The knight stopped screaming, two blue pinpoints of light gleaming from where his eyes had been burned out in a bone-white skull. All visible flesh had melted away except for what still dripped off, steaming, hissing, and popping. Any cloth had burned off, and parts of him were still on fire. He now looked every bit the undead knight he was. A skeletal hand gripped his sword, the other pointing at Matt.
“You will die by my hand,” he said in a voice shaking with fury or pain.
A moment of fear struck Matt before anger took hold and he engulfed the knight in flames again. He heard the metal boots take several steps before the portal gave a pulse and the sound stopped. He let the flames die. As expected, Lord Voth was gone. He turned back to his friends.
Eric flashed a smile. “I don’t think he likes you.”
Trying to sound unfazed, the wizard said, “He was dead already. Not sure what he’s so upset about.”
The rogue joked, “Maybe attracting an undead bride is harder now that he’s not so handsome.”
“Oh, I don’t know, I think he looks better now. He should thank me for the makeover. The flaming flesh has a nice, romantic quality to it. Wouldn’t even need to light candles on a hot date.”
They all laughed and Ryan came forward, giving him a surprise hug. “Remind me not to piss you off. That’s some spell you have.”
“It’s mostly the staff,” Matt admitted.
They turned to take in their surroundings, and Matt saw that a pair of wizards that had emerged from hiding had shut the portal off. In human form again, Jolian strode up behind them, looking grim, determined, and irritated but unharmed. The formerly enthralled people had risen and seemed to be no threat, many having put away their swords. He wondered how much they remembered. Did they have any idea where they were or how they had gotten here? Part of him didn’t care, but he thought that, as the Ellorian Champions, they should address it. He was about to say something when the pieces of the broken Orb of Dominion began to tremble, then vibrate. He gestured for the others to stand back as the pieces slid toward each other on the stone. Eric took a step toward them as if to stop one.
“Wait,” cautioned Matt.
“Are you sure?” the rogue asked, stopping.
“No, but I think we need to see what happens.”
Eric didn’t look convinced. The three pieces came together on the floor and turned toward the others, each rising on one edge. Matt knew they were reforming before the three put themselves together as if someone were holding them. Was the wizard who controlled the master doing this? It seemed unlikely with the portal closed. He glanced around the room to see if anyone appeared to be doing magic to cause this, but no one was, and half weren’t paying attention. His eyes returned to the orb just as the three pieces fused together, a brief burst of golden light shining from the cracks that disappeared. The Orb of Dominion appeared to have healed itself.
“Great,” muttered Ryan. “Now what?”
Anna sighed. “Well, the good part is that everyone has been released. Now we just have to prevent it from being used again.”
Matt asked, “Yeah, but where do we put it?”
Eric looked at him with a gleam in his eye. “I have an idea.”
Night had fallen and Anna felt slightly tipsy from the wine, the gait of her white horse doing little to ease the feeling. Behind her rode the others in single file, the Quest Ring on a hill in the distance, Castle Arking behind them. The time had come to return to Earth, assuming no one summoned them in the few minutes remaining here. The idea of going from quest to quest without respite bothered her, but the moment they completed this one, they had become available to anyone else summoning them to solve their problems.
And what of their own? How were they supposed to live their own lives when they had to keep saving someone else’s? It wasn’t fair, but it wasn’t like they could complain about it to anyone but each other. No one on Rovell knew they weren’t the real Ellorian Champions. At least on Honyn, the elf Lorian and many of his closest friends, like Morven, had known. They could be themselves. Not pretend. Admit that they were scared and confused. That they didn’t know how to do one thing or another that they would be expected to know. Somehow, they had succeeded at another quest. But it seemed like only a matter of time before they failed or got themselves killed.
The thought reminded her of home. Fear about what had happened to her friends when she had vanished from behind the wheel of her car had receded with their more direct concerns, but now that everything had been resolved, there was no escaping learning their fate soon. Even if everyone was fine and escaped serious injury, she would have some explaining to do. They had all seen her disappear. How does one explain such a thing when telling the truth is likely to get you locked in a padded psych ward? She would worry about that later. Her immediate concern was her own safety.
They now knew that they returned to exactly where they had been before the summoning. Matt would end up on a sidewalk where his interview had been taking place. Ryan would reappear in the guest house at his parent’s estate. Eric had been at his job. But Anna had been in the middle of I-270, south of Gaithersburg. They all assumed she would arrive in that exact spot. With no car around her. No air bags. No
