Amdirlain's PoV - Hades

Her perceptions contracted to a churning conduit of white and black, with a pinprick of light in the distance. The threads of energy along the tube looked like the inside of the eye of a dust-laden twister. She felt herself rush along in the tube for minutes, and as quickly as it had started, Amdirlain found herself spat out on the edge of a churned-up field. The exposed dark earth and rocks were splattered with blood and pieces of shattered fir trees. Beyond it were a few more fields and poorly maintained buildings, the largest of them only four metres tall and seven metres long. Behind her was a shimmering white wall the same size as the pane within the gateway that sent her here.

A few middle-aged farmers stood watch, wearing leather cuirasses over dirty grey tunics and armed with spears, eyeing the side of the field the large paw prints headed towards. A splash from the river caused two of them to flinch back, and the third, though leaner than either, snarled at them; the side of his mouth twisted in a contemptuous sneer. Analysis showed he'd gained levels in Fighter atop a Farmer Class. The sneering man was Theodotus, and his sun-tanned associates were Zosimos and a muscular fellow called Petrov. All three had a family resemblance from the shade of their deep brown hair, the classic Greek set of their noses, and oval faces.

Are those buildings work sheds or farmers' houses? Do I pick the details from their brains or make conversation?

The Analysis didn't reveal if they were memories of the Domain or souls, so she approached them as normal people.

"Hello."

The three men snapped their gaze towards her. Petrov flinched and jumped back, dropping his spear as he twisted, the dull iron tip sparking against a rock.

He's a higher-level Farmer than the other two, but he's jumpy.

Amdirlain caught from their minds that none of them could see the white pane looming at the field's edge. To them, there were no grey clouds overhead. Instead, it was a perfectly blue spring day. The gaze of the still-sneering man caught on her white tunic and travelled slowly from her breasts to her hips. Theodotus's mind dwelt on what it would feel like between Amdirlain's legs.

"What do you want, woman?" Theodotus asked, his attention lingering on her hips.

She pulled back from their thoughts and motioned to the bloody ground and the tracks. "How long ago did it attack?"

"Why are you wandering about the wilds around here, woman?"

"I'm here to take care of any local issues. Would you tell me what happened here?" asked Amdirlain.

"This is none of your business. If you want to take care of local needs, you can come to stay at my house tonight, or the alehouse is hiring prostitutes. You'd make good trade from the looks of you."

Amdirlain's smile didn't reach her eyes. "I came through the Gate from the Maze of King Minos. I was told that not all trials involve fighting. Perhaps I must resolve someone's bad manners or ego for this trial. They can be monstrous."

Blind to her coldness, Theodotus scoffed. "You? A hero? Where are your armour and weapons?"

"Have you considered that my clothing isn't travel-stained, yet I'm not a local?"

As he snorted, a fist-sized rock floated from the partly tiled soil into Amdirlain's hand, and she squeezed it. A sharp crack drowned out whatever he'd been planning to say next. His eyes bulged as dust sprayed out from between her fingers. Amdirlain focused Muse's Embrace on him alone to inspire fear, and the front of his tunic darkened and urine dripped from its hem. "It's best not to judge without knowing the facts. Did you need me to poke a finger through your skull to help illuminate your common courtesy?"

He stepped back, his spear dropping from badly shaking hands. "Please forgive me. How are you here so quickly? We only just sent a message off to the lord this morning."

"I already told you where I came from, so leave while I talk to those you ridiculed." As he fled, Amdirlain pointed to the man beside him. His attention fixed on her fingers as if she'd threatened him with a deadly weapon. With his attention held she waved at the bloody ground, switching to a comforting projection that she wrapped around the remaining men. "Will you tell me what's happened here?"

"It was a fearsome beast that ran across the fields to skewer three men at once, then turned and drove through the trees along the side into the river. It took them with it, their bodies flopping about on its horns like rags. The thing was black, bigger than my house, with three red horns sticking from a Horse-like head." Zosimos waved at a rough stone and wood building that had seen better days—the largest of the small structures behind him.

I had hoped that it was just a storage shed.

"Anything else you can tell me about it?"

Petrov swallowed. "It was black as night, with long pointed ears, and had scales all over it. There was a loud whoosh, and those trees came crashing down, and it looked like a blurred, watery mass charged across the field. It only stood still once it had my cousins dangling from its horns. I'd barely gotten a clear look at it when it turned to run away."

"Same," nodded Zosimos.

"No one responded with an attack or shout that might account for its fleeing?"

Petrov laughed bitterly.

"We didn't have time. It all happened so fast," said Zosimos, patting Petrov's shoulder. "I'm surprised the others in the field survived. If it had charged a few heartbeats earlier, it would have run over my wife and two of our children. It came so close to them that the gale from its charge sent them stumbling away."

If it killed three people so fast, why didn't it kill more?

"Have there been any other attacks?"

"No. Things have been quiet the last few years," He shrugged helplessly. "The biggest change to the village has been a few men moving away to try the city. That was sudden and unsettling. They left their wives and children behind and said they'd send for them. We've had to help their families' with their planting."

In Greek myths, the locals always knew how to avoid the monster lairs.

"Any ideas where it might hide out?"

Zosimos pointed to the broken trees on the side of the field. "The river flows for days before reaching a swamp. There would be ample food and hiding places for any monsters that can swim like it did."

Amdirlain moved forward and collected a blood-stained pebble.

"What are you doing with that?" asked Petrov.

"I'll use this to track his remains," advised Amdirlain. She activated the residual connection with a psionic technique, the trail extending eighty kilometres downriver and stretched further by the second. Pushing her senses through the rock and into the drying blood, she confirmed that exposure to air had started an hour ago.

The attacking thing can swim fast.

"Are you a Witch? Sorry, stupid question; I mean, the rock floating up to your hand should have told me that," mumbled Petrov nervously.

"I'm a Wizard, not a Witch. They use a completely different type of magic," replied Amdirlain. "I'm not turning anyone into a pig, so you can relax. Just a general question, but what's upriver from here?"

"The river coils around from the base of Olympus to the far east, through weeks of wooded foothills," Zosimos swallowed. "The wraiths inhabit the lands once you get too deep into the woods."

That gives me some ideas about where I am relative to Crete.

Judging from the leaves on the river's surface, she could feel the body still moving away from them at ten or more times the pace of the water flow.

"I'll track it to its lair in case there are more."

Amdirlain vanished before them and took a steady zig-zag course through the thickening fir trees along the river, confirming the body's direction. She wrapped an invisibility effect around herself and lifted above the trees. She could see a shift in the flora far ahead and raced to get to the swamp edge first. Once there, she settled into hiding and waited for the creature. It came speeding along, tossing up a bow wave like a speedboat, its legs churning away beneath the water. Zosimos and Petrov's combined description wasn't far off. The creature looked like someone had blended a tricorn with an elephant-crocodile hybrid, giving it scales, a broad tail, and spiked teeth. Each man had been run through precisely at the centre point of the sternum, and still hung from the three horns that arched across the middle of its snout.

This place is giving Analysis a workout since I can't judge something distant by its music.

[Name: Theron

Species: Odontotyrannos

Level: 211

Defence: 527

Health: 6,752

Melee Attack Power: 616

Combat Skills: Bite [M] (47), Charge [M] (23), Gore [M] (43), Trample [M] (12)

Details: Cursed by a Witch a millennium ago in retribution for his assault on her. He has lost all semblance of sanity, merging with the beast she caused him to be. Under her direction, they've been gaining strength, clashing with the spirits and creatures of the wilds. Recently, he and his brothers received an order to collect the rest of those involved in attacking her.]

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

He has no classes, just species levels, and beasts gain levels on different gradients to other species. Is he returning to the Witch with the kills?

Amdirlain, now in Sparrow form, flitted from tree to tree, keeping tabs on Theron as he plunged through the grasping swamp. When he stopped it was on an island with a large tree, and six preset nooses hung from the thickest branches in the canopy.

Theron jiggled the first body beneath a noose, and it struck like a viper yanking the corpse from the horn. He repeated it with the other two, and by the time the last body lifted, the first man's skin had thickened with black scales.

Amdirlain hoisted Theron telekinetically and flew down to the grass on the island's edge before she reverted forms and walked forward calmly. He rolled his eyes wildly, thrashing, kicking, and snapping at the air. He bellowed, and trees started toppling towards Amdirlain from further within the swamp. She waited until they broke cover and suspended them so their thrashing feet found only air. Psychometry allowed her to glimpse their creator, a heavily gravid and scarred woman who appeared in her late twenties. The magical control link between the trio and their creator pointed further into the swamp.

She checked and confirmed that the three Odontotyrannos, and the three hanging from the tree, were all souls. A brief expansion of her Enervating Aura killed the tree and absorbed five souls, leaving only Theron available to trace the witch. Amdirlain put Theron into a suspended state and tied a thread to his Soul based on what Energy Drain used to create. With him still floating in the air, she started along the path of control his creator had with him. She ignored the burping gases from the bubbling swamp waters and the lingering smell of decay. The winds moaned through the trees, and branches creaked and groaned. Those creatures, living and undead alike that responded to her presence, Amdirlain sent fleeing with a slap of fear.

I'll look into blowing up the undead later, but the Witch might feel the Mana surges.

She eventually came to a line of wards linked between bone charms that hung in the canopy. Through gaps in the trees, she could see an island with a house constructed of wood and sod. Light steps with Phoenix's Trail let her circle the island in a second. When she returned to the moss-covered tree that supported the first ward charm she'd seen, Amdirlain brushed spells against the wards—the detection spells confirmed their relatively low strength.

Without True Sight or True Song, I'm blind to whatever spirits she has in her service. Yet she should be blind to psionics.

Amdirlain set a scrying point just inside the hut. Bundles of herbs and bones hung from the rafters while a long makeshift bench fashioned from bound branches ran along one wall, covered in clay pots and other vessels. The helm of a giant with the eye holes sealed shut served in place of a cauldron, and beside it was a woven chair. A bed of reeds and moss stood between cluttered shelves of sealed jars. The sole occupant was a thin woman with heavy scar tissue along her right cheek, reaching into her hood. Despite her thin frame, each step was waddling because her extended belly fit someone eight months pregnant.

Analysis provided her name as Berenice, a Witch and Curse Twister, she'd suffered from a condition of phantom pregnancy for nearly three thousands years. The sheer determination to advance her classes to around sixty in Hades, while continually pregnant, drew Amdirlain's admiration.

It seems time just drifts away from them.

[Phantom pregnancy

Details: As Hades isn't a place of life, any inhabitant expecting either won't have the fetus develop to full term or experience a stillbirth. Just as the souls can drift, unaware of the full length of their stay in the Domain, the pregnancy, even if successful, takes millennia to come to full term.]

Amdirlain brushed a tentacle against the ward. With her senses focused within her flesh, she heard the energy slip from her undetected as it passed through the alarms.

As she moved forward, part of her attention remained on the scrying, and she reached the rawhide door without a fuss. Given the situation, Amdirlain wanted an approach that would end peacefully for Berenice. She'd planned to stop and consider her approach, but Berenice leaned her gnarled walking stick against the bench and switched to using the bench to support herself. Her thoughts were on her unborn child and dreams of investing it with a Soul.

I'm pretty sure that isn't possible.

"Hello, Berenice. May I come in?" asked Amdirlain.

"You're the one that killed my minions?" asked Berenice.

"Five of them; one of your original trio is still alive." Amdirlain stayed just outside the threshold, the wards brushing across her Hidden state without registering her presence.

"I felt my connection to two of the grown beasts break, and you're here despite all my outer wards."

"The animals who attacked you had become beasts in truth. Since you were careful about who you struck, I would have preferred to allow you to deal with your attackers as you chose. Unfortunately, I must find a solution since I have a quest to end the trouble here."

Berenice's hands turned white-knuckled, grasping the edge of the table. "I take it that means you're going to kill me now?"

"No! I thought I'd end this problem by claiming your rapists and leaving the rest of the village untouched. If they're dead, do you have any reason to endanger anyone else in the village?"

"They did nothing to help me afterwards," spat Berenice, pushing her hood back from her face. Amdirlain took in the burn from her chin along the side of her head, the mass of hairless scar tissue and melted ear.

"You've suffered. I want to find out if I can help. May I come in so we can discuss a compromise?"

Berenice huffed. "Could I stop you?"

"I won't come into your house if you don't want me to, but I'd like to check your situation, and Hades limits the range of some of my abilities."

"Yet not your ability to find me?" Berenice snatched her cane up and waddled back to her chair.

"I've many abilities to draw on, but the ones to help are affected. This is the place of the dead, not the living. I don't know if I can help you with your scars or the child. However, we can talk about who else you've targeted and if you'd like to leave Hades eventually," replied Amdirlain. "If you'd like, I can help escape Hades after completing my goal here."

"Come in then, but one wrong move and my guardians will attack. Perhaps they can't stand against you, but they'll try."

Amdirlain pinched the edge of the rawhide door with her left hand and drew it aside, keeping her right hand in clear sight. Ectoplasm flowed together as she crossed the room, forming a low wooden stool to perch on before Berenice.

Though her lips thinned, Berenice didn't comment until Amdirlain had finished settling. "When you said they had limited range, I didn't expect you to sit right against my knees."

"Would you hold my hand?" asked Amdirlain, offering her right to Berenice.

An assortment of clay pots bounced hard enough to make their lids clack. Through Berenice's mind the nature spirits that filled the hut and dwelt within the ground were clearly visible.

"My spirits are terrified of you," whispered Berenice.

"I can be nasty to my enemies, but I understand what you did. I tortured a rapist who'd been attacking girls, cut him up slowly over hours, dragging the names of his victims from him so I could ensure they got help."

Berenice smiled viciously, and it twisted her scar tissue. "What did you do to him afterwards?"

"I killed him, ensured the names would be found, and disposed of his body."

"What will you do with Theron?"

Amdirlain yanked the thread she'd let unfurl and briefly gripped a man-shaped figure in her left hand before it flowed inside her skin. "I'm going to deal with him. Did they deliberately burn you?"

"Yes, I'd rejected them all, and they decided I needed to be taught my place. They took turns holding a torch to my face while I screamed. The spirits restored sight to my eye, but it took a long time for them to fix it."

"Can you break curses as well as inflict them?"

"Not so much breaking them as twisting them back on those that set them."

Berenice nervously reached out to clasp the hand Amdirlain left extended to her. Amdirlain took in her form with her senses, the memory of damage inflicted on the departed Soul, and the spiritual mass built up in her womb. The links of expectation extended back to the souls of Berenice's rapists.

"You're pregnant because they and you expected you to be so," advised Amdirlain.

"We're in Hades, aren't we? There were oddities that nothing else would explain, but I couldn't seem to concentrate on them."

"Yes, you've been dead for over six thousand years."

"So there it is," whispered Berenice, her hand raising to her scar. "Did they die with me?"

"They attacked you in here, Berenice," said Amdirlain. "Though I know that's no reassurance."

Sorrow filled Berenice's gaze as she rubbed a hand tentatively across her belly. "Then what can be done?"

"The Domain of Hades reacts to expectations and mimics a living body according to your awareness. However, since it's a place of the dead, it can't accommodate the creation of natural life. Luckily, I don't have that issue, but I'll need to get you outside Hades if you want the baby."

"I know it's strange, but I've dreamt of them for so long. If there is a way, I don't want to give up on that dream," said Berenice.

Her words drew Amdirlain's attention to the souls she'd drawn inside herself; wrapped within the Ki they slumbered unaware.

"Would you be content to dream until I get you free?"

Berenice frowned. "What do you mean?"

"While I can carry you along in my travels, it would be like you're sleeping. Once I leave this place, I can restore you fully, but for now, this will have to serve as evidence of my goodwill."

Amdirlain released Berenice's hand and activated Universal Life. The Ki's golden light washed across her skin and restored her to an unblemished state.

Berenice's gaze widened as her hair grew out, but she kept still until the light faded. Then she raised a shaking hand to trace the tip of her fingers across smooth skin and her restored scalp.

"That golden light," breathed Berenice. "What are you?"

"A once-Human girl who has come a long way," replied Amdirlain.

"The warmth of that light makes it hard to believe that." Berenice licked her lips. "Do I have to answer now?"

"I'm unsure when I'll next be able to get back to these lands. This Domain is harder for me to travel than expected."

"When I was younger, the tales about someone travelling were always the stuff of legends. How did you get here?"

"The trials on Crete have gates that deliver people where they need to prove themselves. I have to complete them and conquer the maze before I can leave," explained Amdirlain. "Can you show me the last two you intended to transform?"

"Why do you want to see them?"

Amdirlain smiled. "I need to ensure that all the monsters in this place are dead."

"I'll show my attackers to you, but I'll need to consider your offer. If you cannot return later, that is my problem, not yours. If I remain here, I'll spend my days dreaming of the baby I might have borne." Berenice touched her now smooth face again. "I feel that isn't a terrible fate. To dwell on the love I might have shown them, unscarred by the past."

As long as she doesn't end up poisoning herself with regret, I'd leave the choice to her, but there are the siege forces to consider.

"Berenice, outside forces are looking to get into Hades. Nothing will stop them from tormenting any souls they capture from within it. If I can't work out a way to get around, everyone stuck in here will be in danger."

"Are you telling me that to scare me into going with you?"

"I was hoping your abilities with spirits might help me locate and travel to them. I'd leave you an object to let you communicate with me if you find a solution."

Berenice blushed.

Amdirlain stood and offered Berenice her hand. "Just think of the individuals in question."

She took her hand as three faces soured with rage and old fears ran through Berenice's mind.

Amdirlain placed a thread before releasing a crystal disc into Berenice's hand. Within it was a communication song established solely for Berenice's use.

With a parting nod, she stepped outside and lifted slowly through the tight canopy. She kept rising until the river came into sight and quickly returned to the village.

As Amdirlain landed, the pane on the field's edge shifted from white to gold.

I hope this doesn't mess things up. Since I gained no experience collecting the other souls, it didn't count as me killing them.

Petrov was nearby and looked at Amdirlain hopefully. "I've dealt with six monsters. Do you think the village council would object to me collecting more of them?"

"I don't believe so," stammered Petrov.

"Let's go ask them. I want their explicit permission to take all the monsters with me."

As she followed him, she filtered through the villagers' thoughts to see who knew what.

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