noveltune Chapter 136: Goliath Therapy
Chapter 136: Goliath Therapy
Chapter 136: Goliath Therapy
I returned to my room, stirred the coals in the fireplace, and added some boards to liven up the fire. Once the fire was going again, I lay out on the black desk. Maveith stirred, “Eryk, is everything alright?” He tried to whisper, but his baritone was still fairly loud.
“Yeah, Castile just used the amulet tonight.” I thought for a moment, “Maveith, you have a spell form, right? Can you direct the aether in your core?” I whispered.
“My spell form is weak. I can turn rock into clay for a brief time before it turns back to rock. But yes, I have enough awareness of my aether core to manipulate the aether,” he grumbled out in a softer voice, aware of how loud he was.
I produced the amulet. “Maveith, I am going to enter the dreamscape amulet first. You can touch it and channel aether into it after,” I offered.
“I am not interested in using your amulet,” Maveith replied. Felix stirred and mumbled something about us being quieter.
“Just trust me, Maveith. The city is doing something to us, and this will counter it,” I said pleadingly.
“Alright,” he said after a pause.
Maveith appeared in the dungeon entry room shortly after me. He immediately started spinning about, curious. He then looked at his hands and flexed them. “Everything looks so real,” he said in awe. His voice was back to his normal intrusive volume.
I started to explain, “The city is preventing us from dreaming. So even though everyone is sleeping, they are not getting any mental recovery. This amulet space allows you to dream because it is a dreamscape,” My explanation sounded lame, but Maveith nodded like it made complete sense.
I did the same thing I did for Castile and created a spread of food on the table. “It is not real but still tastes good,” I motioned for him to help himself. Maveith was too wide for the chair, so I created a bench for him, and he jumped when it appeared under him. I laughed, “Maveith, it is just a bench. You can create anything or anyone you ever knew here. However, you might suffer a slight headache when you leave, depending on how many things you create. Or maybe it has to do with complexity. I am still learning how the artifact works.”
Maveith seemed to consider and created a massive tray of some type of pasta dish. He tentatively tasted it and then smiled. “It tastes just like I remember it.” Maveith put some on a plate and offered it to me. I tried it, and the dish was mostly bland, with some pungent chunks of cheese in a thick, oily sauce.
“It is good,” I offered my filtered opinion to the goliath. It was all fake, but my taste buds still had me salivating. Maveith started eating everything on the table, and I just watched him for a bit. “We will leave after five hours and see if you are any better.”
“Nothing is wrong with me, Eryk,” he said while ripping meat off a large turkey leg with his teeth. I didn’t want to explain depression and irritability from lack of sleep to the goliath, so I just let him eat.
After he finished getting his fill of the food and asking a dozen questions about what things were on the table, we moved into the ankheg chamber. “Do you want to fight a monster?” I willed one of the two giant crawfish-like creatures to surface, and Maveith jumped back, unconsciously materializing his club in his hand.
It took Maveith some time to calm down, “I don’t know why you would want to fight monsters in here. You can...” Maveith stopped talking and was focused intently behind me. I turned to see an obviously feminine goliath. Maveith just stared as I studied her. Her gray skin, bald head, and emerald eyes reminded me of Maveith. She was shorter than him at only about 6’8” compared to Mavieth’s 7’6” frame and had a leaner upper body and feminine chest with a muscular build.
She spoke, “Brother, why did you not help us? The orcs killed me and took Myra.” Shit, Mavieth’s guilt was imprinted on his manifestation of his sister.
I focused, took control of the female goliath, and directed its speech, “I forgive you, brother. You could not have done anything to stop it, and they would have killed you if you had intervened.”
I was just as thin as everyone else, so I was obviously not partaking in the food. He didn’t ask if I had any more; he just mumbled that Delmar was going to accuse me of hoarding food. It was the only thing that made sense when food just appeared out of nowhere.
Adrian finally said unhappily, “Three more days of food here for the company. Welcome but not enough to make a huge difference.”
I produced the large three-gallon jar of honey on the desk. Delmar’s eyebrows went up as the jar was obviously bigger than my space as he knew it. He opened it and tasted crystals, “Honey?” I nodded. “Another three days,” he said, expecting me to produce more. I shrugged, indicating that was it. I still had twenty gallons of rum and whiskey along with about three dozen ration bars, the two backpacks from the griffon rider and summoner that probably had some food in them as well, but I would hold that in reserve for now.
Castile seemed to consider, “If I spend all day in the dreamscape amulet, I might be able to learn the nightmare spell in a week if Fortuna favors me. It is a difficult spell, but the amulet does focus your efforts allowing for faster learning.”
“We need to keep clearing the specters from the lower layers, Castile,” Adrian pronounced in a clearly scripted speech.
Castile tapped the kettle of souls on the desk, a small smile on her face, “It is just like a normal collector, Eryk. You aim the artifact at the disrupted body and push your aether into the device. It will feel slightly wrong as it pulls in the death essence, but that is normal.”
I didn’t like where this was going, “What if we encounter another wight? Or something more dangerous.”
“Konstantin, Adrian, Blaze, and Brutus will go with you. Just work the periphery of the complex for now.” She held up the amulet, “I think this is more important for the moment. After my own time in the dreamscape, I can sense some of the men ready to break.”
Adrian offered a weak, haggard smile. “The good news is the elven wine appears viable, Eryk. Most of our descents will focus on recovering as many bottles as we can.”
“How is this going to be explained?” I gestured at the honey and food.
“I will take responsibility, and we will dole it out slowly,” Castile said. “We are lucky you had it, Eryk.” I winced, remembering I had given away a few weeks of food just before we left to the old women who ran the herbalist shop in Sobral. It was not the first time I was lamenting that decision.
Delmar entered the room in a huff, “The men are getting lazy. Not carrying up a full load of shelving to burn.” He noticed me and asked tersely, “What is he doing here?” He noticed the food. “I told you he was hoarding food!”
Castile waved her hand and snapped her fingers, “I told him to, Delmar. Figure out how to stretch this,” she indicated everything. He was still clearly upset. I left them to get my breakfast of broth and rice.
As I sat down next to Maveith, he looked down at me, showing a smile for the first time since we got trapped in the city, “Eryk, do you want to play a game of checkers?”
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