Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (38 page)

“My vision quest
granted me great wisdom and understanding, leading to new abilities. One of
them is fluency in a dead language. By the way, part of it is encoded.” As
Haburt resigned himself to a dreary task ahead, Eric put an arm around him.
“Don't worry, Professor. You just have to list me as your primary source and
pay an outrageously unfair translation fee.”

“Trickster's Choice.”

“That makes no sense;
now jump in the bag so I can cross the carrot and make a piano.”

Haburt sighed and
obeyed. On the way back, he was shaken up, whirled around, and subjected to
every non-lethal trap in the tower.

Eric stepped into the
courtyard to see Tiza sword fighting a skeleton while the rest of Team Four+
watched. The two slashed, ducked, and parried until they crossed blades in a
shoving match. With the superior weight granted by her muscles and organs, Tiza
bore down on it. The skeleton flowed around her force and palm-struck high in
her chest. Tiza over-balanced and was knocked her flat on her back. The
skeleton fell on her and its blade pierced the ground next to her head.

“You…” a voice
whispered from the skeleton's direction. “...are dead...”

“Best thirteen out of
fifteen?”

Eric turned to Nolien.
“Do you mind?”

Nolien explained that
that while he and Tiza were looking for (more) trouble, they found (more)
skeletons. After Tiza shattered the first batch, this one stepped forth. It – or
rather “she,” as Nolien corrected – was impressed by Tiza's feat. She
introduced herself and drew a genuine sword.

“From what I figure,
she's Dengel's contemporary and lived here while he did. We don't know much
else because talking is difficult for her.”

“What exactly
is
...
she?”

“You know how beastfolk
are sentient monsters? This is a sentient skeleton. They both fall under the
designation of
mana breed
because they are supernatural creatures as
well as
demon
because most of their kind are dangerous, carnivorous, and
mindless. If they were more than a skeleton –”

“...Zombie...” said a
second skeleton. This one sat against the wall.

“Forgive me,” Nolien
said to him and then to Eric. “They are zombies who have
decayed
over
the last
two millennium
and now they look like skeletons. Thus, we
cannot tell if they belong to the
beastfolk
definition or not.”

Without facial muscles
or eyes, Eric was unable to tell if the second skeleton took offense to this.
Then the skeleton raised one hand and extended one finger. From his studies,
Eric knew that gesture was at least as old as Ancient Ceiha.
If I were
something that looked monstrous, I certainly wouldn’t want to be lumped in with
genuine monsters.

The first skeleton
noticed Eric's staff and stared. The pause was long enough for Tiza to knock
her head off. It was caught by the second skeleton.

“Did that hurt?” Tiza
asked.

“...No...” the first
skeleton replied. Her companion placed her head on her neck. The area between
shoulders and chin smoked and, when it cleared, the break was gone. “...Prism...”

“You mean this?” Eric
pointed to his staff.

“...Where...?”

“It's a long
story...but the short version is I got it in Kyraa.”

“...Light...”

“I'm not sure. It
appeared after a run-in with Tasio.”

“He...Who...Returns...All...To...Dust?”
both skeletons asked.

Eric nodded. He hadn’t
heard that one before, but it made sense. Everything died eventually and, when
they did, their bodies decayed and became dust, which fed the ground and gave
rise to plants. It was the same with the streams of mana constantly flowing in
and out of his own soul.

Remember, you are
dust and to dust you will return.

“....Dengel...Successor...”
said the First.

“...Free...Them...”

“One moment, please.”

Eric dumped Haburt out
of the bag and asked him for pen and paper. The professor left for his yurt and
returned moments later. He offered them to Eric, who offered them to the
skeletons.

“Please tell me you can
use these.”

First Skeleton passed
them to Second Skeleton.
“...Priest...” she said in explanation. Second
Skeleton filled one page and then another and handed them both to Eric. He sat
down to read them and learned that Dengel kidnapped locals and used soulcraft
to make them his eternal servants. Over the centuries, those whose spirits were
weak became feral and dangerous because the soulcraft imprisoned them inside
their bodies. Even as dust, they were trapped so long as they remained in the
castle.

Eric stood and stamped
his staff butt on the ground.

“Everyone, I'm going to
need your help with this.”

In short order, they
took their positions. Nolien and Tiza stood in a tower at either end of the
main castle gate. Haburt stood within the courtyard and Zettai stood outside.
Both of them stood on a rune representing death and life, respectively, and
both were connected by a chain representing the Abyss. Basilard knelt off to
the side with BloodDrinker wedged into the ground and Sias knelt next to him
with her hands clasped and head bowed in prayer. Eric himself stood in the
center of the courtyard and Grey Dengel walked up to him.

“This is a fine array
you designed, but it will fail. I designed this soul lock to be unbreakable.”

“The universe we live
in is based on Chaos.
Nothing
is unbreakable.”

Grey Dengel smiled,
ruffled his hair, and dissipated into vapor. Eric restrained his own smile,
refocused, and raised his staff high into the air.

“By my spirit and by my
wisdom, I am the lord of this domain! Out of every enslaved soul within these
walls, not one shall remain! I hereby decree that they shall be set free! In
one!” He pointed to Nolien. “Two!” He pointed to Tiza. “Three!”

With both hands, he
slammed the butt of his staff on the ground before him and illuminated a rune
diagram beneath his feet. It spider-webbed across the courtyard and up the
walls. This was Tiza’s and Nolien's cue.

Each of them stood next
to a metal crank connected to the gate. They grabbed it with both hands and it
sucked up mana to power itself. The gears groaned and protested from disuse,
but they slowly turned and pulled the wooden frames apart. Next was Basilard's
role.

His left hand glowed
with darkness and his left with light. Both of them grabbed BloodDrinker's hilt
and a double helix of black and white surged toward Haburt's circle and then
faster down the line, connecting it to Zettai's beyond the gate. Then they
burst upwards in twin pillars of power.

By now, the light of
the central rune had worked its way to the tower, guided by the lines carved by
the mountain itself at Sias' request. When it reached the base, it traveled up,
and when it reached the top, the central spire glowed golden-brown. A pulse
radiated outward and dissolved the rune as it approached the walls and broke
over them like a wave.

“Winds of Change!” Eric
shouted, twirling his staff. “Let them range!” He pointed out the opened gate.
“Liberation!”

A great wind arose and
blew out of the gate in a mighty gust that took every last skeleton fragment
with it. The mass collided with Zettai’s circle and the fragments dissolved on
contact with the pillar of life and death. Each impact released a hiss of steam
and a trail of smoke rose to the heavens.

“...Free...”

Tasio winked into
existence inside Haburt's yurt. He slipped a fake snake into the professor’s
sleeping bag and a couple of gremlins into his crystalline signal receiver.
Then he floated over to a collapsible table and arranged his notes and relics
in such a way that hinted at the solution of a problem that had been puzzling
him.

“What do you want,
Tasio?”

His choice was sitting
at a collapsible desk, translating Dengel’s notes. To his left was the original
papyrus in its transparent Wind Vault and to his right was the copied pulp
paper.

“I came to congratulate
you on your Chaotic Enlightenment.” The Trickster floated alongside Eric and
looked over his shoulder. “Not many can do that with their sanity intact. Now
that you understand the foundation of reality, you can absorb it in others,
even me if I’m not careful.”

Eric turned a page. “I
want no part of you in my soul.”

“Why not? We both
engage in chaotic heroism. I prevented Nulso from collaring Annala and you
freed those poor souls from bondage.”

Eric tensed for a
moment, then continued translating. “I don't have time for this. Unlike you, I
have work to do.”

“Usurping ownership,
melding magic styles, the line about 'liberation'...I am so proud!”

Still with his eyes on
the page, Eric replied, “Once again, your approval fills me with shame.”

“What's so shameful
about a trickster's friendship?”

Eric looked away from
the page and met his gaze. “Enforcers tried to kill me on my way here.
Enforcers!
Poi had to save me. I've have half a mind to think you told him to puppy guard
me.”

Tasio shifted his eyes.

“You didn't!”

Tasio's right arm
turned into latex and inflated. He grew a third arm and twisted the right one
into the shape of an elephant. “Balloon animals!”

Eric popped the balloon
with his crystal. The grey light flashed and nicked a tiny snippet of golden-brown
light into itself. Both it and Eric’s eyes flashed the same color, and he
thoughtlessly grinned.

“Not so bad, is it?”

Eric’s grin shifted
into a glare.

“Fine. Yes, I asked my
younger brother to keep an eye on you until you arrived in Ceiha, and it’s a
good thing I did. You almost drowned.” 

“I won’t have if you’d
leave me alone.”

Tasio tsk-tsked. “How
confident you are now, thanks to me. You’ve only survived this long because
I’ve been hovering over your shoulder. If I left you alone, you’d die.”

“Liar. When you dragged
me back to Threa, you said it was because I didn’t need help anymore. When I
asked you to return me to Tariatla, you said you couldn’t because I didn’t need
you.”

“That was before you
ticked off a greater mage ordercrafter. Only chaos can defeat order, so until
you become a chaoscrafter, like Dengel, you will need me to protect you.”

“What a coincidence! I’m
reading about chaoscraft right now.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Dengel calls it
both ‘a Stage of Chaotic Enlightenment’ and ‘Chaotic Starlight’ and could be
what he planned to use against the Silver Dragon. If it can work against the
patron goddess of bandits, then surely it will work against a divine puppet.”

“What if you can’t
understand it?”

“I have the author
himself haunting me, and it’s not the insufferable soul form either, but a
ghost aspect; pure scholarly intellect and teaching mentality.”

Tasio made puppy-dog
eyes. “Would you forgive me if I brought candy and flowers?”

“Go away!”

“Gone.” Tasio winked
out of existence

Eric enjoyed his
victory for about five seconds. Then it dawned on him that this could have been
Tasio’s intention from the start. He couldn’t comprehend this spell at all, and
Grey Dengel couldn’t advance his understanding. He considered giving up when
Tasio appeared. He marked his place and dropped his head on the desk. Grey
Dengel appeared and waited for him to speak.

“What do you think?”

“I think, by which I
mean
you
think, that when the enforcers appear again, you should try to
steal their essence and become immortal as the first step in courting Annala.”

Eric sighed. “It can’t
be good when my imaginary friend ships me with someone, but I was referring to
the Trickster’s Choice.”

“Very well. There have
been many chosen ones of The Trickster across the ages and they are a diverse
lot: warriors, kings, thieves, priests, farmers –”

“Jesters?”

Grey Dengel was
indignant. “If I were as crude as your mentor, I would smack you. Yes, some of
them have been jesters.” 

“Were you one of them?”

Grey Dengel smacked
him. “Regardless of their station in their life, they all had one thing in
common: a love-hate relationship with The Trickster. In that aspect, you are
one of them.”

Eric stared sourly at
the ground. “I have no love for The Trickster.”

 Grey Dengel responded
with a pure scholarly tone. There was not a trace of anything else, but Eric
still thought it sounded smug.

“Why? Is not your
current station in life due to his help? Was he not your 'bestest friend'? Do
you not keep a
shrine to him
in your home?
”

“That...! Aio is...was...urg...”

Focusing on Dengel's
text was now impossible, so he left the yurt.

It was mid-morning on
the day after he returned from Dengel’s Lair for the second time. He spent the
time since bringing documents and other treasures out of the lair for Haburt’s
grant research and Basilard’s loot stash. Meanwhile, Haburt followed his true
passion of studying the outside of the tower and the rest of the compound. The
rest kept busy in other ways.

 Basilard strolled and
conversed with Sias, usually with the latter on the former’s arm. They were
returning from a “Dengel trap patrol” just as he came out. Tiza was sparring
with First Skeleton while their counterparts, Nolien and Second Skeleton,
watched and commented. This one was bare handed and they engaged with strikes,
sweeps, and evasion.

At the Dragon's Lair,
Basilard drilled her in a Defend-Strike style, but this one was focused on speed;
the difference between a bear and a snake. It was a welcome distraction from
Dengel's text and especially since Tiza was still wearing that blue dress.

Sometimes, she dodged a
strike by arching her back into a handstand and then pushing herself back to
her feet. When something of this nature occurred, Second Skeleton never failed
to whisper something that made Nolien blush. He then slapped his thighbone.
Lacking vocal cords and facial muscles, it was how he expressed amusement.

“Who did you make
that dress for?”

“Who indeed? Was it
a partner, a prisoner, a princess, or a possession?”

First Skeleton struck
Tiza in the abdomen just as the girl's hands clamped on her lower arm. The
latter jumped backwards as the blow connected and pulled First Skeleton off
balance. Then she sprang forward to uppercut, but First Skeleton twisted around
her back and twisted the arm still holding her own behind it. Tiza winced and
the other hand grasped her throat.

“You...Are...Dead...”

Tiza jerked about in
frustration. “Abyss!”

“But...Improving...”

First Skeleton released
her and she plopped next to Nolien. They talked martial arts and then she
smacked him with her gloved hand.

“Are you paying
attention to
me
or this dress?”

“Uh...”

“Abyss take it,
Tenderfoot! This is precisely why I hate this thing! As soon as I look pretty,
you forget that I'm your teammate!”

“Yes, I think you're pretty!
You're a pretty girl, so of course I'll get distracted if you dress up, but
that doesn't mean I forget you're my teammate!”

“Then explain Najica!” Nolien
tensed and made a fist, but didn't move. “If I weren't wearing this dress, you
wouldn't hesitate.” He raised his hand and brought it down quickly on her head,
only to slow down and cup her cheek. “T-tenderfoot?”

“All I can say about
Najica is that you in danger is more distracting than you in a dress.”

Tiza blushed, looked
away, and grumbled about him being “a stupid healer.”

This is too much
drama.

He still wasn't in the
mood for Dengel's bragging, so he looked for Haburt and found him in another
area of the courtyard. He was taking a break from the house to examine a stocks
and pillory set on a stand. Something glowed in his hands with grey and blue
light. With his back against Eric, he said, “Mr. Watley, I truly believe I
should have hired a different team.”

“Let me guess. Tasio
pretended to be a broken piece of pottery and made a cut that bleeds jelly.”

“Correct, but....How
did you guess that? Never mind, this is not about you or The Trickster. It is
about myself.” He finally turned and revealed an incomplete spell diagram
hovering in midair. “Because of my weakness, I almost trapped First Skeleton in
a Wind Vault.”

“As long as you don't kidnap Tiza again, I
don't care. Are you having fun in your dust?”

Haburt dismissed the rune and cleared his
throat. In the style of Dengel, he shared his findings about the architecture,
the defenses, the soul barrier, and, otherwise, the way of life of the
inhabitants. It involved a lack of agriculture, trade, and other ways to bring
enough food into the castle to feed everyone that presumably lived here. The
wild plants outside would not be enough. Eric put the pieces together and
grinned sinisterly. Haburt nodded in confirmation.

“That’s right. The material evidence
confirms the skeletons’ story. These people were slaves, and not in a
farming/industrial capacity. As far as I can tell, they were for his personal
vanity.”

“I wonder how those apologists will explain
this.
I can’t wait!”

“Mr. Watley, I hope you were looking for
more than slander when you translated Dengel’s notes. Otherwise, Her Majesty
will be disappointed in you.”

“Oh, Trickster! I forgot!”

“Forgot what?”

With a straight face, Eric said, “I’m late
for a conference call with Dengel and Tasio. They wanted to get together five
minutes ago to discuss eat pudding on a cloud.”

“Oh. I see.”

Eric bit his lip as he took his leave of
the professor. It was fun telling outrageous lies that people nonetheless
believed. He found an unused part of the courtyard for his overdue “all clear” message,
sat down, and thought,
Kas? Are you there?

ERRRRRRRIIIIIIICCCCCC!

The psychic shout shocked Eric out of his
sitting posture. He clutched his head as it echoed on his mental plane of
existence.

Oh, thank Ancestor you're alive! I was
so worried and...! I hate you! You forgot to call me! You told me you were
going somewhere unspeakably dangerous and then I don't hear from you for ten
days! Every time I wanted to check, I feared that I'd distract you at a crucial
moment and I...I...You have a lot to make up for when you come back! 

Would you forgive me if I brought candy
and flowers?

The echo of this statement was lost on him.

Don't joke about this!

I'm sorry I worried you, but it was
worth it; trust me.

Why should I?

I found something relating to Mana
Mutation.

…Go on.

Some of the texts I found speak of a “blessing
of monstrosity,” which I believe refers to Mana Mutation. The elves see Lady
Chaos as their grandmother and so it is reasonable to assume that Mana Mutation
would be seen more as “too much of a good thing” instead of a straight-up
tragedy as humans do, thus the “blessing.” I'm still researching it, so I don't
have all the information, but it looks promising.

Very well. Depending on what you find, I
might go easy on you.

I am honored by your mercy, Your
Majesty.

Shut up and start reading!

He returned to Haburt’s yurt and did just
that. If he didn’t fulfill his promise, there would be an angry fire
demi-goddess waiting for him when he returned home. The only thing worse than
that was a despairing fire demi-goddess.

“…such is the power of
the Chaotic Starlight, which my magnificent master, Ariek Valeten, who, in his
eternal wisdom, demonstrated before my humble eyes. Then a feat even more
amazing was performed before me (and only me). With a wave of his mighty hand,
he conjured Energy from the Womb of the Mother of Elves and created a gourmet
sample of nourishment. The meat of a pig, wrapped in the finest bread, and
soaked in pure honey. All mounted on a stick so one might consume it one-handed
and thus keep one hand free for work or pleasure. Truly, it was a dish worthy
of kings!” 

This ancient elf
knew about corn dogs?

“No words or gestures
or preparations needed; it was child’s play for someone of such heavenly
standing as my exclusive mentor. The Trickster pales in comparison and
addresses him respectfully, for even he is but a powerless mortal before the
light of Ariek Valeten’s divinity.”

If that were
remotely true, then such magic would make quick work of Nulso. Now if only he
would get around to explaining the details.

“This was done by my
one-student-only teacher, Ariek Valeten, to encourage me in my studies. In
time, I shall achieve Chaotic Enlightenment, perform the Chaotic Starlight, and
become as wise and mighty as he. For the present, I am mastering the First
Level of Enlightenment – and doing very well – but patience is a key virtue in
the First Level. Thus, I am biding my time until the Great Mother takes notice
of my worthy self.”

I.e. I was stumped
and too much of a dick to admit it.