Sabine was a princess pursued by the sorcerer Dahkhal until she managed to turn the tables on him. She exchanged the world’s memory of her existence to trap Dahkhal as a tiny jellyfish in a
Sabine was a princess pursued by the sorcerer Dahkhal until she managed to turn the tables on him. She exchanged the world’s memory of her existence to trap Dahkhal as a tiny jellyfish in a ring on her finger. In an ironic twist, Dahkhal was the only person who remembered who she was, and they became friends. That is, until the ring was stolen from her by Deacon Struct. Now she’s set off to find her lost ring. To read the previous adventures of Sabine, click here. To support us on Patreon, click here. The story continues below.
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Massive claws tore through pews and stone flooring, throaty, hissing roars reverberated through the chapel, and Sabine fought for dear life. In his transformed state, Struct’s claws accepted clashes with her athame and threw back slashes of his own at ferocious speed. As a cut went right across her midsection, the force knocked her against a pillar, and a cry bubbled up from her throat, she felt thankful the hangover at least dulled the pain.
Gods, this is stupid, Dahkhal—the real Dahkhal—said. He’s a demonic sloth, he should have to deal with all that entails, moving like molasses included.
What is that even supposed to mean? The delusionary Dahkhal asked. Sloth is a sin, a concept, it’s not like it’s a literal creature.
It is, you just wouldn’t know that because the girl doesn’t, real Dahkhal said.
Because she’s foolish and ignorant?
Is this really how you think of me? Don’t I give you more credit than—
“Would you both shut up?” Sabine only narrowly avoided one of Struct’s slashes, but, distracted as she was, caught three stabs in the belly from his claws when he swung again. She stumbled backwards and gripped at the bloody trio of wounds and dodged backwards into a wall as he tore at her again.
“What are you trying for, girl? Calling to your gods?” Struct threw out another slash, Sabine ducked not a moment too soon as his claws dug straight into the wall of stone behind her. “My god is the only one listening down here.”
A moment after the taunt, Struct uttered a snarl and struggled. Without the momentum that carried the attack, his claws laid stuck in the rock. With her heart racing at an opening, Sabine rose from the ground and thrust the athame up into his arm. The beast let out a shriek as he jerked the hand back out of the wall, the speed and the force knocked Sabine off balance as he did. Despite the pain that ran through her, the spurt of blood that seeped from Struct’s wrist gave her hope. If she could cut him, she could kill him.
Dahkhal said, it’s a fine place to start, but you could also drain the ocean with a spoon, if you had a million years.
If any bullheaded mule could do it, it’s this one, the Dahkhal delusion said.
Sabine almost pointed out that his insults seemed to have looped back around into praise, but her mind settled elsewhere. She slid under Struct’s next attack and ran for the façade of stained glass against the chapel’s back wall. “Think I know how I can beat him. Do you think a good stab through the brain is enough?”
Seems like a safe bet, but who knows what ridiculous things that transformation did to his body, Dahkhal said.
As Sabine pushed herself and Struct roared, she heard Dahkhal’s hallucinatory counterpart say, Not like attacking your brain would make much of a difference, now would it?
Damn it, Sabine, I’m offended. My insults only come after I offer sound advice, this guy doesn’t understand my character at all.
Sabine threw open the door at the base of the stained-glass window, slammed it shut, and struggled to catch her breath. As the arguments in her mind threatened to bring on a migraine, she gripped her forehead with one hand and shook her left hand again, more out of habit than anything else.
Ow—ow—quit it, I’m on—ow—your side, damn it!
“Oh, crap, right, sorry,” Sabine said. “It’s not you, it’s the other guy, but I still need you both to pipe down so I can—”
She couldn’t finish the thought. Struct slammed against the wall with his shoulder. The force and sound of shattering glass knocked Sabine across the chamber and sent her careening into the opposite wall. She only just raised an arm in time to catch a rain of glass flechettes against the appendage instead of her face.
“Did you think you could outrun me? In my god’s house?” Struct spoke with a snarl. “You’ll have to do better than that, but you can’t, because—”
Sabine lowered her stance, grit her teeth as she took up a handful of broken glass, and hurled the shards toward the deacon’s face. Struct only realized what was coming a moment before the glass cut into his enormous white eyes, and he reeled back and howled in pain as the glass sliced into him.
What? I’ll be damned, that was just plain dirty.
She had no way to know which Dahkhal that was, and Sabine had no chance to linger on it. As Struct struggled and clawed to force the glass from his eyes, she ran up the adjacent staircase. Sabine didn’t have the strength to overcome this devil herself, so she’d have to accept a little help from gravity. Struct cast the last of the glass from his eyes and looked up at the same time Sabine leapt down, athame raised over her head. With a hellish roar, Struct bent his knees and leapt to meet her.
Time seemed to slow her descent. Sabine wished he’d have stayed on the ground then she could have made the killing blow while he was still blinded. But, again and again in the mercenary business, she played with the hand she was dealt. Struct raised his claws, whether to attack or defend, she did not know. She just swung downward, let loose a scream of her own, and let the world itself pull her down.
Whether carried by strength, determination, or magic, the athame cleaved clean through, first Struct’s claws, then down through the beast’s skull. The monster’s battle cry faded to something more agonized as the two fell to the floor of the chapel. Upon the impact, Struct’s body lost all its integrity and collapsed into a wide pool of black goo.
With her breaths heavy and unstable, Sabine looked at the darkness that surrounded her, unsure if she should celebrate victory yet.
She asked, “Is it just me, or did that seem too easy?”
One of the Dahkhals said, Indeed, seemed a bit simple.
Of course it was simple, the other Dahkhal said. He had to be pathetic, Sabine only knows how to defeat pathetic enemies.
All right, well, if this is over, you need to visit an exorcist as quick as you can, because this other guy’s insufferable, the real Dahkhal said.
“I don’t want him around either,” Sabine said. “You’re more than enough.” With her mind pulled from the fight with Struct, after an extra moment of contemplation, she added, “Or, I don’t know, maybe you’re exactly enough.”
The fake Dahkhal objected, but Sabine paid him no mind as she looked down at Harrow’s ring, again, where it belonged on her left hand. With her eyes squinted, she could see the jellyfish within appeared to turn away from her with two of its tentacles crossed.
… Are you getting soft on me?
“Are you about to?”
I’m in this damned body; I don’t have a choice. Dahkhal dragged out a long sigh. And yet, strangely, I don’t know that I resent you for that anymore. I am… grateful you came to my rescue.
Before either could say anything more, the goo beneath Sabine’s feet began a furious bubble. Sabine flinched and bent to leap away, but before she could, two enormous forms like jaws formed of ink burst from the floor.
“Insolent wench, you can’t defeat me!” Struct’s voice rang with triumph. “You cannot take me apart—because I am already taken apart. But you will not be so fortunate. Now—disappear!”
Sabine’s scream only lasted an instant before she fell into an endless abyss.
To Be Continued…