by Eric Vall
“Really?” Deya asked as she sent me a glittering smile from the passenger seat, but before I could respond, the beautiful elf suddenly lurched toward the window and vomited all over the clearing.
Chapter 5
“I’m perfectly fine, you don’t have to concern yourselves,” Deya sighed, but I shook my head as we turned onto the road to Serin.
“Deya, there were worms in your vomit,” Shoshanne argued.
“Those weren’t worms, it was shredded sinew,” the beautiful elf corrected. “It’s just bits of the creature I hunted earlier.”
“What kind of creature?” I asked, and I struggled to keep my own bile down while I hoped those weren’t worms I just saw strewn all over my clearing.
“I’m not sure,” Deya admitted. “I’ve never seen one before, but it was delicious.”
“You’ve gotta stop eating weird animals while you’re transmuting,” I sighed.
“I agree with Mason.” Shoshanne nodded as she pressed the back of her hand to Deya’s forehead. “Your body isn’t meant to digest bones, fur, or claws. If you’re eating these animals whole, you could be harming your elven form. Look at you, you’re pale, and you have a temperature.”
“I feel fine,” Deya insisted. “I’m only embarrassed that I threw up in front of Mason.”
“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” I assured her. “I’m just worried about you. I’ve seen you maul a whole sphynx before, and nothing about that looked healthy.”
“Now, you’re becoming ill over it,” Shoshanne persisted, but Deya rolled her violet eyes.
“I can’t help my dragon instincts,” she mumbled, “and I don’t wish to. I enjoy hunting creatures down and tearing them to shreds. It’s one of my favorite things about transmuting. The way their fear smells and the thrill of the chase are so exhilarating, and the satisfaction of killing with my own teeth is almost as pleasurable as sex with Mason.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “I think.”
“Promise me you’ll tell me if you continue to feel unwell,” Shoshanne ordered, but she gently stroked the elf’s arms like a doting mother. “I won’t have you harming your beautiful body over these silly dragons, and Mason certainly agrees with me.”
“I do,” I said with a nod. “If you get any sicker, you’re done hunting. I brought you to Illaria so you could have a better life, not contract a crazy sphynx disease.”
“Fine,” Deya sighed, “but you don’t have to carry on and on about it. Can’t we talk about something else?”
Shoshanne clicked her tongue, and I couldn’t help smirking at the pout Deya had on her face while she crossed her arms.
It wasn’t every day a man had to lecture his woman about devouring raw carcasses, but the fact that she took it so personally was kind of adorable.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” I checked, but the look the elf gave me silenced me on the subject as I pulled up to the gates of Serin.
Even the guards Simun and Goreth seemed to sense there was a bit of a mood in the Mustang, and they scrambled to part the gates while they eyed the irritated elf and disgruntled healer beside me.
“Baron Flynt,” Simun muttered, and he bowed awkwardly.
“Thanks, guys,” I sighed.
Bobbie slowly rolled through the tradesmen’s quarters while the young boys of the capital jogged beside our windows and waved their hearts out, and they seemed to cheer Deya up pretty quickly. Then she gave two of them a pair of Halcyan daggers that made their eyes nearly fall out of their grimy faces, and I could tell Shoshanne was biting her cheek to keep from making any disapproving comments.
“Th-thanks, miss!” one of the boys panted, and Deya was all smiles from there on.
When we got to the castle courtyard, the beautiful elf already had her color back, and even Shoshanne looked less concerned by now. The two women looped their arms in mine while we crossed the enchanted threshold of the Oculus, and when I sparked my Terra powers and parted the stone entrance, the sound of the midday bustle in the underground city sifted over us.
“I think this place is so beautiful,” Deya sighed as she craned her neck back to admire the crater-like ceiling and the buildings crawling up the sides of the cavern. “You must feel so proud to be involved in repairing it.”
“I am,” I said as I eyed the extensive city. “I’ve never been part of something like this before.”
“What do you mean?” Shoshanne asked, and I shrugged.
“It’s just so ancient,” I replied. “My Terra powers tie me to this place in a way that’s always felt strange, but familiar. Now that I’ve gotten to work directly with the stone and read into the schematics the old mages left behind, this sense of connectedness is even stronger. I love it here.”
“Then I love it here, too,” Deya decided, and she wove her fingers in mine as she sent me a sweet smile.
“I’m going to look for the instructors,” Shoshanne told me. “They should be able to give me an idea of what’s needed here, but judging by how many mages have returned, I think we may soon be losing our healers in Falmount.”
“We’ll meet you at the library as soon as we’re done checking in with Barnik and Wyresus,” I assured her, and the healer left a kiss on my cheek before she headed into the belly of the city.
“Just imagine,” Deya mused while I led her along the central waterway. “One day, other Terra Mages will come here for the very first time, and they’ll sense what you yourself have done to maintain this place. It’s a beautiful cycle.”
“I didn’t even think of that,” I admitted, but the notion only heightened my awareness of how much the magical city really meant to me.
I’d repaired over fifty buildings and dozens of pathways here, and after connecting first hand with the mapping that existed miles beneath our feet, my dedication to the Oculus had only grown. I knew every inch of the place like the back of my hand now, and I could point directly to each structure I’d restored regardless of how elaborate the cityscape was.
So, I did, and while we wove through the busy streets and over waterways, I showed Deya what I’d been working on over the last week. The beautiful elf couldn’t decide which structure was her favorite one, but it didn’t make much of a difference to me. She lit up all over again with shock and wonder at each new place I showed her, and I chuckled while she dragged me into every building to see what I’d done with the interior as well.
Mages looked up from their books and pints in confusion every time the beautiful elf barreled through a door and gasped with delight, and when we interrupted a clockmaker who looked like he hadn’t had a customer in ages, Deya proudly informed the man he had the most fantastic shop in the whole city. The old man’s toothy grin wavered when she clarified this was because Mason Flynt built it, but he was flattered all the same.
Eventually, we made it to the great library, and Deya’s voice echoed through the hushed entrance hall while she listed off her favorite details down to the tiniest embellishment.
I’d already been proud of what I accomplished during the rebuilding, but hearing the way my pink-haired elf carried on boosted my ego to an embarrassing degree, and I was definitely strutting by the time we got down into the cellars beneath the library. The way she talked about it, someone would think I’d singlehandedly designed the entire Oculus, and it didn’t matter how many times I reminded her that I followed someone else’s designs, she still insisted I must have improved on it because the buildings next door weren’t even close to comparing.
I was rolling my eyes when we got to the chamber where Barnik guarded Wyresus for me, but I paused at the door in confusion because I’d never heard conversation taking place between the two men before. For a moment, I thought I had the wrong cellar, but Barnik’s gravelly voice was impossible to mistake, and I leaned closer to the wooden panels while I furrowed my brow.
“Nah, find the sideways hat looking one,” Barnik grunted.
“Which one?” Wyresus asked.
“The on
e on the page with the wonky seven.”
“No, that’s not at all similar,” Wyresus muttered after a minute.
“Like hell it’s not,” Barnik shot back. “Turn it upside down and invert it, and it’s the same damn thing.”
There was a long pause while papers shuffled around, and Deya’s lips curled at the corner in amusement.
“Gods,” Wyresus finally replied. “You’re right. That must mean this symbol and the previous one you noticed with the curl at the end are adjuncts. If that’s the case, it would logically follow that we can omit--”
Now, I had to open the door because I was half certain they were fucking with me, but when I came in, I found both men stooped over the Elven Scrolls while Barnik stood beside Wyresus’ chair with a mug of Rosh.
“There he is!” the Aer Mage boomed, and he drained the last of his mug as he gestured to the table. “Take a look at this bullshit.”
Deya looked scandalized to hear the Elven Scrolls referred to as bullshit, and I squeezed her hand as we headed over to the table. I couldn’t stop staring in disbelief at the two men, though, because Barnik wasn’t taunting or terrorizing the head of the Order for once, and Wyresus appeared to be completely at ease. He wasn’t even cowering.
“We are finally making some headway, Defender Flynt,” Wyresus announced as he slid his glasses from his nose.
“Thanks to me,” Barnik clarified, and my brows shot up when Wyresus nodded in full agreement.
“Wait, you know Elvish?” I asked.
“Nope,” Barnik replied, and he headed to his barrel of Rosh for a refill.
“Then how … ”
“Show him that page with the hat,” Barnik called over his shoulder.
Wyresus propped his glasses on his crooked nose before rifling through the scrolls a bit, and then he slid one of them across the table for me to see while Barnik belched in Deya’s ear.
“Look at this,” the Aer Mage chuckled. “These elves are some tricky bastards. They’ve got all these sideways hats over here, and then when you look at the newer books, you can tell they just flipped the hat over, twisted the bottom line to the side, and used the symbol all over again in the new language. Same with this squiggle here, and that one’s always next to the cross with the dots on top, which is just like the wavy ‘T’ and the fancy ‘K’ in the new books.”
“Ummm,” I managed, but Deya wasn’t nearly as lost as I was.
“How clever,” she mused as she studied the scrolls. “Then this word must be ‘perish.”
“Precisely my estimation,” Wyresus said with pleasant surprise. “And if we apply the same rule to this page over … here, we can assume the translation of these three letters to be--”
“Of course!” Deya’s smile widened. “It says ‘herald.’”
“Very good, Miss Deya,” Wyresus said as he removed his glasses. “That took me ten minutes to translate.”
“I showed him,” Barnik clarified before taking a long swig of Rosh.
“I’m sorry,” I finally cut in. “How is it that you’re translating a language you don’t know from a language no one knows?”
“It’s the Rosh,” the man said as he waggled his bushy black brows. “I always notice shit like this when I’m drinkin’ it. Take a look at the stonework in here.” Barnik turned around and pointed just above the door. “It looks haphazard, but they did it on purpose, see? Blue, blue, grey, black, blue, blue, black, grey, blue, blue, grey, black, blue.”
Deya giggled at the look on my face, but I had to hand it to the guy, he was right about the patterned stonework.
“Huh,” was all I said.
“Then these elves got tricky,” Barnik continued, and he came around the table to join Wyresus with an energy I’d never seen in him.
What really got me, though, was that he smelled like he’d been swimming in Rosh for days, but he was more clear-eyed than anyone I’d ever seen drinking the stuff.
“They took these ‘M’s,” Barnik began, but Wyresus interrupted as he raised a knobby finger.
“I believe that symbol is more accurately comparable to the letter ‘Y’,” he clarified.
“I don’t give a shit,” Barnik snorted. “They took these ‘M’s, and they overlaid them on this thing with all the dashes sticking out of it, but it’s the same as the one with the upside down four, and Wyresus says it’s a direct crossover. So, what the fuck? Were they just drunk off their asses when they came up with the new version? Because it sure looks like these elves were havin’ a hell of a laugh at the time.”
Deya and I just blinked in response, and this time, even the elf looked as lost as me.
Wyresus nodded as he pulled another parchment over, though.
“And because Defender Barnik has discovered this crossover,” the man explained, “I have been able to discern a similar pattern with three symbols that are frequently used together in the ancient texts, and thereby come to the conclusion that when used together along with this last symbol, they translate to the word ‘rune.”
Now, I could get on board with the conversation.
“Oh, thank the gods,” I sighed. “That’s such good news. Anything you find about any rune, I need it translated directly without a single mistake.”
“Yes, well that is what I am endeavoring to do, Defender Flynt,” Wyresus drawled, and I resisted the urge to punch the condescending look off his face.
“How’s things with you, though?” Barnik asked before he drained his mug.
“Lovely,” Deya answered with a happy smile.
“Yeah, I mean … a lot’s happened, but things are going alright,” I told the man.
“Mason is a baron now,” the beautiful elf added.
“No shit?” Barnik snorted as he refilled his mug once more. “Hey! You’re a noble.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled.
“You know a guy named Ralish?” he asked, and I noticed his green eyes were suddenly looking devious at the mention of the baron I’d told to fuck off last week.
“I do, actually. He’s a total prick.”
“Do me a favor,” Barnik grunted, “next time you see him, slit the fucker’s throat, will ye’? I can’t stand that bastard, and I lost ten thousand gold thanks to him.”
I raised my brows. “Noted.”
“Baron Ralish is infinitely superior in both class and reputation than either of you,” Wyresus informed us in a snide tone, but a single look from Barnik sent his eyes back to his work.
“So, did ye’ come here to bring me more Rosh, or are you just checking if I’ve killed him yet?” Barnik asked with a slightly crazed grin, and Deya giggled.
“Actually, we’re here about a development that’s come to light,” I told him. “The Master’s using an element from rune magic that modern elves don’t know anything about, and it enables his soldiers to teleport.”
Barnik furrowed his bushy brows and lowered his mug. “What’s a teleport?”
“It’s basically if I disappeared right now and magically reappeared in Temin’s castle to kill everyone. Then disappeared again and showed up in here without anyone being able to follow me.”
Wyresus slowly removed his glasses while Barnik just stared, and I waited for the two men to process this information.
“What an asshole,” Barnik finally sighed, and he shook his head. “It’s gonna be a real pleasure killing this guy.”
“You’ll have to beat me to it,” I told him. “The Master just used this rune element to send about forty possessed ogres into Falmount, and last week, he almost killed every noble in Illaria, the king, and the dwarven Elders with the same tactic.”
“And Mason could have died,” Deya added like this was somehow the worst part.
“You were there, too,” I muttered. “We all could have died.”
“What the hell is goin’ on out there?” Barnik demanded. “I’ve only been in here a few days, and the whole nation’s going to shit!”
“You’ve been in here for a couple week
s,” I corrected, and the man eyed the mug in his hand.
“That’s likely, too,” he admitted with a shrug. “Either way, what are you plannin’ to do about this element thing?”
“No idea,” I admitted, “but I came down here to find out if you’ve noticed any linework in the scrolls that might resemble specific runes. I’ve looked over them dozens of times without seeing anything like that, but if the elves were discussing rune magic in these documents, they have to have drawn some diagrams or even a couple elemental lines somewhere.”
“What does this elemental line look like?” Wyresus asked, and he quickly pulled a pen out of his robe.
Then I drew a single line at a sixty-degree angle for him and nodded when the two men just looked at me.
“Yeah, I know,” I snorted. “So, we’re kind of fucked, but if you translate anything in here about untraceable transportation, or vanishing, anything like that, get a raven to me in Falmount immediately. We have virtually nothing but this single line to go off of, and if he’s used this in the Oculus, the castle, and Falmount, then he’s damn sure going to use it anywhere you can imagine. I can’t do anything to stop him from unleashing his soldiers on all of us if I can’t figure out how to counter this elemental line.”
Barnik scruffed his black beard as he let out a long sigh.
“I’m gonna need some more Rosh,” he mumbled.
“Barnik, if you two keep making as much progress as you have so far, I’ll make sure you have enough Rosh to last the rest of your life.”
“I’m holding you to that,” the man informed me, and he glanced between Wyresus and Deya. “You all heard him say it. You’re my witnesses on this.”
“I will personally ensure Mason keeps his word,” Deya said with a solemn nod. “The work you have undertaken here is a noble feat, and on behalf of the Elven Houses, I thank you for your dedication.”
Barnik grinned at the praise as his green eyes glinted, and I knew what was coming next before he even took a breath.
