Chapter 27

An unexpected but not unwelcome end

The creatures seemed content to stay in the temple, as none had emerged while I was pacing around outside thinking of the plan. There were three things to retrieve, and I was pretty sure my plans for each would be foolproof. The question was, could I convince Malachite of that? I called up my two magical companions, they were a big part of the plan after all so I needed them ready.

"Right, I have a plan!" I called to everyone, and they came back over to me. They had been walking around the place, but no one reported seeing anything interesting or out of the ordinary. "Here's what we're going to do. We'll move fast, and hopefully not break anything. Hanz, as you say your invisibility doesn't end when you interact with the world so you're with me. I'll take us to the astral again and go invisible myself. We'll get into position near the first crystal and drop out. You grab it up while I cast the spell to take us back again. It should happen quickly enough they won't have much time to react. Now I know what you're thinking." I held up a finger. "They'll alert the ones in the second chamber to expect us to do the same thing. That's where these cuties come in." I stroked Boline's head. "They'll come with us on the second run. We'll still be invisible but they won't be. I'll have them attack and be a distraction. This will, sadly, probably kill them." Boline cocked her head as if to say "and what's your point?" "The third chamber, with the crazy remnant, will get a visit from Athame, whose only power is to grow. But that's all we need her to do. She can drop in, grow to enormous size, knocking them over and distracting them, while we grab the chest. Thoughts?"

"Where do I come into this plan?" Malachite asked gruffly.

"Ah. You get to, uh, wait out here and cover our retreat?"

"Why can't I come?"

"Because in this case, you coming actually makes me less safe. Trying to cover both of us with the invisibility magic makes it less effective. Thus, increasing the danger I'm in. Trust me, we're going to be in and out. You know how fast I am casting magic. They won't know where I am, and there is some cover I can take after all I'm not just going to stand there and let them attack me. Hanz will be there and for the second and third chambers they'll be too busy fighting my friends here." Both nodded, they were ready and willing to serve.

"I don't like it, seems like too big a risk."

"We gave away the ice orb without me even able to look it over," I reminded him. "We need to understand how these things got here, what powers they actually have. Are they connected to the Gloom? We don't know. But we better find out, as they seem to be everywhere we turn. One ice orb is coincidence, three is enemy action. It may be working up to something, putting pieces in place it'll use when the time is right. We need to understand them, and this is our best chance at doing that."

"Just… stay safe, okay?"

"Of course!"

I put the invisibility on myself first, then touched Hanz's back and reminded him not to move too fast because of, you know, my condition. They assured me they knew, and went invisible too. Both Besome, sitting atop Boline, went invisible, and I cast, holding the spell when it was done and grabbing one of her paws after flailing around a moment. Releasing the magic we shifted over to the astral plane and we headed out. Should I try to keep three spells going at once? Cast the spell again, hold it, release the first one, watch for the crystal to move, then let that one go? No, too much risk. I am fast enough I know I am.

We got into position. There was a column here, so we tried to use it to our advantage. I crouched down, making myself a smaller target, and waited a moment for the other two to get into position. "Ready?" I asked Hanz.

"In position," they answered.

"And go!" I said, dropping the spell. Hanz must have reached out, grabbing the crystal just enough so it would go with us. I had hoped the slight motion wouldn't attract attention, but it seemed these creatures were more alert than I gave them credit for. Probably because of that stupid dwarf. Thanks, moron. They snapped to attention and started firing beams at us, making me duck even more. Time to go. I cast, seeing a small flaw in my plan because the magical circles appeared around me, but that couldn't be helped. They had fired way too high anyway, and we were gone in an instant.

"Next one is this way," they told me, moving as I straightened up again. "That distraction won't hold them for long."

I agreed, and made my way as quickly as I could over to the next crystal. We repeated the heist, this time without incident as my creatures had done their job pulling attention away from the area we were in. I grinned, this was going to work out perfectly. Now back in the astral we made our way to the third room as my allies were torn apart, though they did get some good hits in. I took my time casting Athame, and held the completion of the spell until we popped back again. When my two allies were gone I shifted us down again, releasing the spell. The remnant sort of knew we were there, but as soon as Athame appeared their attention shifted to her. And she blew up, impaling the light demon on her horn as she expanded to fill the room. They tried attacking her as she kicked and struck out with her hooves, but I was too busy casting again after Hanz picked up the chest. One more spell and we were away, rushing out the door again carrying our prizes.

"Thank God you're okay!" Malachite told me as I reappeared outside.

"Nothing to it," I assured him. "Actually, did you get hit at all?" I asked Hanz.

"I did take a few glancing blows," they reported. "My armor is very slightly scorched."

"I'll take care of it in a moment," I told them. "Let's head to the tree line. If those things pour out of there to try chasing us I want to know about it."

I got my two companions back out, looking none the worse for wear and perhaps a little smug at being such an integral part of the plan. But that was probably just me projecting. Nothing came out of the temple, making me wonder if they even could at this point, maybe you needed a token to pass through the doorway and they had been summoned on the inside? Who knew? When it seemed the countryside wasn't going to be dealing with demons made of light and shadow we headed back, Malachite taking off right from there to save time.

"Sorry you didn't have much to do that time, Snarly," I apologized to him.

"Ith fine, that guy wath scary!"

"Yes they were..." What was up with that remnant anyway? Magical corruption of some kind? What were we supposed to have accomplished there, us four token holders? I guess we'll never know, and the token system is now out of commission. As I assume we would have set up the next round of it and started the new tokens circulating in the world. Huh, was that fellow that didn't speak that gave it to me in the first place the 'last generation' or did they come upon the token and saw no value in it? Just more questions.

Back at the house I tackled the chest first, which had a ratty old cushion inside that was falling apart that a fancy ring was set on. Finally able to practice my synchronizing again I looked it over and after a bit of effort, determined it was an imbued item, 28 charges left, of the basic healing spell. If this is some kind of "prize" it's a booby prize. Not worth that dwarf dying over. I mean is this a joke? This token thing, waiting until the eclipse, only allowing token holders into the place. What was the point? What were we supposed to do there? Only one ring, how would we have decided who would take it? And a simple healing spell, and with charges? The worst kind of imbuing you can do? Who made this and why? It's the most useless, most expensive item that could possibly exist. Looking at my friends around the table I handed it to Snarly.

"For me?" he squeaked.

"Hanz can't even use it," I explained. "And Malachite is much tougher than you. It's sort of useless, honestly, as we have healing spell tokens now. But in a pinch it could come in handy. Don't say it now, but the command word is just 'healing' and thinking about where you want to be healed. You can use it 28 times and then it's basically junk again." I think it can be recharged, but I never got into that sort of thing so I'm not sure. Not worth it, really.

"Thanth!"

"Sure. I won't be mad if you sell it or whatever. It's yours."

"Okay."

"As for these," I held up the two crystals we had acquired. "I'm going to go to the workshop to look them over. There's no telling what they can do and this helps remove the danger from you guys." Malachite started to say something but I held up a hand. "I'll do divination magic before any test to make sure it's not dangerous, this is simply a further precaution," I told him. And it gets me away from here so the delivery can happen and be a surprise.

"Fine. I'll stick around in case I hear you screaming for help though. Try not to summon any magical elemental demon things that want to kill us."

"I'll do my best!" I replied with a grin.

"How do we protect them?" Hanz asked. "If someone was using divination magic to find magical treasures, or Gloom cultists learned the place was raided and they are now available in the world, I don't want them led to our house."

"You've answered your own question," I told them. "Lead. It'll block magical scrying. It's fairly rare of course, rich people buy it up to protect their own stuff. And as I understand it not much was around after the fall. But if you can scrounge up some and make a box out of it, we can keep them safe that way."

"I shall begin a search immediately." They headed out, but turned back at the doorframe. "Ah, one other thing. I did take a quick look about the final room, and there was an alter there as well. It was empty, but I did notice two depressions in the stone, sized for those crystals. Do not discard your tokens, we may need to return there at some point to finally put this situation to rights."

"I see. Thanks for letting me know. I'll let you know what I find out."

Which, sadly, wasn't much. I started with the glowing crystal, feeling that would be safer than the darkness one, and started feeling it out. It radiated a lot of magic, and I picked up Sun, Neptune, and Pluto energies swirling around it. But unlike the ring, there was no specific 'spell' I could command it to perform. Perhaps it acts more as a 'battery' as Hanz might say? Powering something, such as whatever that alter was in the final chamber? It made sense that a stone containing magic relating to light, magic, and souls would be used to summon things. Could it banish them as well? Without some sort of instructions on the altar though, I would be riding blind. I wouldn't want to set them there and have it automatically summon some. Or blow the place up by putting both on there at once when I was never supposed to. Should I involve the guild in this? I warned the local mages, did she pass it up the chain? No one ever came to talk to us about it, and I did tell her it was always me coming to shop there. Maybe she'll be more interested now that we have something concrete to show. But if I do hand them over, forget ever seeing them again. They'll be put in a vault somewhere and only handed out to high ranking members. If at all. But trying to do this on my own… seems unwise. Our collective knowledge would be better than just me guessing. Well, that's something for another day.

I started to get a little nervous as I snuck back to hide the crystals in the 'safe' for the time being. Heading outside I saw the carriage had been delivered as I instructed, and started hooking Athame to it. Degrading, for such a magical companion (not that she minded) but I didn't trust a real horse. I had learned to ride just riding her around, I didn't deal with the genuine article. It was fine, it would keep people away from us. Then I worked on myself. My disguise spell went up, turning me into what I had looked like before my curse had taken hold. My hair was done up nice, and I had on a nice dress too, thank goodness for magic. I didn't need more than a flicker of mana to change my whole appearance, though concentrating on it all night would be tiresome. If my instructions were followed, the clothes should have been delivered with the note just after the carriage, and that meant-

The back door opened and Malachite was standing there, looking out of sorts. I smiled as he caught sight of me, the carriage, and Athame. He was wearing the clothes I had bought, and they looked pretty good, if I did say so myself. Completely suitable for a night out with a lady of my quality and breeding.

"What's all this?" he asked, coming over to me. I saw he still had his sword, which was fine. I was carrying a fair bit of coin after all. Someone would think twice with this guy standing next to me, not that I couldn't take a thief down on my own thank you very much.

"Well, I'm going out for a nice dinner," I informed him. "Thus I demand my bodyguard accompany me, as is proper for a lady of my standing. You don't have a problem with that, I trust?"

"Oh! In that case..." He offered me his arm, which I took, and he helped me up into the carriage. A thought and we were off.

We made it to the restaurant without issue, and I parked the carriage myself. Usually one rode past such a place, stepped out, and allowed the staff to do it. But that would just highlight the opposite problem, that of Athame not responding like a normal horse would. It was fine, we went inside and sat down at our table.

"So, uh, what's all this then?" Malachite asked nervously.

I took a deep breath. "It's a lot of things," I began. "Do you remember how this all started? You and me, against the world?"

"How could I forget?"

"We roamed around, looking for odd jobs but without any real purpose. Always poor. Me not able to use my magic as I would want though even back then I could solve so many problems with it." Of course that hasn't changed! "But then we came here. And boy did our lives change. We adopted a kid? And I have no idea what Hanz's deal is- maybe I don't need to- and then we found out about the Gloom. And we fought cultists, and ghosts, and weird elemental creatures-"

"And don't get me started about my whole great, great, great, grandfather!"

"Exactly. It's been non-stop since then. I was afraid you might start thinking I was taking you for granted. This," I indicated the place around us, "is my way of showing I'm not. Now that we have a bit of being less poor I thought a night out with just the two of us would be just the thing. No worrying about the fate of the world. Just you and me, out for a nice meal."

"Oh, okay!"

We talked, and after a bit Malachite seemed to come to a decision. "Hey Orchid?"

"Yes?"

"I've been keeping something from you, and I figure now is a good a time as any to come clean about it."

"If this is about watching me swim that one night after we found the dog, it's fine."

"What? No! You mean I could have-" He cleared his throat. "No. Look, you remember back before we moved here, we were out on the road and had to spend the night? Then those weird plants started grabbing us?"

"Sure. Too bad you didn't have your fire attack back then, it really would have helped."

"And I tried to slice through those vines that had grabbed you, and broke off some pieces of your, you know, curse?"

"Vaguely, I guess? I would have healed it right up..."

He shook his head. "The point is I kept them." He looked away.

I laughed. "Is that worrying you? It's fine." Maybe a little weird. "I don't exactly have hair to cut off and offer you. That would have to do for me."

"You're not mad?"

"I mean it's not… normal," I hedged. "It's like keeping someone's fingernail clippings I guess. The stupid things flake off all the time if I'm not careful enough." I ran my hands over my arms. I could still feel them there, even if they were covered by illusion at the moment. "But I'm not mad. I don't really feel they're a part of me, just a nuisance. Though they have been part of me, for longer than I would care to admit. I suppose from a practical standpoint, if you ever needed to find me for some reason a mage could use those as a focus? This is a weird topic, don't worry about it."

"Thanks. Have you ever thought about trying to break this curse, get your original appearance back?"

I sighed. "I call it a curse but I don't know if it's one, traditionally speaking. I was sort of hoping getting away from my little learning cave where this all started would gradually return me to normal. But I guess not. Maybe me doing magic reinforces it? Giving up magic for years is no good, it's who I am. I suppose I could use my divination spell and ask… I don't know. This is who I am, you know? I'm unique, and maybe this is all part of the plan. I'm not getting worse that I can tell, so there's that."

"You couldn't get any slower!" I glared and he laughed. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Oh, you will be. I wouldn't turn it down, if some angel appeared and offered to fix me. A demon? Eh, probably not I like my soul where it is thank you very much. It depends on the circumstance."

"I suppose many things do."

Thankfully the restaurant wasn't overrun with cultist or ghosts or anything like that, so we paid and I drove the carriage back to where I had rented it from.

"Hey, we're not walking home are we?" Malachite asked when he realized what was happening.

"I should say not," I told him. "The way I see it, you can either ride with me on Athame, or if you're really in a hurry you can fly me home."

He didn't have to consider long, sweeping me up and taking to the sky.

There was another surprise waiting for us at home, and not one of my making. Two rings were sitting on the table atop a crude note, but I just shrugged when Malachite looked at me in a panic. "I only do one surprise at a time," I told him. The rings were interesting, they had a strange pattern etched into them, and I had never seen them before.

"Look at this," Malachite said, handing me the note. I cast my light spell and looked it over. There was only one person this could be from.

"Snarly?"

"Must be."

"He really doesn't know how to read or write, does he? I can't even..." It took a moment to decode what had been written, and I felt my cheeks getting red when I worked it out. "Oh no."

"Does it say what I thought it said?"

"I think it does. Malachite and Orchid, you're married, then he tried to write congratulations a bunch of times, and settled on you're welcome."

"Snarly!" he called.

"Yeth?" he asked, coming into view looking hopeful.

"I think you have the wrong idea here," he explained. "We were just going out to eat. We're not engaged yet."

Oh? Yet?

"And certainly not married. I mean you didn't attend any weddings, did you?"

"I gueth not?"

"There you are. You can't just declare people married, you know?"

"I thought you would be happy," he moaned, looking miserable.

"Look, if and when the time comes, we'll be sure to let you know, okay? You didn't steal these, did you?"

"No!"

They stared at each other a moment. "Okay, that's fine. Look I know you probably want a mom and dad, but… Look we're not going anywhere, okay? You don't have to worry. We'll look after you until you're older."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

I mean, we may as well. What's a few years to me, and if Malachite really does become a full dragon, he'll live even longer than that. Taking care of a kid a few years is no big deal. Where did that lady that sort of shoved him into our lives even go, anyway? She just sort of vanished. Not cool, lady.

"Here, you hold onto these." He handed the rings back. "I'm sure there will be a time when they're needed."

"Okay," he managed sadly, and ran off.

"Snarly? Are you crying? Look I said, look just a second..." He ran off after him, leaving me standing there wondering if maybe it was too late to just go back on the road? But it's a pretty nice house, and there's the Gloom stuff to worry about around here… I shook my head, looking the note over again. He does try, you have to give him that. And maybe we've ignored him a bit. He is just a kid, it's not his fault. But I never signed up to be a mom…

"I think I've set him straight," Malachite sighed when he came back.

"You'll be a good dad!" I announced brightly. "You should start practicing your dad jokes now!"

"Don't even joke about that! But, uh, speaking of, now that mood is ruined and all that, I was going to ask if you wanted to come up to my room tonight but I guess-"

I jumped into his arms. "Come on, you big lug," I told him. "Before your tail gets any bigger."

"Oh that's why you measured me!" he realized. "For the clothes. I mean, are you sure?"

"Do I have to use telekinesis? How much more forward do you need me to be?!"

"Yes ma'am!"

In the end it took a bit of creative thinking, what with the wings, and the tail, and the curse, and all that. But we ended the night satisfied, and as I watched him sleeping I reflected on my crazy life now. About the dangers we might face in the future, and the uncertainty of being with someone that might one day be four times my size. But that was for another day. Tonight, I was happy. Tonight, I was safe, in my own house, with my strange little family I had found. I snuggled closer and closed my eyes. Let tomorrow sort itself out, right now… Right now…

Right now I was hearing the city's alarm bells going off.

"What the heck?"