A Battleground of Kindness

by StormDancer

Empty Instance

Ahhhhhhhh.... finally something that makes sense.

Well, more sense than being on speaking terms with an elder god of chaos at least.

After the Master's little visit to the tree of congealed suffering, she and her little minions examined a hexagonal box the manacrystal had apparently grown for them.

Apparently, the Master had been working on a particularly difficult spell for a number of months, something that required the use of not only the Tree, but also some unknown reagent that she had yet to even determine the qualities of. This had left her frustrated, something that does not bode well for those around warlocks in general.

However, her..... unique relationship with this 'Discord' may have provided her with the key to solving her little dilemma. When he tossed the Master's book aside, it seemed to remind her of something, and before long we were all struggling up the many many steps to the top of the ravine and crossing a rickety bridge towards the ruins of an ancient castle.

Now, for an imp, ancient is a relative term. We're pretty much immortal, indestructible, and immune to things like showers of cherry blossoms and musical numbers, but when you're talking about mundane things, we get the idea. Ancient means 'old enough that pretty much everyone who first saw it is long dead'... and these ruins were ancient.

Also, despite how old they were, despite being in a forest of primordial evil, despite sitting almost directly above a manacrystal that's large enough to have accidentally swallowed a titan, the WOODEN DOORS were still intact.

Talk about magic.

So... after passing by all of those warning signs, the Master just strolled into the ruined castle, walked right past all the priceless artifacts, ignored the loot scattered all over the place, and plops herself down in the....

Library?

This derelict old pile of rubble has a functioning library?!?!?

Well, ancient magical buildings sitting atop soul siphoning magic trees frequented by elder gods.... I suppose whoever manages to get by all that deserves a break.

But a LIBRARY?!?!? Who the hells wants to stumble away from constant threat of bodily mutilation and curl up with some thousands year old tome that's likely to turn into dust and melt your lungs with some long forgotten curse?

Well, the Master ~IS~ a warlock after all.

So they all just flopped over whatever was nearby as the Master told them to look for 'something' or 'anything' to help out.

No clue what they needed to look for, not like the Master was all too specific, but they all got to it.

And me? What did I get to do? Well, I scampered around and started fetching books!

...

You didn't really believe that did you? I mean, with MY History? Oh no. The first thing the Master did was pop my little magic bubble, command me NOT to burn anything, and told me to go searching for any hidden compartments, doorways, halls, or rooms which might contain secret books.

If you could only FEEEEL the deadpan stare I'm giving you right now, you'd probably decide to build a teacup out of sponges. I swear... REALLY? It's a freaking broken down castle in the middle of the local EVIL woods, from like... a thousand years ago! There's not going to be any freaking hidden anythings!

And then I fell down a hole, slid passed a hall of floating severed legs, and out onto the lip of a stonework wall over the moat.

Alright. There may be some hidden things here after all.

But who the hells keeps severed legs in a hallway?!?

-~oOo~-

Alright!

The Master must have planned this after all. I mean, no one, let alone the Master, could possibly ask a more appropriate request than to look for hidden rooms and secrets in a place ~THIS~ full of them.

In addition to the trap door, the inclined hallways with no traction, the hidden pits, the rooms with murder holes, the spinning walls and floors, the hidden chutes that lead to narrow ledges over multi-story drops into the moat or WORSE, this castle has integrated communication tubes and even escape tunnels linking nearly EVERY FREAKING ROOM!

Deep breath there...

And she sent me away to go 'look' for them while she was 'studying' with her 'friends' in the 'library.'

I know the Master isn't ~exactly~ like my previous warlocks, but EVERY part of that situation just screams "It's time to discipline the minions."

So, it was that after nearly an hour of making my way through the castle, 'discovering' well over two dozen death traps, pitfalls, intentionally confusing hallways WITH MOVING WALLS, and similar obstacles, I was pulled rather suddenly with the Master's magic.

Now, I know that doesn't seem very impressive at this point, but as an imp, I've been given a pretty long leash as it were. Imps are still demons, you see, and as we're not really supposed to exist in worlds without a fairly decent source of fel power, we kind of .... discorporate if we stray too far.

It's a fancy word for "go poof"... get over it.

So, yheah. Immortal. Dang near invulnerable in the long run. Capable of magic and feats of raw strength. Yep... demon's got all of that.

But, we tend to be on a rather short leash to whatever's giving us the little bubble of freedom where we're summoned from.

And, yes, before you ask, that tends to be whoever or whatever summoned us in the first place. Kind of like a vine of ivy. We get a few little roots going and we can spread, but unless there's enough soil, or in our case, fel magic or the corruption that comes from it, we're tethered to our summoner.

But that's all beside the point because I had just gotten to the main throne hall again when I felt myself being yanked along by the Master's magic at a VERY high rate of speed.

I managed to phase JUUUUUUUUST before being crushed through a series of walls. Heh... the Master must be trying to remind me who's in charge. Normally, she'd have warned me before trying to maim or kill me.

Wait.

The Master's never TRIED to maim or kill me before.

But... but she couldn't have just forgotten about me. I'm her FREAKING IMP! You don't just forget about summoning corrupting beings of absolute malice and destruction. It's.... it's... well, you just don't forget about things like that!

People forget things that are inconsequential. Summoning demons is not inconsequential.

...

Either way, she must be trying to remind me that she's in charge, which I'm fine with, by the way. Can't have her getting upset with me after all.... it's creepy when she smiles.

So, hurtling through the sky, being drug along by the tether of magic that the Master probably doesn't even notice, and I see the forest blurring along below me. Well, mostly below. I hit a few trees and other things along the way, but ~phasing~ heh... phasing is awesome.

Especially when my 'flight' took me at an unhealthy speed THROUGH a five story tall, nine headed, bright orange and red hydra.

And no, the Master didn't even seem to notice.

This continued on for a few minutes before the forest abruptly ended and we started to ascend towards a set of mountains with a very familiar castle hanging off the upper slopes.

A castle which, I recall, is home to none other than the 'princesses' that have so agitated the Master over the last few weeks.

The 'princesses' who lord over this region. The 'princesses' who the Master seems entirely too intent to go and 'visit' at high speed.

Whatever she found in that library certainly got her excited. And, to tell you the truth, I'm a little excited to see her use it on them too.

It's about damn time to take over this little country! And, more importantly, there's no better time than the present to start.

Now, if only she would dodge more and rely less on my phasing to account for things. Think I still have some hydra scales in my teeth.

-~oOo~-

Comments

[DrZed]

Wait, this is the tirek story line. oh crap! *🍿*