Chapter 15

Kydro Crollet, the rose elf of Krozon’s Swamp, was looking down at us, arms crossed. I realized as soon as I laid eyes on him that while he’d bandaged the wound I had given him had been bandaged, but the shirt hadn’t been repaired at all, leaving the gem still clearly visible on his chest.

“You’ve arrived.” Kydro said as we started making our way to him.

“Ten out of ten for observation,” said Katie, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I figured you would be making your way to the Cleansing Temple,” said Kydro, “The inside will be big enough for us to have our inevitable fight.”

“What makes you think we won’t just splash some water on our faces and book it?” I asked as we followed Kydro into the building, keeping my hand on my sword as we did so.

“If that had been your goal from the beginning, I would’ve been killed in our first meeting,” said Kydro, ahead of us, looking away, “I was caught off-guard by your skills, which you should have taken advantage of.”

“You mean we should’ve killed you?” I said.

Kydro said nothing, just kept walking through the big archway into the temple. The inside was about what I expected it to be; big, mossed over, plants poking out of everywhere, no ceiling so natural daylight was all the building had, and in the middle, a big fountain with a pillar spitting water into it.

“Anyone else feeling that aura?” Katie said.

It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about; there was a bit of a calming aura in the air, like being wrapped up in a blanket in my bed on a nice morning, when you don’t have to get out of bed.

“It won’t last long. Are we ready to do this?”

Kydro’s words brought me back to reality, and the calming aura immediately dissipated. We all turned to face the tall elf on the other side of the temple, who had already pulled his sword and was ready to attack.

“Let’s do this.” Katie said, pulling her own dagger, but staying behind Rhys, who was closer to me. I felt the usual pull and spine chill as Felice possessed my body, and we pulled our sword together.

“No matter what, we have to end things here!” I whispered to Rhys, “Is there any way you can keep Kydro from running away again?”

“I doubt he’s going to, since we’re in the temple,” said Rhys, “Besides, you might need my magic again!”

“Good point,” I said, “Let’s get this over with.”

“That is just what I was thinking.” said Kydro, “This is your last chance to surrender for a peaceful death, otherwise in the Divine’s name, I will show you no mercy.”

“We whooped you last time, we’ll whoop you again.” said Katie.

“Last time was a simple fluke,” said Kydro, “As I said, I was caught off-guard by your skills. But I’ve had enough talking, it’s time for action.”

Kydro charged. Fortunately, Felice was paying more attention than I had been and parried the blow off immediately, followed by the three follow-ups Kydro delivered before a blast from Rhys’ magic knocked him back.

“Nice, thanks!” I said as Rhys passed me with her hands outstretched, keeping my eyes on Kydro, watching his every move. Rhys nodded back to me, also keeping her eyes on the rose elf.

“Let’s go in hard,” I whispered to Felice, “We have to get him down so we can get that gem off.”

“No need to tell me twice.” Felice said back. We brandished our sword and moved in close. Kydro, expecting us to attack first, moved to block any incoming attacks.

“Rhys!” I called out.

“Take some fireballs, buddy!” Rhys yelled, firing the small orange balls from the palm of her hand. Kydro blocked them with his sword, exactly as I thought he was going to do. Felice must have read my mind, since we charged with our sword while Kydro was distracted.

Just as I thought we were going to be able to knock him down, Kydro swung the blunt handle of his sword, and landed his mark on the side of my cheek. One second I was in front of Kydro, the next I slammed into a wall and was on the ground unable to move, seeing stars.

“Riley!” I heard Katie yell from somewhere behind me, but I was still out of it, though Felice was on top of things, pushing me back to my feet and still keeping the sword out as Kydro approached us.

“Stay focused, moor-acu,” Felice said, “Get your bearings back, I can hold Kydro off until you’re good and ready.”

I couldn’t respond, the wind still knocked out of me, but I tried my best to clear my vision. My body was still moving, still being controlled by Felice, but I wasn’t too sure of what was happening. Everything was so blurry.

Just as my vision finally came back, I got to watch as Felice used my body to knock Kydro down to one knee, then he took a ball of purple light to the side, courtesy of Rhys. Kydro landed hard on his side, and I took the opening I got.

I was on top of Kydro in a flash, my hand at the gem. Kydro tried to raise his hands and stop me, but as soon as I started pulling at the gem, he screeched and his arms went limp.

“Looks like the gem is hurting him!” Rhys yelled.

“Don’t worry Kydro!” I said, “I’m taking this thing off!”

At least, that was what I thought I was going to do, but the gem wasn’t budging.

“Goddamn, this thing is stuck down!” I said.

“Cut it off!” Katie said as she rushed over and held out her dagger for me to take.

Before I could turn back and tell Katie what a stupid idea that was, Felice took over and took the dagger from Katie.

“Huh? What the hell - “

I didn’t even have time to tell Felice to stop or take control back as she started cutting into the skin gluing the gem onto the rose elf’s chest. Kydro started screaming and shrieking, his voice getting higher than I thought it would be possible to get. The pain must have been too much for him since he never made any real attempts to stop me.

After several agonizing minutes, the gem came free from Kydro’s chest with one final pull, leaving only a red shape of exposed muscle where the gem had been. Kydro screamed, louder than I even thought his vocal chords could go, then he went limp.

“Holy crap.” Katie said, “Is he…?”

“He’s unconscious.” said Felice, “I imagine that pain must have been too much for him, but I can assure you he is not dead.”

“Great, so we got one down!” said Katie, “Can we get out of here now?”

“No, hold on.” said Rhys, “We can’t just leave him like this! We have to make sure Easton can’t just stick a new gem on him!”

“I got this one.” said Felice, “Riley, may I borrow your hands and voice?”

“Yes, go ahead.” I said, bracing myself. Sure enough, I could feel Felice puppet my hands, moving into the pouch on my skirt and pulling out the bottle of green fluid that had been in there, the Spellcaster’s Elixir. In a single, fluid motion, Felice had me down the whole bottle.

It tasted awful; slightly worse than grape cough syrup, but I managed to choke it down and immediately started feeling the effect; it was like my arms and legs were shot full of adrenaline.

“This feels… weird.” I said.

“Let me handle this.” said Felice, “Riley, I need you to repeat after me.”

“Gotcha.” I said, paying attention. Felice started speaking, and I followed right along.

“I bind thee will to my life! As thou enjoy freedom as I do breath!”

Lights appeared beneath my hands, growing around Kydro and consuming him. I was nervous and sweating, but Felice’s guidance kept my hands steady as the light dissipated and Kydro remained still, the slight moving of his chest the only indicator that he was still alive.

“What did you just say?” Katie said, “It sounded kind of like gibberish.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked as Felice, still puppeting me, pulled some Nectar out of my pocket and rubbed a little bit on Kydro’s chest, allowing the liquid to speed up the healing of the wound.

“I didn’t recognize the language,” said Katie, “I mean, I’m not exactly fluent in anything, even English, but still, what language was it? Did Felice teach it to you?”

“What do you mean? I was speaking English… wasn’t I?” I asked.

“Is that what you call your language?” Felice said, “But to answer Katie’s question, I was speaking in an ancient language called Ecani. I don’t think it’s spoken anymore, but the soul-binding spell can only be used in that language. Riley can understand it thanks to me; she only heard the translation.”

“Interesting.” said Katie, “I wonder what other spells come from that language?”

“We can worry about that some other time,” said Rhys, “We’re burning daylight in the meantime, and you two need to get your faces in that fountain before we go.”

Rhys motioned to the fountain still sitting in the middle of the temple, still spitting water like nothing had happened.

“Ah, yeah,” I said, “Let’s get that done, and then we can worry about who’s carrying Kydro.”

“Wait, what?!” said Katie as we made our way to the fountain, “We have to carry him?!”

“Did you really think we were going to just leave him here?” Felice said, “Even if this temple were a safe haven, what do you think that asshole emperor would do to them once they can’t be controlled anymore?”

“… Oof, that’s a fair point,” said Katie, “Looks like you’re up, Rhys!”

“Huh? Why am I carrying him?!” said Rhys.

“Riley’s definitely not strong enough, Felice is incorporeal, and I have one hand.” said Katie, waving her stump in Rhys’ direction for good measure. Rhys groaned, but started grunting as she tried to hoist the man onto her back while Katie and I bent down to the fountain’s water.

“So we just wash our faces?” Katie said.

“Might as well,” I said as I scooped some water out in the palm of my hand and rubbed it on my face, alert as the cool, clear water cleaned my skin. Katie did the same and when I placed my hand back in the water, I nearly ripped it right back out when the water started turning red at my hand.

“Holy crap!” I said, “Am I bleeding?!”

“Uh, no.” said Katie, “Look, it’s doing the same thing to me.”

Sure enough, the cloud of red was spouting out away from Katie’s hand, mixing with mine, and turning the whole fountain’s water red, even up to the water that was coming out of the spigot.

“Wow.” I said, “I guess we did it.”

“We sure did,” said Katie, “One down, three to go.”

Suddenly, Katie pulled me to my feet with amazing strength for someone with one arm.

“We did it! We saved one of them!” Katie yelled, pulling me around in a circle, “We got him!”

“We did!” I said, laughing right along with her, “We did!”

It seemed a bit silly to me that we were celebrating when we had only just started, but it was so worth it; we had just taken down a man who had been trying to kill us. Not only that, but we had saved him from being forced to kill anyone else. Katie was right; we hadn’t completed our goal yet, but we had accomplished something we thought was impossible.

“I’d love to join in on the celebrations,” Rhys said as she hoisted Kydro onto her back and carried him fireman style, “But I have to carry this guy for who-knows-how long, so we should probably get moving.”

“Alright, alright,” said Katie, “Let’s get moving.”

Even though Rhys had been complaining about having to carry Kydro, I was surprised at how easy she was making it look; she wasn’t any slower, and she wasn’t even grunting or acting like he was heavier than a feather, besides a brief glance and wink at me that I couldn’t help but smile at.

The three of us made our way out of the temple, when Katie stopped us at the top of the temple.

“There are people down there, look!” Katie said, pointing at the bottom of the steps. Sure enough, several people were standing down there. From the looks of it, they were wearing armor and holding swords.

“What the hell?” I said, “Why would the emperor send people after us?”

“They are watching us,” said Rhys, “Maybe they don’t like that we saved Kydro?”

“Crap,” said Katie, “Get ready for another fight, guys.”

Felice pulled our sword while Rhys started to hoist the still-unconscious Kydro down so she could fight as well, when one of the men in armor raised his hands, as if to surrender.

“We’re not with the Empire, maidens!” the man said in a deep voice, “We’re not here to fight! We’re here to help you survive.”