Chapter 13

“Rhys, how the hell did you get here?!” I said as Katie and I helped her to her feet. Rhys was a little bit wobbly, but she managed to stay on her feet with some help from us.

“Good to see you too,” said Rhys, “I snuck to the portal when no one was looking. I wanted to come with you guys, for backup.”

“You didn’t tell us you’ve had fighting experience?” I said.

“I haven’t,” said Rhys, “But everything’s a learning process, right?”

Katie facepalmed. I couldn’t think of anything to say. Felice ended up beating me to it.

“Why would you come here, into the middle of a soon-to-be battlefield, without any fighting experience?!” said Felice, “Are you out of your mind?! What were you thinking?! You don’t even have a sword!”

“I was thinking I didn’t want you guys alone!” said Rhys, “So I’m gonna join you!”

“Well, we don’t have much of a choice now, since that portal closed,” I said, “Welcome to the party, Rhys.”

“Alright, now we just need a cool party name!” said Katie as we all started making our way through the woods, “Anyone have any ideas? Since we’re supposed to be maidens, maybe it should have something to do with that?”

“If I come up with something, I’ll let you know,” said Rhys, “So, where are we off to right now?”

“Krozon’s Swamp,” I said, noticing that the dirt beneath our feet was slowly turning into mud, then getting wetter and wetter as we went along, “We better hope this stuff only goes up to our knees.”

“We’re not gonna get that lucky and you damn well know it.” said Katie. I sighed at her pessimism, but she was probably right anyway.

The woods were thick with brush, bushes, and tree branches, not to mention the damp muddy water that was slowly moving up our legs. I was just thankful that my boots were good enough that they were keeping the water out, but the grim looks Rhys was giving indicated that her boots weren’t of the same quality of ours.

“Where do you think this first temple is?” Katie asked, “How long until you think we’ll find it?”

“The question of where the hell the temple is is a good one,” I said, “Rhys, do you have any ideas?”

“Uh, not really.” said Rhys, rubbing the back of her head and giving us a half-cocked grin, “I kinda did all of this on a whim, so…”

“Oh, by the DIVINE’S NAME!” Felice suddenly said, making me flinch a little, “You didn’t even bring any supplies?!”

“Well, I’m not entirely unprepared,” said Rhys as she started fishing through the pockets of the pants she was wearing, “I managed to grab some things before I started following you guys to the portal. Here they are.”

Rhys pulled out some small glass bottles and showed them off to us. Some of them were different shades, but all of them were either red or green.

“Are we supposed to know what those are?” Katie asked, “If I know my video games, the red ones are health?”

“Actually, right on the coin,” said Rhys, “The red potion is called Fettle’s Nectar, which can be rubbed on wounds to close them quickly, or you can drink it to heal internal injuries as well.”

“Healing potions, nice.” I said, taking two of the five Rhys had, while Katie took two. After that, Rhys showed us the green ones.

“These are Spellcaster’s Elixir,” said Rhys, “It enhances magic-making. How good are you two when it comes to your magic?”

“There is no magic where we come from,” said Katie, “So none at all.”

“Wait, really?!” said Rhys, going wide-eyed at the two of us, “How could you survive without any magic in your world?”

“We manage. So, could we even work with these things?” Katie asked, taking one of the Elixir’s and looking at it.

“Well, the only way to test it would be for you to drink it and try out a spell,” said Rhys, “Of course, since you just said there aren’t any spells in your world - still shocking to me - We’re gonna have to hold off on that.”

“Wait, you don’t you know any spells?” I asked, “Can’t you just teach one to us or something?”

“It doesn’t really work like that,” said Rhys as she helped Katie hop over some roots that we couldn’t see under the water, “Spell incantations can be taught, but for someone like me, they’re just second nature. I don’t remember any of the incantations off the top of my head.”

“What about Felice?” I asked.

“I don’t remember that many either,” said Felice, “The only incantation I’ve managed to remember is the soul-binding spell, and that’s because we’re going to need it.”

“Well, I’d rather not test that one,” I said, “Try to remember something we can test out. I’ll hold onto the Elixir in the meantime.”

“Go right ahead, I don’t need them anyway.” said Rhys as she handed me the green potions. I put the potions in one of the bags attached to the belt on my shirt, making sure they didn’t weigh me down too bad.

“So, where should we start looking?” Katie asked, “Do you think there’s any landmarks we could work with?”

“Possibly.” I said as I took out the map and unfolded it, pointing to something that I had noticed earlier, “The mark that indicates the temple - at least, we’re assuming this mark is the temple - is in an area that doesn’t seem to have much around it. So if the trees start thinning out, that means we’re on the right track?”

I noticed too late that I had phrased it like it was a question. Katie, Felice, and Rhys just shrugged at me in respond.

“Great guys, thanks for the help.” I said. We were now all fully in the swamp, complete with mud-water, low hanging moss and branches, and even the smell was swampy.

“Imagine falling over into the water,” said Katie, “That’d be such a mess.”

“Don’t even think about it!” said Rhys, noticing that Katie was sneaking up on her.

I laughed, but we all were silent immediately when there was a sudden snapping of branches. We all froze on the spot. Felice guided my hand to my sword, ready to throw down.

“Keep an eye out,” I whispered, “It could have just been some wild animal.”

“Or it might not have been.” Rhys whispered back as she seemed to get a little closer to me. She wasn’t helping, but before I could tell her to zip it, nearby bushes parted to reveal Kydro Crollet, the rose elf.

Rhys jumped behind me and pulled up the hood on the robe she was wearing, while Katie drew her dagger. I put a hand to my sword, ready to draw it as we stared the man down.

“How lucky for us that you would end up in my region, of all places.” said Kydro, speaking to us like we were old friends or something. The man was even standing casually, like he wasn’t going to try and kill us in a few seconds.

“Lucky?” I said.

“Of course,” said Kydro, “I see you put your hand on the sword you were gifted, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to use it. If you simply surrender, I’ll make this as quick as possible.”

“Not happening, buddy!” said Katie. She brandished her dagger while Felice started puppeting my body, pulling my sword and brandishing it as well, even posing for good measure.

“Ms. Newman, Ms. Menton,” said Kydro calmly, so casually, which was starting to irritate me, “You aren’t going to win in a fight against me, so why don’t you -“

“We don’t need to win,” said Katie, “We just need to get that damn jewel off your chest.”

Kydro’s eyes widened, for a brief moment, but it was long enough to confirm it for me; Kydro had a possession gem on him. Of course, that was only step one; the next step was pinning the rose elf down and ripping the thing off, a task much easier said than done, especially as I watched Kydro quickly return to his usual stoic nature.

“Unfortunately, I can’t allow you to do that.” said Kydro as he drew his own sword, made of some black material I couldn’t identify.

“I admire your tenacity, having made it this far,” said Kydro, “But your journey ends here. Goodbye, my dears.”

Kydro rushed us at inhuman speed. If it weren’t for Felice’s quicker-than-life reflexes forcing my arms to block his blow with our own sword, I would have been skewered immediately.

Kydro immediately stumbled back, probably because he didn’t expect me to be able to block him the way we did. Felice flourished the sword in my hand, then held it in front of us.

“You’ll have to try a little harder than that!” I said.

“Interesting.” Kydro said, returning to his usual stoic expression and voice, “I would never expect you to be a swordsman in your own right, Riley. This will be more difficult than I anticipated.”

“More like impossible for you!” said Katie, “Kick his ass, Riley!”

“Pin him down!” Rhys said.

“Easier said than done, I bet.” I whispered to myself and Felice, though Felice brandished our sword like she knew what she was doing, probably because she did. I was just along for the ride.

Kydro flipped his sword and raised his free hand as a ball of orange light appeared in his palm.

“That’s a firebolt!” Rhys called out, “Look out for that!”

Felice took her words to heart as we dodged the first shot Kydro fired at us, the bolt of fire hitting the water and disappearing in a cloud of steam. Another couple of shots were dodged easily, but then we tripped on something in the murky water I couldn’t see and fell to my knees.

“Argh!” I shrieked as Felice struggled to get us back up, but all we managed to do was turn around, just in time to see a firebolt being shot at my face. As I prepared to be toasted, a bolt of blue slammed into the firebolt just before it could hit me, causing both to disappear in steam.

Kydro seemed as shocked as I was as we turned to Rhys, who had both her hands outstretched with blue mist in her palms.

“Ice magic…” Kydro growled at her, “Rather powerful, if I do say so myself.”

Rhys said nothing, just kept her palms outstretched. Felice and I struggled back to my feet, and we kept our sword out as well. Rhys hurried to my side.

“Katie, stay back!” I said.

“Kick his ass!” Katie yelled as she rushed behind Rhys and I, keeping her dagger out, but also keeping some distance from all of us as she should. Rhys nodded to me.

“Two on one doesn’t seem that fair.” said Kydro, flipping his sword in his hand in a graceful manner.

“Sucks to be you, then.” I said as Felice brandished our sword and Rhys’s blue mist got bigger. Kydro furrowed his brow, but the time for conversation was over as he charged, sword ready to strike, shooting firebolts from the palm of his hand.

Felice responded, striking Kydro away as Rhys stopped his firebolts with her ice bolts before landing a shot on Kydro, knocking him back and allowing us to go in with a strike to his chest.

“ARGH!”

Kydro screamed as a spurt of blood came out of his shirt and the top few buttons fell, causing his shirt flaps to fall away, revealing the top of his chest. It was then that I saw it.

A blood-red gem was on Kydro’s green chest, roughly as big as my fist, and embedded within his skin, slightly enough that the gem was still mostly visible. Kydro looked down at the gem in shock, like it was his first time seeing it in a while, then looked back up at us.

Felice went in for another blow, but Kydro blocked it and, much to my shock, took off running further into the swamp.

“Hey!” I shouted as Rhys tried to fire some ice bolts at Kydro to slow him down, but they missed, hitting trees or the water instead. We took off after the man, but the knee-deep water slowed all of us down enough that the rose elf was out of sight within seconds.

“Damn it!” I yelled, “Get back here!”

No response, naturally. For a moment, we all stood where we were, comprehending what happened. Then Katie started whooping.

“We knocked him back!” Katie said, “We actually made him run like a pussy!”

“We still need to get that gem off his chest,” said Rhys, “The battle’s not over yet, Katie.”

“It’s a damn good first start!” said Katie, “Now he knows he can’t just come out and kill us easily! We proved we’re gonna be a good fight!”

“Is that really a good thing?” I asked, “After all, before we had the element of surprise, now it’s more likely they’re gonna see us coming.”

“Or plan a sneak attack.” said Rhys.

“You two need to lighten up!” said Katie, “We won a battle, that’s worth celebrating!”

“I’m gonna have to go with Katie on this one,” said Felice, “We have to take in the small victories, that way we don’t get disillusioned.”

“I guess,” I said, though I still wasn’t much in the mood for celebration, “Why don’t we find a place to bunker down when night comes? We don’t wanna be out in the open, especially in a swamp like this.”

“That I can agree with.” said Felice, “Sleeping out in the open like this isn’t just opening us up to any attacks - from either Kydro or a wild animal - but it’d be pretty easy to catch a disease!”

“Let’s keep going and see if we can find some kind of shelter,” I said as I fished the map out of my skirt’s pockets, “Do you think this killing ground has buildings of any kind?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Felice as we all crowded around the unfolded map in my hands, trying to see if there was anything that could indicate shelter in the swamp.

“Hey, we’re pretty close to the shore,” said Katie, “Maybe we should take a chance in swimming to mainland?”

“We don’t even know where mainland is,” I said, “We’d probably drown before we got anywhere, and that’s assuming there’s no guards that would kill us before we got anywhere.”

“Damn, good point.” said Katie, “Hey, what’s that?”

She pointed to a small dark spot on the map in the swamp.

“That doesn’t look too far from this area,” said Rhys, “We should head over there.”

“Are we sure that’s not just a stain?” I asked.

“You need to stop being so pessimistic,” said Katie, “We’ll figure something else out, even if this turns out to be a dud. We’re amazing!”

I had to give it to Katie; her confidence was contagious. I smiled at her and Rhys, and the three of us took off through the swamp in the direction Rhys was leading us.

“How do you know this place is nearby, anyway?” I asked.

“I know this island,” said Rhys, “On the off-season of the run, Mama and I would come here sometimes, since no one would be keeping an eye on anything. Sometimes, I’d go exploring through some of the regions. I think this spot might be… an abandoned church.”

“An abandoned church? In a swamp?” I said, “What, did other people live out here at one point? In a damp, muddy swamp? Why?”

“Hey, I’ve seen weirder things.” said Katie.

“Like what?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Honey, I’m from Florida,” said Katie, “I’ve seen odder things than that on a Tuesday.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

“What kind of place is Florida? And what’s a ’Tuesday’?” Rhys asked, looking a little bit horrified. I burst out laughing, while Katie just reassured Rhys that she “Would tell her later when they’re out of danger.” Which I imagined would be an odd conversation, but one I definitely wanted to listen in to.

The knee-length water sogging up our pants slowed us all down, but just as the lights of the sun was starting to go out, Rhys pointed out the edge of the building just ahead.

“How did you even see that?” Katie asked as we made our way to figure out how to get inside of the thing, “It’s getting so dark I can’t see anything!”

“My vision in the dark is slightly better than that of a human,” said Rhys, “Not by much, but this is definitely our shelter for the night.”

“Good to know.” said Katie, “I honestly forgot for a moment that you weren’t human, Rhys.”

“Is that a compliment or an insult?” Rhys asked.

“A compliment! Duh.” said Katie.

Rhys didn’t look convinced when I glanced back at her, just before I managed to find the entrance to the church and pulled the doors open.

“Does this count as a sanctuary so Kydro can’t come in?” Katie asked, “I mean, they are trying to kill us, so I’d expect them to look for any loopholes they can find.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” I said, “In the meantime, we can bunker down in here and come up with some plans.”

“Provided we can find an area here that’s dry.” said Katie, who had already gone inside the church with Rhys. When I went inside with them, I realized what she had meant; the inside of the church was half-submerged in water from the swamp, covering the whole floor. When I checked the pews, they were dry much to my relief.

“If you push some of these together, you can sleep on them…semi-comfortably.” Felice said. I jumped a little when she said that, since Felice had been quiet since the fight with Kydro. I noticed she looked - as much as a half-transparent ghost could look - kind of haunted, for lack of a better term, like something was really bothering her. Rhys and Katie didn’t say anything, so they either didn’t notice or they didn’t want to address it. In the meantime, I joined Katie and Rhys in getting the pews pushed together so we could lie down on them.

“This place looks half-submerged already,” said Katie, “How long do you think it’s been abandoned?”

“Looks like it’s been this way for a while with all this dust,” said Rhys, “Though something seems… off about it.”

“Off?” I asked, “What do you mean?”

“Like, check out that window!” said Rhys, pointing to a stained glass window above the front doors of the church. There was a shape on it, a circle with a star inside.

“What about it?” Katie asked.

“I remember that symbol, it’s the sign of Oktu,” said Rhys, “Mama has a medallion of it in her room. She once told me it was outdated well before she was born, like thirty years before.”

“Mama?” I said, wondering if she was talking about Tarja, since she used that name earlier, but Katie spoke over me.

“So this church has been here for… sixty years or so?” said Katie, “And?”

“Well, these pews are made out of wood, right?” said Rhys, “And there’s a thick layer of dust all over them, like they’ve been here for years, maybe even decades, probably more than sixty. But then, wouldn’t they have been eaten by bugs or something?”

“… You have a point.” I said, “Maybe there aren’t any wood-eating bugs in the swamp?”

“I doubt that,” said Katie, “Maybe they just keep maintenance for the aesthetic?”

“I didn’t understand half the words that just came out of your mouth.” said Rhys, nodding and smiling, “So I’m just going to assume you’re correct.”

I snorted at that one. Katie just rolled her eyes with a smile on her face, and we all settled down into the pews so we could get some rest.