The Wildest Woods

by S. K Munt

  No they’re worse… bitch. Sam gave me the finger slyly as he lifted his bowl to his face and drank from it, almost making me giggle, which in turn made him smile and Martya look confused. In the sense that they don’t have Nephilim powers or a lack of soul to justify the damage they’ve done to their fellow men over the years, like I do, and they’ve burned so many bridges in so many places that this really is the only society left on the face of the earth that won’t cast them out- especially so long as they keep baking this lovely bread.

  They were eager to follow you at first, thinking that a new kingdom would be a fresh slate for them, but because they know I can read their minds now, they figure that fresh slate is already dust, you know? That’s not the case, and Bastien is trying to explain that I don’t want to hear their thoughts, and that I’m the last person on earth that would care about their history or judge them anyway… but they’re spooked by me all the same. Also, they’re pretty much convinced that someone as sweet as you will turn against them the moment you find out the things they’ve done anyway, so they don’t see any reason why they should waste their time following you if you’re destined to shun them in due course anyway.

  I raised an eyebrow. Can you give me some examples of the things they’ve done so I can decide whether I would shun them or not?

  Sam sighed and pretended to be engrossed by the action of dusting crumbs off of himself. Can you keep a straight face? Because they’re reading it awfully carefully- and mine.

  Guess we’re about to find out.

  He chuckled audibly, earning himself an odd look from Martya. Well, the big bald guy, Papyrus, used to be the captain of one of Tariel’s fleets of ships and had dual citizenship in New Rome because that was where he was originally from- a prosperous vineyard in Vartica where your favourite champagne is from. He’d been born into a noble family and had worked his way back into the caste on the seas, so he was pretty much the toast of both countries.

  However, Gutierrez is notorious for underpaying his sailors and so Papyrus was going to attempt to short change the shipment of gold in New Rome, by buying less wine and art with it, but then telling his king that some of the stock that they were bringing back was ruined on the voyage so no one would notice the missing funds- and then give his men an equal share of what he’d skimmed. But one of them was too pious to accept the extra gold and blabbed everything to Lachlan Gabriel, who reported it to Emmanuel Gutierrez and as a result, Papyrus was stripped of his title of Captain, ejected from the noble cast and forbidden from returning to New Rome, even to live with his family. He could have stayed in Tariel and worked as a sailor in the Blue Collars because Emmanuel knew he was too good at what he did to be taken off the ocean all together let alone Banished, but Papyrus had too much pride to be used as an asset but not treated like one, so he jumped ship instead- literally.

  I thought that over as I dabbed the last of my bread in the last of my soup. That’s not so bad is it? He’s a bit like Robin Hood, really- with an ego.

  I don’t know who Robin Hood is, but Papyrus is all ego- sexist to boot- and hasn’t made a right turn since that day. In fact, he jumped from one pirate ship to the next after he left Tariel, trying to convince the men in charge to steal the Tariel gold that he failed to steal the first time, and was eventually accused of conspiring to raise a mutiny on one of those ships- a crime that he actually was guilty of. He and a couple of his co-conspirators all opted to jump and swim for the coast instead of accepting a death sentence at sea on one of Finnegan’s boats, but it took them the better part of a day to cross the bay of Alaska and only two of them made it to the land out of six. He probably should have learned a valuable lesson out of all of that, but he still thinks about stealing back ‘his share’ from Tariel every few minutes.

  So his dreams revolve around stealing a small fortune?

  Tariel’s fortune, specifically. He thinks he has paid the price, and so he should be compensated for what it cost him.

  Ah. I made a face as I attempted to eat my now tasteless bread. Is the one that escaped with him still here too? Sounds like people I ought to keep one eye on, for certain. They’re frighteningly determined!

  Yes, it’s the ebonic beauty, see? The one covered in amber and therefore, blocking my insight to her mind? I’d seen her so I didn’t bother looking before I nodded. It was hard to miss that coffee-skinned brunette- because she was the only person in The Sequestered, aside from Bastien, that didn’t look homeless. Well, she goes by the name Lady Lucida but the only stuff that I know about her is the stuff that the others have thought about her, so I don’t know much for sure- only that she’s gone to great lengths to keep me out of her head.

  Tell me what you can decipher anyway… I encouraged him silently, even though my skull felt like it was going to crack in two from the pressure of his mind in mine. Don’t worry, I won’t let on that you’ve told me anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.

  Thank you- I’ll live longer if you help me keep up the charade that I don’t pry without good reason. All right, well… from what I can gather, she was ridiculously wealthy before she came here, but the others don’t know where she’s from because she’s intensely secretive… warm when treated with respect, it seems, but guarded. She was a passenger on the Finnegan ship The Trafalgar, but I don’t know why she jumped overboard, because she wasn’t involved in the mutiny plot. Satan led Bastien to her and Papyrus so he’d be there when they washed ashore, and he led them to this place by accident, so they are technically the founders of it. I’m trying to pick more details about her from Papyrus’s unguarded mind, but she must have kept secrets from him too because he doesn’t seem to know any more than what Bastien does.

  I pursed my lips, wondering about what had happened to such a beautiful woman on a ship full of pirates to inspire her jumping into the freezing waters off the coast of Calliel. However, her experiences were likely to have been a lot more traumatic than mine had been, so I decided to respect her privacy the way I wanted my own respected, and keep Sam’s insight out of it. So what do Bastien and Papyrus know about her?

  She likes cooking- this delicious stew is a recipe of hers, and the man next to her, Montgomery, trekked all the way into Arcadia to hunt the bovine we’re enjoying so because that’s what he got kicked out of Asiana for doing- poaching. Lady Lucida is always graceful and gracious and Shep quite likes her… but she’s terrifying when she’s angry, which has given her an alpha-female role here that intimidates others… Oh, and you don’t have to worry about her identifying as sexually traumatised, because she’s a big fan of Satanic orgies and takes it upon herself to organise them when the ‘right’ company comes knocking on the door!

  I almost spit out my half-masticated bread. WHAT?!

  Oh yeah, and she’s not the only one into that sort of thing, Larkin. I warned you earlier, remember? Sam glanced at me quickly again, and I cringed when I remembered his little comment about ‘Heathen’ behaviour earlier that day. In fact, you’re going to have to be very careful about how you police people’s sex lives around here because for most of them, the euphoria that comes with sex is the only thing they have in their lives worth celebrating. I picked up on a few idle, orgy-related thoughts back in Hope Station, but those thoughts are becoming a lot more commonplace now that we’re here, and that’s got a lot to do with Lady Lucida and the coven, who like to sit in on the fun and re-direct all of that energy to hell. In fact, I get the feeling that a lot of people come here just to, um, celebrate life, and are wary that you’ll condemn them for it.

  Good God… how many of them are degenerates?

  Degenerates is a harsh word, but from what I can tell… at least thirty? Most of them are single, but not all of them. I won’t point out who’s who to you for the sake of your sanity, but they’re probably not the ones who you’d expect to be so… passionate... about life.

  That’s not helping my sanity, Sam, that’s making it worse! Now I’m going to worry about everyone!
r />   Sorry. But you need to know this stuff, Larkin. Life can be as ugly as it can be wondrous, and sex is one of those things that will always find a way to be both.

  I know. But I sighed. I’d thought that by leaving Eden, I’d left behind grotesque things like group-sex, too but apparently not. Now I’d not only lost my appetite, but was afraid that what I had managed to eat was going to come back up. Well, I’m relieved that they’re planning on abstaining tonight, because even with my personal aversion to sexuality aside, I’m going to disapprove of Satanic orgies on principal alone. I mean, promiscuity is downright dangerous on this side of Calliel’s fences, isn’t it?

  Well, yes. Pregnancy and disease can happen if precautions aren’t taken thanks to the lack of antibiotics and potions here... but they’ve all existed in a lawless society for a very long time and won’t take kindly to being told what they can and can’t do now, even if you can offer them other things in exchange.

  Especially while I currently have absolutely nothing to offer them in exchange but hope and ice, you mean?

  Exactly. Besides, orgies aren’t just held for the sake of having sex here, Lark- but as I said before: as a ritual that harnesses energy for Satan that will help her help you. If you outlaw their rituals- any of their rituals- you’ll not only be cramping their style, but displaying ingratitude to them and to Satan, so tread carefully and think this matter through as objectively as you can before you address it. The last thing you want is for the people that run this place and the witches to turn against you.

  Objectively? I gave Sam a funny look and as he read my mind, and his cheeks became even rosier. Wait… you’re not morally opposed to this whole orgy thing like I am, are you?

  Sam looked away again, pretending to yawn, but I could still see that his ears were as red as his hair now. I don’t have a whole lot to live for, or a soul, remember? Sex is one of the few things about life that has kept me anchored to this world. If that pretty lesbian couple were into men too I’d be asking when the orgy starts but unfortunately, they’re not into men at all- or promiscuity.

  I rolled my eyes. So are you going to help conspire with Lady Lucida to get me ostracised if I lay down a no-orgy law?

  Of course not. I can think of a lot more pleasant and inclusive ways to get you to relax the rules a little.

  The blood drained from my face. Excuse me? Was that-

  I’m joking Larkin calm down. Sam winked at me. You really take yourself and everyone else too seriously, you know that? That’s something else to keep in mind here- life should be fun. He grinned suggestively, looking me up and down. And what better way to have fun then to get all sweaty-

  ‘Unbelievable!’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Martya asked, looking at me with interest and drawing my attention to the fact that I’d spoken out loud. Sam gave me a reproachful look and I ducked my eyes.

  ‘Oh… nothing…’ I dusted crumbs off myself. ‘I’m just amazed that I lived in Eden for all of those years and never ate that well. Makes me wonder why the chefs in Arcadia were paid so much, you know?’

  ‘Oh I know, right?’ Martya started chattering about her experiences dining on the lamb over the past two years and Serif chimed in, and although that made it a lot harder for Sam and I to communicate silently, I was glad for it because I was still reeling from all that he’d said and nursing a massive migraine from the sheer amount of time that he’d spent inside my head.

  Don’t even joke about that stuff… I managed to warn him. I’m not that kind of girl, and you’ll cease to keep the parts of your anatomy that qualify you as a man if you suggest inviting me to an orgy again!

  We’ll see… Sam teased back, but I let it go because I knew he was joking.

  Or at least, I hoped he was.

  Once my stomach was full I began to fantasise about finding somewhere to crawl off to and fall asleep (somewhere preferably far away from Sam and Serif both) but the fact that our little group had become more animated must have made us seem more approachable to the other members of The Sequestered, because they started to gravitate our way as Sam had predicted they would.

  One by one people came and sat with us or knelt by us to introduce themselves and to give me a brief summary of whom they were and whom they wanted to be, (and vague hints to who they expected me to be) while Sam silently gave me extra details that they were withholding. I was too tired for such an influx of information, but I listened as best as I could, keenly aware of the fact that mere hours now stood between me becoming their leader in an official capacity- and that Bastien’s dining companions were now watching me very carefully to assess how I treated their people.

  Some of their stories were very sad or tragic and rivalled my own if they didn’t surpass them. One woman had killed her husband after he’d spent their sick baby’s money for medicine on Companions instead, and had run when she’d heard that she was going to be banished for murder despite the fact that her newborn had perished too. This had all happened the week before while I’d been at the end of my own rope, and it chilled me to think that Kohén hadn’t thought her trial worth a mention. How many other awful truths about life in Arcadia had he kept me oblivious to?

  Most of them. You weren’t his lover or his girlfriend or his friend- you were his POSSESSION. How many times are you going to be shocked by that fact?

  That story hurt me gravely but it wasn’t the only horrific one, and my mind spun to realise that so many unhappy people had been living in Arcadia all of this time. I met a couple of beautiful girls, Quilline and Riesling, that were a year older than me that had both fled noble families and Yael willingly because they were too in love with one another to fathom being paired up with ‘straight’ spouses in the lottery, and I quickly realised that they were the pretty lesbian couple that Sam had been fantasying about and heaved a sigh of relief when I saw his eyes flicker up and down them appreciatively.

  I also met a man that had been rejected from the Artisan caste of Tariel because Elijah had wanted him and his genius mind in the academics, and had gone as far to change the answers on the academic test that the man had flunked on purpose. I could tell that the man- Logan- was an artist and a passionate one straight away, because where the others were timid and polite with me, he stormed over and let me know that under no uncertain terms would he spend his future juggling numbers instead of paints and that If I had a problem with that, he wanted to know NOW. I said I didn’t have any numbers or paints for him to juggle so his destiny was entirely in his hands, and in response to that he kissed me hard on both cheeks and then flitted off happily, making people laugh.

  There were so many other cases of people that had been screwed over by fate, God, or the people in charge, and just hearing their stories was exhausting for me. There were people from Calliel, New Rome and Rabia… people that had been born in the wilderness and abandoned, people whose lawless villages had been sacked by pirates…People that believed in God but could not beg entrance into the kingdom’s governed by his kings, and people that worshipped Satan because they’d come from families like Martya’s- spawned by dark Nephilim, but so far removed from their powerful ancestors that they ceased to have any powers now.

  It was hard to keep my thoughts straight that entire time, but I did manage to arrive to three distinct conclusions by the time we all got up to wash up our bowls and then our faces. One: I had no idea how I was going to give these people everything they wanted without taking away something that someone else wanted because a lot of their wants and needs contradicted with one another’s. Two: Piracy was a much bigger problem in the free world than the collective monarchy had allowed us to believe (just as dark Nephilim were! Extinct my ass!) and three: that there wasn’t much I could do to ruin these peoples’ lives beyond how they had already been ruined. I didn’t know who was to blame for their misfortune, God or Satan, but if I was willing to at least try to turn their lives around, then that was more than anyone but Bastien or Satan had done for them in a very long
time, so I had to be on the right side now, yes?

  At least until Satan proved otherwise.

  Eventually we were all shepherded off to bed, and although Sam started to follow Martya, Chánnel and I, he came to a sharp halt suddenly and swung around, making a hideous face at whoever was behind him. I followed his gaze and saw Lady Lucida, Papyrus and a tiny little old crone standing in a huddle by the fire with Gabby, Siria and the other guy, Montgomery. They were chuckling over something, so when Papyrus lifted his eyes to mine, sneered a smile and then looked away to guffaw again, I stepped back away from my fur and stared at the back of Sam’s head.

  What? What did they say?

  Without looking back at me, Sam silently replied: Papyrus just said that despite Satan’s best intentions, you were clearly built to be a whore, not a leader. And then Montgomery said: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ He spun back to look at me, and I was impressed to see that he looked at least half as angry as I felt. What me to knock their teeth down their-

  I saw red, and I reached inside myself to unearth my fire with a rage that I hadn’t felt since I’d been in Eden. I lifted my hand, fingers curled like talons around the ball of fire that I soon hoped to hurl at them, but before I could summon it or release it, there was a roar from my left and suddenly a flume of fire three feet wide and at least nine feet long shot out of the gigantic hearth and scorched the air with such ferocity that the noise it made almost overwhelmed the sound of at least twenty-five people screaming around me.

  ‘Larkin!!’ Martya grabbed my limp wrist and yanked me back, surprising me with her strength again. ‘What did you do?!’

  I didn’t know- I honestly did not know how the fire that I’d invoked had come from within the hearth and not my hand, but I was enjoying watching the people that had just been mocking me scream and twist and pat out their singed hair and clothes too much to articulate that fact.

  ‘You can control fire as well as generate it!’ Sam exclaimed as he trotted over to me, grinning. ‘Did you know that?’