75. Of trophies, loot and a little bit of fallen gods

Cassandra Pendragon

“What? How? That’s impossible! Poor creature. Can we get it out of there somehow?” Internally I was seething. If Viyara’s father hadn’t died I would have plucked each of his scales and shoved him into the deepest hole I would have been able to find. Trapped in a crystalline tomb for however long wasn’t a fate I’d wish onto my worst enemy and from the looks of it this one here was just for decoration, another oddity to spice up the hoard. My hands were shaking when I imagined the desperation and fear the little thing had had to go trough, all alone and unable to move, to breath but still alive and probably even able to think and feel. Maybe it was just my imagination but I’d have sworn that it was staring at us, its eyes full of pain and maybe a little hope.

Mephisto was much more collected than me and cautiously inspected the gem.

“Hmm, quite easily, actually. You could just smash the diamond but I’m afraid that’d kill it. If you want it to survive it’ll be a tad more difficult. Maybe we can teleport it out or disintegrate the gem around it but that’s not going to happen without ample preparation. For now I think you should store it. The enchantments on your stamp reduce the flow of time within immensely and we can take it back out when we know what we want to do. Until then it shouldn’t be aware as long as you keep it inside and I think the the crystal will protect it from any harm.”

“You’re sure about that? I’d hate to retrieve a corpse later on.”

“Quite. I can’t guarantee that’s it’s going to be fine but the odds are good enough. Unless you want to leave it behind there isn’t much else we can do anyways. Brute force will definitely kill it outright.”

“Fine, can you draw up the runes? And are any of the other creatures still alive? Please tell me that’s the only one.”

“It is. The others are only preserved but quite dead. There aren’t any enchantments on the diamond though that would explain how the snake could survive. Also I have never even heard of a species like that. Winged snakes? Sure enough. But with three sets of wings and that small? No idea what it could possibly be and that’s rather intriguing. My first guess would usually be that it is a chimera, artificially formed but it doesn’t look like it. Normally chimeras have some sort of defect, a fault line if you so will where the magic is anchored but I don’t see one on the little fellow.   Combine that with its abnormally strong aura and it’s quite the mystery. As soon as we have a little more time I’ll make sure to get it out. I’m quite fascinated to tell you the truth.”

“Great, I’m really glad you found something to keep you busy but could you at least pretend to care about what happened to the creature? It’s a living being for crying out loud!”

“And what would that help? I already said I’d get it out and you’re sensitive enough for the both of us. Fret and cry for all I care but that’s not going to change a damned thing. Trust me on this. You don’t even know if it’s sentient. It could very well be just a dumb animal or maybe even a construct of pure magic.” Even though his inflection was nonchalant I felt like he was pretending. The way he eyed the little snake and the frown that crossed his face every time he looked at one of the crystals around us didn’t fit into his distanced and cold demon act. Considering what he had just said I had to wonder if there was a story there but he’d either tell me or he wouldn’t, not much I could do about it. Maybe once we were out of here I’d be able to wheedle something out of him but for now I had to let it go. I huffed and squeezed another drop of blood from the cut I had made previously.

“Do you honestly believe that a creature with an aura strong enough to overshadow all the artefacts around would be non sentient or artificially created? Would that even be possible? But if you say so, oh might demon, I’ll try to keep my idiotic compassion to a minimum.”

“No need to become snarky. It’s not my fault that you’re still too young to understand but you can’t just try to save every being you come across. It’ll kill you sooner or later but some people have to learn the hard way. But I find it kind of funny to have this conversation with someone who earned the moniker eater of immortals. You really have changed. I just hope we can survive your new found morales.” He was busily applying the runes to the diamond but I couldn’t just let that go.

“Eater of immortals? What does that even mean?”

“It means you were full of sunshine and rainbows in your previous life… idiot, it means you killed two angels and reduced a couple of demons to so much as stardust. And no, I won’t go into anymore detail. It’s still much too early and even though you seem astonishingly healthy for someone who went through two evolutions in quick succession I’m not going to risk triggering a third. The silver lines on your skin are already worrying enough. Ask me again in a year or two.” He had finished and the gem vanished into my stamp. When he turned around he poked me in the chest and added:

“Let’s focus on the present before we deal with the past, shall we?” Grudgingly I nodded. It wasn’t like I didn’t know that I had killed in the past, probably more often than I could even imagine but I’d still have liked to know why I had murdered two angels. If he at least told me their names I’d be able to tell if they had been Michael’s lackeys or connected to the corrupted pieces of reality Ahri had told me about but I knew it’d be pointless to ask.

“Fine. But now that you mentioned the silvery lines, could you at least tell me what they are? It felt like I could control my energy a little better once they appeared.”

“That’s no surprise. They signify that your meridians are already saturated with transcendent energy. You shouldn’t face anymore of the problems you had before when you channel too much energy, well at least not with the channeling part. You body is still far from that point and you skin and muscles can still break down but in theory you can use as much energy as you want, your meridians, at least, won’t crack. I’m just surprised you didn’t lose consciousness for a couple of days when Viyara pulled a spell through you and triggered the transformation. I have to admit, you’re much more resilient than I originally thought. Or maybe your immunity allows for some leeway, suppressing parts of the effect but either way you should thank your lucky star that you aren’t lying on the ground with blood dripping from your eyes and ears. I would also advise you to ask me the next time you intent to pull a stunt like that.”

“I would have, but unfortunately you were still in the middle of your beauty sleep. Next time I’ll talk to you before I try any form of new magic.”

“Promise?”

“Uhh…”

“That’s what I thought. Well then, we should be off. You said there was a second source of energy that caught your attention? Let’s head there and see what we find. Depending on how much space you still have left to spare afterwards I’ll decide which of the artefacts we have come across we’ll take with us.”

“Don’t I get a say?” “Sure, unfortunately you wouldn’t even recognise their properties never mind understanding them and explaining every single piece we stumble across would take ages. In this case you just have to trust me. Shouldn’t be too hard considering what I’ve already done for you.”

He gestured for me to lead the way and grumbling under my breath I walked off. He was infuriating but I had to admit, bantering with him had taken a load of my chest. I felt somewhat better, still worried about Ahri and my mom, not to mention the others, still tired and exhausted and seriously pissed at Shafeer for what he had done to his trophies but the spike of anger and the easy conversation had taken off the edge. Right now I was even looking forward to blowing up a ship and, if it went just right, a dragon. The fireworks would surely be worth it and with a little luck I’d be shot off the black, flying menace in an hour, maybe less. Then I could take care of whomever the emperor had sent to capture my family or at least get them to safety.

We left he macabre collection of encased corpses behind us quickly enough and headed into another part of the gilded labyrinth. We walked around several heaps of gold and jewels before a well organised section filled with enchanted items came into view. There wasn’t any order and most of the artefacts were thrown together hazardously, their auras mixing and intertwining. I had a hard time focusing on the brighter glimmer somewhere close because every little part of my surroundings now exuded a lot of energy in one form or the other. Rings, necklaces, gems, even boots and some dragon sized weapons made us slow down, carefully navigating around the precious objects. When we were nearly there and I could practically taste the powerful aura close by Mephisto stopped me.

“Grab that cane over there. The one with the emerald on top. It’s the first healing artefact I’ve seen down here. I think it’s chargeable holding up to five spells. It’s empty at the moment but we can ask Viyara to fill it. It works on life energy which should make the spells quite potent but it also means I can’t recharge it myself. You can break off the emerald if you want to, it’s the part carrying the magic. No need to burden us further.” I didn’t hesitated. Even if it probably wouldn’t work on me, I’d be more than happy to have something on me that could heal others. It was an immense solace to know that I wouldn’t have to watch idly again when my friends were injured. I slung my wings around the cane and held the gem in my hands. With a deft twist and tug the wood splintered and all I was left with was a chicken egg sized emerald, pulsing warmly with an inner light. On closer inspection I could see swirls of energy circulating through its depth, forming abstract shapes and complex constructs but they seemed somewhat hollow as if they were lacking substance. I assumed that would change as soon as it’d be recharged. Depositing the gem in my pocket I turned around and took a couple of more steps around a huge sundial with a base of silver and rods of a dark metal as arms. Behind it was an array of figurines depicting various hybrids.

They all showed humanoid creatures with the heads of animals except for one female figure, a beautiful face, long black hair and butterfly wings made her look like a fairy. The rest were males with the heads of a jackal, a hawk, and a crocodile. Their clothes were meticulously portrayed with flowing robes, sandals and circlets over their brows. Every statue was heavily enchanted but the one that stuck out to me was the one with the jackal head. Now that I stood in front of it I realised that it had even more energy stuck within than I had thought. The other figurines were surrounding it and were covering most of its aura as if they were guarding or imprisoning it. The hawk headed one even had a golden copis in his hand the tip aimed at where the heart of the jackal head would supposedly be. I really had a bad feeling about this…

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Mephisto said quietly. “That doesn’t look like something you should just grab.” He focused on the figurines and even hummed a short chant. When he spoke again his voice was tense. “I can’t analyse it. They are chock full of soul energy and as good as my control over mana is, I can’t overcome their resistance. Crap. Can you see anything?”

“Hmm, they are all bright as miniature suns and I think it was their combined aura that led me here. But the one that appears surrounded by the others has the strongest glow. They are not alive, I can tell you that for sure but the energy within them isn’t ordered either like I would expect it to be if they were just artefacts. It’s chaotic, almost like an imitation or memory of something that once lived. Maybe we should just leave them.” He scowled, giving me a patronising stare:

“Really now. Do you think that’s the best idea? Just a couple of possibilities: your friend on the fiery throne wasn’t interested in Erya but rather this small gathering of whatever they are. Or, they really are something like remnants of once great beings and the ones on the outside really keep the one at the centre in check. The volcano erupts and the formation is broken causing who knows what. I don’t know what they are and you may call me paranoid but in my experience something like that will bite you in the ass sooner or later if you don’t know what you’re dealing with. Considering that we are standing in front of one of the most magical things in a dragon’s hoard that has no apparent use I’d bet it’ll be sooner.”

“I don’t necessarily disagree but what do you want to do about it?”

“I’ll have a look at that diary we found while you go and fetch Viyara, who knows she might have heard something from her parents. If we can’t figure it out we’ll put them into the ruby before we blow it up. Whatever they are, they won’t survive an explosion like that, at least, I think so.”

“Yessir.” I mockingly saluted and pushed my consciousness into my stamp and back out again all the while focusing on the immense, crystalline tome. With a displacement of air the thing appeared before me and the runes Mephisto had drawn on the cover disappeared with a puff of smoke. For a moment I was wondering how runes, that were dependent on the maker’s understanding and worked of the natural laws of the cosmos could be used up but I imagined that it might be an intended effect. If they didn’t have that property, retrieving the item would be neigh impossible. I didn’t bother asking though, I’d find out soon enough when he’d teach me how to create them myself.

When Mephisto opened the tome I unfurled my wings and quickly rose into the air until I could see Viyara’s horns peaking out between the hills of gold and silver. I angled my body and rode the streams of hot air that alway swirled above the sea of magma. Even though I could just forcefully push into the direction I wanted to go it was much easier to go with the flow, so to speak. My tails made for a formidable rudder and I easily glided towards the moving rods of solid silver. I wanted to cast a quick glance at the scrying spell Erya had cast on the wall of magma now that I’d be able to see it again but it was gone, probably dispersed when she had left for the library. Well, she’d tell us if anything happened to Pete, I assumed. A few seconds later I settled down on Viyara’s head which made her jump, albeit only slightly. It was hard to sneak up on someone to whom you were connected and who could sense you, after all.

“Hi there, found anything interesting?” I asked.

“Quite a few things but I don’t know how much we’ll be able to carry with us. What about you?”

“Oh, the same… your dad had a really sick sense of decorations, though. I thought stuffing Viyara into a ruby was a one time thing, but…” my voice trailed off.

“Oh, you found his species repository…,” a wave of shame rushed through her mind.