The Chaos Blade - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"So where we going?" Bill asked, expecting to return to Earth in some exotic location. "I've always enjoyed Thailand myself."

Morning had come and the four of them were gathered about a table magically fashioned out of a large piece of driftwood and sitting on stumps that had been altered, also with Alesha's magic, into comfortable chairs. They munched on a breakfast of fruits, berries, nuts, and a roasted animal that reminded them all of a large rabbit, though it possessed six legs.

"I spent the entire night thinking about it," Alesha began, sounding nervous and scared. "And I think that I owe this to everyone. Not just all of you, perhaps all of you the least, but I mean everyone else on Earth and on Viconia."

Bill ached to rush over to her and put his arm around her supportively, she was so obviously nervous about her decision. He kept his position though, seeing that Eric and Yamara were watching her intently without the same urges written clearly on their face.

Alesha took a deep breath and looked at each of them for a long second before she said, "I must return to Viconia."

Before anyone could protest, and protest they would from the looks on their faces, she continued. "I have to be sure I can fight His influence. I have to do that and maybe, if I can, give something back to the world to try and fix all that I did before. And if I can not, then before I am fully into the transformation I will need one of you to kill me, because I can never be safe again."

A stunned and thoughtful silence descended upon the room. Lost in their own thoughts for quite a while it was finally Eric who spoke up. "If you become as powerful as you were before, there is no way we could kill you, even with this sword that none of us can fully use."

Alesha nodded, "If that happens then there is another reason for me to go to Viconia. On that world at least one man lives who can beat me in a fight. Perhaps two, though I do not know where either of them are."

Eric nodded while Bill looked on lost and somewhat concerned. Yamara thought she knew as well. "Kelnozz is one, who is the other?" She asked, stating her guess aloud.

"Garrick," Eric answered for her. Alesha nodded, remembering with a shiver how easily the mountain of a man had denied her in every battle of wills they had ever fought.

"Bah, nobody's going to be killed, this is crazy. Whatever it is we'll help you fight it off, nothing ever got past our watch, did they Eric?" Bill said, wanting to get past the topic. It was strange for him to feel so left out of the conversation and even stranger for him to find it so uncomfortable to be talking about Alesha's life in such a candid way.

"These aren't people, Bill, these are both less and more," Eric said seriously. "But I agree, worrying about it right now is silly. Instead, let's get going, we waste time talking about it when we could be doing it."

Bill and Eric finished getting ready, which included putting their body armor back on over their BDUs. Eric's M-4 was lost back on Earth, but Bill still had his and a few magazines. Eric gave him his remaining magazine and checked that his pistol was loaded and ready to go. The girls watched them impatiently, easily bored. Finally they were ready and were off, heading back to the beach that seemed to be the common place for entering and leaving the world.

Once there Alesha gathered her stored up energies and shaped them carefully, reaching out to draw more from the sword at Eric's side. In no time she felt she had enough. She reached out into the very substance that was the reality of the world and studied it carefully.

Alesha broke down all of a sudden, falling to her knees and hiding her face in her hands. Bill beat the rest of them there, kneeling beside her and putting his hand on her shoulders as they shook with her silent sobs.

"What's wrong?" Yamara asked, standing on her other side closely. Eric watched intently from a few feet away, curious.

"I just learned my final lesson," Alesha responded, looking up at her. She wiped the tears from her face and took a deep breath to help her regain her falm.

"I never needed the sword to escape," she said, glancing at Eric.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked, his interest piqued even more.

"The sword is a tool, that's all. I learned how to do the same things without it," Alesha said, shaking her head bitterly. "All these years I've waited for something I never needed."

"So it's nothing special?" Bill asked.

"Oh, it's special, I just did not need it for the things I thought I did," she told him. "In fact, Kelnozz told me I was imprisoned here and I made the assumption that he alone held the key. Even when I opened a rift to send Yamara through I just assumed I could not escape. I was a fool. The prison was in my mind. I am my own jailer."

Bill looked up at Eric, who only shook his head. Yamara could understand all to well the torture Alesha felt, she had spent her time within a gilded cage of her own making as well. Alesha rose finally, forcing Bill to step back away from her.

She turned around and before their very eyes her brown robe disappeared. In its place was her magical armor left with her from her time on Viconia. Silver scales that had once been the hide of a silver dragon formed the greaves and cuirass, though her breasts seemed on the verge of falling out of it and it's protective ability was questionable. Supple boots rode high on her legs to her knees, tucked underneath and attached to the scale grieves. A skirt made of finely crafted mithril hung from beneath her cuirass, covering and protecting her loin cloth and the otherwise naked flesh of her hips and upper legs. On her arms she wore black leather gloves that were so long that they fell only a few inches short of her shoulders. A wide mithril necklace fashioned to resemble a spider web, complete with a tiny ebony spider protected her neck and the valley between her breasts and above her cuirass.

Bill gasped in surprise. Easily as beautiful as before, now Alesha looked like a valkyrie straight out of a Wagnerian opera. Looking upon her now and how easily she wore the armor and the empty scabbard at her side he could begin to understand how it was she was considered so dangerous.

"Let us go first to Sanctuary, for it is only on the edge of Viconia and will give me the best place to gauge the powers arrayed against me," Alesha said, slipping into a more commanding role as soon as the familiar armor once again rode on her skin. It had been a long time, decades even, since she had last worn it. It felt odd on her and made her skin crawl a little, but she reminded herself that it was just armor, just an object. It was up to her to determine whether she was good or evil.

She reached out and opened a door in the very fabric of the air in front of her. It appeared to lead into an brilliant white light. She knew better. With a deep breath, she stepped through. Her new companions were close on her heels.

Continued in Chapter 19