Dungeon Master 4

by Eric Vall

  “A swirl! It’s a swirl sigil carved into the trunk of the tree!” the cat cried excitedly, and I nodded once in approval.

  “There’s one here too,” my wife said as she moved her bird over to the opposite side of the path and pointed down. “What is it, Master? Why do these trees have a sigil carved into them?”

  “Going back to what you said earlier,” I said as I gestured towards Annalise, and all of my minions turned to face me with interested expressions. “You asked how Kanashimi would survive without the gifts and protection of the Tichádáma. The city will go unchanged without her because she has ensured that it will. Each of these sigils was put in place personally, and they will go unchanged by the passage of time. Even the plants, if you were to examine them at a minuscule level, they too would have the sigil of the Tichádáma.”

  “Master, what does the swirl sigil mean? Does it have a specific significance?” Morrigan questioned as her dark eyes moved over the sigil carved into each tree.

  “Yes, of course it does.” I nodded as I urged my Bantam forward and my minions followed obediently after as I spoke. “Each of the god’s sigils has a hidden meaning to it. The swirl signifies the journey and change of life as it unfolds before us. The voyage of taking a labyrinth-like passage that leads to the source of all meaning, our death, and ascension into the afterlife.”

  “Are gods given sigils or do they choose them for themselves?” my wife asked from behind me, and my eyes dropped to the dirt path in front of my bird.

  I thought back on my life and the sigil I was given at birth that was ripped away from me when I tumbled from the god’s realm. “Sigils are given to gods at birth from their parents, kind of like a hope for the future of their child. Once gods are thrown from the heavens, the sigil is ripped away from them, but for some reason, it seems the Tichádáma was allowed to keep hers, or perhaps she fashioned a new one for herself. The most believable of the two is the latter as I don’t know of any god that was cast out who was allowed to keep their holy sigil.”

  “Did you have a sigil, Master?” Carmedy asked as she encouraged her Bantam closer to mine.

  I finally lifted my head and gave her a sad smile.

  “I did,” I whispered as I remembered the sign my parents had passed down to me from generations ago.

  “Can you show us?” the High Elf pressed with a raised eyebrow.

  “No, I no longer bear the sign of the gods,” I told them and raised my head to the path in front of us in determination. “In the heavens, we possess sacred bodies. That is how we show ourselves to our followers, but once a god is cast out of the god’s realm, their sacred body is revoked. That is why you found me only as my essence, and I first formed this avatar in resemblance to the body I once owned. The sigil is burned into the flesh of the back of our hands for all to see and know us to be deities.”

  “So you were just as handsome in the heavens as you are now?” the cat purred loudly, and my queen chuckled at the comment but didn’t disagree.

  “I would say I am more so, thanks to your desires,” I joked as I remembered the time my minions changed my face to their liking back in my dungeon.

  “If you say your face resembles your heavenly body, do you look like your parents?” Rana asked as she petted her Bantam’s feathers softly with one paw.

  “Do you look more like your mom or your dad? I look like my mom, thankfully.” Carmedy laughed, but I stayed silent. We were encroaching on a subject that was not only uncomfortable for me, but a part of my life I had yet to tell my lovers about for their own protection.

  “What does your mom look like, Carmedy?” I questioned slyly as I avoided the question she had asked. “You’ve never told us what your parents look like.”

  “Well, as I said, I look a lot like my mom, but I get my green eyes from my dad,” the feline spouted off, and I glanced back at her as she dived deeper into her descriptions of her parents. “My two brothers look like they could be my dad’s twins. My mom is a short-haired cat with black fur, and my dad has really fluffy fur, almost like Haruhi’s but not as downy and soft.”

  Annalise’s narrowed eyes caught my attention, and she raised a single eyebrow at me in question but then lowered it as she realized I wasn’t going to answer what she wanted to know, not yet at least. Our talk drifted into more casual things as we pressed on.

  We finally reached the edge of the city of Kanashimi after a day and a half, and from where we stood in the middle of the wide road, I could see the highest point of the island was the cone of what used to be a massive volcano. Kanashimi was smaller than Eifersucht but much prettier. Our party first came upon rolling plowed fields. People in work clothes raised their heads to us as they worked in the field, and some waved while others only stared as we moved past. I assumed the citizens of Kanashimi were unaccustomed to visitors, as most people stopped in the port town of Eifersucht then jumped on the next boat and never ventured to the upper city.

  As we entered through a large, curved iron archway that stood outside of the city, a large stone building loomed directly in front of us from the main road. It looked like a municipal building, but from the servants and butlers bustling to and from its doors, I knew it had to be the home of the lord of this city. A wrought iron fence blocked its yard from access, and from between the bars, we were given a view of its magnificent and lush grass and the flowers planted along the walkways into a blooming garden.

  “Are they having a party?” Carmedy asked as she ran her eyes over the city’s streets, and I took notice, too.

  Strung from building to building and over our heads were red paper lanterns that swung from their strings. In between each light, a long yellow ribbon hung with foreign characters written down its middle. Empty food carts and stalls lined the street with red-and-gold cloth covers on them. Even the side-streets and alleyways were packed with the same, and people bustled on the cobblestones in the same color dress as the decorations.

  “Hey,” Rana said as she grabbed a passing girl in a blood red dress by the arm, the shawl wrapped around her shoulders woven with gold thread. The fox-woman gestured to the decorations and the structures in the street. “What’s going on?”

  “You must not be from around here,” the girl said with a smile. She looked to be about sixteen, and her long black hair was woven into an intricate braid across the top of her head with gold and red ribbon working its way through the pitch-black locks. “It’s the full moon tonight.”

  “So it’s a full moon festival?” Carmedy asked with a tilt of her head as she held her tail firmly between both paws.

  “No, it’s in celebration of the Wailing,” the girl told us as she held a basket full of carrots, turnips, and three heads of lettuce. “It only takes place on nights of the full moon.” She readjusted the basket and held it on her hip as she pointed high above our heads to the steep side of the island. “It’s a grand festival in celebration of all the things the Dáma has given us.”

  High up where the young girl pointed, I saw what I had seen from the ship a few days prior. A clear path was cut through the side of the island and was marked by more bobbing lanterns and yellow ribbons. I followed the trail with my eyes to the gaping mouth of a cave, and there were two golden pillars on each side of the opening. This was the entrance to the dungeon of the Tichádáma.

  “At the end of the festival, we gather our offerings and take them up the mountain to give them to her at the cave mouth,” the dark-haired girl said with a wide grin, and from the way her eyes took on a glossy appearance, I knew this was a vital ritual for the people of Kanashimi.

  “She receives the gifts? So she comes out of the dungeon, and you give them to her?” Annalise bluntly asked, and the teenager's face fell.

  “No,” she admitted sadly as her head lowered. “No one has seen the Dáma in person for thousands of years.”

  “Then how do you know she receives them?” Morrigan asked coldly with a single lifted eyebrow.

  “We slide the offerin
gs down to her, and … it’d be better if you came and witnessed it for yourselves. It’s so magical and moving.” The teenager giggled then she thrust out a tanned hand towards me. “My name is Popī, my father owns the largest pension house in Kanashimi. You all should come stay with us and experience the Wailing for yourselves.”

  I took her much smaller hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze as I gestured towards my minions with my free hand. “I am Master, and these are my women, Rana, Carmedy, Annalise, and Morrigan.”

  Popī’s smooth face fell as her dark brown eyes fell upon Annalise. Then the young woman dropped the basket she was holding, fell to her knees, and bowed to the High Queen. One head of lettuce rolled away comically, but I stopped it with my foot and picked it up before it could escape. Popī’s hands were pressed into the dirt in front of her in a show of respect.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t recognize you, Your Highness,” Popī mumbled into the ground, but Annalise only laughed lightly and pulled the girl upright by the shoulder.

  “It’s okay,” my wife said as she dusted off Popī’s beautifully made dress. “Don’t worry with the formalities or honorifics. You can just call me Annalise.”

  “O-okay, A-Annalise,” the dark-haired teenager whispered, and I bent down and picked up her discarded basket. I placed the escaped head of lettuce inside and offered it to her. She took it back with trembling hands and avoided eye contact with the brunette.

  I watched with a broad smile as all of my minions bent down and helped collect the strewn-about vegetables and placed them back in Popī’s wicker basket. The small teenager thanked each of them but kept her face low out of respect of the High Queen.

  “Popī,” I rumbled in my deep voice, and her head lifted slightly to glance at me shyly. “You said your father owns a pension house, where can we find it?”

  “I can take you there if you just follow me,” she muttered as she took a tentative step forward and motioned with a brown hand for us to follow.

  Popī wasn’t lying when she had said it was the largest pension house in all of Kanashimi. The inn was a sprawling building decorated, like most of the city, in golds and bright scarlets, but it towered above us, six stories high with large balconies on each level. It was built in a large U shape, and in the middle was a luxurious garden filled with exotic flowers that were only found on the island, perhaps only in the city of Kanashimi. In the middle of the garden was a large pond filled with dog-sized orange and black spotted fish.

  As we came upon the building, a young man with the same hair color and face shape as Popī was climbing up a ladder out front and replacing the sign. The teenager rushed forward and steadied the ladder right as it wobbled and started to slide off the building. The man, who looked to be about my swordswoman’s age, laughed loudly and wiped the sweat from his brow as he glanced down at what had to be his younger sister.

  “Whoa there, be careful, Tanik,” Popī yelled up to him, and he nodded to her as he grabbed onto the edge of the first balcony and grabbed for the sign with his other hand.

  “Golden Thirteen,” Carmedy said as she read the sign Popī’s older brother was taking down, “Why are you taking the sign down? Are you renaming the inn?”

  “Sorta.” The teenager shrugged as she led us up onto the whitewashed porch and held open a large wooden door for us. “It’s kind of a running joke with my parents.”

  The front room where the dark-haired girl brought us into was huge and loud with the squabbling of children ranging from the ages of one to eighteen. They chased after each other, some played games on the bright wooden floors, and I watched as Popī perilously picked her way through them. As before with the dark-haired man named Tanik outside, I could spot the family resemblance between all of them quickly as the teenager turned back around and motioned for us to follow with a bright smile. We did, and the crowd of children parted for us as we met Popī at the back of the room at a long mahogany desk. Behind the counter, an array of golden keys hung from the walls with different tags with room numbers on them.

  A tall man stood behind the desk in a tan apron, and round horn-rimmed glasses sat on his pointed nose. When the stranger lifted his head to my minions and I, he gave us a broad smile and boomed, “Welcome to the Golden Fourteen, may I interest you in a room?”

  “Papa, these are my foreigner friends,” she said as she gestured towards us. “Master, Carmedy, Morrigan, Rana, and uh, the High Queen.”

  Popī’s father’s mouth dropped open as he stared at Annalise, and my wife shifted uncomfortably on her feet, not used to the attention nor formalities these people showed her. The man moved backward and started to drop to the floor just as the teenager had before, but my wife’s mouth dropped open, and she rushed forward to stop him.

  “No, no, it’s okay, you don’t have to be so formal with me,” the queen said in a rush. “You can just call me Annalise, and you don’t have to bow or anything. I’d really prefer it if you didn’t.”

  Popī’s father slowly righted himself, but his eyes remained glossy and shocked.

  “We would like to rent two rooms please.” I grinned as I reached into the void pocket for some coin.

  “T-that’ll be one hundred and fifty for both,” Popī’s father stuttered with his dark brown eyes still locked on the swordswoman. I counted out the amount and didn’t fight the price as I had before with the Bantam seller. It seemed a fair price for both rooms.

  “Shida,” an airy, feminine voice called through the door to the man’s left, “stop gawping at the poor girl. She already told you to leave it be.”

  The woman who came through the door was medium height, and her long dark hair was done up in a braid similar to Popī’s, but the facial features were softer and more rounded than her daughter’s. She stepped carefully behind the desk and placed a hand over her swollen pregnant belly as she came to stand beside the man named Shida.

  “In case he didn’t introduce himself, this is my husband, Shida, and I’m Yuri. I see you’ve met Popī. I’d introduce you to our other children,” she smiled as she gestured towards the rowdy brood playing and singing on the other side of the room, “but they won’t sit still long enough to say their names. You all must be Rana, Carmedy, Morrigan, Master, and of course, Annalise. I took a mental note of them from the other room. I hope I won’t mix them up. Once I have faces to put to names, I never get them wrong.”

  The pregnant woman moved around her husband and snatched up two sets of keys and handed them over to me with a warm smile. I took them gently, and she nodded curtly to me.

  “Popī said you’re foreigners, are you here for the Wailing?” Yuri asked as she leaned back against the counter and sighed, one hand rested on her round belly. “Not many outsiders come for the festival, well, not many outsiders come here at all. It’d be nice to have some new faces there for once.”

  We could already tell the citizens of Kanashimi adored the Tichádáma, and I knew if we mentioned we were here to conquer the dungeon and kill the goddess, we would most likely be kicked out on our backs. I glanced at my minions, and all of their beautiful faces were constricted with the same dilemma I faced. I turned back to Yuri and Shida with a tight smile and quickly came up with a believable excuse.

  “We’re adventurers,” I told them, keeping the lie close to the truth without telling them the whole reason we were here.

  “Adventurers on the search of delicious food from all over the world!” Carmedy shouted as she came forward. The black-haired cat pressed herself against the desk and leaned toward Yuri. “Listen here, lady, you’re pregnant, I’ve got an empty stomach. Do you know what we have in common? We’re both hungry! Now, what kind of scrumptious grub do you have in a swanky place like this?”

  Shida and Yuri glanced at each other with blank faces for a few moments, then Yuri burst out laughing. The pregnant woman reached out and patted my alchemist’s paw softly as she chortled, “To be completely honest, Carmedy, wasn’t it? I’m a god-awful cook, but there should be
lots of different foods you can try at the festival later today.”

  “So you’re traveling food critics?” Popī asked with a scrunched up nose as she eyed Annalise.

  The High Queen jumped and then nodded vehemently as sweat beaded on her forehead. Carmedy saw the swordswoman’s distress and grabbed the teenager by the shoulder and gave her a dramatic shake.

  “Yes! We’re food critics and if I don’t get something to fill my belly soon I will … ” The feline scrambled for the right words to say as she ran her emerald eyes over the expansive room. “ … critically assess this pension house in a bad light! Food, Popī! I need it!”

  “Oh! Um, I-I can make you something to tide you over until the festival, is that all right?” Popī stuttered as her brown eyes widened, and Carmedy gave her one last shake for good measure before she let go.

  “Yes! Food, Popī! Bring it to me!” the cat-girl shouted melodramatically as Popī scurried away through the door her mother had come in. “Preferably a pie, Popī, and not one of those weird pies with meat in them where you call them a pie, but they’re not really a pie! Pie, fruit filling, baked crust!”

  “I didn’t know food critics were this demanding,” Shida whispered into his wife’s ear.

  Yuri shrugged and gestured vaguely in the swordswoman’s direction. “It’s the High--Annalise, give them whatever they want,” she muttered back with a chortle.

  “Maybe I should have charged them more for the room … ” Shida murmured thoughtfully to his pregnant wife, and Yuri slapped the back of her husband’s head with a disappointed frown and disappeared into the doorway her daughter had gone into.

  Shida showed us to our rooms which were all the way on the top floor. The two bedrooms were directly next to each other, and Rana slammed open the door as soon as the innkeeper unlocked it for her. He chuckled and unlocked the second door, and opened it for Morrigan and I. The rooms were handsomely decorated just like the rest of the pension house, and once we stepped out onto the balcony, it gave us a stunning view of the city and the path leading up to the Tichádáma’s dungeon. It was much warmer here than it was in the forest, and all of my minions stripped out of their heavy coats and threw themselves in the wicker chairs on the balcony to rest.