Chapter Text
Standing right on the edge, Mavrick and Asterin peered down the freshly-made pathway into the depths of Ashdale. Mavrick sent his familiar down the hole, its sword shining with the intensity of a lantern. The tunnel curved up at a steep angle, dropping into a full sized cavern underneath, where the walls were patterned with white marbling.
"Rock, paper, scissors on who goes first?" Asterin offered.
"Sure," Mavrick said. “I never lose, though.”
“Yeh, we’ll see. Rock—"
"Paper–"
"Scissors!"
Asterin chose paper. Mavrick chose paper as well—
“Oi!” Asterin cried, pointing at the pair of conjured hands presenting rock and scissors. “You takin’ the piss? You can’t just summon hands to win!”
“Hey, it just means that one has to go first.” Mavrick said with a grin. “I didn’t lose, technically.”
Asterin rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I’ll just go.”
Mavrick swept his hand to the side. “After you.”
“Oh, get off it, you cheater,” Asterin mumbled as she slid down the tunnel. She landed on her feet and immediately pointed both of her crossbows ahead. Then she spun around and checked behind herself.
“It’s clear,” she announced.
Mavrick splayed his hands, and they lit up with bright green magic. The stones underneath his feet fractured, and rose up in a wave that he rode down into the caverns. As he reached the crest of the wave, he dropped down, slowing his fall on a swirling platform of wind.
He commanded his familiar to travel ahead and light the path. “Apparently,” he said, “these tunnels used to be used for smuggling back in the day.”
Asterin walked forward, holding her crossbows at the ready. “Really?” she said. “What was the name of the family that lived here?”
“The Plainviews, I think?”
Asterin smirked. “Not so plain, huh?”
“Right?” Mavrick said. “I think it was before their time, but who knows?”
“Have you been in these caves before?” Asterin asked. “A former smuggling den would be the perfect place for a bunch of land lobsters to nest.”
Mavrick shook his head. “No, I haven’t, but I’m fairly certain there’s an underground lake somewhere. The smuggler’s old records said as such, and there’s a waterfall that comes out near the base of the rocks.”
Asterin grinned. “And these tunnels will go right to them, won't they?” she said. “Stupid-ass lobsters made a big mistake burrowing into your house, huh?”
Mavrick nodded with a smirk as they rounded the corner—
The duo spotted a populated room and quickly backed up. Recalling his familiar, Mavrick took the shining sword in one hand and waved the other over it, snuffing out the light.
The two of them hugged up against the wall, sidling along to a corner. Just barely visible ahead was a round room dimly lit by clusters of green pods, shimmering a faint yellow glow, with a quartet of the creatures scurrying between them.
Mavrick extracted some light from the sword, coalescing it in a ball over his free hand. With a swing of his arm, he tossed it into the room, quickly casting shadows against the wall as it went. The creatures, he observed, seemed to go into a panic over the shadows against the walls. As they scrambled to investigate, a bulkier, vibrant orange version of the creatures made itself known. Oddly, none of them seemed to pay any attention to the ball of light stuck to the far wall.
"There are five of them, total," Mavrick said softly. "One of them looks tougher than the ones we've fought so far."
Asterin’s crossbows clicked as she prepared them. "Wanna call dibs? The bulky one might be more up your alley."
“Sounds good to me,” Mavrick said.
The two looked into each other's eyes and nodded. Asterin sprinted forward into the cavern with Mavrick striding behind her.
Mavrick extended his arms to the side and closed his eyes. He felt his soul roil with power as he called upon the power of the World Guardian.
As did the whole world weep and cry for Guthix, so too will it bend to the command of his champion. As Mavrick took a step, the marbled rocks underfoot gently shattered and traveled up his legs. As he extended his arms, the creeks and rivers snaking through the walls were diverted to where he beckoned. Everything around him, from the salt buried deep within the cavern, to the stagnant air that they breathed, would bend to his will.
And what he needed right now was armor.
The elements converged, coalesced, and reformed around him. Within moments, he stepped into the light of the open cavern in a set of freshly-made battle robes.
He took a glance at what the world had gifted him with. The metallic plates that protected his chest and joints had a faint marbling across them. His pauldrons had a crustaceous quality, with crystalline spires jutting out from them.
The bulkier creature and its two lackeys took notice of the duo's entrance and turned to face them. As Mavrick drifted forwards, he began channeling magic into his right hand. He brought it down to his tasset and began to draw a circular design upon it with his finger.
Asterin skidded to a stop, her twin crossbows raised.
Before the creatures even had a chance to turn around, two bolts were fired and –
"Aaarrgh!" Asterin shrieked.
Mavrick spun around. A line of purple flames lit across Asterin’s shoulders, leaving behind a long scar. Asterin nearly doubled over, but managed to keep her balance.
"What the–" Mavrick began to say.
"Mav! Behind you!"
Mavrick threw up a ward to shield himself from a spray of acid from the larger creature. The pair of smaller ones scuttled from behind a pod on either side, flanking him.
With his free hand, Mavrick filled in the inscription on his tasset with runes. Touch, Body, Nature, Astral–
The creatures were upon him. Mavrick dropped the ward and threw a spell behind the bulky one. A red prism slowly rose from the floor where it landed.
Three sets of snapping slashes came from the creatures, and Mavrick just barely dodged out of the way.
He launched a pair of fire blasts point blank at the smaller creatures. They recoiled back in instinct, but the flames didn't seem to do much to their damp, slimey carapaces.
The bulky one managed to punch Mavrick in the gut, and his breath was forced out of him. Clutching his stomach with one hand, he released a cloud of smoke from the other.
Under the cover of the smog, Mavrick retreated backwards, gliding along the ground. He quickly noticed the creatures following close behind him, unobstructed by his spell.
As he retreated, Mavrick glanced around, hoping to spot where Asterin went. Instead, he saw one of the creatures she was fighting was fractured and oozing out onto the floor. His eyes widened when he spotted the human skeleton sitting submerged inside the viscera.
The creatures converged on him again. Mavrick added the remaining two runes to his circle, and pulled it off of his tasset. As he did, the tentacles on the bulkier creature frothed and gurgled. The two smaller ones charged, their pincers stretched wide.
Mavrick let the magic circle drop onto the floor, then raised his other hand to channel a spell.
The bulky creature released a stream of acid in Mavrick’s direction while the smaller creatures pounced.
"Skrraaaaaccck!"
Mavrick materialized next to the prism he conjured and spun around. He watched as the smaller creatures slowly sank down to the floor. Where the circle once lay, the stones underneath rumbled and vibrated so feverishly that the creature’s legs were ground into a pulp.
The creatures cried and wailed as the bulkier one scanned around for where Mavrick disappeared to.
A series of bolts flew in from the left, shattering open the remaining torsos of the smaller ones. Mavrick could hear Asterin cry in pain once more.
The bulkier creature locked on to where Mavrick assumed Asterin to be, and began to scuttle over–
Krack! Srrrraaaaaaagh!
Mavrick's familiar drove the sword into the bulkier creature's head. The creature flailed and writhed, attempting to get its claws on the hand. Eventually, the creature’s energy faded, and its legs failed to support its body. It twitched and seized as the glowing hand pulled the sword out, and a cascade of bile followed suit. Once its dying wails faded, all that remained in the room was a deafening silence.
Mavrick let out a sigh as he stood up straight. “That was easy.”
Asterin popped out from somewhere and walked over to the bulky creature. “Definitely fought worse, that’s for sure.” She put her foot on the bulky creature’s body and shook it a few times. “You think these things go by ant colony rules?”
“Why do you say that?” Mavrick asked.
“This one seemed more decked out for fighting, more competent,” she explained. “Could be a soldier class?”
Mavrick glanced over at the creature again. “Makes sense, I guess,” he said. “But did you see what was—”
His mind went blank when he spotted the green froth dripping down from the creature’s tentacles.
Mavrick haphazardly flung a spell at Asterin. A light blue ward enveloped her.
“Oi, What the—” she started to say, before a stream of acid flew at her face.
Kssssss!
Mavrick doubled over. “Arrgh!” he hissed as his arm burned intensely from the acid.
Asterin brought her crossbow right up to the ‘head’ of the creature and—
Crick!
The creature went limp at last.
Asterin immediately rushed over to Mavrick, digging through the pouches on her belt.
“You have a Guthix’s salve?” he asked.
“Naw, just a Saradomin’s salve,” she said. “Will that be okay?”
Mavrick threw his head back and huffed. “Yeah, whatever, just do it.”
Asterin poured the salve onto a bandage and applied it to Mavrick’s arm. He clenched his teeth through the initial wave of pain. After a moment, though, his arm cooled and numbed over, and a thousand needles started poking about.
“There,” Asterin said. “How’s that?”
Mavrick tried to squeeze his hand, to no avail. “I mean, it’ll have to do,” he shrugged. “Good thing I only need one hand to cast spells.”
His numbed hand shimmered with magic, and another hand familiar was conjured, floating in front of it. He locked eyes with Asterin with a triumphant grin, she just rolled her eyes and stood.
“Where’d the armor come from, by the way?” she asked, helping Mavrick up. “Did I miss you going into the changing room?”
“I conjured it,” he deflected. “But more importantly, I need to ask you about those flames. Did those things cast magic on you?”
Asterin applied some salve onto the scars, shrinking back as if to hide them. “Flames?” she asked, “You could see those?”
She averted her gaze. “I guess you’d have an eye for that, huh?” she mumbled. “No, they didn’t do any magic, it’s uh... “ Her eyes darted about as she trailed off her thoughts. “Um… well…”
“If we’re going to fight together, I need to know,” Mavrick insisted.
“I-I know,” she stammered.
She continued applying the salve. She opened her mouth once to speak, but opted to hold her tongue.
“I’m cursed,” she explained, finally. “If I’m to take a life, I have to literally take on the burden of killing them.” She glanced back at the creature’s corpses. “Usually, the more powerful the soul of the creature I’m fighting, the more painful it is for me. Which is why I find it strange that these weird lobsters hurt me as much as it did…”
Nodded slowly as he took the information in. “Did you see inside that first one you killed?” he asked.
Asterin shook her head.
He took a deep sigh. “There was a skeleton inside it.”
“That’s weird,” Asterin noted. “Crabs usually don’t have—”
“A human skeleton,” Mavrick interrupted. “At least, that’s what it looked like.”
Asterin and Mavrick looked down at the creatures. Without missing a beat, Asterin crouched down to one of the ones with the ground up legs. She grabbed on where her bolts had opened it up and wrested the carapace open.
Sure enough, when the viscera drained away, a human-looking skull was staring back at them.
While Asterin wiped off her hands, her eyes drifted to the ceiling. “So,” she said, her voice quivering, “What are our options, here?”
Mavrick glanced sideways. “What do you mean?”
Asterin wringed her hands together. “So, one option is that these things are collecting the villagers to eat whole.”
“Perhaps,” Mavrick said, “Another, which would explain why your curse effected you the way it did, is—”
Asterin nodded nervously. “That these were once humans, and that—” She took a deep breath, “They’ve kidnapped the villagers to make more of them.”
“If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t be here,” Mavrick said. “If these things are all humans, then you’re just going to hurt yourself more by fighting them.”
Asterin’s expression darkened. “I’m not going back,” she growled. “I’m not going to sit on my ass when It’s well within my power to help save the village.”
“It’ll be better than tearing your body apart in the process.”
“That’s not your call to make!” Asterin barked. “ I know what the risks are, and I know what I’m capable of. I ’ m the one who’s had to deal with this my whole life, you know?”
The two of them glowered at each other.
Asterin held up her crossbows. “I wouldn’t have learned how to use these things if I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
Mavrick turned and walked towards the exit of the cavern, recalling his familiar with the glowing sword. “Fine,” he said, “Just try not to get yourself killed.”
***
As Mavrick and Asterin traveled deeper underneath Ashdale, they fought their way through clusters of the crustaceous creatures. Mavrick, to Asterin’s chagrin, tried to kill as many as he could before she had the chance, but eventually backed off when he got punched in the face by a closed pincer.
The caves grew colder and damper as they went. Still, there were no signs of the villagers. Silently, the two of them felt the looming sense of dread dragging them down to the depths.
"I have a feeling we're getting close," Mavrick said, breaking the silence.
"What makes you say that?" Asterin asked.
Mavrick put his hand to the walls. "I hear water rushing somewhere nearby. Can feel it, too. The underground creeks and rivers must converge together around here before emptying out to the lake."
"So it's almost time," Asterin said. “You don’t happen to have any useful gizmos to spare?”
Mavrick shook his head. “None that I’m not using myself.”
Asterin shrugged. “Fair enough. Be sure to gimme back my glowworm from your handy guy when this is all done.”
Mavrick watched intently as she popped out a glowing blue cylinder out of her crossbow. Just before she changed it out for a different one in her pack, she noticed his gaze.
"What?"
Mavrick hesitated. This was it, he felt. His burning curiosity had reached a fever pitch, and at the eleventh hour of this night, he knew this was his last chance to ask.
He took a breath, then swallowed the lump in his throat. "Asterin," he started, "Who are you, exactly?"
Asterin’s eyebrows scrunched together. "What do you mean?"
"It's been something I've been wondering since we first met," Mavrick said. "I've worked with Zarosians many times over the years, I know how they operate, and I just find it weird that someone like you – skilled, powerful, cursed, – has never come up."
"What makes you think I'm Zarosian?" Asterin scoffed. "Because I have a few books in Infernal?"
Mavrick circled around Asterin, maintaining eye contact. "There's that," he said. "The thing that was most telling for me was that time with the candle."
Asterin’s scarred shoulders tensed up.
"Every 10:00AM on a Monday, a lone, red candle is lit with a silent prayer to the shadows," he explained. "The candle was meant to represent the Legatus Maximus, and the prayer was for the continued safety of Senntisten. When the Legatus Maximus ended up causing the city to be razed to the ground, the ritual lost all meaning."
"I thought that was weird," he continued, "but maybe, just maybe, it was a random coincidence. For all I know, you could just like candles. But then you have the secret Infernal teacher, someone who you're sure I wouldn't know. You have connections, you have the skill set–"
Mavrick stopped and stood between Asterin and the path ahead. "And then there is your eyes. The moment I saw them, I felt that there was something about you that didn't quite fit. I took great pains to escape to this island after the eclipse, making sure nobody – especially nobody working for the gods – follows me in my tracks. So imagine what I'm thinking when suddenly, a cursed Zarosian, out of place, and out of time, arrives in my life."
He glowered at Asterin. "So, I'm asking again, who are you, exactly?"
“The eclipse…?” Asterin repeated in a low voice.
Mavrick watched as realization dawned in her eyes. Asterin rolled her head back as she laughed in disbelief.
“Oh my gods,” she said, with a sideways smile. “You’re the World Guardian, aren’t you?”
Mavrick’s eyebrows shot up. "Wait, you didn't–"
Asterin put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Gods, what did I expect?" she mumbled. "Here I was beginning to think you were just some self-important hero with a swollen head, but no, you're him. The World Guardian. But, I mean, of course you are. A powerful warrior mage living out in the middle of nowhere inside a magical fortress he built himself. Uses crazy powerful hexes and spells, conjuring a super special suit of armor, speaking Infernal like it's nothing, with a set of glowing green eyes!?"
Mavrick shrugged his head. "I mean, those are all perfectly reasonable things on their own."
"Like hell they are!" Asterin scoffed. "Imagine me talking that to the girls back home. 'The World Guardian made me pizza and helped me move into my house.' They'd think I'd lost it!"
As Asterin’s thoughts processed, her face slowly returned to normal. "So… that's why you moved to the island a year ago, isn't it? Something happened during the eclipse. Something other than that mahjarrat dying."
Mavrick held his tongue as memories of that night flashed before him.
Asterin averted her gaze, and let out a long sigh. “Well, I know you have no reason to trust me,” she said. “I want you to know that I am not your enemy, but…"
Her eyes narrowed as she tried to find the words to say. "There are forces out there that want what you have, that covet it," she said heavily. "People who have spent eons looking for what they say Guthix gave you."
"So who am I?" she concluded, "I'm Asterin, I already told you that. You don't have to trust me once this is all done, but for the people of this village, I need you to trust me now . I am not your enemy."
Mavrick stared into Asterin’s eyes. Perhaps these years of listening to the gods’ petty plans had made him jaded, maybe he was foolish for letting Sliske speak delusions of importance in his ear. For all he knew, he might be staring at the face of yet another liar with a knife held behind their back.
Or, perhaps Sarah had helped him be able to trust again. Maybe the hope for the future he had cultivated on this island was starting to affect his judgement. What he was assured of, though, was that there was nothing in Asterin’s eyes that made feel anything but determination to save the village tonight.
He sighed softly. “Alright. I’ll trust you. But do you trust me ?”
Asterin held his gaze. “I wouldn’t have even bothered to come to your house in the first place if I didn’t think we could do this.”
Asterin’s crossbows clicked as she held them at the ready. “So let’s do this,” she said with a grin. “Enough talking.”
***
It was 7:02 in the morning when the sun began to rise, and this cursed night came to an end. Mavrick was on his balcony, eyes locked on the eastern horizon to confirm it.
Every color known to Gielinor danced across the sky like a parade, welcoming the sun's journey. Sunrays unravelled between the clouds as a golden cobblestone road was reflected along the ocean.
Mavrick smiled as his heart stirred at the sight.
The creatures were repelled, their giant-squid commander was defeated, and the villagers were rescued. In an age filled with such grey victories, it felt good to finally have a sweet, unshakable win.
Mavrick closed his eyes. Someday he would love to find a way to replicate this beautiful feeling.
"C'mon," he heard Asterin say behind him. "Almost there, you got this."
Mavrick glanced back for a moment, spotting Asterin leading a weakened Sarah onto the balcony.
"You're supposed to be resting," Mavrick said to the sunset.
"What?" Sarah asked. "I can't hear you when you're not facing me, Mr. Mysterious."
"I said you're supposed to be resting."
"Oh, get off it," Sarah scoffed. "And what are you supposed to be doing, then?"
The two ladies joined Mavrick at the railing.
Mavrick looked over at Asterin, pointedly examining her bandaged shoulders. "Are you sure you should be up as well?"
"Hey, I missed three sunsets in a row," Asterin said. "No way in all of Gielinor am I going to miss this.” She nodded her head towards Mavrick. “Besides, you got off just as bad as I did.”
“And you got that shiny eye,” Sarah added, “to go with those shiny eyes.”
Mavrick softly touched his black eye with his bandaged arm. “It’ll heal in time.”
Sarah waved her hand. “Alright, alright, tough guy, we get it,” she said, “let’s just enjoy this moment in peace.”
Together, Mavrick, Sarah, and Asterin watched the sun crawling its way up over the horizon. The ocean below shimmered like a hoard of gemstones against its glow, and the sky above blossomed with plums and pinks like a Wushankan festival.
Asterin’s troubled, clouded eyes shimmered with morning dew as she watched enraptured.
Sarah smiled softly. This obviously wasn't her first sunrise, but she still looked upon it with a familiar warmth.
"How's your brother?" Mavrick asked.
"Spooked," Sarah said. "But that's good, in a way. It'd be more concerning if he wasn't."
"No, for sure," Asterin added. "I'm just glad he's safe."
Sarah leaned onto the railing. "Yeah, me too. And, I mean, he'll recover. We'll all recover, I think, thanks to the two of you."
Asterin’s rosy cheeks grew a little rosier. "Aw, you don't have to thank us," she said. "Anyone would've done the same."
"Anyone!?" Sarah laughed. "That I'd like to see. Old Ned with his cane going after those crabby things?"
Mavrick chuckled quietly to himself as he imagined the sight.
“Sammy looked a little disappointed that he couldn’t join you two,” Sarah noted. “He tried to act cool about it, but he was bawling his eyes out when he saw his mum was safe.”
“Aw, bless his heart,” Asterin cooed. “But could you imagine if we had him running around at our heels while we were fighting?”
Sarah smirked. “The poor thing’s so sheltered, I doubt he even knows what rain feels like. It was good of you to leave him here.”
Mavrick and Asterin nodded in unison.
“You know he’s the only one his age in the whole village?” Sarah added. “Now that he knows how cool you two are, I doubt either of you will hear the end of it.”
They shared a wide-eyed stare, already starting to feel exhausted by the prospect.
"But no, you really are heroes, whether you like it or not," Sarah continued. "We're blessed that we had the two of you around."
Asterin extended her arm past Sarah and nudged Mavrick. "Extra blessed, since one of us is the World Guardian of all people."
Sarah rolled her eyes towards Asterin. "Don't bring that up, or he'll get moody."
"Yeh, I know," Asterin said. "After I found out, he wouldn't stop bitching until I stopped calling him that."
Mavrick groaned. "It’s just, at the time, it didn't matter that I'm the World Guardian or not," he complained. "It still doesn't."
Sarah crept closer to Mavrick, placing her hand on his. She leaned her head gently onto his shoulder. "I mean, it kinda does," she offered. "This village is our world. Yours too, in fact, and you did a pretty good job of guarding it."
"Yeh, give yourself more credit, man," Asterin said. "Sure, that giant squid wasn't Saradomin – at least, I don't think it was – but you don't just need to beat up gods to save the day, y’know?"
Mavrick shrugged. "Whatever."
"Whatever!?"
"Oi, don't 'whatever' me!"
"What do you mean, 'whatever'?"
Their lively conversation continued well into the morning. As the village slept to recover from the previous night, the world itself woke up to a new day.
The sunrise over Ashdale smiled down brightly on the blossoming new friendship, and Mavrick, the World Guardian, with a flicker of joy reignited in his heart, couldn't help but smile back.