by Logan Jacobs
“Open it up, and I’ll keep an eye out,” Ava said as she and Selius leaned against the wall.
“Okay,” I replied as I crouched over to the metallic doors and tugged them open slightly. “C’mon, let’s move.”
“Selius?” Dar crawled out and squinted as he moved over to the kid.
“You got him,” Cimarra breathed and squeezed the dazed halfling in a hug. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Selius said as he puffed out his scrawny chest. “Wade fucked the elf priest up.”
“And that’s why we can’t be hugging each other in the halls for long.” Ava gestured for all of us to follow her. “I think it’s this way.”
“Penny and Skam are probably waiting for us,” Dar said next to me as we crouched near the corner.
“Let’s hope so,” I panted. “We’ll need to move quickly since they will discover the dead priest when they bring another corpse to him.”
“Wait,” Ava said as she halted us with a raised hand.
“Stay close to me,” I said to Cimarra, who looked around nervously.
“I’ve had my share of elves for a long time,” Cimarra chuckled as we both crouched with our backs against the wall and listened to a pair of footsteps around the corner grow quieter.
“Let’s go,” Ava ordered as she continued and opened a door at the end. “We have to go down a few levels.”
“These were the ramps for the corpse gurneys.” I nodded and followed the assassin down the winding ramps that lowered with each turn. “This made me dizzy when they brought us up here.”
“I know, right?” Dar said as he trotted behind me.
“Okay,” Ava raised her palm again to stop us as we approached a door, “I think this is the level.”
“Did you come this way the last time you were here?” I wondered as I unsheathed my dagger that was stained blue from the elf priest’s blood.
“Briefly,” Ava nudged the door open to look, “I’m not sure what to expect, so expect to fight.”
“Make sure your masks are on,” I ordered as I adjusted mine on my face.
“Will you recognize what you’re looking for?” Ava glanced back to me before she went through the door.
“I will.” I nodded and pictured the display case that seemed to be hidden among the others in a back room.
“Good,” Ava whispered as she pushed the door open and slipped out.
I followed Ava into an area that opened up into a massive marble-floored room with gentle harp music echoing throughout. The pyramid’s glass walls slanted high above us and allowed the light from the moon to illuminate the lobby, and it cast white color across the floor like a blanket of glowing snow.
“Look for Penny or Skam,” Cimarra breathed next to me.
“I am,” Dar answered.
“This is the display room, Wade.” Ava glanced to me then all around her to see if any elves had spotted us yet. “See what you need?”
“Not yet,” I muttered as I noted the center of the room had multiple display cases full of elven gear, documents, and drawings. On the far wall were more cases with stuffed dummies in full elven armor reenacting battle scenes. “What we’re looking for was inside of another room, but when the door opened, I saw all of this.”
“A back room?” Ava questioned as we ducked behind a display case in the center of the lobby when an elven voice spoke to another.
“I have received word from the chamber level something has gone awry,” the elf sighed. “Will you point me in the right direction, miss?”
“Oh, uh,” an elven woman’s voice responded, “go through the door in the archway and up three levels on the ramps.”
I knew that voice from the vision. That was the woman who talked with Eleran. She would know what we’re looking for.
“For the Empire,” the other elf said, and his boots clicked toward the door we just came from.
“Ava,” I breathed as I continued to look around the room for any sight of the door, but couldn’t find it.
“What?” Ava answered in a confused tone.
“I see Penny,” Dar whispered and pointed to the corner on the slanted ledge that held the glass panels together.
“Holy shit, she’s high up,” Selius murmured, and we all looked up to where he pointed.
Compared to the pyramid and the shadows of the city behind her, Penny’s small leather clothed body looked like a bug climbing on a window.
“We have to hurry,” I nudged Ava, “come with me.”
“Where?” Ava grunted. “Wade, we can’t just--”
I didn’t let the assassin finish her thought.
Instead, I stood straight up and looked to the elven woman the other elf had spoken to. She was behind a wraparound desk that looked to be an information center for any visitors, and she hadn’t noticed us yet.
“Hello?” I said as I secured my mask. My voice sounded so foreign in a place like this.
“Uh, yes and who … ” The woman turned to face us, and at first she was confused as she tried to decipher our faces, but as our walk turned into a run, her expression morphed into fear.
That was two elves we made fear us so far tonight.
“Don’t move,” I growled as I held my dagger at her face and reached for her arm.
“Gu--” she tried to yell for a guard, but Ava punched the elf in the throat.
“From now on, you need to shut your mouth,” I said as the elf nodded and coughed from Ava’s blow. “We’re looking for something.”
“Wh--what?” The woman elf adjusted her thin silver eyeglasses that rested on her sharp nose. Her dark red hair cascaded into her powdered face while she hunched over and held her throat. “I ca--can’t help you.”
“I know you can’t,” I whispered in her pointed ear, “but you will.”
“Where are you taking me?” the elf shrieked as I pulled her away from her desk.
“A few nights ago, you talked with Eleran the noble about a chest,” I said as I shook the bewildered woman.
“I-I, how did you … ” Her ruby eyes that matched her hair widened and searched my masked face. “Who are you?”
“Did you or didn’t you have that conversation?” I asked and pressed my blade against her throat.
“I did,” she said as her eyes remained wide. “Are you a prophet? The legend must be true with all the chaos happening to our kind. How could I have not--”
“Show me where the chest is!” I hissed at her as I pushed the dagger into her chin.
“O-okay.” The elf shut her eyes and flinched as I pulled her forward. “I need to grab the key for the room at my desk.”
“Hurry,” Ava shouted this time.
“I-I am, please just don’t--” The elf flinched again.
“Your kind has grown blind in power,” I hissed as I played with the whole prophet thing. “Grab the key, and I’ll spare you.”
We moved her back to her desk and waited as she searched for the key.
“Okay.” She opened her desk drawer and pulled out a single gold key with an oak tree embossed on it. “It’s just over here.”
“Hurry the fuck up,” I said as I kept my hand wrapped around the woman’s thin arm as she walked and fought back tears at the same time.
“Are you really a prophet come to judge us?” She glanced over to me from the side of her eye.
“If you go any slower, I’m going to fucking murder you, elf,” I growled. “If that’s what you mean by ‘judgement.’”
“It’s o-over here,” she stuttered, then stopped and pointed upward to the corner. “Someone is out there!”
“And that doesn’t concern you,” I said through gritted teeth as I pulled her head back and shoved the elf forward. At the same time, I motioned out the window for Penny to follow where we were going.
The redhead nodded and shimmied along the outside of the glass walls.
“Okay,” the elf’s voice vibrated as she walked to the very last display of an extravagant war scene like the pai
nting we stole, “it’s in here.”
“After you,” I said and waved to Penny and Skam. “Dar stay out here and make sure Penny knows where to go.”
“Got it.” The halfling nodded and continued to wave toward the climbers.
“The door is hidden here.” The elf moved through the lifelike war display until a faded glass door appeared.
“Open it.” I nodded toward the entrance.
“You know you won’t be able to open the chest,” the ruby eyed elf said as she stuck the key into the door.
“Yes, we will,” I muttered as the door opened, and the familiar odor of wood and dust reminded me of the vision. “This is it.”
“It’ll be useless in--”
“Shut it.” Ava smashed the back of her blade into the skull of the elf and knocked her out on the floor. “Grab the chest and let’s get out of here.”
“Let’s,” I agreed as I walked into the darkened room. As I stepped deeper inside, many lanterns magically flickered to life and revealed the area. “There it is.”
“That wooden chest?” Cimarra asked and came beside me as we both approached the treasure together.
“Yeah,” I said as I knelt down just how Eleran had in the vision and brushed some dust off the lid. The chest looked just like the one the keys called home, but it was a little thicker.
“Is it heavy?” Ava questioned as she lightly tapped the chest with her blade. “Will the redhead be able to lift it out of here?”
“Let’s see,” I said as I reached around the chest and lifted it off the ground with ease. “If she could roll a whiskey barrel, she can lift this.”
Just then, a tap against the window above us rang out.
“There’s Skam,” Selius said as he walked into the room. “Dar is keeping watch.”
“Perfect,” I replied as I motioned for the dwarf to hurry it up.
He gave me a thumbs-up as he pulled out an elongated pick and razor.
“What’s he doing?” Selius asked with his head craned straight up, aimed at the dwarf.
“Creating a hole in the glass to drop Penny through so he can pull her, the chest, and us out,” I responded just as Skam stuck a suction cup to the glass and carved out a circle with the razor and pick.
“How high are they?” Cimarra asked.
“From us?” I mused and glanced behind us just to make sure we were still in the clear. “Fifty feet?”
“How about the pyramid?” Ava wondered.
“Not that high,” I lied for Selius’ sake. I’d let him deal with that issue when it was time to get out of here.
“We’re ready,” Skam’s voice sounded from above. “So far so good.”
“Bring her down.” I gestured as Skam tightened the rope around his own waist.
“Don’t drop me,” Penny whispered as she maneuvered herself on the ledge of the slanted window. “Took you guys long enough.”
“We had some complications,” I said, “now, please hurry.”
“Fuck you,” Penny chuckled as she gave Skam one last look before she pushed herself off the ledge and through the hole.
“I got you,” the dwarf grunted as he held onto the rope, braced himself, and began to lower the pixie down.
“You guys look great for corpses.” Penny smirked as she held onto the rope with one hand and let the other dangle beneath her. Then her expression shifted, and she looked down at me with wide eyes. “We have company.”
“Skam, hurry,” I ordered.
Penny dropped quicker, and she readjusted her position to make her longer so she could reach for the chest sooner.
“Wade, Ava,” Dar panted as he jogged into the smaller room, “we have some elves coming our way.”
“So be it,” Ava said as she unsheathed both of her daggers again and rubbed the blades together to create a metallic whistling sound.
“Dar, come in and shut the door,” I said as I looked back to see Penny was nearly at the chest.
Then Dar shut the door and jogged up beside me.
“We already know you are in there,” an elven voice shouted from the other side of the door. “Break it down.”
Within seconds, the door flew open, and a night elf priest stood outside with three Elven Guards in full armor.
“What do we do?” Cimarra asked from behind me.
“We hold them off so Penny can grab the chest and get out of here with it,” I said as I pulled my dagger from my side and the one I kept in my boot for safekeeping.
“There is no use,” the night priest waved and stepped into the room with us first, “you were close, but not close enough.”
“You’re too late,” I said and stepped closer to the night elf, whose expression shifted into curiosity.
“Nice death masks, all of you, we won’t need to remove those from your faces after you are killed tonight,” the elf priest chuckled and then leaned over to one of the Elven Guard with him. “Send a runner to inform the others of our situation here.”
“You’re already too late,” I said again to stall this as long as possible.
“If the small thing behind you even touches that chest,” the priest pointed to Penny, “then I will burn all of you alive right here, right now.”
We’re with you.
The melodic calming tone of the keys rushed through my mind and veins. Then I felt my blood boil within my chest and arms.
We had overcome too much to be stopped now.
“Keep lowering her,” I said without looking at Skam above me, and with my two daggers, I made a beeline right for the priest.
“You must want to die!” the priest snarled as the two guards barely moved from their defensive position. “You may kill them, now.”
The two elven guards stepped in front of him and raised their spears right at me.
I rushed forward, and my feet moved like a horse in full stride, but Ava sprinted past me like a blur, leapt into the air, and stepped on the fully extended spear of one guard. Then she lunged with her blade and pierced through the guard’s neck.
I jumped around the other guard’s spear, pushed the haft aside with both of my daggers, and then tried to cut the throat of the second guard. He was a bit too quick though, and he managed to twist his neck out of the way before I could carve a smile on the flesh there.
“For the empire!” he choked out as he dodged, but I flipped the dagger in my off hand over and then tossed it toward him.
My thrown blade took him in the shoulder, and then Dar tackled the fucker from the side. The spear flew out of the armored elf’s hand, and then my friend slammed his own daggers down into his throat.
“Fuck you, elf.” Dar gripped onto his shoulder and spat toward the priest.
“Enough!” The priest extended his hands forward, and a gust of wind threw Ava, Dar, and I back toward Cimarra, Selius, and Penny.
Who had just snatched the chest.
“I got it!” Penny yelled as she swung back and forth with the chest in her hands. “Pull me up, Skam!”
“If you move, you die,” the priest’s voice rumbled and shook the room.
“Let’s kill this fucker,” I growled to my friends, and we all got to our feet and readied our weapons. Even Cimarra held her dagger in her hand, but I could see the terror plain on her beautiful face.
“Have your wish, then!” The priest screamed an Elvish word, and a white crescent moon appeared in both of his hands. Then he brought both his hands together to form a full glowing moon in his palms. He pushed his hands forward, and with another gust of magic, a ray of swarming light shot from the elf and streamed right at me.
I felt something bubble within my chest right where the keys’ magic resided. They were with me.
I wasn’t scared to die.
And I wasn’t about to let my friends die and our vision for freedom end by some fucking night elf prick.
Catch it.
The death ray screamed toward me but slowed just enough when the sound of the keys’ voice echoed in my mind.
I extended my hands out in front of me, shut my eyes, and braced for the impact of the hot blast.
“Impossible!” the elven priest howled as we were now both holding the magic blast.
“Ahhck!” I groaned as the ball of heat seared into my palms. “Lift her up! Skam! Do it!”
“Impossible!” the elf cried again, and his face went from stunned to enraged as he pushed his hands out further in front of himself.
I could feel the heat intensify, but I also felt in control.
Send it into him.
“How?” I took a step forward while containing the blast like I had just caught a bird out of mid-air.
“Who are you!” the priest’s voice trembled over the blast as his hood blew off and his braided hair swirled behind him.
I didn’t answer the priest. I just screamed, and as I screamed, I thought of all the pain their kind had caused everyone I cared about.
This realm they created had to change, and I’d make sure it did.
“Die!” I growled and shoved my hands forward to push the blast until it drove the priest into a frantic back peddle. Then the elf fell onto his back with his thin legs up over his head. The blast exploded into the glass display behind him and blew it apart into a million pieces.
“How?” the priest muttered with his hands raised in surrender by his chest.
He was still alive, but not for long.
I glanced up to the glass roof and saw Penny and Skam yanking on the rope that was pulling Cimarra and Selius up. They both looked at me in shock as they were jolted up through the window, and I could have sworn they were just standing next to me a few moments ago.
Had the magic done something to me?
I turned back to see the priest still on his back next to the elven woman. She had woken up, covered her head, and was praying in Elvish as she stared at me with terrified eyes.
“I am the change that this realm needs,” I muttered as I walked toward the priest. Dar and Ava walked next to me, but I couldn’t see their expressions behind their masks.
“Where have you come from?” The priest’s face was like a blue stone. “What even are you?”
Again, I didn’t answer. I just punched my dagger into the elf’s throat, and blue blood exploded into the air in a fine mist.
