The Oblivion Trials (The Astral Wanderer Book 3)

by D'Artagnan Rey

  “Are we sure he means no ill?” Asla demanded.

  “I’m certain he does but to us? It doesn’t seem so,” Devol replied and turned to address the assassin. “Koli, we know why you are here but why do you want to participate in the trials in the first place?”

  Jazai nodded and stepped to the side. “Yeah. You could probably get decent coin simply selling the signet to the right person.”

  “Certainly, but I am not after simple riches this time,” the assassin stated and remained in his position near the rock. “In this case, does the ability to travel amongst the realms relatively freely not sound like something a person in my occupation would enjoy? Plus, it may help to purge part of my record. I had thought I was almost untraceable at this point in my life, but the fact that this Council has been keeping their eye on me means that must not be so. It isn’t good for a thief and assassin to have recognition. Reputation certainly, but you don’t need a face for that.”

  All three frowned at him but Jazai and Asla knew their friend was right this time. The diviner nodded to the other boy and gestured for him to move closer. “He seems fondest of you,” he muttered.

  Devol nodded and approached Koli. This time, he was the one to stretch his hand out. “Fine. We will let you join us.”

  Koli’s grin turned to a smile as he reached up to take his hand but hesitated for a moment. “I should answer your question first—the one you asked before your friend pulled you away.”

  “About what we get out of it?” he asked and lowered his hand. “What is it?”

  The assassin placed a hand across his heart. “I promise to be a true member of your little party for however long it lasts until we reach the trial area. Once there, I will make sure to not target you during the competition unless I must.”

  “Unless you must?” he prompted.

  “I am interested in winning and the competition can be fierce in the trials.” The magi gazed at the three of them and shrugged. “Most years have several winners so hopefully, I won’t need to deal with any of you during whatever awaits us. But if there is no other choice…” He let the words linger, his intention plain to all.

  Devol nodded. “That’s fine. The same goes for us.” He proffered his hand again. “Deal?”

  Koli chuckled, took his hand, and nodded. “Wonderful. I look forward to our little adventure. And if it is any consolation, even if I must battle you, I’ll try to knock you unconscious. I’d hate to see such potential snuffed out before it can truly blossom.”

  “How kind of him,” Jazai muttered. “Now that’s settled, we should get moving.” With a snap of his fingers, he departed, only to return immediately. “Oh, you have to be kidding me.”

  “What’s wrong?” the other boy asked as he approached him.

  “Those damn golems are back and perfectly remade, as well.” He groaned and shook his head. “I don’t get it. We turned them into mud and debris.”

  “I told you I should have kept going.” Asla huffed and checked her claws. “I guess we’ll have to take care of them again.”

  “Mine isn’t back, is it?” Devol asked and peered into the cavern behind them.

  “I don’t see it lumbering around,” the diviner said with a shrug.

  “Golems, you say?” Koli inquired and walked past the friends. “I assume that was the ruckus I heard earlier?”

  “Maybe,” Jazai responded and waved him off. “If you want to take care of them, be my guest.”

  The assassin chuckled again and stretched his arms. “I am a member of the team now, aren’t I? I should pull my weight.” He strolled into the ravine and stepped on top of the water using his mana to make platforms beneath him. When he stood below the hole, he looked up and settled into a semi-crouch. “Do you care to watch?” he asked before he leapt upward and through the hole to land in the cavern above.

  The trio looked at one another. The diviner extended his hands and when Devol and Asla each took one, he ported them above. Koli strolled toward the creatures with little concern, unclasped his cloak, and tossed it aside to reveal an ornate outfit of a white silk shirt, purple vest, puffy violet pants, and black boots. He rolled his shoulders as the stone beings advanced toward him while both reached back, ready to pulverize the slight man who faced them alone.

  In an instant, he disappeared and surprised even the unemotive golems. Two hands punched suddenly through their heads, each holding a glowing yellow orb. The assassin appeared between them and his arms materialized above the hands holding the orbs as he pushed off the beings, freed himself, and landed gracefully and juggled the odd devices.

  “Golems are always controlled either by the spell of a nearby magi or through a connection to a magical power source,” he explained and held the two orbs up. The golems turned toward him, albeit much slower than before. “Without them inside the constructs, they are only slightly animated and when destroyed…” He crushed both orbs in his hands and the stone enemies seized up before they simply fell to pieces. “They cannot hold their form.”

  “Those should have liquified along with the golems earlier,” Jazai protested and folded his arms.

  “Perhaps they did, but that doesn’t mean they were destroyed,” the assassin pointed out with a smirk as he bowed and the falling golems kicked dust up behind him. “As I said before, always make sure they are dead.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  As the three friends walked through the halls of the cave system, they continued to be alert and ready. They had already been attacked by the golems and they knew that more beasts and obstacles awaited them deeper within and they had to be prepared for these. Not to mention the other magi who also wandered the area, of whom they had seen increasing evidence with the markings left by battles and camps, and also remains.

  Koli, however, seemed to be unaffected by all this and generally hummed quietly or chatted to the group, although he got few responses so it was mostly to himself.

  Jazai’s hand slipped into his pocket to press his a-stone. It seemed petty to worry that their new teammate might learn of them when it was the only possibility they had for private communication. It was, he decided, worth the risk—and it would show them if he could discern them or not. “You know, I didn’t think a notorious assassin would be so chatty.”

  “I’m worried that he’ll attract others,” Asla replied and glanced at him. “Also, I wish he would not be as graphic about his past kills as he is. They are rather unnerving.”

  “I think he’s not too worried about running into other magi. He has already…uh, dealt with some so far,” Devol reasoned. “I’ll humor him and maybe we can learn a thing or two from him while we’re walking about.”

  “Give it a try. At least it’ll distract him,” the other boy agreed, slid his hand out of his pocket, and folded his arms.

  Devol slowed slightly to let his two teammates take the lead as he moved closer to the magi. “So, Koli,” he began and cleared his throat. “You truly have no ill feelings about Salvo?”

  The assassin looked at him with a bemused grin. “Hmm…no, I can’t say that I do, but I am curious.”

  “Curious?” he asked. “You mean, how we beat him?”

  “Yes.” The magi nodded. “I saw him shortly before I finally left that organization. He seemed rather rattled about the whole situation with you three and wouldn’t stop muttering and growling about it ever since the day we first encountered you. I had the feeling he had left to take care of you.”

  “I wish you could have distracted him,” Jazai retorted. “It would have made our lives easier.”

  “But also much more boring, don’t you think?” the trickster countered. “So tell me, did he use the mask?”

  Devol almost stopped and one foot caught in the dirt, but he increased his pace and looked off to the side. “You mean the demon mask.”

  “Well, of course,” Koli said with an eager nod. “He wouldn’t wear some ball mask to a fight. His flair for the dramatic came in a different form.�
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  “He did,” the swordsman confirmed. “And it…did something to him. The longer we fought, the more irrational and angry he became.”

  “I had a look into his thoughts,” Jazai recalled and thought back to the pages filled with similar lines. “He became quite one-note, not to mention disturbingly specific in what he wanted to do to us.”

  The assassin tapped his chin. “It doesn’t surprise me, honestly. The demon mask has a specific kind of appeal. All malefics have an exchange and the demon mask may be the most basic—physical and magical power at the cost of mental and emotional strength. Some say an actual demon is trapped inside and eventually overtakes the user, but many magical items have that kind of legend attached, don’t they?”

  “You don’t seem to suffer much,” the diviner pointed out and looked at the older magi’s eyepatch.

  Koli ran a hand over it and smirked. “Where do you think the other eye went?”

  “That’s it?” Jazai questioned. “You merely lost an eye? Most malefics have some long-term effect or devastating tradeoff for their use.”

  Their new teammate laughed. “My apologies that losing an eye is rather mundane by comparison, then.” He scratched above the patch and sighed. “You should know that malefics can have a more harmonious balance with their user, one similar to majestics. It merely requires the right one to come along.”

  “And you and that eye have that kind of bond?” Devol asked.

  Koli’s other eye looked away for a moment and a playful smile formed on his lips. “We have a rather unique bond and certainly a much better one than the last owner had. But it is also a matter of how you use it. Salvo was so obsessed with killing you that the demon mask latched on to that emotion and fed it much like a flame, appropriately. He was merely not in the right mind to use it, but any strong, negative emotion can have that effect under the demon mask’s sway. Which was why we tried to use it on the ghouls, with mixed results.”

  Devol recalled the undead beings they had fought, both the large one under Koli’s control from when they first met and the group that aided Salvo. “Why ghouls?” he asked and returned his focus to the assassin. “I would think making golems like the ones you fought earlier would be easier to manage.”

  “I would think so as well,” the assassin admitted with a shrug. “But that seems to be their preference. Or rather the preference of someone in the group, at least, and they are quite adept at it.”

  Jazai noted the vague response and decided to see if he could push a little more. “So if your last mission was only a contract, what got you involved? Were they simply hiring or did they seek you out?”

  “I was sought out,” he replied casually. “They had need of my services to deal with a few specific troublemakers, which is my specialty. After the job was finished, they renewed my contract for a few more missions. The pay was quite nice so I decided why not? At least that was until our run-in.” He looked at Devol’s majestic. “He was not so pleased when that mission failed.”

  The swordsman’s gaze lingered on the assassin for a moment before he looked forward again. “Salvo kept mentioning a ‘he’ of some kind and seemed very enamored with him.”

  Koli sighed. “Yes, he was when I first signed on as well. We worked well together and had some laughs but he would drone on about his ‘master’ so much that it made unpleasant company during dinner. But I suppose that is what it is like in a cult.”

  “You worked for a cult?” Asla asked but remembered that she did not mean to engage him and turned away.

  “I’m sure they would not refer to themselves as such.” The assassin laughed. “I only had a handful of personal interactions with their leader—a nice fellow with a megalomaniac streak, but you wouldn’t think it when talking to him. He has a passion for theater and stories.”

  “So you know his plans?” Devol asked and glanced at Jazai, who took his tome out. “Is there anything more you can share?”

  “There is nothing much to say, to be honest. He’s like every potential tyrant and wants to conquer the realms and all that. But I have to say his plan to do so is…well, far grander than the usual evil army or cursed object from older legends.”

  Devol looked at his friend, who grumbled at his tome. It seemed he wouldn’t get anything from him. “You are rather vague when you talk about him, Koli,” he said bluntly. “You seem very protective of him even though you are no longer under his contract.”

  The trickster rolled his eye. “Still all these suspicions? You are a rather wary trio, aren’t you?” He sighed but finished the exhalation with a small chuckle. “I’m a contract killer and thief, and many are hesitant to approach someone such as myself even if they need my services. It’s simply good business to not blather about former employers.”

  The swordsman turned, ready to challenge him about his shady dealings and what it had to do with the Templars, when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. A shadowy being darted behind a corner on a ravine above them. He halted and grasped Achroma’s as Jazai and Asla turned to see what was wrong.

  Koli walked for a couple more steps and when he stopped, he did not turn but chortled and said, “So you finally noticed them?”

  “How many of them are there?” Devol asked and the diviner flipped hastily to a new page and narrowed his eyes as he read the logs being scribbled down.

  “More than you would probably like,” the assassin replied and looked around. “But honestly, less than I would wish.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “I’m getting four…no, five…no, seven—damn it, give me a second.” Jazai continued to flip through the pages and his expression cycled from concerned, to annoyed, and to shocked as he read the script as quickly as he could.

  “I see more above,” Asla said quietly and Devol realized there were several ridges and openings above them. Numerous figures lurked in them but it was too dark to make out any features.

  “Do you think they are all hostile?” he asked and glanced at Koli, who looked around with apparent unconcern although his darting gaze possibly saw many more individuals than the friends did.

  “Right now, it looks fairly mixed,” Jazai said at last and checked his rings. “There are some who seem to be passing by and happened to see us or possibly someone else. Others are looking for a fight but don’t seem focused on us, so they have targeted someone else, and at least a few are after us specifically.”

  “Do they believe we are easy kills?” Asla asked and brandished her claws.

  “Wait, hold on a moment.” Jazai read something quickly on a page in the tome, shut it, pointed his ring finger toward a nearby pillar, and fired a streak of lightning at it. It slammed into the stone column and knocked some rock off, but no one appeared. “What the hells? I was sure I picked up someone stalking us behind that.”

  “You most likely did,” Koli assured him. He stepped forward and raised his hand to his eyepatch but didn’t remove it yet. “But they are far more slippery than that. If they are who I think they are, it looks like this may be another nice reunion for me.”

  “Then you know this person?” Devol asked and drew Achroma.

  Jazai snorted and scanned their surroundings for a potential attack. “And we got mixed up in his mess. That wasn’t something we thought about.”

  “I only said I believe I know who it is,” the assassin reiterated and lowered his hand from his eyepatch. “It has been a while so I could have confused his anima with another’s. But that bloodlust is very noticeable,” He gave them a toothy grin and three small throwing knives appeared in his hand. “I’ve never known you to be a coward, Zed. Come out and play.”

  “And I never would have thought you a babysitter, Koli,” a gruff, raspy voice responded. A man stepped out from behind the pillar Jazai had fired on. He had long, matted black hair and a scruffy beard and was dressed in a black vest, pants, and boots with long black gloves on his hands. In one hand, he held an ornate long dagger. The blade gleamed silver, the gr
ip and wrapping were black, and on the bottom was the face of a feral animal Devol could not identify, its face contorted with rage.

  “Ah, so it is you,” the assassin said cheerfully and rolled the knives between his fingers. “It has been so long, Zed. How are the rest of the group?”

  “You can ask them yourself, you lanky bastard.” The newcomer snapped his fingers and three other figures joined him. A red squama appeared out of the shadows on the opposite side of the pillar, dressed in similarly dark clothes and a long fin atop his head had pieces missing, possibly cut or torn out in fights.

  Another jumped from above and landed on Zed’s right. The large wildkin seemed to be a homina like Asla but was most likely a gorilla. She immediately took a battle stance when she saw him, although he stared at them, unmoving, almost as if he was utterly disinterested. A final figure emerged from behind the gorilla wildkin, this one dressed from head to toe in mixtures of green and brown and holding a longbow. They presented no discernible features as they wore a full-face veil on their head and their clothes were loose enough that trying to judge their body was also not easy, but they seemed to have a slim waist which suggested a woman.

  “Only three?” Koli asked, pointed at them, and counted dramatically. “When I left, you had a few dozen.”

  “Some died and others left,” Zed stated and his voice had begun to rattle with anger. “It’s hard to keep a group together when the boss was killed.”

  “Oh, right. That.” The assassin tapped his chin. “Are you still going on about that? It’s been years, Zed.”

  “You killed my brother, you mutant bastard!” the man snapped, flipped his blade, and looked like he was preparing to strike. The wildkin caught his arm and held him back. “Let me go, Ramah!” he demanded. Asla flinched at hearing the name and the response suprised Devol.

  “I am certainly no mutant, Zed,” Koli said and clicked his tongue. “I’ve told you before, it’s only an illusion rune tattooed into my skin.”