by Jeff Sproul
"They haven't got much choice," said Tamos. "Everyone that's of a capable fighting caliber is conscripted. What that means is that one of Grittin's enchanters places runes on various parts of your body. Legs, arms, neck, back, chest. At the press of an X, a guard captain can incinerate you if you don't follow orders."
Tamos then held his arm out and rested it on the table. He wore a leather gauntlet, but on the top of the gauntlet was a sort of 'binder' spiral, with sheets of metal that looked as though they could be pulled up to get to the next one beneath it.
There were scrawl lines running over the edges and onto the panel, each going to an X. There were symbols beside each one. "This is a similar device," said Tamos. "They're called bindlets. It's a gauntlet that has sheets of metal with scrawl on them. The enchantment is mostly on the underside, while the activation X is on the top. I use this bindlet to signal our teams on an away mission, like today. It's the only way we're able to communicate over vast distances instantaneously. But Grittin uses such devices as a form of subjugation. They can instantly incinerate any dissenting soldiers, or anyone who doesn't follow orders. And they can do it from anywhere. It's very powerful, very hard to come by magic. But with this inter-sphere war that Grittin is waging, they've been able to acquire the soul crystals necessary to scrawl up every soldier and members of the remaining towns."
"The towns that haven't been conscripted are visited intermittently by recruiters," said Nessa. "They have certain standards that the populace is supposed to meet. If not, they're killed. Grittin still doesn't have the space for every person they're trying to fit into their war machine, but as it grows, so too does their need for more soldiers."
"And I assume that the only working mausoleums are in Grittin itself?" asked Verun, who was no longer touching his food, but watching Nessa intently.
"That's correct," said Nessa. "He's constructed a single, powerful mausoleum. Any new arrivals go straight to Grittin, where he plucks them from the stone and dictates their future as a soldier. Which I suppose is easier than trying to goad the people that are already here. New arrivals have no memories and will generally go with the flow of what they're told. He's got a well-oiled machine of war, and it gets larger by the month."
"Has nothing stood against him?" asked Verun. "If he's attacking other spheres, surely something has fought back?
"Know much of the other spheres, do you?" asked Nessa. "Well, I only know what I've heard. I have no idea how his wars on other worlds are going. My interest is solely in staying alive. There's only a few ships in his employ, since he's able to manifest portals to move his armies. We keep out of his navy's reach and try and find safe harbor where we can. While also gaining any advantage we can find. This is an old ship, and improving it has been a daunting task when most port towns have been cleared out of knowledgeable crafters."
"That creature you were hunting," said Chaxin. "Keldara? Who is she? What is she?"
"Yes, I'm also interested in that," said Verun. "I've never seen anything like her, and I'm very knowledgeable of such things. You were hunting her, but you didn't kill her. What use is she to you?"
Nessa looked between the two of them. "I guess I have no reason to keep secrets. You've already seen her, and others in the world know of her existence." Nessa rested an arm on the table and quietly rapped her fingers against it. "Keldara is a very old creature. She has the power to manipulate and transform substances. I don't know how she does it, and I don't know the extent of her capabilities, but I sought to capture her so that she could enhance my ship."
"How do you know she's capable of what you want from her?" asked Verun.
"I've seen her handiwork," said Nessa. "She acts of her own accord. A selfish, voracious being. When I first learned of her existence, she didn't have those spider limbs. We hunted her off the coast of Jari. She can breathe underwater, and we have to wait for her to make a home for herself and have word spread of her existence to even learn where she is. She's incredibly hard to track. But it seems as though she made Trillin her home. A scavenger captain told us of her creations existing on Trillin, so we made our way here to capture her. She's grown even more powerful than when we last saw her, which put us at a severe disadvantage and cost me some of my crew."
"What do you mean, 'her creations?'" asked Verun.
"Terrible creatures," Tamos spoke up. "Monsters that can change their form and mimic the things around them. They lay in wait, watching how we interact with the world around us. They shift and change and take the form of innocuous things. Chests, vegetables, doors, hatches, barrels, crates. They're parasites. Something akin to a fungus and an insect. They're hard to describe in their natural form, but they can grow, based on what they eat. They're like an infestation of roaches, or rats. But once they're in a place, they lay in wait. Waiting, watching, growing, consuming. Once they've placed themselves in every corner, they strike. Sometimes they take a few people. Sometimes a hundred. They feast on our flesh and then hibernate for a time, until they need to feed again."
"Can they take the form of fruit?" Verun asked. His and Chaxin’s eyes were wide.
"That they can," said Tamos. "We call them mimics. And Keldara is known as the mimic queen."
Chaxin's gaze flit around the table. "The strange house," he whispered. "How big can these things get?"
"Big," said Tamos. "If something ever seems out of place, or not where you left it, it could be a mimic. We once had an extra barrel down in the hold. We were supposed to only have six, but there were seven. All of ‘em were empty and looked like normal barrels. We didn't think much of it at the time. Then one morning, our cook doesn't report for his shift. So me and another lad go looking for him, hoping he didn't drink too much and fall overboard. Well, we found him. Checked every crate and every barrel, just in case he crawled inside one. But this barrel we found him in, well… he didn't crawl inside it. It gobbled him up. It was sitting there in the middle of the cargo hold, away from the other barrels. We opened the cap, looked inside, and there he was. Dark black and gray strings of some fungus-like substance had worked their way to his arms, and were spreading all over him, bit by bit. One of his arms and both of his legs were gone. His face was covered, and he wasn't breathing. We even stabbed the barrel, thinking we could kill it that way, but it was wood. So we chopped the barrel with axes, and inside the wood was the fungus of the mimic. It's like one of those slime creatures, but so much worse. Silent, careful, smart. We set fire to the barrel and used the crane to hold it overboard. Then, when it had been burned up, we cut the rope and let it fall into the sea. That was just a single mimic."
"How do you stop them?" asked Verun.
"Fire, mostly," said Tamos. "Fire works really well. They're highly flammable. You can freeze ‘em, but they seem to just hibernate in the cold. They can exist in oil, water, most liquids. Acid will eat away at the actual mimic entity, but they can grow material, like wood, or even stone-like substances. They can grow whatever surrounding material they want, as long as they've consumed something, usually some kind of living creature, such as us."
"So this Keldara is able to do what these mimics do, but she doesn't look like a mimic, but… she can create them somehow?" asked Chaxin.
"That's right," said Nessa. "And that's why she's so vital to our purposes. I have her under extensive guard right now."
"She wasn't too thrilled about the fiery bolt I shot her with," said Chaxin. "And the corrosion bolt tore through one of her legs. How exactly are you keeping a creature that powerful subdued?"
"A number of paralytics," said Nessa. "Lightning can paralyze as well, for a time. Between frequent injections of paralyzing agents, and our mage, and half a dozen other guards, we have her under control. She's chained up, watched at all times. She can't move much at all. She has extensive healing capabilities, and I'm sure she could morph further, but we don't know how that works. We know she has to eat in order to create. We're not entirely sure how she's able to change her form though, or what's req
uired."
"And she's responsible for Trillin?" asked Chaxin. "She killed the entire city?"
Verun shifted in his seat and looked over to Chaxin, then Nessa.
"No," said Nessa. "Keldara showed up years later. The city has been abandoned for… nine, almost ten years now. Everyone just vanished. It happened after we left to escort the Scalli, but before Lord Karnith's initial attacks around Kajura. No one seems to know what happened. The entire populace disappeared, and there's no answers that we've been able to find. We don't think it was Lord Karnith, and repeated excursions into Trillin haven't yielded any answers. Many scavengers have gone through the outskirts of Trillin and picked much of it clean. But the captains who command those missions say their people go missing if they go too deep into the city for too long. I was thankful that Keldara was on the outskirts. Else we might've lost even more."
"You're saying there's something else going on in Trillin, beyond what Keldara and her mimics were doing?" asked Chaxin.
"That's right," said Nessa. "Really wish I had answers in that regard. But I don't. No one does." It was then that Nessa looked to Verun. "So. I've got a monster on board that I need to convince to improve my ship, without killing us all. Our mage can use magic, but he doesn't know much about making new scrawl. But you do?"
"Yes, that's correct," said Verun. He'd spoken briefly on the matter earlier. "I'd be happy to improve your ship through enchantment, if you have soul crystals."
"We've got a collection of them," said Nessa. "We've also got a grimoire at our disposal. So you can check the crystals out for yourself, see what we have, and then get back to me with what you can improve. If you can do that, then we'll be happy to drop you off wherever you want to go. Not that you'd want to be anywhere on Wake right now. If you two really did come from Purgatory, you might've been better off if you'd gone somewhere else. Not that I'm not thankful for your part in capturing Keldara."
"I want to go to the shores off Kamber," said Chaxin.
Verun and Nessa both looked at him.
"That's awfully close to Grittin," said Nessa. "What the hell do you wanna go there for?"
"This all started there," said Chaxin. "Maybe there's something I can do. Perhaps there's others that are willing to put up a fight against Karnith. If there are people like that, then they're going to be close to Grittin. I might as well start at Kamber."
"Sounds a bit foolish," said Nessa.
"Take us to Kamber, and I'll offer any enchantments at my disposal, with your crystals, of course," said Verun.
Chaxin turned his attention to Verun, who was looking at Nessa.
"Fine. We'll get you there. Shouldn't be too dangerous for us to anchor near there. Grittin is a fortress, getting almost as large as Trillin. They've no reason to check the oceans around there. So we can drop you off, and… well, maybe Kamber will have some supplies, if we can sneak in and speak with anyone who's not under the watch of Grittin's agents."
Nessa pushed her seat back, and was followed by Tavos. She stood up and regarded Chaxin and Verun. "If that's everything you have to tell us, and all your questions have been answered, then finish your meals and have a look at our crystal supply. You have free roam of the ship. It'll take several days for us to get to the shores off Kamber. Tavos will fetch you both a key for a room. I think we have an empty one still. And… well, sadly, we may have more than that, after our losses from today." She let out a slow sigh and gave the two of them a brief nod, before turning and heading off.
Verun and Chaxin were left alone at the table.
Chaxin turned and looked at Verun. "I thought I was going to have to barter for passage myself. You want to go to Kamber with me?" he asked. "You didn't need to do that. Surely there's somewhere else you'd rather be?"
Verun turned his attention to Chaxin, then stared back across the room. "Wake is not how I left it. This world has been plundered. Trillin might've still held a wealth of items and knowledge, and there certainly seems to be something going on there that we don't know of. I'd love to learn more, but it seems foolhardy at best, without more information. However, these spectres are very interesting to me. The fact that Lord Karnith is able to use their power and manifest portals is even more fascinating to me. We shall go on this path together and see where it leads. For now, we are still companions."
Chaxin slowly smiled. "I appreciate it," he said. "So, you can really do something for their ship? Boost it, or whatever?"
Verun nodded. "Absolutely. We just have to see what they have available. Also, we have a few crystals between ourselves. With their grimoire, and safe passage to Kamber, we have everything we need. I suggest you do some training while we're on board. You won't be killing any monsters, but perhaps you could find someone to spar with, to gain whatever experience you can. Wake was bad enough if you were just starting out, but with Lord Karnith's minions running amok, and the sphere in shambles, I'm sure monsters have begun to run rampant. You're going to need to get stronger, and quick."
Chapter 25: Preparation
A terrible cry echoed through the decks. Chaxin's eyes shot open as he sat up on the cot in the crew quarters. The awful shriek cut out suddenly, and all was silent again.
Chaxin's chest lifted and fell rapidly. He blinked the haze from his eyes, and in the dim light of the Graymos shining down through the window, he could see that Verun had awoken as well.
"Do you think she got out?" Chaxin asked softly. The two of them were the only ones in the small room. Their cots were against the two side walls.
Verun sighed and closed his eyes as he laid back down. "Do you hear screams?"
Chaxin's eyes flit around the room as he listened closely for anything audible. "No."
"Then she didn't get free," said Verun. "Go back to sleep."
Chaxin slowly lowered back to the cot and closed his eyes, but sleep didn't come easy. He listened and waited for some sign that the monstrous woman below decks had gotten free. But he heard nothing. Only the waves against the ship and the creaking of old wood.
Chaxin awoke the next day to find himself alone in the quarters. After laying in bed for just a few minutes, he pulled himself out of it and put his pants and tunic on. He made his way to the mess, where he was given food similar to what he'd had the previous night.
While he ate, he spoke with several of the other crewmembers, who seemed jovial and welcoming.
Upon questioning whether someone would be able to take some time out of their day to help train him over the course of their journey, he was pointed towards the second in command, Tamos.
After eating, it didn't take long to track Tamos down.
Once they started talking, Chaxin learned that Tamos didn't have too many duties that needed tending to, when they weren't on a mission. Which meant that he was willing to give Chaxin a few pointers and help him out.
During their first training exercise, Tamos had Chaxin use his mage-caster on a target. The first thing Tamos taught him was that the dexterity stat was useful in being able to hit your mark. This was something Chaxin was already familiar with, but he didn't fully understand how it affected ranged abilities or fine handwork.
Chaxin soon discovered that dexterity lowered the possible area that he could hit when he fired. To begin with, his dexterity was low. Meaning that if he was shooting at a target a hundred feet away, and the round target was five feet across, his hits were going to land all over it.
Tamos, on the other hand, had dexterity over twenty and was able to land hits in the center two feet of the target. When he took more careful shots, he could get it in the center one-foot range.
The next thing Chaxin learned—with the help of the grimoire onboard—was that his mage-caster was called a mage-caster because unlike a crossbow, it specifically required a strong mind stat. The reasoning was twofold. By pressing the ‘drawback’ X rune, it took a tiny amount of mana from him. By pressing the flame rune, to encase the bolt with fire, it took a bit more mana. Finally, by pressing the corrosion
rune, it took about half of Chaxin's potential mana. This explained why the mage-caster had stopped functioning when he fought with Keldara. Luckily, the mage-caster could still work if he manually pulled back the bow, but it simply took more time. By having a higher mind stat, the flames and the corrosion would be more potent and his mana capacity would also be higher. As would the rate that his body absorbed the mana around it from the Graymos.
Following that lesson, Tamos taught him that the saber he'd been allowed to keep was a weapon that functioned mostly from dexterity. He needed to make quick and lethal attacks, instead of brute strength blows. His strength wouldn't be highly affected by its use, but using it would improve his dexterity, which also improved his ability to wield the mage-caster.
The last part of the lesson involved increasing Chaxin's toughness. This was Chaxin's least favorite part, because it involved Tamos beating him up. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, since he had been given some leather armor that the crew was accustomed to wearing. Once his muscles had a chance to relax with a good night's sleep, he'd realize just how sore the toughness-centric part of the lesson made him.
As far as Verun's day was concerned, it was mostly spent learning about the soul crystals that they had on board. He was given parchment and charcoal to write with. He worked out some theories on some possible enhancements and where he'd place them on the ship. He worked closely with both Nessa and her lightning-caster, whose name was Kem.
So far, Nessa hadn't made any progress convincing their prisoner to improve the ship. Nessa's conversations with Keldara usually involved the creature describing how she would eat everyone on board, and that they all smelled so delicious, and that the ship would be perfect in getting her wherever she wished to go. Such talk was usually met with a lightning arc from Kem, followed by range-injected paralytics.