Space Wizards

2. The Way In

Murphy licked the bowl after devouring the last of lunch. Melock took one edge of the tablecloth and folded it over the dishes, ran a hand over it flattening it out, folded it a second time, then flattened and folded again. Finally, he tore it in two and handed a perfectly clean napkin to Murphy. He wiped his finger tips and the corners of his mouth with his half before stuffing it back into his pack. 

Murphy wiped her hands on her pants, tied the checkered cloth over her head as a bandana, and pulled her bucket helmet back on. She looked at Melock through the eye slit. 

"That was delicious. Let's go check out this tomb."

The wizard put on his little backpack and led the way. They walked through an old stone arch into the last standing crypt in the graveyard. Inside was a dirty empty room with a three-foot hole smashed through the back wall. Melock leaned down and stuck his head in. 

"Are you one for seeing in the dark or would you like me to shed some light on the darkness?"

Melock's eyes could see the tunnel and beyond but it was an inky black hole for Murphy.

"Light is the best defense against the darkness."

"I agree," said Melock. "Let's let your Lord John here light the way for us." He reached up and touched her war hammer. "Luminous hammer of justice." 

The silver block of the hammer began to glow with a soft white light. Murphy stuck it into the hole and lit the stairs receding down into the blackness beyond. 

"There is no price that I must pay for such a magical effect?" 

"Only that you use it to fight whatever we find down there that needs fighting," said Melock. 

"You can count on that."

She spun the hammer around and cracked it into the top of the hole, widening the opening.

"Who was this Lord John, one of the knights you bested?" 

"He was my husband." 

"Oh? Must have been an impressive individual."

"Not so much. My parents sold me to his family as a child bride when I was fifteen. He died within the year and I was put into the nunnery." 

"Then you became—"

"Sister John Murphy." 

"Do you have a maiden name?" 

"Yes, but I'd don't share it. I have no family who would use it." 

"So I should call you Sister Murphy then?" 

She smiled under her helmet and raised up her hammer. 

"Friends call my Murphy." 

"Alright Murphy, here we go." 

Melock hopped through the hole and she followed. The steps wound down deep into the earth. 

"What is a lich?" She asked as they continued down beyond the next landing.

"A lich is a being that obtains an extended life by purposely becoming an undead creature. They're often powerful wizards or religious cultists. In the case of the Varanasi Lich, whose tomb we are about to enter—"

"We aren't in it now?" said Murph. 

"Almost, this is still in the upper level catacombs. The tomb is shaped like a giant rhombus, a double-ended pyramid that legend says is half-submerged in a lake of souls, and at the bottom apex lies the corpse of the great Lich herself."

"A she?" 

"Why not, I have no trouble believing you to be a great warrior, even if you are very young and a woman to boot."

"Fair enough. Go on."

"The Varanasi Lich was a lizard woman who traveled to our world from beyond the stars." 

"There are other planets? With life?" 

"Indeed. Her reign as Lich came to an end some thousand and seventeen years ago. Her followers built this elaborate tomb in her honor. They say no one who enters ever returns." 

"And you're not afraid?"

"Of course not. It was Sid and myself who defeated the Lich in the first place." 

"Wait. You killed the Lich? A thousand years ago? How old are you?" 

Murphy lifted up her bucket and gave the wizard a look of disbelief.

"I'm not as young as I used to be. Luculentus released the Lich from her mortal coil. I was merely a student back then, something like a postdoc researcher. I was there for the assist." 

"So he was your teacher? And he's a thousand years old too?" said Murphy. 

"We're compatriots, but Sid has something to teach everyone. He's a visionary master of reality, a mentor, and a good friend. Life learners, me and Sid. And yes, of course, long-in-the-tooth life learners at that. It's why I'm here, in fact, eternal life research." 

The old man's eyes sparkled like an excited kid. 

"You use words I don't know." 

"There is always something new to learn. Look, what do we have here?" said Melock. 

At the bottom of the stairs was a rectangular corridor with bodies strewn across the floor. The hall was dark and the floor was covered in blood, both fresh and ancient. On the opposite side was a diamond-shaped doorway. 

"Shall we discover what killed them?" 

Melock stepped off the bottom stair. Murphy lunged forward, wrapped her arm around Melock's waist, and pulled him back on the stairs. A series of spinning blades shot out from different points along the wall and then spun back into thin slits before unseen. 

"You certainly have good instincts," he said. 

Melock was fine but Murphy let go of his thin, yet firm, and not at all frail body. He felt as strong and fit as she. Not what she expected in a thousand-year-old. 

"You don't feel like an old man?" 

"You're too kind. I think we should skip this hallway and leave the trap intact."

Melock touched her arm and she found herself in a moment of invisible flight across the room.  They zipped above the bodies, passed the trap without harm, and landed on the other side of the diamond doorway. The next room was square and smaller. It was empty except for a crystalline pyramid in the center. Melock walked around it examining all four sides. He placed a hand on it and it gave off a dull green glow. 

"This is the way in." 

"It looks like an emerald."

"It's diamond and it's hollow. Take my hand." 

He reached out to her and with his other hand took a delicate golden pendant out from under his robe and held it with his thumb and forefinger. She hesitated a second then took his hand. 

It was as if she closed her eyes, lost all feeling in her body, and fell into a void of emptiness. A second later she was in a larger room with diamond walls and a pyramid ceiling. Her eyes had never shut and she felt a little queasy. It was her first teleportation. 

Four soldiers in the black armor of Kulju's guard sat in a circle playing cards between two golden braziers that lit the room with flame. Realizing they were no longer alone, they jumped to their feet, abandoned their gambling, and pulled out swords for battle.