Fortress Al-Mir

Of course it was dark. This was an underground library with no natural lighting. He hadn’t brought his torch with him.

“Vezta?” he called out. Not receiving an answer, he carefully started moving, feeling his way to the door. If he remembered correctly, the maze-like room with the bottomless pit would be to his right. “Vezta?” he called again as he made his way as fast as he could in the total darkness. A few times, he stumbled over the bodies of the fallen soldiers or monsters, but he pushed on until he felt the heavy metal door.

Turning the corner into the pit room, he found Vezta seated on the steps of the dais. It looked like it had one knee crossed over the other, but the only things peeking out the bottom of its ‘dress’ were thick, black tendrils that dripped with slime. He wasn’t quite sure how he could see the monster—there were no visible torches in the room—but there it was.

Maybe it had something to do with the way he couldn’t see anything but darkness in the rest of the room. No starfields with bright yellow suns peeking out at him this time.

The creature smiled, flashing surprisingly human-like teeth. “[Defense]|[successful]/[victorious]?”

Arkk grimaced as the strange concepts formed in his mind, but this time, he refrained from clamping his hands over his ears. It hadn’t helped last time.

“No. It hasn’t started yet. I…” His eyes shifted to the side where he spotted one other thing despite the total darkness of the room. The large stone sphere, engraved with the same labyrinthine pattern that covered the rest of the chamber. “There are a lot more than expected, it seems.”

“[Misfortune]|[lament]/[mourn]. [Unknown human]|[presence]/[continued existence]|[query]?”

“Yeah. I’m back.” He looked to the sphere. “This thing. You said it is a defensive tool?”

“[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART]. [Ultimate]|[defensive tool]/[offensive tool]. [Confirmation]/[no fibbing].”

“There are two hundred creatures, a few dozen orcs with the rest being goblins, approaching my village.” Arkk paused, considering his words. “Can it stop them? Fight them off?”

Vezta cocked her head to one side, hand scratching behind its ear. It seemed to swap which legs were crossed, but again, nothing but a writhing mass of tentacles came out the bottom of its clothing. “[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART]|[require]|[construction]/[embedding]/[fortification]. [Require]|[temporal passage]/[tick-tock]. [Require]|[underlings]/[minions]/[employees].”

“Is that… is that a no?” Arkk clenched his teeth. “What about you? You look strong, can you—”

Vezta held up a finger. “[Self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]|[bound]/[tethered]|[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART].”

“You’re stuck here?”

“[Bound]/[tethered]|[HEART]. [Unknown human]|[contract]/[binding]|[HEART]; [Self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]|[bound]/[tethered]|[unknown human].”

“If I…” Arkk started, trying to parse its meaning. “If I do your contract thing with the heart, you’ll be bound to me? And then we can both leave this place?”

“[Confirmation].”

“Can you take out two hundred monsters?”

Vezta considered again before slowly nodding its head. “[Self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]|[serves]/[delivers tea]. [Conflict]/[barroom brawl][specialty]. [Possible]. [Out of practice]/[rust-covered blade].”

“Please just say yes or no.”

“Yes or no.” It paused, then frowned. “Yes.”

“Good enough for me,” Arkk said, marching over to the sphere. “How do I do this?”

Vezta was at his side before he even noticed it move. It took his hand in its own—warm and not slimy despite looking like it should be—and gently moved him closer to the massive stone sphere. “[Magic]|[push]/[saturate].”

Arkk blinked. For some reason—tales of old, he suspected—he thought there would be a literal contract to sign. Something requiring his signature. Instead, the monster guided his hand until his palm met the cool, rough stone of the sphere. “You aren’t a demon, right?” he asked, wanting just a little more confirmation than the Abbess had been able to give.

To his surprise, Vezta gnashed her teeth. Her hand squeezed his just a bit too tight, making him wince. “[Offended]/[insulted]. [Deceiver]/[scam artist]?” It scoffed a clear and uncannily human-like scoff. “[Self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]|[SERVANT]. [SERVANT].”

As Vezta slowly relaxed its grip on his hand, Arkk decided to never bring that subject up again for as long as he lived. “I… most times I try to use magic, I blow up whatever I’m trying to do,” Arkk admitted. “Just a warning.”

“[Unknown human]|[powerful]/[terrific]. [HEART]|[desires]|[power]/[magic]. [Positive quality]/[good job].”

“Alright, I guess. Just don’t blame me when it explodes.”

The monster said nothing more. Taking a deep breath, Arkk focused on the sphere. Gently touching it with his magic, he could feel its channels and pathways. The labyrinthine design carved into its surface tugged at his magic. Like one massive ritual circle, impossibly complex compared to anything he had seen, let alone used.

The tugging continued, pulling more. Arkk tried to rear back, only to find the tug grow stronger. It ripped at his magic, siphoning more and more. He tried to rip his hand off the sphere itself, but the monster kept him pinned to it.

His fingertips started to burn. The heat spread across his palm. Throwing his head back, Arkk couldn’t stop the scream welling in his throat.

The sphere ejected a great thump, moving despite its stone nature. The force of it sent Arkk flying backward, breaking his contact with the artifact as he sailed across the room. His back slammed into the wall and his vision swam.

Before the tunnel vision took over completely, he saw the monster turn to him with a too-wide smile stretching across its face. “Contract accepted,” it said as the torches mounted on the walls flared to life.

Arkk’s head slumped and everything went dark.

Arkk wasn’t quite sure when he awoke. All he knew was that it was the most comfortable waking he had ever experienced. Ilya always knew how to stuff her mattress to make it comfortable, but compared to this? Arkk imagined he had fallen asleep on a cloud.

That… couldn’t be right.

Slowly opening his eyes to flickering yet bright torchlight, he jolted.

A pair of bright gold eyes stared down at him, looking like two suns hanging in a pitch-black night sky.

“Welcome back.”

Arkk leaped to his feet and backed away slowly. The monster sat on the ground, shadows and tendrils spread out across the floor where he had been. As far as he could tell, his head had been resting on its… thighs? If it had such things. The way those tendrils disappeared back into its body made him doubt it.

It stood in an inhumanly smooth motion, hands clasped in front of its navel once again. But Arkk found his attention drawn away from the monster.

The room had changed during his unconsciousness. There were still skeletons strewn about, but the torches had come to life. The crater that had held the sphere was empty. Now, the sphere floated over the bottomless pit, slowly revolving. Every few seconds, a thump-thump resounded throughout the chamber, sounding like the beating of a heart.

Which answered the question of why the monster had called this a [HEART].

Magical light traced paths through the sphere’s maze. Magic that he could feel as it coursed over the heart. The feeling made him nervous. His heart beat faster. So too did the stone heart, increasing the rate of the heavy thumps.

That…

He wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“Fortress Al-Mir lives again.”

Arkk turned his head, though his eyes lingered on the beating stone heart until her words forced him to shift focus to the monster. “I understood you?”

“It would be more accurate to say that the [HEART] informed me of your language, which I am now speaking.” Keeping its hands clasped together, the monster dipped into a low bow. “I apologize for the pain the [CONSTRUCTED LANGUAGE] caused you, but I had no other method of communication.”

“I…” Arkk didn’t quite know how to respond to a monster sincerely apologizing to him. Clenching his teeth, he shook his head. “How long was I out?”

“Approximately one hour.”

Arkk’s heart threatened to leap up his throat at hearing that. The thumps in the chamber picked up the pace, making him all the more aware of his own hammering heart.

“Something wrong?”

“We need to hurry. They might already be there by now. You…” Arkk looked at Vezta, pausing. “You can fight them, right?”

“I can try.” Vezta tilted its head back and forth like it was cracking the bones in its neck. If a creature that dripped with slime and walked on tentacles had anything resembling a humanoid bone structure, Arkk would be surprised. “Not my usual duties and I am rusty. Did you say two hundred? Should be doable as long as they do not all rush me at once.”

“It is scary that you sound so casual about facing down two hundred goblins.” Grabbing Vezta’s hand, this time he led her toward the library. He knew exactly which door it was, which was kind of an odd thing to know given how many times he had been there before, but he supposed it wasn’t too strange. More importantly, Vezta didn’t protest at all. She seemed quite pleased, having a chipper tone in her voice when she next spoke.

“Is it truly frightening? I imagine you would be capable of far more.”

“I don’t know what you think I am, but I’m just a regular human. Taking out a few monsters at a distance should be doable with a good bow. I could probably fight off a goblin or two in close quarters. Maybe an orc if I get lucky.”

“I feel your magic. Use that?”

“Things explode. And I don’t have time to set up ritual circles in the middle of battle.”

“Ritual circles are well and good for complicated magic, but incantations are far faster. Electro Deus causes explosions?”

“I have no idea what that even means.” He knew what incantations were, just not that specific one. When that spellcaster had visited the village, Arkk had questioned him at length. Incantations were advanced, however. According to that spellcaster, all sorcerers needed to start with the basic ritual magic before moving to compress extravagant rituals down into words.

“[Lightning Strike].”

Arkk flinched reflexively, but… it didn’t hurt when she said that. Now that he thought about it, the few other times she had used that language hadn’t caused pain since he woke up. And… he thought he understood. Lightning Strike.

Pausing in the hall, he looked at one of the corpses along the sides of the corridor. Holding out his hand, he said, “Electro Deus,” while funneling a little magic through the words.

A brilliant bolt of blue-white lightning ruptured the space between Arkk and the skeleton. It slammed into it with enough force to send the skull flying through the air, charred and blackened.

Even knowing he was in a rush, Arkk couldn’t help but stop and stare at his fingertips. They burned a little bit, but that was more of a tingle of magic waiting to be cast again than any burn from the power of the lightning.

“Do… you know any more things like that?”

“Unfortunately, no. I am not a sorcerer and cannot cast magic in such a manner. Such things are useless to me. The only other spells that come to mind are [Create Lesser Servant] and [Possession].”

Both spells blossomed in his mind. The first would create something like Vezta if he understood the concept correctly. There was a definite difference between [SERVANT] and servant, however. As far as he could tell, the spell created minor assistants and helpers, more akin to an apprentice in a workshop than… whatever Vezta was. Despite her calling herself a [SERVANT] using that language, the concept still didn’t quite click. Neither did [HEART], for that matter, or [CONSTRUCTED LANGUAGE]. He wasn’t sure what was different about those words compared to a full spell forming in his mind, but there it was.

The other spell, however, made him a bit queasy. “I can… completely take over someone else’s body?”

“If they are subservient to you. Won’t be much use against an opponent in combat, but… Ah, I see. Do you find it distasteful? It is quite a useful spell. My former master used it to great effect, wielding other bodies as if they were suits of armor, discarding them once they were worn down and broken. I know that spell specifically because he possessed me on occasion.”

“Discarding people?” Arkk swallowed, feeling a bit ill. “Like broken armor?”

“It kept him safe. His minions reveled in becoming possessed. It was a great honor.” Vezta frowned, looking around. “You have no minions, unfortunately. I would suggest possessing me, but you are inexperienced. You would not be able to wield me as effectively as I can wield me.”

“We’ll just… shelve that one for now.”

“I shall protect you as best I am able,” Vezta said, leaning up against Arkk. “I cannot have my new master falling so soon.” She paused, then looked up to Arkk, meeting his eyes with her burning suns. “Were we not in a hurry?”

Arkk pulled himself away, deciding to put that topic aside for… forever, probably. “Yes. Yes, we were,” he said, approaching the door to the library. It was closed, but the door swung open before he could even touch it. Assuming that was Vezta, he stepped inside without pause and headed straight for the magical circle. Much like the rest of the fortress, the torches in the library had roared to life.

“I’ll go first,” Arkk said, stepping right into the circle. When he turned around, however, he found himself alone. He looked left, then right. As if suddenly aware of where she was, he glanced downward.

Arkk stood in the center of a small puddle of dark violet slime. It wasn’t actually touching his boots. Picking up one foot and setting it down elsewhere had the slime moving out of the way, letting him step down on the stone tiles of the fortress floor. If he hadn’t been paying too much attention, he might have thought he was looking down at a strangely shaped shadow. The only problem was the glowing yellow sun staring up from that oily shadow.

“Alright then… together, I guess?”

Looking down at the circle, he was a bit disappointed that he didn’t instantly understand it the way he understood the spells Vezta had mentioned. Vezta had drawn it out, so maybe she could do that language thing for this? Something to ask later. For now, he knelt and touched it with his magic.

The peaceful and silent library vanished, replaced with the inhuman cries of alarmed monsters.

Vezta’s tendrils whipped out from his shadow, snatching a quartet of goblins. The tendrils pulled them down to the ground but didn’t stop there. Sickening snaps, squeals of pain, and rent flesh filled the air as the goblins smashed into the earth.

It did make him a little nauseous, but more at the brutal and likely painful deaths than the deaths themselves. Killing the attackers was what he had come here to do.

And the attack had started.