The Last Job (Afterwards we’re gonna take a gap year)

Fortress Town had cleaned up its image quite a bit ever since the embarrassment of the Corruption Incident that had kicked up the nonsense of the past few months. There was a palpable change in attitude, with business no longer as lackadaisical with hiring or work as before. After the old ruins had been thoroughly plumbed, torn down, and subsequently worked over by spiritualists, any further work made sure it was fully under the watch of the garrison, and that went double for construction of the Extended Royal Fortress.

For the most part, it was a small miracle that the party wasn’t stopped the moment they were spotted – time may have passed, but their features were unmistakable.

Nonetheless, it seemed word had been passed along, and with Harow preceding the party as they touched down in front of the army’s main headquarters, which was thankfully fenced off with a good, hardy stone wall, all Captain Talwen could do was twitch unhappily at the sight of these interlopers, awash with Malevolence, striding unimpeded through his territory. Nevertheless, duty called – and so he stood at attention, ramrod straight, his hand ready to fly to his sword at any moment.

“Beacon, it is my pleasure to host you.” His posture was stiff, his face an impassive mask of stoicism, though he seemed to loosen up when Harow came over to warmly shake him by the hand.

“I’m really sorry to trouble you like this. I promise, we’ll be out of your hair as soon as possible.”

“It’s… no trouble,” Talwen muttered, shaking his head to wake up and remove the lingering spite as he firmed up. “My Lord the King ordered me assist you in any way I can against the most heinous of Malevolence sycophants.”

Mae joined her husband, raising a hand to hide her whisper. “We need a quiet place to plan our next move and rest, and then we’ll be out of your hair.”

“Well, follow me, and I’ll see what I can arrange.”

Five of six travelers were shuffled into yet another drawing room, where they leaned against better cushioned seating and wearily sipped at tea. After so many detours, they finally felt a lack of patience and frustration rather than a thirst for adventure – but that was what travel was like for Harow. It was never fun, just exhausting.

Nonetheless, he did his duty, and after talking to Talwen some more, shut the door behind him so that Maer and the others would have total privacy.

“The garrison can spare what men it can to support us in our final push, in case the six of us alone can’t manage it.”

The window was open, and by it, Jane knelt at the sill, staring at the great defensive wall that was trying to seal off the farthest north, where the remains of the Menace remained.

“Do you still smell him?”

By this point, everyone knew who Harow was speaking to when asking such questions.

“Hm, yeah. Still going north, but there’s not much further he can go past the wall,” the chimera mused. “Wonder if he’s waiting for us.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Paul brusquely answered, between bites of a sweet cake that had been laid out. “It just means he’s finally in one place and ready for a beating.”

As Harow took a seat, he prepared himself for what he knew would be a moment of enormity, while keeping his gaze locked on the otherwise reticent necromancer.

“I know you don’t want to be treated as monsters, but it is true: it’s quite another thing to feel it’s a duty to chase Malevolence when you could have simply lived out your life.”

“Fortress Town showed how bad it could get,” Bao emphasised. “It’s hard to pretend it doesn’t exist when Liev sells you out to a cult that feeds the stuff with kidnappees.”

“More than that, though, it’s what I feel about what we are,” Paul added.

“...And what are you?”

Harow hesitantly broke the nascent silence. What else were they, after all? Dead flesh resurrected by the Menace’s power. Personalities spun up from empty air…

Paul didn’t answer right away. In fact, it took him a while to even form his thoughts, with the way his fingers tented – he was every bit the image of a man locked in deep contemplation.

Harow almost wanted to raise his voice, but Maer put a hand on his thigh – a quiet request to keep the vigil.

“Paul?” Trudy asked instead, a touch concerned.

“Just – give me a moment to figure out how to say this without it sounding stupid. Because when I say it out loud, it does sound stupid.”

Harow blinked, mildly off-balance. “If that is the extent of your concerns,” he said, assuagingly, “rest assured – you will not hear anything of the sort from me.”

“If you say so,” the Necromancer muttered in acquiescence, before sighing as he laid his cards on the table. “All four of us, the bodies might be from here, but our souls come from another world.”

It was strange to consider that it was a dumb excuse, even if Harow unconsciously moved towards that assumption – it was true that Spiritual energy and Spirits afforded all sorts of strange phenomena. The beings born from the breath of the world were all capable of various abilities – so why was it that souls from another world were a step too far? In fact, the Menace itself, for all its cruelty, proved that things beyond humans and syhee swam in those stars.

“Another…”

Even so, despite his logic, part of him could scarcely believe it – other real, living, thinking beings, called forth from across the yawning chasm of time and space to serve as puppeteers at the beckoning of forces beyond his comprehension. A chill ran in his blood, but his curiosity compelled him onwards, and he could only ask softly as his mind worked frantically to understand:

“How is that even possible?”

It was Jane who spoke up next.

“The Great Spirits. At least that’s what they tell me.”

“Well, check this out,” Bao chipped in, fixing her with a look both impressed and mildly envious. “You got a personal line to them?”

“It was my consolation prize for waking up later than the rest of you, apparently. But when I asked them about this, apparently they put my spirit in this body. It was a…preventative measure.”

Maer’s eyes widened in realization. “The four of you are controlling those bodies the Menace created. Without it, they would have just been empty shells – actual, literal monsters made from the bodies of Harow’s friends.”

It could have been worse. What could these four have accomplished had they not been busy joking, eating, drinking, and being foolish? If they weren’t so preoccupied with hunting Liev and his research?

“It could have been worse.” Maer gave voice to Harow’s thoughts, her hand linking with his in a gentle squeeze. “You know what would have come next. Another battle, one you could not have hoped to bear. I…daren’t even try to imagine it.”

“Is there any way for your spirits to return to your world?” the Beacon asked, giving shape to a hope none of them had.

Paul gave a sad chuckle, and shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think we all died in that other world, but the Great Spirits took our souls and jammed them into these bodies. Plane crash, I think.”

“Mugging,” Jane offered.

“I don’t really remember,” Bao added. “I recall living in one room for a long time, though. It wasn’t… healthy.”

“In defense of my students,” was all Trudy said, face sour as she took a long drink from a cup of wine.

Paul, Bao, Trudy, and Jane. It wasn’t right to see them as just personalities traipsing around in mockeries of Harow’s friends. They were stranded travelers making do with a new world that hadn’t been arranged for them, fitted in bodies as a countermeasure for forces beyond their control.

“Seeing what Malevolence does, knowing that we’re all that holds back a tide, that we were brought here for a reason…” Paul hummed, thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s not what I want, but it’s not something I can ignore. We have to stop Malevolence. It’s what we’re here to do.”

“Despite what the Great Spirits did to you?” Harow asked. “They put you in bodies that made you pariahs of this world.”

“I’ll take any second chance I can. I died, after all. Even if I’m stuck where I am right now, it’s the better alternative.”

Harow frowned, edges of his lips twisting downward in distaste.

“I thank the Great Spirits for much, for blessing me and giving me the ability to defeat the Menace from the Stars, but I cannot help but feel they’ve done you an injustice. Perhaps they were desperate to stop the Menace from having its last laugh, but they didn’t ask you to bear that sacrifice or fight on their behalf. They just expected you to do the best you could. At least let me apologize for that much.”

“It’s not been too bad,” Trudy said, an airy grin and a light twist of laughter in her words. “We have each other. We get to be angry or laugh at each other. We get to talk. We’ve managed to slot into different places. It hasn’t been perfect, but it hasn’t been torture either.”

“They picked very kindhearted people, it seems,” Maer remarked, before nodding in acknowledgment to them. “If no one else has done so before, at least let me thank you for what you’ve done just by being here. It’s more than you think.”

“Liev is our enemy for now,” Harow said, reaffirming their goal. “After this is over, let me continue speaking on your behalf. You should at least enjoy some of the peace this world has. Your duty has to rest eventually, like it did for me.”

Finally, Paul managed to give a more optimistic smirk, despite himself. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I always believe in finishing one task at a time. For now, that means kicking the butt of a mean old man.”

The six of them rested and gathered their wits as best they could, but before long, the gray sky started getting darker, and as one, they quietly slipped out of the barracks. Further walking took them to the great wall that sealed off the north, save a single gate that was more like a gigantic iron plug that was presided over by a spirit. Between a letter of address from Talwen, and the polite requests from both Harow and Maer, both the guards and the great door moved aside.

For an instant, they all felt the chill of a cold breeze that swept in through, but steadied themselves as they kept walking forward, racing against the falling night.

“They still haven’t fixed the gaps in the wall that let Liev through, huh?” Paul grumbled, greaves crunching in the snow as the six walked on.

“The construction will take years to finish,” Harow observed bluntly, though Jane just scoffed.

“Still full of holes, otherwise.”

“You know, Jane, it’s weird that we met you so late.” Bao was quick to turn the conversation around. “Do you remember where you came from?”

“Not really. It was all a blur until I woke up in Forness.”

“It’s weird. Because it was just us three, so… uh…” The swordsman trailed off before his eyes began widening in growing realization. “Oi, wait, were you that giant cat that tried to eat us?”

“How the heck am I supposed to remember something like that?”

“Well, my traumatic memories certainly haven’t been wiped clean,” Paul drolly accused, trying not to grin. “You did a real number on my first set of armor.”

“Look, that wasn’t me, okay?”

Harow, for his part, did smile. Dumb arguments were one way to pass the time, and no matter who he spent it with, it seemed some things never changed.

As the day wore on, they made it to a familiar old clearing – the old battlefield that preceded the ruined fortress built into the mountain, the last stand of the Menace from the Stars.

Stray detritus remained as it ever had been, buried and frozen in snow. Cold armor, shattered wood, and tattered banners still lay where they were after all this time, and it made for a strange homecoming for everyone – him especially. It wasn’t a place any of them ever wanted to return to.

Nonetheless, they firmed their resolve as they fanned out and walked forward. In the distance, a dark smudge huddled next to a campfire, and it didn’t take long for the figure to gain detail and age until their quarry was clearly seen, warming himself as he stood next to a tent.

“Ah, the Beacon of the Kingdoms returns! Him and his, ah…retinue. A pleasure as always, sir.”

Liev greeted them with trademark enthusiasm, yet without turning his gaze from the flames while keeping his arms outstretched. Harow, for his part, stared calmly and coldly ahead at him, through him, hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

“Liev.”

“Enjoying the coat you stole, Jane?”, the old man casually remarked, something the chimeric syhee met with a nonchalant wave of her hand.

“Comfortable fit. Gotta wash the stench of scum out of it, though.”

“I know where this is going to lead,” Liev said, in the tone of an open-minded yet disappointed patriarch, “but it is regrettable that you wouldn’t give my ideas the merit they deserve.” Liev tutted before checking the grip on his sheathed sword. In the firelight, Harow could catch the glint of studded leather armor on the fugitive’s body. “The Menace is finished. Astral energy is a free resource. Our fear is only a prison, denying us the glory we deserve. How long must we rely on the capricious whims and wishes of the Spirits floating above us?”

“Look, you might have had a point if you gave us the merit we deserved,” Paul shot back. “You threw us away because we seemed more interesting as research. That ship has sailed. You don’t get to guilt-trip Harow into not seeing things your way.”

“My long years have taught me many things – and when to concede is one of them. I offer you this: that was a mistake. One that I have been paying for quite handsomely since…”

Liev turned away from the raging flames to face the party directly, and the gathered band recoiled in surprise.

His visage was distinctly – disconcertingly – purple.

“But I moved all that I had left here, and besides, you four are still a rich supply. One victory is all I require to make up for my errors…and then I can extract every drop of what I need from your corpses.”

Harow and Maer felt the Malevolence begin to build around them on two fronts, and the Beacon held his ground, even as he drew his sword and pushed his wife behind him.

It was strange to feel the four around him surge with twisted power in a refined, controlled fashion that was of the slightest comfort, compared to the roiling, out-of-control rage bubbling in Liev.

“Liev, even if you win here, all it will do is drive the Kingdoms into a frenzy. It won’t end.”

“Not with this fight, but that’s the thing. It seems I really am at war with the whole world. I’ve lived a long enough life anyway – at my age, I have no need of worrying about the future. So let me push this as far as I can–”

Liev stopped talking as the tent exploded, with all the remaining condensed, liquified Malevolence swarming out at his will to burrow itself into him. It dug into his ears, into his mouth, punctured his flesh, and sank in until his body swelled, a mockery of humanity bloated to utterly grotesque proportions.

Around them, even the tainted ground seemed to shimmer and groan, armor and weaponry rattling in the presence of fell energy not seen in such concentrated amounts for years.

“Everyone ready?” Harow called behind to his companions.

Maer placed a hand on his shoulder – such contact was all she needed.

The others made noises of agreement, and even if Harow hadn’t heard, their agitated energy showed they were paying attention.

“Well, friendo,” Paul sneered at the growing mass, “Here’s to all the overwork you made me do.”