Chapter 25

The final temple, realistically, looked like every other temple. To me, at that moment, it looked like the biggest temple of them all. At the very least, it looked like it was the most imposing.

Rhys took my hand and gave me a comforting smile. I could feel Felice’s warmth pour through me, like she was giving me a hug, before she prepared to take over my body for the inevitable fight.

“Ready for this?” Rhys asked me.

“If I waited until I was ready, I’d be waiting here forever.” I said, “Let’s get this over with.”

Rhys nodded, Felice took over my body, and we made our way into the temple. As per usual, the fountain was in the middle of the temple. Zappiel stood in front of the fountain. Felice took my hand to our sword.

Zappiel’s face was still stoic, uncaring, dead to the world. Something was wrong, and I had a pretty good idea of what it was - that damn gem on his chest was going into overdrive, forcing him into full compliance, probably trying to erase his personality. I had to get that thing off of him - failure was not an option.

As Rhys and I approached Zappiel, the pale elf took a stance, held up his hands, and fire appeared in his palms. Unlike the others, Zappiel was not going to give us any witty banter.

“I don’t care what it takes, Zapp!” I said as Felice drew our sword and Rhys began preparing spells of her own, “I’m getting that gem off your chest, one way or another!”

Zapp didn’t respond. He didn’t even flinch. If it weren’t for the fact that he was blinking, I would’ve thought he was a statue.

Then the elf raised his hand. Felice knew what was coming seconds before I did, and lunged us out of the way just as Zappiel launched a beam of white fire at the two of us. It barely missed me - I could feel the heat on the side of my face slightly burn me - and hit the wall behind me.

Rhys fired two fireballs at Zappiel, but he destroyed them with the swing of his arm, not even leaving a mark or any trace of their existence. Rhys started forming more, but a string of fire from Zapp forced Rhys to create a magic shield instead.

“While he’s distracted with her!” I said, “Felice, go in for a swing!”

I remained still, despite what I told Felice.

“Felice! Move!” I yelled.

Zappiel turned to me, and I realized too late that I had said that out loud, turning his attention back to me.

“Crap!” I said, “Felice, we have to move, now!”

Still nothing.

“Felice?!”

Zappiel started walking towards me. Rhys fired some small fireballs at him, but they didn’t even make the elf flinch. I tried to move myself, but my legs felt like they were welded to the ground.

“Felice move, goddamnit!” I yelled, struggling to retake control of my own body. Felice was keeping me down, and I had a pretty good idea why. The fire in Zapp’s hand formed into a rod, almost a sword-like shape.

“NO!” I screamed as I raised my hand to block the blow, as if that was going to help. Just as Zapp swung, I was knocked to the ground by Rhys, who had rushed towards me so fast she was a blur in the wind.

Rhys helped me back up as soon as we could and backed away from Zapp. I had thought, for a brief moment, I managed to get away unscathed, until I looked down at my left hand and realized my index finger and the top half of my middle finger were gone, just two thick blurry little sticks lying on the temple floor.

“Oh my god.” I said at the same time as Felice, who seemed to finally wake up.

“I’m so sorry, moor-acu,” said Felice, I… I…”

“We’ll talk later, for now, we have to put Zapp down before he puts us down!” I said.

“I think I can do something to distract him,” said Felice, “Allow me to borrow your voice, moor-acu.”

I nodded, and Felice did just that, opening my mouth and speaking without my input:

The barrage of fire against Rhys’ shield stopped. I stepped out from behind Rhys to see what was going on.

Zappiel’s face broke. I thought it was just going to be for a second again - another twitch, like the one after he burned Katie - but this time, it made a huge effect. Zappiel clutched his head and bent over, like he was two seconds away from collapsing. Then he started screaming.

“This is your chance!” Felice said as Rhys handed us a dagger, “Get that gem off of him, now!”

Felice pushed us forward, knife in hand, just as Zappiel started to straighten himself out. Before he could get his bearings, we kicked him down to his back, jumped on top of him, ripped his shirt open, and started cutting into the gem.

Zappiel started screaming, but I was used to it at this point. Within seconds the gem had been cut free, and I tossed it aside and allowed Felice to control me as she moved my arms over Zapp, just as he passed out.

A flash of light over Zapp, and it was over. For a moment, my mind couldn’t comprehend that fact. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

“We’ve done it…” I said, staring down at the jewel as I picked it up and stuffed it into my bag, “We’ve beaten them all. We won.”

“We won!” Rhys said. She rushed forward and grabbed my hands, spinning around and laughing “We won! We won! We did it!”

“We did it!” I said. Rhys’ laugh was contagious, and I started laughing as well. We laughed together, spinning around, laughing hard. We collapsed to the floor on top of each other, laughing and trying to catch our breaths.

“Alright, well, you go cleanse your face, and we’ll get going to get back,” said Rhys as she got up, collected herself, and stepped back to get Zappiel while I stepped over to the fountain to scoop out some water.

As I put my hand back into the water, it started turning red like normal. Only, something felt different this time.

“Doesn’t this usually happen after both Katie and I cleanse?” I asked out loud.

“Something wrong, Riley?” Rhys called out to me from the entrance to the temple.

“Uh, no, nothing.” I said as I got back to my feet, “Let’s go get Katie and finish this once and for all.”

Rhys smiled at me, at least until she looked down and saw my hand.

“Your fingers!” Rhys said, “Maybe we could bring them...”

“I’m not carrying my own severed fingers with me,” I said, “Too gross. Let’s just go, it’s not too bad.”

Rhys nodded and we made our way out of the temple with the unconscious elf, while I tried to ignore the pit that was growing in my stomach.

“Katie’s gonna be so pissed when she realizes she missed out on the chance to kick Zapp’s ass.” said Rhys as we crossed another hill on our way back to the camp, “After what he did to her.”

“She’ll probably be too busy boasting about her cool new scars or something.” I said, “This is Katie we’re talking about. At least she'll be able to brag that she has more of a missing limb than I do."

“That… is truth.” said Rhys. She shifted Zappiel on her back a little and puffed some breath.

“Are you okay?” Felice asked, “Do we need to take a break?”

“I’m good,” said Rhys, “We’re close enough to camp. Look, in the distance!”

Rhys motioned to the smoke in the distance, the indication of where the Redemption camp was. I would’ve thought setting up such an obvious beacon would be a bad idea, but just seeing the sign of the camp coming up was keeping me going at this point.

“We’re back!” I said as Rhys and I saw the men in the distance, pacing around their tents. Daniel and Tarron met us halfway, looking grim.

“How did it go?” Tarron asked. I noticed he wasn’t smiling, but I was still on cloud nine so I didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Zapp’s down,” I said, smiling, “We’re good, it’s all over. We just need Katie, and we can…”

I stopped mid-sentence when Tarron’s face dropped, the moment I said Katie’s name. Elisen teared and let out a sob. Tarron looked like he was about to start crying himself, which was how I knew something was horribly wrong. Even Daniel seemed completely choked up.

“Don’t...” I mumbled under my breath, though I wasn’t sure why. Rhys suddenly shot forward and took my hand. She must have realized what happened before I did.

Tarron looked like he really didn’t want to tell me what he was about to say, but he managed to force it out.

“Riley… Katie’s dead.”

It struck me like a sword through my chest. Everything around me, Rhys looking at me with a worried and sad expression, Tarron also looking concerned, Daniel still looking like he wanted to cry, Elisen straight-up sobbing, I could see none of it anymore. My vision went cloudy, and my knees gave out on me.

“Riley!”

Strong arms, probably Rhys since she had been the one to call out my name, caught me before I could hit the ground. The tears started flowing, and I started shriek-sobbing. Katie didn’t deserve to die after everything we had gone through.

“Riley, I’m so sorry,” said Elisen, who had knelt down beside me.

“How… how?!” I yelled through my sobs, “You said she would be fine!”

“I thought she would be!” said Elisen, “The burns went deeper into her body then I thought they had - most of her internal organs had been fried. By the time any of us realized how severe the damage was, it was too late. The best I could do was make sure she didn’t feel any pain before she passed on.”

“But she talked to us!” I screamed, thrashing against Rhys’ grip but not getting anywhere, “She said she felt fine! How could she feel fine if she was dying?! What kind of doctor are you?!”

I tried to struggle out of Rhys’ grip but she wouldn’t let go of me. Eventually, I managed to start breathing normally again, and Rhys let go of me, going from holding me back to hugging me while all I could do was silently sob.

Rhys’ eye was wide and wet, almost like she couldn’t cry, even though she was trying to.

“I’m so sorry, you two.” Elisen said, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s… it’s not your fault.” I said, realizing the elf herself was crying as well, “I know you did all you could for her. I’m sorry, Elisen.”

I hugged her. Rhys joined in on the hug. I could feel Felice’s presence, as though she were trying to join in as well. We all cried and hugged for Katie.

“Where is she?” I asked, “I’d like to see her, to say good-bye.”

“She’s…”

Elisen was interrupted when there was a loud bang. Tarron suddenly grabbed us as something nearby exploded.

“Problem!” the elf yelled, “The emperor’s soldiers are here, and they’re razing the place to the ground! We have to get going, now!”

“Oh, that’s just perfect,” Rhys said bitterly as she hoisted Zapp off to another man who had come running over, “We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“But… Katie… the Runners!” I yelled.

“We can get them out of here!” Tarron yelled, “Riley, after everything you’ve done, you WILL NOT die here!”

Before I could argue, a pile of flaming garbage fell and exploded right next to us, sending me flying. I rolled on the ground, but was up in a flash thanks to Felice.

“Riley!” Rhys called through the smoke.

“Rhys!” I called back. The orc was by my side instantly, and then we were running through the smoke, hand in hand.

“What about the others?” I said.

“We can’t do anything about them,” said Rhys, “We have to get you back to the main arena, then you’re free!”

As the smoke started to clear, something out of the corner of my eye caused me to break off from Rhys; Daniel was pinned by one of the empire’s guards, holding off a battle-ax with his crossbow.

Felice took control of my body, pulled my sword, and we swiped at the guard, knocking him over, and putting him down with a stab through his chest.

“Thanks, good thing you stopped by.” said Daniel as we helped him up, just as Rhys ran over, “I’ll find Tarron and we’ll handle things from here, but you two need to clear out now!”

“Be safe, Daniel.” I said. He nodded to the two of us, then he ran back into the smoke as Rhys led me back into the forest. Even though Felice was controlling my legs, exhaustion was overtaking me, even as the smoke of the pillaged camp dissipated into nothing at all.

“I know the way back,” said Rhys, “I’ve studied the map of the island enough. We just have to get through the woods, and we’ll be back at the area.”

“What do we do from there?” I asked, “How are you gonna get back?”

“I’ll sneak into the portal after you’re taken through,” said Rhys, “No one will notice me. Hey, I got through it the first time, didn’t I?”

“That you did,” I said, “Alright, but stay safe, okay?”

“I will.” said Rhys.