Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks to my editors Sylvidoll, Spookmeister, and to my buddy Mike!

A solitary cloud passed overhead, casting the area in eclipsing darkness. The atmosphere over the pond was fraught with tension as Shawn’s eyes took a few moments to adjust to the gloom beneath the trees. He could see the vague silhouette of a man that was only visible as a darker shadow woven into the night. Once the moon had freed itself, its pale rays illuminated the area in soft light. Shawn could now see the shadow was clutching at it’s thigh, the fletched end of an arrow protruding from the pierced limb. The head and shaft were buried deep in the body of the tree, along with two others that firmly pinned the shadows dark clothing to the trunk.

Denza shouldered her bow and drew out the climbing axe she wore looped through her belt. In a wordless howl she stalked forward, intent on finishing off their attacker. Shawn hastened between the hunter and her quarry. His newly found quickness of step managed to get him just close enough for him to grab Denza’s wrist as she brought the weapon down to strike the assailant. Her head whipped around, a vicious snarl ripping from her throat.

“Let me go!” Denza growled, tugging desperately to free herself. She was deceptively strong, and Shawn grunted with effort to keep her restrained.

Shawn sent his focus inward. He could see the source of the sudden outpouring of aggression. The link between them seemed to be acting like a separate entity, flowing heavily into Denza with a strange angry pulsating energy. He reached out along the Bond and took hold with a mental grip. The vibrations emanating from the link intensified as if it were trying to dislodge his hold on it.

“Denza,” Shawn cautioned in a low voice, “Calm down. I need you to come back to me.”

The resistance he felt finally relented and returned to a neutral flow between the two of them. The effect was almost immediate. Denza’s eyes cleared and she relaxed, the climbing axe falling from her trembling fingers.

“What just happened?” She asked shakily, looking perturbed.

“I’m not sure. It has to do with this thing between us, I think. That isn’t important now, let’s figure out why someone is trying to kill me, again,” Shawn sighed in exasperation, that makes three times in one day he was the object of someone’s ire.

Shawn grabbed the shadow by the hood and yanked it off, revealing a face very similar to Denza. High cheekbones, a slight upward slant to the eyes, with the same storm-gray coloration. The similarities stopped there. The attacker was male, and had short cropped silver hair that didn’t hide his long tapered ears. He had a stronger jawline and a hard intensity to his overall demeanor. His eyes glared at Shawn with an intense hatred that rivaled Denza’s when they had first met. She seemed to recognize the would be assassin, judging from her sharp intake of breath.

“Who are you and why are you trying to kill me?” Shawn asked.

The Elf assassin glared at him balefully before turning his gaze to Denza, looking at her closely, “What happened to you? Your hair and eyes are different.”

Denza looked away, holding herself. Their Bond radiated shame. She glanced at Shawn, then back to the Elf, “Quin, answer his question. why are you here?”

Quin grimaced, “Why am I here? Why are you here, Denza? With a human? I saw you kiss a human!” He turned his fury on Shawn, “What did you do to my sister?”

Shawn took a step back, reeling from the revelation, “Sister? I didn’t do anything to her!”

“Liar!” Quin snarled, straining against the arrows pinning him to the tree.

Denza shook her head, “He’s right, Quin. I attacked him and I lost. During the fight, somehow we ... we...” She swallowed hard, steeling herself. “Somehow we Bonded. You know about what changes the Bonding brings. I took on aspects of him, marking me as his. He adopted aspects of me too.”

“Aspects? What are you talking about?” Shawn’s confusion was obvious to the two.

Quin’s lips were still contorted into a snarl, and Denza had trouble looking him in the eye. She took Shawn by the hand and led him over to the pond. She knelt down and motioned for him to join her, and then gestured to their reflections.

“The Bond does more than link us together. It is a merging of souls. We have a little bit of each other inside of us now. My hair and eyes took on shades of green, the exact same shade of green as your eyes. In return, you’ve taken on a similar change. Look there,”

Shawn bent over the water and looked at himself. He couldn’t really make out any discernible changes. Another cloud drifted over the moon for a brief moment. When the light returned, Shawn noticed his black hair shimmered in the moonlight. He looked closer and saw strands of silver scattered amongst the raven. He glanced at his eyes and could just make out the starlight speckles of silver that made his eyes seem to sparkle.

“You weren’t kidding. If this situation wasn’t as messed up as it is, this would be kind of amazing,” Shawn said in wonder, running his fingers through his hair. He glanced at Denza kneeling beside him and saw the green flecks in her stormy eyes sparkle.

The world around him suddenly felt like it had finally settled, like his mind had fully accepted that he was now somewhere completely new. Magic was real. Not only had he used it himself, but it had fundamentally changed him on a physical and spiritual level. Shawn couldn’t help but feel a creeping sense of existential terror. This couldn’t even be considered culture shock. Everything he knew as fact may no longer hold true.

Shawn felt a firm hand on his shoulder. He blinked and glanced over at Denza. He could see the concern in her expression. The Bond was a two way street after all, “Sorry, I’m fine. Just ... this is a lot to take in.” He swallowed hard.

Denza smiled sadly, “Yes, I can imagine.”

It took Shawn a moment to realize that Denza was referring to the nature of the bond, not so much him feeling out of his depth with almost everything to do with this new world. He wondered how Cassidy was able to take everything in stride and resolved himself to ask about it when they could find time to be alone.

He stood up, glancing back at the angry Quin. “So that’s your brother?” He asked lamely.

“Yes,” Denza pinched the bridge of her nose, “I’ve only been away from home for a few weeks, I didn’t expect father to send him after me.”

“Well, you were hunting a really big wolf gifted with foresight. I would be worried too,” Shawn pulled out the Gem, its glow was muted and dull.

Denza led him back to Quin. The Elf’s hatred filled eyes never left Shawn, “Quin, tell father I was successful in my hunt. You are already going to tell him I’m Bonded to a human, but make sure you tell him I’m okay.”

Quin looked between the two of them, then his gaze settled back on Shawn, “You will release my sister, Human. Even if you don’t do it voluntarily, we will find a way. Mark my words.”

Shawn shook his head, “Quin, I want to. Believe me. I’ll say the same to you that I did to Denza. I don’t want her as a slave or anything like that. It was an accident. She is free to do what she wants. She said she wants to join the Expeditionary Guild, so we are going to help her. Denza said the Bond is permanent, so If you can find a way out of it, feel free to let me know.”

Quin ignored him, which was beginning to irk Shawn, and instead he spoke to Denza, “I will tell father of your plight. We will save you. I won’t lose another sibling.” His words were filled with conviction. Before they had time to reply, the moon was covered once more and he vanished as if the darkness swallowed him up.

Shawn let out a low whistle, “Alright, I have to admit, that was cool.”

Denza frowned at him, “This is serious, Shawn. That won’t be the last we see of my brother. If they can’t find a way to free me from this Bond, he will keep trying to kill you.”

The fatigue was catching back up to Shawn. He let out a tired yawn and started walking back to camp, “Not much I can do about that. Short of killing him, which I’m sure neither of us want, we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we go get some sleep.”

The pair walked back to camp in silence, deep in their own thoughts. They climbed in the tent to find a softly snoring Cassidy sprawled out under the fur blankets. Shawn shook his head and nudged her over. As soon as his head touched the ground Cassidy quickly entangled herself with him and sighed contentedly. Shawn’s eyes closed and sleep took him before he could see the wistful expression on Denza’s face next to him.

Shawn awoke just as the sunlight was breaking between the trees. He found himself nestled between two sleeping women. Cassidy’s limbs were twisted around him like arms of an octopus and Denza had rolled over in her sleep and had her face pressed into his shoulder, her fingers lightly touching his. He felt a sense of serenity fill him that was quickly followed by the guilt that had permeated his thoughts the previous night.

He looked at Denza’s lovely sculpted face and felt a surge of affection and desire. He could sense the Bond thrumming happily and Denza’s unconscious form shifted closer to him, her fingers sliding into his. Shawn’s gut felt like a chunk of glacial ice had settled in it. He gently extricated himself from between the two of them. Cassidy proved to be a challenge, as she actively resisted his attempts to unwind her from around him.

Shawn quickly dressed himself and walked back to the pond they had visited the previous night. He looked at his reflection once more and tried to make sense of his conflicting emotions. The nervous, frozen feeling in his stomach reminded him that he had effectively cheated on his girlfriend. He had kissed another woman, and found himself enjoying it immensely. He was scared at how quickly he seemed to have forgotten her.

Shawn felt the betrayal rise up in his throat, the acidic bile of his infidelity burning him from the inside out. He could feel is extremities shaking, and fell to his knees. His reflection wasn’t even him anymore. It was someone else, someone stronger, faster, and all together more fantastic than he could ever hope to be. His attraction to Cassidy he could rationalize. They were so close, two halves to a whole. They would never be romantic, his love for her was immortal and altogether different.

His love for Guinevere, for Jenny, was one that made him feel complete. It filled the gaps in his existence. They had been together for years and had beaten adversity. How had he repaid that? Not even a full day into this new world and all of that was almost thrown away, eclipsed by Denza’s wild beauty. Her intoxicating smell, the taste of her lips, and the sense of ownership he had over her. All of that combined together in a cocktail of temptation that was almost too alluring to resist.

Ownership?

He didn’t want to own her. He never had the desire to own her. He abhorred slavery. Yet ... there she was. She was his. He owned the soul of another creature and he liked it. It made him feel powerful. He could command her to do anything and she would obey.

No. no. no.

His stomach churned and he wretched into the water. This was wrong. This wasn’t him. Why was he thinking like this...

He turned his mind to the Bond. He could feel the connection flowing heavily into him, filling him with these malignant desires. His attraction to Denza was real, that much he knew. The rest of his feelings were ... artificial. He remembered that she had said the Bond was something bred into her species. This was some sort of magic.

He reached out to feel the Bond more deeply. It felt alive, like it had a will of its own, albeit weak. Shawn could now feel the influence it was trying to exert on him. It felt like sticky sap that would congeal and harden into amber. He exerted his will to cinch off the flow like a tourniquet. The resulting sensation was like trying to stem the flow of a garden hose with the spicket open fully. Now that he was aware of its influence, Shawn felt the influence lessen even more as if it was trying to shrink away from his gaze.

“What’s wrong, Shawn?” Cassidy’s voice asked quietly from behind him. He had been so caught up inside himself that he hadn’t heard her approach. She crouched down next to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

Shawn’s trembling subsided and he took a shaky breath, “Too many things, Cass.”

Cassidy rested her head in the crook of his neck, “Talk to me. I can’t help you if you shut me out. Denza filled me in on what happened last night, but she wasn’t very forthcoming on details.”

He closed his eyes, struggling to keep his emotions in check, “When I was with her last night, we kissed. We kissed and I liked it, a little too much. I didn’t even think about Jenny until my brain finally realized what I was doing. How could I do that to her?

Then there was a whole thing when her brother showed up and tried to kill me, because I’m Bonded to Denza. Not to mention the fact the Bond is influencing me to accept this whole thing in the first place. It wants me to actually enjoy owning her, to make her my plaything. To top it all off, it’s changed me. I have silver in my hair now! I guess it finally sunk in that this is our new reality.”

Cassidy was quiet for a while before she spoke, “Well, the silver looks kinda sexy.” She giggled, then continued, “Don’t beat yourself up about Jenny. You love her. You always will. But you need to look at your situation as it is. You’re stuck here for a good long while, which I totally accept the blame for. I’m selfish for forcing you to come along. If Jenny wants to blame someone, I’ll take the fall.

You are in a world that doesn’t even exist in the same dimension or, whatever, as Earth. I’m pretty sure in the grand karamatic scheme of things, you’re off the hook. We have new lives to live, and you’ll get Jenny back after you’re done. Think of it like one very long dream, no harm, no foul. If you fuck the sexy Elf from another dimension in a body that didn’t even exist twenty-four hours ago, are you really cheating? Isn’t it the same as having a fantasy about someone else, in a roundabout way? I know you jacked it to porn, so it’s the same concept.”

Shawn couldn’t help but laugh, “There is such a thing as emotional fidelity, Cass.”

Cassidy shrugged, “If you actually died, would you want Jenny to never love again for the rest of her life?”

“No, of course not. But this isn’t the same,” Shawn shook his head.

“I call bullshit. It’s exactly the same. The only difference is I’m the one dying and you are just along for the ride. It’s like, the same situation except you are only temporarily ‘dead’. The cosmic force of entropy, our friend with the black robe and scythe, Death, literally said this is a new life. That means blank slate, right? You are totally in the clear!” Cassidy grinned triumphantly.

Shawn bumped his head against hers, “It isn’t that simple, Cass. While your logic may be sound, remember that people’s feelings don’t always adhere to logic. Thanks for that, though. I do feel a bit better.”

Cassidy placed her hands on his cheeks, bringing their eyes level, “Listen, Shawn, you are stuck here for what is probably going to be decades. That’s a long time to be alone. We have each other, but that’s not always going to be enough. I’ve never felt the need to fall in love, but you do. I also know you have room in your heart for more than just me, Jenny, and your family. Denza is a prime example. You already feel something for her, I can see it in your newly chromed eyes.” She winked, “ I’m not saying go knock her up and settle down, but you are allowed to play the field now. Sure, it’s only been a day, but this is an adventure. This is going to be my dream come true, so I suggest you start dreaming too, ‘cause this is the place to do it! Hell, we have a recurring villain and it’s only day two!”

Shawn couldn’t help but chortle at her enthusiasm. He felt comforted by her words. The ache of missing Jenny had only just started at that realization, but the perspective helped numb it. He would have to see what the future had in store, but he knew it was still too soon for anything else, “Thanks. I mean it.”

“Good talk?” Cassidy asked.

“Good talk,” Shawn grinned.

“Sweet. We are burning daylight and we have a tomb to raid!” Cassidy stood up and marched off.

When they got back to camp they found that Denza had already stripped everything down and had packed up. Shawn ended up being the pack mule carrying the camping gear and the makeshift pack comprised of cloaks from the Expeditionaries that held their armor. The trio set off with Denza in the lead. She informed them that it would take them three days to reach the tomb on foot, so it was going to be a long hike. Cassidy and Shawn didn’t mind, their bodies seemed to be well acclimated to that level of exertion.

To pass the time, Cassidy questioned Denza about various aspects of her life which were met with clipped or muted responses. Shawn finally took pity on the Elf and started a new line of questions.

“You mentioned this tomb was well known and avoided, why is that?” Shawn asked.

“The tomb was found about twenty years ago when a large rock slide occurred. Someone came across the entrance and reported it to the guild. At first it was a simple expedition contract, but when the team that was sent to investigate never returned they reclassified it. Over the years foolhardy groups of apprentice and journeymen Expeditionary members tried and failed. The few that were lucky enough to be resurrected spoke of insidious traps, illusions, and undead monsters. Soon the contract was set to a master level, but nobody ever seemed interested enough to take it for the reward offered,” Denza paused at the top of a ridge they had been hiking up, “The rest of the way is downhill, so watch your step on the loose rocks.”

“What’s this about resurrection?” Cassidy’s ears had perked up at the mention.

Denza looked out at the vista and pursed her lips, “There are certain places in the world that one can entreat the Gods for the return of a departed soul, or those practitioners of said devines. If you have the vessel, it can be refilled, That is if the soul in question is strong enough.”

“So I’m going to go out on a limb and say that normal folk wouldn’t count?” Shawn asked.

“It depends. If the soul is strong enough, it can be returned. The strength of one’s soul depends on the person in question and the life they have lived. Those that are elderly, weak, or infirmed would most likely not be able to survive the trip from the otherside. There is also a cost. The more vibrant the soul, the more the cost of being returned. Many speak of lost memories and knowledge, mostly affecting those people in the higher echelon of beings like master rank expeditionaries of naturally talented practitioners.” Denza looked back at her companions, “We would all likely survive being brought back at least once. If you are intrigued at the notion, I would suggest you speak to a priest.”

Cassidy waited for Denza to begin her descent before sidling up to Shawn, “Well, that answers that question. It’s good to know we have some leeway, but let’s try to not die at all.”

Shawn’s eyebrows shot up, “I was going to try and not die purely on principle, the fuck were you planning on doing?”

Cassidy stuck her tongue out, “You know what I mean.”

They carefully made their way down the opposite side of the ridge in relative silence. Cassidy then brought up a question Shawn had thought of, but never asked, “Denza, why do you want to join the Expeditionary Guild if you hate Humans so much?”

Denza stopped to look back at her and Shawn. She frowned, “The guild isn’t just humans. Velain has its own branches of the guild as well. The guilds in general operate on an international level, as a separate entity away from any one government. The Merchant’s Guild operates in a similar fashion to the Expeditionary Guild, except they focus more on business and commerce. They enforce the trade rules agreed upon by the triumvirate and act as a banking system.”

“Awesome. Hiking, Economics, and Government, three of my favorite things,” Cassidy muttered dryly.

Denza looked to Shawn before she sighed, and said in a resigned tone, “I want to join the Expeditionary Guild because I need to find my sisters.”

Shawn and Cassidy were taken aback. Shawn figured she was talking more to him than Cassidy, the Bond told him she was uncomfortable talking about the subject but felt some level of obligation to tell him.

“What happened to them?” Shawn asked.

Denza locked eyes with him, and he could feel her despair and anger, “They were captured and taken as slaves by the Imperium. Even with Quin’s help I could only track them so far. I’m hoping that once I join the guild I can access information I couldn’t before, that’s why I need to join. Someone took a contract out on the caravan they were traveling with, and I need to find out who.”

“That is a pretty good reason to hate Humans,” Cassidy admitted.

“Hate runs deep when our races have been shedding each other’s blood since before written history,” Denza said bitterly.

Cassidy and Shawn had little to add to such a statement, so they chose to let the questions rest for the time being. The air between themselves and the Elf had grown tense and uncomfortable and didn’t clear up until their journey ended.

They reached the eastern edge of the forest by nightfall on the third day. The trio quietly made camp with Denza electing to sleep out in the open. Shawn couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Elf. He could see how the events over the past few days from her point of view would be pretty dismal. Cassidy agreed with him when he suggested they give her space.

They didn’t break camp in the morning, instead deciding to hike the remaining few miles with a light load so they weren’t encumbered with extra weight while they ventured into potentially hostile territory. Cassidy convinced Shawn to put on Cadder’s armor, despite the fact that it was ill-fitting. The heavy scaled armor slowed him down a small degree, but Cassidy argued it was a small sacrifice to be made.

She herself wore a set of thick leather armor that made her resemble an amorphous brown bundle of hide, seeing how the armor was made for a man a head taller and wider than she was. Denza warned her that her latent energy absorption would be slower, but Cassidy said again the sacrifice was worth the extra protection. The Elf recommended that Cassidy use a staff or wand to cast her magic instead of her bare hands, quoting energy efficiency.

It was a surreal experience for Shawn to listen to a discussion of energy ratios and magic as something akin to a law of science, and not just numbers and statistics on a monitor. There was no ‘+5 Magic’ or even character stats. It reminded him of chemists discussing the energy consumption of a reaction between compounds before and after a catalyst was added into the mix.

Shawn did ask Denza how she knew so much about the use of energy and magic, to which she said it was common knowledge. He shared an incredulous look with Cassidy who just shook her head in amusement.

The sky was overcast when the mountain side came into view. Any trails leading into the range itself had been demolished when a large section of the slope had collapsed and a rocky avalanche buried a good portion of forest under tons of stone. The footing that lead up to the tomb entrance was treacherous and riddled with loose rocks, hidden chasms, and pitfalls that threatened to swallow them whole.

The air seemed to grow frigid the closer they got. Cassidy shivered and rubbed her arms, “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it isn’t natural to have such a rapid temperature drop.”

“Naturally, no,” Denza muttered distractedly. She seemed to grow more skittish the closer they got to the tomb.

The mountainside mausoleum came into view when the temperature had dropped abruptly. Shawn estimated they still have five hundred or so feet left to clamber up the uneven slope to reach it. Much like the Bond had done originally, something nagged at him. When he focused on that feeling, a wave of wrongness washed over him. It wasn’t just that the area was colder, but that there was absolutely no life or natural energy left.

“It’s like a vacuum,” Cassidy said in fascination.

He glanced at her. She was the more magically sensitive of the group if her vocation said anything despite Shawn sharing it, and Denza didn’t seem to have noticed the glaring lack of life energy, or any energy for that matter. Something in Shawn’s gut told him to leave. This wasn’t a place that welcomed intrusions. He needed to turn back now.

Shawn fought back the mounting dread, choosing the focus on their task at hand. They needed Proofs. Denza needed one to further her own goals to find her siblings. Cassidy wanted adventure, and deep down he had to admit he felt a thrill of excitement. He glanced at Cassidy who was staring at the white marble building embedded in the mountain with an almost hungry expression. Their eyes met and she smiled with barely controlled glee.

“This is going to be so much fun!” Cassidy crowed, bounding up the foreboding structure.

Denza looked back at Shawn with exasperation, “Is getting killed her goal? We have no idea what’s up there!”

Shawn increased his pace and grumbled, “That’s Cassidy for you. Caution isn’t in her vocabulary. Neither is ‘slow down’, ‘take it easy’, or ‘that isn’t a good idea’.”

The Elf watched Cassidy skip by with her mouth open, “That’s completely asinine. How has she survived?”

“I ask myself that question every day,” Shawn replied.

The context was different, but Cassidy never did things halfway. Once she set her mind to something, she saw it through to the end. One of the most memorable examples was the viral milk jug challenge, to drink a gallon of milk in one hour. How that girl fit an entire gallon of milk in her stomach, the doctors were probably still trying to find out. It was also the day they found out that she had become lactose intolerant. That had been a very uncomfortable time in her life.

Cassidy had disappeared into the mausoleum when Denza and Shawn had reached the top of the landslide. The air of foreboding was stronger but at least the temperature didn’t drop anymore. Shawn’s breathe misted in the air as he looked around the large atrium.

The six pillars that towered above them seemed to merge seamlessly into connecting arches that met in the center of the ceiling. Below the structural focal point rested a solitary bronze cauldron set into the cracked floor. Six channels were cut into the ground that led to six corresponding statues that were sculpted to resemble a figure in a mask and robe in different poses.

“Do these statues mean anything to you?” Shawn asked Denza.

The Elf looked closely at the one nearest here and shrugged, “I don’t know who they are depicting, or what they are doing. Archeology isn’t my forte.”

“They are representing the six schools of magic,” Cassidy said slowly as if she were remembering a long forgotten memory. “Elemental, Alchemical, Arcane, Conjuration, Alteration, and Divine. There are synonyms for each one, but the core concepts are the same. Divine magic doesn’t necessarily mean calling upon divinity to cast spells, it’s more of how the magic acts upon the different planes.”

The words struck a chord of fundamental truth in Shawn’s mind. Since Death had given him a second Vocation in Acolyte, he supposed there had been a modicum of knowledge ingrained in him. He had used magic after all. He hopped that if they survived this and found their way to the nearest town he could finally get some explanations to this whole system. Denza could probably explain it to some degree, but she wasn’t part of it herself yet.

Shawn took a moment to take in the room. It was old, but he couldn’t put a finger on how much since it was open to the elements and he didn’t have access to carbon dating. He guessed it was at least a century old and that was just a ballpark hunch. The atrium itself showed signs of being ransacked. Broken pottery littered the floor along with tipped over braziers lying forlornly on their sides. A pile of rubble at the rear of the mausoleum marked a partially collapsed wall that revealed darkness beyond.

Shawn made his way over and stuck his head through the gap in the wall. He could barely make out a set of stairs leading down into the gloom. He turned and called back to the others, “Anyone got a torch or a light of some kind? I found the way down.”

“I don’t have any. I had no need for any while I was hunting,” Denza said.

“Nope, I got nothin’,” Cassidy hefted her pack. “It’s an old tomb, there has to be something somewhere. If a bunch of Expeditionaries died down there, their stuff should still be here, right? So let’s just go find them.”

Shawn shook his head. Yes, exploring the ancient tomb in the dark. What a perfect idea. Nothing could possibly go wrong. The stairwell was only wide enough for one person at a time. It was quickly voted that Shawn go first.