After finishing our briefing and finding our way out of the ruins, we wave goodbye to the leopard, we grab our backpacks and start heading to our new objective. Lily is leading the way again, but this time she looks a lot less confident than before, and there's definitely some uneasiness in her voice as she speaks to us.
Lily: Okay, so we'll need to follow this path for the next few hours, until we reach the first crossroads. After that, there isn't really a path to follow anymore, so you're going to have to stick close to me if you don't want to get lost. If you want to take food breaks, just tell me and we'll–
Leah: Lily, why did you agree to come with us to the ogre's stronghold? Isn't it a little dangerous even for you to be heading straight into enemy territory like this?
Lily: Well, yeah, but if I didn't agree to come with you, Celestia would have killed you…
Leah: So what? If the vixen killed us, then our blood wouldn't have been on your hands. Why would you go so far out of your way to help a group of complete strangers? Why not just let her kill us and go on about your business?
Lily: I don't know… I just… couldn't…
Leah looks at her for a few seconds, and then she smiles faintly.
Leah: I see… Lily, I believe we may have started off on the wrong foot this morning. Allow me to rectify that.
She then holds out her hand to her.
Leah: My name is Leah. Pleased to meet you!
Lily looks somewhat taken aback by Leah's sudden shift in attitude towards her, and she shakes her head, hesitantly.
Rachel: And my name is Rachel! I'm glad to have you with us, Lily!
Hagrid: I'm Hagrid. But you can call me the 'dwarf'. Either name will do!
Lily takes a few steps back and is now starting to panic.
Lily: I'm sorry! I've never really been accepted into a group before. I have no idea what you're supposed to say in these situations!
Leah: It's okay, Lily! You don't need to say anything.
Lily: Oh! Well, that's a relief!
JÒN: I'm Jòn. Pleased to meet you as well!
Lily: Oh, thanks! But I already got your name! It's pretty easy to remember!
Hagrid immediately starts laughing loudly as he usually does.
Lily: What? Is Jòn a common name on the other continents?
JÓN: Yeah, I've met at least two dozen Jòns in my lifetime, and I don't really socialize much.
Hagrid: Well, to be fair, my name is also pretty common on the Northern continents. Especially for giants like myself.
Lily: You're a giant?! Wow… I guess you really must have been the black sheep of your family, huh?
Hagrid (laughs): You're not completely wrong there, little girl, but my family's opinion of me had nothing to do with my size, I'm afraid. The only reason I'm this small right now is because I've magically shapeshifted myself into a dwarf. I assure you that my height is well above average among my peers!
Rachel: I've always been meaning to ask… Why did you choose to shapeshift into a dwarf and not a human? Wouldn't it be easier to fight if you'd kept your body proportions at least somewhat similar to your original form?
Hagrid: Remember how I said my friends call me 'the dwarf'? Well, thats because I spend most of my time drinking with the dwarfs on the Northern Continent, and because I'm shape shifting into one more often than not. Given that I've picked up their accent and mannerism in the many years I've spent in their taverns, I thought it would raise less suspicion if I just came disguised as a dwarf. Plus, I've always enjoyed fighting with a handicap, so that's also a bonus!
He laughs again
Lily is now approaching Damien and starts to address him.
Lily: I'm sorry, I still didn't get your name…
Damien: Damien; the name's Damien
Lily: You don't really like me very, do you?
Damien: I like you just fine. It's the Cortana I'm not very fond of.
Hagrid: Oh, lighten up, Damien! What do you think she's going to do? Betray us all and join the ogres once we get to their stronghold?
Damien: Actually, that's exactly what I'm worried about.
Lily: I think I'm starting to understand why Lettie doesn't want to talk to you guys…
Leah: If I may ask, how exactly did you and Lettie come to share the same body? I've never heard of something like this happening before.
Lily: Oh, Lettie told me that our souls fused together during her awakening, twenty years ago, I don't really know the specifics of soul fusion, though. You'll have to ask Lettie about that.
Rachel: I'm so sorry about what happened… It must have been a terrible thing for a child to go through…
Lily: No, you've got it all wrong! The day Lettie awakened was the happiest day of my life! At long last, I had someone here with me, to share my world with! You cannot possibly imagine the joy I felt when I realized that I no longer had to live my life alone inside of my own mind!
JÒN: Live inside your own mind? You mean to say that you space out a lot?
Lily: No! I mean that I'm literally living inside my own mind, and I've been doing so ever since I was born! Why doesn't anyone ever believe me?
Leah: I believe you, Lily.
Lily: You do?…
Leah: Yes, because you're not the first person to tell me this. A friend of mine,
called–
Leah pauses a bit, before she begins to speak again
Leah: A friend of mine, called Gwen, was in the same situation as you, and she wasn't the only one. Many of the orphans from the Institution of Truth were like this. The Thackeray called them Ethereals. People who identify with their souls, instead of their bodies.
Rachel: Their souls?
Leah: Yes… Most people don't even know that they have a soul, because they only use their five senses to explore the world around them. However, the soul, which stores the very essence of a person's being and memory, is actually being kept on the ethereal plane, in a pocket universe that is usually referred to as their mind. After a person dies, in the same way that their body decomposes and eventually becomes one with the earth, the person's soul also decomposes into ethereal matter and becomes one with the ethereal plane once more.
Hagrid: Hey, that's not what they taught me in giant school! As far as I know, once we die, our spirits are all supposed to go to the afterlife or whatever god we worshipped during our lives on this plane!
Leah: Believe what you will, I am merely reciting texts from old thackeray books
that I was allowed to read during my time at the Institution. Or at least the books that they were kind enough to have translated in the common language. Getting back to the subject at hand, the ethereals are different from other humans because they experience life from the perspective of their soul, instead of their bodies. Imagine living your whole life inside a giant puppet, unable to get out, forced to use it anything you need to interact with a person from the outside world.
Lily: I sometimes pretend that I use invisible strings to control my body, it makes life in here a little more bearable.
Leah: Most children will instinctively realize that something is different about ethereals, so they will usually isolate them from a very young age and not accept them in their groups. Being left alone both in their mind and in the outside world, ethereals are forced to find their own ways to cope with their situation. Some of them will simply start shutting the whole world out, and isolate themselves even further. Others will make titanic efforts to integrate themselves
in society, but the social awkwardness that they gained from years of isolation will always stand in their way. Living their lives alone in their own minds also causes many ethereals to develop eccentric personalities and to fixate on a hobby they like until they become exceptionally skilled at it. Gwen used to love tinkering with complex devices for hours on end. Lily, I assume that your
chosen hobby would be acrobacy?
Lily: Oh, yes! I absolutely love it! I used to be in a circus when I was little, and since then there's rarely been a day when I've neglected to train my acrobatic skills!
Leah: While your acrobatic skills may be noteworthy, they are by far surpassed by your natural affinity for magic. Do you know why that is?
Lily: I'm not sure… Lettie always told me that I am learning magic at a much faster rate than should be humanly possible. Is this because I'm an ethereal too?
Leah: Yes! The ethereal plane is closer in nature to the magical plane than the
earthen plane is. For this reason, your unique perspective allows you to
understand magic much more naturally than the rest of us. Being an ethereal does not grant you magical powers upon birth, but those that are also born as mages are fated to become extremely powerful. This is why the thackeray from the Institution of Truth made it their mission to capture as many ethereal orphans as possible, in the hopes that their experiments would have a greater
chance of success. My friend Gwen and her brother were both ethereals, and they turned out to be quite the prodigies.
Lily: I think I'm finally starting to understand why Lettie was so surprised to find me inside my own mind when she first awakened.
Leah: If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that your unexpected fusion with the cortana's soul also came as a result of your rather unique circumstances. Normally, a cortana would find the soul defenseless when she invades her host's mind, but you must have been waiting for her, armed and ready. Given that you had the terrain advantage, she had no choice but to settle for a compromise.
Lily gasps loudly, all of a sudden.
Lily: Oh no, I just realized something! The Institution you spoke of… and the
experiments…
She pauses.
Lily: Are you an artificial mage?
Leah: I am, Why do you ask?
Lily: Oh gods, you must have had it so much worse than I did! At least I had Lettie's experience to rely on when we were been chased down by cortana hunters. She's taught me a lot of survival tips that have come in handy along the years. Would you like me to share some of them with you?
Leah: Uh, I suppose it couldn't hurt…
Lily (smiles cheerfully): Great! I'll try to remember everything I know on our way to the ogre stronghold. Come on, follow me!
Rakaia: Ethereals, huh? That's a pretty cool sounding name. I might actually start using it myself from now on!
We spent the next few hours following the path that Lily told us about. During this time, Damien and Hagrid started a but of competition to see which of them could tell the most interesting story from their adventures, while Rachel, Leah and Lily start sharing their similar life experiences with each other, which seemed to bring them a little closer together.
Once we reach the crossroads, around noon, we all stopped in our tracks, and
Damien started addressing Rachel, with a serious look on his face:
Damien: Rachel, I think you should take this path and head to your hometown as soon as possible. Don't worry about us and the collars. We'll be fine! The sick people in your town are all waiting for you!
Leah: She can't leave… Remember what the leopard told us before we left? If any two of the collars get further away than three miles from each other, then all of us will start to get electrical shocks of increasing intensity surging throughout our bodies. If the collars get more than four miles away from each other, then we'd all get killed. The thackeray were the ones who originally designed these
devices, and this was a measure they took to keep their prisoners in check.
Rachel, I'm so sorry… I did not know it would come to this. I should have tried to
stop you when you offered to come with us yesterday. This is all my fault…
Rachel: Leah, you had no way of knowing this would happen. Even with this detour, I'll still arrive ahead of my original schedule, as long as we keep following the direct route we've been using up until now, there's no need to apologize for any of this. We're friends, remember?
Not knowing exactly how to answer, Leah simply nods to her, and we all decide to take a small break to eat some food, because we haven't really eaten much since our imprisonment. After I finish my meal, I notice that Lily, who wasn't particularly hungry, had decided to make us of this time to practice her fire magic, by shooting fireballs at various rocks lying on the side of the road.
JÒN: You sure do like to train, huh?
Lily: Oh, no, I'm not training right now. I just like to blow stuff up!
JÒN: How old did you say you were again?
Lily: I'm almost thirty!
JÒN: Then why are you always acting like a ten-year-old?
Lily (with a pouty face): Your face is acting like a ten-year-old!
Unsure of how to reply to such a masterly crafted retort, I decide to change the subject instead
JÒN: So, uh… What did you do with Rakaia? I see you're not wearing the amulet around your neck.
Lily: Oh, she said that she wanted to socialize with the group, so I handed her to
Hagrid for a while, since he's the only one who doesn't seem to have an aversion
towards her.
She then points towards Hagrid, who is holding the amulet in his right hand and having a conversation with Rakaia about ogres and ways to kill them.
Hagrid: It's a shame that I won't be able to transform back into a giant when we reach the stronghold. It's been a while since I've fought some ogres, and I really miss hearing the satisfying sound of them getting squashes under my feet!
Rakaia: Well, at least you'll get to see the looks on their dumb faces when you'll be sending their own fireballs back towards them
Hagrid: Actually, ogres are so stupid that I doubt they'd even have the time to realize what happened before they'd get burned to ashes.
Both Rakaia and Hagrid then start laughing loudly, at the same time.
Rakaia: You know, I'm pretty good at teleportation magic, if you free me from the amulet, I could teleport a few of the ogres here, and we could have a fun little practice run before the main event. What do you say?
Hagrid (grins): Nah!!!
Rakaia: Well, it was worth a shot
Lily: I'm so glad that Rakaia finally found someone she can relate to! I don't really have a lot in common with her, so we don't talk all that much, and Lettie hates her guts.
JÒN: That begs the question… Why are you still keeping her with you?
Leah: I would like to ask the same question… Wouldn't it be better to just throw
her at the bottom of a lake and be done with her? I don't really feel very comfortable travelling with her at my side. Her very aura sends chills down my spine.
Lily: I… can't throw her away…
Leah: Why not?
Lily: Because she can free herself from the amulet if we leave her unsupervised. She barely has access to any magic while trapped in there, but with the little she has, she is able to generate a very small explosion as long as she is left alone to
channel the spell for a few hours.
Leah: So what? If she gets away, then it's not your problem anymore.
Lily: Wrong! If she gets away, she'll become everybody's problem.
JÒN: She's that powerful?
Lily: Yes, she is. Have you heard of the still night?
JÒN: Only bits and pieces. I heard that it was a great war between the thackeray and the stillborns of this continent, some six hundred years ago.
Lily: That's pretty much the main gist of it. What I'm betting you haven't heard, though, is the fact that Rakaia used to be the leader of these stillborns.
Leah: A cortana? Leading an army of stillborns?
Lily: She wasn't alone. She was fused with a stillborn guy, in the same way I am now with Lettie. From what I hear, our two cases are the only two occurrences of soul fusion in our history. After what you've told me, Leah, I'm willing to bet that this stillborn Rakaia fused with was an ethereal as well!
JÒN: Hold on! Can cortanas possess male hosts? I thought they always went for women.
Leah: That's because all cortanas are female spirits, and in order to minimize the risks during their awakenings, they tend to only possess female bodies so that their magical auras are closer in nature to those of their hosts. I assume that a spirit as powerful as Rakaia has no need to take such precautions.
Lily: That's right. Rakaia was so powerful, in fact, that it took the combined effort of Celestia and the Master to put a stop to her rampage.
JÒN: The Master is that guy who is considered to be the founder of Avalon's
current civilization, right?
Lily: Yeah, that's him. So, as I was saying, the Master and the vixen managed to defeat Rakaia, but only temporarily. Even they weren't powerful enough to kill her outright, but they managed to cast a very complex spell on her, which forbids her to possess any of the humanoid races. For the next six hundred years, she was forced to possess only animals, which are too weak for her to be able to use her full powers.
JÒN: So, if she's already been roaming free for six hundred years, why is she more of a problem now?
Lily: Because of me.The nature of my magical energy has changed drastically since my soul has fused with Petal's, and since my aura is so different now from that of any other humans, the spell cast on Rakaia cannot identify me as a human being anymore, and therefore does not prohibit her from possessing my body. Even if I were to throw Rakaia somewhere far away, she'd just break out of the amulet and find her way to me sooner or later. And then it wouldn't be all over just for me and Lettie, it may well be the end for the entire continent, or maybe even the world…
JÒN: Wait! You're saying that you have to keep Rakaia under constant supervision, so that you can dispel her explosion spell before she fully channels it, but what happens when you sleep?
Lily: Oh, Lettie and I sleep in turns, so our body technically never goes to sleep. In fact, Lettie's been sleeping ever since we left the ruins.
Leah: But what if you both fall unconscious?
Lily: Well, at first we tried to see if there weren't any incantations we could use to automatically dispel any spells cast in an area every few hours, but unfortunately all of them required the caster to consciously focus on the spells they want to interrupt.
Lily then turns towards Rakaia, who was subtly channeling an explosion spell while she was talking to Hagrid, and she dispels it with a flick of her finger.
Rakaia: Gods be damned! Girl, do you have eyes in the back of your head?!
Lily: See? You can't dispel it unless you focus on her spell, specifically. So, instead of going for automatic dispelling, we made a spell that continuously tries to wake us up in case we're both unconscious, and if it doesn't manage to do it in two hours, it kills us both, which at least ensures that we'll have a peaceful death, instead of Rakaia absorbing both our souls and then destroying the world.
Leah: Wow! That's quite a… pragmatic approach.
Lily (smiling): It was Lettie's idea!
Leah: I thought as much…
JÒN: Speaking of Lettie, how have you two been getting along these past twenty years?
Lily: Oh, it's been a blast! I've been having loads of fun over the years and I think Lettie's been enjoying it too! Or at least I think she has. It's kind of hard to tell because she's always grumpy and not very sociable.
JÒN (looks towards Leah): Yeah, I know the type
Leah frowns at me, but she doesn't dignify my comment with a response.
JÒN: What about Rakaia? What's it like, having to carry her around all the time?
Lily: It's not as bad as you might think, I mean, okay, she tries to get us into trouble with any chance she gets, but when things get really serious, she can be very helpful. If I die, she won't have any more humans left to possess once she gets out of the amulet, so it's in her best interest to help us stay alive for as long as possible!
Damien: Hey, Lily! Is this the right way to the ogre stronghold?
Lily: No! If we keep going this way, we'll end up in the middle of a swamp! We need to turn left here, and then follow this trail until we get out of the forest.
The six of us resume our journey, and Lily takes the lead once more. The girl has
become much more reliable since we got out of the ruins. She looks like she knows exactly where she's going, and she's regularly checking various landmarks that she's set in the past, in order to make sure that we're still on the right track. She must have walked these paths many times throughout the years.
As it starts to get dark, we decide to make camp in a valley near a small river, where there aren't many trees that could hide any potential ambushers. Lily and Leah decide to go scouting the area around our camp, while Damien and Hagrid, who both had several spare tents in their enchanted backpacks, are now busy setting them up. Since they said they don't need any help, and there isn't really anything else that needs to be done, Rachel and I sit ourselves down on a log not far from them, in order to not get in their way.
JÒN: So, uh… How have you been holding up, lately? You looked pretty shaken up after we ran into that hydra. And you didn't seem to be doing so well when the dragon attacked us, either…
Rachel blushes as she hears my question.
Rachel (embarrassed): Oh, you've noticed…
JÒN: Well, it would have been a bit difficult to ignore you, with the whimpers and trembling and everything.
As I finish my sentence, Rachel punches me in my left arm, but she does so very lightly. I would have barely felt her touching me if I weren't paying attention.
Rachel (smiles): I'm starting to understand why Leah hits you so often. But thank you for your concern. As you may have realized, I've always been afraid of giant monsters. I am used to the small and medium sized ones, because I've run into several goblins and ogres during my travels, but the very thought of meeting a dragon in the flesh would always send chills down my spine. I never
imagined that I'd come face to face with both a dragon and a hydra in less than one day. I knew they existed, but I hoped I'd never run into one of them during my lifetime. I can't imagine what it's like for people like Damien and Hagrid, who fight monsters like these on a monthly basis.
She pauses.
Rachel: Come to think of it, this must all be pretty new for you too, isn't it? From what you've told me, you had never even fought a goblin before coming to this tournament. How are you always able to remain so calm, despite the fact that you've had your entire world turned upside down?
JÒN: I guess I've always been a little crazy
Rachel giggles softly.
Rachel: I suppose that fear would be the last thing on your mind when you are crazy enough to come to a tournament like this without any kind of magical abilities!
JÒN: Hey, now, that's just not true! I say. I mean, sure, I'm not a mage myself, but the stat device I'm using is a pretty powerful magic item. Especially when it gives me actual magic powers, like in that fight with the dragon, yesterday!
Rachel smiles.
Rachel: You know… you were really gallant, up there, while you were confronting Qaerys. Something about the look you had in your eyes before you went to fight the dragon made me feel really safe, and cast away all my fears.
Once she stops talking, Rachel suddenly realizes that she was blushing, so she quickly turns her head away in a clumsy attempt to hide her face from me. As I don't really feel like embarrassing her, I decide to ignore what happened and change the subject.
JÒN: So, anyway, there's something I've been meaning to ask you in private since this morning. What do you think about Lily?
Rachel turns her head back towards me when she hears my question, and I notice that her cheeks are no longer red. She seems somewhat surprised by my sudden inquiry.
Rachel: Do you mean in a general sense? To me, she seems like a charming young girl with a cheerful personality and a kind heart, and I find that she is a really fun person to be around with. What about you? There has to be some reason why you asked me this.
JÒN: I think she's pretty fun too. I was just curious to see if you thought the same.
Rachel: It's too bad that Damien doesn't seem to share our opinions of her…
JÒN: Can you blame him, though? Cortanas aren't really known for their moral
integrity, and the girl shares her body with one.
Rachel: Well, I for one trust Lettie.
JÒN: But you haven't even talked to her…
Rachel: No, but Lily has! They've been living together for twenty years! If Lettie still has Lily's trust after that much time, then that is enough for me.
JÒN: Maybe you're right. I don't think anyone could hide their true nature for such a long time. If the cortana were up to something, she would have given herself away at some point during these past two decades. I mean, nobody can act that well, right?
While Rachel and I were finishing our conversation, Damien and Hagrid were
starting to work on the last two tents. Leah and Lily, who had just returned from their scouting mission, reported that there was no suspicious activity around our campsite and then they both took a seat on a log next to us.
Once the tents have all been set, we decided to go to sleep early, in order to be
well rested when we leave tomorrow, at the crack of dawn. Lily volunteered to take first watch, and then she immediately went to climb the highest hill, to get a good view of the entire valley. As she passed me by, I could sense her aura weakening considerably, and the cortana's aura becoming a lot stronger.
JÒN (to himself): Does this mean that the girl went to sleep and left the cortana in charge of the night shift? If that is so, then this would be the perfect opportunity to get to know the cortana a bit, before we reach the ogre stronghold tomorrow.
Rachel: Aren't you going to sleep, Jòn?
JÒN: Actually, I was thinking of staying up for a while longer.
I then whisper in Rachel's ear what I noticed about Lily and Lettie, and I tell her that I want to have a little discussion with the cortana before I go to sleep.
Rachel gasps.
Rachel: Jòn, that's an excellent idea! Hold on, just give me a second to leave my
backpack inside my tent, and I'll come with you.
As the two of us make our way up towards where Lily went to oversee the valley, I start to realize that my intuition was right, and the girl really did go to sleep. I can feel that the outworldly energy around her is definitely the dominant one at this point in time, and as we get closer, I see that her eyes are shining with a bright blue light, in the same way that they did before, when the cortana took control of the body.
Elyria (in a cold tone): The girl is sleeping, I can wake her up if you need to tell her something important.
The cortana is sitting on the grass, cross-legged, with a sandwich in her hands. It appears that she was just about to start eating, before she saw us come up the hill.
JÒN: Actually, you're the one we wanted to talk to, not Lily.
Elyria (eyes me suspiciously): Is that so? Well, then, by all means, have a seat.
She then takes a bite out of her sandwich, while I seat myself on the grass next to her.
Rachel: Am I correct in assuming that you are Lettie? My name is Rachel. Pleased to meet you!
She then offers the cortana her hand.
Elyria: Actually, my name is Elyria, (without taking her hands off her sandwich). Lettie is just a nickname that the girl gave to me when we first met, because I didn't want to give her my real name. She's been calling me that ever since.
Seeing that the cortana has no intention of shaking her hand, Rachel smiles politely and takes a seat on the grass, on the other side of her.
JÒN: So, uh, it's a really lovely weather we're having, don't you think?
The cortana frowns when she hears my question, and she turns her head towards me.
Elyria: Cut to the chase, human! I've never been very fond of the roundabout ways in which you people like to start your conversations. You're here because you don't trust me to guard your camp by myself, aren't you?
JÒN: No, I just wanted to get to know you!
Elyria: Well, then you are either a liar or a fool. Nobody should trust a cortana to have their best interests at heart without some very strong evidence to back up such a claim. And Lily is nowhere near a reliable enough source of information, when it comes to such matters.
JÒN: You're not even going to try, are you?
Elyria: Try what?
JÒN: To get us to trust you
Elyria: Why would I even bother to do such a thing? We are only travelling together because Lily decided to help you on a whim. Once you are free of your collars, I'm expecting us to part ways and then to never hear from each other again. Given these circumstances, I see no reason why I should waste my time trying to gain your trust. Feel free to believe what you want of me, and I will do the same for you.
Rachel: You know, I've been meaning to ask… Where did you get that sandwich from? I never saw you carry a backpack with you.
Elyria: I made it with magic (she waves her hand and magically conjures two more sandwiches that fall directly into our laps). Here, knock yourselves out.
I take a look at the sandwich that she conjured out of nowhere, and then I grab it with both my hands, but I am a bit hesitant in taking a bite from it. I have no idea what ingredients she made this from.
Elyria: Oh, for crying out loud You're not seriously thinking that the sandwich is
poisoned, are you? Who in the world still uses poison nowadays? Barring the hundreds of easily learnable magical protections that can provide you with
immunity against all poisons, you can even buy anti-poison elixirs. Surely you must have drunk at least one of those before coming to this tournament? A single elixir should easily provide you with immunity to all known poisons for the remainder of this tournament. Just eat the damn sandwich, will you?
Rachel giggles.
Rachel (smiles playfully): Now I understand why Lily told me you were always grumpy!
Elyria: Spectacular! Is there anything else that the girl shared about me while I was asleep?
Rachel: Well, she most certainly didn't tell me that you could conjure food out of thin air! That is normally a skill that only the grand priests of each city can master. You must be incredibly talented!
Elyria: Actually, I am ashamed to admit that Lily was the one who taught me this skill
Rachel: Lily did?
Elyria: Yes… The girl has the natural talent of being able to instantly comprehend some ridiculously complex spells without putting any effort whatsoever. She only saw the spirit vixen cast this spell once, twenty years ago, and she managed to mimic it in the very next second. However, she is completely hopeless when it comes to learning spells that require the least amount of studying beforehand. I've been trying to teach her healing for years, but it's like trying to teach an ogre how to speak thackeray.
Rachel smiles.
Rachel: See? You can actually open up to us if you try!
The cortana frowns at her.
Elyria (coldly): Congratulations… You have achieved your goal. Now will you finally go away and let me finish my sandwich in peace?
Rachel: You know, you look really cute when you frown!
Elyria: Good grief! What would it take to make you go away and let me have my
peace and quiet? It's hard enough that I have to put up with Lily while she's awake. Can't I at least have some rest while she's asleep?
Rachel: Of course not! If we went to sleep now, then who would be left here to tease you all night long?
Elyria: By the gods, It's as if the Lilys have multiplied…
We ended up spending the next few hours talking with Elyria, and although on the surface she appeared to be annoyed by us, a part of me felt that she was actually enjoying our company, in her own way. Even if she maintained her grumpy demeanor throughout the night, the cortana slowly started to open up towards us and she even told us a few stories from her adventures with Lily in the past few years. It was later in the night that we were interrupted by Damien and Hagrid, who came to take over our shift.
Hagrid: Wait, wasn't Lily supposed to be the only one taking this shift?
Damien: It seems that Lily misled us yesterday. Because she apparently never
intended to take on that shift herself.
Elyria and Damien then spend a few seconds looking each other in the eye, as if they were ready to jump at each other's throats any second
JÒN: Hey now, let's all calm down! We're all on the same team here, right?
Damien: I don't know, are we? Everything worked out fine because you and Rachel figured out what happened and went to keep a close watch on her, but who is to say that she wouldn't have slit our throats in our sleep if left unsupervised?
Elyria: There would be no need to use such underhanded tactics to rid myself of a handful of mages that can't even use magic. You and your friends pose no threat to me in your current condition. If you have a bone to pick with me, healer, then I would be more than happy to show you that I'm not bluffing.
Damien (pulls out his sword): I will take you up on that offer, cortana. Let's see if you fight as well as you run your mouth.
JÒN (comes in between the both of them): Damien, wait! Do you plan to kill the girl along with the cortana?
Damien: Just because the sword can't lock onto the cortana's aura by itself does not mean I can't do it manually. I can still kill the cortana without harming the girl if I focus hard enough.
JÒN: Have you gone mad? How do you expect to properly target the cortana's aura if the sword can't do it by itself? You're almost guaranteed to fail!
Damien: If I do, then it would still be a better fate for the girl than to live her whole life chained to an evil spirit
JÒN: Oh yeah? And who's going to lead us to the ogre stronghold with the girl gone?
Damien: We already know the general direction. I'd say we are close enough to
our destination to be able to make it there even without a guide at this point. Step aside, Jòn.
JÒN (laughs and pulls out dagger): Yeah! Like that's gonna happen.
Hagrid: Whoa-ho-ho there, friends! How about you both take a deep long breath and think about what you are doing? Do you really want to end things like this, over some petty squabble? Wouldn't you rather have your names immortalized as legendary warriors who fought in the greatest mage tournament in recent history than be remembered as the idiots who died before the contest even started?
Rachel: Damien, please…
Seeing that nobody is on his side, Damien finally decides to sheathe his sword.
Damien: I'm not going to fight you, Jòn, I was hoping to scare you into backing down, but I suppose that if you aren't the type to get intimidated by a stillborn or a dragon, a sword isn't exactly going to do me much good. If you feel so strongly about this, then I have no choice but to leave matters as they are, for now. You were right about Leah, so I can only hope that your instincts are right
this time too.
With these last words, Damien and Hagrid walk past us to take their stations at the top of the hill, while Rachel, Elyria and I head down, towards our tents. The three of us descend from the hill without uttering a single word to each other, and when we reach Lily's tent, Elyria turns her head towards me before going in.
Elyria: Your intervention from earlier was unnecessary, human. I could have taken care of that healer without your help.
JÒN: Come on, don't be like that, friends should stick out for each other in their time of need!
Elyria: You seem to be under the false impression that you and I are friends. I assure you that you could not be any further from the truth.
JÒN: Relax, I only wanted to make sure we don't lose our only guide. It wasn't anything personal.
Elyria: I see… In that case I cannot blame you for being too cautious. However, I will give you one warning. Do not make the mistake of considering me your ally. Our partnership is only temporary, and it will end the moment we finish our little trip together. You would be a fool to think otherwise.
She then turns her back on us and slowly steps into her tent.
Rachel: Good night, Elyria!
Rachel says, waving, but the cortana gives no sign of having heard her, and she closes the tent behind her.
Rachel (smiles): Well, I'd say that went pretty well!
JÒN: You think?
Rachel: Of course I do! Didn't you see how happy she was when you jumped to her defense, earlier? If you manage to see past her grumpy guise, you can tell that she really isn't that much different from the rest of us!
JÒN: I think I'm starting to see a little bit of Lily in you…
Rachel (points at me): There's a little bit of Lily in all of us, Jòn! Yours just happens to be buried underneath several layers of cynicism and sarcastic quips!
She smiles.
Rachel: Thank you for inviting me to join you tonight. I really appreciate it! Maybe we can do this again, sometime!
JÒN: I see no reason why not!
Rachel: Good night, Jòn!
JÒN: Sleep well, Rachel
We both part ways and head for our respective tents.
DAY 3
Once I get inside my tent, I fall asleep almost immediately. I never realized how tired I really was, until my head touched the pillow. I wake up a few hours later, to the sound of footsteps and several tents being dismantled.
Hagrid (grins): Had a nice sleep, Jòn? I'll be taking back my tent, if you don't mind!
As he starts to dismantle the tent, I take a good look around me and see that everyone is already up on their feet, busy either with the tents or with packing their bags. The sun is just starting to rise, which means that we now have a little over four days left to finish our quest.
Once we all finish what we had to do, we start marching yet again, with Lily leading the group, just like yesterday. This time, however, the five of us are a lot more silent than before. With the exception of Lily's occasional directions, there are barely any words spoken between the six of us in the first half hour of our journey.
Lily: Did… something happen while I was asleep?
Damien and JÒN: No!
Lily: Uh… okay?
Leah: From what I heard, Jòn and Damien had a little fight last night. Pay them no mind. I'm sure they'll get over it soon enough.
After a few more hours of walking through the forest, Lily announces to us that we are starting to get closer to our goal. We decide that this would be a good time to take a little break and talk about our strategy for infiltrating the stronghold.
Damien: First things first… We need to decide what to do with Rachel during our attack. The way I see it, we have two options. Either we take her with us, or we leave her in a safe area outside of the stronghold, with someone to act as her
bodyguard, just in case. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Leah: I volunteer to stay behind and guard
Rachel. I'm not sure of how much help I can be in infiltrating the fort without my magic, but I should be able to handle a few ogre scouts on my own if need be.
JÒN: I think it would be safer to take Rachel with us to the stronghold. We've been told that the ogres have mages within their ranks. If even one of those mages happens to be in the scouting party, Leah will have no chance to beat him.
Hagrid: The lad makes a good point. It's too risky to leave Rachel behind. I say we take her with us. If we managed to protect her in the ruins, we can do it here too!
Damien turns towards Rachel.
Damien: Rachel, is this okay with you?
Rachel: Of course! We've already been through much worse together. I'll try my
best not to get in anyone's way, once we enter the fort.
Hagrid: Before we make any concrete plans, could we maybe go over the leopard's briefing one more time? His accent in Common was horrible and I'm not sure if I got all he said.
Leah: Well, first of all, the chalice we are meant to retrieve was used to give water unique healing properties which could cure some illnesses that were incurable through the use of spells. The artifact itself looks like a regular golden chalice, except it has triangular markings on the sides. Regarding the stronghold's defenses, the leopard said that the ogres are primarily divided between regular warriors that use big clubs to fight, and mages that have a variety of magical specialties. The most dangerous ones that we should be on the lookout for are their shaman, who should be easily recognizable by the multitude of tattoos inscribed on his body, and the stronghold captain, who is the only ogre warrior in the fort that wears heavy armor. That should be about the main talk of it.
Hagrid: If this cup of theirs is so important, I still don't get why the vixen doesn't just storm the fort herself to get it back. Isn't she supposed to be really powerful?
Lily: Celestia derives most of her power from the sacred woods throughout the continent. When she steps outside those woods, she is not much stronger than most other animals. This is why the war between animals and monsters has been going on for decades, without reaching a conclusion. This is also why access to the sacred woods is forbidden for all outsiders.
Damien: Getting back to the discussion at hand, I believe that the next thing we need to establish is how we are going to retrieve that chalice. From what I heard, the stronghold is positioned on top of a hill, and all of the trees in a mile radius from it have been cut down. There's no way we'll be able to sneak our way in.
Rachel: Maybe we could try to buy it from them?
Leah: It wouldn't work! The ogres stole that chalice knowing full well what it was capable of. They're not going to give it away for any price.
Hagrid (grins): Well then, I guess there's only one option left… We go in right through their front door!
Damien: I'm afraid that we are left with no other alternative.
Hagrid: If we encounter any elementalists, leave them to me! Since I focus mainly on shapeshifting magic, I've had to develop certain techniques that I can use in place of defensive spells while I am transformed. One of these techniques allows me to harden the magical aura around my body, which is not only great for defense, but also for attacking. If I use it to harden the magical aura around my fists, I can easily deflect fireballs with my punches, and send them right back at their casters!
Damien: My sword is also good against elementalists. I can use it to absorb any
element, and I also have a sword technique that can temporarily sever a mage's link to the magical plane, making them unable to cast spells for thirty minutes.
Hagrid: Hah! Who says mages need magic to fight? We'll conquer this stronghold of theirs in no time!
Damien: If we're all agreed to attack the fort openly, then I guess there's not much more to discuss. There are too many things we don't know about the building's layout and the distribution of their troops to be able to anticipate what will happen. We'll just have to rely on our instincts, once the battle begins. If no one else has anything to add, then I suggest we get going. We still have a lot of ground to cover until we reach our objective.
It was a few more hours later that we got close enough to the stronghold to be able to do a bit of reconnaissance. Lily and Hagrid went to scout ahead, while the rest of us looked for a good place to bury our backpacks, since it would be too difficult to fight with them on our backs and we'd have no place to leave them while we're in the fort. Before burying my backpack, I made sure to take my crossbow out of it, since I am sure to need it in the upcoming battle.
After about thirty or so minutes, Lily and Hagrid returned to us, with some rather unsettling news.
Hagrid: It's dead quiet out there. And I'm not just talking about a lack of patrols, I'm saying there weren't even any ogres posted on the walls. Something doesn't add up, here. The ogres may be stupid, but they couldn't possibly be this sloppy.
JÒN: Maybe they're onto us and want lure us into a trap
Damien: I agree… We've been told that their mages are quite capable, so it's entirely possible that they're using magic to detect when anyone is approaching their stronghold. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury to just stand here and wait them out until they get bored. Time is not on our side, and we can't really tell what they are trying to accomplish until we actually enter the fort. Let's just hope that our lack of any detailed plan regarding our actions once
we've infiltrated the stronghold won't prove fatal to us.
Lily: Oh, don't worry! Lettie and I have a secret plan. It's sure to work!
Damien: I see! And would you by any chance have any intention of sharing this
secret plan with the rest of us?
Lily: No, of course not! How would it still be a secret if we just started telling everyone about it?
Damien (dismissive tone): Right!!! Well then, I guess this is it. This won't be an easy fight. Not by a long shot. We're going to be vastly outnumbered, we'll be fighting on unfamiliar territory, and worst of all, we won't have our magic to help us. However, we've all had to go through hardships since the beginning of
this tournament, and we've alway somehow managed to pull through. It would be pointless to hold a last minute strategy meeting now, given the extremely limited information we have on our enemy, so instead, I will tell you this "Whatever you do, don't get yourselves killed!"
Hagrid (grins): You worry too much, Damien. Nobody is going to die here. Most of us have already had our fair share of battles in the past. We haven't survived this long just to be taken out by a bunch of overgrown baboons in the middle of nowhere. We'll win this fight like we've won many others, and by the end of the day we'll all have another exciting story to share with friends over a drink near
the fireside!
Damien: Let's hope you're right.
Leah: Lily, are you sure about this? The vixen only said you had to lead us to the
stronghold. You've already fulfilled your promise. There's no need for you to risk your life for us any further.
Lily: Oh, I could never live with myself if I just abandoned you here like this! And besides, Lettie and I have fought ogres before. They're not that tough! I don't think there will be any problems.
While Lily and Leah were talking, I heard what sounded like footsteps somewhere behind me. I immediately turn around to see if we are being followed, but there's no one there. Was it just my imagination?
After looking around for a few more seconds and coming up empty, I arrive at the conclusion that I'm just too tense right now to be able to fully trust my senses, so I turn around and get ready to leave for the fort. Once we all make sure that we have everything we need, we start our final march towards the stronghold. It takes us about ten minutes to reach the end of the forest. The whole area around the fort has been completely cleansed of trees and all other vegetation, to provide direct line of sight for the ogre patrols. The stronghold itself is placed on top of a hill, and it has a surface of around four hundred thousand square feet. Its walls are made of stone and have a height of about thirty feet, while the only visible entrance to the fort seems to be a very large wooden gate that has been left wide open, giving us a clear view of the stronghold's inner yard.
There seems to be one main building in the middle, which is connected to all four of the walls that are forming a square around it. Getting a closer look at the fort, we soon realize that it isn't just the walls that are deserted, but the whole yard as well.
Hagrid: They sure aren't trying to hide the fact that this is a trap, are they?
Damien (looks around): Keep your guards up. They could attack us from any direction.
While we make our way inside their inner yard, Rakaia suddenly starts to make a very loud noise from inside her amulet.
Lily: Oh no, you don't! If I open the amulet now, you're just going to shout as loud as you can and give away our position to the ogres, aren't you? You're not going to fool me again!
Rakaia makes an even louder muffled sound, and she doesn't appear to have any intention of stopping. As we advance through the fort's yard, Rakaia is starting to get even more agitated, and the amulet is beginning to shake violently as her muffled sounds intensify.
Hagrid: What's happening? Why aren't they attacking?
Rakaia is now shaking the amulet more violently than ever before, as her muffled screams are so loud that I can almost start to understand her words.
Lily finally caves in and opens the amulet.
Lily: What do you want?!
Rakaia (raged): They're invisible, you morons! They have you all surrounded!
As I turn around, I am terrified to learn that one of the ogres has just come out of invisibility, and is now bringing down a five foot long club towards my skull. While the club was descending towards me, my body moved on its own, reacting with an incredible speed, and I managed to get out of harm's way, while the ogre's weapon smashed the ground and sent bits of rock flying everywhere.
As I get a closer look at my attacker, I see that the monster is about eight feet tall, with thick gray skin, and it's wearing nothing other than a sackcloth around its waist. Two of its lower fangs are sticking out of its closed mouth, its forehead is exceedingly narrow, and on its face, it is wearing one of the dumbest expressions I've ever seen in my life. The rest of the ogres are now also slowly appearing out of thin air, and it turn out that there are at least a hundred of them, and they have us all surrounded.
Two of the ogres stand out from the crowd, one because of the excessive amount of tattoos on his body, and the other because of his heavy armor. They must be the shaman and the fort captain that we've heard so much about. All of the other ogres are wearing nothing but loincloths and are holding big clubs in their hands, so it's a bit difficult to distinguish their mages from their warriors.
The ogres surrounding us are all making loud noises and preparing their clubs, while we pull out our own weapons and get ready to fight. Before we get to engage the enemy, however, their captain roars loudly, and that makes all of the other ogres grow completely silent. They then step aside in order to make way for their shaman to pass, as he approaches us and then stops a few feet away from our position, while leaning on his wooden staff.
Shaman (grins wickedly): (in common language) Welcome, brave warriors! You don't often see humans wandering around these parts nowadays. I must say that you are certainly bold to have come here all by yourselves. To what do I owe this pleasure?
JÒN: We came here seeking the sacred chalice.
Shaman (rubs his chin): Ah, so it's the golden vixen that sent you here, then, I don't know what the vixen offered you in exchange for the chalice, but I doubt it would be worth all of your lives. I could have you all crushed by uttering a single word, but I do not want to risk the lives of any of my people without good reason. So here is my offer to you. Leave now, and we will grant you safe passage out of our fort. We will bring no harm to you, and we can all forget this unfortunate incident ever happened. What say you to this, human warriors?
Damien: Like hell we're leaving this place without the chalice, you ugly bastard! If you're not going to give it to us, then we'll just have to fight our way through your minions until we find it ourselves.
Shaman: I see… Then I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to drop your weapons, humans. As of right now, you are our prisoners.
Hagrid (grins and readies his fist): Yeah, that's not how this is going to work.
Shaman: If you're not going to cooperate, then we have no choice but to force you into submission.
I hear Lily's voice coming from my left.
Lily/Elyria: There will be no need for that.
As I take a look at her, I see that her eyes are bright blue again, and she has Elyria's cold expression on her face. However, unlike before, this time the girl's energy is so weak that it pales in comparison to the cortana's. I can barely feel any life force coming from it, as if she were in some kind of a dormant state.
Immediately after Elyria stops talking, a golden cage pops out of nowhere and it surrounds us all, leaving only the cortana and the ogres outside of it.
Elyria: I believe you all still remember the spell that the vixen used to trap you back in the ruins. I wouldn't even think about trying to break out of there through brute strength. That golden cage is practically indestructible.
She is not lying. Even without being a mage, I can tell that this is an incredibly powerful spell. There's no way we're breaking out of here without any magic.
Damien (furious): What is the meaning of this, cortana? What have you done with the girl?
Elyria: I've put Lily in a stasis. I've dealt enough with her idiocy for one day. In fact, I would say I've dealt with it enough to last me for a lifetime.
She then turns to the ogre shaman.
Elyria: Great shaman, my name is Elyria, and I am a cortana. I've come here to offer you my services in exchange for access to the rare and unique books from your stronghold's library. As a token of my goodwill, I offer you these human intruders as a tribute.
Damien: You traitorous little—
Ogre Captain (shouts): Bold words for puny prisoner! What make cortana think that ogre want your services?
Shaman: Don't be so rash, captain. This isn't just any cortana. This is Elyria, of the sacred woods massacre. It is said that she killed hundreds of guardians of the forest in a single day, without showing the slightest amount of mercy. However, it is also said that she went soft ever since she fused with this little girl we see before us.
Elyria: The girl I share the body with has been treading the line between asset and liability for far too long. Her natural magical talents made her a particularly powerful ally, but her whims overwhelmed her judgment more often than not, and she repeatedly put us into mortal danger because of this. Her decision to help these mages infiltrate your stronghold was the final straw, and it made me realize that I needed to rid myself of her quick, before she would become the end of me.
Shaman: And how do you plan on doing that?
Elyria: I've heard of several shamanistic rituals that could help me with my soul fusion problem. I only require some time to study in your library, and I am sure that I will find a way to eliminate the girl for good, without harming myself in the process.
Shaman: And in exchange for this favor, you offer us your loyalty?
Elyria: Precisely.
Shaman (wickedly grins): Then I require you to do one more thing to prove that you are being sincere. You'll have to execute your friends from that cage.
Elyria: Sadly, I cannot do that. Killing them now would result in all of our deaths.
Shaman: How so?
Elyria: Those collars that they are wearing have been placed around their necks by the great golden vixen, who is also the one who sent them here to steal your sacred chalice. They are made in such a manner that if the humans die, the collars explode, and those explosions would be powerful enough to easily level your fort and kill all of your warriors. The vixen took this extreme measure to make sure that you all get eliminated even if the humans fail their mission.
Shaman (strokes his chin): Hmm… I recognize these collars. They were made by the thackeray of old. I know for a fact that these devices had some very dangerous self-destruct mechanisms set in place in case the prisoners wearing them misbehaved.
He pauses.
Shaman: What do you propose we do with them, then?
Elyria: We wait. The vixen gave them five days to complete their quest. If they do not return in five days, she will assume that they abandoned their mission, and they will die by electrocution. In this case, the self-destruct mechanism in the collars will not get activated.
Shaman: You've said enough… It's clear that you hold no attachment to your former allies. You are welcome to use our library as much as you please, Elyria of the sacred woods massacre. We will discuss your payment after you rid yourself of the girl. As for these humans, I have a teleportation spell that can easily transport them into their cell, as long as they don't move from their position for a while. If you confirm that you can still hold onto that cage, I will start casting it.
Elyria: My cage will last for at least another few minutes. However, I have one more warning to give you. That dwarf possesses a giant's strength and could easily break through the walls of your prison without any weapons. I suggest you transport them into one of the cells that have a paralysis spell cast on them. I've visited this stronghold before, when it was owned by goblins, and I remember that there was at least one such cell on the lower levels of the main building.
Shaman: You remember correctly, cortana. Very well, then. I will send them to one of the paralysis cells.
He then starts casting his teleportation spell, and our bodies start to slowly vibrate, while we get covered in a bright white light.
Hagrid (tries to bend the cage bars): You bloody traitor! I can't believe you actually told them about my giant's strength!
Rachel (tears drop from her eyes): Elyria, how could you do this? I trusted you. Lily trusted you. How could you betray us all like this?
Elyria (looks coldly): You are far too trusting for your own good, Rachel. I already warned you not to consider me your ally. You should have listened to your healer when you had the chance. Now you will pay the price for your foolishness.
The cortana's cold look and Rachel's tears are the last things I see before everything fades to black and we all get teleported to what may well become our final destination.
>>>End Of Chapter 10<<<