Chapter 39 A Struggle of Break-Ins and Shadows
Em’s Subtitle: Doing Everything I Can to Win
Darkness enveloped Em. Rotten stench of sweaty orcs filled her nose, so she pulled Sasha’s borrowed face mask a little tighter over her face. Chucked her broken lock pick over her shoulder into the woods, she slipped through the side door into the Cursed-But-Once-Uncursed-Tower.
All sense of vision disappeared. She stumbled and felt her way through the pitch blackness, drowning deeper in the malice of the haunted fortress. Em clung to the dragon relic in her pocket for support.
This was it.
She was minutes away from completing her first questline as Main Character. After she killed Kriqir, she would redeem her world and name, and then she could go home.
As horrible as the experience had been at times, deep down inside, she knew she’d one hundred percent do it all again if given the opportunity. Her prophecy had brought her new friends, taught her to love herself, and opened her eyes to the harsh realities of Novella.
Em crept through the tower, searching for the staircase that wound up to Kriqir’s lair. She held her breath, carefully taking each step so her boot heels wouldn’t click on the stone floor. Her pulse throbbed in her ears, and nerve slumped in her throat, but she persisted.
No turning back now.
Something soft brushed her hand.
Em choked back her yelp, staggering away.
A hand grabbed hers.
“Sh, Em, don’t!” a voice whispered.
“Ming?”
“The very one,” she could hear the smile in her mentor-in-training’s voice.
“Thank Novella. What took you so long?” Em sighed, clinging to the Tiefling’s long fingers. Ming’s sharp fingernails poked into her palms, but she didn’t even care. Relief that she wasn’t alone in the darkness anymore settled her storm of worries.
“The fire-powder and phoenix ash were being tricky, but with a little extra devil’s dust, I was able to reconfigure the countdown for the distraction,” Ming explained. “Need a light potion?”
“I’ll take whatever’s dimmest and won’t wake any of the potential goblins or orcs lingering about,” Em said.
“Go it.”
Something cold and hard passed between their grasps, and Em fumbled to uncork the small flask before she swallowed the sticky-sweet liquid. A hum surged through her veins, and as she blinked, a dim red illumination flooded the vast entrance of the Cursed-But-Once-Uncursed-Tower.
Ming grinned at her from beneath her own hood and mask, a flyaway strand of indigo hair slipping free.
“How much time do we have until the explosion goes off?” Em asked.
“Sasha’s got another ten minutes of dancing before Polo gets the drinks flowing,” Ming whispered, following Em toward the staircase, waiting for them in the middle of the tower.
Cobwebs bobbed as they passed, and shadows curled away in reaction to Em’s low luminance.
“You sure you don’t want to bring Gair along as backup in case there’s more orcs than you predicted?” Ming asked.
“Best friends always die in the stereotypical climax,” Em wrinkled her nose.
“You really think Stephanie is going to do that to him?”
“I might have a deal struck with my Great Author, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust her,” Em said. “Especially after all the other shit that she’s put me through. Just because I get to determine how the story ends, it won’t result in everything going my way.”
“Fair enough,” Ming mused.
Fair enough.
“I bet she doesn’t trust you either with all this sneaking around and lying,” the mentor-in-training giggled.
I don’t.
“What about Roden?” Ming pushed.
“We will be fine without either love interest,” Em said, rolling her eyes even though Ming had taken up the flank. They began the antagonizing climb up the spiral stairs into the upper reaches of the tower. She clutched at the relic in her pocket again. “Brolzross’ stone is all I need.”
“I guess the armies would need protection in case Kriqir tries to retaliate against the siege,” Ming whispered between gasps.
A cramp was forming in Em’s side with each step she climbed further upward. The ascension alone might be more damn exhausting than her actual face-off against Kriqir when this was all said and done. Especially if everything went according to plan.
“That’s why I left Sasha behind, to command the soldiers, if need be,” Em wheezed.
“But like I’ve said a dozen times today: I don’t want an actual final battle.
I just want to slip in, create my own chaotic slam bang finish against Kriqir, then walk out unscathed.
Nobody but the damn necromancer needs to die. ”
“Then that’s what we’ll make happen,” Ming encouraged.
The girls fell into silence, gasping as they hiked up the stairs. Although she’d taken this route before to the necromancer’s lair, Em could’ve sworn the tower was growing taller with each passing second because nothing ever seemed to become closer the higher they climbed.
Her toe stubbed against the next step. The slam of leather on stone echoed into the dark heights overhead. Em gasped and caught herself on the handrail.
Shit.
The flutter of disturbed bats rose, and Em held out a hand to still Ming behind her. They paused, heart pounding in her ears, waiting to see if anything else in the Cursed-But-Once-Uncursed-Tower reacted to her clumsy mistake.
“Thought you could get away so quickly, huh, princess?” a voice cut through the tense silence.
Both girls yelped and whirled around to see a third, shadowy figure observing them a few steps down. A glint of pale shirtless chest and violet irises reflected in Em’s reddish glow. Two black bats’ wings folded behind a stack of tense, bulging muscles.
“Fuck, Roden, what the hell are you doing here?” Em swore.
The half-elf sniffed, pushing past Ming to face her. “You’re not as sneaky as you thought.”
“And you left us behind,” a fourth voice chimed in.
Em stood on her tiptoes to see Gair peering behind Roden’s broad form, draped in a cloak and mask matching hers. Her veins rushed with panic at the sight of his pearly grin and freckled cheeks.
“Shit, no… no.” Em tried to shove Roden away to reach Gair, but the half-elf just blocked her. “You can’t be here!”
“This is the most important, final step to the prophecy,” Roden said. “You think we’re going to sit by while our Almighty Queen of Stars, Princess of the White Rose Valley, and Heir to the Cursed-But-Once-Uncursed-Tower just sneaks off alone to kill Novella’s deadliest necromancer?”
“You’re going to die!” Em stomped her foot as she whisper-screamed at them. “The best friend always dies! You both need to be at camp to protect Sasha and Polo.”
“They’re fine without us,” Roden waved her concern away.
“I’d like to see Kriqir try and kill me,” Gair added with too much confidence for her liking.
“Anyone who goes up into that lair is a liability to Em,” Ming spoke up. “Or is just going to get in her way.”
“Then why are you here?” Gair retorted.
“Because I’m about to go set off a rather explosive distraction,” Ming said. “I’m just here to watch her back until we split.”
“Which won’t mean a damn thing if you don’t fucking shut up and leave before any of the orcs wake up!” Em snapped under her breath. “Get the fuck out of here. Both of you.”
“We’re here till the end, princess,” Roden said.
“And you can’t change our minds,” Gair added.
Her mind spun a thousand panicked responses and pleas.
If either love interest knew what she’d planned to do the moment she stepped foot in Kriqir’s lair, they might think she lied about her apologies to them after she returned Inky to Stephanie.
Their betrayed fury haunted the back of her memory.
She couldn’t risk them thinking she had lied.
It could ruin everything she’d planned for her final fight.
Em’s hand automatically clutched at the relic in her pocket again.
“We need to go back,” she said, squeezing between Roden, Ming, Gair, and the narrow stairs to flee. “This can’t happen like this.”
“Em, I don’t have time to reset the charges,” Ming’s tense whisper echoed behind her, stopping her in mid-escape. “It’s now or never. Especially if you don’t want anyone at camp to die.”
Shit. Em gritted her teeth, weighing the odds.
Why can’t anything in this shitty plot go my way, she thought to Stephanie.
Because that’s not how the real-world works. C’mon, you’re smarter than this; you can work this out. Just go with it.
Of course, Em never knew what the Great Author’s response was, just that she had two choices: flee now and succumb to an inevitable final battle with orcs and many dead Novella citizens or begrudgingly allow her love interests to shadow her in the initial plan and risk their potential betrayal.
And only one of the choices posed as an original end to her prophecy.
She gripped the relic in her pocket again.
“Fuck.”
“I’ll take that as a get to my post.” Ming whisked up the staircase, disappearing into the shadows beyond the reaches of Em’s red glow.
“It’s okay to accept help, princess,” Roden said.
“It’s not that…” Em cringed.
“We want to protect you, Em,” Gair whispered, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Please. Let us make sure Kriqir doesn’t hurt you…”
“Whatever happens,” Em cut him off, shooting both guys a sharp glare. “You must believe and trust me. No matter what I say or do, just assume I have everything under control.”
“Oh sure, because that’s how this quest has gone,” Roden growled.
“No, seriously.” Em balled her fists. “You have to do what I say. If you want to see this prophecy completed and to see me kill Kriqir, you cannot freak out when I use my secret weapon.”
Both raised their eyebrows.
“Secret weapon?” Gair’s eyes widened.
“I’ve already said too much.” Em held a hand up in warning. “Either you’re with me and trust my choices, or you go back to the camp to help Sasha protect the armies when Ming’s distraction goes off.”
“We’re with you, Em,” Gair said.
“To the end, princess.” Roden slapped his fist against his bare chest.
Em’s glow flickered slightly, the darkness of the tower swallowing them for half a second. “Shit, we’re running out of time.”
Without checking if Gair of Roden followed, she pushed all her energy into running up the stairs. The quiet fall of their boots told her they were close behind.
“You know where to go, right?” Roden’s voice asked a little too loudly for her liking.
“Shush,” she snapped. “And there are only two ways to go in a tower.”
“Which are?”
“Up and down, Roden Trislee,” she said, rolling her eyes even though he couldn’t see.
Gair snorted, and Em managed to crack a smile at the irony of it all.
“Em!” Roden’s shout cut through the silence. “Duck!”
Instantly, she dropped onto her knees, stone snagging on her skirts.
His brawny form shot over her head, and the whoosh of his wings swept the hood off her head, pulling her hair free.
A blood-curdling howl and moist snap echoed throughout the dark tower.
Metal armor clattered as a dead orc corpse rolled down the stairs.
It bumped into her, a splatter of black orc blood flicking across her face, and she screamed.
“Shit!”
Her glow spell flickered dark.
And a dozen orc torches lit along the staircase.