The Tears of Kas̆dael

Jasper dreamed that the sky was falling. The heavens glowed an ominous red, and in the distance the relentless booming of drums echoed as rocks fells from the heavens. He awoke to a shower of dust and gravel in his face.

BOOM. The dome shook with the impact, and more of the ceiling crumbled.

BOOM. Leaping to his feet, he saw the others fumbling in the dark, the shattered soul light on the floor giving off only the palest of light.

BOOM. With a thunderous roar, the ceiling caved in.

In the faint glow of the city's lights, something stepped down into the room. Black scales covered the creature’s flesh, ending in vicious claws that glowed with a subtle light. Four arms sprouted from its side, and from its head two great horns sprung. It opened its mouth in a wide grin, reviewing row upon row of razor-sharp teeth, as it bellowed its challenge. Atrometos.

The group attacked as one. Jasper cast a stream of Sacred Stars at the creature, while Ihra fired her arrows at his side. Pa’al leaped in front of the Atrometos, raising his shield and slashing at it with his great-axe, the two swordsmen leaping to his aid, as Qara barraged it with icy spears.

In an instant, it was over. With a casual swipe of its hands, the creature sent Pa’al flying back with such force that he crashed through the stone walls of the dome, landing in the streets beyond in a mangled mess. Ignoring the swordsmen and archers, the beast stepped forward to Qara. She blocked its first and second strikes with her staff, the enchanted wood straining under the weight of its blows. But on the third strike, the staff crumbled. The next blow ripped through her chest, piercing her heart. With the strength that only comes in crises, Qara launched onto its arm with all her might, as she struggled to prevent the creature from withdrawing its arm from her body. As her lifeblood poured out, she pumped all of her essence into a veritable avalanche of ice, temporarily freezing the Atrometos in place. “RUN” she screamed.

Jasper turned to run and saw Ihra transfixed with horror at the scene unfolding before them. Damn it. He grabbed her hand and tugged. “Come on.”

He dragged her behind him, as he stumbled into the dark, dimly aware of the fleeing forms of the others running beside him. With a roar, the Atrometos broke free of the ice, and a moment later its heavy thumps could be heard chasing after them. A clawed hand whistled through the hair, and with a scream, Heizim was yanked back. Seconds later his corpse was hurled past them, smashing into a dome beyond. The winding road split and Jasper and Ihra turned right, the others racing to the left with the Atrometos in hot pursuit. Jasper and Ihra hurtled through the streets, stumbling over their feet in their haste, as the screams of their party members ripped through the silent city.

Then the city fell silent. They skidded to a halt, their ears straining for any sound of the monster. Nothing could be heard, but the rushing of the nearby river. Maybe it's gone?

Thud. Thud. Thud-thud-thud-thud.

They broke into mad flight once more as the sounds of the Atrometos crashing through the city quickly closed upon them. Suddenly, Jasper spied a small crevice ahead. Yanking hard on Ihra’s hand, he pulled her into the tight space.

“What are you do-?!” He shoved his hands over her mouth, cutting off her scream, and raised a finger to his lips. As the crashing sounds were almost upon them, Jasper cast Eternal Night. The void stretched out around them, obscuring them from sight in an icy bubble of darkness. The Atrometos emerged into view and stopped, the scent of its prey suddenly gone. It paced the streets in front of them and paused in front of their bubble, confused by the cold, dark crevice in the street. Jasper cast the spell again, another thirty seconds winding down, and then again. Last cast; I’m out of essence. At last, the Atrometos turned away and slowly disappeared out of sight behind a dome.

They sat there for hours, Jasper repeatedly casting the spell whenever he had enough essence, terrified to venture back into the city.

From time to time, whispers came out of the darkness. “Jaassper. Don’t you want to go home? All you’ve got to do is come to me. Be at peace, again.”

“Ihhhra. Don’t you know you can’t trust him? He’ll leave you to die alone in this city, sacrifice you to the Atrometos to save himself. But I’ll save you. Just come to me.”

Ihra rocked back and forth in the dark, her hands over her ears, muffled sobs escaping into the night. Shaky himself, Jasper didn’t know what to do. Awkwardly, he tried to get give her a reassuring pat on the back. She reacted swiftly, knocking his hand.

“Don’t touch me!” she hissed venomously. He yanked his hand back and scooched a bit away from her. Eventually, her tears ceased, and she dried her eyes.

With a sigh, she looked up at him. “Look, I’m sorry-”

He cut her off. “No need to apologize.”

“No, I know you were just trying to help. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be alive right now. I know it, you know it. And a lot of times, when a man helps a woman, he expects something in return.”

“I would nev-”

She raised her hands. “I know, I know. I’m not accusing you of anything, I just….I just don’t like to be touched, that’s all.”

They lapsed into an awkward silence for a few minutes, before Jasper spoke up again. “So how the hell are we getting out of here?”

They cautiously emerged from the crevice and examined the area. “I don’t see the path we came down on, do you?”

“No,” she agreed. “I could probably use my tracking skills to find our way back to where" - her voice caught - “you know. But even if I could, I don’t know if it’s safe. What even attracted that thing to us?”

Jasper shook his head. “No, you’re right. It would probably be too dangerous. I think the group was keeping something from us. A couple of nights ago, when Qara was teaching me how to use unstructured magic, I caught sight of some sort of artifact she had. I could feel it - it was giving off a weird pulse - but when I asked her about it, she wouldn’t tell me what it was, just said it was ‘for the mission.’”

“That’s it!” Ihra whisper-shouted excitedly. “I had forgotten all about it till you mentioned secrets. When Qara sent Rashpa and me out to scout the trolls, she told me about a backup plan they had - said she didn’t think that it was right that Qara was keeping it from us. There should be a temple-" she scanned the view before pointing up “a temple that has an old teleportation device in it. If something went wrong, we were supposed to flee to the temple, and escape from there.” The temple stood high above them, built into a cliff on the other side of the river.

Jasper whistled softly, craning his neck to see the temple. “Boy, that’s a long way up. But, it’s a plan.”

They crept through the winding streets as quietly as they could, ears and eyes straining for even the faintest into of danger. Aside from the Atrometos, and the taunting whispers, there had been no sign of an enemy. Qara had believed that there was a group of trolls searching for something in the city, but they had yet to encounter any signs of them. When they reached the banks of the river, it was obvious that they could not just swim across. The waters frothed and raged through the city, sharp rocks thrusting out of the water like mountains in a drowned world. Peering over the edge, Jasper could see no sign of the bottom through the frothing waters. Guess we got to find a bridge.

They followed the river for quite some time. The rushing roar of its waters brought a welcome respite from the whispers in the dark, drowning its insidious refrain. After an hour, they finally spotted a bridge ahead. Four trolls patrolled the entry, with two guards posted on each side of the river. Crap.

Jasper turned to Ihra. “So what’s the plan here? I’ve got a spell that will let me bind three of them in shackles for thirty seconds. I might be able to blow them up with Sacred Star in that time, if you can occupy the fourth.”

She shook her head vigorously. “What about the Atrometos? If we make too much noise, it might attract its attention. We’ve got to either find a way to kill them quietly or sneak past them.” She paused, before continuing. “I think I have a skill that can kill one of them, if you can get the other.”

Jasper mulled his options. Ihra was right, which meant that Sacred Star, his favorite spell was out of the question. Eternal Night would buff his damage but didn’t do any damage on its own. And Fiery Shackles was a control spell that only did minor damage. Which really only left Purge. He hadn’t had a chance to try it yet, but he had found a description of it in the guild’s library, and it was supposed to be pretty stealthy. It will have to do, he decided.

They slowly slipped into position. The roar of the river covered the sound of their approach, allowing them to draw quite close to the unwary trolls. Gesturing with his hands, Jasper counted down their attack. 1, 2, 3. Purge. The spell hit his troll with a strange, wet crunch. Immediately, its throat blazed red, as the troll grasped its throat, trying to scream but unable, the blood inside its veins turned to molten lava that consumed it from the inside out. It thrashed wildly, writhing in agony, before collapsing in a strangely depleted heap. Jasper watched in fascinated horror, unable to tear his eyes away from the ghastly spectacle. Yep, definitely don’t want to go down the Inquisitor path. Tearing his eyes free, he looked over to his partner. Ihra stood panting over a troll corpse, its head rolling on the ground beside it while the cauterized neck still glowed with embers of flame.

“What was that?” he asked her.

“Executioner’s Arrow. It takes a really long time to charge, so it’s not much use in a fight, but if you have the time to use it, it’s great. Shoot an arrow in the neck, and it transforms into a fiery blade that tries to chop off the head. Great spell.” She looked at his shriveled troll corpse. “You?”

“Purge. An inquisitor spell.” That was all that needed to be said. He patted down the troll’s corpse, pulling out a coin purse, then peered down the long bridge, at least two hundred yards in length. The long bridge reminded him of a petrified caterpillar; row after row of arches plunged into the river below, while the sides gleamed with oddly shaped spikes whose purpose he couldn’t fathom. In the dim light of the soul lamps, he could barely perceive the guards on the other side. “Looks like we’re in luck; the others guards haven’t budged.”

The long bridge was fully exposed, perhaps the only straight line Jasper had seen in this godforsaken city, so there were no obvious places to hide or take cover. Thus, they raced across it, as quickly and silently as possible, the patter of their footsteps largely drowned out by the roar of the rushing waters below. The second guards never heard them coming, and the grisly scene played out again. Purge. They quickly searched the bodies, before vanishing into the winding streets, not daring to stay near the corpses for long, lest they attract unwanted attention.

As they moved further from the river’s roar, the whispers started again. “Jaaasper. The temple will be your death.” The words ate at his mind. How do they know so much? “Jaaasper. The shrine is opened, the sealed are awakened, but I can help you. Let’s make a deal.”

He dug his fingernails into his hands, gouging the skin, as he fought to ignore their taunting pleas. But the realization slowly dawned on him. However the whispers got their knowledge, their words had revealed one thing: they knew far, far too much about him and Ihra. And what they had said was accurate. Yes, it was designed to provoke them into going to the shadows and treating with whatever they were, but their information was still true - which meant that death awaited them at the temple. He passed his thoughts to Ihra, who agreed.

“Rather than going straight to the temple, let’s scout it carefully first.” He pointed to another small cliff that rose slightly above the temple. “If we can make it up there, we should be able to scout it out.”

As Jasper clung to the side of the cliff, hundreds of feet up in the air, he found himself cursing his life decisions. “Stupid bloody game, I just had to play it.” His hand slipped as the small ledge he’d grabbed crumbled beneath his weight, and only his greatly enhanced strength allowed him to barely cling on. There was no other handhold within easy reach, but one was there just out of reach. Grumbling beneath his breath, he launched himself higher, grabbing the ledge and scrambling further up the rock face. Why does it always have to be heights?

Ihra climbed the cliff face easily, her class skills lending her exceptional balance and agility. She kept an eye on her strange partner as he struggled about the cliff, cursing about a “game.” She hoped he wasn’t losing his grip on reality. Ihra recalled what the whispers had said, that he’d leave her behind to die. She hoped that wasn’t true - he really had saved her life with the Atrometos - but if there was one thing she’d learned in life, it was that you couldn’t trust anyone. Trust was for idiots who had just been lucky enough to not get burned. Yet.

Heaving herself to the top, she engaged her Farsight skill to scope out the temple. The temple was truly breathtaking. Rising almost two hundred feet into the air, the giant edifice seemed carved out of a solid block of black, shiny stone. Obsidian? A perfect circle, its walls were broken by four monumental entrances that towered all the way up to the great dome that capped it. Every inch of the walls was covered in giant reliefs depicting all manner of strange creatures, ancient battles, and foul atrocities, all of them stained in a dull reddish color.

But the temple was not abandoned. Trolls patrolled its grounds, far too many for her and Jasper to fight. How many even are there? 50? 100? It was not the trolls that chilled her to the core, though. In the center of the rotunda, twelve massive chairs were arrayed around the portal gate. Twelve Atrometos sat in those chairs, unmoving, while a thirteenth slowly paced through the temple’s courts. Selene’s Grace, she swore to herself. There was no way they could beat that many.

As she swept her eye over the temple one more time, she saw someone she had missed. Chained to the portal gate was a small, mangled, human. Is that Pa’al? The events of the fight were chaotic, but she thought he had been the first to fall after he was thrown through the walls of the dome. Apparently, the tank’s prodigious health had let him cling to life, although judging by the state he was in, she doubted he would last for long.

With one last heave, her partner pulled himself over the edge of the cliff, flopping on his back and gasping for air. She turned to him, the fear no doubt writ large across her face.

Seeing her doleful look, he dragged himself up. “That bad, huh?”

Ihra nodded, unable to trust herself to speak, lest she break down in tears at the futility of their fate. Choking back her emotions, she finally found the strength to tell him the news. “It’s like the whispers said. There’s only death there.” She pointed out the Atrometos, the trolls, and Pa’al, numb to the situation before her. “Qara thought this was a rival expedition, but this? This is an invasion. Even if we had the whole Hargish guild and the Barracks with us, we couldn’t beat this force.”

He stared in grim silence, the impossibility of their predicament no doubt preying on his mind as much as hers. Finally, he spoke. “Whelp, I guess there’s only one thing left to do: talk to the Whispers.” Great. He’s lost his mind.

Ihra stared in horror at Jasper’s proposal. He raised his hands, defending himself. “Look, I know it’s a terrible idea. I know Qara said to never, ever listen to the whispers. But Qara is dead, and all her advice really didn't stop our group from getting ripped to shreds. Yes, the Whispers probably just want to kill me, but that, down there” - he pointed to the temple - “that will definitely kill me. The way I see it, our choices are certain death or probable death, so I’ll go with the option that has a slight chance of me living through it.”

“We could try to sneak-”

He cut her off, “What, through a hundred trolls and thirteen Atrometos with the keen senses of a bloodhound? Eternal Night is a stationary spell. Even if I had an endless source of essence, it still wouldn’t be able to get us through all those troops.”

“We could try to find the entrance we originally came in from.”

Jasper shrugged. “Can you do it? Because I can’t. I don’t have a clue where I came into the cavern from; it was nothing more than a small door at the top of a cliff, and this city is a confusing nightmare to traverse. And that’s assuming we don’t just run into the Atrometos again. We have no supplies left and there’s nothing down here to hunt for food, so time is not on our side.”

He sighed, running his fingers through his shaggy hair. “I just don’t see another option.”