B1 Chapter 17: Depths below

Gwendolyn looked at Modivar.

Belladonna looked at him, too.

“Your staff is a demon lord?” she asked.

“No, no, no, no, no, no,” Modivar said quickly, raising a hand as if he could physically stop that idea from existing. “Not a demon lord. The soul of a demon lord. And it is not the staff. It is just the crystal. Very different situation.”

Belladonna leaned closer and squinted at the crystal.

“And you are okay with holding that thing?” she asked.

“Oh, yes,” Modivar said easily. “Grimsby has been like this for… what is it now, Grimsby?”

He lifted the staff slightly and looked at the crystal, as though expecting a proper answer.

The crystal flashed a molten, angry red.

A moment later the color softened, fading slowly into a calmer shade of pink.

Modivar nodded with the patience of someone used to this sort of exchange.

“Yes, yes, I know,” he said to the staff. “I understand you are angry. But there is no reason to get upset. She is only asking out of curiosity. She is not trying to offend you.”

Belladonna stared at him.

“You are having a conversation with it,” she said.

“Of course I am,” Modivar replied.

He glanced back at her.

“Grimsby has been stuck like this for nearly thirty thousand years, apparently,” Modivar continued. “He is quite happy to be part of the staff. It gives him something to do. He gets to go outside, meet new people, see new things, watch villages burn, the usual.”

The crystal flickered briefly.

“Metaphorically,” Modivar added.

Belladonna and Gwendolyn both eyed the staff warily.

Belladonna folded her arms.

“Aren’t demon lords, like, super dangerous?” she asked.

“Yes,” Modivar said.

He shrugged lightly, as though that fact was only mildly inconvenient.

“But it is an artifact,” he continued. “People do not really question artifacts. Even the Codex classified him as one.”

Belladonna blinked.

“The Codex just decided that the demon lord counts as a magical item?”

“More or less,” Modivar said. “And once the Codex classifies something as an artifact, most legal systems stop asking questions.”

He tapped the crystal lightly with a finger.

“There is no way for him to escape and unleash his fiery vengeance. Even if the artifact were somehow to be destroyed, he would simply return to the hells.”

Modivar lifted the staff slightly.

“And Grimsby does not want to go back to the hells, anyways,” he said. “So he is perfectly content being part of my staff.”

He looked at the crystal.

“Isn’t that right, Grimsby?”

The crystal turned a soft green.

Belladonna let out a slow breath.

“That is the most concerning thing you have said so far,” she admitted.

“You get used to it,” Modivar replied.

He looked ahead again.

“Anyway,” Modivar said.

The view of the valley below was beautiful, Modivar had to admit.

From this height, the village looked small—almost fragile. A scattering of rooftops and crooked roads rested between patches of farmland and clusters of dark green trees. Thin lines of smoke drifted lazily from chimneys, rising into the open sky.

The mountains curved around the valley like a loose bowl, their slopes covered in rock and stubborn patches of grass.

Belladonna turned slowly, taking in a view she had never seen before.

Her eyes widened slightly.

“You know,” she said, “this would almost be nice if we were not trying to save someone. I might be able to appreciate the view.”

Modivar nodded.

“It is quite breathtaking,” he admitted. “Even if the village itself is rather unremarkable.”

He gestured lazily toward the valley below.

“It does have a certain rugged appeal from up here,” he continued. “There is also plenty of room for it to grow, if someone actually wanted to settle here.”

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Belladonna scanned the distant hills.

“I wonder what it would look like in the winter,” she said. “It might even be scenic instead of a complete craphole.”

Modivar snorted.

“That is a glowing endorsement,” he said.

Belladonna shrugged.

“I am trying to be optimistic.”

Modivar rested a hand on the staff as the floating circle drifted gently through the air.

“I never thought about the view when I chose to settle here,” he said. “But I have to admit, it does have its charms.”

He looked down again at the valley.

The fields were uneven. The houses were crooked. The road leading in and out of the village looked more like a suggestion than an actual path.

Belladonna turned her head towards him smiling.

“The only thing that would make it better would be a seaside view,” Belladonna said. “I would love to see the sea.”

Modivar didn’t answer right away.

“Yeah,” Modivar said finally, a little more quietly, more of a pleasant lie than what he actually felt. “That would be nice.”

He looked out toward the mountains instead of the horizon.

He had chosen this place to spend the rest of his days so that he would never see the sea.

Belladonna looked upward toward the sky.

“How high can we go with this?” she asked.

“How high do you want to go?” Modivar replied.

“Could we make it over the clouds?”

“Easily,” he said.

He smiled faintly.

“One day I might take you up there just to see what the sky looks like at night when the stars are out,” he said. “It is absolutely stunning.”

Belladonna looked intrigued.

“Really?”

“Really,” Modivar said.

He paused, then added with a crooked smile,”Not as stunning as you, of course, but a close second.”