A Legacy of Blades - An Epic Tower Fantasy

The dusky stone of the foyer told Anilith none of the secrets of the guard post, and that was perfectly fine with her. In the aftermath of the battle, her group had left the Grokar to clean up their mess. By an unspoken agreement, not even ratified through Orion's magic, none of them much cared to deal with the Chieftain after his display in the battle. Anilith had nearly found herself rooting for the enemy in those final moments, and she couldn't help but feel she wasn't alone in the sentiment.

Even if she hadn't trusted the Grokar, she began to wonder if she was on the wrong side of the conflict after witnessing the contrast between the two leaders. Kewrok was careful, calculated, and cowardly, but that Goblin; he led from the frontlines, carving a path for his soldiers to follow in, turning even a devastating opening gambit from his enemy into an opportunity.

As a girl, Anilith had witnessed the power of the storms firsthand, seeing a mighty mangrove cleft in twain by its fury. It hadn't been an accident that the enemy kept up the firebolt assault even after their initial ploy backfired. Somehow, the enemy commander had harnessed the power of the storms, striking a blow to the enemy army that numbers alone wouldn't have explained.

Even hopelessly outnumbered, the beast had seized the chance to strike a deadly blow against his enemy, cutting the invading force nearly in half, even at the cost of the lives of everyone under his command, himself included, yet they had all followed willingly. Those who fought with him until the end did not wield the mindless rage she had seen so many of their kind harness, but a purpose and conviction that belied their monstrous nature. Since coming to this world apart, that display was the closest act she had witnessed to the virtue of honor her people extolled.

Anilith could respect that.

Still, they were monsters, and there was only so far she would let sympathy lead her into the lands of foolhardiness. They had fought as warriors, and they had died as warriors. Acknowledging that was the greatest respect her people had taught her to give.

Her time in this hidden place had changed so many of her views already. She'd thought she understood her magic to some degree before she came here, thought she knew what it was capable of, but this world had shown her how wrong she was. She'd thought practice was all she needed to improve her Blade Weaving, but that was as far from the truth as anything could be. She hadn't yet delved beyond the surface of that font of possibility.

What was one more revelation?

The Blade Weaver had always taught her to respect her enemy. A beast deserved different respect than a warrior, but a lack of respect would put one in the ground. A warrior, however, deserved the utmost respect for walking the path of the Blade. It took a strength and conviction she was only beginning to grasp to walk that path to the bitter end, where the only outcome was death. Even in her fight against the Aligo, the brush with death that kicked off this whole adventure, her decision to stand her ground had never been one based in conviction in her path. She had only sought to protect her people, and her life was a worthy sacrifice to save the innocent.

That was the reason her master had always given for why a warrior deserved respect. A true warrior, a paragon of slaughter, would never turn away from their destiny. Even if they had nothing left to protect, they would fight with a ferocity a cornered beast could never match; a ferocity imbued with the skill of one who had walked the Blade's edge for a lifetime.

Greatness could be so terrible, but there was nothing her people respected more.

Those monsters had touched upon greatness at the end, reminding her of stories the Ekreeti had told in her youth, stories of heroes who died fighting against impossible odds. For all the long shots she'd pulled off with Orion and Razhik, the odds had never been truly impossible, not like they were in the stories.

She wasn't sure she had the fortitude of Will to see that path through to the end, yet those goblins had. Against all odds, they had made her view them in a different light, made her see them akin to her people's heroes of old. Kewrok's despicable nature, his cowardly tactics, only reinforced her latest lesson.

There was more to these monsters than she yet understood, and their deaths weighed all the heavier upon her. It was so much easier to kill a monster than a person.

Even if they might return again, did that cheapen their sacrifice? Did that invalidate the determination to fight until the bitter end? She knew she didn't have an answer to those questions, that she might never have a true answer, but she couldn't imagine that their return didn't come at a cost.

As Anilith wandered, blind to her greatest senses, her mind was on a journey all its own. She pondered the effects of her crusade through this place, and found an unpleasant truth.

In her enemy's place, she might see herself as a monster; in their place, she wouldn't hesitate to end the threat she embodied.

The crude iron sword came in at an unreachable angle, striking a chord with the chaos within Anilith, illuminating a stark realization: she had begun to rely on her abilities too much, and the foundations of her technique were slipping. She was not as in control as she'd once been, a fact that was easy to miss when she was touched by the speed of the Wind, and small adjustments could be made in a moment. Her precision and foresight were lacking, and the deep gash in her side could attest to that fact.

Her master would scold her if he ever saw such an exploitable hole in her defenses. It had only existed for a moment, but her enemy hadn't overlooked her misstep.

"Kid," Orion shouted, "What're you doin'? Don't be takin' the time to train here, you're gonna get yourself, not to mention the rest of us, killed!"

Anilith smiled at the man through gritted teeth as she dispatched the warrior who'd wounded her. "Never a better time to shore up some weaknesses. Wouldn't want bad form costing us the Warlord's head, now, would we? Besides," she went on, dodging to the left, her wounded body moving with even less alacrity than a moment prior, "I've got you to watch my back."

An arrow pinned her latest attacker to the stone wall, cracking as it buckled under the weight of its victim. She hadn't felt the projectile coming at all, still fighting with only her gods-given senses, but she'd known the attack would come. She hardly acknowledged the depth of their teamwork before she dove back into the fray, trailing blood as Razhik dove out of her shadow, pinning the last two enemies, melee fighters she'd begun to think of as Rage-Born, to the floor. He squeezed, and their snarling ceased.

"Orion's right, you know," Razhik said. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but we're gonna need your talents if we're gonna make it through this."

Anilith fixed the creature, who easily dwarfed her, with a look that nearly made him recoil, saying, "That's exactly why I'm doing this. I've been relying on them for too long, I've been distancing myself from the fundamentals, and that will get us killed more surely than me taking a break from my skills. My mind needs time to process what my body has learned. Might as well fix the cracks in my foundation while it catches up."

A sigh came from Orion's direction, and the girl turned. "Just promise me one thing, kid. Promise me, you'll get serious again when we start seein' more dangerous beasties. These frontline bastards, they may have gotten us a few days ago, but we've all grown since then, you most of all. Whatever cracks you're seein'," Orion continued, pulling out a stoppered flask, "I can assure you, they ain't as obvious from the outside. Now clean yourself up, you're bleedin' all over the upholstery." He tossed her the flask while he gestured to the gaudy red carpet that blanketed the floor of the hallway.

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She caught the flask and drained it in a gulp, feeling her skin knit together and the lightheadedness of blood loss vanish as she stared at the floor covering. Anilith took a moment to appreciate the significant progress the group had made into the goblin fortification.

The gate they'd found from the Wolverine Tunnels led to a sloped hallway that steadily climbed to higher, level ground: what they were referring to as the first floor. Clearing that floor had taken some time, but hadn't proved overly challenging, bearing a marked resemblance to the dungeon they'd cleared to find the hidden space in the first place. The keep was remarkably empty, and they encountered more than a few empty Great Halls that could have, and likely would have, housed an uncomfortable number of enemies. The results of their careful exsanguination of the keep's forces were paying dividends there.

A while back, they'd found the main entrance to the keep, but there were so few soldiers remaining, they saw no reason to actively secure it. The group had mutually decided to just send a message to the Grokar to handle that task before moving on. Shortly thereafter, in a central chamber, they had discovered a fortified room with an ornate staircase, after extensive exploration of the floor.

Climbing the staircase, they'd found themselves at the center of a square room with an opening in each wall, and soon-to-be-deceased enemies surrounding them. Dispatching the threat, they were free to examine the room in more detail.

The hallways adjoining the room from each cardinal direction ran into darkness, their floors each marked by different colored rugs. The carpets met at the staircase that marked the center of the crossroads. Eastward led red, while blue fled westward. Rich purple and yellow carpeting ran north and south, respectively. None of them had a clue what the colors meant, but the decision to follow the red path had been unanimous. There was just something enticing about red, but that might have been the violence of their lives speaking.

The Shadow Guard, of course, withheld their votes, deferring to Razhik's judgement.

"Where do you think this goes, anyway?" Razhik asked, wiping his paws clean on the carpet. "Think there's some treasure room like the last dungeon? Gods, that seems so long ago."

"Eh," Orion replied, "I doubt it. That seemed to be a special circumstance, and I'll be damned if this ain't just another hoop. Any chance you can tell us what we might be walkin' into, kid?"

"What," Anilith shot back, "and ruin the surprise? Honestly, I'm not even sure I could see anything useful from in here. It was like trying to look through a solid wall from the outside, like something was interfering with my senses." She shook her head. "Besides, we've all gotten a little too comfortable thinking I'll see anything coming before it gets here; what happens when I miss something?"

Orion made a sour face, and Anilith laughed. "Come on, it'll be good for us to get back to a sense of normal, really hone our reactions. Don't want to spoil you two with my gifts, after all!"

Razhik, finally finished cleaning some of the unpleasantness from his talons, chimed in, "Eh, as much as I like taking it easy, Ori, she has a point. It's not like there aren't other skills we could focus on bringing up to snuff before we finish this place. We've got some new abilities ourselves, in case you forgot."

"Gods," the man lamented, "not you too! Hangin' around this trainin' fiend ain't done you no favors. Used to be a man could rely on his friend to be right and proper lazy, as he's always been. Shame."

"Hey," Razhik replied, "I never said I was happy about it, just that she might have a point. Plus, I've been testing some things out with my new friends here, and I think I might be close to a breakthrough."

"Oh? Do tell," Anilith cut in, "Sounds like you've almost got a new trick to show us. How long has it been since you had one of those? What is it?"

"What," Razhik shot back, "and ruin the surprise? If it works like I think it might, it'll definitely shore up some weaknesses. You're gonna love it! And you know it's only been a day or two since my last new trick. I'm becoming downright prodigal," Razhik finished with a shudder.

As the group continued on their way down the hallway, Anilith asked Orion, "What about you? You've got to have something in the works for us."

"Kid, I'm just tryin' to wrap my head around the possibilities my connections offer, I ain't even close to figurin' out somethin' new." Under his breath, but not quietly enough, he added, "Got a whole knot to untangle before I figure out what's really what, anyway, now don't I?"

Conversation petered out, and the group followed the path, no more surprises barring their path after the last patrol, until they came to an ascending, spiral staircase.

"Onwards and upwards, I suppose," Orion said, taking the first step in stride, as his friends followed in tow.

As the group neared the top of the staircase, a fact evidenced by the broad landing ahead, a slightly panting Razhik grumbled, "It's getting pretty hot, isn't it?" His friends simply looked at him with confused looks, while the Grokar nodded vehemently. "What, you two don't feel that?"

"I mean," Anilith began, "it's a little warm, sure, but I don't think it's any worse than a summer day back home. I'd say it's borderline pleasant. Orion?"

"Can't complain here," the man replied, looking curiously at Razhik. "Say, Razh, where'd your belt…err…collar get to, anyway? Last time you complained about the heat, you'd just taken it off."

"Oh, I gave that to Ani before we swam in here. I didn't want to risk getting it wet. Why would I take it off on the shore, but leave it on when we went in the lake? Silly soft-skin," the creature added, in classic Razhik fashion. "Say, either of you ever figure out what those rings did? The ones we found after beating that ogre-kin? Can I have that back, too, Ani?"

Anilith felt her eyes grow wide, realizing that she'd entirely forgotten an item again. She really needed to work on not making that a habit, but she supposed it was just a drawback to the convenience of a storage ring.

She dropped two similar rings into her palm, one silver and one she couldn't say what the metal was. It was probably, what had Temperance called the stuff…some kind of alloy, little as that actually meant to her. Those explanations of his always went over her head, even if she tried to listen.

"Here you are, Lord Razhik. Your effects. How else might this servant be of service?" Anilith secured the belt around Razhik's neck so that it wouldn't drag in the dirt before sliding the ring onto an extended talon. She bowed low and backed up, theatrically taking up a position near the wall.

The moment she closed the collar around his neck, Razhik shuddered. "Oooo, that's nice: instant relief. I guess that's what those things do. Huh." He looked to his guards, his inhuman face approximating concern. "I'm sorry we don't have more of these for you guys, you gonna be alright?"

A croaking reply, which Anilith couldn't make heads or tails of, was the only answer, but it seemed to appease Razhik, and he nodded. "Good, that's the spirit, team! Now, who's ready to get to the bottom of all this heat…or the top of it, anyway."

"Razh, why don't you leave the speeches to us, even if the kid's can be a bit morose. Yours are good for somethin', I'm sure," Orion said, "but they leave me wantin' a little…inspiration."

"Hey now," Anilith interjected, "be nice to the big guy. I felt inspired, your majesty. Don't listen to the old grump." She looked at the band on her hand. "Either of you notice any difference?"

"Nope," Razhik said simply. "It's nice, though," he added as he inspected the ring.

Orion, who had already been wearing his ring, only grunted.

The group finished their ascent in relative silence. They were greeted by a short, wide hallway, its floor blanketed in the most lush, red carpet Anilith had ever seen. Massive braziers, larger than even the ones beside the guard post gate, must have been the source of the uncomfortable, for the Grokar, heat.

"Oh," Razhik exclaimed, "I have an idea! I don't know if this will help much but….there! That was easy!"

He shielded his companions with his shadow armor. Anilith didn't notice a difference, but the Grokar seemed to relax a touch, and she imagined it had at least somewhat of a cooling effect.

"Now," he continued, "who's ready to see what's behind door number one?"