Chapter 95: 94. For the Price of One

Six of us, Auro, Silst, the twins, myself, and our guide Esatil, plodded slowly up the snow-laden trail around the cliffs, eyes peeled for anything suspicious in the trees around us. The new morning sunlight was a welcome change to the wet and dreary atmosphere of last night’s storm, but I found I couldn’t enjoy it quite as much as I would’ve liked. The spectre of demonic threat lay over me, one I could not dispel with a simple banishment.

 

Unsurprisingly enough, the rest of the caravan did not let me just walk straight out into the storm to fight a demon by myself, no matter how ‘[cinematic]’ and ‘epic’ I told them it would be. In fact I’d been scolded and even threatened with wagon-confinement if I snuck out and Silst had volunteered his services to keep watch. So instead of finishing the whole business quickly and efficiently we had cooked up a plan that involved all of the caravan and some of the villagers for extra measure. It was overkill any way I looked at it, but it was the only way they’d even accept fulfilling my boundless generosity.

 

Though, given how quickly they came up with the plan, I had a feeling the others had been just as inclined to help as I was.

 

“We should be coming up on it soon.” Esatil’s voice shook a little as he spoke despite his age. “The shrine is on top of this hill.”

 

The rest of us just nodded, and I couldn’t say that any of us were entirely calm. From the descriptions it couldn’t be a very dangerous demon, at least not in comparison to some of the truly stupidly powerful ones I’d read about, but it was still an unfamiliar power to us. And despite all our combined knowledge on the matter, it wasn’t a guarantee that we’d get through this without injury. Especially if it turned out to be faster than we anticipated.

 

The path opened up a little in front of us, the trees parting to reveal a quaint little structure built into the top of the hill. The hill was bare of trees at the top, leaving only the barrow-like pillars of the shrine to stare into the southern peaks. Only the front porch and the pillars holding up the hilltop were visible from below, and it looked cold and empty to me. Two large braisers of rough-cut stone peeked out from the ground flanking the front. There was no sign of life.

 

We stopped almost as one, and I turned to nod to our guide. He seemed frightened at the sight of the shrine, and he watched it as I might a giant spider in my bedroom.

 

“You can go now, Esatil. Tell the others to expect us soon.” I said.

 

He nodded gratefully and turned to go, only pausing reluctantly for a moment before leaving us by ourselves. I watched him disappear behind the bend, suddenly nervous to start the next part despite the supposed ease of it all. 

 

“You’re not thinking of doing anything fancy, right?” Breale asked after a moment. “We’ve already agreed upon the plan with Count Ephren and the others.”

 

“The plan’s super overkill, you know.” I said. “I almost guarantee you Silst and I could defeat this by ourselves, let alone with all you guys. This plan? Well, it seems like a bit of a waste of time…”

 

Logically, it would’ve been faster if I’d simply walked out into the storm and slain the thing during the night. It would already be done, we’d be on the road, and nobody would be complaining that I was wasting our caravan’s precious time for no reason. And more importantly, what kind of hero waited for the epic night time storm to end before he assaulted a monster’s lair and slayed it? Or put thought into something that could be solved with a simple application of brute force? None! 

 

“There’s no reason to make… ah, to make things difficult, you know.” Auro took quick glances back at the shrine as she talked

 

“A plan that has minimal risk is the only acceptable one in optional duties.” Fredrick said.

 

Though I don’t really care for this happening at all. Silst thought.

 

I glanced up towards the dragon, who had decided to retake his traditional position on top of my hood. He seemed heavier than normal, though I couldn’t tell if that was actual growth or me simply forgetting what it felt like after all these weeks.

 

“You guys know we’ve done things much more dangerous than this, right?” I sighed. “You’re actually making me nervous now. You’re not potentially sending up flags, are you?”

 

“Flags?” Breale asked. “I thought we’ve been pretty quiet, actually…”

 

Indeed, I don’t think it would’ve noticed our approach.

 

“Not that, I mean…” I paused for a second.

 

Ah, that was an Earth thing, wasn’t it? Or rather, a thing. Shouldn’t Gideon have gotten that? He was a bigger nerd than I ever was, after all.

 

“...Nevermind that. Are we ready? Everyone remembers the plan?”

 

Everyone nodded, and I led us up the final path to the shrine.

 

As we got closer I studied the building, finding that it was actually built a bit deeper than I’d originally thought. The interior was roughly five metres deep and four wide, and a small table with offerings upon it was in the centre. Runes were carved into the walls, both sentences, verses, and what I could only assume was long lists of names. There was a small stone bowl built into the table, and as we approached I could see a small orange glow coming from its depths.

 

I stopped us just outside the entrance and unslung my spear as everyone else readied their own weapons. For the twins it was their Cice-made longswords and for Auro it was a casting spear much like my own, only that her’s was plain enough to be mistaken for a normal one. Then, quietly, Auro and I muttered a few lower-circle protection spells. Gideon made his way down my skirt and onto the ground, careful not to make any undue noise.

 

With one final nod, I led us inside and crept towards the bowl. The others fanned out behind me, each going through a different set of columns. Gideon stayed beside me, his eyes trained on the stone table.

 

Once I was a metre away from the table, we stopped. The living fire was obvious now from this close, and I could see that inside the bowl was a churning mass of flaming threads, constantly shifting and sliding over one another like a bed of snakes. Each thread was only a couple inches thick, but it stirred an uneasiness in me that far outstripped its actual form.

 

Do demons choose what form they take? I can’t imagine anything would want to be some rather hot spaghetti when it could be a flaming wyrm. Though, I suppose it was better than an evil shadow body like the one in the capital. That one was still somewhat of a mystery to me, despite everything Amelia and I had learned from my ice-bird experiments. It didn’t fit into the the neat ‘demons come from specific elemental planes’ theory. Izavelo too, come to think about it. 

 

Was there a shadow plane and a glass plane? I’d have to look into that later.

 

I frowned as I stared at the fire, delaying my poke. Originally the plan was just to wake it up and draw it into the trap, but was that really necessary? It was just a bowl of noodles, it was entirely within my power to just blast it out of existence now. A single Scio and some banishment charms would do it, and we wouldn’t have to tire ourselves out running back.

 

Tempted, I glanced back at the others, only to find that they looked similarly unimpressed with the ‘demon’. Breale looked almost disgusted rather than nervous, and even Gideon looked unsure. Only Fredrick was shaking his head at my look, quietly telling me to stick to the plan.

 

Probably better just to…

 

I froze as I caught sight of Auro. She wore a determined look in her eyes, one that almost screamed out for me to just do it. The tip of her spear already glowed faintly, the words of first circle banishment wards on her lips.

 

Alright, what was I even doing if Auro of all people looked confident? Even Fredrick wouldn’t be able to complain if we just smashed a little bug like this! There was no reason to turn this into a whole sequence if it wasn’t necessary.

 

Aiming my spear at the bowl, I called a casting construct to mind and adjusted the inputs for a narrow angle.

 

“Scio.” I whispered.

 

A massive piercing scream rang out as a focused stream of freezing water shot into the bowl, accompanied by an ungodly amount of mist and water vapour. Immediately I was blinded and deafened, and it was only made worse when the demon rose out of the bowl with all the light of a nuclear reaction.

 

Still, I didn’t panic, and neither did the others. Auro shouted something behind me, and I saw bright chains of red materialise in the mist above the bowl and latch around the threads. I kept pushing more mana into my Scio and kept it trained on the writhing fire. Gideon joined in a second later, not even bothering to admonish me before a stream of rime slammed into the demon.

 

It kept screaming and pulsing with bright fire, and the pressure in the shrine became noticeably heavier. Streams of water droplets flew against my face and the walls, but still I held. It exerted no physical pressure on me, only the fear that rose up in the face of the fire and screams.

 

And then, it burst.

 

The chains collapsed in on the beast, only to explode outwards like a wall of water. All of us were immediately drenched, and I heard Breale and Auro yelp with distress at the suddenness of it. Of the demon nothing remained except a small pile of soggy ash on the table.

 

For a second all of us just stood there staring at the table and each other,  joined only by the intermittent drop of water from the ceiling.

 

“I’ll admit, I imagined a rather more insidious threat when we made the original plan.” Fredrick said.

 

“That was a little disappointing, wasn’t it.” I said with a grin.

 

I stumbled forward over the table as something slammed into my shoulder, and I looked behind to see Breale glowering with an aura many times more threatening than the demon had been. Somehow, she seemed almost as drenched as I was, and I could see that she was already shivering.

 

“Could you not have pitching warned us?! We could’ve put up a shield or something! Or better yet: I could’ve stood outside!”

 

How the hell had I pissed off Breale more than Fredrick…?

 

“It’s just a little water…”

 

“A little water!” Breale stomped angrily as she wrung out her skirt. “Not everything is built to get wet! And it’s freezing out here!”

 

“I can dry you!” Auro declared happily.

 

Auro was the very picture of triumph, standing proudly with her spear by her side. Her eyes practically glowed with pride. In fact I would’ve found it a bit silly even, given the scale of the achievement, but she somehow managed to make it more endearing.

 

“That’s not the…” 

 

Caught off guard by Auro, Breale turned to glare at her brother instead, who was unexpectedly staying out of the argument. 

 

“Fredrick! Tell her how irresponsible that was!”

 

“I never thought I’d see the day.” I shook my head sadly. 

 

To be honest I was a second away from just freezing it myself so…

 

Fredrick blinked and weakly wagged a finger at me.

 

“Come on Saphry, you know we had…” He sighed. “Sister, that was the weakest demon I have ever laid eyes on. How can you honestly expect me to berate her for that? There’s a point when following the plan and caution becomes silly, and that was it.”

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“You have seen less than five demons in your whole life.” Breale accused. “Are you just taking her side to spite me? Is that it? Just want to prove me wrong?”

 

“What? Of course not!”

 

Gideon plodded over to the engravings as the argument began, and I followed him. Behind me, a low flickering sprung up, probably from Auro drying clothes.

 

Now that I was closer, it became obvious to me that the inscriptions were stories about the village’s families, thankfully written in Veroline, though the vocabulary was somewhat archaic. Another thing that stood out was that many of them were in the form of poems and songs, though I could also see that none of them looked to be very good.

 

As I skimmed the contents, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the subtle inanities they seemed to find important. There were none of the politics or wars or plagues that academic histories emphasised in Verol, but the tales of how a man killed a slightly big langier or how someone threw a party with too much alcohol available. One of the shorter poems even described how a man managed to train his pet to spin in a circle on command.

 

This is apparently a very isolated village. Gideon thought. Even going back a few decades I can’t find any reference to the civil war.

 

I looked up from the biscuit recipe I was reading and tried to find an order to the mess. Behind me, the flickering grew to a drone.

 

“This is organised by year?” 

 

That, and family line. Gideon traced his claw up the wall next to the shrine, looking for something. Which means that…. Ha! 

 

He stopped at one of the stories and flapped his wings in excitement. Looking over his shoulder, I read out the title.

 

“The Deeper Gem and Flight from Ithin Narnil.” I frowned. “Rather convenient that it’s all together, isn’t it?”

 

They said the family came as refugees after it fell. Gideon thought off-handedly. They probably just wrote down everything they knew at once, and they would definitely think it was all related.

 

I crouched down to read the rest.

 

It was mainly an abbreviated account of the family’s daily life in Ithin Narnil and their work in the mines there. The second half had to do with how they travelled across the mountains to join their cousins here once it was destroyed, but there were a few parts interspersed that warranted a bit more interest. 

 

For example, an Ithin Narnil retelling of the fall of the Lmenli of the Deep.

 

…And then the gem flew askew, knocked by arrows of time. 

And then it flew into the heart of Narnil, little child in rime.

And then the years passed, and Ithin Narnil reached.

But found only dust, and monsters beseeched.

 

“It says here the Lmenli was redirected while it was over Fangpeak.” I said quietly, trying to ignore the crappy rhymes. “As if something just knocked it off course.”

 

Certainly a stretch. Gideon thought. Though that interpretation would make it mesh up with the more reliable accounts from the site of the battle. 

 

“Do you think…”

 

Gideon shook his snout dismissively.

 

It actually happened? I’m doubtful. Nothing of the sort was described as happening to any of the other Lmenli, and this is only the second time I’ve heard of it happening to this one. But it might be that the people of Ithin Narnil believed it, and that would be reason enough to visit there. 

 

I nodded.

 

“Who knows? Maybe they’re actually right and we can find some skymetal lying about somewhere. Couldn’t hurt to check if we can convince the Count to go that way.

 

Gideon nodded in agreement, but before he could respond Breale cried out to me.

 

“Saps?” 

 

“Hmm?”

 

I turned around, only to find everyone standing around nervously. 

 

Did Breale do something dumb? Strange that I-

 

Then I noticed the flickering, droning as a cloud of flies might. It was loud now, loud enough that I began to wonder how I hadn’t noticed it before. Nor was it coming from Auro’s casting, for she was standing around with an expression just as unnerved as the others.

 

“...What’s that sound?” I asked.

 

It sounded almost like… well like a fire. But not a large one, but like half a dozen small campfires all around us.

 

“Did it light a fire outside?” Auro asked.

 

I shook my head as I headed for the door.

 

“The grass is covered in snow, it couldn’t’ve.” 

 

Everyone followed me as we walked outside, as did a sliver of foreboding. Once we’d cleared the roof, we looked off in the direction of the flickering.

 

And breaking from the treeline and dashing up the eastern slope of the hill were seven slithering masses of flaming thread. Each of them redoubled their pace as they saw us, flickering angrily.

 

Suspecting that she’d be the most likely to stand around in horror, I grabbed Auro’s arm and started sprinting back towards the woods we’d come from.

 

“Back to Plan A!” I cried.

 

There were eight of them in total? Eight? Wasn’t that kind of an important detail? Surely they knew, right? Did the first demon bring his whole family in or something? Why were there eight! 

 

We sprinted as fast as we could, not even bothering to try to come up with another plan. I knew that, theoretically, Gideon and I had an alright chance of defeating seven at once, but that would require a bit more thinking and planning than was possible right now. 

 

Not to mention how terrifying it was to have seven more demons suddenly spawn out of thin air.

 

I suppose this counts as luring it back anyway. In that matter we haven’t done anything wrong. Gideon thought as we ran. Perfect. 

 

Sprinting as I was, I of course could not respond.

 

Unfortunately, Auro and I were significantly slower than the twins, and after we’d made it to the bottom of the hill they had to slow themselves so as to not leave us behind. I could hear the flickering of the demons in my ears as we dashed down the forest path, and I knew they couldn’t be more than a dozen metres behind.

 

Finally, we slid around a bend and burst into a clearing. The trees grew thick on all sides, their needles forming an impenetrable wall of sticks and underbrush. Fallen logs and heaps of snow covered the path and sides, and a single stump sat in the middle.

 

Unable to continue any longer, I whipped around at the other end with my spear in hand. The others did the same, and the demons whirled to a sudden, confused halt in the air a few metres away.

 

For a moment all I could hear was our heavy breathing, and a tinge of fear entered me.

 

This was the clearing, right? I don’t know if I could go any further than this. They didn’t abandon us, did they?

 

“Fire!”

 

As if to respond to my worries, a Count Ephren’s voice came from the trees behind me, and with it two dozen magical projectiles.

 

The demons were immediately engulfed in a massive cloud of smoke and thrown snow, as well as an unending barrage of magical missiles. They screamed as they died, and tried to escape the torrent, only to find that magical chains now bound them together. 

 

It was over in just a few moments, and then a brief shockwave rustled the clearing, leaving a small bowl of disturbed snow under where they’d hovered.

 

Those soldiers that felt inclined began to whoop and holler as they came into the clearing, happy at getting such an easy victory.

 

I caught Auro’s eye and gave her a thumbs up, and she managed a smile in between gasps for breath.

 

I suppose it could’ve gone worse.

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