Deacon stopped dead in his tracks. He just stood there staring at Amanda in shock. While Ralph’s injuries were mostly healed, his heart rate was erratic, and everyone was worried about him. The fact she said he was awake was troubling. Deacon would have to scrap his plans to speak with the bar keep for now and see his friend. Also, all these squirrels jumping off his shoulders were starting to really annoy him. Deacon proceeded to shoo them as he made his way to the door.

“What is he doing?” Tantus asked, adjusting his robes, and sweeping his hair behind his left ear.

“No clue. I don’t like how he just stood there for five full minutes after she said though. Something is wrong with him, and I don’t mean the shape changing bit,” Typhus responded moving toward Deacon.

“Well he has been awake for almost a week straight. In relative time anyway. It plays havoc with a mortal mind,” Sun Wu chimed in as he turned and headed back through the training field doors.

“Master Deacon, should you not rest a little while?” Alfred asked, appearing before Deacon, and preventing him from leaving.

“What? Oh I don’t get tired Alfred. You know that. Now I just need to get the tar knife out of the basilisk eye… What was I saying just now? That didn’t make any sense. Shhh… you guys smell that?” babbled Deacon.

“Nope. Off to bed for you. Tantus, can you grab his other arm? Sophie, please get the door to his room,” Typhus barked orders and together they got him upstairs and into bed. No sooner did his head hit the pillow than loud snoring could be heard throughout his bedroom.

“Sleep deprivation. Odd that it happened all at once. I wonder why that is?” Tantus asked as they rest of them headed down the stairs.

“He’d probably be running on fear and adrenaline the whole time he was alone. Let’s check on Ralph and see if he needs anything. I think Amanda went on ahead of us. If he’s ok, we can move him into here and Alfred can keep an eye on him. Sound good?” Typhus asked rhetorically.

“I think I have something for that. While we were healing all the injured, I produced an idea to move them quickly. I just need some dried Veil root and two long sticks,” said Tantus as they left mansion.

Deacon began to dream. He was in a deeper sleep than he had ever been before. It fell more like floating in the ocean than resting in a bed. His mind was foggy, and it was difficult to focus as random images flashed past in his consciousness. Deacon thought back to that mural the King Edric showed him. Specifically the one with him sporting long braided hair looking at a city under attack by Goblins. Could this really be where they were headed? Deacon always thought of Goblins as weak monsters that couldn’t put up much of a fight. That was clearly not the case with these Goblins.

Shifting to another thought, Deacon focused in on his negotiations with Sun Wu. Didn’t the monkey king offer some kind of training? When was he supposed to get that? The scene in his mind shifted to him and Sun Wu on the top of that mountain just before The Unsatiated arrived. Was Sun Wu hoping to exhaust Deacon to the point he would accept any deal? That seemed more like a monkey king plan. But now he let him out of the cage. That may not have been the best idea, but was he in his right mind at the time? Deacon would have to ask Chimera about that.

That brought up another thought, he hadn’t spoken to Chimera in weeks. Something was happening with the gods and Deacon had been too preoccupied to focus on it. All these blessings he’s been accumulating and his quest to find Ryan. What did it all add up to? Never mind the war with the Vasilly Empire. It seems like that is all happening to the west and his path is taking him further east. Then there was Elder Ruby and whatever she’s cooking up. Deacon’s worry and anxiousness continued to mount as all these thoughts and images swam past him.

“Why is Wukong free? That was not the choice I made. A new path starts now,” said an alternate version of Deacon’s own voice.

Appearing before Deacon’s subconscious mind was an older version of himself. He stood before Deacon with his arms wrapped in bandages, all white dreadlocks tied in a ponytail, and wearing a black and gold martial arts gi. This time there was no golden throne, or ten fractured dimensional tears fanned out behind him like the most terrifying peacock feathers. His look was simple, and his eyes still held those shining green pupils.

“You. Why are you here? And what happened to your drip?” Deacon asked confused.

“Never mind that now. Where are you in your journey? Is Daskus alright?” asked other Deacon.

“Haven’t seen him since we split at Clayton Ravine. Do I get brain damage or something? Why are you speaking in Haiku? Can you give me any concrete information to help me out? It seems like I never get enough time to do anything. I’m literally passed out in bed right now,” Deacon replied with multiple questions of his own.

“Time remains precious. Then you haven’t found him yet. Typhus must stay strong,” other Deacon responded.

“No idea what you’re talking about. I get that you are trying to steer me toward a better outcome than you got, but you can’t speak freely to me, and your messaging is all muddy,” Deacon replied hoping to get a clearer response.

“You want me to help? The Deep Cavern holds treasure. The ocean holds more,” alternate Deacon said as he stepped back flaring all ten dimensional tears before they all shrank into a tiny pin prick. Then Deacon was alone again floating through the miasma of his exhausted mind.

Deacon awoke hours later feeling groggy. He rolled out of bed, planting his bare feet on the hardwood floor of his room. He looked up at the stain glass bay windows depicting his battles and memories. Never before when waking in this world did, he want some coffee. His skull was throbbing. He needed to invent aspirin.

Getting to his feet and standing up straight, Deacon walked to the corner of his room where Alfred had erected his shower. He stripped nude and put both hands against the shower wall to lean into it. Then he activated the arcane symbols to turn it on. All of his muscles clenched as the frigid water blasted all over him. Immediately ghosting through the shower door back into his room, he stood there shivering and naked.

“Alfred, please find a way to use this to heat the water before it comes out of the shower head,” Deacon commanded as Polterheist lifted his pane of infernal glass out of his bag. It hovered in the air in front of Deacon for twenty seconds before Alfred showed up looking haggard and worn out.

“Right away, sir,” was all the reply Alfred gave as he and the infernal glass disappeared.

“What the… need to look into that,” Deacon said toweling himself off and pulling out some spare clothes.

Down in the common room Amanda, Typhus, and Sophie sat having a conversation. Ralph was nowhere in sight. They all looked up as they heard the door to Deacon’s room closing behind him. Tantus seemed particularly exuberant this morning and Deacon was loathe to find out what it was about.

“Morning everyone,” Deacon said as he descended the stairs. The couches in the lounge area looked particularly welcoming this morning.

“Morning, he says, it’s noon,” Typhus responded.

“Don’t start, I feel like someone went at my skull with a club for nine hours,” Deacon shot back.

“Well I have some good news, I managed to create carrier of sorts for injured people. I even managed to condense the item into a single stick. Shall I demonstrate?” Tantus asked getting a nod from Deacon and the rest.

He then produced a four foot long stick. With a flick of his wrest it popped out another stick that held itself parallel to the original one. Between the two sticks spun a cushion of air. The whole apparatus just floated there at waist level.

“The sticks are only four feet long. So you built a tiny air supported stretcher?” Asked Deacon.

“No, no. It’s a portable cushion for the injured. I think I’ll call it an ambulator. That sounds right,” Tantus said ignoring Deacon’s sour mood.

“Allow me to demonstrate my concerns,” Deacon said as he walked over to it and lay himself in the middle of the ambulator. His feet dangled off the bottom and his head lolled off the top end.

“Oh, I think I see the issue. The sticks need to be longer and the air cushion wider. Typhus, I need longer sticks,” Tantus said turning toward Typhus.

“I thought it was just fine,” quipped Typhus.

“If you boys are done playing with your toys. I’d like to talk about Ralph,” Amanda interrupted.

“What’s up with Ralph? I thought he got better,” Deacon asked still sprawled over the ambulator in an awkward floating position.

“He has a curse on him. Apparently, he wasn’t supposed to survive whatever that Orc did to him. I’m really worried and the closest thing to clergy in this town is Ralph,” Amanda said with her hands balled up in fists.

“It’s not that bad. Here, if Deacon will party us up, I’ll share the details,” said Ralph from the doorway of his room. He looked thinner than normal and the cheekbones in his face more pronounced.

Deacon immediately added everyone in the room to his party and they all received a slate message from Ralph soon thereafter.

Curse: Hipag’s Wither-Upon death after being inflicted with this curse you will feed ten percent of your attribute total to the servant of Hipag that struck you down.

“Wait, the Orc is dead. What does that mean for the curse?” Deacon asked.

“The conditions for it to work normally cannot be met. So it seems to just be preventing Ralph from using that percentage of his attributes. We’ll need a priest to cleanse it. He should be ok but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this before. During the purge, our enemies didn’t worship Hipag openly, so we didn’t see any real curse activity. The best thing we can do for Ralph now is get to the Shattered Sky. House Smitehammer all worship Mantarok. I bet they’d be able to help,” Typhus explained with a worried look on his face.

“Well that’s an optimistic view. Let’s go then. We should head out as soon as possible,” Deacon said rolling over onto his stomach on the cushion of air. His toes were touching ground while his arms hung lifeless off the top end.

“I get it, it needs to be longer,” Tantus said deactivating the device and dropping Deacon on the floor.