***
The trio stood silently for a long while before Dhanur broke it.
“What the Dark? What in the Light lost Darkness what?” She raked her fingers through her hair roughly and could meet neither Janurana nor Brachen’s eyes.
“We need to leave. If the others were no tell,” Brachen piped up, his voice sounding small.
But Dhanur didn’t move. Her mind swirled trying to comprehend what happened. It was too much of a wonderful coincidence, exactly what she wanted to hear.
‘But from a man—a thing like that…’ she thought.
‘Get away from him!’ her inner voice screamed.
Brachen shook Dhanur. “Zirisa!”
Dhanur smacked her head, unable to think straight.
Then, the innkeeper, burst from their room shaky and ashy instead of curt and angry. He dropped Brachen’s robe in front of them before backing away.
“Get out of here! I knew I shouldn't have let you all in here.” He held up his shaking hands. “Go join your other brothers and sisters in the south or find Muqtablu or whatever!”
“Who?” Dhanur finally blinked, she didn’t understand what he said, except for the name.
The innkeeper knew enough Daksinian to know what she said. “Muqtablu traveled through here years ago! After the war ended! Please, don’t strike a brother, sister. I thought since you knew these southerners you’d know her!”
“We need to go. Now, I think.” Janurana stepped forward.
“We were well on our way. Pay the man,” Brachen said. Dhanur looked dour and her jaw twitched from left to right. “Thank you so much for your kindness. I hope this will dull the fear we’ve brought to your inn,” he said and reached into Dhanur’s purse.
But she growled and spun around. “Light leave it, of course! Running out!”
Brachen was able to drop a tiny handful of cowries to scatter at the innkeeper’s feet and stormed out, leaving his robe on the ground. Brachen left it aside, rushing to tend to his daughter, so Janurana scooped it up. As she did, she bowed quickly at the innkeeper in as best a southern style as she could with a robe under her arm.
“Please, have a good day. I’m so sorry for our disturbance. Thank you again,” she said.
The bright white of the mid-morning sun was beating down on the empty main road of Vatram. Dhanur stuck her head out of the inn’s door and saw no one walking to the market further down or any patrols rush at them to see what had caused the commotion. She could see the market milling about as usual further down the main way, but in the opposite direction, she saw the gate was flooded with troops, although she could not hear it.
The aura of Deiweb’s presence had created a physical and invisible shield that no one was able to pass, not unlike the wall surrounding Brachen’s temple on the spirit plane. It extended in a circle around the inn, visible only to the spirits on their plane, blocking the main way and a few of the closest side streets. The main force from Vatram’s gate had descended to inspect it while others on the rest of the wall looked on curiously. The warriors tried to control the citizens fleeing the commotion, passing out of the barrier without issue but unable to enter themselves. They ushered people from the area and kept back any onlookers while the spirits investigated. Some spirits slipped to and from the spirit plane, but had no luck penetrating it there either. Rather than an invisible wall, to the spirits it was both as bright as a bonfire, but as confusingly dark as an omnipresent miasma of black smoke. The spirits that looked like a normal Human tried to hack away at it with their weapons and animal headed Clan Spirits couldn’t break through with their claws or horns either. Unlike Janelsa with the temple barrier, Deiweb’s didn’t bow inward at all and stayed resolute. One Clan Rat spirit leapt up but had no luck getting through the top as Clan Macaque spirit Kunya did trying to dig underneath.
Dhanur, Brachen, and Janurana were able to slip into the inn’s stable unnoticed. As part of the inn, Janurana didn’t need permission to enter it.
Dekha had ripped himself from his hitch again and was cowering in the corner of his stocks, eyes locked on the midway point between the inn’s entrance and stables. A few northerners had the courage to take their bulls before fleeing, but most were still rearing and bleating in residual fear as Dhanur warily approached him. Dekha was about to charge at her, but he caught her scent and instantly calmed.
“Whoa, boy.” She knelt down, trying to look into his eyes. “What’s wrong? Was it—Oh. He was at the temple. He sent you back to me, huh?” Dhanur resisted the powerful urge to pet and comfort him. “I’m so sorry, Dekha. It’s okay. You’re okay…”
Brachen approached and asked, “Can you put him away? Like how he did himself at the temple? I know it will hurt but I doubt he’d make us any new friends, or will keep us—”
“Yeah, Abba. I understand.”
“I believe it would be best to wait.” Janurana interjected as she put Brachen’s robe into his bags and snatched up her parasol.
“What? Why?” Dhanur scoffed.
“Well, if we are to go north then we would need more supplies. We should keep him ready to carry what we buy. We can bring them here, store them, store him, and then pull him out again, saving us the load and keeping him from drawing more attention to us.” Janurana fiddled with her parasol.
Dhanur furrowed her brow. She knelt down to gaze into his eyes again. Despite calming down, Dekha still shuttered, unblinking. “It’s a good idea, but he’s freaking out.”
“Janurana’s got a point, actually. I agree. He must—” Brachen was cut off when Dekha snorted and stamped his hoofs. He hopped forward and back, chuffing and huffing.
Dhanur jumped back into a pile of hay and whipped a strand from her face. She yanked her bow and an extra reserve arrow from Dekha’s bags, masterfully dodging his continued chuffing, and braced herself against the stable door. Peeking outside, she saw a party of warriors led by Clan Spirit Kunya baring down on them.
The barrier had faded away as suddenly as it had come. Kunya ordered the amalgam of Clan Leopard, Rat, Tree, Fish, and Macaque to fan out and surround the inn and shoo away any other brave northerners who had come out to see the commotion.
Dhanur’s leather groaned against the arrow, her eyes narrowed, and two warriors were moving in with spears lowered to investigate Dekha’s braying. Kunya was leading them after catching the southern scent leaking from the stable.
“Great spirit!” Brachen slipped past his daughter and through the doors to bow fully in the northern style.
“You again!” Kunya yelled. The warriors pointed their spears at Brachen and Dhanur refused to let that go unanswered. She came out behind her father with her arrow drawn. “What was that??” The Clan Spirit addressed Dhanur.
She scoffed like he should know she couldn’t understand him.
“Listen, sister,” Kunya began. He charged forward, unimpressed, and threw a finger in Dhanur’s implacable expression. The warriors behind him stepped forward.
“Dhanur! Tell Dekha to calm down!” Janurana screamed from inside the stable, struggling to keep him in place. Even with her gwomoni strength she barely held onto his rope. He switched between charging to protect his master and charging up his light and skittering back in case the danger was the same that sent him scurrying back to Dhanur before.
“Dekha! Shush! I can handle this!” Dhanur commanded, turning her head but keeping her eyes on Kunya. Reluctantly, Dekha toned down his reactions to dragging his hoof and snorting.
Brachen stepped between them all and his daughter. “Please, great spirit. We do not know. There was something strong. It came and it left,” he said
“We all felt whatever happened at your temple! Now you show up and this happens! What are you—” Kunya’s nose twitched as he caught Deiweb’s lingering scent. His eyes flashed wide and he bolted into the inn without a word. His warrior comrades looked at each other confused, then ran after him.
Dhanur slowly loosened her draw and scanned the other baffled warriors who kept their perimeter but didn’t move. “You okay, Abba?”
“I am, no thanks to your provocations.” Brachen centered himself.
Dhanur shot him a scowl, but took it away just as quickly. With a sigh, she trudged back into the stable. Dekha instantly stopped straining against his restraints and resumed his neutral pose.
“Hey, buddy.” Dhanur knelt in front of him, looking into his eyes in lieu of stroking his snout.
Janurana was blowing on her hands and trying to cool the rope burn. “I suggest we make a hasty retreat.”
Dhanur watched her hands quickly lose their red tinge and ran her gaze down to the deep grooves in the beaten stable floor, then back along Janurana’s distinctly non-muscular shape, and shook her head.
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“Then he’s coming with us.” Dhanur put her bow and arrow back.
“Dhanur.” Brachen came up behind her.
“What?” She whipped around.
“I understand you wish to calm him.” Her father crossed his arms. “He is serving us no favors by getting so upset. But I think he must get used to being alone with you marching around a northern city. He was the same when we met a spirit on our way from the temple that simply spoke to us. If we are to spend any time above the jungle, we cannot have him stomping like this at all times, making us seem more out of place and making us think something is behind every bush.”
“He—”
Inside the inn, Kunya was tearing up the floorboards searching for the source of the scent and one flew into the stable from a window. Dhanur shoved her father aside.
She struggled through putting Dekha away with the burst of adrenaline from her confrontation wearing off. The process was quicker than normal, half because Dhanur pushed aside her residual pain from the temple and half because Dekha seemed more than happy to hide away in her head. Then she curtly spun around, walked right past both of them, and to the stable door.
A large chunk of the warriors and spirits had gone into the inn as well, thinking there was a fight and breaking their perimeter. Kunya inspected every single inch of the inn, sniffing wildly at the burning scent he couldn’t quite place but then screamed at his warriors for leaving their positions when he was only looking around. Dhanur noticed the gap in the guards and motioned for her companions to follow quickly.
“We’ll put him in another stable,” Dhanur spat out as she turned down the first side road.
Brachen and Janurana kept silent, allowing Dhanur the time she needed to calm down and think. Most northerners had begun piling out and taking side roads down to the market to avoid the commotion at the front gate. Some chatted about a possible Boar Clan attack, but since there were no arrows or slings being loosed from the walls, most assumed it was a bigger than average scuffle between clans and their spirits. A few passed by Dhanur and gave her a wave, only to retract it after seeing her companions. Janurana kept her head low and stuck to the shadows, not wanting to unfurl her parasol and attract more stares. It wasn’t long until they reached another inn. The side road it was on was larger than most and ran right to the wall. Dhanur poked her head inside, saw no one, then did the same for the stable. Only two bulls stood lazily in their stocks.
“Fine. Here.” Dhanur pushed inside.
“Wait.” Brachen grabbed his daughter’s shoulder.
She rolled her eyes and took his healing light with a child’s pout. “Abbaji, I’m fine.”
“It’s only a touch up.” He ran his hand along her previously crushed bones and her shoulder. “I’m not blind yet. I saw you wince when you put him away.”
“His name is Dekha.”
“A sweet name.”
“We’re really going north then?” Dhanur’s expression fell. Before Brachen could answer, she summoned Dekha and brought him to the back corner again. She knelt to look into his still eyes. “Okay, buddy. This is gonna be weird but you need to be strong. I get you don’t understand spirits or whatever it is. Still, I gotta leave you here. You’re gonna see a lot of them soon and you need to get used to it. Don’t worry about me, okay? Just stay here, don’t move. None of them are gonna hurt you or me. If they are, pop into my head, okay? You can do that.”
Dekha stared into her eyes silently, as he usually did. She patted his head, brushed off the flakes, then unstrung her bow, pulled her scale tunic out again, and retied her leather.
“Perhaps you should leave your scales,” he said.
“I’m not gonna be defenseless if they start a fight. They’d know my bow too.”
“And your hair,” Brachen crossed his arms.
Dhanur sighed. “I’m not gonna let them notice you. I can take them. It’s fine.”
“Clan Spirit Kunya sounded like he was blaming us for what happened. I think it would be best if we kept as low a profile as we can.”
“More reason to be able to defend myself.”
Brachen wiggled his obvious mustache poking out from her hood and said “I suppose Pavar did say you should be fine.”
“We’ll be back for them,” Janurana said, slotting her parasol into its comfy and safe new home in Dekha’s bags besides Brachen’s robe and Dhanur’s bow.
Dhanur knelt back down to stare into Dekha’s eyes and Brachen coaxed his daughter up, rubbing her scales. As she took a step out, Dekha moved one inch forward.
“No, Dekha. Wait.” She held up her hand. “You’ll be okay.”
He didn’t follow her out of the stable, but she still felt him staring back at her, and she started down the road towards the back of the city.
“Dhanur. Zirisa, thank you,” he said. “I understand that was difficult. However, we must also talk about how you treated that spirit. If we are to make our way north and find this Muqtablu, must you relearn the customs? I taught you better than to be so disrespectful, especially to a northern spirit and a Clan Spirit at that.”
Dhanur fisted her hands.
“I understand you fought them during the recent war, but that is no excuse to treat them so rudely within their own city.” When she was still silent, Brachen sighed. “Don’t pretend you weren't affected by whatever that was at the inn, Dhanur. I couldn’t get your attention but that name could? I remember you speaking of her at the temple, but only that she wronged you,” Brachen said as Dhanur turned randomly and they strode aimlessly between the jungle wood homes. They spoke in hushed Daksinian, despite the streets being mostly empty.
“Why do you care so much?? Some… Thing shows up ‘n this is the biggest deal?! Where to put a bull and who some random woman is?”
“We have spent time moving Dekha, yes, this is less of an issue than that?” Brachen cocked his brow. “We woke up aimless, adrift on a night road like a carted bull without a whip, and when things were coming apart, something illuminated the way. It couldn’t have been the Light, but that has to mean something.”
Janurana stayed quiet, leaning down to have her hair act as her parasol while sticking to the shadows. Dhanur fisted and unfisted her hand, then pressed it into her forehead.
“And you just believe him? He said he came from the gwomoni!” She looked into the house’s window, but its occupants had already left for the market.
“Watch your tone with me, Virala Zirisa. I also heard him at the temple, more than you. I saw him ignore my Light and brush off the spirit who crushed you so I am more than well aware of his power. I may have been weary and focused on you, but I heard him argue with Janurana’s mother. He’s no friend of our enemy, at least.”
Dhanur continued to dig her hand into her head.
“Even if he is lying completely, what better chance do we have of finding someone to banish a spirit and help in your quest to complete the mission you failed than to go north?” Brachen asked. “I doubt the army you fought would be more willing to help us than someone who used to be your comrade. The best lead we have is Muqtablu. Now who is she?”
“Go back to the temple, Abba.”
“What are you saying?” Brachen pushed in front of her, wiggling his mustache pointedly. Dhanur couldn’t help but smile.
“Aren’t ya too old for this?” Dhanur chuckled lightly even though she didn’t mean to.
Janurana silently giggled at Dhanur’s accusation.
“Oh, am I? Perhaps I’d rather spend my last days with my daughter than wait another twelve years for her to say hello again.”
“But your dis—”
“The children will be fine. They’re not so young. It’s high time they start taking over as it is. Once this is done I’ll return and see how they’ve been. I let you leave, didn’t I? Now I’d like to help you and this young lady.”
Dhanur sighed at Janurana’s mention. “Of course, get somethin’ good, then somethin’ bad! Ugh. I really don’t wanna talk about it,” she forced out.
“You will talk about it.” He stopped in front of her.
She pushed her forehead into both hands. Even during the war, days weren’t as eventful for Dhanur as they had been since meeting Janurana. She’d taken on a new task, seen her once vibrant Maharaj still reduced to a simpleton, reawakened the gwomoni’s wrath, had a hand in destroying the Temple she’d once called home, and finally was given information on how to turn it all around by an angry spirit, if he was even a spirit at all, and was suddenly asked to relive her time with Muqtablu more than the passing mentions she’d given before.
Dhanur breathed heavily, leaning back against a home painted with the red gills around the door of Clan Fish. The wood was immaculately polished and shaved so not a single splinter dug into her. As the shade of its canopy shielded her, multiple thoughts barraged Dhanur in the span of a second.
“Sh—” Dhanur bit her lip and threw her head and hair back, releasing a sobering breath. She closed her eyes. “Sheeee left us. I f-fought with. Her. In. The. Beginning. The war. In the war. Before…” Her words were punctuated by a pound to her thigh. “I trusted her, we did, and it’s her fault Aarushi is… gone.” She forced the last words through her clenched, wobbly jaw, looking away from her companions. Janurana frowned empathetically, but couldn’t leave the shade of a neighboring house. Brachen placed a hand on Dhanur’s shoulder to comfort her. His fractured bone had begun to heal and his hand was less swollen in the sun. Dhanur released another sigh, her shoulders sagging.
The words came easier once she'd started.
“Like I said, we fought in the war. She was getting just as much glory as me and everyone called us the best. She was good, really good. Tried to fight them one on one like the northerners like, but kept winning. But their magic and the spirits, they kept tripping her up and she didn’t do well when she was on the backfoot. But that didn’t happen often. Still, Aarushi picked us to help take down the gwomoni. We trained, tried to get Muqtablu used to the magic, then brought us into the Keep, ready to pick them all off late at night, right before dawn. The gwomoni be going to sleep and the guards would be right at the end of their shift, best chance to get it done, everyone as tired as they’d get. When we finally got to the day where we’d kill them all, it didn’t work. We covered our weapons in garlic, Aarushi read all foreign magic records and practiced all the foreign magic she could, everything. But, I dunno. We should have known Upavid would know most stuff. A Light lost spy master, obviously. We tried to take her out first but she knew more magic than we thought and she didn’t go down easy. We needed to do it quiet and quick but we all had to work together and Aarushi learned the magic but didn’t have anything to practice countering it. She got hurt bad. Real bad. The other guards all got up, Commander Gehsek led them and… We tried to get out through the catacombs under the Keep, there’s a way through for the nobles in case the Keep is over run. It’s like home. That’s part of why Aarushi wanted me since she knew I knew how to get through caves like that but… but Aarushi was hurt and… and Muqtablu broke, she gave up, she said it was over! She was always gaining glory at the front of the battle but I don’t think she’d fought so much as an imp before the war the way she got scared. Only fighting people. And when things didn’t go her way, when she couldn’t win, she ran. She barely made it through Upavid. Muqtablu said to leave Aarushi when we tried to escape through the Keep’s catacombs since Gehsek was breaking down the door and she’d slow us down so we should save ourselves because we failed our best chance and we should give up and she ran before we could catch up and—We all could have made it out if she helped me and we could have tried again like now! Yeah, it would have been harder but she gave up! We weren’t dead, we could have tried again! Now with all this happening and—” Dhanur was about to burst into tears again until Brachen slid his hand over her shoulder, giving it a gentle pinch that plugged up her emotions before rubbing it again.
“Listen, Dhanur.” He stared into her.
“What? Can we go?”
“You did well. I’ve visited many temples on my pilgrimage when I was younger and I’ve met few who’ve led such an eventful life.” He hugged her, his smaller frame disappearing into her.
“Thank you for pursuing her.” Janurana interjected softly.
“It’s not for you. For the plateau, what those monsters did to it.” She lifted her head from Brachen’s embrace and he patted her hair with a hesitant hand.
“I suppose we won’t do any fighting in this side street. Let’s prepare for this journey, shall we?” Brachen said.
“Of course,” Janurana mumbled in reply despite Dhanur’s rejection. She took a deep breath and smiled. “Of course not. Let’s provide these northerners some patronage. We can do some good while we’re here!”
“Yeah.” Dhanur panned over the displaced people in her mind. “So, supplies. A new ax for you. It’s not like that was one of a kind or anything.”
Janurana wrung her hands.