Charms of the Feykin

by Charles E Yallowitz

  “This is my temple, so it has to be about me,” the brown-haired man drones, releasing his shield and sword. Noticing that some of his magical armor is still on his body, he wipes the shining links off. “I ruined everything, Nyx. It didn’t start with Zohara and the jungle. Back at Nevra Coil, I kept my mouth shut about Timoran and the Compass Key because I wanted to handle my own problems. The whole time I knew he was lying and used his fear to get what I wanted. I was selfish and ended up putting you in danger. My punishment was to be sent away without most of my friends. This was all a test to see if I could be a true champion and I failed. I shouldn’t have come to this place.”

  The void shakes and cracks appear in the floor, revealing a fiery pit beneath the champions’ feet. Putting her hand over one of the fractures, Nyx holds back the urge to scream at the burning sensation that pulses through her core. At first, she thinks it is her magic that is being attacked by the punishing infection, but she is unable to purge herself of the foreign energy. It takes several minutes for her body to stop twitching and shuddering, which makes her fear that the attack has moved onto another part of her. Glancing at Delvin, she notices that he is sitting on one of the bigger cracks, the man showing no signs of being in pain. His back to her, the warrior remains motionless with his blue eyes staring off into the distance.

  “Let’s go with this being all about you,” Nyx announces as she stands next to her morose companion. With a tired sigh, she rubs her brow and fights the temptation to smack Delvin in the head. “I still don’t think you’re a lost champion. Look at the rest of us. I unlocked a forbidden spell and cursed an entire town during my first adventure. Sari did some horrible things while under the Barghest’s control too. Dariana has admitted to killing previous champions out of self-defense. I mean, Timoran is probably the only one of us who hasn’t made a big mistake since stepping on the path. You’re not special when it comes to screwing up, Delvin, so don’t think these few missteps have destroyed your destiny.”

  “You forgot to mention Luke,” Delvin points out, his fingers casually poking at the growing fissure. A flake of white comes off in his hand and he examines it as if it is a fragile piece of eggshell. “Guess that one goes without saying since he refused his full power. Yet he’s still a champion because he’s a Callindor. Luke was practically born for this type of thing. I was a lost Yagervan boy who was lucky enough to be trained by a legendary mercenary and meet her expectations. That’s the world I should have been left in. My life has become too complicated with powers, destinies, saving the world, and these temples. Just give me a job and a sword then find someone else to do this other stuff.”

  “This isn’t something you can walk away from.”

  “But I don’t feel it any more.”

  “None of this is because of Zohara. It’s your own guilt and shame.”

  “And that makes it better?”

  “It means you can fix it!” Nyx screams at the top of her lungs. She clenches her fists and sends flames rippling along her shoulder-length hair. “Either realize that you can’t change the past or blame somebody else, but move on. Nothing says you can’t claim your temple and atone for your mistakes. That’s what I did with Hero’s Gate. My nightmares and guilt were defeated along with the Krypters. You can do that too. Whether it’s helping the people who live in the jungle or by continuing on to face the Baron, it’s not too late for you to work toward clearing your conscience. Being a champion doesn’t mean you’re perfect. It means you stay strong enough to rise above your flaws and keep fighting.”

  Delvin turns to blankly stare at the half-elf, his eyes barely taking in her presence. “Then maybe I don’t want to be a champion. It’s over, Nyx. Just find your own way out and leave me here. If you’re lucky then you can purify this temple without me.”

  Nyx grabs Delvin by the shirt and attempts to haul him to his feet, but the warrior is too heavy for her to move more than an inch. Letting him fall roughly to the floor, the frustrated half-elf straddles the man’s waist and cracks her knuckles. Gripping her companion a second time, she shakes him for a few seconds to get him to look directly into her violet eyes. Before she can speak, Delvin tries to shove the channeler away, but she maintains her hold. The pair wrestle back and forth for a minute, which causes more fissures to spread across the floor.

  Nyx stops when she sees that they are cut off from the rest of the void. The heat makes her dizzy and she fears that they really will die by falling through the crumbling ground. The realization makes her arms quiver until she thinks of something other than the destiny she has been told about since childhood. Sitting on Delvin’s knees and pulling his top half up, Nyx takes a deep breath and kisses the warrior on the lips. For an embarrassing second, the channeler is aware of her nose squishing against the warrior’s cheek and that only one of her eyes is staying open. The feeling is replacement by happiness since he does not struggle and there is the faintest amount of pressure from his mouth. Moving her hands to gently caress his face, the channeler breaks contact and smiles at the stunned expression before her.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” Delvin admits, his lips tingling. A few tears slip out of the corners of his eyes, the drops wiped away by the half-elf’s thumbs. “That didn’t give you a boost like in the Garden of Uli. Is that why you did it?”

  “Don’t be stupid, Cunningham. Though it did give me one kind of charge, which sounds worse out loud than it did in my head. To be clear, I meant emotional,” Nyx whispers, afraid that a louder voice will ruin the moment. Feeling a heavy burden lifting from her heart, the half-elf claims another long kiss while wrapping her arms around the warrior’s neck and having her voice echo in his ears. “I wanted to tell you this for a long time. It’s the reason we didn’t stay in Nevra Coil like you told us to. Stephen stopped me when he damaged my throat and I couldn’t say it when you were engaged to Zohara. Now there’s nothing stopping me from telling you the truth. I love you, Delvin Cunningham. For longer than I realized and I’ve been an idiot for letting things go for this long. So I hope you can forgive me for making a mess when you’ve always been honest.”

  “I . . . I love you too, Nyx,” Delvin replies after breaking the kiss. Staring into each other’s eyes, the pair share a shuddering breath while they let their words hang in the air. “I’m sorry for anything I did to hurt or annoy you. Why are you telling me this now?”

  “Because the man I love is a champion,” the half-elf says while running her fingers through his knotted hair. Sensing a tremor in the void, she sees more cracks appearing, but they are spewing amber energy instead of fiery light. “I don’t want to keep fighting unless I have you by my side. Not against the Baron or anything that comes after him. Something about you gives me strength and focus that I never knew before. You make me want to be more than the living weapon I always thought I was. I will always be here to help ease your pain like you do for me, but I need you to remember who you really are. Now stand up and let’s finish this because I can’t think of anything else to add to my little speech.”

  “You’ve become really good at them,” the grinning man says, rubbing his girlfriend’s pointy ears. He blushes when she takes his hand away and shifts uncomfortably. “Sorry. This isn’t the time or place for that.”

  “I agree, but it’s also that I want to wait,” Nyx claims, not wanting the moment to end. She feels a pang of guilt when remembering that their friends are still in trouble. “We have to save the others. All I ask is that we wait until our wedding night.”

  “Is that a proposal?”

  “Uh . . . Not really . . . Let’s say you have a big hint that I won’t say no when you find the courage to ask.”

  Delvin smiles and gives the young woman a peck on the cheek. “I’ll definitely keep that in mind and honor your request. Besides, I’ve always enjoyed kissing more than other stuff. Guess I have a temple to purify, so it’s time to move. How do we get out of here?”

  With an impish smile, Nyx kisses Delvin hard on
the lips while she has his shield and sword return to their proper place. The longer they maintain contact, the more confident they feel and the white void steadily transforms into a yellow expanse of light. When the champions no longer have a care in the world, their prison bursts and they find themselves blissfully floating toward the looming entrance to the Tree of Creation.

  *****

  Nyx and Delvin release each other when they see that they are standing within a large chamber. The hollow core of the tree is covered in beetles, which fills the room with an incessant buzzing of wings. The ravenous insects chew on leafy vines that dangle from the ceiling and branches that have grown into the trunk. A foul stench rises from the floor, which is covered in chunks of unrecognizable meat. Delvin picks up one of the pieces, but drops it as soon as his thumb sinks into the maggoty flesh. Removing his gloves and tossing them away, he sees the rotten remains of a staircase that once wound its way to the top of the room. The higher sections remain along the wall and lead to a faint box of light that they assume is a door. With Nyx tugging on his sleeve, Delvin follows her to stand far beneath the dark wood stairs where a curtain of thick vines leads to the pathway.

  Swatting at the beetles, the pair steadily climb the vines, which they quickly learn have camouflaged thorns. The champions are quiet as they carefully scale the wall, neither one knowing if it is a good time to continue the conversation. A warm smile and the occasional grazing of hands when they grab for the same vine is the extent of their communication until they reach the halfway point. Peeking over her shoulder, Nyx is surprised to see that the floor is much further below than she thought. She considers casting a spell to launch them to the stairs, but a subtle uneasiness makes her consider using her magic sparingly. A gentle tap on the shoulder brings the half-elf’s attention to Delvin, who awkwardly offers his back for her to climb onto.

  “Thanks, but I’m a big girl. Only had a strange feeling,” Nyx states, climbing a little ahead of the warrior. Seeing several thorns in their path, she stops to pick them out of the vine and drop them to the floor. “The energy in here is throwing me off. My perception is skewed and I’m easily distracted. Almost like part of me knows something bad is about to happen while the rest is trying to remain oblivious.”

  “Then we should do something to keep you focused on the here and now,” Delvin says more to himself than his companion. Pulling himself to come alongside Nyx, he wipes a scurrying beetle off her shoulder. “So what do we do now? Not with the temple, but now that we’re out in the open. I mean, I know what couples normally do. It’s only that we’re not in a normal situation and have been dancing around this for a while. What changes?”

  “Obviously, we have conversations like this while dangling over a floor covered in rotting meat,” the channeler replies with a smirk. They continue climbing while she ponders an answer that is not filled with playful sarcasm. “The good news is that I won’t be hitting you when you compliment me since I won’t be getting flustered. No reason to since I’m not trying to hide the fact that I like when you say those things to me. Guess Sari will need a new hobby because she loved causing those encounters. You’re right that it’s hard to figure out what will change. We don’t have the luxury of going on dates unless Gabriel arrives to tell us that our destiny is frozen for a while. Bedding down for the night will be different since we’ll bunk together. Kissing, holding hands, and hugs will happen now. Feels so strange talking about it like it’s something we can plan out.”

  “I agree, so maybe we should let things happen,” the blue-eyed swordsman suggests before he is poked by a thorn. Sucking on the wound, he feels the cut disappear before his finger leaves his mouth. “We’ll be planning a life together. Never really thought about stuff like that before and now I’m considering it while battling an ancient evil. Weirdest thing is the idea of sitting down with you and talking about our future makes me feel braver.”

  Nyx clings to the vines while dangling her legs to work out some of the stiffness caused by them being bent for so long. “Do you really want to start planning our wedding here? Not that I haven’t thought of it too, but I don’t have any way to write our decisions down. This tree might take offense if I carving notes on it. Also, we should probably enjoy being together before considering the big stuff.”

  “I don’t even want to think about setting up a wedding right now,” Delvin claims while reaching down to deliver a charge of invigorating energy to the half-elf. Waiting for her to catch up, the warrior takes another look at the floor that he swears is much further away than it should be. “Can you imagine picking people for the different roles? I’d have to choose a best man out of Luke, Timoran, and Tavris. No idea how to get in contact with my old friend or if the other Frozen Blades will want in since they’re ghosts. Then there’s finding out what customs come from my family and if there are any with yours. By the gods, I’m going to have to ask your father for permission and he’s going to have a field day with that conversation. Duggan and Selenia being there won’t help. We’ll have to pick a place to have it and someone to actually marry us off.”

  “And they say women get anxious about weddings?”

  “I’m trying to distract myself.”

  “You’re panicking like a princess.”

  “Sorry. Spent a lot of time thinking about this.”

  Clambering past the warrior, Nyx steals a quick kiss and lets her lips run along his scruffy cheek. “I understand. Besides, we’ll have it at Rainbow Tower and my friend Aedyn will preside over it. Let my dad have his fun and I’ll try to keep the other two away. I don’t even want to think about where I’ll get a dress. Unless I wear the one that Fritz had made for me before he died. Brides don’t really have to wear white if they don’t want to. See, we have plenty already decided on. Now if you start to get nervous again then think about this. I have three mothers to wrangle during this event. One is the Mercenary Queen, another is a powerful caster, and the third is an ancient channeler bonded to a phoenix. We might be getting Dariana to create decoys from time to time. So going back to the problem at hand, the stairs are almost in reach and I need a boost. By the legs and not the butt, mister.”

  A hidden spell shatters the instant Nyx touches the creaky first step, causing the champions to freeze. They stare at the meat-covered floor that is shifting like a giant pit of aggravated worms. Delvin clambers onto the stairs and pulls the stunned channeler to solid ground, her attention on the unnerving magic flowing through the tree. Low growls rise from the shadowy lower levels, causing Nyx to drop several balls of light that clears the darkness. Her breath catches in her throat when she sees hundreds of dead-eyed heads turn in their direction. An army of trolls is regenerating from the scattered parts and the first to regain their full form are already lumbering toward the walls. With their long claws, the monsters stab into the tree and gradually climb toward the first meal they will have had in years.

  “They might be scary, but I’m worse,” Nyx states, sending a jet of fire into the flammable creatures. The few that she hits continue to walk and threaten to ignite the entire tree, forcing her to end the spell. “The Barghest must have these under its control. I think it turned off their nerves and gave them some fire resistance, which means they’ll keep moving while on fire. That could turn this place into an inferno. Any ideas?”

  “I sense more stirring above us and the reviving spell is running along the walls,” Delvin replies, pointing at a faint, shimmering line that is creeping up the chamber. Easing the half-elf behind him, he glances over the edge of the stairs to see that the trolls will be on them within minutes. “I know we’ve been using this tactic a lot, but it seems to be working. Run as fast as you can.”

  Burning off the trailing part of her skirt, Nyx scrambles up the stairs as the roars get louder and the path becomes terrifyingly narrow. She hears Delvin a few steps behind her, his breathing only slightly less ragged than her own. A broken plank causes the channeler to trip, but she is swiftly grabbed by the waist
and carried along until she can regain her footing. Risking a peek over the edge, the channeler can see the reviving ring is moving ahead of the ravenous trolls. The thought of getting trapped between two packs of the enhanced monsters drives her to run even faster. Several steps break away beneath their heavy footfalls, but both champions are able to keep their balance. As they run along the side that is across from the lowest part of the stairwell, Nyx hurls a swarm of solid wind bolts. The attacks knock a few of the trolls off the wall, but those that remain are enraged to the point of taking their fury out on the vines.

  Hoping that their pursuers are distracted long enough to get through the square opening, Nyx pushes her legs to their limit. Being in the lead, she dives for the exit that is fringed with thin plant roots and tiny lilies. The sweet smell of flowers touches her nose and she sees the edge of a misty garden before a door slams on her head. Dazed from the impact, Nyx tumbles onto the ground and accidentally rolls to the wrong side of the stairwell. The moment she feels nothing below her body, the half-elf twists for all she is worth and catches the edge of the steps. Melding her hands into the wood, she watches the glowing ring and dead-eyed monsters continue their steady approach. It is all she can do since she is too dizzy to pull herself back up and has forgotten that Delvin is still there.

  “I’ve got you,” the warrior says while bending down to grip her wrists. He lets go when she refuses to end her spell and uses her foot to point at two trolls rushing up the stairs. “Hold on for a little bit longer. I’m going to open the door before I pull you up. Otherwise, I won’t have space for this move.”