RAVEN’S GAMBIT | Episode 80: Mouth of the Tomb
The thing that wore the efreeti’s skin smiled — but not with lips.
The jaw dislocated with a snap, unhinging in a way no mortal anatomy should allow. Rows of flame-dripping teeth split downward into the collarbone as the voice inside spoke through the widening cavity.
“Come closer, little heroes. Let me taste what centuries of fleshless silence has denied me.”
Sir Cedric swung his bastard sword with all the righteous fury he could muster. The blade screeched off the creature’s chest — not because it was tough, but because the air around it refused harm. His sword bounced off as if striking reality itself.
The possessed efreeti raised a finger, and Cedric froze mid-breath. Not paralyzed. Not stunned.
Held in time.
His eyes darted in panic as his body refused to obey.
Tessa shrieked and fired a bolt from her crossbow. The bolt went in. Didn’t come out. It vanished into the creature’s chest as if swallowed by a black hole. There was no wound. No reaction.
Just… silence.
Lira turned to Thalia. “We have to move! Get out of the field—”
But Thalia wasn’t listening. She stood, head tilted, mouth ajar. Whispering.
Not her own voice.
Acererak's.
Through her.
“You are in my heart now. My tomb. My vault. You drew Wave and Whelm and Blackrazor — you disturbed the triad. You woke me.”
Elowyn stirred, coughed blood — her ribs cracked, but she forced herself upright. Wave pulsed faintly in her hands, the trident leaking droplets of saltwater onto the vault floor. The water steamed and hissed.
“We… killed you,” she gasped.
Acererak’s possessed body tilted its head — then smiled wider. His words came from Thalia, who now convulsed on her knees.
“You only ever fed me with every blow. You only fed the tomb.”
From behind one of the chests, Thog heaved himself forward with Whelm in both hands. His chest bled from gashes, his left eye swollen shut — but he didn’t stop. He bellowed and hurled the hammer across the room.
Whelm sang as it flew.
It struck the possessed efreeti square in the temple. There was a burst of light — blue, divine, thunderous.
The body staggered.
The green jewel above screamed.
In that second, the antimagic field rippled. For just a breath.
Lira acted.
She leapt over the sarcophagus, grabbed Tessa by the collar, and pushed her hard toward the corridor behind them. “Run. Get out.”
“But—”
“RUN!”
Thalia collapsed. The voice cut off.
The possessed efreeti’s head twitched back into place, and the smile faded.
“Playtime is over,” he said in his own voice again. “You’ve touched what should remain buried.”
The jewel above descended.
Not fell.
Descended — with gravity’s slow hunger.
Elric grabbed Elowyn. “Move, now. NOW!”
The vault doors began to close behind them.
Stone grinding against stone, slow, inevitable.
Thog and Sir Cedric hauled the others toward the threshold as Lira turned and faced the thing still standing beneath the emerald light. She didn’t flinch.
Even as its hand rose toward her.
Even as the green jewel hovered directly above her skull.
The door sealed with a boom that echoed through the earth.
And Lira Valesong was gone.