Chapter Forty-Five: Frozen in Grief

  Selriph felt the weight of the newest addition to his belongings—the mithril ingot—thud against his thighs as he rounded the caged-off study. His eyes darted to the exit, then back, expecting the female elf to be already in step behind him.

  But no, instead, Kel was just where she had been a moment ago, completely immobile, sitting down, her knees touching, eyes bored into the mangled pile of crimson-stained robes and gruesome poultry mush that was her brother, her companion since birth.

  “Kela! Kela!!” Selriph’s echoed through the chamber as the Mithril Golem lumbered towards the elf-frozen in grief.

  Damn! What is she doing?!

  Selriph skidded to a halt just shy of the exit. Contrary to everything his mental faculties were commanding him to do, he bolted in the opposite direction, towards the golem, which had now brandished a blade-like implement. The metal extension faded in and out with the glow of arcane energy.

  Its joints groaned, ready to move with a clear intention to impale the rune-shocked elf.

  “Kela, move!!”. Selriph’s desperate cries did not stir the elf, her gaze tracing towards the lumbering monstrosity, a shadow cast in her blank eyes. It took a step toward the frozen elf, dragging a gruesome trail of entrails and bone with each heavy footfall.

  As the golem’s blade-like arm drew back, its blade-like implement gathering arcane energy, Selriph’s own magical energy flared to life. From his outstretched hand—fingers in a clawlike shape—tendrils of blue, translucent energy extended.

  In a flash, they snaked out and wrapped around the elf. Her head tilted in numb curiosity toward its source as, with a heaving tug, he desperately yanked her away. Just as the golem began its lunge, its arcane-charged blade, full of azure energy, slammed into the stone ground. The elf barely cleared the impact zone, leaving a small explosion of magical energy.

  The aftermath presented itself in the following moment: a clean dent, approximately a fifth of a meter deep. The mithril embedded itself into the stone cleanly, like a steak fork in tender meat.

  Kela’s body slid across the paved stone of the vault, skidding to a halt a few paces shy of the human youth.

  The arcane energy tendrils dissipated as they fulfilled their life-saving purpose. Then, Selriph appraised the elf‘s condition, unscathed yet, moving with a lethargy that was an unwelcome counterpoint to the surrounding situation.

  She looked up to Selriph, her voice frail, almost inaudible against the creak of metal and billowing arcane energy of the golem. “Selriph…? Why are you still—?” her expression one of perplexed shock mixed with a frown budding through her forehead—one that seemed to protest the incredulous notion that Selriph moved to save her.

  Selriph darted forward and grabbed her arm. “We have to move!” his voice ragged.

  Yet the elf’s bottom remained plastered to the floor; Selriph’s attempts to pull her were like dragging a limp sack of bones on the floor.

  Oh, by Vireon’s light!

  Selriph’s vision flashed back to the elf before him, channelling the frustration from his budding reprimand into a wave of courage, one that superseded his typical need to ask for permission for what he was about to do.

  Selriph extended his free hand, and a shimmering disc of arcane energy formed above his palm. He flicked his wrist, and the disc shot forward, expanding mid-air into an ellipsoid that slid under the elf. A moment later, with the help of the arcane energies, he pulled her arm over his shoulder, hoisting her onto his back as he turned toward the exit.

  As they ran toward the door, Kela’s feet persistently scraped and dragged behind him, meeting the frantic thump of Selriph’s feet. She hadn’t wrapped her legs around his torso, her limbs limp and useless, seemingly bent on impeding their desperate flight. He held onto her forearm, his vice grip no doubt causing her immense pain.

  Through sheer strength and adrenaline, Selriph kept some semblance of a sprint as they passed the vault door, his gaze tracing to the inert slabs. The opening was wide enough for the golem, but there wasn’t enough time for Selriph to reactivate the warding glyphs to seal the monstrosity in the site of its conception, the sonorous thuds a sure indication of its pursuit.

  Damn, gotta keep moving. Get to the exit…!

  In the faint gloom, Selriph ran through the cavern where the giant Mithril Scarab’s corpse lay, now emitting the foul scent of decay. As if cued by the smell, a cooperative set of movements came from Kela, and she tightened her arm around Selriph’s collar, almost threatening to strangle the fleeing boy mid-stride.

  Her arms pressed around his collarbone—hard—forcing a gulping gasp from Selriph as his hands released their grip on her arms.

  Instinctively, his palms found a new home underneath the elf’s thigh in an effort to hold her up, easing the noose that threatened to choke him out mid-stride.

  That was accompanied by the distinct feeling of dampness that clung to the elf’s lower garments—it’s likely source a testament to her state of mind.

  “Why didn’t… if you could…. why,” Kela incoherently muttered, dry, almost bitter, devoid of any gratitude.

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  “Save that for later.” The clarity of the youth’s voice rang through now two-metre ceiling above, mixing with the discordant clomps coming from behind him, in a tempo that almost matched the boy’s—if their towering pursuer was even capable of such a pace.

  They turned a bend carved over centuries of geology. There, Selriph saw the ravine, a chasm that cut across their path of escape, only bridged by the half-conjured, half-natural crossing in the middle, able to fit two people comfortably—if they were able to walk on their own.

  His pace slowed to a meticulous, hunched-forward stroll as he glanced behind him, the light around the corner gaining luminosity, signalling the impending arrival of their oversized pursuer. The only thing stopping it was the rocky ceiling that would give it pause.

  At least, that is what he hoped.

  As if the spirit of its creator sought to mock the very notion that mere rock could stop his prized mithrilite abomination, Selriph heard a deafening crash just as he had passed through the halfway mark. The entire cavern trembled at the explosive entrance of the golem into this ravine-adorned cavern.

  Yet the boy kept his eyes trained. In just another ten seconds, he would clear the chasm.

  Beyond that, lay the tunnel, just a human’s height, then? the relative safety of the outdoors where his steed and wolf awaited.

  But then he felt it, the familiar yet unwelcome buzz of arcane energy. Coming from behind him. The boy glanced back, past the shadowed golden strands of hair of the humanoid weight on his back.

  Rather than directly pursuing its quarry on the crossing, arcane energy was once again gathering in its mithril appendage—the golem displaying unnerving intelligence as it charged up some kind of arcane projectile, aimed at the duo.

  We won’t make it in time if it—

  The arcane lance shot like a runepowder cannonball, a high-pitched boom reverberating as moisture dripped from the ceiling with the release of the arcane energy. Selriph ducked, and the blue energy passed just inches beyond him, impacting the wall beyond—at the entrance of the tunnels leading to their escape.

  Damn, we have to get up…

  However, Kela remained unresponsive, a dead weight on his body, her face still pale and dead, eyes wide and vacant, a confutation to the urgency of their situation.

  Ahead, the additional complication arose from the near miss—their exit had partially collapsed. A passage they could only vault and crawl through.

  That was an impossibility given the presence of the Mithril golem now firmly in pursuit. The soft crack of stone accompanied the colossal gait of the hulking beast as it began its menacing advance towards the prone pair.

  By the time Selriph crawled out from under Kela’s weight and rose to his feet, the Golem was already a third of the way across.

  “Kela! Kela, please get the hell up!” as he tugged on her arm, once again dragging her across the stone bridge, which was becoming more and more unstable by the second.

  Yet she did not stir.

  Damn, why won’t she cooperate?

  With each passing second, the boy and the very much alive body he was dragging inched closer to the other side of the ravine, but with that, the gap between them and the golem closed.

  Selriph glanced back at the half-caved-in exit, then back towards the approaching golem.

  Should I just abandon her…?

  Selriph shook his head, dismissing the ludicrous notion. Whether driven by some ill-conceived conviction brought about by the effort he had already invested in this endeavour or driven by the rational need to keep her alive to help with the collapsed mine, the youth planted his feet.

  He stared into the depths below.

  If I can just knock it down…!

  Crackling purple arcs trailed his palms as he let out two concentrated bolts of electric energy, slamming into the golem with a deafening crack—one that the arcane lances that construct had brought to bear in this chase.

  The construct staggered mid-stride, likely from some combination of the kinetic aftershock of the impact and the electric energy that had interrupted the flow of arcane energy that coursed through it.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to matter—each consecutive bolt hurled was far from toppling it into the abyss below; it merely served to protract its inevitable advance.

  This is hopeless. The only way is to levitate her across the rest of the way, then I just have to run —

  Selriph turned back to the Elf, one hand still pelting bolts of lightning at the golem out of his vision. His other hand extended, ready to attempt to levitate the elf to safety.

  As his head completed its turn, he half expected to see the elf finally stir, perhaps upright.

  But no, the sight that met him, at least for the first seconds, perplexed him. Kela was not where he had left him; his gaze traced upwards, meeting the feet, then the legs of the elf moving in the direction of the exit.

  Yet still sprawled on the ground.

  Selriph gazed up and through the gloom; he could see it, Kela’s figure being dragged by something.

  Its source came into view, its fangs held in a tight grip around Kela’s bearfur coat.

  The dire wolf.

  “Emmett! Why are you… Never mind, keep doing what you are doing!” Selriph turned back, prepared to resume his double-cast volley of electric energy to buy Emmett the additional seconds he needed to clear Kela and pass the threshold of the ravine.

  The sight that met him was a bitter rebuttal of circumstance, cancelling out the fortuitous appearance of the canine companion.

  The golem towered over him, its blade in mid-lunge towards the boy, mere seconds away from impaling him.

  A brilliant flare of arcane energy erupted from the boy. He brought his arms up to meet the coming blade, and swirling masses of magical energy coalesced before his palms. An electrifying sensation surged through his body as his mystical might repelled the blade, which paused just a dagger’s length from his outstretched palm.

  The energy brimmed and gathered chaotically, the output from the golem melding and buffering against Selriph’s. It felt like he was physically holding back the full weight of the golem through his muscle strength alone.

  Selriph stumbled back, trying to put distance between himself and the oncoming blade. It advanced relentlessly, the gap between blade and flesh closing micrometre by micrometre. Steam vented from the golem’s joints as the construct struggled. The glowing energy where its ‘eyes’ were indicated its relentless desire for its blade to meet its target of blood and bone.

  The exertion began to erode Selriph’s stamina. His hands trembled, the brilliant barrier of arcane energy slowly fading in luminosity, the massive blade just inches from drawing blood.

  I have no choice!

  Selriph backstepped, releasing the arcane energy. The blade passed through the air, just missing Selriph’s hand. The boy turned in a flash, intent on sprinting the rest of the way across the bridge.

  In the half-second it took for his vision to register that Emmett had indeed pulled Kela to safety, a tremor raced through his feet, followed by the distinct sound of metal impacting stone.

  In the fading glow of the arcane clash, he could see cracks, ones that spider-webbed across the bridge beneath him.

  At the next point of contact his feet made in his desperate strike, the ground splintered underfoot, sending a shudder through his body in this adrenaline-filled flight.

  The bridge groaned, the ground shattered beneath him, and inevitably, it gave way. Solid earth was replaced by cold, frigid air.

  A gasp of horror escaped Selriph’s lips as he began his plummet to certain death.

  Just two footfalls away from reaching the other side.

  Eldeitia'