Sam jerked upright, flailing her arms, wing, tail and sword. The surface she had been sitting on tilted to the side and she found herself flailing even more as she dumped, face first, onto the ground. Her tail twitched from side to side and she groaned quietly. This was not a particularly auspicious start to her career as a wandering hero. She pushed herself to her knees, then looked around. She was in the middle of a field, with trees standing tall around her, with slender branches and slender leaves. Sitting on the stump of a tree about five paces off was the
wizard
.
The wizard who had kidnapped her.
The wizard was smoking a long, thin pipe, while Harp the unicorn placidly ate some grass. He was in his full equine mode and didn't look like he was about to kill her right here and now. And considering the last time they had met, he had been
very
stab happy, Sam was a bit relieved to see that.
The wizard - Dart, if Sam remembered right - blew out a thin stream of smoke and nodded. "Good, you're awake. We don't have much time."
Sam scowled and sprang to her feet. She still had her - well, technically, her old mentor's - longsword and she hefted it up. Her hand's pressure on it caused a tingling white flare to glow around the blade itself, crackling faintly as it did so. She nodded, pleased to see that the holy blade could still work it's magic.
"Thief! Whore thief!"
Sam was
less
glad that her mentor's ghost was still floating around her. Albus hadn't been the finest knight who had walked the world, but he made for a frighteningly annoying specter. He stuck his head so close to her cheek that he almost brushed her ear with his nose, his mustache-covered face twisting into a fierce scowl of distaste.
"...sluuuuuuuuuut!" He hissed.
Sam ignored him. It got easier and easier with practice.
"Put that sword down," Dart said, waving her pipe dismissively. "I've seen enough Holy Avengers to not be impressed by them anymore." She sucked on the tip of her pipe, then breathed out. "Though, I suppose you should enjoy it. While it lasts."
"What are you
talking
about?" Sam asked, her tail lashing from side to side. "Why did you kidnap me?"
Dart frowned, blowing two streamers of smoke from her nose. The smoke resolved into a single, winged dragon which soared in a slow circle around the half-elf's hair before finally vanishing into a puff of pale whiteness. As the dragon soared around, Dart looked into Sam's eyes and slowly seemed to judge her. When she was done, she nodded.
"Samantha, have you ever heard of..." she paused, the dramatic weight in the silence heavy enough to tip scales. "The Apocalypse Stone?"
The capitals were audible.
"No. Is that a band or something?" Sam asked.
"No, it's not a
band
," Dart snapped. She shook her head. "Do you know
anything
about the multiverse?"
Sam slowly lowered the tip of her longsword.
Dart rubbed her temple with one free hand. She tossed her pipe away - some kind of magic caught it, then floated it into the pack beside the tree stump. She stood up, then snapped her fingers. A crackling diagram floated into the air, showing a collection of interlocking spheres and lines. "This is the multiverse," she said, her voice sour. "This plane - this world - is in the Prime Material. Connected to it via the astral plane is the Outer Planes, while the ethereal plane connects it to the Inner Elemental Planes. The
best
way to think of it is that...the...Inner Elemental Planes provide the building blocks for everything solid, while the Outer Planes are where belief rests." She pointed. "Mount Celestia, Elysium, Baator, all those places are there."
Sam nodded, slowly. "So, we go to the Outer Planes when we die. Got it."
"And divine magic is called from the Outer Planes, while the Elemental Planes are where we derive arcane magic from," Dart said, nodding. "Good. Now, every plane on the Prime Material forms around a central foci - a single
chip
from the Elemental Plane of Earth. Understand?"
"Um..." Sam's tail swept from side to side. "I'm willing to accept your word for it."
Dart nodded. "This chip is called the Apocalypse Stone." She frowned. "It is the foci that allows this dimension to connect to the Elemental Planes and the Outer Planes."
"Why is it called the Apocalypse Stone?" Sam asked, her brow furrowing. "I mean, it sounds more like a...Depocalypse...Stone..."
Dart frowned. "Don't quit your day job of hitting things with other things, Samantha," she said, her voice dry. "It's called the Apocalypse Stone because if it is removed from its place of power, the ENTIRE PLANE COMES TO AN END!" She shouted that last bit, her facade of calm cracking somewhat.
Sam blinked. "Don't tell me-"
"Someone stole this world's Stone," Dart said, stepping forward. "We've become
unmoored
from the astral and ethereal planes. You may have already noticed one effect - since there's no conduit for lost souls to get to their afterlife, the
dead
are sticking around."
Sam glanced to the side, looking at Albus. He looked at her, blushing.
"You big fucking liar!" she said, pointing at the ghost. "You said you were sticking around to help me!"
"...shut up..." Albus mumbled, his mustache twitching around his mouth as he ducked his head forward.
"I take it you've had a ghost bothering you for some time?" Dart asked, shaking her head. "So, that's the first effect. The second is, as time goes on, the elements themselves will cease to be as the magical force empowering them fades, one by one. The sun will go out. The waters will turn to dust. Mountains will flatten. We'll plunge into eternal dark as the undead roam across every kingdom in the land as the air freezes, then turns into desiccated powder that will choke even skeletons out of their twisted parody of unlife. The survivors will watch as the ground beneath them crumbles to nothingness, and any who have managed to cling desperately to life that long will be snuffed out one by terrified one as a darkness deeper and more profound than anything you can possibly imagine consumes
everything
." Dart's voice dropped to a hiss as she stepped forward, prodding Sam's chest with her finger.
Sam gulped, her tail standing stock still.
"...that's bad," she said.
"No FUCKING shit it's BAD, of course it's FUCKING BAD!" Dart shouted.
"Okay, fine, I'm sufficiently terrified, what the hell am I going to do about it, I'm just a squire!" Sam squeaked, clutching her sword to her chest, the cold blade strangely comforting. "Not even - I didn't even get knighted before, I mean, I killed my mentor. I don't even think I can hit half the bad guys who could do this, I-"
"Don't worry," Dart said, putting her hands on Sam's shoulders. "See, Sam, you're special."
Sam's eyes widened, her mouth opening in a tiny O.
"See," Dart said, sliding her arm around Sam's back - her touch setting off a sizzling symphony of need through Sam's body. She felt her sex ache - despite the topic of the conversation. Or maybe because of it. She tried to focus on Dart's actual words - her red cheeks turning even darker. "You are unique, Sam. You're the
only
demiplanar being on this world who fulfills the
exact
requirements I need to cast a spell that can form a connection with the Outer Planes."
"So we can zip out, find the person who stole the stone, and get it back?" Sam asked, voice full of hope, her tail twitching from side to side with excitement.