Last Life

“YOU GOT LUCKY TODAY, fox pup,” I heard a mewling whisper from the dark. She clearly did not want others overhearing. She was perfectly aware of what I could do.

I led my fingers pointedly over the steel bars of the cage I was placed in after the mage’s brief interrogation. The cage itself was located in the damp basement of a half-collapsed building next to another few similar cages, though they were somewhat larger.

The mage’s underlings had locked me in here and just left. But this odd changeling woman seemed to want to shoot the breeze. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear she was acting on an order from her master.

“In what way did I get lucky?” I asked with a jeering whisper.

Tika emerged silently from the darkness. In the moonlight streaming timidly through the narrow bars of the window, her face looked even less human.

“If not for master’s interest in... hm... true ones, you would not now be among the living,” she responded. “On top of that, he was in a rush. Today, you avoided beatings and torture. Tomorrow, fortune may turn its back on you...”

“Well if you ask me, I avoided torture because I told the truth,” I shrugged.

“You think master believed the story that you inherited a ghost dagger from your daddy?” the changeling gibed.

“Who believes what is none of my business,” I muttered, testing the steel bars. Honestly though, the fact I was untied could mean only one thing: that my prison guards were certain the cage was inescapable. “Let me repeat myself... The first I heard that this dagger once belonged to a Ghost was today from your master.”

I wondered how it ended up in a hiding spot in the bookmaker’s office. Too bad I was never able to figure out who the original owner of that building was. Based on the age of the hiding spot, that must have been who originally owned the dagger.

Tika tilted her head to one side and, squinting, stared at me in silence. As if she was deciding whether to continue our conversation or not. Then she turned and vanished into the darkness.

What a pity... I was getting settled in for a long talk.

Walking a circle around the cage, I took a close look at all the bars and bracings. I pulled a few of them hard.

Ahem... These were made to last. Based on the long ruts in the metal and stone floor, clearly left by something with big claws, I was afraid to even imagine what they kept here before me.

With a heavy sigh, I walked toward the far corner of the cage and got down on the stone floor. It seemed like the least soiled part.

While being dragged into this dungeon, I managed to run a quick scan. Which was why I was not surprised a little while later to see a pile of dirty rags in one of the cages, and a dark human silhouette walking up to the bars.

It was clearly someone gifted and, based on the light brown glow in his energy system, an artifactor. His reservoir was empty, so the glow was dull and nearly extinguished.

Beyond me, he was the only person down in the dungeon.

“Finally settled down,” I heard the shivering old man’s voice. “Good choice... There’s no point tiring yourself out over nothing. Before you, they had a shadow hound in there. And believe you me, she was a good sight stronger than you.”

I stood up and walked over to the bars. There were no more than ten steps between us. The person could really have been anyone. A wildling leader that had fallen into disfavor? Someone looking for shadow artifacts just like me? Or maybe he was undercover? But that was unlikely... It would be a waste to use a gifted person as an undercover agent. Tika was also clearly whispering because of him.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Nobody anymore,” the old man muttered after a brief pause and returned to his place.

“Have you...?”

“Listen, rat man, tell your master I’ve already told him everything...” the old man interrupted me angrily.

Hm... He must have taken me for an undercover spy.

“I have no master.”

“Do you even realize what you just said?” the stranger frowned. “You think I didn’t just see you having a nice little chat with the lutine?”

“Lutine?” I asked, frowning.

That sounded familiar... Hm... Oh, of course!

Vadoma used to tell me about ancient times in our world. About the magic creatures that once inhabited it, but gradually disappeared. Not unlike places of power.

Honestly, I never took my adoptive mother’s tales for anything other than bedtime stories. But apparently, here in this world, all these mythological creatures were still around.

Vadoma taught me about lutines and their male counterpart lutins, small nocturnal changelings who served powerful sorcerers. Very similar to brownies, nisse, duende, and hobgoblins...

Where black cats were always thought to serve witches, pure white ones were seen as likely handservants of mages. How did I never think of that? After all, I saw Tika transform before my very eyes.

“I see the Duke is really scraping the bottom of the barrel for help these days...” the old man grumbled pointedly from the dark.

“So he’s a nobleman?” I asked in sincere surprise.

The old man said nothing for a while, but then his rasping voice emerged again with faint notes of hope:

“So, kid, are you saying you’re not in the Wild Duke’s employ?”

“Nope,” I replied and even mechanically shook my head.

With a step back, I gave a slight bow and said:

“Allow me to introduce myself... Chevalier Maximillian Renard.”

I imagined that was exactly how Max would have behaved in that situation.

The pile of rags stirred, and the old man again came closer to the bars.

“And what brings you out here, chevalier?” the nameless prisoner was clearly intrigued.

“I came to the frontier for a tour of duty in the Shadow Patrol,” I said.

“Is that right?” the old man snorted. “And who was your commander?”

“Lieutenant Tassen,” I answered instantly. “Honestly though, he split me off in a group and told us to go around Gray Ridge to the northeast and link back up with the main force there.”

“Who commanded the smaller group?”

“Sergeant Ravel,” I answered quickly.

“I know him,” the old man said confidently. “Big fellow with a pretty face. Guys like him are always a hit with the ladies.”

I chuckled under my breath. The old man was clumsily testing me.

“We must be talking about different Sergeant Ravels,” I came. “Our commander is a short man, and not the kind any lady is likely to appreciate... His constant belching fills the square mile around him with the smell of rotten meat...”

I heard quiet laughter. I must have passed the test. Or the first stage at least...

For the next few minutes, the old man peppered me with questions, which I patiently answered all while picking at the crumbs of information I found interesting.

“I got you all wrong, chevalier,” the old man finally said. “You have to understand. I thought you were put down here to get me to reveal something they couldn’t torture out of me... But it looks like you’re just another of the Wild Duke’s victims...”

“Wild Duke?” I asked. Without particularly drawing attention to the fact the old man had yet to say who he was. Still didn’t trust me.

Oh well... I wasn’t going to pry.

“Yes,” the prisoner responded with a chuckle. “But I don’t suggest you call him that with any of his underlings around. Their master hates that nickname. So using it could lead to dying by the lash in a fit of someone’s heartfelt loyalty.”

“So it’s only a nickname...”

“That’s the thing. Not exactly...” the old man objected with a sigh. “He descends from the family which once ruled these lands. We are now at the former location of Valence, their primary fortress.”

“So he’s from a lost noble family?”

“Not exactly,” the old man replied. “The dukes de Valence continue to serve His Majesty. Honestly though, after the Shadow appeared and covered the majority of their holdings, the family lost its former influence.”

“Ah...”

“But Louis de Valence,” the old man continued, “the man now holding us prisoner, decided to betray the king and, gathering a battalion of gifted people several years ago, departed for the frontier. Let me note as well that, in his hunt for ebbs, he gathered strength and amassed quite a large band.”

“I saw women and children...”

“They’re from wildling tribes that decided to join up with him. I don’t know for sure what he promised...”

The old man chuckled.

“I hear surprise... You’ve probably been hearing scary stories about the frontier since you were a babe, eh? The most dangerous place on earth and all that... And now you see normal people live here, too...”

“Pretty much, yeah,” I replied. “Before departing, I was issued a special potion to stave off headaches. But while I was being dragged around camp, I didn’t see signs of any locals being afflicted.”

“They weren’t lying about the frontier,” the old man said. “It truly is one of the most dangerous places in all Mainland. But those tales also give reason to take pause... If they are all true, then why do the wildling tribes grow exponentially year after year? Can the common folk really believe it’s more dangerous in normal counties and baronies than next to the very Shadow? And as for the headaches... The human body slowly adapts. And the children that are born here never suffer at all.”

Curious... Then why wasn’t I feeling anything? As far as I knew, Max was born in the capital. Was it all to do with my energy system?

But before we could talk more, the front door opened with a clang and the two quiet hulking men that dragged me down there came back. But this time, they weren’t coming for me.

“Farewell, chevalier!” the old man shouted as they dragged him to the exit. “I hope your torment will not last long!”

I never saw his face. But up close, his energy system was a ghastly sight. His body was ridden with dark pulsating spots of various sizes. Apparently, they were fresh wounds. Torture wounds.

When the door slammed shut and I was left on my own in complete silence, it occurred to me that the old man never even told me his name. And I for some reason never asked. By the way, what was he just saying about torture?

* * *

It had been two weeks since I was taken prisoner. All that time, I had been traveling with a small party that was one quarter strykers in a northeasterly direction.

I was still sitting in the same cage I’d been placed into on day one and which had essentially become my home. My cage was being transported in a large wagon covered with canvas. So my only information about the outside world came from the brief moments when the flap was raised.

The caravan had another few wagons which must have been transporting other people. But my former brothers in arms, unlike me, were walking alongside the wagons and doing all the dirty work that entailed.

They tried roping me in a few times as well but, after two attempts to flee, the Duke ordered me locked in my cage until we reached our destination.

I exchanged no more words with the wildling leader, though the first few days I was expecting to be brought to interrogation as promised. Either the Duke had heard enough on day one, or I was completely uninteresting but either way no one hassled me with any more questions. Even Tika, who weas curious for the first few days, stopped checking in.

But I didn’t get bored. I had too much to do. Those two weeks of training and meditation gave me time to repair almost half of the largest strains. I still had a lot of work ahead of me, particularly in light of the fact I was using only the energy I’d already saved up in my reservoir. But I did not despair. I prepared myself...

Beyond the stryker and lutine magic, I sensed another kind of power in the party on several occasions. It was distinctly different from anything I’d encountered before. There was not a lot of it, and I was only getting faint echoes. I couldn’t even get a proper look at it in true vision. But I was perfectly aware of who the power emanated from. The Ghost prisoner in one of the wagons.

On day sixteen, at noon, the caravan stopped and the Duke gave the command to set up camp.

I thought they were finally going to let me stretch my limbs outside the steel box, but my hopes were dashed. The wagon and my miniature prison kept going.

It was only a few hours later when the wagon stopped again that a few troops threw back the canvas flaps and climbed up into my “living space.” They quickly pulled the cage and me inside it out into fresh air.

The first thing I did was fill my lungs with night air and smile. After the stinking wagon, my sense of smell was overwhelmed by the aromas of pine forest and lake water. I exhaled and took a look around.

We were on the shore of a small lake with a thick pine forest lining its opposite bank.

“Fox pup, can you see It?” Tika mewed rapturously, standing a step from my cage.

“Yes,” I came with a scratchy voice, staring wide-eyed at the giant thunderhead looming high over the forest like a wall of blackness. But this was no storm cloud... I had been brought straight to the edge of the Shadow.

The sight of it made all my hair stand on end.

“Can you sense Its power?” the lutine came enthusiastically. “It is very nearby. Just a few minutes’ ride...”

“Why are we here?” I asked in a near whisper.

“You’ll find out soon enough, fox pup,” Tika said mysteriously.

After that, she slipped softly away to join the Duke, sitting in his saddle and matter-of-factly doling out orders.

A few minutes later, my cage was again picked up on all four sides and dragged to the lake. I tried to move, but one of the strikers placed the tip of his blade to my throat.

“One wrong move and you’re dead,” he told me in an icy voice.

I had no choice but to comply.

My cage was dragged up just a few steps from the dark water’s edge. I meanwhile stood stiff as a board, watching everything distantly.

“You always look so concentrated, fox pup?” Tika chuckled, again appearing to the right of my cage. “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m trying to make sure I remember,” I answered calmly, not looking at her.

“Remember?” she asked. My calm demeanor seemed to catch her off guard. “May I ask what?”

“All the people I will come to kill when I get out of this cage,” I said, turning my head and staring into the lutine’s cat eyes. “I already have you.”

Tika shuddered and stepped back from the cage with a hiss. Fear flickered in her squinting animal eyes. But she got herself together and gave a strained smile, revealing her little fangs.

“I’ll be waiting, fox pup!”

I smiled back happily. She never should have done that... Because I was a man of my word. Did they think I was just sitting idle all that time? No chance... I had been dumping my energy slowly into the base of one of the cage bars the whole time. At first, I thought I’d be able to break it very quickly, but the cage proved to be made of an unusual kind of metal. It could really take a lot of mana. The process lasted many days, but it was worth the hassle. Now, the steel bar just needed one small mass of mana to break apart into tiny pieces.

Suddenly, I felt something strange. With a shudder, I turned. The unusual magic I had sensed for the duration of the trip had just revealed itself to me.

I saw a short figure through the open flap of the second wagon surrounded by four strykers and wrapped in a dark cloak.

There it was... The mythical Ghost...

A heavy gaze stared back at me from the dark hood covering the Shadow creature’s face. A moment later, one of the strykers jerked back on its arm. I no longer sensed the heavy gaze. Only then did I notice that the Ghost’s wrists, neck, and ankles were shackled. Based on the magic glow emanating from the chains and fetters, it was clearly some fancy artifact.

“Here?!” the Duke loudly asked the figure in the dark cloak.

The Ghost turned its head as if sniffing, then nodded in silence.

A few minutes later, watching the silhouettes of the riders disappearing into the distance, I considered the fact that I finally understood the nameless prisoner’s parting words about torment...

The Duke was seemingly about to feed me to a flow.