Chapter 8: Gander’s Forced Development

Toro laughed.

“Well, that was worrying, tell me Olice, I’ve heard a number of things on the way here, and now that happens, just what is a barrow?”

“It is a place where oncedead live”

“Oncedead? Undead? This place is quite strange haha” Toro laughed weakly.

In truth Toro Yacob’s capacity for dealing with spooky stuff was far far lower than Olice’s. In his original world many even believed spirits no longer existed. The little ouirh princess was originally born in a city built into the corpse of a behemoth, so it wasn’t too surprising that her ability to cope would be better.

“Boo!” Gander said from behind Toro.

This caused Toro to jump, tumble and spin around, pointing the red rod in his hand at Gander. He lowered it and sighed when he realised it was gander. Olice didn’t laugh, but she couldn’t help but smile.

“I do ssso love a classssic” Gander said going back into Olice’s shadow.

Toro recognized that Gander was breaking the tension. He was grateful to the spirit, he took a deep breath. What was his training again? He closed his eyes. The stillness of the pool? Toro calmed himself, willing the ripples in the pool of his mind to still. Toro’s eyes were normally just had dull brown irises, but when he opened them again, the irises were bright.

There was another moan, then clattering footsteps came closer and closer. Toro spoke.

“This corridor is too long. Rather than going to whatever is making that noise, best to make it come to us!” Toro reasoned.

“Why not use one of those exploding eggs you have?” Olice asked Toro.

Toro shook his head. “I don’t trust that this place wouldn’t collapse in on us if I did”

Then, it came into view. A shambling figure. At first Olice and Toro thought it was a skeleton, this worried Olice as she read that it was common for older oncedead to be more dangerous, on the other hand there was also a great chance that its power was rotted away.

As it turned out, Olice needn’t have worried. The shambler was in fact a golem made from bone and crystal. It only looked like a skeleton at first. Truthfully it didn’t even look like there was a whole skeleton used in its construction.

“I’ve never read of such a horrible golem!” Olice said, recognising that it was a constructed automaton.

“A golem? Finally something more familiar to me! Almost seems a shame to destroy it” Toro said.

He began shooting at it, deep red bolts of magic flying from his red rod. His aim was quite good and each shot hit an area that should have disabled it from moving.

However, the golem just absorbed the shots, it looked like its crystal parts could absorb magic of that level.

“Refined crystals! I should have guessed that’d be the case” Toro remarked.

The bonecrystal golem charged!

“Watch out!” Olice cried, as the golem swung its claws at Toro.

A thick blast burst from the red rod and the golem went flying backwards. Toro frowned as it tried to get up, the golem appeared to only be chipped.

“I can’t keep firing blasts like that, I’ll collapse first” Toro explained. “Can’t your spirit do something?”

The Golem was having a bit of trouble untangling its limbs. Toro could have gotten over and started hitting it, but he wasn’t physically well built, being more wiry than anything else, that and he didn’t want to come close to the claws of the golem. Something in his gut told them that getting hurt by the golem would result in more than mere wounds.

“Gander! Take the golem out!” Olice commanded.

Gander poked his head out of her shadow. He looked at the golem, he looked at Olice, he looked at Toro then he looked at Olice again.

“Missstresss, you can quite well take care of thissss yoursself, if you ussse some magic!”

Gander then plopped back into her shadow.

“Well, that was unhelpful” Toro remarked.

“I don’t even know any offensive spells Gander!”

“Improvissse, jusst remember to not keep anything in your body or clossse to it”

The golem was almost up. Toro decided that he was going to have to give it another blast and then try beating it with his bare hands. Before he could act however, Olice made her move!

She pulled on her heartflame, she tried to do something, but Gander’s warning was fresh in her head and so she quickly drew it through her body and out her mouth instead.

*Whoosh*

A stream of silver flame rushed from her mouth washing over the golem. The golem fell to pieces.

The flame wasn’t anything that would have troubled someone who had even the most basic combat knowledge but the golem was more of a scout than anything else.

“Well it would have been ssad if you had not been able to do at leasssst that, firebreath-type sssspellss are one of the mossst inssstinctual for sssorcererss! Though sssome never progressss from cassting by breath, ssso I wouldn’t be sssurprissed if you are ssstuck huffing and puffing” Gander said.

“I was trying to spit explosions” Olice said unhappily.

Toro was quite glad she hadn’t managed that.

Just then a rumbling voice spoke.

-A MAGE, A LIVE FRESH MAGE. AHAHAHA YES! YES! WITH THAT I CAN MAKE THE GOLEM I NEED! DON’T BE AFRAID, I’LL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOU ONCE I’VE MADE SOME FINE GOLEMS FROM YOU!-

Olice’s face paled, and she whimpered. Even Toro and Gander felt shivers.

“I didn’t want to do this! Sorry about this Olice”

He picked Olice up and then facing the sealed exit, held forth his hand. Red lines lit up on his suit, and his arm and hand throbbed red.

“Oooh! Not that strange jumping!” Olice cried.

“Would you rather become a golem?” Gander darkly asked.

Olice quickly shut her mouth.

Toro’s hand shuddered, parts of it flickering this way and that, he bit back a scream of pain and kept up trying to use the powers of his suit. His hand reverted to normal. Then his arm pushed through, a crimson rip in space forming, he pulled both himself and Olice through too.

* * * * *

A herd of horned and hooded beetles around the size of small donkeys placidly grazed on crystal gravel. These creatures were red like the crystals around them, and countless years of dining on crystal had made their shells quite like the crystal of the realm. The single horn on their fleshy hood, was completely crystal growing as they ate, creating naturally refined crystal.

It was likely they didn’t exist outside the red crystal realm.

One of them lifted its fleshy hooded head, snuffing the air, however it seems that its ill feeling was misplaced. There was nothing but its herd around.

Unfortunately for the creature it was standing right where a rip in reality came. The rest of the herd fled in distress as the unfortunate creature was not cut in two, but fundamentally separated.

A hand followed through the rip, right after came Toro and Olice. This time, Toro did not stay on his feet. Instead he fell to the ground, dropping Olice.

“You could have set me down easi…” Olice trailed off.

Toro was clutching his head. His body was in pieces floating about him, as if he was a three dimensional jigsaw rather than a person.

“Gander! What’s wrong! Help him! HELP!” Olice panicked.

Gander floated up, he looked at Toro.

“Hiss body and ssspirit could not take passsing through, he isss dying.” Gander flatly said.

“I can see that! Save him!” Olice commanded.

“I could ssave him if I dwelt in hisss ssshadow, but I have to sstay in your sssshadow Missstresss. I wasss commanded to protect you”

Olice cried, it wasn’t just that someone was in pain, dying before her, and her a child, it was also that she wanted to go home. She didn’t want these things happening to her, and Toro was how she thought she could get home.

“If you only cry, then he will die. Are you not a ssorceresss Missstresss? ACT and I sshall guide you!”