As Magizor and Roderick were making their way through the horrifying corridor of meta-knowledge, Clary was tending to the wounds of the once living pale corpse of angst, now a handsome dashing lad of unconscious charisma.
But her healing powers, while still overshadowing other clerics of similar level, were not enough to bring Darkshadow back to the realm of the conscious.
Defiant to admit defeat she channelled all of her divine charm into one prayer to the Game Master, demanding to be granted more.
A Game Master is a fickle god, and while omnipotent, is still quite gullible and prone to being influenced; and Clary the Fey Cleric knew just how to exploit that. A fleeting smile here, an innocent wink there, and soon it becomes hard to discern who the god or the servant is now.
Feeling a great surge of power and divine inspiration she put her gentle hands on the Not-so-dark-now-Shadow and with the power of a miracle she put the spark of life back into his broken heart.
Not long thereafter the human formerly known as Darkshadow opened his graceful blue eyes and looked upon the fairy fey maiden fair upon the lap of whose his head now lay.
“Death must have found me at last, for no place but the Elysium could hold a beauty so eternal. Perhaps a winged valkyrie to guide me into the halls of plenty, or a fiery seraphim to protect my soul from evil. May I ask you for your name my phantom of virtue?”
The new Darkshadow’s face was embedded with a cheeky smile of confidence and mischief that would cause many young maidens to fall for him, but Clary had her own experience with seduction and flirting and she immediately knew that she wasn’t dealing with an amateur, even though he was using wrong and fictional afterlives.
Judging by his theatrical performance, Clary could tell that this probably wasn’t the first time he had granted such a speech to someone, but she had her own weapons at disposal:
“I am but a servant of a higher power that brought you back to the land of the living handsome rogue. Your silver tongue flatters me, and I sense that you use it often and well, but I swore myself to someone else, a god whose envy even you wouldn’t want to invoke.”
This was a challenge and Darkshadow knew it, he realized that he for once was facing a worthy adversary and had to counterattack, for he wouldn’t be bested in his own game.
“But isn’t it true that forbidden fruit tastes the swe…”
He was ready to finish this daring saying when he heard a door bursting open behind him, and in that door was a half eaten skeleton wielding a broom, suspended in a strange pyramid of moving gelatinous substance.
“Now you’ve done it, you’ve angered the Game Master” Clary said angrily.
As she was not an inexperienced adventurer, she already had encounters with such a gelatinous thing, although they usually had a cube shape, and they usually didn’t talk.
“Unbelievable! another blasted dirty adventurer thinks it’s okay to just bleed over the floor of my dungeon, do you know how hard that is to clean!?” And the skeleton inside the pyramid pointed its broom at Darkshadow’s still bloodied leather armour and began approaching him.
“Now steady there lad, it will be just a second and you shall be completely clean, I won’t have a vagabond with a dirty armour in my dungeon, you need to look the part.”
The champions were flabbergasted to say the least.
Darkshadow was quickly walking away from the pyramid and the janitor within, and Clary was full of questions.
“How can you talk, aren’t your kind supposed to be completely non-intelligent?”
The pyramid turned towards Clary and began rapidly explaining.
“A common misconception, you must have met our cousins, the cubes. Well, as you can obviously see, they aren’t nearly as sharp as I am, now please restrain your comrade so I can do my bloody job.”
“So you are the reason the dungeons are always so clean and free of dust.”
The pyramid began shifting with pride.
“Well of course! You won’t find better dungeon cleaning services anywhere else in the world.”
We’ll need to sort out a few things with the Game Master, Clary thought to herself, but first she needed to deal with this situation here, because while the gelatinous janitor was quite enthusiastic about cleaning Darkshadow, she wasn’t certain whether his and her definition of completely clean was the same, especially if it was mostly used to skeletons being around.
Darkshadow was evading the janitor as skilfully as he could, but there wasn’t enough space in the chamber, and he wasn’t used to fighting big gelatinous pyramids. He tried to make his way towards one of the doors, but he was tripped by the janitor’s broom, and he soon found himself in the prison of agar.
Clary already beguiled the Game Master once today, and he was angry with Darkshadow’s licentiousness, so she had to think for herself as Darkshadows’s handsome body was quickly being digested.
It was then that she saw the two daggers that Darkshadow used to use, lying on the floor. She realized that he changed into his joyful form right after dropping them. Perhaps they were cursed or had a similar effect on creatures. And the fantastic fair fairy fey decided not to fight fair and see how the janitor would fare if exposed to such a curse.
She invoked her remaining powers to telekinetically send the two daggers into the pyramid’s mass; the result was truly bizarre.
The janitor skeleton and the Pyramid itself started sprouting black slimy leather hair around their head and apex respectively and the entire gelatinous mass began turning black itself, until one couldn’t see inside.
“What is the meaning of this cleaning, no matter how good I am at my job I will never be as known as my cousins, even though I am much sharper and effective. My dark slimy metaphorical heart can’t stand such a burden. How can I try to clean things when I myself am unclean, my being has no meaning.” and with these words the Pyramid spat Darkshadow, who was now heavily covered in slime and mucus, out.
The pyramid was now making its brooding way out, and Clary wanted to congratulate herself for peacefully deescalating the situation, saving the day, and for getting rid of the two cursed magical daggers. But it was at this time that Magizor and Roderick Returned.
Roderick was still battered and confused from his earlier incident, his pride damaged much more thoroughly than his chivalrous body, but he was conscious after the long walk through the corridors of Meta-Knowledge and ready to vanquish any vile fiend he stumbled upon. As he set his heroic eyes upon the dark agaric evildoer, he quickly grabbed his sword and shouted.
“I shall gloriously redeem myself in the blood and screams of my enemies which I shall slay with honour and mercy” and he began slashing at the apathetic pyramid that refused to defend itself in its current state.
And thus the evil was slain once again, and the champions were reunited. The daggers have been returned from the dissolving cadaver of the monster and Roderick swung a swift and noble hook towards the still shocked Darkshadow.
“What have thou done to my friend Darkshadow thou vile metamorph, thy disguise of fair effeminate charm shall not fool me, for I knew my trustworthy and loyal friend like no other.”
Before Darkshadow could either justify himself, or Roderick could continue his interrogation, Magizor stepped into the conflict.
“Silence you ignorant worm. As much as I abhor it, the fates have brought us together for a reason, and I will not let power slip through my fingers due to your stupid wounded virility. Let us see what this ‘Darkshadow’ has to say for himself, shall we?”
