CitrusArms
Danyel
rabidbacon
dragonpiece
pantothenic
Izurich
jasbraq
Ti
Jumbus
Assani 19th
Location: Xochiyeiteteo - 4S Farmstead > An Zenui - Omenaxan
Day of the week: Lepdes
Time: Morning
Present: A lot of people.
“You’re going to miss it, Zazoo.”
Zarina didn’t awaken or arrive anywhere. She was just there, as if she always had been, with only some plain clothes. But what was ‘there’? The air was warm, the sky was bright and the ground was …
“Sand.” she grumbled. “Why is it always a desert?” she complained, only to feel a furball brush against her ankle. It was a minuscule cat - a Rusty Spotted Cat to be exact. “Oh, Ayla.” remarked Zarina. Why, of course, this was always what Ayla looked like. Bending herself to seized the small cat, it did not resist and settled into her arms in a myriad of purrs.
Then, a neigh came from her right, and then a man’s voice. “Mrrrph. That big cucumber is going to appear any second. I could use a cucumber, actually …” he spoke with a creamy and deep voice. His stomach gurgled too.
Zarina regarded him. A fair skinned tall man with modest quality clothing, long blonde hair and pronounced musculature, barring the gut he hid under his tunic. His brown eyes oriented themselves to the girl. “Do you want to get closer?” he asked, hands on his hips. “I think we have a good view here, Riesco.” spoke the girl.
“I agree.” another voice, one heavy accident and quite nasally. “We should just kick back. There’s no way you be eatin’ all that cucumber, Riesco.” it was Nuro, seated on a beach chair and taking in the rays of the six suns that shone above them. And yet, the heat was never unbearable.
“Here it is!” Riesco pointed at the horizon. Zarina squinted to see. What emerged was indeed a giant cucumber with its tip splitting open like some eldritch worm. And with its emergence came a mighty storm, one almost identical to the one the group had escaped from previously.
“Over here!” shouted someone from the opposite direction. A female’s voice, quite young-sounding.
Then, a rat riding a skunk ran past the group of observers, rushing to that same direction to flee the storm. “Hey! Fiske, Desmond!” called out Zarina just as Ayla also hopped off and joined the two in their flight for survival. “Wait for me!”
Riesco and Nuro were gone, and all Zarina could focus on was the house on the other horizon. And as she ran without ever truly exerting herself, she saw an eel flop about. It was Evander! And as a literal fish out of water, he could hardly do anything, not even make a sound. Feeling pity, Zazzy grabbed him and stuffed the critter in a satchel.
Once she made it at the house, it looked … Exactly like her home in Ersand’Enise. Actually, it was exactly that, right down to the smell one would expect from an animal menagerie.
“UGH! You’re totally ruining my vibe Thawra! What the shizzle?!” whined a particularly beautiful girl in a Virangish dress worthy of royalty with pink, violet and red colours dominating. Her hair was long and styled to resemble one of the current princesses, and her skin was a tad more bronzed than Zarina’s. They were all in the drawing room, and the whining girl looked toward Zarina. “Oh Em Eff Gees. She’s home.” the girl rolled her eyes and migrated to the next room.
“Oh hells no you’re not talking about me like that, Alqasas!” Zarina cranked up the sass and even wagged her index finger. “You apologize right now, lady. NOW!”
“Heehee, welcome home mum.” another teenaged girl peeked out of the same room Alqasas had left. She was paler, but still had a noticeable tan, and she was smaller. She also wore more Torragonese-style clothing similar to Ayla’s. “I’m still feeling queasy, though, so I don’t think I can make school tomorrow.” a badly acted whine and rub of her tummy had Zarina roll her eyes.
“Nice try Thawra.” Zaz pursed her lips and regarded the girl. “Get me your sister, and do your homework. Or no pork chops.”
The girl grimaced but surrendered quickly. After skipping away to get the more rebellious sibling, a Raccoon passed by Zarina’s, skedaddling on its two feet while holding a mix of coffee beans and magi in its small, cupped hands. “Looks like the stand is holding out well with you, Marci.” Zarina smiled. “At this point it should be your striped face on the logo.”
“Zarina! Quickly! Over here!” once again, the voice called for her from the backyard. So familiar. It even made Evander squirm in her bag. Zarina power walked outside …
The air was dry and there were many shrubs around her. The house had vanished the moment she stepped out of it, and before her was a large coliseum with an abundance of … People? Except, they were all animals waving their Kurushes as they bet on actual men and women racing in a circular field. And on their heads were mantises riding them.
“Zazzy Zazzy!” a child called out.
“Zazzy! Where were you?!” another with a higher pitched voice yelled as well.
Two kids, one wearing all black with a dark mask, although he clearly wasn’t of dark skin underneath. A boy a good two inches taller than the girl that followed him. She was of darker skin, although she favoured red and blue colours for her getup, as well as rainbow colours for her hair. Both rushed down to Zarina to hug her. “Hey you two!” laughed the caretaker.
“I wanna see the pony-people.” said the more reserved, but still quite energetic female, as she held Zarina’s hand.
“I do too, Maat! I know you love to watch horsies.”
“Can we get treats too?! I saw grapes! Grapes! Pleaaaase!” the boy clasped his hands together to beg.
“Fiiiiine Horus. But only a grape. Too much and you get a rush for hours.”
Both were held by their hands on each of Zarina’s sides as they entered the arena with fruits being enjoyed and good seats found. They watched a race, with Zarina as the only human in the audience, although that didn’t seem to bother anybody, including Zaz herself.
“Go Billium!” cheered one. “No, Henry is better!” retorted the other.
“A little insider help: Arman is set to win the whole event.” A Virangish Queen Cobra had settled next to Zarina. It regarded the children with serpentine eyes that bent and emoted like a human’s. The little ones screamed ‘Grandma!’ in unison, while Zazzy merely regarded the reptile. “Why the long face? I want you all to have a good time.”
“Kinda defeats the purpose of the sport if you cheat, though.” replied an uneasy Zarina, arms crossed and her body oriented to keep the two youths away from the snake.
The cobra shrugged the best it could with its noodle-like body. “It’s still a spectacle, and we win.”
“I don’t care about idiots losing money. I care about you shitting on nice things - things to be proud of - because you want a quick buck.”
“Again with this, Zarina,” the snake’s tongue flickered out to taste the air. “overly concerned about things that hardly matter. Things that benefit those beneath that would hesitate to get on top of us given the chance.” the serpent chuckled. “I like a genuine horse race too. But family comes before all else. Even our lofty ideals.”
Arman had indeed won the race, prompting many cheers. One man, a tiger, was sitting next to the snake and showed off his winnings - a nice bag of coins. “Hey boss, today’s a good day.”
The serpent smiled and merely extended out the tip of her tail with an empty sack presented. Then, she looked at the gaping, hollow hole that had yet to be filled. The tiger licked his lips in feline anxiety, and eventually dropped a small portion of coins in the bag.
But the snake kept staring at the opening with an unmoving smile. So he poured more.
Still no budging. She stared with only a couple of blinks.
Tariq the Tiger conceded. “Here you go boss, for all you do for us.” the entire winnings were dumped into the superior’s bag. “Well done, Tariq. I trust you’ll keep on earning like a champion.”
Zarina watched it all unfold and rolled her eyes the same way Alqasas had done to her. This was routine. Might made right in this environment, and as much as Zazzy rejected the blatant corruption of certain practices, the sheer presence the serpent imposed always inspired her, in some way. “I think all of that is short sighted, mom.”
The snake, before answering, cheered with the two kids as another race concluded. It made Zarina’s concerns feel so secondary, and she knew it. “It is. Such trivial things are just short term gains.” it exhaled from its snout and tapped Zarina’s shoulder with its tail. “My dear.” the teen growled. “I don’t like it when you start with that.”
“My Dear.” the snake cleared her throat. “I know you’ve been hurting. All because you concern yourself over things that just … Don’t matter as much, I’m afraid.” the shoulder tap turned into considerate rubs. “Most people and things just don’t. The more you focus yourself on what truly matters - you and your family, and the right friends too - the better you’ll be. The less constrained that potential of yours will be.”
“Hoyyy!” the exchange was interrupted by a postman that had glided to their position. A short, young man with blue hair and a lanky frame. “Priority letter for Zarina! Just sign here.”
Zarina took the envelope and signed her name onto the clipboard. “Thanks, Arlo.” a faint smile was dedicated to the peppy delivery boy before he flew out.
The letter was opening, only to reveal a single sheet of paper with one word.
‘Help.’
“Zarina!” the voice called again. “Over here! Quickly!”
It came from … Under? And just as she realized this, all the audience was gone except for Saoussen the snake. “Another distraction that can get you killed. Choose your next steps wisely, Zaz.” the stone beneath them began to crack, and they fell into a bottomless, black abyss.
Zarina came to after a minute, prodded by the tongue of an unseen being barring two floating orbs that reflected the little light around. The whole room was black, and thus Tku the chameleon had turned dark as well. He stood upon a rock.
“Thanks Tku, Zox.” she gathered herself and looked around. A featureless room was what she came to find, with only darkness barring a consistent spotlight shining above her.
“Zarina! Please, help!”
Zarina twisted toward the sound, only to find nothing.
“Where are you?!”
“Again, Zarina, why are you travelling through deserts and coliseums to follow a voice you don’t even know?” the snake was suddenly there, except titanesque and looming over Zarina. Its big, orange eyes looked down at her and its tongue about the size of the Virangish teen. “You’re one of a kind. Quite literally, you’ve become something few can even compare themselves to in a few years! And yet … You just keep burdening yourself. Like your grandfather. It is a shame. But on the other hand, maybe it is better than letting that temper of yours win out.”
“I’ve yet to truly regret doing what I do. It’s in our core values to preserve life whenever we can.”
“That is a lie, Zarina Al-Nader.” A Froabas of the alpha variety emerged from the darkness just as big as the serpent and opposite of her in regard to Zarina’s position. “You’ve killed many innocents because of what you are. And, despite your misplaced self-hatred for the power you possess, you’ve been holding the mantra that you desperately try to contradict whenever possible, like with that Cuimits man who would not have hesitated to kill YOU and all your friends..”
“Go rot in hell with your pathetic father, Augusto.” hissed Zarina. And yet, despite wanting to attack the beast, the rules of this world made her stay helpless immobile.
“Some people simply deserve to die more than others. If they were in the way of the magnificent being you’ve become, they were meant to fall for you to grow.”
“I’ll have YOU fall beneath by foot you fucker. I will never forget what you’ve done to me and those people.”
“You want to protect so many things, and kill the most vile creatures of this world. Not even the greatest mage of your time could achieve this. Not even I, the strongest being of this world, could fully achieve this either.”
Finally, between the two, was a black dragon that dwarfed even the giants that had entered the stage to egg Zarina on. A dragon that resembled Zarina’s monstrous form.
“You need power to carry all these burdens. Power both of these lack, and so they’ve compromised. Their values, morals and souls for opportunities they would never have without making them happen. But-”
Zarina kept silent as she looked up in both amazement and terror at the third being.
“We share the same blood, you and I. The possibilities with you are limitless. You only need to be able to make them your own.”
“Zarina! Help! Please!”
A silhouette began to form under the obscured form of the Tyrannus Horrifer that had been talking down on Zarina. The memories were flowing back as the teen made the figure out more and more.
“Which would entail sacrifice. Would you save them, at the risk of letting a great evil, the same evil that’s hurting them, roam free even longer so they could hurt even more?” Heart shined a light upon the hidden figure, progressively revealing the source of the voice. “One would be privileging the safety of those close to you, as your mother believes you should do, at the expense of leaving the monster’s fate up to powers that aren’t yours. Powers that you have no control over.” one ‘hand’ was raised.
“I owe them so much …”
And then the other. “Or pursue the wretched creature and exact the notion you’ve been living by: Some simply deserve to die. It’s justice. The death of Wesca, and those connected to her, would ensure the safety of many others. Your desire to protect all life, no matter how small, drives you here. But the few are sacrificed for the many.”
“I …”
“One day, maybe, you could have both. But now? You’re helpless to the painful choices of this world.”
Evander jumped out of her sack, unleashed a massive electrical discharge and illuminated Classa in her entirety, with Sandbat Tennaxi and a regular Nibbler on her back. Both were chained and afraid. The three beings were repulsed by the lightning.
“Zarina! I’m scared! Help! HELP!”
“Classa!”
A Yansee frog then jump scared Zarina, making her fall back.
Finally, she woke up. And in front of her was a new, Red Nashibansek Coon meowing away at her. A delightful sight to make up for that unpleasant finale.
They glided over the open desert and, for all that there was worry in their hearts, for all that the situation might've been grim, on some level, there was joy there as well. More than once, Marci lifted from Alqasas' back, flying momentarily on her own. She did a loop just for the feeling of it before alighting nimbly on the great beast's back.
Zarina remained mostly focused, though there was something beautiful about being up here, looking down on it all below. Rocky crags and hoodoos jutted out from shifting dunes and a low veil of sand that drifted across the barren expanse, interrupted only occasionally by thorny shrugs, cacti, and stunted, umbrella-like trees.
Finally, after some twenty minutes, An Zenui hove into view, perched atop the horizon like a sparkling jewel set in a small canyon and its surrounding environs. The sparkling brown waters of the river that wound through they city snaked along below them and Zarina's smaller shadow undulated across their surface alongside her dragon's larger one.
Once they deemed themselves close enough, they circled down to rest by a small rocky crag that obscured any view of them from the road. While they as yet moved, Jascuan hopped off and landed, light as a feather, on the ground. The elder produced a cane from his robes and stood aside as Alqasas' wings beat and the beast's landing kicked up a cloud of dust and sand.
"I guess that does it," Marceline chirped, sliding off and landing in a crouch. Zarina was already in her full regalia - a distant and intimidating thing to most who didn't know her. Marci didn't much mind, however. "Now that we're still, gimme a minute to work my magic." She closed her eyes and her face became a mask of intense focus.
Sweat beaded on her forehead and her face became pinched. Gradually, she swept the cliffsides, the valley, and the tops where the rich people lived. She swept the tents, stalls, buildings, and temples. A small centaur, she thought, and a girl with no legs. She chewed on her lower lip and steadies her breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. This was her craft. This was her gift. She felt them all: the signals in their muscles and brains, the half-digested food in their stomachs, the cancers in their organs. She focused, she felt, and then... she found.
"They're close to each other," she announced finally. "Not together, but close." She opened her eyes. "They're in a large tower together: south-southeast." She pointed in the general direction, eyes flicking Zarina's way. "So, do I guide you on foot or the tethered way?" she inquired.
Once again, Zarina traversed the desert skies clad in her reflective platinum armour. It was hot, and thermoregulation could only do so much before the artificial nature of it got tiring. A sigh of relief was warranted as they approached the borders of the city. They landed, with Alqasas settling in and eventually resting upon the hot, sun-exposed surface for some free, solar energy.
Marceline had located the two missing girls, prompting a rise of adrenaline within the recently awakened Zarina. That much sleep was going to keep one groggy for a while. “You stay at a safe distance.” she decided. “If something happens to us, you can make the call of either bringing Alqasas with you to help, or get the others at the farm. Until then,” her normal-sized gauntlet tapped the younger teen's shoulder. “I'm trusting you to keep me alive and guide me.” then, she regarded Jascuan. “Do you know that tower? I can just fly us there, and we get a feel of what's going on.”
Jascuan's head turned as if he was looking in the direction of the tower, though he could not have been. His body was stiff and his voice a grated rumble. "I know it well." He shook his head. "It is the Omenaxen." A gust of wind whispered across the barrens outside of the city. "It is not a place one simply enters."
Zarina regarded Jascuan with a dull stare, although it was concealed behind her helm. “Like some sort of prison? They'd actually lock someone up for missing legs and looking like a horse?”
He shook his head, pursing his lips. "It is more than that," he answered simply. "You will see. Be careful. All senses alert. Be ready for anything."
Marci looked concerned. "Should I... come?" she prodded, eyes darting between them.
“No. Like I said, you're our lifeline if things turn sour.” Zarina regarded Jascuan. “Got it. You do the talking, I'll keep my guard up.”
Jascuan nodded. "Very well. Follow me." he twisted to acknowledge Marci for a moment and began walking, his posture changing as he did so. His steps became slow and unsteady, his body stooped, and his cane swung back and forth tremulously. "Say nothing," he whispered.
The great armoured gate loomed ahead, dominating the landscape before it, rifles bristling from its twin towers and a dozen apertures. A couple of them moved to track the hunched, doddering figure of Jascuan but, surprisingly, none seemed to pay any attention to the heavily armoured figure of Zarina. Ahead of them were a couple of wagons being ushered through. Then, they were there and, when one of the guards held a hand out, Jascuan kept right on walking, straight into it. The old man stumbled and staggered and let out a small cry.
Zarina made no sound, and she was ignored by her surroundings. Even a stray fly accidentally bumped into her. Her position in this scheme made more sense to her now: She was invisible. The mass of metal followed, and when the elderly cazenax faltered, she just stood still and regarded him. Silent and stoic. Waiting.
To her, the words exchanged next might've made no sense, but they held meaning for those who spoke them. “Hey, old man, are you blind?”
"Blind, you say?" Jascuan craned his neck and cupped one ear, scowling.
“Deaf too,” murmured the other guard: a younger woman.
“Yes, I said 'blind',” the guard confirmed. “It was a rhetorical question.”
Jascuan nodded and chuckled faintly, mostly toothless. "Rhetorical question..." he repeated dumbly, seeming to mull it over.
“Ugh, nevermind,” huffed the second guard, and Jascuan smiled absently. "Well, yes," he admitted, "I - I am." He scowled. "No reason to shove a fellow, wouldn't you say?"
There was a pause, and they looked at each other, eyes flicking right on past Zarina without so much as a hint of recognition. “Now... now you look here, old timer,” the first guard began. He was paunchy and coming up on middle aged. He leveled his pointer at the elder, who did not so much as flinch, so oblivious was he. The second guard laid a hand on the arm of the first. “Oh come on, Zugan. He's clearly harmless and half-senile,” she interrupted, and he shot her a look. "I assure you that I am quite alright, thank you," Jascuan rumbled, at least a little bit wounded by the accusation.
Zugan let out a chuckle at that, however, and thankfully, he relented and stepped out of the way. “Well alright then. Head on through,” he allowed. “Try not to get lost.”
Glancing about dumbly, Jascuan bowed in almost the correct direction. "Oh, thank you, young man, young lady. I imagine I'll manage, one way or another." They lifted the gate and he doddered on through.
Perfectly still. The less strain on the old man, the better. With so much time at her disposal, Zarina studied the two short guards, wondering what they might be saying. Some snark, some professionalism. And Jascuan didn't miss a beat. He reminded her of that old man from Djamant, in a way. Both were more than what they seemed.
Then came time to move again. Following close to not end up sandwiched by the sentries, she was barely a few inches behind the elder. And as they got closer to the dreadful spire, she reminded herself to keep her guard up. To be Jascuan's eyes, ears and shadow.
"To be honest," the old man remarked, "I was a little bit worried." He shook his head slowly, hands clasped behind his back as he walked. Zarina could notice, when she looked closely enough, the subtle movements of his ears. Much larger than a human's they twitched every so often with extreme sensitivity, tracking noises, distant, faint, or both, that she could not have hoped to hear. "As a boy, Zugan-Alguo showed a lot of potential." There was a pause and, for a moment, it seemed as if he was done speaking. "He could've been one of us." His cane whipped out with ferocious speed, but only to sweep back and forth and prod gently at the ground before him. "What a disappointing adulthood."
Zarina kept quiet, tunnel-visioned on the order of keeping silent.
"Oh, you're quite free to talk now," Jascuan chuckled, after the silence had dragged on for a bit too long. "Makes these little walks more interesting, wouldn't you say?"
Around them rose a city, but they were winding through a quieter residential area currently. There weren't many people about with most of them being artisans and other professionals, off at work. In the near distance loomed a couple of ornate buildings that had the look of governance about them. Far away towered the dread black spire of the Omenaxen, a grim overlord to this otherwise colourful and lively place.
“Ah.” with Jascuan's permission, Zarina took a deep breath. With the conscious effort to keep quiet, her breathing was also unnaturally stifled. “You're one hell of a mage to keep me hidden so well. These guys who are probably trained should be looking out for stuff like this, and yet.” she looked back to see nothing changing. The guards were stationary and remote, and eyes were never directed to her concealed figure.
“You mentioned one of us. Like, an independent farmer sticking it to big farma? Or something else entirely?” she tried to cross her arms, but her over sized shield-gauntlet ended up with her awkwardly pressing her palms to her hips as she kept up with the cazenax. “That's actually something I wanted to address-” she mused, golden hues descending onto the farm owner. “Where do we stand in all of this? These Vozas politics that nearly cost your home and life's work, and the king's life.”
"We?" Jascuan responded. "You can stand wherever you like if you feel well-informed enough." He shrugged as if it were no business of his. "But I suppose it is my position that you wish to know about." He continued walking as he had been before, careful to keep up the ruse. "I am exactly what you say, but I also stand for freedom in all of its forms." He smiled softly and reached over momentarily to undo the clasp on his satchel. "Justice insofar as one can be objective about that." Inside was an innocuous-looking mask. He let it remain there, within her sight, for long enough that she would grasp his meaning were she able. Then, he clicked it shut nonchalantly. "I only wish that my people lived as long as you humans did," the old man sighed. "Oh, the things we could achieve."
Zarina tittered quietly at her clumsy approach. At least she got an answer. Just as she was about to give her two bennies, the mask came into her sights. The talk of freedom, justice and that mask. It was unmistakable. A wave of nervousness coursed through Zarina. A top assassin, and one that's lived long enough to be his age. She most definitely feared the old man in a profession where the young die in abundance. “I'm not sure I can agree to completely unrestrained freedom. Not when a king might destroy his nation, and many others, out of negligence. I do not feel comfortable with this unsupervised Vozas deal.” her facial features tensed up. Nervous ticks under the form of grinding of her gauntlets claws become more and more common. “Not after what I've seen last year.”
They drew closer to the mega-prison. And yet it did not aspire the same vertigo it did initially. Not when there was an elder Volti that took the spotlight. “I have a hard time understanding something. If you believe in freedom in all its forms, why do you own three slaves?”
Jascuan had little and less to say about her opening comments. People would always have differences of opinion, and freedom also entailed the freedom to act against others. Her second observation seemed to prick his interest, however. "Ironic, isn't it?" He shrugged. "Our society is, unfortunately, a cruel one." His blind eyes found her for a moment and they did not seem so blind, in truth. "It makes no room for products of the Vozas unless they are indentured." His scowl was sudden and deep and he looked as if he might spit in disgust. "Naxos and Zox, I inherited from a loving but flawed father. They are not free among the cazenax, but they are free to act as they see fit in my eyes. Classa," he continued, "Was rescued from a life of hard labour and raised alongside my dear Samaxi so that each might lean upon each other when I am gone in a world that is built up against them." He let out a long, sad breath.
Then, they were passing the ornate-looking buildings. The sightlines became wider and the crowds both larger and sparser. The Omenaxen loomed larger now, its features becoming increasingly obvious. A trio of dragons roosted atop it and two more circled lazily. The walls were carved from a single stone pinnacle, either naturally black in the way of volcanic rocks or else dyed so. For some reason, they so smooth that, even from this distance, they appeared to gleam.
“Slaves only in name, then.” Zarina remarked. “And I understand there are others - not from the Vozas - that are also in chains from birth. The snake people.” she added crudely. “I can get behind fixing that part of society. Breaking chains. Initially because I was told to do so, but-” she looked up to the dragons ontop the black peak. These things were big, too big for Alqasas to handle on her own. “I'm beginning to see why this freedom is as essential to some as air itself. They should always have a choice.”
The base of the prison was now in sight. “Okay. What's the plan here? Find any means to check on the two? Then act accordingly, I suppose.”
Jascuan's bearing had not changed, but Zarina could sense a whole barrage of shifts within his chemical makeup and the composition of the air around him. "Well, my little trick from earlier will not work here, unfortunately," he observed. "They're too good for that." He scowled. "We will try something a bit different, but breaking in with brute force is an express ticket to meet your Gods, I'm afraid."
Now, they were entering the edge of the plaza, and the Omenaxen was clearer still: a natural stone pinnacle, its surface slick and gleaming. The one entrance that Zarina could see was set a few stories up and the only way to it was a via a long, straight, and steep staircase. The hum of every magic that she knew and even one or two that she didn't could be felt heavily in the air. This was not going to be a simple matter - maybe even an impossible one.
Jascuan nodded. The ground around them appeared to be made of some sort of glassy substance, solid and weathered, jagged in some places. "Force is unlikely to work here, yes." He clasped his hands behind his back. There was one reasonable path forward: narrow and paved and he adhered to it expertly. "Either we go up, knock, and ask nicely, or we go up, knock, and trick them. We could try an airdrop using your tethered friend as well, but it's risky..." With that, he lowered his voice. There was a single very long staircase that did not wrap around the base of the tower, as might've been sensible. Instead, it extended straight outward in a laser-straight line, sand piled up in a great drift against one side of it from the other day's storm. That was a potential weakness: a potential line of sight blocker.
That was when Zarina could feel it. A pinch behind her ear, and she knew enough of tethered pinch language from being friends with two of them to know what it meant: 'Are you okay? Do you need me?' The question was, how could she respond and the bigger one: what to do in general?
“I won't take such a risk if it implicates others. Those dragons will rip apart my Alqasas if she makes a single bad move.” Zarina groaned, unsure if this was even a good idea. Second guessing herself allowed the armour-clad student to ponder their reasons for even being here. “We need to ask to see the prisoners in some form. And then ...” she sighed. “We can just be honest. They don't have the right person. And Classa is yours. As your property, you should be able to reclaim her. And same for me with Nibbler.”
The Virangish answered the pinch with a reflex: A quick slap to her helm. Too many times had she been plagued by bugs from having such a big animal menagerie that she had forgotten she was wearing protective gear. “Ah. Marci's asking if we're good, and if we need backup.” in turn, she pinched herself with mild use of the gift at the same spot Marci had targeted, hoping she could notice the nervous signals and subtle changes in her skin. 'No. Stay.’
Zarina could not sense Marceline's grumble. The younger of the two was always being left behind like this as the youngest, as a tethered, as a precious little thing to protect, but she was almost a woman grown, in truth. She sent back a slightly irritable 'okay'.
Then, they were ascending the stairs. The dread spire of the Omenaxan towered before them and the air was thick, all around, with energy. Zarina's cloak of shadows peeled away and she walked along behind Jascuan, clanking shining armour and all. There were blisters in the wall that they could now make out and, from them, a half-dozen guns pointed the way of the pair, humming with dark energy. The elder did not so much as react.
Finally, they were at the door, and there stood four guards. The first was a hulking mountain of a man, Zarina's height and heavily armoured on the chest. His eyes were covered in blacked-out goggles, his skin dyed green, and his hair fashioned into spikes. His teeth were filed into razor-sharp points and a series of serpentine tattoos snaked up and down his mighty arms, which were crossed over an ample gut. The second was a smallish woman with red-dyed skin and perky pigtails, their tips dyed white and fuchsia, the latter to match her eyes. She wore nothing on her upper body save a series of ostentatious jewelry and black and white belts, one of which preserved her modesty. Black parachute pants with white and fuchsia stitching completed the ensemble. The third was a solid, blocky man with his skin dyed yellow and his hair cropped short beneath a black officer's cap that gleamed beneath the morning sun. His head was squarish and his jaw was too. His shoulders were rigid and his uniform perfect, the brass buttons on it shined to perfection. A great tower shield was strapped across his back.
It was the fourth who addressed them, however, and she was tall, lean, and pitch black, save for a long green arrow that began with dye where her hair parted into white curtains and continued down the middle of her face and neck, stopping somewhere on her dark shirt, over her chest. She wore a skirt, no shoes, and had fingernails painted in the same poisonous green. She carried only a pair of small hammers. "Who are you," she hissed, "and what do you want?"
A colourful bunch. Literally. Out and exposed, Zarina marched by Jascuan's side as they approached the row of security with everything down to their very style serving a singular purpose to intimidate and dissuade. The venom-themed one who spoke made sure to stay consistent with the abysmal welcome as she spoke. A good look was given to each before she settled her eyes onto the dark and 'tall' female.
“My name is Zarina.” the Severan began, keeping a good few meters between herself and the guards, gestures at a minimum. “And I'm here to claim two wrongfully arrested individuals, as well as my Dormouse. The legless girl, Tennaxi, the centaur, Classa, and my aforementioned pet.” she spoke, collected and relaxed. “Has there been a trial date set?”
"Claim!" exclaimed the bright yellow guardsman. He wasn't tall but he was massive. As he spoke, the badge on his hat seemed to gleam or glow. "By what authority!?" he challenged, marching up to her, expressionless but aggressively unintimidated.
Old Jascuan was very nearly brushed out of the way.
Golden hues looked right into the shorter being's eyes. Zarina made sure to exaggerate the motion of tilting her head downwards to look at him. “No authority. I know they've been arrested without any solid proof. Why exactly is the centaur here anyway?”
Little Red and Venomous Black began to circle to either side of her while Big Green remained at the door. "Listen, lady, we don't make the rules here. We enforce them."
"You wanna speak to your people, you petition."
"If they're in here, there's a reason."
"Only the worst of the worst end up here. It's secure."
That was when Zarina noticed that Jascuan had disappeared.
Zarina arched a brow. “Petition? From what? The authorities? Benny - Errr, Nyan-Acan?” she crossed her arms, perplexed as to where this could actually go. Though, the comments from the group of guards brought her to a squint. “Do two kids, one without legs, and a big mouse spell worst of the worst? Really? I'm willing to bet they didn't even resist.” she shrugged. “Like, don't you guys find that just a little weird?”
Then, she noticed a conspicuous absence. She was down a man - her only 'man', actually. Zarina's helm twisted to regard where the elder once was, which telegraphed her remark to the others. At this point, she realized there was a good chance she would be the distraction. “... I'd like to speak to someone with authority. Your supervisor? Manager? Someone who can decide.”
The four glanced among themselves. They were all minions, but they were strong minions. "The manager?!" Little Red sputtered. She swallowed.
"Nobody ever wants to speak to the manager..." Big Green trailed off anxiously.
Yellow Square, who fell middling in size between the other two, executed a crisp step back and his hand darted into his bag. For a moment, Zarina tensed, but he was only retrieving a paper and quill. "This is a PR-55-B, Avincian Variant." He held them out towards her. When she did not have a flat surface to write upon, he pulled a small clipboard out from behind his shield, again with that same startling quickness. "This is to be filled out and submitted to the local coordinator." He blinked twice - precisely twice, for that was a godly and even number - and waited.
Meanwhile, Zarina had also taken notice that Jascuan was not the only one missing. Creepy Arrow was nowhere to be seen either.
More were missing, this time on the opposite side. Zarina could only imagine the what sort of things could going on in the background when an ex-Volti was involved. Her worries had her trail off momentarily, only to be pulled back by Yellow Square's swift and daring movements.
“Eh?” bureaucracy. She should've known. Only a dull stare could be mustered at the documentation. “This- It's going to take a long time for this to do anything at all, IF it even does anything, right?” she asked in a down-to-earth manner with a tinge of sass.
“Look, is there any way I check up on them? They're kids, and probably frightened.” sympathy was another angle, even if there was likely to be a sore lack in such an environment. “Anything at all?”
Little Red softened for a moment and let out a sigh. She blew a few strands of hair from her face. "You know he's the local coordinator, right?" She jerked a thumb in Yellow Square's direction.
Yellow Square nodded. "I can confirm that piece of information." He nodded stiffly and dutifully.
"The job title makes him feel important." Big Green jerked a thumb in his direction. Yellow Square reached up with a precise pointer finger and pushed his glasses up one-point-one centimeters.
Zarina flinched at the revelation. If the situation wasn't so serious, she'd have a laugh too and see this as mere theatrics. But alas, this was merely a case of different cultures and the inevitability of administration in civilizations.
“Oh.” she visibly blinked behind her helm. “Okay, then. I guess that makes things easier ...” the armoured girl held the clipboard and soon realized her weapon of choice made it difficult to hold or write anything. Telekinesis it was, then. Well, the board was held up while she wrote with her 'normal' right hand.
Then she read it. “Seriously?” she looked to the local coordinator, and he nodded sternly. “Dami give me strength ...” she mumbled. And of course, she muttered most of what she wrote.
“Zarina Al-Nader.
Some call me Zazzy or Zaz.
Female. Duh.
Ersand'Enise, 15th Godsroad. I'm the owner.
Father, Ibrahim Al-Nader. Mother, Saoussen Al-Nader, that's her maiden name. Father renounced his at a young age.
Mana type ...” this one took longer than a rest, and any keen observer would notice it. “Wildblood. 8-something. Low 8's.
Ersand'Enise student. 2 years as an operations worker in the Al-Nader network.
I'm looking for ... Classa, demon-centaur, female, like 9? owned by 4S farm. Tennaxi-Luna - Uhhh - female, desert scrounger, 16? Nibbler, 1 year old Dormouse, male, from Djamant Dormice, I'm the parent and owner.
Wellness check and brief exchange as family friend.
Pat me down if you want to know everything I'm carrying.
I'd like sweetwater.
I've not idea how to sign in Cazenax, here's in Avincian.” Zarina finalized. She could only imagine what Marci was thinking at this moment. “Is this good enough?”
Yellow Square held out his hand for the document and closed it crisply as Zarina placed the papers there. He rotated them one-hundred-eighty degrees, exactly, for that was his nature, and began to read. Little Red and Big Green leaned in, the former on her tippy-toes, flipping her riding hood up momentarily as if it might grant her some extra height.
Yellow Square blinked precisely twice, for that was an even and godly number, and lowered the paper from beneath his considerable nose. The other two looked at him apprehensively. "This is, without doubt," he began, "The w-"
Zarina rolled her eyes. She saw this coming. “Yeah, that's right, mom's last name. Rare, ain't it?” she interrupted, shooting a knowing look at Yellow Square. “These two matter a great deal to me, so I didn't hide any details. I learned it was better to be fully open to those with the ability to help. Those that know better.” she smiled behind her helm. So very close to the coordinator. “Anything needs clarifications?”
"The worthiest cause we've ever seen," Little Red cut in. "Right, Bui-Nats?"
Yellow Square scowled and adjusted his glasses, pushing them up precisely one-point-one centimeters. His eyes flicked between the form, Little Red, and Zarina. He cleared his throat. "You are quite correct, Cozo-Ban." He nodded crisply, extracted a folder from his bag with those familiar lightning-quick reflexes, and tucked the form cleanly inside. He turned on the spot to face Zarina. "Very good," he replied matter-of-factly. "Now, I'll just need to submit this to the local adjudicator for evaluation." He slid the folder, form and all, inside his satchel.
The short Cazenax, little red - Cozo-Ban, seemed to have caught on. For what reason did she intervene? Zarina hardly knew. Nor did she have any certainty that her anxiety was valid. The confessed Wildblood peered down at her, and then pointed with her normal-sized gauntlet's thumb. “And are you the local adjudicator, Lady Cozo-Ban?”
Little Red flipped back her riding hood and winked. "You know, I says tah myself 'this girl's a quick study' when I seen ya's." She rocked back and forth from the balls to the heels of her feet. "You are correct. I'm the local adjudicator." She nodded at Yellow Square and held out her hand expectantly. He pulled out the folder he had placed into his satchel moments earlier and handed it over. She smiled. "Why thank you, local coordinator."
"My pleasure, local adjudicator." He stepped crisply back with more of that alarming speed and stood at attention.
Little Red pored over the document, magenta eyes zipping back and forth across the pages, before extracting a quill from one of her many belts. She pulled out a tiny vial of deep reddish ink from another and, biting her lower lip as she went, made a few hasty amendments. Creepy Arrow and Jascuan, meanwhile, were still nowhere to be seen.
Finally, the form was handed back to Zarina. "So, I'm gonna need a couple o' lil' edits, ya know: for spelling, punctuation, clarity, and grammatical accuracy. We tend to be quite rigorous in that regard." She smiled sweetly. "Then, you're provisionally approved and I'll be able to send your petition to the local registrar."
Nearby, Big Green blinked and glanced her way, still on guard at the door.
A deep breath. At least they were a pleasant bunch. “Okay. Lemme see.” Zarina grumbled, especially as she realized what she had to fill.
“Fine, let's do this.
Full set of platinum armour.
Dragon-head greatshield and cannon. Begemot enhanced.
Black silk garments. Three gold rings. One silver.
Fireblood Greaves.
2 Magi.
A silver coin with the same face on both sides.
A cure-all drink.
And I guess she's a Subsistence Extractor.” the form was then given to the peppy little red, and then she looked to the final of the three. The Local Registrar.
With that, Little Red handed the completed form to Big Green. "Why thank you, local adjudicator," he rumbled. "No, thank you, local postmaster." He folded the papers expertly and gently, sliding them into an envelope that he procured from his satchel. With a dip of his chin, the enormous cazenax doffed his hat and sealed the envelope. This, he slid into the satchel. He pivoted on the spot, extracted a key from the ring on his belt, and opened one of the locks on the front door. He produced a second key and opened a second lock. The third key opened - unsurprisingly - a third lock, and then a fourth, and then a fifth. Little Red hummed a tune meanwhile, and Yellow Square seemed to be counting something absently.
Finally, a clank issued from within the Omenaxan. Big Green stepped crisply back. "Coze-Zast," inquired Cozo-Ban, "Do you have an ETA for us?"
He pulled out a pocket watch, checked it, and nodded. "Approximately two and a half minutes, if I can locate the registrar as planned."
"Very good," Little Red replied. "Thank you, local postmaster."
With that, he knocked in a particular sequence on the door, and not all in the exact same place. There was a second clank and it swung open. He promptly disappeared inside. It was now, apparently, a waiting game.
Zarina waited, metal body rocking forward and back. It was awkward, so she spoke up. “Must be, uhhh, something to guard the doors of a big prison-thing every day.” she blurted out to get something going. “Real tough.” meanwhile, she reached out to find Jascuan, or even that not-so-pleasant fourth member that had vanished soon after him.
But then something hit her. She looked to the local adjudicator. “Okay, I need to know - Why'd you overlook the big, scary thing I wrote in there? Is it just more common here? Or do you have something in mind?”
"Big scary thing?" Little Red asked innocently.
"Yeah, you know, that thing, Coze-Dar-Lupui"
She pondered for a moment, tilting her head in thought. "Nah. I ain't gettin' it," she admitted, shrugging helplessly.
Zarina canted her head. At this point she believed this was all a trick, but ... Maybe it was Jascuan, or something else entirely. Perhaps it was best to not push her luck. Wait, did he just say Coze? Like Cozesteo, big rock. Big. Dar was new, and Lupui - Lupine? Luna meant moon, it isn't unusual for some words to be similar, I guess. Big something Wolf. It'd definitely fit the Wildblood theme.
“Huh.” she tittered. “I thought I'd get guns pointed at me for revealing this is begemot-made.” she waved her massive left hand. So slick and clean, it reflected unpleasant light to those who looked directly at it. “And yeah, it definitely spews out fire, like a dragon.” she flexed, just a little.
Little Red blinked, on the verge of an epiphany, and Yellow Square sighed. "Wildblood, Cozoban. Wildblood."
She paused, and pursed her lips. "Oh. Yeah," she replied, pensive. "I guess it is kind of a big deal, huh?" She shrugged, turning to Zarina. "Well, not to me." She smiled conspiratorially. "I'm one of you. Have been for a long long time." she winked.
Yellow Square merely regarded her dimly. You could feel his palm meet his face, even if the gesture didn't actually take place.
Zarina blinked. “Uhh ...” an exceptionally long major finger from her left hand went on to scratch her helmet. It made an annoying grindy sound. “Cool?” then she chuckled. “Cool!” she threw her hands in the air in brief celebration. “So, uhm, have I been approved?” she regarded Yellow Square with her head canted slightly and hands to her hips, looking a little more confident now.
He inclined his head precisely twenty-two-point-five degrees: the optimal level to show respect but not subservience. "That is for the registrar to decide, though I wish you luck."
It was at about that moment that Jascuan appeared from above, floating down slowly. He was rather rough-looking, with his clothes torn and bloodstained. One of his arms hung limp and he clutched his side with the other.
Just as Zarina began to drop her guard, this happened. Staggered, she quickly stood before the old man, shield readied and attention to the three she could see while her senses tried to find the unseen fourth. “What happened?”
Jascuan chuckled weakly. "Oh, don't worry so much." He began to heal himself. "Just a little father-daughter sparring session." He pointed to a spot in the sky and, momentarily, there appeared Creepy Arrow. She had a black eye, one of her ears was hanging at a weird angle, and she walked with a pronounced limp when she landed. She smiled weakly and began healing herself as well. "You missed a spot, pa." She shook her head and reached out to heal him, mostly ignoring Zarina.
“Oh.” Zarina realized. “Ooooohhhhhhhhhh.” good thing she was wearing her helm, that blush was quite embarrassing, especially on such a big, shiny knight. The shield was lowered and, after showing her hands in 'surrender', stepped aside.
Big Green came huffing and puffing out of the doorway. "Madam Registrar!" he called, waving the envelope about. "Madam Registrar! I have a petition for you to review. It's a PR-55-B, Avincian Variant!"
Nearly finished, she perked up, reaching a hand out. He placed it there with dutiful eagerness. "Thank you, Local Postmaster."
"My pleasure, Local Registrar."
"I imagine this is yours?" Creepy Arrow asked Zarina, brandishing the form.
"Oh yes!" exclaimed Jascuan, "Josca, this is Zarina: a new but excellent friend." He scowled thoughtfully. "Do play nice with her, hmm?"
She pursed her lips and nodded, releasing a sigh. "But of course, pop-pop." She held out her hand. "Coam-Zast-Ocan-Josca. People call me Joss, for short."
Zarina was left to wonder: Why was everything so dramatic if he knew them all? It was strange. Or maybe this was just the cazenax way. So long as it wasn't another fight, she took it as a blessing.
The human looked at the offered hand. “Zaz or Zazzy are fine.” she reached her large, left hand out to match Joss', making for an unconventional shake. She also nudged her chin to the document. “Though I guess you know everything about me already. Glad to meet you all.” a slick smile formed inside her helm, though the blush wasn't going away just yet. “I assume you know about Classa, then. How is she?”
Joss' eyes darted about and, for a moment Zarina felt the presence of a sonic bubble lower around them. "You're approved, of course. I trust my father's judgement, and Cozoban's." She shook her head in annoyance. "Problem is, they're going above my head. We need approval from the Regional Registrar, which isn't usually the case." She shrugged in miffed helplessness. "Whether they think they actually have a threat like Maxi or they know they have a witness they need to keep quiet, they'll wanna keep her sealed up tight. Not even I'm allowed in."
Zarina looked up to the peak again. Up there Classa was alone. As well as Nibbler, and Tennaxi. Now that she was so close, this revelation that none could get to them without more convoluted approvals prompted a couple of silent swears. “They're going to use her as proof to put the blame on whoever they want, huh?” commented Zarina, arms crossed before her silver chestplate. “Look, they're not safe here. Whoever is pulling the strings, they did not hesitate to send forces to kill their more valuable men. I had to do so much just to keep that fucker alive.” she shook her head. “I want to get them out before anything bad happens. I feel like you have similar sentiments, but they've got you by the figurative balls.”
Joss nodded tightly. "I had to put up a show of fighting my father. Unpleasant." She crossed her arms. "If you've got any ideas, though, I'm all ears."
"At least it's not Maxi for real," remarked Big Green.
Little Red shook her head ruefully. "Yeah. If it was really her..." she trailed off.
Yellow Square swallowed nervously. "That is significantly above our pay grade."
“You had me fooled.” chuckled Zarina. Again, she looked up, this time at the dragons. “I'm not one for convoluted plans. I have a dragon - Froabas - at the ready with my Tethered friend. If the dragons can be made all floppy and slow, a getaway can be assured.” she twisted to regard Jascuan. “With that dark magic of yours, you could probably burst a wall open. Fast, messy but should work if we have these four with us.”
Then she looked to the other three public service workers. She had a foxy smile under her metal mask. “If Jascuan trusts you lot then I will too. Just ... No more papers.” and for Yellow Square's trouble, one of her magi were flipped into his hand. She winked and clicked her tongue.
Yellow Square looked horrified. "I -" he sputtered. "I do not take bribes!" He snook his head adamantly.
"You know..." began Little Red, trailing off until people's attention had turned her way, "Might not be your people that they're all sealed up about." She sniffed in irritable pensiveness. "Might be related to those stuzéts they brought in this morning." She furrowed her brow. "Lotsa hush hush around that one."
Zarina shrugged. His loss. The coin's trajectory changed toward little red instead, where everyone's attention had fallen upon. “Stuzéts, like,” she recalled the way the cazenax at the farm spoke of a certain people. “the Sirrahi? Snake folks?” she arched a brow, arms crossed once more. “Any idea what happened at all? A crumb of info? Where they came from ...” weren't some of her colleagues supposed to meet them in a hideout? Concern grew, and everyone could feel it by the conspicuous increase in heart rate.
The local coordinator, adjudicator, postmaster, and registrar glanced among themselves, each of them looking uneasy. "There are... hideouts, throughout the city," Josca admitted. "Used by the stuzéts," continued Cozezast. He pursed his lips nervously and his eyes darted about. "A sort of secret bolt hole for 'em," Cozoban clarified. "Though it's kind of an open secret," concluded Buinats. He swallowed. "But they've been getting more... revolutionary lately," Josca explained, "and the people in power have been looking for an excuse to squash them..."
"They hauled a half-dozen of them in early this morning." It was Cozoban. She shook her head. "They hit one of those places," Cozezast continued. "One would have to imagine these phenomena are linked," concluded Buinats, adjusting his glasses one-point-two centimeters upward. He looked... concerned.
“Shit.” Zarina realized, shifting until she looked to the direction opposite of the prison. “I've some friends heading there to sneak in a witness. They might end up in the shitter.” she shook her head, now facing Josca again. “Let's get this done quickly. I'm getting the two out regardless, as well as my mouse, but I wouldn't be against talking to the snakes in passing. Is this agreeable?”
Buinats shook his head. "Regardless of our personal feelings, we cannot let you break someone out of the Omenaxan."
Cozoban shot him an uneasy look, but she nodded too. "This is our job, even when we don't like it."
"And there are a lot of really bad people in there too," added Cozezast.
Josca was unhappy. It was clear. "In cases like this, we just need clearance from the Regional Manager, though," she proposed, "Right?" Her eyes darted among the others.
"In theory, yes," Buinats admitted uneasily.
"Do we really wanna call the manager?" asked Cozoban. The little red cazenax swallowed and seemed to sink deeper into her riding cloak.
Cozezast looked to Zarina and Jascuan for guidance.
“You don't have to 'let' me.” retorted Zarina. “Just put up a fight the same way Joss did with her father.”
Then, it came into consideration that such an approach could endanger their livelihood, or even their lives. The ambitious teen sighed. “If the regional manager can grant clearance, then are we on the same page? This fiasco won't last long anyway. Only until tomorrow night.”
"Then we are very much on the same page," Joss agreed. The others shot her nervous looks. "There's just one problem: they won't."
Looks of consternation were exchanged. It looked as if they had reached an impasse, and unwated violence loomed as the only potential way past. Zarina's comment about a 'fiasco' and 'tomorrow night' was not lost either, but this was very much a 'one revelation at a time' sort of situation.
Then, Buinats spoke up. "You know," he began, "It occurs to me that - and I could be wrong, for this falls more under the purview of the Adjudictaor - that were something to happen to the Manager, were they to be... indisposed, emergency powers would pass to the Registrar." He shuffled about on the spot and his gaze turned to Josca.
The notion of more violence was one Zarina had grown far too accustomed to. The tension in the air had a particular smell to her at this point. A nauseating one. Three on three, at least the odds were fair this time. At least for the first obstacle.
But, she was too quick to jump into violent conclusions. These people, they did not want to kill one another. A solution was found - a bureaucratic one of all things, or better known as a loophole. “That ... Sounds smart.” Zarina relaxed. “Maybe you should call in the manager. And then ...” she peered to Jascuan. “Knock 'em out before he realizes a thing. Is he strong?”
Jascuan looked up at Zarina with his sightless eyes. He blinked and turned back to face his daughter. "What do you think, my dear?"
Joss merely nodded. "Strong would be-"
"An understatement" Cozoban cut in.
"Accurate," Josca concluded, shooting her a look. They all regarded each other. "None of us can be involved," clarified Cozezast grimly, and Buinats nodded. "Technically, that would be a service misconduct, and would invalidate the Local Registrar's temporary authority." Cozoban's eyes darted about some more and she sighed. "We're sorry, but we'll... find reasons to not stand in your way, at least."
“I get it.” chirped Zazzy. “Wouldn't be clean if you were involved anyway. And with the hourglass running low, we gotta be surgical.”
Then, she regarded Jascuan. “With Marci backing us up, do you think we can do this quietly and fast?”
Finally, she addressed the group of helpful public servants. “Do I find him, or is he summoned?”
"Local Postmaster," Josca addressed Cozazast, and he snapped to attention. "At your command, Local registrar!"
"We appear to have something of a situation on our hands," she informed him, voice suddenly quite professional. "I command you go, now, and locate the Regional Manager. Lead them to the facility so that we might consult with their expertise."
Cozezast saluted crisply and, a second or two later, he had disappeared. Only Zarina's keen eyes and senses noted that he had not, in fact, vanished. Rather, he had simply moved so quickly as to be nigh-imperceptible. "Now the Regional Manager has been summoned. Local Coordinator..." she pivoted to address Buinats. "Yes, Local Registrar?"
"Can I get a time of arrival estimate?" she enquired, and he nodded crisply, reaching into his vest and extracting a pocket watch with a frighteningly quick motion. "One and a half minutes," he replied, snapping it open, studying its contents, and snapping it shut. She smiled and nodded in his direction. "Why thank you, Local Coordinator." She twisted to face the others. "You are all dismissed for your daily fifteen-minute break." She winked in Zarina's and her father's direction. "Me too!"
That was it, then. They would have approximately fourteen minutes to deal with this Regional Manager, whoever they were, once they arrived. Now, it was a waiting game and, once again, Zarina felt a pinch behind the ear from Marceline: 'Update?'
'Threat'. 'Incoming'. Communicated Zarina to her long ranged ally by pinching and scratching her own flesh. They had little time to work with. “We'll intercept before he enters the prison's property. There were a few alleys outside the plaza on the way here.” she looked to Jascuan as she got on the move. “You're fast and discreet. You'll have him hurled into me, and we'll three-time his ass until he's out cold.”
The far too conspicuous silver knight had quickly found her place in the shadows cast by the row of buildings connected together by multiple narrow passages. Mostly artisan homes with most of them off to work before the heat became too strong in the afternoon. Then, she reached out to weed out the many passersby in the busier main street, until she or Jascuan could sniff out the manager pacing toward the prison. 'Careful.' she warned Marci.
For a moment, there was a flicker of energy. It was highly concentrated, moving at an absurd pace, and it was massive Then, it stopped. It didn't decelerate. It simply stopped. It was Cozezast and, behind him was, or were, or was(!?) a small figure with two heads. Each seemed to scan in a different direction, and Zarina could feel a tingle - like a pulse - work its way up and down her body. "Postmaster," ordered one small, snappy voice, "There is a threat. Go man your station."
"Y-yes, Regional Manager," the big man stumbled, before rushing off. "I will handle this."
They were small and dyed orange and ambiguously perhaps female? There were two heads, two arms, two legs, and an unusually thick torso. Both had white bob cuts, beady black eyes, black steel-toed boots, and razor-sharp black teeth. Zarina had gone undetected for precisely zero-point-four seconds. They hurtled towards her.
Jascuan materialized out of nowhere. He stepped in the way of one head's Arcane Lance, fired from its mouth. Zarina handled the second one's skewer of hastily-bound steel spikes. "Assaulting a Regional Manager of the Federal Bureau of An Zenui is a class-O felony and, if found guilty, will result in a prison sentence of -"
"D E A T H!!!" roared the second head, cutting the first off mid-sentence.
Such force! Terrible fury. The shield could barely handle their weaker attack, causing Zarina to recoil back, barely keeping stable footing. Without Jascuan, that sudden attack would have been an early end. “As if I hadn't had enough freaks in my life.” she grumbled, greatshield swollen to its full dragonhead size. “Although last I checked, you're the one assaulting me.”
Realizing their predicament, she began to manipulate the bloodflow and neuron connections within Jascuan's old body. If they were going to end this quickly, it had to be with a strong attack. And the old Volti was the only one who could match them. “Get ready ... We should try to end this in one attack.”
Some ways away, Marceline could sense that matters had taken a turn for the serious and deadly. She could not quite make sense of their target. Was it... one person or two!? Regardless, she knew a center of mass when she sensed one, and she aimed to fill this one with electricity.
Her attack was weak, though, and predictable. The magnetic energy was taken from her control and repurposed. "A very sloppy attempt," observed the Manager, shaking the head that had spoken. The other merely looked at Zarina and snickered with gleeful malevolence. “MeTal ARmoUr,” it cackled, looking her up and down.
Then, they came for her with searing flames. Zarina drew into the time stream itself, and visualized herself a few meters above, on a rooftop just behind her. But the drawing wasn't fast enough. Out of simple reflex, she 'shed' a clone of herself via amateurish binding after cutting some of her temporal energy in order to make this emergency maneuver. And yet the manager's spear tore through its core with ease.
But just as the tip pierced into the silver plate's side, inflicting a deep cut, the previously broken metal shell gained new vigour and coiled itself around the assailant before they could finish their attack. Zarina could successfully leap away to safety with only a cauterized burn and cut rib.
“Let's do it, they're trapped!” she called out, and Jascuan just acted.
His focus was enhanced by Zarina's spell, allowing him chemically block out the twins' lungs to simulate the symptoms of asthma. And given their specific anatomy, this was far more detrimental to their performance than normal.
Zarina hopped down, her arm now more cannon than shield, and took aim. “How's this for sloppy, freak-o.” the very same remnants of magnetic magic that lingered in the air and all the kinetic energy the shield had to sponge were enough for her to quickly charge a blast of air pressure right right at the Regional Manager's large chest. The rest of the air within was little blown out, causing them to faint with their back hitting the nearby stone surface.
“Fuck ...” she clenched her exposed side. Using temporal magic to make her puny binding magic actually effective, the healing and repair processes were underway as she looked down to the malformed individual. “That's, like, almost two people in one. Imagine the RAS on this weirdo.” she sighed, pinching herself for Marci. 'Thanks.' and even performed a thumbs up with her huge gauntlet for the Tethered to see. “Now to keep this one asleep for a loooong time, somewhere hidden. Think you can mess with the memories too, gramps?”
Jascuan moved in, smooth and quiet, and placed his hands upon first one head and then the other. It was such a brief flash of magic that it was barely perceptible, but then he rose and straightened, grimacing at the recent exertion. “They won't be bothering anyone for at least a few hours,” he said. “Dump them in the trash midden -” he pointed, “and then we should get what we came for.” He had already suited words to action, walking ahead while the rest of the cleanup was left to her.
trash heap. Now, prison time.
By then the break wasn't quite finished. This wasn't a long encounter, after all. And so, she arrived with Jascuan, with the coming approach being reevaluated in her head over and over.
“The manager's late.” remarked Zarina as she encountered the postmaster. “It appears he is indisposed.” an exaggerated shrug followed her little act.
Cozezast stood rigidly at his post, the very picture of duty, but his façade cracked just a little bit as he tried - with limited success - to stifle his smile. "Why... that is most unfortunate," he replied, tone thoughtful. He cleared his throat. "Well, in that case, jurisdiction falls to the Local Registrar." He pursed his lips and nodded. "I believe you already have her approval, correct?"
When Jascuan promptly answered in the affirmative, Cozezast was happy to take out his keys - all five of them - and, step by step, open the door. He paused with his hand on the knob. "Well, I've been cleared for break," he yawned, "and I think I'm going to take it now." He flashed them a professional smile. "Be careful in there. It is the Omenaxan, after all." With that, he was gone, darting off at the same incredible speed that rendered him nigh-invisible to the naked eye. The great armoured door creaked open and an endless blackness waited inside. The Omenaxan beckoned.
The mouth of the great prison had opened, and it was hungry.
Zarina took a deep breath. “Now or never. We're on a timer.” he reminded her older associate. “Quick but careful.” she nodded, mostly at herself, before she took the first step in and immediately took in the sights, the sounds, the smells - Gods the smells were awful, everything that made the Omenaxan the hellhole it was. She was on the lookout for the snake people as their ascension to the peak was inevitable.
“Up we go.”
The stairs were dark and dank and stank of death and decay. They started out as stone, but then there was an archway and it seemed... soft-edged and irregular. Jascuan wrinkled his nose in apprehension and made some sort of sign with his right hand. He paused where the change began, not bothering to twist around, but his voice found her in the reddish-tinged blackness. "I do not think you should go any further, child."
A small flame flickered at the end of her shield cannon, serving as a very modest light. If she wanted anything more, she'd have to spew flames. “Why's that?” she asked, unnerved but not to the extent she should probably be. “We're allowed in here. Unless you're suggesting we took the wrong way or something.” with that thought in mind, she pointlessly peered into the darkness to notice anything she could have missed. Still, despite her complaint, she didn't actually defy the elder.
Just a second before Jascuan out it into words, Zarina had noticed it. “Oraff ...” she had gotten pale under that armour. They were INSIDE a creature. “This is fucking crazy. How do they keep people-” she realized. “Are they just being fed to it? Fuuuuuck.” if Marci was sensing right now, she could see just how much Zarina's heart rate had increased. “... I hate this. But we can't go without the kids.”
Jascuan nodded and pressed forward ahead of her. "No sudden movements, nothing that would irritate it." Even his breaths were silent and steady. "I think I have some idea of what this is," he whispered. Then, he paused, framed in silhouetted beneath a dangling flesh tendril of... something. "Can you... sense anything? I mean... beyond a few feet?"
Much like when she was tailing the old man as an unseen shadow, she did much of the same. Steady breathing, which was a challenge, and small steps. Her clanging armor didn't help in the discretion department. “Nope.” she replied in a hushed voice. “I see why my plan may not work so well now.” she raised her shield to try and get some light on that silhouette. “Is this actually an animal, or some Vozas spawned horror?”
"If I had to guess, I'd say the latter." They ascended the stairs for a few moments longer, and the ground was soft and squishy and slick. It seemed to give beneath their feet, growing softer - almost mudlike - the quicker that they moved. Then, there was some sort of thin fleshy screen in front of them. Behind it were curved ivory-white bars, something like a ribcage. A faint, foul breeze blew along the hallway.
“What's the point of letting visitors in without a guide?” grumbled and whined Zarina, evidently irked by the experience. “Hmm, you feel that?” their wet steps were becoming more difficult as they picked up the pace. Naturally, she slowed down to investigate. “Almost feels like it wants to suck us in. Ugh.”
A fleshy obstacle was in their way. The 'torch' came closer to the wall of tissue. “Gonna assume this is some sort of door and not some trap for law abiding visitors. Well, almost. Let me ju- UGH!” the stench was rancid, causing Zarina to gag. Huffing, she seized a benny in her money satchel and had it levitate to the flesh veil.
As Zarina slowed, she noticed that the aggressiveness of the floor dwindled and she could move more freely. It ran counter to every instinct that she had as an animal in a place like this, but Jascuan was in the lead and he was moving slowly anyhow. The problem was that time was ticking by and they could only afford so much caution. As they approached the fleshy veil and she raised her torch towards it, it seemed to peel back. Her coin passed freely through and, beyond, lay a long, narrow tunnel or hallway of some sort. Dimly, in the gloom, she could make another half-dozen such 'doorways'.
“Looks like heat, or just us getting closer, did the trick.” Zarina remarked. Onwards they went. The pressure of time was getting stronger, causing the odd powerwalk, but she disciplined herself by never overtaking Jascuan. The flesh doors were all going to get the same treatment. Although in the meantime, she drew the strange air around her. Maybe in the off-chance that she could recognize some of the chemicals in the air.
In the event, she was able to distinguish nothing, so overpowering was the chemical cocktail of this fell place. Then, she came to the first door. Inside was... a cazenax. She was small and elderly. She sat on a fleshy lump, rocking back and forth. her hands weaved about in some strange pattern, almost as if she were... knitting? She was talking on in quite a pleasant voice, though Zarina could not understand her and there was... nobody else present.
“This place is also a prison of the mind.” concluded Zarina. “Or they can see their personal ghost.” shaking her head, she moved on without fretting too much over the unsettling sights. Still, she did occasionally listened in on some of the 'cells' with the occasional tap to get a look.
The next one revealed a cazenax she did not know. He seemed to be bathing without water or soap and it was indecent to look for long. The next was a centaur and, for a moment, Zarina's heart leapt, but she was a good deal older than Classa and looked nothing like her. Then came another cazenax she did not recognize. Finally, there was a sirrahi: perhaps about thirty, and large. He seemed to be holding something in his arms and rocking it gently. He sung a strange lullaby in an unknown language and smiled warmly down at the nonexistent thing.
Zarina stopped at the Sirrahi. “One of the fresh arrivals they spoke about, probably.” she mentioned offhandedly. “Which means whatever happens here happens quickly ...” she clenched her fists. “They've probably done stuff to the girls already.” still, knowing what may have happened was worth a shot. The coin she had been keeping afloat was flung onto the dazed snake-man's snout. “Hey, you in there, guy?”
He recoiled instantly and shook his head, scrambling backwards. “I didn't do it!” the sirrahi howled. “It was the revolutionaries! they've been plotting for ages!” He flew at Zarina, then, completely ignoring Jascuan. Tears were streaming from his eyes.
Zarina braced herself, shield set between herself and the Sirrahi. She did her best to draw the bits of energy she could find to add some stability to her defense. “Hey, hey, you got arrested in a hideout, right?”
“Please!” he wailed, sinking low beneath her and trying to grab a hold of her hands. “We had a deal, right!?” his eyes were pleading, looking up at her and, for a moment - flicker of time - the walls were wooden and there was a window. It was some sort of court backroom. “I-I did my part. Please. My kids: they're all alone!”
Taken aback, Zarina wasn't quite sure what to do. Push him back? Hear him out? Well, there wasn't much to ponder as a new development caught her attention: The environment had changed. “Shit, it's having an effect on me.” her hands removed themselves from his and she looked into his pleading eyes. “Your kids, where are they?”
For a moment, there was only more of the crying and begging, but then he stopped at her mention of... “The kids!” For a moment, he shook his head and his eyes snapped her way. They could not help but widen for a moment at the unexpected horrors they'd witnessed as well. “The kids...”
Then, he was gone again. “Please, your ladyship! They're innocent, even if I'm guilty. I know I'm guilty!”
The moment the sirrahi snapped back to his former self, if only for a brief moment, Zarina could see just how genuine the man's plight was. His kids meant the world, and now they were alone. It made her feel vulnerable, she was reminded of the people and creatures that depended on her too. If she were to perish, or something worse, what would happen with them?
“I'm sorry.” the silver knight backed up and looked to the path she was to follow to ascend further - if she could, given how her perception had changed. “Jascuan.” she spoke up with a determine voice. “We need to hurry. I can't stand the idea of having Classa here for a second longer.”
“Juja, Walan, Matzic, Cili, Lelix, Zanca, Loci!” He cried, reaching for her once more. His eyes widened and he looked around in horror at what he saw. Zarina blinked and the walls changed again, for a second or two, before reverting. “They live on Wesca's estate! That evil bitch!” His eyes went hard. “She's behind it!” He shook his head again, struggling. “Find them, please!”
Then, Zarina, unnerved, was on her way.
Zarina continued onwards and there was a rugged-looking woman with a farmer's bearing in the next room. She appeared to be spinning thread at a wheel. Then came another cazenax: a very elderly man who seemed to be playing with toys, making sound effects with his mouth and it was unsettling, to say the least. Finally, Zarina came upon a third of the same species, and this one was different. She was sitting in a corner, arms wrapped around herself and eyes closed. She did not react whatsoever at Zarina's approach but, when the human shone her makeshift torch at this newest inmate, she saw it: the girl was missing both legs. She was Tennaxi-Luna.
Zarina stopped the moment she heard the name Wesca. What was once fear and anxiety turned into a hatred she had rarely felt in her life. There was no creed that could justify such cruelty. She was burning in her armour like a brazen bull, with every second passing without that woman hurting becoming an unbearable pain to tolerate. “I'll find them.” she said as her parting words to the tormented prisoner before continuing her ascension.
After a selection of deplorable conditions, she found one of her friends. “Tennaxi!” the burning rage had been quelled, for now, making way for a glimmer of hope. Slowly, she approached the legless teen and shined her light upon her before reaching out to tap her shoulder. “It's me, Zarina.”
The moment that she made contact, Zarina felt something. An unnatural coldness behind herself.
The second she felt something abnormal, she twisted, shield up, to regard what was stalking her.
Behind Zarina, in the all-encompassing darkness, stood a living shadow of the purest blackness. It was not large, but it did not appear weak either. It reached a hand out slowly towards her, palm open.
Zarina didn't extend her hand, instead her shield remained raised. “Stay back.” the flame shined brighter as more fuel was added to it.
The shadow flickered and recoiled from her. It remained behind her, however, unmoving for a moment: watching, hands held open at its sides.
Zarina kept her eyes on it while Tennaxi stayed just a foot away. “This is more illusionary bullshit. It has to be.” she mumbled. “Jascuan! You there?” she called out, and then peered briefly toward the legless cazenax. “We need to go, Tennaxi. Now!”
Tennaxi did not stir, but the shadow did. It pointed towards the legless girl's still form, shaking its arm for emphasis. Jascuan, meanwhile, was some ways up ahead, peering into another cell.
The fear clouded Zarina's mind, but the gesturing and lack of aggression allowed her to centre herself and control her breathing. “Tennaxi?” her shield lowered a little, exposing more of Zarina's metal head. The gestures would confirm. But was it truthful? “... Do you know where Classa is?”
The shadow nodded at Zarina's first question, but shook its head at the second. Once again, it held its hand out towards Zarina, stepping forward. At about that moment, Jascuan took notice. He shook his head as if to clear it and began stalking toward the living shadow.
Zarina, after closing her eyes and exhaling, took the leap of faith. Her hand reached out toward Tennaxi's. The normal hand, of course.
When he saw Zarina reach out, Jascuan pulled back from his attack and let matters unfold. The two women's hands met and then, behind Zarina, the true Tennaxi opened her eyes and unwrapped her arms. She glanced about herself, shivering involuntarily, eyes fixing upon her friend. “Fuck,” she exclaimed, and then the rest was in Cazenax and Zarina understood not a word of it. Jascuan translated briefly. "She says she'd forgotten how much creepier this place is when she's actually here in person." He pursed his lips. “She's what we call an Astral Walker: she has a shadow self that can come out when she's not conscious.” He considered. “I think that's how she kept her sanity.” He spoke, then, in cazenax, and she nodded along, tentatively scooting forward. “Yes,” she replied. “I do tis.” She blushed in embrassment at her awful beginner Avincian and glanced about uneasily. “Classa,” she said, craning her neck to look up at the other two.
A grand sigh of relief escaped Zarina as the best outcome had come of this stressful encounter. Tennaxi was back and her Avincian had the Virangish chuckle. The first moment of levity she had felt since she got in here. “Thank Vashdal ...” she muttered as she stood up. Her larger hand extended out to Tennaxi. “I'll carry. And we'll find Classa.” she gestured to her back with her idle 'normal' hand to illustrate what she meant.
Then, she regarded Jascuan. “One down. We have one more to go. And not a lot of time.” and again, she'd let the elder lead the way as he made an effective barometer for the right pace to take in this hostile environment. “Do you trust your daughter to have spiked the dragons' break meals? Would that be something she'd do for Classa?”
Tennaxi swung up onto her back with a small “Tank you,” and then they were on their way. Zarina followed Jascuan's lead and he kept their pace steady. “They will not be an issue,” he assured her cryptically. “Worry not.” Then, just like that, they had reached the end of the floor and further stairs beckoned them upwards.
Tku reached out and touched the ripped flesh, his mana took some time taking hold of his flesh but soon Tku got to work. It started like a skeleton of flesh, strange white and baise that soon had small red and blue lines running through it. Color of light pink with a slight bit of black at the split end as the muscle formed. Finally came the complicated nerve inputs and the new tastebuds formed. Hopefully he would still like the same food but who could say. Tku leaned back. This was a first for him healing something oh so complicated. I'm a damn good sculptor, Tku took some time to appreciating what he did.
Tennaxi secured, next was Classa. And yet ... There was a gnawing feeling in the back of Zarina's mind. Anger and fear had since turned into hope after finding her friend in such a decrepit place, and now she wondered why she couldn't save a father of many children. A man that was clearly a victim of the same conspiracy Classa and Tennaxi was.
“I'm getting the Sirrahi. You go on ahead, Jascuan.” she nodded to the elder, and as they stepped out of the cell, the teen looked up to notice something incoming. A shadow. Jascuan had since entered his undetectable cloak, leaving nothing good that could come of the interloper. “Shit.” she cursed, and Tennaxi mumbled a few things in her language. “Down we go. The more us, the better.” she whispered for nobody to really hear.
It wasn't far, just a couple of cells down, until she found the snake-man, grovelling just as he had when she left. Her hand reached out to his. “You wanna see your kids? Come with me.” she ordered, eyes flickering between him and the coming pair of shadows, the second one more visible now and it was bigger than the other. “Before they're also found guilty of treason.” she added as an incentive for him to move.
But soon they would have to confront the shadowy externalities. By default, Zarina raised her shield as she slowly approached. “Stay back.” she warned, but the shadows didn't respond. They could not hear her, something she didn't know. The cannon's exit emitted a stronger flame, telegraphing a potential attack.
Although to the shadows, the dragon head shape of the shield would easily resemble a wyrm-like creature sprouting out of the centre of the twin-headed shadow's abdomen. A monster unlike anything they had ever seen. And there was yet a second shadow with them, bigger than the dark chimera that stalked closer to them.
“We're gonna push through.” she warned her team. “Only one way forward anyway.”
Before they could make a decision, a third head rose this time one of a dragon, flames spewing out. "Oh Gods! I think it's a demon Chimera!" Tku told Egosto. They were going to have to fight it no matter what if they wanted to escape. Tku would have run for now but Egosto was a fearless man and they merely moved a few steps up. Tku braved himself as well, presenting the a hand readying to blast away the demon with wrath. "I warn you if you can speak, leave or I will rid you from this world!" Tku tried to seem intimidating but against it he looked small and unsure. "Oh Eshiran empower me," Tku prayed that his power wouldn't fault him against the legendary beast of Avincien times.
The sirrahi was already slipping back into the haze of the Omenaxan when Zarina found him and woke him from it. His children were the key. The repeated mention of them kept him from slipping back. “Sazan-Betai,” he said, remembering to introduce himself. “Accountant. I... I thank you.” As they went, she could hear him whispering under his breath: the same sequence that he had before: “Juja, Walan, Matzic, Cili, Lelix, Zanca, Loci”
The 'monster' was drawing nearer. No stopping, they had precious little time left before things could get awry. Before long, the flame at the tip of the cannon was just a foot away from Tku's face should he not do anything about it, or behind his head if he opted to face the interloper behind him.
“Tennaxi. Sazan. Do not run if things get messy. Hide in a cell.” she warned, ready to go all out if the shadow proved to be hostile.
Then, they were back the way they had come and the two figures were approaching and Jascuan was nowhere to be seen and...
The monster approached Tku, but now there was a second. He issued his threat and there was no response. Egosto drew what he could from the limited environment and prepared to attack. Then, came a voice from behind them: "I would not try to fight a friend if I were you..."
"Ahh!" Tku screamed in shock at the mysterious voice. His spell he had prepared gone, his footing gone, his balance gone and then he fell on the steps. The 2 figure surrounded him, Oh Oraff is this it? Consumed by 2 monsters?! his heart beat so quickly you could almost hear it and then he heard something.
That same demanding voice he worked for, "Zarina?" Tku asked unsure, hoping it was her and not a chimera.
Tennaxi swung off of Zarina's back and landed somewhat gently on the floor. “Yes!” the cazenax exclaimed. “She Zarina.”
Zarina squinted. “Tuque?” she shot back as the cannon slowly descended until it merely served as a means to illuminate. “How the fuck did you get in here?”
Tennaxi glanced up between the two much taller people. "Sazan!?" called Egosto-Alguo. “Sazan-Betai!”
"Egosto-Alguo!?" The two sirrahi approached each other and were enfloded in a friendly embrace within a second. Jascuan, meanwhile, merely lurked behind them, silent and alert.
A sigh of relief rescaped the small openings of the helm. “One big family reunion.” then, Zarina looked upwards. “Cute. But we got a job to do. Classa is up there, and so is our getaway plan. Let's move.” once again, she offered her hand to Tennaxi if she wanted to hitch a ride, or she could grow some legs.
Tku tapped his chest, telling his little heart to calm down. He looked up at Zarina with the most 'what?', "Really? Tuque? T-Ku." He slowly rose, "We met with Benedetto, he's helping us. I came ahead of Ayla incase a binder was needed. Didn't even tell me what this place was. I checked the floor above this one. No Classa from what I saw."
All around them lay a half-dozen more of those familiar fleshy cells that they had yet to peer into. As they watched, Tennaxi scooted over to one, shooting an apprehensive look back.
Zarina was primed to overtake Tku. “All the way to the top? That's where Marci sensed her.” and until she saw it herself, she was going to check the upper level.
"You're right, I didn't check that. How about we check this floor first then go higher? Sensing is wierd in this place," Tku suggested.
Tennaxi leaned in further.
Then, Zarina turned to regard her and... she was gone.
Ready to move on so they could secure the main objective of this endeavour, Zarina reached out to where she thought Tennaxi was, only to realize she was gone. “Tennaxi?” she called out, keeping her pace slow.
Tku looked around for where Tennaxi went, "Alguo, Sazan, Jascuan, did you see where they went"
“Where did ...” the nearest cell - the one Tennaxi interacted with - was peered into.
Zarina stared into the VOID and the VOID stared back.
One great golden eye slid open almost... languidly.
Zarina did not back down from the staring contest.
From deep within the dark cell came breathing: warm and humid.
Something glinted faintly in the blackness, reflecting the scant light of Zarina's torch: first a couple, and then more.
And then more.
The eyes slid shut and then the glimmers parted. They were teeth: dozens of small, grey, dagger-sharp teeth. A long, oily tongue spilled out of the dread maw, slithering toward them, twitching and flicking. The eyes slid open once more: hungry.
Zarina took a step back. “Stay sharp.” she warned the others.
The cannon was aimed at the hungering being. “What is it you want?”
Tku took up a better stance on the steps and slowly made his way ever closer to Zarina after her words. He readied the little he could do here.
Its eyes, which had seemed unfocused, snapped to her then. "S T I L L I H U N G E R . . ." it crackled. "S T I L L I T H I R S T . . ." The tongue was long and lumpy and covered in either suckers or cold sores. It squiremd across the floor, reaching for Zarina's foot.
“Fuck no.” Zarina aimed her cannon downwards and fired a blanket of flames onto the disgusting appendage.
It jerked, writhed, and retracted and then, from the depths, a THING stood up. It had a tall, spindly body, bony, lumpen, and covered in thin, wrinkly skin and occasional tufts of sparse whitish hair. Its arms were skeletal and hung limp at its sides, claws dragging on the floor, screeching and scraping. An enormous head with slimy, mucus-covered eyes and a great drooping mouth filled with a hundred small silver teeth and a half-dozen togues like the one they had seen hung forward, rocking from side to side as the abomination lurched towards them. "I H U N G E R . . ."
Its great, fleshy lips parted, spraying saliva about. "P L E A S E . . ."
“By the Gods.” Zarina stared at the thing in horror. Demons were also prisoners here, and this one was the poster child. Zarina kept backing up, her pace still slow as to not agitate the prison itself, if the flames hadn't done so already. She raised her shield and stared down the monster. “What did you do to the girl?”
Tku could see what they were dealing with it seemed as well as Zarina. But in this place it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn't. He reached into himself and tried to rid himself of the toxins that might be effecting his mind.
The bottom of its head hung down like some sort of sick pelican's pouch or a pair of testicles. "I F E E D . . ." Its hands dragged, metallic claws scratching and scraping. "N O F O O D . . . F I V E H U N D R E D Y E A R S."
Meanwhile, Tku purged himself of whatever toxins he could, but it did not appear to change anything.
“You're hungry. Okay.” Zarina's normal hand was raised in the general non-hostile gesture. “Tuk, can you make food? A steak or something, I don't know. Anything this ...” she couldn't stand looking at the thing. “Good individual could want?”
Then, the monster swayed. Its neck-pouch bulged.
Behind it, appeared a shadow.
Tku thought for a moment. Drawing from the prison would be stupid. Instead he drew from the air and clothes people wore to make a nice, juicy torragonesse steak in front of Zarina, "There. He hoped that would appease the creature. Tku was now sleeveless and his pants were now shorts. For Zarina he tooks the sleeves, heavy socks. Whatever random hair and grime they had was gone. It was terrible.
The shadow approached. The monster lurched forward and opened its mouth to eat. Inside, beneath tendrils of mucus and saliva, was something large and solid that they could not quite make out. The shadow reared back to strike. One of the monster's arms jerked up off of the floor to grab the food.
Zarina took a step forward as its attention was on the fresh steak, just so she could see what that object in its mouth was. Or, at the very least, she'd be close enough to actually sense something.
Tku tried to focus his eyes away from the creature to the odd shadow. Just what could that be? he wondered
Inside was... a person, or half of one, with long black hair. It was covered in layers of mucus and unmoving. The demon picked up the steak and then the shadow struck, plunging its hand into the very heart of the beast from behind. It let out a guttural howl and staggered forward, but then its arms whipped and lashed out, covering the entirety of the room. Its neck pouch swayed with the weight inside, and the shadow struck again, nimbly dodging its desperate raging attacks.
Egosto leapt in, trying to seize one of the arms.
Sazan ducked another, wide-eyed.
All around them, there was vast, low, airshaking moan.
The floor began to soften and rise. The ceiling began to drip and lower.
"H U N G E R"
Tku tried to supress the beast with Blood, Chemical, and Kinetic to help out. Turning parts of it with stone while weakening it with chemical numbing and kinetic restraints. It was brutal but it's what he had.
Everything went awry. But now Zarina knew it was likely Tennaxi in there.“Shit. Hold its arms!”
Her massive hand plunged itself into the mouth of the beast to try and retrieve the person within, while the Begemot manas did their job to expand and serve as blockage. “Cough her out, or you're going back in there hungry! DO IT!” she yelled, her idle fist readied to add some incentive to her order. “Another five hundred years!”
The massive silver gauntlet dug into the layers of mucus and saliva. The platinum and wyrm scale armour could take the slow acting acid without any issues. It was resisting, hard. “Spit it out, asshole!” she yelled out, punching the thing in the gut a couple of times while Elguo hit from the side and the shadow struck once more. This was enough to make the monster stagger, but also enrage it.
Seizing the moment, Zarina could rip out the prey from the death-sack, revealing Tennaxi with mild first degree burns and many of her clothes eroded. “Oraff be blessed.” quickly, with a mild use of kinetic magic to keep her feet off the ground, she made a leap away from the beast without disturbing the even bigger beast. “I got you, I got you.” she whispered as she kept the girl in her big gauntlet and prepared to get to work on a chemical and brinding treatment.
Its arms flailed and thrashed and it let out a warbling wail. "N E V E R ! N O !" It rose from a rumble to a high-pitched screech. Then, Tennaxi's eyes opened and the shadow disappeared. The cazenax tumbled free, tattered clothes fluttering. “Okay!” she assured her friend, clumsily levitating just above the swelling ground. “Okay!” She reached out to help maintain Tku in the air as well, but it was a struggle. The floor and ceiling were closing in. Even the beast was sinking.
It reached out and grabbed the steak, desperately shoveling it into its mouth.
“Okay. Okay!” reassured by Tennaxi's words, Zarina paid attention to the threats now. The rampaging monster wasn't the true problem, the environment was. And so, she looked to the beast's cell, open and dark. The big question was whether prisoners, if in their cells were safe from the digestion.
Tenaxi had made it out of the stomach of the monster and now they needed to leaved the room. The room sinked and he needed to help out the most he can. He placed a blood mark on the creature and cast curse of the snake. It's draw, it's movement filled the snake and he let it drain into the 2 sirrahi, hopefully allowing them to manage their large form.
The floor and ceiling were closing in fast as the demon thrashed and screeched and flailed. The two sirrahi did not lack for power. That much was certain, but they did not have the most practiced touch with their magic and they were large. The floor grabbed them first, gradually starting to suck them under. Sazan-Betai struggled and screamed. Egosto-Alguo tried to wrench himself free.
Then, Zarina's helm touched the top and it began to suck her in. Tku's arm brushed a wall and it grabbed him.
Tennaxi was small and flattened herself but, soon, she was pinched.
Then, none of it mattered.
The beast collapsed in three parts with a meaty thud.
The two sirrahi went limp suddenly.
Jascuan appeared before them, floating in the air, legs crossed. He had mere inches to spare both above and below. "Still," he advised, "and silent."
Zarina immediately froze when she heard the wise voice and his tried and true advice. Still, and silent. Only her eyes moved.
Tku held still as well. Limp like a Revidian noodle, Tku told himself on repeat.
The flesh tightened, constricted, and swelled. It covered Zarina's eyes. It covered her nose. It inched up to her mouth. It closed around Tennaxi until only her fingers were sticking out. Tku felt the pressure around his fingers, up his arm, and onto his chest and flank. It took hold of one side of his head.
Then, it stopped, and remained that way for some time. It receded: first slowly, and then with increasing speed. After nearly a minute had passed, they were free, Jascuan floated down, and the pair of sirrahi were revived from thier impromptu trip to unconsciousness.
Zarina had been holding her breath the entire time. And then when she was freed, she gasped hard and panted.
“Fuck, that was way too close ...” she very carefully straightened herself back on her feet and lit up her improvised torch. “Everyone's okay?”
Tennaxi set herself down upon the ground. “Okay.” She gave her friend a thumbs-up. "Cuxé zel cé," she grumbled.
Nothing but pure grimace came across his face. He stopped himself from shuddering and slowly stood, managing only a dry heave. Tku quickly examined the meat chunks of the demons, feeling pity for the creature. "I'm fine," Tku responded. He then went to tend to Tennaxi and her injuries after they got out of the room.
Tku attempted to heal her but he found himself too shaken to do even an okay job. He found himself shaking, his nerves were on edge and he clenched his hand, "I'm sorry. I think I might be too shaken right now. Apologies Tennaxi."
They gathered themselves again. There could not have been more than three or so minutes left before the guards returned. When all had answered in the affirmative, Zarina turned and urged them to the top floor: the only one that had not yet been investigated, even in part.
They rushed up the stairs, risking angering the Omenaxan, and Tku's footsteps, indeed, caused it to stir. Seeing this, Tennaxi, once again piggybacked by Zarina, reached out with her magics and lightened his steps just enough. The rumble died down and they slowed not a bit.
Reaching the top floor, they moved from cell to cell. It was different here: the stairs seemed to narrow and a fleshy aperture loomed at the end of the hall. The first cell revealed a woman with wild graying hair who appeared to be playing soem sort of game with an invisible ball. The man on the second floor was young and laughing hysterically at something. The third cell contained a lawyer, eloquently debating with an unseen opponent, and the fourth, a young woman begging an interrogator who was not, in reality, present, and spilling everything that she knew about a murder or some vile crime. In the fifth cell, they found Classa, shrunken into a corner, explaining something about stuzéts and their resentment of cazenax to an unseen conversational partner. The girl looked frightened, and then... her eyes snapped to Zarina before belatedly flicking back to nothing and tentatively resuming her bunk conversation.
In the sixth cell was Stela-Zomé, charging forward on the spot, casting some sort of spell, but she was not their intended target.
“Classa!” exclaimed Zarina. The brief look to her caused her heart to skip a beat, but then the centaur regressed again. Like with the Sirrahi, she stepped in and reached her hand out to the girl's hand. “It's me, Zarina. Mister Jascuan, Tku and Tennaxi are here too. Samaxi is safe!” a quick unloading of information, as to see what could get the girl out of her daze. “We're all safe, and we're getting out of here.”
Tku watched as the prison get more agitated but they found Classa! Now they needed to escape somehow. Shune he didn't know. He called out to her, "Classa we need to leave, I can't make that armor for you if you stay here." He tried to call upon the last conversation he had with her. Something to take her back.
Classa blinked and it struck Zarina that her reaction was a bit exaggerated - a bit overcooked. “Za - Zarina!?” She stood suddenly and launched herself into the older girl's arms. “I'm so glad you're here. I thought I was gonna...” She trailed off, looking around and gasping in horror - again, in an exaggerated fashion. Tku did not fail to notice either. “Well, they were interrogating me. It was really scary and... Where are they?”
The strangeness of Classa's behaviour did not go unnoticed by many. “It's okay, they won't do anything to you anymore.” the girl was held tight with a hand caressing her hair. “What did you see, Classa? Who are you talking about?”
Classa leaned in toward the human's ear. “Zarina, come closer,” she whispered. Her eyes flicked Tku's way as well, for just a moment.
Wary, but ultimately trusting of the girl, Zarina actually leaned a little closer.
“I'm pretending,” the little centaur said simply, voice barely audible. “I can see through what this place is. I figured it out after an hour or two and I've just been telling them what they wanna hear.” She pulled back and smirked conspiratorially. “I've got more than just agility, you know.” Classa winked.
Zarina blinked.
“Oh.”
Then, she whispered back. “Nice.” the silver knight smirked under her helm. “We gotta go, though. Before the guards get back to work.”
Tku made his way over to Stela, unable to just leave someone he could help. "Stela," he tried to grab her shoulder, "We're here to rescue you. Egosto and Sazan are here for you. We're getting out." He tried to reassure, hoping the more gentle approach could shake her back.
Stela was busy telekinetically hurling boulders at unseen enemies when Tku came upon her. Her name was not enough to pull her from this fantasy. Neither was the prospect of rescue or Egosto or... Sazan was, though. Her eyes clouded for a second and then she whirled about, her tail nearly knocking Tku aside. “You're...” She trailed off. “One of the humans: who knew Nyax-Acan?”
He froze but when given a sliver to hold onto he took hold,"Yes, Yes! I am an ally of with Nyax-Acan. He brought me here to help rescue people." Tku stood up and offered a hand, "Come Stela, Your children need you." He hoped it would work as time was running out.
She shook her head as if clearing it and then horror blossomed on her face for a moment - a first look that he knew well. “The Omenaxan.” It was barely more than a whisper: ripe with terror-filled reverence. At his urging, however, she snapped back to him. “The kids. They're okay? How long has it been?” she demanded. “Sazan?”
"It hasn't been long, maybe more than half a day," Tku assured. "I can't say for the children, and that is why we need to get out. They need their mother. Sazan is sane. We will get you out as fast as we can, I promise." Tku knew he couldn't guarantee what he said. But Tku had faith, he needed faith for this. He was a small outsider here trying to change rot decades, maybe centuries old.
She smiled sadly, but her eyes were sharp. “Do you have a plan?”
Classa pursed her lips, suddenly a small adult. “I don't think that'd be a good idea,” she advised. “They were asking me all kinds of questions, trying to get me to save Samaxi, but I know they don't really have her, and now you do, or, well... Tennaxi. She's safe.” The kid shook her head. “The badguys won't do anything unless they think I'm gonna help them. We should set a trap.”
“A trap?” Zarina furrowed her brows. “Like ... Leave someone to blame here?” quickly she shook her head. “Leaving someone in this nightmare, especially someone innocent, makes my stomach turn, dear.” she still held Classa's shoulders and tightened her grip with her normal gauntlet.
But then she realized just how different this Classa was. How much she had mature. It wasn't normal, and yet she had seen it in more than just brains. She was strong. Again, she went in for a hug, so that she could whisper. “If you think you can handle it. I'll let the snake people out, if this is the case ...”
“And they break out 'on their own',” the kid advised.
Zarina concurred, nodding. “Do you know where the rest of the Sirrahi are? We've found three.”
Classa shook her head sadly. “I just know they're on a lower floor.”
But then, there was another voice. “As bad as it sounds to say,” Stela interjected, “Sazan should stay too. He's never been much for the cause. If they nabbed him, they're probably threatening him, trying to get him to rat.” She shook her head. “He won't, though, as long as he knows we have a plan. As long as his family's safe.” She shook her head. “As long as he knows we're coming back for him.” She cast about. “On that subject... where is he?”
Zarina pointed down. “Looking for you. And others, I presume.” she regarded Stela, still cherishing her moment with Classa by staying close. “Would you be able to convince him?”
She need not have waited long, however. At the far end of the hallway there appeared Sazan, Egosto, and Jascuan with two other sirrahi who appeared familiar to at least some of them. The lone cazenax rushed up to Classa and embraced her. "My sweet, sweet little girl," he said. Sazan and Stela made for each other and their embrace was no less intense. “Love of my life.”
“My morning sun...”
“You're safe.”
“You're well.”
They held each other tightly. “Sazan-Betai...”
He pulled back to arms' length and nodded.
“I need you to stay here for a bit longer.”
His face fell.
“We should spring our trap on Golden Skies Day,” Classa recommended. “That's tomorrow. Everyone will be watching and the king or Nyax-Acan - if he's there - always does a big public pardon.”
Jascuan nodded. “If they're going to make a spectacle of it, that's when they'll do it.”
“But we can do it too.” Classa grinned wickedly, a bit more of a kid again instead of this uncannily adult-like thing she'd morphed into since eating the divine fruit.
“Pardon or not.” interjected Zarina. “Nobody's falling for these scumfucks tomorrow. I'll make sure of it.”
Zarina stood up to let Jascuan reunite with his little girl, and took a step back. “Now to get out.” she reached a hand out to Sazan's shoulder. The poor man was effectively their sacrifice. “The kids will be fine.”
His face was heavy. His hands shook. He gulped and nodded. “Look after them.” He leaned in and kissed his wife, for what could very well have been the last time in his life.
Outside raged a storm. In the distance, arriving from the direction of the sun, came five flying specks, but then they grew. Inside, time was ticking away. A decision would have to be made, and now. Goodbyes would be said, with the hope but not the guarantee that the plan would work and they would not be permanent ones. Classa clung to Jascuan for a moment longer, her eyes looking to Zarina, full of fear and searching innocence, but then she hardened herself. "You need to go down. I'll see you tomorrow.”
"I think we should head down, I'm not confident enough to break through it's hide. I could try but I been unreliable with my binding." Tku weighed his performance of Wrath of the Pentad with what he would need to do to break out through the top.
"There's dragons there too, you know,” advised Classa. "Now Go!”
Tku scurried off, making his shoes smooth as could be to not upset the beast.
Zarina made an executive decision to lead the way down. “We outrun it. GO!”
Marceline, meanwhile, had been hard at work on two projects: the first was giving Desmond and Cazelui directions, and now she signaled 'up' 'top' 'opportunity'. The second was the dragons perched at the top of the spire and nearby. She had been slowly, subtly, but surely poisoning them with a soporific.
It was a mad dash, regardless of all the gurgling and stickiness coming from the innards of the beast. A sprint barely enhanced by magic. Luckily the armour could somewhat sustain itself. She went ahead, so that her shield could take on whatever horror could greet them on them. “Keep it up! If you get stuck, call it out!”
Desmond called out to Cazelui as he began to magically enhance himself more, trying to speed through the prison, "We only have a short bit of time, maybe somewhere near half a minute".
Desmond began his run up the stairs, as the moment his feet was to meet the stairs he began to propel himself with magnetic and kinetic energy that made him almost fling himself farther and farther forward. The lights began to fade, yet the moment he smelt something horrific his feet stopped. Desmond saw a horror that he never thought, a mouth that was acting as an entrance from the stairs to the prison propper.
Demsond stopped Cazelui that moment raising his hand as he called out, "Stop!".
The moment his feet were planted right before the flesh floor started he continued, "We only have so much time and entering there might be suicide, we need to hope they will make it down here before the guards arrive. If they don't we need to leave to take the guards out to garenteed their escape".
Desmond then tapped his foot, 1 second.
Zarina was so close to avoiding more intense craziness and battles. And yet here she was, running to the point of making her heart nearly explode.
She held the vanguard, holding her position firmly on the fourth floor and even ripping Tku out of jam with spare kinetic magic. And he returned the favour the following floor with his powerful blood magics.
The second floor was where it all went to shit. A rumbling from the innards had gotten half the group entangled, with Stela holding Tennaxi being completely incapacitated by the floor and ceiling gipping them. If it weren't for the Sirrahi she did not know the names of, Zarina would have finished dead. But, with combined effort and putting their all, they tumbled into the first and final floor.
Invigored by narrowly avoiding death, the final sprint was the most seamless run. None were left behind, with a couple of Sirrahi pulling eachother through the hateful muck that wanted them dead, and Jascuan receiving the aid from Desmond.
“Desmond!” she called out. “Fresh air!”
And they were out!
Out in the open. And the guards were returning. And the dragons ...
Tku was well conditioned to run and run he did! He leapt down 4, 5, 6 stairs at a time! He slipped and rolled but never did he stop. Each step felt like the flesh tried to grab him but he kept going. Powered by Oraff-Zept to survive, he sprinted to the end to see the ever reliable Desmond there to help.
It was a final burst into a sandy world. But as the saying go out the pan and into the fire!
Dragons!
Guards!
Even a sandstorm stood in the way of their freedom.
Pumped up on adrenaline, Tku searched about for a way to escape. Sazan's and Classa's sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.
Desmond could see very little in the darkness that was this beast made prison. He could see it shift and move as hit seemed agitated. Desmond continued to tep his foot, counting down as he could almost see the near maelstrom of energy heading towards them. Desmond saw the prison change and move, trying to crush the running people as they dodged and weaved the many tentacles and the ever quickening closing of the prison.
Desmond took out his hand guns and began to fire multiple shots into the hallway, hitting multiple tentacles that tried to grab onto the others. With one grazing pass Jascuan's head as Desmond severed a tentacle that was to grab him.
The moment they neared the mouth of the beast, Desmond turned around and yelled as he began to glide down the stairs, "Great seeing you guys too! No time to talk we need to leave before-"
It was then Desmond exited the hell hole he had only glimpses of, he saw what awaited them outside and continued what he was saying, "-the guards get back".
The wind began to die down, the dragons began their descent and the guards could be seen a slight ways away.
Desmond didn't know what to do, he was almost ready to pull his guns, but he began to look around hoping Marci was watching over them.
Out of the fire and into the frying pan. Meeting Desmond and Cazelui on the final floor, the group of eight escaped the dread hellhole known as the Omenaxan, but it was not yet entirely ready to release them from its clutches.
They stumbled into the daylight outside, the walls, floor and ceiling hungering, slavering, swelling as they closed in on the escapees. It was blinding, fresh, scathing, windy. The sands of a dying twister swirled about them and, as the winds slackened, the rifles in the blisters on the fell prison's sides rotated to face them. The four guards who had gone on break were now visible in the distance, returning from it and obligated to put up a resistance that they were very capable of. Finally, there were the dragons: two of them taking flight and circling down, down, gaining speed as they closed in. Was this it!?
Then, in the distance, emerging from the glare of the morning sun, came the sound of trumpets. They were no instruments of man, however, but those of the elephants to whom they belonged. A flight of four kite tuskers, and one adolescent froabas came swooping in, and the three other dragons strained to rise, but they flapped a few times, ineffectually, and refused to take off, no matter how much their handlers shouted or how many times the prodded or whipped the creatures.
Then, the guards began jogging towards them and there was only the one staircase and the one path.
The flying elephants neared and then they could see, on the back of the lead animal, Ayla, like a pied piper, sonic blasts echoing from her flute. One of the two airborne dragons shrieked and wheeled about. The other closed in, only to be surrounded and pummeled by the concussive kicks and cries of the kite tuskers. It beat a hasty retreat even as the guards covered their ears and Naxos launched a fireball at one of the gunners that rendered her impotent. Ayla pulled up for them to hop on. "Why hello there!" she chirped. "Thought you could use the help."
Lightning from afar crackled through the skies and the remaining five of the rifles in the blisters drooped. A warning blast of fire from Alqasas was enough reason for Green, Yellow, Red, and Arrow to stall their approach further. Then, it was Jascuan's turn. The former Volti stepped forward, gathered his magic, and leapt off of the staircase. The hardened ground resisted for a moment and, for that long, it looked as if he might've misjudged, as if he might hit! Then, it opened before him "On the tuskers or in the hole!"
The Great Escape was nearly complete!
Tku smiled as Ayla and the Kite Tuskers returned. He decided to hop on the tuskers! "A magnificent entrance once again Ayla!" Tku leaps up and his clothes repair themselves quickly. "Time to Fly!" Tku lightened himself and boosted his flight with chemical!
Desmond saw the many actions beginning to fly, it seemed an escape was made, Desmond saw the strange flying elephants began to come down as Desmond began to try and leap up to one and land upon it to try and ride off and away on it.
Desmond began to draw from his own weight as Desmond made sure to not put too much weight upon the strange little creature before they flew off.
Desmond began to put kinetic and chemical energy into the flying pachyderm to help it fly Desmond off.
“No way.”
Flabbergasted, amazing, frozen in utter awe! Zarina couldn't believe it. Flying elephants led by a small girls and a big kitty, with a ferocious dragon tailing them. All while schooling the two hostile dragons in the air. “Ayla, I love you.” she formed a toothy smile under her helm as she waved down Alqasas with a recognizable whistle.
The dragon wasn't going to land, and like the tuskers, they were going to have to catch them as to keep momentum. An easy enough feat for a beastmaster, and so the remainder of her time was spent ensuring all others were saddled up for the exciting escape. And with the flying reptilian swiftness, she could cover for her allies with a massive curtain of flames to hurt visibility and leave the sabotaged guards with only a cloud of smoke to work with and energy signatures quickly leaving their range.
“YEAAAAAAHHHHHH!”
When their tails were finally lost, the next stop was picking up Marci before retreating to the farm.
The magnificent troupe descended in a swoop to allow the others to board the Tuskers, assisting them in making their great escape out of dodge. Ayla winked at her bestie as she overheard her words, "We love you too, Virangish Pepper." Nyan-Acan meowed loudly toward the escapees, instructing them to board. With the great feat underway, it was time to return to the farm.
"Go away Omenaxan?" The traveling merchant, quite a worldly man by his own estimation, appeared nonplussed at the very notion. "Do nobody before." He shook his head.
"Do you know what it actually is?"
He concentrated on her words and then, after a moment, nodded at the 'easy' question. "Great big prison. Nice inside, hear I."
Marceline shot him a dubious look. She could sense the others drawing near, now. "I don't think any prison is nice inside..."
"Oh, but is it!" he assured her, glancing at the gate where his sirrahi and wagon were holding his spot in the burgeoning line. "Nobody go away because."
"Well, I hope so..." she allowed, trailing off. What limited bits she could sense from within, including - miraculously - the energy signatures of Classa and Tennaxi earlier, had seemed to indicate otherwise.
"Hope never find out we, huh?" the merchant joked. She'd forgotten his name, but he seemed a decent enough sort: bored and wanting to talk and perhaps show off the bit of Avincian he knew with a real live human from overseas.
But then came movement in the line and, moments later, the sight of a dragon and four kite tuskers sailing over the city walls. "Well, there's my ride," Marceline informed him. He shielded his eyes and gazed up for a moment, impressed. "Good ride." Then, he looked at the shortening like. "Time to go for me." They parted.
Marci was waiting for the others, leaning in the shadowed lee of a great rock when Alqasas touched down. Tennaxi gave up her mount for the younger girl and doubled up with Zarina. “Don't let me fall, sugar mama,” she said with a fond squeeze, but it was in her own language and the humour was likely lost.
Then, as quickly as they had touched down, they were off again. It was naught but half an hour before they were back at the 4S sweetwater stead. With the hideout gone, the others gathered there as well over the intervening hours, each with their own triumphs and tragedies to report.
These were the longest days of Zarina's life. Reaching the farm when it was still midday felt like she had spent a week of non-stop horrors in the Omenaxan and running from pursuers. Now, back at the sweetwater stead, she stripped herself of her gear and just sat back, feet up on something for a good fifteen minutes. No talking. Just, nothing.
Next on the list was tending to her dragon, and collaborating with Tku and Zox to make her a temporary pen to keep her out of sight. Of all the things witnesses can identify, the uniquely coloured dragon of a species that wasn't native to the area was the biggest one. Then, Riesco along with Nuro were tended to before she retreated back to the shade of the home.
“Fuuuuuuuuck.” she swear-yawned while stretching. “Tomorrow can't come soon enough.” she commented amongst her peers. “I'm growing antsy for leaving Classa and that snake-man back. I wanna just ...” she hooked her fingers as if she was trying to squeeze or crush something. “Fuck up these cunts who are causing all this.”
“Yeah, they can have a dose of hell,” Marci agreed, aping Zarina's body language without even realizing it. Tennaxi chimed in with some commentary in her native tongue as well and Naxos translated helpfully for her. “She says she's gonna break a foot off in their asses.”
The moment they returned to the 4S Sweetwater Farm Desmond laid back and rested. There was so much they wanted to do.
So much they tried to do.
And so little they could do.
All plans take time and sadly this one required the most time. So, Desmond laid back and allowed himself more rest, because the moment things are to start, his job would have to start agaian and there would be no stop until it finished.
Desmond laid his gear out next to him as he laid back onto his satchel. Desmond stayed in his armor, it naturally drew from his heat to keep him which made it all the easier to keep himself comfortable and protected.
As Desmond leaned back he sighed and thought about wishing for his hat to cover his eyes and remembered Fiske was still out there. He hoped good news would follow, yet as all things, the die was cast. All that is left is to see where they fall.
There was an exileration that was becoming more frequent in Tku's life. The thrill of risking it all and surviving. So far he had been fine but he would lie if it wasn't starting to get worriesome. He felt he had been blessed by Reshta more in the last few days than his entire life. But making it back to the farm he grounded his high and got back to work.
A makeshift pen was crafted for the Dragon, Covered from the outside but the geometry still allowed the Frobas to have light peak through. He shared with Zox his adventure along with some of his deeper thoughts on all of this. Tku found a friend in Zox and it felt nice to share unashamed of the cowardice feeling he felt from time to time on this outing.
Tku made new clothes for people if they liked or repaired the ones they had if preferred. He matched the colorful aesthetic of An Zenui with the new clothes he made.
His tasks were dull, even while making some more artifacts for the coming fight, it was still dull. He had felt it dozen's of time at this point. Dark magic. It allowed for the creation of abject horrors but also people like Zox and Classa. Used unwise it corrupted but held the ability to free someone. He couldn't stop thinking of it.
Eventually Tku asked Jascuan, "I know this may be much but," he hesitated, trying to make sure with himself if it was alright to ask. "I was wondering if you could show me what this dark magic is. I find myself mesmerized yet appauled at the same time. I wanted to understand your perspective if you have a moment to spare to me."
Jascuan was still and silent, lying on the couch, peacefully snoring.
“Alright.” Zarina clasped her hands together as she sat on the home's comfy couch. “Tomorrow night, it'll be show time.” she reminded, her sights brushing through the room populated with early arrivals. “One of you should take my armour.” she left that without any more context. “Volunteers?”
Then, she looked toward Tennaxi, expression soft and with clear concern. “Nibbler wasn't there.” she peered to Naxos for him to translate. “The rodent with Classa.” she explained. “Did something happen to him? I would have sensed him if he was in that prison. For sure.”
Before Tennaxi could reply, Naxos let out a warning that more people were approaching and Zarina was called upon to investigate. It was there that she came upon Stela and seven children who had never so much been outside of the city. There was also Nibbler, of course. He always seemed to come back to her.
Tennaxi noticed Tku's question instead. She peered up at him cautiously, still annoyed by her present smallness. “And... why are you interested?” she asked cautiously. She looked to Naxos for assistance and he translated.
Tku raised a hand at Zarina's offer, "I believe me and you are similar enough and I wouldn't say no to some armor. Also-" Tku made a piece of paper and started to write some things on it, folded it and handed her, "For you to read when you have time."
Tku turned to Tennaxi, letting the elder sleep. "I might be able to do things I couldn't before. It feels beautiful and repulsive. I wonder what beauty I could find in it. I'm simply curious to the nature of it Tennaxi."
Tku had given her a note, which prompted a squint of suspicion and concern. His tone wasn't too encouraging, and the contents even less. Lips pursed, she merely nodded. “Yeah. It's yours tomorrow. Except for the shield.”
Then, Zarina perked up. She could sense him, and he could sense her. Dashing outside to greet the newcomers, the rodent sprinted to her and leapt up for a pounce. “There. He. Is!” the Virangish gleefully embraced him, and her found his place on her shoulders with some use of magic to reduce his weight.
For the Sirrahi, it'd be the first time they'd see the person inside the armour. In all her sweaty and dishevelled hair glory.
