Only Villains Do That

Dhinell began to hyperventilate. For once I wasn’t enjoying her discomfort; I had my hands full managing my own brain. While Rhydion stepped over to the priestess, placing one hand on her upper back and speaking softly, I furiously pondered this situation and its implications, finding I had slipped automatically into my performance mindset just to maintain outward calm.

Okay. I’d been here once before. But that was different. It had been done by a Spirit which wasn’t fully corrupted—and in fact, subsequent reports from Kzidnak were that lacking any further Void manipulation it appeared to have reset itself to normal status. It had somehow used this transition to resolve the hierarchical dispute between Hoy and myself, and enclosed us in some kind of magic cage.

So, we’d been protected from whatever dangers existed in the Void, in a controlled environment. This thing was different; it seemed to just transport people into the Void and leave them. Did it do that willy-nilly to whoever approached, or had Khariss specifically set it up to trap us? In either outcome, the famous Viryan/Sanorite truce was breached in her case, since at best she’d used a known Void hazard to ensnare a bunch of (what she presumably thought were) Sanorites. Worst case, she had some measure of control over the altar and had made it do this.

“Or…did she,” I murmured aloud. The others turned to stare at me. “Nobody would go into the Void willingly. Even for a Void witch, it’s suicide. If she wasn’t expecting this, she could be as trapped as we are.”

“That begs the question of what she thought would happen when she approached a Void altar that she had clearly sealed up for good reason,” said Aster. “Not to mention why that was her immediate response to seeing us approach.”

“She didn’t…see…us…”

I trailed off, realizing. Had she, though? Her ability to evade us revealed she had some way of knowing we were there. Biribo’s spiders. They were clearly there on purpose, otherwise why leave the webs intact? Spider webs transmitted vibrations…information. The giant spiders has been extracting their own webs and making fabric from it. Alchemy was basically chemistry using components from magical flora, fauna and minerals, a way to bypass the Blessings system without relying on the Void and all its deadly caveats. It could do…unpredictable things. Could she see through the eyes of her house spiders? Or use the webs as some kind of…divination tool?

If Khariss had seen us, somehow… She had seen a party of adventurers, including a knight and priestess proudly wearing Sanorite colors, and a man with Asian features. Khariss was one of the only people on this world who could recognize those, and know what they meant.

Holy shit. She probably thought I was the new Hero, come to finally finish her off. No wonder she had panicked.

The two big problems with this theory were that I couldn’t be sure it was right, and that if it was I had no way of relaying it to Rhydion to earn her a bit of tolerance, not without blowing the whole game wide open.

Okay, that did it, new rule. No more having adventures and political maneuvering simultaneously. From now on, it was one or the other at a time. This was getting entirely out of hand.

“Listen to me carefully.”

We all turned to Rhydion as he began to speak, and I for one did pay close attention, not just because of the clear importance of what he was saying but because he performed so well. It was genuinely impressive how he managed to make his delivery soothing—rhythmic, steady, designed to lull as well as to inspire. This guy was not new to leading people.

“We are able to safely use magic through our Blessings, under the auspices of the Goddesses. What method the devils use to control magic is unknown, save that it requires the consumption of souls, which cannot be called anything but abhorrently evil. Even our alchemy is a practice of mixing together substances containing trace magic that has become part of the natural world, combining and processing them to create complex effects. All of these are filters. To use magic requires some barrier between us and it, making it amenable to control.”

On the surface, this situation seemed like the worst possible time for an expository lecture, but I could see what he was doing. Every word let him use his vocal technique to encourage calm, which I had a strong feeling was more important in this situation specifically than because of the general benefit of keeping a cool head in a crisis. And as for the actual content of his speech, I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

“The Void is raw magic. Magic in its purest, unrestrained form. Magic, reduced to its basic essence, is that which imposes thought upon reality—the subjective made objective. Just as the workings of your own brain enable your consciousness to control your body—both actively in the voluntary movements of your limbs, and such passive functions as the heart and lungs that keep us all alive—magic enables the brain to exert control upon reality itself. But mortal minds were designed to control mortal bodies; they are not suitable to control reality. The inevitable result of raw magic—of Void magic—is utter, unrestrained chaos. Any trifling thought, even the constant deluge of noise that occurs under the surface of consciousness, written upon the world itself. Every second is a billion potential disasters.”

Yep. Called it.

“This is why to stay in the Void is lethal,” Rhydion continued, slowly shifting his helmet to face each of us in turn. “Not because it is poison. It is a mechanism by which our own consciousness will unleash uncontrolled destruction around us. And so, we must be calm. Strong emotions and vivid thoughts will amplify the process and bring doom upon us all the faster. Thus I urge you, do everything in your power to reach for serenity. Sit in prayer or in meditation if you must. Perform martial arts, use simple breathing exercises. Anything. We must be calm.”

“Okay, but…” Harker glanced around. “I don’t doubt you, Rhydion, but I don’t see…uh, disaster.”

“And that is why.” Rhydion pointed at the Void altar behind us, which looked the same on this side of the dimensional barrier. “It exists here and in the mortal realm simultaneously, as a function of how it draws and processes magical power. Its influence is stronger than ours. Staying in close proximity to it will give us the only approximation of safety that can be had here.”

I recalled my previous brief sojourn in the Void, how the Spirit altar that had sent Hoy and I there had also kept us contained in a small space behind a barrier. I hadn’t seen any of the effects Rhydion was describing, but that had been done by a built-in function of the system itself, not whatever half-assed jury rigging Khariss had inflicted on this poor thing. I well believed we were less safe here.

“It’s…is the air…changing?” Aster asked warily.

It was. Focusing, I could see it, in the green haze that hung about us. Ripples, vibrations…odd little patches of thickening, as if some kind of ineffable ether was trying to coalesce into a real form and then being dispersed before it could make any headway.

“Calm,” Rhydion repeated, his tone still embodying that principle. “Breathe slowly and deeply, try to feel that sensation to the exclusion of all else. Yes, Aster, this is the effect I described. The Spirit’s aura of control is a constant; one person, perhaps two, would see little result if they stayed close enough to touch it. With all five of us in this room, it is struggling to impose order on the chaos our minds are trying to create just by being here. If we venture any farther from this spot, that chaos will begin to take form far more readily.”

It was a really good thing we were underground. Something told me if this group could see all the gigantic dead monsters that filled the core of the planet on this side of the curtain, nothing could have kept them from panicking us to death.

Dhinell had her eyes closed and was deliberately breathing as slowly as she could, though her lips quivered in the familiar motions of a half-vocalized prayer. Harker’s face had an unhealthy grayish tinge, but he was expressionless; it didn’t shock me that this dude had some practice at repressing his emotions. Aster, likewise, was a rock, at least on the outside. I knew she felt as deeply as anyone but her self-control was ironclad.

I was doing fairly all right, I figured. Absentmindedly, drawing some basic animal reassurance from the motions of self-grooming, I had begun touching my own clothing, adjusting my coat, reaching up to straighten my scarf—

I froze, the bottom dropping out of my stomach.

My scarf. It was just a scarf. No familiar weight in it.

Biribo was gone.

This was the Void, a realm of pure magic—a place familiars weren’t supposed to go. A place clearly outside the control of the goddesses and their Blessing system. Last time this had happened, he’d been caught outside the barrier and not transported in here with me. Minutes ago, he’d begged me not to come down here.

No no no no. No.

Never mind how incredibly useful he was, never mind that I knew damn well he was a spy for Virya who would have no choice but to turn on me in the end, he was my little buddy, the one constant in my life since I’d come to this horrible hell world. He couldn’t just be gone, not over something like—

Now I was hyperventilating, a fact of which I was suddenly aware when it stopped. My Wisdom perk had kicked in. Absolute stillness took hold of my mind just as the fear and grief threatened to overwhelm me, emotion fading away to leave behind utter clarity of thought.

There was a noticeable lightening of the effects in the green air around us. Interesting.

“What’s our plan, then?” I asked tonelessly. “We can’t leave through the door. Are Void altars any less dangerous to tamper with on this side?”

“More so, I should think,” Rhydion replied. “But I see little other choice. However, urgent as the need to escape is, we have one other matter which presses upon us.”

I nodded. “Khariss.”

Dhinell drew in a ragged breath and let it back out in the form of a shrill complaint. “You cannot still be thinking of—”

“She came in here before us,” I interrupted, the coldness of my voice seeming to douse the growing emotion in hers. “Whether on purpose or not is a question we can deal with when we’re safe again. What matters is she is in here, and has gone beyond the range of the Spirit. That’s one more person whose mortal brain is now conjuring random nightmares, and she can’t have gotten far enough for that not to be an immediate threat.”

“I don’t see anything trying to come in,” Aster said warily, studying the room’s exit. The flickering had finally stopped, leaving the doorway resolved in its broken open state. “Or hear anything, for that matter.”

“She’s an alchemist,” Harker commented. “There’s drugs for…you know, calm. Standing sleep, or maybe something weaker. Point is, she’s probably got some means of self-control. I bet that’s why she was willing to risk coming in here.”

“An astute observation,” Rhydion said, nodding at him. “Methods of mental stillness do exist, but against this realm any such will only hold partially, and for a short time. I am going to propose a course of action,” he added, turning to look at me directly, “which none of you are going to like hearing. I’m afraid we haven’t the luxury of time to debate.”

“You’re going after her alone,” I said, the pieces slotting neatly together in my mind almost of their own volition.

“You can’t!”

“That doesn’t seem like a great idea…”

“Your funeral.”

“Being fully trained by multiple religious orders, I’m sure you know all kinds of mental disciplines,” I said, hearing the echoing emptiness in my own voice and wondering in one corner of my serene mind what impression this uncharacteristic calm was making on the others. “And…that armor has additional measures, doesn’t it?”

“Perceptive, and logical,” Rhydion agreed, nodding again. “You are correct, Lord Seiji. However, I was speaking also of myself when I said that any measures to counter the Void’s effects are insufficient, and fleeting. I believe I can maintain the necessary serenity to avoid causing acute disaster long enough to reach the top of the stairs, see if Khariss is still close enough to spot, and then return, with or without her. More than that I dare not do. Furthermore,” he added, raising his voice slightly against the several objections that nearly materialized from the others, “my absence will mean one less sapience in here pressing against the altar’s protection. I will be gone for minutes at most, seconds in the best case. Use this time to reinforce your own calm. Any of you who believe yourselves sufficiently in control, begin considering a means of escape.”

That last was directed at me. He couldn’t have known it was a Wisdom perk—probably…surely?—but he could clearly see I was doing something to suppress my own emotions right now. Given the needs of the situation, that pretty much put me in charge.

“But—”

“I’m sorry. There is no time for discussion. I will be back momentarily.”

And just like that, he strode to the door and then up the stairs beyond, off into the Void alone.

I stood in stillness, my mind working rapidly and unusually smoothly. Considering possibilities, options.

I could use the Void altar. Champions of the Goddess…well, probably both kinds of Champions but definitely Dark Lords…were pre-attuned. I could get us out of here, as soon as Rhydion was back with or without Khariss. What was going to be tricky was doing that without letting them learn why. It was likely even Rhydion didn’t know about Champions having Void attunement…which might not be a good thing, as the alternative was they’d just assume I was a Void witch.

Okay. There were no good options, so I would go with the least terrible one: feign panic, grab the altar and tell it to send us home, and then feign ignorance as to why it had worked. It would undoubtedly create massive problems for me going forward, but I’d be alive to deal with them. Sometimes, that was the best deal you could scrape by with.

Rhydion had only been gone a couple of seconds and I had our escape plan sorted. Thus unoccupied, my mind snapped to the next matter, which turned out to be an interesting possibility that probably wouldn’t even have occurred to me were I not in a Wisdom fugue.

Last time I’d come to the Void I’d gotten a new spell. Granted, Virya had pre-programmed the system to give it to me, apparently, but with Rydion’s description of what magic was and how it worked, I had a sudden thought.

Might spell combination be much easier here?

I’d not had the opportunity to try it during a Wisdom-induced dissociative state, much less in the Void. Now I called up the weight of Shock, my shiny new power I had not been willing to risk playing with, and the sense of other spells that was my combination perk. Around me, I could see in my mind’s eye the code that made up the spell system.

It was…different. Faster, fluid. Shifting about with every little nudge of my attention.

Interesting.

Rhydion had described the altar’s protection as a kind of aura, that got weaker with distance. I took two steps toward the door.

“Lord Seiji?” Aster said in a tone that was half question, half warning, “are you doing something stupid?”

“Possibly,” I said, my voice still curt and cold. “You’ll know what to do if I do.”

“I’ll what? Fucking how?!”

I ignored her, fully occupied with my magic. Yes, it was faster. Easier! I took another step, nearly reaching the door. This was so much easier than doing it normally—

Right up until I completely lost control of it, which was what happened at that point.

Blocks of spell code snapped together, not just unbidden, but suddenly outside my control.

Shock + Spark = STRIKE

Okay, I had a new spell, that wasn’t so—they kept coming. I couldn’t make it stop.

Shock + Heal = RESUSCITATE

My whole body had locked up. Never mind my brain, I couldn’t control anything. It was like all the RAM of my consciousness was tied up scanning for potential spell combinations and brute forcing them through.

Shock + Summon Slime = SUMMON LIGHTNING SLIME

Shock + Tame Beast = IMBUE BEAST

Shock + Orb of Light = STUN FIELD

Now I was beginning to panic—oh, this had somehow overridden my Wisdom perk, fucking great. I was frozen in place, quivering all over, gaining more spells by the second at a rate I’d never have been able to achieve alone, unable to control it or stop. The pressure in my head—

Shock + Windburst = ARC

And then it got worse. The pressure redoubled into blinding pain as I ran out of valid two-spell combinations. Triple spells are brutally hard, and now my brain was using every bit of power it had to ram them through.

Blood started to trickle from my nose.

Shock + Spark + Orb of Light = STORM

Shock + Spark + Windburst = CURRENT

Shock + Summon Slime + Tame Beast = SUMMON BOUND LIGHTNING SLIME

Every muscle was locked up; I was twitching uncontrollably. It wouldn’t stop. Pain, everywhere, increasing—

I was yanked bodily backward and thrown. My back painfully impacted the Void altar and I tumbled gracelessly to the ground, aching all over, especially where I’d been hit, but… Oh, thank god, it was over. It was taking all my focus to breathe properly, but I could again. I could move my body, the pressure in my head was gone.

“Lord Seiji!” Aster practically landed on top of me where she’d hurled me away from the door. “Seiji! Are you all right? Say something!”

“I…yeah, I…hang on, lemme—”

“Don’t!” Rhydion came striding back in, holding out a hand to me. “Do not heal yourself! You must not use magic here. What happened?”

“He did a Seiji!” Aster snarled. “What did you do?”

“I…” I coughed, grimacing. Oh, man, this hurt. And no healing? Fuck. “I wandered too far from the altar and…ow. My whole brain… I locked up and…”

“You were exceedingly fortunate,” Rhydion said sternly. “Both that you experienced an internal Void effect rather than filling this chamber with fire or some such, and that your friend was fast enough with her wits to drag you back into the altar’s protection.”

“Are you okay?” Aster asked, worry breaking through her anger. “Seriously, how bad is it?”

“I’m…sore as hell. Especially where I landed. But I think…nothing worse than that.” I wiped blood off my face with the back of my glove. “Fuckin’ ow. Yeah, nothing seems broken. It’s nothing I can’t heal once we’re back outta here.”

She let out a breath of relief. “Okay. All right. Good.”

And then she slapped me hard across the side of the head.

“Ow! Bitch, what the fuck?! I’m injured here.”

“Sorry,” Aster lied, baring her teeth. “I guess the darkness inside me made me do it.”

In the near distance, Harker snickered.

I narrowed my eyes accusingly. “You’re a rotten, insubordinate cow.”

“Yep.”

“I love you.”

“Damn right you do.”

“Like a sister,” I clarified. “A smug, pushy older sister. I wouldn’t bang you if you were the last woman alive.”

“I’m already out of your league without raising hypotheticals like that.”

“Ahem.” We turned to regard Rhydion, whose loud throat-clearing interrupted our moment. “Sincere declarations of friendship are also emotionally charged. No doubt we all have many things to discuss, but later. Remember, calm.”

“Right.” Wincing, I clambered to my feet, accepting a hand up from Aster. “So, I don’t see a vampire. No luck?”

He shook his head. “Her fate is her own, now. I also discerned no severe chaotic effects—at least, none not attributable to my own presence, and I retreated before those could begin to accumulate into physically dangerous manifestations. Whatever has happened to Khariss, she has gone far enough that it will hopefully not affect us directly, at least until we have secured our own escape.”

“Couldn’t’ve happened to a nicer cunt,” said Harker. “So about our escape, any ideas?”

Ah, right, I’d come up with a plan while my calm inducing Wisdom perk was still working. “Actually, I had a—”

“Excuse me.”

We all spun to face the door, and the new person in it. No…the new devil.

There was a devil here. Which was enough by itself to be a worst case scenario, but because this was my life, it was somehow even worse than that. This was a devil I knew, one who could say one word and blow my whole operation wide open.

Ozyraph regarded us all with a distasteful expression, raising one eyebrow.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”