Game Pieces

Aaron and Lysa explore Helios' workshop and encounter more of his magic creations.

10.

Game Pieces

 

Aaron did not answer her question for a while, but instead stared around the room.     Near them was a doorway with an actual wooden door set in place.    The only other exit was through the Homidae room.

Lysa waited patiently for him to decide.

“I don’t see any other options other than to go back the way we came or to try the door over there.     It could simply be a storage closet, or there could be another challenge for us there.    But my judgment has been very flawed recently, so Lysa, what do you think we should do?”

She answered immediately, “We need to see what is behind that door.”

“You seem very sure of that.    Tell me why.”

“For one thing, it appears to be just a mundane door, not a magic gateway, so maybe it is not another part of this museum… or zoo.    I would guess that Helios would want more than one exit from this place, so we may find a way out.     It could lead to a stairwell.”

“So what are the objections of simply backtracking?”

“We could, but there still could be some of Helios’ captives lurking around.     There was a barrier preventing us from leaving that way earlier, so if that is activated, we’d have to turn around and try this door anyway.    The huge Purple Worm also would hinder our escape by that direction.   Since we’ve come this far, I’d say let’s try it, as it is right before us anyway.”

Aaron nodded, “Very sound thinking, my dear.”

She tried to not show any surprise at his use of endearment - it could have simply been a slip of the tongue.   

“Thank you, Lord.”

“There could be more of his Menagerie behind the door.”

“Perhaps, but what else could be worse than what we’ve already encountered?”

“Vampiric rodents?    Mechanical, stinging insects?   Dragonflies that breathe fire?    Maybe an aggressive walking Mushroom?”

She laughed at his ideas, happy to see that he still possessed some degree of humor after the awful adventure.

Aaron smiled at her laughter, “Are you ready to find out?”

Lysa got to her feet and they went over to the door.    It wasn’t broad in size and seemed very unlikely to be a part of the showroom design of the other entrances.   

Aaron tried the door handle, and swung the door slowly open.

As soon as it was flung fully open, soft light lit the room from overhead.

“An automatic lighting system.”  He said to Lysa as they looked inside the room.    It seemed to be some sort of workshop, for along all the walls were tables with a wild assortment of bottles, pieces of metal, leather, scrolls, pieces of armor and large glass tubes with the skeletal remains of strange beasts inside.    In the very middle of the room was what looked like a large chessboard pattern.

“Uh oh.”   Aaron mumbled, upon seeing the design.

“What is it?”   Lysa asked.

“Do you see that chessboard pattern on the floor?”

“Yes, is that significant?”

“Helios was passionate for chess.    His tower had an elaborate defense system that involved playing a game of chess with living pieces.    When Aedric’s group entered the tower, we almost were done in by that chess game.”

“So you’re thinking that he has set something like this up in this room?”

“I don’t know - it is smaller, but maybe this is where he worked on the design for his tower.    Just be careful not to step onto that chessboard pattern.”

“Alright… hey, do you see those suits of armor standing up against the far wall?   Next to that suit that is laid out on that table.”

“Yeah, I see it.”

“Well several of them seem to be slowly moving.”

She pointed to them and sure enough, a group of six suits of armor - three white in color and three jet black- were slowly animating, shuffling almost groggily across the floor toward them.     They each had the appearance of chess pieces.     Three seemed to be pawns, one wore the vestments of a bishop, one had a feminine shape and wore the crown of a Queen and the other piece wore a King’s crown.

“Great.”   Aaron commented, “These seem to be more like armor golems though.   Still, we don’t know what they’ll do, so stay close.”

They entered the room and waited as the chess pieces shuffled toward them.    All of them were armed, but their movements were mechanical.

“If we take out the King piece, maybe the other black pieces will stop moving.”  Lysa suggested.

“Good idea.   Let’s try that.”   

The pieces were only a quarter of the way across the chessboard on the floor, so Lysa and Aaron had to move onto it.    To their relief, the pattern didn’t seem enchanted.

They rushed forward toward the black king piece.    As they neared, all the pieces raised their weapons.    

A white pawn stepped in front of them - it was the size of a short human, but carried a full sized sword and shield.

It swung its sword at Aaron, but he easily blocked it and then chopped at the piece’s head, aiming to where the helmet rested against the chest armor.     His sword sent the empty helmet flying and this dispelled the magic, sending the suit of armor crashing to the floor with a loud noise.

Lysa did not waste any time but parried the next pawn piece as it advanced upon her and struck in the same way Aaron had done.     Again the armor fell to the floor, dispelled.

Aaron was already attacking the last pawn when he noticed that the Bishop piece was holding its staff high in the air and a blue glow was building at the end.

“Spell!”   He yelled in warning to Lysa as he finished knocking the pawn down.   Before he could see if his squire heard his warning, the bishop’s spell ended and a huge ghostly war hammer appeared, and then flew through the air as if thrown.      Aaron ducked, but the hammer was magically cast and it hit him squarely in the head.

He was knocked backwards, his sight slightly blurred and his ears ringing.   He lay there stunned for a lengthy moment, watching as Lysa savagely attacked the animated suit of armor that was the bishop.   She chopped at the arm holding the staff, sending it falling to the floor.    The bishop piece swung a mace in his other hand, but she dodged under his swipe.

Lysa spun around, hacking the leg out from the bishop.    It fell to the floor and the armor pieces flew in all directions, the enchantment dispelling as soon as it contacted the black and white stones.   The effects of the Bishop’s magic hammer seemed to almost immediately dissipate, for the pain and blurred vision quickly ended. 

 Aaron was already getting to his feet as Lysa rushed over to him.   Yet as she neared, the white queen piece made a gesture with the staff she held.   White light shot out and slammed into Lysa, throwing her across the room, into a wall.

With a roar, Aaron lunged at the queen, chopping down at her arms.    His blade bit through the armor sending the arm pieces crashing to the floor, which deactivated the golem.

But the last piece - a black king- swung his scepter in Aaron’s direction and immediately Aaron was hit in the chest by what felt like a huge invisible fist.    He fell backwards, but got up and rushed the king, who again swung the scepter.     Again a fist pounded him and he crumpled to the floor, dazed.

Next to him on the chessboard floor was one of Lysa’s magic bottles that had fallen out of her belt pouch when the Queen’s energy bolt had knocked her across the room.    Aaron snatched it up, saw it was uncorked and quickly and flung it at the King.     It impacted the leg armor of the golem and the chess piece disappeared, to reappear much smaller in the bottle.   Quickly Aaron ran to Lysa, found a cork in her belt pouch, then raced over and corked the top.  He then returned to Lysa.

She was just regaining consciousness and he Laid Hands on her, instantly healing her injuries.

“Wow, that was quite a jolt.”  She said holding her head, “Did we win?”

“I sort-of cheated by imprisoning the black king, but we destroyed all the rest.”

He pulled her to her feet and led her over to a chair in front of one of the workbenches.

“Sit down for a bit and rest.”

“I’m okay, Lord.”

“Rest, Lysa, while I look around… that’s an order.”

She sighed but did as he said.     Aaron glanced at the three long tables that framed the edges of three sides of the room.    It was like an alchemist’s lab mixed with a metal worker’s shop and a wizard’s study.    He didn’t dare touch anything, but it was apparent that this was where Helios worked on his golems and constructs.     The skeletons in the large glass tubes seemed to have been submerged in some sort of green liquid at one time, yet the liquid had dried up long ago.  

There wasn’t any other door that he could find.

“I guess we’ll have to try to go back the way we came.”   He told Lysa when she defied him by joining him after only resting for a few minutes.

“So you can’t see how that section of wall over there is slightly discolored from other stones in the wall?   Clearly it is some sort of secret passage.”

He looked at where she pointed, but he could not see any difference until she pulled him close to the wall.

“How could you see that from over there?”   He asked her in amazement.

“It’s these Elven eyes - since my transformation, I have eyesight like a hawk.”

They poked and pushed around the wall until they found a loose stone that clicked when touched.     Silently, a door swung open, revealing a stairway leading up.

“Look what you found!”  Aaron said to Lysa, “Hopefully a way out of here.”

Cautiously they went inside and took the dusty stairs upward.    After a long walk in the dark, the stairs ended at another door.   Feeling around for a latch, Aaron found it and pushed it open.   

Warm, damp air greeted them, along with the sound of a gentle rain.

Lysa squealed with delight and forgetting herself, hugged him and kissed his cheek.    Aaron hugged her back.     They stepped out, to find themselves on the edge of the mountains that bordered the valley, a few miles west of the Faerie Pool.   A path led downward out of the mountains and they happily took it.

A short distance later they found a cheerfully running brook that ran parallel to the path.    They stopped and listened to the water.    The rain had lessened to a very faint drizzle, and both of them found that they had a strong desire to cool off in the clear waters of the brook.

They didn’t speak about these thoughts and instead resumed their walk down the mountain.     At the very bottom, the path ended, and the mountain brook flowed into a crystal clear pool of water about five feet deep.    

“What an inviting pool.”  Lysa mumbled, almost transfixed by the water.    

“We need to swim in it.”   Aaron answered, staring longingly at the pool.

Without another word to each other, they both began removing their armor, gazing dreamily at the beckoning water.

“Lysa?”  Aaron said in a sleepy tone as he pulled his arming doublet over his head.

“Huh?”  Her reply was equally sluggish.

“This pool is enchanted.”

“How do you know?”

“We’re being enticed to get in it.”

“We are?”

“Can’t you feel it?”

“Well… yeah, I guess so.   What do we do?”

“Resist it… it could be connected to the Pool of Purity.”

“I don’t want to go through that again.”

“We need to resist it.”   He said again, but he was already naked and stepping into the pool.   The water was pleasantly cool.

“Too late for me.”  He said, but he was smiling serenely as he sank down to his neck in the water.

A moment later Lysa joined him with a contented sigh.

“Maybe it’s not really enchanted.”   She suggested after they had sat there for a few moments without anything happening.

“I hope you’re right, but we sure couldn’t resist bathing here.”

“I wonder why?”

“I don’t know - everything about this valley is mysterious.”

“The water feels really good.   Invigorating - my muscles don’t ache or anything.   Maybe it is a healing pool of some sort.”

“Maybe.”  Aaron shifted slightly, feeling energized as well.

He looked over at Lysa and found that she had her eyes closed with a strange expression on her face.

“Lysa?  What is it?”

“I feel…um… I think we’d better get out of this water quickly, Lord.”

“Why?   What is it?”   He asked, but he too was beginning to notice something as well.     It reminded him somewhat of what the demoness had done to him.    It wasn’t as intense, but it was certainly a sexual stirring.

“Lord, we REALLY need to get out of the water!”  She said with some urgency, her chest heaving as her eyes seemed to burn with desire.

“Quickly!” He suggested, and they waded over toward the edge of the pool.    He touched her shoulder to help her climb out, but the feel of her skin electrified him.     She spun around wildly and pulled him to her, which caused them both to fall backwards under water, locked in a desperate kiss.

They surfaced, both gasping for air for a moment then looked at each other and passionately embraced.

Her mouth would not leave his long enough for him to say anything and she tightly wrapped her legs around him, which drove him insane with desire for her.     What could they do?    Obviously the pool was causing their intense desire, but he certainly loved her anyway.     Nothing sounded better at that moment then making love to her in the pool.     It wouldn’t surprise anyone, for everyone said they had feelings for each other.

But this was artificial.    Something arcane, like the lust that the demoness generated.    They were being manipulated, and though it certainly would be pleasant, he did not want either one of them to feel cheated or controlled.

So fighting all of his male needs, Aaron walked out of the pool with Lysa still wrapped around his waist and her tongue hungrily exploring the inside of his mouth. 

He stood there on the bank of the pool, giving her time for the water’s effects to wear off.  At first she didn’t seem to notice that they had left the water.      She kept kissing him and he didn’t discourage it, but kissed her back.     Her body squirmed against him for a few minutes.    Then, finally, she opened her eyes, broke their kiss and looked around.

“Oh.”  Was all she said, blushing terribly as she unwound her legs from his waist.    Hanging her head against his shoulder, she began to weep.