Veleria stared incredulously at the door. It was stone and it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever seen.
Althalos Cromwell had stuffed a door into the base of the mountain.
“What?” Caed came up beside her. He wanted out of this horrible weather. “Never seen a door before?”
She simply gestured widely at the entrance, “he just shoved a door into the mountain.”
“Yeah, and?” He pointed over her shoulder to a simple iron knocker set in the middle of the door. “Just use the knocker.”
Veleria rolled her eyes. It was so basic. A single person door made of stone with the most basic of knockers welded on. She had imagined something so much more extravagant than this. Without voicing more complaints, she gripped the knocker and notified Cromwell of their arrival.
You’ve come.
She still hated how he communicated. It was pure defilement of her mind. Veleria rubbed the side of her head, but before she could respond the door creaked open. She led the way with Caed directly behind her. Before them were simple stone steps that led further down. As they passed each step a sconce below them lit, showing them the way.
At around the halfway point Veleria started to feel pain in her chest. She stopped, hand over her scar, while Caed placed a comforting hand on her arm. The sorcerer watched with some concern as a scene played out before him, one he had seen twice now. Much like when he took her, it was Caellach pulling a substantial amount of magic back into them.
Veleria shrugged him off, “stay a few steps behind.” She told him.
He did so, immediately. They continued further into Cromwell’s domain until they reached a large, carved out room that was akin to a landing. Passages tempted them to the East and West, though they didn’t need to guess as to their intended direction before Cromwell greeted them.
The lich appeared before them. Armored and robed, there was no visible skin, no animated bones. He merely came into being with his sharp, armored fingers tented in front of his torso. Caed noted that he floated just enough off the ground that it was hard to tell if his two feet were actually planted on it or not.
All four of the eye holes in Cromwell’s mask were lit. They came to focus on the individual in front—Veleria.
I have prepared more comfortable arrangements for guests. If you would follow me…
Just as the lich turned to go down the western passageway, he pointed a metallic finger towards Caed. Had he been any later, then Caed may have met a terrible fate. The sorcerer gasped when a glistening barrier constructed itself around him, separating him from a deadly burst of heat and flames that erupted from Veleria’s position.
“YOU BOUND ME HERE.”
It was Veleria, though Caed could hardly recognize her voice. In front of him she was a mirage of red and orange. Her clothes were burnt into nothingness. Her pack had somehow made it behind the barrier with him, the smooth white features of the Mask of Many Faces peering out from the top.
You left me no choice.
The lich appeared to begin weaving another spell. He did not finish it. Suddenly, Veleria gripped her upper arms and dropped to her knees. The fires surrounding her extinguished and, while embers shed from her naked body—from her hair and underneath her nails—she exhaled.
Her body is still incomplete. You would do well to respect the autonomy of the woman you so foolishly resurrected.
Veleria looked up towards the lich hatefully. Slowly, her gaze softened, and she looked down at her exposed flesh. With a sorrowful glance, she frowned at the burnt remnants of the red ribbon that slowly drifted down into her palms. Before them, Cromwell hovered by the western passage.
“Did you…Do this? You brought Caellach back?” She asked, her voice shaken.
Yes, said Cromwell. There is no one else that can do what must be done.
He continued forward into the passage, leaving Veleria with Caed. The barrier surrounding the latter dissipated. At first he hesitated, but a pain in his eye told him it was safe, so he bent beside Veleria with her pack in hand.
“Are you alright?” He asked her.
“No,” Veleria found that she couldn’t look at him. The man could have died by her hand, one that she was afraid she could no longer control. “Did you get hurt?”
“Not at all,” Caed tried to smile. “Looks like everything burned up…Your clothes, your belts, even all your weapons. Damn, how hot was that fire?”
It was a thought that caused him to take in the rest of their surroundings. The ground below them was scorched, as were the walls that Cromwell had not protected. An unevenness to each surface unsettled him. The fire had taken off several inches from both the floor and walls, leaving a strange, glassy composition in its wake.
In her own thoughts Veleria had recalled a specific moment, a dream in which Caellach and his companion Edgar had gazed upon the stars. One had gone out. Knitting her brows together, she started dressing herself with what she had in her pack. She deliberately chose a blouse she didn’t love, and a pair of trousers that she wouldn’t cry over if Caellach destroyed them. After she was done, now barefoot with clothes that only mostly fit, she held her pack out to Caed with a defeated half-smile.
“Can you please hold onto this?”
“Sure, no problem.” Caed grabbed it and added it to the weight on his back. Then, he nodded towards the western passage. “He went that way. Ya ready?”
“Yeah. Please keep your distance, I don’t want to hurt you.” She said, looking over her shoulder towards him as she led the way. He kept a fair few meters back.
The sconces continued to light as they made their way through the passage. It was uneventful, and Cromwell was hardly decorative. The two of them did not talk as they made their way through, up until Veleria paused at the mouth of the next room. This one was lightly furnished with a few items of note. Namely, there were artifacts on display in this room, some of which drew her interest. A prismatic glass piece on top of a browned, aging map made her chest heat up, though she placed a hand over her scar and Caellach began to calm.
“Please don’t do that again,” she whispered to him. “Just…Please don’t hurt these people. I understand that you’re angry, and I can feel your hate just as much as you do. It will all work out.” For a moment she paused, her fingers hovering a chip in the glass item before her. “As you said, we will never again be caged. I won’t let it happen either.”
It is a fear that is well-placed.
Behind her she turned to see Cromwell, with Caed in the far corner of the room. He was standing in front of a bookshelf while flipping through a hardback.
“You said that only Caellach could do whatever it is you need him for. What is it?”
I seek the eradication of the void below Alk’Hath’s temple.
Caed immediately turned, and Veleria blinked in response. She kept her hand over her chest to comfort her passenger.
“Are you certain that’s possible?” She asked, suddenly unsure if the words she spoke were hers or if Caellach had intervened. From her periphery she saw the prismatic piece move gently through the air until it paused before Cromwell. He cupped it in his hands.
It came here for Caellach, and only Caellach can destroy it. With each breath you take it eats more of our world. Slowly, surely, the leylines will be devoured, and all that we are will cease to be.
“Guess I wasn’t wrong when I tagged you at the center of all this bullshit.” Caed hissed between his teeth. “Just got the sides incorrect. The hell is Alk’Hath doin’ with that fuckin’ thing?”
Her life has been a torturous one. I cannot presume to know her true intentions, only that Alk’Hath has little left to love in this realm.
The lich came up beside Veleria to return the piece to its original location. The blue flames in his mask focused once more on her.
I never intended for this to happen to you. Perhaps it was my hubris, believing that after all these years I could reason with him. He fled before I could so much as greet him.
Veleria stole a glance at the glass piece before resting her attention on the lich. It was all too friendly, his words. After all these years. Reason. Then, in the landing, she had remembered a simple, perhaps inconsequential scene from her passenger. All of the historic texts, the reparations Cromwell had ensured.
She hesitated before asking, “Are you Edgar Mallory?”
The fires in Cromwell’s mask lessened in intensity until they were but simple, trailing lights.
“Ya can’t go invokin’ a mage’s name, Vel—“ Caed started, incredulous, before Cromwell interrupted him.
Edgar Mallory was my slave name. My true name, my language, and my culture have all been razed from this earth. Even so, in my undeath the power of names has ceased its hold over me.
With all this in mind, Veleria took her gaze away from him. She still held her hand over her chest.
“Why would you go so far?”
They weren’t her words.
There is still more worth saving. Even if you do not agree, Caellach, then I will ask Veleria to assist me. You brought this horror here, and now either you, or the star that burns within her, will end it.
Veleria was quiet for a time. She had no desire for Caellach to ruin this conversation, so she consciously pushed him down, so as to not derail Cromwell any further. She looked between the lich and Caed, the latter offering a shrug. His right eye was a complicated mess of arcane symbols. For a moment she wondered what Istvar would say if she had the ability to speak.
“Was I resurrected by mistake?” She asked Cromwell.
Yes.
“Then there is no greater purpose meant for me.” She closed her eyes. “Before my death I wasn’t a particularly happy person. For a time I even entertained that I might stay with Alk’Hath, because she was so kind to me…But then I saw that thing and felt like I had a duty to tell someone.”
Once more, she and Caed locked eyes. This time, he smiled at her, and Veleria smiled too, her attention returning to Cromwell with a renewed sense of understanding.
“You said my body isn’t ready yet. How much longer until it is?”
I cannot say for certain. Were it to take little time at all, you would still not be prepared to face that void, and I have no intention to lose you based on poor experience. Assuming you will assist me, then I will still have to plan, to train. Cromwell tapped his armored fingers together. Alk’Hath and I have exchanged blows on multiple occasions. She has lost, as have I. She has taken more sorcerers since our last exchange, many of which I find particularly problematic.
“I put Raker down as her worst, but I’ve heard whispers of some real pieces of work.” Caed said, his back to the wall beside the bookshelf. “Although this loops back to why I’m here. Istvar has seen where Alk’Hath reconstitutes herself.”
You touched her?
“I touched the artifact she uses to start the process. It’s one of the gold bangles she wears.” Caed pointed towards the lich. “This information isn’t free, Cromwell. I want Valcoth’s mark off my damned thigh. She forced it on me and then never dispelled it.”
That can be arranged. Tell me, what does Istvar think of the void being?
“She wants it gone, as do I.” Caed replied simply. “I wouldn’t have tempted fate by fighting Raker if I didn’t believe in this as strongly as I do.” Briefly, his gaze shifted to Veleria before returning to Cromwell.
I will remove the mark. Veleria, I cannot force you to help, nor Caellach. I only ask that you take into consideration all that I have told you.
“I will, Lord Cromwell.” Veleria nodded her head with a smile. “May we stay here while I think over everything?”
You are always welcome here.