Fork This Life!

Chapter 26: Yep, I’ve Been There

(POV Lily)

After the priests use what little mana they have remaining to heal any life-threatening wounds and we patch up the rest with bandages, we retrace our steps towards the entrance. We are all tired enough to drop where we stand, but it won’t be good for any of us if the Lich had set up this place to self-destruct after its death.

So we limp towards the entrance. Fortunately, it appears that the lights in this place have their own power source, as flames still flicker within them. When we reach the entry room, I see bones strewn about the floor… and three people lying motionless.

My heart jumps into my throat, but I shove it back down, forcing myself to remain calm and logical. Removing a gauntlet, I kneel and feel for the pulse of Alex, who is closest to me. I feel it a moment later, pulsing at a steady pace beneath his skin.

His eyes crack open as I’m about to move to the next person. “Oh... we won?” He croaks.

“Yes. Are you alright? How are Marco and Ferdinand?” I ask.

“They were in bad shape when I fell unconscious… Don’t worry about me… just exhausted.” His eyelids drift down and up as he struggles to stay awake.

“Thank you.” I look over to the others, already being tended to by the priests. A dim light flickers around their hands as they carefully heal them, likely using up mana as soon as it regenerates.

Two priests are healing Marco while only one is healing Ferdinand, so I go over to help him. A series of wounds are evident across his arms, legs and torso, some of them deep and some of them barely parting the skin.

A thin carapace of dried blood encrusts most of his chest, his shirt barely more than a few strips of tattered cloth. Similarly to the priest, I begin running my hands over his wounds and channelling wisps of holy magic to heal them. Naturally, I target the deeper wounds and those that are still bleeding first.

While we may have been able to do this in minutes in our normal states, we have very little to work with right now. It takes us almost ten minutes just to seal up the worrying wounds on his front, and we are just rolling him over to see if there are any wounds on his back when he lets out a rather high-pitched yelp, jolting suddenly under my hands. His voice turns into a hiss of pain a moment later as his exertion aggravates some of his wounds, causing a few drops of blood to start trickling down his abs.

“Calm down, Ferdinand. You’re safe, it’s over.” I reassure him. “How are you feeling?”

“I… alright, I think. It’s just…” He trails off slightly.

My eyebrows furrow in concern. “Is there something we didn’t notice?”

“No… My sides are just really… really sensitive. I think someone poked me there…” He groans.

…Oops. That may have been me.

He twists his head, trying to see behind him. After a moment, he gives up. “Is Marco alright? He used this… I forget, what Alex called it.”

“I am not dead. Thanks to you, yes?” Another voice flows across the floor, Marco apparently now conscious and craning his neck on the ground to try and get a good view.

A smile breaks out on Ferdinand’s face. “You have Alex to thank for that… I just held the door.”

Marco begins to smile, too. “What did I say? A simple task.”

Ferdinand’s smile widens. “Simple. Yes. All it took was… all three of us almost dying. Practically child’s play.”

Marco begins to chuckle, and Ferdinand does too. Then they begin to laugh heartily.

I frown. At this rate, they…

Both of them start coughing blood.

…That will happen. I sigh, beginning to heal Ferdinand again. When his breathing steadies again, Ferdinand starts to speak – although considerably more muted than before. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

“As am I…” He trails off.

One of the priests around him checks his pulse. “He’s fainted again, but he should be fine.”

“So… what now?” Ferdinand asks, now looking at me.

“Your wounds should be stable, so it’s about time we have a rest. We shall construct stretchers to carry you up –”

He pushes himself into a sitting position, wincing.

“You can’t get up, your body is still in a bad condition!” I try to get him to lie back down, but he waves me off.

“Thanks, but I’m fine. I can walk.” He insists, getting to his feet. Swaying slightly, he walks over to his bag and rifles through it, taking out a spare shirt and slipping it on. Slinging the bag over his shoulders, his shoulders sag visibly beneath the weight. But he doesn’t fall. Looking around the floor, he finds and picks up his sword, shakily putting it into its sheath. “Alright, let’s go.” He says, moving through the doorway and starting to climb the stairs, kicking bones and weapons out of his way as he goes.

I shake my head. With no choice, I start following him up; if he falls now and there isn’t anybody to catch him, he’ll probably die.

He staggers with every step, but he stubbornly continues on.

Luc catches up to me a moment later.

“Good job back there.” I tell him, keeping a watchful eye on Ferdinand’s back.

He shakes his head. “I didn’t beat the Lich.”

I raise an eyebrow. “No need to be humble, Luc.”

“No, I really didn’t. It was this…” He reaches into a pouch and pulls out… a fork? “I threw this thing at the Lich, and next thing I know I’m holding its phylactery.”

“That is…”

“It sounds crazy, I know.” He says, looking just as confused as I feel. “It has to be some sort of magic item, but I haven’t been able to get any reaction from it since then… And who would make a fork into a magic item?”

“Perhaps it is a single-use item? Where did you find it?” I ask, nudging a stray breastplate to the side with my foot as I continue to climb.

“That’s the thing… Ferdinand gave it to me just before all of this started. There aren’t many wizards in the Empire, and those that there are aren’t anywhere close to the level that would be needed to create something that can do what I saw it do…”

“Ferdinand?” I pause. “Well he is an adventurer. They do find some odd things, every now and again.”

Luc looks at Ferdinand, and his face freezes. “Is that… I think he’s awakened his fighting spirit.”

“Are you sure?” I ask in shock. I look at Ferdinand’s back, but am unable to see whatever Luc saw.

“Fairly. His legs have been shaking the whole way up, but he hasn’t fallen once.” Luc looks back down the staircase. “We’re halfway up. Anyone with those kinds of injuries without fighting spirit would have collapsed by now.”

“And you are sure he did not have it before?” I ask.

“With the amount of sparring we did?” He smiles. “Pretty sure. I might not have it myself, but I’ve fought against some people who do.”

“Strange… I wonder what caused it?” I muse, then we continue upwards in silence.

When we reach the top, I suck in a breath involuntarily. The ground is littered with bones, weapons and armour, sad remnants of the undead army.

Kicking some bones aside, Ferdinand clears a small space and sits down.

Clearing a space ourselves, we sit down in front of him. “Ferdinand, did you awaken fighting spirit during the battle?”

“Fighting spirit?” Ferdinand says, unsure. “I don’t know… It all became a blur after some point. Let me check my status…” His eyes focus on some point in the air. Then they get wider. And wider. And wider.

“Okay. Okay.” He says, a foolish grin spreading across his face. “Yes, yes I did.” He says finally. “Along with three levels, a title and three skills.”

My eyebrows raise in surprise. “Congratulations!”

“You must have killed heaps of skeletons to get that much experience…” Luc makes a face as if he’s just remembered something. He takes out the fork again and hands it Ferdinand. “Here you go. Helped me out of quite the pinch… what is it, by the way?”

Ferdinand’s face quickly turns guarded. Then he pauses, and it slackens slightly. “Oh?” he mutters in surprise. “Oh.” He groans, then starts to get up again. “Come on,” he beckons to us, “I’ll tell you about it, but I’d rather the others not hear.”

Luc and I look at each other, shrug and get up ourselves. I quickly inform the priests that we’ll be elsewhere for a short while, and we then follow Ferdinand as he traipses across the field of bones.

He leads us a bit of a distance away and over a hillock, now completely blocked from the view of camp. “Sorry for all the secrecy.” He groans, sitting down on the grass again. “He’d rather as few people knows about him as possible.”

“He?” I ask. Who is he talking about?

“Yeah, he… fine, fine.” He holds out the fork on the palm of his hand as if offering it to us. I’m not quite sure what he wants us to do… oh.

The fork in his hand shifts in shape, morphing into a tiny metallic figure which waves at us. It floats off of Ferdinand’s hand and just hovers in the air.

Ferdinand retracts his hand and smiles. “You know, I never thought I would be on the other end of this conversation. Lily, Luc, meet Gerald. He already knows you.”

The little metal man reaches up and scratches its head abashedly.

“What… is he? Some sort of intelligent golem?” I ask, astounded.

“No, his previous form is his real one.” Ferdinand shakes his head. “This is the first time I’ve seen him like this, actually. He tells me his race is called ‘living fork’, and that he’s the only one of his kind.”

“Living… fork?” Luc says in disbelief.

“I know, right?” Ferdinand says, throwing his hands in the air. “That was exactly my reaction! But as crazy as it sounds, it’s true.”

“Can he talk?” I ask.

‘I can indeed. Hello.’ A voice sounds in my mind, startling me.

“He ca-” Ferdinand starts, but I interrupt him. “There’s a voice in my head!”

“Yes, that’ll be him. He’s psychic… among other things.” Ferdinand reassures me.

‘Hello?’ I think hesitantly.

‘Hello Lily. I’m Gerald. Ferdinand already said it, but sorry about this bother. I have a bit of paranoia left over from a time when I wasn’t quite as capable as I am now.’

‘That’s alright.’ I reply automatically. ‘A Living fork?’

‘Yes, well… It was quite the shock at first, but I’ve gotten used to it. It’s not so bad, as long as I have someone to chat to every now and again… Not being able to sleep, I have a bit too much time on my hands. Metaphorically speaking.’ He replies lightly.

Something occurs to me, so I ask him about it. ‘You don’t have eyes, or ears, or… anything. How do you see, or hear?’

‘Oh, I can’t hear anything yet. I just lip-read to figure out what people are saying. As for sight, I have mana sight. Useful little skill, that is. Lets me see a fair distance, underground too. That’s how Ferdinand was able to direct you to the entrance and to the Lich, of course.’ Gerald remarks. ‘I told him.’

That explains how he always found the cats so quickly…

‘I think that’s all the questions I have.’ I say.

‘Excellent, my psi is just dipping below half. Do you think the two of you can keep me a secret from the others?’ He asks.

I think for a moment. ‘It should not be a problem.’

‘Great. Well, goodbye.’ He says, and then his voice vanishes entirely.

Pulling my attention back to the scene before me, I find Ferdinand and Luc chatting, with Luc still wearing an expression of confusion and disbelief.

Shortly after, we return to the secret entrance, where everyone is sitting or lying on the grass in a small area cleared of bones or weapons. One of the priests is just returning from where our horses are tethered.

Taking off my armour, I lay down in the grass and take a deep breath, smelling the flowers.

If we had fought out here, things would have been very different.

Unfortunately, they rarely let us have the advantage. But none of us died, and what injuries we do have are not permanent. Perhaps this is the best outcome, even if it was more difficult than it could have been.

We just rest for a while, letting our reserves of stamina and mana slowly creep towards full again. After approximately twenty minutes, we have a drink and a bite to eat, before we head back down, into the bowels of the Lich’s lair. Our job now will be to strip the place of anything useful, destroy anything dangerous and then leave.

“Alright everyone, it has not yet collapsed, so it is unlikely that it ever will. Spread out, map the underground and bring anything useful or valuable back to the surface. If you find anything that looks dangerous, call me or Luc.” I say to the others. “Understood?”

““Understood.”” They reply and descend the stairs, apart from Marco, who is still in too delicate a condition to be doing much.

I spend the next few hours cataloguing the various items that are brought up. Most of them are mundane but useful items – low grade mana crystals, for instance, which we find in abundance – but there are occasional pieces of interest. Some of these, upon closer inspection, conceal nefarious enchantments beneath seemingly beneficial ones – a ring that replenishes mana at the expense of health, for example – but a scarce few are genuine articles.

“You’ll want to see this. I didn’t read much, but it looks important.” One of the priests hands me a few pages, bound with string.

Raising an eyebrow, I look at the first page and start to read.

If you are reading this, then you have recently killed me. The first line reads. Strange. He predicted his death and wrote a note to his killers?

In any other circumstance, your hands would now be rotting and you would slowly die as the curse I would have infused into these pages took effect.

I look at my hands. Nothing unusual is happening.

Fortunately for you, there just so happens to be somebody in the world I hate more than you. Some ten months ago, I was visiting a one of the nearby cities to stock up on supplies – most foodstuffs do not fare well around death energy, as you no doubt know. I was somewhat less powerful then than I am now, so when the guards set upon me in a surprise attack, I, away from my ideal battlefield and bereft of time to summon any assistance, was summarily captured.

Of course, their prisons were entirely devoid of the facilities required to keep me imprisoned, so my only concern at the time was if they were going to immediately execute me. Instead, they brought me before him. He did something to me – some sort of psychic ability, I believe. Since then, I have conducted much research on psychic abilities, but without much success. Documents on them are annoyingly rare.

Still, through observation and personal experience, I have been able to discern a few aspects of this ability:

Firstly, he must be able to see whoever he uses his power upon.

Secondly, whomever he uses his power upon cannot disobey his orders… however…

Thirdly, if he does not word his orders carefully, the controlled individual can exploit loopholes.

I have been very careful to hide this last fact, as I do not believe he knows of it himself. For instance, he ordered me not to communicate any details regarding him to others unless ordered otherwise.

These notes were never given to anyone. But I am now dead, and here it lies, in your hands.

Perhaps you think to yourself that this matter does not concern you, paladin.

But it does. Oh, but it does.

You see, I am not the only person he commanded using this ability. There are others. Among them are a monster and… a demon.

Interested now, oh holy knight of the gods?

Still, you did kill me… I won’t make it easy for you. I wrote a diary from the day I was controlled up to about a month and a half ago, detailing his identity, the identity of any others he controls that I know of, and everything I have observed of their capabilities.

That diary is currently buried beneath the center of a hedge out the front of an old mansion. The location of that mansion is marked on the attached map, but it’s not that simple. Inside that mansion is one of the people he controls, and he is able to detect when anyone comes within a certain range of the mansion – whether by his own skills or a magic item, I’m not sure. The hedge is most definitely within that area.

He will most definitely try to kill you.

Good luck!

Sighing deeply, I flip over to the map. My work never ends.

The marked location is in-between Liensport and Anstown. Back across the Empire it is, then… I can only pray that the temples will let their paladins and priests follow me a while longer.

Ferdinand appears from the staircase and walks over to me. “I’ve finished exploring one branch. Here’s the map I drew of it – although it didn’t turn out well at all. I’ve never done anything like this before.” He says, handing me a sheet of paper with lines criss-crossing over the surface.

“Don’t worry about it.” I reply distractedly.

“What’s that?” He asks.

“A note by the Lich, claiming that he was under the control of someone and that a demon is also under their control. Apparently, all the details about them are in a diary he hid near an old mansion, but there is also someone guarding it.” I sigh. “At least he left a map.”

He frowns. “That sounds awfully familiar. Can I see the map?”

I hand it to him. After a moment, he nods. “Yep, I’ve been there before.”

“So, this is false? There was nobody there?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No, there was someone there alright. He tried to kill me - I barely managed to get away, even with a friend helping me.”

He must be referring to Gerald, as I haven’t seen that Joe fellow do anything helpful. “It should be true, then.” I nod.

“Probably…” He says, then pauses. His eyes light up as if he’s had a great idea, but he doesn’t say anything.

“What are you…” I begin to say, but I get interrupted by Gerald talking in my head again.

‘Hello again.’ He says. ‘So, you’re looking for a diary of some sort, hidden at that mansion somewhere?’

‘Yes, why?’ I respond.

He ignores my question and asks his own. ‘Any clue as to its exact location?’

‘The note says beneath a hedge-’ I start.

‘Yep, it’s there alright. Book in a little box, only a few centimetres below the surface. You’re welcome, cya.’ Having said that, he breaks the connection.

“He can see that far?” I ask in amazement.

“No, but he does have a perfect memory.” Ferdinand smiles. “So it was there when we were there?”

“Apparently so.” I nod in affirmation.

“I suppose you’ll be wanting me to tell you what I know about the person guarding the mansion?” He asks.

“Ye-” I take another look at his face and notice the way he’s holding himself – slack face, frequent blinking, and I remember the way he was walking looked as if he was carrying a boulder. He must be deeply exhausted. “You can do that later. Go have a rest.”

He doesn’t complain. “Okay.” He promptly takes out a blanket, lies down and falls asleep.

One of the priests walks up the stairs and notices him. “Why does he get to sleep? I want to sleep, but you don’t see me dragging my feet.” He complains.

“He sleeps, for he fought an endless tide of skeletons by himself and is now tired to his bones.” Chastises Marco from where he is sitting.

The priest pauses. “Makes sense.” He shrugs, moving off again.

A bit later, I gather everyone around. “Alright everyone, we did a good job down there today. We defeated the Lich and made sure nothing here is going to hurt anyone ever again.” I begin, drawing some proud smiles.

“But there is some bad news.” Their smiles waver. “We’ve chanced upon some evidence of demon activity in the Empire.” Frowns replace smiles, and I hear a few gasps of shock. “And we need to go to a place near Liensport, where there may be somebody who will try to kill us.” A few of them grimace.

“Luckily,” I continue brightly, “we have someone who just so happens to have fought this person before. Ferdinand, please tell us everything you know about this person.”

“Alright.” He steps forwards, and everyone focuses their gazes on him.

Gerald: Status

Ferdinand: Status