by Harry Nix
I shook my head, trying to focus on reality. I could smell honeycakes and it felt like she was close to me but wasn’t. It was insanely intimate and disturbing all at once, like I had no privacy with the ring on.
Up the slope I saw a glimmer of gold in the air, above the guards. Then another, sparkling as it drifted down. I followed the line of it up to see Delicia, almost at the cliff top, hovering in the air. Her iridescent wings were flickering so fast they were a blur behind her.
She was standing on nothing, shaking her hips like she was trying to win a Latin dance competition. For a tiny pixie, she had curves where it counted. Every time she shook, gold dust shimmered into existence and fell downward.
As much as I was enjoying the sight of her dancing it up, I looked down to the guards. The gold dust was all around them now and instead of yelling and trying to escape, they seemed happy to stand there, dopey smiles on their faces. One yawned and then another, while a third started laughing. They dropped their weapons, sat down like they were going to have a sing-a-long and then closed their eyes, going into a doped daze on the grass.
As soon as the last one was out, I rushed out of the bush and up the cliff. From high above Delicia spotted me. She folded her wings in and plummeted like a stone before snapping them out again. The gust of air washed some of the pixie dust over me and I found myself grinning, that kind of happy drunk you can get after one or two drinks.
In my blurry haze I was still with it enough to be slightly alarmed when one of the guards stirred as the gust pushed some of the gold dust away.
Delicia wasted no time with introductions. Up close and in real life she was blonde and buxom, still wearing the rags she’d had in the cell. She was barefoot and definitely just under five feet tall. When she wrapped her arms around me it was just like I was back in that imaginary bed with her.
“Just hold those thoughts, I need to concentrate,” she whispered in my ear before she tightened her grasp, lifting me off the ground and flying up the cliff to the top.
Unlike Armando’s jolting web that made me want to vomit, this was peaceful and sorta fun. Especially being so up close with a hotter than hot pixie.
We landed at the top, beside the wall and she relaxed her grasp on me but didn’t step back.
We were face to face, inches apart. Her blue eyes were bottomless pools and the scent of her was extraordinary. Sweet and delicious.
“Delicia, not delicious, although I am,” she corrected me before tapping the end of my nose and stepped back.
Like a switch had been flicked, I was back, out of the daze from the dose of pixie dust. It wasn’t some rude snapback where I landed with a hangover. Just the fog dropping away.
“You can turn it on and off,” I said.
“Ta-da,” Delicia said, doing a little pirouette. Her wings were against her body, seeming to vanish into her skin, leaving only the shimmer of them.
I couldn’t help but to look down her body as she turned. On her ankle was a smear of dried blood, and a gash that was very slowly leaking a greenish liquid.
“The Apothecary got me with some weapon. Poison I think,” Delicia said, following my gaze.
“It’s not just your gaze but your thoughts I’m following. You’re doing nothing to shield them from me. You can command me to take off the collar and then we’ll be truly separate again,” Delicia said.
I fumbled for my one weak antidote potion in my bag of holding. Psychic communication was incredible. Even better than Ori splitting into pieces. Delicia could fly high, spot guards, tell me where they were. Maybe find Scarlet.
“I can do all that, but please, free me,” Delicia said softly. She clasped her hands in front of her, looking like the sky girl for a moment.
“Take off the collar,” I said, finally finding the potion.
There was a power in the ring, a binding I hadn’t noticed before. I had total control over Delicia if she was wearing the collar. Total access to her thoughts, if I wanted.
The gold band around her neck shimmered, lifting up out of her skin. Delicia slipped her fingers under it and then it stretched, like it was rubber, and she pulled it up and over her head.
The moment it was off, I felt the disconnection. It was like the cold of an empty room. Delicia had been sitting with me somewhat, beside me the whole way as I ran.
“I’m guessing you’re thinking the absence feels cold. You’re noticing how I was there when you came from the graveyard?”
Delicia stepped closer, the gold collar in her hand, now shrunk to a smaller ring and still going.
“I heard your thoughts about Scarlet,” she said and then darted forward to plant a kiss on my lips, thrusting the ring into my hand, and taking the weak antidote. She was a foot away in an instant, pink flushing her cheeks and looking down, like she was shy. The ring in my hand shrank down until I could slip it over a finger. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I was wearing both, so I removed Rax’s ring and dropped both in my bag. Now I had his finger and two rings.
Delicia unstoppered the bottle and gulped it down before sighing. Down on her ankle there was a fresh trickle of blood and more of that greenish liquid.
It was only then that it occurred to me that Armando was absent. There was flattened grass where the big spider had been resting, even a few empty bottles that Isabel had left with her for the pain but no spider.
There was no blood or signs of fighting, so that was a relief but still, where was she?
“We need to go back into the ventilation system. It has been a day and as you can see, there is no Isabel. But Ori found those barrels of Death. If there are any remaining, we need to set them off, see if we can cause a chain reaction. Bring this place down on Rax’s head.”
It was a little disconcerting how Delicia spoke with such authority. She’d been sharing my thoughts and knew the plan inside out.
“A day? Damn,” I swore.
“Death takes time... or wherever it was you were. Who was the girl in the sky?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the true creator of all this,” I said.
“Euphoria? No, it wasn’t her.”
The name echoed in my mind and bits of knowledge surface. Euphoria, the mythical creator of all pixies. I tasted honeycakes on my tongue as the memory came and went.
“How do I have your memories in my head?” I asked.
“Those collars and rings are tricky things. Dominance comes with a cost,” Delicia said.
It was something to ponder later. I hadn’t realized it had been a day. I was thinking a few hours at best. That meant Scarlet had been suffering overnight. The thought of her in pain in the dark was fueling a rage that felt near overwhelming.
“Can you get me to the top of the wall?” I asked, swallowing down the urge to hit the transformation button and go on a murder spree through the palace.
“Of course,” she replied, stepping close and wrapping her arms around me. One gust of her wings and we landed on the top of the wall.
Clearly our infiltration had had an effect. There were three guards in the dead-end corridor, blocking access to the carved ventilation system.
“Can you do that booty thing again?” I asked.
Delicia shook her head. “I won’t have enough to put all three to sleep. They’ll feel slightly giddy, at best.”
As I stared down at the guards, I imagined Delicia blurring down there, using Haste. Between the Vibrate boot trick, Haste and me jumping from above, we could take them.
I blinked, realizing the knowledge about Delicia had come from the connection.
“With your injury, can you still Haste down there? I can knock two over at least before we attack,” I said.
“Yes, but we need to be quick. The Apothecary’s poison was strong.”
We wasted no time. I focused Vibrate on two boots and cast it. Both went straight up. One guard landed on her back, winding herself and the other went even further over, cracking her helmet on the stone. Delicia used Haste and was gone, like she
’d teleported down below. She had the dagger from the one remaining guard and thrust it into her neck to the hilt. I cast Bolt from above as I jumped, shocking one of the guards before I landed with my full weight on the other.
It was a beyond sweet move and a message popped up about agility, Clowning level one or something but I had no time to read it. It was also sadly wasted—the guard who’d hit her head had broken her neck and was already dead. I merely crushed her ribs.
It was all over before it began. Delicia’s guard dropped like a stone, clutching her neck and I pulled the staff to the face Bolt thing again, frying the other one.
Delicia couldn’t get the dagger out of the guard’s neck so she took one from the guard with the broken neck. She also hefted her sword, testing it’s weight before discarding it.
We were only in the corridor for under thirty seconds but I couldn’t help but to feel a sting at the sight of the three dead guards. All women, twenty-five maybe. From above they’d looked like hardened professionals (and probably were) but now they were like college kids playing dress-ups.
Delicia went first through the gutter opening. Instead of climbing through like a normal person, she dived, like she going into a pool. There was a thud and a masculine gurgle before her face popped up.
“Guards in the vents now, fun,” she said.
I hustled my way in, squeezing through the narrow opening. There was a guard dead on the floor. Forty and fat, it made me wonder how he’d managed to even get in. He must have come from one of the other vents.
“Now which way?” Delicia said and then grimaced. There was more fresh blood on her ankle and a smear of it on her rags at her waist. I gently lifted them and saw a gash an inch deep. She’d been wounded and I had zero to help her with.
“Would demoness ash help with that at all? Shimmershine ore?” I said, looking through my bag.
“No and definitely no. Pixies are allergic to the stuff. We just have to keep moving. It’ll heal,” Delicia said.
There was nothing I could do and the clock was ticking, so I entered the passage with Delicia behind me. Soon we were on hands and knees and after a few turns, we were lost. I’d tried to pay attention when Ori had guided us but in the dark it was impossible.
“Oh good, you’re back,” came a squeak from the black in front of me.
“Ori?” I whispered. It sounded too loud in the confined space.
“Keep coming forward,” he said.
I crawled, Ori guiding me until he had me place my hand, palm up, on the floor. A tiny body, no larger than my little finger climbed into it. Ori was wet, leaking ink and injured.
“Orange cat, but I took one of his fangs too,” Ori explained. I moved along to an open slit that had a faint beam of light and saw he was holding it like a weapon.
“Where’s Scarlet?”
“Rax took her to the palace up there. Me too,” Ori said. He winced then and let out a sharp breath. “He’s torturing me,” he said, a tear of black ink trickling from the corner of his eye.
Thoughts I had of just putting him out of his misery and summoning him back vanished. Even if I killed this Ori, the other one was still alive, for now.
“We need to find the Death. Scarlet and Ori are bound to you. Even if you die, you’ll all escape,” Delicia said from the dark.
“I can lead you,” Ori said, grimacing again.
“Tell me which way,” I said, thoughts swirling once more.
It was hard crawling with only one hand, holding the dying ink demon. When it got really dark, Delicia shook a little, producing pixie dust and a slight glow but it was temporary at best. Ori’s breathing grew more labored as we rush through the dark as fast as we could. If he died now, we were truly screwed. Delicia too.
Unless of course I could bond with her.
I wasn’t even sure if it was possible. I already had Scarlet and Ori was my summoned Creature of Legend. If there was a limit then Delicia could die, for real.
“Here, this one,” Ori said from my palm. He shuddered and then I was holding a handful of ink and a cat’s fang, torn out at the root. I put the fang in my bag so Ori could have it as a trophy later and wiped the ink off on my pants, telling myself it was just ink and not dead liquefied body.
He was immortal, but pain was still pain.
We were at a slot carved high up in the wall overlooking a storage room. There were guards loading barrels into a cart. Each barrel was wood but had a glass top with swirling red liquid inside. It was the vial system but large. The guards carefully fitted metal covers over each one before loading it to prevent accidental breakage.
There were eight of them, which meant no hope for us, so we watched helplessly as they filled the cart to the brim, leaving just two barrels behind.
“Fuck me,” one of the guards swore. He waved to some others who quickly fitted metal caps over them before they closed the cart and hauled it away. The swearing guard stayed behind, looking extremely pissed off as the cart vanished out a far door. There came a faint clanking, the sound of the elevator system at work.
“Can you haste?” I whispered to Delicia.
It was now or never. At any moment, guards could return.
“A little. Enough to get to him, but then I don’t know,” she said, biting her lip.
There were two problems—the hole was too narrow for me to just dive out quickly, and it was also high up on the wall. I’d break my neck if I went headfirst. Delicia would be out there alone unless I wanted to cast Bolt from the vent. Given its inaccuracy, I didn’t want to risk it.
But we were out of options. At best, I could use Vibrate on him, try to flip his ass.
“At my signal,” I whispered, focusing on the guard’s boot.
I cast the spell and then felt a stab of pain in my chest as a spell on the guard’s boots lashed back at me. Blood filled my mouth as vessels broke. He had countermeasures to Vibrate!
It hurt and took a decent chunk of health, but there was some luck our way. The spell shot away from his boots and went to the nearest thing it could find—one of the barrels. It hit and launched it up like a firework, crashing it into the ceiling. There was an almighty crack as the barrel burst, liquid raining down.
The guard went from standing still to a full sprint, screaming Death!
Pieces of wood clattered to the ground and then the glass top. It landed on stone... but did not break.
I was nearly tempted to cast Vibrate on the other barrel, but it could just break, and then would it explode? Maybe the red and green needed to mix properly in some ratio to detonate. If the red broke now, it might just hiss and do nothing.
“That’s one way to do it,” Delicia said.
“Yeah,” I grunted, turning around in the small space and pushing my legs through.
I ripped up skin and got bloody but managed to get out of the slit. I was damn lucky not to break my ankle with the drop too.
The shouting guard had produced more shouting outside, and I was worried people would come running. There must have been some system in place to stop explosions, I presumed. Barrels of something else. Some spell perhaps. To store so much Death in such a small space and not have a safety system was nuts.
Delicia soon joined me, using her wings to glide to the ground. I ignored the glass top and went to the remaining barrel. Delicia passed me her dagger without a word, and I went to work prying off the metal cover. I managed to get it off but not without destroying the dagger, rendering it useless.
Underneath was the swirling liquid, an entire barrel of Death.
A vial blew a giant hole and instantly ashed trees—what could this do?
More importantly, how fast would this be? Ten seconds?
“Do you want to bond with me?” I said out of nowhere.
Delicia put her hand over her mouth and let out an audible gasp. Her entire face turned crimson.
“It’s... I mean... I’m...” she stammered.
“So if this kills us, I can summon you back. If it�
�s even possible,” I said.
Delicia gulped air and shook herself.
“I know you bonded with Scarlet like... quick. Really quick and no judgment, the girl wanted to, but it’s a big deal. Like massive and near-permanent. You have to be really sure,” she said.
The memory of us in bed came flooding back. Yes, there was that. Sure, she was hotness incarnate, much like Scarlet, but there was more. Her holding me close as we flew up the cliff. The closeness of her thoughts while I ran. There was a deep bond there already.
“I’m sure,” I said and used what remained of the dagger to cut my palm.
Delicia did the same, and then we pressed our hands together.
“James Katz,” I said, looking into her blue eyes.
“Delicia Magnolia Fern Whisperwill Butterstone,” she said back. “Yes, that’s my name,” she added a breath later.
There was a flash of red on my HUD.
Bonding limit reached. Level up to bond more!
Delicia must have felt that it hadn’t worked. She took her palm off mine.
“There’s a limit. I need to... increase my power more,” I said, searching for the right fantasy accurate words.
“Level up, you mean. Because you believe this is a game. You came from another world to here, and this place isn’t real, although it feels real,” Delicia said.
That whole sharing of thoughts thing was really kicking my ass.
“Yeah. Look, I’ll lift you into the vent, and you go. I’ll crack the glass and find another way. If I die, I’ll come back to the cliff again,” I said.
Delicia shook her head and stepped closer.
“No, my darling one, I’ll lift you to the vent after we break the glass. Then I’ll follow. We’ll escape together. Unless the last barrel is faulty, we have ten minutes,” she said.
I looked around for something to stand on, but there was only the barrel of Death, and that seemed too much like pushing my luck. The green puddles of Death from the first barrel had mostly drained away now. At some point, small holes had been drilled in the corners of the rooms, I presume to help prevent flooding.
I wonder if the explosion would ignite below us too?
