We were attacked almost immediately by a pair of frost giants –silly me, I forgot my Mjolnir back at the inn – who commanded a whole pack of animals. Of course, giants wouldn’t have any normal animals, so we weren’t talking about a bunch of dogs or even wolves. Nope, they had a dire bear and four mammoths. Yes, mammoths.
And, of course, silly me, I forgot my tribe of Neanderthals back at the inn.
“GIANTS!” Lenn roared beside me.
“GIANTS!” Lenn roared above me. Wait, what? I looked up to see that Geo had transformed once more into what we were alternatively calling ‘Old Lenn’ and ‘Lenn Classic’ and was now doing a fairly good impression of fast roping down from the helicopter. I hadn’t taught him about that technique, so either it was used on Golarion in some fashion or he was inventing it right then. Either way, pretty impressive.
The fighting, as it usually is, was quick and dirty. Lenn and Geo!Lenn worked well together, even more than Lenn and Geo did. Between that, a few grenades, Paulie firing from above and Aurora dive bombing a mammoth, it wasn’t too difficult of a fight.
Once we were sure the surface area was secure, we had the helicopters land and I radioed Squibbles. “Outer fortress secure. Begin moving remaining forces in. Pick up that shield stone on the way. We’ll be leaving Orik and his forces to secure the area while we continue inside.”
“Got it!” Squibbles said excitedly.
We headed into the Black Tower at the heart of the fortress. Inside, we were greeted by a rush of cool air. It felt pretty nice. Like glorious air conditioning. But, as they say, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. As we made our way inside, it became clearer that it was going to get colder. I pulled off that silly sihedron medallion and popped on a magical necklace like the one I’d worn through space with Samantha. It protected me from vacuum, so a little cool air shouldn’t be an issue.
As comfortable as I was, we would still have to move quickly. The enchantments I’d put on Aurora’s armor to make it more comfortable would offer her about as much protection as those suits scientists wear in Antarctica, but everyone else was stuck putting on what they had for basic winter gear.
In the center of the room, we found a trapdoor frozen shut. A bit of magical fire later, it was open and we found ourselves staring down a fifty foot shaft into darkness. I dropped a torch down and estimated that we were looking at a roughly eighty foot descent all in all based on the time it took to hit bottom.
Geo!Lenn jumped down, intending to slow his descent by pressing against the walls of the shaft as he fell. Unfortunately, he hadn’t noticed that the shaft was coated in ice. He shot down at nearly full speed and landed hard.
“I’m okay!” he shouted up at us. “But hurry down!”
Lenn dropped down after him, not bothering to slow his fall. Then Aurora went next, using her wings to land safely. I dropped down after, slowing my fall with a knife in the ice and relying on my boots to take care of the rest. Moments later, Paulie followed after us, sliding down on a rope.
Oh, right. We had rope. Oops.
I had been right about the cold. It was probably somewhere in the region of ten below zero – Fahrenheit because I’m American, of course – not that it bothered me at all. Magic is great sometimes. And again, if it’s good enough for use in outer space, it’ll probably at least be some help planetside.
I heard the enemy before I saw him. “The green light! The green light!” he kept repeating in Thassilonian as some kind of madness mantra. We got eyes on him quickly and I was not happy with what I was seeing.
Then again, I doubt anyone would be happy to see that they were trapped in a chamber with a flying Thassilonian mummy. Yes, flying. His legs were bound together, so how else was he supposed to get around?
He tried to hit us with a breath attack, some kind of necromantic poison gas. The others had to dodge away, but the gasses he was breathing were unable to reach me thanks to the magic of my necklace.
The real problem was the flight. Only Aurora could fly up and hit it, which became a problem when it hit her back and stunned her, sending her crashing to the ground. Paulie and I could shoot at it, but it seemed like it would take forever to do any real damage.
Once more, Paulie remembered we had rope, managed to hook it with several lines and we dragged it to the ground where Lenn beat it to death – death plus, maybe? – with his axe. It let out a horrible screech of terror as the big guy beat its face into a pulp.
We looked around a bit and found nothing of interest aside from the massive adamantine scroll case on the mummy’s back, so we took our prize and made our way through a door into a much warmer room beyond to get a better look at it.
In the light of Aurora’s halo, we could see that the case was sealed with a combination lock made of five spinning rings. If Geo had been Geo at the moment, I would have pulled apart a radio and rigged it into a listening device so he could safe crack it. But Geo!Lenn informed me that he didn’t have that kind of skill.
So we forced it open with a crowbar. Adamantine or no, the hinges were still vulnerable. We only destroyed three of the scrolls within. I could repair them later. Besides, what was undestroyed was more interesting.
First of all, there were five more scrolls. That was cool. Then there was a full set of nine scrolls attached to a single set of rods. Together, they were some kind of artifact. I know this because I was unable to destroy them after my first attempt at reading them.
Let me explain. I pulled it open and even as I did so, I felt it resist. Then, as I read the runes on the page – vaguely interesting information about monsters of Thassilon – I began hearing voices. Voices whispering madness.
And this time, it wasn’t Fleur.
<Margin Note: You will give in! You will teach wizards to make Chunky Monkey ice cream! OOOOOHHHHH!>
<Margin Note: Give in to Glorious Cherry Garcia Master Race.>
<Margin Note: Hate you.>
I know a cursed artifact when I see one. So I tried lighting it on fire. It burned, but was not consumed. Then the fire spontaneously went out. We came to a quick consensus that we would encase the whole thing in cement and throw it into the first volcano we found.
There was one more thing in the scroll case that really piqued my interest. It was an invitation to a library. Yeah, maybe I’m a bit of a nerd. Just a little. Don’t tell anyone. It was to be presented to some kind of “Clockwork Librarian” at the “Therassic Library”. I had heard that word before, Therassic. It was some order of monks in ancient Thassilon. It was entirely possible that this was their monastery and the library was nearby. One could hope.
The writ had another bit of interesting information. Apparently the library had bronze doors warded against intrusion and there was a password. The password was “Viosanxi”, the name of the library’s architect. Sounds like he was the kind of guy who uses “Password” for access to his bank account.
We fought our way past another giant and his pack of bears, making our way into what looked like living quarters. There wasn’t much of note there aside from a journal we found. It stuck out to us because it was written in Elven, but had obviously been written by a giant. Where a giant learned Elven, I don’t know. But it was.
Her name had been Conna, and she had been excited about our arrival. Apparently Mokmurian had killed her mate and taken over their tribe. She was hoping we’d help her overthrow him so her tribe could return to their proud traditions and beloved isolation.
At this point, you know how this story ends. We showed up and I’m pretty sure we had already killed her and most of her tribe. Using my mortars and helicopters. Crap.
Inside the room that seemed to be a larder, we found tons – literal tons! – of meat in the form of numerous skinned animals. In one corner was a barrel marked “Candy” in the language of giants. We opened it and found a bunch of eyeballs, and they weren’t all from game animals. One more thing to add to the burn pile later.
In the tunnels, we came across a kobold. She furiously attacked us and came up against the brutal attacks of two Lenns, then fled. Now, I’ve heard stories of adventurers attacking kobold dens. There’s a particularly legendary man, missing both legs and an arm if the tales are to be believed, who described a horrific encounter while trying to deal with a group of kobold bandits. His name was Tucker or something, I think.
Anyway, I knew we couldn’t let her escape and I had a plan. I spotted something very interesting around her neck. “Lenns! Hold back! Paulie! Light her on fire!”
“YEEEEEEE!” the tiefling screeched happily, unleashing a fireball. I used magic to hit her with burning conjured snapdragon as well. I’m not sure which attack did the work, but it doesn’t matter. What killed her was the multiple fireballs from her magical necklace as one of our spells set off all the beads.
Lenn enjoyed the show and laughed loudly. It was infectious and we all joined in. It was pretty great. During the mirth, I looked over at Aurora. Our eyes met and she frowned and turned away. So much for the mood of levity.
We continued onward and found ourselves first against a pair of mentally enslaved dragons. I managed to free one of them, and it flew off. We found it shortly afterward, fighting against a pair of lion bodied lamias in a makeshift temple to Lamashtu, because of course there was a temple to Lamashtu in there somewhere. We murdered them and decided we’d have Magrim come in to cleanse the temple later and continued onward, deeper into the tunnels.
We came across some kind of statue. From a distance, I thought it looked like a golem, but when Lenn and Geo!Lenn approached, nothing happened, so we continued on. However, when I passed, it moved. But it didn’t attack until Aurora stepped forward. I suspect it had been ordered to attack any non-giants that passed. Lenn and Geo!Lenn passed as giants by its reasoning – not that I’d ever tell them that – and I had been tall enough to make it hesitate for a moment, but Aurora had certainly set off its attack.
Like most of our foes thus far, it fell to a combination of LENN SMASH and PAULIE BURN. The sound of the fight attracted the attention of some kind of headless ogre and its zombie ogre minions. Don’t ask me to explain how the headless ogre heard the fighting. I don’t know. Vibrations in its feet or something?
Lenn was still a bit worn out from the last fight, so Aurora took the lead on this one. Her lightning fast strikes were akin to a lawnmower against zombie flesh, making short work of the headless ogre while the rest of us supported her.
Tiny, but fierce indeed.
Having caught his breath, Lenn took the lead when the Forgefiend – a ten foot tall barrel shaped fiend from the Plane of Earth(the dirt, not the planet) that eats metal ores and occasionally armor and weapons – attacked. No idea how Mokmurian had bound it, but it didn’t matter. It looked like a weird giant, so Lenn beat it to death. He really was in his element here, his element being “hitting big things with an axe”.
Beyond the forgefiend was a massive cauldron. “A runeslave cauldron,” Paulie said in his “gargling gravel” voice, indicating another personality swap. That’s what I’d been thinking. Also, he’s been getting really good at controlling these swaps. They seem to tire him, though.
A quick vote later, we decided that something capable of enslaving giants was both too powerful and too horrible to allow to exist. We attempted to destroy it, but just like the scrolls, it was too powerful to break with normal means. I remember there being a method for it, but I either never knew the method or couldn’t recall. So, concrete and volcano it was once more. We just needed to find a volcano.
We continued on and found our way to a set of bronze doors. I found myself getting excited. Who knew what this library held. Maybe I’d find what I’d been looking for. “Viosanxi,” I said. The doors swung open, revealing an impressive library within.
A clockwork construct approached us. It was pitiful. The poor thing had spent thousands of years in here without any kind of maintenance. I activated my magic sight and could see that there were spells about to prevent the effects of time on inanimate objects within the library, but they wouldn’t help the poor librarian. It had been forced to repair itself and had been pretty inadequate for the job.
One of its three legs dragged behind it, one of the gems it used for eyes was missing and one arm was completely useless. Beyond that were numerous smaller issues. It was a wonder that it could even run. I felt incredibly bad for it.
<Margin Note: You probably feel sorry for this lamp. That is because you’re stupid. The lamp has no feelings and the new lamp is much better.>
<Margin Note: Hush, you.>
I presented the writ to the librarian. “Welcome,” it said in a halting, grinding voice. Understandably, it spoke Thassilonian. “Which volume of lore would you like me to retrieve for you? There are currently twenty four thousand, four hundred ninety one volumes, scrolls, pamphlets and unbound manuscripts available. Please indicate your wish by author, title, subject or date of acquisition by the Therassic Monastery.” I believed the number. The library was massive with a sixty foot tall domed ceiling and magical crystal chandeliers hanging throughout. No expense had been spared in the pursuit of knowledge.
I managed to convince the librarian that I was the library’s new caretaker and would be repairing it at my first opportunity, though I had the more important task of dealing with dangerous vermin in the areas outside the library before I could get to that. At my request, it directed me to another exit on the far side of the library. While it waited, I asked it to find me anything it could on teleportation magic capable of transporting one interplanetary distances.
Through the door was a strange room with only one corner. I was almost confused, but when I heard the howl, I realized the brilliance. It had been made to house Hounds of Tindalos, They inhabit the angles within space-time, while the rest of us inhabit space-time’s curves. By creating a room with only one angle, you create a perfect room to greatly increase the length of servitude for such creatures using symbolic magic.
I wasn’t sure if the room had been designed by the Thassilonians or if Mokmurian had altered it for his needs, but it really didn’t matter. What did matter was that he had a trio of the beasts at hand to attack us. But, again, we had a two Lenns, a tiefling archer/caster, a knight who was brokering no foolishness and one wizard with an SMG. They were pretty screwed, though I’m sure their howls warned their master we were coming.
We made our way through the tunnels to what the librarian had described as the lecture hall. From outside the door, we could see that the room was filled with fog. I touched the fog, revealing that it was the kind of magical fog that slowed one’s movement. I silently activated my magic sight and peered within.
While I could not see the creature within the room, I could see all of its magical auras, giving me a rough idea of where it was. Based on the auras, I could also deduce the magic items it was wearing. And based on that, I was fairly certain we were looking at a wizard or sorcerer who could see through the fog and was ready to engage us by using the terrain to his advantage.
It was a smart play. But he was being stupid. He had set himself up in a defensive position, surrounded by magical traps so we’d have trouble reaching him. He was a bloody amateur. Don’t believe me? Just ask Michael Westen.
“When a pro plans an ambush, they capitalize on the element of surprise. They attack aggressively so their opponent has to react from a place of weakness. An amateur, on the other hand, is more likely to take a defensive posture which means they are the one acting from a place of weakness.” That isn’t to say he’d be a pushover, but I knew that if I could make him angry, I could force him to give up his advantages.
If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s pissing people off.
Fleur had even set the groundwork. “Mokmurian’s inside. Prepare to charge. You’ll know the signal,” I whispered to the others. Then I tapped my hat and changed a few things about myself, including my hair color and style into long teal braids. Only then did I begin to sing.
“Wanna join me, come and play
But I might shoot you, in your face
Bombs and bullets will do the trick
What we need here is a little bit of panic!”
The fog spell he’d used was a clever trick, but it was defeated by a single powerful gust of wind. The amount of magic it takes to create fog literally as thick as pea soup is also much higher than the magic required to create a gust of wind, if you have the spell prepared.
If you’re a wizard who thinks they may have to use mustard gas against your foes, it’s only prudent to prepare the wind spell in case something goes wrong. Now, I know prudence isn’t my really my strong suit, but in this case, paranoia will suffice.
Upon singing the word “panic”, I unleashed a gust of wind, tearing away the veil of fog. Mokmurian, scarred by the corrosive mustard gas, reacted by unleashing a cloud of poisonous gas – the locals call the spell “Cloudkill” – upon my position.
“See how you like it!” he shouted, snarling in rage.
My companions rushed into the room and out of the cloud. I just stood there, nonchalantly checking my fingernails for dirt. “It’s fine. Not a very good smell, mind you, but it’s fine.” Unlike me, he hadn’t given himself permanent at will magic sight. So he didn’t know that I was still wearing the necklace I had put on to keep out the cold. Again, if it works against the vacuum of space, no simple gas cloud is going to be a danger.
I winked and he howled again with rage, unleashing a magical ray of disintegration at me. It hurt, but I survived it just fine. And at that point, I was no longer the threat to him. He had two Lenns and Aurora upon him and Paulie had conjured up one of his ancestors. “ON-WARD!” the tiefling sang out.
Aurora cut one of his Achilles’ tendons and he responded by using telekinesis to throw her against a wall. In the process, he exposed himself to attacks from Lenn and Geo!Lenn, which proved brutally effective.
Suddenly realizing the real chance of losing, Mokmurian tried to cast a spell to teleport away. That was what I had been waiting for. I analyzed the magic and targeted him with a dispel, cutting a few necessary threads before the spell’s matrix could coalesce, leaving him trapped in a room with a pair of angry Lenns.
It wasn’t pretty.
As he lay on the ground, dying, I walked over calmly and drew my gun. “Please, spare me!” the giant wizard begged.
I raised my weapon, aiming it at his head. “I did warn you this might be the outcome,” I said with a sardonic smile before shooting him in the face.
“Pwned,” Fleur chimed in. Dork.
If I were a better artist, this would be the page with an illustration of the black tower with the date, time and the words “Fortress of the Stone Giants: Secured” or something written on it. But I’m not great with non-technical illustrations, so, I apologize for not doing so. But that does bring me to reveal a bit of something as way of apology.
Thanks to the smuggling of my new MP3 player, I had learned so very much. But there is one thing that I hadn’t even considered until a few evenings prior, when I noticed it had a running calendar. I now knew what day it was back home. So in lieu of illustration, let me just write:
8:47pm UTC-07
March 1st, 2025
Fortress of the Stone Giants: Secured
Happy Birthday to me.
I have been gone for a little under eleven years. But I was beginning to believe that it wouldn’t go as long as twelve. And yes, by some goofy coincidence, we defeated Mokmurian on my birthday. I mean, it’s only a one in a three-sixty-five chance, so it’s not that big of a coincidence. But it was amusing.
But that wasn’t the only thing that happened then. Because immediately after I shot Mokmurian, his body stood, his eyes glowing. A voice that was not his own poured from his lips, resonating through the chamber at an oppressive hundred and ten decibels.
“So these are the heroes of this age. Gasping worms to be crushed into the earth when I awaken the armies of Xin Shalast, when the name of Karzoug is again spoken with awe and fear. Know that the deaths of those marked with the Sihedron – a bounty of which you have provided this day – hasten my return, just as yours soon will. Fools, all of you! Is this all that could be accomplished in ten thousand years?”
I stood defiant. I don’t like bullies. “You have yet to begin to see what we can do. Bring your armies. We’ll crush them like we crushed your giants.”
The voice laughed. “Once more pride tests itself against me. Come then, and we shall see what you can do!” The giant’s body crumpled once more, disintegrating and leaving nothing but his gear. So much for any thought of using the Runeslave Cauldron on his corpse to bring him back for use against our enemies.
Not that I had ever even considered such a thing, mind you.
We secured the upper levels and a path to the library, then I set to work repairing the librarian with the aid of the technicians. Between us, it didn’t take all that long at all to set it back to full working order. The poor thing was so grateful that I’m sure I had its undying devotion.
When I fabricated a handheld document scanner the next day, it was more than happy to begin scanning everything in the library for me. It also gave me a special prize it had found, the torn fragment of a scroll that once held a spell that would have allowed me to teleport home across any distance. It wasn’t quite enough for me to reconstruct the spell, but it was a place to start.
We continued working through the vast tunnels, securing zones and massive piles of treasure. In fact, the treasure was so great that we weren’t going to be able to move it all out on our own. We needed help. So I sent a message to the Voidstrife factor in Magnimar to make the arrangements on our fourth day.
Imagine my astonishment when Chadwick appeared out of nowhere that evening with the unmistakable pop of teleportation magic. “What are you doing here?” I asked my adopted brother.
“Our office in Magnimar has been sending me some very concerning reports. When you requested we send a wizard with a half dozen portable holes to move some stuff to Magnimar, I decided I would come personally and address the concerns.” Yes, six portable holes. There was a lot of treasure.
“Okay, what are you concerned about?”
He pulled something out of his pocket. “This. Why did you have our factor acquire so much of it?”
I laughed. “That’s it? That’s the big worry?” I opened my bag and fished around for a minute. “Do you know what this is?” I asked, handing him a small metallic disc.
His eyes went wide. “I’ve never seen so much of it at once. Where did you get it?”
I tapped the rock he was holding. “From one of those. The alchemical processes people use to get aluminum are expensive and only work on rarer sources. I can extract it easily from very common sources. I had him get it on a hunch because I may need it to build something we can sell at value. But if not, I’ll just extract enough to double our initial investment without oversaturating the market and keep the rest for my own work.” I had explained why I might need all that bauxite, but I guess I had forgotten to mention that aluminum was a metal known on Golarion that was more valuable than platinum.
“Okay, good. So you haven’t gone crazy.”
“No more than usual. So, did you bring the portable holes?”
“I did. We’re charging seven percent of the value of goods for transport to anyone in your party, so I believe we stand to make mutual profits from this arrangement. Normally, it’s ten, but they’re with you, so I’m giving a discount. Of course, anything of yours can go for free. That goes for anything Aurora sends as well.” He must have seen me wince when he said Aurora’s name. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re kinda fighting right now.”
He smacked me upside the head. “Then go apologize for whatever you said or did.”
I had tried. It was just hard to talk to her the last couple days. The first day had been bad. She was still really upset. We ended up fighting some more. Then it had been pretty silent. Every time I tried to talk, I could tell she didn’t want to. So we explored in silence.
I took refuge in crafting. I needed to take my mind off of it, so I worked on completing the present I had been making her – which I was pretty sure she wouldn’t want anymore, but I couldn’t leave it incomplete – and then I began work on my own special project. Top secret. Very confidential.
“We think there might be a few more areas to scout. Can you wait until tomorrow evening to head out?”
“Sure, as long as you have somewhere for me to sleep and enough food.”
I nodded. “Easily done. In the meantime, want to check out the library?”
“Library?”
“Ancient Thassilonian. Amazing stuff in there you have to see.”
I took him to check it out. No more than half an hour in, he had made a decision. “We have to own this. Do you think we’d be able to take all of this back to Absalom?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Anything in here that gets taken out undergoes the full ravages of the time it spent inside the library upon leaving the room. I’ve been making copies, but this has to stay here.”
“Then who owns the library?”
“It technically belongs to a long dead order. The librarian has accepted me as the monastery’s new caretaker, though, so I’m sure we could have the family take over the whole thing, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I am. Someone’s going to claim it. Might as well be us.”
I grinned. “Put everyone here on the payroll. Waive the transport fee as payment for services rendered. Make it official and I don’t think anyone will complain. Especially if you give the artifact we seized to the Lord Mayor as a joint bribe from the Voidstrifes and the Potent Rainbow Lions. Then retain at least one squad of the PRL to guard this place alongside family forces. Everyone wins. It’s either that or years of legal contests.”
“Done. I’ll make the arrangements tomorrow.”
With Aurora sleeping in another room, the nightmares returned that night. This time, however, they maintained the theme my dreams had been going on. I was in the burned out husk of a village, the torched remains of huts still smoldered around me. “CEDWIN!” I called out. I didn’t know how, but I knew my parents were still dead. My brother was all that I had left in the world. I had to find him. But I felt like I was walking in wet sand and couldn’t get anywhere. He was nowhere to be found.
I was awoken by a scream of agony. At first, I thought it was part of the dream, but when I opened my eyes, it was still there. I got up and rushed towards the sound. Aurora met me in the hallway and we ended up having to kick in the door to Geo’s room.
I will never forget what awaited me inside.
For lack of a better term, Geo had exploded. Bits of him were all over everywhere. In the center of the room stood Lenn, naked. “What happened?!” I asked.
Before Lenn could answer, a voice behind me roared. “I’M TRYING TO SLEEP!”
I knew that voice. I turned and saw Lenn looking out from another room. “What.” It then dawned on me. Geo had done it. He had managed to clone the old Lenn within his own body, but he hadn’t survived the process. I turned away from the room, dropped to my knees and started retching.
We had enough money to pay for the more expensive resurrection he’d need – and dammit, it was coming out of his share! – so, once my stomach settled, I began using light telekinesis to gather his remains up in a bucket. It was a long, disgusting process.
And then it got even more disgusting about an hour later when his remains began crawling together towards the pile I had in the bucket. I never screamed, no matter what anyone tells you.
Ones re-gathered, the body knitted itself together and Geo stood before me like nothing had happened. Well, his clothes hadn’t survived. That was two naked men more than I had hoped to see that day. And weirder, anything he had done to his body to accommodate the process had reversed. “What,” I said for the second time that morning.
“I’m pretty hungry,” he said. “Pregnancy takes a lot out of you.” Just like it was no big deal. What the hell is wrong with my life? At that point, I could either further analyze what he had done to himself, or I could pretend it had never happened and go on with my day.
I’m pretty sure you know what I chose.
After I finished my crafting for the day, I joined Aurora to continue searching through the tunnels. The truth is, what really happened is that I went alone and she followed because she had sworn to be my protector and wouldn’t break that promise, no matter how mad at me she was.
In truth, the chamber we were entering was one we had found the previous day, so there was little to no danger, since we’d already swept it for traps and other hidden hazards. As best we could tell, it belonged to the dragon we had slain in Sandpoint. Its hoard was sizable if not terribly valuable. I would catalog it and then we could divvy it up. I could claim the bulkier, less valuable portions in equal value and break them down into magicite, allowing others to take the more portable filthy lucre.
No one followed us into the treasure hoard. Likely Chadwick’s doing. He was dead set on Aurora and I fixing our problems so we could get together like he wanted us to. Damn shipper.
I was careless. Everything that happened next is my fault. That someone might have snuck in and put in traps after we had searched the treasure hadn’t occurred to me. If I had, perhaps things might have turned out differently.
“Maybe we should talk,” I said, finally.
“I’m not sure I’m up to fighting today,” Aurora said quietly. I knew how she felt. But if there was any hope of salvaging our friendship, we had to talk eventually.
“We’ll take this slow, then,” I said. I paused to formulate my words carefully. In the silence I heard a sound that made my blood run cold. I didn’t know exactly what it would set off, but it was definitely a spell trigger. And the sound came from where Aurora was standing. “Look out!” I shouted, diving without thought at her.
I pushed her away and heard an explosion. Pain tore through my body, then I realized as I hit the ground that I couldn’t feel my legs. How cliché was that?
Aurora rushed to my side. She was saying something, but I couldn’t make out the words. My ears were ringing. Why did everything hurt so bad? “Thank god,” I said, though I couldn’t hear my own voice. “You’re okay.”
As I lay there, the blackness closing in all around me, I could only think of one thing. I had never apologized to Aurora. Like a coward, I could not admit to her how sorry I was for what I said. At that moment, I would have given anything for just a few moments to say those words to her.
But try as I might, I simply could not find the strength to speak. And please believe me, I tried. I tried harder than I’ve ever tried to do anything in my life. But it did no good. It was beyond my ability. I could not do it, for what seemed like an eternity but was likely only a matter of moments.
Instead, all I could do was look up at Aurora, cradling my dying body in her arms. Were those tears in her eyes? Had I made her cry? That was unforgiveable. No. I had to tell her. I gave it my all. Every ounce of strength that remained and even a few ounces I didn’t have.
But it wasn’t enough. As I died – not for the first time in my life, having died on the operating table for a few seconds back when my older brother had nearly beaten me to death – I simply sighed. The darkness that closed in on me was almost comforting, like an old friend.
At least the pain was gone.
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