Chapter Eight
We reach the entrance to the labyrinth in Pylos after another week and a half. Nestled between an ugly crag of a mountain, its stone door is so far removed from the main road that no one in their right mind would ever come across it on their own.
Even before Invictis fucked everything up, Laconia was a dangerous kingdom, with giant beasts ready to take a bite off you. People who traveled between the capital city and Pylos, Acadia, and Magnysia always took the main roads and, from what I understand, always traveled in caravans.
“Amazing,” Frederick mutters as we approach the giant stone door. The labyrinth seems to have been built inside the foot of one of Pylos’s many mountains; who knows how large it’ll be inside. The mountain itself is huge. “There are no records of these labyrinths anywhere in Laconia.”
The stone door is triple as tall as Invictis. Plain, nothing inscribed on the stone. I tell Frederick, “The empresses knew. They passed the knowledge down with their memories. If they would’ve told anyone… it would’ve been a risk.”
“And yet, somehow, agents from another kingdom still discovered them,” Frederick says. “I do wonder how people from another kingdom knew while us Laconians were kept in the dark. Such a thing doesn’t seem possible, does it?”
“It is weird,” I agree, but unless we raise the freaking dead, there’s no way to ask the assholes who unleashed Invictis twenty years ago. I gesture for Invictis to open the door. “Be a doll and get the door for us, buddy.”
The growl Invictis lets out when I say that is record-setting. I can practically feel him seething as he stalks toward the door with a hard frown on his face. What might be difficult for Frederick and me is an easy job for him, even though he’s being a little bitch about it. He pushes open the door, and inside, we see a long, dark hall continuing into the depths of the mountain.
“Can you light up the path for us, too?” I ask with a smile, taking way too much enjoyment out of pissing him off.
Hey, it ain’t like I can light up the way. It’s him or me, and right now it’s gotta be him.
Invictis groans again, but he does as he’s told. He lifts a single finger, and simultaneously magical balls of yellow light appear on either side of the hall, lighting the entryway section by section.
“Ah, that’s handy,” Frederick states, earning himself a hard glare from Invictis.
“Let’s do this thing.” I push past the guys and walk into the labyrinth. I thought, back when Invictis was Rune, that I took shelter in one of these one night, but it had to be some other old ruin.
This place feels different. It feels ancient, eerie, like it doesn’t want anyone inside it.
Like it’s alive.
Frederick and Invictis are behind me as we traverse deeper into the labyrinth. We’re about fifty feet in when the sound of the outside door closing on its own echoes in the stale air, and I nearly jump out of my skin.
This place… I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.
Tiny balls of golden light hover like torches all the way down the hall. The hall must be half a mile or more; it’s the longest goddamned hall I’ve ever seen. At the end of the hall, we reach a door similar to the one that separates this place from the outside world—however, this one is different in that it has words etched into its stone face.
Words and an image.
“To those who must enter, a trial you must face,” Frederick whispers. “It’s in ancient Laconian. I’m fairly certain that’s what it says.”
As he speaks, I can’t look away from the image below the words. Time has made the etching not as sharp, but even so, I can tell it looks like a damned monster. Fuck me. Are we going to have to fight that thing in order to get to the depths of the labyrinth? Just my luck.
“Interesting. It seems to be some kind of guardian meant to keep most people out,” Frederick explains. “It didn’t work twenty years ago, though. Perhaps they defeated the guardian and we’ll find nothing but a skeleton.” The hope in his tone is cute but pointless; if it’s a magical guardian, there’s no way it’s dead.
There’s only one way to find out. We came all this way, so we’re going in.
I go for the doors, using all of my body to push them open. Look at me, practically running headfirst into danger even though I don’t have any magic to speak of right now. If the guardian is still around…
One thing at a time.
It’s a strange thing, walking out of a narrow hall and stepping into what’s basically an underground colosseum. As Invictis and Frederick step inside behind me, Invictis lights up the arena with his magic, more golden balls of light floating around the circular area. Bigger than a football stadium, built underneath a mountain; I can’t imagine the power creating something like this took. The first high empress really was the OG.
Nothing but dirt so fine it’s like sand on the ground, the stone walls of the mountain surrounding us on all sides and above our heads. We see nothing; no skeletons, no great beast. It’s a large, empty space.
“Well, it seems we are in luck.” No sooner does Frederick say that that the ground starts to tremble beneath our feet. When I glare at Frederick, wordlessly thanking him for jinxing us, he gives me a sheepish look and a nervous laugh. “I’ll, uh, stay back and let you two handle it.” He does pull out his dagger though, just in case.
Invictis and I step forward. The ground shifts, and suddenly something long and slithery erupts from the ground, letting out an otherworldly shriek that makes my ears want to bleed. It pulls itself up, from the dirt, and stretches its body to its full length.
Holy shit. It’s fucking huge.
A snake mixed with a lion. That’s the best way I can describe it. It has a lion’s head, a lion’s strong legs and claws, but the long, thin body of a snake. From head to tail, it’s got to be at least two or three hundred feet long, and when it stands tall, it must be fifty or more feet taller than me.
And, add onto that, it’s made of magic. Its form is ethereal, like it’s not truly here, not a solid creature. Its body shimmers in and out of existence, and yet when it growls and snarls, the sound is so very real.
It might be made out of magic, but I don’t doubt it can pack a punch. A thing like that can easily kill a dozen or more normal soldiers. For the ones who unleashed Invictis twenty years ago, they must’ve thrown everything they had at this magical creature to get past it.
“Holy shit,” I whisper, and right when the words leave my mouth, the magical beast launches itself at Invictis and me. Invictis flashes away, reappearing a good twenty feet to the left, but my reflexes aren’t as good now that I don’t have any magic behind them. I narrowly avoid its first attack by jumping backward, but it’s not far enough.
The half-snake, half-lion creature swipes a claw at me moments after I dodge its first attack. I’m too slow, and with no magic to shield me, its claws find their mark. Two of them dig into my side and scratch the fuck out of my arm.
As hot, searing pain engulfs me, I hear Frederick yell my name. The creature curls around, swinging its long tail in my direction, and before I know it, I’m swatted aside like an insect. I fly through the air a good twenty or thirty feet and land with a thud.
I try to get up, but my side hurts too damn much. I’m not steady on my feet. I fall back down, and the creature is readying another attack—this one an attack I can in no way evade. I set a hand on one of the wounds in my side and close my eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
But the inevitable doesn’t come, because Mr. Inevitable himself flashes between the creature and me and throws up a golden, shimmering, semi-translucent shield to protect me. The creature is pushed back the moment it connects with the shield.
I’m on my knees, already feeling weak and woozy.
Shit. Guess this wasn’t a good idea after all, huh?
Frederick races over while the creature is recoiling from the sudden shield, and once he reaches me, he drops his dagger into the dirt, a look of pure worry on his face. “Rey, what—” He touches my side, just for a split second, and his hand comes away bloody.
Yeah, those claws are fucking sharp. I don’t know how deep the wounds are, but the way my body is on fire, I’d say they’re pretty deep.
Invictis glances at me over his shoulder, still holding up the magical shield. I can’t read his expression, because everything’s getting a little blurry around the edges, but I can tell he’s waiting for something.
So I give him what he’s waiting for. I tell him, “Kick that thing’s ass.” I swear, before he turns to face the creature again, I see him smirk, like he’s going to enjoy this.
And he does. He doesn’t transform into his ascended, eight-foot-tall, six-winged form, but he doesn’t need to. Invictis is free to use any of his magic to defeat that thing, and honestly, even with Frederick fretting over me and my injuries like a mother hen, I can’t take my eyes off him.
He’s here, then he’s there. He flits around, golden light following him anywhere he goes. Spears of light, spheres of molten gold; he launches everything he can at the magical creature, overpowering it by sheer force in mere moments. It’s the opposite of a fair fight, and it just proves once again how strong he is.
Invictis really is the inevitable, isn’t he? He may be a god, he may not be; either way, he’s a weapon of absolute destruction and he is in his element when he is destroying something.
“Why didn’t you use your magic?” Frederick is busy asking me, though I can hardly hear him, too busy watching Invictis take care of the giant creature. “These wounds are bad, Rey. You’re losing a lot of blood. I need to make a tourniquet. Here.” He takes my hand and holds it firmer over one of the punctures in my side. “Keep pressure on it.” He then starts to dig inside his bag.
I don’t answer him. I can’t. Mostly because I’m getting lightheaded, and also because I can’t stop watching Invictis.
Now that he’s not fighting me, I can appreciate just how beautiful he can be when he’s giving the battle everything he has. The tattoos on his arm glow a glittery gold, and I’m pretty sure I see the markings on my arm doing the same, but I can’t be sure. He is destruction personified. How in the world could I ever believe something like him could change?
This is what he is. This is what he does. He fights and he wins.
Am I only delaying the inevitable by binding him to me? Is Laconia not safe after all?
The creature, as incredible as it is, is overpowered by Invictis. Invictis’s golden light comes from all angles, surrounding the magical creature, and that light shifts into a hundred blades. They launch themselves at the creature all at once, digging themselves into its flesh, in its body, in its legs, in its head.
And just like that, the creature dies—although it vanishes before its large body collapses onto the dirt. Within seconds, it’s as if it was never there to begin with.
Invictis is on my other side within another second, kneeling down and reaching for me, but Frederick stops him. “Whoa. What do you think you’re doing? I’m making a tourniquet, and then—”
My fingertips are cold all of a sudden, and it’s hard for me to speak, but I manage to whisper, “He can heal me, Frederick.” My lips feel cold, too, like the blood that should be in my fingers and my lips all raced down to the wound to spill out.
Frederick says not a word as he moves back and gives us space. Invictis kneels on the opposite side of the wounds, so he has to lean over me to get to them. I stop applying pressure to my side and let him pull my shirt up to expose the wounds. The only reason I don’t fall back due to a lack of strength is because his left arm curled around me to hold me up.
I hold my breath when I feel Invictis’s hand curl around my side, touching me right where the wound is. If I wasn’t so cold, it probably would’ve hurt, but as it is, I think I’ve lost too much blood and went numb.
The tattoos we share glow when he heals me, and I swear to God I can feel the skin on my side stitch itself back together. I may have fast healing thanks to being an empress, but you can’t beat this. This is instantaneous.
Once the biggest puncture hole is healed, his hand moves to the next, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I feel his magic fix me. Of course, it can’t fix the amount of blood I lost already, but that’s okay. At least I’m not going to die here.
I meet Invictis’s gaze and find that it’s blue color was replaced by a glowing, molten gold. An unnatural set of eyes, and yet it’s just his true self peeking through his human mask. His golden eyes are reminiscent of his other form, shimmery and ethereal, like the color moves around his irises.
“Thank you,” I whisper once the wounds are all healed. I’m caught by those golden eyes. I can’t look away; it’s physically impossible.
Invictis doesn’t pull away from me. His hands still rest on my side and my back, our shared tattoo glowing in a similar way to his eyes. “I didn’t have a choice,” he mutters with a slight frown.
But he did. I said he could heal me. I didn’t order him to. Granted, the end result would have been the same, but he chose to do it before the command came and he was forced to. And beyond that, it’s not the first time he’s healed me—the first time he did so all on his own, right after he…
After he killed my mom.
Invictis pulls away from me after that, giving his back to me as Frederick helps me fix my shirt and lets me lean on him as we get to our feet. I’m still a bit woozy; a glance at the ground where I was shows just how much blood I lost. That fucking beast got me good.
“You need to rest,” Frederick advises me, the only reason I’m staying upright and not wobbling back and forth. “You lost a lot of blood, Rey.”
“I can rest after we see what’s on the other side of this arena,” I tell him. My fingertips are still numb, but the feeling is coming back to my lips, so that’s a good sign. Once we’re out of this stupid labyrinth I’ll rest a bit, but for now, we push on ahead.
On the other side of the arena, another door sits. This door was closed before, but when the creature fell to Invictis, it opened on its own, magically, like the death of the creature was its key. I have to use Frederick for support as we walk, but he doesn’t seem to mind. I have the feeling my lack of magic use will be brought up again… and I’ll have to tell him the truth.
Past that door is another long hall, although it’s not as long as the entry hall. Invictis lights the way with his magic, and soon enough we enter the room the hall leads to. A smaller, circular room that, square-footage-wise, is probably as big as the apartment I had above Frank’s bar. Not large at all, but apparently big enough for a piece of Invictis.
In the center of the room is a box. That box rests comfortably on a stone altar, faded etchings on the stone around it. A gilded silver color, the box appears almost alien, like no metalworker could have created it, way too perfect of a square.
I lean on the altar instead of Frederick so he can study the room. As I study that box, I hear Frederick say, “Incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this. These etchings…” He touches the inscribed words on the altar. “They’re not old Laconian. It’s another language. I don’t know what it says. Do you?”
Whether he’s asking me or Invictis doesn’t matter. I can’t read it, and Invictis just shrugs.
“It almost looks like it’s incomplete.” He reaches into his bag and pulls out a blank journal and some charcoal. “I need to take an etching. Rey, you should sit down.”
I should. I can’t feel my feet. But I can’t pull away from the box. My mind can’t wrap around the fact that a part of Invictis was inside that box twenty years ago. I can’t grasp it. It seems insane to me to think about the first high empress facing him on her own and separating him into three pieces, creating these boxes and these labyrinths and locking him away—and not only that, but placing a spell on him that, if he’s ever awoken, he would have to bend to the will of those that brought him out of his slumber.
The first empress was the most powerful out of them all. Pit her against any of her successors, and it’d be no contest. I thought I was pretty badass with the magic, but after binding Invictis to me, it’s like all my magic is gone.
How am I supposed to live up to the first high empress? Laconia deserves better.
My fingertips brush against the closest edge of the box, and just like that, the lights go out. I pass out.