Ch 49 – The difference between an impenetrable fortress and a fort made of sticks…

As I approached the long hallway, I couldn’t help but smile. Being underground, it was devoid of windows. And thanks to Evara’s work, it had been cleaned of cobwebs and anything else lingering within, leaving only the scarcely lit lanterns and something of my own design. The walls and floors were now covered in an intricate pattern of sigils and circles, a truly impressive expanse of runes, if I were to say so.

I eyed the closest one and gave it a nod. It appeared that Evara had done well. I hadn’t expected her to actually finish all of them and would owe the girl a lot after this was all over with. Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be time to check them all. I would need to comb over only the more important ones, particularly the first and largest. But first, I traveled down the length of the hall, looking over each sigil and circle until I reached the dead-end wall of bricks at the hall’s end.

My fingers trailed across its surface until I found the one oddly smooth brick—despite its appearance to the contrary. Pushing it inward, a corner of the wall shifted, opening up a hole just large enough to squeeze through. As I released the trigger, the secret passage rolled back into place barely a second later.

It was my final recourse, should the rest of my measures fail, and why I chose this hall in particular. Escaping through would give me enough time to slip away before anyone, demon or human, could get it open again. Ideally, Melkar wouldn’t know about the hidden mechanism, though it wasn’t necessarily the best-kept secret in the school. Still, there was a difference between having heard about it and knowing it was in this specific hall. My enemies were likely to think me cornered, and I hoped to use that against them.

I didn’t expect to need the escape, but it was important to have backup plans. I just had to hope the thing wouldn’t crush me on the way through. The thought of Melkar’s arm being ground between large bricks brought a smile to my face.

It was time to get to work.

I adjusted the runes until my eyes began to go cross-eyed. Evara had done well, but not perfectly. Not that I’d expected her to. The small diagrams I’d made during classes could only really show so much detail, and mistakes were bound to be made regardless. Some of the traps were sure to fail, but so long as most of them functioned, there was little to worry about. I didn’t have enough time to fix all of them. Even the important ones took far too long since I had to check, adjust, and then double-check them.

Time passed and morning approached. I knew that I had to begin soon. Poor Evara was probably cursing me, given how long I’d left her waiting.

My arm reached up to rub my eyes. Squeezing my lids shut, I tried to will the tiredness from my mind. Then I pulled out the jar with the small creature inside. Holding it up to the light, I waited until a single large eye blinked open.

“I will release you if you do a task for me,” I said.

It blinked, which I hoped meant it understood. Shadows were simple creatures. How they understood us and our language, I couldn’t truly claim to know, but it was said they could comprehend the intentions behind our words, to the point where they could even detect things like deceptions and unsaid implications.

Most importantly, unlike humans or demons, the little creatures always stayed true to their agreements, as odd as that was.

“I need you to deliver a message to Melkar Kheln.” I continued, pulling out a folded slip of paper. “Drop it on his face and make sure he wakes from it. Then head to Evara Siev so that she knows to begin her distraction. After that, you’ll be free of me. Blink once if you understand and agree.”

The shadow stared into my eyes as though it could see something else deeper within. As though it were burrowing into my mind. After a long moment, it gave a slow, intentional blink, that I somehow knew to be an actual answer.

I nodded at the eerie creature before bending down, twisting the cap off the jar, and turning it over. Rather than falling out with a splat, it poured out like a wispy ooze. The shadow gently touched the stone floor, bringing the rest of its body slowly with it. Outside of the jar, it became far harder to see, as though it were there and not at the same time. I rubbed an eye and blinked, unable to determine its shape and wondering for a moment if I was seeing things and it had already left. Then two eyes opened to look up at me, and a tendril reached out.

Handing it the note, the small creature swallowed it whole. I could just make out its path to the wall, and then, as though squeezing into some unseen cracks, it was gone.

I sighed and began my final preparations.

It was a shame to just let the thing go, but I had not the time to try and train the little creature. And I could always buy another one, should I need it in the future.

The one thing I really didn’t understand about them was how they so easily tracked the location of others. If there weren’t far more convenient ways to communicate over long distances, then the little things would be much more widely used, I expected. They were certainly more reliable than birds, though not nearly as convenient as a spell.

Just how much would I owe Evara after all this, I wondered? I knew she’d said that she helped largely because she wanted to, but still…

I couldn’t rest easy with such a debt looming over me.

I made the final adjustments that I dared to before walking to one of the darkened lanterns. Opening it, I pulled out the crystal Evara had gotten for me and placed it inside. Since I couldn’t really use my own mana, the mana crystal would power the entire runic array. I closed the lantern and the chalk circle around it shone brightly. A trail of glowing lines flowed outward across the walls and floor, reaching all the way to the edges of my chalk sigils.

For a moment, the entire thing glowed brightly, lighting up the hall as though daylight were shining in. Then like a wave they darkened, leaving not a sign that any of it had ever been there. The chalk was gone, at least so far as the naked eye could see. I looked the entire thing up and down, being careful of where exactly I stepped as I made sure every line and smudge of chalk had turned invisible.

Just as I finished, the hall shook, and I pressed a hand against the wall to keep my balance. Evara’s apparently explosive distraction on the other side of the school was underway. Hopefully, I wouldn’t regret agreeing to leave it up to her.

A faint smile graced my lips, one undercut by a pang of worry. Whether it was for myself or for her, I wasn’t quite sure.

There was nothing else left to do but get into position and wait for what came next.

If I was lucky, Melkar would arrive by himself, perhaps in some foolish effort to assert his dominance over me. I wasn’t expecting to be that lucky though. My message to him was an “anonymous tip” from someone hoping to get a favor out of him, or at least that’s what it purported to be. I’d considered trying to forge a fake from one of his lackeys, but that would have required asking Evara for even more of her assistance in getting a copy of their handwriting. A note claiming that someone had spotted me alone in this hall was enough for Melkar to come for me. Even if he was suspicious, there was no way he would pass up the opportunity.

The demon in my head had become uncharacteristically silent after the last several days of pestering me to abandon my plans. I had to wonder if she was planning some other scheme now that it was obvious that I had no intention of going along with her wishes.

It took longer than expected for the light sound of footsteps to echo down the silent hall. Most of the way was dark, but I could see the steps leading upward at the other end of the hallway.

The footsteps stopped, raising my suspicion. Were they pausing? Had they realized already that something was wrong? Then my eyes widened.

Rather than a human-sized foot, a massive boot stepped down, making the stairs look diminutive in comparison. I clenched my jaw as I resigned myself to the fact that it wasn’t Melkar who now approached. Instead, another, much larger figure slowly came into view, moving as silently as a ghost.

Immediately, I drew my sword, making the impression that I planned to fight quite clear.

As the gray-skinned demon stepped down, I first noticed the large yellow cloak wrapped around it. It was worn by time and patterned with some unknown symbol, but what was most alarming was the faint aura that imbued the air around it, showing just how full of enchantments the unassuming fabric had to be. From within the cloak, a sword as tall as I was, if not taller, peeked out, sheathed at the demon’s side. A metal chestplate covered his torso, one that had been ornately carved as though to show off wealth.

Melkar assuredly hadn’t given the demon such things, which meant the creature must have come to our realm with them. A rather worrisome detail.

Then finally his eyes and face came into view, two narrow and glowing pools of red staring my way. The curve on his lips hinted at amusement.

The ogre was so tall that he had to lean forward to step fully into the hall, and his two horns scraped against the stone ceiling.

Despite myself and all my planning, I couldn’t help but gulp.

‘Run!’

I jolted from the sudden shout in my mind, taking an intentional step back. Lauriel, or whatever her name was clearly had no confidence in my ability to handle the, admittedly, terrifying ogre. But still, run? It was far too late to run. The demon mentally cursed me and my stubbornness. As she went on to explain her dubious reasoning, I did my best to tune her out. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted.

Meanwhile, from far down the hall, the ogre gave me a confident smile. One that sent belated shivers down my back. Something about even the way the creature eyed me made me uneasy.

Continuing forward, he spoke in a language I couldn’t understand, then paused. “Ahh, right. You wouldn’t know that language, would you? Still, what a sight you are. I never imagined I’d see a day where a vyxa threatened me at sword point.” The ogre’s accented voice was sharp and low, like a rolling pool of rock and magma in the earth. Despite claiming I had him at sword point, he didn’t stop his casual advance. “Why don’t you put that down before you hurt yourself?”

“I’ll grant you one chance to turn back,” I returned, my voice far more level than I felt. “Tell Melkar that he can come and face me himself.”

I didn’t expect the demon to agree, especially given that it was contracted. But it felt right to offer, nonetheless. Just in case it agreed.

The ogre broke into a deep, bellowing laugh, one that lasted several seconds. “You truly are a brave little thing, aren’t you?” A smirk revealed several large, pointed teeth. “Unfortunate that I must already call your bluff.”

Then he lunged forward, erasing the last few meters between us. “Show me what you’ve got, little vyxa!” he shouted with a laugh.

Panicked by just how fast the demon was, I nearly fumbled the timing. Just as he came within arms reach of me, I stomped down on the invisible rune in front of me. The ogre’s face smashed against a near-invisible barrier just as it flashed into existence. One quite similar to the one I’d been stuck in oh so many days ago now, when my transformation had occurred.

I smiled as his body slammed to a halt. He stumbled back, one hand pressed up against the barrier as the other rubbed his face. The demon’s horns once more scraped up against the ceiling as he tried to both straighten his back and eye the glowing runic circle around him.

As the many sigils within became increasingly brighter, I stared up at the massive beast of a demon, a smirk now sliding across my face.

To think it would be this easy.