Talyn: Rebirth Ch. 8

In which Talyn thinks outside the box! Or at least the cell.

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Chapter 8

“Damn these keys to hell. What cultist would carry a key to a prison, but not have the keys to the cells?” the woman in the lead demanded, her frustration palpable. Aslith agreed with her, since she wanted to get out of her cell now, but she refrained.

“She didn’t seem terribly sane, so I think pondering her mental state is an exercise in futility.” The other woman said, and Aslith examined the two of them again, admitting to herself that she was rather curious about them. Aslith couldn’t give them a proper once-over from her angle, but she saw enough to see their level and species.

The first was a Level 1 War Succubus, while the second was a Level 1 Celestial Guardian Spirit. Both perplexed her, though for different reasons. First of all, Aslith had never heard of a succubus before, and had no idea what species that was. But the guardian spirit almost surprised her more, because she’d run into a couple of low-level guardian spirits at the guild, and none of them had been very eloquent. This one was, and had already stuck around longer than was normal. Between the two of them, they were very confusing.

“True, but… you know what, screw it. This is taking too long, and the keys don’t work. Anyway.” The succubus said, and tossed the keys to the celestial.

“How are you going to do that? You’re not strong enough to break down the door. They’re level fourteen, and your weapons aren’t that strong yet.” The celestial asked, frowning as she took a step back.

Aslith blinked, seeing black liquid appearing in the succubus’s hands, forming into a large object in her left hand. After a moment it solidified into a small pick, one-handed, then a hammer formed in her left hand.

“That’s because you’re looking at the padlock. We don’t need a key when the idiots who built the doors left the hinges where we can get to them, and didn’t weld the pins in place.” The succubus informed the celestial, grimacing. “Mind you, I bet they bent the pins, but I should be able to force them out, then we’ll be able to just pop the doors off the hinges.”

“A woman after my own heart.” Aslith said, her heart warming at the way the woman had come up with a solution. She wasn’t sure if she’d have come up with that idea herself, but she certainly wasn’t going to forget it. It might be useful in the future.

“Thanks. Let’s see… how did all of you end up here, anyway?” the succubus asked, crouching down in front of Aslith’s door.

While Aslith took a step back, just to be safe, Reagan replied calmly. “We’d gone out to deal with a terran hydra, which was a difficult fight for us. Just when we’d finally killed it, the cultists ambushed us. There were about two dozen of them, and they overwhelmed us. If they hadn’t been trying to capture us as sacrifices, we probably wouldn’t have done as much damage as we did.”

“We took out about half of them.” Gordon agreed, his growl barely audible over the rapping of the hammer against the pick. “If it weren’t for that alchemist, we might’ve won. Damned clones.”

“Ah.” The succubus said, sounding distracted. “Well, that would explain it. We ran into a couple of clones ourselves. Almost died to some level thirteen lady in the altar room.”

“You killed the Cult Adept?” Eld demanded, sounding surprised. “I’d have expected you to die to her!”

“It was a close fight, but Talyn has a few advantages, and threw a handful of salt into her eyes. Plus there’s me.” The celestial said, then paused for a moment before asking. “Are you trying to keep the circumstances of our arrival secret, Talyn?”

“Not really?” Talyn replied, then grunted in satisfaction. “There, got the first! One to go… on this door. Anyway, I just don’t know how to explain it.”

“Good enough. In any case, Talyn, here, is a world traveler. I’m not sure how the locals term them, but this is her first day in your world.” The celestial said, sending a jolt of shock and realization through Aslith. There was also a bit of worry combined with the rest, but so far this Talyn seemed reasonable to her. Not that the celestial was done. “We appeared in the basement, and just got up here. We’re hoping to reach the surface.”

“A jumper. We got rescued by a gods-blessed jumper. That explains it.” Gordon said, relief flooding his voice. “I’ve always heard that jumpers can be overpowered as hell.”

“Actually, it’s closer to the idiots being weeded out quickly. From what I remember, half of all world travelers die within the first week.” The celestial said, and the tapping sound stopped abruptly.

“Melody! You never told me that!” Talyn exclaimed. “You said that whatever situation I dropped into would be dangerous, but that I could deal with it!”

“Yes, but that doesn’t stop some of the people chosen from being overconfident or foolish. Which gets a lot of them killed before they get far.” The celestial replied patiently.

“I swear, you’re actually trying to trick me after all. Some of this information would have been nice to get before I decided to agree. I swear…” Talyn growled, and despite herself, Aslith couldn’t help a smile. There was something so… relieving to knowing that a jumper wasn’t that fortunate. Though she also had another thought occur to her, and frowned.

“Um, what are you talking about? You’re rather more… well-spoken for a guardian spirit than I expected. Did the two of you cross over together?” Reagan asked. It was the celestial that replied.

“Not quite. Talyn died in her previous world, and my job was to send souls to their various afterlives, and to find people to be world travelers. Since Talyn was interested, and I was bored, I offered to become her guardian spirit.” Melody explained. Aslith’s eyes went wide with shock, but the woman kept going. “Not that Talyn would’ve gotten a stupid spirit regardless. She automatically got the skill at maximum power, so she’d have gotten a decent spirit no matter what, and I’m not really more powerful than the others would be. Most of my knowledge is missing, and I level up with her. So… yeah. We’re both level one until we get somewhere safe. That cultist could have killed us if she hadn’t been a little insane.”

“That… is a hell of a story. Can you remember your previous world? I’ve heard that most jumpers can’t remember much.” Aslith asked.

At that moment the door shifted, and Talyn let out a grunt of satisfaction. She stood up, and the next moment the door shifted more.

“There we go, got it! I was right, one of the pins was bent. As to that, not really. I think I can remember the names of a couple of acquaintances, but no one I was close to, and I know we had humans, elves and dragons, but beyond that things are hazy. It just doesn’t feel like it matters that much.” Talyn said, and Aslith saw her grab the door through the window, then slowly dragged it out of the way. Which gave her first proper look at Melody and Talyn, prompting Aslith to stop and stare.

Aslith couldn’t see much of Talyn, not with her body sheathed in black armor that hugged rather generous curves and a long tail that seemed to bulge slightly near the tip before tapering to a point. The armor didn’t strike her as that sturdy, though its black surface looked vaguely sinister to Aslith. No, it was her beautiful face that startled Aslith, with full red lips, dark orange eyes, heavily tanned skin, and bright red hair that fell in a braid down to the middle of her back. The only thing that spoiled her beauty was the dust and what looked like mud in her hair, and it made Aslith feel vaguely dowdy. Melody was almost as bad, with darker skin and the pale blue hair, as well as lips that matched her hair and eyes. It was unfair, if you asked Aslith.

“Um, I don’t suppose you have any lockpicks, do you?” Aslith asked after a moment, shaking off her distraction. “Then I could help.”

“I’m afraid not, and my weapons vanish if I let go of them.” Talyn said, shaking her head once. “Speaking of which…”

She visibly concentrated, creating a hammer and pick again, which was strange. Not the strangest skill Aslith had seen, but definitely unusual for a level one… which made it about perfect for a jumper.

“She has a dagger in her backpack, though. We found some basic gear in a chest downstairs.” Melody volunteered helpfully.

“Ooh, that might work.” Aslith said, gingerly stepping out of the room.

Talyn nodded, shrugging off her backpack and handing it to Melody, then unsheathed a dagger that was on her belt. “No, there’s a short sword in the pack. This is the dagger, I had it when I woke up. You figure out what they can use, I’m going to help get the rest of these doors open.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea to me.” Elda said calmly.