“A Dire Beast Monarch?”

Otlaca almost choked on his wine. A little bit of it went down the wrong hole but his fine muscular control managed to bring it back up before his reflexes caused him to gag.

“A Stone Auroch King,” Rhox wearily replied.

They were in the conference tent, and aside from her, Dragon Leader Usaza was also in attendance. The white-scaled woman blinked lazily from across the table though.

“I see. A pity,” Otlaca grunted. He would have vastly preferred a serpentine monarch, but alas, aside from the twin-headed snake, there had been a lack of reptilian devilbeasts. Perhaps those went through Vizugmon’s tunnels. “But it should still prove useful.”

“Elder Yuriko has possession of it, though I convinced her to turn it in.” Rhox sighed. “In truth, she wasn’t that recalcitrant about it. Many of my warriors perished in that battle.”

“What of the cats?”

“One died. The full-blooded Kutin.”

“Pity.” Otlaca hummed. “A monarch, regardless of species, is worth at least ten thousand Denari. Make sure the treasurer pays Elder Yuriko in gold leaves and not letters of credit.”

“A fifth?”

“Give her half. She was mostly responsible for its defeat. Standard shares to the rest, and half shares to the cats.”

“Understood. Do you want to pay the cats in hard coin or a letter of credit?”

“I doubt they’d accept credit,” Usaza whimpered.

“Perhaps not but they have little choice,” Rhox said in a hard tone.

“Pay them in gold leaves,” Otlaca decided. “No need to antagonise them; that half-breed has close ties with the Elder.”

“Ah, speaking of the Elder,” Usaza murmured, “did you know that she’s only in her teens?”

Otlaca frowned. “Humans grow that fast?”

Ahas, L’tik, and Buwak clanners grew to maturity in their first decade but slowed ageing until their late fifties. Then they lived for another decade or so before dying of old age. But that was only if they didn’t advance their Geist.

Usaza shrugged. “I’m not sure. She often keeps to herself. But I overheard the cats talking about it and they seemed impressed.”

“Does that matter?” Rhox asked, bewildered.

“Perhaps, or perhaps not,” Otlaca said. “Now, let’s go back to what we were speaking of before Usaza interrupted.”

“Ehehe.”

The white snakekin stuck her tongue out while chuckling sheepishly.

____

“Elder Yuriko, we will begin ascending to the surface tomorrow,” a worn and weary Rhox said as soon as Yuriko answered the knock on her tent frame.

She still felt slightly guilty for assuming Rhox had been male. If she had actually taken the time to observe the other snakekin’s features, she would have known that Rhox’s snout and jaw were narrower than the squarish features of the menfolk. Oh, well. At least she didn’t give offence. As far as she knew anyway.

“Thank you, Rhox,” she nodded. “You look tired, why not rest?”

“Ah, no thank you, I’ve still got the death golds to arrange.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be,” Rhox shook her head. “Without you, we likely would have all perished. Good eve, Elder Yuriko.”

Yuriko nodded as the snakekin left then latched the tent flap closed.

She returned to her meditations. After so long…she sighed. Well, it had only been a few weeks since she arrived underground but it seemed far longer. It didn’t help that she still didn’t know what the actual date was. She had been fairly certain before she entered the spire but after walking into the Tidelands she could no longer tell.

Anda and Dai mentioned that they’ve been imprisoned for weeks and Masa said that she didn’t know how long she had been in the darkness. They did mention that they had started the delve in the middle of the Season of Earth. Was it already the Season of Fire? She didn’t see the Full Moon in the Tidelands so she shouldn’t have been inside for more than the four weeks it took for a complete Moon Cycle. The problem was that the spire broke a lot of rules that she’d been taught regarding Tidelands.

First, it didn’t lead to the Chaos Sea, so maybe it shouldn’t be called a Tideland at all. Second, there were no Wyldlings or other Chaos dwellers, and third, Yuriko had the sneaking suspicion that the Obsidian Shard had complete control of it. The entire spire, or Labyrinth as the locals called it, and probably the Kogasi plane, too. For all she knew, the Shard had something to do with the Bella plane above.

She’d thought long and hard about the presence of so many Chaos-twisted here. Not the devilbeasts, but the animalkin. Humans had spread across the planes and were the most numerous. Every other sapient being was an offshoot of humanity and they became offshoots simply because the Chaos changed them. From the way Otlaca and Masa spoke, they were complete civilisations that had bred true. And they could have children with humans as evidenced by Masa herself.

The twisted and changed were always to be viewed with pity. That’s what her family and prep school had taught her. Unless they were hostile. Much like the northern barbarians. Well, she supposed the fact that they were breeding true indicated that they were no longer changed or twisted, but viable species of human now.

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“Oh, I want to bathe in the Radiant Sun’s light...”

Well, tomorrow they would leave and the sooner she rested, the sooner tomorrow would come! So, she set her alarm stones around her beddings and convinced herself to sleep. She still didn’t dare activate her Facet now. She was not truly safe.

She twisted and turned in bed for a couple of hours before she finally fell asleep, and it only seemed to have been a few minutes before she was awakened by an insistent knock.

“What is it?” she yawned.

“Elder, Fang Leader Rhox asked me to inform you that breakfast is ready and the caravan will leave in an hour.”

“Alright, thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

Yuriko rolled to her feet with a muted groan. Her eyes felt grainy and there was a sour taste in her mouth. She went through her morning ablutions, mainly washing her face and cleaning her teeth, inside the tent, before she got dressed. How long has it been since she’d last gone on morning training? She missed the routine.

Breakfast was a porridge of rice with slivers of mystery meat. There were some bits of green in her bowl but she didn’t know what spices were added. The bowl came with a wooden spoon.

“So they do use these!” Yuriko laughed. She’d briefly wondered if they were expecting her to eat porridge with chopsticks.

The taste was quite bland but it was hot and filling. She returned the dirty bowl and spoon to the bussing area and returned to her tent. She gathered the things she’d left behind, mainly old clothes and a few canisters, put on her backpack and left the tent for the last time.

The caravan gathered near the portcullis and when she arrived, she saw the catkin warily eyeing the Lucentians and some of the Reviled. Both of the human men’s gazes riveted to her, but when she met their eyes with a cold stare, they reddened and moved away.

She found Rhox near the head of the group. Though it was called a caravan, they were merely a collection of individuals carrying heavy backpacks. The snake-kin woman looked like she hadn’t slept a wink.

“Rhox, are you alright?” she greeted.

“I’m fine, thank you,” the snakekin replied automatically. “Ah, Elder Yuriko,” Rhox greeted once she got a proper look. “Oh, we’ll leave as soon as the commander arrives.”

The caravan consisted of nearly a hundred Lucentians and Griefordians, though Yuriko could only tell them apart from their dress. There were no Griefordians present who were not reptilian or human.

“Ah, we’re all here.”

Yuriko heard Otlaca’s voice coming from behind. A white snakekin, the only one of that colour throughout the camp, as far as Yuriko knew, walked just a step behind the elder. Usaza greeted her with a nod which Yuriko returned. As for Otlaca, he carried a heavy pack on his back, too.

“You’re coming along?” Yuriko asked with some surprise.

“Of course.” He gave a toothy grin.

“But who will protect the camp from the Dire Beasts?”

“My warriors can do so,” Otlaca said breezily. “Besides, the Tide is over. The aggression that drives the devilbeasts subsides afterwards. They won’t attack a fortified location so easily.”

“If you say so.”

“Yes. Heh.” Otlaca cleared his throat. “Let us proceed.”

In short order, they left the camp. They fell into a double-column formation, with Otlaca at the head. Yuriko walked beside him while the rest of the caravan trailed behind. Rhox was just behind that, and of course, there were scouts ahead of them. Not too far though--just a hundred paces away.

“So, Elder Yuriko, care for a tale to while away the long hours of this march?” Otlaca asked.

Jolted out of her reverie, Yuriko grunted, “If you wish.”

“Hahaha, of course. This is the first time you’ve come into our lands and I would be remiss if I didn’t show you a glimpse of our culture. I’m afraid that current circumstances do not give the best showing.” Otlaca huffed. “The plane of Bella, and originally, the Principality of Kettu, had been a pleasant and welcoming place.”

“Kettu?” Yuriko asked, though mostly because Otlaca seemed to want to draw her into the conversation more than anything else. History, and interest in the past, had never been her strengths.

“Kettu the Great, leader of all the People. Finest of the Ahas clan,” Otlaca said proudly. “He ruled benevolently throughout the land and the People knew peace and prosperity. Mind you, this was before the devilbeasts came out of the ground and menaced the populace! Ah, but what did he do to merit rulership? Well, he brought us out of oppression from a distant plane and settled us here.

“Alas, there was no shortage of trials and tribulations. Kettu the Great ruled wisely, but he had been too remiss. Disaster struck not by his hand, or his rule, but when the time came to pass things on. His son Yrrza was to be the next ruler, but the Yrrza’s so-called friend, Usami, who hailed from the Iona Clan, contested the rule. Usami waited until Kettu the Great was on his deathbed before he conspired to have Yrrza assassinated. He failed but it fractured the nation, leading to what we have now. Three city-states fighting for control.”

Otlaca snorted derisively.

“Vizugmon City, founded by Usami’s scion, Vizugmon, managed to take control of all the Labyrinth entrances. The Ivory that we need to strengthen ourselves comes from the Labyrinth, and now they lord it over the rest of us. It’s only now that we fight back.”

“Oh,” Yuriko said neutrally. Otlaca lapsed into silence and they continued to walk through dozens, if not hundreds, of tunnels and caverns. They encountered the occasional devilbeast, but no Dire Beasts at all.

The tunnels were all a slope, heading steadily upwards, and after a couple of days, the nature of the tunnels changed from naturally carved rock to mining tunnels.

“You must have done a lot of work to do this.”

Yuriko gestured at the crystal light panels, the wooden support beams, and the even cobblestones.

“No, not at all,” Otlaca laughed. “This is how the Labyrinth always looks like when it's close to the surface. We’ve less than a day’s march away.”

“You mean when you discovered the entrance, the tunnels looked like this?”

“Yes,” he answered, “but we didn’t discover the entrance so much as it formed naturally. Like this.”

If she had any doubts that some kind of intelligence controlled the Labyrinth, then Otlaca’s words removed them. Though it wasn’t as if she was that concerned. She was thankful that this ordeal was almost over and that she was one step closer to getting back home. Still…

“Otlaca lies,” Anda told her one evening while they were at camp. “Kettu the Great wasn’t snakekin, he was Tigris. Yrrna and Usami were his sons.”

“Doesn’t that make what happened even worse?”

“Lucenti was the children’s friend. And he tricked them to turn on each other. Yrrza and Usami were set to rule as co-princes.”

“If you say so,” Yuriko said dubiously.

“They will betray you, one way or another. Make no mistake.”

“Look,” Yuriko sighed. “I honestly don’t wish to meddle or even be involved in the struggles of your two peoples. All I want is to go home.”

Anda gave him a lidded look.

“No matter what you believe, Elder Yuriko, you have enough raw power to affect the political climate of Bella.”

He left her to mull over his words afterwards, but honestly, she just wanted to go home. Nothing more, and nothing less.

It actually took more than a day before they finally arrived at the entrance. Someone tripped over their own feet and broke an ankle. But it was only a few hours after they broke camp that Yuriko saw the light from the Radiant Sun from an enormous cave mouth.

She could help but run ahead, quickly outstripping the others in her rush. The brilliant light nearly blinded her, but it was of no matter. The Sun! She was finally out of that hole in the ground!

Whist!

She slapped a crossbow bolt before it hit her. Unintelligible words shouted, and she realised that in front of her was a fortress and it was filled with hundreds of crossbowmen. She only had time to note the chill in the air before the arrows blotted out the sun.