COMPASS OF TRUE LOVE - CHAPTER 37

Chapter 37: The Cursed Bunny

-Marion-

The past week of travel was as thrilling as it was exhausting. We were hunted down by goblins, beasts and much, much fouler creatures as we travelled across the great expanse that was the Wildlands. Although the biggest challenge was crossing the Divide. It wasn‘t much of a ravine this far up, but the river of the same name was still wild and wide.

Lorelei and I had to combine our earth magic to create a temporary bridge across, all the while a party of centaurs was angrily shooting arrows at us.

Like I said: Thrilling but exhausting.

Though there were sights to see as well. On our fifth day we could make out the Black Wall in the far distance. The famous blackstone structure towered some solid two-hundred metres high, connecting the mountainous Backbone Pass and the Mountains of the White Lizard. It was one of the Great Vilesian Wonders. A barrier against the devastating invasions of the Wildlands – which coincidentally led to Argonne to the north, to become the primary targets of their raids.

By our sixth day, our view of the Black Wall was interrupted by a massive pine forest that unnaturally jutted out like spikes through the expanse. A singular mountain, larger than any I had ever seen before, peeked out from the top of the conifers like a silent watchman.

“We’ve reached the end of the Wildlands,” Lorelei explained as we crossed into the fern-dominated underbrush. Kamir quickly dashed away into the woods; no doubt having caught the scent of some sort of prey.

“Are these the Southlands? I thought they would be more… sandy.” Liana frowned at her surroundings and brushed her hand across one of the untypically large ferns.

“Not quite. This is ancient dwarf territory. The Warden Clan made their home here until they disappeared off the face of the earth when the Arangians slaughtered their way through the Greybeard Clan.

“They became afraid they’d be next?” I asked.

Lorelei nodded. “Possibly. Although the Wildlands always acted as a barrier for them, it would have been foolish of King Grimhare to cross.”

We travelled through the woodland for the better part of two hours, when the pines cleared away for a large river – though not nearly as large as the Divide – that cut the forest in two. On the other side of the river the foothills of the mountain began climbing up just past the treeline. Along the river stood an uneven row of hewn stone monoliths that followed the bend of the waters. Runes were inscribed into them and although I couldn’t understand them, their purpose was clear: Runic wards, to hold off those who are unwelcome.

I only hoped we weren’t unwelcome. Or that the wards were no longer working properly, though my magic sight told me otherwise: There was a blue glowing shimmer like a wall along the river.

“The other side is warded,” I commented.

Lorelei nodded. “We’re close to their old capital, Ironhold. It’s inside the mountain, but the main gate is just to the southwest of here.”

“Will it be safe to cross?” Liana asked, clutching Rosie closely, like she always did whenever she was nervous, I had noticed.

“Most likely. I believe it disables magic, to level the playing field.”

That did make sense. While dwarves could use magic – as evident by the wards in front of us – they were much much less attuned to it than elves, or even humans. Disabling magic altogether within their borders did place them on equal footing with any invaders.

Lorelei and I used our earth magic once more to create a crossing. Since we couldn’t use magic on the other side of the river, we couldn’t do our usual bridge, so we raised a bunch of stepping stones out of the river instead. Lorelei took Rosie and quickly hopped across, while I helped Liana from stone to stone; not that it was particularly difficult for her, we just wanted to be safe rather than sorry.

Lastly, Kamir gracefully leapt across the entire river in one giant pounce. Nightwolves – Lorelei had told me a little about Kamir’s species – really were something else. Apparently, they were used instead of horses in Lorelei’s homeland. They were a type of direwolf, changed and adapted to absolute darkness and riding.

The moment we crossed the magical blue shimmer I felt the magic within me get cut off. It felt weird, uncomfortable, like suddenly loosing one of your senses without ever knowing it had been one. The entire world felt so much colder, less vibrant. I was so used to seeing the glowing traces of magic nearly everywhere I went and now… it was like I was shunted into a coal painting. Which was ridiculous, because the giant ferns were still very much as green as they were before. They just felt bleaker.

I could tell Lorelei and Liana felt it as well, the discomfort. Even Kamir and Rosie were visibly uncomfortable. Especially Rosie, she was shivering and shuddering in Lorelei’s arms, who quickly handed her back to Liana.

“What’s wrong with you Rosie?” Liana asked, running her hands through the giant bunny’s white fur.

The bunny whimpered and sniffed, though the shaking and shuddering became less intense.

“What’s wrong with her, Lorelei?” Liana whimpered, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

The elf knelt down next to her and pressed her palm to the rabbit’s head and murmured some words before cursing.

“Right. Magic isn’t working.”

“Should we go back?” I suggested.

Liana nodded aggressively. “It’s hurting Rosie!”

We scrambled back over to the crossing we created, but the second Lorelei stepped through the shimmer with Rosie in hand, the rabbit began screeching and clawing, hurting more and more with each passing second. Lorelei placed a hand on the bunny’s head, then quickly jumped back through the magic barrier and Rosie calmed down a little. She was still uncomfortable and most likely in pain, but whatever the runes took away was hurting Rosie less than giving it back to her.

Lorelei looked to Liana, who stood there, frozen, tears cascading down her face. “W-what do we do now?”

“She’s cursed,” Lorelei stated, much to matter-of-factly for this situation. I really ought to give her a ‘how to talk to children’ class sometime.

“What- what does that mean?” Liana whimpered. “She’ll be alright, right?” Her eyes grew wide with fear. “She’s not going to die, right?”

I gently wrapped Liana in my arms. “She’ll be safe, Liana,” I whispered. I turned my head to Lorelei. “Do you know what curse?”

My mind was flitting through all the kinds of curses I knew, though admittedly, Sephie was much better at them that I. Between the two of us, she was always the more witchy one, while I was the more sorcerous one. But right now, my knowledge would have to do.

“It’s hard to tell. It must be a very powerful curse, though. The magic of the runestones is not even strong enough to strip it away from her, but now that it has begun trying to take it away, allowing magic to flow back into her strengthens the curse even more.”

“Like… the curse has realized it was being attacked, so it pulls in more magic to defend itself whenever it can, regardless of the damage that does to Rosie?” I supposed.

“A good theory. In that case we need to find a way to strengthen the magic of the runestones.” Lorelei brushed her thumb and index over her chin in thought.

“Can we infuse them?” I glanced over to the closest monolith. It was much taller than I, imposing and obviously charged with immensely powerful magic. I could tell that much even without my magic sight.

Lorelei shook her head. “Not from here. We need to get to their power source.”

“Inside the city?” It was the most likely spot to have it.

“So… so we can save Rosie?” Liana asked meekly. There was only the faintest bit of hope clinging to her voice. A rush of determination coursed through me. Fucking yes, we will save Rosie! I would never let her hope die out. Never!

“Let’s go then!” I exclaimed. “Do you know the way, Lolo?”

The elf raised an eyebrow at me. “Yes…” she replied carefully. She began walking, eying me suspiciously. “Lolo…?”

“Just trying it out,” I mused.

She grumbled a little and started leading the way. I could see her smirk just the tiniest bit, though.

*****

It took us another two hours until we came upon the gate to Ironhold. ‘Gate’ was an understatement, though. It was a gigantic stone structure, planted into the mountain itself, taller than the highest tower of the academy. Line and lines of battlements were stacked on one another and below sat a closed steel gate, grand enough to fit an entire galleon with mast and everything.

“Welcome to Ironhold,” Lorelei grimaced. “Though the gate never looked this… unwelcoming.”

“Maybe we should just knock and wait?” I posed.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen the gate to Ironhold closed,” Lorelei explained. “Let’s just hope we can find a way in, somehow.”

Liana nodded along, once again clutching the shuddering Rosie.

We made our way in front of the gate of the lost dwarven clan. It was indeed closed shut and our usual methods to circumvent barriers like this were mote. We had no earth magic, nor any teleportation magic in this place.

I knocked against the steel structure, while Lorelei prowled along the length of it, searching for another way in. I waited for something to happen for a moment, but it was clear very soon that no-one would come to open up. My eyes scanned around and fell on the massive pine trees. Then I glanced up at the battlements above the gate.

“Lolo,” I caught the elf’s attention. “How hardy is that spear of yours?”

She glanced at me, questioningly, then followed my eyes as I indicated them towards the closest pine tree.

“Oh. Ohh! Marion that’s genius!” she exclaimed, rushing towards me and nearly tackling me, but stopping to simply pat me on the head instead.

She slung her spear from the back. The tip was long and sharp, not quite as good as an axe, but it would have to do. Liana and I watched closely while Lorelei chopped away at the gigantic tree. It would take a long while – the tree was larger around the base than all our arm lengths combined – but the more Lorelei cut away the more certain I was that it would work out perfectly.

It still took almost three hours total, breaks included, until the wood started groaning loudly. We all quickly jumped away into the safety of the other trees as the pine started to bend towards the gate. With a loud crack the final bits of wood splintered, the tree fell and with a booming thunk lodged itself onto the lowest of the battlements.

“”YES!”” Liana and I cheered in unison and Lorelei breathed a long sigh of relief.

We let Lorelei catch her breath from the workout, then we began climbing the tree up to the murderous balcony. Of course, once again we were extra safe, tying rope around our wrists and to the branches as we went up, just in case we fell. It was unlikely, given the tree was thicker than most alleys were wide, but we didn’t want to risk anything.

Finally, after an exhausting climb, we could jump down onto the stone battlements. A cool musky smell emanated from the inside of the hold. Carefully, we slipped in between two of the large support pillars holding up the rest of the gate and entered the structure proper.

It was dark. Nearly lightless. The sun had already climbed way past noon, so only a faint light shone through the battlements into the entrance hall of the capital of this dwarven realm. It could tell it was much less grand than Raelund, but the architecture was still impressive. Unlit fire pits were wrapped around the bases of the massive pillars that held up the roof of this hall all the way towards the second gate; this one thankfully standing invitingly open.

We quickly found the staircase down and followed the central ‘road’ through the second gate, deeper into the mountain. The actual city began here, rows and rows of houses hewn into the rock, stone balconies turned out to be a popular thing here, almost every building had at least one towards the road. As we went, Lorelei made the effort to lit a torch with flint and steel and light any fire pit we came across, lighting up the city bit by bit.

We were certain the ‘source’ for the runestones would be somewhere in or behind the fortress district of the city, so that was our first stop. The ‘fortress’ was the last line of defence before the great hall of the mountain king and although it wasn’t nearly as imposing as the main gate to the city, it was still a sight to behold the hewn walls, towers and battlements.

After thoroughly searching through the entire fortress, we moved on towards the great hall. Inside the fortress we found a fully intact armoury where Lorelei picked out a dagger for Liana, which looked like a broadsword in her hands and a finely made shortsword as well as a crossbow complete with bolts for me. “Just in case.”

Honestly, without magic I did feel very vulnerable and although I didn’t have any training with weapons, I felt much safer having them here.

The great hall was the most imposing sight of this city yet. A chasm fell into complete darkness and a singular stone bridge arched across it, ending at a dark stone throne with gold veins crawling through the smooth rock. Around the chasm, on each side, were walkways and spectator lounges as well as another set of stairs that led deeper into the mountain.

We never felt more certain we’d found our way when we began climbing further down. You know that feeling, when you just know you’ve found what you’re looking for, even though you’ve no confirmation of it yet.

The stairs led us into a large circular chamber that was humming with magic. Despite the utter lack of it anywhere so far, this place was suddenly brimming with it, so much so that the stone walls were slightly vibrating from the intensity.

The walls were lined with runes – the same ones we’d seen back on the monoliths, I was certain – and in the centre of the room sat a massive magical crystal, pulsing out wave after wave of magic.

I’d seen magic crystals before, they were valuable, but not impossible to get your hands on. But this one… it must be truly invaluable. The ones I’d seen before were the size of pebble. The biggest ones the size of my fists. This one? It was taller and wider than me.

Another wave of magic pulsed out of it and thrummed across the room. All the runes ignited with fresh magic and emanated little ripples of their own.

I glanced over at Lorelei who stood just outside the room in the small entrance hall, holding onto Rosie, Kamir at her side, while Liana followed me inside.

“My magic’s back,” she commented. “Lorelei said it’s not safe to let Rosie inside here, because of the magic.”

“I see. Did she mention how we can empower the runes?”

She nodded. “Pour our own magic into them. Lorelei said I should do it, because my magic is so powerful.” There was a faint quiver in her voice and her eyes were glazed over, as if she was looking at someplace much different from here. I immediately understood what was going through her head and wrapped her in my arms tightly.

“You can do this, Liana!” I whispered to her reassuringly. “You want to save Rosie, don’t you? You are so much more powerful that Lorelei and I could ever hope to be. If anyone can do it, you can. Don’t think about the chaos. Just release your magic.”

Liana shook and I hugged her even closer. Her breathing slowly steadied and her trembling lessened. After a short while, she extracted herself from me.

“I- I don’t know if I can do it.”

I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just continue breathing like that, Liana, and let go of your magic. I’ll be right here, okay? I’ll make sure everything goes well.” I brushed a hand across her cheek and rubbed away the tear that was starting to form.

She breathed heavily again, then looked into my eyes. “Okay. I’ll… I’ll start now.”

She closed her eyes and I felt the air around her vibrate. Her magic was similar to Lorelei’s, but where Lorelei had a soft violet hue, Liana’s had a red taint mixed into the violet, making an almost crimson colour.

Liana bit her lip in concentration and I could feel more and more magic pouring out of her, flowing into the runes. Then she shuddered, her breath sharpened, her magic spiked suddenly, the air grew crisp, a hot searing shimmer started forming across her skin. I quickly held her close to me, the flames licked at my own skin and I could feel them singe and bite at me, but I continued holding her tight.

“Steady, Liana, release it steadily. Remember, I’m here. Just… breathe slowly,” I whispered into her ear.

She threw her arms around me and I could feel her breath steady. The flames grew cooler and dissipated. Her magic flowed out of her at a steady pace again, thrumming against the runes that lined the walls.

“It’s working,” Lorelei exclaimed. “The curse is disappearing!”

Liana held on and another moment passed, magic washing through the room, flowing into the runes.

“It’s… It’s done. I think.” Lorelei’s voice was unusually insecure and I looked over to her and froze. Liana slowed down her magic until it gently dissipated entirely. She turned, searching for Rosie’s form and froze as well.

“Fucking fuck that was so painful!” the white-haired bunny girl sitting on the ground in front of Lorelei complained. Her pink eyes fell on Liana and she quickly covered her mouth. “Shit I shouldn’t curse in front of the princess.” Her pink bunny ears flopped downwards. “Oh crap. Fuck. Shit. No. Ah damn I give up.”

Liana stared at her ‘pet’ incredulously. “WHAT THE HECK, ROSIE?!”