Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 25 Ben’s End

Isaac took off his bandage and brushed off as much of the dried blood as he could. He finished the last of the water and snacked on some jerky as Lenna packed everything else up. She dug a shirt out of her back and handed it to him. It was a thin, soft, cotton long sleeve t-shirt that was a plain dull color. In the darkness Isaac couldn’t tell what color it was exactly but it looked like a light gray.

“Thanks. But, won’t this get all bloody?” Isaac asked.

“You need to stay warm.” Was her only response. Isaac nodded and put it on. They soon set out towards the human town.

—

Lenna helped Isaac along while carrying both of their packs. It was slow going and they had to stop multiple times as Isaac kept getting light headed. He felt incredibly weak from the blood loss. Lenna’s healing could fix injuries but it couldn’t replace lost blood. During their travel Isaac asked Lenna how she came to be there and why.

“So you stabbed him in the throat and jumped out the window?” Isaac asked almost in awe.

“Yes. Then I ran for as long as I could. The alarm didn’t sound until I was already at the gate.” Lenna continued.

Isaac cocked his head. “But why not just kill him?”

“He is too important. He would have been resurrected before the day was through.” She answered.

“The hit to his honor and the humiliation of getting knocked around by his niece won’t get fixed as quickly as him being dead would?” Isaac postulated.

“Yes.” Lenna confirmed.

“Run into many monsters on your way here?” Isaac quizzed.

“Yes.” Lenna responded matter of factly.

“Like what?” Isaac pressed. He wanted to know how strong she really was. He had seen her in action but shadow-wolves were still only shadow-wolves.

Lenna thought for a bit then answered him. “Twenty nine shadow-wolves before the cavern where we met. Two giant constrictor snakes. Five tunnel vipers. Eleven giant spiders. One basilisk. Four assassins sent by my uncle.” When she told him it sounded to Isaac like she was reading off a grocery list. To Lenna however it was just that. A simple total of the dangers of the Innerworld she had gone through.

“What are you made of?” Isaac asked. Lenna looked at him quizzically then realized he meant it as a compliment and tried to think of a reply.

Lenna had realized early on that Isaac was a talker. Lenna however was not. Her mother had told her that if she didn’t have anything constructive to say that it would be better for her to stay silent. Lenna, afterall, had never been very good at ‘polite’ conversation.

“Fire and steel.” She eventually responded. Isaac turned to look at her face and caught the amused grin on her face.

He burst out laughing. When he finally wrestled it back to only the occasional chuckle he responded. “Yeah. I can see that.” Then he smirked his tell tale, up to no good, smirk. “You are pretty hot. And reliable.”

Lenna for the life of her couldn't understand what he was trying to say. Common was her third language but she had thought herself quite proficient. “I… Yes, fire is hot.” She responded tentatively.

Isaac saw the confusion on her face and chuckled. “Hot, is another way of saying attractive.” Isaac explained.

“Oh.” Was Lenna’s only response. Plenty of young drow suitors had tried to sweet talk her in the past but once they went a round with her in the training hall they had all mysteriously lost interest. She was used to men always wanting to be the stronger one in a relationship. Isaac was just odd. Unless he was just being flirty. There were plenty of young males like that too.

Isaac just let the silence hang for a while as not even he knew how to follow that up. Eventually though he did realize something. Isaac noticed that when he had mentioned the human town she hadn’t seemed very enthused to say the least. She didn’t protest but Isaac still wanted to know why.

“What’s wrong with a human town?” Isaac asked her.

She looked at him confused as to why he even asked the question. “Because I am a drow. We aren’t welcome in human towns.”

Isaac just looked at her for a moment, also confused, before he spoke. “Why?”

“Drow are slavers. Humans are the primary source.” She explained.

“There is a lot I don’t know. I’m going to need your help with these types of things.” Isaac explained as he tried to process the complex situation he found himself in. Lenna nodded in understanding as they continued on.

“Alright. Here’s one of those secrets I mentioned earlier. I’m not from here. I died and the twin divinities of reincarnation brought me back. I traded almost all of my memories for magic powers and now I don’t know what most people would think is common knowledge.” Isaac blurted out.

Lenna just listened and slowly processed what he had told her. “Twin divinities?” She asked. That had been the one part that she wasn’t sure about. Gods were fickle and them bringing him back to life with weird conditions wasn’t too far fetched. She thought she knew all of the gods in the human, dwarf, elf, drow, and gnome pantheons but she couldn’t place these ‘twin divinities’ anywhere.

“Yeah. Rei and Zei. Blonde. Looked like they were twelve years old but I could feel the power in the air. They seemed nice enough. I could have been resurrected with all of my memories but I wanted magic powers so it’s my fault I don’t know anything.” Isaac explained.

Lenna just kept thinking. She had never heard of these gods before. No, divinities, that’s what he had called them. There was a big difference between gods and divinities. Some divinities were gods but only as an afterthought. Gods required worshipers to exist but divinites existed even if no one knew they even existed. She wondered why she had never heard of them but then decided that those questions were out of her power level and moved on.

Lenna nodded and then Isaac went into more detail about his story. He gave her an abridged version but since it was Isaac telling the story it still took a while.

—

Eventually they came across a sign. Well Isaac called it a sign but it was really just a name carved into the wall and an arrow pointing in the direction they were going. ‘Ben’s End’ Was all it said.

“Alright. Put your helmet back on. Take my cloak.” Isaac instructed her. She did as he said and then fixed some of the straps on his armor. He had kept it loose when he’d put the top half back on to help his blood flow. He looked over at her. “Ready?” He asked.

“Yes.” She replied and nodded.

Isaac gazed into her eyes for a moment and then something dawned on him. “Right. My eyes.” He said and turned off his darkvision as they noticed a light down the tunnel.

Everything was black except for a soft orange from the end of the tunnel. “How do people live like this?” Isaac asked rhetorically.

Lenna stared at his silver eyes for a moment. “Are you half drow?”

“No. Why?” He asked, slightly confused at the question.

“Many of your features are, elf-like.” She answered.

“Like what?” He asked.

“No facial hair, silver eyes, sharp jawline.” She responded and helped him continue walking.

“No. I am very much only human. I may have modified some things before I was reincarnated.” He mentioned guiltily.

“Modified?” She asked.

“Yeah. Rei and Zei let me change some things since they had to remake my body anyway.” He answered.

“Should you be telling me this?” She questioned, slightly concerned.

“Probably not.” He said honestly. She looked at him for a moment before letting it go.

They soon found the source of the light. A gate much like the one from the outpost appeared before them. There were a pair of sconces lighting the gate from either side. On the gate was the same name that was carved into the wall further back.

“Well, I guess we are here.” Isaac said. He was silently praying that they would be able to hide her identity for at least as long as they were there. Isaac had a bad feeling that they wouldn’t.