Today’s snippet, titled “The Wish, part II”, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark’s new (Good) Pathfinder Campaign.
Be forewarned, there may be mature themes and naughty language below.
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“Its out HERE!”
Rhiallis made for the window, then paused, looking back to Sadie. She had moved forward to collect Mira and when she met Rhiallis’ gaze she just shook her head. It was true – Mira was beyond simple healing spells. She was dead.
“I’ll get her, Rhi,” Sadie said, “Go, you gotta kill that fucking thing!”
As she climbed through the window, she heard Sadie talking softly to Mira, apologizing for the rough treatment as she scooped her friend’s body into an enchanted bag. She snatched Agnes Forthright and Lockbreaker as well, and slipped the latter into her belt. The former she gripped tightly, prepared to use its razor-sharp edge against the bastard who had seduced her into wishing for her sister and who had murdered her friend.
“You’re mine, motherfucker!” Celeste roared. Rhiallis blinked. It was not Celeste’s style to scream profanities like that – she associated that more with Ivy Graves. Maybe her new body has a new tongue as well.
The feel of earth beneath her feet made her feel grounded and connected; Rhiallis was grateful for it as she threw herself toward the demon outside the hut. This is it! she thought, He’s going down!
Only in that same moment, she found herself going up instead.
She, Aimsley, Korael and Cole were flung into the air once more. This time, they slammed into an invisible wall of force, some hundred feet into the air. Once more, they dangled, helpless. Once more, the demon lay his fury upon one of their number – this time, Celeste. Poor Celeste who had only just received a new body with which to vanquish evil.
Rhiallis screamed in frustration and beat her wings against the false ceiling. Suddenly, she was right-ways again, flying above the field of reversed gravity. Though the Fire of Vengeance spell had expired, Rhiallis had one last trick up her sleeve.
She called out to the Heavens, to Iomedae and all the Gods who hated evil, and Radiance flashed silvery-gold in the light of the moon.
“By the power of the Inheritor, I name thee enemy and I shall smite you with a wrath most righteous!”
The demon swiveled his attention away from Celeste for the briefest of moments. He made a casual gesture in her direction and smirked.
“Seyvuz.”
Her muscles contracted, her body spasmed once – a great convulsion that left her wracked with pain.
And then she fell, more than one hundred feet, like a lead ballast.
Unable to move, unable to see anything but the dirt in her face, Rhiallis was helpless at the demon’s feet.
Through the sounds of battle, she heard Aimsley casting another spell – this one sounded familiar and protective, but she did not know what it was. A moment or two later, she could hear the twang of arrows let loose once more and she realized that Aimsley must have cast Featherfall upon herself, Korael, and Cole in order to save them from the long fall.
“Don’t let up! We can do this!” Celeste rallied those who were still able to fight, wielding Snowblood like a woman possessed. “We can- AAAAH!”
The rising tone of her voice indicated the ground had slipped out from under them once again and Rhiallis wanted to cry. She could not feel anything as she was thrown a hundred feet into the air once more, she was utterly paralyzed, but she could see the ground looming below her and the thought of hitting it again hurt. If only I could reach the scale… she thought. If only it would catch us all like Terendeluve did in Kenebres. She knew Aimsley must be nearly depleted of spells and they had not managed to get real rest in what seemed like weeks. Oh Gods, what can we do? Is this the end? This cannot be the end…
Out of the corner of her eye, as she twisted helplessly in the sky, Rhiallis could see that Celeste was still on her feet. She was bloodied, but unmoved. She would not flee whilst her friends lived – she would fight on.
The demon’s voice was just as seductive and inviting coming out of its monstrous maw as it leaned toward Celeste and cooed, “There is still a chance, pretty paladin.”
“To the Hells with you, demon!”
“Ah, ah, ah.” He waggled a finger at her, sending the rest of the Order spinning in circles. “That isn’t very nice. I just want to make you a deal.”
“Your deals are as false as your human face was – and blacker than your so-called heart.”
The demon’s mouth twisted into a horrific approximation of a smile. “You want your friends to live, do you not? There is a way. A simple little thing, really.”
“Speak fast, beast, so that I may kill you and get this done.”
“Drop your pretty little sword, Paladin, and bend the knee to me. Do those two simple things, and I shall let your friends go.”
Celeste’s face shifted. Rhiallis wanted to scream at her, wanted to rail against the very notion that she could trust this demon to keep his word. Remember what he did when he promised to give Sadie her sister back? You cannot trust a demon!
Aimsley cried out from the false ceiling. “Celeste! He’s going to kill us anyway! Don’t listen to him! Don’t believe a word he says!”
There were several tense seconds. The demon was leaning toward her, nodding as if to say, Go on, pretty paladin, accept my terms and I shall let them go. Celeste’s face as an unreadable mix of emotions. Suddenly, it went stone cold and she turned her flinty new eyes up to his hideous face.
“Fuck you.”
She swung Snowblood, twisting to deliver a massive blow to his gut. The enchanted blade struck true, ripping his innards through a gaping hole in his belly. Screaming, the demon flailed, but could not find purchase on Sadie or Celeste, who continued to wail upon him. Agnes Forthright was crimson by the time his shriek died and the last of the twitching went out of the massive body.
With a collective thud, Aimsley, Korael, Cole, and Rhiallis returned to the ground. Though feeling was just returning to her limbs, and she could not yet move, Rhiallis closed her eyes and kissed the dirt. She had never been so thankful to lay upon it.
“Is everyone okay?” Korael asked. “I mean, other than Mira.”
A chorus of half-hearted answers returned to her, but Rhiallis could see Sadie was not all right. Not in the least. As the feeling returned to her body, she moved closer, wrapped her arms and wings around the last of the friends of her second youth, and for a moment or two, allowed herself to weep.
The translation of “The Hungry Pit” spell I wrote for Aimsley, just because it made me laugh:
A pit to Hell, for you is Heaven!
So never there shall you I send.
A pit to Hell, not one, nor seven!
This hole will bite and tear and rend!
I call unto the aether to deliver it now – a HUNGRY pit – ring the bell, time for chow!
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Note: Image is “King Jagiello Statue Central” by (Mulligand) from SXC.hu; edited by me