Chapter 2
“If you have a bodyguard like her, how did you nearly get killed by thugs?” Rys asked Vallis, ignoring the implied threat from the fox-lady in front of him.
Vallis winced and rubbed the back of her neck. She had cleaned out the grass and twigs from her hair since they last spoke.
“Don’t ignore me,” the fox-lady said, her black fox ears twitching. The flames in her fingers grew, covering most of her hands.
Rys frowned, realizing that whatever relationship Vallis shared with the fox, it wasn’t a subordinate one.
He still didn’t know what she was. The flames in her hands were magical, but they weren’t the sort of magic that most races could use. Unlike the horned humans from earlier, her body exuded magic, particularly those big balls of fluff sticking out from her ass.
“I’m not an infernal. I’m human, in fact. I’m Rys. Are you going to introduce yourself or continue to threaten the person who saved Vallis’s life?” Rys said.
The fox winced and looked away. The flames vanished a moment later.
“Fara, Rys saved my life,” Vallis said with a huff. “Try to be a little nicer.”
“Your life wouldn’t have needed saving if you let me protect you,” the fox, Fara, growled as her fierce gaze turned on Vallis. “I swore to protect your family after your grandfather saved my life. You can run around and turn yourself into this infernal’s pet in a few years, after I get my fifth tail, but until then I’d prefer if you were less of a brat.”
Vallis glared back at Fara. Both women showed no signs of backing down. When Vallis remembered Rys’s presence, she even walked around Fara and stood next to him.
“This is an opportunity,” Vallis said, puffing out her chest. “I’ve spent my entire adult life buried under my father’s debts. Rys incinerated those debt collectors. You should have felt his power.”
“I can feel his power,” Fara muttered, her eyes flickering between Vallis and Rys. “That’s the problem.”
Vallis faltered for a moment, before looking up at Rys. She licked her lips, then stared back at Fara in defiance.
“You still haven’t told me your name,” Rys said, aware that he’d overheard Fara’s name.
The fox rolled her eyes. “My name is Fara, as Vallis said. And I’m unconvinced that you’re human. I can sense your soul and the horrendous state it is in. Plenty of infernalists have come to the archipelago over the decades, and none have felt as tainted as you.”
“You explained my background, didn’t you, Vallis?” Rys said with a raised eyebrow.
Fara interrupted before Vallis said anything, “She did, and it makes no sense.”
“Then humor me,” Rys said.
Frowning, Fara fell silent.
“Well, uh, how about we talk about the current situation?” Vallis said with a cough. “You walked off earlier.”
Fara raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She merely crossed her arms.
“We were talking about working together. It sounds like you’re interested,” Rys said.
Vallis frowned. She opened her mouth to say something, before closing it. A regretful expression crossed her face, before changing to resignation.
Her earlier spat with Fara had given away Vallis’s intentions. A good merchant wouldn’t show her hand so early, and it did make Rys hesitant about a deal.
On the other hand, he found himself lacking options. The seal bound him to the castle. If he refused Vallis, he might not receive friendly help from a local for a long time.
Or friendly-ish help, in the case of Fara.
“I am interested,” Vallis admitted after a long pause. “I have investments and a business, but they are…”
“Collateral for a debt?” Rys suggested.
“Yes.” Vallis said. “As I said earlier, my grandfather came here to rebuild the family fortune. He succeeded, but my father inherited the family stupidity. Now I’m trying to dig myself out of a hole I was thrown into. Fara usually deters the violent debt collectors, as mystic foxes terrify most people.”
“What makes an alliance with me special, then?” Rys asked. “I have my own ideas, but tell me yourself.”
Fara’s eyes narrowed. All eyes and ears focused on Vallis, who rubbed the back of her neck.
“I don’t know if I should believe your talk about being from a thousand years ago,” Vallis said. “I don’t think it matters. You killed the debt collectors without blinking. Your magic is at least as powerful as Fara’s, which makes you the most powerful mage for hundreds of miles.”
That fact nearly raised Rys’s eyebrows, but he maintained a neutral mask. The point was to test Vallis and see if she was more than a pretty face with a dangerous bodyguard.
“I’ve tried a lot of things to pay off these debts,” she continued. “But the people my father took loans from want me out of business. They don’t want my money. With your help, I think things will be different.”
“In other words, you want the backing of somebody powerful,” Rys said.
Fara scowled at the summary and was about to say something.
“Yes,” Vallis said, ignoring her bodyguard. Fara stared at Vallis.
“That’s smart. When the odds are stacked against you, there’s no shame in accepting help,” Rys said. “I needed a lot of help to rise to power. Nobody is weak because they received a helping hand in life.”
A smile rose on Vallis’s face. She raised a hand, palm open.
Rys stopped her. “We can shake on it after I tell you what I’m after. You might not like it. I mean, look around you. It’s not like I have a palace or anything.”
The ruined castle loomed over them. The layers of dust reminded him that nobody had been here for months, save for the debt collectors. Had they decided to use this place on a whim, knowing that nobody came here? A great place to hide a body, or some misdeeds.
“I’d be happy if you offer an awful deal,” Fara said.
Vallis jabbed the fox in the side. Fara’s tails whirled about wildly as she jumped, as if they helped her maintain her balance.
“My interest is simple: the Labyrinth. There’s power down there that I want. You can worry about outside. I’ll deal with the castle and everything below,” Rys explained. “Given the age of this place, anything we find will be worth its weight in gold.”
“More,” Vallis said, raising an eyebrow as she gave Rys a lopsided smile. “You realize you’re trying to sell food to the hungry, don’t you? I’ve wanted to break into the artifact market for years. The Labyrinth is the most dangerous place in the archipelago, and nobles from the continents buy everything brought up from it.”
“Then why haven’t you? You have her,” he said, nodding at Fara.
“You have no idea how dangerous the Labyrinth is,” Fara said sharply.
Rys frowned. “I’ll see for myself later then. But I’m going down there.”
“I believe you,” Vallis said, before Fara sniped at him again. “Do we shake now? Because if you’re supplying me with artifacts, then this is probably the best deal I’ll make in my life.”
Fara glared at Vallis. “It might be the last deal. Shaking hands with an infernal will bind you to its will for life.”
“For the last time, I’m human,” Rys muttered.
He shook hands with Vallis. No eternal contract bound her to his will for all eternity.
Rys could have done that, but he chose not to. Fara was already suspicious of him.
“Great,” Vallis said. She jumped back and the motion did interesting things to her chest. “I’ll head into town and grab my things. This place could use some sprucing up, and I need to quell any rumors about my untimely demise.”
“We’ll be back—” Fara began to say, following the other woman.
“Fara, you stay here,” Vallis said, pushing the fox away.
Fara blinked at her in confusion. When the fox looked at Rys, he shrugged in response.
“You’re heading into the Labyrinth, aren’t you?” Vallis said with a raised eyebrow. “Take her with you.”
“You’re going back alone?” Fara growled.
“The debt collectors are gone. Nobody will touch me for a while,” Vallis said. “And I’d rather you prevent my new investment from getting lost down below. See you soon.”
Vallis ran out the front of the castle. Still in the castle, Fara fumed. Her tails fanned out behind her.
Several long moments passed. Rys waited for Fara to run after her friend, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, Fara huffed and turned to face Rys. “Well?”
“Not going after her?” Rys asked.
“No. I’ll give her a slap when she comes back, but I know better than to chase her,” Fara said. Her tails curled around her body as she sighed. “Today happened because I’ve been mothering her too much. Things have become more dangerous since her father died, but I forgot how young she is.”
Vallis looked plenty old enough to Rys. Somehow, he suspected saying that aloud wouldn’t go down well with Fara, for a variety of reasons.
But her comment raised a good question.
“How old are you? I’m unfamiliar with your race,” he asked.
“Nearly 150. I won’t give you a better estimate than that,” Fara said with a smirk. “I’ll receive my fifth tail soon enough.” Her chest puffed out in pride, or as much as she could manage given its size.
“That wasn’t a metaphor?” He’d assumed she hadn’t been serious when she brought up getting an extra tail.
“It wasn’t. Mystic foxes grow additional tails as we age and grow in power. The most we have ever recorded is nine. I expect to gain my fifth tail within the next few years,” Fara said.
“I take it you have some reason for your confidence?”
“It’s simply what happens.” She shrugged. “Most foxes receive their first six tails at predictable ages. I received my fourth shortly before my sixtieth birthday—right before my adulthood ceremony. That means I should receive my fifth tail shortly.”
The dwarves and elves must be lining up for the secrets of immortality if mystic foxes could live long enough to casually speak of adulthood at sixty.
“So that means you came here while fairly old,” Rys said.
“Old,” Fara said flatly.
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, old. By the standards of most living beings, we’re old. Get used to it, old lady.”
She snorted and flicked her hair with one hand. “To answer your question, yes. I came here as an adult.” She stressed the term, her eyes flashing. “Vallis’s grandfather, Gregory, saved my life. To repay him, I came here and helped him establish his business. Spending a few decades protecting his family seemed like a good deal.”
Fara’s eyes became distant, and she sighed.
“That seems like anything but a good deal,” Rys said. He stared at the castle entrance, where Vallis had ran off earlier.
After following his gaze, Fara frowned. “She takes after him a lot. Vallis, I mean.”
“She’s like a daughter to you.”
“Yes. If you touch her, there won’t be a corpse left to find,” Fara growled, her eyes glowing bright blue. “But I want what’s best for her. Many things could have been different with her if I hadn’t…” Fara trailed off.
Rys waited.
“Speaking of mistakes, do you actually plan to head into the Labyrinth right now?” Fara asked, deliberately changing the subject. “I was serious about how dangerous it is. You’ll die.”
Somebody didn’t believe how powerful he was.
But she had a good point. The Labyrinth was a goal, but he had no reason to head down there right now. Orthrus had said that the seals had power conduits inside it, but that was it.
A smarter plan was to build up his strength before diving into the Labyrinth. Gather allies, forge weapons, learn about his surroundings, and discover the limits of his power.
He opened his mouth to express his thoughts, when a forgotten friend spoke up.
“Normally, I’d agree with her,” Orthrus said, “but there’s something we need from the upper levels of the Labyrinth. With the fox’s aid, you can claim this castle’s power as your own.”
Fara’s ears pricked up the moment Orthrus spoke. “What was that?” she snapped, looking around. Her eyes passed right over the golden wisp.
Rys withheld the urge to whistle. Her senses had to be sharp to she detect Orthrus.
Unfortunately, that meant he needed a cover story.
He took some comfort from the fact she confirmed that he hadn’t gone insane. If she sensed Orthrus, that meant the voice hadn’t his imagination. It had been a real possibility, given all the things that the infernals had done to his body and soul over the centuries.
“I’m communing with my adviser,” Rys said, picking something truthful but fairly bland.
“Through an astral projection?” Fara said flatly.
She sensed that much? Being able to detect anything in the astral plane meant having a magical affinity for souls—hence the term “astral.”
His eyes narrowed. Her appearance and age had been strange. He had even wondered if those blue flames from earlier had been a form of astral power. What even was a mystic fox?
“I’m a man of many talents. Care to believe that I’m from the ancient past now?” he said.
“I’ll believe that you’re human. Infernals can’t use astral energy. I know that much.” Fara clicked her tongue. “What is your ‘adviser’ telling you?”
Rys wondered the same thing.
Orthrus spoke up again, “This castle is special. It has magic within it that has remained unused for millennia. One requirement to reactivate it is a power source, and one is close by.”
“He’s an expert on the Labyrinth and this castle,” Rys said. “With his help, I plan to turn the castle into my own fortress. But I need to head into the Labyrinth to do so.”
Expecting the fox to argue with him, Rys turned and walked toward a staircase he had spotted earlier. It led downward and was remarkably intact.
Fara followed him. “That increases my confidence in you.”
“It does?” Rys asked.
“The locals consider this castle to be holy. I’ve always felt that something must be special about it,” she said. “If you have somebody who can help turn it into a fortress, maybe you can help Vallis.”
Ah, so that’s what this was about. She only cared that he might be able to make himself useful.
On the other hand, the source of her improved judgment was highly questionable.
“You like me more because I spoke with somebody you don’t even know exists,” Rys said. “Should I start talking to more imaginary friends?”
Fara rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say I liked you. But you’re useful enough to be worth protecting in the Labyrinth. At least so long as nothing too big tries to eat you.”
“I won’t need protecting,” he said.
Orthrus led Rys through the sub-levels of Castle Aion. At first, he assumed this was a basement, but those weren’t usually three levels deep.
The golden wisp bobbed along in front of Rys. Blue balls of fire circled around them, lighting up the dark hallways. He frowned at them.
“I’d prefer if you don’t trip over in the dark and die an embarrassing death,” Fara said.
He rolled his eyes. “I can see in the dark.”
“How very human of you.”
While they descended to some unknown destination, Rys analyzed Fara’s blue fire. He was rusty after centuries in a void, but his magical senses sized them up quickly enough.
“You don’t use sorcery,” he said.
“I do not. Foxes use spiritualism,” Fara said, as if that explained anything.
Fortunately, Rys didn’t need an explanation. He knew magical theory better than almost anybody in existence, even when the Infernal Empire had existed. That was part of what made him a master infernal sorcerer.
There were only three true methods of using magic in the world, and two types of magical energy.
The methods were known as sorcery, spiritualism, and astral power. The types of energy were sorcerous and astral. Sorcery used sorcerous energy and was the weakest form of magic. Astral power used astral energy and was the strongest. Spiritualism was an odd middle ground, best described as a form of sorcery that used astral energy as its power source.
Most people referred to sorcerous energy as magical energy for a wide variety of reasons.
The simplest of which was that almost every single race on Harrium used sorcery, and therefore used sorcerous energy. To them, sorcery was magic. Hence, sorcerous energy was magical energy.
That Fara’s race used spiritualism made them extremely strange by the standards of Harrium. Rys felt his urge to learn more about her and her kind grow with each passing minute.
Orthrus led them down a stairwell far deeper than any of the others. It was easily three stories deep. An empty landing sat at the bottom. Unlit torches lined the walls. Hundreds of people could stand here without touching one another. The perfect location to prepare for a Labyrinth dive.
The cracked steel door at the far end of the landing confirmed Rys’s suspicion. A thick iron bar held it shut. Unlike the door, the iron bar looked relatively new. Everything was coated in a thick layer of dust. No signs of rust on the bar, but its shape was warped.
Something had tried to get into the castle from whatever was on the other side of that door.
“A Labyrinth entrance,” Orthrus said.
Rys raised an eyebrow. “If this is sealed up, how do all of those artifacts get to Gauron and Pharos?”
Fara answered him, “Hundreds of entrances dot the mountains. Some of them open up for a few weeks. Or maybe a day. Others are permanent.”
“Only in the mountains?” he asked. That seemed odd.
“I’ve been here for fifty years and I’ve never heard or seen of an entrance anywhere else. The Labyrinth runs across most of the archipelago. Rumor has it that you can use it to cross the islands, but I’ve never met anybody who’s done it,” Fara said. “Or even a friend of a friend.”
Orthrus muttered something, “Most of the archipelago? Peculiar.”
Rys ignored him, but made a mental note to raise the topic later.
For now, he walked up to the steel door and tugged at the bar. Instinctively, one of his Gifts activated.
Without meaning to, Rys froze. The power on the other end of this particular Gift was orders of magnitude greater than he remembered.
“What’s wrong?” Fara asked.
With a grunt, Rys hefted the steel bar off the gate with a shriek of metal against metal. Fara’s ears flattened against her head. He tossed the bar aside.
“I realized how long 1500 years is,” Rys said.
“Really?” Fara asked sarcastically.
He sighed. “I rely on Infernal Gifts for my power. Those are connected to individual infernals in Hell. One of those is a strength Gift that increases my physical strength to be great enough for whatever I’m doing—combat; arm wrestling; or even lifting an iron bar stuck in place against a door.”
“And?”
“The infernal who gave this to me is a devil named Krisanem. She was somewhat capable. I liked her, but she got banished a lot, along with her sisters. Her species were known as Arcas devils, and they’re considered weak noble devils,” Rys said.
“I feel you just said an oxymoron,” Fara muttered. “‘Weak’ and ‘devil’ shouldn’t be spoken together. So, what, she’s not weak anymore?”
Rys grimaced. “There’s only one Gift I have that is anywhere near as strong. It belongs to one of the most powerful succubi to ever live.”
Fara remained silent.
Maybe she understood his concern. Maybe she didn’t.
But the true weight of time finally came down on his shoulders.
He already knew that a lot of the infernals from his time were dead. Now he knew that the few survivors were enormously powerful.
In the past, he had used a wide variety of Gifts from dozens of infernals. Most powerful demons and devils refused to give him their Gift, or their price was too great. He only laid claim to a couple of truly powerful Gifts.
Now every Gift he had felt immensely powerful.
Well, except one. His translation Gift hadn’t changed. And the infernal on the other end felt almost unchanged, even after all of this time. Given how lazy that particular succubus had been, he felt comforted by that fact.
For now, he needed to test out his remaining Gifts. He didn’t know what impact the seals had on them, other than the change to his infernal sorcery.
“Let’s go,” he told Fara.
Rys didn’t know what he expected from the Labyrinth. Maybe narrow stone hallways. A maze. Minotaurs. Something intimidating and claustrophobic.
Instead, he found a remarkably open space full of signs of life. Sure, there was still plenty of stone everywhere, but vines and moss grew on top of it. Insects buzzed about. Water seeped through cracks in the stonework. Magical torches glowed on walls and ceilings.
“We’re at least six or seven stories underground, but this looks like we walked into a cave,” he said. Then he corrected himself, “A dwarven cave.”
“The Labyrinth has always been a strange place,” Fara said.
Orthrus said nothing and instead went ahead.
The first few rooms were empty and connected by simple stone hallways.
Rys felt immense magical power around him. The sensation was almost crushing. Even the pebbles were magical.
The feeling that he was walking into a trap grew as Rys followed Orthrus deeper into the Labyrinth.
Eventually, they reached a room with a stream running through it. A stone bridge crossed it. Orthrus hovered over the far side.
“Here,” the wisp said. “The floor is hollow.”
Rys failed to discern any pattern in the stone flooring. The sheer amount of magical energy in his surroundings prevented him from detecting anything that might be beneath the stone. He had to trust Orthrus.
When he crossed the bridge, he learned why the Labyrinth was dangerous. Gnashing teeth leaped from the river.
Cursing, he rolled backward to avoid the shark’s maw. The beast missed him by inches.
Then the shark rolled on the bridge and bestial arms and legs burst from its body in a shower of gore. It stood up, sinewy muscles and tendons oozing blood with every movement.
“What the fuck,” Rys said.
“Welcome to the Labyrinth,” Fara said. Her tails fanned out behind her and she nodded her head behind her. “We have company.”
He clicked his tongue as he saw the smaller monsters coming through the hallway behind them. They looked like goblins, but with ashen skin and misshapen limbs. Where had they come from? There had been no other paths or entrances.
So, this had been a trap.