The Chimera Summoner – Ch 42 (2/2) – Webs, hostages, and long distance calls

A chant in some language I didn’t know rumbled through the assembled soldiers, ritualists, engineers, what looked like one of the lords of Gott and some of his retainers and family??

Quite the hodge podge of groups of people arrayed around the gallery of the ritual circle, that had taken the place where a throne of some kind would normally sit….Why would he tolerate such a thing, in his own fortress?

Were they hostages? Guests? Allies? Faithful?

Carmine herself seemed certain the Bayloft faculty were coming for us. But she also didn’t seem rushed… just not wasting time.

Rats. I would very much like my arch enemy to be a blundering doofus, please.

Chaos?? New deal?? All my enemies are idiots, and I will vow to…?

Carmine waved a hand, and the cultists in robes started chanting louder. The lines glowed bright, and Lorna stiffened, snarling as icy magic suffused her skin in resistance.

“She will drag you into a conflict that has been raging for millenia. Since before Classes. Before the Architect’s balance held us down.” she continued, from my side. “She will draw you, and then our whole world into that conflict. But she has a weapon. With it, I can not only free you from her, but sever the parts of the Dungeon that connect us to the threat. I just need fuel. And now we have it.”

The pale thread I hung from dissipated into mist. I dropped to the stone floor, and heaved in some deep breaths.

Inside the circle, Lorna was slowly covering herself in ice. Great cracks, like the thunderous shifting of an invisible iceberg shook the air.

“We can save the world, Eir.” She said, “You and me, right now. We can save the whole world. And everyone in it. Eternity is offering this world a second chance!”

“Whatever it is, Lorna will never give it to you.” I spat. “What even is it you think she HAS?!”

Carmine nodded earnestly. “A weapon she manipulated one of her previous summoners into creating. Before she let that world fall. She's cursed others with it, since. But you and I. We’re different. We aren't crippled by the Architect's rules. My Class can handle the strain. And if you let me, I can give you a better Class too!”

Ahhhhh!

I eyed the Gott Lord, decked out in faded finery. A hollow kind of wealth. So that’s how the cult of Night Blessed comes to have this castle. Some decrepit lord, locked in the north, offered power. A new and improved Class.

I surreptitiously committed his face and (prominently displayed) crest to memory, should we somehow survive and such things become useful.

“Who told you all of this?” I demanded. “Who pulls the strings of the would be savior?”

A chill was creeping over my skin. A nasty crawling suspicion.

Carmine paused, looking distant. “The hands of the night blessed… reach across many worlds. We have made certain bargains.”

I needed to stall. Which seemed to be working well.

But more than that, I needed Lorna to be ok. And for that I seemed to be running very short of time.

“You’re Night Blessed.” I said, confirming, thinking at a million miles an hour.

Carmine nodded.

“You sold your Class to Eternity, somehow, and she gave you a new one?” I asked.

“A stronger Class Eir.” Carmine said eagerly. She sounded like the kind woman who’d healed me up after my first Dungeon dive. Like a mentor. Just out of school. Someone to look up to. Someone whose footsteps I could follow in. “A Class that magnifies me, not constrain me to the Architects ideas about the limits of mortal power. I am free.”

“You're sounding verrrry brainwashed, professor.” I said skeptically, looking around the evil ritual. “Do these seem like good guy activities to you?”

I glanced at her red circle of horror, and her pale web of horror. “That needle,” I asked. “Is it made of…I want to say sadness?”

Carmine scrunched her nose. “You don't know how the Ascensions work, yet. It's a well kept secret, and for good reason. Why do you think that is? If you knew what the Architect demands for power, you wouldn't look down on Eternity 's terms. You’re blinded by a lie that you don't even question.”

“So what's the truth then?” I asked.

“I’m a Soul Stitcher.” Carmine said, with awe.

I frowned. “What was wrong with being a dusk renewer? I read a lot of your interviews. I would've killed for that Class.”

Carmine curled her lip. “That was before. The weak Class the architect saddled me with. The Class that let my friends die. If I had Soul Stitcher then….”

Grief and rage passed over her features like waves lapping at a shore.

“So what? You want to steal this magic weapon thing from my Familiar, then use it to save the world?” I asked.

“Things like that can't be stolen.” Carmine shook her head. “Only given. But this one is special. I am told that this one has a trial. When she reveals it, I can face that trial. And then she will have no say. Either I pass or I don't.”

She smirked, as if that was a foregone conclusion.

I had my doubts.

“Seems… scheme-y.” I muttered.

I had thought my plan had too many steps and moving parts.

Carmine's seemed to have gone past the dubious realms of a scheme into actual machinations.

And you never want to be the one with the more complicated plan.

Did we…? Were we at an advantage??

One advantage among a sea of disadvantages, but still! This was big news!

And at LEAST partially improvised. No matter how much bluster she put on… this was all too rushed. To risky.

She had allies from outside our world. The Netherim were but one of any number of foreign communities. The Night Blessed were, apparently, a world spanning organization.

That's how she knew someone who could tell her of Lorna’s history.

That's how she knew about whatever weapon this was.

And now that someone was putting pressure on her to produce.

I could smell it.

She needed results. And soon.

“I will give you one chance to order her to reveal the weapon.” Carmine said.

I looked at Lorna. She shook her head. Exhausted. Hanging limp.

I love you, my strong, strong girl. Hold on a little–

“Fine.” Carmine snarled. She yanked on her web of pale threads with a savage roar.

The ice around Lorna shattered in every direction, splintering into great mirrors of razor sharp ice that hung suspected in a reflective collidescope.

Inside, Lorna’s true self emerged, like a butterfly from a cocoon.

Not her vessel, tied to my own Level. But an astral entity in the fullness of her own might.

Regal. Majestic. Beautiful. Terrifying.

Her presence dominated the room. The temperature plummeted. Frost crept over every surface.

She cried out, straining against the entrapping web of threads, and turned her face to the sky.

Droplets of blue started leaking out of her wide, desperate eyes.

I barely arrested my instinctive lunge for her. She was in distress. Thoughts of stalling vanished. I needed to act now.

“I feel so… betrayed.” I said under my breath, trusting that Carmine would catch it.

She eyed me cautiously. I focused on Lorna, forcing malice onto my face.

“You promised to make me strong. Stronger than any Wayfinder before.” I muttered, as if to myself. “I should've known that was too good to be true. Stupid, stupid.”

“She has fooled many before.” Carmine jumped in. “It's not your fault.”

“You FUCKING LIAR!” I screamed, storming forward.

Carmine caught my elbow before I'd completed a full step.

Fuck. Worth a try. Next.

Lorna made a terrible moaning sound, which I prayed wasn't from what I had said.

The blue liquid streaming from her eyes was pooling above her in the ceiling. It was like watching rain fall up, slowly forming a dark pool which already seemed far, far too deep.

“What's she doing?” I asked, subtly wiggling my arm in Carmine’s indestructible grip.

“We’re forcing her to summon the weapon.” Carmine said.

“If it's so powerful, won't she just kill us all with it?!” I asked, trying to keep the hopefulness out of my voice.

“Arvan weapons scale to the power of the wielder. In her hands, it's vanity. In mine, salvation.” Carmine said.

Fucking. Nuts. Absolutely, brainwashed megalomaniac shit.

Next she'd make a fortress in the shape of her own head.

“Who are these allies of yours actually? What do they get from aiding our world?” I asked.

Then I winced. That was probably too much interrogation

I waited. But Carmine made no further revelations, entranced by the ongoing ritual.

“We will force her to summon the weapon.” Carmine declared. “I will claim it, by right of trial. Then I will sever us from the Dungeon. We’ll be free. From strangers. From Night Blessed. From everything. We’ll be free. I promise.”

I gasped at her. She wasn't even talking to me anymore, but herself.

She was fixated on the growing pool of dark waters that Lorna was weeping onto the ceiling. Her face was twisted by a storm of emotions that I couldn't identify.

“I'm going to open your bond. Order her to reveal the sword, Eir. For everyone’s sake.” Carmine said.

One thing I was certain of was that I didn't know how to force Lorna to do anything. If anything, in general, if she had wanted a dog, I would have happily barked.

“Don’t be afraid.” Carmine said, bracingly. “There will be pain, when the bond reopens. But you will be able to reassert control over your summon. Even her true form has to obey you. The summoning contract is very clear.”

Huh!

Was I just… fundamentally in charge of my Familiars?! It hadn't ever really come up… the closest I had come to really giving an ORDER was getting Lucy into clothes that first day.

But in the end, we'd just kept talking and eventually found what worked for us.

If I gave an order, did they really HAVE to obey??

Weird….

Could be…fun! If we talked about it carefully ahead of time.

I grinned.

Carmine patted my shoulder, releasing my arm.

“That’s the spirit, sweetie.” She said, suddenly back to playing the nurturing teacher. “Once I have it, I can use it to cut us off from the Strangers, forever.”

“Why can't it be me?” I asked, afraid that it would be too suspicious if I didn’t.

“You’re not strong enough yet.” Carmine explained. “I promise, Eternity will help you. Sooner than you could imagine. But for now, it has to be me.”

How the fuck would that work?? Have Eternity replace my Class from Chaos?! As if I would ever give up my Familiars, even if I wasn't convinced this was a cult and Eternity was evil. These are the fuckheads who killed Wally. They were currently torturing my Lorna.

I would feed them death and only death at the earliest opportunity.

But that didn't mean that what I was learning wasn't important….

Whatever. I needed to focus on the moment. Stakes are a bit high, on this one.

The deep pool in the ceiling had filled the space above her in a deep black, upside down lake.

Ohhhh. Lorna of the lake. That's what Serenity had called her. This is the lake. Got it.

I'd thought that it was just like… where she was from?

There was a titanic ripple in the lake, like something vast was stirring within it.

“I’m sorry to do this, Eir.” Said Carmine, “but the stakes are too high to be anything but certain.”

I followed her gaze as dread lanced my ballooning hope.

A group of guards in black armbands came into the circular throne room.

They were surrounding a bloodied Hera and the Netherim we’d freed.

“I don't know how many lives the dead girl has.” Carmine said. “But I assure you. If you do not do this. If you interfere in any way. If you do anything other than exactly what I have said, I will use another ritual to force her. This ritual requires the sacrifice of many lives, which the Netherim were captured to supply. I will burn them. Take the weapon anyways. And then I will not just kill you, but the true form of your Familiar, and the other Herald as many times as is necessary for her to stay dead.”

She patted my shoulder crisply.

“Order your Familiar to reveal the weapon. And we can all go home.” She said. “Everyone or no one. It's your choice.”

She pointed.

A dark figure, obscured by the infinite void of the ceiling lake, lifted a long, glittering object towards the surface of the lake.

Lorna let out a long slow breath that gusted around us like a blizzard. With a crack like steel, the lake above us froze into solid obsidian.

The figure kept sinking toward the surface.

I risked a look at Hera.

She shot me a bloody grin, then went back to hanging her head staring at nothing.

I scoured the group….

No Seera. No Bayla!

Lorna let out a low rumbling growl.

I snapped my attention to her.

Her teeth were bared.

Her body strained against the piercing threads that trapped her.

Pieces fell into place.

“Lorna!” I screamed. “Let go!!”

Her shimmering blue eyes locked on me, confused, angry, desperate. I could feel her resisting the order. But it was like she was pushing upwards, and I was pushing down with the weight of a sun on my back.

“PLEASE!” I screamed. “Trust!”

Lorna held for one more second. One exhausted, agonized eye finding me. Then.

CRACK!!