William Oh has made 99 trips to the underworld. I hear there’s a prize from Lumesh for your hundredth visit, but nobody’s ever claimed it.
Except William Oh. He went down to the underworld the 100th time, and there was Lumesh, guarding the prize behind an impassable barrier.
Willam Oh reached through with his left hand and snatched the prize straight out of the God of Death’s boney fist.
It was a ticket for children five and under to ride the merry-go-round.
Jason Salazar
Today is different, Nessie thought, watching the grown-ups talk in hushed tones, their words she couldn’t understand and their sideways glances at her full of hidden meaning made her feel…not good.
Mommy looked…smaller, somehow. She still towered over Nessie, but her voice was constantly on the edge of breaking, her shoulders curled inward, shaking.
Apparently Mommy’s husband had passed by, but Nessie didn’t see why that would make mommy sad. She didn’t know what a ‘husband’ was, either. Maybe Mommy was afraid of him stopping by?
Nessie tried to read Mommy’s face to see whether she was scared of this ‘husband’ or just sad.
Mommy’s face was buried in her hands, so Nessie couldn’t quite decide.
“Ms. Lee, Ash has made generous contributions to his family fund. Despite the nature of this tragedy, I pray that it gives you some comfort to know that neither you nor Nessie will ever suffer hardship, as long as Skyhold stands.”
Difficult words. Nessie thought, frowning up at the fellow everyone called the Marks Man’. She could understand less than half of them. He was saying that some boy named ‘Ash’ did something…and he hoped it made Mommy feel better?
“Bring him back.”
“I’m sorry, but without a corpse…”
“BRING HIM BACK!”
“Even with his body, the money isn’t…”
Marks man’s words didn’t seem to be making her feel better. Maybe Daddy could explain?
“Where’s Daddy?” Nessie asked.
Mommy turned inward and sank down to the ground, slowly turning in on herself as weird sounds began to leak from between her palms.
A hand patted her shoulder, with strange hard spots on his fingers.
“I’m very sorry, Nessie. Your daddy isn’t coming home. He’s fallen in battle with William Oh.”
Fallen? I fall all the time. Did he bonk his knee real bad or something?
The marks man seemed to read her expression and understand something,
“He’s been taken to the underworld by Lumesh.”
“Well, that’s fine.” Nessie said, looking up at the marks man.
“Eh?” The marks man looked confused.
“Everyone in my school says William Oh can travel to the underworld and back. Maybe he can bring Daddy back next time he goes?”
Mommy cried harder for some reason.
The next few hours were spent with the grownups trying to carefully explain the concept of death to Nessie using flowery language, and Nessie digging in her heels, refusing to believe that there was a place no one could come back from.
Objectively, it was the adult’s fault for doubling down on describing death as a place, but everyone was too close the situation.
After a horrible day of watching Mommy cry, they went to bed. Mommy held Nessie tight, lukewarm droplets falling onto the crown of her head.
Smack.
Smack.
Smack.
Nessie’s head popped up as she heard strange smacking sounds, like someone slapping their palm on a ham.
“Whazzat?” Nessie groaned, rubbing the sand out of her eyes the noises seemed to be coming from the window beneath their room.
Mommy tensed underneath her, throwing off both the covers and Nessie, who tumbled onto the bed.
Mommy lunged for the nightstand.
In the faint lamplight from the street beyond, Nessie saw a flash of reflected light off something shiny in Mommy’s hand as she turned and faced the empty window.
The used-to-be empty window.
A boy stepped through, seemingly walking on air.
“Who are you!?” Mommy demanded. “You should know that marks man won’t tolerate-“
“I’m William Oh.” The boy interrupted, making a shushing gesture. Your husband-“
Mommy’s raw voice rose into a shriek and she ran forward, the shiny thing raised above her head.
She must’ve been really sleepy, because Mommy fell asleep, tumbling into William Oh’s arms.
William Oh made a gesture with his left hand, and the lamp in the corner lit itself, bathing the scene in light.
The shiny thing was that dagger that Mommy had gotten angry at her for touching, and it was laying on the floor off to the side. Mommy was collapsed against William Oh’s chest, her eyes closed.
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Will glanced down at Nessie.
“You must be Ash’s daughter.”
“I think so?” Nessie said, unclear on who this ‘ash’ fellow was, or the concept of what a ‘daughter’ was.
“I’m here to take you two to your daddy.”
“Okay. Are we going to the underworld?” Nessie asked.
“What?” William Oh frowned. No. I’m taking you to see him. He’s alive and on this side.”
“Did you already bring him back from the underworld?” Nessie asked, cocking her head.
“…Yep.”
“I knew my friends were right about you being able to go to the underworld and back!”
“Your mom is ummm…sleepy, so I’ll carry her.” William Oh said, slinging Mommy over his shoulder with a grunt.
“That makes sense,” Nessie said. “Mom carries me when I get sleepy.”
“I’m also going to tie her arms and legs so she doesn’t thrash in her sleep.” William Oh said, producing some rope from thin air.
“Okay.”
“The umm…friends of your dad who were umm…camping outside are all asleep, so let’s be quiet, okay?” William Oh said.
“Okay.” Nessie whispered back.
William Oh offered a hand, and Nessie took it.
They stopped at the window and peered down. A bunch of men in armor were sprawled out across the cobblestones.
“Silly boys should sleep in beds. Sleeping on the floor hurts.” Nessie whispered.
“As you get older, You’ll find that boys do a lot of silly things.” William Oh said, stepping out off the ledge.
“Wait, you’ll fal-“ Nessie’s voice cut off in amazement.
William Oh stood on nothing at all.
He gave a gentle tug on her hand, and Nessie hesitantly stepped off the ledge.
The air was springy under her feet.
“I want to be clear: I’m the one doing this. Don’t try this without me.” William Oh said as Nessie giggled in amazement.
“Okay!” Nessie shouted in amazement.
“Shhh!” Nessie hushed herself.
William Oh shook his head with a faint smile. The three of them walked up into the sky before something wrapped around her chest, and they began flying.
“Can I fly like you when I grow up and get my Class?”
“Absolutely. If you still wanna fly and I’m still around by the time you’re old enough, I’d be happy to help.”
“YAY! Shhhhhh.”
“We’re actually out of earshot now so you can yell if you wanna.” William Oh said.
“WHOOOOO!” Nessie took him up on that. Flying through the air demanded shouting with joy and not doing so had been causing it to well up inside her, seeking release.
After flying for a while, they arrived at a fort, where Daddy was standing right outside.
“Daddy I flew here!” Nessie said. “William Oh says I can fly when I get my Class!”
Daddy didn’t say anything, just scooping Nessie up into a hug.
“Here’s your wife, too.” William Oh said, setting Mommy down.
She must’ve woken up during the flight sometime, because she was giving William Oh a mean look over the rag tied around her mouth.
…Until she saw Daddy.
Then she started crying again As Daddy cut the ropes off and helped her stand.
I don’t understand Mommy. Nessie didn’t get it, but these sobs felt better than the ones from earlier in the day, so she guessed it was okay.
Mommy and Daddy started hugging and kissing, clinging super close to each other.
Daddy grabbed Mommy’s bottom.
“I think you may wind up getting a younger brother or sister out of this.” William Oh said from where he stood beside Nessie with his arms crossed.
“I’d rather have a cat.” Nessie said.
“Well, maybe it’ll be a cat.” William Oh said with a shrug. “…I wouldn’t bet on it though.”
William Oh cleared his throat, and Mommy and Daddy kept going. He cleared his throat and they started, breaking away from each other and looking kind of guilty.
“Mrs. Lee. I’ve left two corpses behind where you were. Marksman will think you three are dead, and I doubt he will go to the expense of reviving the bodies.
Mommy and Daddy nodded.
“But if the ruse is discovered, the story is that the church of Granesh rescued you and is using your husband against me and Marksman. It’s much safer for you if Marksman believes that you’re with the church rather than me.”
“Understand?” William Oh asked, kneeling down in front of Nessie and looking her in the eye. “You never met William Oh. You met a priest of Granesh tonight.”
Nessie thought about Will’s words for a moment.
“Does that mean…” Nessie began, the grown-ups holding their breath.
“…That Mommy’s ‘husband’ is Daddy?” Nessie asked.
“We’ll set her straight.” Ash said, tousling Nessie’s hair.
“Ash.” Will said, turning his attention to Daddy. “You impressed me with your determination to go to any lengths to ensure your family’s survival. You owe me a favor.” William Oh said. “Sometime in the future I may call on you. I expect you’ll repay the favor with the same single-minded focus.”
Ash nodded.
William Oh turned to regard Nessie.
“Take care of your Mommy and Daddy.”
Nessie nodded.
William Oh floated up into the sky and then shot off like an arrow, fading into the distance in a matter of seconds.
“I told you William Oh could bring Daddy back!” Nessie said, hands on her hips.
In the distance, Will waited until he was sufficiently far away before he raised his speed and broke the air. He oriented on the caravan trail through the holes in the sky, shooting straight up the center, pissing off the merchants who had to laboriously climb the whole thing.
In a matter of hours, Will was back in Akul.
The Baron gave him Door up, Will cleared a Key Site on the 6th Floor, Wyrd gave him a Door, Will had a conversation with Ghoul about magic over honeyberry jam on the way up.
In a day, he was back to the 10th Floor. A completely unheard of pace, by any normal person’s metric.
Will passed out the moment his head touched the pillow, and didn’t wake up for eleven hours.
The next day, Will turned his attention to the current problems:
#1: Not enough Giant’s bone. They were mining anchorite and flash glass at outrageous rates, but Will didn’t have any natural deposits, and he wouldn’t be able to get one until one of the crystal giants on the other side of the mountain croaked.
He would have to loop in Zodiac for a portion of the profit.
#2: Will didn’t have enough manpower to produce a million bullets in a matter of months, let alone the weapons themselves.
Problem number two was solved the moment Laurence slammed into Will’s office.
“Check this out!” He shouted with sheer joy, dropping a heavy block of flash glass on the table.
“And that is…”
“At its core, it’s a very small lathe,” Laurence said, pulling a piece of anchorite out of his pocket and forcing the mineral into an open slot.
The cube bucked on Will’s table and sucked in the anchorite in the blink of an eye, nearly taking Laurence’s finger with it, causing the inventor to yelp and yank his hand back.
There was a harsh grinding noise and Will detected the faint scent of powdered anchorite and heated glass.
A moment later, a bullet popped out of the cube, tumbling slowly in midair.
“You built a machine that can make bullets?” Will asked, calculating the amount of time it took to make that one bullet, and realizing that it was nowhere near enough.
“Indeed.”
“How long does it take to make one of those?” Will asked, pointing at the jade-colored cube of opaque glass.
“About two weeks.”
“…Did you read the report I gave when I got back?” Will asked.
“Yessir, I couldn’t sleep, so I’ve already gone through seven iterations, and I finally settled for hollowing out the handle itself and using the space to store the magazine as the most elegant solution. We’ll have to find another place to put the stabilizing circuit, but it’s better than having a giant box sticking out of the front or side of the weapon.”
“I want you to make the design in such a way that it can be made of individual pieces of flash glass that can be stamped out by a machine like this.” Will said, pointing at the cube on his desk.”
“O…okay.”
“I want you to upscale this bullet-maker to be able to handle thousands in a matter of minutes.”
“Okay.”
“Then I want you to make a bigger machine that can create these cubes in the same amount of time that it takes for this one to make a bullet.”
Laurence’s eyes widened.
“You’re a madman.”
“Can it be done?”
Laurence’s eyes clouded over as he stared into the distance, his lips twitching as he did math in his head.
“Theoretically.”
“I look forward to seeing what you can do.” Will said before stopping Laurence on the way out. “Also, make a better feeding mechanism so the anchorite can be shoved in by the bucketful. That thing looks like it’s going to take someone’s finger.”
“Yes Milord.” Laurence bowed and left.
A moment later, Badur sprinted into the room, his eyes wide.
“Milord, Th- Ah, there’s a dragon outside the Stronghold.” Badur said breathlessly, pointing outside.
