No Storm Lasts Forever, a DND inspired story, by Allan Concillado

Chapter Three: The Flying Tower, Part Six

     The party gathered around Ace's corpse with Ledias. She had tears in her eyes. Hovering above Ace's corpse was a glowing ball of light. It fluttered and attempted to fly away, but it bounced off an invisible wall.

     Phil was reading the paper, then he passed it on to Zephyr. The giant still clutched his chest as he read the note. He then turned to Ledias. "You do know what what your about to do is very immoral and dangerous," Zephyr said.

     Ledias stared at Zephyr. Her hair was affecting her now, zapping her with her own holy energy. "Please!" she begged. Ace's soul was starting to escape from her grasp.

     Zephyr sighed. "Fine, fine." He gestured for Justin to come. "You know what to do, right?" Justin nodded. He pulled out a magical piece of paper that had a curse on it. He was prepared for this moment.

     "Ready?" Ledias asked. Justin nodded. She forced the soul into the paper. The paper glowed as they fused. Zephyr placed the golden helmet next to the fusing items and the golden helmet started to melt and fuse with them. A light aura surrounded the items and blinded everyone around them.

     The light faded and the room returned to its original self. They looked at where Ace's body was, but saw that they have decayed into only bones. The gold helmet was also gone, and the only thing that was left was the paper.

     "Did it work?" Phil wondered. The paper rumbled and words started to appear on it. Naaaah, I'm in the afterlife, the paper wrote. Ledias gave a sigh of relief and fainted. Justin started to draw on the paper.

     "What are you doing? Aren't you like harassing him by drawing on the paper?" Slayer asked.

     Justin shook his head. "By drawing him a figure, I could possibly transform him into a spirit of some sort, I explained with a posed look," Justin explained, not in a posed look. He moved the pencil like a true artist and his hand waved around elegantly. Once he was done, he showed Phil.

     "Wow, I didn't know you were a five year old," Phil teased as he saw the stick figure.

     "It's the best I can..." Justin started, but then he froze and raised his head. "Achoo!" He sneezed and his mask fell off. Sorvex approached Justin and looked at him in the eyes.

     "Holy crap. I thought you were a dude this whole time," Sorvex exclaimed. Justin blushed and hid her face.

     "G-gender isn't important to me," she said, her face reddening. Everyone else approached her and looked at her face. She was gorgeous. Her skin was grey with a hint of natural red combined with her blushing. Her voice was as soft as the winter wind, unlike when she wore her mask. She sounded like a teen without the mask and more feminine. Her tail was packed within her clothes and could be seen by the back of her neck. Her long white hair streamed down her face as she covered her eyes. She wasn't an elf, she was a tiefling. "P-please don't look. I-It's embarrassing for me."

     Whistling noises, Ace wrote as a paper. Justin quickly reached down and picked up her mask and put it back on. Her voice returned to "normal" and she looked up. "Returning to the subject, we should head towards Goldmoor, Cyprus's home town, I said in a posed look."

     "Why do you keep ending your sentence with 'a posed look' whenever you have that mask worn?" Orinus asked.

     "It increases my arcane ability, but it has a backlash. It also increases my apathy, I explain with a posed look." She explained, not in a posed look. She looked down. "And at times, I forget who I am."

     "We're approaching a rest stop for now," Zephyr interrupted. Ledias woke up and looked at the giant, half asleep. The tower shook as it landed.