NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18: Error 404 Destination Not Found
When Lilith’s vision cleared, she found herself on a hill on some heavily wooded area. Kali set her down, and, a moment later, everyone else appeared beside them.
“This…is not one of the other demiplanes.” Kali said slowly, looking around them. “We must be somewhere in Haven.”
“What do you mean it’s not one of the other demiplanes?!” Raphael yelled. “I thought that was where we were going!”
Kali frowned. “It was, something must have gone wrong.”
“Well, get us back, then!” Raphael demanded.
“Can’t.” Kali said flatly. “I don’t know teleportation magic advanced enough to let us do that. All the teleportation magic I know requires that you know where you are in addition to where your destination is, and I’m afraid I have no idea where we are. I’ll have to try and figure that out using some other magic, but it’s going to take potentially up to a few weeks.”
“Can you just…call someone magically?” Judy asked.
“Theoretically yes, realistically no.” Kali replied. “Haven’s big. Like, it makes Earth look like it’s a demiplane big. If we’re close enough to civilization, I’ll be able to easily, but the chances of that are slim to none. I know some magic that doesn’t care about distance that’ll let me get a one-way message, but the issue with that is that Haven also has a lot of background magic that’ll mess that message up.”
“So…now what?” Vithi asked. “How are we gonna protect ourselves? I admit I’m not too familiar with Haven, I spent too much time trapped in my lamp for that, but it’s super dangerous, right?”
“Extremely.” Kali said. “Normally this would be a death sentence, but I think we’ll be able to make it through thanks to Lilith and Carmen.”
“Me?” Lilith replied. “I can’t…really fight.”
“You don’t necessarily have to.” Kali said. “At this point you’re tough enough that you should be able to use raw power to defeat anything that comes your way. Plus, thanks to your abilities, as soon as you’ve killed something you have access to all its power. You should be fine.”
Carmen nodded. “Judy, Raphael, Kali, I’d like to make a contract with you. Nothing too binding, just something that says that I am in charge of you. No magical coercion to do what I say or anything, just something to let Ruler’s Right and Seeker of Knowledge do their work.”
“Sensible.” Kali agreed. “Let’s do that now, then.”
Carmen walked over, placing a hand on Kali’s forehead. “The two of you, do you agree to the terms I just laid out?” She said, her words dripping with some sort of magic.
“Yup!” Kali said.
“I…no, I don’t!” Raphael squealed, finally working herself free from Carmen’s arms. “Why should I have to be under you?!”
Carmen gave her an unamused look. “Do you want to die or not? Those Skills I mentioned let me access your abilities and provide telepathic communication between all of us at all times. Seeing as how we’re relying on me for protection, and the fact that constant contact is important, I think this greatly increases our survival odds.”
Raphael looked back at Carmen, a conflicted expression on her face. “Fine.” She said after a few moments of hesitation. “I suppose I do.”
Carmen nodded. “Good.” She walked over to Judy, placing a hand on her forehead as well. “How about you, Judy?”
“Of course.”
“Then it’s done.” Lilith felt a sort of electric snap, and then she got a bunch of windows detailing her acquisitions. Most of them weren’t really impressive, which struck her as a little odd, seeing as how Kali was apparently one of the best in the field of espionage.
There was, however, one ability she got that did look useful.
| Patron Combination Origin: Eldritch User can bestow abilities to those they rule. Abilities cannot be ones the user does not possess, and granting an ability drains a portion of the user’s Mana proportional to how powerful the granted ability is. Abilities granted may be of a weaker variety than the original ability possessed by the user and may be strengthened or removed by the user after being granted. Every ability given to a being renders it more susceptible to the user’s Horrid Fascination. People under the rule of the user can choose to share Mana with each other without the user’s help, but it is slower than the user doing it. Every ability bestowed by the user to any of the participants speeds up this process. |
“Kali, why didn’t I get that much from you?” She asked.
Kali shrugged. “You already had the entirety of the succubus Domain unlocked, that accounts for most of it. Don’t know what else to tell you, it’s not like I really understand how that Skill works myself.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” She said.
Carmen didn’t seem totally convinced, but she apparently decided it was good enough, as she changed the subject. “So, we need shelter. Shelter, food, and water. How are we gonna go about that?”
“Probably easiest and safest to excavate some sort of burrow.” Alex said. “We don’t know what’s out here, so I think we should just seal ourselves underground until Kali can figure out where we are and teleport us out.”
“But that doesn’t solve food and water.” Judy protested. “We’ll have to leave eventually.”
“There are spells for that.” Kali said. “We’ll just need to ventilate it properly so that we have air. I think that’s a good enough plan for now, Carmen and Lilith should be able to use Eldritch Abomination to dig into the soil and rocks around here no problem, and can create material to reinforce the walls so we don’t need to worry about cave-ins.”
“On it.” Carmen replied, six long, flat, and sharp appendages sprouting from her back and spearing into the ground around her. A moment later they flexed, bringing up large chunks of the ground as they contracted, then flung them to the side.
Carmen looked over to Lilith, frowning. “What are you waiting for? We’ve got work to do.”
Lilith shook her head, then dug into the memories Carmen had given her. Once she had a handle on how to do what Carmen just did, she mimicked her, the two swiftly beginning to carve out a hole in the surrounding terrain.
Siph yawned, a small puff of flame escaping her mouth as she woke. Why had she awakened? She had just returned from a long hunt, and after gorging herself she had been content to sleep for a day or two.
She paused, then stood up, shaking herself off. She turned around, quickly cleaning herself with a couple blasts of acid, handily removing the dirt from her scales. She wasn’t exactly sure, but there was something in her domain, something dangerous. She could feel its magic, doing…something.
She wasn’t sure what it was, she hadn’t felt anything quite like it before, but something deep within her told her that this was something she had to deal with. She couldn’t call herself a dragon if she let challenges to her go unanswered.
She left her lair, flying off to close in on…whatever it was. It was strange, she could tell that much. There was an odd familiarity to it, but at the same time it felt alien, like something that shouldn’t be.
After a few minutes of mounting tension, she closed in on the source, a small hill on the outskirts of her domain. She gave a roar, landing on top of the hill as she stared down at the creature.
The ground reverberated as a roar split the silence, causing Lilith and Carmen to stop their digging. They hadn’t even gotten that far, just a few feet into the ground, and already they were being interrupted.
“Everyone in.” Lilith said. “I’ll deal with this. Carmen, you stay with them and make sure they’re safe.”
Carmen nodded and helped the others into the hole.
“Come out!” The thing roared again, though this one must have had meaning, as Lilith’s translation ability activated for it.
“I’m out!” Lilith said, stepping outside of the burrow and putting her appendages away. “What do you want?” She looked up to see what could only be a dragon. It was large, almost as big as the hill it was on, and had bright green scales. There was a sleek, dangerous feeling about it, one that said that the dragon was a predator, one that she did not want to mess with.
The dragon flinched when it saw Lilith. It stood there for a moment before it shook its head, giving Lilith a careful look. “Explain yourself,” it growled, “what are you and what are you doing in my land?”
Lilith raised her hands in surrender. She would rather this didn’t come to a fight if at all possible, and the dragon was at least intelligent enough to talk, so hopefully she could convince it that they didn’t mean any offense. “I’m sorry.” She said. “There was a teleporter accident and we ended up here, we were just trying to carve out a space for us to live while we figured out our way back. We didn’t know this was your territory, we’ll put everything back and leave if you would like.”
“You didn’t answer my question. What are you? You’re not normal, I can tell that much, and I would rather not keep an unknown element so close to myself.”
“It’s uh…well, it’s complicated, I don’t know if you’d believe me.”
“No excuses!” The dragon roared. “Tell me or I roast you here and now!”
“I’m a Perfect Chimera.” Lilith said. “And I’ve read all the books on eldritch knowledge I could find, so I have several abilities that are kinda out there.”
The dragon chuckled. “Do you really expect me to believe that? I’ve met a couple before, you’re nothing compared to them.”
“I…just became one. Look, do you know a lie detector spell or something? I swear I’m telling you the truth, it just sounds really far-fetched.”
The dragon paused, eyeing Lilith warily. “I suppose I do. Very well, repeat your story to me again, we’ll see how truthful you are.”
“My name is Lilith Clements. I became a Perfect Chimera a month or so ago, and after I got caught up in a teleporter accident, the others and I ended up here. I honestly don’t mean any offense, I didn’t even know you were here until now. I just want me and the people I care about to be safe.”
There was a long silence, Lilith growing more and more nervous as it continued. She couldn’t read the dragon’s expression at all, and it kept its eyes glued on Lilith the entire time. “I…suppose you’re telling the truth.” It eventually admitted. “Who are these others?”
“My aunt, and a couple of people who got caught up with me. A terrorist group, the Society of Light, raided the place we were staying in an effort to get at me, and while we were fleeing there was some sort of problem with the portal and we ended up here.”
“Of course, they did.” The dragon said, snorting derisively. “They never knew how to keep to themselves.”
“You know of them?”
“I keep in touch with some of the other dragons I knew since before I was forced out here. The Society’s tried enslaving some of them for use in their crusade, so, as you can imagine, I’m not particularly fond.” There was a flash of light and the dragon was gone, replaced by a tall woman wearing a plain white dress. She had long hair the color of the dragon’s scales, with eyes to match, and she was looking at Lilith with a somewhat pitying expression.
“Forgive my rudeness.” She said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had any company. Your story has convinced me, I’ll offer my protection until the time comes that you can leave this place.”
Lilith blinked in surprise. “Just like that?”
“I have no desire to send the Society a weapon they could use to control me later. Besides, I need to do some home renovation, so having some more manpower around would be helpful.” She paused, looking down. “And I suppose she would want me to at least do this much.” She muttered in some other language.
“I…thank you.”
The dragon whipped her head up. “Where did you learn that?” She demanded.
Lilith started. She had, unconsciously, responded in the language that the dragon had just spoken. “I made a wish with a djinn that lets me perfectly speak any language. It’s also where I became a Perfect Chimera. Why?”
The dragon sighed. “It’s a private language for me and my family. Many dragons have them. But I suppose that’s not important. Bring these others out, I’ll take you out to my lair.”
Carmen, it’s clear. Lilith informed her, sharing her memories of the conversation.
Lilith looked back at the dragon. “They’ll be out in a moment. What’s your name?”
“I’m Siph.” The dragon said. “How long do you expect to be here?”
“A couple of weeks. We just need to figure out our exact location and we can teleport back.”
“It’s safe?” Kali asked, walking out of the hole.
“For the time being.” Siph said, eyeing Kali carefully. “How many more of you are there?”
“Four and a halfish.” Kali replied. “Lilith’s got an alternate personality that has her own body.”
Siph frowned, looking between Lilith and Kali. “Very well. We’ll have everyone introduce themselves and then I’m going to fly you all back to my lair, understand?”
About half an hour later, Siph landed outside of a cave. “Everybody off.” She said. “I’ll show you where you’re staying. I’ve been meaning to expand for a bit, so in your free time I’ll have you dig out a new place, but until then you’re going to use a spare room.
The inside of the cave wasn’t what Lilith had been expecting. The floor was as smooth as any stone floor she’d seen in a building, and the walls were much the same. Siph turned into her human form and led the group through the cave to a hallway of sorts, ending in a large room. “You’re in here for the time being.” She said. “I want there to be another room about the size of this one, make the entrance on either side of the hallway here. Get to it.”
Lilith nodded, letting out her digging appendages again.
“Not you.” Siph said. “You’re coming with me, I need you to explain, in detail what happened to bring you here.” She grabbed Lilith’s collar, pulling her closer. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”
A few hours later, Carmen had made good progress on the new room. Lilith had returned a couple of hours before, and between the two of them they were able to dig out around a fourth of the required area. Removing the debris had turned out to be troublesome, since they had to haul it out of the cave every so often, but other than that everything went smoothly.
And, finally, everyone else had gone to sleep. Once she was sure she was the only one of her group awake, she left, searching for Siph. She found her in the largest room of the cave, lying down in her dragon form.
“What do you want?” Siph asked, eyeing Carmen warily.
“Oh, nothing much.” Carmen said. “I just have a proposal that I think will be mutually beneficial.”
“Explain.”
“I have a few abilities that strengthen anyone magically bound to me, and I think having you in on them would be for the best. It doesn’t need much, just a simple contract that says you’re ‘under me’, not magically binding whatsoever and you can back out whenever you please. After that I can grant you some of my more unusual abilities, though I might have to borrow some of your Mana to be able to give something that would be worth it to someone as tough as you. So, what do you say?”
Siph gave Carmen a suspicious look. “Lilith told me all about you and gave me the full details on her abilities, you know. Don’t think you can try and pull one over on me.”
Carmen opened her mouth to speak, but Siph cut her off.
“Be that as it may, I’m not fully opposed to entering into this agreement, provided I am allowed to amend it. First, I need some more details on all the other people with you. Particularly that Kali woman, she seems…off, and I don’t like that. Second, if you’re to be getting my abilities, I need to personally train you in how to use them. I can’t stand to have my gifts go to waste. Finally, I want a guarantee that there are no purposeful attempts to charm me or use abilities that could affect my mental state in my presence, unless I specifically say so. Understood?”
Carmen frowned. “And you’re fine with me just getting access to everything you have?”
Siph opened her mouth in a grin. “If I wasn’t, I would have killed you earlier. You’d be getting this stuff anyway, and I happen to like the idea of having a Perfect Chimera in my debt. So, do you accept my terms?”
Carmen thought about that for a moment. “I suppose I do. I’ll perform the contract now, but I’ll have to touch you for it, is that alright?”
“Very well.”
Carmen stepped forward and placed a hand on Siph, channeling some magic into her. “This contract just states that ‘I’m in charge’ in name only. No coercion to do whatever I say or anything. Do you accept?”
“Yes.”
There was a strong magical snap, much like the one she had experienced when she contracted the others earlier. “There, we’re done. I’m going to get back to digging now.” Carmen turned to leave but was blocked by one of Siph’s claws.
“No.” She said sternly. “You’re not going back to digging. You’re going to tell me everything now, and then you’re going to bed. My training is going to be harsh, and I’m not letting you nor Lilith wear yourself out beforehand. I don’t care what Traits you have, sleep helps. Now, spit everything out.”
Carmen raised her hands in surrender. “Fine, fine.” She took a seat on the floor and began to tell Siph what she considered to be the relevant details about everyone else.
Siph listened, an unreadable expression on her face as she did. Once Carmen finished, she sighed and lifted her claw. “I’ll be in to check on you in thirty minutes. You better be trying to sleep by then. Now go.” Siph nudged Carmen out of the room with her claw, and Carmen left, smiling wryly. Lilith was going to freak out when she woke up, and Carmen was quite looking forward to it.
