Chapter 4
We all appeared right at the door that lead down into the labyrinth, much to Lance’s excitement as he started kissing the ground dramatically.
“Oh the outside! I’m never walking that much again!”
Bronwyn and I watched him, then looked at each other. It was clear neither of us liked the other.
“Where too?” Lance asked as he stood up and turned to her, pulling his goggles up.
The tall slender woman looked between us before nodding her head. “Follow me.”
She led us back up the hill to the teleport hub.
Once inside she hit the button, and pulled out some kind of paper. I expected her to read it, but she just tossed it into the air, where it burst into flames.
“Location reached,” the female voice said aloud as the room changed back to white.
At my questioning look, she sighed. “Flash ID tags. They store location data making it easier to travel to them.”
“Ah,” I mouthed as she led us out the door and into a desert location. A much smaller, but still massive, city lay before us.
“I’m going to take you to a friend of mine, then you’re on your own,” she didn’t look at us as she said this.
“Perfect,” I replied, shaking out my wings with a loud ruffle, much to Bronwyn’s annoyance.
We all walked in silence for a moment before she looked to Lance, who was walking next to her, “you said you were from an Earth dimension? If so, why are you a Pegasus?”
The fact she called him the correct terms, but used horse on me, irritated me greatly.
“Long, long story,” Lance laughed. “I actually wrote it all down right here in my book!” He pulled his book from his pocket dimension and hoofed it to her.
My eyes and nostrils flared as I watched her take the book and start reading it.
After a few pages, only glancing up to walk around obstacles, she gave a nod and looked at him. “Your grammar is absolutely terrible.” At his sheepish grin, she continued, “but I get the picture.”
She seemed to be thinking about something, looking slightly conflicted. “You know,” she began, looking to have made up her mind, “I have some friends who are also from an Earth dimension. Just not a recent one.”
“What do you mean a recent one?” Lance asked, obviously finding her very interesting.
Bronwyn grinned at this, “There are a lot of concepts that are well beyond your understanding. For one, I’m well over two cycle’s old.” At his very confused look, she laughed. “I told you, concepts well beyond you. Let’s just say I’ve been around a long time.”
“Whoa, so you’re immortal?” At her nod, he points to me, “so is she!”
“What?” Both Bronwyn and I asked in shock and surprise.
“Yeah duh,” he said, like I should already know this. But when he turned to see my confused face, he continued, “You’re Mr. Bleak’s kid, and both his son and grandson were immortal. So obviously that makes you immortal.”
I don’t think my eyes or mouth could open any wider as I stared at him. I hadn’t even thought of that! Me? An immortal? Just fuck, I have no idea how to feel about that.
Bronwyn just stared at me before saying, “welcome to the club, it only gets worse from here.”
“I…” I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. “Just, couldn’t you have dropped that on me earlier?!”
“I thought you knew,” Lance said with a shrug of his wings.
“Shit, Lance,” I groaned, facehoofing. It’s not like I want to die, but living forever unless I’m killed? I’m starting to hate the idea of it.
“Changing subjects,” Bronwyn suddenly said, keeping her head forward as we walked. “Why are you two here in the Plains?”
“Oh, we’re here to save some of our friends who were stolen by this being called the Watcher,” Lance freely said. I was too preoccupied with my own mental problems to be annoyed this time.
Bronwyn came to a stop, causing me to walk face first into her.
“This Watcher, what exactly is he?” She asked carefully.
Lance pointed to the book she still held, “it’s in the book, the last chapter.”
She flips the book open and goes to the end. She reads it, slowly flipping pages. Her face slowly shifted to a look of discomfort.
“I know this Watcher,” she suddenly said, causing Lance to stand up straight and flutter a bit.
“You do!?” He asked with a wide smile.
“Unfortunately,” she said, tossing the book back to Lance. “He’s the partner of one of my greatest enemies. The two of them have been thorns in my side since before I became… immortal.” She seemed to want to use another word other than immortal.
“So you know where he is?” Lance asked hopefully.
“No,” was her response, deflating Lance’s mood instantly. “But I’ve been looking for him and Lorenzo since I arrived on these plains.” She looked at the two of us. “I’m sorry to say your odds of finding the Watcher are far below zero.”
“Actually,” Lance started, seeming to be a bit smug, “We have a friend named Ominus who’s helping us look for our friends. So I think our chances are a lot higher.”
“Ominus?” She asked, looking completely dumbfounded. “Nathan the Traveler?!”
“You know him?” Lance asked, his smugness reaching new levels.
“Of course I know him,” she said with a frown. “My duties caused us to cross paths many times, but he was usually the cause of the problems I was coming to fix.”
“Wait, are you a traveler like Ominus?” I asked despite myself.
Her mood seemed to darken as she addressed me, “no, I am not. I am, was, an Enforcer of the Central Dimension before the Ultimate Authority Dimension made themselves known and brought about the Eternal Plains.”
Enforcer? Just having that title made me dislike her even more.
She looked back to Lance, her mood softening. “What’s his plan?”
“Well,” Lance began, ignoring my waves to get him to shut up, “each of our friends are spread out on the plains, and when either he or we locate one of them, we’ll rescue them. When we do, the Watcher will try and track us back to Ominus. But Ominus plans to do the same, and is confident he’ll be able to beat the Watcher at tracking.”
I was dumbfounded, but not surprised, this dumbass just told our entire plan to this strange woman!
“That’s actually a very good plan,” she said with an approving nod. “Of course I wouldn’t expect anything less from Nathan.”
She went quiet as she walked ahead a bit, looking to be deep in thought.
I teleported next to Lance and glared into the side of his face.
It took him a moment to realize I was there, and when he turned to see my glare, he winced. “You okay, Scamp?”
“You know when they say don’t meet your heroes?” I ask, my glare only intensifying. At his slow nod, I continued, “you are the example they should give.”
I look ahead and pick up my pace, flicking my tail into his face as I pass.
He was silent for a moment before coming to his senses. “Wait? Are you mad at me?! What’d I do?!”
I didn’t respond, just followed after Bronwyn, not pleased with this situation at all.
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“That bitch,” I muttered while looking at my split ear in the mirror. Part of my ear still stuck up as it should, but the other half hung limp.
“Great,” I sighed and stepped out of the bathroom, walking back to where Bronwyn and Lance sat at a table.
I returned to my seat, using my wing to mess with my messed up ear.
“Is your friend supposed to meet us here or something?” Lance asked.
“He’s on his way,” Bronwyn answered, sitting with her arms crossed and leaning back on her chair. She still seemed to be deep in thought.
Glancing around, I noticed people and creatures were all clearing out slowly. “Is everyone leaving for a reason?”
“They don’t like the energy I’m giving off,” she replied in an uninterested tone.
I frown at her, “and what does that mean?”
Her eyes flicked to me, a slight smirk appearing on her face. “You’ll know when you unlock your Ego.”
“This is all so cool,” Lance commented, looking more and more excited with each passing minute.
The displeasure I felt having to play nice with this woman was intense. I’ve never had to make nice with someone I’ve had a fight with. They’re usually dead or arrested. It’s much simpler that way.
“There he is,” Bronwyn suddenly said as she stood up and walked across the now empty room to a man who had just stepped inside.
Lance and I followed her, with me being weary of the situation and Lance not able to hide his excitement.
“This them?” The man asked, looking us over.
“It is,” Bronwyn stated, pulling an item out and handing it to him.
The man looked it over and smiled a toothy grin, “that’s more generous than you normally are. Even giving me a tip? So kind, turning a new leaf, hm?”
“Do it and then be gone,” Bronwyn said with a flick of her wrist.
“Oh sure sure, right on it,” the man stepped up to us and slapped his hands together. He leaned his head forward and spoke into his hands in a strange tone.
After a moment, he reached out for us, his hands glowing a deep cyan. I leaned away at first, but seeing Lance all but jump into the man’s hand, letting him place his hand on his head, I relented. The man placed his hand on my head, and at first I felt nothing.
Then, the world seemed to brighten, become sharper. A serious chill ran through my body, followed by what felt like all my muscles relaxing then tensing.
The man stepped back, bowed, and disappeared in a bright flash.
“What the hell did he do?” I asked, feeling nothing different about myself now that he wasn’t here.
But looking at Bronwyn, I instantly knew something was different.
Cyan colored tendrils seemed to reach out of her body and grab onto random objects around us, even one on both Lance and me.
“You see it now,” she said with a smirk. “My Ego.”
I looked to Lance, who looked on in awe. His body was emitting a light blue glow, and so was mine when I looked at my hoof.
“That’s it? Say a few words and our Ego is unlocked?” I asked in disbelief.
“Now you see why I said it was a gross misuse of the Ego Ruby,” she replied, a bit mocking.
“What’s my Ego do?!” Lance asked, hopping from hoof to hoof.
She looked to him, “the only way to find out is through the use of a spell. Luckily, that spell is sold for cheap at most low end shops.” Reaching into her pocket dimension she pulled out two cubes, tossing one to each of us. “Go ahead and activate those, they’ll let you know the basics of your Ego.”
I looked over the cube, not really sure how to activate it.
“Squeeze it,” Bronwyn said with a sigh.
With both front hooves, I squeezed the hard cube. It suddenly started glowing a deep yellow, seeming to absorb the glow from my hooves.
It grew brighter till it finally split open, symbol’s floating up in front of me. I could not read these symbols.
Sensing my incomprehension, Bronwyn rolled her eyes. “You need to learn this. It says you can attach your Ego to others and disable their own Ego, and that you can also absorb and store Ego inside of yourself. Congratulations, a useful set of abilities.” Her tone was flat while speaking, showing no emotion.
“What about me!?” Lance all but begged.
She looked at his symbols and nodded in approval, “it looks like you can make cards using excess Ego and use them in any way you want. The effects of each card seems to be up to you and the Ego used to make them, but you can only have thirty in a deck at a time. Huh, that has potential to be an amazing ability!”
Lance actually let out a squeal of delight at this. “I get to be a duelist!”
Bronwyn’s normally emotionless expression softened into a smile, “You’re lucky, some receive an Ego that is pointless, and has little value for combat.”
“Thank you, Bronwyn,” Lance said happily as the two bumped fist to hoof.
I blinked at the pair getting along, and realized something. I was a background character! Just another group member of Lance’s party. Now that’s some bullshit right there.
“I’ve been doing some internal reflection,” Bronwyn suddenly said, getting our attention. “If you’ll have me, Lance, I’d like to accompany you. If you’re going after the Watcher, then you’ll need my help. He’s one of the many I am searching for, so marking him off my list will be a great help.”
Before I could voice my opinion, Lance smiled widely. “Welcome aboard, Ms. Pendragon!”
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“So how do I use my Ego?!” He asked, bouncing again.
Bronwyn rubbed her chin, “To use Ego, you’ll need to have excess stored inside of you. You’ll need to use a Ego weapon to slay foes to steal their soul. Or use Ego Jars. The best method is using your Ego weapon, so we’ll need to get you yours.”
Lance shook his head with a frown, “Well I don’t want to kill others just to get my powers.”
“You’ll have to,” Bronwyn replied simply. “Your Ego will require a lot of Ego just to work.”
“I could just use the Ego Jars,” Lance thought aloud, looking displeased.
She just shook her head at him, “You could, but they’re not that effective, and the Souls trapped inside of them are usually weak ones.” A sigh escaped her lips as she looked at me. “If you are against killing, Lance, then she can just transfer some of her Ego to you since she doesn’t seem to care about life like you do.”
I stared blankly back at her, eye twitching. That was an unnecessary jab.
“You’re right!” Lance said in agreement. “That solves that problem, so how do we get our Ego weapons?”
“I know of a Soul Smith. But we’ll need to obtain the metal you’ll use for your weapons.” She turned, waving for Lance to follow her.
As she and Lance stepped out of the building, I bucked my back leg back, shattering the table behind me.
“Hey!” the owner yelled from across the room.
I ignore him as I trot out the door, following the conversing pair.
“Each person is attuned to a different kind of metal,” Bronwyn said, Lance flying next to her. “There’s an endless mine we can head to, it’s a special place that has every single type of ore to ever exist in any dimension. You will need to pick the one that speaks to you.”
“How will I know?” Lance asked, rolling midair.
“Trust me,” she said with a smile, “You’ll know.”
Great, they’re getting along.
I reach up with my wing, flicking my torn ear with a frown. Reluctantly, I took to the air and caught up with them.