Eternally Bound: Part 11
----- Disorientation -----
Demitra hadn't seen this side of Lion's Arch, as it was the first time she had been in Tyria during this time of year. The elaborate decorations were heart-warming, and children's laughter made the Elonian happy she was there to bear witness. She wore a modified version of a traditional witch's outfit. It consisted of a small frilly dress, moments away from exposing her bottom, and a tight corset which threatened to release her breasts with only the slightest of movements. She wore thigh-high spider-webbed stockings with long heels, each step thumping causing a ripple of her breasts as she walked. The outfit was made complete with a tall dark purple witch's hat and broom, which was imbued with the power of levitation when activated.
"Oh how sexy and cute!" Ember was positively ecstatic. Whether it was the due to their mission to the Mad Realm, the possibility of finding Valandra's sword, fighting Kievva, or the excitement of the festivities, Demitra wasn't sure. But Ember had an unusually large grin on her face.
"Thank you, dear heart," Demitra looked over the woman's fiery outfit. "And, you are, indeed, hot!"
Paige and Ari burst into laughter.
"She's definitely on fire, tonight!" Paige joked.
Ember shrugged. "Outfit matches my sword, so…"
"And you have your gauntlets, Demi?" Paige noticed the woman's bare hands.
Demitra pulled the guantlets from her side pouch, regarded them hesitantly. "I must admit: I have not been eager to put these on so quickly after finally having them removed. While they I may be bound to this vessel, with Valandra's… occupancy… it does seem to adversely affect me. Ice magic could be advantageous, to be certain, but it seems to play havoc whenever it so chooses."
"I can help with that, love. You sure you don't want me to do it for you?" Ember offered.
Demitra raised an eyebrow at her fiance. Despite her agreement to drop the matter, Ember seemed to always be eyeing the bracers, undoubtedly due to their link to the late Valandra. Demitra tried to dismiss the woman's affection for Valandra, even though the tapestry from the vault of the women embraced continually flashed in her mind when she'd think of them. "You would no doubt rekindle your argument to wear them," Demitra said, a bit more scornfully than she wished to.
Ember raised her hands in offense. "Look, I was just offering because you looked… unwilling to."
Demitra sighed. "I was just beginning to enjoy my hair being its natural color. I suppose though, for this ritual to work, we must all wield our respective artifacts." She slid the glove on. Instantly the hair falling from her hat turned a chalk-snowy white.
"I wish there was another way, but I've looked through all the texts I have access to, and I really think you're correct: We must channel our respective powers into a certain point within the Mad Realm."
Ari removed her spooky hood a moment, not used to the restriction the face-mask caused. "So is there anything I need be aware of?"
"Just don't fall off the platforms. You'll be sent straight back to the cauldron here in Lion's Arch, and we'll have to traverse the breach again. Something I'm sure our stomachs wouldn't necessarily enjoy," Paige said, adjusting her outfit. She wore an outfit becoming of a character she'd read in a book, and it barely constituted as a negligee. Her cheeks were red and grew deeper when she caught the Elonian's emerald and sapphire eyes staring. "Um… I know it's a bit… risqué, and I was a bit nervous to wear it in public… but, if the holiday is about being something you aren't…"
Demitra smiled, pursed her lips and kissed the air. "Something you are not? Lady Paige Dejarin, you are always lovely!"
Paige cleared her throat. "You… um, you know what I mean, Demi."
Ari glanced to the women, then back to Ember, puzzled over the rapport. "Um… Ember, I used to run with a charr that was always on fire. It was ugly, but you make it look sexy." She tried a heartfelt attempt to return Demitra's attention back to her fiance.
Ember shrugged. "I like it."
Ariadne's face deadpanned.
Demitra winked at Paige, then turned back to Ember. "I am anxious to go, and if I have anxiety, I am quite certain you are about to die, dear heart."
"Yes, please. I haven't been able to let loose in a while. I look forward to this. (And, of course, to helping you.)" Ember added, forgetting herself in the moment.
The women ventured to the town hub, where casters maintained magical doorways leading to various points within the Mad Realm. It was a relatively common practice for adventuring parties to travel there; the Mad King's Labyrinth had fortune seekers and loot-gatherers braving the Mad King's endless minions. And, the Mad King's own Lunatic Court drew in those vying for championship titles. There was even a clock tower, which pitted adventurers in a race to the top, with its sinking and spiraling motion causing most to end up back in the exit cauldron within Lion's Arch. The Mad King had a special way about him. While maniacal and a tyrant in life, he had become more of a trickster, seemingly enjoying watching mortals within his machinations. Yet, it was said that those trapped after the season was over would remain - furthermore the minions which he threw at combatants were anything but jokes. Thus, a cautiousness came from the group as they approached the doorway portal.
Ari turned to vomit; Paige almost did the same but was able to stave it off. Demitra and Ember looked at each other. Both had felt the sensation before: Demitra had traveled to the Realm of the Djinn and Ember had felt the same during her past visions.
"Felt like a bad waypoint ride," Ari said, as she wiped her mouth, then put back on her hood and
mask.
"It's okay. You get used to it," Ember said, having experienced realm travel before. She tried her best to sound considerate and confident; her hand, however, was already on the hilt of her weapon.
Demitra took in a breath, looked through the gate in front of them. Beyond was a world of arid floating mesas and swirling clouds of orange and black. In the far distance the floating clock tower traveled along its own spiraling path. "The Mad Realm," she said in awe.
"This is such an incredible adventure," Paige excitedly burst.
"Such is life, Lady Paige Dejarin!" Demitra looked over her shoulder and winked at the woman, which made Paige blush at her own inexperience.
Ember reached forward barely touched the bars of the mausoleum to see them melt like candle wax. She looked to her companions. "Well, it doesn't look like we're stuck here. A good sign?"
"As long as he doesn't melt us like that, then yeah, I'll take it as a good sign, captain," Ari chuckled.
"We should definitely be on guard," Paige suggested. "Guard Captain Ember, lead the way."
They stepped onto a floating overlook, higher than the other platforms. Each isolated island bobbed on its own accord, some with dry brambles decorating it, others with sharp jagged rocks or candy corn protrusions within patches of pumpkins. Under them, a seemingly endless void of darkness; above a swirling cone of orange smoke. The large center topmost platform crackled, with vivid orange and red wisps with coalesced into a large figure with a giant flaming pumpkin for a head.
Paige's jaw dropped. "That's… That's really him! Mad King Thorn!"
Ari raised an eyebrow beneath her mask. "What the hell were these costumes for then?" came a muffled complaint.
Ember smiled at her subordinate and joked, "So our armor doesn't get pumpkin guts on it."
The Mad King laughed a maniacal guttural laugh, one that instantly invoked both fear and unease.
"I am perplexed," Demitra said, looking at the giant pumpkin-headed being. "If we have been discovered, why has he not attacked us?"
Paige shook her head, pulling her eyes off the insanity that was the Mad King. "This is one time I don't want to stand around asking questions. We came here for a mission, let's get on with it. We're in the Mad King's Realm right? Then I'm going to start the ritual; maybe we can work it from here." Paige took an uncharacteristic stance, but from the moment she stepped into the realm, her stomach was tied into knots and she couldn't help the feeling that something here never stopped staring at her. She was ready to bring this stint into another world to a quick resolution.
Ember drew her weapon, which sparked to life with fire, her other hand glowing as if it were the embodiment of her name. "I say we go down there and show him what-"
Paige pulled her torch, which lit itself at her unheard command. "Ember, please. If we can do this and be gone from this cursed place…" She sighed. "I believe I can do this," she said. With a nod from Ember, she closed her eyes and began to draw in what ambient sands she could to empower it through her artifact.
A laugh from the Mad King forced her eyes back open. "Leaving so soon? Come now… don't you want to play my game?" Skeletal hands clapped together, sending the gathering sand-cloud far from their reach.
"No!"
"Oh, don't worry. If you defeat my minions and play with me, I'll bring back your precious sand. Refuse and you'll just have to stay here… for eternity!" He barely got the last word out before bursting into laughter again.
"But…" Paige was certain no game the Mad King wanted to play would be fair. "What guarantee do we have you'll keep your word?"
He held a boney hand over his flaming chest. "I swear on my mother's life. Oh wait! I don't have a mother! Then, I swear on someone else's mother!" the monster cackled.
"He is… toying with us," Demitra frowned.
Ember echoed the Mad King's laugh. "I like him," she said coyly, with a look to her future wife. "May I eat him?"
Demitra winked. "Only me, dear heart."
Paige blushed, tried to ignore the enticing comment, and cleared her throat. "Well, it seems the sands are suspended over there; he may very well be keeping his word."
"Yeah, but isn't he known for games?" Ari asked.
"Yes, but all games have rules. So… we just follow the rules and we'll get this set right."
"Too true, Paige Dejarin!" said the Mad King.
Demitra raised an eyebrow. "He… knows your name?"
"How do you know me?" Paige shouted over the Mad King's laughs.
"Best me, and perhaps you will know!" came a smug rebuttal.
Ember was absolutely about to burst, practically bouncing up and down. "He's right there! Let's go get him! I may have been too slow to reach Balthazar, but he's right there! And, he's literally asking for it." She looked back to Paige, a literally burning need to fight.
"Let's break his kneecaps!" Ari shouted.
Paige nodded. "Then, Guard Captain Ember, would you like to lead the charge?"
Ember hadn't heard the entire question, was already leaping down onto the central mesa. She landed bodily onto a giant candy-corn elemental, her flame sword melting through the monster. She gave an excited shriek, then sprinted to her next victim.
Paige's eyes were wide at the small woman's energy. Her prowess never ceased to amaze her, and she was attracted to her raw strength. She smiled as she watched her captain, knowing her decision of promotion was incredibly justified. "Wow. She's really-"
"Something? Indeed. Tis why I shall wed that woman." Demitra had the same proud expression.
Ariadne chuckled at the women, then jumped down, her staff finding its way through three glowing skeletons. She quickly twirled, sending all three against a mausoleum wall, shattering as they hit.
Paige decended, sending sent out a necrotic energy blast from a scepter, then channeled energies from her torch onto several approaching plastic spiders. They melted, fused to the ground in a manifested sandstorm of heat and pressure.
Demitra bolted directly to the mad king, called upon her Djinn magic to manifest. With four arms she would unleash with full force upon the creature. Yet… nothing happened.
The mad king hackled. "Djinn? Djinn magic does not work here in my Mad Realm. Do yourself a favor and just disappear!" The Mad King swiped at Demitra to send her flying off the platform and into oblivion. Only, she shattered into glass shards which dove into the bony skeletal hand and exploded. The Mad King staggered backward.
Ember looked at Ari, ordering her troop. "Now!" she shouted as she leaped into the air, flame sword aimed at the giant's unguarded body. Her weapon found its mark, stabbing the Mad King. Ember's body slapped against him with a thud as she used her protruding sword to keep from falling. Had the woman had more weight, she would have gutted her enemy.
Ari took her captain's orders, ran with the force of a dolyak heard, slid on her knees and sliced at the Mad King's feet. He toppled over flinging Ember to the mesa's edge. She shoved her sword into the bedrock, halting her descent, desparately clinging onto its handle.
"Ember!" Paige was quick to run over and help her friend pull herself from the edge of oblivion.
The women regrouped, standing defiantly before the monster.
The Mad King sat up, and laughed maniacally. "Do you think it wise to defeat me?" He said comically.
Paige stepped forward, held her fist to the pumpkin-headed menace. "That was the deal! We bested you. Do you yield?"
"Or do we have to smash some pumpkins?" Ember added.
The Mad King looked to each woman, his hollow pumpkin carved eyes narrowing to each. Ari and Ember readied their weapons. After a few minutes the Mad King chuckled. "Very well; I suppose rules are rules, right?" He held a hand over his chest. "Let it be said that I am not without honor. (I have a reputation to uphold, you know?)"
Collectively, Ember and Ari scoffed, their weapons still at the ready.
The Mad King held aloft a boney skeletal hand, pulling the sands back down and landed them at Paige's feet. Paige watched with skepticism but was relieved when the king kept his word. She considered the act for a moment, then decided to deploy her diplomacy.
"I have read stories of you; it is an honor to meet you at last."
"I am sure it is… (I'm very honorable, you know!)"
Ember deadpanned, leaned to whisper to Demitra. "Are you sure I can't eat him?"
Paige continued. "I would like to know, King Thorn, how it is you know my name."
A wider pumpkin-carved smile came from the Mad King. "Oh, well, you see… It is because I am not King Thorn at all!"
"Then just who the hell are you if you're not the Mad King," Ari blurted.
A flurry of orange smoke wisps exploded from his body, causing the women all to cough and wave their hands to disperse it. Through the haze, the Mad King was no longer the Mad King. Instead, he was a she, and was in the shape of a human woman, whose ghostly-spectral mist made her features hard to discern, like a flickering candle.
"I knew it was a fake," Ember mumbled.
Ariadne tilted her head to the side, squinting to make out details. "Who are you lady?" She asked with a callously thick voice.
"Is this a ruse?" Demitra murmured.
Paige took a step closer to the figure as the smoke dissipated. The woman's ghostly appearance wavered for a moment, solidifying just enough for Paige to recognize her. It was Vivian Havok, Paige's deceased mother.
[To Be Continued...]
