Chapter Three:
Those Two Idiots
“Alright you two, do what you do best. . .” The order the young woman had given Davien and himself was vague enough to rattle through Jymgreen’s mind as he and Davien descended into the shadows of the lower chambers. Their torch, revealing no more than a turn or two ahead, sparkled brightly on the smoothly polished marble stone.
Leira, of course, was doing what she did best, Jym assumed, something which only Davien seemed to know anything about. Do what you do best. . . “Oh shit yeah I will!” The unexpected croaking scream startled Davien, who was stepping onto a lower step at just that moment, into losing his footing.
With inhumanly quick reflexes the man who Jym had known as Davien caught himself, although only barely. The goblin was having none of it. Do what you do best. . . “Shut up woman. I am!” The goblin screamed this, and a series of obscenities at no one in particular. Jym was suspicious of everything and what he did best was obsess, sharpen his knives and watch those around him. He was also, coincidentally, much quicker than Davien. Still croaking out the last of his latest scream he kicked the man who pretended to be Davien in the ribs, officially sending him tumbling down the stairs.
The man, screaming incoherently as he fell, was quickly followed by Jym with his ‘Darling’ in hand. “I am getting my share of the loot you son of a bitch! If that woman turned you into someone else I’m going to skin you out of him!” As he rounded another of the blind turns in a spiral stairwell, the small torch he once held was left where it was dropped several turns behind in his anger, he saw shadows quickly turn into a wall of darkness. Pausing only a moment in consideration of the now inky blackness ahead of him, his anger overcoming him he chose to continue. His hesitation had cost him his stride however and he quickly lost footing and tumbled into what was once his domain.
Sapphire eyes lit up the stairwell briefly as Jym was halted between collisions from one stair to the next. The eyes, now two icy coal’s that seemed to absorb heat, stared directly into his own. As Jym began to stammer a caustic remark, he felt an icy chill run through his limbs paralyzing him.
“Alright you inbred little stain. Fun is fun and all that,” It was Davien’s voice he heard, unmistakably that of Davien but ethereal, unreal. “You want to be a little snot, that’s fine. I have spent eons in the darkness cast out for no reason beyond my own birth. I will not wait another day, week, year or minute for a vessel this fine to come along again.” To emphasize the statement a bright blue glow bathed the stairwell in light.
There were two Daviens before him. One composed of nothing but darkness, the crisp blue light a cast off remnant of the heat he absorbed while it crackled along the void that was him. The other Davien, was just lounging by a wall, a slight wave of his hand in acknowledgement. “He is my direct descendant and in appearances an exact duplicate, by that woman, he was born with no capacity for thought. He was simple, but I did not lie to him. I did not trick him into letting me wear him. I cured him, I mentored him. But if you kill him, I go back to the void. He likes you, I like you, but do not try my patience.”
With a sudden pop the blue glow, the chill in the air and Jymgreen’s suspension in the chilly air ended. With a clangor of steel on stone Jym came to his senses just in time to prevent his nose from being broken, or cut off by one of the ‘Daughters’ again.
Davien could be heard striking flint and steel. In a moment light once again filled the stairwell. Looking grimly at Jym he spoke slowly with a dreadful purpose, “Do you understand Jym? Do you?”
“Amazing! Nothing in my nose.” Jym glanced at Davien sheepishly. “I crapped myself. I couldn’t focus. He had me upside down. Paralyzed.”
“Excuse me?”
“The ghost. He found me here too. I saw him. . . Those eyes.”
The goblin slowly approached Davien bringing a foul smell with him. “What did you eat? It smells like rat cheese and burned hair,” Davien asked.
“What? Oh it’s a defense mechanism. Never had that happen before. We gotta get to the bottom of this place, kill that thing and leave that ghost alone. He was talking all crazy. Gibberish, like a kid. I bet if we could get the right stuff we could catch him.”
Davien let out a sigh of both sadness and relief. His secret remained his own. Two of the fingers on his right hand however were now blackened and thick. His mentor was powerful, but his vessel often felt himself not up to the task. Each use of the cold, let alone tapping the void itself, was costly and he fully expected to lose the fingers. Patting the small leather pouch at his hip he thought, I need a bigger bag.
Taking a moment to warm his hands near the torch, Davien pointed further into the shadows. “I saw a landing when the torch flared to life. I think we’re at the bottom.”
Jym eyed the darkness ahead warily. “You first.”
“Oh enough of this nonsense.” Davien rummaged around in his various satchels and packs briefly before finding what he sought. “Alright, I wanted to save these for when we needed extra cash.” Tossing an object to the goblin, he started to speak intending to warn against wearing the goggles he had given him. Jym, always ready to wear something new, had the goggles firmly in place before Davien could utter the first syllable of ‘wait’.
The screeching, no longer a guttural croak, broke the relative quiet in the stairwell. Coughing, accompanied by copious amounts of bloody expectorant, followed as the goblin tried vainly to remove the goggles which appeared to have fused themselves to him. Quickly realizing the futility of trying to remove the goggles, and continuing to cough blood, Jymgreen simply pointed to his eyes with one hand while holding himself off the steps which he once again, at least partially, had collapsed upon.
“Well, stupid ass, they are cursed. Good news is, you can see ghosts, bad news is, if you managed to remove them, you’d rip your eyes out as well. Maybe Leira can remove them safely, but. . .” Davien was once again interrupted, though this time by a high pitched whoop of satisfaction.
“Shit, you mean I can see ghosts?” Jym’s mouth had a constant bloody drool as he spoke with a high pitched whine, his throat and everything in it now damaged beyond natural recovery from the constant abuse.
“What? Yeah, but seriously, those are cursed. I do not know the long term effects.”
“So what? I can see that angry blue asshole before he sees me. Who’s the king of the night? Who’s the KING OF THE NIGHT? I am!” Jym pumped a small dirt covered green fist into the air and flexed his stringy muscles. “Let’s do this mess.”
Davien’s intent was merely to give an option, cursed though it was, to quell the once implacable goblins’ fears. He had no intention of further harassment of Jym, he did, however, allow a smile to cross his features as Jym pawed halfheartedly at the goggles. Fun is fun after all.