My father, the last king of Ispartika, is dead. He died and left a monster in his place the very moment our empire had fallen. But this time it is real. He is truly dead and now I am party to regicide and patricide, and perhaps cyanide. Not out of anger, no. I certainly had enough. No, for my mother dearest, a strong woman made brittle. The poor queen that could not convince her king to bend the knee. The poor queen that watched my three brothers die to kraken poison. The poor queen who then slayed those monsters, but now, could not slay her own. Am I some villainous traitor for cavorting with poison, or am I too, a tragic monsterslayer?
The system knows.
Will there be any consequences?
Either way, my tears seem to have run dry.
– Susie Q, Journal of Grievances
Chapter 26 – Blood Begets Blood
As Toki descended deeper into the darkness, the din of distant howls echoed off the walls like a sinister welcome. With each step into the bowels of the earth, the tension in the air grew thicker, charged with a feeling of danger that ran deep into Toki's bones. The passageway stretched wide before her, as if carved by the hands of giants. This was Dutch Eternal’s entrance.
Toki's hand brushed against her bag and retrieved a manafruit. Choosing to ignore that it was grown by Partridge, she bit into the fruit. Its flesh burst with flavor, flooding her senses and hiding the overwhelming whiff of carrion behind her. The tangy sweetness on her taste buds cleansed her palate.
Toki did not have to walk far before she saw light filtering in from ahead. Her gaze narrowed in anticipation. Shadows coalesced to the sides of the lantern and [Lessons] solidified into wickedly curved claws. She did not know what her purpose here was, only that it was the way to secure safety for Edgar. If she could silently steal the dragon core, it would be best. However, there was no way to know for certain without scouting out the situation first.
With each step, the howling grew more fervent, almost ritualistic in its cadence.
As she turned a corner, the tunnel gave way abruptly, spilling her into a majestic expanse. The amphitheater was hewn from the very guts of the world, grandeur matching the wide passages behind her. Deep cracks in Aris, above, served as skylights, fracturing the dark cavern with spears of light. They struck the surface of subterranean pools below casting a shimmer and reflection onto the amphitheater walls.
She peaked in to observe the edges. There were more caves lining the edges of the amphitheater. A hotel of sorts? Staging? Storage?
An otherworldly silence enveloped her for a heartbeat before the whispers of the audience resumed their jumbled howls. Encircling the center, a multitude of monkeys perched with an uncharacteristic stillness.
They had noticed. Toki’s previous entrance had interrupted their humdrum affairs. At least as much humdrum is acceptable for stage-one mutant howler monkeys. She could see one monkey picking insects off another’s back. Some sat in the water. And others lounged in the streams of sunlight.
Their eyes, though. All their eyes, orbs of black, fixed upon Toki with intensity. Gleams of curiosity sparked within those depths, intermingled with the unmistakable glint of hunger. They were silent but held unspoken challenge.
This is the rats, but worse. Should I escape above? Maybe I can climb through those cracks?
Her [Lessons] pulsed at her side, ready for battle. After the first monkey howled, a chorus followed. Toki squared her shoulders, readying herself for whatever trial this feral congregation demanded.
"The jaws of death,” she murmured, her voice barely rising above a whisper.
Toki's breath stilled as an intrusive presence infiltrated her thoughts, a telepathic intrusion that was as commanding as it was unsettling. The voice in her mind was the primate authority.
"Whence comes the aroma of death that trails you, interloper?" the telepath-howler monkey's thought-voice boomed within her head. "The blood thou carry... ‘tis of my kin, yet also of thine own."
Toki’s eyes narrowed in concentration. She scanned the throng of primates until her gaze settled upon the source of the mental invasion. Perched atop a natural throne of rocks, the Alpha was an imposing figure. His fur, a matted mix of charcoal and silver, bristled with an aura of power. Muscles coiled beneath his dense pelt like steel, and his eyes—two orbs of molten amber—burned with intelligence that transcended his brethren. A crown of elongated fangs adorned his brow, marking him as sovereign among these subterranean dwellers.
Toki summoned her confidence and bravado. "Blood begets blood," Toki retorted coldly, not betraying her growing anxiety over the encroaching monkeys and channeling her best monologue voice. "Those who sought to fight me have found nothing but death.” She flexed her shadow claws. “Human or simian, it matters not."
A contemplative silence befell the amphitheater, heavy with her words.
After a moment, the Alpha responded, “How profound. Mine being relishes the taste of thy words.” The Alpha's eyes closed, his expression still as he sat there deliberating over the meaning of her challenge. He then let out a series of low howls to his kin. He continued for several tense minutes.
In those moments, Toki felt the undercurrents of power shift through the space as other monkeys slid into a seated position and listened. She was unsure, but it felt like several had unlocked something within as the lecture passed over them. The Alpha's eyelids lifted, revealing a gleam of respect. With a deliberate nod, he acknowledged the mettle of the woman before him. “Interloper, of neither humans nor primates, thou are welcome. Blood begets blood.”
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His acceptance rippled outward, and the assembled monkeys responded with a cacophony of howls that rose to the fractured heavens, a chorus of wild exultation that echoed to Toki's vow.
Unexpected.
The Alpha's invitation hung for a moment. It was a decree that brooked no refusal. Toki's breath caught as the howls crescendoed. Reluctant feet carried her forward. She knew deep inside that if she refused, she would be chased. For now, the Red on her robes was her shield.
As she moved towards the congregation, her mind spun with trepidation and the cryptic musings of Kristina echoed within her, 'the jaws of death.' Are these the fangs that Kristina had foreseen? Or are they still to come?
"Join us in feast," the Alpha intoned, his voice a telepathic embrace ensnaring Toki's consciousness alongside his brethren. With a subtle nod from him, the horde cleared the center, allowing her passage into the amphitheater stage.
If this goes badly, I’ll [Bindings of Tyndall] into the air. They might be able to climb, but I won’t face them all at once.
"Before we revel," the Alpha's thoughts unfurled in her mind, "our covenant with blood must be honored." His gestured paw directed Toki's gaze to a smaller howler monkey emerging from the shadows. Its stature was diminutive compared to the Alpha's imposing frame, yet there was nothing trivial about its presence. The creature's eyes glinted with feral cognizance, and its claws were ablaze with ethereal flames.
“To first blood.”
Toki's pulse thrummed in her ears.
"By the glassbreaker's mercy, let the ritual commence," the Alpha decreed, and with those words, the amphitheater held its breath, awaiting the spectacle of violence that would unfold beneath its ancient gaze.
Fuck. Toki pulled out her hammer.
[Law Cats has called upon Toki Twice for a meld – agree?]
Double fuck. Decline.
The scent of brimstone wafted to her. She steadied herself, readying for the clash that would appease these beasts' bloodlust and secure her place among them.
The monkey lunged with a snarl, flames tracing arcs as they swiped at Toki. Toki sidestepped, her [Lessons] parrying the howler monkey’s advancing strikes using her partial learnings from the cowcrabs. She pivoted after a strong deflection setting up for a counter. Her hit connected and the monkey launched backwards.
Rolling out afterwards, it quickly recovered.
"Come," Toki taunted. "Let's see if you can keep up."
The monkey clamored back on all fours, and leaped, fiery claws seeking purchase on Toki's flesh.
It found none. She pushed the monkey back with a shadow claw and weaved around its swipes. Toki was no stranger to fire. Her movements were a blur as she struck, each impact a controlled burst of force meant to subdue rather than slaughter.
Her moves were filled with flourishes to strike fear into the audience. To prevent them from rising against her afterwards. The din of battle echoed through the amphitheater and the monkeys watched in silence. An uncharacteristically solemn vigil.
Toki landed a decisive blow, drawing a thin ribbon of blood from the monkey's shoulder and knocking it down onto the ground. Victory. As it whimpered, cowed and defeated, she stayed her hand.
As if on cue, the horde erupted in a fervent cacophony, their howls a tempest. They beat their chest as if in indignity. The Alpha approached.
“Here, we do not not play with our sustenance. Blood is life,” he rumbled, his voice a telepathic tide that washed over her. With ceremonial solemnity, he severed the hand of the defeated monkey with a quick chop. The sound of tearing punctuated the moment and Toki's face twisted in shock.
He extended the dismembered limb towards Toki.
The Alpha’s eyes met Toki's, his eyes glinting once more with something akin to respect. The defeated monkey howled in pain.
Toki accepted the grim token, her fingers recoiling at its warmth. Both her hand and robes bloodied further. She watched, a spectator trapped in the theater of the surreal, as the Alpha monk then performed a second act of dismemberment, claiming the head of the small monkey and cradling it like a perverse reliquary as he retreated to his sanctum of meditation.
[[Dearly Departed] has pilfered Chimeric Entanglement (13/100)]
Around her, the jubilant cries of the monkeys continued to crescendo.
A tremor of revulsion coursed through Toki's veins as she clutched the severed simian hand, its weight a testament to the barbarity she was now an unwilling participant in. She had killed them before in defense, and certainly would again. But somehow this felt wrong.
The Alpha, his fur also now matted Red, pointed a gnarled finger toward a shadowy enclave that pierced the amphitheater wall—a hollow space previously inhabited by the vanquished foe.
"Thy inheritance," he telepathically declared, his voice an order that danced among the recesses of Toki's mind.
Toki stiffened, her internal turmoil masked behind the facade of confidence. With each thud of her heart, she felt the eyes of the assembly upon her—judging, appraising, waiting.
She crossed the amphitheater to the threshold of the cave. The clamor of the feast outside crescendoed into madness. The frenzied howler monkeys descended upon the carcass of the fire-claw monkey, their banquet only punctuated by the crack of bone and the slurp of marrow.
Toki hesitated at the entrance, the instinct to flee surging within her. Yet before she could surrender to the impulse, the Alpha's roar thundered through the cavern, halting her.
"Tomorrow, we shall release the rest of our brothers and sisters!" he bellowed, "then we too shall shatter the glass!"
A silence befell the throng, every eye turning towards the Alpha, every ear attuned to the proclamation of what was to come. The meaning of those words were cloaked in mystery to Toki. Were they going to invade the surface? Wasn’t it already shattered?
With curiosity and disgust a ghost in her mind, Toki turned from the grisly revelry. She entered the cave that had once belonged to another. Here, amidst the earthy scent of loam and the lingering aroma of scorched fur, she would feign rest.
She settled onto the cold stone floor, the macabre trophy beside her. "Kristina," Toki murmured to herself, "are these the jaws of death you spoke of?" They are looking to free their own, but then why? Why are they eating each other? A moment of reflection brought forth the answer. In this underground, they haven’t found food yet—only days ago, they were still in cages.
In the solitude of the cave, with her thoughts a mix of what-ifs and maybes, Toki lay her hammer across her lap and channeled [Chronicle Cascade]. She would close her eyes but remain vigilant. Now was the time to understand her Dao. Tomorrow, they would break the glass. Tomorrow she would find the dragon’s core. And tomorrow, perhaps, she would return to the surface.