Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

I wanted nothing to do with that thing, but it seemed to have a difference of opinion.

Tendrils descended like spears from the sky.

I focused again, sending mana into the other rune. There was a sharp burst of pain from using so much of my power in rapid succession, but the blast of kinetic energy that ripped out managed to knock the creature back a few steps, throwing the tendrils out of position. They ripped into the stone floor, and then it was dark again.

“Just throw a fireball at it, I’m under attack over here!”

“Oh, goddess! Um, flames of, no…”

Something hit my left shoulder — a smaller impact than the claw had been. I heard a crack and felt a jolt of agony, letting out a roar of my own at the sensation.

I twitched my head to the side just as something else whistled past, intersecting the space where it had been a moment before.

Then there was light, a chime, and the creature retreated, passing right through the wall at my side.

Patrick had relit the first torch he’d ignited. Now that we could see a little more clearly, I groaned and pushed myself into a sitting position.

My left arm was numb, but the pain had largely faded. A glance didn’t show any visible injuries. The shield sigil must have stopped it from piercing through me.

Patrick rushed to my side. “You all right?”

I rubbed at the arm; it wasn’t just numb, it felt cold . “I think so, but I might need to find a healer after this. Nothing urgent. Don’t relight that other torch.”

“No kidding. What do you think that thing was?”

I tried to shrug — and that hurt. Okay, no more moving that arm for a while.

I started to push myself to my feet, and Patrick knelt down and helped haul me into a standing position without prompting. It was a little awkward, but I was grateful nonetheless.

“Not sure. Something related to barghensi and behemoths, maybe, but of a shadow variety? The flames seemed to scare it off. Light probably hurts it.”

Patrick pointed at the wedge I’d seen with my attunement on. “This thing has some writing on it, maybe that’ll tell us.”

He had better eyes than I did. I couldn’t see any writing at that distance. We approached cautiously, but there were no other obvious monsters in evidence.

As I got closer, I saw that my companion was right; the wedge was a stone tablet, floor to ceiling, with tiny letters etched into the surface near the middle. Said middle was slightly higher up than my head. With the low light and the distance, I had some trouble reading it, but I managed to piece it together over a minute or so.

Six visages of goddess see,

The light of mortal destiny.

Two to keep our bodies strong,

A pair to keep our hearts from wrong,

A final two to light the path,

And keep us from the goddess wrath.

Each guides us in a different way,

And for these gifts a toll we pay.

Six visages of goddess see,

The light of mortal destiny.

My face twitched as I noted the grammatical and capitalization errors in the poem — really, “goddess wrath”? — but I brushed the instinct aside as best I could. I’d need some time to think about the poem to sort out the relevant parts. In the meantime, I walked to the other side of the tablet, inspecting it and finding a second message.

You will be devoured within the dark.

I shivered. That was certainly more direct, but definitely not comforting.

“Ooookay.” I looked at Patrick. “You read all that?”

“Yeah. Looks like we’re supposed to give gifts to the visages?”

“I don’t think it means literal gifts,” I said. “I’m guessing they’re talking about those torch things. Except, you know, they’re not actually torches. Going to guess we need to light each torch in the appropriate way.”

Patrick nodded. “Different element for each, then? How do we know which element goes to each torch-thing?”

I almost tried to shrug again, but managed to abort the motion before I hurt myself this time. “Might not have to do them in any kind of order. I didn’t see any runes or symbols of specific visages on them, and we’d have to have been really lucky to get fire right on the first try if there is supposed to be a specific gift for each. We should look at them more carefully, but it more likely just means we have to do six different elements in any order.”

“I don’t actually have spells for six elements, though,” he reminded me.

“Maybe gray counts? It might not even be different elements, anyway. Maybe it’s just different spells. Let’s take a closer look at the first one before we even try anything else, though. Also, I want a look around the room in general.”

I limped my way toward the lit torch, muscles sore from the impacts with the floor and walls. I frowned as soon as I noticed the tiny rune etched into the surface of the metal base. I didn’t recognize it.

“There’s a marking here.” I pointed at it.

Patrick walked up next to me. “Never seen that before. One of your Enchanter things?”

“Probably, but not one I’m familiar with. I’ve got a book, but it would take too long to look it up.” I walked over to the next torch, squinting at the base. Another marking — a different one. “Not good. This has a different rune. There probably is a specific element for each. Or maybe a specific sequence we have to light them?”

“I could try hitting the next one with lightning and seeing if it works,” Patrick offered.

I shook my head vehemently. “I’m not ready to face whatever that thing is again. Let’s see if we can find another clue somewhere else in here.”

Drawing closer to the cage, I got a better look at the fountain and, more importantly, the gleaming object within. A silvery-white key. That was obviously important.

Could I get it out immediately? A blast from the knockback function on my demi-gauntlet might displace enough water to reveal the key, then a second well-placed blast might knock it out… but I’d seen an aura between the bars. There was probably a shield on the whole thing; it was probably cage-shaped so we could see the prize within. Maybe I could bust through the shield, but it didn’t seem worth the mana to experiment.

I found Patrick kneeling next to the box. “Kinda want to know what’s in here.” He picked up the box — which I wouldn’t have done — and shook it — which I definitely wouldn’t have done. I could hear something clinking around inside.

“Please don’t break that.” My hand twitched as I envisioned a potion bottle cracking inside.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” He set it back down. “I don’t see any openings. I could try to blast it open?”

“Let’s save that approach for if we can’t figure anything else out. I’m going to see if I can find—”

Glowing eyes in the far corner of the room. It may have been my imagination, but I felt like the whole room had gotten just a little bit darker.

“Relight the torch, Patrick.” I took a step backward, nearly tripping over the box.

“Hrm?”

“Relight it!”

I pointed my hand toward the glowing eyes, readying another attack. They narrowed slightly in response. I could see no sign of the creature’s body within the darker corner, so I couldn’t even be certain it was the same monster as before.

Patrick moved back to the original torch, repeating his original incantation over it. There a flicker of white, then the torch’s glow returned to full strength. When I looked again, the eyes were gone.

I drew in a sharp breath. “Okay, looks like those torches go out on their own after a while. How’s your mana?”