Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2) Read online

  Vision Voyage

  Edmund Hughes

  This digital book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this title with another person, please purchase an additional copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. All other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Edmund Hughes

  Kindle Edition

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I wouldn’t have been able to publish this book if it wasn’t for the support of my readers, my fantastic cover artist, Cherry-gig, and my dedicated editors. Inspiration for the story elements comes from a variety of places including (but not limited to) Fallout, Diablo, Final Fantasy, A Wheel of Time, Arcane Ascension, and The Demon Cycle.

  Contents

  Vision Voyage

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  INTERLUDE (JARVIS)

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  INTERLUDE (MYTHRIL)

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  CHAPTER 1

  Swordplay had felt a lot easier to Ari back when he’d been a novice, unbound by self-awareness and memorized technique. Simply attack at full strength, try not to get hit, and throw in the occasional feint for good measure.

  Over the past few days, he’d learned that Eva knew just about every feint in the book, and she wasn’t about to fall for any of his half-hearted attempts at trickery. He shifted his positioning, sweeping the long stick he’d been training with in place of Azurelight into a wide, overhead arc.

  Eva’s silver hair streamed in the gentle ocean breeze that so often graced the top of Deepwater Spire as she moved to block. She deflected his first attack and beat him into position to intercept his second, ruining the cheeky reverse slash that Ari had been considering all afternoon.

  “You have speed and strength, but your angles are off, milord,” said Eva.

  “Two out of three isn’t bad,” said Ari with a smile. “Though I can see what you mean.”

  He lowered his makeshift practice sword and wiped sweat from his brow. Eva rested the tip of her own stick in the sandy dirt that covered most of the spire’s roof and relaxed her body language.

  It was a windy day, and Ari was momentarily stuck by the intensity of her beauty. Eva had taken to sewing in the long hours they’d spent trapped on top of the spire, and she’d made herself a form-fitting dress which she often wore in place of her white Saidican battle corset. It was similar to the one she’d made for Kerys, just a simple garment with a flared skirt and shoulder straps, but it looked incredible on her.

  Of course, Ari barely noticed what she was wearing. Eva’s sapphire-blue eyes were deep enough to be distracting in their own right, but they verged on overwhelming when paired with her elegant face and lean, feminine figure. Her long, silver-blue locks were blown askew by the breeze, and this only emphasized the surreal quality they held—a constant reminder that Eva wasn’t what she seemed.

  She was a sword construct, a sentient enchanted sword made from the imprint of a Saidican woman who’d lived hundreds of years before Ari had even been born. She could shift in between her sword form and her “incarnate” form, a shape that he assumed was an approximation of the woman who she’d been based off.

  “Are you ready to try again?” she asked. She had a small smile on her face that told Ari that she wasn’t oblivious to the attention he’d just been paying her.

  “I’m ready for us to have another proper sparring match instead of technique training,” he said. “I think I’m at the point now where I can give you a run for your stones.”

  He was exaggerating his approximation of his own skill, but it was for a good cause. Sparring against Eva, instead of just training individual strikes and blocks, was like the difference between night and day.

  More often than not, Ari found himself mesmerized by the way she looked in the heat of battle, much as he’d been before. She had a dangerous mystique to her, beauty refined into a weapon. It was something that always left Ari with questions, both about who she’d really been in her life before and how he was lucky enough to end up as her master.

  “You have been making progress,” said Eva. “But perhaps it would be prudent for us to spend more time on the basics.”

  “You’re just worried that this will be the time where I finally score the first hit,” said Ari. “Pride is one of Dormiar’s written follies, you know.”

  The small smile on Eva’s face expanded into something significantly more amused.

  “If you wish,” she said, “I can indulge you. If I win, I would like for you to practice each of the basic sword strikes and blocks I’ve taught you so far fifty times each.”

  “You always have to go and ruin a good banter with something that sounds like it came out of the mouth of one of the mistresses,” said Ari.

  He lifted up his practice sword. Eva lifted hers, and they both circled around each other. The spot they’d chosen for their training was on the western edge of the spire’s roof, where the soil was sandy and less coated in bird droppings than the other areas. It meant that Ari, training without shoes on, could get a solid feel of the ground beneath his feet.

  Sparring with Eva reminded him of nothing so much as wrestling down in the Hollow. Of course, Eva was a far more interesting opponent than any of the boys had been, but much of what he had learned through wrestling was just as applicable to sword fighting. It was all about balance, positioning, and especially timing.

  Ari pressed forward, swinging his practice stick downward. Eva deflected it to the side and retaliated with a sweeping slash. He hopped back a step, waiting for the momentum of her swing to cross past the point of no return before beginning his own attack.

  He put as much speed as he could into it, hoping that he might score his first-ever hit on Eva in training.

  It did seem to catch her slightly off guard, but her reaction was instantaneous and a little jarring. Eva knocked his practice stick aside with a vicious counter-strike that
sent a loud crack of wood on wood echoing through the air.

  There was something in her eyes in that moment that Ari didn’t like. A furious, almost cruel intensity that seemed like it belonged to someone else. He’d seen it a few times before, though as was usually the case, it was gone almost as quickly as it had arrived.

  They traded a few more strikes, alternating offense and defense. Ari could tell that while Eva wasn’t taking it easy on him, she also wasn’t breaking a sweat. He decided to vary his approach from their usual pattern.

  He let Eva attack and caught the edge of her stick against his. Instead of deflecting to the side or pulling back, Ari pushed forward. Eva’s positioning meant that she could only take a step or two before being pressed up against the stone lip that ran around the outer edge of the spire’s roof.

  “Very good,” she said. “You are slowly starting to get it.”

  Ari grinned as he leaned more of his weight into pushing her back. His face drew closer to Eva’s, and he felt suddenly aware of her presence, the tension in her muscles, and the tiny noise of exertion she made as she struggled to match Ari’s superior strength.

  She moved in a sudden blur, ducking under both of their weapons, wrapping an arm around his waist, and tripping him over a leg that Ari hadn’t realized had been behind his ankles. He grabbed her under the shoulders as he fell back onto the sand, pulling him down onto her.

  If either of them had still kept a grip on their practice sticks, the fight would have been over. Ari caught Eva’s wrist as she tried to reach for hers, and then the two of them were rolling and twisting each other for purchase. He understood the mechanics of wrestling far better than sword fighting and managed to pin her underneath him after a couple of seconds.

  “I win,” he said.

  His face was only inches away from hers. Eva was breathing heavily, and she had a smile on her face that was a mixture of annoyance and pride.

  “It was not a win in swordplay, Lord Aristial,” said Eva. “But I will not deny you your victory.”

  Though her dress seemed to fit her surprisingly well for a garment cobbled together from the supplies they had on hand, it was clearly unsuited for roughhousing. The front had slipped low enough for Ari to see most of one of Eva’s small breasts. Her face was still close to his, and his position on top of her was about as dominant as it could have possibly been. He let his lips draw a little nearer to hers.

  “Milord…” Eva turned her face away from him slightly.

  “Aristial!”

  Kerys’ voice came from the direction of the tower. Ari hid a scowl as he pulled back from Eva, feeling as though he’d just been called out on two different fronts.

  “We were just sparring,” he shouted to Kerys, who was far enough away to look small in the distance. “And I was, uh…”

  He scratched his head as he tried to think of an appropriate excuse for the fact that he’d just tried to kiss her.

  “It is okay,” said Eva. “It is my fault, not yours. I’m still processing some of the emotions and memories that have returned to me.”

  “I know,” said Ari. “I’m sorry.”

  He slowly stood up, shifting his tunic slightly to hide how excited the wrestling had made him. Since arriving at Deepwater Spire, it wasn’t just Eva who’d been keeping herself at a distance.

  Kerys, despite oftentimes seeming jealous at Ari for his closeness with Eva, had also pulled back from him over the past few days. He’d made several attempts at taking her to his bed at night and been rebuffed each time. She was still willing to hug him and share a certain amount of intimacy, but whenever Ari tried to take it further, she’d always bring up unnecessary things.

  Such as the fact that she was saving herself for marriage. Ari almost wanted to roll his eyes each time he heard her say it, given how far they’d already gone. He loved Kerys, and whenever he was close enough to smell her scent, it became an immense struggle to keep from pulling her tight against him and seeing how far she’d let him go.

  A struggle that he often lost.

  CHAPTER 2

  “I’m almost finished with dinner,” said Kerys as Ari and Eva made their way back over to the tower. “We’ll need to start hunting more of the birds each day. Our own food supplies are running pretty low.”

  “It’s tough,” said Ari. “The birds aren’t letting me get close to them anymore. Though I can’t exactly blame them, given my ulterior motives.”

  “Maybe try luring them in close with bits of fruit?” suggested Kerys. “There are still some mangoes on the trees here, and the birds seem to like those, as long as they’re ripe.”

  Kerys pulled open the door leading into the tower and disappeared into the common room. The four-story structure looked out of place on top of the spire. Its walls were still draped with moss and vines from the hill they’d originally found it on, and the stone bricks it was composed of didn’t match with the dark rock of the spire.

  It was a constant reminder of the fact that it didn’t belong there, and neither did they. The enchanted wards that had teleported them to Deepwater Spire had gone dormant upon arrival. It made Ari feel a little discouraged to consider the amount of essence they’d gathered to activate the wards and the amount they would need to gather again in order to leave.

  Eventually, they would have to leave. Kerys’ idea of using bits of fruit to lure the birds in close enough to catch might feed them for a few more nights, but the creatures would eventually grow wise to it. The top of Deepwater Spire was expansive and surprisingly fertile, but it just didn’t yield enough food to sustain all three of them forever.

  “So, what are we eating?” asked Ari as he slipped into the common room.

  “Really, Aristial?” said Kerys. “Do you even need to ask? You know what’s for dinner.”

  “What?” he said, smiling. “I just thought I’d hope. I figured you might have given my idea of fishing a try.”

  Kerys rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her breasts. Her blonde hair was tied back into a small ponytail, a style she’d been adopting more often over the past few days. She was short, with a pretty face and a curvaceous figure that seemed sculpted to draw the eyes of men.

  She’d been one of the prettiest girls back in the Hollow, and Ari had heard more than a few lecherous jests about what some of the boys wanted to do with her, or to her. Kerys had beautiful green eyes, a pretty face, and full breasts balanced out by hips with just the right amount of curve.

  “You’re more than welcome to try dangling your line off the edge of the spire, but I don’t think it’s long enough to get a bite,” said Kerys.

  “Nothing would seem that long in comparison to this damned spire,” said Ari.

  Kerys disappeared into the tower’s kitchen nook, and Ari took a seat in one of the rough, wooden stools he’d built for sitting around the common table. Eva took the spot next to him, and Kerys returned a minute later, carrying a stone slab with a variety of cooked bird meat arrayed across it.

  The tower had numerous interior wards, only a few of which Ari had so far activated. One of them controlled a small, heated cooking counter that had saved them the trouble of needing to build a fire each night. It was a massive boon more than worth the essence Ari had spent on it, especially given how scarce the spire’s supply of firewood was.

  “I suppose I could try using some of the mangoes to make a garnish,” Kerys said, sighing. “I’m sorry. I’m just as sick as everyone else is of eating these mud damned birds.”

  “We’ll be on our way again soon enough,” said Ari. “Once we get that essence lock on the hatch leading down into the spire open, I’m sure we’ll be able to raid it for enough enchanted artifacts to fund the essence for the tower’s wards.”

  “I hope so,” said Kerys. “This place is so frustrating. It’s so close to being perfect for us. There hasn’t been a single day of bad weather since we arrived here.”

  “That’s true,” said Ari. “Though I’m not sure if that’s the d
efault state of the climate here or if we’ve just gotten lucky. It could rain at any time, and if that happens…”

  He trailed off, not wanting to overly sour the mood. The Weatherblight had been the reason for their struggle to activate the tower’s wards in the first place. Ari had no evidence to suggest that Deepwater Spire would be spared from the cursed monsters if the weather turned on them, and he had little interest in sticking around long enough to find out in person.

  “We are extremely close to opening the essence lock on the spire’s hatch,” said Eva. “It could even activate tomorrow, depending on how much essence you recover during the night.”

  Ari nodded slowly as he took a bite out of a hot piece of bird meat. The taste wasn’t bad, which was a small blessing given how much they’d been relying on them.

  “Let’s hope so,” said Ari. “I’ve got to say, I’m curious about what’s down there. Given how massive this spire is, it almost feels daunting to think of how much time it will take to explore in its entirety.”

  “It makes me a little nervous to think about it,” said Kerys. “Golias Hollow could fit inside this structure ten times over with space left to spare.”

  She frowned slightly, and Ari could sense where her thoughts were headed. Kerys still had family back in their old home. Parents and brothers, not to mention various other members of the community who’d cared for her.

  Ari, on the other hand, had been an orphan and somewhat of a troublemaker. Protecting Kerys had been part of the reason why he’d opted himself into leaving their sanctum and coming to the surface, but part of it had also been the knowledge of how little he’d had to stay for.

  “Anyway,” said Ari. “I doubt I’ll need to explore all of it in order to find enough artifacts to provide the essence needed to get the teleportation wards working again.”

  “After that, what happens?” asked Kerys. “We travel with the tower somewhere else? Somewhere just as dangerous?”

  Ari shrugged. “The alternative is to stay here and die of boredom.”