Year 4256 2nd through 4th days of the month of Olfaccium
Thirsty... Tayla thought. So Thirsty...
Tayla banged weakly against one of the walls to her 'prison'. "Let me out!" She croaked. "Please!"
I'm sorry! She thought... or did she speak those words? It was getting hard to tell. So so sorry... But what again was supposed to be sorry for?
Hungry. Dehydrated. Delirious. Tayla had been chained to the floor in some lone room in the cellar. They held her captive, much like her good for nothing father had imprisoned her as a child. Except this time, she had no means of escape.
They hadn't fed her since locking her in this room, nor had they given her any water to drink. The later was of more consequence to her. For the fight with the white haired princess had already dehydrated her significantly. She had barely had enough time to rehydrate at all before getting thrown in here. She would have escaped then were it not for them pumping her with deterrents. Now though, lacking the water her magic required, Tayla found herself at the mercy of the clan's good grace.
"Please..." She whimpered. Her eyes closing in the darkness. "Someone..."
"She really is pathetic, isn't she?" A familiar voice said, waking Tayla from her slumber
"Smit?" She croaked. Senses, she was thirsty! She could feel her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth!
"Always depending on me yet never admitting to it."
"Smit... what?" Her mind fuzzy, Tayla creaked her eye open as much as she could muster. She felt so weak. So tired.
"Its worse than that." Another voice said. This one belonging to that white haired 'princess' "She refuses to let others in."
"You..." Tayla seemed growl. A bubble of hatred rising to the surface "Acting like you know me..."
"I think she does know you though." The voice of Smit said. His form seeming to materialize in the darkness. "Better than you know yourself."
"Shutup!" Tayla barked! Her cry seemed to grind at her vocal cords.
"Look at her coward in fear." The woman mocked. Her form materializing next to Smit's. "Always running, that girl is. She runs from me. She runs from you. Senses, she even runs from herself!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" Tayla screamed. She launched herself at the visions, stopping short due to the chain locked around her ankle.
The visions laughed. Not at Tayla, they seemed to be ignoring her. Rather they laughed among themselves.
"You know, I always knew she was a runner." Smit said. "Told her as much from the start."
"And look where all that running has got her." The white haired woman said. "Locked away, once again, in a closet. Chains wrapped around her ankles."
"I said shut up..." Her cry came out weak this time. She shut her eyes. Her body trembling.
"It seems you've come full circle."
That... that was her father's voice... She could help but take a look... Looming over her stood her father. He stared at her with those predatory eyes.
"No..." She whimpered. "Please no..." Her head was pounding. The world was spinning. In an instant her father vanished. His form replaced by Smit.
"You don't look so good." He said leaning over her form. "Here. Have some water."
Graciously. Tayla reached for the skin he held, but it was just out of reach. "Too far..." Her voice barely above a whisper. "Can't reach..."
The skin fell to the floor. It's contains spilling out red. Smit's form shimmered into the form of the white haired woman. The world bleeding black.
"Should have taken the water." The white haired women said. The darkness swooped in taking Tayla yet again.
Tayla awoke in coughing fit. She felt a cool liquid wetting her dirtied garments.
"Hush..." Said a dry sounding voice, trying its best to sound soothing. "Your punishment is over. Drink... You need the water..." Sightless Syella... She had come through for Tayla...
The Sightless held a cup of water in her hands. Slowly she brought it to Tayla's cracked lips. Tayla took the offering graciously. She drank the water faster than she probably should have.
"You came..." Tayla said having finished the offering. "I thought... you would leave me hear to rot."
"Course not." Syella said. "A mother does not leave her child to die."
Tayla nodded, taking the time to take in her surroundings. They were still in the cellar, but no longer in the room they locked her in. She hear the shuffling of feet towards the far wall. A group of Sightless had entered from a hidden passage built into the cellar wall. In their hands they carried rags with darkened stains.
Tayla furrowed her brow. "What... what's going on?"
"Nothing. Feeding time just finished is all." Sightless Syella said.
"Feeding... time?" Tayla repeating. Her mind still seemed muddled from her time in isolation.
"That's right." She said. "Come child. Let's go upstairs and get you some food."
"Food?" She asked, her stomach growled at the word.
"Yes." Syella say. "You're going to need it. Food and rest. We have battle coming our way and I'll need you at your best."
Tayla's mind struggled to keep up. "Where's Smit?" Tayla heard herself say
Syella almost seemed to frown. "He's... busy." She said hesitantly. "He been given a promotion actually. From now on Smit will be a squad leader. As for you? Well... Perhaps I was too hasty in stating that your punishment was over. From now on, Tayla, you will be taking orders from Smit."
The words hit Tayla like a rock. They had demoted her for her actions. Everything she worked for ruined in one fell swoop.
Year 4256 3nd day of the month of Olfaccium Afternoon
"Look Uncle! I figured it out!"
Malkev's head perked up. Pulled out of his contemplative trance by his nephew's call. He looked up at his nephew. Watching as the boy turned to the underground lake and tossed one of the many smooth, flat rocks which were generously provided by the Kharu-Natjer. The rock skipped across the water's surface twice before plopping into the depths beneath.
The water stirred oddly. It's surface rippling towards the disturbance in the water instead of away from it. It was one of the many unsettling affects caused by the Distortion. His nephew, however, seemed unperturbed by unnatural motion of the ripples. The boy spun happily on his heels, beaming proudly at his uncle.
"See!" The boy exclaimed. "I told you I could figure it out on my own!"
“Aye lad, so you did.” Malkev said, forcing a smile on his face. “But can you get it to skip even more?”
The boy, Taleb, frowned. He bent over, picking up another rock from the pile. "Maybe." He said. He proceeded to toss the the rock against the water's surface. It skipped once before plummeting beneath the surface.
Malkev smile softly. That will give me a few more minutes. He thought while idly swatting at a fly which landed upon his shoulder. It buzzed in protest. Zipping in circles, it's surface appearing to glint in the crystal jade's green light. Eventually it settled on a far wall. In a place where it wouldn't bother anyone.
Malkev sighed. Taleb was ignorant of his father's passage. Ignorant of the hatred he should hold against his uncle. Malkev's entire world had flipped on its head in the matter of a week. How did things ever go so wrong?
“What I am going to do?” Malkev muttered under his breath.
"Sir?" One of his nearby personal guard asked.
“It's nothing.” Malkev said, waving the guard aside. The guard eyed him. Was that concern he saw in the man's eyes. His worry must be rubbing off on them
Malkev shook his head. The girl, Karina, was a way out. A way to potentially save his people from having to fight off the nation of Touch's soldiers, but it was only a temporary reprieve. She expected loyalty out of him. For him to put his people back in harm's way in a moment's notice. It seemed simple, but what else would they ask from him? Furthermore, what might they do to ensure that Malkev makes good on his promise?
Malkev looked Taleb, watching the as the boy tossed yet another stone across the water's surface.
That boy... He would hate Malkev one day. The moment he learned the reason for his father's death. For the time being he knew not that his father was even dead. But once he did... how long could Malkev keep the reason behind his death a secret.
Malkev had failed his brother. Failed him in the worst way possible. One day, Malkev would pay for his crimes. For now, however, the least Malkev could do was ensure the safety of his brother's son... Even if it meant putting his people on the front lines to some future war he didn't agree to...
"I did it!" Taleb exclaimed. "That's three skips now!"
Malkev smiled to his nephew. His mind now made up. He would agree to help Ms. Frost. In exchange, he would ask that she assure his family's safety.
Year 4256 3nd day of the month of Olfaccium Evening
Chres sat outside, sitting on the ground and staring at the distortion's strange night sky. After hearing the news from Karina's squad, he needed to get some air to think. The Nation of Touch's Army was about to march seeking revenge for the Emperor's sister.
He took a sip of flavored water from his flask and shook his head. What was the world coming to?
A series of footsteps could be heard approaching Chres. It was the man that everyone had been referring to as DB. He had been wandering around and decided to pay Chres a visit once he saw Chres.
He’d squat down next to Chres and look at him. He’d ask, “Hey. So what’s your drink of choice in that flask? As for me, I managed to grab myself a bottle of some wine and refilled my gourds with it.”
“Hmm?” Chres hummed. He blinked twice and paid a glance at his company.
DB sat beside him. The man without a name. Drink of choice? Chres wondered to himself, only to realize DB must have been referring to the flask in his hand. Oh right.
“Ale.” He said, with an amused smile. Chres was curious to see if the man would catch on.
“Ale? That’s a terrible lie, or I met some sort of pervert. I can’t imagine anyone without anything wrong with them liking flat beer.” The man would reply as he pulled the cork off the gourd which then dangled from a string.
“At least it’s cheap.” He said. “Sometimes, I go a little crazy and add a bit of lemon juice to spice things up.” He smiled to himself, amused with the facade.
Chres took a sip from his flask and winced. “Aaah,” He exhaled. “Deliciously flat.”
He looked over the man’s gourd. “Where’d you get the wine from?” He asked.
“As for me, I’ve stolen some drinks from the cultists and our generous ‘friends’ here.”
Chres chuckled softly. Then with a sigh he stared up at the distorted night sky.
“Things are about to heat up. I can’t imagine this town not getting destroyed in the battle that’s about to happen. It’s a shame that the people will be scattered, and this branch of the cult won’t be completely crushed.”
Chres nodded, his smile fading. He had hoped Karina would be their way out of this mess. He had hoped they wouldn’t need to fight. It had been a fool’s hope. War was coming to them. Running away was not an option. At least for now...
“That might not happen if we win… The scattering of the people, that is. The people here are a resource to the Nation of Touch. If we succeed in killing the seed... if we succeed in driving out the Cult, the Nation of Touch will be here to pick up the pieces. Things will return to normal eventually… or rather a new normal.”
The man would take a swig of the wine. He mulled over what Chres had said. “Perhaps… That’s if we can kill the seed before the army starts torching things. There are multiple layers to these cultists. The lowest are those who have been convinced to join the cult and the magic is now corrupting and controlling them beyond indoctrination. Then we have the ones who might be lost due to more corruption. And at top we have those sightless who are either deeply warped by the corruption of this distortion or are spawned from it.
“I feel sorry for the recent converts. Their mistake will be punished harshly as despite being the most salvageable of the group, they’re also gonna be the most expendable. How many do you think they’ll send to stop or stall us from killing the seed, the same seed that will render them useless. I see the more elite of them being used to add power, but ultimately the important ones will try and escape.
“I simply wish to have these people freed without clogging the streets with their bodies on the way to it. As well as keeping from too many of their higher ups from escaping here. And I’ve been thinking about it since we left the clocktower.”
”A man of the people?” Chres said. He followed his words with another swig. ”You surprise me. I can honestly say I didn’t have you pinned as such… Well, you’re a better man than me then.
”I’ve been doing my damnedest to decouple myself from this town’s plight, else I fear it will lock a shackle around my wrist.” Chres frowned, his gaze lowering towards the flask.
”I’m no hero.” He said, an itch crawling up his neck. ”Nor do I want to be a hero... To be honest, I’m not even sure what I want anymore.”
Did he deserve to be punished? Did he deserve death? What did Chres deserve? He didn’t know. He couldn’t know. Not until he found out why.
”DB. Short for Dirty Bastard, I believe The Being said. It is a curious title, that.”
Chres eyed the man they called ‘DB’. Eyebrow arched and accompanied by a subtle smirk.
“I guess you could say that. I didn’t come for what you’d call a fancy background. So I can see myself in them and falling prey to the cult’s shining words. And it also doesn’t sit right with me to treat them like they’re nobodies.” He said as he drank.
“As for my ‘name’ it’s not even a title so much as what others have yelled at me as an insult. I guess it’s his joke; getting everyone to call me DB, which is such a nonsense name. But I guess with everything that’s been happening no one’s gotten around to asking my real name. It’s Jen Gibre, by the way.” He’d say continuing from where he left off.
”Jen Gibre, huh? Well now… Definitely a better name than Dirty Bastard if I do say so myself.” Chres smiled to Jen. ”So Jen, is this a habit of yours? Going around helping the people you see falling victim to the powerful?”
“Truthfully, I’m more of a wanderer. It just happens that my current affairs concerns the cult. So doing anything to weaken them isn’t really me going out of my way to do something. In fact it behooves both me and the rest of you guys. And what about you? What were you supposed to be doing before getting pulled into this?” Jen would respond.
Chres raised his brow as Jen’s explanation seemed to clicked. A grudge against the cult might explain why Jen had always been eager to pick a fight with the cult in the past.
”Me?” Chres asked as he stared down at his drink. ”You mean aside from search for mundane ways to end my life?” Lowering his drink, Chres sighed. ”You know… I honestly don’t know...”
He looked to the stars and frowned. ”I’ve spent the last year beating myself up over the death of someone I held dear… but now I’m beginning to wonder if all that self hatred was even deserved… You see, things didn’t end between us on the best of terms. Vows were broken. Trust forsaken… It is a side to this that I’ve been ignoring for quite some. Now, I wonder if it is something worth looking into...”
Chres blinked, and shook his head. He looked Jen and smiled. ”I’m sorry. You got me rambling.” He said. “Must be from all the crazy that’s been happening… or maybe just the ale going to my head.”
”That’s fine. Not surprised you’re troubled by something. With what the being said and the look in your eyes is more than enough to suggest something.” He’d say.
Chres nodded. “So,” He said, trying to change the topic, “what sort of ‘current affairs’ has a wanderer like you going after the cult?”
“It’s a story, but one better told with more company and drinks. For now I’ll keep it simple. I’m taking care of some loose ends and doing a repayment of sorts. Although… I don’t think I’ll be as easily free as I think I will.” Jen would answer.
Chres raised his brow, curious. ”Sounds more vague than simple.” Looking ahead, he took a sip from his flask and said, ”Stories best told with company and drinks are either adventurous, hilarious or...” Chres eyed the man beside him. ”...depressing.”
“Don’t know if I’d call it depressing, but it’s still not a happy one.” He’d reply as he ruminated on the emphasis Chres put on depressing. It wasn’t exactly the most subtle of hints. He wondered if whatever he was feeling was pushing him to drop these hints in finally sharing his secret.
He was going to try his luck and inquire. He figured if they were all gonna be traveling together for however long it might not be a bad thing to open up to each other? Besides, he had some morbid curiosity about what exactly what this man was hinting at. “So, would you mind sharing what went wrong with this person you cared for?”
Chres’s back stiffened at Jen’s question. ”I-” He stuttered. ”she-” Looking down at the flask in his hand, Chres stared wide eyed into his past. With a swallow, he offered his flask over to Jen. He no longer was in the mood for another sip.
”She… she had been sleeping with another man...” Chres said at last. ”I... I found out and then… then I...” The words got caught in his throat. They stayed there, threatening to strangle him.
He lowered his head and shut his eyes. A battle raged on inside him. Emotions so powerful, they nearly overwhelmed him. Then finally, released in quiet exhale, Chres spoke weakly. ”And then... I killed her...”
Jen felt shock rumble through his body at this revelation. His eyes narrowed as he spoke, ”You know somehow I’m not surprised by this given how you’ve been hinting at something horrible. And yet, I’m still shocked…”
Chres opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ground. Familiar emotions swelled inside him. Regret and remorse... though, something was different this time. Something new from having heard the words from his own lips. From having told someone else who he had put in effort to know.
Shame… that was new…
”I should go...” He whispered. He rose from his seat, not bothering to retrieve his flask.
”Thank you, Jen…” He said. ”For the company, that is.”
“No problem? Well that’s one hell of way of putting my own problem in perspective. Anyway it’s been-” Jen stopped speaking. Chres had already begun to leave. He must not have been looking for a response. Jen stayed a while longer as he became engrossed with his own past memories. Still, he’d have his own fill of solace and would rise to leave.
Before he left, he’d notice the flask left behind by Chres. He figured that man might want it back after leaving it behind. Out of curiosity however, he’d undo the lid and inspect it. Just as he thought, it wasn’t any type of booze at all. Which meant that confession was done sober. Jen would leave in thought at what happened. In the distance, cool wind picked up and wove throughout the sleeping town. Its howl, a song of sorrow.
Year 4256 3nd day of the month of Olfaccium Morning
“Why hello Mr. Spider! You look like you could use a new home!” Sil said, prodding one of the many spiders she found making its home in the caves.
The spider coiled back from her touch. Obviously it found the prospects of a new home quite exciting!
“Well aren’t you lucky,” Sil continued, “because I’ve got just the pair of pants for you!”
She poked the spider again, causing it to quickly scuttle to the top of its web.
“Don’t worry!” Sil said. “No need to rush! You’ve got plenty of time to pack!” Sil leaned in close to the spider. “You see,” She whispered. “I can’t move you yet. Not without my little sister, Akai. There’s too many of you spiders for me to move by myself after all. I’m going to need her help so that I move all of you into Octavapoo’s pan-”
“What?” Lynx interjected.
By all means, he should’ve heard what was being said even from twice as far, but his brain had automatically blocked her words. Sil’s voice had that effect on him. Analyzing her tone could have helped, but the venn diagram of her inside voice, her outside voice, and her secretive voice was a circle.
“What are you doing here, Sil?”
Sil yelped, jumping visibly in mid-air. She spun on her heels. Her hands hidden behind her back “Me?!” She said defensively. “What about you? Just what are you doing here?”
The desperate attempt to change the subject would have been noted immediately by the average person. Lynx was not the average person.
“The underground chambers were unbearable,” he said, too busy defending himself to connect the dots. “You are also a familiar. There is no point in surrounding ourselves with luxuries that we cannot enjoy.” Being in enclosed spaces for too long had also reminded him of his days in captivity, not that he would admit that to anyone.
The realization hit him too late.
“You are plotting something.”
“Silly Lynx.” Sil said. “Always using fake words.” She giggled as she fluttered down to Lynx’s level.
“Hey!” She spouted excitedly. “Did you hear we’re getting a little sister?!”
He puffed out his chest slightly, staring her down out of habit. “Little sister? What is that supposed to mean?”
He connected the dots late. Again.
“Wait a minute! Do not imply that we are related!”
“Not related? Pshh.” She gave Lynx a dismissive wave. ”I'm a familiar with you. You're a familiar with me... See? Related.”
Had he been a human man, he would’ve grit his teeth. Instead, he only narrowed his feline eyes. “And I thought you were unable to spout little quips like that. You really are a fairy.” He paced around, looking for any sign of this so-called little sister. “Well, where is she?”
”Hm?” Sil hummed. She put her hand on her forehead as if shading her eyes from the sun. She looked left. She looked back at Lynx and shrugged while humming the words ‘I don’t know’.
”Icesarina, just said I was going to be her biiiiiiiiiig sister. She said she was going to pick her up today too. So that must mean our new sister must be really, really small.”
It was odd to hear things like that, to remember that they were products, made and picked up by humans. “Another familiar, small.” He paused, muttering to himself. “Karina. Why would she want a familiar?” She really didn’t seem like the type. It was more likely she wanted something that would assist her in combat or mobility than entertainment, from what he knew of her. Those kinds of familiars were a lot less aggravating, at least.
”It's probably because she just wanted us to have a little sister.” Sil replied in very matter-of-factly fashion.
“In the middle of a war?” he asked.
”Does it matter?” Sil asked. ”We’re getting a little sister! Aren’t you just a little excited?”
“No.” The response came automatically.
“Unless… this familiar can fight. Neither of us were created with that purpose in mind.”
”Fight?” Sil repeated. ”You fight though… I-” Sil hesitated, her cheer slowly becoming concerning. Almost as if something had just occurred to her. ”I’ve seen you fight… Haven’t I?”
”You have. But that was not why I was created. Why we were created. In my case specifically, I was meant to be an ornament for a wealthy family.
Ornament. It was the word Octavio used to describe him when they’d first met, and it had stuck with him. He’d always found it more insulting than any attacks made on his animal characteristics or attempts to fit in with human society, because at least the people who had said those things were acknowledging him. “Ornament” was a complete and total dismissal, one that established him as something that wasn’t disrespected because it didn’t have the capacity to be seen or heard in the first place.
”You, as a fairy, were created to serve as entertainment. I cannot imagine you in a castle surrounded by fragile objects, however.” The mental image made his head cock in amusement.
”But I’m not a fairy. I’m Sil” Sil said. ”And you aren’t a very good ornament, you know? Afterall, you won’t break if I kick you… I think...”
Sil looked to Lynx, curiously. A single finger placed on her lip. Slowly, she fluttered up to Lynx’s snout and, without warning, slammed the sole of her foot in-between the poor familiar’s nostrils.
Sil gave a satisfied nod. ”Nope!” She exclaimed. ”Definitely not a good ornament.”
Lynx shook his head, irritated more than anything else. “I thought you had improved at least a little bit.” His front claw twitched. “Unfortunate.”
The claw etched parallel streaks across the dirt ground. “Dirty tricks like that work, but only once. We are going to have to acquire some sort of combat familiar to improve our odds. Take it from someone who has survived with them.” His mouth twitched oddly, not used to the colloquial phrase. He could test out language like this around someone like her without having to worry, he realized.
Sil sighed ”What we really need is a silly little sister to soften you up.” She said. ”All this talk about fighting...”
Sil gave Lynx a serious look. ”Back then… you changed when you started fighting… You became… scary...” She hesitated a bit before continuing. ”Or maybe you didn’t change… Maybe fighting Lynx is the real Lynx, and boring Lynx is just you covering it up...”
She said it with a bluntness that reminded him of the way children spoke, before society had taught them that pointing things out was bad. Lynx knew exactly what she was referring to, and as his free claw struggled to find ground, the memories stirred in his “mind” in an unpleasant miasma that served to remind him how unnatural his existence was. Pain was good, he had come to realize. It was the body signalling what was wrong to its host, what needed mending or rest. When it came to sensations like this as a familiar, defined by a tangle of strange emotions that threatened to unravel his ability to think clearly, the pain of an animal was what he yearned for the most.
“I…” he began, “I was overcome by instinct. Or to be clearer, the instinct that my creators imbued me with. Who- no, what I was destined to be and what, who I have become are both me. It is a contradiction...”
His mind returned to normal, and he began to think of the others, the outbursts of emotion that cracked past their fronts.
“...but that is what most makes me human.”
Sil frowned. Trying her best to understand. Why was understanding so hard? ”I… I don’t understand...” She said deflatedly.
”Chres told me it’s okay not to know… Not to... understand…” She lowered her head, arms hugging herself. ”But back then… now... it doesn’t feel okay...”
She looked up to Lynx, a troubled look on her face. It was very unlike Sil. Yet, just as quickly as it had come, her expression began to fade.
”You know, I’m glad you’re okay.” She said, a soft smile appearing on her face. ”Even if you do always act like you’ve got a puddle up your butt.”
She giggled to herself softly and fluttered high enough to perch herself atop Lynx’s head.
Lynx fell to the ground in a janky movement that had more in common with an animal than a person. He rolled once and stared at her with even more disappointment than before, yet didn’t get back up.
“Not understanding things is a fundamental- an important part of being human, I think. Before I rescued Octavio I lived in a castle alongside scholars, and all of them were obsessed with knowing more about the world. At first, I could not understand their conversations, but through my errors came knowledge. I can be okay because I can always extract something of value from a failure.” Then, with a haughty touch he added, “That is something many humans are unable to understand.”
Having fallen off of Lynx’s head after he rolled, she picked herself up off the ground and brushed herself off.
”I see... I have to fail in order to learn…” Sil said nodding at Lynx’s statement. ”So then the reason I understand so little is because I must be really bad at making mistakes!”
He stifled a laugh. “That way of thinking is itself a mistake.”
”It is?” Sil said with a tilt of the head. ”Well, good! I must be getting better at learning then!”
As tempting as it was to supplement his thoughts with ramblings about humility and maturity, he didn’t think Sil was the appropriate student, nor him the proper teacher for that sort of thing. “What of all the broken vases you have left in your wake? Surely that must be a mistake to you, in some fashion.”
Parties weren’t parties until someone’s fairy familiar broke something, after all.
”Silly Lynx.” Sil replied with a dismissal wave. Her wings began to flutter, lifting her back off the ground. ”One day, I’m going to have to teach you about a little something called ‘art’.”
He chuffed. Art was one of those concepts in life he never understood, no matter how many books he read on theory nor how many rants from Octavio he listened to about the prestige of theater. To humans, even familiars themselves were art. He looked at Sil.
He didn’t get it.
Sil giggled softly to herself, and circled once around Lynx before coming to a halt a hand’s length from his snout. She gave the familiar a curious look as she raise a finger to her lip.
”Say, Lynx...” She started. ”What is your first memory?”
His thoughts shifted, but the difficulty remained.
“That is a question I am unable to answer. My infancy, if you could call it that, was spent trapped in a castle. All of my days there were indistinguishable from one another.”
Trying to single out any one memory prior to his escape felt like trying to decipher a single image from a kaleidoscope. Or understand art in general, for that matter.
“What about you? What was your early life like?”
”Mine?” Sil tilted her head to the side as if surprised to have the question pushed back on to herself.
”My first memory?” She looked towards the ceiling, humming in thought.
”Puddles...” She said. ”Puddles everywhere… They fell from the sky… they flowed across the ground… they rolled down Chres’ cheeks… It… It was beautiful.” She said as if romanticizing the experience.
”I…” began Lynx. It dawned on him what she meant, and the words caught in his throat.
”I remember gasping in awe, and dancing between puddles as they fell. ‘No...’, It was the first word Chres said to me. Such an odd way to greet a new friend. I nearly took it as my name. ‘No...’ He said again. ‘I killed you… why… why did you give me this gift?’ Such a weird one that Chres is… Said I looked just like her.”
Intelligence had always been a prickly subject for him, especially the topic of social cues. But much to his horror, the pieces were falling into place in front of him. Killing was an unfortunate part of their new lives, but the last person he’d have expected to partake in it before this had started was Chres.
“Chres… had killed someone?” was all he could say.
”Hmm?” She hummed, head tilted to the side.
”Killed someone? … Yeah, I guess so... Weird, huh?” She gave Lynx a smile and a shrug, as if nothing was wrong.
She gasped shortly after, pointing to something behind Lynx. ”Look! Another spider!” Sil zipped past Lynx excitedly, towards the aforementioned spider.
Lynx let out a brief yowl and dove to avoid the fairy. It had been startling enough to make him even more uneasy.
“During our first encounters, he had displayed a desire to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Is that the reason why?” Conversation wasn’t his strong suit, and he was feeling increasingly out of his comfort zone. This was a job for Octavio, not him.
“Wait, what are you planning on doing with that spider?!”
”Art.” Sil answered while poking at the spider. ”Oh my! You’re a lively one, aren’t you?”
Brief memories of Octavio explaining the convoluted and nonsensical plots to his favorite plays flashed in his mind. “That makes sense, I suppose. As long as you do not begin to claim that crushing a spider is a metaphor for poverty or romantic tension or something to that degree.”
”Whatever that means.” Sil said, mostly ignoring him.Then to herself she said, ”Crush it? Must be the beastly side of Lynx showing its head again.”
”Huh!?” he chuffed, “I am showing my studies, actually! My understanding of art is limited, but even I can notice that violence is always the answer when it comes to appeasing critics of the arts. If you are serious about this, that is.” Despite his attempts to present himself as mature at all times, Lynx was getting carried away by once more.
”Oooooooh Lynx, I haven’t been more serious about a thing in my life!” Sil said with a smile. ”Now shoo, shoo. This soon to be big sister has work to do!”
The thought of Sil’s art being appraised puzzled him. What would humans, with their unfathomable standards say? Would they claim it strummed their heartstrings as they did when consuming every other piece of media that had copious amounts of violence and heartbreak?
“I do not trust you Sil, although I must admit I am eager to see if you have the artistic capability required to impress a human.” He turned to leave, but stopped briefly. “Do not forget my advice. It is very important.”
And so Lynx walked across the horizon, his thoughts complex and critical of the humanities, unaware that this had all been a ploy to put spiders in someone’s pants.
Year 4256 2nd day of the month of Olfaccium Morning
Chres eyed the giant man towering beside him. On the one hand, he was glad to have someone else here to help him search for Sil. The man served as a distraction. A distraction from his thoughts and inner worries. On the other hand, Chres had no desire to form any kind of deeper relationship with Týfurkh or the others. The closer Chres got with the rest, the more likely he would be to stick around longer. In the end, he wanted nothing more than for this whole thing to be over and done with. The sooner he finished in this town, the sooner he could move on to getting himself kill without a guilty conscience holding him back.
Frowning, Chres lowered his gaze towards the ground. Why had Týfurkh asked to join him anyway? The man had been quite peeved with Sil's insults regarding him the day before. Chres barely even knew the man. So to be honest, the man's actions didn't make much sense to Chres.
Chres tightened the cloak around him. The cloak was a different one from the cloak they had been given the night before. In fact, each of them had been provided with such a cloak to be used when traveling outside the tunnels. Chres couldn't help but find their generosity suspicious, but wasn't about to complain. The cloak was dry after all.
The cloak came with many pockets, including one where they could tuck away one of the Crystal Jade Candles that the group had been able to snag during the day the inn burned down. So long as the crystal jade candle stayed tucked away within the shade of the cloak, its glow would protect them from the prying eyes of the Sightless. And should its protection fail? Well... Chres and the rest had already seen what a single broken crystal jade candle could do to the cult. This time, Chres did not intend to leave safety without one.
It had taken a while to find one of those cloaks that was an appropriate fit for Týfurkh and in fact one could very well argue if it was such at all, but they had insisted on him wearing one so vigorously that it seemed almost suspicious. It was a useful piece of clothing with all of its pockets, but the pactmaker also hoped that it was just that.
Standing next to Chres, Týfurkh did some final checks on his crossbow. Maybe going without it would have made him less obvious, but just in case things would go wrong he'd still feel better with it. Luckily they were two, so that meant two sets of eyes to be on the lookout for both cultists and their actual goals. These were Sil and one, preferably two horses. He was happy to have Chres around not only because of that, but also because the man would make him feel a bit less lonely in the ravaged city. Going without any sort of company would have been a straight contradiction to any statement he had made towards DB some hours earlier anyway.
"Are you ready? If so then let's head out right away. I'd suggest making the search for Sil our highest priority. Do you have any idea where your companion might be?"
Chres looked to Týfurkh. Why? Why did he care? Was he working an angle here?
It had been a bit of a hassle just for the two of them to leave the tunnels. The tunnels had no indication that helped them identify where they were. In the end the two of them had to ask for assistance from one of the slaves. The two were then given a guide and led an exit.
Chres shook his head to the man's question. "She won't respond to any of my prodding." He said. "So the only lead we've got is to check where we've been." He nodded up ahead. "Starting with the safe house we stayed at the night the Inn burned down."
The building seemed dark and abandoned. Much like it did the night they came there. Chres opened the door and called out Sil's name, but received no response. Frowning, Chres began scouting out the rooms.
"You say Sil is our highest priority... are you implying we have other priorities?" Chres glanced over his back towards the tall man. "May I ask what exactly you're out here looking for?"
"I wouldn't call it a real priority compared to seeking Sil, but I have been planning on returning to the nation of hearing and making a report about the abrupt change in my previous journey once there is the opportunity. Therefore I need to gather some supplies in the city and, if it's possible, something to ride on."
Chres cocked his head to the side curiously. Report? To whom?
Týfurkh wondered if Chres would see any problem with that plan, but continued searching through the various parts of the building as well. A few minutes later it was time to summarize the humble results: "There's no living being here. I suppose you've been unlucky finding anything as well? Then... if backtracking correctly, the next stop would be the belltower. However we'd also have to follow the path we took from there to here in order to do things right."
The way the pactmakers had taken from said location to the safehouse had been a rather hurried walk, so at least for Týfurkh remembering the details about it was quite a bit of a challenge. "I think we came through that narrow alley over there. Where was the last time you have seen Sil?"
"The bell tower..." Chres said uneasily.
They would need to tread lightly. Was it even safe to go back to the tower? No... probably not. Perhaps they could pay some kids to scout out the place.
Chres motioned to the exit. "Perhaps this time we should take the long way there..." He said.
They left the building in silence. Chres rubbing his chin in thought. Týfurkh seemed to be on the optimistic side. Talking like they would live through this. Chres wasn't sure he shared the man's optimism.
"The Nation of Hearing, huh?" Chres said making conversation. "Never pinned you as a scholarly type, though I suppose not everyone there is a scholar." Chres chuckled at that. "Must have quite the story to have come all the way over here."
"Maybe you'd be a little surprised if you knew more about me." Týfurkh smirked slightly, looking at Chres to see his first reaction for a moment before continuing: "No, just kidding. I wouldn't consider myself to be anyone particular. I did have a task however when I tried to take a rest in this town, and that task has been disrupted by what is going on here and now I find myself in an entirely different situation. I simply feel obliged to inform those I'm working with about the fact that there will be delays at least, maybe even complete cancellation."
Chres nodded. He suspected many in the group felt the same. We all seem to have different objectives. He thought.
Silently, Týfurkh agreed with taking the long way. It would take a lot longer and expose them on the streets for a longer time span as well, but rushing right into the hot zone again would be murderous. Also going the long route would make their search for Sil more thorough. The man started going onwards, thinking that the route he took would make clear that he agreed with Chres' opinion.
"Not everyone in the Nation Of Hearing is a scholar indeed. I'd not even say that everyone in the Nation Of Hearing can... well... listen carefully and with respect. However we value diplomacy a little bit more I guess and personally I hope that what the group of people I'm along with is working on will make a significant improvement on that."
"Sounds like every other place I know, just with its own quirks." Chres said. "I've been to the capital a few times, you know? Can't say I was much of a fan. Go out for a drink and then you'll suddenly meet someone giving you a 10 minute long lecture explaining why and how you're a menace to society."
Chres smiled sadly. Those days are over though. He thought touching his flask full of water. Now, I only dare drink water.
Týfurkh was dangerously close to an outburst of laughter that, given his size, would have had quite the potential to trigger some unwanted attention. He tried his best to contain it, but a distinct chuckle still was noticeable. It was not the first time for him to be told that the people of the Nation Of Hearing had a potential of being... excessively talkative. He was very, very far away from interpreting this as any kind of insult though. "Well I guess every nation has its own quirks. Someone of a certain other nation maybe would have used the ten minutes to draw a sketch about your future self after it, full of booze, just accidentally stumbled into a cesspool?"
Chres smiled. "Yes," He agreed. "I suppose someone of another nation would."
So far their journey into the town was uneventful, but that didn't make it any less spooky. If one knew how places like this normally looked like it was easy to notice that something wasn't alright. Týfurkh listened to the few songs of birds that could be heard, but they too were not filled with so much joy as they ought to be.
"Maybe you should try the waters of Syefjalla?" Syefjalla was a town located close to a rather active, but non so volatile vulcano. "The ubiquitous deposits of freshly frozen lava, gases raising from the underground and heat give the ground water a rather unique taste there. Mix that with the process of beer making and the result is quite interesting."
"Interesting? In what way?" Chres asked.
"There's a sulfurous, bitter-sweet taste to it and you can feel gases tingling on your tongue when they come out of the liquid. Some people also swear that they could feel some kind of mineralic residue on their teeth afterwards, but personally I would doubt that for the lack of personal experience. It's also not always the same, depending on how and where the vulcano was active by the time the water was extracted."
Chres smiled. "I see." He said. "Seems like you're a scholar afterall."
They continued on much like that. Making small talk here and there. Eventually, they made their way back to the opening with the tower. Carely they looked out into the open trying to see if the cult was near.
"Problem is, we have no way of knowing who's with The Cult and who is not." He said to Týfurkh. "Perhaps it would be best to ask around... Maybe even pay someone to take a look."
"Pay someone? Sounds like an unconventional but good idea. The only problem I see with it is that we can't even be sure if the one we pay is of a neutral party or not. Still... probably better than going in there ourselves."
Týfurkh glanced around the corner. It seemed that either the fighting had remained inside the tower after their departure or that a profound cleanup had already been done: no bodies, no blood stains and no dropped weapons were to be seen from where they were.
"I suggest we use some cover story when asking around. That bell coming down must have made an awful sound even outside of the building, so what if we pretend wondering what has happened and ask for the general state of affairs? Just to get a rough idea of what's going on."
Chres nodded. It sounded like a plan to him.
The two of them circled the area, stopping people here and there. They all gave the same general story with the occasional outlandish detail here. Some claimed that a group of thugs had stopped at the tower and vandalized the area. Others said it was the cult attacking an innocent group of bystanders.
Interestingly enough one of the tales even appeared to be about Sil. The man claimed a giant familiar with wings flew to the tower singing and dancing between the raindrops. During her dance, she accidentally kicked the bell and sent it crashing down on a group of cultists. Of course the same man then proceeded to tell them that he was the real King of Sight and that the current King was an impostor who stole his identity. Chres tried steering the conversation back to Sil, but unfortunately the man seemed dead set on shifting towards birds. Apparently birds knew all the secrets of the world because their eyes were so sharp that they could see the difference between truth and lies. Not only that, Týfurkh and Chres were in luck! For the man had an incredible ability allowing him to birds too!
“I can prove it!” He said. “All I need is two gold coins!”
Chres rubbed his forehead and sighed as they walked away from the clearing with the tower. "Well that was a waste of time." He said. "We might as well hit up the market square next. We can take care of your business there while we are at it."
”If the situation would be less serious I’d say it was a pretty good piece of amusement -- until the moment he tried to lure gold coins out of our pockets, of course…” Týfurkh shook his head slightly, wondering if what the cult was doing had other effects than the obvious ones as well. Coming across a few people other than standard was completely normal, but that last weirdo certainly had the potential to top everything.
The market square was a few blocks away from the belltower, a few minutes walk at ordinary speed perhaps. ”I wouldn’t be surprised if the traders there are greedy and want coins for answers, but let’s see.” Týfurkh fumbled around in his pockets, searching for what money he actually had left. ”If you see a horse with light brown fur and a small dent in its left ear chances are pretty good it’s the one I’ve lost.”
The marketplace was rectangular-shaped, spanning across the length of about half a dozen buildings in one and another three in the other direction. There was quite a bunch of more or less small stalls present and even more people roaming around them, but overall things were far from exhausting the space available. ”Shall we stay together or shall I go left and you go right?”
"Together.” Chres said. "I’ll keep look out while you barter with the merchants. Stay away from the food stalls though. We learned yesterday that they have Cultists supporters there.”
Cultists in the food stalls? Hopefully those cultists would only be there, Týfurkh thought while already being tempted to answer his own question with an answer he couldn’t prefer. Trying to recognize those stalls ahead in time and skipping them, he got to work and started talking. Many of the merchants proved anything but helpful with regard to either task, but one told a story about a strange silvery feathered bird that had followed him through the night. “It watched from afar,” he claimed, "Leering at me intently. ‘Leave me alone!’ I shouted at it. It raised its head as if amused. With a flap of its wings it seemed to transform. Smaller and smaller it became. All the while its figure growing grotesque... appendages sprouting from its side. The finally it shrank to the point where I could no longer ever see where it had gone. It could be right here, even now! A familiar for sure, I tell you!”
Týfurkh glanced over towards Chres, wondering if the hint sounded credible enough for him to follow it. Chres merely glanced back and shrugged. It was shaped like a bird afterall.
Then, more in the distance, Týfurkh saw something else: A certain creature with hooves and a large dent in one of its ears. A cart was attached to it as it was going to be loaded with the items of a stall being packed again. The giant hurried towards it, knowing that time was of the essence now.
At first there was gentle and very modest inquiry, an attempt to tell the true story why he had lost his mount while omitting those parts that included fighting with cultists. Then Týfurkh listed quite a bunch of the less obvious properties of his horse which only a previous owner could know about without close inspection, but was met with hard-to-beat arguments ranging from ‘You could have had a look at it by chance at some point before!’ to ‘And ? You lost it, I found it. Now it’s mine!’.
A steady crescendo in each of the men’s volume and a deal which included Týfurkh having to unload the cart again and to pay some coin for his own property, Týfurkh’s mood was anything but good when he returned to Chres: ”This is ridiculous! I now have essentially bought the horse almost twice!” Turning his head around once more to the man at the stall he yelled at him furiously: ”And I don’t have a fat ass that shouldn’t sit on that thing, but you are someone who wouldn’t have stood a chance in a fight against me!” Týfurkh was brooding somewhat as he returned to Chres’ side.
Chres simply smiled. "Well...” He said. "I guess that makes it twice as special.”
He glanced over at the beast and idly wondered how the poor thing ever managed to carry the giant in the first place.
“-raving about puddles, I tell you!” A man exclaimed to his companion nearby. Chres’ head perked up. “She was drawing on the ground, rambling about puddles. Big puddles, small puddles, sky puddles-”
“Sky puddles?” The man’s companion interrupted. He raised an eyebrow in amusement.
"Excuse me, Sir” Chres heard himself say. "Who said this?”
The man and his companion looked up at Chres. They seemed surprised to hear some stranger take interest in their conversation.
“Some crazy, lost familiar up by where the docks-” The man started, but Chres was already off in a sprint.
I’ve been so foolish. He thought. Of course she was at the Dockside View! The inn where this whole mess started! But that place burnt down to the ground... Why is she there now?
Týfurkh only saw the back of Chres as the man was already about to disappear in a narrow sideway. What had the other man said? The Docks? Sil being there didn’t make that much sense to him, but who was he to know much about Chres’ familiar? Anyway, if he didn’t want to lose the other man in a network of streets he hardly knew much about, he’d have to follow quickly.
Týfurkh was pretty used to drawing attention and making people turn their heads in order to stare at him, but that was on foot. Him riding down the street at speed brought the entire thing to a somewhat new level, but at least there weren’t that many people out there he’d have to worry about in terms of an emergency stop.
”Chres?” he called out to the front of him. ”Stop, please! I’m confident there are faster ways than you running like a madman! Need a ride?”
Chres glanced behind him as if surprised. Týfurkh? Right. In his haste, he left the man behind. Chres slowed to a walk. The giant was right. All he was doing right now was drawing attention to them.
Chres nodded to the giant and climbed the man’s mount. While getting on the horse, the creature whined as if displeased by the extra weight. Chres couldn’t help but feel sorry for the animal. With his size, armor and accessories, Týfurkh must have weighed quite a bit.
There wasn’t much room atop the horse, but Chres made the best of it that he could.
”The Dockside View.” Chres said. ”The inn we stayed at which the cult burnt to the ground. It is the only other place we’ve been to that we haven’t checked.”
Týfurkh felt more sorry for Chres as he felt for the horse. The latter had been the giant’s companion for quite a while by now and thus was used to carrying an extreme burden, but he wasn’t so sure about the former feeling comfortable given what little space was left on the saddle.
Still it was safe to say that the additional weight didn’t make them any faster, but only the contrary. However it was still faster than going by foot and saved precious stamina just in case things would become ugly. Týfurkh struggled a bit to remember where the Dockside View was, but ultimately he turned to the right and made the mount going.
”If Sil likes water then the Dockside View sounds like a logical place to go. Do you have any idea what might have caused your familiar to disappear in the first place ? Any ongoing dispute or so perhaps ?”
Týfurkh hoped that the cult wouldn’t be present at the docks. A place where ships could make port and bring in supplies and relief forces sounded like an attractive place to take a hold of though… at least if he would have been to lead them.
”I suggest we go in from the smallest alley we can find. I don’t trust the overall calmness here…”
Chres nodded. ”I… I don’t know why she left. She said she has to know, but she never said what she had to know.”
He shook his head. ”I keep wondering if it is because of me.” He said. ”Maybe if I tried to understand her better… to actually know her... ”
Chres sighed. ”I never asked for a familiar.” He said. ”Perhaps she’s just picked up on that… She was something just given to me… A gift… from my wife... ”
Chres looked down at his ring. He had taken to playing with the accessory again. Twisting it around his finger.
”Do you have any family?” He found himself asking. ”Anybody waiting for you back at home?”
”Technically yes, I do have family. A rather extensive one actually, even though I only really know those relatives closest to me. However…” A rather odd pause ensued. ”We aren’t exactly on good terms. Not anymore with my father at least. He never truly accepted that I decided to join the Order Of Canor instead of doing all the sowing and ploughing for the rest of my life and he’s still somewhat angry at me for that. I hope that they’re alright though, haven’t seen them in quite a while.”
Týfurkh had reached the end of his speech, taking a few moments to look at the road ahead and to continue navigating them through the maze of streets and sideways. Since Chres was sitting behind him he couldn’t see what he was doing, only hear what he was saying.
”In case you’re wondering, the Order Of Canor is the entity I’m working for and which has taught me those magic tricks. And you? How did you get here?”
”The Order of Candor.” Chres repeated. ”Never heard of them. You say they taught you how to wield your magical abilities?”
Chres thought of that for a moment, before shaking his head. ”I… I sort of wandered here.” Chres said slowly. ”I came here looking for a means to… rest.”
It wasn’t a lie, though it was a misdirection. Chres had come here hope to find a suitable means for him to die.
”Yes, they did so. It actually was one of their members who helped me out in a bit of a helpless moment using his abilities when I had first contact with them. He said I’d have talent, so I considered it and ultimately joined them. Guess I was lucky…”
Aside from that, Týfurkh felt rather inconclusive about what to make out of Chres’ response. It sounded quite a bit like one of those answers when there was more behind it, but Týfurkh felt that it might not be the best moment to start digging while they were searching for the familiar Chres had lost.
The location they were heading for came closer no moment too soon as it seemed that the horse was about to give out beneath the two men’s combined weight. When Týfurkh dismounted, the sheer relief was almost palpable. ”So I guess there’s more than enough of a burned down mess here to keep us busy for a while. Shall we just walk along and see what we can find ?”
Chres nodded silently. The place was what one would expect of a building put to the flame. There wasn’t much left of the place sadly. A few walls survived here and there. Broken glass where the windows had been. Plates of metal that had survived the flames...
”Sil?” Chres called out hesitantly. He took care of where he stepped. Testing his footing in surviving floorboards that looked dubious at best.
Chres placed his hand against the remains of a doorway. ”Sil, you there?”
As if in response, the building creaked audibly. Chres jumped back as a pile of rubble tore a hole through the flooring on which he last stood.
Sucking in a breath, Chres stared at the gap in the floor that could have been him.
”That could have been bad...” He said, waving away the debris that clouded up around him. ”Perhaps coming here wasn’t such a good-”
Chres words trailed off. As the debris began to clear, He could make out a faint green light coming from the remains of the basement below.
”Sil!” He shouted. He reacted without thinking, summoning his stored body heat and Weaving it into a slide that dropped into the pit below. Without a thought for his own safety, he slid down the heat construct and into the ruins below.
”Sil!” Chres called out again as his feet landed on the ground below. Immediately he took off. ”What’s wrong? Why did you come all the way-”
Chres’s pace slowed. The glow he had seen… It hadn’t been her. Chres knelt to the ground and pulled out a crystal jade candle sticking out from the rubble. He stared as the candle glowed dimly in the shade the basement provided.
Týfurkh heard something coming down and turned his head to that direction, only to see a gaping hole in the floor without knowing what had caused it. Chres was still standing there, looking a little bit shocked. The next moment however, after Týfurkh had turned away only to be attracted again by another suspicious sound, the man was gone.
A voice was heard, somewhat muffled by what was left of the floor beneath his feet. It was Chres calling out for Sil, enthusiastically at first but not so much soon later. ”Did you find her ?” Týfurkh asked through the hole below, unable to clearly identify the object that was emitting that dim light through all the dust.
”Shall I come down ?”
”No...” Chres said. ”Just a crystal jade candle.”
He pocketed the candle and looked up to the giant man. ”I don’t think she’s here.” He said. ”Just another false lead.”
It took some time to get out of the ruined building’s lower floor. Mostly because Chres decided it would be wise to exit with more care than when he entered. Once below the opening from where he had slid down, Chres raised his foot as if stepping onto higher ground. As his foot lowered, he quickly Weaved a small foothold to rest his foot on. Then, pushing off the foothold, he repeated the process with his other foot. The effect made it appear as if Chres was climbing an invisible staircase, when in actuality, he was just making small heat constructs to act as platforms off the ground.
”We spent enough time chasing the wind…” Chres said grimly, after climbing out of the hole. ”Let’s head back.”
Their route home led them east, along Shimmer Lake’s bank. They decided to not risk cutting straight through the city, closer to territory patrolled by the cult. Týfurkh had taken to riding his horse back, while Chres had preferred sticking to his own two feet. He kept up with the horse’s slow trot, his hand absently petting the horse’s side. His mind, however, dallied.
Chres stared northward, rather than straight ahead. His eyes taking in the beauty that was Shimmer Lake. The docks and boats may have burned away, but the lake remained as pristine as ever. Its surface reflected the distorted green sun’s light in such a way that would bring a painter to tears.
It felt strange to not hear Sil’s excitement at seeing a ‘puddle’ so massive. His year of companionship with her had affected him far more than he knew. If only-
”Don’t you see?! It all makes sense now! The puddles are all connected!”
Chres’ head perked up. Was that Sil’s voice?
”Sky puddles, ground puddles, the yellow puddles you humans make- They’re all one! All puddles are connected! EVERYTHING is a puddle!”
Yes… yes that definitely was Sil! Chres looked ahead to where a bemused crowd had gathered around the tiny familiar.
”It’s her...” Chres heard himself say. Strange how every other time that thought had led him to rush into action. This time, however, he found himself standing there from shock and surprise.
”You know… at some point you need to explain to me why Sil is all about ‘puddles’...”
Chres simply shook his head. ”In all honesty, I don’t even know.” He sighed.
Týfurkh felt happy for Chres to have found his familiar again, but he also knew that this feeling might only be a fraction of what his companion was experiencing right now. He himself had never had a familiar, even though he had played with the thought a bit in the past. He also had never been able to figure out what kind of familiar would be best for both of them.
Carefully, Týfurkh approached the crowd. He did want the crowd to dissipate, but he didn’t want to trigger that so fast that Sil would be in any danger of getting trampled. Slowly he rode closer and then continued on fool. He didn’t know how Sil would react to him, so he directed his steps more towards the people in order to… start nudging them. Gently.
”I followed them as they fell from the sky, you see? They eat each other, just like sky puffs. Little by little they get bigger until they become giant ground puddles like this one here!”
Chres shook his head and followed the giant’s lead. The people he nudged aside gave him an annoyed look.
”We are all the same you see?” Sil continued. ”Humans eat puddles too! Why? Because they are puddles! It’s why humans leak puddles, bleed puddles, spit puddles- You’re all just living puddle-skins, eating skinless puddles so that you can become bigger puddles.” She emphasized her point by patting the stomach of one of the larger bystanders.
By this point Chres had made it to the edge of the crowd. ”Sil!” He hissed.
”Animals, you ask? Yes they are puddles too! Fish? Puddles. Plants? Puddles! Octavapoo? Yes, he’s definitely a puddle.”
”Sil!” Chres said more urgently.
”But what about me? What kind of puddle am I? Well you see-”
”Sil!” This time Chres said his name loud enough for everyone to hear.
Sil’s head jerked up in hesitation. Slowly, she looked to Chres.
”Chres?” She said.
”Sil… what are you doing here?”
”I-” She started, but she cut off the rest of her sentence. Her eyes widening almost as if in fear.
”N-no… I can’t…” There was a tremble in her words. Was that actual fear in her voice?
A spike of concern rose in Chres’ chest. He carefully took a step forward. ”Sil, it’s okay.” He said soothingly. ”Talk to me, Sil.”
”I can’t…” She whispered. Her form hovering away from Chres’ advances.
”Help me understand what’s wrong.”
”I can’t!” She said more insistently.
”Why?” He asked, doing his best to keep the frustration out of his voice.
”Because I don’t know!” Sil shouted back. ”Because I never know! Because I never-”
Her words trailed off. She hung her had towards the ground. Hand raised between her chest. There was a troubled look on her face. A look so foriegn yet familiar. A look which roused the memories deep inside.
”Because…” She repeated. Her voice softer this time. ”Because I never seem to know...”
Then it clicked. She had finally come to realize the thing that made her different. The thing about her that others could tell instantly. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what was wrong. It was that she had come to realize that she didn’t understand the world like everyone else. ”Oh, Sil...” He said. His words were a mere whisper. He felt his heart go out to her. What must it feel like to suddenly realize that your mental capacity was not up to par with everyone else’s?
”Why?” She asked despondently. ”Why is it that I don’t know?”
”I-” Chres said hesitantly. ”I don’t think I have an answer for that.”
”But you always seem to know...” She replied.
”It may seem that way, but I think you’ll find that I know about as much as anybody else.”
”You mean anybody else, aside from me.”
Chres frowned at her words. ”What happened, Sil? What happened in the tower.”
”I- I don’t know. Everything was so bright and colorful. Then, suddenly, it was like my eyes opened. Noeyes wasn’t playing with Lynx... he was hurting him. And there I was just prancing along like… like...”
Sil furrowed her brow, as if trying to remember something. ”You see… this is what happens… I don’t even remember what we were talking about!”
”Sil-”
”I thought if I tried to focus… focus for once on actually knowing something, then it might make it better. So I followed the puddles. I tried to get to know the puddles… But in the end...”
Sil looked up to the onlooking crowd. They had taken to whispering and pointing at both Chres and Sil.
”Puddles, Chres… What nonsense was I even saying to these people?”
He looked from them to her. ”Come on, Sil.” Ches said in a comforting voice. ”Let’s go home.”
He lay a finger beneath her form. She looked to it with hesitation. Then with a despondent nod, she took a seat upon his finger. ”Show’s over, people.” He said to the gossiping crowd.
Most of the crowd dispersed, though not without some disappointed groans. A few people lingered, but they too left as they realized that Chres had no intention of staying.
With a nod to Týfurkh. They headed on their way back.
The first several minutes were done so in silence. Chres’ mind a whirlpool of questions and concerns. Sil’s perhaps the same. But as they made their way away from the lake, Chres opened his mouth to speak.
”You know,” Chres started. ”There are things you know which I wish I knew half as well as you did.”
Sil gave Chres a skeptical look. ”Yeah,” She said. ”Like what?”
”You know how to have fun.” Sil gave Chres a frown.
”I’m serious!” Chres said defensively. ”Without you around, I would sulk so much that the rest of the world would probably just lock me away so I wouldn’t go around dampening the atmosphere! You, Sil, know how to make every day interesting.”
”Is that… Is that a good thing?” She asked in an honest tone.
”For someone like me, yes.” He said with a nod.
”But there are so many other things I don’t understand.”
”And that is absolutely okay.”
”Why?”
”Because nobody is capable of understanding everything. Because some people are better at understanding certain things more than others. It's okay to not understand things, so long as your heart is in the right place and you keep that lovely smile of yours on that face.”
Sil smiled softly. Her eyes wandering over to Týfurkh’s horse. ”You know what?” She asked.
”What?” Chres replied.
”I think Metalman was big enough without the donkey.”
”That’s a horse, Sil.” Týfurkh replied while avoiding to sound like a teacher. He felt happy for Chris finally having found his familiar, even though he could not make much sense out of the latter’s strict preferences for… puddles. ”And that’s only armor. I’m not actually made out of metal. Luckily!” Him made out of metal… how much worse would everyday life be that way?
”Will you promise me not to run away that soon again? Finding you was quite a bit of an effort and a dangerous one as well.” he asked friendly, clearly hoping for only one kind of response.
”’Not Metalman’ asks Sil a question...” Sil said to herself while raising a finger to her lips. ”I proooomise…-” She paused mid-sentence. Tilting her head to the side, she looked as if she were deep in thought. ”-nothing.” She finished with a grin.
Giggling to herself, Sil fluttered over to the horse. ”Good donkey.” She said patting the horse on the head.
Chres looked to Týfurkh and shrugged. You couldn’t win every battle he supposed. With a soft smile he glanced back at Sil. She had perched herself atop the horse’s head and began humming happily to herself.
She seemed like her normal self… but what had that all been about? He had never seen Sil act so serious before. So… aware… except… except on the nights when the shadows seemed darkest. Those nights were he serious had considered finally taking out his cord of rope and wrapping it around his neck. The thought made him shiver.
Was Sil changing or had something triggered this behavior? Chres shook his head. What was the point? He no longer had the means to get the answers to these questions. Chres had seen to that himself.
A darkness hovered over Chres. A darkness he had hoped would lessen upon finding Sil.
Oh Chres... Chres thought to himself. Ever always the fool...
Chres sat atop a cushion in the shared living space provided for them in the tunnel. He gently massaged his feet, watching Sil zip around the room 'ooing' and 'awing' at every little thing she saw. It had been a long day of searching around the town. The lake should have been the first place he searched. Of course she had been at the lake.
"Look, Chres!" Sil said, pointing to the sleeping quarters. "More caves!"
Chres smiled softly in response.
"Can I take a look?" She asked.
"So long as you don't touch anything." Chres replied.
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..." She hummed, a finger to her lips. "Guess I'll just have to kick things instead."
"That's-" Chres started, but she was already gone.
Chres sighed. His smile fading. Everything had gone back to normal, it seemed. So then why hadn't the dark cloud faded?
It was a stupid question. One he already knew the answer too. He pulled out his flask of flavored water and took a sip.
Having spent most of the day dealing with Delvin in the Familiar shop, Karina went back to the tunnel when it was already late. As she headed towards the shared space that they were using to stay at the tunnel, she met Chres, sitting atop of a cushion and calmly drinking the water he kept inside his flask. Judging by the smile he had on his face, he was much better than he was yesterday when they talked.
"Hey Chres. You look better. Were you able to find Sil?" Karina asked as she walked into the room, picking a cushion at random and sitting down.
Truth be told, Karina liked the small familiar and hoped she was back, especially since Chres did seem to need her around him.
A loud shattering sound came from the room Sil was 'exploring'. "Hey look!" He heard her say. "I made a puzzle!"
Chres winced. "Certainly sounds like she is." He replied to Karina's question.
He took another sip from his flask and glanced over at the young woman. She always seemed poised and in control.
"Come to check on your 'subordinate', have you?" He asked, referencing her comment from the night before. He gave her a hint of a smile. His brow raised in amusement.
Karina couldn't help but to chuckle when she heard Chres' comment, mentioning how she called him his 'subordinate' the other night.
"You should be glad for having such a good and attentive superior to take care of you, you know?" she replied with a chuckle and a discreet smile.
"Happy to see that you're feeling better, Chres." Karina said with a honest smile.
Just after she finished saying that though, she heard a loud shattering noise and a very familiar voice coming from the other room.
"Sil does seem to be way better too." Karina asked, laughing as she heard the noise, happy that Sil was back with her antics.
Right... Chres thought. I'm supposed to be better now...
Chres smiled, regardless of his thoughts. "She seems to have reached some sort of middle ground in what she was concerned about." Chres said. "Or, more likely, just got distracted."
Another crash came from the room. Chres sighed, smile fading. He knew he was going to have to clean Sil's mess up later.
"So," He said. "What have you been up to all day?"
"Anyway, it's good to see she's back to her normal self." Karina replied, chuckling lightly as she heard another crash from the room Sil was.
When Chres asked what she did, she remembered Delvin in the familiar store and her request to have a familiar for herself.
"I... I may have visited the familiar store and ordered something..." Karina said, looking away for a moment.
Chres felt his heart sink. "Oh..." He said.
'Oh...'? He thought. I gave it to her, didn't I? Told her to do what she pleased with it, didn't I?
Karina felt the change in Chres' tone as she mentioned that she went to the familiar store. Maybe even though he gave the locket to her, she shouldn't have used it... Chres didn't exactly say anything about what it was and what he wanted her to make with it. At least for Karina, it sounded like he wanted to get rid of the locket.
"I'm sorry... I thought you wanted to get rid of the locket and... Well... Selling it didn't seem to be the right thing to do so..." Karina said, hesitating as she tried to explain herself.
"I'm sorry. It's fine. It's just that... " Chres shook his head and refocused his attention on Karina. She... she wasn't embarrassed, was she? That seemed out of character...
"What do you mean you 'may' have?" He asked, emphasizing the 'may' part of his question.
"Ok. I did go to the familiar store and got myself a familiar..." Karina said, sighing as she admitted.
"I always thought of familiars as luxuries, things that nobles and rich girls would have. Until I met Sil and Lynx, that is..." she explained, clarifying to Chres why she was a bit embarrassed to admit that she indeed ordered a familiar for herself.
Chres smiled with amusement. "I see. Well, for your sake, I hope you didn't request another one of her." He said nodding over to the room where Sil entered.
Karina couldn't help but laugh at Chres' statement. Another Sil would be... interesting to say the least. Incredibly troublesome and tiring but interesting.
"I was going to say she's not that bad but she's broken at least two things in that room already, right?" she asked, laughing.
"The way she speaks about it too. 'Making puzzles.' I guess she's not entirely wrong though." Karina continued laughing.
"Aaaaaaah, but can you put it back together though?" He smirked while tapping his cheek.
"I would like to see her try though. It would certainly be amusing." Karina replied with a smile. Truth be told, Sil was quite of a handful with her antics but she indeed helped a lot regarding keeping the morale high due to how cheerful she was.
This time Chres gave an honest smile. "Yes..." He said. "I suppose it would be."
He watched as Sil zipped out of one room and into another. It felt odd to give an honest smile after so long. Was it okay to smile after what he'd done? The question from the previous night lingered in the back of his mind. Did it matter? Did any of this matter?
Chres gaze lowered to the floor. His smile fading. He could feel and itch crawling up the back of his neck.
"Karina." He said. His tone becoming more serious. "Why do you think what we do here matters?"
Karina couldn't help but to let out an amused chuckle as she saw Sil flying from one room into another, too busy with her antics to realize her presence. A few moments after that though, she saw the smile start to fade from Chres' face as he lowered his face. It didn't take much for Karina to understand he had a lot of things on his mind. When he called her name, she was already waiting for him, turning towards Chres, ready to hear whatever he had to say.
"You saw what the cult does with people, Chres. You, more than anyone else should know." Karina said, looking at him with a serious expression.
"They are a disease, Chres. They need to be purged, lest they spread and infect everything and then... Well... I don't even want to think about it." she finished with a grim expression.
Chres nodded as she spoke. "To protect the world as we know it then. To stop whatever this strange force is from spreading. That is why you think what we do here matters."
Karina nodded with a serious expression as Chres replied. Whatever the cult was, it certainly wasn't a good thing. What they did couldn't be called of any other thing than corruption. The distortion, controlling and messing normal people's minds...
He paused to consider that answer. A good answer, sure. But it wasn't a good answer for him.
"I told myself when we started... That day when the inn burned down... I told myself that I was doing this for the rest of you... that my selfish desires shouldn't come before the safety and success of the group..."
He looked to Karina smiling. "You told me off right good then. Told me that if I ever called you a kid again, then you would gladly grant my wish."
Chres took another sip from his flask. "You know something funny?" He said. "To me what you said never registered as a threat. In fact, I found myself hard pressed to not call you a 'kid' again right then and there."
Karina heard as Chres began talking after a pause, reminiscing of when they first met. It certainly wasn't a good first encounter and her first impression of Chres was of just someone that... wasn't all that right in the head but it changed a lot as she got to know him a bit better.
"It certainly wasn't a good first encounter. My first impressions of you weren't exactly... good" she said, with a discreet laugh.
"I would certainly have left you bleeding on the ground if you had called me that again back then." Karina said with a smirk and a chuckle.
"Things do change though. I'm happy that I didn't cut you down back then." she said, with a kind smile.
Chres furrowed his brow. "Why?" He asked. "Surely not because of the necklace. What did I do to turned your impressions around?"
"Despite your everything, you helped the group to get out of some troublesome situations a number of times, going as far as to not willingly put yourself in danger to help the group." Karina said, beginning to explain.
"Actions speak louder than words. It's easier to trust someone who fought by your side than someone who speaks pretty and the fact that your actions reflect the fact that you do care about the group's safety is worth more to me than words or presents." Karina finished, looking to Chres.
Chre drew his lips in a line. She assumes too much of me. He thought.
"I told myself that I was here for the betterment of the group. That I would stick around to ensure you all didn't loose any numbers. But none of that was true. The truth is, I'm here out out guilt."
Chres chuckled. "Guilt." He said. "It seems to follow me wherever I go. It's like a shadow looming over me. One that I cannot escape."
He balled his right hand up into a fist. "Even now." He continued. "It sits here mocking me. The situation has changed since we started. There are plenty of other people in these tunnels who could fill in my place... however..." Chres looked up. "These people... The Kheru-Natjer, Svephraey, Malkev... They make me feel like there's knife to my back..."
Chres shook his head, and sighed in frustration. He looked to Karina. “So… what’s it like being the daughter of the great Mirage?”
Karina listened to Chres' words as he explained the reason for all his actions. Guilt. She knew a bit about his past and how he felt. Hearing this now only made it clearer that he wasn't able to let it go and continue with his life. He couldn't forgive himself for what happened. That was the reason why he seemed to want to die.
"Chres... I may not know how you feel or have walked in your shoes, but you can't keep on living like this." she said, gently putting a hand on his shoulder and looking into his eyes with an intense stare, almost as if she was looking right at his soul.
"Two wrongs don't make a right. Sacrificing yourself out of guilt will amount to nothing. Learn with your mistakes, make sure you won't repeat them. If you seek for atonement, then live. Live with your guilt, don't forget what you've done but strive to become a better person. Become someone better, who would never make the same mistakes again. Atone for your sins with good actions." Karina finished with a soft and comforting, albeit discreet smile.
It wasn't the first time she had to have this type of talk with someone. A soldier's first kill isn't always taken lightly by them. Her position as a high ranking officer and her cute and petite appearance made her the perfect choice to deal with those types of things.
Chres frowned as he listened. Become someone better... He thought. That seemed like an insult to her memory.
Her memory? She cheated on you with Mercaido! A part of him said. A part of him full of hatred.
’You don’t understand’ Her words echoed in his head. ‘If you would only let me-’ what? If he had only let her explain? What had there been to explain?
Become someone better... A better someone? He had been a better someone. Was that what he wanted? To go back to being that better someone? I want to be punished. He thought. Punished, then killed.
’Years...’ She had said. ’This has been going on for years...’
Did he deserve punishment? Punishment for her own betrayal? Punishment for her death... He thought. I killed her… I loved her...
Why? Why had she betrayed him? Questions… He always had so many questions… Did it matter? Did any of it matter?
An itch crawled up the back of his neck. ... It does matter… The thought surprised him.
’You don’t understand...’ She had said.
... and I never bothered to listen... He thought in response. What hadn’t he understood?
Become someone better… To be someone better would be an escape from the punishment he deserved, but how did he know he deserved it?
Chres found himself nodding at Karina’s words, though not because he agreed with her reasons.
The itch intensified. He couldn’t die… not when he didn’t know whether he deserved it. But how could he find the answer to this riddle? How could he learn the answer with his wife dead?
‘There are other ways...’ The thought seemed to flow into his head. ‘Other ways to know…’
A few moments were spent in silence before Karina replied to Chres’ other question.
“Being Viktor Frost’s daughter is honestly… hard.. It is hard not to live in his shadow when we are talking about him. Even now there are people who credit my position in the army and everything I’ve ever done to my name and my father’s influence instead of my skills and abilities. Those quickly learn their mistakes when sparring with me. In order for me to earn respect and recognition in the army, both being a girl, having this petite frame and being the great General Frost’s daughter, sometimes I have to be firm and cold.” Karina said.
“Those who know Viktor Frost though know how far the rumors about me are from the truth though. He isn’t the type of person that would let family or even emotional matters interfere with his job. In this matter, he is a general through and through. While we are in post, in his eyes I’m First Lieutenant Karina Frost, not his daughter, giving me absolutely no preferential treatment. That said, he expects much more of me than he does of any other soldier or officer and is much harder on me than he is with others. He does care about me but the way he shows that isn’t like a normal father would.” Karina finished explaining
Chres nodded. To be the blood of greatness... He couldn’t imagine the pressure and frustration such a relation must put on the young woman. It did explain her sometimes cold demeanor though.
“And what of your mother? Did she agree with your decision to follow in your father’s footsteps?”
"She was a beautiful and intelligent woman. She was a scholar from the Nation of Hearing. I lived with her most of my childhood. She taught me almost everything I know and was the one responsible for my studies.." She replied, with a smile on her face.
"We loved to sit down and read together. Surprisingly enough, I was the type of kid that actually liked studying." she said with a chuckle.
"My father was the one who wanted me to live with her in the Nation of Hearing. When she fell ill with a serious disease, I had no choice but to go live with my father. She died soon after. He changed a lot after that..." Karina completed, with a sigh.
“I’m sorry...” Chres said. “I didn’t know...”
"No need to be sorry. She died when I was only 10. I loved her dearly, but the sadness is long gone. Only the good memories and the knowledge she left with me remains now." Karina said with a kind smile.
Chres smiled. Karina was a tough one. Though that wasn’t anything he didn’t know. “You know,” He found himself saying. “I was going to be a father myself once… but then... I learned it wasn’t mine.” Chres fingered his ring as he stared blankly at the wall. Thinking back to the night he killed Mercaido.
“It was a man I knew. A man I worked for… I killed him that night. Perhaps out of rage… perhaps from the Insight… perhaps both… Whatever the case, I made sure he died by my hand, and I’m not sorry I did it.”
Chres paused. “She died before she gave birth.” He said. He looked to Karina and figured it was best to not tell her that he was the one who killed his wife. “Losing a loved one changes a person. It leaves behind a hole of nothingness. I hate what she did. Could never forgive her for what she did… but I still love her. Those feelings… They don’t go away…”
Chres took another sip from his flask. “Your father, he’s lucky to have you by his side… Even if he doesn’t know it.”
Karina stood silent as she heard Chres' words. Discovering more about his past only showed her how much he suffered. He was betrayed by the one he loved the most. Karina wasn't surprised when she heard him saying he wasn't sorry. Love, hate and anger are powerful feelings.
"Maybe he is... But he was never the same after my mother died. I might not have experienced what you did, but I saw it happening with someone close. I can imagine how it hurts but there are certain things you need to let go in order to continue living your life. How will you do this? When you feel it's right to do so? These questions can only be answered by yourself." Karina said with a soothing voice.
"What is important is not letting yourself be a prisoner of your own past, lest you want to lose your present and future to it." Karina finished with a tranquil voice. She knew that Chres had suffered for too long and did so alone, by himself. Even if she might not be that good with it, even if she could only say pretty words to him, she wanted to help even if it was a little. After all, Karina believed that it was part of her duty to take care of those under her and she was starting to consider that small, mismatched group as her allies after everything that they went through.
Chres felt himself grow steely as he listened to her words. He himself had given similar speeches before. He hadn’t realized how frustrating such words were.
“I can’t let go.” He said in a colder tone than he would have liked. He didn’t shout. Instead it came out more like a growl. “Not now… Not yet...”
Chres capped his flask and rose from his seat. What happened, happened. He couldn’t just let go... He couldn’t just move on! If he didn’t hold himself accountable for what he did, then who would?
’You don’t understand...’
What had she meant by that? He always asked so many questions yet never had he bothered to ask the one that mattered. Instead he ran from the question. No longer though… No longer…
“I have to confront it...” He heard himself say aloud. “I have to know why… Then... from there… we’ll see...”
"We’ll see about what?” He heard Sil say from his shoulder.
Chres jumped slightly. He hadn’t noticed her fluttering by. He looked to his shoulder as if he had been caught in the middle of pickpocketing.
“Sil?” He found himself saying.
Sil smiled softly. It was a familiar smile. "Yup! That’s me!”
Why? Why did she look like her? “I… We were just talking about Karina’s new familiar.”
"New? …. Familiar?” She said. She put her finger to her lips, as if in thought. Her head tilted to the side. "Hmmmmmmmmm...” She hummed.
She fluttered over to Karina. Sil leaned forward, examining Karina head to foot and back. "I don’t knoooow...” She said. "Your hair is way too white.”
Karina listened quietly as Chres replied to her without saying a word. While she would have reacted to his growling tone if it was on another occasion, she knew that dealing with one's traumas and their past was something delicate. She knew when to stop. She had already said everything she could have. It was up to Chres to discover himself how he would act from now on.
Luckily for both of them, Sil arrived soon after Chres finished talking. Her presence was indeed welcome to change the topic of the conversation. Apparently, she was finished with whatever she was doing In the other rooms.
"Hey there Sil! Happy to see you're better!" Karina said, looking to the small familiar with a smile.
When she heard about Karina's familiar from Chres', Sil appeared to be deep in thought for a while, fluttering over to Karina and examining her from head to foot. Karina simply watched her with an amused expression, letting out a discreet laugh.
"Hey! I was born like that, you know?" Karina said, not being able to help herself but to laugh at Sil's comment.
"Born like that?” She repeated. She giggled to herself softly "She-People sure are weird. And I should know! I’m around weird all the time!” She fluttered up to Karina’s ear. "Psst… That guy...” She whispered. Pointing at Chres.
Karina couldn't help but to let out an amused, cute giggle as Sil flew near her ear, pointing towards Chres in a really not that subtle manner.
"And you would be the queen of the weird ones, wouldn't you?" Karina said, teasing Sil as she laughed.
“More like a goddess, actually.” Chres muttered. “The world does seem to bow before her...”
"Regarding my hair, maybe it is tied to my ice magic... Who knows. I like it the way it is though." Karina said as she opened her hand, her palm facing upwards as cold air began swirling around it, crystalizing the humidity in the air until it made a small and delicate, but beautiful rose with its roots made of ice, wrapping themselves around her hand.
Sil gasped in awe. ”Oh wow! Pretty!” She said as she hurried over to Karina’s hand. It stood there for a brief moment before she stopped the cold air, making it slowly melt down.
"I wonder how she will be... My familiar, I mean. I wonder if she will be your big sister or your younger one." Karina said with a chuckle, remembering how Delvin said that he would give her a personality fitting hers.
"I think I'll call her.. Akai. When I was small, still living with my mother, I heard an eastern merchant saying this name. If I remember it correctly... It means something with the color red." Karina said, thinking for a moment as she tried to remember the correct meaning of said name.
Sil’s eyes popped open with excitement. ”I’m going to be a big sister?!?!?!” Sil fluttered up to make herself level with Karina’s gaze. She leaned forward. Hands bunching into fists excitedly. ”Where is she? When do I get to meet her? Does she like lynxes? Will she help me find spiders to put in Octavapoo’s pants???”
“Spiders?” Chres asked. His brow rose suspiciously.
"I wonder..." Karina said with a chuckle, amused by Sil's comments.
"The man who was making her said that he would give her a personality 'like my own', according to his words." she said, rolling her eyebrows as she remembered her encounter with Delvin.
Chres frowned. He’d heard that typically the customer would go back and forth with the familiarist regarding personalities… Unless Karina had settled for some generic personality he presented her with.
"Spiders? I don't think Octavap- I mean... Octavio would be very happy." Karina said with a chuckle, almost using Sil's nickname to refer to Octavio.
"Regarding when, It will be soon. Delvin said it would be complete tomorrow." Karina replied.
”Tomorrow?!?!?!” Sil gasped. “That’s like a day away!”
She zipped back over to Chres, tugging on his shirt as she looked at him pleadingly. ”Can we go??? Please please please please pleeeease!” She asked as she hopped up and down, mid-air, like a giddy little child.
Chres looked down at her and frowned. She was asking for permission? He supposed that was a behavioral improvement… He looked back towards Karina, shrugging as he gave her a questioning gaze and smile.
Karina laughed as she saw how excited Sil was, going as far as to ask for permission to Chres, something that she normally never did. Her jumping up and down in the air was also too adorable for Karina to not laugh.
"She seems to be really eager to see Akai, doesn't she?" Karina said, looking to Chres with an amused expression.
Chres shrugged. “Honestly she seems most eager for anything really… That is, except for cleaning up her own messes.” Chres said with a sigh. He looked to the room where the crash came from. “We don’t really have anything planned tomorrow... Though, I would be interested to know if the familiarist found anything peculiar on the pendent. As of yet, none of the other familiarists have found anything, but who knows… Maybe he did.”
He looked back to Karina. “How bout it? Mind if we tag along?” Chres asked to Sil’s delight. Sil quickly turned her gaze back to Karina, giving her a puppy eyed stare.
"Hm... He didn't mention anything. He only mentioned that it was a very expensive piece, saying even that he wouldn't be able to buy it when I arrived." Karina said, thinking.
"Oh, I didn't try to sell it though. He only thought I wanted to sell it after I showed it to him." she finished, feeling the necessity to explain herself to Chres. After all, selling something that was a gift would be incredibly rude.
"Sure! Sil would be certainly overjoyed to go too." she said with a smile to Chres.
”Sil definitely would!” Sil exclaimed in the third person.
Chres smiled. ”Well, I guess it's settled then.” Chres said. ”Now, if you don’t mind it seems I’ve got a mess I need to clean up.” He nodded to Karina and set off to find a broom.
Year 4256 2nd day of the month of Olfaccium Early Morning
Business had been bad for Delvin, the Familiarist. Before the war, his shop had sold least two familiars a week from people all over the land. He had even had nice renting business going on, where less wealthy people could rent out a familiar for their kids or what not.
On the back end of things, he used his magical talents to create traps which he sold on to mercenaries and the like. The first purchase always cost the most, however the beads of glass he sold them were reusable. And for that reason, he had a steady stream of mercenaries always coming back. Paying him to recharge their traps.
Yes business had been good. So good in fact that he even had started hiring staff to assist with customers while he was busy working.
Then the war began and his big money makers, the Familiars, sold much less often. The mercenaries still gave him business, yes, but it was barely enough to stay afloat. Expenses had been tight. He had been considering letting his staff go... and now... They were dead...
Delvin shivered, trying not to think of the day the city went mad. An itch crawled up the back of his neck.
It wasn't my fault He told himself. It wasn't my fault...
A slight breeze snapped him out of his thoughts. Delvin looked up from the counter. A young girl with white hair had opened the door to his shop.
"Why hello, my dear!" Delvin said. The man put on a friendly smile. "Please please, come on in!"
After receiving the small locket from Chres, she did try to search and ask around for what it was. Judging by how Chres himself had reacted when holding and looking to it, it probably had some sentimental value to him... Even if he wanted to get rid of whatever that meant. She did found out after a while that it was made of metal glass, used to make familiars such as Sil and Lynx. While it did made Karina quite surprised, she knew next to nothing about those nor where she could use it. If it wasn't for someone telling her to search for Delvin, the Familiarist and his shop, she would probably had just put it into her pocket and forgotten about it.
It did take her a bit to find Delvin's shop as most of the landmarks and reference points on maps and such were either unrecognizable or just destroyed. After finally finding it, she opened the door, looking inside. Even though she had quite a presence, it was clear due how she was looking at everything that she was both curious and didn't know much about familiars and that kind of stuff.
After being greeted by the shopkeeper, whom Karina assumed it would be Delvin himself, she replied with a silent and simple, but polite greeting before walking up to the counter and delicately putting the metal glass locket on top of the table.
"I... received this from someone." Karina said as she started to explain.
"I didn't know what it was at first and honestly... All I know now is that it's made from metal glass and it's used to make familiars." she continued.
It was clear to the shopkeeper that she was a bit embarrassed of being there and talking about the pendant. The reason for that, even though he didn't know was that Karina believed that such things, familiars, were luxury. Stuff that nobles and wealthy people who never lifted a finger in their whole lives to earn what they had used to like. Being there was rather... Awkward for her. About as awkward as it would be if she somehow encountered an officer from the army that knew her when she was eating ice cream and wearing a cute summer dress instead of her formal and serious officer uniform.
Delvin raised the pendent to his eye checking to see if it was real. "This is quite a piece... Not to mention its a blank slate. Nothing on it at all... and someone just gave this to you?"
The shopkeep placed the pendent back on the counter and pushed it towards Karina.
"I'm sorry, lass." He sighed. "I can't buy this from you. I'm barely making enough money these days to keep myself afloat. If you need food, The Cul- uh- Clan has been giving free food out to everyone. Who knows. Maybe they'll even give you a job."
Delvin gave the girl a friendly nod. He began to turn towards his workshop, expecting that to be the end of the conversation.
Karina was surprised when she heard that the piece was actually valuable. According to Delvin's words, not only the piece itself was valuable but being completely empty also added to it's value. That even more made her wonder why Chres gave it to her... The moment the shopkeeper mentioned, or better, began mentioning the cult before he hesitated, Karina's expression immediately changed as she looked at him with a sharp, surprisingly intimidating sight before her expression returned to normal again. Not much was needed for Delvin to realize that Karina wasn't really that fond of the cult. The only thing that probably saved him from being questioned and meeting the Officer Karina instead of the girl was the fact that he was going to call it the Cult and only did the opposite in order to protect himself.
"The cult." She said, correcting Delvin with a sharp tone before going back to normal.
"I didn't know it was this valuable but... I'm not here to sell it." she said, lowering her voice almost as if embarassed in what she was about to say.
"... A familiar..." she said in a lower tone.
Delvin froze. A familiar? A customer?! She seemed to not like him calling them The Clan... And the comment he gave her about finding a job. Delvin winced.
Everything's fine. He told himself. I can fix this!
Delvin spun back around, his smile returning. "I'm so sorry, my dear. The way you came in here all nervous and what not. I just assumed... But no, no! Of course you came here for a familiar! Ah yes, I see now!"
The shopkeep reached back out for the pendent, raising it back up to his eye. This time he looked at the item with curiosity. His thumb and forefinger rubbing his chin as if in thought.
"Yes, my dear, you were right to come to me for the job. This, you see, is quite a delicate piece to work with. It will take skill and mastery to make a familiar suitable for a gem such as this! Of course it will cost you a coin or two. I'm afraid new creations do take up much time and work."
Delvin eyed the girl expectantly. "You did come here with money, I presume?" No point in going any further if his customer didn't have the means to pay.
Karina listened to him talking, albeit with a skeptical look. While she was interested in that familiar thing, she did know he was a salesman and all the times he called her 'dear' was a clear indication that he had his salesman's smile on.
"I do have some coin now. It's not much, seeing how the city is at the moment but I'll receive some more tomorrow. I could pay half now and half tomorrow. You said it would take some time to get the job done, right?" Karina asked after she heard his question and saw his eyes, the eyes of someone who did like money quite a bit.
"I also don't plan to use it in a necklace so if you could turn it into a brooch, you could keep the necklace..." Karina said as she looked at the man with sharp eyes, watching his reaction to the little offer she was making.
The man's smile waned just a smidge but quickly covered it up. He preferred she keep the necklace, otherwise she would have room to bargain.
"Half now, half later is perfectly fine, my dear. I recall doing much the same when hiring the carpenter who built my shop! 'No way I'll pay you all up front now!', I thought. After all what if he did a poor job? Are you sure, though, you want to go with a brooch? All my brooches are quite simple. They won't look anywhere near as lovely as this fine necklace here."
"Great, that works fine." Karina replied, with a satisfied nod as she heard Delvin.
When he mentioned that she might wanted to keep the necklace though, she thought about it for a bit. A brooch was discreet, but it could fall easily in the middle of combat meanwhile a necklace would be safer, especially if she wore beneath her shirt or kept it in a shorter chain. Plus it could be used if she wore more casual or even formal clothes instead of her military uniform.
"Keep it in a necklace then. It will probably work better than a brooch when I'm moving around." Karina said.
Delvin smiled. "Yes, yes. That is a wise choice."
"Regarding the... familiar... itself, how would it work?" she asked, a bit awkwardly though, indicating that she had no knowledge about familiars at all.
"It's rather simple, actually. The piece of metal glass associated with a familiar absorbs up the light around it. Leave it in the light long enough, and it will have enough to sustain your familiar about 2 days. Leave it in the dark too long and your familiar will fade away until it gets a new source of light."
"Then there's the bond." The man continued. "One drop of blood is what it will take. The metal glass will soak up you blood and bond you to your familiar."
Karina heard, curious as Delvin explained how familiars worked. Since she had never had one nor bothered to learn more about them, everything he was saying was new to her, especially how the familiars worked with light, having to absorb light to work. That said, leaving it in the dark for a long time would mean the familiar itself fading until a new source of light was provided.
"By fade away... What do you mean? Do they cease to exist completely?" she asked, thinking about Sil and how she flew away and didn't come back until now.
"The familiars I've interacted with recently were very... complex. Almost like real people with their own thoughts." Karina said with a thoughtful expression. Even though she didn't make a question regarding that, it was clear for Delvin that she was having troubles to understand what Familiars really were. They acted and talked like real people but they were artificially made as far as she could tell.
"Like people?!" Delvin bellowed out a deep laugh. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Didn't mean to laugh." The man said wiping away a tear. "Familiars aren't people lass, no matter how much they act like one. They don't hurt, they don't hunger... unless of course you decide to add traits in which imitate such feelings... But no, Familiar's aren't people. Just magical companions. They come right back once you turn the lights back on. All memories in tact. Even if you die, they will still exist. The bond will break, yes. They will fade away in about three days, sure. Bond it to another, though, and it will come right back."
Karina's question was serious, even if it sounded naive for someone that knew more about familiars than she did. For that reason, when Delvin laughed, she couldn't help but feel insulted and embarrassed, which immediately was shown by her sharp, icy cold stare towards Delvin. Even though she choose to stay silent, it wasn't any secret that she wasn't happy. Even the air around her gave the impression of being a little bit colder than normal.
Delvin shivered. "Is it me or did it just get colder in here? The weather must have gone crazy with the sky... Oh, no matter, no matter" The shopkeep smiled bemused, complete unaware of Karina's displeasure. "Come." He said, walking from the counter. "I'll walk you through the process of creating your little companion."
Delvin waved Karina over to a display, with several glass marbles, set up on the side. "The process requires a bit of back and forth. You give me an idea of what you want and I go and design a prototype of sorts to give you an idea of what you'll get. You can request it to have certain traits, behaviors, looks, and even a changeable form... But I think I have a good idea of where to start with you."
Delvin grabbed a glass marble in a pile marked F-B. "Now these here are simple illusions I've designed to give us a place to start. It is important to remember that these illusions are not the real thing. It is a prototype only."
Delvin raised the marble up to the light. "This one, right here, has been a popular starting place for many a young lass your age."
The air around the marble began to darken as it drank in the light as the illusion began to appear. Suddenly, a fluffy bunny with wings, materialized in the air. The bunny landed delicately unto Karina's right shoulder and rubbed its head lovingly against her cheek.
"We also have puppies, kittens and-"
When Delvin mentioned that she would have to give him an idea of what to do, Karina simply frowned her eyebrows. She had absolutely no idea of what form she wanted for her familiar. Before she could say anything though, Delvin mentioned that he knew exactly the type of familiar that would be perfect for her. When he showed her a cute bunny that landed on her right shoulder, Karina seemed to stop for a bit, surprised. Even though the bunny was undeniably cute, it certainly wasn't something that would fit with her. The fact that Delvin showed that bunny to her could only be seen by Karina as an insult. That coupled with the fact that he had called her 'young lass', assuming her age made her mood even worse. What seemed to be just an impression of a cold air current around her became impossible to dismiss as anything other than reality as she gave a step towards Delvin.
"Enough. You aren't taking me seriously." Karina said, with a piercing stare.
Delvin's back stiffened as realization of the type of person he was dealing with began washing over him.
"I-" He started.
"You didn't need to laugh at my question just because I am not that knowledgeable about familiars. Not only that but now you are assuming I'm a naive, young little girl... My patience has limits." she said, with her voice lowering to a dangerous tone as she looked at Delvin.
The man's friendly expression began to falter.
"You are not giving me the respect I demand." she said, in a sudden authoritative voice that didn't seem to belong to such a delicate and petite girl like Karina.
Delvin blinked. He became far too aware of the icy chill in the air. "R-respect..." He stuttered. "Right..."
"I am not a naive little girl. Despite my appearance and my tastes, I know very well how to take care of myself." She said, still looking directly at Delvin
The man forced a smile back on his face, but his expression had clearly soured. "My apologies, madam. Shouldn't have assumed... Been awhile since- But no matter... I realize now that such a design would be distasteful for a gir- woman- such as yourself."
"It's fine. As long as you treat me seriously, we won't have further problems." Karina said, as the room began to go back to it's normal temperature and her expression gradually returning to normal.
The shopkeep dismissed the bunny and placed the marble off to the side. "Come." He said, moving towards the room behind the counter. "Best if we do this in the workshop."
By this point, Delvin had completely collected himself. "So what kind of familiar are you thinking of? Humanoid? Animal-like? Male? Female? Beastly?" He said the last option as smoothly as the rest. Making it sound like a question he would ask any customer asking for his service.
Following him again as he entered the workshop, Karina's stare as she looked around after entering the workshop betrayed her curiosity despite her serious expression and what had just happened. It did take a moment until she was able to calm herself again and return to how she was before though.
"Honestly... I have no idea. I never had a familiar, nor was interested in one until I received that locket. My interests were definitely... sharper and more dangerous than that." Karina said as Delvin asked which type of familiar she was thinking about.
"I've recently met a familiar that is a silver lynx while the other is a small fairy, so I know that they can have the most varied forms and appearances but I never thought about having a familiar..." Karina continued, clearly trying to think about what appearance she wanted for her familiar.
"I... May like cute things but not overly cute... It would only make it even harder for others to take me seriously..." she began saying, hesitating a bit when she said she might like cute things but clearly using Delvin as an example when she mentioned others not taking her seriously.
"I don't have a preference between humanoid or not, nor it's gender." she said. Ironically enough, despite everything that she had said, she gave almost nothing for Delvin to work with.
Delvin nodded as she spoke, doing his best to hide his soured mood. The man quickly realized he wasn't going to get anything useful out of the girl. Though the part about not wanting to make it harder for others to take her seriously was interesting. He could do something with that...
The shopkeeper's smile broadened. An idea beginning to form...
"If you want others to take you seriously, then I advise you go small. A creature like a lynx? No... you'll be over compensating. We can make it smaller, but then it will be more of a joke. Smaller critters won't do you much better. Birds? Overdone. I say we go humanoid. Toss in some animal characteristics for flair."
Delvin pulled a small sheet of glass and a few marbles from the shelf. He place the sheet of glass on the table and let it drink in the light. A gender-less humanoid figure appeared hovering above it.
"Let's start with the additions..."
One at a time he touched the marbles to the glass sheet. Transferring their contents over. A fox tail appeared on the figure along with a pair of devilish horns.
Karina listened to Delvin's reasoning nodding from time to time as he continued with his logic. Indeed, something big would be seen as overcompensating, which could lead to problems while little things would only reaffirm the stereotype others had of her. As he mentioned humanoid with animal characteristics, Karina watched in silence as he grabbed a few marbles and a sheet of glass from the shelf, putting on the table making a gender-less humanoid figure appear, hovering above it.
Even though Karina had seen similar things being done before by her father, it was her first time seeing the process of making a familiar, the sheet of glass, the marbles and how they worked were something new for her, which made her watch the entire process curiously.
"I liked the horns. They look like those Onis from the far east culture." Karina mentioned as she watched the figure hovering above.
"Regarding it's size, are you thinking of making it similar to a normal person?" she asked, clearly interested in the creation process of the familiar.
Delvin shook his head. "Make it large and we'll have the same problem. Not to mention people might feel wary of a familiar that is too human. Best to make it small. Similar in size to the fairy familiar you saw. The key here will be its personality. Best if we give it a personality much like your own."
"Hm... I agree, although a fairy would be rather small wouldn't it? Giving it the same size of a child would work too, wouldn't it?" Karina asked, replying to Delvin before realizing the last few words that he said, which made her raise an eyebrow, looking at him with a sharp stare.
"And what would you mean by 'a personality like my own'?" she asked, looking right at Delvin. Even though it wasn't nearly as bad as how she reacted before, it was still as if Delvin began touching into something that he shouldn't have.
"My appologies." He said, giving Karina a friendly smile. "Didn't mean to touch a nerve. I simply mean we should make it decisive. Direct. Observant... Capable." Delvin's smile widened ever so slightly as he mentioned the last trait.
Delvin grabbed another glass marble from the shelf and added it to the light construct. The figure grew to the size of a tiny child.
"I take it you are not a fan of the tail." He said, transferring the trait to an empty glass marble. He set the marble aside as the tail disappeared from the light construct.
Karina nodded with a somewhat satisfied expression as Delvin explained what he meant by giving the familiar a personality similar to hers. Indeed it would be good to have a familiar that was as capable as she was, using the very same word Delvin used.
"I see. It would be good to have a familiar similar to myself in these aspects." she said, nodding with a discreet but satisfied expression. Delvin's smile broadened.
"The tail indeed looked a bit too... showy.." she said, agreeing with Delvin as he took the tail away from the prototype, definitely thinking it looked better without the tail.
Delvin nodded. "Now," He said. "let's move onto the physical details..."
The process continued, much like that. Delvin would add details here, and remove others there. Occasionally, he would take out a fresh sheet of glass and transfer the figure onto it.
"Mustn't let it sit too long on a single slate." He would explain. "Else we risk the magic running out and all our work lost."
He began to add body features, facial features, garments and more. "Yes yes." He started to say. "I think we just about have something which will match you well."
He added another feature, as he finished his words. Suddenly the figure turned into a ghastly beast.
"Whoops. Sorry sorry." He said, while making sure to wince. He quickly removed the beastly features. "My mistake. Picked the wrong marble, you see." He replaced the marble with another. This one adding some color to the hair.
They then moved onto behaviors such as movement, mannerisms and how much or how little it obeyed the laws of physics. Time dragged on. The sun rose higher. Finally, just before midday, Delvin looked up from his work and smiled.
"So," He said. "What do you think?"
Karina continued watching carefully as Delvin grabbed one marble after another, adding detail by detail on the previously gender-less and featureless humanoid figure, slowly giving it life and making it unique. It was easy to see that he was indeed experienced in that kind of stuff, despite the few mistakes, like when he used the wrong marble, it was still very interesting to watch.
From clothes, accessories and even the color of it's hair, the familiar soon was a completely unique one, with almost nothing but the humanoid shape resembling the gender-less figure he first showed to her as a starting point. Karina didn't even realize the time passing as they continued adding things to the familiar. When they were finally done, it was already near midday.
"It is fantastic. The process itself, I mean. It's nothing like the first model you showed." Karina said, inspecting the completed familiar, hovering above the glass sheet in front of them.
"I liked her. She is very unique." she finished, with a discreet but easily perceivable smile on her face.
"Indeed." He said with a smile. "Very unique. Out of all the familiars I've created, I suspect this one will be quite... awe-inspiring."
Delvin took another blank slate of glass and transferred the familiar's traits onto it. This time, though, he did not let the construct take form. Instead, he carefully placed the glass sheet into a padded pouch.
"Now," He said. "In regards to payment..."
"Oh, of course." Karina replied as Delvin mentioned the payment, taking the money from one of her pockets and handing to Delvin.
"The agreement was half now and half later, right? I can deliver it to you tomorrow after I'm done with that small job I told you about earlier. By then, it should be already done and ready for me to take it, right?" she asked, looking to Delvin as she watched him putting the slate, now with the familiar traits on it, to a padded pouch.
Delvin graciously took the coin and nodded. "Should be plenty of time. I'll begin work immediately."
Year 4256 1st day of the month Olfaccium Mid-Summer Nation of Sight East of Shimmer Town - Army of Touch Encampment
Da da da dum. Da da da dum. Da da da dum.
Viktor Frost, High General of Emperor Talissare's army, drummed his fingers on the side of his war table. Idly, he contemplated the message one of his foot soldiers relayed.
That code... it was Lieutenant Frost's code for sure... A reference to Viktor's favorite Opera... The girl had gone alone, and yet the voice had been a male's. A voice that had come from nowhere. Heard, by chance, from a few soldiers.
It was a curious situation. One that begged the question, was the message really from her or some sort of elaborate trick? Either way, one thing was clear. Karina's cover was blown.
"That girl..." Viktor grumbled under his breath.
Did Lieutenant Frost understand the trouble her actions had caused? A First Lieutenant on a scouting mission?! Her actions had not only sewn discord among the Company at her command, but it also gave the wrong message to her the scouts! Did the Lieutenant not think her scouts trained well enough to perform their duty? Or was she just growing bored of her position in the army?
Or is it worse? Viktor wondered. Is she trying to earn my approval? Well, this certainly wasn't the way for her to do it.
To be honest, Viktor didn't have the luxury to single out soldiers for praise, let alone play favorites with his own daughter. Karina was a soldier. As with any soldier, he expected her to act the part. Not go out on risky ventures such as this... Although, if her message could be trusted... If what the voice spoke was truth...
"You're dismissed, soldier." Viktor said, rising to his feet. The young lad saluted and left the war tent.
Viktor sighed. In many ways, this was a bad situation. Command in disarray. Officers questioning his judgment. His daughter a possible prisoner of war... On the flip side, if the Lieutenant truly had sent that message, then perhaps he had another way he could sabotage the town's defenses.
All communication from within the city had gone dark. His contact in the city had yet to respond to his negotiations for two days. Scouts entered the city, but they didn't leave. Viktor needed this city to fully cut off supply chains from the north. What he did not need was a drawn out siege.
Shimmer Town's lake provided the city with plenty of fresh water and food. He could use that same lake as route of attack, but that would require building boats and laying waste to the city. Not to mention all the lives he might lose.
No, Viktor would much prefer that the city open its doors to his army. Hence the negotiations he'd undertaken in trying to turn a member of the city's nobility. He had initially attempted negotiations with the lord of the city. Lord O’Kal. The man however had proven... uncommunicative. Viktor had then started making contact with other nobility, until finally he got a nibble.
Viktor rubbed his chin in thought. His face rough from his stubble of a beard. Silently he strode out of the tent. He needed fresh air to help sort through his thoughts.
The sounds of the army encampment surrounded him. Officers shouting out orders. The whine of restless horses eager to run. Foot soldiers laughing and shouting over early evening fires. Soothing sounds. Calming sounds.
Viktor wandered the camp, his hands clasped behind his backs. The soldiers he passed gave mixed reactions. The mainstay troops were better trained. They would solute at his passing, the higher ranking soldiers often giving him a nod of respect. The foot soldiers, however, was comprised mostly of peasants. The ones who recognized him would pay their respects with an awkward solutes, or a bow of the head. Others would gape in awe, point at Viktor while whispering to their comrades.
"That's him, I tell you!" He heard one of them whisper as he passed. "General Frost, The Mirage. The man single-handedly stopped the raids during The War of the Crazed!"
The War of the Crazed... That brought him back. It had been a long time since his excursion into Sensory Range. A five day campaign investigating reports of raids attacking supplies caravans from The Nation of Touch.
The story the man told wasn't entirely true. Viktor hadn't ended the raids all by himself... well, at least not towards the end...
His squad had been ambushed by the Crazed. The high ranking officers killed, while remaining troops were captured and scattered. Alone and with limited rations. Viktor had to take to guerrilla warfare in order to survive.
He used The Range's network of caves as a means of hiding. Striking from the shadows at opportune moments. One by one he rescued his fellow solders and freed caravans captured by the Crazed.
None of it would have worked were it not for his illusionary magic. It had been during this excursion Viktor had been forced to push his abilities to its limits. Viktor had secured The Range through trickery. By developing mass illusions imitating squads of troops. It was this technique which had earned him his title, The Mirage. A title that unfortunately would follow him to the end of his days.
Viktor frowned. His gaze forward. His strides steady. What to do about the girl? He wondered.
The Lieutenant had been insistent they gather intelligence on The Cult. Insistent that there was reason to be concerned about The Cult recent activity. Taken by rumors of their ability to see the future and the dark powers of the ones referred to as The Sightless. A tale they spun to attract the gullible, or so Viktor always believed.
The Cult had been around for ages trying to win people over to their Unseeing God. Pointing to The Distortion as proof his existence while ignoring the flaw in that claim. If The Distortion was the touch of their god, then why could he not create its effects elsewhere? The Distortion was an enigma for sure. An act of God? Perhaps a little far-fetched.
But if a Distortion has taken the city... What does one make if it then?
The thought worried Viktor. He had figured the Lieutenant's concerns unwarranted. In the end, Viktor had tossed The Cult's recent activity as nothing more than opportunistic. A chance to add a few more believers to their numbers.
The Cult were not the people Viktor had set out to go to war with, and quite honestly he would prefer it remain that way. A war against a belief was tricky. Whereas a war against a nation can be ended by toppling its king, a war against a religion does not end with the death of their leader.
"High General Frost." Said a familiar voice. "A word, if you please."
Viktor looked up. Somehow he had found his way back to his war tent. At its flap stood Colonel Raelar holding an odd bag the size of a small melon. He had not taken well to the girl's disappearance. Her Company was a part of his command. Viktor gave the man a curt nod as he passed him by.
"Colonel Raelar." Viktor said as they entered the tent. "What have you got for me?"
"A messenger was sent by King Y’lleant." Raelar said. The man had a cold look to him. He was not one to usually mince words.
"Oh?" Viktor said. "And where is this messenger now?"
"Chained to a pole. Under watch."
Viktor parsed his lips. His eyes wandered to the bag in Raelar's hand.
"Out with it then." He said.
Raelar opened the bag. A head rolled onto the ground.
Da da da dum. Da da da dum. Da da da dum.
Yet again, Viktor found himself drumming his fingers upon his war table. This time for a different reason. Queen Tallea was dead. The Emperor's sister was dead! This... this was not good. The Emperor would not be happy to learn about her death.
One thing at a time. Viktor told himself.
First thing first. He needed to secure Karina's safety. He could not stop the assault on Shimmer Town now, even if the girl's message spoke truth. However, he could relay the message to her. Prepare her for the inevitable.
He would send a squad of men in to seek her out. Colonel Raelar would disapprove. As far as he was concerned, the girl should be labeled a deserter and executed. Senses knows he wasn't the only one who thought that way.
The man wasn't wrong. The girl had deserted her post. However, she may also be their best bet in securing swift victory without a prolonged siege.
He was going to have to trust the girl on this one. It was something he was not happy to admit.
Tayla's vision blurred. Her body collapsing to the floor. She felt a warm liquid fill her mouth, but found it had no taste. The liquid ageusia had taken its toll. Her magic nullified.
Tayla struggled to get back to her feet but was quickly pushed back down. A foot pressing down against her back.
"Stubborn stubborn... She is quite stubborn..." Sightless to be De'laire said more to herself than anyone else. "
De'laire's foot pressed down harder causing Tayla to cry out.
"Should I hold back?" De'laire mused aloud. She reached down, grabbing Tayla by the hair. Slowly, she pulled her head back. Far enough to expose her neck. "Sightless Nieffar may scold me. He wouldn't like it if I damage her..."
Tayla gasped. Her battle from early had made her weak. Everytime she tried escaping, De'laire simply exerted more force. As things stood now, it was getting hard to breathe...
"De'laire!" Sightless Syella's voice... "What are you doing? Drop the knife! There will be no killing our own!"
"Hm?" De'laire hummed absently. "Sightless Syella? Forgive me, but have I done something to upset?"
"The knife, De'laire! Drop it! Now!"
"Knife?" De'laire asked with a tilt of the head. "Oh yes, yes... the knife. Mustn't kill the girl now... Sightless Nieffar would be most displeased."
Tayla heard a clang at her side as the knife hit the ground. The woman released her grip on Tayla's hair and relinquished some of the pressure on her back.
Tayla felt her blood still. Senses! She thought. De'laire had been about to kill me! Did the Crazed woman have any sanity left?
Yes... the woman did have some sanity left. After all, Tayla was still alive...
"What in the name of the Unseeing is going on here?!" Sightless Syella demanded.
"Punishment." Came a voice from the 2nd floor overlook. There Sightless Nieffar stood watching.
"Punishment? Death is no proper punishment for the acts she committed!" Sightless Syella exclaimed.
"Is it not?" De'laire asked absently. She had taken to scratching rigorously at the corner of her right eye. Her scratching drew blood. A sign that any day now this woman would be Sightless. Any day now she would feel the itch on her eyes...
"No, my dear De'laire. I fear Sightless Syella is correct. Does one kill a sister just for acting against the family, even if it is to satisfy her own selfish interests?"
De'laire merely shrugged. She had shifted to scratching at the corner of her other eye now. "Mine tried to kill me..." She said.
"And now she's dead." Nieffar stated. "The ultimate price for such transgressions. A price our little Tayla here does not yet deserve."
"Funny then how I needed to interfere." Sightless Syella spat.
"Sightless Syella," Nieffar continued. "I'm a man of practicality. I knew you would interfere, and so I let you interfere."
"Is that so." Syella replied. "Well forgive me Nieffar in not seeing the practically in your lack of actions. Were you simply saving your breath for later?"
"In a way, yes." Nieffar said. "Tayla's actions begets punishment. Our children died because of what she did. Her defense does not deserve any of my breath."
He made his way down the steps, his lips curving into a snide smile. The wounds on his legs must have mostly healed as Nieffar was no longer limping.
"But a Sightless ignoring commands coming from Sightless Vetius? That is a matter deserving of my breath."
Syella gave the man a leery gaze. For a moment the Sightless said nothing. Her gaze turning to Tayla. A frown of disapproval across her face.
Nieffar his approach approach stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "Would you like to explain yourself to them?" Nieffar said quietly, nodding small crowd of clan members who had funneled into the chamber. They stopped at the entrance not quite sure what to make of the display.
"I'd rather you didn't." Nieffar continued. "As far as they're concerned, their friends died because the Pact Makers attacked us."
Syella folded her arms. Her frown deepening. "Let her up De'laire." Syella said at length.
"Hm?" De'laire hummed. Her gaze turned downwards. "Oh, yes yes! You're referring to the one beneath my foot, aren't you?"
De'laire took her foot off Tayla and stepped aside. All the while De'laire muttered to herself.
"Of course she meant that one." Tayla thought she heard the woman say. "Of course she did..."
Tayla rose to her feet and bowed her head appreciatively. Syella looked her over disapprovingly.
"I expect you to still be here when I get back. We will speak further once I'm done."
Tayla nodded and watched the two Sightless leave. She felt cold, and not just because her clothes were still damp from the rain.
'Why did you join the cult?' The white haired princess had asked.
Why? Because they had given her something she never had before. A place where she felt she belonged. A place where she people actually respected her.
Tayla made her way to a nearby bench, careful to tread lightly on her bruised foot. Tayla knew pain. She could deal with pain. The disappointment though... the disappointment and... Smit...
Smit... her heart felt heavy in her chest. Why? Why should should she feel bad about him? Tayla had known that this would happen sooner or later! She knew she couldn't trust the man. Who cares that he wouldn't meet her eyes! Who cares if he sold her out!
Of course he sold her out. That was the sort of thing any sensible person would do. He didn't owe her an explanation. But then why? ... Why did it hurt so much?
Tayla saw the white haired princess. She stood there, like a shadow. The woman's image loomed over her.
'Why did you join the cult?'
"I hate you." Tayla whispered. Now, more than ever, she needed this woman to hate.
'Why did you join the cult?' She said yet again.
Talya curled her legs up onto the bench and buried her face in her arms. She hated the woman. Hated that the woman pretended to care.
"You're playing a dangerous game Syella." Nieffar said, a smug smile across his face. "Sending that reckless girl on a mission which as far as I can tell served no further purpose other than to give the enemy further intel on ways to fight us. You cost us believers, Syella. Sightless Vetius will be displeased."
"Why is it that you find me so intimidating, Nieffar?" Sightless Syella asked. "Is it because the followers I brought respect me while yours fear you?"
Nieffar's eye twitched at her words. However, he quickly smothered his irritation. "Syella, Syella. You don't intimidate me. I would just like to know why you feel it necessary to put this entire mission at risk. Just what exactly were you trying to achieve with all of this?"
Syella frowned, eyeing the man. "You may have been give charge over the task of converting this city, but does not mean you are privy to everything that I do." She replied.
Nieffar's expression darkened. His smile turning to a frown. "You," He said elongating his annunciation, "don't get to talk back to-"
"Would you rather I leave?" Syella continued, standing her ground. "Leave you one experienced Sightless fewer?"
The words angered Nieffar. Syella could hear the man grinding his teeth.
"They will follow me, you know? The ones I've brought over to the Insight."
"There are plenty more people in the city to fill in their ranks." Nieffar growled.
"Ah, so there are." Syella agreed. "Do you think they will turn on you too?"
Nieffar's good arm lurched. His fingers extending into sharpened tendrils ever so slightly. The Sightless stopped himself, however. He was far too aware of how a Sightless attacking one of his own would look to any onlookers.
"You know, just as well as I, that the people who attacked us weren't normal." He said.
"No, they won't." Syella agreed. "Someone planted those people in our ranks. People easy for us to overlook. Such a thing is dangerous." She did find it odd how their life essence appeared so dim. "We can't be at each other's throat with enemies like that around."
Nieffar said nothing. His angered expression turning to frustration. He knew he couldn't have her as an enemy right now, and that infuriated him.
"Someone needs to take the fall for this." Nieffar said through gritted teeth.
Syella remained quiet. She knew what this meant. It was an eventuality she had anticipated when assigning this task to Tayla.
"You're right of course." She said quietly. "Others may think the pact makers attacked us first, but the people who went with Tayla know better. We will need to put the blame for this incident on her. This way we can justify the lie."
Nieffar nodded. "Confinement." He said. Syella's expression turned grim. "We'll lock her up for a few days... Give her time to think about what she's done."
The cult had a ceremony of sorts that night. A ceremony that drew much of the people in town. They had food there. Food for anyone who would stay and listen to the cult's preaching.
Many played along. After all, how else would they eat? Others, however, they actually listened. At the end of the ceremony people were invited into the the Cult's makeshift church.
Those that entered join the cult's cause. Some did it out of curiosity. Others did joined for the food. Regardless of their reasons, there was one thing none of the new recruits could deny. The Cult's God had a visible presence in the world. One far more obvious than the Lord of Senses.
He nodded at her word while doing his best to give a warm smile. "She says she's gone away" Chres said. "Can't come back until she knows, whatever that means."
Shifting in his seat, one hand rumaging through his pocket, the other putting his empty plate off to the side. "She's a funny one, isn't she? Always doing whatever comes to mind..."
From his pocket Chres pulled out a small object between his thumb and forefinger. It glittered in the light. "They are... people, you know? That's something I often forget with her... Perhaps that's why she left..." Chres continued.
The object was oval and flat. Transparent like glass and yet as sturdy steel. Its glittering appearence caused by reflective specks of silver embedded within. Metal glass. Rare. Beautiful. Chres held the metal glass up to the light causing the surface to gleam.
'One for you, and one for me.' His wife had told him. Neither Chres nor his wife, had shown interest in wanting a familiar.
"Why then?" Chres said. His voice almost a whisper.
Chres closed his hand around the metal glass, one last time, before gentlely placing it on the nearby stand.
"Thank you, Karina." He said smiling. "I know you tried. I doubt that neither you nor I could have stopped her."
Nodding to her, he slowly rose from his chair.
"I'll find her tomorrow. One way or another." Chres said. "Do what you will with the metal glass. Senses knows it's only been weighing me down."
Despite his words, Chres somehow felt a weight much heavier than the one he just let go. These next few days would be long ones, he knew. Long and restless.
As always Chres slept lightly that night. His dreams plagued with horror and guilt.
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