Clint
The first thing Clint noticed upon regaining consciousness was that he was surrounded by darkness. Where he was and how he got there, he could only guess. He remembered Sara was trying to warn Mia of something, but, she didn’t get to finish her sentence before they were knocked out by a shockwave. The sensation felt much different from the wind that had been buffeting them. Did that woman do this? Dinorah Winstrom, the Governor of Solan, had always been an enigmatic figure that he had heard of only in whispers and seen once in passing. While he didn’t exactly feel blindsided when he realized she led the Scarlet Starlings, he couldn’t even begin to explain what she had done to him and his friends.
Realizing he had bigger priorities than ruminating on what happened, he sat up and carefully felt out his surroundings. He seemed to have been dumped onto cold, rough stone which might have been a cavern floor. He was relieved to find that he wasn’t being restrained in anyway, but this news came at the cost of a crushing realization: he had been stripped of his supplies. No gun, no torch, no rucksack. He felt around in the pockets of what he could only assume were the clothes he had been wearing before. This theory was confirmed when he found a familiar lump in the pocket of his vest. He had been left only with the ring that Martin had given to him. He sighed loudly and rolled his head back. Maybe I’ll have time to grind my way out of here with this thing.
“Is someone else awake?”
Clint’s shoulders perked in response to the unexpected whisper. It sounded like Mia had been left with him. This was good news, for sure. If the Champions were still together, it could only improve their chances of escaping their current predicament.
“I am,” Clint replied quietly. “Who else is with us?”
“Just Sara, but I think she’s still unconscious,” Mia replied. “She nabbed the three of us together. The Spellwarrior and his friends aren’t around, so I’m guessing they’re safe for now.”
“They won’t be for long,” Clint said with a frown. “We already knew where this was all leading. If he’s smart, he’ll rally his fellow spellwarriors to to attack the temple, but I get the feeling he’s not going to wait that long to try to rescue us.”
“That’s fine with me! I don’t plan on being stuck here long enough for him to rescue us!”
“You have a plan?”
“As I understand it, that’s your job, Mr. Champion of Crane!”
Clint continued to probe the ground, carefully searching for a wall; a pursuit he carried on in vain.
“I suppose I’m supposed to snap my fingers and suddenly know what to do? I don’t even know where we are!”
“We’re in an underground dome roughly thirty feet in diameter. There are no conceivable openings in the walls, so I assume the only way out is upward, but I can’t be sure because I can’t reach the ceiling.”
“Can’t you fly now?”
“That was a fluke! I don’t even know how I’m supposed to do that!”
“So we don’t know exactly where we are, how we got here, or how to do the one thing that might get us out of here. You’re not giving me much to work with, here!”
“Don’t you think I’ve been trying?” Mia snapped anxiously. “I don’t know how any of this magic is supposed to--”
Mia fell silent as the deep, rumbling sound of shifting stone filled the room. There was a great draft, then a soft thud as something heavy landed somewhere on the ground. At first, Clint thought that Seth had been dropped in there with them. But then the source of the voice spoke to them in Dinorah Winstrom’s voice.
“I’m happy to hear everyone’s feeling so lively now! You’re going to need that energy when you’re executed for killing his highness!”
“Anthony Clark was no king!” Mia retorted defiantly. “He was a crackpot doctor who thought saving lives would be easier if everyone lived in fear!”
Clint felt inwardly grateful toward Mia for holding the woman’s attention first. He wasn’t sure how he had managed to hold onto his ring the first time, but he felt oddly fearful of her finding it now. He took advantage of this momentary distraction to pull the piece of jewelry out of his pocket and stuff it into his sock. It wasn’t at all clear how this was supposed to help him, but he couldn’t stand the thought of losing it after what Martin had said to him. This ring would be of help to him somehow, but he couldn’t risk putting it on now when there was obviously no telling what his enemy could see.
“It doesn’t matter,” the older woman replied calmly. “He was a member of the Royal Family who was killed by your accomplice only days after you killed two of his siblings and assaulted the third. When I find the fourth champion, you will die together for plotting to assassinate the Royal Family. The Queen may have died by my hand, but your hand in killing the rest will make it so much easier to believe when I say otherwise!”
“What is the point of all of this?” Mia called out. “How do the Starlings still benefit from this plan without a king to control?”
“I never needed a king,” Dinorah said with a chuckle. “The deaths of your royalty have thrown the entire country into turmoil and the fact that you killed the last of them will only add to the chaos! When the people look upon the faces of their killers, they will scream for your blood. This will be the first of a carefully cultivated chain of violence that will turn the so-called Chosen Land into a graveyard!”
“You’ve gone completely mad!” Clint exclaimed. “This isn’t about what benefits the Scarlet Starlings! This is what Maula wants!”
“Of course it is! This entire world is but a useless box of toys to the gods! One that they have chosen repeatedly over their own family! These pointless games must end!”
Clint’s body went icy with sudden shock at the tone of frustration his captor spoke with. This sounds personal to her! The Governor’s words brought back the warning Sara had tried to give before they were knocked out. Maybe Dinorah wasn’t just working for Maula, she was possessed by her!
“Those toys have their own lives!” Mia snarled. “I don’t know what that means to the gods, but I know that’s worth something!”
Clint shook his head, feeling suddenly as if he was being toyed with. Maula had them at their mercy, with plans to stage them as catalysts for a violent apocalypse. But that wasn’t enough for her. She had to come in to tell him all about it. Why would anybody do that?
“Isn’t that what that is?” Clint blurted out.
“Pardon?” the woman he had come to know as Maula said in surprise.
“Isn’t this a game? If you really wanted to destroy everything, would making mortals do it really be the most efficient way for a goddess to do so? And why would you bother gloating to us right before we die? For all of your talk of this useless box of toys, you sure seem to enjoy playing your own game.”
The air in the cavern whipped Clint back with nearly enough force to knock him off his feet. As he laid there, he could almost feel the goddess standing between his legs. This was a vulnerable position to find himself in when he thought he was facing a normal woman, but with the Goddess of Death doubtlessly leering at him, he began to wonder rather quickly whether he had just made a huge mistake.
“There is a reason we can’t resist you mortals, but I can assure you this will be the last game.”
After another blast of air and subsequent shifting of stone, the room fell silent. Moments later, Mia asked. “Did she leave?”
“I think so.”
“You’ve got a lot of guts pissing off Dinorah like that.”
“That wasn’t Lady Dinorah,” Clint replied as he stood up again. “Before we were knocked out, Sara was trying to tell us something. I think she’s been possessed by Maula.”
“It could have been my dog speaking with her lips for all it matters,” Mia said impatiently. “Who she is doesn’t change what we’re going to do when we get out of here or what will happen if we don’t!”
“Are you sure about that? Lady Dinorah’s will might not be her own right now. Doesn’t that complicate things for you?”
“Not thanks to Salica’s help,” Mia said darkly. “If she isn’t possessed, I’m still going to kill her!”
“Well, we still have to figure out how to get out of here,” Clint mumbled softly as he reached into the sock for his ring and began to roll it around in his fingers.
“Which is easier said than done, I know,” Mia shot back dryly.
Well, if this really is something Crane wants me to have, this would be the time to find out why. With that thought, Clint slid the ring onto his left ring finger with a sigh. The result was instantaneous and somehow required little thought to understand. A sense of calm took over him as he realized that his escape was not only possible, but simple. When he tried to reason how he knew this, the answer came to him just as quickly.
“The oversight has been corrected!” Clint exclaimed with a grin on his face.
“The fuck does that mean?” Mia exclaimed.
“Kevin has lived up to his final words,” Clint said faintly as he pressed his hand to his temple to ease the growing discomfort in his head. “Crane left me a present in this ring. I know…”
“Know what?”
“Whatever I want!”
It was a form of Crane’s omniscience, but limited. The longer he stayed in this state, the more of a physical toll it would take on his brain. But he only needed it for two important things: to escape this hole and to open a path for his friend to defeat the goddess. He realized that to accomplish both was a tall order, which is why he needed to work quickly. The first step was to revive Sara. He didn’t even need to grope through the darkness anymore. Not only did he know where to find her, he was fully confident that there were no traps to worry about. Without even needing to look at her, he grabbed her dominant left hand and placed it on her own forehead. He would need to use her magic, but through close contact, he could supply the activation phrase.
“Ella moya,” he incanted.
Although he had never cast a spell in his life, this one took immediate effect. Sara’s hand glowed with energy as Clint effectively manipulated her into healing herself. He was already considering the next step of his plan, but when Sara woke up, she seemed anxious.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “We’re going to be okay!”
“Clint? What’s going on?”
“Maula got us, but I’m going to get us out of here.”
“How?” Mia challenged.
“The top of this chamber is sealed by a massive stone disc. Sara’s earth magic will allow us to open the way out, then we’re going to use Mia’s storm magic to get out of here.”
“I told you, I don’t know how to do that!” Mia snapped in irritation. “If you want a lightning bolt, I can show you that, but that’s all I know!”
“It’s okay! This is going to work! We just need to be standing together!”
It took some effort to steer both of the other champions toward the center of the room, after which Clint instructed Mia to lay down face up. He then directed Sara to stand with him at her side.
“In a moment, Mia is going to use her magic to send us flying straight toward the ceiling. You will need to quickly use your magic to move the stone out of our way the moment we are close enough to touch it. If your timing isn’t perfect, we’re going to crash.” Clint was sure his words were more than enough motivation for her time the spell correctly, but the desired effect came out of the pressure his words put on her. She could only be terrified right now, which was what they needed.
Clint than pressed his hands to both of Sara’s ears. This certainly didn’t help her mood, but he knew it would help with his plan “Mia, how do you suppose Sara feels right now?”
“I don’t know! Scared?”
“Exactly! Now, as I understand it, Storm Magic ordinarily draws its power from the emotions of other people around the caster. Yours is a bit of a special case, but you can still use the conventional spells by drawing from those feelings. You just need to focus on Sara’s fear and say the activation phrase.”
“Which is?”
“Flee before the winds of terror.”
“Seriously?”
“Any time, now.”
Mia sighed. “Fine! Flee before the winds of terror!”
As expected, this incantation allowed Mia to summon another gust of wind like the one she’d recently created by instinct. But this time, since they were standing over her, they were at its center. Clint removed his hands from Sara’s ears as they began to spiral to the ceiling and pulled her into a tight hug, holding on for dear life. When Clint was sure they were near the top of the dome, he cried, “Now! Raise your hand!”
Reaching into the dark, Sara raised her hand as high as possible and shouted, “Ulya broka!”
As planned, the stone disc leapt out of the way as the winds carried them higher. Within moments, they had broken out into a new room. This bare room was dimly lit with only a single ancient brazier to the left of the doorway, but any light was an improvement. The room was guarded by a maulan and one of the goddess’ human acolytes, but neither of them took him unawares. Kerun’s promise had fulfilled itself in more than one way.
“Stop them!” the priest shrieked to the maulan as he made for the door, presumably to warn others of their escape.
They hulking fey jabbed rather predictably with his tail, but Clint felt secure in his decision to stand behind Sara. She seemed shocked at first, but then her body became shrouded in green light. This made her body impervious to attack, and caused the tail spike aimed for her chest to bounce away. It swung away from the two champions in a wild arc over his head and fell behind him, right into the other acolyte’s neck. As he began to dissolve with a cry of terror, Clint pushed the confused Maulan off his feet.
“He can’t hurt you anymore! Keep him distracted while I get Mia out!”
Sara looked confused as well, but had seen enough at this point to trust him. She scrambled over to the maulan and pinned him, but every lash with his tail and desperate punch was deflected with another bodily flash of green light. Satisfied that Sara had the situation under control, Clint rushed over to the hole and peered inside.
“Hey Mia! We made it out!”
“Good for you!” the Salican champion shouted back grumpily.
“Isn’t it?” Clint retorted, grinning widely.
Moments later, Mia called back, “I see what you’re saying! What do I say now?”
“Winds of joy, give me flight!”
The young storm mage repeated the incantation and moments later, she soared out of the hole, levitating as confidently as Maya ever had. This left only the struggling maulan to deal with. He scanned the room for a possible medium for the next miracle. He found what he was looking for in a jug of water that was resting on a the ground near the hole. Your turn, Salica.
“Mia! There’s something for you in that jug! Grab it!”
Mia dropped the ground and rushed for the aforementioned jug. She knelt down and jammed her hand into the water. When she pulled it out, she was clutching the handle of a blue elbow blade shaped like a water drop. She raised her eyebrows and stuck the other hand in. Moments later, she was holding an identical weapon.
“You know what to do!”
Mia’s movement was clumsy; clearly she had never used this type of weapon before. But with the maulan pinned beneath an invulnerable woman, it didn’t matter. It was easy enough for her to open a gash into his neck, which caused him to bleed out. With the maulan dead, the champions were safe for the moment. This was when he was pelted with a deluge of questions from both of his companions. But their answers would have to wait. His Ring of Enlightenment was taking its toll on his mind and he still had something important to do.
“Not now, he murmured. Maula has this place locked down. I need to make sure Seth can get inside!”
When Clint received no argument from the others, the three left this ancient death chamber and made their way out of the wing the temple had devoted to Maula. It was slow going with all of the acolytes, Starlings, and maulans that stood in their path, but they no longer concerned him. With Mia’s new weapons, Sara’s invulnerability and his planning, they were far less of a threat than they ever had been. Kerun hadn’t only consented to take his sister’s pain as his own, he had come through for the champions. With what the gods had laid before them, he knew that they had more in store for their future. For the first time since he had learned that he was a champion, he was genuinely excited.
When they reached the temple’s antechamber, Clint knew that they were safe. His brain throbbed in protest as the magic of his ring ravaged his mind, but he already knew what he needed to do last, so he took off the ring. When he did, the sense of power that had stirred his mind vanished, leaving him only with a strong feeling of exhaustion. It didn’t matter. He only needed energy for a few throws.
“You two need to find somewhere in Kerun’s side of the temple and hide,” Clint said to both of them as he replaced the ring in his pocket. “No one’s been there since the massacre so it should be safe.”
“What are you going to do?” Sara asked concernedly after a quick glance at his fatigue.
“I’ll be right behind you. I just need to open the door for Seth. We laid most of the groundwork, but the rest is up to him.”
“Fuck that!” Mia said with a scoff. “I still have some fight left in me!”
“Trust me,” Clint said. “You don’t want to be in the way when Seth gets here. Just go!”
So, the others retreated into Kerun’s temple and left Clint alone in the antichamber. He positioned himself near one of the the barred windows close to the sealed door and began to wait. A minute later, he saw Seth walking up to the temple alone with the Storm of Mercy firmly in hand. The weapon was already soaked blood, probably from the acolytes or Starlings who dared to get in his way. Clint scanned the floor around him and found a pile of tiny pebbles that all of the recent carnage had helped to displace from the nearby wall. Three should do it!
He gathered a small handful of pebbles and kicked out the glass in the window. He then threw one of the pebbles at Seth through the bars of the window, which narrowly missed his ankle. Cursing himself, he slowed down and aimed more carefully. Thus, the second rock he threw landed on his left thigh. Clint grinned to himself as he watched the spellwarrior’s skin turn yellow. He sprinted a different window before Seth could spot him and shattered the glass before pelting him in the shoulder with another well-aimed rock. This caused Seth to turn orange and Clint to chortle as he darted for a third window. This time, when Seth’s skin turned bright red, Clint knew his work was done. Okay, time to run!
He could hear Seth yelling in frustration, but knew it would be foolish to stick around long enough to see what power Chaos had bestowed him with. Good luck, mate.
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