Chapter 187: Book Three Chapter Forty Six: TT_Hunter2

The child version of Sencha Bard seemed remarkably unperturbed by the fact he’d just time travelled. Instead he was still trying to greet Qube according to whatever strange training he’d been given. Qube had always assumed that his bowing etc had been something he’d been taught at his Bard College, but instead it seemed to be natural to him.

 

The Hero, after his initial reaction, had grilled Qube about everything that’d happened in the memory’s past.

 

“Right,” he said eventually, “well, I dunno how we’re going to deal with this when the memory ends, but let’s go get you that lute. In fact…”

 

They’d walked around to the front of the house. The now brightly coloured memory didn’t show the Royal Guards, but a flick of the hourglass had shown they were still there. Circling back around to the alleyway behind the houses, the Chosen One had made Definitely Bad Guy and Qube boost him and Sencha Bard up to the top of the wall, before reaching back and dragging Qube up to sit next to them. Their legs dangled over the wall as they looked out into the brightly-coloured garden before them.

 

The backyard was completely filled with extremely lethal looking traps. The Hero nodded.

 

“That explains why it pinged on the traps and magic in the grey-past,” the Chosen One said sagely. “I bet you anything that if we jumped back, they’d all be active now and we’d have to try and disarm them blind. Clever.” He dug the back of his heel into the stone wall. “I bet this was Cazza’s idea,” he said, sounding almost proud of how difficult the Temple was. “He always was a tricky little—” the Hero cut himself off with a cough.

 

Sencha Bard, who would normally be interested in pursuing information about the Devs, was instead studying the traps with a professional eye.

 

“While I could disable several of these traps, doing it within the timeframe provided by the hourglass would be difficult,” he said thoughtfully.

 

“Oh, we don’t need to do that,” the Chosen One said, twisting around and holding out a hand to the party behind him. “Here, hand me the kid.”

 

“But even if we memorised the locations of the traps, I couldn’t get past them without having to disable some,” Sencha Bard said, frowning.

 

“Nah, see, this is the beauty of breaking things,” the Hero said as the small urchin was boosted up by Briar, who reared up to her full height to carefully place him safely next to the Chosen One. “Hey kid, you want that lute?” he asked, pointing at the shining instrument visible in the bay window.

 

“More than anything,” the child replied.

 

“Awesome!” the Hero said. A terrible premonition stole over Qube.

 

“Chosen One,” she said, standing up on the top of the wall. “Please don’t—”

 

But she was too late. The Hero had already gathered up the small, defenceless child and thrown him directly at the lute.

 

“[Lesser Shield]!” Qube cast just in time to protect mini-Sencha as he smashed through the bay window and landed directly on the lute.

 

“Now you!” the Hero happily declared, grabbing Sencha Bard.

 

“Noble Patron!” Sencha Bard said, reverting to his old name for the Hero, “I must protest this undignified—!”

 

Then he went flying too.

 

“[Lesser Shield]!” Qube quickly swapped out protecting the child to shield the Bard as he smashed through the shattered glass, narrowly missing landing on his younger self. The Bard jumped up and swung around to glare at the Hero.

 

“That was completely uncalled for!” he snapped, forgetting his diplomacy in his rage.

 

“Oh, who are you?” a breathy voice could be heard from within the room.

 

“Fank you mysterious stwanger,” mini-Sencha said, raising eyes filled with hero-worship to his older self.

 

“What— I, that’s quite all right—” Sencha Bard was flustered.

 

“My name is Sewer Bard,” the child said proudly. “I’ll never forget you!”

 

“You must help me!” the mini-princess said, before the newly identified Sewer Bard clutched at the lute, and everything dissolved into whiteness.

 

***

 

The Chosen One was laughing as they landed back in the mausoleum. 

 

“That,” he said, “was amazing.” 

 

Qube couldn’t even begin to understand what had just happened there. Sometimes, she thought, Temples were just odd.

 

“I dunno if that kid’s gonna stay trapped in that memory or whatever,” the Hero said, watching as the panel slid shut and a third gem lit up on the coffin. “Or if they just get rid of him or what. That’s kinda unsettling. Even more so than murdering all those monster things. If he was glitched, could he have grown? Is he still out there, chugging along?”

 

“I do not believe them to be actual people,” Definitely Bad Guy said in what was probably supposed to be a comforting voice. “They were merely constructs made of mana, designed to fulfil the Temple’s function. They would have been dismissed as soon as the spell’s parameters were met.”

 

The Hero grimaced slightly. He shot a guilty look at Qube.

 

“That doesn’t exactly make me feel better,” he muttered, quietly enough that Qube wasn’t sure if he’d meant for them to hear it. Qube bit her bottom lip.

 

“Technically we’re made out of mana too,” she told the Mage. “After all, everything started getting really odd when the Devs’ mana pool started running dry.”

 

None of the companions in the party looked comfortable with that idea.

 

“Well, I don’t see how we could have removed him from the spell,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said practically. “While your younger self was a total cutie, we couldn’t exactly stop him from dissolving along with the rest of the memory.”

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“Huh,” the Chosen One said, looking at the Hunter. “I kinda pictured you having more of a reaction to the whole ‘might have just killed a sentient kid’ thing.”

 

The Hunter rolled her shoulder joints, her screaming children’s faces frowning.

 

“My former lover,” she said disapprovingly. The Hero winced at the title. “One must be sensible. If the child was more than just a spell, and truly was killed in the sense you mean it, then that is something we shall have to make the Devs answer for, not take upon ourselves.”

 

Qube was surprised. This was the first time she’d ever heard the heir-apparent to the Thorny Crown directly speak about holding the Devs accountable for their actions. She saw Sencha Bard nodding along to the Hunter’s statement.

 

“One of many things they’ll have to answer for,” the Bard added sotto voce.

 

The Chosen One tugged at one of his earlobes.

 

“Sure,” he said, “that’s not ominous. Not at all. No murdering everyone, Sing-Song,” he ordered the Bard. “You go around saying [snacks] like that, there’s no way they’ll let you ascend without heavy restraints on your behaviour.”

 

“My apologies,” Sencha Bard said, “the idea of a version of my child self potentially being killed while I was helpless to stop it made me forget myself.”

 

The Hero ran his hand through his hair.

 

“Fair call,” he said, not sounding at all reassured. “Just know I’m trying to get you guys to ascend without something like the Golden Prophecy restraining you, and saying sinister stuff makes that a lot harder.” He looked at the beautiful man before him. “You gotta trust me, man, I know this is a mess, but I’m not trying to [fiddle] you over.”

 

“Naturally, I trust you with my life itself. It’s yours to command,” Sencha Bard said, bowing slightly. The Hero rolled his eyes.

 

“Which is a nice way of saying you don’t trust me at all,” he said. Sencha Bard looked surprised. 

 

“But Chosen One, he just said he trusted you with his life,” Qube said. She was pretty sure that hadn’t been the full truth, but still! That was a grand statement to just be dismissed out of hand.

 

“Nah, I get it. Trust’s gotta be earned, and all that. Anyway, Sexy Screamy Spider Briar, you gonna be cool with us going into the memory spell or whatever?” the Hero asked, turning away from the still surprised-looking duo.

 

The arachnid shrugged. “I’m never cool, only hot,” she replied. She reached out and tapped the panel with her title on it, and gently picked up the half-plucked flower. Once again the walls fell away, the coffin sank into the floor and then everything dissolved into nothingness.

 

The Forbidden Forest Temple’s pit was now laced with thorny vines twisted into lethal looking knots. Several of them seemed to be writhing slightly, as if alive.

 

“Hm,” the Hero said, from up on the clifftop they’d been teleported to. “Looks like we’re supposed to try and fight the monsters in the past without hitting the invisible vine boys. Also gives us a hard time limit on defeating the beasties. Huh. For all they got lazy with the decor, they really thought up from twisted time stuff for the actual puzzles.”

 

“It certainly seems a lot more complicated than the other Temples we’ve done,” Qube said as she frantically tried to memorise the positioning of each vine cluster.

 

“Makes sense, it’s the last one,” the Hero said, jumping off the cliff and landing heavily on the ground far below.

 

“[Lesser Shield]. Why would that make a difference?” Qube asked as she dropped down after him.

 

“Ah, you and the others stay back a bit,” the Chosen One said, causing the others to hesitate before following them into the pit. “Sexy Briar, you come with me. When we switch time, we’ll grab the kid and run back to you guys, then Definitely Bad Guy, I want you to spam the enemies with as much fire as you can. They weren’t expecting us to have a fire user with us, so you should be able to wipe them, while we avoid the vines.”

 

“Why wouldn’t they expect us to have a fire Mage with us?” Qube asked. The Chosen One swallowed hard.

 

“Well, we didn’t have one in the original Forbidden Forest Temple, did we?” he replied. Qube frowned as she examined this reasoning.

 

“But why—”

 

“Okay, time to go!” the Hero said to Sexy Screamy Spider Briar, grabbing one of her fuzzy arms. “Watch out for that one cluster, otherwise we should be fine.” He flicked the hourglass, checked where Svetlana was being instructed by her father, and moved over to her side. 

 

“Huh, the sand seems to move slower in this one,” he said, staring at the tiny hourglass he was holding. Another flicker, and Svetlana already had her gifted crossbow ready. “All right,” he said, looking back at the party and then switching his gaze to Sexy Screamy Spider Briar. “We all ready?” he asked, a note of gentleness entering his voice.

 

“I’m always ready to go,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar purred. The Hero looked pained, and turned the hourglass over, sending the group back to the past.

 

“Hello,” Svetlana said, looking up at the Chosen One, “are you—urk!”

 

The Hero, displaying none of the respect an heir to a throne should expect, picked Svetlana and, for the second time that day, threw a little girl through the air.

 

“Catch!” he called to Sexy Screamy Spider Briar, who easily caught her wood elf self and loped back to the others. “Go Sparky, go!” the Hero called, racing back to the group.

 

The Mage quickly calculated the distance to where the grey monsters were swarming after the Fighter.

 

“[Fire Wall],” he said, his spell flaring to life directly behind the Hero. With a flick of his fingers the wall swept towards the monsters, engulfing them entirely. The monsters didn’t even hesitate, piling after their fallen brethren as they were all rapidly burned to ash.

 

“Now that’s how it’s done!” the Chosen One crowed, dancing around. “Oh yeah! Insta-wipe!”

Svetlana looked up at Sexy Screamy Spider Briar, her crossbow still clutched in her tiny hands. Her legs were slowly being consumed by the arachnid’s form.

 

“Thank you,” she said, looking herself directly in the eyes, before dissolving into nothingness. The Hunter’s claws briefly clutched at empty air, then relaxed.

 

“Just a spell,” she said to herself, before the Forest Temple disappeared, and they returned back to the future.

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