The Forsaken Hero

The original tip of the spire had jutted several hundred yards above where the top now was, but it had been blasted apart in the initial explosion. The beautiful mansions and terraces that had wound around the spire were gone, reduced to ash or showering the ground around us in a storm of ash, debris, and meters. Smoke poured from the vents and chasms opening into the center of the spire, blotting out the sky. The light evening sun, hovering a hand’s breadth over the lip of the distant caldera, was blood red with particulates filling the caldera.

The center of the spire was still obscuring in waves of mana and smoke, hiding the bodies of the emerging dragons. The occasional shockwave tore through the veil, but more filth closed in immediately, revealing little more than glimpses of the hellscape within. Wisps of Elaine’s soul and Avant’s mana entwined with the dreadful aura of the two dragons, creating an overbearing combined pressure matching that of the Ally of Fate.

Traversing the torn landscape as it was would have been impossible for me, but Fable crossed with the same confidence as our journey across Blue Canyon. He leaped across bubbling pools of lava, dove through geysers of spitting fire, and crossed gaping chasms by treading across the thin ridges and pillars of stone left behind. I didn’t really know where we were going, only that it was closer to where the keep had once stood. Closer to the center of the spire., and the dragons that resided there.

As we came to the lip of a particularly large chasm, Fable stopped, sniffing the air. I wrinkled my nose at the acrid scent of smoke, uncertain of what exactly he could be searching for. As far as I could tell, we were standing in the ruins of an old mansion, still a few hundred yards from the edge of the courtyards surrounding the Imperial Palace.

An impression wormed its way into my mind from my bond with Fable, and I yelped, throwing my arms around his neck.

”W-wait! Don’t jump–”

That was as far as I got before Fable Lunged into the chasm. Not over, but in.

I squeezed my eyes shut, my stomach twisting as the feeling of weightlessness gripped it. Thick gouts of smoke smothered us, the air filtering through my wards dry and stale. I could imagine us rushing toward the wall on the other side, nothing but fire and darkness waiting for us below.

Our momentum came to an abrupt halt as Fable’s paws found purchase on something, our fall shifting into a trot. I squeezed him tighter, tentatively peeking through his fur.

Somehow, we were standing in the mouth of a tunnel, our back to the chasm. Cracks ran through the walls and ceiling, but I could make out the details of worked stone. A....passage?

The black carpet disintegrated under Fable’s weight, crushed into fine ash. There was a charred painting on the wall some twenty feet ahead. The paint had burned or melted off, but I recognized the frame as matching those on the lower floors of the palace.

”We’re inside?” I whispered, tail stiff with shock.

I turned back to the chasm behind us, squinting past the glare of flames. The fissure descended past my vision, but around us, and for a few hundred feet below, tunnels pocket marked the walls. It was like someone had opened up an ant hive. Hope stirred in my breast. Maybe the palace hadn’t been destroyed, after all. The artifact could still be here, safe in the underground passages!

But even as my tail started to flick, something changed. The orange glow in the depths began to brighten, overtaking the ghastly red of the flames. Fable cantered over to the edge, and I leaned over, suppressing a wave of dizziness as I stared into the darkness.

Only, it wasn’t dark anymore, and the orange glow wasn’t just light. A tide of orange, red, and yellow surged up the canyon walls like a waterfall flowing in reverse.

As the edge of the tide endeared, I gasped, recoiling. It wasn’t an amorphous substance but a horde of souls, of elementals. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands. The strongest among them were only fifth-level, but they were so densely packed together they resembled a living lava flow. I grasped my staff, holding it tightly in both hands. ”Elemental Spirit!” I drew in a sharp breath as a sharp spike of pain stabbed into my soul. But, gritting my teeth, I drew more and more mana, weaving not one, but two of the sixth-circle spells.

As I struggled to control my soul, the elementals reached the lowest of the tunnels. Dozens crawled into each one, trailing molten slag and cinders in their wake, while the rest continued to climb, rapidly nearing our position. Their grunts, cries, and screeches grated in my ears like rocks grinding together.

As the circles manifested, Fable took off, tearing down the passage as two earth spirits emerged at the mouth of the tunnel. They were small, but powerful, making use of the enchanted stone the passages were built from. One Lunged off the edge, disappearing from view. Seconds later, enraged screeches echoed through the tunnels, accompanied by blinding flashes of fire and light. In seconds, the first elemental spirit disappeared from my senses, its body crumbling into debris. It was too late to add the other into the Nexus, so I sent it a mental direction to destroy the tunnel.

A rumble shook the passage a second later. Perhaps that would buy us a little time, but I didn’t have much hope. The passage was filled with choking smoke and cinders. Light crystals flickered far and between, small pockets of hazy light amid the darkness. The deeper we penetrated the spire, the tighter my chest got, until it hurt to breathe. The walls moved in the corner of my eyes, steadily pressing together, but whenever I looked they hadn’t moved.

Feral screeches whistled in my ears like the crackle of embers. Fable put on a burst of speed. The stagnant air clawed at my wards as we tore through, causing them to flare around me. I buried my head against Fable’s fur, no longer caring to keep track of the twists and turns and focusing on breathing. I wracked my brain, thinking through every possible location the church might have hidden the artifact.

I extended my senses as far as my unstable soul allowed. I knew the feel of the fate magic protecting the palace by heart, so I searched for any unfamiliar magical signatures.

Something pinged, and I directed Fable to a door. He sent it flying into the room with a kick, but when we poked our heads in, it appeared to be a changing room. The spell was a mere second-circle enchantment on a mirror, allowing the user to view the back of their head without turning around. Useful but far from an artifact.

There were several more false leads as we crisscrossed the upper levels of the spire’s passages, each more discouraging than the last. Packs of fire elementals roved the halls, hunting anything that moved, but Fable crushed through them without a second thought.

After searching a large storeroom, I sighed, slumping over Fable’s shoulder and resting my head between his horns. How long had it been? Five minutes? Ten? Were Elaine and Avant even alive? What if we were already too late?

”We’re never going to find it,” I groaned.

Fabel whined, pawing at the door of the next storeroom. We were only a quarter of the way down the catacombs, and already, the elementals were everywhere. There were another couple of floors of storage and armories, the servant’s quarters, and the slave. It would take hours to search it all!

Fable’s tail twitched, and I groaned, covering my head.

”I’m not giving up! I’m just...agh, where could it be? The church could have hidden it anywhere. It might not even be in the palace!”

The church knew me better than I knew myself, setting trap after trap I couldn’t help but walk into. Whether it was exploiting my empathy in the border city or manipulating my naivety during the treaty signing, they were one step ahead. They had probably hidden the artifact in the last place I would think to look if I even got that far. It was looking for a needle in the haystack, supposing the needle had a mind of its own and actively wanted to avoid being found.

Fable growled, jarring me back. I raised my head, horns weighing heavily, and peered into the room he’d broken into—another plain storage room, not a hint of magic to be seen.

”We’re going to fail them. And after I promised so much, to...” I whispered, tears gathering in my eyes.

A loud hiss filled the hallway, and Fable wheeled, bringing us face to face with a sixth-level elemental. I gasped, sitting up sharply, as it screeched, lunging toward us. It was shaped like an eight-legged dog, almost twenty feet long. Its fangs dripped with lava, and its coat flickered with flames. Behind it, another dozen fourth-level monsters followed, taking shapes from amorphous oozes to three-legged humanoids. It was a larger force than anything we’d seen until now, and I could make out the orange glow behind them, signaling even more approaching.

I bit my lip, holding on tight as Fable tore them to shreds. We were running out of time and in more ways than one.