„The Third Gate"
The view was peculiar. Maybe slightly grotesque in its chaotic way and definitely frightening, but too close to one of the few murderous fantasies she ever had to truly terrify. Like a scene from a dream shown to someone wide awake it inspired much more puzzlement than horror.
The centerpiece of the tangled construct tried flapping his hands to break free from his bounds. When it wielded no visible effect he turned to her.
"You, wench! What are you staring at? Gather what's left of your lousy wit and get me out of here!" Jeb shrieked at her once again trying to untangle himself to emphasize his situation, not that she could miss this mess.
Jeb, one of the most irritating, annoying and infuriating people she have ever met, was now stuck inside a mechanism that would feel at home in the heart of her sphere in Athkatla. It was the size of a cottage, bottom half made of rapidly shifting dials and gizmos, the biggest of which could easily crush an adult human skull to bloody dust. The top consisted of wires, most sparkling with electricity, other in different colors serving unknown purpose, all meeting at a base of an antennae growing like a tree from the colorful and noisy construction. Just by looking at the tangle of wires Daria could tell that each conducted enough electricity to fry Jeb before she could say 'Stay still!'. The Umar Hills' villager was tangled with at least three different colors, luckily dull and seemingly not working, his feet less than two feet over the dangerous wheels and gears. It looked as if he purposefully tried to get tangled even more with the mechanism. The only reason he was still alive was also the strangest thing about the construct – a lightly buzzing magical barrier surrounding the man in a round protective sphere. The wires that were entering the sphere and held Jeb were losing its color instantly – apparently it was some sort of a safety device that protected anyone foolish enough to mess with the machine.
"How did you get inside this thing?" Daria called trying to reach through the noise of the clog-wheels.
"None of your business! Get me out!" The answer came with no help. Obviously there had to be some switch, otherwise it would be impossible for him to even get there, wouldn't it?
"Don't move!" she screamed seeing as he gathered strength to continue tossing around. If he somehow managed to free himself from the protective spell he would be crisped.
'Control panel, control panel…' she started circling the device trying to find something at least remotely familiar. She knew a little about operating such devices, but all of it was self taught from her wanderings in her new home. But unless she found some panel there was nothing she could do.
"Hurry, witch! If it wasn't for you I wouldn't even be here! It's always us, the decent folk, that have to suffer because of scum like you!"
That was very likely true, though she could find no reason why Jeb was here with her, though he clearly deserved hell. She saw him die, they buried him in the woods, so it had to be his soul that was brought here. But she was alive. She had to be. The taint was supposed to consume her the moment she died, wasn't it? So she couldn't be dead.
"Don't touch that, freak!" Jeb's shriek brought her back to present and she realized she stumbled upon something promising. It was a console of sorts, though sparks dancing around a large crack in the middle weren't very promising.
"I already fixed it, without your help!" Jeb proclaimed proudly. Daria fought an urge to strangle him. Or better – leave him there to rot. That was until she saw what the annoying villager used to throw at the console. A beautiful blue gem with one universal purpose even she knew – gathering excess energy so that there would be no danger of explosion or damaging the device while turning it off. Now she felt the need to cry.
'Why do they always destroy the console? Why? It never works. It has no way of working. No matter how you do it, it won't work!"
"HEY! Wench! If you have time to space out get the other one!"
The other one? Looking closer Daria noticed a smaller panel nearby, so far not 'fixed' with any essential part of the machine. Translating the runes on it she decided that even if it isn't an emergency shutdown panel the situation couldn't become much worse. Now the only problem was the focusing gem smashed into the main panel. Now it were three pieces of focusing gem, thrown away from its location near antennae, and unfortunately Jeb. Daria had no idea how to fix it – without it all the energies already shooting wildly from the wires instead of being stored calmly and safely, would tear the machine and both people near to pieces. While getting rid of Jeb didn't seem such a terrible idea Daria decided to try another way.
First she took her spell book and spent half an hour preparing every spell protecting from elements she knew. It was hard to focus under constant rain of Jeb's curses, but she treated it as a challenge and besides, he had no more removable pieces of machinery near him. She spent some time gently gauging the strength of barrier surrounding Jeb. It was as she though – it couldn't possibly withstand the explosion. But if the Daria could somehow channel excess of the energy somewhere else – say, at a heavily fortified mage like herself, it would hold until the last of the gear stopped, leaving Jeb only with danger of damaging his cursing mouth while falling from loose wires.
First try when all the shields were in place was a success. Bright wire she touched sent a slight shiver through her spells but didn't break through. Good. School of Alteration wasn't one she was best at, but she still had a few aces up her sleeve. Now the real test. Her left hand hung over one of the cables stemming directly, right one over what was hopefully an emergency shutdown button. She considered saying a prayer, but she was in hell. Usually by that time it was too late for prayers.
'Why do you do this?' the questioning voice was her own, but it felt as if a stranger was asking her. 'Why?' after all this planning and studying only now she actually considered the question. 'I'm risking my life for someone who wholeheartedly annoys me. It's not even that I don't wish him starving or other cruel death inside this machine. I could leave him, or grant him merciful death – whatever I consider to be humane. Was I raised like that? Does this make any sense at all?'
'No, now is not the time.' Daria shook those thoughts off though the discomfort remained.
"Get ready! I'm turning it off!" she called the source of her problems for the moment.
"Go to hell!" Jeb answered murkily. Being ignored for so long didn't do wonders to his manners.
'Too late for that' she thought pressing the button and simultaneously thrusting her dagger into the cable.
The flash of her magic shields melting before her eyes in a rainbow of colors blinded her instantly. All the energies that powered up the construction and stemmed originally from the blue crystal were now coursing through the rapidly shrinking shields. She made a mistake. The shutdown would last at least five seconds. Her spells could give her half of that time.
In an instant she knew.
The shock would kill her.
Or Jeb.
She hated him.
She needed to let go of the wire.
She wanted to let go of the wire.
To save herself.
Her hand wouldn't let go.
The blast sent her flying backwards. She something very hard hitting her back. Everything was whirling in her eyes. The air smelled foul. Like burnt flesh. Blackness was coming. Footsteps. Someone run past her without stopping. That bastard Jeb left her here.
"You never let me take care of you. You, the most important person in the entire world."
Daria's eyelids fluttered open as she heard a pleasant voice whispering just by her ear. Warmth was surrounding her, soft, pleasant warmth of a living body. 'Mother?' a though appeared an got lost in this confused awakening without being properly registered. The elf shook up the remains of what felt like an unpleasant dream and found herself in woman's embrace, once again in hell.
"Always overdoing things, either as a hero of the land, or the villain guilty of every sin." An understanding smile appeared on a white flawless face of the woman holding her. From her back a pair of magnificent wings grew to surround them both, becoming darker along their length, completely black at the ends of longest feathers. Daria read of such creatures.
"Let me take care of you, hmm?" Erinya placed a gray tear in her hands. "Who knows better than you what you want? What you deserve? It would do you better to be more Selfish. With this words she left, leaving Daria outside the now closed third gate.