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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 32, Written January 2012

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Chapter 32 - Stuck in a frozen hell

Sarina glared incredulously at the fire elemental. "How could you possibly 'forget' that this part of Hell is an airless frozen void? You swore to serve me faithfully!" she shouted.

"Calm down, Mistress. We will get you out of this... somehow... It wasn't intentional, I assure you," Asha insisted. "This place is quite comfortable for me. I don't breathe air, like you do, nor does the very low temperature bother me. You rushed us unto this before I could consider where we would enter Hell. If we had more time to prepare, I could have gone to Hell on my own, first, and found a place more hospitable to your species, and then returned, so you would appear in Hell with me in that place instead. But when you summoned me, this is where I happened to be, enjoying some solitude. And this is where we must get you out of. Do you know any spells to protect yourself against a hostile environment?"

"I never bothered to learn any of those," Sarina said sullenly. "But I do have my collection of spell books with me. I should be able to find something."

"Start with the dark sorcery books that have combat spells in them, Mistress," Asha suggested. "There should be something of that sort there. It is a common tactic in mage battles to make the environment hostile to the enemy. The mage needs to protect their own body before casting such spells as would remove all air, or invoke a blizzard, or create an inferno of flames. But work rapidly. I fear you do not have much air trapped within that circle with you. The flames that surrounded us only went about nine feet into the air. So in all probability, you only have as much air as a space the size of that circle and nine feet tall could hold," Asha stated. "That wouldn't last you very long, would it?"

"Probably not, no," Sarina said, as she removed from her necklace the chest that contained the book Asha had suggested, located the first likely-looking book, and started leafing through it. "Couldn't I just create a new circle outside this one, and leap into it as the portal back to my realm opens?" Sarina asked, as she located a promising entry and began to read the requirements for casting the spell, and what exactly it did.

"No, Mistress. I am afraid you can't cast any spell beyond the edges of that circle," Asha said. "Until you fully cross its edge, you really aren't quite all the way into Hell. Just as a summoned demon can not affect you while the circle controls them, you, from within it, can cast no spell outside the circle. Any spell you use must affect you within the circle, first. Then, if you move through the barrier, that magic will remain with you."

"I see," Sarina said. She was quiet for a moment, and then cursed and went to another section, saying, "Well, that was a fine one, but we are fresh out of goat livers and the other spell ingredients that it requires." She kept looking. After several more frustrating failures, she smiled, and said, "Ah! This one I could do. I think it will work, and the only physical component it requires is an undamaged pearl or similar spherical gem, and I do have some pearls that are not pierced for a necklace. It says 'the Telekinetic Sphere encloses the mage and those near him with an impenetrable wall of force. Spells and environmental conditions originating outside the sphere can affect the sphere itself, but not those inside it. Spells cast within the sphere act normally within its limits, but cannot pass outward. Those within the sphere can breathe normally, even under water or in a poisonous atmosphere.' It says also that those within the sphere weigh a fraction of their normal weight, and that the sphere can be moved by the thoughts of the caster. So if I cast that within this circle, move out of the circle, and cast a new portal spell within the confines of the sphere, we could use that portal to leave!"

"It sounds worth a try. Prepare what you need, and I will step beside you just before you cast the spell," Asha said, as she hummed a very odd-sounding tune. A few pale lights, like will-o-the-wisps, danced around the elemental, like moths attracted to a flame, even though she was not in a flaming form at the moment. She snatched one of them out of the air with one hand, and the others vanished instantly.

Sarina did not notice the dancing lights, or what her familiar was doing. She read through the spell twice more, and then put away the book in the chest, while getting out a single pearl from her money chest. When she was ready, she nodded to Asha, and began the spell.

The elemental moved back into the circle, and stood close to her Mistress. She remained silent, to not disturb the casting of the spell.

Sarina held the pearl, and spoke the incantation for the spell. The pearl expanded greatly in size, becoming intangible and hollow, like a ghostly soap bubble. It stopped expanding abruptly as its diameter matched that of the portal circle. Then Sarina and Asha began to feel incredibly light, almost as if floating in water.

"Can you make it larger now? Or make it move outward and down a bit, so it forms a dome?" Asha asked.

"I think so. Well, here we go," Sarina said. She concentrated, and the shimmering bubble moved forward slowly. They walked with it. As she got to the edge of the circle, Sarina took a deep breath, and then stepped forward.

She felt an odd twisting sensation as she passed the confined of the portal that had brought her to Hell. It seemed colder, but bearable. Looking behind them, the first portal circle was gone now, as if it had never existed.

"The ground feels very cold to my feet," Sarina mentioned. "But I can still breathe, and the cold is not as bad as before. I'll try to make the bubble larger now."

With a thought, the bubble grew to twice its size, while its center remained roughly at the height of Sarina's chest. A large circle of the frozen soil of this part of Hell was now within the circle. The white crystalline powder on the ground seemed to quickly melt, and then evaporate, leaving a bare, smooth rock surface.

"It would seem that the 'snow' on the ground here was the very air itself, frozen by the cold!" Sarina observed. She took a dagger from her belt and inscribed the portal circle on the bare stone, being careful to make it precisely as Asha had indicated before, while omitting the five control symbols and the name of the one to be summoned. "Now, how do we get out of here with this?" she asked.

"Concentrate on the place you want the portal to go to, while inscribing a name that you associate with the place where you would put the summoned creature's name. A place name, not a living creature's name," Asha said.

Sarina concentrated, and then inscribed a few short words, before saying, "It feels incomplete. Like it should be doing something, but something is missing."

"You are correct. It is incomplete. I have the last needed component ready for you, to make it work from within Hell. This will be the hard part, Mistress," Asha said. "The spell for that hell gate portal cannot connect to your world while this barrier is in place. Take a deep breath, and then I will hand you something. Hold it tightly, and do not let it slip from your grasp until you are ready. Then drop the protective barrier, and throw what is in your hand at the center of the circle. The portal will open, and then we can step into it and leave."

Sarina took a deep breath, and nodded. Asha placed something into Sarina's hand. It glowed faintly, and felt like an ice cold, squirming worm or slug, desperately trying to wriggle away. She tried not to think of how nauseating it felt to hold it in her bare hand, as she dropped the barrier, and threw it at the circle.

The numbing cold hit Sarina like an axe. She saw the portal enflame as the thing she threw hit the circle and vanished with a bright burst of light. Sarina plunged forward into the circle, with Asha at her side.

===

An instant later, they tumbled to the ground in an open field, under a star-lit sky, as their momentum took them out of the circle again at their destination. It felt warm again, and a pleasant breeze blew over them, as the portal circle behind them vanished. There was no moon, and it was fairly dark. The nearest light was the windows of a familiar looking inn, several hundred yards away.

When she got her breath back, Sarina asked, "Augh! What was that disgusting thing you handed to me?"

"Our fee, for leaving Hell without being summoned from outside," Asha replied, as she stood and re-arranged her clothing's appearance to something more like that of a tavern wench. She could see the inn that Darla and she had stayed at not far from where they stood, across the open field.

"Our fee? You mentioned no fee," Sarina said. She also stood, and assumed the appearance of Heather, the tavern whore. "What further burden has been placed on me now?"

"None. I paid the fee for us both, to make up to you for my error in bringing you to a part of Hell that you couldn't breathe in," Asha said. "Just as a mage must pay a price for the service of a resident of Hell when you summon them, if someone from my realm wants to leave on their own, they must also pay a price. It is a price that is high enough that few of us choose to pay it, or are able to do so. A soul. I paid with one of the five souls that you sacrificed to summon me. What you threw into the hell gate portal to open it was the soul of one of the five thieves that you killed."

"That was a soul? It felt... horrible. Very unclean," Sarina said. "Are they all like that?"

"A pure soul, I am told, feels warm and comfortable when held. I have never held a pure one, myself. That was a very tainted soul, and one that had no time to atone yet for what it had done in life. He died without any regrets for the many victims he had killed or tortured. He will now have quite a while to contemplate how he ended up in Hell. Sacrificing that soul as we did, to pay for that spell, sent him to one of the most unpleasant reaches of Hell," Asha said. "On the other hand, it may cause him to spend less time in Hell in the long run. That soul will have a great deal of incentive to get to someplace better.

"Someplace better? A damned soul can do that?" Sarina asked.

"Oh, eventually, yes. Even 'eternal damnation' doesn't last forever. After sufficient time is spent there, even the worst soul may be reincarnated, and given a chance to earn a better fate," Asha replied.

"Well, I'm just glad to be out of Hell, even if it did cost a soul for us to get out," Sarina said.

Before Sarina and Asha could talk further, they were briefly blinded as a ring of golden fire surrounded them, and bright lines of golden flames appeared at their feet, forming a complex constraint and control circle, with them trapped in the center. Beyond the thin wall of flames at the edge of the circle, a shadowy figure shouted at them, "You will be back in Hell soon enough, hell spawn! I have you trapped, and you will not cause trouble here, while I can prevent it!"

"WHAT? Wait! What do you mean? I am no creature of Hell!" Sarina shouted in reply, as she tried to see their attacker through the bright wall of fire.

"Oh really? So speaks someone who has no soul, and who is accompanied by an elemental from Hell? So says one who I heard with my own ears talking of using souls to open a hell gate and come here from Hell? And yet you insist you're not from Hell?" the person outside the circle said. "How foolish do you think I am? I felt that hell gate open, hell spawn, and came at once to stop you. I will send you both back to hell for another hundred years, before you harm these people and their city!" She began a low chant, drawing two swords with flaming blades and holding them aloft as she began the ritual for consigning a demon to Hell.

"Mistress! She can do it! If she finishes her incantation, we'll both be sent back to Hell, and we'll be stuck there for a hundred years! We're trapped in this confounded circle!" Asha said.

"WAIT!" Heather shouted. "You accuse us wrongly! I DO have a soul, and I can prove it! We have done no harm here. Will you not give me a chance to prove my innocence?"

The mage hesitated. "There is only one soul in that circle, soulless one, and that is the elemental beside you! Do not seek to trick me! Your spells can not cross that barrier. But I am not an unjust person. I will give you one chance to prove yourself. Make it good," said the mage outside the circle.

Heather faced her accuser, and said, "I came here from hell - that is true. But I was only in Hell because I passed through that realm to get here more rapidly. I am a mage, from this world, and this creature is my familiar. I hid my soul before I entered Hell, so I would not be trapped there. Lower your wall of flames, and I will restore my soul from its hiding place, and you will see I speak the truth!" Heather said.

The mage outside the circle lowered one of her swords, and the wall of fire became a fence only a few feet high, as she said, "I will see this miracle. The barrier is still there, and your banishment all but complete. Cast a spell at me, and I swear I will send you to hell before you can scream." The flames on the sword blade that she had pointed at them made it hard to see the mage's face.

Heather lowered her head, and cupped both hands near her necklace. She lowered her hands, and was holding her belt pouch, and from within the pouch she produced the Kitsune star ball that held her soul. She looked at the mage, holding the star ball up where it could be seen, and said, "Here is my soul, mage. Can you sense it now? I will make it a part of me, so you can see it belongs to no other."

The star ball floated above her hand, and drifted to her chest, where it entered her body. She took a deep breath, as it re-united with her, and then looked more carefully at the mage outside the circle. Then she smiled, as her appearance became that of Lady Sarina Randall, and she asked, "Are you satisfied now? And by the way, this is a fine way to welcome a friend who once saved your own soul from damnation, Lady Portia!"