Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (32 page)

“You hear that, Fan-girl
Damsel?” Tiza asked Zettai. “This is dangerous.”

“I'm not a damsel and I
ain't afraid of no ghosts.”

“Are you sure?” Tiza
asked. “I hear it likes the girls.”

“I ain't afraid of no
ghosts!”

She grabbed their bag of
mountaineering equipment and suited herself up. Tiza grabbed the next set and
thought aloud of the ghosts she and Nolien encountered in Najica and the
horrors they inflicted. Nolien was third and spoke of how they defeated them.
Eric completed the square because he wanted to hear the story. Neither Tiza nor
Nolien wanted to talk about it.

Sias didn't equip any
gear. Instead, she put a hand on the mountain and levitated five feet. Basilard
had to use Magic Sight to make out the signs she made at that height.

“She wants to know
what's taking so long,” Basilard said while hooking up Haburt's gear.

“I want to know how
she's doing that,” Eric and Zettai chorused.

This made the latter
blush. Despite her insistence that she wasn't a “fan-girl damsel,” she privately
admitted that Tiza had a point. It made her feel awkward around Eric because
embarrassing fantasies popped into her head.

“I'll ask once we catch
up.”

The last time Eric
climbed a mountain was during gym class on a climbing wall. It terrified him
and he often fell before reaching the top. Today, he would climb without a
trace of his former weakness. He reached for a stone and Shadow Dengel
generated next to him.

“You will
die
,
loser.” Eric grabbed a second rock and pulled himself up. Shadow Dengel floated
beside him. “You know better than anyone how dangerous this will be. Why put
yourself in danger?” Tiza was like a squirrel in a tree, reaching the top so
fast. “Or her?” Basilard was already there and scolded her for recklessness
until the rest of the party caught up.

“Do not be afraid,” Sias
signed and Basilard translated. “I have asked the mountain to look out for you
and it has accepted my request. It will catch you if you fall.”

Then she ascended
higher.

“How’s she doing that?”
Zettai asked. “Wind magic?”

“I bet it’s gravity
magic as an offshoot of earth magic,” Eric said. “She uses the mass of the
mountain to adjust local gravity. She’s not rising off the ground as much as
the mountain is pulling her up.” He looked to Basilard for confirmation. “Am I
right?”

“Eighty points,” the senior
replied.

The climb continued
cliff after cliff and ledge after ledge. The mountain attracted the sun's heat
and Eric's hand burned from grabbing one sunbaked handhold after another. In
every other way, the mountain assisted his climb. It was a remarkably
benevolent construct. Instead of handholds moving out of his reach, more formed
out of the smooth stone for him to grab, and instead of pushing him away, it
pulled him closer to its surface. It even warned him of booby traps by making
them pulse red.

“Daylra, did she really
ask the
mountain
to help us?”

“Short answer, ‘yes.’
You'll need to ask the professor for the long answer.”

After some-odd hours
climbing, Sias created a perch large enough for all of them to sit on and eat
lunch. While the rest of them plopped down in exhaustion, Sias gracefully
descended to a kneeling position and spread her skirts around. She looked as
fresh and clean as if she were strolling in a park. Once he caught his breath,
Eric asked Haburt about her unusual magic.

“Miss –” She glared at
the old man. “
Lady
Sias is indeed using magic. It resembles the Holy
Natural Elemental Veneration Empowerment that I read about in college.”

“What does that mean?”
Zettai asked.

Tiza didn't understand
and didn't care. Nolien secretly knew how it worked because his family’s
personal style of magic worked on a similar principle, but didn't want to say.
Eric knew about it, but wanted to hear more. Basilard read his dirty book.

“It means she has
developed a spiritual connection with the mountain by worshipping it. On a
fundamental level, it is similar enough to standard earth magic. The key is
that it ignores the First Law of Magecraft. She only needs the Second and the
Third because the mountain supplies the rest.”

“Could I do this?”
Zettai asked.

“Hypothetically, yes.
If you spent a decade or more living on and around the mountain, venerating it
like a deity, studying it, contemplating it, and otherwise living like a
cloistered nun, you too could harness earth magic without need of mana or
geology.”

Zettai asked a dozen
more questions over the course of the meal and, just like with Eric, each one
became more acute and complicated. The last one (“Is this magic chaotic?”)
stumped him.

“On one hand, it
doesn't use chaotic energy and this has been documented in other areas. On the
other hand, the
nature of chaos
is to make possible what we think is
impossible; belief determines reality. On the third hand, this practitioner is
mildly insane –” Another glare.            “–
possessed of a different
mindset
so chaos may have a hand in it after all.”

As Eric climbed, the
sun got in his eyes, but the sun was at his back. Shielding his eyes, he looked
around and saw a shiny piece of metamorphic rock. He swung over to it and
landed with his feet to either side. With both hands, he pried it loose. He was
about to chuck it when he decided otherwise and placed it in his pack. It would
make a great souvenir for Annala – his friends, he amended hastily

“Hey, Professor!” Eric
shouted up, red faced. “What's volcanic rock doing here?”

“Did you forget, Mr. Watley?
I already explained how –”

Then it happened. It
was invisible, but Eric could feel the pressure of a spell falling over him. He
looked to Basilard, who confirmed his suspicions. They were now entering the
Fear Field that Sias warned them about earlier. Any second now, he would see
his worst nightmares made manifest before his eyes. Until they reached the
source, the best they could do was ignore them.
No matter what you see or
hear...
Basilard told them.
It's not real. Ignore it and move on
. Sure
enough, four feet higher, the mountain disappeared and Eric was in Roalt
Castle’s throne room.

The hall was grand,
detailed, and crisp. All the illusions he'd seen before were just fuzzy enough
to distinguish as illusions. This one even had birdsong and the smell of
lavender to complete the effect. He himself stood at the far end, next to a
door, and the room extended before him into a throne. Unless the illusion
destroyed his bearings, it sat in the open air and away from the mountain.

The door opened and
Annala walked in. She was dressed in a slutty maid outfit and a choke collar.
The leash was held in the hand of the man sitting on the throne. Nulso was
dressed as a king and wore Kasile's crown. He yanked the leash and Annala
stumbled forward. At first, she held her ground, but Nulso was relentless. She
approached the throne despite her struggles. She begged for mercy and the
collar choked her into silence. She arrived at Nulso's feet; meek, obedient,
and crying.

Eric knew what was
coming and his first instinct was to rescue her, but it would mean letting go
of the mountain. Instead, he closed his eyes and muttered, “Not real. Not real.
Not real. Not real.”

He mimed climbing even
as Annala's screams echoed in his ear.

Nolien stood in a
desolate field. Everywhere he looked, plants withered and slaves worked in
agony. Monstrous humanoids marched up and down, whipping them into shape.
Overlooking it all was a golden tower encrusted with jewels of all kinds. On
top of this tower sat a man resembling Nolien, but different enough to pass for
a brother. Tiza, her naked body marred with whip marks, did humiliating acts
for his amusement. In the background, an elderly couple lay forgotten and
fading into nothing.

“Not real. Not real.
Not real. Not real.”

Haburt saw Tiza
approach on his left and another girl resembling her but dressed in a school
uniform, approach from his right. Together, they called him a villain, a
murderer, and a hypocrite. The second girl said she hated him and that he was a
horrible father and demanded he jump to his death to atone for his actions.

“Not real. Not real.
Not real. Not real.”

Basilard heard a trio
of screams and saw his students falling off the cliff. He was about to jump
himself when BloodDrinker flashed in warning. He hesitated and watched them
crash on the rocks below. Their spirits left their broken bodies and three more
joined them. The six surrounded him and blamed him for their deaths. On top of the
mountain, a man with red hair and red eyes laughed evilly while holding
BloodDrinker aloft in his right hand and Mia’s severed head in his left. Basilard
reached for the sword, but it was gone from his waist. The six ghosts held him
in place while the figure used the blade to fire a blood red beam.

“Not real. Not real.
Not real.”

Zettai watched a pair
of ghosts fly down from the peak of the mountain. Primal terror raced through
her mind when she recognized them. They were her parents. Every detail was the
same from their clothes to the bullet holes in their foreheads. They descended
to either side of her and she pressed herself against the mountain, hoping it
would swallow her. As one voice, they told her what a bad girl she’d been and
how they would punish her later. In the meantime, they would punish her new
friends. Zettai threw mana bolts at them, but the spheres fizzled out
immediately. She was powerless to stop them from lifting Eric off the cliff and
throwing him to the ground below. Her fear turned into anger and reminded her
of the Third Law of Magecraft. Shutting her eyes, she chanted, “Not real! Not
real! Not real!”

Sias was entirely
unaffected. Although she passed directly through the Fear Field, there was no
fear in her heart because she was on her mountain. Dengel’s spell couldn’t
break her connection to it. She remained calm, stoic, and continued rising.

Tiza found herself in a
dreary boarding school and her clothing morphed into a corset. It was so tight
she could scarcely breathe, and so confining she could barely move. A collar
materialized around her neck and a leash pulled her towards a room at the end
of the hallway. Waiting for her there was a woman with long, blonde hair. With
a kindly smile, she gestured at corpses to either side of her: Sathel, Retina,
Eric, and Basilard. Then she stepped aside to reveal Nolien strapped to a
chair. His eyes were glazed over and yellow-black ooze dripped from his mouth.

“Lord Heleti, this is
the girl I mentioned earlier. Does she suit your tastes?”

“No,” Nolien said
coldly. “An alley cat like her would never be a suitable wife for someone of my
standing. She is good only for enslavement.”

“As you wish, my son.”

“Thank you, Mother dearest.” 

Fear and despair hit
Tiza hardest of all. It drove all rational thought from her mind, thus making
her forget this was an illusion. Memories of her past surfaced and spliced into
her surroundings, confusing her further. Panic dove deep into her subconscious
and triggered Videlicet Mens.

The rapid influx of
mana through her spirit, body, and mind disrupted the spell's hold on her. Her
vision cleared and she raced up the mountain, completely focused on finding the
mechanism controlling the Fear Field. This triggered a second set of runes near
the summit.

Sias tried to warn her,
but the girl was blind to her hand signs and too fast to catch with rocks.
There was nothing she could do to stop the girl from stepping out of the Fear
Field and into the
Fire
Field. Magical flames activated and the girl was
lost in a sea of crimson and sapphire.

Everyone heard Tiza's
screams, but they dismissed it as part of the Fear Field. Only Sias knew she
was burning alive. The pain, fear, and intense mana rendered her mindless and
she jumped off the cliff into empty air. Sias pushed off the mountain and
caught the girl in her arms, then she suspended gravity to arrest their fall
and increased the pull between herself and the mountain to bring them back.
Tiza screamed and thrashed against her grip, smacking her in the face and
stomach. She could only wait and pray to the mountain for her salvation.

Basilard counted
forty-two in his mind and reached for where he believed BloodDrinker to be.
Even though he felt nothing in his grip, he plunged the sword into where he
believed the Fear Field runes to be. The sword pulsed and a shockwave tore
through the mountain, ripping deep into its interior and shattering everything
above Basilard himself. Sias’ prayers made sure the debris didn’t fall on her
mercenaries. The runes were now so much dust and, without its runes, the Fear
Field ceased immediately. The nightmare faded and Nolien saw the mountain
clearly. Then he saw Tiza and he thought he was still in the nightmare.

 Her clothes were
scorched, large patches of skin were black or blistered, and tuffs of hair were
still burning. Spiders, themselves on fire and trailing smoke, crawled over
her, biting her and squirting liquid and web on her burns. Nolien jumped over
to the platform Sias generated and more spiders crawled out of his sleeves and
out of his hair. They used his arms to cross over to Tiza.

She smiled as they
swarmed and bit her neck. Her eyes fluttered and she drifted into a drugged
sleep. Other spiders moved to her open sores and spat antiseptic to prevent
infection while still others created patches for when a third group was
finished clothing injuries.

Nolien shook his head
at the sight. He placed his staff on her chest, closed his eyes, and called up
everything he knew about burn injuries.

“Excess of Fiol,
hostile flames, by my will and by my knowledge, I revert your menace! Return
this one to pristine condition! Water’s Mercy!”

A cylinder of sea-blue
light encompassed Tiza. It eased her pain and tended her wounds, going deeper
than the spiders to heal the worst of the damage. Basilard sat off to the side,
struggling with himself not to interfere. If he mixed magic with Nolien, he
could do more harm than help.

The rest of the team
joined them on the ledge to regroup. Seeing Tiza in such a state made Eric hate
himself all over again.
I should have warned her about the Fire Field!
Dengel told me about it! I should have known she'd have that reaction; what
Haburt did to her....Haburt!

It was
his
fault
Tiza was like this! He called the professor's name and, when their eyes met,
gave him the full force of his Evil Eye. The old man froze, but it wasn't
because of the intensity of the attack. He sighed and slouched.

“No matter how much you
hate me right now, it cannot be more than my hatred for myself.”

Zettai looked from one
to the other. “What are you guys talking about?”

 Eric spun to face her
and accidentally blasted her with Evil Eye. She instantly went statue stiff. He
immediately shut it off and she shivered like someone having a seizure. Once
again, Eric hated himself, but not for long. As soon as she recovered, she
asked what he just did with her usual inquisitive glee and he gladly explained.

They spent hours on
that ledge in the thin air and in the cold. Tiza didn't wake up. The healing
finished and she still didn't wake up. The spiders applied the silk patches
they made earlier, but they only did more damage to the fire-weakened cloth.
Having completed the task assigned by their contractor, the spiders gathered up
their dead for funerals.

Many didn't survived
the flames and more died in their haste to save Tiza. Only charred bodies
remained at her hair roots and the folds of her clothes. The spiders collected
these remains into a pile on Tiza's stomach. Then they performed a ceremony and
ritualistically ate them. Once finished, they dispersed to somewhere on Tiza
and on Nolien. His skin crawled under the multitude of legs.

“I can't believe Sathel
hid these on me without telling me...On second thought, yes, I can believe it.”

“Because she's Squad Four?”
Eric asked. Nolien nodded.

“What's Squad Four?”
Zettai asked.

Eric closed his eyes,
grinned, and waggled his finger at her. “
Sora Wa Himitsu desu
.”

“Can you tell me who
Sathel is?”

“Tiza's legal guardian,”
both boys chorused.

“I assume the truth is more
complicated?”

“You're sharp,” Eric
said to Zettai. “She's sharp,” he said to Haburt. “You should hire her as an
assistant or something.”

“Really?!”

“No,” Haburt said
firmly. “The only way you're getting out of this country is on the back of a
dragon or a trickster.”

As night fell, the air
grew colder still. Sias expanded their ledge into a sizable camp and extended a
wall on the three sides away from the mountain. The rest set up camp and, all
the while, Tiza didn't wake up. Basilard put in his own magical Bladi touches
to erase lingering marks and remaining damage. Nolien assured them that she was
just sleeping off the spider's venom and that she would wake up by morning.

When morning came, Eric reached into his
pack for jerky, but it wasn't there. He looked around the tent and in Nolien's
bag, but didn't find it there either. He went outside and saw Tiza chewing the
last of it between kicking drills. Nolien had done a remarkable job repairing
the damage to her skin; from what he could see, there were no scars, scabs,
bruises, or other signs that she was submerged in fire eighteen hours ago. The
only evidence was her ruined clothing. It had more spider silk patches than
original thread.

 He ran to hug her. She deflected him into
a leg sweep and then hugged him anyway. She didn't detect Basilard's hug until
his arms enclosed around her.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I don't want to talk about it.”

“
Tiza.
”

“It was the same thing as Najica.”

“Fair enough. Sias and I are going
investigate the summit for traps. You, your teammates, and the others are going
to stay here.”

She craned her neck back to grin at him.
“Is it a date?”

He lightly tapped her on the head. “No. I'm
on duty.”

Sias tapped her feet. She stood on the edge
of the camp and looked remarkably paler than she did yesterday. She crossed her
arms and looked impatiently at him.

“Your lady's calling you.”

Basilard dope-slapped her a second time and
then joined Sias. She floated the remaining feet to the top while he super-jumped.
When they were gone, Eric asked, “What happened in –”

“Tiza!” Nolien ran out of the boys' tent
but stopped himself from hugging her. Instead, he coughed and asked, “How are
you feeling?”

“Good. Thanks for saving me... but you
still suck at healing! Spider Daylra had to help you.”

“I know...I'm working on it...”

“So what happened in Najica?” Eric asked
again.

Both of them blushed crimson and Tiza shook
her head vigorously. Nolien simply stated that they were in the country on a
mission, stuff happened, and they agreed to never talk about it again. This
delighted Eric for he loved a good puzzle. He decided on a solution when
Basilard and Sias returned.

“All clear.”

The summit of Mount Daici was a perfect
plateau with a castle in the center. From the edge to the first ten feet was
barren rock scorched by fire and broken by Basilard's magic. It encircled the
summit as far as Eric could see; around the castle and over the ledges. The
debris slipped and shifted when he walked but melded into a firm and flat
surface for Sias.

After the Field of Fire was a Field of
Ferns. Overgrowth of all sorts and varieties grew without limit or restraint in
a second circle around the castle. Root vegetables, wild flowers, and shrubbery
were only some of them. Curiously, there were no trees.

He didn't want his view obstructed.

Of course I didn't!
The beautifully
chaotic view was ruined by Shadow Dengel appearing inside it.
High ground
means nothing if you can't see your surroundings.
Eric walked past it
without looking at it.
You will fail,
it said to his back. Eric stopped.
Everyone will die because of you.

Eric put his hands on his hips and scoffed.
“This looks like an easy to nut to crack!”

The walls stood fifty feet high and higher
at the corner towers. A ring of battlements jutted up between them. Striking
from the center, a single tower rose highest of all. Four branches extended
from it at each of the four cardinal compass points. The stones looked worn and
the rune sigils only glowed on a quarter of the blocks and even then only
faintly. Eric focused on the gate.

It was ten feet tall and made of wood.
Before
you ask, I created it out of nothing.
It was no more weathered or rotten
than the stone. In the center and overlapping the borders was a great shining
rune. Eric recognized it as a classic symbol of protection, but then he looked
again and noticed modifications.
Is that a food preservation algorithm?

“FASCINATING!” Haburt shouted. He whipped
out a camera and took picture after picture of the rune from every angle. “This
rune doesn't appear for
centuries
in other writings and they were so
primitive
!
This so far ahead...and just the entrance...inside could be...!”

“Did he overdose on coffee?”

“You guys can
afford
to overdose on
coffee?”

“Mr. Bladi! Is there a way you can open
this door without destroying it?”

Basilard shook his head. “I'm a warrior,
not a rogue. My students are a battle mage, a healer, and a swords-girl.” He
glanced sideways at Zettai. “Unless our tagalong is holding out on us, then
we'll have to destroy the gate or climb the wall.” 

Eric shook his head.
“The Dengel I know is such a perfectionist, he'd never stop at just
three
barriers.” He pointed at the center tower and continued, “I'd bet my staff that
thing will ZAP you if you cross the threshold.”

He grabbed a rock and
asked his mentor for assistance. Basilard pointed at him and he slowly floated
above the castle wall. He chucked the rock over the threshold and watched it
fall into the courtyard. It hit the ground with a dull thud and rolled to a
stop. A lightning bolt vaporized it. Only a black scorch mark remained.

“I see...” Haburt said.
“Mr. Bladi, could you destroy the rune's trigger mechanism and leave the rest
intact?”

Basilard vanished from
sight and reappeared on the tower's eastern branch. Drawing his sword, he
rammed it through the center of the rune beneath him. This caused the rune to
short-circuit and the following explosion destroyed the tower's first branch.
The second and third followed. By the fourth, there were four interconnecting
black smears on the tower's stalk. Basilard reappeared outside the walls,
unharmed.

“Is there enough for
you to study, Professor?”

“There should be
plenty, thank you.”

Basilard offered his
arm to Sias, who accepted it and, together, they ascended the wall and stood on
top. Together, they raised rest of the group with their respective power. Only
Basilard wasn't shocked at what they saw inside.

Nothing grew on this
side of the walls. The castle courtyard was as barren, brown, and bleak as the
bulk of the country. A village of clay and stone buildings was broken and
scorched black like the stone Eric threw over the walls. Some of them lacked
roofs and others walls. Sun-bleached bones lay scattered near them and other
places. They were always accompanied by scorch markers.

Dengel the evil
overlord. Norej will love this.
He took pictures with his scry's camera.

“Eric, I cannot allow
–”

Eric smiled sweetly.
“Professor Haburt, as your guide and the ranking expert on Dengel, I must
insist on free rein to take pictures of the site and anything else that may be
needed or requested by the Dragon's Lair or Her Majesty. If you have a problem
with this, you may bend over and kiss my ass. Thank you; your cooperation is
appreciated.”

He took a picture of
Haburt's priceless expression. Nolien face-palmed, Tiza gave him thumbs-up,
Zettai squeed, and Basilard read his dirty book.

Eric jumped into the
courtyard and spat on the ground in a fit of impudence. This was a historical
site and the dwelling place of spirits and, as such, it was supposed to be a
place of reverence. Everyone else walked solemnly through the ghost castle and
even Tiza deliberately avoiding stepping on the scorch marks, but Eric laughed
and shouted abuse at Dengel. The Shadow demanded he show respect and Eric
replied, “You're right. I'll go straight to the tower and show you just how
much I respect you.”

In the center was a
tower both tall and massive. Its professionally cut and mortared stones and the
many elaborate runes glowing across its surface revealed how much more the
master valued it than anything else. He didn't remember Dengel as the type to
hide in fear and countless barriers, but then he remembered Basilard's story
and the part about Dengel's initial recruitment clicked into place.

So this is where you
were hiding. The Silver Dragon would never think to look for you here. Dengel,
the backstabbing, power hungry, cowardly Evil Overlord.

The young mage
appraised it with the same joy as prying an oyster out of its shell or pulling
the thorns off a rose. He knew exactly how to disarm it. After listening to all
of Dengel's bragging, he couldn't forget if he lived forever.