[Edited] Chapter 36 - Desperate Magic

I stood as though transfixed, my gaze locked with her own.

It was almost funny—in a morbid sort of way. While her eyes had been closed, Arx might well have been no different from the crystalline stone she was imprisoned within. A beautiful work of art perhaps, but no less cold and lifeless for it.

Yet now… now she was suddenly alive and well. Conscious.

It was such a simple thing, that acknowledgment of one mind to another. That faint brush between windows to the soul.

Her eyes…

I felt as if my heart had been caged, imprisoned in stone just as she was. And now? Within her gaze, as if she were looking directly into it, my heart began to swell with both longing and relief, threatening to overwhelm me. Within those pools of sparkling darkness, I was free.

But she was still trapped. Unable to move even an eyelash. And here I was acting a fool.

Well, then…

I sucked in a breath to steady myself. Now was not the time to be waxing eloquent about my emotions. Now was the time for getting shit done.

Sure, I may have stumbled. The Dungeon had fed me a bunch of bullshit poetry and called it a hint, but that was no reason to beat myself up. People stumbled over that kind of crap all the time! Hell, the internet was practically born off the backs of video game help forums.

But that line of thinking was exactly what had gotten me into trouble in the first place. No matter how much it might present itself as one, this was not a game. This was not a problem with a linear, preprogrammed answer. This was real life. I was free to try whatever I wanted.

I didn’t have the right crystals? So what.

It was time for the brute force solution. Time to crack my knuckles and start smashing things until the balance tipped. Except I was not some hulking barbarian venting my rage with an oversized sledgehammer. I was a motherfucking wizard, and it was time I started acting like one.

So then… what can I do?

I had a smattering of spells—mostly buffs, a couple of auras, and a heal. Detonating Sap Varnish might be of help here if I had a source of fire or the Life to cast it with… which I did not.

The only other things I had access to were Words. And thanks to Mia, I had some idea as to how to use them… in theory. We had not gotten around to Speaking them aloud just yet, but as they say, you have to learn to walk before you can run. And I was still very much in the ‘scribbling with crayons’ stage of my education.

Unfortunately, the nouns I knew were an eclectic mix of garbage. And the two verbs, while situationally interesting, were useless right now. That only left the pair of symbols I had picked up along the way.

I had worked out that they must also be Words, and that they were a part of the larger definitions of the Words I already possessed. But their specifics remained unknown to me. I had not earned them, and thus, by the rules of this world, they were undefined and impossible to know.

Yet I did. Illogical as that seemed.

One, I felt relatively confident, had something to do with opening things. Passages. Going through. Gaps. It was difficult to guess the exact meaning. Only the implication. There was quite a lot of potential there, but I had yet to work out the specifics of how to replicate it. So with some reluctance, I decided it best to leave that one as a last resort.

The other, the one I had discovered while thumbing through that ‘book’ on Moisture, Mia had at least coached me a bit as to its use while we had awakened Lynnria’s Class. Its actual meaning was still quite opaque to me, but… derived from within Moisture?

Moisture meant… something like the feel of water. Covered in it without being submerged. It was the intrinsic quality of wetness.

The intrinsic quality, huh? I could have been wildly off-base but, combined with the ritual I had used it for, it seemed like a decent assumption. And more importantly…

“Lynnria,” I called. When our eyes met I held them for a long beat, trying to impart the seriousness of the situation. This was Donum at a point far past fucking around. “I am about to do something… potentially stupid.”

Her head rocked back, as though struck a blow. She had been around quite a few sorcerous types. She knew as well as I did, that was not a phrase you ever wanted to hear from someone like me. And I was a guy who could do things most wizards could not.

But she did not try to dissuade me. Instead, she let out a nervous little laugh. “Like Grandfather always says, if it works… it’s not stupid. Right?”

She was looking for some degree of reassurance, but I did not have any to give her. I only had the vaguest notion as to what I was about to do—never mind whether it would work. So I held my peace. Lynnria took that the only way she could have.

“In that case…”

Chin held high, she toed her way around the column until we were face to face. She looked at me searchingly for a long moment, and I could tell from her expression that she wanted to kiss me—perhaps fearing she might not get another chance. But then I caught her gaze flickering up to Arx. It was impossible to tell what my lilim might have been thinking. Or if she was even conscious, despite the open eyes. Still, Lynnria could not quite bring herself to do it under that scrutiny.

She swallowed her nerves down. “In that case,” she said again, “I wish you luck.”

With that, she traced her charm onto my chest then turned to flee. But then, at the last moment, she hesitated and quickly placed a chaste little peck on my cheek. As she hopped over the acidic dart trap at the archway, I could not help but grin at the girl.

“Ballsy,” I muttered before glancing back up at Arx. Her eyes, despite not having moved in the slightest, had gained a fierce intensity. “Very, very ballsy.”

First thing’s first.

I knew from experience that the symbol I would be working with could be traced without intent. Doing it that way took no effort, however there was an inherent instability to the result. Left alone, the symbol would begin to glow and eventually explode.

My first instinct was to just go with that. It would probably suit my purposes just fine. As they say, explosions are a wizard’s wrecking ball. But before I tried something too extreme…

Hastily, I glanced over my shoulder, but Lynnria was well down the hall by that point. I doubted she would go far, but still… “Mia?” I called again, hopefully.

Again, there was no reply. What is that Faen of mine doing? Even if she was inside of Lynnria, surely she would have noticed that something important was about to go down. She should be here for this. At least to give some hints…

Whatever the cause, she was not here now. I was on my own.

Okay, Donum. You can do this. You have to do this. Just focus. Why does the rune explode? Why would the rune need a Will to guide it, if it works without?

The intrinsic quality… of what?

That was the question. By itself, the symbol was an unresolved equation. A half-finished sentence. It was potential. And I could use that.

Maybe.

I lacked the basic vocabulary to functionally express my thoughts, so my only recourse was through raw Charisma. In essence, I would be attempting to complete a math assignment through the power of friendship… or as it more often goes, seduction.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I summoned the memory of the last time I had attempted this. The symbol had to be inscribed in a specific way. It was a gesture. Five strokes in one.

Now ready, I twisted my hand into the awkward starting position it required and placed the tips of my fingers against the crystalline pillar. I felt no sparks in doing so. There was no sense of weight nor resistance. Mia had not gone ahead of me to lay some monumental framework. This was a blank page.

I took a breath. Gradually, my scattered thoughts began to coalesce, focusing my Will into a single point. And as I began to unwind my fingers, I let my voice rumble out of my chest, chant-like and ominous.

“The intrinsic quality… of…”

The thought left incomplete, I pulled my hand away. I wanted to let the symbol cook for a moment before I—

Without warning, there was an eardrum-shattering pop, and the symbol detonated. The shockwave—startling in its intensity—was more sound than anything. It reverberated through the cavernous room then out and into the labyrinth where the echoes of it chased one another in a long and playful dance until finally dying away.

As I massaged my ears, I thought I heard the faint sounds of a ship shifting in its mooring somewhere in the far distance. Uh oh…

“Uh… Donum?” I heard from the door. Lynnria had understandably come running to investigate. “Are you alright?”

I nodded my reassurance. “Yes, I’m fine. But I’m not sure what I did wrong.”

The once pristine pillar now featured a roughly fingernail-deep pit about as big around as my palm where the symbol had been. As for me, I felt like my chest had been shot with a glitter gun—some of which was still hanging suspended in the air. Luckily, none had hit my face, or I would probably have been blinded.

I touched my chest consideringly, right where Lynnria had traced her rune. Extremely lucky…

Aloud, I said, “It shouldn’t have just blown up immediately. The last time I did this, the buildup took way longer.”

Despite having little idea as to what I was doing, Lynnria still took a moment to think it over. Though, she might have simply been distracted by all the glitter in the air.

“Well, what are you doing different?” she asked eventually.

“A lot of things…” I mumbled, absently dusting the shimmering blue sand from my tunic.

Sand… that’s right.

The last time, I had just been idly doodling in a patch of it by the beach. I could not see any reason something like that might be a required component, though. There had been no need for sand or anything else when I had traced the rune on Lynnria’s chest, and the symbol had reacted just fine not a moment ago… if unpredictably.

Maybe there’s something about sand that slows the process? That could not be right, but it was worth trying if for no other reason than to prove myself wrong.

Now where am I going to get enough of it to—hold on. Sand? Sand is… ground. Earth. Soil. Maybe it was dirt of a rather specific type, but it was still particulate matter. It… could work!

Then I frowned. “That is one hell of a coincidence.”

“What is?”

I ignored the question, too wrapped up in the conspiracy unraveling in my mind.

There was no way it could be true. How could it possibly be that the single item I needed to break the rules of this world would be a crappy stick that shot dirt out the end? A stick, I might add, that had been hidden in the middle of a pitch black maze, stashed in a moldy chest with an invisible riddle, and within a secret room secured by an unbreakable lock, none of which were accessible without someone who could blindly luck their way into finding magic through touch and yet another who could fully Read it? It was absurd!

“Did She account for… all of it?”

If so, that would mark Xhinn as one of the single greatest dungeon masters to have ever lived. Which… I guess is not all that surprising. She’s the literal goddess of the Dungeon. Who knows how long she’s been doing this for.

But then the rational part of my brain started picking away at the flaws in my logic. She did not have to account for anything. Xhinn had to have known, after we wandered into the maze, that we were doomed to eventual failure. The wand could have easily been a last ditch bone tossed our way. She did not have to have even put the thing in that specific chest until just before we stumbled onto it. Which would still make Her an extremely skilled improviser.

Moreover, it could still be a simple coincidence. It could be that sand—or even the dirt I was planning on using as a hopefully-sufficient replacement—was not a requirement at all. I was only assuming it slowed the reaction down. I did not yet know whether it would work.

Or the wand could have simply been left in that chest as a joke—as I had initially assumed—and it only just so happened to provide an inhibitor that slowed the magical process I was attempting enough to be somewhat usable.

The corner of my lip began to slowly curl upward. I knew this sense of mystique quite well. It was the feeling of having a mastermind standing over you with that oh-so-smug little smile on their face. Whether through meticulous planning or sheerest accident, She had claimed the moniker of tactical genius, and there was not a thing I could do about it.

“Did who account for what?” Lynnria pressed. “Talk sense, Donum!”

I looked up at her finally. “We’re going to need some dirt.”

*****

“Donum,” Lynnria called from behind me, “are you sure this is a good idea? I felt my charm trigger when that blast went off the last time, and here you are, going bigger!”

“It’ll work,” I assured her, though if I were honest, the words were mostly meant for myself.

I had a feeling I was not going to get another chance at this, and not just because of its potential to explode in my face. The creaking sounds coming from out in the labyrinth were certainly not getting further away. Doggedly, I returned my attention to stacking the mound of moist soil she had summoned as high as I could up against the crystal’s base.

“Unless you’d like to volunteer an alternative?”

She made a dissatisfied sound in her throat. “Can’t you at least try asking Mia? She might be able to warn you if you’re doing it wrong.”

“I have tried,” I said absently. The pile now nicely appointed, I began smoothing a nice and flat surface for myself. “Just a minute ago. No idea where she’s gotten off to.”

“But… doesn’t she live inside you? How can she not have heard that explosion?”

I dipped my head to one side, too distracted by my coming task to really give the question the consideration it deserved. “Hard to say for sure, but I’d imagine she’s exploring.”

“Exploring what? Your memories?” she pressed. “Doesn’t that bother you?”

I was about to answer with something flippant. That topic was almost completely shrouded in mystery, so it was not as if I could actually respond intelligently. What was more, given her little fetish for mind-reading, it could not have been more obvious that she was just digging for anything that might keep me from my task. However, the question brought me up short.

Now that she mentioned it, the idea did not worry me anywhere near as much as it probably should have. I felt an inherent sort of trust for Mia that seemed to operate entirely separate to the normal set of rules. So the notion that she might be rummaging around somewhere within my memories felt… natural. Something that she should, in fact, be making a concerted effort toward, if only to help her understand me better. And I could not quite put my finger on when I might have begun feeling that way… or whether it was entirely natural.

But it was not like I had much of anything to hide. My life had been relatively uneventful… prior to coming to this world. I had experienced my share of minor glories and failures, my bullies and friends, good times and bad. I was hardly wealthy, but I would not consider myself poor, either. I had never been in therapy, nor experienced any significant traumas. To some, that might qualify me as quite the lucky bastard, but from my own perspective, I was just some guy. Totally normal in most respects.

Maybe a tad lonely at times.

Although… now that I thought about it, there was a certain stigma to being too much of a loner as a man. But then I shrugged. If Mia wanted to start digging around, she could not blame me when she uncovered the inevitable. I had been a bachelor for quite some time, after all.

“I guess not,” I admitted, feeling mildly surprised by the answer. But that was a topic for another day. I was done. “Alright. I’m going to try again. Best duck for cover.”

She grimaced unhappily. “Couldn’t you at least wait for her to come back, though?”

The wooden creaking sounded again, closer but somewhat farther to my right than I had been expecting. Whatever the path it had been forced to take, the golem was progressing through the maze quickly.

“No, Lynnria. I don’t think I can.”

She nodded reluctantly before stepping closer. “In that case, good luck. Again. Please don’t die.”

With that, she set to placing a second charm on me. I attempted to follow her movements this time, but there was a certain uncanny blur to them whenever I really focused there, obscuring it from my eyes. This was a symbol I had not earned, indirectly or otherwise.

Even so… there was something bothering me about the way her fingers were moving. I could not quite discern what it was, though.

Yet another thing to think about later…

In a twinkling, she was done. And as her footsteps retreated down the corridor, I turned to face my destiny.

I felt like Gandalf at the bridge of Khazad-dûm… which might have been touch melodramatic on my part, but there was a degree of truth to the sentiment. Now was my moment. Either I did this, or I was finished. We were finished. Crushed between the wall of starvation and the fists of a wooden automaton.

Everything was riding on how well I could convince whatever powers that be to interpret a single Word the correct way. I needed to project absolute confidence. I needed to put on a show. I needed the music to swell with a background chorus screaming in Latin…

But…

All was quiet. There was just me. The cold rocks at my feet. The deep shadow angling away from me into the darkness beyond. And Arx. My source of light. My fortress. My lover and my salvation. Silently waiting from within her tomb.

I took three quick strides forward and paused there to look imperiously down at the little mound of soil. I felt more than a little ridiculous, but I could not let that show on my face. Over and over, I kept telling myself that this was magic. It responded to my Charisma. Confidence! Confidence!

In one smooth motion, I dropped to one knee—though my injury screamed at me in doing so. Then I carefully extended an arm.

“Hear me,” I said. To no one. Or everyone. The world, perhaps.

I let the echoes of my voice die away before continuing on… and to give me the space to think. Okay. We need to start this properly. What would a wizard say in a situation like this? Uh… right! Pompous introductions.

“I am Donum. Chosen of the Fourth Child. Bearer of a fragment of the Lady of Power herself. Hear my voice!”

I paused again. That came off pretty well. There had been a certain stage-like ring to it. Somewhat proud of myself, I twisted my arm, and with a single, deliberate and precise stroke, I let my fingernails dig the rune into the soil.

The intrinsic quality.

I rose to my feet and retraced my steps backward, making sure to appear unhurried despite the glow already beginning to build within the rune. But it had not exploded yet which was encouraging.

Alright, man. We’re on a roll, now. Just keep calm and project authority.

Head held high, I focused my gaze upon my target. “I imbue upon this hateful rock—this crystal prison—an intrinsic quality. A new state of being.”

The glow had already developed to an uncomfortable level and was rapidly increasing in intensity. It seemed the dirt could only hold the inevitable at bay so long. Or whatever powers were listening had limited patience. Either way, I needed to hurry!

Struggling not to panic, I thrust my hands into the air. Whatever it was I was going to say, it needed to be good. Something… cool.

“By the Power of Grayskull!”

My eye twitched. No! Fucking…! What was that?!

The glow suddenly redoubled in strength. Then tripled. And with it came heat. Then a lot of heat. I had let myself waver, and now I was starting to lose it.

Whatever. Just keep going! You’re almost there!

“You!”

Tears gathered in my eyes in a futile attempt to shield them, and what was left of my beard began to curl and smoke from the growing furnace. The pain was threatening to overwhelm me.

But I would not be defeated! I could not err!

“Are!”

I sucked the blistering air into my lungs and screamed into the light, trying to push it back with the force of my voice alone.

“Nothing!”

Abruptly, there came a sound like the side of a volcano imploding. Then, the light burst forth, lifting me from my feet, but before I could be thrown backward, a wind blasted me from behind. For a handful of seconds, the two competing forces surged around me in a maelstrom of chaos, suspending me in perfect equilibrium between them.

I wanted to weep. To howl. To pull at my hair and curl into a gibbering ball.

But I had been here before. I had seen the face of madness. I had stood before goddesses. I had felt the force of Words drilling themselves into my skull. A paltry moment of violent, untamed bedlam could no longer phase me.

Something was happening. Something not… exactly…an explosion. And that was all I needed to know.

I had achieved a true, if almost certainly flawed, magic. Whatever that magic was doing, it hurt like a bitch…but I had not been blown into a million pieces. So I weathered the consequences stoically.

Soon enough, it was over. The light vanished. The wind died. And I collapsed. All was again quiet save for the sounds of my own trembling breaths.

I was on the brink, I knew. Whatever I had just done, it had taken everything I had left to accomplish. The edges of my peripherals were starting to fade to black. I was done.

But then I felt soft and deliciously cool hands cup my blistered cheeks. Slowly, my head was lifted up.

And there she was. My Arx. Surrounded by an angelic corona of blue light. She was free. I had done it.

My overtaxed and weary heart summoned what little strength it had left to flutter with joy. However, there was something in her eyes. A pain. A terrible longing.

“Hungry,” she crooned, the whispered word holding the promise of violence. As animalistic as it was certain. Even so, I could not help but smirk.

“You, too, huh?” I coughed out. Then, I reached up a trembling hand to pat her cheek. “S-sorry about that. It took me… so long… to find you again.”

For a moment, her eyebrows bunched together in confusion and she gave me a searching look. But then she seemed to dismiss her concerns.

“Hungry,” she said again. Gently, she snagged my thumb between her teeth and began to suckle it. A low moan rumbled out of her throat. “Want. Feel again. Yours. Want feel again yours.”

I smiled indulgently. Lilim were going to lilim.

“I’d… l-like that… sweetie. I really would, but…” My eyes unfocused for a moment, and I had to catch myself. “I think… I think I need to rest.”

“No. No!” She shook me lightly. And for some reason, the ground below me shook with it. “Yours. Make feel again! I yours.”

I nodded weakly despite not quite understanding what she was getting at. “Yes. Yes, you’re mine. Of course, you are.”

Instantly, she pressed her nose up against my cheek and sucked in a long and rapturous breath. She held it there for a long few seconds before reluctantly allowing it to escape again.

“More…”

Her tongue flicked out and seductively ran up the side of my jaw. For some reason, it felt heavenly against my burns. Almost like a balm. The sensation set my eyes to fluttering.

“More!” she whined again, only just distracting me from the inevitable siren call of slumber. When I did not respond, she snatched up my hand and urgently pressed it against her full bosom. “Make feel again!”

The pillowy softness of it felt glorious even through her loose tunic. The twine she had been using to cinch it to her body was missing, I noted vaguely. However, even such a brazen act as that could not stir me to life. Not right then. A man can only endure so much.

“I…”

My head lolled back. But before I could pass out completely, that vibration came again. I had felt it for sure that time.

“Donum!” Lynrria’s voice echoed out of the archway, approaching rapidly.

Arx’s head jerked up. Her expression instantly became guarded, and she protectively gathered me to her chest like a mother clutching her infant.

“Donum, you need to hurry! It’s almost…”

Hurry? What does she mean, hurry? I’m done. Didn’t she hear that blast? It seemed unfathomable to me that she had not at least heard the aftermath of the spell I had cast, but I was in no position to ask. And whatever else Lynnria had been about to say was forgotten the moment she saw us.

I assumed. I could not turn to look. Even if Arx’s arms had not been encircling me like a vise, I barely had the strength to raise an arm.

For a few moments, all I could hear were the girl’s panting breaths.

“Y-you… He did it. I—I can’t believe…” Lynnria swallowed, and a fearful choking noise escaped her throat. “Is… is he alive?”

Arx took half a step back at the question, dragging me with her. She replied with a sharp and punctuated hiss.

It would seem my lilim was a little too hungry yet for anything approaching polite conversation, so I made the effort to at least twitch my fingers a little to let the girl know I was still amongst the living. For the moment.

Lynnria strangled back a gasp on seeing it, and I heard a couple of her steps approaching. “What’s wrong with him? Is he… is he okay? Did you hurt him?!”

Arx hissed again, much more aggressively. “Mine!”

Oh, that’s just great. Very helpful, Arx.

I had hoped I would at least have the capacity to stand—or in fact, speak—during this initial confrontation, but it seemed the stars were not aligned for me today. The two of them would just have to work it out for themselves. Good luck, Lynnria!

However, before she could decide how to respond, all three of us picked up the rumbling, this time accompanied by a bit of dust settling into our eyes.

“Right… like I was about to say, we have to hurry. That golem is almost—” The ground rumbled again. Louder. And Lynnria stilled. “Wait… that doesn’t sound like wood.”

Arx perked up slightly. Whatever her agenda, it placed a distant second to immanent threats. “Golem? Wood?”

Lynnria was silent for a moment, doubtlessly trying to decide what to do about the wild and contentious woman clutching at my all-but-unconscious body. However, as Arx had at least shown the capacity for reason, she decided to give diplomacy one last shot.

While Lynnria briefly explained our situation and the approaching threat, I struggled to regather my wits—I had a feeling I would need them. Something was about to go down. So what if I was teetering on the brink? My girls needed me. Or my buffs anyway. I did not have time to die. I would survive on raw grit if I had to.

The remnants of my intellect regathered somewhat, I happened to focus on the crystal. I had not realized it before now, but it was still there. Fully intact and glowing just as it ever had been, it remained the only source of light in the room.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, trying to reconcile the cognitive dissonance. Fully intact? But didn’t I—? And Arx is… what? How could that be? How could Arx be free and holding me in her arms while the pillar remained? I had assumed my spell would just make the thing disintegrate. What had happened? What had I done?

The rumbling came again, and this time, I saw the source of it. Up at the top of the pillar, the capitol stone—the wide, carved rock attaching the pillar to the ceiling—had just slid downward by a finger’s width. Through the crystal.

And the crystal had not reacted in the slightest. There were no cracks. It had not crumbled. The ceiling was beginning to literally phase through the pillar like some sort of video game glitch.

Understanding came quickly. I had infused it with the quality of nothingness, and for its own reasons, the magic had decided to interpret that by making the pillar insubstantial. It still existed, but only as a mirage of itself. As such, it could no longer contain my lilim… or hold up the ceiling.

The ceiling composed entirely of multi-ton bricks.

In my desperation, I had chosen the nuclear option, and now we were about to pay the price.

The capital stone shifted again. Two fingers.

“Oh, fuck…” I breathed. It was all I could manage by way of warning.

The girls’ attention was drawn immediately by my whispered words—my first in some minutes—and then their eyes followed mine upward.

Arx’s arms tightened around me for a moment, and she growled at the ceiling.

“Whistling dicks,”Lynnria swore by way of agreement, mangling the expression beyond comprehension. But it summed up the situation pretty well.

Arx cast a befuddled look at her before quickly repositioning her grip on me. Back in the old days, she probably would have simply tucked me under an arm and been off, but her new body had not yet achieved the kinds of strength she was once used to. Manhandling me like that was no longer an option. Still, I did not detect even a hint of strain when she hoisted me onto her back. Clearly, she had not been neglecting her physical stats.

“What do we do?” Lynnria shouted.

Arx just snorted. “We run.”

“But what about that golem?” Lynnria protested, verging on hysteria. “It’s almost—“

“We run,” Arx said again, cutting her off.

Then, without so much as another glance even to see if she would follow, Arx put actions to words.

She ran.