Advent of Eternity - Chapter 63 (Patreon)

Stix’s body vanished as Knell dismissed the screen. She reappeared in the air above the minotaur’s body – where Knell had originally cast Anchor on her – and promptly fell on her face.

Rolling over, Stix gasped for air and stared up at the ceiling. “I – you killed me.”

“It was better than suffering through the pain for the entire minute,” Knell replied. The orb of blue light that had been floating in the air shot over to her, interrupting her next sentence. She drew in a sharp breath, then sighed.

“Logically, I know that. Thank you. But…”

“It doesn’t feel right to get offed by your own Cap?” Cyll guessed.

“Yeah,” Stix muttered. “How’d you know? It’s not like you can die.”

Cyll grunted. “I’ve been there before. It wasn’t a fun experience. At least Knell was doing it to help you. Honestly, girl. You need to stop getting hit.”

“What else was I supposed to do?” Stix snapped. “I was trying to kill the stupid thing!”

“I told you. Think like an assassin,” Cyll replied. “You tell me. What did you do wrong?”

“Get hit.”

“True, but that was sarcastic. Think more.”

“Does it–”

“Yes, it matters,” Cyll snapped. “Think, girl. What did you do wrong?”

Knell frowned slightly. Cyll wasn’t wrong, but Stix had just died. Again. It wouldn’t be remiss to at least give her a few seconds to recover. He opened his mouth, then paused as he realized what Cyll was doing. The old warrior was trying to distract her.

Stix pressed her lips together, shifting to a seated position. “I guess I stuck around too long.”

“You stuck around too long,” Cyll agreed. “Keep going. What else?”

“I didn’t kill it in the first blow, I guess?”

“Very good,” Cyll said. “An assassin kills their target with one attack when possible. If they can’t, then they run away like the little cowards they are to wait for another opportunity. You aren’t a berserker. Don’t act like one.”

Stix swallowed and nodded. “I – right. Yeah. I’ll do that. Wait – you that minotaur got you whiskey, didn’t it? I’m pretty sure you got stabbed. That means you failed.”

“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Cyll said, glancing to the side. He met eyes with Knell, who cocked an eyebrow.

“There’s a giant hole in your shirt,” Stix said, standing up as a grin crossed her face. “You did fail! And Knell didn’t order anything. That means you lose.”

“It’s not like we ever agreed on what would happen if I lost,” Cyll said, crossing his arms. “You just said I wouldn’t like it. I’m stuck here talking to you, so that counts.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. Come on, Knell. He lost, right?”

Knell suppressed a smirk. Cyll had succeeded in getting Stix to think about something else – who was he to stand in the other man’s way? A real captain would encourage his crew to do the best at whatever they were doing.

“I suppose he did,” Knell said. “Figure something out. Stix is right, Cyll. You didn’t need to get axed there. What if someone had seen that? Right now, the only people that know about your ability think its due to me reviving you.”

“I’ve been abandoned and am now under assault from all fronts,” Cyll said, wringing his beard in mock agony. “I’ll never forget this.”

“Now, I just need to figure out a suitable punishment,” Stix muttered, rubbing her chin as an evil smile crossed her face.

“You can figure it out later,” Knell said. It was good that Stix’s spirit remained strong, but that didn’t mean he was willing to wait around for no reason. They had tasks to accomplish, and with the dungeon cleared, there was no point to stay longer. “We return to the ship and set course for the main destination of this month.”

Stix and Cyll didn’t stop arguing, but they did make their way back out of the dungeon. Knell’s eyes remained lit yellow as he used his foresight to watch for the assassin, but they made it back without suffering any incidents.

Once they were on the ship, Knell and Stix returned to the captain’s quarters while Cyll got them moving.

Knell tried testing Exhume on a few items in the ship, but the spell stubbornly refused to activate. It felt like there was an invisible wall stopping him from casting it. After some thought, he came to the conclusion that Exhume did nothing unless the item he was trying to restore actually had a past to bring back.

“You don’t happen to have any bones on you, do you?” Knell asked.

“Huh?” Stix asked, glancing up at him from her spot on the bed. “Sorry, I was trying to think of something that would actually embarrass Cyll. What was that?”

“Bones,” Knell said. “Do you have bones?”

“I mean… yes?”

“Not inside you,” Knell said, chuckling. “Like… someone else’s bones. I’m testing out a spell.”

“I did at one point when I made arrows from them, but I haven’t used a bow recently,” Stix said apologetically, not even blinking at the strange request. “Sorry. And I don’t think Cyll has much of anything.”

“No, I don’t think he does,” Knell agreed. “Unfortunate. I figured bones would certainly have a past I could work with. I don’t to risk this on anything magical or anything related to the gods, so we’ll just have to wait.”