In the dream, Diana sees the faces of the Ash Makers, warped in fury and blurred by the dreamscape. Ike and Beth, the ones that could choose to give in and won’t. They're running down that well lit hallway where she and Aiko chased the assassin. She is running and running, far longer than the hall goes in reality. Her tiger should have caught up to them by now. When she puts her hand out, no magic comes out, she is helpless.
Ike and the young Beth are caught by chains and suspended in the air. They hang above the well worn floor. The Mages float around their captives, then more people appear above them. Those children, Sue and Ed, that young man that shot at her, Genji. She didn’t really see his face, but she heard his screams in the mists. She doesn’t blame him, he couldn’t be more than fifteen by the cracks in his voice. Then more, Chiru, the beautiful Wanshi girl, and the other young man, the playful Tim, both could have easily attacked her if they turned their heads in that park. How many more are living outside Alpha? Diana thought.
Then more Ash Makers appear in the growing web of chains. The dead in Rowoak. The half digested Ash Makers that her and the Heroes had plucked from earth vipers’ bellies. The bloody corpses and their exposed skulls and rib bones. Sloppy figures of acid and blood. There were organs being eaten away under the cage of their ribs. There was skin melting into their clothing. They had been alive once, how many were actually teenagers? How many were children?
“I tried!” she screams in her dream. “I tried! All I wanted to do is help you!”
One of the consumed Ash Makers slips out of their chains like the assassin had, falling towards her with its skeletal mouth opening. The hollows of their eye sockets staring at her. Their hands of slimy bone, held together barely by tendons, reach out for her.
Just as the dead Ash Maker was about to hit her, she woke up with a yelp.
Diana whimpered, feeling the pain of her illness across her head, it was agony to be awake. There was an ache in all her limbs. Sweat drenched her thin shirt and she gasped as she pushed off the quilt. The room had the darkest night she had seen since arriving in Alpha. Even under the tent, the faint light from the window still shone through. Everywhere here was black and the eyes of Aiko the cat couldn’t see well in this inky matte.
The Druid’s rapid breathing made her cough and she sat up, feeling the phlegm start to loosen. Finally, after a full three days (she wasn’t sure how long it had been now), her jars of creams were working. She was far sicker than Jonah, sleeping for hours longer than him. She had never used magic so intensely, so foolishly. If she wasn’t so young and resilient, she could have died. Her throat had been bloody and raw, her lungs burned and her heart could have easily gone into arrest.
The days worked to decrease her physical misery. Shame had only added to her pain, but no one was interested in talking about that when her body was such a mess.
“Ah, what? What?” Jonah mumbled as he woke up beside her. His cough was much weaker as he sat up.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said weakly, her stuffed nose made her voice so nasally.
“It’s okay,” he said, snuffing and then groaning. The room lit up as the back of his hand shone with a low light. He scanned her. “Oh… Hey, what’s wrong? You’re crying… Did you have a nightmare?”
Feebly she nodded, wiping at her face. She didn’t even notice until he said something. There was enough wrong already.
He found the box of tissues and handed it to her. When she was done, half a dozen tissues in the basket, he took her into his arms. “You wanna talk about it?” he asked, groggily.
“I only want to forget.” She moved into him, setting her head on his collar bone. He was equally sweaty, and their fevers had broken together. Though the chills being gone wasn’t much of an improvement. Kalyah had to feed her the first day, she was so sore from that stupid overexertion of magic. The embarrassment was lessened when Jonah did it, but not by much.
Neither spoke in their huddle atop the bed for what felt like hours, but was probably twenty minutes. Diana was stuck in her dreams, unable to escape the images of the dead Ash Makers. If only it had been her imagination or an illustration, then she could push it down. She recalled their smells, when they lay rotting and when they burned. They were beside Luann as another repressed event. Now that they had surfaced, she only wanted their memory to leave again. Aiko was not sending her anything but calm feelings, did the familiar want her to suffer with these pictures?
“C'mon, you can tell me what’s wrong,” Jonah said, rubbing her back.
“I pushed you away, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” she said quietly. Her mind was clear enough to assign blame now. Quick enough to deflect.
“Hm, oh, the wind when you were mad? No,” he said, leaning back. The light on his arm illuminated his smile and a shake of his head.
“I hit you against a tree,” she whispered.
“Yeah, I’m fine now.” He shrugged.
“I wasn’t listening to Aiko, I didn’t listen to you.” She sniffled.
“I didn’t really get a chance to say much,” he said, yawning.
“Are you ever going to get upset at the abuse I put you through?” she wondered, loudly. The raised voice made her cough.
His dark face grew serious in the shadows. “You didn’t abuse me, I know what that is, its not you. You have trauma Diana, serious trauma. Any lashing out or, well, any accidents that I get in the way of, it’s not your fault. I don’t care about the wind blast, either time it happened. I know you have a hard time waking up, but you’re better now. In front of the house, well you had someone tell you that Blodwyn is…” He swallowed. “You know and---”
“Not interested in me whatsoever…” she finished. She was shrinking internally at the mention of her condition, and she knew that it showed as a weak expression. She couldn’t change it, not even as Jonah’s confidence waned. “I saw the dead Ash Makers from Rowoak, in my dreams. Their half melted corpses have come back to haunt me. The ‘Heroes’ stripped them of their coats and had me burn their bodies. I should have known their solemn faces were all pretend. When they paraded their coats around, I should have left then.”
Another hard swallow went down Jonah’s throat. He was feeling the guilt he didn’t deserve.
“I stayed because I chose to,” she said, setting her hand on his cheek. “I chose to enter that tunnel and leave you behind in town. I shouldn’t have pretended to be a Hero. I like where I am now. I keep pretending though…”
“We are Heroes though, even if we haven't succeeded, we’ve tried,” he added.
“I’d rather not have failed, but I see your point,” she said, then her cheeks puffed in a low cough.
“Those adults, they weren’t going to come with us, no matter what we said, they're radicals,” he said, firmly. “I know what it’s like talking to true believers. I grew up with a God I don’t think is real anymore. I argued with other people that still did, no matter what you say, they can’t give it up. If they give up the faith, there’s no hope. The kids heard us, but the adults wouldn’t let them leave. What if, and this is a big ‘if’, those kids try and leave and take up our offer? Kids like to sneak away, they could make it to the city if they're walking.”
Diana blinked. She turned on her back, joining him on the wall and stared up at the ceiling. It too was covered with a blanket. There was a catch in her throat and she started to cough again. It left her feeling weak, and her stomach sounded in its emptiness.
The door creaked open and Kalyah leaned into the room, the threshold bringing in a near blinding level of light. “You guys ready for some more soup?” she asked playfully.
The two agreed, even though they had their fill of soup before they got sick.
When the door closed, Diana turned to Jonah. “I think we’ll look into that ‘if’,” she said.
He smiled, then started to cough as well.
In the blanket covered haven of the Alpha house bathroom, Diana, Jonah, Kalyah and Niae were all around a folding table. Rolled out across its surface were Kalyah’s sketched out maps of the underground tunnels and sewers, as well as local maps of the city. The green wool blankets staled the warm air, while oils had been left in the tub to open up the couple’s senses. The mixing smells and the heat added a pressure to the proceedings.
Jonah shifted the maps, thinking the entire time they were laid out. “So it's like this, if those Ash Makers are still around, those kids might consider leaving them. Their clothes weren't in good condition, they can't be having fun with an army," he stated. "What if they come to us, where would they come in?"
Diana, holding a mug of lemon tea, looked over the map, reminded of all the maps on the Pirate’s ship. Constantly pouring over them. The connection brought back the guilt and the hopelessness of that journey. “They've probably left already,” she whispered dourly. She grimaced at Jonah’s frown to her statement, and she punished herself with a long draught of the too hot tea.
“They won’t be going anywhere in this weather, honey,” Kalyah said, frowning. The dim lights overhead and the lamp on the table colored her pale skin and white winter clothing a burnt orange.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“The docks are shut down, and I have no idea how they got here in the first place,” Niae commented, casting a shadow over them all where she stood.
“They do occasionally smuggle people in and out,” Kalyah remarked.
Niae grumbled. “I may send the Wardens to shut down the entire operation…”
“I doubt they could smuggle them out,” Kalyah continued. “I don’t know if they smuggled them all in. From what I found out, a lot of food is going to Ash Makers. No water though, so they have water where they are.”
Jonah had his screen open, notes going along it. “Okay, okay, so what do we know, all together?” he asked. Kalyah and Niae listed them off, Diana kept quiet for now, sorting out the facts that Aiko had found out only today. “So, they have been here a while, longer than we have. They need food delivered and are paying for it, with counterfeit coins, which are so good it takes an expert to detect them. They have shields to block the mists, and probably other parts of the environment. They have a sound that can shut down magic users, and beings, like the Nymphs, not me for some unknown reason. They have weapons to defend themselves, beside their magic…” He flexed his newly weaponized right hand.
Diana turned to him, admiring his breakdown. Without knowing it, his was very similar to her own process. She took a deep breath, and he focused on her. “Aiko went back to the tree they were in. It and others around it had little to no leaves on the ground. She heard their packs jangling as she ran after them…” she said. The cat looked up with its whiskers tilted in a kind of smile. Blasted creature of the sources, she thought, scratching the cat roughly on the head. She wasn’t even aware of that last part until now.
“Why steal the leaves? They will return to normal outside the city,” Niae added.
“Maybe not,” Jonah said, waggling his metal finger. “They have stuff to negate magic, what if they have something to make it permanent?”
The High elf shook her head. “No, darling, they cannot go that far,” she said.
“Would you have considered the freezing magic possible before?” he asked.
She shook her head again, holding her chin.
“My father would have studied it endlessly,” Diana said, animated by the conversation. “Such magic is like a temporary Wood Tomb, I cannot imagine how it might change the war. What you propose is equally impossible, but only another stretch of the imagination.”
Jonah nodded to Diana, shaking in his excitement. “The last war, no one thought a majority of the tech was possible, right?” His light eyes darted to the giant and dwarf elf. “The laser guns, the vehicles running on Azure fuel. I read some of the reports, people thought the gods had come to end the world when the tanks first started firing lasers. The ballistic guns alone were far more advanced and weird compared to anything here!” He gulped down the projection of his voice. “Sorry, like Diana said, it’s equally crazy,” he said quietly.
Kalyah’s face hardened, and she joined Niae in a pondering pose, her chin resting on her fist.
“We were children before them,” Diana added solemnly. “The Order of Ash was free to do whatever they wished to us. They have found ways to repeat that imbalance.”
Nodding grimly, Jonah continued in a leveled voice. “This Technophile, she’s doing new impossible things. There’s stuff in our world about sound weapons. Certain sounds can make you see ghosts, hallucinations in our world. Plasma guns exist in theory and as rough prototypes. The bubble shield you described Diana, it sounds like something from a video game. Wolfgang and his brother Klaus, they were inspired by pulp fiction.” He turned to the elves. “Fantasy books in my world, mostly science fiction. Anyway, that was all they knew. This new Technophile seems to like video games, and actually knows enough to fill in the gaps.”
“There could be a dozen of them,” Diana added with a frown. “As there were two Machinists.”
“I don’t know, I hope not,” he said. “The Ash Makers outside of Alpha, I don’t think they have enough people to take over the city, because they would. I mean, there’s a huge gold mine here. The leaves are enough to make someone rich.”
“Is that all? They only want wealth?” she proposed.
“Maybe, I’m not sure,” he said. “The gun, it transmutes metal, not very stably and I don't know how to make it permanent outside the shells.” He held up his arm. “I think they’ll use metal for other stuff. I saw Blodwyn playing a game on something. If the Technophile can make video games, she could probably also make cell phones or something. They take a lot of precious metals to make, at least a lot of them would.”
“Jonah, I think you’re right, and they can’t leave,” Kalyah said, holding up the counterfeit coin. “They might be holding out for you guys to leave.”
“Why do you say that?” Diana asked.
The Pixie flipped the coin over her fingers. “This takes a lot of metal to make,” she said. “If they can make the leaves solid, which does make sense in theory, they would need a lot. The metal skin is extremely thin, it’s ugly, but it’s thinner than tissue. They would have to melt a dozen to make one of these.” Niae nodded beside her, sitting down and looking at the maps. “Alp’a Linn is one of the only cities like this, mostly abandoned. All the others are filled with elves and very few of them are Grands. B’ta Rae has only a few hundred, but thousands of elves and even a good number of humans. Same goes for the other three. There’s no way in all the hells that an Ash Maker would be able to sneak around them. Normally there’s detection wards up, but the Grands have let them slack in the last hundred years.”
“The wards have been suffocated by all the alchemy,” Niae commented. “This is also the most profitable time for this activity of theirs.”
“Why would that Ash Maker give up the coins?” Kalyah wondered, staring at the coin on her knuckle.
There was a long silence as they all thought.
Diana sighed, having to relive that tragic experience. “Maybe he didn’t mean to,” she said. “It could have been a distraction. When he gave them to me, his subordinate would use the repair kit and stun me and Jonah, at least that may have been the plan. Aiko and the mists interrupted him, and we instead disarmed him and the mists made them suffer. He was sure he was being watched, but trapped by my power…” She stopped, feeling pride entering her voice. The retelling didn’t deserve it.
“We got him on the ropes, I should have just winged him,” Jonah said with a heavy exhale. “I panicked…”
The Druid brought him close to her, the chair tugging against the padded floor. “You did well, and claimed his weapon. I only wish they would have listened to us. Those children do not deserve their inadequate treatment.”
“I hope the kids can come to us,” he said.
She nodded, pointing to the map. “Where is their most likely entrance?” she asked the elves.
Kalyah considered the paper. “It depends on where they're coming from,” she said.
Niae pointed to the eastern side of the tear drop shaped city that was surrounded by the river and lake on two sides. “Here is well watched, day or night and they cannot travel where ships sail by regularly,” she said, sliding her finger to the north. “There is a village here of Night elves that hunt in the surrounding forest.” She tapped the densely wooded forest. “Your tiger detected bedrock on them, and there are a series of caves within these hills.” She ran her finger along an illustration of hills that bordered the lake. “They are left alone, even by the Night elves, for they house stalker Watchdogs.”
Jonah gasped and shook as his index flashed before his eyes. “Sorry, go on,” he said quietly.
“Your magic showed you the beasts?” Niae wondered.
He nodded.
“Ah, they are cruel creatures, but the gun you absorbed would easily get through their hard carapace. They are slow to reproduce, though that would not be a problem if the Ash Makers wiped them out,” the High elf said with a frown.
“The sound in Rowoak, in the Toothy Pit, I wonder if it was a malfunctioning… freezing device…” Diana said, struggling to find the right word.
“How about a Blinder?” Jonah offered.
“Yes, that works,” she said. “It was screeching and drew the Watchdogs in.”
“It doesn’t seem like the device is very sturdy,” he added. “Sorry we interrupted you…”
Niae grinned and shook her head. “No, more information to list,” she said. “Now, I believe they must be staying there.” She tapped the map of the ridges running along the lake. “It is well known to be dangerous and there could be water coming in from the lakes. The Nymphs would have no need to lounge about as they have the city sewers to move around in comfortably.”
“So they would probably be entering around here,” Jonah said, pointing to a northern part of the city.
“Yes, I believe so, it is near the hills, but not so close to the northern gate. The forest goes on for miles around. Anywhere else would have fae creatures or draw attention from the nearby village.” Niae’s blue eyes lingered on the map.
“Hm, those are storm drains and they link up with the old tunnels,” Kalyah said, lifting up another map, then pushing it closer to the center of the table. “If Diana and Jonah convinced any runaways, then they would probably enter here.”
“It feels wrong to hope for anyone,” Diana said glumly.
“That’s all we got, we can’t give up,” Jonah said, taking her hand and squeezing it.
“Yes, I suppose so,” she said. “There’s three pine cones left in the bag, another on the tree. I will set them to alert me if they sense humans or if they ever go blind. The pine has a limited memory and intelligence, but it can understand orders as simple as that. I hope my dallying has not led to any deaths by the Nymphs.”
The High elf raised her hands. “No dear, you have been sick, and in the meanwhile, my children have been walking the sewers, asking the Nymphs if they have seen anyone. They can be lustful and childish, but they cannot lie or stay quiet. I do not think anyone has entered the sewers while you two have been down. My children cannot do such forever without raising suspicions, they can reduce their patrols now that you are better. Please do not go out into the cold yet though. It is slowly lifting, but it will not be gone for a few more days.”
In response, Diana blew her nose, feeling the pressure lessen. “I’ll have Aiko set the remaining pine cones with your children’s help,” she said, breathing through her clearer nose. “I would like to return to the Twinklings. Eventually, of course.”
“There’s that garden on the top floor,” Jonah stated suddenly.
Niae clapped. “Yes, and the hotel is under new ownership. It will be a much nicer place to house any escapees,” she said cheerfully. “The rooms will be cleared out when the mists lift.”
“It would be nice to plant a garden for all the seeds in my pouches,” Diana said with a smile, the first in a while. “I don’t feel like a prepared Druid with so many empty vials and bags. My jars are beginning to run low as well.” She smelled her own hair and the earthy scent within it.
Jonah leaned over and pecked her cheek. “I missed that,” he remarked, beaming back at her.
“There’s still plenty of work and a lot of guessing in this,” she said. “What if they have a machine to replicate teleportation?”
“No ‘if’s’ right now,” he said, shaking his head. “Only plans… looking ahead.” He sniffled.
Many hours later, they had confirmation. Niae sent out a Dove to fly over the cliffs of Trema Le, as they were called. She saw people entering the caves, ones wearing green cloaks over bulky outfits. None of them were ashen gray, but she could sense one was afflicted through the summoned bird. They seemed to be carrying bags of food.
She had made the creature deaf, fearing the sound had been set up as a deterrent. On Jonah’s advice, she made the creature see in infrared. The Corpine clergy could see through all kinds of lenses, but it took effort to make a conjuration see as such. Niae did not mind, even as sweat dripped down her forehead. It was worth the effort, as she saw there were nodes placed around the cave entrances and surrounding pine trees. Her bird had nearly tripped them. Any closer and she would have alerted them.
They had their confirmation, now all they needed was to keep watch and hope that someone wanted to come out. That wasn’t enough for Niae, she was going to keep watching and find maps for the caves, if they existed. If the Ash Makers were still there by the time the mists lifted, she was planning on staging a peaceful approach. Whether they would listen or come out shooting, she wasn’t sure.