The Chained Maiden: Bound by Fate Read online

  The Chained Maiden: Bound by Fate

  Ian Rodgers

  Copyright ©2019 Ian Rodgers

  All Rights Reserved

  Dedicated to all my fans who have kept reading up to this point. You are the reason I love to write!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Taken away

  Chapter 2: The greatest vacation

  Chapter 3: Good deeds go rewarded

  Chapter 4: To learn

  Chapter 5: All good things come to an end

  Chapter 6: The earth moves

  Chapter 7: Evil in the depths

  Chapter 8: Down, down, down

  Chapter 9: Flesh Market

  Chapter 10: Den of rats and thieves

  Chapter 11: Stare not into the Abyss…

  Chapter 12: …Because the Abyss stares back

  Chapter 13: Carnage

  Chapter 14: A queen challenged

  Chapter 15: Running and Planeswalking

  Chapter 16: Hopes and dreams come to an end

  Chapter 1: Taken away

  “My luck cannot be this bad, can it?” Dora pleaded, sinking to her knees in disbelief, tears prickling at the edge of her eyes. There was no answer, only the steady lapping of the alien ocean upon unfamiliar shores.

  Nearby, her close friends Enrai and Ain stared dumbly at the twin blue moons hovering in the distance. Silently, though, they both had to sympathize with her feelings. After all, it’s not like everyone can claim to be thrust into another dimension right after managing to save most of their family from an evil cult.

  She’d gotten so close to escaping, but then Fate decided to be a bitch and shoved the trio sideways through another reality. Why the portal had messed up was anyone’s guess. None of the group were well versed in the intricacies of Planeswalking or Dimensional Hopping.

  “Son of a sword!” Dora swore, punching the sand violently. “Why?! Why did this all have to happen? Uldo, Reesh, Holt… f-father…”

  “Even when I succeed, I still fail!” she wept.

  Dora couldn’t hold her tears or her fists back any longer, and she began to flail furiously at the ground, fists beating it as tears soaked into it. The gesture did nothing to ease her rage and sorrow, as her fist just sank softly into the surface of the beach.

  For several minutes she simply wailed and thrashed, venting out all of her anger and sadness. Months of bottled up pain and torment was unleashed upon the innocent sand.

  Her friends stood awkwardly to the side. The two of them shared a look and they stepped back to allow her to finish her grieving.

  Eventually her emotions ran out of fuel, and she was left gasping for breath, still on her hands and knees on the unfamiliar beach. Seeing how her tantrum weren’t getting any results, Dora grunted in displeasure before wiping the tears from her eyes and peering at where the portal had taken them.

  “Any ideas where we could have landed?” she asked quietly. Her friends shared a look with each other.

  “Um, somewhere with two moons that happen to be blue?” Enrai suggested, scratching at his bald head.

  “A tropical island on a planet not our own,” Ain stated calmly, though his twitching ears betraying his worries and frayed nerves.

  The blonde half-orc sighed to herself and shook her head. “Yeah, I figured that out already. What about something we don’t know?”

  “Err, well, the mana is extremely thick, here. Way more so than back on Erafore,” Enrai said after a moment of observing his surroundings. “Heck, I could probably cast Level Six spells using nothing but the Ambient Mana all around us.”

  “Hmm, you’re right, the air is heavy with power,” Dora agreed after a moment of quick examination, flexing her magical energy and watching it flare as it came into contact with the atmosphere of this new location.

  “It’s not just regular mana, though,” Ain said after performing his own experiments. “It’s all Water Element. In fact, I can barely detect any other kinds of magical energy.”

  The trio shared a look. Eventually, Dora stood back up and brushed the fine sand from her clothes.

  “Sitting around here won’t solve anything. We should find civilization, or at the very least a place to safely spend the night,” Dora suggested.

  “How long does night even last in this realm?” Enrai wondered, and Dora bit her lip.

  “That is a good question,” she muttered, glancing warily up at the azure orbs in the sky. She then shook her head. “It doesn’t matter yet, though. We need to get moving.”

  As her two companions gathered up the supplies that had gotten scattered about by the portal, Dora’s eyes glanced over to a golden picture frame that lay face down in the sand. Her stomach roiled as she thought of the revelation that accursed painting had shown her, and she hesitated.

  In the end, though, the young Healer bent down and grabbed the mystical landscape painting and hoisted it up, carrying it under one arm. There was no sense in trying to deny what she apparently was at the moment.

  ‘Me, a Chosen One? That’s just stupid,’ Dora thought bitterly to herself with a shake of her head.

  “Good news, Dora!” Enrai declared cheerfully. “Most of our supplies made it through intact!”

  “And the bad news?” she asked, dread creeping into her voice.

  “The ‘bigger on the inside’ enchantments our packs all had seem to have broken from the unexpected trip through the portal. So, we’ll have to carry everything ourselves,” the Monk replied with a grimace.

  She groaned loudly at that. “How bad is it?”

  “If you don’t mind lugging around several hundred pounds of loose equipment that doesn’t really fit anywhere, it’s not that terrible,” Enrai said with a weak shrug.

  “We should try to only take what’s necessary. That means the tents, food, water, and whatever potions and magical items we still have,” Ain suggested, and after some debate, the piles of stuff that had spewed out of the packs was divided up amongst the three of them.

  Now loaded down with their supplies, the trio began to trek along the beach, following the shoreline towards potential civilization.

  The pair of moons provided fairly decent light, and allowed the trio to walk without much difficulty along the beach. It also illuminated the area, revealing how odd the place looked. To their right lay a mysterious, foreign ocean. The water was crystal clear, almost to the point of being glass-like. How could sure pure water possibly exist naturally?

  On their left were rows and rows of palm trees. The rows looked too organized to be wild, and the way the trunks stood slim and straight was not like the palm trees Dora had seen back at the resort city of Argyne. Though, in fairness, those had been the first and only palm trees Dora had ever seen before coming to this unknown realm.

  The whole place felt off to Dora, and her intuition had rarely let her down. After all, one developed a keen sense for danger when living in the Dreadlands. Otherwise death would come sooner than expected. And usually painfully.

  When nothing leapt out of the ocean or trees to attack and then devour them, she let herself relax imperceptibly, she still couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched by invisible eyes as she trudged along the beach.

  In an effort to rid herself of her paranoid thoughts, she glanced from side to side to get a better look at her two companions.

  On her left, taking up the spot nearest to the palm trees, was Enrai a Monk from Distant Qwan. He was a fun guy, always quick with a quip or a joke, and was the life of the party. She hadn’t met any other Monks besides him, but Dora had a feeling Enrai was not exactly the norm. Still, he was a good person all the same, and physically strong. His distinctive shaved and tattooed head
was impossible to miss as well, even in the gloom of night. In fact, seeing how the light bounced off the top of Enrai’s cranium, she realized he made for a decent and portable nightlight.

  Outwardly, he appeared calm and stoic, unruffled by their unanticipated tumble across dimensions. This was, no doubt, a side effect from his years of training to master his martial arts and unique style of magic, which required concentration to pull off. But Dora knew him well, and could see the way his eyes rapidly flickered from shadow to shadow, and how the muscles in his arms and legs were tensed, ready to spring into action if anything jumped out at them.

  On her right side, guarding against attacks from the water, was Ain, a Spell Sword from the Second Elfish Domain. She’d only met a handful of Grand Elves like him before back when she worked in the Yellowmoon Menagerie, and Ain was nothing like the pompous blowhards she’d come across. He could act aloof, but he was courteous and honest, but an open book when it came to emotions.

  Compared to Enrai, Ain’s nervousness could be clearly seen. His long, knife-like ears trembled and twitched and his neck was constantly turning as he tried to take in as much of the area as he could. Ain’s skin was pale from worry, and his fingers could be seen grasping for the hilt of his saber at time, but he always pulled back at the last moment, never fully drawing the weapon, but keeping it close.

  Dora shook her head at how tense the two were, but couldn’t blame them. After all, the three of them had, less than an hour ago, managed to escape from a demon infested city and the mad Void-worshipping cult that had set up shop in it.

  Her eyes burned as she recalled being forced to watch as her father was swarmed by demons, and then mercilessly killed by that wretched man in a black, hooded cloak and silver mask that depicted a spiral.

  ‘I’ll kill him,’ she vowed to herself, fists clenching from her rage. ‘I’ll utterly destroy that man one day!’

  “Hey, I see lights!”

  Dora was jolted out of her murder-fantasies by Ain’s words. She and Enrai followed his pointing finger and saw a collection of white and orange dots glowing in the distance. The longer she looked, the more certain she was that there was also something else there. Large, shadowy shapes loomed near said lights. Were those buildings? Could there really be civilization around here?

  “Let’s get closer!” she suggested.

  “No arguments here!” Enrai cheered, and he took the lead, walking briskly towards the far off settlement. Only Ain seemed less than eager.

  “Shouldn’t we scout it out? Make sure it’s not inhabited by monsters, or cannibals, or, I don’t know, demons?” he asked, voice strained.

  “We have to actually be near the place to be able to do that, buddy. Don’t worry, though! Dora and I will protect you!” Enrai gallantly declared, jogging over and slapping his friend’s shoulder before darting out of reach of Ain’s fists.

  Dora giggled at their antics, feeling a weight slowly lift from her shoulders. Hearing her mirth, the two men couldn’t hold back their own chuckles, and soon laughter drifted out over the waves and dunes.

  That laughter died off the closer they got to what they hoped was civilization. Nerves played havoc with them, until they finally reached a spot near enough to see through the gloom and observe the buildings they’d spied earlier. What they saw caused their jaws to drop.

  Hundreds of wooden bungalows and simple grass huts littered the beach in front of them. Strings of floating candles and orbs of magical light lit up the darkness to the point it almost seemed like day up close.

  Further along inside the compound were larger buildings, all shaped and designed with various nautical and water-based designs. One building the trio spotted was simply a dome filled with water and aquatic life, resembling an aquarium. Another was seemingly made of sand, and shaped like a castle. A third building was constructed from coral, and had doors made from giant shells.

  And all of these unique structures were clustered around a gargantuan blue and pink conch shell, which rose up like a tower in the center of it all.

  “Whoa,” Dora breathed out in awe. Somehow, this place felt familiar.

  “This place is amazing,” Enrai agreed, and Ain nodded.

  After a moment of admiration, Dora looked around, noting the way the buildings were set up, and she came to a realization.

  “Sweet Cynthia! Guys, this place… doesn’t it remind you of Argyne?” she asked excitedly, and the two men shared a look.

  “Now that you mention it, there are some striking similarities. Both in buildings and in atmosphere,” Ain admitted, rubbing his chin while staring at some of the decorations hung on nearby bungalows.

  “What, you think we’ve somehow landed on an extra-dimensional beach resort?” Enrai questioned, and Dora nodded.

  “Yes, exactly!”

  “What are the odds of that, huh? We enter the Lost City of Targua from a beachside vacation spot, and we escape that demon infested ruin to end up in another beachside vacation spot,” the Monk wondered with a chuckle.

  “I think you two might be right,” Ain said after a moment of close scrutiny. “While you were looking at the buildings, I’ve been observing the inhabitants, and there’s just too many distinct and varied species wandering around for it not to be some sort of resort, or a port. Given the lack of ships despite the water nearby, I think we can safely assume this place is the former.”

  The words of their Spell Sword friend made Dora and Enrai cast their gazes towards the people inside the settlement, and from what they could see, there were indeed dozens of different species and races mingling and having fun in the glow of the torches.

  “Hmm? Someone’s coming towards us,” Ain declared a moment later, his sharp elf eyes picking up on a slim, small figure approaching the trio.

  The person turned out to be a young girl with long blonde hair styled into drill-like curls. The most unusual aspect about her was that her eyes shone bright purple.

  She blinked in surprise when she caught sight of the trio standing outside the edge of the settlement with what appeared to be everything they owned strapped to their backs.

  “Not a fan of crowds either, huh?” she asked casually as she walked over to them.

  “Err, not really?” Dora agreed, slightly unsure of why this person was joining them.

  “Yeah, they’re not my thing, either. Much prefer smaller groups. But, my sister is a social butterfly and loves these kinds of events. So, I do what I can for her,” she said with an exasperated yet fond smile on her face.

  “Why are you still carrying around all your luggage with you? Are you afraid of it getting stolen?” the young girl asked, eyeing the bugling sacks on their backs. “Don’t worry, no one is stupid enough to steal from anyone here. Otherwise the boss would ‘deal’ with them.”

  Dora did not like the inflection the girl used with the word ‘deal,’ or the wicked smile she gave, but was more confused as to why she thought they were guests of whatever this place was.

  “Dora, step away from her!” Ain shouted, noticing something off about the smile the child was giving them.

  “Huh? What are you… oh,” Dora uttered, staring at the prominent and pointy fangs inside the young girl’s mouth. The lights from the resort glinted eerily off of her sharp and pearly white teeth.

  “Are you a vampire?” the half-orc asked nervously while Ain reached for his sword and Enrai’s fists burst into flames.

  The kid laughed at their reactions. “Yup! I’m a genuine bloodsucker! Grr, I want your neck-juice, and all that. Oh, and while that’s a neat trick Mr. Baldy, you might want to put the fires out. And loosen your grip on your sword, elfy.”

  “Why is that?” Enrai demanded, and the girl pointed over towards the water in response.

  “That’s why.” Something big suddenly rose up out of the ocean, sending waves crashing against the shore as sand and water cascaded off of a giant green shelled crab. The creature stood over thirty feet tall, and Dora wasn’t sure what it would take
to pierce its thick carapace. Massive claws clacked menacingly as it approached and looked over them, the eyestalks resting on the fire being held by Enrai.

  “Is there a problem, honored guests?” the crustacean inquired in a thick, bubbling voice that boomed out over the beach.

  “Not much, just some new arrivals who don’t seem to know the rules yet,” the vampire girl replied, waving off the crab’s concerns.

  “In that case, allow me to enlighten you,” the crab stated, leaning in towards Dora’s party. “Do not steal, and do not fight. Break either of these rules, and you will be thrown out without a refund and banned from returning for a period of no less than a year.”

  “Hearing you loud and clear! We won’t cause any trouble!” Dora shouted, snapping a salute towards the massive green crab. Enrai and Ain both nodded vigorously in agreement, the former quickly dispelling the flames in his grasp while the latter let go of his weapon’s hilt.

  The security guard crab stared at Dora for a few long moments before snorting and sinking back down into the sand, disappearing from sight in seconds and leaving not a single trace of its presence behind.

  Dora, Enrai, and Ain all stared at the spot where it had vanished, unable to fully wrap their heads around what had just happened. The vampire wore a smirk as she observed their dumbfounded expressions.

  “Understand now? Don’t mess around and you’ll be fine. Here, everyone is welcome regardless of who – or what – they are,” the girl stated.

  “What kind of place is this?” Enrai eventually asked, rubbing his forehead in distressed confusion.

  Seeing the bewildered trio continue to act like they had no idea what was going, the purple-eyed blonde frowned.

  “Hang on a second, you don’t even know where you are?”

  “No! No, we don’t! We were fighting and fleeing from demons mere hours ago, and the portal that was supposed to take us back to Erafore instead decided to ditch us here!” Ain shouted, losing his cool.

  “Huh,” the vampire mused, raising an eyebrow. “Sounds… interesting.”