Black Magus

“And how long have you been at this… tree?”

“It’s been five days now.” I shrugged. “That was when I asked Telman about it.”

“Ah.” He rocked back. “If you asked my son, then why are you asking me? He was a lot smarter than I was; yet was still a dunce when compared to my ma.”

‘Clearly.’ I snorted. “Well, you’re the one who asked where I was. I didn’t even ask you anything.”

“Fair point, mate!” Henry Cole buckled forward to slap at his knees, filling my necrotic world with a cacophony of applause and maniacal laughter akin to maddened sailors facing a horrific storm. Like many of my ancestors, he was huge. 1.9 meters tall and built like the trunk of a black tree, back in Deapou. And as Telman implied, he was dressed in the boots, belts, and rags that all but labeled him as a pirate. Including a tri-tipped hat fashioned atop his matted and heavily adorned locks.

“My name's Henry, ‘Captain Darkblood’ Cole!” He thumped his fist into his chest, silencing his crowd of shadows. “Was born in eight-eighty-eight. And ever since I could remember, I was fascinated with the sea. I was enamored with it. Or rather, what was beneath it. The largest expanse of perpetual darkness this side of the Shadow Plane.” He maniacally grinned. “I became a pirate before I became of age. I lived off the sea and attacked anyone who wronged me. Human or otherwise. I’d return land-side for a few years or decades to have my fun until I took a long halt to raise Tel. Other than that, I was nothing particularly special.”

“You have vampiric blood in you, do you not? That doesn’t warrant special?” I asked.

“To me, no.” He laughed. “I was stronger than the average man, but still weak compared to me ma. Our only commonality was our taste for blood. I used our Shadow Sorcery to rule over the seas."

“I see. I imagine you captured many a creature down in the depths.” I grinned at him. “How’d you die?”

“Something like that.” He cackled. “As for how I died?” He paused to scratch at his beard. “Well, I grew old and drowned of course! The only outcome to a life at sea.” He cackled again. “That happened in ten-ninety-five. But I’d been terrorizing the seas for some two centuries at that point. My maiden voyage into piracy was at ten years old.” He said, dramatically panning his hand to the side. “By using the Wraith Form to alleviate the pressure and by breathing into the darkness, I was able to live on the ocean floor. After a bit of exploring, I came across a goldmine. A graveyard of sunken ships. And with time, it became a mobile fortress.”

“How did your crew breathe, exactly?” I incredulously asked. “Or was your Well large enough to keep a spell under constant activation for them?”

“That’s the best part.” He stepped forward with a crazed eye. “There are connections down there. Conduits. Ley lines. Rifts that lead to the Shadow Plane. Those occur naturally in places with deep darkness. But down there, we can make our own. Like in the Darkworld!” He added with a wagging hand. “The convergence of the two spaces inside the ship is what provided our air and dispelled our water. My subordinates could hardly see in it.” He meekly shrugged. “But it was better than drowning.”

“That is annoying, isn’t it?” I sighed. “Having subordinates with no night vision.”

“The biggest inconvenience one could imagine.” Henry snorted. “Besides incompetence. Anyway.” He waved it all aside. ”Tell me of you. I can see you’re a demihuman as well.”

“I’m half-drow, and my name is Amun,” I explained with a bit of surprise at making it this far without an introduction. “I was born to Emeric Cole and was raised as a royal. Now, I’m on my way to the Bodhi Tree. And I plan to seek out the Cole Crypt upon my return. Among other things.”

“And what do you hope to learn there, Amun?”

“Some ancient history for starters.” I shrugged.

“I will warn you that it won’t be easy,” Henry growled. “Shadow Sorcery alone isn’t enough to reach the Crypts depths. That said.” He peered over his feet. “I can see you are of the void. But that will only get you so far still. You will need cunning, wit, intellect, speed, strength, and more if you wish to find your way to its end.”

“I accept the challenge,” I growled back.

“Alright then.” He leaned back, smiling wide. “In that case, I have a challenge for you. Find my ship.”

“What’s it called, The Black Pearl?” I snorted.

“No.” He shook his head. “The Black Box. It should be docked in a trench near the island. I’m sure you can find it.”

"Sounds simple enough. But I’ll warn you and say I plan on exploring much more than the sea. So I’ll be bringing it out of the water from time to time.”

“Well, it’s too big to put it on land.” He snorted. “Where are you going to put it?”

“Maybe I’ll wake you up and show you one day.” I snorted back.

“What a tease!” Henry cackled. “But alright then. I assume you’ll be summoning my ma next? Give her my regards.”

“Yeah, right after I cross this desert. And I’ll be sure to.” I smiled. And with another sigh, I was off my throne and swimming back to reality.

Within a few moments, I was kneeling in my tent, listening to the others tear down their shelters in the mid-morning tempest while my Doppelganger maneuvered around me to mimic their actions.

“How long do you think it’ll take us to cross?” Came Roheisa’s voice.

“Uh.” I slowly turned to her. “A day.”

“Well, Lucia and I were thinking that it’d be nice to camp in the desert for a night or two.”

‘Oh God, why?’ I groaned.

“We still have eight days until the deadline.” She pressed on. “We’ll be lounging about somewhere anyway, and-”

“Yeah, fine.” I sighed. “Let’s just go.”

I took off before she could say anything. Running at a dead sprint, I vaulted off the edge and plummeted through the clouds like a base jumper, and spawned my Artificial Well to accelerate on a southeastern heading while the others trailed behind me.

After descending low enough to skim the sea of dunes, the seconds, minutes, and hours seemed to blend into a single, thoughtless moment. The sun rose and began to fall in the sky and eventually, the summit shrank to a large stain on the horizon to our backs. By sundown, we’d made it nearly halfway across the desert. An admirable distance, by my standards. Assuming Roheisa was purposefully slowing us down so she could admire the views and have her camping trip. As for me, I didn't care much for the desert; unless it was a tundra or something similar. Arid deserts only had rocks, sand, and things buried in the sand that were only interesting on occasion. But I doubted they knew that.

It was around eight-thirty when she called for us to descend and make camp for the night. While I had other ideas for our desert camping, I held my tongue for the night and allowed her to take charge. The surface was as one would have expected. Covered in rolling dunes of loose sand with the occasional outcropping of stone or dried vegetation. Our camp was within one such outcropping. Placed at the center of three large rocks that were somewhat fenced in by a few bushes.

I immediately went around the area with gravity magic, compacting the sand beneath us into a solid platform while the princess deposited steel stakes and poles onto Jaimess and Ed and the large tent they were unfolding. With the initial jobs done, I joined Lucia and Toril in amassing some firewood and provisions from our collective storage, then assisted the Princess in setting up the stove before heading outside to install the most important piece of infrastructure.

The shitter.

Once done, I did a bit of scrying to gaze upon the site. Our tent was a round space large enough for the six of us to gather around a wood stove with seven small alcoves attached radially, one for the entrance and the others for our foxholes. Some of which already had denizens lying within. Thus I had around four hours to kill. So I took to the sky to do a bit of training.

---

Come morning, I awoke to Roheisa and Lucia whipping up a veritable feast. According to them, I was so we wouldn’t have to stop for lunch in a few hours. But with the time left until the meal was done and the fact that nature would inevitably call, I couldn’t help but feel that it was an excuse for us to stay here longer.

I, however, wanted nothing more than to get out of this desert already. The drab sand and lack of flora were almost torturous. So I impatiently waited until the food was done and wolfed down my meal the moment it was served. Then lounged about some more in an attempt to give our food time to digest before taking flight. After nearly an hour had gone by, however, I noticed a small change within our tent.

It was a subtle rumbling that permeated the ground itself. As the seconds passed, it grew to a strong tremor and began rattling the pots atop the stove. Pebbles began to skitter across the ground. And soon, the entire tent began to shake. As one, we all exchanged a mix of expressions before rising and filing out of the tent. All the while, the tremors continued. Rising in pitch and intensity until a proper earthquake was upon us. Shaking the ground with an ever-greater magnitude until its crescendo came in the form of a leviathan’s roar that detonated an earth-shattering explosion. The dunes around us were ripped asunder, collapsed, and imploded into a wall of sand and jagged spires rising into the blue sky.