aftermath of his orgasm taking longer to fade than it usually would. Jessa was running a hand through his hair, slowly caressing him, as though she’d taken a new pet.
What just happened?
CHAPTER 20
“My apologies,” whispered Jessa. “I lose myself a little in the decades between visitors. Might I ask your name?”
She was standing next to the pink cloud now, though Hal couldn’t remember when she’d gotten up. She wore a white silk robe that seemed to give off a small amount of ambient light, and her expression was pensive.
“Halrin,” he said. He frowned, unsure of what to do or say next. “What… is this place?”
“This is my sanctum,” she said. “I am the crystal ghost of Jessa Teruvian. My memories, along with the essence and patterns of who I and who she was are preserved here.”
“How long have I been in here for?” asked Hal. His sense of time was out of order, with each of the jumps into Jessa’s memories and emotions from the spells throwing his internal clock askew. It could have been an hour since he’d entered the crystal, or it could have been days.
“Time works differently here, my friend,” said Jessa. “I assure you, it has only been a couple of seconds, perhaps a minute at most, since I first allowed you to enter. Your body in the outside realm is unmolested, I assure you.”
She smiled, either at her word choice or for some other, hidden reason.
“I can sense who you are, Halrin,” she continued. “I can sense what you need. I welcome you into my sanctum and offer you the knowledge I keep here.”
“You welcome me?” asked Hal. “Do you choose who can enter and who can’t?”
He was there for a reason, and hadn’t forgotten it. Tessianna wanted access to the memory crystal. He needed to know about how the process of entering Jessa’s sanctum worked if he was going to follow through on his bargain.
“Only those with strength of heart have the potential,” said Jessa.
“Heart Holders?” asked Hal.
Jessa nodded. “Yes. Not all Heart Holders have the right… disposition, to receive my training. You do, however. You are primed for it, Halrin, vital and full of spirit.”
The way she spoke the last few words was a little seductive. Hal met her gaze and felt arousal prickling through him. He took a breath and tried to stay focused.
“If I asked you to, would you let me bring others into your sanctum?”
“No,” said Jessa. “It is not possible.”
Hal ran a hand across his cheek.
I can still figure out what relevance her memories hold. Make a proper record of what’s inside this crystal, and which parts of it are important.
It felt a little like the translating jobs Hal had once performed for Roth, back in Cardvale. Thinking of it that way made it easier for him to understand what he needed to do next, and how to approach the work.
“You mentioned knowledge,” he said. “And training. What would it consist of?”
Jessa walked over to him. Hal was sitting on the pink cloud, his legs dangling over the side. Jessa positioned herself directly in front of him, setting her hands on his legs and looking down at an angle to hold eye contact.
“For you, it would be as much healing as it would be training,” she whispered. “You are broken, Halrin. Stunted in ways which I suspect I cannot repair fully. Wounds of the heart and of the soul, which keep you from reaching your potential.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Trauma has hidden some of your emotions from you,” said Jessa. “Prevented you from bonding to your heartgem as you should have. It’s why you’re limited, on the verge of going further without being able to take the final step.”
Hal frowned. “You’re saying… it’s the reason why I can’t use the full range of my gem magic?”
He’d considered it before, wondered if some aspect of his training had been lacking or counterproductive. He could use three out of the five elements, and though he’d reached the point of being able to enter a Ruby Trance, he’d never been able to push beyond.
Cadrian had called it “Ascension”, the third and final power level available only to the most dedicated gem mages. Hal had felt a little annoyed at his own inability to reach it, given the legends surrounding the heartgem and its potential. To know that there was something else limiting him, beyond his own will, was both liberating and depressing.
“You will never extend beyond the elements you’ve already touched.” Jessa brought her hand to his cheek as she spoke, as though to comfort him. “But you can follow your main path, follow the passion burning in your heart. It’s waiting for you, Halrin, but you must take it.”
He shook his head slightly. Was she asking him to take her? What did she mean by that?
Jessa took his hand into hers and kissed the back of it. “My memories will serve as your trial. Halrin, you must learn who you are, where you walk, and why you suffer.”
She pulled him to his feet. Her hand began to glow with blindingly bright light, and she pressed them against his chest. Hal felt something vibrating deep inside of him, deeper than muscle and bone. It felt like she was touching his emotions, the essence that he captured in his heartgem. It felt perverse, like a violation of his very being.
He grimaced, the light cast off her hands forcing him to close his eyes. When he opened them, he wasn’t in Jessa’s sanctum anymore.
Hal stood on a wooden rope bridge. He was wearing clothes again, a leather tunic and grey slacks. He could feel the wind blowing through his hair, making planks under his feet sway precariously to one side.
A thick, blanketing fog made it hard for him to see more than a few dozen feet in any direction. Hal was in the middle of the bridge, which stretched across a large chasm, deep enough that he couldn’t see the bottom looking down. The sun was hidden by the overcast weather, but there was just enough ambient light for him to make out the approaching figures in front of him.
“I was young and overconfident,” came Jessa’s voice. “I was a scout for my people. I traveled the border of my diminishing homeland, watching for the humans and maugs who raided our villages, raping and pillaging as they pleased. I was already the Heart Holder, but I knew not who I was.”
Her voice faded as she spoke the last few words. Hal felt the bridge shift as one of the figures in front of him stepped onto the bridge, followed by several shouts of alarm. He got the sense that he was in for a fight, and reached down to his belt to draw his pistol.
His weapons were gone, which made sense. He was in one of Jessa’s memories, though living it in his own body. He ran his hands across his waist, tunic, and through his boots, looking for some hidden weapon he might have missed.
Nothing.
She said something about this being a trial. Maybe this is what she meant…
Hal wore a heartgem identical to his own on a ring around his left index finger, and a plain, steel spark ring opposite it on his other hand. He reached into the heartgem, taking stock of the extent of the essence within. He could feel ruby and sapphire essence, but no diamond. He could also feel the calming pull of topaz essence within, along with the odd, connected sensation of emerald essence, the magic of nature and forests.
It humbled him slightly to know that Jessa had managed a wider breadth of command over the elements than he had, at a younger age. Hal shook the feeling off and focused on his circumstances. The bridge shifted again, this time from behind him. Another figure was approaching, leaving him sandwiched in between opponents, completely trapped.
He took a breath, and then started forward. He couldn’t run, given how the wooden slats shifted in the rope loops they were held within. There were also gaps, places where wooden slats had broken, leaving enough room for disaster if Hal missed his step.
The approaching figure appeared to be human, a man taller than Hal wielding a two-handed sword. Hal channeled the ruby essence within his heartgem, striking the ring which held it across the spark ring on his other hand and casting Flame Blast.
The spell erupted forth from the sparks in front of Hal’s palm. It struck the approaching swordsman square in the chest, igniting the shirt he wore under his armor. The man screamed and fell back, patting at his chest and rolling against the bridge.
Hal rushed forward, readying himself to hurry over and past the man. He’d only made it a couple of steps before realizing his mistake. The flames on the man’s shirt had spread to the bridge, slowly beginning to burn the wood and the rope.
This is not good…
He tried to break into a run, but the rope snapped before he’d made it more than a few steps. It caused the bridge to tip to the side at a precarious angle. Hal fell, grabbing onto the rope and a wooden slat, gripping it for dear life. The bridge bounced, as though trying to buck him loose intentionally.
The fire spread to the bridge’s other main rope, weakening it slowly, until it snapped loose. Hal screamed as the half of the bridge he clung to swung toward the rock wall of the chasm. He closed his eyes and felt himself hit with enough force to knock him unconscious.
“Try again,” whispered Jessa.
Hal opened his eyes. He was back on the bridge, exactly where he’d been at the start of the trial. He looked around, dumbfounded, and then slowly exhaled.
“You’re giving me another chance?” asked Hal.
Jessa didn’t answer. There was a shout from one side of the bridge, and an instant later, an arrow bit deep through Hal’s back, piercing one of his lungs. It hurt more than anything he’d ever felt before, and after a couple of seconds of gasping, he fell forward onto his stomach.
“Try again,” whispered Jessa.
Hal almost groaned. He was back on the bridge, in his starting position. This time, he had the sense to stay silent and not give his position away to the archers that were apparently poised and ready to murder him.
He took a few seconds to consider the situation. Jessa had said she’d been young, and a scout for her people, the eklids who’d once lived on the surface, apparently. She’d managed to escape the situation, and she was using this as a trial for him for a specific reason. It had to relate to the fact that he was on the bridge. Why was it that her enemies didn’t just cut the ropes and let him fall?
Hal took a deep breath, and then crouched to duck under the rope guard running along the side. He couldn’t see anything below the fog, but he trusted his instincts. This was what she wanted. He steeled his resolve, and then jumped.
He landed on the rocks below, hard, only experiencing the pain for an instant before he was back on the bridge, at the beginning of the trial.
“It was their intention to take me alive,” said Jessa. “Try again.”
CHAPTER 21
Hal twisted, stripping the two-handed sword out of his attacker’s hand and flipping him off the bridge. He knew that the man next in line on the bridge had a mace, and would try to bludgeon him in the skull with it. He knew, because he’d already died to that particular maneuver twice previously.
He stepped back at just the right time to dodge the mace strike, slashing out with his sword. Immediately after, he turned to stab at the man with the dagger who always attempted a sneak attack at that moment. Hal pulled his sword free, rushing to duck down before the arrow from the hidden bowman hit him in the neck.
He wasn’t quick enough, only managing to get his face partially out of the way. The arrow stuck into his eye, and a scream escaped his lips for an instant before he was back in the center of the bridge, at the start of the trial.
Was that attempt number twenty-two? Or twenty-three?”
“Try again,” whispered Jessa.
“A hint would be appreciated,” Hal grumbled. He sidestepped the arrow that always hit his shoulder whenever he made too much noise in the first few moments of the trial.
“Who are you, Halrin?” asked Jessa.
“Who am I?” he asked. “Or who are you? This is your memory.”
“Who are we both?” asked Jessa.
Hal scowled up into the air. He leaned against the side of the rope, content to forfeit his next run through in exchange for a moment or two to think about what she meant.
They were both the Heart Holder, Jessa in her time period, centuries before Hal. He’d already tried using all his spells. Anything fire-related quickly got out of hand, burning the bridge and plummeting him to his doom.
His sole water spell had only annoyed his attackers on either side. Wind Dash was limited to a single axis of movement, only letting him move forward or back, neither of which had done much to change his situation.
He’d even tried using the other forms of elemental magic, earth and nature, to no avail. Neither would have done much of anything, given that he was suspended above the ground and saw no living trees or plants in sight, but he didn’t have access to Jessa’s spells, regardless.
What else was there?
I can enter a Ruby Trance, but what’s the point? More fire isn’t going to do anything other than burn the bridge faster.
A salvo of arrows struck the bridge, four of them striking between Hal’s shoulder blades and introducing him to the experience of being a pin cushion. He blinked, and he was back at the start.
“Try again,” whispered Jessa.
How would she have handled the situation, as an unarmed scout, trapped on a bridge? Jessa had said the trial was about understanding who he was, and who they both were. They were both the Heart Holder. What use was that to him?
Hal furrowed his brow, an idea taking root. He took a step forward and focused his will, drawing his ruby essence from the heartgem and pushing into a Ruby Trance. Power reverberated from deep within him, making him waver slightly, and turning his eyes and vision into a shade of sharp crimson.
The foremost attackers, who usually pressed forward on the attack immediately, stayed where they were. Hal knew that the fog was partially ruining the effect, but his eyes were still glowing red. The effect looked almost demonic from an outside angle, and he could tell that it was giving his enemies pause.
“Go no further,” said Hal, throwing his voice to be as deep and resonant as he could make it. “I will destroy you if you make me your enemy. I am the Heart Holder.”
The Ruby Trance had an emotional pull to it, almost like adrenaline, but with a hungry undercurrent of sexuality. Hal slapped one hand across the other, launching a Flame Blast straight up into the air. It cut a red and orange path through the fog, drawing the attention of everyone present on and around the bridge.
“I can destroy you with my magic,” said Hal. “And I’ll die doing it, if I have to.”
It was a lot easier to make such a threat sound sincere, given the circumstances of the trial. A
nd much to Hal’s relief, it seemed to work. Nobody had moved from where they stood. It was as though the reality of the situation, the danger of fighting on a flimsy bridge over a gaping chasm, had only become real to them as they got a sense of their opponent. Hal was anything but defenseless, and none of his opponents wished to throw their lives away any more than he did.
Slowly, almost shamefully, the attackers withdrew from the bridge, leaving him with a choice of escape routes. Hal had only taken a single step forward when Jessa appeared on the bridge in front of him, clad in her silk robe, hands clasped behind her back.
“You have done well,” she said.
Hal gave her an appraising look. “This is what you meant, isn’t it? That I needed to take advantage of the idea of being the Heart Holder, rather than my actual capabilities.”
Jessa looked over the chasm, her expression far off.
“I was already known, even before grown into adulthood,” said Jessa. “There is a certain naivety to youth that lets us forget that we have a role which others expect us to play. A blind spot in regard to how we’re seen, and especially, what others fear about us.”
Hal nodded. He did feel as though he’d learned something, but it was an idea that he’d have to give more thought.
“Are you ready for your next trial?” asked Jessa.
What choice do I really have?
“Of course,” said Hal.
Jessa raised a hand, and bright light erupted through the scene. Hal closed his eyes, though he could still feel the intensity of her magic against his skin and in the air itself. The sensation faded after a couple of seconds, and he opened his eyes.
He was on an open balcony, at night. The sky was cloudy and starless overhead, and the torches set into sconces on either side of the doorway behind him only gave off enough light to show a fraction of the wall of the expansive elven hive behind him.
An elf woman stood a few feet from him, her arms crossed, and her face set into a frustrated expression. She was beautiful, with straight blonde hair, a crimson dress in the form-fitting elven style, and a black cape. She was beautiful, and she was apparently very angry with him.
Eternal Palace (Sexcraft Chronicles Book 4) Page 11
