Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

“David? David who?” I rubbed my eyes.

“I dunno. Something about being a Sergeant. You collapsed when I touched you, and I was worried you were gonna die again, so I went into your Inventory and found some lobelia and some healing potions. They stopped you from dying, but you fell unconscious and stayed that way. I was too scared to try to escape this place with you in case it happened again... so I made a lair here and just waited, hoping you’d wake up.”

“Urrgh.” My HP was sitting at barely 30 points out of 1678, and I felt like stone-cold ass. I checked my History, bleary-eyed, and immediately realized that I was so fucked up that my ability to read was even worse than usual. “Navigail, read about me out my most recent logs. I mean... read me aloud. I mean... ugh. Logs! From Baldr!”

[You take 9975 Aetheric damage!]

[You have died.]

[Security Incident logged with Helpdesk: Ticket #399]

[We have restored and repaired your Character Profile following a security incident which targeted your account. We apologize for any reality distortion issues you may have experienced during this time. No further action is required, but we recommend you log out and rest for at least 2 hours before resuming play.]

My eyes widened. Holy shit. If I was reading this right, Baldr one-shotted me with enough raw Aetheric damage to knock a full-grown dragon out of the sky, and then... he’d tried to hack me? Swallowing, I glanced at my Message folder. Sure enough, there was a new message pip: a new email from [Admin].

“We should go back to the castle,” I mumbled, struggling to sit. “If Suri saw me die in our party notifications and can’t get in touch, then she is absolutely freaking the fuck out right now.”

“We can’t.” Karalti lay her chin down on the floor. Her violet and silver eyes glowed softly in the gloom.

I peered at her. “What do you mean, we can’t?”

“I can’t teleport us out of here,” she said. “She won’t let me.”

“She? Who’s she?” I paused for a moment. “Wait. You mean Lahati?”

Karalti rumbled in agreement, drawing her knee in towards her belly. “Now that we’re here, the ‘Trials of the Queen have commenced’. That’s what the Quest we got said.”

Great. I raided my Inventory to see how many healing potions I had left. The short answer was ‘not enough’. There were five Concentrated Moss Tinctures, each one healing 150 HP, and two Improved Healing Drafts, which healed 300. I drank one of each and watched as my HP ring crawled back into the yellow range.

I rubbed my face. “How long was I out for?”

“Uhhh... I sort of lost track of time, but I think three days or so?”

I froze, still pinching my nose between thumb and forefinger.

“Three?!” I hissed. “I was out for three fucking days?!”

“Uh huh.” The dragon huffed a cloud of sweet, faintly acrid breath over me. “I’m sorry. I tried to reach Suri to tell her, but I can’t do that either.”

Three motherfucking days. Suri and everyone else at Kalla Sahasi were going to be beside themselves. Worriedly, I surfed back to my messages and opened my PM thread with Suri, but as soon as I tried to compose a message, an alert jumped up.

[You are locked into a Quest with special requirements. PMs are currently disabled.]

“Wait... what?” I opened up my menu and scanned the active quests. “Did you accept this quest?”

“Nope. It triggered when I came here. I guess that must have roped you into it, too... maybe that’s why you respawned here?”

“Maybe.” The menu showed Karalti’s old quest, The Queen’s Mantle, as being completed. We’d gotten 400 EXP out of it, too. In its place was a new follow-on quest:

  New Quest: The Path of Royalty

Lahati the Chrysanthemum Queen, the last free-born Solonkratsu matriarch of Artana, holds the keys to a precious gift: access to the Path of Royalty, the draconic Path of command which gives queen dragons the ability to access their Queensong and its related powers. To gain the Path of Royalty, you must battle through the Trial of the Queens, a labyrinth designed to trap and test anyone who dares to claim Lahati’s power and treasures.

By entering the Tomb of Lahati, you automatically activate this quest.

Reward: ??? EXP, new Path options, Bonus Lexica.

Special: Once this quest has begun, you must either complete the quest or perish during the attempt to exit. You cannot bring companions other than your Bonded mount, use your PMs, teleport in or out of the dungeon, or teleport reinforcements into the arena. If you or your mount die during this quest, you will despawn from the dungeon and may return to attempt the quest again.

“Yeah...” Karalti dejectedly flattened her horns against her skull. “I was so worried about you I didn’t realize we were stuck here, until I tried to warp us home.”

“It’s okay, Tidbit. If nothing else, it means we’re safe from Ororgael. For now. The quest says no one else can enter the arena now we’re here.” I checked Karalti’s sheet. Nothing had changed yet.

“Do you remember anything?” Karalti asked, gently nuzzling at my hand with the very tip of her snout. “What happened when you fought Baldr?”

“I...” I closed the HUD down with a thought, absently reaching out to rub her jaw. “Uh... no. I remember everything before I sent you off to hide, and that’s it. If people aren’t supposed to be able to teleport into the dungeon to help you, I wonder why I spawned here instead of the castle?”

“You respawned in a little chapel to Matir,” she said. “And I mean... you ARE my Bonded rider. It’s not that weird.”

I frowned. “You know, back in