The alarm horn sounded at dawn, and it shook Theos out of the deep sleep, not enough to make him jump, but he was wide awake.
“Please don’t be that fucking shade,” he hissed.
The horn did not continue, as it usually did during attacks. This was a short one, which either meant a false alarm or something was happening at the entrance. “Na’heb,” Theos turned to smack the big oaf, “wake up, the horn sounded.”
“Five more minutes,” he turned around.
“Wake up,” Theos smacked him on his face a few times. The palm produced loud slapping noises as it happened. “I need someone to carry me.”
He felt like he was hit by a boulder, then a pack of citars ran over him while he was down. And that was only the first part of how he felt. The chill went away long before he reached the outpost, but now it was returning. He wondered how many people could sympathize with what he felt right now.
Because Na’heb wasn’t.
“Still sleeping in- Theos!” Heras exclaimed. “You survived, you lucky dung-”
“Dung beetle, yes, yes,” Theos smiled at his squadmate. “What is going on in there?”
“What happened to you?” Heras blinked as he saw the wounds. “That shit looks nasty.”
“Long story,” Theos grumbled. “Will have enough time for it later. Help me up, would you?”
Heras moved inside and pulled him to his feet before he carried him under the shoulder.
“Easy,” Theos winced. “What’s happening, you found Moswen?”
Heras smiled as he dragged him towards the mines. “Even better.”
He watched the people gather, excited chatter filling the air. “Stop with the teasing and tell me already.”
“Well, when I went in to find Moswen,” Heras moved them through the crowd, pushing them to make a path. “Imagine my shock when I found the fucking thing you guys fought.”
Theos could see the creature displayed in front of the mines, a couple of people opening its large leathery wings, and two more keeping the body upright. Moswen stood triumphantly in front of the creature.
“It looked so much smaller inside that cavern,” Theos blinked. Those wings were larger at the very least. They were fucking clawed, he didn’t even see those things inside the cave.
“That’s not the best part,” Heras nudged him, eyes pointing towards a white rock at the side. “A holy stone.”
Theos breathed out as he took the alabaster white stone. It was smaller than he expected it to be, as it was the first time he ever saw it, the man held it in his palm, displaying it to the gathered people.
It did not look all that holy, but the Astral ceremony would not proceed without this tiny rock. Or so he heard.
“Theos!” Moswen laughed as he saw him. “I knew you would make it!”
“Barely,” he smiled weakly, nearly sliding off Heras’s shoulder into the ground. He had to readjust his grip to make him stand as close to straight as possible. “Had my suspicions about you surviving, too.”
“As you can see,” he spread his arms out, “in one piece, minus one lantern.”
He was holding the lantern Theos dropped, the shard was not inside. “At least I won’t have to pay for this,” he whispered to Heras, who laughed.
“We won't have to pay for anything ever again after finding this stone,” he grinned.
“Are you sure? Because I think we might pay for touching that stone if they could help it.”
Heras shrugged.
They continued to watch the tomb bat getting paraded around the outpost before going back to rest.
-
“That's about everything that has happened since,” Theos said, having told most of the story to the people surrounding them. He left out the parts with Akh-Ba, there being a giant shard crystal, and the underground river.
Aside from people digging where shades might live, he really didn’t think telling the people about a large shard, at an outpost that would send those people to find it just to encounter Akh-Ba was a good idea.
He looked at Moswen and Heras, pondering telling them.
He still felt like halfway to death, but it was getting better. Especially after he got some decent food in him. There were celebrations after the stone was brought out, they were even given a day off. Their squad got two, even.
“My story is similar until we got separated,” Moswen said, “I actually remained in my place, I saw the stone glow in the cave-in after the dust settled. Best day ever,” Moswen laughed as he drank some of those celebratory drinks.
People booed and began to break away, seeking more stories from others.
“So exciting,” Heras clicked his tongue at the lack of details in Moswen’s story. “You guys suck at telling your stories,” he added. “Okay, hear this out. The guys that went to the outpost managed to get rid of the ghoul masters, and the rest fled to the Black Dunes.”
“Woah,” Theos blinked. “That is actually impressive.”
“They managed to not lose anyone, too,” Heras nodded, “the whole burning ghouls thing we did left them without corpses to revive, so they were basically outnumbered and surrounded from the beginning. We should’ve gone to recapture that place ages ago.”
No wonder everyone was so festive, in the middle of the day even, Theos thought as he saw people all around, even the guards on duty, in excited and bright moods.
“We will be getting so many citars to eat tonight!” Na’heb cheered, and others joined. “A spit roast citar, soaked in herbs and spices!”
That reminded Theos of what Na’heb was talking to him about before he fell asleep. “Do you think I can ask to slaughter and butcher one of those?”
Moswen shrugged, “if you can do it, I don’t think anyone would mind you working.”
It would be the first full moon night, and they slaughtered animals far from the outpost to not attract the carrion. Maybe it would sate Akh-ba, and make that ominous last meeting go away.
“Why would you even want to do such a laborious task?” Heras picked at his teeth, trying to remove a piece of jerky that got stuck there. “Let the butchers suffer.”
“Kinda promised I’d do that if I survived,” he pointed. “On top of that mountain.”
“Ah, an oath,” Moswen raised his cup, “got suckered into that with the shade chasing you, huh?”
“Kinda,” Theos shrugged.
“You don’t want to ignore an oath,” Na’heb warned, “I once laughed one of my oaths off, I never managed to make money well ever since.”
“Are you sure that’s not you being bad at shooting?” Theos teased.
“Don’t laugh when you are bad at fighting,” Heras added cheerfully.
“He fought the bat quite well, actually,” Moswen said, and it made Theos’ chest swill with pride. “Until the bat decided to attack him instead of me, that is.”
“Do I need to remind you that I saved your life?” Theos felt offended at the implication of not being useful unless nothing was attacking him,
“I saved yours, actually,” Moswen said. “Beheading the creature before it lunged into your stomach.”
“And I stopped it from skewering you,” he retorted.
“I was fine,” Moswen smiled and downed the rest of his cup. “I’m gonna go get this refilled.”
“Wait for me,” Na’heb rose, “I need more food!”
“Greenline river pig,” Moswen grumbled as they walked away.
“Heras?” Theos asked the buzzed man, “What does Akh-ba Or Ka mean? ”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Huh, these sound like old speech,” he said.
“Old speech? Like from ancient civilizations?”
He nodded. “Ka might mean something like ‘vital’?” he swirled the liquid in his cup before taking another sip. “I don’t know much, you would need a scholar to give you the best meaning. Why are you asking?”
A scholar, huh? “I wondered if I should tell you guys because I certainly can’t tell anyone else in this outpost,” he began and didn’t finish.
“About how you actually survived,” Heras smiled. “What manner of horror did you meet?”
Theos blinked. “Why would you assume I didn’t survive on my own?”
“A while ago,” Heras ignored the question. “Not so far, but before we were born and before this place was an outpost for mining. This used to be one of the rotational citar grazing grounds to a tribe, the Renib. They used to worship some sort of a deity around these parts. A deity that granted favors,” he pointed a look at Theos. “You spoke of an oath, you survived a shade against impossible odds and no weapons to fend it off, and the ancient speech just now…”
“Amu, I hope no one else connected it like you did,” Theos hissed. “That thing brings back some primal fear in me when I sit down and actually think about what happened.”
Heras just sat there, watching him.
“It wasn’t evil, I think,” Theos continued. “A tad bit condescending, but the whole thing with making an offering made the warning horns go in my head.”
“Yeah, they should,” Heras replied. “But you don’t just ignore such entities, especially ones that had champions that were on the same level as Astrals.”
“How do you know all of this?” Theos frowned, looking at his increasingly morose-looking friend.
“I think I had too much to drink,” Heras deflected. He stood up and walked away, speaking as he moved. “When you go to slaughter that citar, I’m joining you.”
Theos frowned and watched him fade beyond the walls.
-
Night arrived, and with it the celebrations. The first of the full moons was casting its pale light on the bonfire-lit outpost. Not everyone was celebrating, as the threats still existed, but most of the people were in the festivities.
“You gut this bastard well,” Na’heb said as he patted the furry creature on its head. “You, my friend, are going to be delicious!”
“This is some form of torture to the poor animal,” Heras said.
Theos watched the creature shuffle in place with its large two legs, the reins keeping it from wandering away. Its large beady eyes watched Theos. “I think it knows what’s going to happen.”
“Of course it does,” Heras sighed. “This barrel of a person keeps telling it how delicious it is going to be, and how plump its legs are, how the ribs are-” the citar let out a sharp squeak, “yeah, you get the idea.”
“Don’t want to slaughter this one now,” Theos felt bad for the creature now that it was told its fate, multiple times. Until it began defecating on his boot. “I changed my mind, it deserves to die.”
“Go and finish this already,” Moswen said. “This flame will be blazing hot soon.”
“Yeah,” Theos pulled on the rein and the creature fought the pull, it took Heras pulling with him to even get it to move. The creature followed them as they led it towards the exit.
It was a quiet trip, aside from the noise of their surroundings. Theos and Heras exchanged few words throughout the day, and it wasn’t because Theos didn’t try. Heras seemed to be in a less than cheerful mode after their conversation earlier. He led his companions to the path that snaked to the rock slab.
“Keep your eyes out for ghouls,” Heras eventually said. “Don’t want to end up being the offering.”
“So now you are in the mood to banter?” Theos scoffed.
The citar joined the scoff with one of its own. It almost made Theos not want to slaughter it.
“That will depend on what happens later,” Heras responded after a moment.
“I still don’t understand why you are the one who is upset by this entire thing,” Theos said. “I am the one that had to meet that thing.”
Heras grunted but offered nothing else.
“Yeah,” Theos grumbled. It seemed peaceful for a full moon night, at least, hopefully trying the outpost instead of chasing them. The winding path ended where the ridge with the slab was. Surrounded by two sharp cliffs, lit by the moon. The ridge gave sight to the Black Dunes, a deep crater of darkness and little else.
Theos glanced towards the cave entrance and hoped the shade wasn’t going to come out.
Heras pulled the citar until the creature's long neck was placed above the slab, then held the reins tight, spinning them around his hands. “Be quick, a swift strike to the neck.”
Theos nodded and walked from behind the creature as Heras made it stare forward. The butcher’s blade he had went right into the neck, where he left it. He backed off before he joined Heras in keeping the creature in place while it thrashed. The citar swung its head around to try and break free, but they kept the reins tight. It eventually collapsed on the ground.
Theos huffed off as it moved to remove the blade. “May you find peace,” he said as he pulled it out.
“Theos,” Heras said, his tone filled with alarm. He looked up and saw the blood begin to move. It crawled on the slab, climbing in places where it was dripping to the ground before, and even flowing out of the citar’s wound, to gather at the center of the slab. There it began to slowly float into a sphere.
“We are pleased,” the voice – a gentle warm breeze – said.
“Khe for Khe, you said,” Theos shuddered as the creature manifested above the cave’s entrance, sitting on the jutting edge above. “Are we even, now?”
Akh-Ba was looking at him and then turned to see Heras. “It is a show of gratitude,” Akh-Ba’s voice rumbled like a sand dune being swept by the storm. “Not a repayment of a debt.”
The blood began to swirl into tendrils that began to twist and wind, before flowing under the slab, and into holes he did not notice before the sanguine liquid went into them.
“Yeah yeah,” Theos waved, turning to see a stunned Heras, wide-eyed and still. “You won’t come after me in my dreams or anything, right?”
Akh-ba remained in its spot, still watching Heras. “We are Akh-ba, we do not accept such vile acts.”
“Great Akh-ba,” Heras finally spoke. He quickly kneeled, head bowed. “I am Heras, son of Subin, son of the Renib.”
Theos recalled the name, he told him about it when they were talking about the tribe that used to use this place as a grazing ground.
“We are aware,” Akh-Ba dismissed.
“I have questions, great Akh-Ba,” he continued, not bothered at all by the casual dismissal of the thing. Theos’ eyes kept darting between the two. “What happened? Why do our foreign enemies stand victorious over the ashes of everyone else?”
Akh-Ba tilted its head, the black mask indicating nothing.
“Foreign enemies?” Theos asked Heras. “What is this all about?”
“Were you not helping us fight back?” Heras began to speak louder, more erratic. “Were you- they killed everyone, exiled us. What-”
Akh-Ba stared, extremely still.
“What happened in the last battle, why did we lose?” Heras said after he took a deep breath.
“Son of Renib, vessel of ancient blood,” Akh-Ba responded, features shifting before the sand flowed to the spot in front of Heras. “You are insolent. You dare ask us such after the betrayal of your kin?” Akh-ba spoke with a chill, much like the shade’s icy wounds. Its form broke and the sand flowed, it reshaped itself in front of Heras, the walking staff pointing to his face.
“I-” Heras stared, wide-eyed, like he had been slapped. “I don’t know anything about-”
“Akh-Ba did not lose against the Usurper,” it stood tall as it spoke, at least twice as tall as Heras, head facing east. Theos followed the gaze and found nothing but the horizon. “Usurper leading traitors,” It leaned in and put what would be its face in front of Heras. “Fighting traitors.”
Heras looked more angry than shocked now but did not refute the accusation. “Who was it that betrayed our people?”
“We are a benevolent Akh-Ba,” it raised its arms in demonstration. “And thus, we impart knowledge.”
Theos gulped as he could feel the fury, almost physical, as the sands swirled around the location.
“We became Ka to the Renib. Spill favors upon them, like grains of sand in the desert. They lived by our decree. A life of traveling the sands and fighting its dangers. A life that made them worthy vessels! Then they call on our name, and we give,” Akh-Ba vanished and stood at the ride. “The Usurper arrived, the Harbinger of Water. It vowed an easier life for you and yours.
“Their traitorous, feeble minds told them to betray Akh-Ba! the Usurper and her traitors imprison our essence! But we are Akh-Ba, fetters break before our will!
“We Are!”
Heras fell back, unconsciously going to Theos’ side.
“We are a benevolent Akh-Ba,” it said, softer now that the raging sands rested, “you wish to undo the misdeeds of your ancestors? Offer the price, Akh-Ba does not choose the unworthy,”
The creature was suddenly in front of their faces, “Be a worthy vessel,” it hissed before it vanished into a stream of sand.
They stood there, as still as the dead, watching the altar as the grains vanished beneath the earth.
-
“It was my tribe,” Heras said, “that used to rule over the Great Desert. Not rule as kings, but as a leading tribe.”
“Flip it over,” Theos said. They heaved the body before he continued cutting out the larger pieces into more manageable ones. “And Akh-Ba was… what? Your god?”
“A deity of the sort, I guess,” Heras pulled the arm so Theos could slide the blade into the joint. “It never said it was a god, and the old speech doesn’t use the word for god, as far as I know.”
Theos grit his teeth as he sawed through the joint, thinking about how this was terribly laborious work for how simple it looked. “I don’t even understand half of the things it says in our tongue. You betrayed it?”
Heras closed his eyes. “My tribe was destroyed in the war with Shinar, my father died fighting the Astral, not the one that passed away, nor the one before. But the original one. If we were betrayed by our own people, no doubt great Akh-Ba saw it as the entire tribe’s betrayal.”
“That’s rough,” Theos said absentmindedly. Not that this wasn’t an interesting topic, but he was focused on the task between his hands. “So what now? Do you want revenge?”
“I don’t think revenge is possible, as we are right now,” He chuckled. “Fight Shinar? Fight its army, Its Astral?”
“Never met an Astral,” Theos shook his arms, trying to get some relief from the tension.
“They are like these chosen champions of deities, using their powers to enforce their will,” he said. “No one knows I am part of the Renib, and if they did I would probably be executed as a traitor. Or presented as an offering for the Star Temple.
“I don’t know what to do,” he muttered.
“I don’t know much about all of this revenge, heritage, and traitors to gods talk that we found ourselves in,” Theos continued to remove the last of the pieces around the large leg. “But, were you not living well, before all of this came up?”
Heras raised his head, their eyes meeting.
“It’s not terrible,” he conceded.
“Better than what you think your fate down that road is, at least,” Theos laughed. “You were not a part of whatever that happened before, it shouldn’t be something that consumes you, is what I think.”
Heras hummed, gathering the cuts into large sacks, so they would carry them down. “I suppose you do say some decent things, every now and again.”
“And if you decide to continue down that path!” Theos raised the blade, its point towards Heras.
“You will offer me your help?”
“You don’t mention my name, I don’t want to get involved in all of this,” Theos narrowed his eyes, “I am an orphan with no citar in this race.”
That got a laugh out of Heras. “Let’s head down, I bet Na’heb is dying of hunger right about now.”
“Let him, he needs to suffer hunger every now and then,” Theos waved. “We will tell him the ghouls were everywhere or something.”
They gathered the pieces and leisurely made their way back to the camp