What did one do when confronted with a pre-Calamity monster?
Die. There wasn’t much more to it than that, Arkk figured. He would try to fight back. It was only natural. Looking at the creature before him, he had no doubts that his little dagger wouldn’t scratch a room-encompassing monster with stars for eyes. Even had he a proper sword or Ilya’s bow, making it angry was all he would accomplish.
And yet, it was a bit difficult to fight back when it wasn’t attacking in the first place. The eyes in the shadows of the room watched him, blinking occasionally. The blue-hued woman standing in the light simply stood. With its hands clasped together at its navel, just in front of another of those glowing yellow eyes, it watched him. Its head tilted to one side, ever so slightly, as if trying to decide what to make of him.
Legends and myths originating thousands of years ago said that aberrant, inhuman creatures once roamed the land. Great wars raged between armies of monsters, devouring all in their path. Arkk wasn’t sure if devouring was literal or a metaphor. Either way, this one didn’t seem particularly hungry. If it had been living in this fortress since the Calamity, or even in the last few months, it had never once bothered the village just a short trek to the east.
Was it trapped here? Arkk shook his head. Even discounting the fissure he had fallen through, this place wasn’t sealed off from the surface. He had spotted several such cracks in the ceiling, a few of which he had been able to see through to the surface.
The thing took a step. Step was probably the wrong word. It didn’t exactly have feet. Roiling tendrils of dark oil snaked across the ground beneath its dress… or whatever dress-like body it had. Whatever it did, it moved with glacial purpose as it rounded the large pit in the dais. Arkk immediately moved in the opposite direction, keeping the distance between them the same.
Though he quickly realized his folly. The shadows encompassing the rest of the room weren’t moving. If they swapped positions around the dais, its shadows would be at his back while it was at his front. Already, it was well within reach of the door he had pried open to get into this room.
Gnawing at his lip, Arkk decided that fighting would be impossible. But it wasn’t attacking and it had a humanoid face. Was talking a possibility?
“Hello?” Arkk said, trying to keep his voice from trembling too much. “Sorry for intruding on your, uh… home?”
It paused, stilling while still watching. The humanoid head canted to the side again. Its mouth opened as if to speak. “[Greetings]/[welcome]. [Long time]|[existence]|[witness]/[visitor]. [Who]|[why]/[purpose]? [Unknown human]|[seeking]|[treasure]/[riches]?”
The torch rolled back away from Arkk and his dagger clattered to the floor. He was not ready for what came forth from its mouth. Clamping his hands over his ears, he fought back tears. The thing spoke, which was a surprise on its own, but it didn’t speak in words. Concepts forced their way into Arkk’s mind.
“[Unknown human]|[seeking]|[power]/[force]/[domination]?”
“No,” Arkk said through clenched teeth. “No. I am looking for the way out.”
The monster cocked its head to the other side, taking another step around the dais in the process. “[Unknown human]|[abandon]/[flee]|[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART]?”
It was all Arkk could do to remain standing, let alone move further away from the creature. Hands still pressed to his ears, he knew only one thing: It was open to conversation. To what end, he couldn’t say. But he had to try to plead his case.
“Please,” he said. “My village is under attack. I need to get out of here so I can warn them.”
“[Unknown human]|[seeking]|[protection]/[safety]?”
“Yes. Yes, that.”
“[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART]|[ultimate]|[defensive tool]/[offensive tool].” The monster stepped closer. It was far enough around the dais to be on the same side. The tendrils squirming out from under its dress would be able to reach Arkk if they wanted. “[Contract]/[binding]/[agreement]?”
Arkk managed to stumble back, but the woman didn’t continue toward him. Instead, it turned away and moved toward the large stone sphere that had the same maze-like pattern across its surface that the rest of the room possessed. The sphere was taller than either of them but looked stuck inside a crater in the floor. The monster pressed its hand against the sphere’s side, though it didn’t bother trying to shove it out of that crater.
“[Contract]/[binding]/[agreement]?”
Arkk licked his dry lips. It didn’t help. The inside of his mouth was just as dry as the outside. “I don’t know what you’re asking. I need to get back to my village and warn them of an attack.”
“[Agreement]. [Contract]/[binding]|[offer]|[ultimate]|[defensive tool]/[offensive tool]. [Home]/[Sanctuary]|[rescue].” The creature turned away from the sphere, looking back to Arkk. It didn’t need to. Its hair, tied up in a high ponytail, had one of those golden suns peeking out from the thickest part. “[Abandon]/[flee]|[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART]|[possible]/[unlikely]. [No exit]|[collapsed]. [Self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]|[offer]|[assistance]. [Contract]/[binding]|[required].”
Arkk closed his eyes, feeling more than hearing the monster’s intention as he tried to parse the concepts it was shoving into his mind. There was no way out, at least not anymore. This monster would help, but only if he agreed to some kind of contract. Stacking up furniture to reach the fissure might still be an option unless this thing decided he wasn’t going to do what it wanted. At that point, it might get in the way. If not kill him outright.
“What is this contract?”
“[Offer]|[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART]|[ultimate]|[defensive tool]/[offensive tool].”
“Yes. I got that much. What do you get?”
“[Fortress Al-Mir]/[HEART]|[receive]|[restoration]/[refurbishment]/[beat]. [Self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]|[receive]|[master]/[leader]/[warlord].”
“You want me to fix this place up?” That… didn’t sound so bad. This place was massive. It would be work, that was for sure. But sweeping out the dust and burying the bodies didn’t sound that horrible. Especially if the monster allowed him to browse the library. What the monster received sounded a bit dodgier, but still not horrible. It described itself as [SERVANT]. A concept filled with far more meaning than the simple word would imply. Despite the language forcing concepts into his mind, he couldn’t quite comprehend what it meant. The basics, if he understood it correctly: It wanted someone to serve.
A faint smile touched the monster’s lips. It held out its hand, palm up. “[Agreement]?”
Arkk bit his lip. Did he have a choice?
There was always a choice. He could choose to throw himself into that deep pit. He could pick up his dagger and stab it into his own throat. He could choose to ignore the monster and face whatever consequences that would bring. None of those saved his village.
He didn’t know enough. He didn’t understand enough. It was too sudden. Arkk generally tried to find the best way to use any situation to his advantage but at the moment, his head was pounding too much to think properly.
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“No.”
The smile faded. “[Disappointment].”
“I’m sorry. I’m having a hard time thinking with my village in danger.”
“[Defensive tool]. [Addition]/[bonus reward]|[self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]|[strong]/[weight-lifting champion].”
“Yes, I understand that. But it is just a few orcs and goblins. We’ve handled worse. As long as I ready the villagers before the orcs arrive, as long as people aren’t caught out working in the fields, we’ll be fine without…” Arkk glanced at the large sphere. “Whatever that is.”
He didn’t know what it was. The monster could say whatever it wanted to say. Making a contract with some ancient artifact sounded like a good way to get his soul eaten by a demon. He had never heard of such a thing happening, but Arkk would be the first to admit that he was a country peasant with no formal instruction in anything beyond hunting and farming. Even that didn’t count as formal.
The Abbess of Langleey’s church warned of such things in her sermons. Not exactly like this. Demons were known to prey upon ignorant or deviant individuals, offering anything from wealth to skills to revenge in exchange for payments that sounded a lot more innocent than they truly were. Demons were monsters possessing ultimate antipathy for mortals. Making a contract with one was only done by the most foolish of beings. Or so went the teachings of the church. Arkk had never met one.
He didn’t particularly want to.
Tidying up this fortress didn’t sound like any demon deal the Abbess had mentioned, not that she had ever been particularly specific, but it did sound like just the sort of thing that would come with hidden strings attached.
“Please,” Arkk said. “Help me out of here. I’ll even come back if that is what you want. I’ll help clean this place up a bit. But not while I’m distracted with my village’s problems.”
“[Return]?”
“Yes. Return.”
“[Contract]/[binding]|[HEART]?”
“No.”
It was a fairly selfish promise. Assuming he worked up the guts to go through with it. The library interested him enough that, as long as this monster wasn’t going to eat him, he would almost certainly try to come back. He had only taken a brief glimpse into that library, but at least some of the books inside were surely magical. He was fairly certain he had seen the arcane symbol on the spine of one.
Learning magic, even with this thing hanging over his shoulders, was worth dragging a broom out here to sweep out the corridors.
“[Understanding]. [Extract]|[promise]/[word of honor].”
“Uh… sure? I promise to return here if you help me get back to my village.”
“[Acceptable]|[terms]. [Contract]/[binding]|[temporary]/[on hold]/[stay of execution].” The monster stepped away from the large sphere. “[Follow]/[good boy].” It turned and began gliding toward the door he had pried open. The way it moved on its pillar of tendrils was disturbing. Even worse was the way the entire room seemed to shift; the oily shadows filled with eyes and mouths swept around Arkk, flowing into the monster as it walked.
Keeping his eyes on the creature, Arkk bent and retrieved his dropped dagger and the still-burning torch.
The monster laid a hand on the metal door, throwing it open with no obvious effort despite how much he had strained in getting it open. They arrived at the library in short order. Arkk felt like it had been an hour from the library to the maze chamber the first time, but only a few minutes to get back. It did help a bit that he wasn’t opening every door on the way, but it still felt faster than before.
The monster had said that the exit was blocked. Maybe even down that collapsed passage he had started near. Still, he expected some other way out. Instead, he found himself led to a small table beyond the shelves of musty books where a dusty crystal ball sat atop a small platform. The monster swept her hand over it, clearing the dust, then motioned for him.
“[Display]/[imagination]|[home].”
Arkk stared at the glass ball. He had heard about such devices. The Abbey and sorcerers used them for communication. Even that spellcaster who visited the village several months back carried a small one. He knew of them. He had no idea how they worked.
Seeing his helpless state, the monster took his hands. They glistened in the torchlight but didn’t feel wet or cold at all. There was a gentle warmth to its fingers. It held his hands just over the top of the crystal ball, not touching, but close enough that he could almost feel the cool glass. “[Display]/[imagination]|[village]/[peasantry]. [Sanctuary]. [Leaser]/[property owner]/[landlord]. [Eating hall]/[restaurant]. [Livestock]/[field]/[grocery store].”
A white mist occluded the clear glass as the monster spoke. The concepts thrust into Arkk’s mind brought up thoughts and memories without him even trying to think too hard. When the farm came up, Arkk drew in a breath. With it came the scent of freshly cut wheat, the mint fields, and the less pleasant smell of livestock. The mist shimmered, changing to show the village’s fields, lit only by moonlight. Despite the darkness, he recognized the layout and the paths. Up the shallow hill were their local church, a large storehouse, and a nearby barn.
The servant took over, shooing his hands off to the sides. With one of its hands pointed toward the crystal ball, the image began flickering, snapping inside homes, out in the fields, and around the main church building. Eventually the view changed to display an image so high up that he could see the river and the Cursed Forest beyond. A few jarring snaps through the Cursed Forest before Arkk saw himself looking at his own head of brown hair, hunched over a crystal ball in a decrepit library.
He glanced upward, but there was nothing above that indicated a watcher’s presence.
“[Understanding].”
The words brought his gaze back down. The monster’s starfield-like eyes stared into his own, bright yellow suns dominating. “Understand?”
“[Location]/[coordinates]|[understanding]. [Please hold]/[stay of execution]. [Problem]/[concern].”
Arkk narrowed his eyes. The serene face of the monster didn’t flinch in the slightest. Why should it? It wasn’t human and it could probably crush him if it took a sudden dislike to him. And yet, he couldn’t help but glare. “You said you would help.”
“[Assistance]|[agreement],” it said, pointing a lithe finger toward the crystal ball. The image of the village church shimmered into position. “[Problem]/[concern]. [Symbol]/[regalia]/[scribble]|[Almighty Glory]|[Heart of Gold]|[Holy Light].”
Arkk blinked again, this time in confusion over the unfamiliar names. He was fairly sure those were names, anyway. “So… what?”
“[Understanding].” It seemed pleased, offering a smile. “[Disuse]/[abandoned]?”
“No, the Abbess leads sermons every Suun.”
“[Confusion]? [Foreign]/[not us].”
“I… I have no idea what you’re trying to say,” Arkk said. This was a monster. He wasn’t sure what the church had to do with anything. Despite the odd way the thing spoke, he thought they were communicating rather well until now.
The monster jerked its head in a confused twitch. “[Ignore this message]. [Promise]/[word of honor]|[reminder]/[nudge-nudge].” Tendrils swept out from under the creature’s long dress, shoving aside bones, armor, and weapons with no reverence or care. Books, however, were plucked from the pile and carefully set apart, much to Arkk’s relief.
Within the now-emptied space, the monster’s tentacles began working, leaving trails of black slime where there had been none before. Its normal walking and even that careless clearing didn’t leave slime behind, so this had to be intentional. As Arkk watched, he quickly realized that it was forming some kind of magical circle in the ground. A complex one, far more complex than any he had seen before. And this monster was doing it all without turning its head away from him.
Eerie.
“Your name is Vezta, isn’t it?” Arkk said, desperate to focus on something else. “I think that is what I got while you were talking about… contracts.”
“[Inaccurate]. [Self]/[Vezta]/[SERVANT]. [Inadequate]/[sorry state]|[language]. Vezta|[acceptable].”
“Oh. Good then,” Arkk said before an awkward silence fell over them. It was made all the more awkward by the way that Vezta simply did not blink. He had seen the eyes in the shadows blink before, but never the eyes on its face. Emboldened by her answering his question, Arkk asked another. “If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of monster are you? I’ve never seen something like you before.”
“[SERVANT].” The self-proclaimed servant stepped aside, bowing while holding one hand out toward the freshly drawn magic circle. “[Existence]|[relocate]/[walk away]/[walk inside]. [Mind the edges].”
“You want me inside the circle?”
The monster bowed deeply, upper body nearly parallel to the ground.
Arkk looked to the circle, wary. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what the circle was for. Just following the channels, veins, and magical pathways made him dizzy.
Sensing his hesitation, the monster took hold of his hand again and slowly brought him over. “[Safety]/[bodily integrity]|[assured]. [No]|[error]/[flub].”
“Ah, what, exactly does this—”
Arkk didn’t get to finish. The monster took a step back, out of the circle, leaving him in its center. The circle flashed and cold night air soaked into his tunic. He blinked a few times, confused at the library’s absence. Somehow, he was outside, standing on a dirt path. He was just around the back of the carpenter’s shop, between the building and the riverbank. The familiar sound of the water rushing past the locked waterwheel filled his ears.
This was it. His home. Langleey Village.
He was back. That quickly? Did all spellcasters know how to do something like that?
Arkk put the thought out of his mind. Even with the hours spent exploring that fortress, he was back long before he would have been if he had simply kept running. Those hours couldn’t go to waste. Drawing in a deep breath, he turned and sprinted toward the Baron of Langleey’s manor.