Chapter No29:That Lesson Paid Off

Slowly coming back from the darkness, Tessa opens her eyes. Everything is blurry and her ears ring. The ground is cold and slowly, she gets back up. Losing her balance, she starts to fall but catches herself on the side of a destroyed building. The top of her head pulses with pain, and putting a hand to the area stings. She winces and pulls her hand back. Closing her eyes to let them refocus, she can now see that she’s in a dark alleyway. Tessa’s eyes narrow as she takes steps out of the darkness, moving slowly as her hearing starts to come back. The first thing she hears after the ringing stops, is the sound of the demon roaring and screeching while it tears through the city. Buildings made of stone and wood come crashing down as their tile roofings shatter upon impact with the ground. Fires dot the ground, contained by the destruction that keeps them from jumping from one house to another. Tessa’s foot steps on something awkwardly as she moves forward. Nearly tripping, she quickly regains her balance and notices it’s her staff. Picking it up, she notices it’s damaged and covered in dirt. The symbol of Aeon is slightly chipped with dirt stuck in some of its crevices. Tessa is saddened by its sorry state, but glad to have it in her hands. Finding a weird kinship with how it’s damaged but remains standing. Continuing into the street, she comes across a destroyed well. Taking a moment to both get a quick drink of water and clean her face. She pauses to stare into the water lit by moonlight. Seeing an image of herself with cuts up and down her hands and face, dirt in her hair and her clothing tattered and ruined, Tessa can’t believe how everything has been so horrible yet fantastically surreal. Only a short while ago she was attending classes, doing homework, taking tests, and having fun with her friends. Now she’s had her dreams crushed, nearly died at the hands of multiple different people, and a demon nearly sent her directly to Aeon. Her mentors are horrible people who prefer the cursed actions of evil to the prestige good could bring them. Both of them wield a level of power she can’t even begin to understand for their own desires. And yet, Tessa wonders if maybe she isn’t so different. She viewed them as a potential means of becoming a Hero. That they could be some kind of shortcut that would bypass every obstacle in front of her. That, maybe, she could gain some kind of unique superpower that made her superior to everyone else if she used it in some way no one else ever thought about. Tessa splashes water on her face, dismissing the idea and any thoughts that she was similar to either Hei or Torgrak. But, if they were such horrible people, why did Hei jump in front of her and defend her from the demon’s attack. He could have just left her to die at multiple moments in this adventure. Torgrak could have as well. After shooting her when they first met, he could’ve just left her to bleed out. So why didn’t they? Over and over again, they wouldn’t let Fate close the book on her life. Why won’t they let her die? Why? Taking a deep breath in and letting it go, Tessa let those thoughts drift off for now. Leaving the well behind, she continued to wander through the streets and alleys of the destroyed city. And stuck alone, she makes sure to be much more cautious than she’s ever been. Peeking around corners and listening for any footsteps or chatter before moving forward. The nearly dead silence of the city making it easy to distinguish a falling and rattling of a plank of wood from footsteps in the distance. Eventually, she finds herself at the street where Hei blocked the demon’s attack. The pavement is torn up and broken with the destruction going wide where Hei defended, and quickly tapering from there for a couple hundred feet. Tessa’s eyes follow the gouged earth to the end of the destruction where the street ends in a t-junction. And just outside of where the demon’s attack tore up the ground, there’s a house with a conveniently person-shaped hole in the front of it. Tessa pauses at the sight of it, her hands gripping her staff tightly. But stuck being indebted to her mentors, she starts to move towards the building. But just as she’s about to take her first step, she hears someone call out from behind her. “Where are you, you filthy half-blooded leaf eater?!” Tessa ducks into the shadow of the nearest building, praying to Aeon that he didn’t see her. Very slowly and carefully, Tessa looks through what debris can hide her to see if it’s really who she thinks it is. Unfortunately, it is. Korlos survived the destruction that the demon’s summoning brought. He does look damaged, blood on his face and armor looking significantly shredded, but everything other than the damage Torgrak did looks superficial. Korlos’s hair is a complete mess, and his sword is chipped and dented. He’s not nearly the threat he was in the pit, but still enough of one to kill Tessa with relative ease. “Come out! Come out so I can shove my sword in that arrogant face of yours!” Tessa continues to watch as Korlos doesn’t see anyone nearby and moves off and in some other direction. Letting out a sigh of relief, Tessa starts making her way to the building with a convenient hole in it. Making sure to move slowly and quietly to avoid attracting any of Korlos’s attention. Thankfully, things go without a hitch for once and Tessa enters the building from a side door. Going from the moonlit night outside to the near pitch darkness of the building, excluding the broken windows, Tessa’s eyes readjust to the difference in lighting. Moving slowly through it, she looks at the state of the house. There’s a collapsed, wooden staircase that leads to a newly renovated second story where you can observe all the stars you want. What looks like a kitchen is now buried under countless bricks and broken support beams, though the silverware was lucky enough to be set up for a meal never to be eaten. And as she gets closer to a destroyed living room with a fireplace, Tessa finds a blackened crater with Hei sitting at its center. Hei looks to have been completely slammed into the brickwork of the fireplace and wall, nearly entirely embedded in the building’s structure. His straight and sleek hair is now singed and covered in soot, while his face is cut up and slightly burnt. A small streak of blood goes down his face from his hairline. And the gilded black armor he wears is dirty with cracks and scratches all over the front. It’s hard for Tessa to properly tell just how badly damaged Hei is, but she estimates it’s more medical attention that she could give right now. She should just turn around right now and leave him to rot, but she can’t. And instead, she continues to approach him until the moonlight coming in through the hole illuminates the tips of her shoes. Hei painfully chuckles, “Well~. You sure took your time getting here~.” Tessa hesitates to respond, unsure of what to say. Tessa responds, “Why did you save me?” “Hm~? Oh, that~. What, not satisfied with me suddenly doing a good deed~?” Tessa grits her teeth, hating Hei. “After everything I’ve seen while with you and Torgrak, you don’t do ‘good deeds’.” “Careful you don’t let your tongue get too sharp, or you might end up saying something you don’t mean~. But fair enough, I’ll tell you why.” Hei looks Tessa directly in her eyes. “It’s simply a part of my job as your mentor. I am to keep you ‘in one piece’ and protect you so long as you are my apprentice.” Tessa isn’t sure how to respond as her teeth grit themselves out of uncertainty. Hei is a liar and a murderer, but is what he’s saying the truth? Or does he have some other reason to keep her alive? “And what about Torgrak? Is he also ‘protecting’ me?” “In his own way, yes~.” Hei coughs, drips of red falling just in front of him, but he can’t help chuckling. Meanwhile Tessa isn’t sure of what to say next. Questions about Hei and Torgrak run through her head. Questions about if they have any other reasons, or about why her specifically. But she can’t find the way she wants to word them, and decides to leave it for later. That if Hei and Torgrak are so dedicated to their protection of her, she’ll get answers at some point. At least she hopes she will. Hei laughs, “Trying to figure out if we did it for some kind of stupidly sentimental reason~?” Tessa looks down at Hei, her face honestly portraying her anger and growing contempt for Hei. “No, but I do want to know what’s keeping me from leaving you here to rot.” “Is that all~? Well, I can think of three reasons you won’t~.” “They are?” “First, you can’t leave someone for dead in good conscience. Knowing you abandoned me would haunt you for the rest of your life. After all, when you awoke in the infirmary, you asked about your new friends’ wellbeing.” Tessa didn’t want to admit it, but he was right here. But how did Hei know it when he’s only just barely come to know her. “And how do you know that?” “Convincing Clairce, G.C., wasn’t that hard~. Good wine, precise flattery, and good use of my tongue let me know enough~. Even made her some breakfast in the morning as thanks~.” Disgust ran through Tessa’s stomach as Hei’s words slithered their way through her ears. She didn’t even want to know what he was implying and quickly moved on to what his other reasonings are. “And the other two reasons?” “Second, you’re a follower of Aeon. To the demon that nearly killed us both, you reek of righteousness and order. Right now It thinks you’re dead because of its attack, but start moving around and it’ll pick up on your presence like a shark smells blood in water. As for the third reason, it’s because Korlos is still alive and looking for me. And if he finds you either before or after killing me, he will kill you just by being associated with me~.” “Why would he go after me?” “I killed his Archbishop, but saved you. He’d see it as a way of getting even.” “So I’m stuck with no way out that doesn’t get me killed?” “Hmm...not exactly~.” “You know something you’re not telling me?” “Well, when you put it that way it makes it sound like I was deliberately not telling you~. It’s only because you didn’t ask~.” “Then tell me so we can get out of here.” “Alright, alright~. But first, I need you to tell me just how Korlos looks right now~. Assuming you saw him, that is~.” “His armor looked significantly damaged and he hasn’t had the time to heal, though his wounds have been tended to with how he carried himself. And even with his damaged state, I can tell he can kill me with ease.” “How interesting, you can say ‘kill’ so casually right now~. But that’s all I needed to know to make sure you win~.” “You’re saying I’m going to kill him?!” Hei laughs at Tessa’s response. “No, no, no~. But you are going to prevent him from being a problem on the way out of the city.” “How?” Hei smirks, “I’ll gladly tell you, but you have to trust me first~.” Tessa’s anger immediately begins to flare up hearing Hei utter the word ‘trust’. “I should ‘trust’ you?! After everything you’ve done, trusting you is the furthest thing in my mind regarding you!” “That’s fair, and I don’t really care if you trust me or not~. But let me remind you that, right now, you can either trust me and we both live~. Or not and we’ll both die~. Your choice~.” Tessa bares her teeth at Hei, her anger higher than it’s ever been before. However, she can’t argue against him. Not right now. Hei’s words make it sound incredibly sketchy, but he’s definitely given enough reason to believe him right now. Letting her anger subside, Tessa decides that he’ll trust him. Just for this one thing. “Fine. So what do you have in mind? And remember that I won’t kill Korlos.” “I know, I know, don’t worry~. First things first, grab my shield. It’s over in the corner.” Hei gestures with a hand, pointing his fingers at the general vicinity of where his shield is. Tessa is cautious of what Hei is suggesting here, but goes over and finds it. Picking the shield up, Tessa sees that it’s very beat up. The handle has been completely destroyed with chunks of it torn away. It’d be fair to say that it’s not much more than a chunk of scrap metal now. “Is this even useful?” Hei laughs, “Obviously not~. But if that trigger-happy dwarf taught you anything about alchemy, you can probably figure out some way to use it.” Tessa looks back at the black scrap metal in her hands and tries to think back. It takes a moment of thought, but then something clicks. “I’m not sure if it’ll be perfect, but I’ll try.” Going to the door she came in through, Tessa peers out to see if there’s anyone outside. There isn’t and she starts searching outside for something she can use. Looking around she sees several things that could be used, but nothing looks particularly useful. Soon enough, she finds a tavern sign that fell from its chains. It has a shield-like shape to it, making it the best bet right now. Digging around a bit more, Tessa finds some frayed but usable rope and goes back over to the building Hei is in. Tessa then opens her satchel and takes a look at what she has available to her. Feeling some sheets of paper, she pulls them out along with a quill. At the same time, her hand brushes against two different ink containers. Going to pull out both of them, some pieces of paper that had gotten’ mixed in with her sheets of paper fall and drift to the floor. Turning her attention to them as she pulls out both vials, she notices that these papers have the symbols Torgrak used and included in her beginner’s kit. She wonders how they got there, even realizing that the second vial of ink is the same stuff that Torgrak used during his demonstration. Tessa does want to know how they got in her bag, but right now it’s better to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Quickly, she spreads the sheets of blank paper out on the floor so that she can fit the shield on one and the tavern sign on the other. Once the size is right, she moves the shield and sign aside as she goes about tracing the alchemical symbols as fast and accurately as she can. Now that everything looks right, Tessa hopes she remembers where things go and sets the scrap metal shield and sign in their spots. And with a flash of light, the metal from the shield has now coated the front of the sign. Now using the rope, Tessa ties it to her left hand and has a makeshift shield to defend herself. “Alright, I’ve got something to help defend myself. What next?” “Good work, child~. Just one problem, that flash of light just got enemy #2’s attention and I can see him starting to make his way here~.” Tessa’s eyes go wide as she starts to panic. Korlos closing in on them is a horrible turn of events right now with how she’s only just barely got a means of fighting now. “What?!” “Calm down~. Now, do you remember what I taught you about vision and spellcasting~?” Tessa whispers, “Yes, but how is that gonna help us here?” “Did your eyes have to readjust to the darkness in this building when you entered~?” “Yes, but…” “Have you ever had a very bright light shone in your eyes while they are adjusted for darkness~?” “On one occasion yes, but how does that…” Tessa comes to a complete halt, her mind on pause as she thinks. Her frozen thoughts tick before it hits her. “Oh. But wait, how am I going to blind him if he knows I’m here?” “Did he see you before now~?” “No.” “Then you have the advantage of surprise~.” “How?” “I overheard him shouting both before you got here, and while you were off searching for things. He’s looking for me right now, you’re not a priority in his mind~.” “So use you as bait?” “There a problem with that~?” She’s about to say something, but stops herself. Her eyes narrow as the naivety in her drops away for a moment. “I’ll admit I don’t like the idea, but using you as bait sounds therapeutic right now.” Hei smirks, “Then go hide and wait for the opportunity~” “When do I blind him? And I still don’t know how to fight.” “Can’t say~. Guess you’ll have to figure it out~.” Tessa wants to curse at him, but looks for something to hide behind as Korlos gets closer. Not seeing much time to react, Tessa tries to make as little noise as possible as she hides behind a wooden cabinet. Crouching down and keeping an eye on where Hei is. Moments of silence pass by as Tessa starts to hear her heart beat loudly. Until, starting faintly, she can hear Korlos getting closer. Each step starting softly and ending in a hard crunch. Then, he was there. “Finally found you, half elf.” “How nice of you to take your time~. So, what now~? Shall we sing some show tunes~? Maybe play some cards~? I can’t hold a hand right now myself, so guess I can only fold~.” Tessa sweats as the two talk, stuck waiting for Korlos to get just a bit closer. His steps still coming from outside. She can only wait to hear his feet rest on the wooden floor. “If not for you killing the Archbishop, I might be in the mood for a joke or two.” “Juvi always did have that effect on people~. How sad he’s gone now~.” Tessa kept listening, trying to filter out the sound of her heart beating in her head while she listened for Korlos’s feet to creak on the wood. “Yes, it is. But at least he gave me the chance to carve you up so easily with you stuck there.” “I prefer filleting myself, but to each their own~.” And then it happened, the crunching footsteps ended and now Korlos was on the wood. Peering around the corner, she could see that he was only just now in the darkness. Tessa kept on waiting, knowing it’d take a moment for his eyes to adjust. “Any last prayers? I can at least listen to the words of a fellow cultist before putting you down like the dog you are.” “Last words~? Let me think~. Maybe that I’m gonna miss one night stands. Or maybe I’m sad to no longer drink my favorite bubbling strawberry champagne~.” Hei pauses, his smile going wide. “I know~! I hope to see a light at the end of the tunnel~.” Tessa doesn’t know when to strike, but hearing Hei’s words she has a feeling it’s a clue and takes the opportunity to move. Jumping out of her hiding position, she alerts Korlos to her position and she quickly casts a spell. “Light!” A bright orb of light appears right in front of Korlos and his eyes are forced to adjust. Raising his arm to his eyes, Korlos is blinded and swings his sword in hopes of hitting something. “Dammit!” Not letting the opportunity go to waste, Tessa follows up her surprise attack. “Sacred Light!” A spear of light forms before her staff and shoots straight into Korlos’s left arm. Piercing through it and his shoulder. It’s not a serious wound, but does moderate damage as Korlos swings wildly. His sword hitting every table and miscellaneous object nearby. “Where are you?!” With how Korlos still can’t see, Tessa attacks again. “Sacred Light!” This time, the spear catches Korlos in the side of his waist. Another non-lethal hit, but Korlos winces from the damage as his vision starts to return. Lowering her arm, he faces Tessa and rushes her. Raising his sword and attacking. “Don’t get in my way!” Tessa is too slow to react and his sword cuts the undefended part of her upper arm. Tessa cries in pain, but adrenaline rushes through her body and keeps her standing. Looking through one eye while the other is closed, Tessa panics and attacks without thinking about her attack. “S-sacred Radiance!” A bright and burning light surrounds Tessa, lightly singing the floor and wall, but Korlos dodges backwards to avoid it. With her attack ineffective, Tessa raises her makeshift shield to defend as Korlos goes for another attack. His damaged sword crashes into it and shatters into pieces. However, so does her shield as the rope bindings begin to slack and it falls onto the floor. But right now, Korlos is weaponless and Tessa takes the opportunity to attack. “Sacred Light!” The spear pierces through Korlos’s left knee, wounding him again. It’s not enough to down him, and Korlos pulls a knife out of a sheathe hidden on his back and moves in to strike Tessa. “Damned follower of the light!” Tessa tries to block with her staff, but Korlos is able to snake the blade into her chest. The blade goes right through the cut chainmail and critically wounds Tessa. Unable to withstand the pain, Tessa falls. Collapsing to the ground as her vision starts to turn blurry again. “At least that’s one less I have to hunt down now.” Korlos turns his back on Tessa, walking back over to where Hei is. She can only reach out at Korlos, wanting to stop him. But it’s taking all of her focus just to stay conscious through the burning pain. She wants to stop him. She wants to finally do something good. She wants to win. And a magic circle starts to form in her hand. Through her blurred vision, she’s not sure what spell is about to be cast. It’s not the time to be picky though and lets it fire off. Her mouth says the words but she can’t even tell what they are. “Force Shot!” Korlos turns around just as he hears Tessa say the words, and a bolt of pure force energy smashes into his back. Korlos starts to fall, collapsing on the ground as his armor loudly crumples with him. And the last thing Tessa can see is Korlos on the floor as she blacks out, somewhat happy she won this time.