Redemption Arc

Lucian had been worried that the differences that had arisen because of the election would make Miriam’s revelations toxic. At worst, he even imagined that some of them might go rogue and take this knowledge public. But after they were told…

“Is Miriam alright?” Ruth asked. “This man clearly meant a great deal to her.”

“Yes, I heard her talk about him,” Azalea said with clear concern. “And what about the Black Bloom? Is this something that’ll affect her physically in any way?”

Arthur nodded. “Where is she? Can we see her?”

The flood of questions came so quickly that Rowan and Lucian had difficulty answering them all in short order. In the end, the unanimous opinion among the group was that of respect and support. Such unity was a little ember of hope in sudden darkness that had been thrust upon them. In the end, the simplest way to answer those questions was simply have them speak to Miriam themselves—something which they happily did, each without fear of infection.

This was, after all, the team of the protagonist. In times of hardship, they’d come together.

But not everyone was on that team.

“I can’t believe that they’re okay letting her come with them,” Aurelia muttered as she helped pack. They had decided to hasten the speed at which they travelled in light of these revelations. “In their shoes, I’d part ways immediately.”

Lucian cut her some slack because she didn’t like Miriam, but…

“Why are you complaining? You have the lineage of the divine beast. You can’t get ill,” Lucian reminded her as he stuffed his changes of clothes into the pack.

“Not true. We can get sick. It’s only that when we transform, all our diseases are purged,” Aurelia reminded him. “Even then, we’ve never had any interaction with this Black Bloom. Perhaps it’s different for that. I doubt it, though.” Aurelia handed Lucian his Inquisitor’s Spetum so that he could secure it firmly in its spot. “Maybe you’re not understanding me properly. I’m merely saying that they’re good souls.”

Lucian picked up his pack and slung it on. “And you’re not?”

“I’m trying to be. Part of that is being honest,” Aurelia said. “And a disease like that would terrify me enough to send me crawling to some isolated cottage.”

“Kills your plans for being the empress, I guess,” Lucian said somewhat sarcastically, calling her joke out.

Aurelia didn’t respond with words, but made noncommittal grunts and mutterings of annoyance.

“I think it’s just that all of them have faith in Miriam being able to solve this.” Lucian made for the exit. “We should move as quickly as possible. Circumstances have changed.”

“You mean ‘I’ should move as quickly as possible, while you sit atop me and whistle,” Aurelia said grudgingly. “Fine, very well… a slave obeys… but wait until you’re my subject, Lucian. The tables will turn, I warn you.”

Lucian rolled his eyes.

***

Before, their journey through the jungle had been an endurance run, and so they had decided to take things slow. Now, it became a sprint. Once they were certain they were clear of any watching eyes laid by Enoch, Lucian and the others elected to use their prepared potions all at once to restore stamina and provide hardiness. This enabled the divine beasts to tear through the wilderness as quickly as possible.

The divine beasts ran through the jungle like a pack of wolves on the hunt for prey. They were totally heedless of personal safety, and Lucian bent over to lower his profile—as did all the rest. They broke through brambles, leapt over rivers, and pushed aside the dense foliage with sheer mass and speed. When night fell, they didn’t stop to rest as they had before.

It was somewhat risky traveling like this. If they were unlucky, word might get back to Enoch that they were making a furious dash toward some objective. Lucian reasoned that it was worth the risk only because they were heading deeper inside the jungle rather than away from it. As far as Enoch was concerned, the sovereign territory of the elves was where his influence was strongest. Why would he fear them going there?

Even still, all of them needed to be rested for the fight. After nearly twelve hours of continuous advance, they paused when the darkness had grown thick enough and their supply of night potions thin enough to cause alarm. Lucian and the others had agreed to pitch the tents for the exhausted monastics. Lucian laid out Aurelia’s sleeping bag and pitched her tent while she sat there, watching him.

“I’ve had a thought, Lucian. An idea about the divine beast transformation that might help you,” she said sleepily, leaning her head against a rock.

Lucian glanced at her, then hammered in the stake for the tent. “Tell me about it in the morning.”

“I might forget it in the morning,” she argued, then yawned. “Do you recall when I told you that it felt like something was guiding my transformation?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s clear that the transformation can be interfaced with in some way. The Mentor’s Seal wouldn’t be able to work otherwise,” she said. “You used demonic energy from your Inquisitor’s Mark to activate it… but do you know what generally activates the Mentor’s Seal?” She waited, and when he didn’t answer, said, “Magic.”

Lucian paused, looking at her thoughtfully. “So… you think that I might be able to create an interaction with magic that transforms in the same way?”

Aurelia threw her hands up. “You get it! Yay,” she said, then rubbed her eyes. “Now hurry up and pitch my tent so I can take my damn fur off.”

***

Given how late they’d gone to sleep last night, they awoke late in the morning. They had chosen a spot that Lucian recognized so that he knew how much longer it was to reach their destination. The jungle was at its worst by this point. The humidity and the heat were working in tandem to the point where Lucian constantly was casting ice magic to cool himself and Aurelia. The others were similarly distraught.

But after perhaps three hours more of traveling, the jungle began to thin. That was a sign that civilization—or at least the ruins of one—was opening up to them. Eventually, the divine beasts set foot upon paved roads once more, and Lucian saw familiar sights that indicated to him they were near their destination.

And before long, they saw another grand construction that the elves had left behind following the devastation of the Black Bloom. They found themselves at the mouth of a huge canyon—two mountains that stood hundreds of feet tall loomed above. Between them, a gargantuan gate had been erected to block the passage. Its portcullis had been destroyed, and parts of it had already been overrun with vines and other such creeping greenery.

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“Every time I see it, what the True Divine Beast knows astounds me,” Miriam said. She wore a mask over her face, now, and clothing that covered her up completely. Most of them did, though—it was to avoid the biting insects in this hellish place. “I never thought this temple would be found again. It used to be a major site of pilgrimage. Now…”

“I should hope that human temples don’t become abandoned like this,” Azalea mused. “Though… I understand Enoch’s fury.”

“Yet he’s a hypocrite,” Arthur said. “A half-elf himself, and yet he’s crusading against humanity. The ridiculousness of it!”

“Let’s not get distracted,” Miriam insisted. “Lucian, Rowan?”

“Two things are beyond those gates,” Lucian said to everyone. “The first is the nest of the Great Beast of the Jungle. The True Divine Beast claimed it’s a Devouring Drake. I think it would be beyond us normally, but I was able to bring some things to prepare. If we’re lucky, it’ll be out on a hunt. We’ll get to our destination unimpeded.”

“And if it’s not, we’re fighting the most formidable drake species in its lair,” Ruth said dryly. “Happy days.”

“Not just the most formidable species,” Lucian said. “Probably the most formidable drake, period.” He looked to the gates. “One of the clan leaders kept it as a pet, feeding it the most decadent diet imaginable to demonstrate his wealth and his mastery over nature. When the Black Bloom came, his masterpiece outlived him.”

This thing is on major steroids. Makes Saltbelly look like one of his little drakelings. And it fights very strangely.

“We have some advantages against draconic species,” Lucian said, referring to the fact that they’d become the Dragon’s Champions. In War of Four, it provided a fear debuff. “But if it comes, this will still be an incredibly intense fight. Everyone will have to carry their weight. Rowan is commanding, naturally, and he’s been briefed.”

The mood had been gloomy since Miriam had informed them all of the coming calamity, but now that a fight might be on the horizon everyone seemed refocused. Lucian counted himself among that number.

“And for the second thing, there’s a portal to the Hells in these ruins,” Rowan explained. Lucian had honestly forgotten he’d said there were two things, so he was glad for the assist. “There, we’ll begin the trek into the Hells.”

I am a little worried about a fight, Lucian reflected. I anticipated we’d be stronger after a longer detour. It’d be best if we can avoid it.

“Let’s get going,” Rowan said. “But… quietly.”

The divine beasts moved forward with light footfalls upon the paved road into the abandoned temple.

***

Unlike the garden that they’d been to before in Krynziantil, this one persisted wholly. It was made to require no maintenance from elven hands from the outset. It was a natural garden. There were terraces of beautiful plants irrigated solely by the rains that would often fall upon the mountains, providing water to the carefully-implanted flora. It felt like walking through the Garden of Eden. There were countless fruit bearing trees—hell, Lucian saw a banana. There were innumerable types of berry bushes, each of them positively bursting with ripe, juicy treats.

Nothing that would eat the flora would dare venture here besides them. This was the domain of the Great Beast of the Jungle. He exuded a palpable aura that Lucian and the others could feel as they proceeded deeper inside. Hungry after a while of skipping meals, Lucian ate a few of the bananas, munched on the berries, and maintained a general air of carefreeness in hopes of calming his allies about the plan. He’d honestly never tasted sweeter fruits.

In time, they came to the arena of the Great Beast of the Jungle. It was like the scene had been made for the creature. The green reptile laid down in the middle of a large clearing, on bedding that its master had decades ago made for it as gentle rays of sunlight fell. It was huge. It was largerthan the dragons they’d seen, even. Its head alone was probably the size of Saltbelly… though perhaps that wasn’t saying much, because its head was oversized relative to the rest of its body.

“It’s asleep,” Miriam whispered to them. “It appears to be digesting a meal.”

The Devouring Drake was much like a snake in that it ate its prey whole. Lucian could see the evidence of its meal—a gargantuan protrusion in its gullet.

“Do you think we should try and bypass it?” Rowan asked, looking at Lucian.

Lucian took a deep breath, thinking. He chose what he felt was the smarter option.

“Absolutely,” Lucian decided. “That thing’s going to take a while to wake. Meanwhile, we just slip in and out.”

It felt like it wasn’t often that Lucian got lucky. He should take that luck now that it’d come. Maybe this’d turn into one of those scenarios where it woke up, trapping them in an unfavorable position. That sounded like more how things would go.

***

Lucian stood before a doorway that once led into the mountainside, but had since collapsed into rubble. Bypassing the Great Beast had come without issue, despite Lucian’s fears. They’d made it to the area where the portal to the Hells closest to the citadel of the Golemancer rested.

“Do I have to be in my human form?” Aurelia asked him. “You sure? Really sure?”

Lucian nodded. “It’s the only way those golems won’t instantly fire upon us.”

“I don’t want to do this, Lucian… I don’t want to…” Aurelia rubbed her hands together, clearly shaken and nervous. “It was bad enough going to the Hells last time in my divine beast form, and then bumbling through it alongside you. I nearly died eighty times.”

“You were never in danger.”

“I was,” Aurelia argued. “And it was miserable, and I cried. I hadn’t cried since I was seven.”

“Bullshit,” Lucian said with a laugh.

“Well… shut up,” she said, then laughed as well. “I hadn’t cried for real since I was seven,” she defended.

“Well, you’ve gotten a little tougher,” he reassured her.

With those last words of small comfort, Lucian unwrapped Belcourt’s arm. It was months old by this point, but as fresh as the day it’d been cut off. Lucian held the arm to the portal. Nothing happened.

“…how long does this take?” Aurelia asked.

Lucian didn’t answer. He waved the arm around a little bit, and it flopped about. He scratched his head in confusion, then retrieved his Evercodex.

“You don’t have a clue, do you?” Aurelia said. “Heavens, how embarrassing…”

“I’m trying to read, here,” Lucian said, holding up the journal.

“First your favorite person gets sick, now you can’t even open a door,” Aurelia said. “Not your day, is it? They’re all going to laugh at you.”

He waved Belcourt’s arm at her absent-mindedly, and she shied away while grimacing in disgust. When he read what he’d written down ages ago, he muttered, “Oh, I’m an idiot…”

Lucian held the arm with the Inquisitor’s Mark facing the portal. It reacted, sending out a swirl of dark magic. Then, there was a blaze of heat like a stove coming alight as the Hells opened before them.

“There we go,” Lucian said in enthusiasm. He looked to her, then started wrapping the arm up once again. “Get the others, please.”

“My word. Now you even say ‘please.’ And to think how we started,” she said, then went off to heed his words.

Aurelia said the words in passing, but it did make Lucian think.

Maybe she’s right. Maybe I am soft as hell.

***

As it had been the first time, Lucian was the first to enter into the Hells. That said, the others followed just behind him. They emerged into a landscape that was dim but not entirely dark as the other area had been. The cause for the dim light was a huge orb of fire suspended in a cage of glass and iron; a lighthouse in the sea of darkness. And this lighthouse rested in the center of the Citadel of the Golemancer.

“Heavens,” Ruth said in alarm, exhaling in shock. “There’s no such… I’ve never seen a fortification of that magnitude anywhere.”

The ground shook, and all eyed the gigantic metal golem stomping around in patrol. He could hear the frenzied breaths of fear when they beheld it. It made that golem they’d seen in the confluence seem like a dwarf by comparison.

“Stick close to me,” Lucian said, then started walking. “Don’t make any lights, and try to be quiet. Whatever you do, attack nothing.”