An Angel’s Road to Hell

Cassandra Pendragon

Cold gripped my heart and it took every last ounce of willpower I could muster to not rush off immediately. I didn’t even want to think about what he meant when he had said that he’d be here soon personally as the threat to my loved ones was terrifying enough. As soon as Erya had told us what she had heard I had reached for my tattoo and tried to contact Ahri. I had been able to feel her but she had been fast asleep, probably exhausted from the backlash she had taken for me. Forcefully I pushed the image of her lying unconscious while pirates descended on her and the kids from my mind and focused on the others. The white cloaked I was wearing by now didn’t make a sound when my movements caused it to brush over the gold coins all around.

“I guess after the troubles we had to face to reach Pete that there is no way for us to contact Ahri or my mom from here?” Erya and Viyara shook their heads slowly while I didn’t even bother to check Barzuk’s reaction, as capable as the cook might be he wasn’t a mage. Truthfully I just hoped Mephisto had something up his sleeve but the resigned look on his face told me everything I had to know. “The basis for every form of magical communication is a form of scrying, to establish contact between sender and receiver. We would need a location or a focus from one of the persons present. I’d even be willing to try something more esoteric like using your blood to reach your mother but since your fifth tail sprouted your body is constantly adapting and changing. We could try but it’s most likely a waste of time as the magic won’t be able to find your mother based on the patterns you could provide. In the future Ahri should be a different matter but for now she’s still too different from what you’re turning into to make it work. I’m afraid I can’t help.” He clarified.

“Then I have to go. I’m sorry, but I can’t risk losing her even if I have to fight my way out of here.” I focused on Viyara and Erya before continuing. “You two have to come with me or I won’t be able to leave. Please, I know you’re risking your hoard and possibly your revenge but I have to warn them, to protect them if necessary.” Viyara’s soothing voice flowed through my mind:

“Of course, the safety of the living always outweighs the wishes of the dead. But what should we do? The Black has surely put wards into place and he won’t just let us leave. And even if we manage to slip past him, won’t we just lead an angry dragon and two more air ships to your friends? You couldn’t beat him before and now you’re running on fumes and adrenaline.” I wanted to protest but she made a shushing gesture with one of her paws. “You know I’m right, your body might be restored but your mind is tired. You wont have a chance against him right now and as much as it pains me to admit it, the only one who might be able to help is Erya. We can’t just rush off head over tails and hope for the best. We came here as a last resort. Wouldn’t it be stupid to give up that advantage?” Mephisto cleared his throat.

“I don’t think so. The situation has changed. Trying to kill an enraged dragon with all the magic here? Definitely possible. Withstanding a siege against one of the most powerful sorcerers I have ever heard about, his army of lackeys and a dragon? Not so much. If we don’t get out of here, this volcano will turn into our tomb sooner or later and dead we won’t be able to do anything. It’s wise to not force a hand when the deck is stacked against you. If you’re willing to listen to my advice we’ll take what we can from this place and use the rest to make our escape. Hells, we could even blow the volcano up if we have to. When we’re away we’ll find the others and try to hide. There are bound to be some cities around where we can hunker down for a while. I’m pretty sure Erya and I can stop everyone from trying to find us magically. When we face them again it’ll be on our own terms and at a time of our choosing. This is not a time to overestimate ourselves. Our life is on the line and right now it’s not looking good.” He turned to Barzuk.

“And before you start mumbling about honour and revenge, rest assured Galathon will suffer if we escape. Additionally I don’t expect him to stop hunting us so we’ll have another chance in the future to avenge your fallen master. Use that head of yours for something else than to swallow alcohol once in a while.” The orc arched an eyebrow.

“I wasn’t going to argue, I might be stubborn, but I’m not stupid, thank you very much. We can’t defend this place, never mind killing the Black if he has the help of someone who has already proven that he can seal Erya and meddle with the enchantments around here. Maybe there is another explanation why they conveniently failed when Galathon attacked for the first time but I highly doubt it. Unless my mistress says otherwise I’m with you, ghost.”

“I already said that I’m willing to leave but that doesn’t answer my initial question.” Viyara replied. “How can we do so without making everything worse?”

“We either make them believe we’re still here or we make sure they’re occupied with something else,” Erya answered. “With the artefacts your dear father has collected over the years both should be possible. Remember, right now they might not be in range of the enchantments on the hoard but that doesn’t stop us from bringing a couple of nasty surprises close enough to the ships to work on them. I say we try to burn their ships on our way out and throw everything we have left at the dragon before we run. That should buy us a couple of hours. Oh, blowing this place up also seems nice. It’ll prevent those leeches from getting their fingers on anything useful and I wouldn’t mind my prison going up in flames. Nothing personal, Viyara, well, maybe a little bit, but if I never see your hoard again it’ll be too soon.” The dragon blew a cloud of smoke at the fey and we heard her cough violently.

“It’s fine, but you don’t have to be so smug about it. My home has already been destroyed and the hoard only holds value for me as far as it is useful. The rest can burn for all I care.” Her longing gaze and the tension in her mind belied her statement but I appreciated it none the less. I leaned against her leg and caressed her scales, trying to convey my gratitude without words. She didn’t react but the muscles under my fingers relaxed with every stroke and she continued:

“I guess we have to look around for everything we can actually use. I know some of the artefacts from stories my parents told me but I could use some help. I don’t think we can carry too many which makes it even more important to chose the right ones.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Erya interjected. “With some luck I can store everything we want in the ruby. I can even shrink it down in size so you can comfortably carry it around. I’ll need a minute to try it out but I’m confident it’ll work. I might even be able to shove the whole dais into the thing.”

“You won’t,” Mephisto replied, “magical spheres can only carry so much foreign energy and mass. I’m surprise the whole thing didn’t crumble when Cassandra entered but that just shows how powerful it is. Still, I don’t think you can manage to stuff everything around inside but probably a large part of it. Or maybe, hum, I think I can calculate the exact value. Gimme a moment.” He glided to the ruby and placed his translucent hands on the gem. A series of engravings lit about on the inside and I heard Mephisto chant softly. After not more than a handful of seconds he turned back around with a smile on his face.

“The thing is frigging huge! Your father was a magical prodigy, Viyara. As far as I can tell he somehow made the gem able to carry a near infinite amount of energy, maybe even completely limitless. I haven’t got the foggiest how he managed such a feat but it’s outright amazing. Anyway, the problem in this case is conversion. Every ounce of energy that isn’t bound to a soul or life and enters the ruby will be converted into pure mana. Cassandra was rather lucky that the artefacts she carries are either bound to her or have a life of their own but without that they would have lost their magic. This means that while we might fill the thing to the brim with gold and gems, everything enchanted we place inside will come out without any spells. What we, or rather Cassandra, could do however is overloading the enchantments which cause this. A small drop of your power, you know, similar to what you did with Viyara, should make the thing explode and not in a small fashion. The only problem would be to get away far and fast enough but we definitely can blow anything to smithereens that comes close to us, at least once.”

“Uh, I’m not really a fan of suicide runs.” I said emphatically. “I like telling the tale afterwards.”

Mephisto shrugged: “that isn’t what I was suggesting. A remote trigger should be easy enough to create. With my help you should be able to encase a part of your magic in a diamond. If it breaks it’ll escape and we can prepare runes to channel it into the ruby. We just need a way to launch the thing.”

“I can help there, like I said, I can change its size. Maybe not into something small enough to tie to an arrow but not bigger than, let’s say Barzuk’s head. It will still be heavy but easily throwable.”

“We can’t shoot or throw it, we’d have to be much further away than that.” Mephisto emphasised the “much” heavily. “Several kilometres would be best but at least one. With my current capabilities my telekinesis isn’t strong enough to push a highly magical object that far.”

“I have a better idea,” Viyara interjected. “Somewhere around here is a pair of linked portals. Their size can be changed and they allow instant transportation between the two. If we can get one unseen to wherever we want it, on the ship Galathon is on for example, we could send the ruby through, followed by a spell or something heavy to smash the second crystal. Would that work?”

Mephisto nodded slowly. “I believe it would. In that case we only have to smuggle one of the portals onto the ship, the faster the better. As soon as a part of our problems turns into ash we make a run for it. Are we all agreed?”

“One more question,” Barzuk deep rumbled made us look at him expectantly. “How do we reach your friends and how long will it take? I’m asking due to provisions, you can’t eat artefacts or gold and if we lose our largest storage, we’ll need to think carefully about what we are going to take with us.”

“I’ll carry you,” Viyara answered. “I know which island they are headed for. But I need a meal before I can even think about flying through the night. I don’t think that there is a point in bringing further provisions, we should reach them within a couple of hours and I won’t be able to carry enough for everyone that’ll be waiting. We should take some coins with us, though. They’ll come in handy if we have to hide in a city or anywhere else. There are also some artefacts I know about I’d like to bring along. How about we four,” she pointed to Erya, Mephisto and me, “sort through the hoard while Barzuk runs up to the kitchen and fetches enough for a decent meal?”

“Are you really sure that’s okay with you?” I had to ask. “Don’t get me wrong, I do agree but I didn’t think a dragon would willingly part with his treasures and everything around is most definitely yours.” Another cloud of smoke rose from her snout as she sighed.

“Honestly, I’m having a hard time but it’s not as bad as I expected. I know everything we leave behind is most likely going to end up in the emperor’s hands sooner or later. That makes it a little easier but I still am uncomfortable with the thought of even losing a single gold coin.” Her tail coiled up and I was certain she would have blushed if she had been in her human form. “Surprisingly I don’t mind you taking some of it though. I can’t tell you why, my best guess is that I still think of Erya as part of the hoard and of you as part of myself but the thought of you guys using and carrying a part of it around doesn’t bother me too much. The only thing that makes my scales itch is the image of our enemies walking through these halls, profiting of my father’s legacy.”

“That’s easily solved. We’ll leave nothing behind but scorched earth if that’s what’s bothering you.” Mephisto’s voice was gentle, understanding. “If you don’t plan on returning there’s no point in keeping anything intact. If you want I’m sure I can use a couple of the enchantments to make the volcano erupt. Whoever wants to get down here will have to dig through quite a bit of molten lava and caved in tunnels. With us and the ruby gone I’m pretty sure no one will bother and you might be able to return one day to reclaim what’s yours.” Even more sincere he continued: “Also, if I may, I think you’re experience one of the changes I have talked about. Normally there is a connection between a dragon and what he calls his. The more he owns the more powerful the dragon becomes. The how and why are quite convoluted and I don’t even know the particulars myself but that’s the main reason dragons appear greedy and possessive. It’s what makes them grow. That’s not true for you anymore. Sure, it might still help but you’re main source of growth no resides within your carbuncle. I guess that’s why the thought of losing your wealth isn’t nearly as excruciating as one might expect. You’re well and truly on your way to become a Crystalline, Viyara.”

She pawed at the coins in front of her, a mixture of embarrassment and delight radiated off of her. “That’s great and I’m really glad for you milady, but we have work to do and stuff to blow up. I suggest we get moving.” The orc’s pragmatism was unmatched. “Also, it would be nice if you mages could figure out how we can get one of the portals on the ship. I’ll prepare a farewell dinner in the meantime, that is, if one of you winged folks could fly me back up to the throne room.”

“I’ll do it,” Erya quickly volunteered. “There are some things I wanted to ask you anyways and I need to take a quick look around the library. If memory serves there are some books there that shouldn’t be left behind.” None of us protested so she wove a spell around Barzuk and sped towards the ceiling, the huge orc tethered to her through invisible threads.

“I’m surprised you didn’t join them when Erya mentioned a library. Lost your love for books?” I teased Mephisto, covering up my worries.

“Of course not but I highly doubt there’ll be something up there that I haven’t read already, the really interesting volumes are down here anyways. Now then, you’re still unable to use your stamp, correct? We’ll still use it but I’m going to craft the runes with some of your blood. As far as I remember it’s quite spacious. I think we can store quite a bit in there. Combined with everything Viyara can carry I assume we’re going to have space for a decent amount of artefacts and coins. Why don’t we split up for now, I’m sure Viyara has some ideas what she wants to take and we can have a look around together. You’re knowledge is abysmal but maybe you see something I miss. Those eyes of yours must be useful for something other than turning heads. Ladies, let’s get going and while you’re at it, think about what the orc said. We still have to get one of the portal pieces on the ship without anyone the wiser.”