The Path to Immortrium

DATE: IMMORTAL REIGN 1023 MONTH 3 DAY 5

While Ruxian found the repaired carriage (Susie’s lap) more comfortable than horseback, the rugged Everlett Forest soon made the prairie pathways feel like the G30 highway. The thick canopies obscured the blue sky, allowing only small patches of sunlight to flicker on the mossy earth. Dramien, however, only whipped the horse with greater intensity, forcing Susie to hold Ruxian over the side as he hurled. The HypnoPro host wanted to question the urgency before he saw the giant pawprints leading to an even larger dropping. The steaming tower had Ruxian tearing up as though he had ingested a tube of wasabi.

“Targonian Grizzlies,” cackled Dramien, holding his nose. “People once worshipped their deposits as divine gifts.”

“It’s something alright,” gagged Ruxian.

“People believed all sorts of things before the teaching of Goddess,” said Susie, clasping her hand in worship.

Braking under an outpost perched on a thick branch, Dramien whistled, setting a pulley into motion. Ruxian watched with great fascination as the creaking device sent down a crate of waterskins and loaves of black bread. Offloading the supply box, Dramien gave the watcher a wave before working his whip again.

The scarlet sunset and a cutting gust greeted their hobbling wagon as it shot out of the Everlett Forest. Weary and nauseous, Ruxian took one last look back at the woods while Susie thanked the Goddess for their safe passage. Digging into his pocket, Ruxian produced his dead phone and held it up as if to take a photo.

“My lord,” said Susie. “Is that how you pray to your god?”

“No, my world is largely godless,” Ruxian answered, turning Susie pale. “I guess I was just hoping a grizzly would show up.”

DATE: IMMORTAL REIGN 1023 MONTH 3 DAY 8

Tracing the Grand Waterway for several days, the rumbling cart passed several settlements smaller than Sothrend. The locals, electing to live and move in boats, reminded Ruxian of a certain city he promised to one day take his parents. More things I should’ve done. Given his proximity to a hot shower, any thought of the postponed vacation readily gave way to more pressing concerns.

“Captain,” said Susie. “Why are we not taking the ferry straight to Immortrium?”

“Serpent breeding season,” replied Dramien, pointing to a row of bankside anglers. “How else would the Goddess will the Targonian fishermen out of their boats?” He laughed sheepishly as Susie glared at him. “I don’t mean to make light of the Goddess.”

“Land or water,” said Ruxian. “Can we at wash somewhere?”

Perhaps owing to a timely intervention from the goddess, their carriage rolled into Ruxian’s first Targonian city. Built on both sides of the Grand Waterway, Halfington was more advanced than Ruxian had expected. Glowing stone glyphs stood like streetlamps, lighting the arched bridges linking both sides. The cacophony of a distant bazaar and the aroma of roasting meat almost reminded Ruxian of the night markets.

“We’re travelling with a hero to Immortrium,” said Susie. “We need not stay the night. We just want a bath.”

“Hero?” replied the old innkeeper, pointing his pipe at Ruxian. “Him? I thought he was one of the Magecraft wackos from the western parts.” Stalking up to Ruxian, the man studied Ruxian from head to toe, his eyes narrowed in contempt. “Well, what’d you do?”

“Let’s play a game,” sniggered Ruxian. “That pipe is valuable, isn’t it?”

“You damn right,” the innkeeper snapped. “What you getting at?”

“When I clap my hands,” said Ruxian, “that pipe will become something so dreadful, so disgusting that you never want to touch it again.” Ruxian brought his palms together. “Now!”

With a blood-curdling cry, the codger dropped his pipe, trembling, as though it was a scorpion. Susie, Dramien, and even some of the curious patrons, let out a collective gasped. Picking up the prized possession, Ruxian presented it to his victim, who recoiled in fear, much to the onlookers’ amusement.

“At the crack of dawn tomorrow that pipe will be the most precious thing in your possession,” declared Ruxian, snapping his fingers. “Until then.” He spun around to face the small gallery he had gathered. “Thank you for watching and remember to –” He almost uttered like and subscribe.

The bath, too, proved a pleasant surprise. Of all things, Ruxian did not expect steaming hot water to surge out of an obelisk dangling from the ceiling. Foreign, but still a functional shower. As fortune would have it, a projectile crashed through the window the moment Ruxian removed his shirt. Ducking for cover, he found it was a fist-sized rock wrapped in a piece of paper.

A panicked Susie burst into the bathroom. "My lord!” Frantically, she searched the small space for an assailant. “Dracon filth, I ought to –”

Ruxian, tugging at her sleeve, showed her the wrinkled sheet. “What does it say?”

Susie looked down at the paper and her face darkened. “I can’t read foreign text.”

DATE: IMMORTAL REIGN 1023 MONTH 3 DAY 14

Ruxian observed some marked changes as they drew toward the beating heart of the Eternal Empire. Though the smoother roads meant Susie no longer donated her lap to pillow him, Ruxian happily suffered this deprivation in favour of not throwing up several times a day. Moreover, since that close call in Halfington, Susie decided, much to Dramien’s unease, to take up more...drastic measures.

“Good sister,” said Dramien, turning his head again. “Just what are you doing?”

“Preparing for the Dracon,” replied Susie, her toothy smile a glittering cutlass. “I wouldn’t need to if a certain captain did his job.”

With that, Susie resumed snipping white ribbons with a pair of unusually sharp scissors and pasting them over the rickety boards. Never once taking his eyes off the blade, Ruxian scooted from one side to the other to avoid the frenetic nun.

“You’ll kill Lord Ruxian before that Dracon girl at this rate,” warned Dramien. “Where’d you get those wards anyway?”

Susie did not look up. “Western Halfington. The Dracon tracked us with foul sorcery. She wouldn’t have found us otherwise.”

“The Immortrium gates are up ahead,” insisted Dramien, throwing up an exasperated arm. “And need I remind you the Blackmoon Sorority excels at undoing magic?”

“Just let her have this,” Ruxian spoke up at last. “Else she’s going to stay up through the night again.”

Susie gave Ruxian a look that reminded him of his mother when he scored a sixty in math. With a shake of her head, she went back to crawling about the wagon, muttering prayers beneath her breath.

“I’m no good with women,” confessed Ruxian, looking at everything but Susie. “Not that you’d have that trouble, right Dramien?”

The soldier doubled over. “Are you married, my lord?”

“No.”

Ruxian had not dated since university. Since then, he realized how much he detested laughing at bad jokes, the overpowering scent of perfume, and watching movies that probably cured his insomnia. He did eventually sign up to a few matchmaking websites at his parents’ behest, where he soon learned the prospects, or lack of, for a man who lacked stable employment. Now that he thought about it, his last conversation with his mother ended with him hanging up the moment she brought up marriage.

“Well, the wife is waiting for me in Sothrend,” said Dramien, gazing wistfully at the clouds. “I barely get to see her wherever I am.”

“The good captain has a wonderful wife,” Susie chimed in, having finally exhausted all her ribbons to mummify the wagon. “A magnanimous and beautiful woman. An entire province of men is jealous. How did you meet her, captain? Lucius said you swept her off her feet.”

Chuckling, Dramien parked their carriage by a jetty and waved at a riverside watchtower. Susie promptly disembarked, holding out a hand for Ruxian. Two soldiers, as plump and bald as Lucius, clambered down a flimsy ladder that buckled and squeaked.

“Who goes –” one of the fat guards announced before catching himself. “Well, what a gift from Goddess! If it isn’t Captain Perfect coming back from the borders to grace us with his presence. The previous two summons not good enough for you?”

“You’re delaying the hero’s passage,” said Dramien coolly. “Call a boat please.”

“That’s your hero?” the chortling man stabbed a finger at Ruxian. “That?”

Ruxian, adjusted his sunglasses, clicked his tongue in annoyance. Stepping past his worried companions, Ruxian stared straight into the guard’s beady eyes inside the visor. Up close, he could smell the sweat and contempt.

“When I snap fingers,” Ruxian hissed, “you’ll punch yourself in the jaw and get us our boat.”

Sounding his fingers, Ruxian half expected the guard to punch him instead. Even when fooling with inebriated friends, these self-harm commands never worked. The Goddess, it seemed, had amplified his hypnosis.

With a loud, crisp clang, the addled man swung at himself, his gauntlet slamming into the helmet with a sickening crash. Staggering, the guard finally crashed to the ground like an abandoned puppet, a moan escaping his lips. Susie gasped and covered her mouth. Ruxian, jaw agape, recoiled. Why did I do that?

Dramien turned to the other guard who trembled. “I guess you’ll have to call our boat now.”

“R-Right away, my lord!”

Lifting a horn to his lips, the man blew so hard that Ruxian feared he would pass out alongside his partner. Within moments, a boat with paddle-wheels splashed into the dock. Patting the shaken guard, Dramien led Ruxian and Susie aboard.

“A single skipper,” observed Susie. “I’ve never seen such a vessel.”

“You won’t find them far from Immortrium,” said Dramien. “Magecraft is expensive.”

“I really shouldn’t have done that,” groaned Ruxian, his gaze fixed on the deck. “I’ve never hurt anyone before.”

“You had these powers before coming here?” asked Susie. “You must’ve been a powerful man back home.”

“No,” Ruxian snorted and took off his shades. “I was nobody.”