Ch: 117 Twilight Serenade
In the back corner of the garden, three tiny children were playing a simple tune on simple instruments. The surprisingly tight trio were conducted by a shining ghost with a radiant smile under his thin mustache.
Skiboodilyboodily-diddlydiddly, doodlydoodly, going-going-going, dadada!
All three children nodded sagely, as though some dark secret had been revealed. The small boy with the bongos sang to the duke and young lord, when the bandleader was finished.
He says the spirits are scared,
Somethings been going wrong
Dark magic that few have dared
It’s been going on so long, so long…
“Amy! Rio! Wilf! Time for lessons!” Bannock’s voice floated through the garden, carried by Gary’s stupid magic; they always heard when the grownups called.
“Awww… you’re the duke… can’t you outlaw school?” Amy whined pitifully.
“I went to my lessons, Amy… now I want to watch you suffer too. It’s the circle of life…” Julius stuck his tongue out at the sassy child, beating her to the punch.
“Okie Jules… you win this one. C’mon boys, lessons.” They stashed their instruments, somehow and wandered back to the house, slowly.
When the children were gone, the slowly vanishing shade fixed them with a penetrating gaze, staring deeply at the two young lords from near endless gulfs of time.
“Skibiddy bop!” He sang, as he evaporated and the baton fell to the grassy lawn.
Julius picked up the rod of bronze capped, pale bamboo, giving it an experimental twirl. Bright sparks of light shimmered and spun madly for a moment, gleaming in all the rainbow shades of mother of pearl.
“Enchanted items… I always thought they were simple trinkets for rubes and fools…” He muttered in quiet contemplation.
“And they let children play with such things? They are mad…” Kermal whispered, with a wide smile on his face.
“Yes, that seems to be the consensus… It works for them.” The young duke tucked the enchanted rod into his sash and smiled. “Let’s talk about your future, my new friends say you have been Contracted to Beast. Is this true?”
“I hesitate to answer my lor-...” Julius cut a sharp glance at the young man.
“As your ruling lord, I was precluded from aiding you when you were in the orphanage, I had thought well of my aunt Harpreet and trusted her with providing for you. Now, if you have truly gained a Contract through some means…”
“I would almost prefer the orphanage if I am to be placed back under auntie Harpreet…” His smile slipped away, so too did the young lordling, becoming indistinct and tough to focus on.
“Kermal, don’t try to hide from me, it won’t do any good. I suspect our beloved aunt is planning to marry you off to some advantage, not your advantage, I am certain.”
A slow sneaky smile spread over the duke’s face. “Cousin Jaggie needs a squire, we had been discussing candidates, you were ineligible as an uncontracted child. If things have changed, so too may your fate be altered.”
Hope bloomed in the young man’s face, drawing his smile back out of hiding. “Me? A squire, maybe a knight?”
“If you wish… or perhaps another path. Your gift seems sly and stealthy, we will find something suitable. I may be seeking an enchanter for my administration.” He murmured. “Where does duke Belen find these marvelous madmen?”
“There may be a few available in a few years… our young musicians seemed… special. How seriously do you plan to take the child’s warning of spiritual disruptions?” Kermal asked, just as softly, as they headed back inside.
“That boy… Wilf, If he told me the grass was light pink today, I would believe him until I confirmed otherwise. Something about him has…” The duke paused for a long moment.
“...weight. The things he says are massive and land heavily. Such a strange aura for a child to possess.”
#
Back inside, they found their host ‘down in the lab’, doing something odd with a large number of barrels, kegs and carboys. He tasted and sniffed his way along the row of bubbling jugs with a sublime smile.
“Kerm! Jules!” He sang happily when Julius coughed to announce themselves. “Come try this, it’s life changing!”
He held up a wooden platter, bearing some rectangular white mass of wet looking… something. Cubes of the stuff were scattered on the tray, along with wooden forks and a few shallow bowls.
“Duskmoon bean tofu, duskmoon soy sauce, dryad plum sauce and sake, a kind of rice wine. You gotta wait to try the last one, Kermie, Shai’s rules, not mine.”
The curious men tasted their way through the offerings, with surprise and deep enjoyment.
“These are just ingredients, really. I’m no cook, the real cooks will be doing amazing things with these…” He lost focus, staring off into the shadows of the basement, muttering.
“Duskmoon and wallowbear mapo tofu… sweet and sour groundworm, death’s head cricket curry…”
“Gods, man. Didn’t you just eat?” Julius swatted him on the shoulder gleefully. “I don’t know what those are, but it sounds delicious. I found your magic stick in the yard…”
They marched upstairs, after the strange man tucked several jars and a large tray of the white ‘tofu’ into his pockets. With a wink and a distracting wave of his free hand the stuff simply vanished.
“What do ya think of my ‘magic stick’, give you any ideas?” He asked on the stairs.
“Ideas? How so?” Julius wondered, still twirling the baton idly. “It sparkles and flashes prettily, but that’s all.”
The musician sighed deeply and led them to a table. “You guys got sold a bill of goods so long ago, you don’t even have records of getting tricked. Magical tools are freakin game changers.”
He got them seated, then stormed off to the kitchen to do whatever kitchen people do in those mysterious, forbidden places.
“He’s very odd…” Jagdeep remarked quietly. “I still fail to understand why my mother was dancing that way…”
Young Kermal and the duke shared a sly grin and a wink. “I’m certain you will discover that secret soon enough.” Julius smirked insufferably.
They enjoyed a fine meal of bizarre and exotic dishes, unlike anything they had experienced before, yet so similar to familiar favorites.
“This ‘mapo tofu’ dish, what is it that gives such depth of flavor under the spice?”
“Duskmoon tofu and fermented duskmoon beans, ground wallow bear, garlic, ginger and some crazy pepper I bought in a marsh village. The girls can get you the recipe, I just brewed up the fermented products.” He shrugged and dove back into his bowl.
#
The strange house grew quiet as Port Clement’s nightly fog rose. Noble visitors exited, seeking their own beds, as did most of the locals. Deep in the night, long after eighth bell, a sleek, black shadow passed through the hedge entrance, silently approaching the inn.
It paused, as though facing unseen resistance at the garden threshold. It pushed through, passing into dimly lit obscurity beyond the wall.
Lost in deep shadow it observed the open portal into the home. Unguarded and still, slipping in should have been child’s play, but some sense of disquiet urged caution.
“Visitors should come to the front door, or await the morning.” A soft purring voice whispered from the shadows. “You are Adventure guild, what need have you, to skulk where you would be welcome?”
A dark feline shadow detached from the garden plantings, before vanishing from one lightless pool to another.
“Both of you…” She complained. “Busy, busy… now I have to wake the madman. Best you show your faces when he comes, you are all kin, no?” She vanished into the house, leaving the two figures in all concealing black robes standing awkwardly together on the lawn.
“Trimble, Adventure guild specialist on contract.” The taller form muttered quietly, doffing his hood.
“Diane, also on contract… we haven't met before.” She replied, shaking her hood off. “Hate those things… What’s your contract class? Mine’s ‘C’ trade dispute.”
“Class A, treason, murder. I have clear priority, sorry. What’s your interest in this house?” He asked, keeping his voice low.
“Investigating a claim of commercial espionage and trademark infringement. The usual merchant guild thing… keeps food on the table.” She shot a slightly avaricious look at him. “Need a subcontractor? Sounds like our jobs might overlap a little?”
“Perhaps…” Paper lanterns burst into light in the garden, illuminating their meeting and cutting off whatever he might have said.
“An ye come on guild business, tis meet ye should come by day.” A tall hillwoman barked at the two black clad figures. “Dinnae test this house fer sport, we hae real worries enough tae be going on wi.”
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The large redhead in the flannel robe crossed her arms and scowled mightily. “Hae ye warrants or writs tae enter mine home such?” The silent, sheepish stares she received suggested the answer was no.
“Ye did slip in, each thinking tae snoop about and be gone unseen… it were high handed and prideful thinking. Ye hae pult down yer pants, an yer bottoms be mine fer the pinching.” Her smirk and the tapping toes of her pointy, green velvet slippers were at odds with her harsh tone.
“It were your good fortune Nara did find thee, nae the master of the house. He can be an awful trial. Go! Come back by daylight an nae cause trouble, we shall forget this lapse in manners. An ye return, we start fresh.”
The stern woman and the slinking cat escorted the embarrassed pair to the hedge, firmly motioning for them to depart.
“Did we just get our asses chewed by an apprentice Adventurer, in a bathrobe and slippers?” Trimble asked, with a goofy grin.
“I don’t recall any such event…” Diane muttered unhappily. “I’m lodging in the guild, if you find a need.”
“Hey! Me too!” He chirped happily. “I love walking in the fog…” He whistled a merry tune as they strolled off into the mist. “I’ll be coming back at second bell… you should come along.”
#
Dawn lit the workshop windows, as the fog became pearlescent and radiant. Annie poked her huge head through an open shutter and snuffled in at Gary in impatient curiosity.
“Ok, don’t fuss… breakfast is coming. Spoiled brat, how many other horses get cider pressings with their hay?”
He grumbled cheerfully, while lugging a big pail of crushed apple pomace upstairs. Happy snuffles and wickers greeted him in the stable, as sleepy horses and ponies started waking.
Annie supervised the distribution of his pail of delicious crud and sweet smelling hay from their stores. Gary went about checking their hooves and rubbing them down, as his guests chowed down.
Luna, Khan and Shai gathered at the door to observe the strange man at his work, watching in silent amusement as the horses ordered him around like a servant.
“And yet ye still kinnae ride worth a shaved bit…” Shai complained, as she helped him spread fresh straw and wood shavings on the floor.
“Wait… people ride these coddled pets?” He demanded in foolish outrage, before a wet nose to the back of his head from Winslow sent him stumbling.
Magnus stepped forward to catch the poor, clumsy oaf, letting him crash into his broad, golden shoulder.
“This is why I ride my ‘stick horse’.” He scratched magnus’ ears and jaw while shooting dirty looks at Winslow.
“We did hae skulking guests late in the night, as ye no doubt know. We hae warned them against further foolishness and I do think they hae taken it tae heart.”
She grinned evilly at her man. “An they try again, ye may be as infuriating as ye wish.”
“Is it terrible that I hope they try tonight?” He asked while braiding Sandi’s tail.
#
Reegil of the marsh otter clan was in the bath again, splashing about happily.
“Garree, I come to ask you again to attend to our undead troubles. They vex us more often, of the last few days.” He chittered and dove under, then shot halfway up the waterfall with a barking laugh.
“Or perhaps I just wished to play in your waters again, hooman…”
“I’ll put it to the group, no guarantees. We have a lot going on right now.” He slipped into the pool with the otter man, floating nearby. “You said it was nuisance level trouble, are things heating up?”
“Not as such… they appear more often, undirected shades and wandering animate husks. They wander and drift by, heedless of the living, unpleasant and distressing but hardly a threat.”
“Tell you what, think about how you wanna sell us on this job. I’ll get the team together, you make your pitch, then we’ll decide.” He climbed out and shrugged into a robe.
“Another visitor just showed up, I gotta greet them.”
In the common room a tall thin man with sandy brown hair shorn short, lounged on the sofa by the fire.
“The mysterious Gary! Delighted to finally meet you. I’m Trimble, Adventure guild specialist, on assignment from duke Belen. I will be your liaison, my partner is higher profile and less sneaky than… well, anyone.”
His boyish grin and easy attitude lay at odds with the palpable sense of restrained motion and controlled intensity that surrounded him.
“So we’re the dancing pig, to distract and amuse, while you root out whoever or whatever. Great, who was the other sneak last night?” He grumbled. “I missed out last night, now you just stroll up to the front door. Deeply disappointing, man.”
“The hill woman suggested you would be a problem, had we encountered you…” He smiled lazily and lounged a little harder.
Gary let that float away on the breeze. “Mmm, well that’s fine too. Some questions are better pondered forever, mysteries make life more exciting.” He murmured. “Was there something in particular you wanted, or just saying hello?”
“Curiosity is a small vice, but I suffer it keenly, let’s just say I have learned a little of what I wanted to know. You are strangely, both more and less remarkable than I was led to believe. That naturally whets my curiosity…”
His dark clothing was in the traditional style, wide legged trousers and a wraparound shirt under a sash and jacket. Conservative in cut and style, unrelieved black suited the smiling man well.
He rose silently and made a shallow bow to his host. “I will no doubt creep by again, I ask permission to sneak in…” He smiled ruefully, the fellow had an armory of well honed smiles. “Somehow I feel you will know in any case, but I should rather not be observed coming and going from here.”
“Don’t make trouble, and yes, I’ll always know. Your friend still needs to come by and say hello.” Gary had smiles too, this one was coldly hungry and eager. “Unless you can talk her into creeping over my hedge again…”
“You are troublesome aren’t you. I might just try and bait her into it, if I can watch the happening.” Trumbull trotted out another winning grin, this one was eager, naughty and a little sly, all at once.
“They say no one ever died of embarrassment, you give the distinct impression that such a thing is indeed possible.”
Gary and the weird guy just kept smiling at each other for a while… shifting through variations on the theme in a running pantomime. Eventually, a small boy holding a pair of drums toddled up and glared at the newcomer. Rio rattled his drum at the grownups and sang out.
“Snacktime, Becky said you know how to make tostones. I wanna taste magic plantains.”
“You heard him… I have work to do. Stay for lunch, I smell black beans and smoked ground dragon. There will also be fried twilight fae plantain chips” The musician scooped the lad up in his arms and strode to the kitchen.
“While that sounds… delightful, I must be about my work. I will return if and when my duties allow.” He made a shallow bow and slipped out the door into the sunshine.
“Come and go freely, as long as you comport yourself as a guest ought to.” Gary called after him. “Now let’s get cooking.”
#
Reegil turned out to be kinda charming, once he mellowed out a little. He annoyed Liam just a bit, so the pipe came out of hiding. A few puffs later, things shifted drastically. “Careful with that stuff, it’s weapons grade.” Gary warned his new otter friend.
“My people are not so weak minded as to…” Fluffy gray clouds drifted from his muzzle as he prattled, slowly it petered out, along with his words.
“Somebody brew him some coffee… He’s gone bye bye.” Becky smirked, over her bowl of hearty black beans and smoked ground dragon. The flat, crispy disks of slightly sweet, faintly salty fruit made her lips tingle.
“These chips are crazy good…” She cheered on the poor guy, still slaving away at the press and fryer.
He smashed a few more cylinders of the strange, red striped fruits Shai had traded for.
Twilight plantain, fruit, flower, herb, reagent, moderate magic, edible.
“These things are tasty, think you can grow them?” Gary demanded of his garden loving bro, while frying more tostones.
“Should be possible… I’ll ask around.” Liam muttered around his pipe stem. “Ivy’s smells good too.”
Ivy had a soup simmering made from the same odd fruits, it smelled divine. She swatted him away with a grin, when the stoned warrior came sniffing.
“That’s roasted chicken broth with monkfish nuggets and broiled plantain chunks. This one is going on the menu.” She announced, when the ladle came out. Duskmoon beans and shredded kale floated in a rich, hearty soup, fighting for space with the plantain and grilled fish. Ivy wielded her ladle with pride, dishing up her creation, alongside loaves of crusty bread.
“I always assumed humans ate boiled grains, since your teeth are so ridiculous… This has been a revelation!” Regil announced, when he rediscovered human language. That was two bowls of each hearty soup and a heap of grilled monkfish later. His munchies were almost frightening.
#
“Regardless, in this matter, my will is law. If the council wishes to overrule me they may try.” Julius announced calmly in the main audience chamber, seated on a kitchen chair pilfered from the servant’s halls.
“No child under fifteen may don the regalia, no person can be forced to wear it in my realm. I am satisfied that this ruling will stand up to any scrutiny.” He raised an eyebrow at the gathered nobility.
“Any adult who chooses to subject themselves to those abominations is certainly free to do so. That is between yourselves and your tenderest parts.”
Resplendent in gray silk trousers and shirt, relieved by piping, collars and cuffs of crimson he reclined on his humble chair of bent wood. The duke would not have been out of place in a wealthy merchant’s home.
He stood, sketched a shallow bow to the assembly and departed with a cheerful wave. “I’m off to see about improving my baths… it has been made clear that my current facilities are… inadequate.”
“Was he… smiling?” Earl Tummalt asked.
“Now he’s whistling.” Baron Hargrave muttered, as he watched his liege wander down a hallway.
#
“In the hills, where the fringe and human lands meet, there is a ruin, long abandoned by the living. For centuries, shades and drifting husks that were once human have come wandering into our lands.”
Reegil stood by the fireplace, with the family scattered on sofas all around, making his presentation.
“They care nothing for the living, nor our works… but it is distressing to have a strange ghost wander through the village, carrying a sense of dread, unlife and woe.” He twitched his whiskers in disgust.
“My eldest brother’s wedding was interrupted by a roaming zombie, crawling with worms and nibbling vermin. The wretched thing tumbled right into the ritual pool… in the middle of the sacred fish sharing rite.”
The otter shaman let out a sneeze that shook his entire body. “See? Even speaking of this upsets me… now I’m hungry.”
He wandered to the kitchen and started rooting around, sniffing for leftovers.
“Ok, I’m in favor of taking this one.” Gary said softly from beneath a pile of kids. “Sounds like a good match for us, maybe we can find a clue to the big mysteries as well. Any other thoughts?”
“Undead infestations are rare and seldom… pleasant.” Khan muttered. “Even minor wights and ghasts can be bothersome, I understand you seem to have some… skill… with spirits, but true undead beings are unlike the cheery shades you call forth.”
“I also am wary of dealing with the dead. Spirits and shades are one thing, but animate corpses roaming about undirected…” Tawny’s golden frown of radiant displeasure brightened the room, while deepening the mood. “This suggests some deeper issue; necromancers and death cults can be troublesome.”
“I can call a friend in to consult, if you guys can handle a little weirdness…” The musician wiggled out of his family heap and stood, stretching and smiling.
“Oh, gods… are you going to let yourself get possessed again? That’s always awful.” Dannyl’s complaint won him an elbow to the ribs from Ivy.
“Oww… I’m not saying anything you guys haven’t thought. That spider is weird, but Marduk gets all silly and goofy. It’s upsetting to see your deity like that.”
“No, I don’t like letting them drive either. Feels weird bro, taking a back seat in my own body is super creepy.”
With a happy grin, he produced a human skull, engraved, inlaid and inscribed with wild markings in gleaming metal and shell.
Slowly he began to shake the skull, giving off a rattling hiss. Rio came in on his bongos without hesitation, thumping sharply in counterpoint to the susurration coming from the skull rattle.
Reegil watched from the kitchen as the small, thin girl’s harp began tinkling a sweet and uplifting melody over the sinister percussion line.
Shai was already up dancing, slipping instruments to any person too slow to avoid her whirling form. Tallum’s bass thumped and strummed in while Ivy took a set of bongos from her smiling sister’s hand.
“Hey… is this really the time or place…?” Liam got downed out, until he just took his guitar and sat on the edge of Tawny’s piano bench and joined in.
Sitting with his back against hers, while sensual music flowed around and through them got them flexing their buttcheeks in time, bobbing up and down together on their asses and giggling.
Gary and Rio began to sing, from deep down, creating a sound that was breathy and intimate, but fully projected and loud. Their voices vibrated the room inside the percussion line, as it shifted and swayed in a strange, dreamlike rhythm.
Vamonos guajira
Vamos a bailar
Carinito
Vamonos guajira
Vamos a bailar
Que lo que quiere guajira
Si tu quieres bailar.
Yo te a garro la mano
Y vamos a bailar.
No one was quite sure when Axio began dancing among them. His small, slightly squeaky body of mushroom flesh and gleaming, rune inlaid skull mask seemed to sprout from inside the terrifying rattle. The two boys shifted to the common tongue seamlessly, still singing in breathless excitement.
Let’s go guajira
Let’s go dancing
Yes cinnamon girl,
Let’s go guajira
let’s go dancing
The small figure spun to a stop, smiling brightly from his mask. “I heard rumors of another one, on the wind…” He eyed Rio and grinned a terrible smile from his skull face. “Hello, we will be great friends I think. I’m Axio! What’s your name..?”
“Rio’s a little shy, he’ll be ok.” Amy whispered very loudly and handed him a tambourine.
The spirit in fungus flesh took a joyful twirl with Becky and landed on Gary’s lap a few moments later.
“Oh, Gary, you seem to be much more… more now!” The small mushroom creature sang happily. “Let me slip into your garden and get dressed.”
The little figure bustled out into the garden and returned a few minutes later, lingering at the entryway. Taller, leaner, robed and cowled in green felted fungus roots, his mask was once more covered in a vaguely lifelike human face.
No one with eyes could mistake him for a human, but he could pass at a distance, while being only mildly terrifying up close.
“Much better!” He sang happily. “I have been working so hard, back home. A little trip is just what I needed! Wait till you see my home…” He dusted a huge cloud of spores into the garden in his excitement. “Ahh, I knew that was coming!”
The cheerful grave guardian dusted off his ‘clothes’ and came skipping back inside.
“Hey buddy… nice to have you along. Are you ok being away from…” Gary shrugged.
“Oh yes, this is only a small part of me. Most of me is back home working on spreading my spores and enriching the soil. The worms are quite frisky at the moment, silly nematodes.” He spun on his toes, much more graceful than last time. “To think, I could have done this millennia ago… I will have harsh words for whatever entity pulled the mycelium over my eyes!”
#