The fight was a haze. Hessian repeatedly lost consciousness throughout the skirmishes. He only recalled glimpses. One was of him driving his axe and sword into Kara’s tail—which was still embedded inside Nertha’s abdomen.
“Raaaaa!” Kara removed her tail from Nertha and flung her at Hessian. He crashed into a pillar, remembering holding her still body before his consciousness faded.
The second his consciousness was there again, Hessian was charging into the fray with his comrades, only to see their numbers dwindling from volleys of poisonous arrows. He clashed with Kara, and his consciousness drifted away.
Hessian woke up again.
“I have good news and bad news,” panted Bjorn. A long gash ran down his face with his blond hair sticking against the blood. He, Lovis, Hessian and some others stood with their backs to each other, surrounded by Scorpion People.
Kara stood menacingly and snarling on top of the bodies of those who died, flanked by her entourage and bathed red with blood dripping down her chin, hands, and tail.
“Lemme guess, the bad news is we’re surrounded?”
Hessian couldn’t see it, but he imagined Bjorn cracking a smile. “Silver lining, we can attack from every direction.”
Lovis clanged his axes appreciatively—he was missing two of his fingers. The others exhaled with tired grins.
Leave it to Bjorn to keep up the mood in the midst of battle. He was like a bear to protect your hide, while Lovis was the claws and Hessian the bite. Nertha was the only level-headed one between them all and the most resourceful to pull them in one direction.
It didn’t sit well for Hessian that the next time he opened his eyes, he saw Lovis clawed to pieces by Kara. With Hessian, only Bjorn and three others remained—incidentally, all girls previously led by Nertha.
It was a daunting awareness of their predicament.
“This is it, huh?” Hessian tried to say, but his tongue didn’t move anymore. His jaw was slack. The poison numbed his muscles. A cloud settled heavily before his eyes, and when he blinked, he flew.
Not in the sense of “~I believe I can fly~” but more like “Wait, what just happened?”
Hessian’s body dropped into the rubble. Dust rose, and Hessian’s eyes glazed over the battlefield. Scorpion People were picking out whoever of his comrades was still alive after the assault. Some pretended to be dead. It didn’t work. All of them were gone.
Kara was screeching and pulled out the axe jammed into her left breast. The blood stopped trickling in seconds, closing the flesh wound into a fresh scar.
“Was that all?” Hessian scrambled himself up to his feet but collapsed back to his knees. “Was that all I could amount to? Was she wrong about me?”
“𒉋 Dirty, use–l–ess. Nothing but a mis–e–rable fai–lure.” Kara rambled, sheathing her two sickle swords. The girth of her lower scorpion body brushed through the debris. She gave Hessian a look of disgust. “N–ot wo–rth… be–tt-eerr off gone. Every. One. Led to death.”
“Led to death? No, that wasn’t my fault,” he thought. “You can look at me all you want. I don’t care what a monster thinks.” Hessian wouldn’t just give up like that, but he slipped over the spilt blood of his people. “Otherwise, everyone's lives ended without meaning.”
Hessian let out a guttural roar from the top of his corroding lungs. He leapt at the surprised Scorpion Woman. Kara lunged at him with her claw and caught Hessian’s weapon—Nertha’s repurposed bow.
Like everything else they used, it broke just as easily. The wood cracked, and the taut bowstring came loose, snapping Kara right across her nose.
“Raaaaaaa!” Kara reared backwards with her upper body and instinctively held her face, exposing herself to Hessian. He flashed his ebony sickle sword—previous owner, mayhap a former Scorpion Person—and slashed.
Sadly, his vision wasn’t the best anymore, and Hessian struck the back of her hand, shielding her face. Kara recovered and furled her tail around Hessian’s ankle. She poached up the rubble with her tail to toss Hessian left and right until he fell into a clearing next to the bodies of his former comrades.
“𒅗 bite, no–thing b–ut bite. Sens–e–less, bi–tt–er–ness.” Kara held up her claw above Hessian’s body, ready to pierce and subsequently crush him senselessly. “𒁲L–leave this world, bi–tt–er pu–ppy. Ne-ver re-turn.”
Hessian tried to channel whatever strength he could through his body. His core, the source of his strength, throbbed. It was the last thing left he could rely on.
Being a thrall, he never knew how to utilise his magic properly. He couldn't unleash it like his slave master, Macnaught, or his master, Tomoe. Hessian never tried to be as strong as them—no, he wanted to be even stronger, just as his mother said he would.
“Try me,” Hessian coughed out the last bit of bile in his mouth. “My mother told me. Someday I will–”
“Leave, bitter puppy,” Kara spoke in startling clarity. “You're not worthy.”
Kara’s claw came down upon Hessian. His last moments flashed before his eyes. Hessian was lying down in a meadow field, right after the thrashing he received as a 12-year-old. His bruises, however, didn’t hurt because his head rested in his mother’s lap, stroking his black hair.
He yearned for this sort of comfort. For the good old days were long gone.
“My mother told me,” Hessian whispered, recalling his mother’s face in all clarity. Her locked, raven black hair framed her face. Her dim, yet grey eyes were like a storm. She had a proud scar on her beautiful neck and chin, holding a light smile on her sad and chapped lips.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Hessian,” she whispered, and Hessian deflected Kara’s claw with his black sword.
“Someday… I will buy.” Hessian sang. He rolled out of the way of the second claw—his blood boiled. “Galleys with good oars,” Hessian cut into Kara’s lower body—his core throbbed. “Sail to distant shores.”
A purple flame with yellow sparks shot out from within his core. The sparks enveloped his sword. The next cut sent a torrent of pain through Kara’s body. She stopped to stare at the huffing Hessian and his wild, sunstone-glowing eyes. “Stand up on the prow. Noble barque I steer. Steady… steady course to the haven. Hew… many foe-men… Hew… many… foe…men.”
Hessian’s voice broke. The vision of his mother blurred away. Bones aching, blood boiling, and the cracking of his core were all Hessian could perceive. It was a few years ago. He was just 17 when his mother was gone.
“Hessian,” her voice rang in his brain, “we will meet again,” she told him. “At the oppressing longhouse. Bare your fangs. You’ll swallow the sun.”
It took all of his willpower not to let go of his sword. His hands were slipping. The beating of his heart grew as unsteady as his breathing. Kara’s claws were so close to whisking away his life.
“Is this all I amounted to?” his eyes wandered over the field of bodies once more. Everyone was gone because of him. Nertha, Lovis… Bjorn… his mother. “I did this…”
Kara’s claws ripped through the sheets of air where Hessian stood—courtesy of Bjorn whisking him away.
— ✹ —
Neti floated ahead, scouring the path for any irregularities that would have bothered them in the vast stretches of Irkalla. Lost souls roamed the barren, ashen fields. Alu demons, free of emotions, sat on rocks and waited for nothing.
Usually, Neti would have given them no further glance. Stray souls tended to wander. Alu demons were not driven enough to harm anyone in the underworld. There were a few threats Neti had to watch out for, but none of which were currently of any concern.
She didn’t expect to find herself killing demons today.
“Gilgamesh, tell me.” Neti brandished her silver spear. “Did you forget to bathe today and stirred the demons?”
“Hardy har har,” Gilgamesh gave a false laugh, resting his golden axe against his shoulder. “Funny, but it’s not me. It’s the missus over there.”
“Huh?” Lotte was unnerved. “What’s that supposed to mean- eek!”
Lotte jumped back as an Alu demon tried to claw at her, but got his arm cut off by Gilgamesh. Neti speared the next one that thought it could jump over them.
“It’s not just the Alus, but the souls as well.”
The head of security let her gaze wander. Over fifty Alu gathered, with more perched atop hills and rock formations. They were waiting, observing as their gaze settled on Lotte.
Even the souls had come around to watch the scene unfold. Passively, they stood or sat down, waiting like the Alu to stir something in them. It was the most unusual sight Neti had witnessed since the underworld break-in of 1922 BCE—an embarrassing moment in her career.
“They are being attracted to her,” Neti concluded and retracted her spear. “I have a plan.”
“Good. What’s the battle plan?” asked Gilgamesh, noticing that Neti and Lotte were gone. He looked up. Neti flew off with Lotte in her arms. “Are you serious!?”
The fields of battle passed between them, and the demons didn’t pursue.
“You’re not above leaving him behind, huh?” asked Lotte, holding on to Neti’s neck as they flew.
“He’ll manage.” Neti adjusted her hold on Lotte’s body.
“If you so say.”
From so up above, Lotte watched the underworld go by her. Columns of earth rose from the ground to hold up the sky-high stone ceiling with its star nebula hanging right below it. Lotte could see that the underworld was endless—like a never-ending desert going on and on. She could blink and see an old city. Blink again, and see it gone.
She knew that time held no meaning here. Lotte held onto Neti tighter. “You haven’t told me yet where we’re going.”
“And you didn’t tell me how you came here either,” countered Neti.
“I told you, I don’t know,” cried Lotte. “I-I just woke up here in this place with no memories or how.”
“Eh, worth a try,” relented Neti, adjusting her hold again.
“Where are we going?” Lotte asked.
“We’re visiting a special person.”
“We’re in the underworld. Everyone’s special here.”
“Heh, fair enough.” Neti took a breath and closed three of her eyes—two on the left and one on the right. “Mamitu,” she replied.
“Whose Mami?”
Neti sputtered, “Not ‘Mami’ as in momma! I said Ma-mi-tu! She’s a Goddess and Judge.”
“Another judge?” Lotte asked, absently watching the scenery drifting by. “How’s she going to help?”
“She can peer into people’s fate,” answered Neti. “But you will witness it for yourself. We’re here.”
Lotte didn’t notice that the change of scenery was a preamble to a much bigger change. Small in itself enclosed city clusters rose from the desert. Rivers grew wider and more frequent, taking up the landscape as they snaked through the cities.
They were dark, but clearer and vivid than the mud waters Lotte had seen before. Growing more frequent the further they flew in, they pooled into an island with dancing veils of stars and planets enveloping a dancing woman.
Her midnight blue hair floated like a nebula. She wore a bright red dress-like robe and golden jewellery on her ankles, wrists, arms and around her neck. Her dark brown skin was glowing from the light surrounding her island.
Neti landed on the soil directly before the reasonably over 180 cm tall woman. When Lotte’s feet touched the snow-like and warm sand, Mamitu turned. Her golden eyes swam in a sea of darkness, and her bright lips smiled at them.
“Mamitu,” Neti bowed cordially, “I brought you a guest-”
“My love!” Mamitu scooped Neti right off her feet at the speed of a boa constrictor would with its prey. Lotte was stunned watching Mamitu holding Neti easily by her arms like a kitten and planting colourful kisses on each of her eyes. “Oh, how I’ve missed you. My beloved, my lovely Neti.”
Mamitu smothered Neti against her bosom, making the head of security grow red from embarrassment and close suffocation, but not enough to make her pull away. It was as clear as day what their relationship was.
“Should I give you some room?” Lotte asked, watching the moment through the gaps of her fingers. “I feel like the third wheel here.”
Mamitu stopped her kissing attacks on Neti with one final one on her forehead. The head of security fell into a pool of water, swooning and steaming. “Not at all, dear,” Mamitu laughed, encircling Lotte with curiosity. Her bare feet brushed over the sand, leaving it floating in the air.
Lotte shuffled with her feet. “I feel like everyone here knows me.”
“You can bet on that, deary,” Mamitu laughed. “Guest of the Earth Mother, our queen. Attractor of souls and demons devoid of emotions. Bane and kin of Gilgamesh. Breacher of Security Systems. There’s no one here that doesn’t know you already!”
Mamitu levitated momentarily; her golden eyes swirled, drawing in all the surrounding light. “You’re causing a commotion far and wide through all of Irkalla! The ripples you make reach further than you think.”
Lotte looked deadpan at the goddess. She nervously rubbed her arm. “So what am I here for? What Goddess are you?”
Mamitu’s lips turned into a wicked grin, and she cocked her head. “To have your fate read. I’m the Oathmaker, the Goddess of Fate and Sputterer of Curses.” She cupped Lotte’s cheeks. Her icy fingers fondly traced the lines of Lotte’s face. “I know your death. I know your life. And I can give you a glimpse.”
She planted a kiss on Lotte’s forehead, her consciousness fading. “Dream of lost memories. Dream of lost love.” Mamitu held Lotte in her lithe arms and placed her down on the warm sand. The goddess’ smile faded to a sad frown. “Dream of a time before you lost your will to live.”