“Dreaming, are we?” Eve said, coming up to stand beside Arjun.
He was, as had become his habit, standing right at the edge of a sheer cliff and staring off into the distance, with a goofy grin on his face.
“Best way to dream is with your eyes open.”
Snorted laughter could be heard from behind them. “Explains why I can’t remember any of mine. Was doing it wrong.”
Eve glanced behind at the half-stonehorn. A living proof that every dark cloud has a silver lining, she decided, after looking between him and the distant thunderclouds that promised yet another deluge.
Just in the past month, the number of individuals she considered friend in this world had tripled. The solitary friend she did possess before she was forced to flee her home had decided to go and get married at the ripe old age of eighteen, leaving her at the mercy of all the toothless hags of the village whose sole purpose in life was gossiping about who was still unmarried at eighteen – or Aimin forbid, nineteen.
“Do stonehorns have any gods related to dreams?” she asked, hoping to learn something more about the stonehornish concept of afterlife, a concept she found herself to be increasingly curious about.
Of late, all her dreams, ones that she could remember at least, prominently featured both her parents. And brother. Thinking about her brother threatened to burst open the deep-seated wellspring of anger and grief in her Heart, so she forcibly made herself concentrate on the present.
“Not as such, no.”
Arjun grinned. “Even your gods are as practical as you are.”
This had the effect of broadening Kumil’s own grin. “The two concepts aren’t unrelated.”
The grin on Arjun’s face vanished. “Were you made in their image, as you believe,” he said, appearing suddenly pensive, eyes lost in the past, “or were they imagined in yours? Cause and effect,” he murmured. “Must never confuse the two.”
“Cosmos isn’t always as logical as that,” Kumil replied after some thought. “Why can’t they be both the cause and the effect? One causing the other, and vice versa.”
“Trippy,” Eve said. “Stick with the fact that the gods are here and so are we. Less chance of getting lost in your head.”
Arjun gave a reluctant nod. Then, his light-brown eyes lit up.
“Often wondered why all the stonehornish gods are male.”
“They aren’t all male,” Eve said. She then turned to the half-stonehorn. “Are they?”
The question prompted a head-scratch from Kumil. “Yes and no. We had a couple of goddesses.” He gave a shrug, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Not our fault Jukatis and Rubina didn’t have many girls, is it?”
“Suppose not,” Eve chuckled. “Only Sobralia, right?”
Kumil gave an agreeing nod. Then, his face fell. “But after the Cataclysm, we lost them both.”
“You lost your goddesses?” Arjun asked, trying to make sure he’d heard right.
“Yes.”
“You mean they died?” Eve asked.
“No. We’d know if they died,” Kumil insisted. “We lost them.”
“Are you stone-cold certain it isn’t a few of your screws you haven’t lost?”
“How do you even lose a goddess?” Arjun asked. Before Kumil could elaborate, realization dawned. “During the Cataclysm, the locations of their temples were lost.” A frown formed as he seemed to recall something. “You said you’ve always had this many gods. I assume you meant it in a gender-neutral sense.”
“I did and we do. Simply need to rediscover them. As we did the temple of Krumilam and Skyldeva.”
Eve and Arjun shared an amused glance, shaking their heads.
“Each to his own,” Arjun said.
“When you join the Maker’s Embrace, where does the soul go?” Eve asked, hoping to get back on topic.
Kumil blinked in surprise. “To the Maker.”
Eve rolled her eyes in exasperation. “And then?”
“Then, you become a part of him,” Kumil said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“So it’s a symbiotic relationship, between Jukatis and you,” asked Arjun, still stuck on the road to trippy-land. “Between all your Living Gods and you?”
“I suppose. Why do you ask?”
“Aimin or the Dualgods work differently. According to the Tenets, Aimin needs nothing from us. Lore says pretty much the same thing in a roundabout manner. Have no clue how Omism works.”
“Why would I trust a god who needs nothing from me?”
“Getting back on topic,” Eve said, giving Arjun her best imitation of James’ disapproving glare. “When you said you become a part of Jukatis, what did you mean?”
“Your consciousness becomes a tiny sliver of Jukatis’ consciousness, like a drop of water returning to the ocean.”
“So you cease to exist?” Arjun stole the words from the tip of her tongue.
“Yes, in a sense,” Kumil said. “And in the process become one with Jukatis. Couldn’t be simpler,” he announced. Then, a flower caught his eyes. “Monsoon must’ve arrived late here,” he said, indicating a blood-red flower that resembled a tulip, but was a bit smaller in size.
The slope behind them had been transformed into a carpet of crimson, with small patches of pink, another strain of the same flower, dotting the neighboring mountainside. “Kradiglab should be thriving right about now.”
With the onset of Monsoon, nature had exploded into action. Even after weeks on the trail, the sheer amount of greenery and the myriad hues of color, still, at times, left her transfixed. And oddly happy. “They look healthy enough to me,” Eve said, looking at the vibrant red petals and rich forest-green leaves.
Before Kumil could reply, a question she’d been fearing for weeks escaped Arjun’s lips. He’d been itching to ask it for days, if not longer. Quirks of possessing perceptive friends.
“You’ve lost someone recently, haven’t you?”
Eve gritted her teeth. “Yes,” she whispered after debating with herself for a blink.
“Father or Mother?” Kumil asked.
Seemed he’d been paying attention as well. Not knowing whether to be pleased or not, Eve chose to be angry. But before she could give the two of them a piece of her mind, Arjun asked, “Or both?”
The question seemed to strike a chord in her heart and all the accumulated grief and fury escaped, not through her mouth, thank Aimin, but through her eyes as a couple of traitorous drops of tear made their way down her cheeks.
“Tell us when you’re ready,” Arjun said, eyes flickering between her and Aisha who’d joined the three of them in the small clearing on the side of the road. James still hadn’t gotten back from his solo hunting trip.
Kumil gave an agreeing nod, face full of sympathy, and questions, which he refrained from asking. Eve said a silent prayer to Allmother.
Even Aisha, usually so reserved, gave her a tentative smile that contained both encouragement and support. Shaking the pain and tears off her face, if not her soul, Eve put on a smile, then sniffed the air. “What’s for dinner?”
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“Yes, I’m starving,” Kumil proclaimed.
Arjun sauntered up to the tall girl, and after a glance that spoke volumes, gently clasped her left hand.
Eve shook her head, smothering the smirk that threatened to turn into a grin. Whatever she communicated through that weird as Bramka’s Balls link of theirs seemed to upset him no end. “Rice and lamb stew,” Arjun said, almost on the verge of tears.
“Not again!!!”
“Think we gave them the slip?” Kumil asked.
Dawn had arrived almost a bell ago, bathing the lower Kailash in diffused orange-red light of Surya. Kiran hadn’t risen yet, although with dense dark-gray thunderclouds blotting out the sky, it was hard to be certain. Heady wet smell of leaves, rain, damp earth and some unknown exotic flower heralded the onset of yet another spell of Monsoon.
Eve let out a sigh.
The morning might prove to be even more grueling than the night had been. Surrounded by five towering peaks, the bowl-shaped valley they were traveling through was devoid of any living soul. The dense tree-covered slopes could hide an army of those strange creatures, and they wouldn’t know until they came within a couple of miles of Arjun, who was on foot and looked half-dead from exhaustion. Even Kumil, whose stamina surpassed hers and even the Cleric’s, seemed to be breathing hard. Looking at his weary steps and wary eyes that surveyed the surroundings, Eve cast a sidelong glance at the Cleric.
Perhaps sensing her unease, or maybe because he himself thought they were being lured into an ambush by the trailing pack, James, the best rider among the group, clucked and nudged his pony to a stop, clambered down, then closed his eyes.
“They seem to have stopped.”
Arjun slumped down on the ground. “They haven’t moved for the last quarter mile. Any longer and I think I would’ve gone searching for a fight just to end this agony, although catching up with them might be tricky.”
“You think they can sense us?” Eve asked, gingerly getting down from her own pony.
Aisha was doing even worse. For once, her shoulder-length jet-black tresses that were growing at an enviable rate, looked frazzled, which was pretty much the default state for Eve’s own hair.
“Yes. Otherwise, they couldn’t have followed us through the obscure paths we took. Those tracks haven’t seen anything other than goat, wolf or snow-leopard in over a decade, perhaps longer.”
“They also retreated when we approached them,” Kumil reminded them.
The previous night they’d come across another deserted hamlet, thankfully without any butchered kids. Or adults for that matter. Then, sensing the creatures had stopped moving about a mile from their location, James had decided to go and investigate. However, much to their surprise, every time James got closer than half a mile, the pack moved off to a new location, always maintaining the same approximate distance of about a mile.
“Perhaps they have the ability to sense vibrations in the earth as we do,” Kumil added, “but then again, I haven’t sensed any active earth Manipulation from anywhere near their location.”
“Some animals can smell their prey from miles away.” Eve finished setting up her sleeping roll and set about gathering firewood. “But their behavior is more congruent with that of a curious animal than a predator. So far.”
After unpacking their gear, a thoughtful frown formed on the Cleric’s face, seeing which Kumil asked, “Anything the matter, James?”
“Not sure yet,” The Battle Cleric took in the breathtaking scenery around them with his typical clinical dour look. “Monsoon must’ve arrived late here.”
This caused Arjun to perk up. “Exactly what Kumil said,” he looked between the half-stonehorn and Cleric. “Anything you two want to share with us? Or at least with each other? Information exchange can often forestall a future problem.”
“Some of the wild flowers, plants, even trees, seem….” Kumil hesitated, looking for the correct word.
“Stunted,” James supplied, causing the Engineer to give a firm nod.
Eve shook her head in disbelief, prompting Kumil to clarify. “These are some of the lushest places on Sindria, getting over a hundred feet of rain a year, most of it during the Monsoon. Trust me, they should be bursting at the seams with life. Even more so than what you see around here.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Exhausting the meager supply of dry deadwood near their campsite, Eve ventured deeper into the jungle, still shouting distance from the clearing where the others were busy securing the ponies and setting up camp.
Within moments, she stumbled onto a nightmare.
“Aimin’s Balls!!!”
During her visits to Aimingar with her father, Eve had witnessed some gruesome no-holds-barred sparring contests, which often ended with one guy smashing in the skull of another. Hell, she herself broke the skull of another person mere weeks ago. But this macabre sight left her transfixed.
At the base of a large sal tree, four bodies were placed, with almost artistic precision and posture. Evenly spaced, heads bowed. All eviscerated.
“Don’t move.” James’ hoarse whisper broke her trance. “There might still be signs of the perpetrators on the ground.”
“At least no kids. Hate when it’s kids.” Kumil joined her, followed by Arjun and Aisha, all sharing her own shocked expressions. “Though I think they might be the parents from the last hamlet.”
“Makes you wonder what became of the kids,” Arjun said.
Looking at the ground around the tree, Eve felt a sinking sensation.
At times, with no tangible evidence to support a hypothesis, the subconscious mind – a true wonder of nature – arrives at a conclusion that, at first, seems absurd. But the more you think about it, the more certain you become. And once that intuitive feeling surfaces to the forefront of your thought, you cannot let go.
At times, absence of evidence can be the most compelling evidence.
“Almost no evidence of the killer left,” James’ murmured to himself incredulously, mirroring her own thoughts. “Except two barely discernible footprints, invisible to the naked eye, only detectable by earth sense.”
“Yes, the ground is definitely depressed,” Arjun said after examining one particular patch of soil. “By something heavy.”
“The killer carried all four bodies here, on his back probably, already dead from broken necks.” Eyes filled with concern, James cast his glance at the surrounding forest after he’d finished inspecting the corpses. “Then, eviscerated them here. He was immensely strong.” The Cleric moved over to another patch of the ground, studying it minutely. “He was inhumanly strong,” he added softly.
Sensing the hardness of the soil and the depth of the footprints, Eve had come to the same conclusion.
And more.
The crimson pool that had formed around the tree was starting to attract insects and other small animals. It almost looked to be some sort of ritualistic sacrifice to Sigrid, the Lord of Hell.
Insanity came in many guises, one of which walked on two legs and called her daughter.
Imbalance brings forth Force, Creator wrote in the Historica. Maybe he meant imbalance of the Mind. Eve shuddered to think what that might imply about her own future.
“But why?” Arjun whispered, afraid to speak loudly lest he disrespect the dead.
Yes, why had her father done this? Even though he was a ruthless killer when required, he wasn’t in the habit of killing random villagers and dumping them beside isolated mountain tracks. But then again, perhaps he was. Perhaps she never really knew the man she called father.
Suddenly, Arjun cocked his head, looked toward a deer track that led deeper into the woods, and took off like a bolt of lightning.
“What in the Creators’ name are you doing, boy?” James shouted. He then frantically cast his gaze around, searching for something. Or someone. “Where’s the girl?”
Determining Aisha’s position from the tread, the Cleric reoriented himself, and with a rush of displaced air, blasted through the forest, heading for a smaller clearing to the north.
As he vanished between two rhododendron trees, Eve followed, grudgingly admitting to herself that the man could move when he really wanted to.
“What now?” Kumil asked, after catching up with Eve.
“Perhaps he sensed the killer, but I doubt it. I certainly didn’t.”
Eve dreaded catching up with Arjun. She prayed to the Allfather that her father be caught and punished, for all the crimes he’d committed. For her mother. For alienating her brother. But fear and anxiety overrode her anger and rage. They might all die if they caught up with him. While James seemed like a competent enough Cleric and both Arjun and Kumil had far more sensitive earth senses than her, in an actual combat scenario, her father had no peers. At least none that she knew of.
They found Arjun in a clearing in the forest, standing in front of a mound of vine, overgrown with beautiful small yellow flowers. Hovering behind him with concern written all over her striking face was Aisha. In her hands, she held a bunch of those yellow flowers, steeped in morning dew and emanating a soft silken smell that promised serenity.
“Something’s down there,” Arjun muttered, seemingly unaware of their presence.
“What? Down where?” Eve demanded, after an exploratory thump. “Nothing but solid rock down there.”
“Solid rock doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t anything there.” Kumil scratched his prodigious beard, one that definitely needed trimming after weeks on the trail. “But what makes you think something is down there in the first place?”
“A hum. Aisha sensed a humming noise…but nothing is vibrating.” Arjun said. “I mean the ground isn’t,” he clarified after seeing Eve’s frown. “But she can’t pinpoint the location. I think I can.”
“Humming without vibrating,” Kumil sniffed. “That makes less sense than a beardless stonehorn taking a bath in a hot spring.” He gave a dismissive shake of the head.
“Thought stonehorns loved bathing.” Despite the grisly sight a few hundred feet behind them and the prospect of coming face-to-face with her father again, Eve couldn’t help but smile.
“We love bathing as much as any human. Probably more. Just can’t stand the heat.”
James, it seemed, had more faith in the two lunatics. Working together, he and Arjun opened up the earth in front of the mound in no time, revealing a set of old stairs that ended at a passageway cloaked in darkness.
“Should’ve figured,” James said, looking at the thin layer of Basil roughly thirty feet beneath the ground. “Although I’m surprised you sensed it at all, given the amount.”
Kumil gave Arjun a speculative glance. “You’re developing quite a nose for detecting Basil.”
The half-stonehorn, Eve had come to realize, was not only gifted at, but also fond of, taking apart things to figure out how they worked – be it a gadget, a problem, or a Crown, the last one only figuratively, thank Aimin. He wasn’t like those nutjob Artificers or Sigilmasters of the Order who get carried away with the drive to unlock all the Aspects of Reality. What’s a couple of thousand regular folks’ lives in front of the divine mandate bestowed onto them by Allfather himself? How they arrived at such a macabre conclusion after starting from one of the key clauses of the Tenets that encouraged expanding your horizon of knowledge by exploration was anyone’s guess.
“My senses aren’t that reliable. Too many false alarms,” Arjun said, peering at the darkness in front of him. His gaze then turned back toward the anxious half-aditarun girl standing at the edge of the pit, and after a series of lightning-quick doe-eyed exchanges, he added in a strangely wary voice, “Some of them are bound to hit true, though.”
Seeing him hesitate to explore a dark corner of Sindria for the very first time, a small frown crossed Eve’s face. Burying that question for a later time, she was about to jump into the pit when her heart skipped a beat.
“No!!!” Eve breathed, hands clenched in despair. “The ground isn’t vibrating. They’re traveling through the trees.”
Then, a high keening noise sounded from behind the bushes to her right, and all her worst fears came true.