A Legacy of Blades - An Epic Tower Fantasy

"What do you reckon makes it glow like that?" Orion spoke in a hushed voice as he stood, staring at the soft light that emanated from the ruined citadel. "It ain't a comfortin' light, that's for sure. Somethin' about it makes me think of things as don't want to be found, monsters lurkin' in the abyss." A shiver wracked his posture. "It's unsettlin', that's what it is."

The light made the entire structure appear as if lit by some internal light, but faded rapidly, overcome by the darkness of the cavern. It didn't even leave a reflection on the pool, which appeared only as a pit of shadow in his sight, not a ripple or shimmer marring its surface.

Not a single part of him had any desire to step foot in that water, and he couldn't help but notice how certain parts of the ruins stood in the water. He only hoped it was shallow, there. If the clear water outside had given him anxiety, this inky unknown inspired dread, and not some lesser approximation. He doubted even Razhik would be foolish enough to test those waters blindly.

"It's hard to say," Anilith replied softly, looking through the structure, "there's an off…fuzziness to the blocks, almost as if there's a layer of something covering them. Gives the whole place an odd feeling, to be honest. If I weren't seeing it with my eyes, too, I'd almost think the entire place was obscured."

Anilith took a breath before continuing. "The water is deeper than it has any right to be. Doesn't seem like it has an end; can't say I'd like to know what might be in there. We have to get closer for me to see anything else, but there are definitely some submerged chambers in that place, not to mention plenty of unknowns moving around." The soft lines of her face firmed with intense focus. "I can't see any obvious way forward through here. I guess it's time to decide: do we poke the hornet's nest, or do we see if there's a way around?" Her focus never lessened, and he knew she was still taking in a mindboggling amount of information, even as they talked.

He'd seen that gaze enough to begin recognizing when she was peering at the world through her other eyes. He didn't know how else to think of it, even if the image creeped him out.

He would never have guessed how far she'd develop in the relatively short time they'd traveled together, but she represented a gamble that paid dividends with each passing day. He wasn't sure he could defeat her in a straight-up fight at this point.

He'd never be foolish enough to actually fight someone like her in a fair fight, but that was beside the point. He'd only survived so long because he recognized that there were some monsters you shouldn't face head-on, but that didn't make them invincible. Everything had a weakness, if you took the time to find it. Trouble was, Anilith shored up her weaknesses as fast as he could identify them. It would be infuriating, if he didn't know full well that she'd never hurt someone who wasn't asking for it.

That was a weakness all its own, the nobility of honor, just not one he would ever exploit. It was the only character flaw he knew that generally left you with a simple alternative solution: don't be a dick. Usually, that would be enough to appease someone with such a complex, and he wasn't above a little groveling.

Plus, all in all, it was one of the easier weaknesses to capitalize on. Some paths just left you with no road back, and were better off avoided. He didn't believe in irredeemable actions, but some choices colored every future decision a person made, for better or worse.

"What do you think, Razh?" Orion asked his friend, giving no voice to his inner thoughts. He couldn't help if he always sought a contingency plan. Even if he liked the girl, it was better to be prepared. He'd learned that long ago. "Up for a game of stealth, or should we go in loud?"

Razhik was silent a moment, giving the question more thought than Orion expected. "I'm…not sure. There's something off about this place; something different. I think it would be better to be cautious, maybe get a little more information?"

"You askin' or tellin', there," Orion replied, stifling a laugh. Razh could be so indecisive. He was remarkably naïve for something that had lived so long, although the man supposed the creature was relatively young for one of his kind, not that anyone really knew how long they lived. It wasn't a topic one often had the chance to broach before realizing they'd trespassed somewhere they shouldn't have.

"Telling? Yes, definitely telling. You agree, right, Ani?"

"That's Lady Anilith, the far-seeing, to you, beast," the girl responded, the glint of humor in her eyes. "But yes, I'd have to agree with your assessment of the situation. Never hurts to be cautious in the face of unknown dangers. Only an inexperienced fool struts blindly into unfamiliar territory with no thought for what they may encounter."

"Yeah," Orion agreed, "don't know anyone as would fit that bill, do we, Razh?"

"Well, of course we do! She's…" Razhik looked between his friends, catching on to the joke in his own time, "Oh. No, can't think of anyone like that!"

"It's decided then, we take our time and go in quiet like." Orion couldn't help but smile, feeling good about their group's growth. They'd come so far from blindly springing traps, just to see what happened.

"What happened to going in quiet like," Anilith asked, shouting while she dodged between streams of high-pressure water.

She had to rely entirely on her Wind-enhanced reflexes for those, because they were utterly silent to her Blade Weaving. It had taken some effort, calling upon the Wind while entombed far below ground. It wasn't as effective, but she found she could hear an echo of the Wind, whispering down countless tunnels, even here. That was enough that her body could remember the feel of it and borrow its speed, to a degree.

Thankfully, the creatures that cast the spells were not particularly dangerous once she got in close, but the spells themselves were no joke. She'd been caught by one earlier, and it had knocked her on her ass, knocking the Wind out of her, to add insult to injury.

Following that embarrassment, she had resorted back to Earth, calling upon the sturdiest rhythm she could think of. While that allowed her to take the hit admirably, it by no means lessened the impact. If anything, it made it more painful as the torrent continued and she stood firm, weathering the storm until an arrow from Orion silenced the caster.

That had caused her to be a little more careful in her approach.

Still, the beasts' natural defenses were pitiful, and they fell quickly to her blades. All in all, it was a fair matchup. Neither side had a clear defensive advantage, while each could undoubtedly hurt the other. What advantage Anilith found in speed, the beasts made up for with numbers. The slimy things seemed to crawl from every sodden inch of the fortification. This was far from the first group the trio had taken out.

As the final caster fell, Orion shouted back, "Well, how was I to know they'd come swarmin' the moment anythin' touched the water? It ain't like I made much noise, and it was hardly a ripple!"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I told you," Razhik called from farther ahead, "never mess with another man's puddle."

"And I told you," Orion shot back, "You ain't a man!"

"Oh, I'm so much more than a man."

Anilith, while used to the pair's shenanigans, found herself wishing they had a little more sense in their timing. "Will you two just shut it! No doubt, there are already more hopping their way over here. What's the plan, sit and kill these things all day?"

"It's worked well enough so far, ain't it, kid?"

"I'm not sure anything we've done since setting foot in the Forest has worked well enough, old man. This is, what, the third? Fourth time we've been in this situation, now?" Anilith wrinkled her nose, lamenting the damage she'd done already. "It's good training and all, but nobody ever mentions how much adventuring stinks."

"Yeah," Orion laughed from the back line, "Can't say I envy you right now. Based on the whiffs I'm gettin', I'm amazed you're even still standin'! These things are pungent."

A wave of fresh reinforcements made their presence known with splashing footfalls, landing in a serenade of uneven drops.

Anilith squared her shoulders and faced down the enemy. "Well, here they come again, hope you guys are ready; Looks like they brought some new friends!"

A chorus of croaking voices leaped at the party, assaulting their ears in anticipation of the renewing battle.

"Alright, we get it! Just shut up already," Razhik cried.

"Have it your way, I won't let you know when new surprises are coming, Lord."

"Not you, Lady Far-sight," Razhik retorted, "these guys haven't shut up about drowning us in the reservoir, as if they could drown me. Every time, it's the same thing. It's really starting to get on my nerves!"

The hopping choir froze, silence falling in their wake as Anilith rounded on Razhik. A ripple split the surface as one of the creatures fled. "You can understand these croakers? Why didn't you say anything? Woulda been good to know we could have at least tried communicating with them, I'm basically wading through their slime at this point!"

"How was I supposed to know you couldn't understand them? You spoke goblin just fine, and that sounds far worse than this." He paused, scrunching his eyes in a mockery of thought. "I guess I see why you got pretty frustrated with Ori, back then, though."

"Gods damn it, I can't stand either of you! What good is havin' teammates who can apparently understand anythin', if neither of them bothers to share?" Orion, evidently serious, was nearly red in the face, even in the ghostly blue light of the cavern. "New rule! If we're fightin' somethin' new, and for some reason you hear them speakin', you share with the rest of us!"

"Well, what if you understand something, huh?" Razhik asked, clearly missing the point.

Anilith stared at the frozen line of enemies as her allies bickered. "Guys, maybe not the time."

"Razh, when we get out of here, I'm going to drown you myself."

From deeper in the fortification, a mound of water was displaced, disgorging a creature bigger than any of the others they'd seen by far, dressed in the same green water-weed garb as the rest. It held a staff that looked so slimy, it begged the question of whether it would even still function as a bludgeoning device.

"Guys!"

A resonant croak sounded from the behemoth.

Orion and Anilith stood stock still, looking towards Razhik for answers. He ignored them, cocking his head sideways in apparent confusion. The beast croaked loudly once more.

"Oh, hey! Nice to meet you, sorry about all the wanton slaughter and whatnot. You guys just wouldn't stop coming after us, you know how it is. A King has to defend himself, after all!"

Anilith had learned that some things were more frightening than death and, realizing that their lives rested firmly in Razhik's hands, she found she had underestimated that sentiment.

"He's really not so bad, guys," Razhik said as his friends stared at him uneasily. "He totally understands. We were just defending ourselves! It's all water under the bridge, really."

"The weakest of our spawn are sent to test invaders," Kewrok, the Chief of the Mud-grump clan, said. "Their loss is nothing to us; their deaths shall feed the algae that nourishes our people."

"See, totally cool." At the confused looks from the others, Razhik added, "Right, keep forgetting you can't understand him. Anyway, stop worrying, I got this!"

Razhik had a hard time understanding the soft-skins' apprehension. Sure, the creature was big, but these things had been remarkably soft of skin even for soft-skinned creatures. His talons cut them like…well, like something soft and easy to cut. Rabbits?

The creatures' leader had even been kind enough to invite them to join it in some kind of great hall. His companions were less than pleased with the accommodations, he could tell; he was very observant about these things. His friends always worried about the silliest of things, and they called themselves observant. They didn't have the combined skill to even read a room.

And they thought he was an idiot. His brilliance just needed certain conditions to shine, that was all. He was much more pleased with the meeting place; the moisture did wonders for his complexion. He could almost feel the scales on his wounded side regrowing. It reminded him somewhat of home, really.

The croaking noise he understood as words brought him back to the moment. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said," Kewrok replied patiently, "we are pleased to meet such capable warriors. We have been at a stalemate for some time, and we could use your…assistance, one could say."

"I've gotta say, you're remarkably well spoken for a…what are you, anyway?"

"We, the Grokar, are an ancient and proud race, long serving as scouts for our greater alliance. It is only fitting that we speak with manners becoming of ambassadors, mighty King."

"And, just humor my curiosity, why can't you talk to my friends? It's obvious enough that you understand them."

"Our bodies are not equipped to convey such…crude sounds. The music of our people cannot truly be appreciated, but for beneath the surface. One day, you will hear our song and witness the true strength of our elites, and be left in wonderment."

Razhik found it fascinating, the way the creature spoke. It made such grand, confident declarations, but never seemed boastful or excited in any way. He filed a thought away for later, that he might take some lessons in diplomacy from this creature.

A King should always act in a manner befitting his station, after all.

"I look forward to it! But back to the more immediate problem…what exactly do you want from us?"

"As I was saying, we have been locked in a stalemate with the mountain tribes, neither able to gain ground and push the other from this realm. Currently, they hold the upper hand, maintaining the seat of power, but they have been unable to remove us from this place."

Razhik had mastered his gullible nature, adept at playing the fool in these moments. It was a talent few could appreciate. It had to be, if he was going to play the part convincingly, as he must. "Oh! So they're just not that strong, then. Got it. So why can't you guys take this seat?"

"Do not misunderstand me, the enemy is powerful, and the land works with them to hinder our efforts. Such is the boon of holding the seat. They are simply unable to push us out because we have guardians in the depths beneath the mountain, holding the retreat and securing our path to the water outside the mountain. The mountain tribes are not suited to fight them in their natural habitat, and the guardians are not foolish enough to be caught out. They play an important role, here."

Razhik thought back to his pleasant swim, recalling the underwater caves he'd seen at the time, deciding, perhaps, it would be better not to explore them, after all. He chuckled as he looked at his friends, noticing them squirm while he laughed to himself. He couldn't help but enjoy playing with them, too, as they witnessed his act, oblivious to the words of the Chief of the Mud-grumps, as Razhik had elected to call the hopping tribe.

"So, about our assistance…"