Chapter 291 - Walt

Hope you all had a great Christmas! I ended up kept by family longer than expected so fell a little behind. Had a really good day at my mum's though, and I think the dog an even better one lol. Evie literally raced around the house for 8 hours straight.

Hump stared at the little creature before him, unsure what to make of it. The closest comparison he could think of was a goblin, but it was half the height, purple skinned, and had very different features.

“Alright, you can stop staring now,” it said.

“Sorry,” Hump said. “You’re Walt?”

“The one and only.” He grinned down at Hump from the top of the steps. “Not what you expected?”

“I just always imagined you more…” He paused, trying to find the right word.

“More what?”

“Human.” Hump shook his head and blinked back his tiredness.

“Well, this is what you get,” Walt said, gesturing at himself with both hands, his grin widening to reveal teeth. “Handsome, right?” He pointed with an oversized thumb at the building behind him. “And what do you think of this place? Pretty great, isn’t it? That lich was living it up.”

Hump gazed at the library behind Walt. While he’d taken it to be a grand entrance at first glance, the building itself appeared ancient. The stone was yellowed with age and covered in cracks, windows above were opaque from dust and dirt. Inside, there was no light or sign of life. It was dark, gloomy, and exactly what you’d expect of a place belonging to a lich. Yet even stranger were the surroundings. The ground at Hump’s feet seemed to be stone and earth, but it was a tiny patch at the base of the steps. Everywhere else was an endless white fog. It was as if someone had lifted out this building from the world and trapped it here.

“Where are we?” Hump asked.

“My new home,” Walt said excitedly. “And your new library, if you’ll have me.”

“If I’ll have…” Hump trailed off. He pressed a hand to his head, struggling to think through the cold of essence overuse. “Walt, I’m not following anything. I’m freezing, exhausted, and struggling to tell whether this is real or if I’m dying.”

“Oh, it’s real alright,” Walt said. “No need to worry about anything. Just relax. Lich Queen Irila is dead, and I simply brought your consciousness here for a little chat.”

Hump frowned, unsure how much he could trust the creature. But Walt had been a friend to him so far, and hadn’t given him a true reason to doubt him now. “Right, okay. Then why don’t we start with what you are. I thought you were a person.”

“I did too. Things were mixed up when you first found me. I remembered flashes of the past, fragments of my most recent memories. It was only after arriving in Estora and being exposed to a steady supply of the lich’s power that things started to come back to me properly.”

“And?”

“Have you ever heard of a house spirit?” Walt asked.

Hump had, but only in the relics and stories left behind from a time when they were hunted. He, Bud, and Celaine had encountered a temple dedicated to a forest spirit shortly after leaving Bledsbury. Which meant…

“You mean, you’re a deity?”

Walt shrugged. “Well, sort of. Nothing as grand as Owalyn or the Pantheon, but we do have certain abilities by nature. My house was in a place called Ikser. In exchange for a little essence and other tributes, I would keep the doors sealed against intruders, prevent fire, and keep things clean. That kind of thing.”

“Oh, so you were like a servant?” Hump asked.

“Servant?” Walt snapped, affronted. “No! The house and I were one and the same. When it was built, I came into being with it. Servant.” He scoffed, shaking his head.

The choice of past tense didn’t elude Hump. He supposed that was a given, however. Spirits had been hunted to extinction, or at least, he thought they had. He’d also never heard of a place called Ikser.

“So how did you come to be in that mine?” Hump asked.

Walt’s face turned dark, his large eyes drooping sadly. “Ikser was attacked by the Pantheon’s forces. Much of the city was burnt to the ground. I was one of the lucky ones, or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. I was trapped in an amulet by a Chosen of Loften to be used as a power source. Eventually, war took him to that mine where he was killed, and the amulet was broken. I don’t really remember what happened after that, but I must have subconsciously found the closest thing to a vessel inside. After that… I guess you know the rest.”

Hump let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry… for all of it. Sounds like you’ve had quite the time.”

Walt waved a hand. “It’s in the past. Eyes to the future now, eh? So, what do you say? Will you have me?”

“What do you mean, have you?” Hump frowned. “Do you not want to be free? You can do what you want now, Walt.”

“I’m a house spirit,” Walt said. “As far as I’m concerned, this place belongs to you as much as it does to me. You got me here. And trust me, I glanced through a few of the books in here already. You’re not going to want to miss out. I can only access the first room so far and it seems the Irila has been building up her store for a long time.”

Hump’s eyes widened at that. He thought for a moment, seeing no downside, and if the library was a store of the lich’s, it would surely house a priceless amount of knowledge.

“If that’s what you want, I’d be honoured to have you,” Hump said. “How does it work? I need to gift you essence and in exchange you’ll take care of this place?”

“Pretty much,” Walt said. “As I get stronger, I think I’ll be able to expand my control over this place and reach the other rooms. The more essence you can give me, the faster that will happen.”

Hump’s heart—or at least, his imaginary heart in this place—raced at the thought. Just how many secrets would be held in this place? Irila was ancient—from a time before even the War of the Firmament. All those years, and this was where she stored her knowledge.

“Want to take a look?” Walt clicked his fingers, the twin doors opening behind him to reveal a dimly lit room inside.

Hump smiled, making his way up the stairs to join him. He gazed into a small room with two dry and dusty bookshelves along each wall. They were largely empty, but perhaps fifty books were held between the two. The stone tiles of the floor were cracked and uneven. Wisps of cobweb-like string clogged the roof of the chamber, glistening faintly with essence. At the far end of the chamber was a door.

“Does that open?” Hump asked.

Walt shook his head. “Not yet.”

Hump walked up to the closest shelf, gently sliding out a dust covered book. It was leatherbound with silver thread along its edges. He opened it, finding text he couldn’t read within. Studying it, he crossed his fingers that the Book of Infinite Pages might be able to identify it but had no such luck. Perhaps Vivienne would be able to decipher it, given time. Gods, Hump bet she wouldn’t even believe what he’d gained. There was probably nothing she’d want more than to dive into such a place.

He gazed around at this tiny part of the library—at this depository of ancient knowledge. Knowledge he wouldn’t be able to decipher alone, but if he could get back to Vivi, they could figure it out.

“Are there any books in Alveronian?” Hump asked.

“Not sure,” Walt said.

Hump stared at him. “You said I’d want to see what’s in here.”

Walt walked up to him with a wide grin and tapped the page. “There’re words in here, aren’t there? That’s what you wizard folk want.”

“Helps if I can read them.”

Walt shrugged. “Ah, well, makes no difference to me. Can’t read, I’m afraid.”

Hump laughed, not missing the irony that an illiterate spirit was now looking after what might be one of the most valuable magical assets out there. “We’re going to need to work on that.”

Walt held both hands up, palms toward Hump. “Slow down there, kid. I didn’t agree to learn to read when I offered you this place. That’s your job.”

Hump snorted, placing the book back on the shelf. They could work on that later. “How can this even exist?”

“My best guess is that it was originally some sort of dimensional space, and the lich turned it into a phylactery,” Walt said. “It needs a bit of work, I’ll give you that, and I sure hope we can get a few extra rooms quickly. Bit dull being stuck in just this.”

“How much essence would you need to get through that door?” Hump asked, excited for what they might find.

Walt tapped his lower lip. “Hmm. Hard to say.” He yawned, blinking tiredly. “With daily tributes from you, a few months perhaps?”

“Not too long then. I’d give you some now if I had any to spare.”

“You rest up,” Walt said. He yawned again. “I think I need to too. I’m growing tired all of a sudden.”

“Are you okay?” Hump asked.

“Just… need to close my eyes for a…” the spirit’s head tilted back and he started snoring.

Darkness came over Hump before he could think, as quick as if the light of the world had died, and then he opened his eyes to find himself back in the lich’s phylactery chamber. Owalyn’s power surged through the room as Celaine’s fourth circle and new blessing came to fruition, but this was not just killing intent.

All around them, nature reclaimed the chamber. Flowers, grass, vines—all of it grew from the stone, glowing beautifully with lush green essence. It filled Hump with a warmth that reminded him of Glys’ blessings, giving him back a little more of his strength and making the cold more bearable.

He glanced over at the phylactery atop the altar and saw the light of essence within had dimmed further. It was much like when Walt had been in the spirit stone. His essence was used up, and now he needed sleep. The stone itself was smaller now too, shrinking to about the size of Hump’s fist. Even after seeing it for himself, it was hard to believe there was an entire library inside.

My library. He could hardly control his excitement. It would be a lot of work to decipher the contents, but with so much text to work with it would surely be possible. Well, that was if he could actually keep it. It was all well and good Walt telling him that he could take it with him, but Hump would need to convince the people of Drakalyn of that too.

A problem for later, Hump thought. Right now, he needed to be present and make sure that Celaine was okay.

He studied her new blessing with interest. Her entire fourth circle shone with green light, the runes of the blessing filling it in its entirety. A major blessing like this was more than just a new ability, it was a fundamental change to her soul. A power that would define her being going forward. As his curiosity about what it might be grew more intense, his spellbook finally shook.

It was complete. He grinned, eager to know what was inside. Eager to see what new power Celaine had gained.

Celaine’s eyes opened in that moment, shining radiant green. Stars danced within them, so bright it was as if she contained all of space inside. She gazed around the room, her eyes finding Hump and a smile spreading across her face.

“We did it,” she said.

Hump grinned back, nodding. “Alive again, which is always nice.”

Celaine chuckled, then her laughter stop as she looked to Vivienne, Ado, and Finnian. “How did everything go?”

Yunillia appeared saddened. “We must return to the main chamber to be sure.”

“Elder Ashera died for us to make it down here,” Ado said. “Others too. I… I do not know how bad it is.”

Slowly, they all stood together after that, collecting their things. Hump took the lich’s phylactery with him, nonchalantly adding it to his pouch. The others didn’t seem to notice, or at least, they didn’t care who brought it back. Rising the spiral staircase to the main chamber, Hump’s jaw dropped at the view from the shrine.

Sunlight streamed in from the collapsed roof, illuminating the thousands of undead corpses throughout the chamber. The lich’s dark magic was gone, but the place still stank of rot. Her apprentices were all dead along with their master.

Below, the keepers had gathered the wounded and dead. Four keepers had been slain and looking across the battle Hump spotted six dead dragons, two of which with mortified keepers at their sides. Amongst them, Ashera lay still, battered and bloodied from battle.

Hump’s stomach dropped at the sight. His earlier excitement was gone. He was growing tired of such hollow victories. Tired of people dying no matter what he did.

Yunillia gripped Hump’s shoulder, an excited smile on her face. “Do not be so disheartened, Wizard. Not one person here would regret dying for this great victory today. Lich Queen Irila is dead!” Yunillia held up the fallen lich’s crown. “Drakalyn is safe.”

And then, the keepers cheered and laughed. Hump looked up at the blue sky through the small hole and smiled. This was what had to be done to survive in this world full of monsters. It was the brave warriors and adventurers that died so that others didn’t have to. If it meant most could live in peace, he supposed it was worth it.

Celaine came to stand at Hump’s side, leaning her shoulder against his. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

Hump put his arm around her and pulled her close. “You too.”

“You’re even standing on your own this time,” she said. “I think that might be a first.”