16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Z en gasped awake and instantly cringed when he tried to sit up. Everything hurt.

Khel! Where was Khel?

Where were the others?!

" Rest ," a firm female voice preceded even firmer hands pressing him back onto the cot.

It took Zen a moment to see where he was, even with his darkling eyes cutting through the general darkness. At first, he thought that above him twinkled stars, but as his vision cleared, he saw that it was stone, beautiful with sparkling bits of mineral all throughout the rock like its own night sky.

There were lights but not ones made of fire, not torches or the usual Light spells Zen was used to. These lights were softer, faintly glowing crystals in blue, red, or purple, like how the protection rods glowed when they were active. The ceiling was low, a carved out dwelling inside a cave, and every bit of furniture or adornment seemed to be made of stone or crystal as well.

They were in the mountains.

The woman, too, wore stones and crystals around her neck and as rings and on bangles dangling from her wrists. Zen didn't know her. She was human, with blue eyes, dark hair, and yet a warm tan to her skin despite being in a land without sun in the darkest depths of its terrain. She hadn't been with Xari's people, but as Zen listened to her speak, he thought he remembered her voice.

"Your friends are fine. They'll want to know you're awake, but you should rest. Your elven friend had a rough go of it, but I was able to heal him."

Khel . "But… he stopped breathing," Zen lamented.

"He did," she said softly. "He might not have survived at all if you hadn't poured so much power into him. You nearly killed yourself, but you're the reason he lives as much as anything I did. Don't do that again."

He lived. Khel was okay. "Thank you," Zen said, relaxing finally and enjoying the feel of a cot rather than cold, hard ground to rest upon. "Um…"

"Shar. One of our village shaman. And you don't have to worry about those beasts anymore. The crystals protect us." Shar indicated the glowing crystals, some set into the stone directly, others in sconces.

Xari had told them not to trust any villages, especially in the mountains where they might become trapped, but they must have seen no other alternative.

Zen was glad. After all, he didn't blame Degnan for what had happened in the first village.

The brides, on the other hand…

"He up?"

Zen tensed at the more familiar voice of Dante, as the burly half-giant entered. The entrance was a hollowing in the rock covered by a cloth that he parted and let fall closed behind him.

Just him.

All Zen could remember then was how Dante had sneered at him, threatening and unforgiving after discovering the truth of Zen's lineage.

"He'll be fine after some rest," Shar said, rising from a stone seat beside him. "I'll check in on Khel and give you two some privacy."

No , Zen thought foolishly, almost lurching back into a sitting position. There was no axe on Dante's back, but his alchemy belt remained. How easily might he pour one of his acid vials down Zen's body…?

Shar was gone before Zen could say anything, and Zen struggled not to shake.

"I-I-I…"

"I'm an ass."

Zen blinked. "What?"

Dante didn't look quite as fiery as usual, as he came over to take the seat Shar had vacated. "I got a temper. What else is new?" He slumped down on the seat. "You've saved us more than I can count. All of us. Morty. Khel. Me." He held out his arm that still showed the bite marks from the wolf, red again like he'd been itching them out of habit.

Dante was apologizing, even though Zen had been the one in the wrong.

"I'm sorry I lied," Zen said, emotion thick in his voice.

"Your boy's a vampire. Who wouldn't have?"

Zen laughed before he could stop the sound.

So, too, eased the last of Zen's apprehension when Dante cracked a smile.

"Awake?" Morty all but shouted, barreling into the abode without parting the cloth door first, which caused it to follow him a good foot, stuck to the top of his bright blue head. "Thank the gods, heavens and hells, and all the magic on this plane! We thought we'd lost you." He rushed to the opposite side of the cot, looking ready to embrace Zen, but he must have thought better of Zen's weakness, and chose to grasp his hand. "We're lucky this settlement has such gifted healers, or we might have lost you and Khel."

"The people seem okay?" Zen looked between his friends.

"Saved our hides." Dante shrugged. "We're not lowering our guards, but everyone's still breathing."

"They have their own worries," Morty said. "Seems there's some affliction that only the people of this village suffer. Every so often, someone falls into a death-like sleep, slowly drained of their life until they pass. I assumed it was Gaian or his brides sneaking in at night, given we're much closer to the castle, but they claim there's never any bite marks. Does that sound like anything you're familiar with, Zen?"

"I'm not sure."

"Me either, though I feel like I should. I promised Shar, in exchange for her help, that I'd happily investigate from a magical perspective. Even if these people are loyal to Gaian, that might keep them a little loyal to us too."

"What about Xari?" Zen asked. "How many did she lose?"

"Too many," Dante snarled, but at least Zen knew it wasn't directed at him anymore. "Even she's been swayed by these people, her troupe all welcomed and healed. She still refuses any offer for them to stay longer than recovering though. Eventually, they'll return to the wood."

That didn't surprise Zen, even if the people here were trustworthy. "Can I see Khel?"

"Have something to eat and drink first." Morty snatched up some provisions and water nearby. "Then we can take you. Khel's going to need a little longer to mend, but he will mend, and that's thanks to you."

The sentiment was appreciated, and Zen wished he could smile at it, but he couldn't shake the guilt that he had also been the cause. "Khel's hurt because of me."

"Because of that bastard vampire," Dante growled, meaty fists clenching. His amber eyes seemed to glow for a moment, but then softened. "I know he's your… love or whatever, but—"

"No." Zen shook his head. "He was my love in another life. In this one, you go right ahead and be angry. I know I am."

Neither appeared to know what to say, so neither tried. Back before in camp, Zen had feared that Gaian's guess about his friends turning on him would be right, that they wouldn't understand or forgive him, especially not after seeing how angry Dante had been, but now, they had proven Zen right instead.

Conversation turned to the settlement, to its people, who were a mix of races like usual in Nightfall. After a while of talking, and Zen eating and drinking his fill, he insisted on seeing Khel. His body ached from how much energy had been drained from him, but if he moved slowly, he could manage.

He even made a point of grabbing his belt, though he let his crossbow stay against the wall, where someone must have laid it. He didn't have anything else. His pack was gone.

Zen expected more low ceilings when they existed the abode, but he lost his breath at the actual view. Smaller dwellings carved into the rock like the one Zen had been in were everywhere, but the settlement itself was inside a vast mountain, with ceilings too high to see in most places, and it stretched on for what looked like miles, crystal lights like lampposts dotting as far as he could see in the distance.

This wasn't a village. It was a city.

Zen noticed that Morty's steps were uneven on the rocky ground, but Dante walked as fluidly as if he were back in the wood, and he helped Zen, preventing Zen from tumbling on the unfamiliar terrain.

"This must be like home for you," Zen noted.

Dante took in a breath as though catching a scent only he could detect. "There's an energy to the stone, to places like this, that the surface never has. There better not be any cave spiders though." He glanced around in disdain.

"You better not throw any alchemist's fire if there are," Morty teased.

They laughed.

The abode where Khel was being kept was larger than Zen's, maybe Shar's main hut for healing, given the herbs hanging about and stuck in jars and bottles everywhere when they entered.

"There's my savior," Khel huffed at their arrival.

He looked rough, lying in a cot like Zen had been, but bundled in blankets and shivering to show his fever. Sweat covered his brow, and he looked terribly pale, the color dim in his usually bright blue eyes, and a few scars remained where his skin peeked out from the blankets.

A quiet woof reminded Zen of Guardian, who he'd last seen charging ahead of everyone to clear the way. The wolf got up from where he'd been lying beneath Khel's cot and trotted over to sniff and lick Zen's hand.

Another healer, a dwarven woman, was mixing up a salve nearby but paid them little mind as they approached Khel's cot.

"Brother." Khel reached for Zen, trying to sit up. "I'm so glad you're—"

"Lie back." Shar appeared from another room as if phasing through the very stone. "And stop talking. How many times must I tell you?"

"I only—" Khel tried, but Shar shushed him.

" You need to rest," she said. "Those beasts are like a plague if they get their claws in you, and they got in plenty. Now, hush. And you two." She whirled on Dante and Morty. "Stop scratching!"

Zen had noticed Dante scratching the bite on his arm, but now he saw Morty scratching too—at the bite on his neck from one of the brides.

Shar snatched the mortar and pestle from the dwarven woman, who looked mildly perturbed. "A wolf," Shar said of Dante's bite, spreading some of the salve over the marks, and then did the same to Morty's, "and a vampire. Seems you've met most of what Nightfall has to offer, all reflections of Lord Gaian and the different forms he takes."

Zen hadn't seen Gaian become a wolf, though he'd assumed he could, and he'd seen both the monstrous and small-sized version of him being a bat like the vampire at his core.

"Is that all a vampire lord can turn into?" Zen asked.

"And mist," Morty said.

"What sort of creature would be made of—?"

"Can you have this discussion away from my patient," Shar broke in. "You should be resting more too, so don't overdo it," she chided Zen.

Dante and Morty gave little protest, perhaps used to Shar already, or maybe merely grateful for the salve that seemed to calm their itching, but when Zen tried to follow them out of the abode, Khel waved a frantic hand for him to lean over his cot.

"Thank you, brother. And you are my brother, all of ours. We'll return the favor, I swear it. We will save your love yet."

"Khel…"

"Will you two listen to me?" Shar reprimanded them once more.

"She actually really likes me," Khel said, tossing her a wink. "I can tell."

Zen would have laughed, especially with how Shar pursed her lips, but his heart felt heavy and wasn't lessened when he exited with the others. Guardian remained behind, plopped back down beneath Khel's cot to live up to his namesake.

Zen couldn't pay much attention to what Morty and Dante discussed outside, though he vaguely heard mention of what they should do next, which sadly, had to be to wait until Khel was better.

Xari appeared, a little rough looking too, but healthy, and expressed her gratitude that Zen was well. Zen even thought she meant it, though his mind wasn't really on her or her people. Xari's troupe would eventually head back out toward their next shrine, but Zen and his friends would continue through the mountains for Gaian's castle.

"Just in case this settlement is loyal to their lord," Morty whispered, "let's avoid saying too loudly that we're planning to kill him."

Kill him.

Save him.

Zen wasn't sure which he wanted.

What did Gaian want anymore? He was clearly furious with Zen. He might simply attack him the next time they met and make the decision for him.

It was the next day, not that day meant anything more here than it did outside. This shortcut meant they could reach the castle in a day or two, so even if Khel needed a couple days to rest, this would all be over soon.

One way or another.

Zen excused himself from his friends, swearing that he felt fine to be on his own, just needed to clear his head, and if he felt weak, he would go back to Shar.

They let him leave, and he wandered for a while, looking for a quiet corner, ever vigilant of his footing on the stone. There were many people about, many darklings, so Zen hardly garnered much attention. It was like an inversion of Daxos, the same bustle and expanse, but completely different in every other way.

Zen found an outcropping of rock, hidden in shadows behind several abodes, about the shape and size of a bench, and so he sat. There were no crystals here, just a path declining around a bend, though Zen could see well enough. He took out his prayer book, paging through it, but there was nothing new, nothing truly useful that he didn't already know.

The memories that had returned to him reminded him that he hadn't had such abilities in his other life. He only faintly remembered his mother and all her teachings of the three gods, but Zenos had wanted nothing to do with them. He'd refused to put faith in gods when anywhere he traveled outside his home was filled with ignorant people who hated him for no reason than his lineage.

What did that make Zen that the Sun God allowed him prayer and power, the ability to heal or strike an enemy with holy light? Was it only because the priests had raised him, shaping him as a tool to kill his only love…?

With a mad surge of anger, Zen chucked the prayer book at the stone wall behind him—only it wasn't a wall, because the book vanished instead of striking with a thud.

As Zen's eyes adjusted to cut through the deeper darkness, it wasn't his prayer book that he saw, but the approach of glowing, red eyes.