Chapter 3.16 — Divide and Conquer

Though life tests us all, some of us are tested more than others. I was there to witness one of the hardest moments of Queen Treya’s life. Somehow, in spite of that tragedy, she maintained an aura of grace and peace that seemed to follow her throughout life. How is it that some people can just keep going after that kind of pain? Where does that strength come from?
 
Until I left Xarinos as the Undead Queen’s Emissary, I hadn’t really been tested. That might seem odd, considering at some point I obviously died, but dying doesn’t require much focus, and rebirth isn’t a curse or a burden, it’s just an option most people don’t have available, though I’d be surprised if most wouldn’t choose it.
 
This is the first time in my life I’ve been required to do something world changing, and I’m not sure I’m up for it. I keep asking myself, what would Queen Treya do?

 

                                                                                                    Excerpt from the Journal of the Emissary

 

Fourth of Striving 1142, Morning (Three days ago)

Maynor approached the metal plate, which was the exact size and shape of a door—the only feature in a room that was otherwise a stone box. It looked ordinary enough, but as he drew closer, he could feel the heat coming off it. He slowed and glanced at Merck, who didn’t seem affected at all.
 
“You okay?”
 
Merck looked surprised. “I’m the same as I was before we walked twenty feet, so yes. Why do you ask?”

“Do you feel the heat?” 

“What heat?” 

Well that answered that. “It’s coming from that plate. It’s…overwhelming. I’m going to approach, but stay behind me.”
 
Merck shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

Maynor drew closer, until he could barely stand. “I have no idea how to get this thing open, or if it’s even meant to be opened.”
 
Merck stepped beside him. “I still don’t feel anything. Maybe I should…”
 
Before Maynor could say anything, the priest of a nameless god reached out and touched the door.
 
Maynor wanted to shout at him, but it was too late. The door shimmered and faded, gone as if it had never been there, revealing the room beyond, and particularly the huge wall of flame about ten feet back that obscured what was in it. He forced himself closer, watching as Merck peered curiously into the room. Yet when he reached the hole left by the door, there wasn’t much to see. The flame wall stretched across the entire room, leaving only a small alley bordered by the entrance wall on one side and the flame wall on the other. What stone he could see seemed the same as the first room. The only feature he could see other than a flame wall was a small circular platform probably not more than a couple of inches high, on the floor to the right. The solitary path led right to it. The doorway through which they’d entered sat in the middle of the wall. Gods it was hot.

Merck, by contrast, seemed perfectly comfortable. “So what next?”

“I assume you’re not naturally immune to heat.”

“That’s correct. I usually prefer the cold in fact. I hate the summer.”

Maynor started walking to the right, toward the one thing they could possibly interact with. As he drew closer he saw it was a small disc, most likely a pressure plate.

“I’m going to stand on this disc,” said Maynor, “be ready for anything. Do you have a weapon?”

“I have a dagger. Same dagger I had back when I was a swindler. I more or less know how it works. Pointy end out, stick it into something. Do you think I’ll need it?”

Maynor shook his head. “I sincerely hope not. Use your detect spell.”

Merck did and looked up at the taller man. “Magic. I can feel it everywhere. This whole room is rotten with it.”

“Well, that’s pretty obvious. The fire has no visible fuel source, so it pretty much has to be magic. But a confirmation never hurts. I’m going to stand on this pressure plate and see what happens.”

Maynor didn’t wait for a response. He drew his sword and stepped onto the plate. Nothing. It didn’t budge.
 
“Maybe it’s not a pressure plate,” suggested Merck. “Can I try? After all I did get the door open.”

Merck was right. Normal rules didn’t seem to apply in this place. Maynor stepped off the plate and gestured for the priest to take his place.
 
Almost immediately, the stone circle sank into the ground and the flame wall and the heat, most of it anyway, disappeared. Maynor immediately turned his attention to the rest of the room. Merck said what Maynor had been thinking.
 
“Holy shit.”

The room was huge…it was also a logistical nightmare. Fire walls. Frost walls. Levers. Pressure plates. Were those elementals? Maynor growled. He hated fighting elementals. Not that he couldn’t do it, but he preferred an opponent that bled. Fighting an elemental was just…unsatisfying. You couldn’t feel the impact of your weapon. It was harder to see your progress as the fight wore on. You just had to keep slashing and stabbing until the magic holding it together was eventually released. And Merck would be useless in such a fight as he didn’t have a weapon that could damage them.

The floor where the flame wall had been was charred black by the heat. The blackened band was much wider than Maynor had thought it would be. The wall hadn’t been a thin curtain of flame at all, but rather a solid block of fire a couple of yards thick. He’d have to cross the scorched area to reach the next safe pathway, which looked, from this distance, to be as narrow as the first.

“I don’t suppose your dagger has any magical properties.”

“That would be no. Out of my budget as a Level 4 Swindler.”

“Okay, tell me what you see.”

Merck made a show of studying the room, though Maynor had noticed him doing it since the flame wall fell. “A puzzle. A very complex puzzle.”

Maynor looked surprised. “Like puzzles, do you?”
 
Merck grinned. “I love them. It’s my favorite thing. If I were designing this, I’d make it so one person had to stay standing on the pressure plate, while the other had to throw a switch. See that switch on the opposite wall, it’s the only one you can reach. Presumably it will change the room so we can reach another switch or pressure plate. I’ll step off the plate for a moment and see if the wall comes back up.”

Maynor’s eyebrows raised in surprise. Merck was sharp. He’d known that on some level, but seeing the former Swindler’s mind in action was different. He simply didn’t talk enough to demonstrate it. That was worth keeping in mind.

Merck stepped off the plate and the flame wall was back along with the heat. When Merck stepped back on, both vanished again.
 
That wasn’t to say it wasn’t hot when the wall was down. There was still plenty of fire, but not as much of it, and not as close. There were other flame walls that ran parallel across the room further back, though they weren’t as high as the first one.
 
“Okay, stay on the plate. It’s vital you do. There’s a water elemental guarding the switch. If you get off the plate while I’m on my approach, I’m going to die a very painful death.”

“Right. I’ll stay put. Why isn’t it attacking us?”

“It’s a big room. We’re not close enough for it to sense us. But as I get closer, it will attack. Fortunately, I have a skill that will help. It allows me to temporarily enchant my blade, or rather, infuse it with some of my power to make it viable against different kinds of foes…undead, elementals, dara, centaurs, whatever. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get to that lever at all.”
 
Merck looked thoughtful. “How common is that skill?”
 
“It’s rare enough. I got it when I hit Tier 3, Level 20. As soon as I did, I went out and hired various summoners through the Mage’s Guild to practice with it, which is the only reason I recognized the elementals at all. Not many of them show up in the castle. It’s not like I’ve been on many dungeon crawls.”
 
Merck raised his eyebrows. “Oh. I thought you were experienced.”

“I am, but not with dungeons. I’ve been in a couple…it’s not really my thing. That said, I’ve talked to a lot of people who have run dungeons. I’m knowledgeable, which isn’t the same as experienced. Let’s hope it’s enough. At least I’ve fought elementals before. From what I can see, there’s a water, air and earth elemental between us and whatever comes after this. Just be glad there’s not a fire ele. Those are the worst.”

Merck nodded, grimly. “Right. The worst, got it.”
 
Maynor smiled. “You’ll be okay. I’ll be between you and them. Just remember, stay on the plate.”

With those words he moved away toward his first obstacle. When he stepped on the blackened area, he glanced back at Merck, who was watching intently.
 
“Remember to breathe,” he called out.
 
Merck shook himself. “Right. Breathe. Got it.”

Maynor grinned and continued. Imagine being Level 2 and in your first dungeon. The poor bastard must be terrified.

He was less than twenty feet away before the elemental noticed him. Water elementals were annoying to fight. They were the essence of fluidity—no form, well no permanent form, flowing into whatever shape it needed for the battle. Occasionally they would take a shape that mimicked the person they were fighting and then shift into something else moments later. You had to be aware of tendrils forming that could hit you from behind. Water elementals weren’t solid, but when they struck you, they felt solid. Maynor wasn’t sure quite how that worked, and the mage who had summoned them hadn’t been able to adequately explain it.

The creature reached him faster than he thought it would, and he pulled his sword, whispering the words that would enchant it to provide a buff against elementals.
 
This was Maynor’s favorite weapon—a double-bladed bastard sword that, due to his increased strength from leveling, he could wield with increased speed and dexterity. In Maynor’s hands, it was practically a short sword—the weapon of an artist rather than a berserker. He could bring it into play faster and sweep either way, since the blade had edges on both sides. And it had the added advantage of being very well balanced. It felt like a part of him.

Maynor had no time for reflection then. The water elemental gathered itself and took the shape of a slender tree with tendrils sprouting from its trunk. Of course, this particular tree could also move. As the tendrils approached, he cut at them, at which point they’d splash to the floor at his feet, only to retreat moments later to return to the trunk. He wasn’t doing much but showing the creature it had to do more than flail at him.

The elemental was only taking damage where he actually hit it. The severed end of the tendril rejoined the host. Only the part that his sword touched had been destroyed. What he was trying to do was bait it into a shape that would allow him to land bigger hits, which happened almost immediately. To Maynor’s amusement, it took the form of an earth elemental, large and solid looking, though of course it was still formed from liquid. Maynor went to work.

His sword flashed again and again. He watched his footwork on the now wet floor, because slipping at this moment would have been bad. He didn’t look back at Merck, despite his temptation. They had moved onto the blackened floor now, and if Merck didn’t stand his ground, he’d have more to worry about than an elemental. Even the memory of that heat left him sweating.

Maynor’s sword flashed again and again, slicing through the thick body and neck. He was cutting it to ribbons. A human would have been dead five minutes ago. That was the problem with elementals in general, but particularly water elementals. You couldn’t kill the body, only enough of its mass until it could no longer contain the magic that held it together—and that took time.

The water elemental kept trying different forms. Twice it tried to trip him, and once it tried to form a long arm behind it to snake around and catch him off guard. In each case, Maynor simply cut it off as it approached. Did elementals get frustrated? Unlikely. But he liked to think he was annoying it anyway.
 
It didn’t land a single blow before collapsing into a puddle of water that flowed around his worn leather boots. He hadn’t thought it would get a hit in. This was a lesser elemental, not a greater one—not as intelligent, not as strong. Now, there was nothing between Maynor and the lever. He hoped he’d be able to pull it. What would they do if only Merck could?

He reached the wall on the opposite side of the room from Merck. The lever jutted from a metal slot in the wall. He glanced behind him, and across the way he could make out some kind of dome. Maynor didn’t pull the lever immediately. Instead, he walked back across the new safe pathway that had been revealed by Merck standing on the plate. Another fire wall was to his left, and the blackened area to his right. He was heading back toward Merck, but not along the same line. They’d be closer than they’d been, but still not on top of each other. Even if Merck got off the plate, he’d be safe where he was standing. The flame wall would simply be between them.
 
He walked up to the wall and the pressure plate it blocked. It looked like a snowstorm that had been sculpted into the shape of a half-sphere. It didn’t feel cold. Not even a bit. He placed his finger into it and nothing happened. He stepped through it and onto the plate…nothing.
 
“Merck, step off the plate, I want to try something.”

Merck must have complied because the original flame wall was back, just as high as before.
 
“Can you hear me?”

“Yes. What do you need me to do?”
 
“See if you can touch the fire wall.”

“Are you sure?”
 
“No, just use the tip of one finger. Preferably your pinky.”

“This sounds like a very bad idea. Oh…”

A few seconds later, Merck had walked through the fire wall and was standing in the same row as Maynor.
 
But as he approached the frost dome, he slowed.
 
“Damn that’s cold.”
 
“Ah,” said Maynor. “You’re immune to the heat in this place, I’m immune to the cold. I’m guessing the switch will turn this frost barrier off, and you’ll be able to get on the plate, since it doesn’t work for me.”

“Not much of a puzzle,” said Merck. “More like you kill a few elementals while I stand on plates. Disappointing.”

Maynor chuckled. “Wanted something more challenging, did you?”

“Well, it’s a dungeon, right? My first. This will be pretty anticlimactic if nothing happens but me stepping on plates, and you pulling levers.”
 
“I can see that. Of course there’s the opposite side of that equation. You might not want it to get more exciting.”
 
“Good point.”
 
“Just in case, get back on the first plate. I’ll go pull the lever when you’re in position.”
 
“Right. Good luck.”

Merck walked back through the fire, which was just as hot, but tolerable now that Maynor knew it was going to be gone in a second. Sure enough, as he had the thought, the flames died. Maynor walked back to the other end of the room and pulled the lever. As he suspected, the frost dome vanished.
 
“Go get the next plate,” he called.
 
Merck abandoned his post and to Maynor’s relief the flames did not reappear. They were making progress. One down, two more to go. Most likely, the pressure plate Merck was about to step on would drop the flame wall that separated them from the back half of the room, giving Maynor access to the next lever.

“Do it!” shouted Maynor, noticing Merck hesitating.
 
Merck stepped on the plate. The flame wall dropped, but the original flame wall came back up. Maynor cursed. He hadn’t expected that. Whatever happened now, there was no retreat. He wondered if that was the purpose of the first wall. Still, the puzzle seemed simple enough, which meant they were missing something.
 
“Don’t get complacent,” he called. Then he realized the air elemental was closing in on him. He should have expected it. He was on the same side as it now, as opposed to across the room as he had been for the water elemental. Once the flames came down, it was close enough to aggro.
 
As it approached, Maynor looked down the wall past it. The lever waited for him. A wall of levers opposite a wall of pressure plates. It was too easy. He moved to meet the approaching elemental, rather than waiting for it to reach him. He wanted more distance between him and the flames at his back.
 
“Maynor!”

Maynor turned, unsurprised to see an unexpected complication. A fraylian, a large green forest cat, had emerged from the flames, apparently as immune as Merck. Maynor prepared to use his leap skill to close the distance and help the priest, when the air elemental crashed into him. Maynor was thrown through the air, landing hard on the stone floor. He could feel the heat of the flames to his left, far too close for comfort. He rolled to his right, just managing to get to his feet before the air elemental was on him. He wouldn’t make it in time to help Merck, after all.
 
“Stay on the plate, no matter what!”

“Holy shit.”

“You need to expand your vocabulary.”

He raised his sword and attacked, hoping he could keep well away from the creature while trying to damage it. Because the next time it threw him, he might not be so lucky.

 

Seventh of Striving 1142, Afternoon

Eric hadn’t said much since their meeting with Marko the day before, and Suzanna was worried about him. Eric had spent most of his time streaming videos from the mock Internet that Nylus had set up in Orientation Village. The sheer scale of what the Undead King had accomplished here in Thysandrika amazed her. It was easy to forget she was on another world, even with an animated skeleton being their liaison. It probably said something about the human mind, but she couldn’t figure out what that might be.

Not that she had time to think on it. Eric was her more immediate concern. Yesterday, Eric’s worldview had been challenged. Not just challenged, but picked apart. She had no idea what effect that would have on him, but Eric was earnest and well-intentioned. Doing the right thing was the more important thing. Marko had called into question what doing the right thing actually entailed. She realized almost immediately by Eric’s silence and lack of responsiveness that he was struggling with what he’d heard. Trying to internalize it or perhaps disprove it. And since then, he’d been watching videos. It was probably time to have a talk.
 
She walked into the study, where their computer resided. She’d expected Eric to be watching WWE, Star Trek or Game of Thrones. Instead, he was watching a bunch of men who were standing around in a field. Nothing seemed to be happening. He had headphones on so she couldn’t hear the commentary.
 
“What are you watching?”

Eric paused the video and looked up. “Ferret legging. It’s interesting. We have ferrets on Thysandrika too, but I don’t know anyone who does this.”
 
Suzanna blinked. “Ferret legging?”
 
“Yes, you tie your pants shut and drop a ferret in them and then you try to endure it while they claw and bite at you for as long as you can.”
 
“Eric, that’s insane. Who would do that?”
 
“I don’t know. It’s an Earth thing, not a Thysandrika thing. You haven’t heard of it?”
 
“No. Does it say where it’s taking place?”
 
“Scotland.”
 
“Ah.”
 
“Ah?”

“Scotland does have some very strange sports. Still, ferret legging sounds really dumb to me.”
 
“You don’t think I should introduce it to Thysandrika?”
 
Suzanna burst out laughing. “Of course not. Why would you subject yourself to something like that?”
 
Eric looked abashed. “It’s a test of endurance and strength of will.”

“It’s also cruel to the ferret.”

Eric had opened his mouth to speak but shut it immediately. Clearly, he hadn’t thought of that.
 
“Not every culture on Earth thinks that animals deserve consideration, but I at least was brought up to respect animal rights.”
 
“Animal rights.” Eric rolled the idea around in his head. “Like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Familiars?”

“Wait…they have that here?”

“They do. They have an office at the Adventurer’s Guild in Rish. One of the guards was talking about it one day.”

Suzanna shook herself, remembering why she’d come up here in the first place. “Yes, well, that’s pretty interesting. Yes, some people fight for animal rights, but it’s not what I want to talk about.”

“Oh?”
 
“Yesterday—the conversation with Marko.”

Eric’s face grew tense. His brow furrowed, his lips tightened. She had been right. The conversation had shaken him.

“Talk to me, Eric. Don’t hold this in. Let’s see if we can work through it.”

Eric looked like he might decline but then straightened up. “Okay, but in the living room, preferably with ice cream. If I’m going to talk about this, you need to bribe me.”

“We have chocolate, chocolate chip.”
 
“Bribe accepted.”

Eric turned off the monitor and accompanied her to the kitchen where, a short time later, the two sat at the table with a bowl of ice cream in front of each. Suzanna only had a little. Eric had built a temple to Breyers. Suzanna had to hide her smile. She had to remember that he was only sixteen.
 
Eric attacked the structure immediately, while Suzanna sat back and watched. She let him eat in peace only briefly.
 
“Eric…talk to me.”

Eric sighed. “Look, it was a lot, okay. He compared me to a trained animal.”

“And? Do you think people aren’t trained? Parents reward good behavior and punish bad, right? Doesn’t the church do the same thing? Is this really any different?”

Eric thought about that for a moment, his ice cream forgotten. “No, I guess not. But to say that Sheba is intentionally doing that to us, offering us power to condition us…it feels…dishonorable.”

“And because we’re in Xarinos, you can’t talk to her about it.”

“Exactly. She’s the goddess of honor, Suzanna. I follow her. That has to mean something.”
 
“I suspect that she doesn’t see it as dishonorable. She may not even intend to use it that way. That could simply be a side effect. But let’s say it was true. Let’s say she was aware of the effects. So what? I mean, she wants people to be more honorable, and she encourages that behavior. The reward is a more honorable world, right? A safer place for everyone.”

Eric was already shaking his head. “But honor can’t come from a dishonorable act. That’s the teaching. If I do something dishonorable to create honor, I’m not living correctly.”

“What’s dishonorable about rewarding someone for their efforts?”

Eric thought about it. She could see him working it through in his brain. “I guess that’s a point in her favor. She’s only doing the right thing, rewarding those who serve. So perhaps it’s okay. Still, I don’t like the idea that the effect of it is to train me like a dog. I mean, how do I know that I’m being myself and I’m not just a product of divine manipulation? Even my childhood I was trained by my father, who has been trained by Sheba giving him levels and skills. I could make the argument that he’s passed on his conditioning to me.”
 
“Yes, Eric, you could make that argument, and you’d be right. Because that’s what parents do. It’s their job. They take what they’ve learned, what works for them—and they pass it on to their children so that they not only preserve their own identity moving forward, but they also give their child the best chance in life they can have—as they see it. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a normal thing. If your father had been a farmer, he’d teach you how to work the land, wouldn’t he?”
 
Eric nodded. “That’s true. I guess I was thinking too deeply about it, without comparing it to what normally happens. This is just how humans are, isn’t it? We learn, which is a form of training. What we learn depends on what our parents and what our teachers know.”
 
“Now you’ve got it. That’s how it’s always been.”
 
“Well, I’ve been taught the undead are horrible, evil monsters. But I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that that’s the case.”
 
“Ah, I see.”

“My father hates them. He passed that hatred down to me. Striker intensified that hatred, but Eldiss and Aisha, I told you about them…they changed how I thought about undead…sorry reborn. Not completely, but they gave me a different set of facts to consider. And then Ted and Bones and Nylus, and now Marko. Has everything I’ve believed since I was young, everything my father believes now, been one giant lie?”
 
“I don’t know, Eric, but what’s important is that you’re asking the question. You don’t have to hold onto the prejudice of others. You can break that cycle.”
 
Eric sighed, then realized his temple was melting and started in on it again. Suzanna didn’t interrupt him. But eventually he stopped and looked up at her.
 
“The gods were involved in that war against the undead. What if they were wrong?”

“I don’t know, Eric, I can’t answer that, but I can say this. Being wrong only makes you imperfect, not not worth following. Your father sounds like a wonderful man from everything you’ve told me. Even if he gets some stuff wrong, it doesn’t necessarily stop him from being wonderful. People make mistakes and that’s okay. Maybe the gods do too, I don’t know. But if it’s okay for people, shouldn’t it be okay for the gods?”

Eric started to shake his head. “I don’t know. Maybe? It’s such a weird question. Still, it’s worth considering. Thank you, Suzanna.”

She smiled at him, and finished the bit of ice cream left in her bowl. “It’s my pleasure. And you know, whatever you decide, it’ll be okay. We’re all learning all the time. It’s what makes life interesting.”

“Maybe.” Eric chuckled. “But I think I passed interesting a long time ago. I’d prefer for new ideas to pace themselves, so I can figure out how I feel about them. Maybe that’s naive. Maybe that’s how life works. But I can’t say I don’t feel overwhelmed.”

“After what you’ve been through, and I’ve only heard the highlights, I can imagine. You’re dealing with a new world, a new paradigm, a new situation, even a new body. Anyone would be pushed to their limits by what you’ve experienced. Honestly, you’re doing better than most, I would think.”

Eric grinned. “Well, that’s something. So… no ferret legging?”
 
“Absolutely not!”
 
Eric threw back his head and laughed. Crisis averted. She wondered how long it would be before the next one reared its ugly head.