Author's Note:
I had a revelation: I like writing, but above all I like writing soft, platonic love scenes, even romantic ones are fine.
XXX
Story Arc: Welcome to the Crystal Empire
Episode 1: The Arrival of the Chosen "Hero" (IV)
Chapter 4: A Short Break and Secret Passages
Plot: Traveler and Paimon revel in their victory, continuing to chat, mentioning names and places Autumn Gem is completely unfamiliar with. Their friendly conversation, however, doesn't last long: the Emerald Scroll finally emerges, marking the end of the intermission. A new quest begins; the campaign continues.
XXX
POV Narrator
Returning to our trio of adventurers, the echoes of the recently concluded battle were still fading from the high vaults of the throne room.
"So, girls, what do we do now?" Traveler asked with a stoic expression, as if his victory had brought him no happiness.
But Paimon, being an expert at reading it, can see a mix of joy and satisfaction in Traveler's good eye: he was enjoying the moment when he got a new throne for his collection.
There are those who collect stones and those who collect the thrones and crowns of the people they have defeated.
"We defeated the final boss on the first turn of the campaign! I'd say celebrating is the least we can do!" Paimon exclaimed, floating excitedly in front of Traveler's face; the stars on her cloak were shining almost as brightly as her eyes.
"This is what happens when a veteran enters a rookie's game," Traveler commented with a hint of irony and boredom.
Paimon rolled his eyes, being in a good mood.
"Everything ends before it even begins," Traveler continued. For him, the entire undertaking had been nothing more than a mundane quest for a level 5 adventurer, little more than a training session or a warm-up.
On the other end, Autumn Gem listened in silence, almost stunned by all she had seen and experienced in such a short time.
"Less than a day?" thought the blue-coated mare, instinctively hugging herself.
He looked up at the windows of the room, managing to see the sunlight.
'Less than three hours, if anything.' Autumn Gem thought, reflecting on everything that had happened.
That morning she was just a hungry mare, dressed in rags and without hope.
Now, in the early afternoon, she found herself with a full stomach, warm clothes created by magic, and before a throne occupied by someone who did not inspire terror in her.
Autumn Gem pinched her hand: the pain was real. She wasn't dreaming.
"I'm sure a standard party of five—say, a white mage, a black mage, a knight, an archer, and an assassin—would have won. Sure, it would have taken them a week to do what I did, but they would have gotten the same end result as me," Bruce said, imagining the tactics and strategies of such a group.
The Dark Planeswalker had seen firsthand how such groups operated.
In his mind, King Sombra was an enemy many could defeat one way or another. Did this mean the demonic unicorn was weak? Perhaps. Or, did it mean the Traveler hung out with people as extraordinary as he was?
"Next time we're Game Masters, we'll use these events for the next Tabletop Troupe session!" the fairy decided, already ready to transform today's experiences into a Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing game.
Paimon's comment made Traveler smile faintly, imagining the gaming session.
"Navia and Clorinde would have a great time," Traveler added, and for a moment his gaze softened.
"If they were in my shoes, they would have put on an incredible show. The Dueling Champion and the Chairwoman of Rosula's Thorn... I would pay gold to see them act together." Traveler concluded, showing genuine interest in such a comparison.
Paimon immediately picked up on the change in tone and flew very close to him, with a mischievous smile.
"Uuh, someone here is still in love with the Radiant Rose!" she teased, sounding like a younger sister who's just discovered her brother's most embarrassing secret.
Paimon immediately picked up on the change in tone and flew very close to him with a mischievous smile.
"Uuh, someone here is still in love with the Radiant Rose!" she teased him in the tone of a younger sister who has just discovered her brother's most embarrassing secret.
"I admit I'm fond of Navia. She has a golden personality, a great presence, style to spare, and is impeccable both in the kitchen and in a duel," Traveler explained.
It was rare to hear him speak so highly of anyone; usually, his deductive talent and straightforward personality brought out people's flaws and weaknesses: the more annoying and unpleasant they were, the more profound and detailed his deductions about their shortcomings.
"She runs Rosula's Thorn with a dedication that reminds me of my old detective agency, B&L. All in all, Navia is a talented woman and a great company; unfortunately, she was born unlucky, but I don't care, I almost consider her a dear friend," Traveler concluded. He almost began to wonder if he should have gone on vacation to Fontaine instead of trying his luck on the case that had brought him to that Crystal City.
"Which in BB parlance means 'I care so much,'" Paimon said, using his nickname for the Dark Planeswalker. He knew well that, in the Traveler's world, the difference between an 'almost friend' and a true friend was that the latter had usually died and risen for him. Paimon herself was the exception; but his three longtime best friends, Luz, Othinus, and Mash, had died and risen before his eyes.
"Not that I would ask her to become my lover or to leave Fontaine to move to the Voidwalker Commonwealth and join my... unusual polyamorous family," Traveler continued casually, confident that Navia belonged in Fontaine.
'BB sometimes underestimates his own charm and charisma; Paimon has seen the way women and men stare at him, and the number of those willing to leave their world behind is higher than he realizes,' thought the white fairy, knowing from experience how the Planeswalker leaves his mark on the people and places he wanders.
The fairy glanced quickly at Autumn Gem, who was standing aside, unwilling to interrupt the conversation; her life had taken a huge turn, and with every interaction with Traveler, it would continue to change.
Some people are simply born to be beacons of light who attract everything and everyone to themselves, for better or for worse.
"If I wanted to make Fontaine a lover, I would much prefer Harlequin for that role," said Traveler, choosing only the best and most dangerous.
At that name, Paimon paled noticeably, a sudden shiver running through her. Autumn Gem noticed the flinch: it was an alarming sign, considering the fairy hadn't shown the same fear even when faced with the Demonic Unicorn.
"Who is this... Harlequin? And why does Paimon seem to have seen a ghost?" asked the blue-coated mare; she didn't know the name, but she could tell from the reactions that it was important.
"Only the most beautiful and dangerous woman in Fontaine," Traveler replied, voicing his opinion.
"A mortal woman, descended from the Crimson Moon Dynasty of Khaenri'ah, blessed and cursed with the Balemoon Bloodfire; the rightful guardian of the Iridescent Moon's marrow, she possesses the strength of a god, a myriad of talents, and holds the position of 'Father' of the House of the Hearth, an orphanage that takes in orphans and trains them to become soldiers, sleeper agents, or spies." Traveler thus recounted the most important facts about the most beautiful and dangerous woman in Fontaine, in his opinion.
"That woman is a nightmare!" Paimon blurted out, still trembling. "She doesn't take jokes and could kill you in an instant, Traveler, if she only knew where to strike! She's the Fourth of the Fatui Harbingers, don't forget that!" The fairy stared at him, convinced that Bruce had been captivated by those cross-shaped eyes or some other strange fetish of his for strong women.
"That woman is a nightmare!" Paimon blurted out, still shaking.
"He doesn't take jokes and could kill you in an instant, Traveler, if he landed a final blow with his cursed flames in the right place at the right time!" the fairy continued, crossing her arms over her chest.
It wasn't just awe: it was protective instinct. Despite the Planeswalker's strength, Paimon remained constantly on guard against anyone, especially women with devastating power, who might pose a lethal threat to his best friend.
"Paimon, don't forget I have seven lives, I'm a necromancer and a mad scientist; you can kill me eight times, but I still won't die," Traveler said in a tone that brooked no argument. He placed a hand on his chest and gave himself seven firm pats, as if counting hearts or magical cores hidden beneath his purplish skin and tight suit.
The Dark Planeswalker was convinced of this: as far as the sheer difficulty of being eliminated was concerned, he considered himself worse than a cockroach, cancer, Voldemort, and Matou Zouken combined.
It was nearly impossible to truly knock him out. Traveler, like any self-respecting Magus, had made numerous modifications to his body through magic and science of various kinds.
With all the backup plans he'd made over the centuries, even if his body were pulverized, there was a good chance he'd return from the dead as an undead, a vengeful ghost, or something even more bizarre.
"She is the Fourth of the Fatui Harbingers, don't forget that!" The fairy stared at him, convinced that Bruce had been captivated by those cross-shaped eyes or some other strange fetish of his for strong women.
"What is a Fatui Harbinger?" Autumn Gem asked softly, curiosity overcoming her. Despite her fear, the desire to understand who her saviors truly were had become too strong to ignore.
"Being the Fourth is not a mere honorific," Paimon explained, turning to the mare with dead seriousness, determined to set the hierarchies of a faraway world straight.
"It is a rank granted by the Tsaritsa only to the most powerful of her servants: the first four of the Eleven possess strength equal to that of deities. That is not a figure of speech, Autumn, it is the pure and harsh reality. The Third was the Trilunar Goddess, a figure of immense power that even I approved of. But the Second..." Paimon paused, his eyes darkening with anger.
"Evil and despicable, no doubt, but his genius still deserved the respect of a worthy burial," Traveler commented. His tone was flat, almost clinical.
The Planeswalker might despise a man to the core, even hate him for the suffering he inflicted, but his respect for his intellectual achievements and works remained undiminished. For him, destroying the work of genius was a crime against knowledge itself, regardless of the author's morality.
"And the First?" Paimon continued, as if to finish off that history lesson.
"Even at his lowest point, thanks to a five-century-long curse of immortality that prevented him from dying, he could still hold his own against Mavuika, the Goddess of War of Natlan!" Paimon emphasized the point by waving his little hands, as if to let Autumn Gem know that King Sombra, by comparison, was an amateur and incompetent.
"It was an honor to fight alongside him against the invaders during the Final War of Natlan," Traveler said as, with a fluid gesture, he drew from the folds of his coat an object precious for several reasons: a small, heavy, two-handled golden goblet, finely engraved with the effigy of a badger.
Under Autumn Gem's astonished eyes, the initially empty chalice began to fill on its own with a deep red liquid, thick and vibrant.
'But how many magical artifacts does he keep hidden in his coat pockets?' thought the blue-coated mare, instinctively touching the golden medallion she had borrowed from Traveler as protection in case of unexpected events.
The Dark Planeswalker poured some of the liquid onto the floor of the podium, a silent offering that evaporated in a trail of scarlet vapor, then placed the goblet on the arm of the throne.
"Returning to Harlequin, more than a nightmare, she's my ideal of a dream woman, at least as far as what a warrior woman should be," said Traveler, reiterating his very high esteem for the woman Paimon so feared.
"He would have swept away that villain 'Sombrero' with a single blow!" Paimon exclaimed loudly, shaking his fists in the air. "And he probably would have incinerated the entire palace as collateral damage!" the fairy continued, forgetting that her best friend was often compared to an atomic bomb because of the damage he left behind.
"Paimon, you're exaggerating. You're not looking at things objectively," Traveler said, shaking his head slightly.
"If Harlequin were a video game character, she'd be an S-Rank coveted by everyone. Her stats aren't just focused on strength, but perfectly distributed: she's fast, precise, agile. She'd kill that Black Unicorn with a surgical strike, without causing unnecessary destruction. Only a few ash stains would be left on the floor," Traveler replied calmly, as if Harlequin's lethality were a high-class work of art that only the finest could truly appreciate.
(Author's Note: I confess that my three favorite Waifu from Fontaine - Genshin Impact are: Harlequin, Furina, Navia.)
"I'll give up for now," Paimon sighed, resigned. "At least she's not that yandere Esdeath." The fairy knew full well that the Dark Planeswalker's acquaintances included far worse women.
"Yes... that blue-haired mortal beauty," Traveler commented, and for a moment he seemed to show regret.
"She was one of my best and worst lovers. Nights of extreme passion and constant attempts to kill each other. A... stimulating relationship," he concluded, without going into too much detail.
'Thank goodness I wasn't with him then,' thought Paimon, shivering.
"Mash told me how disturbed that woman was. Although, truth be told, Bruce isn't exactly sane either... she still keeps a jar with Esdeath's severed hand as a souvenir," the white fairy thought, shaking her head slightly.
She was almost relieved that Traveler usually limited himself to collecting small trinkets of the people he wanted to remember, even though his artistic streak was decidedly unsettling: he painted pictures, made figurines, and even life-size puppets, which he then displayed under glass in a sort of personal museum. A brilliant artist, certainly, but with the mentality of a slightly deranged collector, like every great artist.
Paimon herself admitted that she found Traveler's paintings beautiful; the problem was that they tended to pile up.
He had made about a hundred paintings of Mavuika and as many for other people who had attracted his artistic interest, whether for aesthetics, pure beauty or romanticism.
The figurines were limited to about ten, while the puppet was a single one, but they were updated from time to time to somehow replicate the abilities of those they represented.
'Where did all these people come from?' thought Autumn Gem, feeling suddenly tiny. To her, those stories seemed to come from ancient, forgotten fairy tales, yet the way they spoke about them made them terrifyingly real.
"King Sombra has held the Crystal Empire for so long, showing no signs of weakening, either internally or externally. Yet Traveler and Paimon talk to each other as if they know a whole list of people capable of crushing him before breakfast," the crystal mare continued to muse, her head spinning.
'What kind of world do these two live in?' thought Autumn Gem, scratching her head absentmindedly.
She couldn't even imagine what those scary, incredible individuals her two new friends and saviors mentioned looked like.
Nor did she dare wonder what kind of woman could possibly be capable of attracting the attention of Traveler, a... Stallion (?) who had single-handedly defeated King Sombra in less than thirty-five, or maybe even ten, minutes. Autumn Gem wished she had a stopwatch with her.
"Let's change the subject, we need to celebrate with a banquet!" Paimon exclaimed, waving his little hands as if he were already holding a fork and knife.
"We had a snack just before coming to the palace," Traveler retorted.
Ironically, Paimon was a bottomless pit, while Traveler was, in some ways, practically an ascetic.
Food was the last thing on the Planeswalker's mind, partly because of his aloof, hard-working nature, and partly because the radical modifications to his body had drastically reduced his nutritional needs.
Thanks to those interventions, the only things Bruce really needed each day to stay functional were water and chocolate.
"But Paimon burned a lot of calories!" insisted the White Fairy, trying to justify the need for a royal banquet.
"I actually did it all," Traveler pointed out, reminding her that he hadn't received any real help from either the fairy or the mare during the fight.
"Cheering and providing emotional support is exhausting work, you know?" Paimon replied, sulking but quick to come up with creative excuses.
Autumn Gem covered her mouth with a hand, desperately trying not to burst out laughing at the absurd scene.
"If I fed you any more, you'd get so heavy you'd never be able to fly," Traveler joked, a rare glint of amusement in his eyes.
"That's not true!" she exclaimed, puffing out her cheeks and looking adorably furious.
"You're a marshmallow," Bruce said, reaching out to pinch her cheeks.
"Small and chubby." Then, in one fluid motion, he scooped her up into his arms.
"And a little heavy, too, to be honest," Traveler observed in a mock analytical tone.
"That's not true! Paimon weighs as much as a feather!" shrieked the fairy, waving her little legs.
"Yeah, a giant feather. I can barely throw it," Bruce joked again, starting tossing it into the air above his head like a volleyball.
"You're lucky I like this game!" Paimon shouted in a fake angry voice, actually enjoying every single throw as he floated laughing in his partner's hands.
Autumn Gem couldn't hold back any longer and nearly doubled over with laughter. It was incredible: one moment they were talking about adventurer parties, Fatui Harbingers, Trilunar Goddesses, amoral doctors, and cursed warriors, and the next they looked like two brothers playing in the garden.
"You see, Paimon, years ago I could throw you into the clouds. Now I can't lift you even a meter above me," Traveler said, clearly ironic as he used just 0.1% of his superhuman strength.
Stopping his game, Paimon returned to floating in balance between the Sorcerer and the Mare.
'These are the saviors of the Crystal Empire? The one who destroyed King Sombra?' thought Autumn Gem, watching them with a mixture of relief and bewilderment.
They were incredibly changeable: one moment they seemed like heroes out of a fairy tale, albeit of a somewhat unusual kind.
Paimon was certainly a benevolent fairy, although she seemed a bit incompetent and had devious traits.
Traveler, on the other hand, was far from your typical, immaculate hero; he seemed to be caught between the roles of protagonist and antagonist, though he seemed decidedly more inclined toward the former than the latter.
Seeing them now, after the fall of King Sombra, engaged in a brother-sister conversation and playing that bizarre and cute little game, was like spying on them as they lived in their own private little world.
Autumn Gem found the whole scenario absolutely surreal, but she had no doubts: that was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best day of her life.
"Okay, let's forget about food for now! We should take all the gold we can carry," Paimon exclaimed, moving immediately on to his second great love: treasure.
"That Sombrero King was a bad guy, so he must have a secret room overflowing with gold coins!" the fairy added. They'd plundered other tyrants' treasuries before, finding tons of gold and artifacts that piqued Traveler's interest.
"Maybe later," Traveler cut in, giving a quick wave of his finger.
Paimon understood the silent order immediately.
He approached with precision and placed the gas mask over his best friend's face. The hiss of the filters snapping into place sealed the moment of lightheartedness; Traveler was back in mission mode.
'A mask can work wonders, he looks like a completely different person now,' thought Autumn Gem, feeling a cold, powerful air emanating from Traveler.
It was incredible how the same guy who moments before was joking about Game Master sessions and Fontaine's women could transform, in an instant, into an Arch Sorcerer capable of destroying monsters.
"Horse, will you hide behind the throne much longer?" asked Traveler.
His voice, filtered through the mask, had become authoritative, one of those that brooks no discussion.
The mare that was hiding behind the throne, literally, in this case, slowly came out of her hiding place.
Traveler sized her up with his one eye: her coat was a deep emerald green, with a scarlet mane and tail. Her wrists still wore heavy golden manacles, connected to chains that hung broken.
"What's your name?" Traveler asked, lowering his tone slightly. He had already realized that the mare wasn't a threat, but merely a bundle of trauma and secrets.
"Emerald... Scroll," she replied softly, keeping her gaze fixed on the ground. It was an automatic gesture, the ingrained habit of anyone who had to address the one sitting on that throne.
"Crystal Ponies have such funny names!" Paimon commented, finding the names of those anthropomorphic horses amusing, breaking the tension for a moment with his usual frankness.
"Why didn't you run away with your kind? There's nothing and no one to stop you," asked Traveler.
His good eye studied her; for him, once the physical obstacle was removed, escape was the only logical move for a prisoner locked up and treated in such terrible conditions.
Instead, that mare remained still and hidden behind the throne.
If he hadn't called her out, she probably would have remained hidden there for hours or even days.
"What's the point of running?" Emerald Scroll asked back. Her voice was flat, devoid of hope. She was convinced that, if the figure before her had wanted it, she would be back in chains in a heartbeat. Which, incidentally, was surprisingly true.
Emerald Scroll had long understood that freedom, even the freedom to move, was not her right, but the whim of whoever sat on the throne. For years, Emerald Scroll had only gone where and when King Sombra wanted.
The green-coated mare shifted her gaze to the left, staring at what remained of the monster that had chained and abused her for so long.
"Did you... did you really defeat... King Sombra?" Emerald asked, feeling the ground disappear beneath her hooves.
To her, King Sombra had been the ultimate evil, a word that didn't even scratch the surface of his atrocities, but his rule had lasted so long that it seemed as inescapable as the rising of the sun.
"No, Traveler humiliated him! And then he literally tore him to pieces!" Autumn Gem exclaimed with an enthusiasm that almost frightened her. Then, encountering the blackish remains of the demonic unicorn, she looked away, a shiver of disgust running through her. Clearly, Autumn Gem was the purest person in the room.
"I only did what I promised to do. Nothing more, nothing less," Traveler replied. He spoke with the detachment of a craftsman who has just finished repairing a broken clock or a hunter who has killed the wolf that was threatening the farm.
The Planeswalker's handling of the end of the nightmare that King Sombra represented for the Crystal Ponies was disarming: to him, the Demonic Unicorn had been simply a job done, not even hard or worthy of being remembered.
"It remains the most frightening and magnificent thing I have ever seen in my life," Autumn Gem whispered, certain that she would never erase the memory of that duel between the stranger and the tyrant.
"Did you really kill Sombra?" Emerald Scroll asked again, blinking repeatedly.
Her mind, shaped by years of terror, struggled to accept the end of that nightmare. In fact, it was easier for her to believe that the nightmare was about to begin again in a new form.
"The body is less than a hundred meters behind you. Go look at it up close if you need convincing," Traveler replied nonchalantly, waving his hand dismissively.
Emerald Scroll moved briskly, almost tripping in her white dress, toward the remains of the demonic unicorn. Autumn Gem followed, drawn by a macabre need to satisfy her own curiosity.
"He's dead... he's truly dead," Emerald Scroll whispered, staring wide-eyed at the severed head, now separated from the rest of the body.
"A dream. In fact, a miracle come true for all of us," Autumn Gem commented, though her face was turning a greenish hue.
"A disgusting, macabre, smelly miracle, but a miracle nonetheless." The blue mare, in a fit of rebellion, gave King Sombra's crown a light kick.
Emerald jumped as she heard the metallic clang of the artifact rolling across the crystal floor.
"Don't touch that body. It belongs to me," Traveler suddenly declared from the back of the room.
The two mares whirled around to face the throne: the Arch Sorcerer sat on the dark crystal seat with such ease that he seemed born to occupy it.
The gas mask and bat-like wings gave him a solemn and frightening look.
'Faust, for what you did today, I will try to come to your church more often... if someone will take the trouble to rebuild it,' thought Autumn Gem, feeling obliged to thank heaven for the fortunate meeting with Traveler and Paimon.
'Another monster on the throne,' Emerald Scroll thought instead with a heavy heart, feeling the opposite of Autumn Gem's.
"I hope he's not interested in mares like King Sombra was. He's not a pony... maybe a dragon? I can already see my people enslaved in the mines to bring him mountains of gems." Emerald Scroll thought, convinced that Traveler was a dragon subspecies and that he craved treasure just like one of them.
"I've already done enough damage by overdoing it with the last blow. There's no need for you to add any more; it would only make it more difficult to study," said Traveler, considering the demonic unicorn's corpse as his own study material.
"You just can't help but act like a mad scientist or a necromancer," the white fairy commented softly, knowing the Dark Planeswalker's habits well.
Traveler has a habit of killing, whenever possible, a specimen of every species he encounters: he prefers animals, but sentient beings are fine too. He then studies them, dismembering them with meticulous dissection and meticulously recording his findings.
Realizing that King Sombra was truly dead, Emerald Scroll rushed forward, overwhelmed by a whirlwind of emotions she struggled to process: relief, residual terror, and a burning disbelief.
"King Sombra... he was the most evil and powerful unicorn in history! He kept us in chains for an incalculable amount of time, and you... you just show up out of nowhere and kill him? How could you do that?!" Emerald demanded, demanding a logical explanation for what, in her eyes, was a situation that defied every rule she knew.
Autumn Gem, standing next to her compatriot, didn't display the same hysteria, but her facial expression betrayed the same thirst for answers. The blue-coated mare was a creature full of curiosity.
'How could Traveler, a single individual, overthrow King Sombra, who had ruled the Crystal Empire for so many years, in a matter of minutes?' This was the kind of question that ran through the minds of the two crystal mares.
"Everything you said means only one thing: that unicorn corpse was stronger than all of you, but much weaker than me," Traveler concluded, speaking as if he were a king who knew how the world really works.
The Dark Planeswalker spoke these words with absolute conviction, expressing a logic so simple and natural that it seemed like a rule of physics, like gravity.
Emerald Scroll remained silent at those simple words, which however hid a bitter truth: she and all the other Crystal Ponies were at the mercy of the strongest, and at that moment the strongest was Traveler.
"Yes! My friend is the most powerful Arch Sorcerer there is! Demons, Gods, Dragons, Angels... they're all on his list!" Paimon exclaimed, waving his hands with absolute conviction.
The White Fairy held Traveler's strength, intelligence, and charisma in the highest regard; his sanity and morality, however, were in a decidedly different league. One undeniable fact, however, remained: Paimon would always be on Traveler's side.
"A bit of an exaggeration. I'm by no means the most powerful magic-user of all time, just one of the best," Traveler retorted, with the detachment of someone who considers himself simply the elite of the elite.
"Since when have you been so modest?" Paimon asked skeptically. She knew her companion well: when it came to his strengths or talents, Traveler never hesitated to use grandiose words.
"As Arch Sorcerer, which is but a fragment of who I am, I rightfully belong to the circle of those who dwell in the realm of legends and myths," Traveler said, rising to his feet. His figure seemed to cast an even longer shadow over the throne room.
"But as a complete individual... in all Heaven and Earth, I alone am the Honored One," Traveler declared dramatically, fully convinced of his point. He spread his bat-like wings and raised his fist upward, as if grasping the firmament and dragging it to the ground.
'He's a demon,' Emerald Scroll thought with terror in her eyes and her tail shaking visibly.
'Traveler is fantastic!' thought Autumn Gem instead, smiling, wagging her tail just like a happy dog.
"Buddhist references, confidence bordering on arrogance, and subtle hints of madness and rebellion against Fate. Yes, it's you, all right," Paimon declared, relieved that her friend was acting as usual.
"I'm not arrogant, I just know myself very well. As a wise man once said: everyone has lost their center, but if you know yourself, no one can shake that knowledge," the Dark Planeswalker retorted, looking at his white fairy.
"Surely Buddha didn't write those texts to be used this way!" Paimon said with an amused expression.
The two mares ignored the exchange between Traveler and Paimon: they followed his hand gesture, raising their gaze to the high vaulted ceiling of the hall. There, their gaze and their breathing stopped.
"Is that... is that an angel?" Emerald Scroll asked aloud, her body shaking violently.
"I almost forgot, with everything going on today," Autumn Gem commented, less shocked than the green-coated Mare but still visibly impressed.
High above the throne, floating near the ceiling, was Traveler's summoning: Angel.
Her feminine figure was imposing, with large, ash-gray feathered wings. Her long blond hair framed a face marked by a black eyepatch, decorated in the center with the symbol of a white eye.
Her attire was a bold blend of the celestial and the sophisticated, composed of raven straps and leather laces, while a long silver chain wrapped around her body, floating magically around her.
"Sometimes we forget that not everyone is used to such scenes," commented the white fairy, a little embarrassed at having assumed that seeing an angel in chains was not an unprecedented event.
In certain worlds, where magic is actively practiced, the appearance of an angel, or something very similar, is not at all unheard of.
"To answer your questions, what you're seeing is technically an angel, but not in the way you might think," Traveler explained, maintaining his detached, almost bored tone. He sounded like a college professor forced to explain the rudiments of basic mathematics to listless students.
The two mares tore their gaze from the winged figure above them to focus on the one who knew more. They were like little girls at the zoo, eager to learn every detail about an animal they'd never seen before.
"In my experience, there are several types of beings that can be called angels; I will tell you about the four most common," Traveler began, as if he were lecturing children.
'There he goes again as a teacher,' thought Paimon, knowing full well how much his friend enjoyed explaining.
"The first type is Energy Manifestations. The Angel of the Dawn, for example, is one of the most common: it is not a born creature, but a pure manifestation of concentrated magical energy," said Traveler, raising the first finger of his right hand to give order to his explanation.
"The second category concerns the World Projections: other angels are projections of the world's will itself. Their appearance is a harbinger of epochal changes; they rarely act directly, preferring to guide the right individual at the right time," Traveler explained, raising his second finger.
"The third category is that of the Creations of the Mighty: angels shaped by supreme entities or deities of order. These beings administer entire aspects of reality. The Archangel Metatron comes to mind; he was a worthy challenger, capable of manifesting in different forms and vessels. Then there are lesser angels, created by masters of the arcane arts: less powerful than the former, but still a cut above common beings. They often serve as lieutenants of large militaries or as individual elite agents," Traveler explained, holding up his third finger.
"Finally, there are the Ascended Mortals: a minority born from the souls of worthy mortals or living saints, ascended by serving their god in moments of greatest importance," Traveler concluded, holding up the last finger on his hand.
Paimon and Autumn Gem gave a small round of applause.
"And with that, class is over," Traveler concluded, closing his hand and making a sharp gesture to silence the noise.
Emerald Scroll gasped, his mind frantically trying to process the meaning of that short lesson.
"Every day you learn something new," Autumn Gem commented with an almost enviable ease. Simple minds, after all, were the easiest to fill with wonder.
"Back to the beginning, girls: what do we do now?" Traveler repeated, maintaining a stoic expression as silence returned to the throne room.
"No, not eating, no, not raiding the treasury... Paimon can't think of anything!" replied the white fairy, crossing her arms with a sigh of resignation.
"I'll leave the command to you. You've made only the right choices so far," Autumn Gem said, officially passing the ball to the Planeswalker.
Emerald Scroll, however, remained silent, returning to stare at the crystal floor as if it were the only certain and immutable thing in that room that housed a fairy, a dragon (?) and an angel (?).
"I'll find something to do," Traveler declared. With a fluid gesture, he pulled from the depths of his coat a glass jar filled with dice of every shape, color, and material: from classic resin D6s to intricate polyhedra engraved in metal and bone.
"Chance has brought me this far, so chance will carry me further," Traveler muttered, dropping the dice onto the floor with a clatter.
Emerald Scroll swerved sharply from the trail of small rolling objects, as if they were cursed objects ready to explode.
Autumn Gem, on the other hand, followed them with her gaze, curiosity shining in her large blue eyes.
Paimon kept her fingers crossed, secretly hoping that those dice would convince Traveler to take her to a pastry shop, a treasure room, or anywhere else that would be good for her.
The clinking of plastic, resin, and numerous other materials filled the room, bouncing off the steps of the podium and beyond.
The dice rolled, collided, and finally stopped, revealing faces engraved with numbers and arcane symbols that glowed faintly.
Bruce stroked his chin, losing himself in the reflections of the various colored dice. He stared at the results for long moments, as if reading a star map, calculating the probabilities to determine the best route or decipher an invisible omen.
"The break is over. We're off again on our adventures," Traveler announced. He tapped the jar on the free arm of the throne, and as if drawn by an invisible magnet, the dice sprang to life: they leaped into the glass in a whirlwind of color, followed by the lid, which sealed with a crisp snap.
Autumn Gem gave a little applause, genuinely impressed by that dice trick.
The Planeswalker grasped the golden goblet, which, in an instant, filled with a deep, luminous blue liquid.
Without any obvious command, a section of the gas mask slid off with a mechanical whir, revealing a thin opening at the mouth.
Traveler drank all the blue liquid in one gulp and stood up; a moment later, the mask sealed perfectly again.
"He just can't help but create and use multifunctional things," thought Paimon, knowing full well that in Bruce's collection a trinket rarely served only one purpose.
"Let's go explore the secret passage," Traveler said in an unusually lighthearted tone.
"Nothing new for us, maybe we'll find something shiny eventually," Paimon said, gladly accepting the proposal.
After all, finding and traversing secret passages was routine for the two of them, accustomed to exploring ruins in many different worlds.
"What secret passage?" Emerald Scroll asked in a low voice.
The confusion on his face was genuine: he had lived in that room for years and had never suspected that something could be hidden there.
"This secret passage," said Traveler, slamming his metal boot firmly into the very front of the throne.
"I see nothing but the glass floor," Autumn Gem retorted, squinting for a crack, a handle, or a mark, but finding nothing.
"Paimon is an expert at these things! There's definitely an illusion or a hidden mechanism that opens a trapdoor or a grand spiral staircase!" the white fairy exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips knowingly.
At that moment, Traveler's golden goblet filled itself with a fluorescent yellow substance that emitted an almost blinding glow.
With a fluid flick of his wrist, the Planeswalker splashed the glowing liquid onto both the throne and the surrounding floor.
"Three, two, one... abracadabra!" Paimon shouted, knowing exactly what was about to happen.
The yellow substance glowed brightly for an instant, then seemed to vanish into thin air, triggering a violent chemical-magical reaction.
Before their eyes, a circular portion of the floor dissolved like smoke, revealing a steep, spiral staircase that vanished into the darkness of the foundations.
Emerald Scroll took several steps back, almost stumbling; that revelation had struck home. She'd probably be sleeping with the lights on for the next ten years.
"How... how did you do it?" asked Autumn Gem, fascinated by the "trick" she had just performed.
"The dice told me," Traveler replied in a voice made mysterious by his mask, his walking stick flying magnetically in his right hand.
"He's terrible at healing magic, space magic, and dream magic," the fairy explained, as if she were listing the pros and cons of an anime at a show.
"But he has unparalleled talent in divination, in the construction of magical items, and in perceiving the arcane through his senses; he has a vision of reality all his own," Paimon added, speaking of his Planeswalker's best talents.
"Does that mean you can read my fortune?" Autumn Gem asked, smiling with an almost childish hope.
"If I had my own deck of magical tarot cards, I could do that, but it's not a free service. Fortune telling comes at a price," Traveler replied, keeping his gaze fixed on the darkness of the passage.
"I'll make a note of that for next time," Autumn Gem replied, already imagining herself consulting it when things calmed down.
"Do you think we should run a marathon to get to the bottom?" Paimon asked, peering into the black void of the spiral.
"You can't see anything at all," continued the white fairy, who didn't like dark, narrow spaces at all, despite being the 'mascot' of a master of the dark arts who loved haunted, underground places.
"Emerald Scroll, make yourself useful. Hold Helga Hufflepuff's Cup," Traveler ordered, passing the precious golden goblet to the green-coated mare.
"As you wish," Emerald replied in a shaking voice, clutching the artifact between her hooves with almost religious care.
"Of course, you give magical items to everyone except me!" Paimon commented, looking with a hint of envy at Autumn Gem with the medallion and Emerald Scroll with the cup.
In response, Traveler took out a handful of candy and threw it at his little friend.
"Yum! Thanks, Traveler! Paimon loves sweets much more than dusty trinkets," added the Fairy, starting to nibble happily.
"Let's get to work," Traveler declared. With a quick gesture, he slid his cane away and, with his free hands, pulled a pair of high-tech flares from his modular belt pockets.
He lit them both at once: flames, smoke and a blinding light began to burst from their ends.
"Those are incredibly powerful torches!" Autumn Gem exclaimed, covering her eyes with one hand, immediately followed by the other girls in the group, caught off guard by the sudden brightness.
Without hesitation, the Dark Planeswalker threw the two flares into the void of the secret passage, letting them plummet down the center of the spiral toward the bottom.
As the red lights sank into the abyss, Traveler raised his forearm, activating his futuristic device to scan the depths.
After a minute of silent waiting, the flares finally bottomed out and Traveler completed the measurement.
"We'll have a lot of walking to do in the dark," Paimon commented disheartenedly, looking out into the darkness that seemed to have already swallowed up the lights.
"Not exactly. Wait another minute," Traveler replied. He pulled two more objects from his coat and threw them down: a plastic bag and a small metal disk resembling a Frisbee, emitting a thick gas from holes in its edges.
A moment of dead calm passed, then Traveler declared, "Everything is ready."
With a sharp snap of his fingers, the entire secret passage exploded into a multitude of neon-colored spirals.
The gas and smoke, reacting with each other, had created a fluorescence that adhered to the walls and steps, illuminating the descent as if it were the inside of a nightclub.
"Chemical reaction between the smoke from the flares and the gas from the Frisbee?" guessed Paimon, now accustomed to her friend's laboratory tricks.
"Correct answer. Here's your prize," said Traveler. He took out a gold star sticker and carefully placed it on Paimon's cheek.
The White Fairy, proud, immediately made the victory sign with her fingers.
Emerald Scroll gazed at those neon lights with a sense of wonder; her fear of the dark had subsided, at least for the moment.
"Are you... are you alchemists, then?" asked the councilor, looking up from the floor, though she remained visibly tense.
"Among many things, yes," Traveler replied, cutting him short so as not to have to recite the endless catalogue of his qualifications.
"Angel, keep an eye on my biological study sample and make sure it stays fresh," Traveler ordered without turning around.
The blond-haired, leather-robed angel didn't make a sound; he merely nodded solemnly and began to float above Sombra's remains, enveloping them in the cold gleam of his silver chains.
"Are... are we really going to explore a passage hidden by King Sombra's dark magic?" asked Emerald Scroll, her legs so shaking that only a miracle kept her from spilling the contents of Helga Hufflepuff's Cup.
"There are only two mistakes one can make on the path to truth: not to go all the way and not to begin," Traveler declared, calmly quoting Buddhist doctrines.
Emerald Scroll remained silent, unable to reply.
"Or," Traveler continued with chilling ease, "would you rather stay here alone with the corpse of a black magic practitioner? You know, he might just get up, put his head back together, and decide to eat your brains," she concluded, knowing exactly what buttons to push to motivate people.
Emerald Scroll instantly froze. Autumn Gem began to tremble and, out of pure instinct, hugged Paimon close.
"C-could this really happen?" the blue mare asked in a small voice.
"I have seen hundreds of similar cases, thousands even," Traveler replied, his disturbing Necromancer nature manifesting itself.
"I myself have been in a state between life and death several times," said Traveler, having used black magic to overcome difficult movements.
"It was never a pleasant sight to watch," Paimon commented with a shudder.
"M-my Lord! I will follow you anywhere!" Emerald Scroll exclaimed aloud, much preferring the company of the "dragon" and his fairy to that of the remains of the black unicorn.
"Good. For the next step we need to hold hands," Traveler instructed, extending his right hand toward Paimon.
The fairy grabbed Bruce's hand, taking Autumn Gem's with the other, who in turn grabbed the hand of a terrified Emerald Scroll.
"Now we just have to... jump," Traveler said, and under his gas mask a mischievous smile appeared that no one could see.
Without a moment's hesitation, the Dark Planeswalker leaped into the dark passage, and the human chain dragged Paimon, the Autumn Gem, and the Emerald Scroll down into the neon-lit void.
Continues ...
XXX
Author's Note:
I like to leave you breathless.