The Tears of Kas̆dael

It was a long and treacherous climb back down the cliff face, and Jasper watched with a bit of envy as Ihra effortlessly glided from ledge to ledge. She's definitely got an elf heritage, he mused. She landed with an athletic leap that would have earned unanimous 10s from an Olympic committee, while he, after losing his grip on the ledge, fell with an unceremonious thump on his back.

“Ugh.” Grunting with pain, he rolled to his feet. The cliffside was draped in deep darkness, rising along the outskirts of the city, far from the scattered lights of the soul lamps. The whispers are silent here. He called out to them, but there was no response.

"I guess we'll have to go back to the city." It was a short walk, no more than thirty minutes, before they returned to the eerily lit domes. As soon as they entered the accursed ruins, the whispers started up.

“Jaaasper. You’ve returned. Have you seen the truth of my words? Come to me.”

Jasper shook off the chills that ran down his back and, planting his feet in the street, called out with a confidence he didn't possess. “Why not talk here? Can you give us passage from this city or not?”

A chuckle rang out through the streets. “If you want my help, COME. TO. ME.”

He shared a worried glance with Ihra, but knew he had no choice. "Very well." He raised his hands in defeat. “Where am I going?”

Three of the soul lights further down the road suddenly flicked off. “Here.”

Squaring his shoulders, Jasper walked into the darkness, hoping he wasn’t going to his doom.

As he stepped out of the light, he sensed a change in the air. There was a presence here, a creature of shadow. The dark slithered and coiled around him, misty tendrils prodding and poking, pulling and sliding around his form. He fought the urge to panic. I am the river-

“Now, now,” the voice almost purred in his mind, “no need for your little mantra. I have a deal to offer you.” He stood stiff, fighting to stay calm as the tendrils wrapped around him. “The accursed ones made me, tortured me, bound me. The great ones came and wiped them out, but not all of them. Some of the accursed still linger in the dark, hiding like rats down in their cramped passageways, ever lurking just out of my reach. I want the vermin exterminated, that's all. Just kill the accursed for me, and I will solve your little problem.”

Jasper’s mind reeled, trying to decode the creature’s words. “Who are the accursed - do you mean the Tannin?”

The tendrils around him spasmed, nearly crushing the breath out of him, before relaxing a bit. “The Accurrrrsed.” Its voice roiled with venomous hatred. “The task of wiping them all out is beyond a little one like you, but there’s a certain group, a tiresome group that continuously disturbs the peace of my city. They lurk in the shadows at the edge of the city, ever trying my patience with their detestable presence. Kill them, and I will take care of your troll problem.” The tendrils wrapped tighter around him, creeping across his face. “I’ll even rescue the man. A favor for a favor, just between friends.”

Jasper squirmed, barely able to contain his panic. “No.” He managed to grind the word out.

The tendrils wrapped around him tighter, crushing his ribs in a vice-like grip. “No? Do you mean to die here in the city?”

“You only promised to kill the trolls and free Pa’al. You said nothing about sparing our lives. I’ll kill your accursed, if you promise that after the deed is done, you kill the trolls and Atrometos, and let us go - me, Ihra, and any other member of our party left alive. I’m sure as a friend you wouldn’t want me to die so soon.” Jasper didn’t think it likely that anyone else had survived, but after seeing Pa’al alive, he couldn’t be certain that the rest were dead.

The creature let out another low rumble - Jasper could not tell if it was a chuckle or a growl - and relented. The tendrils slithered off his form, retreating into the looming darkness. He dropped to the ground, landing on his knees before it. “I see the Dark Lady chose carefully. The deal is acceptable. The accursed wander the outskirts on the east of the city. Kill them, and I will do as you said.” A large copper coin appeared in the air. Falling to the ground, it rolled to a stop at Jasper’s feet. “Use this to guide you to their location. It will grow hotter as you approach your destination.”

Jasper picked it up and took a few steps back to where Ihra was waiting. He paused for a moment, and turned back one last time. “I think I know what you are. The group said there was nothing but pain in the city, but that's not true, is it? You're the soul lamps.” He hesitated, before continuing. "I'm sorry for what the Tannin did to you. I'll try to kill them." The whispers gave no reply, but Jasper took their silence as assent.

He walked back to Ihra, his skin still crawling. He could not escape the dread that the tendrils were just behind, ready to start slithering across his skin at any moment. With a shudder, he did his best to dismiss the feeling. As he drew close, Jasper tossed the coin to her. “Heads up!”

“What?” Caught by surprise, Ihra's heightened senses still allowed her to lithely pluck the coin out of the air. She examined it for a second, a confused look on her face. “What’s this?”

“We’ve got a quest. Go kill some creepy monsters for another creepy monster, and in turn, the creepy monster will kill a bunch of creepy monsters for us. A mutual murder pact, if you will.”

A bit more seriously, he continued. “Apparently the rumors of surviving Tanin were true. The whispers want us to kill a group that is prowling on the edge of its territory, and in return, it will kill the forces in the temple and let us leave.”

“Can we trust it?”

He shrugged, waving his hands helplessly. “I don’t know. The creature reminded me of stories I used to read about the fe-," he corrected himself, "fairies. They couldn't lie, but you had to be very careful with the agreements you made with them. Any ambiguities, and they'd screw you over. For some reason, I got the same feeling about the whispers. I think it will honor its words, but will happily screw us over if there's a way to do so without breaking its agreement. In the end, though, it’s really our only option, unless you want to fight an army of trolls and Atrometos.”

She frowned, but nodded reluctantly. “And the coin?”

“Some sort of magical compass. Supposed to get really hot when we get close to the targets.”

Ihra flipped it back to him. “Then I think you, as the resident fire mage, should carry it.” He snatched it out of the air and cupped it in his hands. “Alright, the whispers said to go east. Any idea where east is in this dark hole?”

After several false starts, the pair finally found a direction that the coin responded to. It quickly took them past the dimly light domes into the rocky cavern beyond. The underbrush in the cave was surprisingly dense. While the hardy plants that had somehow found a way to survive bereft of sunlight were a true testament to nature's adaptability, their razor-sharp leaves made their trek slow and difficult. Jasper was forced to rely on Ihra’s superior senses - vision being one of her primary stats - as he could only faintly make out his surroundings, the distant lights of the city doing little to illuminate the far reaches of the cavern. She finally ground to a halt at the top of a small hill, signaling for him to stop. The coin burned in his hand, telling him that their quarry was near.

Ihra pointed to a hollow below them. Jasper could make out the faintest flicker of a lit fire, around which a few shadows moved. “There’s a few small domes - huts? - ahead. I can see -” she counted quickly “nine forms moving, although there could be more in the huts. Three of them are isolated. I think I can take those three out without raising the alarm.” Taking careful aim with her bow, she picked the Tannin off one by one. The shadows dropped to the ground without even making a whimper. They held their breath, waiting to see if the alarm was raised, but the moments ticked on in silence. She turned to him with a triumphant grin. “Alright, your turn, fire-boy.”

Jasper crept closer to the fire, finally able to get a good view of the creatures milling around it. They were surprisingly small, little more than 3 feet tall when standing up, and his thoughts flashed back to the monumental architecture of the temple. Did they actually build that? How? He was forced to admit that the little lizard beings, with their oversized crocodile heads, were almost cute, and he felt a bit bad about killing them. He had to remind himself of the atrocities they were said to have performed - the ritual sacrifice of thousands, cannibalism, the enslavement of souls, and worse - but his words rang a bit hollow. That was their ancestors, not them. He hesitated, struggling to do the deed. It’s them or me.

The decision was made for him. One of the small creatures suddenly spotted him. Pointing it gave a strange, trilling cry, “Ke-ke-li! Ke-ke-li!” and shook its spear over its head, before charging toward him.

Crap. With two quick casts of Fiery Shackles, he bound the six creatures in place, as with the other hand, he quickly cast Sacred Star. A moment later, the hollow lit up with fiery explosions. Buffeted by the explosive blast, the spear one of the creatures had been holding whizzed past his head into the dark, narrowly missing him. For a moment, everything was silent, the still burning rubble providing a warm, welcoming, light after days in the dark, cold city.

And then the walls of one of the small domes exploded in a shower of falling rocks. A large form emerged from within, rising to a height of ten feet. Throwing back its monstrous crocodilian maw, the creature gave a challenging bellow.

Jasper’s blood froze, and he felt as if he had suddenly found himself as one of the disposable extras on the cast of Jurassic Park. With a shake, he flung himself to the side as billowing clouds of steam erupted from the creature’s mouth. Swiftly rolling through the underbrush, Jasper could hear his skin crackling and popping from the supercharged liquid. He screamed in pain as the harsh foliage lacerated his ruined skin. Choking back a sob, he rolled onto his knees and cast Sacred Star. The five projectiles flowed out from his hand. His aim was off, but the five missiles curved back towards the creature, slamming into it with concussive force. To his left, Ihra peppered the beast with fiery arrows. As the smoke from his spell cleared, Jasper was shocked to see that the monstrous Tannin stood unharmed. A single arrow was lodged itself into his skin, and, with a contemptuous yank, the beast ripped it out, tossing it into the brush.

Jasper desperately flung himself to the side again as another superheated blast of steam was sent his way. Scrambling across the rocky terrain, ripping open his tender skin on the sharp stones, he threw himself behind the shelter of a half-crumbled dome, as another pillar of steam ripped through where he had been standing. Peaking around the corner, he saw the beast had dismissed him. It turned towards Ihra, who was still bombarding it with arrows, a few of which, here and there, had managed to pierce its skin. With a low bellow, the lumbering beast dropped on all fours and charged towards Ihra.

Jasper leapt out of cover and cast two Sacred Stars at the monster, screaming at the monster at the top of his lungs. The explosions lit up the back of the beast, the monster's armored skin effortlessly shrugging off the fire. But the beast turned back to face the threat it had dismissed. Jasper reached for his magic again, but it felt thin, hard to hold onto. I’m almost out of essence. As the beast charged toward him, Jasper began to cast Sacred Star but caught himself. That won't work. With quick movements, he cast his last two spells. Fiery Shackles clamped down on the beast’s legs. The creature's momentum worked against it, and it slammed into the ground with an earthshaking thud. With the second hand, Jasper cast Purge.

The effect was immediate. While the monster’s scales were almost impervious to flames, its insides were not flame resistant. The beast’s throat turned a deep ruby red, its bellow cut short as it was slowly seared from the inside out. But unlike the troll, the Tanin was not so easily subdued. Pounding its fists into the ground, it pushed itself up, and with a tremendous pull, it shattered the fiery shackles. The molten embers of Purge still burning beneath its skin, it took a slow, pained step towards Jasper.

Panicked, Jasper reached for his essence, but found nothing left for a spell. Forced to rely on unstructured magic, he lit his hands on fire and prepared to face the beast. But despair clutched at his heart. How could one stand against a monster like this? As the Tannin loomed over him, its monstrous maw opening wide, an arrow ripped through the air, burying itself deep into the monster’s glowing throat. The beast stumbled back, desperately clawing at the new threat, but it was no use. The offending arrow transformed into the glowing blade of an executioner’s axe, slicing deep into the neck. Executioner’s Arrow, Jasper realized. A second later, its head plopped on the ground.

Jasper sank to his knees as Ihra emerged from behind the monster. They sat in silence for a while, as the world around them burned.