One, But Not Both

Avii stifled an agonizing wail as he flexed aching muscles around the shattered bones of his arms just enough to activate the magic of his suit. He watched through blurry eyes as the powerful sleeves of his MULE lifted the slab of stone ten times the weight of his frail body. Doing so, the man locked his eyes on the barely conscious form of Aindes, whose body was as broken as his spirit.

“Come now, Caster.” Avii groaned, holding the remnants of their prison up with his forearm. “It’s time to get up.”

With his free hand, Avii reached into the cavernous space that had saved the elf’s life in the collapse. That was when he got the first look at the caster’s dire situation. Focusing on the elf’s hands, or lack thereof, Avii had only begun to notice the horror. As he pulled him close to the light, the mule’s eyes locked on the man’s deformed face. His jaw was shattered and split, with his tongue divided into enough pieces that it resembled a cat o’ nine tails. Ears removed, he could have once resembled a human, had his body not been so malnourished that he looked closer to a skeleton wrapped in thin leather. To make matters worse, as Avii pulled, he realized that the man had not been completely spared from the collapse.

“No,” Avii grunted as he pulled him free enough to realize that one of his legs had been left behind, cut off above the knee. “Crap. Crap. Crap.”

Dragging the man free of his cell, a trail of blood painting a slick of draining life behind him, Avii warmed his glove. A hiss followed as he cauterized the wound, yet the elf, so out of sync with reality, didn’t even whine in response. But the wound to his leg appeared to be the least of the problems. The bruises that covered him, some black and blue while others yellow and purple, revealed a level of internal damage that required more than Avii could provide.

“Caster, stay with me,” Avii insisted, propping the elf up against the mound of rubble as his head swivelled. “I’ll bring the Priestess. Just—just remain conscious. I’ll be back.”

But Aindes was quiet. Still alive, his heart beating, albeit weakly, the problem lay deeper within, hidden in his absent mind and soul. It was a state that Avii knew well. The defeated feeling of a man pushed over the edge. Broken atop the knee of his captors.

Avii could only imagine what other horrors had been committed in the time Aindes was tortured alone. After all, elves were just as much demi-humans as any other species to a Kovik.

“Priestess!” Avii bellowed as he searched through the rubble. “Priestess Vivat!”

“Mule?” A voice whimpered from a nearby collapse. “Mule is—is that you?”

Avii watched as the woman’s trembling hand reached out from beneath a mound of rubble piled so deep that even the miner doubted his ability to unearth it safely. Eying the precariously placed beams that held up a crushing amount of debris, he knew that even the slightest miscalculation would cause the entire pile to shift and crush the woman into nothing.

“Mule!” Vivat cried out louder, her body beginning to shift and reach, causing pebbles to tumble and fragments of stone to follow. “Mule, save—”

“Vivat, stop moving!” Avii ordered as he continued to observe the site. “The mound is unstable. Too much motion could cause a cascading collapse. Stay very still until I tell you. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” She whispered after a moment of quiet. “Yes, I understand.”

Reaching to his hip, Avii took hold of the metal rods that Sebastian had used to skewer him. As he did, the motion of grabbing them triggered a sharp pain that arced across his body like a flash of sheet lightning. Wincing in response, he did his best not to drop the tools needed to save the woman. But his arms, having not yet been healed of their damage, felt as though they were breaking all over with each action.

Still, at least it was something. At least he still had arms to move and hands to grab. And, regardless of the pain, it would have to be enough to rescue the remaining members of Ostave’s squad.

“Okay, Vivat, listen,” Avii began to instruct, fighting the pain as he stretched his hand towards the narrow opening of her prison. “I’m going to hand you a few rods. I want you to slide them into a position so that they’re holding up the stone atop you. Make sure they’re snug. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” She whimpered. “Yes, I understand.”

Handing over most of the spikes, Avii used what he kept to stabilize the entrance that Vivat would be pulled through. He estimated the best locations for placement as though he were back in the mines, exploring the entrance of a new shaft. For the first time in decades, he felt truly alive. As though everything that had happened to him over thirty years had been nothing more than a fever dream. That instead of a lifetime in chains, he had spent it in the mines. That at the end of the day, when it was time to clock out, he would again see them.

With a huff, Avii reached for his collar. Closing his eyes for a moment, he gently touched the plates that concealed the necklace hanging against his chest. As much as he wanted to believe the fantasy, he knew well that it was far from the truth. He would never get them back, no matter how much he dreamed it a reality.

Yet Harbinger’s words stung the back of his mind. The thought of maybe one day resting with them in Elysium made the idea of survival worth it. Made the thought of escaping Kovika-controlled lands something to fight for. Though Harbinger had much to explain before Avii would dare believe it.

“I-I did it,” Vivat announced, her face pushing towards the opening and locking a desperate gaze on Avii. “I-I’m done.”

“Good,” He answered, his thoughts returning from the fantasy. “That’s good, Vivat. Tell me. Are you pinned anywhere? Are your legs free?”

“It’s tight, but I can move them.”

“Perfect. Okay, now listen closely. Scoot as far back as you can and cover your face. As soon as I order you, reach out a hand. Do you understand?”

“Yes. What are you going to do?”

“You…don’t want to know.”

With a click of the gem in his gloves, Avii placed his hands on the debris at the entrance of Vivat’s rubble den. He held it there, watching as the stone quickly began to heat. A minute passed. Then another. Soon the rocks glowed a vibrant red. Within, Vivat began to remark about the heat, but Avii couldn’t focus on that. It needed to be hotter before it would work.

Soon enough, the external stones were orange, nearing yellow, and the man knew it was finally the right temperature. Sliding his helmet over his face yet again, he braced himself for what was to come.

“Prepare yourself, Vivat!” Avii ordered, flicking the crystal in his other hand before slamming his fist down to the stone.

At first there was nothing. Then the sound of splintering rock filled the air. Before long, a fissure formed and with a final push of frigid magic deep into the stone, the rock erupted. The pile above Vivat shifted, settling atop the support rods as the woman screamed out in terror.

“Reach, Vivat!” Avii cried, shoving his hand into the hole that had been opened. “Reach!”

Catching her weak grasp in his, Avii pulled as hard and quick as he could. In an instant, her frail body slid from the hole as she shrieked in pain. The stone, still impossibly hot, raked at her skin as she passed, cutting into exposed flesh with the ease of a searing knife. But again, Avii couldn’t worry about being delicate with her at that moment. Instead, he wrapped Vivat under one arm to protect her before throwing himself back from the unstable stack of stone. A moment later, the entire mound shook and collapsed, tumbling rocks down from the top and burying the chamber permanently.

But he had done it. He had used his knowledge of mining, his knowledge of a long-dead world, to save Vivat. To save the girl who would heal the wounds of her squad.

“There you are,” Avii muttered as he held the woman’s malnourished body in the arms of his MULE. “You’re free now. But we are not yet safe. I need your healing, Priestess. Aindes and Ostave need your healing.”

“Aindes…” Vivat whimpered, slowly looking up at the metal dome that covered Avii’s head. “Ostave? They still live?”

“They do, and they are in dire need of you. Now, can you walk?”

“I-I-I don’t think so.”

“That is fine,” Avii replied, standing and holding the woman in his broken arms. “I will carry you.”

That was when he noticed it through the slits of his helmet. The bruises around her wrists and ankles from shackles too tightly clamped. How the marks on her body avoided the spots most desired by terrible men. How even her face had been spared most of the abuse that Ostave and Aindes received. But by the way she refused to meet his gaze and held her body in shame, Avii knew that her torture had been more psychologically damaging than any they had experienced.

With that knowledge, a pit settled in his stomach as he pulled her closer, securing her frail form before moving. There was nothing he could do about the past, but he would guarantee no Kovik would touch her again. Not without putting him down first.

Quietly, Avii set off to rejoin the caster who had been nothing more than a short jog away from Vivat. Gone no more than a handful of minutes, what he saw rounding the corner to Aindes sank his heart. Standing overtop of the elf was the towering form of a golem. From its position, the construct blankly stared down at the man, its gemstone head investigating his broken form. Aindes had not moved since Avii left, his gaze still locked with the ground as his chest lifted and settled with breaths so shallow that the mule thought it was his imagination. Frozen, Avii could do nothing more than watch as the beast, content with its investigation, raised a hand in judgement. Though he knew what was to come next, by the time he turned to hide Vivat’s gaze, it was too late.

They both watched in horror as a bright blue flame erupted from the golem’s open palm. In an instant, Aindes was consumed. His still body, pressed against the stone, didn’t so much as flinch as the torch lit him ablaze. Not even a scream came from his lips as he was instantly immolated, skin burning off like paper, and muscle melting from his bones.

While Avii hadn’t been sure if the elf was even still alive by that moment, Vivat couldn’t have known that. And as she shifted the mule’s grasp, he felt her chest heave in the moments before she made a dire mistake.

“Aindes!” She screamed to the elf.

And though the caster did not respond, the golem did. As with a twist of its massive head their way, Avii watched as its arcane eye dilated. They had been found.