by Sam Ryder
Christ. She’d almost killed herself because of her noble desire to help us out of yet another deadly battle. “Thank you for trying,” I said. I looked pointedly at Vrill, who seemed rather shocked by Beat’s account.
“I—yes—I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have accused you without the full story. I am still learning the way things work here now.”
“No need to apologize,” Airiel said with a small, but utterly mesmerizing, smile. “We are all learning how to act in these trying times. Now, I have brought more ooze. This should be sufficient for tonight’s test.”
I hadn’t even noticed the small pot she held in her hands. She handed it to Beat, who accepted it with a small bow. “Thank you.”
“What test?” I asked.
Beat shrugged like it was nothing. “You know, the usual—capturing a monster or two.”
“You’re actually going to do it?” Though it had been my theory in the first place, it still felt too crazy to actually do.
“Not do—try,” Beat clarified. “We’re going to try. Who knows what the hell will happen? But if I lose a hand, I’m cutting off yours and sewing it onto my stump.”
“Thanks for the visual,” I said, using her own prior retort against her. “But we have a deal. My hand is your hand if you need it.”
Airiel had cocked her head to the side as if trying to keep up with our typically odd banter. Silk was also looking at us strangely. I was pretty sure this entire situation was off-the-charts weird for her. Airiel said, “Now I must rest. I bid you goodnight.”
“Night Airy,” Beat said. Airiel pumped her majestic white wings twice and rose into the sky, making her way slowly and gracefully to the cliffs before disappearing into the ravine.
“Airy?” I said, raising my eyebrows at Beat.
She shrugged. “Airiel is a little too Little Mermaid for me. And she doesn’t seem to mind.”
I chuckled then turned to Silk. “How do you feel?”
“Like this is all a dream.”
“It’s not,” I said. “Don’t give us too much credit, we still have a long way to go, a lot of work to do. Taking down one Morgoss was a huge step in the right direction but I have a feeling the other two will be exponentially harder to defeat. But we’re excited to have you onboard, assuming you plan to stay?”
“I have nowhere else to go.”
I’d take it, regardless of her reasons for being here. “Well you are most welcome,” Beat said. “So long as you don’t become BFFs with Lace.”
“What is a BFF and who’s Lace?”
“Lace is that Protoan I mentioned before. She’s a Seeker now. And Beat was joking about the BFF thing, don’t worry about it.”
“I wasn’t joking,” Beat said, but I waved her off. Silk could be friends with whomever she wanted to be friends with.
“Run me through the plan for tonight. You know, for the ‘experiment’.” I made air quotes with my fingers as I spoke the last word, mostly because I knew it annoyed the hell out of Beat.
She made a fake gagging noise and said, “We’ll go through it during supper. I’m sure you all are starving. We even have rats for the cat to eat.” With that, she turned and walked away, still hauling the fresh pot of ooze.
I shrugged at Silk. “She’s like that. I hope you’re not offended?”
“Fong was far worse in the end,” Silk said. “I can handle a few cat jokes.”
Thus far, I was liking Silk a lot, and not just because of the epic sex on dragonback. “Coming?” I said.
Vrill said, “I’m going to wait for Mrizandr.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Was it just my imagination, or was she being rather short with me? “You okay?”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “No. Yes. I don’t know. I’m so used to hating the Three that I don’t know any other way to act around them.”
“I know the feeling,” Silk muttered.
“I get it,” I said. “Just try to remember that they’re all individuals. You can’t lump them together anymore. There is no ‘Three’. There’s Airiel, Minertha and Persepheus. Each is different to the others. You don’t have to like all of them, or any of them. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, talents and faults. Speak to them like people. Equals.”
“Easy for a Demigod to say,” Vrill said, but I could tell it was another joke. She was getting rather good at sarcasm, which meant she was spending far too much time around Beat and me.
“You’ll get there,” I said.
“Before I’m dead?”
I chuckled “Was that another joke? You’re on fire.”
Vrill managed a smile. “I’ve been learning from the best. But thanks for the talk. Don’t worry about me. Mrizandr will be back soon and then I’ll join you all at camp.”
I could tell she was okay now, back in control of herself and her emotions the way she normally was. Plus, the next Black was still hours and hours away. Hell, it was still the Silver time. We had the whole Bronze time to go before darkness collapsed on Tor once again. I was looking forward to more time to get to know Silk and reconnect with the others and learn what, if anything, had transpired while we’d been away.
So, after one more long look at Vrill as she gazed up at the sky, I led Silk toward camp.
~~~
As it turned out, not much had happened while we were gone. Which was a good thing. Mostly because no one had died, lost any limbs, or been blinded. Those were the sorts of things that tended to happen to Warriors even on the good nights.
Huddled around the demonfire with leafrats roasting before us, skin sizzling and fat dripping into the flames, we discussed all that had transpired over the last day or so and what was to come.
“We didn’t know how long you would be gone, so the original plan was for Lace to climb onto Ton’s back and toss buckets of ooze on the monsters from up there,” Beat said. “But now that you’re back…we can tweak things a little and improve our chances.”
Beat had already told us all about how our marmot was back on his feet finally, the copious amounts of ooze doing its work. That was good. Having a massive creature on our side could be crucial in the battle to come. “Tweak things how?” I asked.
“We have two cat-women now. As well as a dragon. We might as well double up on our chances of success. Have each of the cat-women climb a different large creature, aka Mrizandr and Ton, and toss separate buckets on a monster—catch it from both sides.”
It was smart, but we needed to check with Vrill. She’d returned after about an hour, stating simply that Mrizandr had returned from his hunt and was sleeping. “You cool with this plan?” I asked her.
“I am feeling quite hot, actually,” she said.
“Yeah, you are,” Beat muttered under her breath, just loud enough for me but no one else to hear.
Whoops. I’d done it again—used vernacular familiar to my kind but which would be nonsensical to her. “Sorry, I meant to ask whether you agree with the plan.”
She raised an eyebrow as if to say, ‘Then why didn’t you just say that?’ to which I wouldn’t have an answer. Humans were weird. “Yes, I agree. I will inform Mrizandr so that he isn’t surprised. Silk can climb him to dump the ooze.”
I still didn’t understand exactly how Vrill communicated with her dragon—some kind of strange telepathy, their minds still linked because of the mental and physical torture they’d been subjected to while imprisoned by the Morgoss.
The whole time we were talking, our other resident cat, Lace, glared at Silk. Silk glared right back, not giving an inch. Standing between them would mean getting skewered by their sharp eyes. Every once in a while, Lace turned her glare on me. I ignored her while wondering if she could smell Silk’s scent on me. Not that it mattered. It’s not like the few times Lace and I had been intimate was anything serious. Neither of us wanted it to be, and she had plenty of her own fun with Asfandiar while I did the same with others. Then again, they were felines of a sort. Ma
ybe Lace considered our activities some kind of marking of her territory and now that another cat-woman was involved I’d inadvertently created some kind of power struggle.
It was a problem I would likely have to deal with eventually. But I wasn’t in the mood. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically. The last thing I’d expected when we sought an alliance with the tribes was to find one that had been turned to the dark side. I only hoped the next tribe we met with was more receptive to an alliance. Oh, and not dead at the hands of the Creed. That would be good too.
“It’s all agreed then,” I said, clapping my hands and standing up. “I’m going to get some shuteye. I suggest the rest of you do the same.”
With that, I headed for one of the stone structures, slipping inside, removing my armor, and slumping onto a pile of leaves harvested from leafrats. Unlike normal leaves, these ones stayed soft and fresh even after being harvested, making them the perfect bed. The only challenge was that they were small, so you needed a helluva lot of them. Over the years, the number of beds had increased while the number of Warriors had decreased and now everyone pretty much got one. If Eve and Vrill were successful in their Finding missions, however, the bed shortage may become a problem once more, but that was something to deal with later. I hoped we would have that problem because it would mean our numbers were growing once more.
I closed my eyes, but almost immediately opened them when I heard a soft scuff.
Vrill slid in beside me, draping an arm across my chest and nuzzling her face into the crook of my shoulder, bicep and chest, using it like a pillow.
And, for once, we just slept, warm, content and peaceful.
SIX
EXPERIMENTAL
Waking up was far less peaceful than falling asleep.
I could tell right away that we were well into the Silver time now, the gunmetal rays of sunshine casting an eerie sort of light through the open doorway of the stone structure. Vrill was still pressed tight against me and I would’ve loved to wake her up with a kiss and some other activities, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Not when I could hear the sound of shrieks and hisses nearby.
And I’m not being sexist when I say it was the sound of a catfight. I’m being literal.
I carefully lifted Vrill’s arm off me and slipped from the structure. Not a hundred feet away, Lace and Silk circled, hissing at each other, fangs bared. Both their claws were extended as well, but Lace’s were thrice as long, like Wolverine, a result of having been upgraded to Protector and then again to Level 4, Seeker.
Some of the other Warriors had stopped what they were doing to watch. There was no sign of our Protectors, Beat and Millania, who were likely trying to get a bit of their own well-deserved rest.
Every so often, one of the cat-women leapt forward and slashed at the other, each of them shrieking a cacophony of piercing notes that had awoken me from my peaceful slumber. “Hey!” I shouted, but they ignored me, laser-focused on each other. I ran toward them just as Lace sprang forward again, slashing her long sword-like claws at Silk’s throat. The new cat-woman was exceptionally agile, and yet not quick enough. Lace’s claws raked across her cheek rather than neck, opening up three long lines of blood across her face. As I continued toward them, I noticed Silk was leaking blood from dozens of wounds. By comparison, Lace only had a couple of minor puncture wounds with blood oozing out.
This was far from a fair fight given Silk had only been upgraded to Warrior thus far. But she did have an ace up her sleeve. Well, technically it was around her neck and it wasn’t an ace—it was a locket shaped like a small chest. Valencia’s Locket, capable of burning a path of destruction that would end Lace along with anyone who happened to be too close. I saw the moment Silk’s rage boiled over into the land of I’m Not Thinking Clearly I Just Want To Destroy Everything In My Way.
She grabbed Valencia’s Locket in one hand. Shifted the other hand toward it to open it. I didn’t know whether the locket had had sufficient time to recharge its power, but I also didn’t want to find out.
I took two more large steps and then jumped between the two cat-women.
Silk froze, her fingers gripping the edge of the front of the locket, less than a second from opening it. “Silk,” I said. “Don’t.”
She shook her head, blinking rapidly, as if emerging from a stupor. Then she looked at the locket in her hands. Her eyes widened and she flinched, dropping it like it was hot and she’d been burned. The locket bounced against her chest between her breasts and then came to rest, dangling from its chain.
I blew out a breath. Crisis averted. “Silk, are you okay?” I asked, genuinely concerned. She looked as if she’d been hit in the head too many times.
“I—I—I don’t know what happened,” she stammered.
“She messed with the wrong wildcat,” Lace said.
I shot a glare at Lace. “Not now,” I said. “You don’t even realize how close you just came incineration.”
That caught Lace by surprise. “Incineration? I was dominating her.”
“Yeah, and she was about to use Valencia’s Locket on you.”
“Valencia’s Locket?” Lace said. It was obvious she’d heard of it. “That necklace? But how?”
We hadn’t told the others about how the locket had been activated when Silk was near it. All they knew was that we’d done battle with a rogue tribe and their monster allies. I chided myself for not being more detailed during my debrief. Lesson learned. I vowed to disclose every detail going forward so we all had the same information to work with. “She’s its rightful owner,” I said.
Lace’s eyes met mine, but then slipped away, past me, boring into Silk as she stood behind me. “You bitch,” she said. “You were going to incinerate me?”
“I—I…” was all Silk was able to manage.
“Cool it,” I said to Lace. “Take a walk. I’ll handle this.”
Lace fired one more sneer at Silk but then, thankfully, obeyed, sauntering away with her claws still fully extended.
I turned back to Silk. “I could’ve killed her,” she said breathlessly.
“And others,” I said. I wanted her to be acutely aware of what had almost happened.
“My goddesses,” she said. “Oh my goddesses.” She looked truly shattered by what she’d almost done. That was good. It was a start anyway. This needed to be the first and last time something like this ever happened.
“But you didn’t,” I said, softening my tone. “Now, please, tell me what you were thinking. You were angry, caught up in the midst of the fight, and then…what?”
Silk looked like a lost kitten trying to find its home. “I—I don’t remember. I remember the rage, my entire mind clouded by a red mist, and then…oh goddesses.”
“What?” I said, encouraging her. “You can tell me.”
“The locket spoke to me.”
Back on Earth, I would’ve been skeptical. I would’ve thought she’d gone crazy and that I should involuntarily check her into some kind of asylum. Here, however, shit like this happened all the damn time. “In your mind or out loud?”
“In my mind, I think. It’s hard to tell because the voice was so crystal clear. A woman’s voice.”
I didn’t know much about the locket’s history, but I had a feeling I knew who had spoken to her. It was Vrill, however, who spoke first, having emerged from the hut shortly after I’d left and made her way to us. “Valencia,” she said. “You heard the voice of Valencia from beyond the Veil.”
We both turned to face Vrill, who stood before us with awe in her eyes. “What do you know about this Valencia woman?” I asked.
“You should sit down,” Vrill said.
She was right. Silk’s legs were trembling. The fight would’ve sent a surge of adrenaline through her body. But now that it was over, she had an overabundance of energy with no way to expend it. Until the adrenaline left her body, she would be in bad shape. I roped an arm around her and helped her to the ground, taking a spot beside her
, ready to catch her if she toppled over. Vrill sat before us, crossing her legs.
Beat and Millania had finally been roused and approached too, along with several Warriors, including Uva and Ass-Fan. Beat opened her mouth to speak, but I silenced her with a hand in the air and motioned for Vrill to begin.
“About six thousand years ago in the reckoning of time on Tor,” Vrill said, “Valencia was the ruling goddess. She was a good leader, strong but fair. Back then, there were still threats to the kingdom, though the Morgoss hadn’t yet risen in the east. Then, there were other kingdoms. At first, they weren’t a threat, consumed by infighting and petty struggles for land and territory. Valencia’s borders were well-protected, and rarely did the other kingdoms seek to expand into her lands.
“Eventually, the other kingdoms grew jealous of Valencia’s peace and power. They managed to set their own differences aside, unifying their kingdoms into one, surrounding her on all sides with an army as vast as the salt in the seas that once covered half of this world. Valencia’s kingdom looked doomed to fall, despite her power. After more than five hundred years of peaceful rule, she donned her godsarmor for the first time and marched with her soldiers into battle to face the largest of her enemies’ armies. She stood before her soldiers, unafraid when any other would’ve been trembling with fear.
“She reached inside her chest plate and withdrew the very locket now worn by Silk. A locket in which, on a daily basis, she had imbued a measure of her power over the course of the five hundred years of peace. She had been planning for just this situation, which she knew would one day come.
“She cracked the locket open and her power poured forth in a torrent born on streams of light, blinding her enemies even as it washed over them, turning them to ash. She released years of her power on that one day, until none stood before her.
“Word traveled fast amongst her enemies, mostly because she sent news criers out to the other kingdoms. The various kings and queens recalled their armies and gave up the fight. Valencia won without suffering a single casualty, ushering in the five thousand years of peace that followed. While her foes withered away in the face of famine, disease and a plague of wild beasts that roamed over Tor, the goddess kingdom flourished.”