Curselock

Chapter 238: New Lord

“Leland.”

He turned, finding Floe’s imposing figure toward the back of the cave. She was laying down in such a way that only her head was front and center. But that didn’t stop her body from radiating cold. They stared at each other, a nervous thread of air wafting between them.

“Tell me about the Lords you’ve met,” she whispered before her eyes returned to the other end of the cave.

Leland followed her gaze, finding Jude and Jude Two playing music. Jude’s fingers were dancing across his new flute, Jude Two was plucking away at a guitar. Together they dueted a vibrant piece with many ascents and descents. It was nice. Happy, even, although incredibly tedious. Jude’s skill with the flute was far and away worse than the harmonica or guitar.

Like a prairie dog emerging from his hole, Gelo’s head rhythmically bounded up and down with the song. When the Judes would lull, she would quickly try to step into the song. She howled, or more accurately, quietly roared as if she was a violin or cello accompaniment. And while she was horribly off key and tempo, the Judes didn’t discourage her whatsoever.

At some point, Gelo realized that howl-roaring wasn’t working. Instead, she swapped to vocalizing. Grunts became non lyrical song, which paired much better with everyone’s ears. Since they were in an echoing cave, Gelo started to sound like a full choir, her singing wrapping itself in harmonization.

Glenny was bundled in his cloak of shadows, a mug of hot tea in his hand, listening to the song. He stared longingly into the fire, his eyelids dipping closed and shooting open. He carefully put down his mug before he spilled it.

Leland glanced at Floe, finding a soft smile across the great bear’s snout.

He smiled to himself, and said, “The Lords are… unique. I guess you have to be to reach that level of power. Most have been nice to me, some have been cold or non receptive.” He chuckled a little. “They are usually kind even to a mortal who struggles to find a reason for them to offer part of their magic. I’ve realized it before, but I’m sort of like a parasite myself. A leach. Just someone begging for power, power which they happily hand over.”

His lips tugged further back. “Thank you. And I know, but you also know me. Can you imagine what a Lord might think when they see me? I invite myself to their homes unannounced and practically demand to trade. And most of the time I get what I want for next to nothing. A drop of special water from one of the easiest cantrips to learn? I got an entire spell from the Lord of Water for that.”

“I don’t think I understand where you are going with this,” she replied.

“What I'm trying to get at is that Lords want to help. For the most part, Vile Lords notwithstanding. I have yet to meet a proper Lord who only is in it for themselves. Allow me to tell you about the Lord of Healing.”

Leland leaned back and recounted. “She was one of the first Lords I tried to contract with. And she turned me down. But not because she didn’t want to help or because I didn’t have anything to offer in trade. No, she couldn’t find ten minutes to work out a deal with me because of all of the people flooding her with prayers for healing. I saw them, you know? The people she was healing. They were like remnants. Distant echoes of people dying, in pain, or pleading for her to heal their loved ones.”

Looking Floe right in the eyes, Leland said, “And she listened to each and every prayer. Each request. Each crying young kid, each grieving widow. She listened to them all and healed the ones she could.”

He sat in silence for a moment. “That,” he whispered, “is what a Lord is. Someone who takes their role seriously. Who helps those who ask. Who gives tools to those who don’t.”

Floe looked back at her daughter. “Is she going to be alright?”

Shrugging, Leland said, “She’ll have her mom watching over her day and night.” He smirked a little. “Literally. I don’t think you’ll sleep as a Lord.” A beat passed. “But yeah, she’ll be fine. She’ll have Jude, Glenny, and I. We’ll take care of her until she gets sick of us and wanders off into a blizzard somewhere.”

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“Will she be strong enough?”

The question was asked before Leland even finished his sentence. And as good as Floe’s mask still her troubled vocal cords gave away the truth. Distressed and cracked, there was only heartbreak in her voice.

“She will,” Leland instantly answered. “And when she becomes a Lord herself, you two can share the same divine cave or whatever you are going to live in.”

He had said that facing forward, but couldn’t help but peek at her through his peripheral vision. He saw a crystalline tear fall from her eye before landing heavily on the rock floor and melting away to nothing.

A hitch hardened in Leland’s throat, but he fought through the issue. “I can find another way to get you out of here—”

“No.” It was hardly more than a whisper, but it shut him right up. Floe took a few deep breaths. “It is like I told you before. I want what is best for her. And anywhere I am tied to, she will wish to be. So, the best place for me is either dead or somewhere she can’t go.”

Leland squirmed in his seat. “Divinity it is.” A moment passed. “And who knows what kind of cool dungeon abilities you’ll get. Lord of Dungeons is rather niche when it comes to Lords. Maybe you can change what loot we’ll get when we enter one. Show us some nepotism and give us the good stuff.”

That got a short laugh from the big bear. “What do you think I’ll do every day? As a Lord, I mean?”

“Not sure. Sit around monkeying with dungeons, I’d guess. When you get up there, just ask the Lord of Curses for some advice.” He shrugged. “She might even take you under her wing so-to-speak. And if she doesn’t, I’ll annoy her until she does.”

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Floe eyed him. “The Lord of Curses? That is your Lord, yes? And you say she will help me? If that isn’t nepotism, then I don’t know what is.”

Leland cracked a smile. “The funny thing is that she’s actually my great-somelargenumberofgreats- grandmother. So yeah, it really is nepotism.”

From there, the air felt smoother. Floe left Leland to sit with her daughter and partake in the singing. Together the bears woke up Glenny and made the cave tremble with how loud they sang.

The boys stood off to the side as Floe and Gelo had their last moment as mortals together. The last hour or so, they had been explaining what was going to happen in the near future to the cub.

Gelo was, of course, distraught.

Saying a magical bear could produce more tears than a human mage was an understatement. The fact that these tears were frozen drops of dazzling crystal made the situation worse. The plink, plink, plink of newly shed tears piling up on the ground was a sound each of the boys would remember for the rest of their lives.

“But you can’t leave! Y-y-you can’t!”

Floe lowered her massive head, her tongue flashing out and brushing back her daughter’s fur. Again and again the mother licked, and soon enough, the cub’s tremors ceased. They stayed like that for close to an hour, together.

And when the moment teetered from eternal and ending-too-soon, Floe ended it before she could second guess herself. A Lord. A god, she was going to become more. She was going to watch her daughter grow up. She was going to make sure no other creatures in a similar situation to herself would ever be trapped within a dungeon.

She’d… make sure. She’d make sure…

With a grave nod to Leland, Floe started the process which also rekindled the tears from Gelo.

Leland moved forward, pulling the Sightless King’s soul from the Soul Lord’s necklace-cloak. Each step dented the soft snow as he drew upon power. His Legacy, his title of Harbinger. A violet halo formed above his head despite no spell being cast, no contract being active. This time he didn’t speak to one singular Lord, but instead roared to all of them.

“Lords! I speak to you today as a humble mortal, a friend to many, an authority to others. I nominate a new family member to join your ranks. The Guardian Spirit Beast Floe, a beast befitting the mantle of Lord of Dungeons. Or Lord of Ice if the current Lord wishes to step down…” Midway through the sentence, he realized just what he was saying. “That was a joke don’t, uh, don’t smite me please.”

Quickly giving his friends a pensive look, Leland hoped for some level of assistance for such a blunder. He only got a halfhearted shrug from Jude.

Clearing his throat, he continued, “Anyway. Floe for Lord of Dungeons please. To solidify her Claim, I offer the one I hold—”

The red soul disappeared from Leland’s hand and reappeared directly in front of Floe. The bear looked down at it, a sudden hunger appearing in her gut.

“Did you make it appear in front of me?” she asked, receiving a head shake from Leland. “Okay then, I guess the Lords are listening…”

The hunger continued to grow like a pit had sundered open in her stomach. A whisper told her to eat. To enjoy. To devour.

And she did. Her maw opened, and soon the red soul was gone, swallowed in one bite.

Leland blinked a few times, the power of the Sightless King suddenly gone. He noticed Glenny relax.

He continued, “With her nomination, if I get a vote then obviously I vote for Floe.” He quickly looked around at all of his friends. “And if they get a vote, then they all vote for her too.”

Jude, Glenny, and even a dejected Gelo all nodded.

“And uh, if there are any Lords who are still on the fence, I could sweeten your vote with a potential contrac—”

“Leland. Shut up. Your job is done.”

Having felt and stood up to multiple Lords at this point, Leland was the only one of the group who remained on his feet. Even Floe, the soon to be Lord, tipped over and kicked up a puff of fluffy snow. Yet that wasn’t to say he was immune to the yelling. He wasn’t. Especially since he was the subject of the Curse Lord’s ire.

“Loud and clear, Granny,” Leland muttered to himself, picking at his ear like he had a wad of wax stuck deep in there.

It took several minutes, but eventually his friends were up and at ‘em trying to look well and away more busy than they actually were. Glenny messed with a bag he had inconspicuously removed from his inventory ring. Jude was suddenly tuning his guitar. Even Floe and Gelo had taken up a quiet conversation.

“Smooth guys,” Leland told them.

Jude answered for the group. “Maybe if we act like it was your idea, Leals, they won’t kill us.”

He rolled his eyes. “Granny wouldn’t have yelled at me like that if it wasn’t already a sure thing. She didn’t want me to be taken advantage of by eager Lords looking for a gopher to do some dumb mortal task.”

Seeing that his friends weren’t convinced, he added, “If Floe wasn’t going to win the vote, then Granny would have allowed me to make those contracts. She then would have made fun of me the next time I spoke to her.”

He scanned their unbelieving faces, finding Gelo about ready to burst. When they locked eyes, the cub exploded with a question, “Can Lords talk like that anytime they want!? When Mother becomes a Lord can she just—”

Leland held up his hands. “I don’t know what she’ll be able to do. But I can say that was not normal. Lords shouldn’t be able to speak like that. I have a theory—”

Glenny and Jude both groaned.

“— that because I was speaking to all of the Lords, they could speak back. It was just Granny who did.”

“So that was the Lord of Curses?,” Floe asked. “She seemed nice…”

Leland laughed at that. “I think it’s better to call her an old hag than ‘nice.’ She may take it as an insult if I’m being honest.”

Floe’s eyes widened a bit.

It was then Jude chimed in. “How long do you think it will take for the vote to finish—”

A sudden pull of divine authority rippled out from the group, originating from Floe. She pulsed with vibrant light, each wave iridescent and eternal. Only Leland was able to stand tall and watch the lightshow, the others obfuscated their vision like they were walking in the direction of the sun.

“I’d guess they voted!” he yelled. “And I take it she won!”

Magic spilled from Floe’s paw as she pulled her daughter in close one last time. The Lords presiding over her transcendence must have allowed the moment to happen because as soon as the two said their final words, mother and daughter were split apart.

Gelo stood where her mother had just been, a large indent in the snow all that remained.

Plink, plink, plink, more frozen tears fell.

Jude wrapped the cub in a hug, Glenny and Leland one step behind.