Chain Melody 9

“If you’re going to bother getting up Bandit Eater you might want to make peace with your situation not changing. If you can’t do that I’ll have to knock you out again.”

Roc’s voice penetrated the darkness of unconsciousness before all else but what Chain was sensing. The giant’s words were not comforting but Chain knew he was not speaking truthfully. While it was likely she was still cocooned by the chain of his weapon she could tell that she was laying on her side. There was also the smell of fire and perhaps meat cooking but none of it meant anything when compared to the sense of dread that washed over her. Faced with a return to the nothingness of unconsciousness or overcoming her irrational panic to see what caused her the sense of dread she was experiencing Chain chose the latter.

“Might as well face my fears now while it still means something…”

Chain’s words brought forth the Bandit King’s toothy grin and he tore at the haunch of ration meat he held. Chain was less enthusiastic as she slowly opened her eyes and eyed a campfire that was being tended by Finch and Matches. What meat remained above the flames seemed like it would only be enough to feed Finch and Chain could not stop herself from frowning.

“I get that I’m a prisoner right now but this is getting ridiculous. I can’t even think how long it’s been since I last ate but it’d probably be a good idea for you to share a little food with me if you’re planning what I think you are…”

“And what might that be Bandit Eater?”

“You’re thinking of using my chainmail as a replacement to that stupid dragon that’s insisting on me being related to dragons in some way or another. I doubt it’ll work though. Even if you could get my chainmail off of me and it really was made from the hide of a Chain Dragon compared to a healthy adult like that idiot its power should be insignificant.”

“Normally I’d agree with that assessment Bandit Eater.”

“Normally?”

Chain took her eyes off of the campfire and turned them in the direction of the Bandit King. Sitting with his back towards a gaping passageway that seemed to lead from the cavern they were now in back into the ruins that Chain knew were beneath the Stormroot Mountains and perhaps significantly more land, the Bandit King offered Chain his typically toothy grin.

“It rather much comes down to how much I know about dragons for why I can disagree with you Chainmaid.”

Pulling his hand cannon from its holster on his waist, Roc pointed the dragon motif weapon at Chain. Thumbing the hammer playful for a moment, the giant’s toothy grin widened as he pulled it down and a fierce red light came to life within the barrel of the firearm. Chain furrowed her brow as she could clearly sense the opening of a gate, a magical occurrence which funneled ambient magic energy in the air into a malleable point. Having fought the Bandit King before Chain found the occurrence strange as she had not sensed the opening of a gate then but had instead heard the Builders’ Song. Her confusion was writ plain as day upon her face and Roc could not help himself but laugh.

“Hm, hm, hm, hm, hmmm. Would you like an explanation Bandit eater?”

“Why not. It’s not like I have anything better to do right now.”

“This here weapon of mine and the chain I’ve wrapped around you are themselves the remnants of a Chain Dragon long since perished. What you’re likely sensing isn’t just a gate, but the very heart of a dragon. One so weak at that that it was conquered by the Builders and you wouldn’t be able to sense its heart if you weren’t so entangled with it right now. Judging off your expression though I don’t think I really need to say any more.”

“You’re absolutely mad. My ability to open gates has nothing to do with dragons.”

“Are you sure Bandit Eater? Are your eyes normally green after all? I could have sworn that they were brown when first we met.”

Chain did not have anything she could say that could fend off Roc’s speculation as she knew what the green color of her eyes meant even more than he did.

(I don’t get it though. I know I had absorbed a gate when I fought that idiot professor but I don’t feel one active right now. But it was the same thing back in Highroot. I was able to open a gate to cast a spell easily enough even though it should be way too dangerous to open a gate when I have one absorbed. That’s what caused me to go out of control in Black Mast, so what’s changed? Don’t tell me it’s…?)

Chain gritted her teeth as she tried to shake the thoughts from her head. As she did so it became all too easy to be reminded that she was an adult now compared to the child Hero, Finch as her eyes landed on the child of some ten springs. Her eyes landing on the child Hero a different thought came to Chain and she decided to ask it if only to take her mind off of the possibilities her mind was entertaining.

“And what about you? I thought you wanted to turn me over to the Princess of Highroot to keep her from slaughtering whoever it is she used to threaten you.”

“You’re not wrong Chainmaid. I also want to kill the Bandit King and the dragon that my village has been enslaved to for generations. But… Well, I listened to the Bandit King’s plan after he stopped you from causing Highroot any more damage and agreed to help him if he would kill Highroot’s princess.”

“So an alliance of convenience huh? Not that I can guess what help you can offer someone who should have been blown apart by my spell.”

“I survived because my weapon has regenerative properties that are powerful enough to keep me alive through an attack like that. It’s the reason you’re not just a bloodstain yourself Bandit Eater.”

“Thanks I guess… But that still doesn’t explain how this idiot will be of any help to you. I mean I could see the spirit with her being useful if my guess about the power of the Demon Lord sealed in this labyrinth is near the mark.”

“Hm, hm, hm, hm, hmmm. Not even close Bandit Eater. You see, there’re two problems that I have to deal with that will leave me a little vulnerable should a certain peacock invite himself along like I’m suspecting he will. The first that you know of is that if I’m using you to replace ol’ Thurlix, so obviously I have to give up my weapon to bind you to the Sacred Sword and the Sword Shrine. The other…”

Rising to his feet Roc stepped up to Chain and looked down on her with his toothy grin. Chain was unimpressed as the giant towered over her and just offered him a dirty look. The Bandit King’s grin simply widened further in response before he flipped Chain over with his foot. Chain tried to continue glaring at the Bandit King but she could not keep her eyes on him. What she saw however as she finished rolling over was of immediately greater concern.

“…is that right there Bandit Eater. The only way I know through it without bringing a whole Bright Rift excavation party down here is a Chain Dragon’s ability to consume the Ash. So if you’re still feeling hungry come morning when we pass through that you’ll be more than getting your fill. Hm, hm, hm, hm, hmmm.”

Chain had no response for the Bandit King as her eyes were instead transfixed at way opposite the entrance of the cavern Roc’s party had made camp in. From towering ceiling to abyssal bottom a writhing wall of dark red starlight filled black ash writhed and swirled. Strewn about the cavern floor before it succumbed to the abyss countless corpses of unnatural abominations lay devastated at the feet of an eight meter tall steel biped known as a Sentinel, war machines of the fallen Automina Empire. This particular Sentinel was unique however, not just for standing five meters taller than the average Sentinel but Chain could hear the Builders’ Song as she looked upon it. Its verse meant naught to her though as her eyes were transfixed on the Ash which was surely what it was that she sensed and filled her with such dread.

Copyright © 2018 Joshua D Tarwater