Smoke bellowed up like sin from the treeline — those who knew their language could hear the old growth screaming. The fire painted the night in furnace light, and the ash-choked sky pressed down low and starless, as if the world had been shut inside something's mouth.
Through that hellish glow, figures ran between the dying trees.
The first among them was Alessia. A gnarly scar ran from her eyebrow to her hairline, framing severe eyes and a jaw clenched tight enough to crack stone. She marched in silence despite the chain mail, the broad shield, the bastard sword — as if the forest itself had agreed not to give her away.
Just behind her, bare feet ran over the ground. Korr—a seven-foot-tall barbarian wielding two hand axes. He kept pace with ease. His skin had the barest kiss of a green tinge, and his teeth were sharp as razors.
“Not getting tired, are you?” Alessia asked.
“I have run from ten thousand maniacs over broken brambles and splintered bones.”
“That was before the gut.”
Korr glanced down at his exposed midsection, drifting ever so slightly over his kilt.
“Fair.”
Farther behind, Vulre stumbled through the thicket—a monk wearing a wool robe and sporting a tonsure haircut.
A tree snagged his robe. “Son of a bitch. I just stole this!”
He stumbled and fell into the dirt. His torch went out. The monk looked around but couldn’t see Alessia or Korr. “Where the Hells are they?”
He picked up a rock and whispered an incantation.
The stone glowed.
Alessia looked out into the woods as they brightened from the magical light. It shone across the face of a little girl. The girl shimmered ever so slightly, like moonlight on a rippling pond.
Alessia shook her head. When she looked back up, the little girl was gone. She turned to Vulre, “Hey, dipshit, mind turning the light off?”
“I can’t see,” Vulre said.
She threw her cloak over his glowing rock. “Too much magic. We’re in cursed lands now.”
“I feel like it doesn’t need to be spelled out so clearly, but vision is rather important for me.”
“Leave him,” Korr said.
“Let your eyes adjust to the darkness,” Alessia said.
“I don’t understand why I can’t use a little light spell.”
“Magical light creates shadows that the yōkai move through. Because it’s cursed here, they’re evil.”
Corrupted yōkai climbed out of the shadows.
Alessia pulled out a ragged journal and flipped through it. She found a hand-drawn image matching the yōkai.
“Et Mieles.”
The little creature tamed, turning into its cute form. It bounced away.
“How’d you do that?” Vulre asked.
“Naming tames. Briefly, anyway.”
“How do you know so damn much about yōkai?”
She ignored his question. ”The treasure is under a magical barrier that only you can pierce. So I’m going to need you to get your shit together. Please.”
She guided him out of the thicket.
“Should’ve come during the day,” Vulre muttered.
Alessia moved her hand along a tree. “That wouldn’t have worked,” she said. “You see…” Click. A section of the tree magically carved into a door. “It only opens at night…”
Vulre raised his eyebrows. “Impressive.”
“Try trusting me for a moment.”
She opened the door.
A hole climbed down into the earth—a dark chasm with an eerie, achromatic shade. Korr stopped them. He let the smoke outside billow in. Silvery strands pulled across the ground.
Spider webs.
“Maybe we should turn back...” Vulre said.
“Feel free,” Korr replied.
Alessia and Korr stepped over the strands carefully. Vulre looked back out of the tree toward the yawning darkness. He moved forward with them. “Should burn this whole damn thing down.”
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This struck Alessia. She actually looked a little scared.
“No. No fire…”
Spiders the size of dogs crawled through the shadows. Alessia took a leg of meat out of her pack and tossed it into some webbing.
The spiders converged, fighting each other for a taste of the morsel of carrion.
“Split up,” Alessia whispered. “The treasure’s here somewhere.”
Vulre stopped. “I want half.”
Alessia and Korr stared at him. Korr laughed.
“I’m sorry. What?” Alessia said.
“Of the treasure.”
Alessia said, “Oh, I know what you’re talking about. I’m curious what made you stupid enough to ask.”
“You didn’t tell me there’d be flesh-eating spiders.”
“We need you for one thing and one thing only. That’s why you get a very healthy third.”
“I’m not going one step farther without half. You need me.”
“Fine. If we can find the damn thing.”
They split up and searched.
Alessia came to a ramp that climbed upward toward darkness. She carefully moved forward. Stopped. Ahead was the little girl, still shimmering silver.
The little girl floated forward. She didn’t have any feet. It didn’t seem to surprise Alessia.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Alessia said.
“Neither should you.”
“What happened to you. It’s terrible. But this place is dangerous.”
“What do you get out of this? Why come down here?”
“You know why.”
“To see me?”
“I can’t stand the sight of you.”
“That’s because you’re not ready to look into the mirror.”
“It’s time to go.”
“I think you throw yourself into deadly situations so you don’t have to feel.” The little girl turned to leave. “Here, let me give you a hand...”
As she went, she pushed a loose stone that rolled down the hill toward Alessia. Alessia instinctively reached her hand out, like she was trying to stop it with her mind.
Nothing happened.
“Still trying to use your lost magic...” the girl’s voice drifted back.
The rock rolled through some webs. Spiders scurried from the darkness—shadows rippling and making awful sounds.
Alessia turned and ran.
She stumbled and came to a stop near a small hole.
A pinprick of light shone back at her. Alessia looked down it, the glowing, dancing light playing across her face. She called out, “Guys…”
She’d found what she was looking for.
A rope unspooled from a hole in the roof into the room. The team climbed down.
The room glittered from piles of gold. Toppled statues mixed with the mounds of treasure, each glowing with magical light, illuminating the room. A magnificent sight.
“Holy Rone’s ass...” Vulre breathed.
“Gonna be rich,” Korr said.
“The money doesn’t matter,” Alessia said.
Korr looked at her, shellshocked. ”What...?”
“Okay, it matters a little.”
Relieved, Korr kept moving.
Alessia landed on the ground. She pointed toward an altar across the room. Sitting atop the altar was a small treasure chest, gleaming with energy. “But she’s the real prize.”
They moved through the crumbled statues.
They walked up to the only statue that wasn’t destroyed—an angel with a morose face and billowing wings, made of intricately carved stone.
“It’s a Seraph. An Angel,” Vulre said.
They admired the statue for a beat.
Alessia broke the silence, “Was.” She turned on the men. She told Korr, “Check the room for traps.” Then, to Vulre: “Start working on the barrier.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“My job.”
Korr started investigating the room.
Vulre went to the altar.
Alessia saw the little girl again, moving between the piles of gold. The moment was dispelled by—
“Alessia, you better come see this,” Korr said.
When Alessia looked back, the little girl was gone. She shook her head and moved toward the altar.
“Found a trap,” Korr said. “Whole room is rigged to come down if you step on one of the hexagon tiles.”
Vulre looked down and saw the heel of his foot next to a hexagon tile. He gasped, grabbing his chest. “For Rone’s sake.”
Alessia rolled her eyes. “Calm down. Did you find it?”
Vulre caught his breath. “Yeah, I think its energy source is here.”
He motioned toward a circle on the ground. It shimmered with light—a magical barrier.
Alessia gently placed her hand on the glinting light, and suddenly she was—
Somewhere else. Angelic light shone through the canopy above. Alessia walked naked through the trees, basking in the sun.
A shimmering nearby.
She looked to see a dark corner of the forest, tight with ivy, like a wall. There was an ominous hum.
The hum grew as she pushed through the vines.
She emerged from the foliage and gasped.
A dead tree. At its base, a dead deer burning.
As she got closer, she saw fungus growing from the tree. Rot spewing out from the cracks.
She looked down at her chest. A mushroom pushed through her skin. She screamed—
Suddenly she was back in the room. She took her hand off the barrier.
“It’s hexed, all right,” Vulre said. “Nothing with a soul can get through, even if I weaken it.”
Alessia nodded. “This is it. What we came for.”
“Really think you can get across?” Korr asked.
“Have to.” She turned to Vulre. “Get to work on the rune.”
“And the gold?” Korr asked.
Alessia nodded. “Go ahead.”
Vulre got to work carving a rune into the ground.
Korr gleefully threw gold into a small bag that was somehow holding way more than it should have been able to.
Alessia put a hand on her chest where the mushroom had burst out. She seemed wobbly, like she might faint. She forced herself to catch her breath.
Korr worked fast, and the piles of gold were much smaller. He took a break, lying on the ground, half-asleep. Vulre worked at the magical rune he was carving while Alessia watched.
“I think it’s done,” Vulre said.
Korr sat up.
Alessia looked at the rune. “Good enough. It’s time to do this.”
Vulre placed his hands on the rune. Korr crowded in, watching intently.
Alessia coached him, “Follow your breath. Like I taught you.”
Magical energy surged from the barrier, jolting Vulre. “Ow.”
“Did you think this would be easy? Go again.”
Vulre tried again. The hexed shield around the altar warbled and weakened.
“Good. Keep it up...”
She stepped forward, when—
“I wouldn’t do that...”
Alessia stopped. She turned to see the little girl poking her head around the angel statue.
“The Hells is she doing here?” Korr said.
“What’s going on?” Vulre asked.
“Tell him,” the little girl said. “What I am. Who you are.”
Alessia looked down, averting eye contact. “You’re dead. Why can’t you accept that?”
Korr stammered, “Uhhh, Alessia, need you to fix this...”
“Look at me,” said the little girl.
Alessia backed away, shaking her head no. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Have it your way.” The little girl pushed the angel statue over, smashing its wings off and shattering an arm.
“Shit,” Korr said.
The little girl dove into the hexed barrier, and the room pulsed with energy, whirling to life.
The stone altar crumbled, revealing a yawning portal. Evil spirits danced along the shadows, calling out wicked things. The treasure chest fell off the far side of the altar. Hellfire spewed from the ground in a sudden burst.
“What is going on?” Vulre shouted.
“Need to get the Hells outta here!” Korr yelled.
“Wait!”
They didn’t notice, but the angel statue started to wash over with light, and the stone began to turn to skin.
Alessia pushed through the barrier. She rushed to the altar and was getting near the box when something evil emerged from the portal—
Minos. A fucking demon.