Ch: 152 Moonlight Becomes Her
The rattly, squeaking hay wain rumbled up to the stables in War’s compound, disgorging the four warriors and the embarrassed and sullen baron. Having no desire to arrive at duke Belen’s home covered in dust, mud and hay, he sent Orlando to make inquiries at the cult of War.
“My lord, I’m informed that the others, and your coach were taken to an inn outside town… my lord.” He tried to avoid meeting his lord’s gaze. “Your baggage is there as well.”
Holloman’s muttering and complaints were inaudible… blessedly. He feared humiliation and loss of face more than any physical danger.
“My lord, I procured a hooded robe from the desk officer…” Orlando said softly. “If you would deign to walk through town with your identity obscured.”
“That is acceptable, Orlando. That is not an idiotic idea. Find some urchin to guide us. Go snatch an orphan from Adventure, I will don this robe, while you do.”
The young warrior trotted off to Adventure, to find a guide. There were a surprising number of volunteers when he named his destination as Shai’s Forge Inn.
The name seemed familiar, something about that horrible day and comfortable night… followed by another horrible day… It was all a blur of incoherent emotions and exhaustion.
On a positive note, a young fellow named Dannyl was almost eager to show them the way, even unknowing who he would be guiding. They walked back through the Adventure gates, as kids on strange wheeled boards zipped by, or rolled on shoes similarly equipped. He marveled at the swift moving kids and their colorful clothes.
“It’s strange here… what is all this?” He asked the gregarious young man as they walked.
“Just a bit of nonsense and whimsey… nothing to worry about, brother Orlando.” His guide sang in excitement. “I was headed home anyway. Now I get to watch the show…”
#
Baron Holloman kept his hood up and his mouth firmly shut on the short walk. For which Leroy and his brothers were profoundly grateful.
The inn was a strange place, welcoming and warm, yet there ran an undercurrent of tension and expectation all through the common room. The maid who checked them in was a smiling girl with her hair in beaded plaits. She seemed to always be on the verge of dancing, even when still.
She very graciously led them to a surprisingly fine room for the baron and a comfortable barracks for the men.
“Your injured comrades were brought here, as this is Lady Trelawney Belen’s home…” She sang happily. “I will lead you to them if you wish, unless you would rather refresh yourselves first?” She asked sweetly.
The baron very much would like to refresh himself. He listed his exhausting demands for a basin, hot water, soap, a meal and wine… much wine. His broad hints suggesting a desire for ‘companionship’ were deftly sidestepped at every turn, by the skillful and charming girl.
Timarch gave up on trying to get the girl to procure him some company… bloody backwards hill towns. Instead he demanded: “Where is my servant, Kenny? Lazy wretch…”
“Kenny McClain is among the injured, my lord… he had a number of wounds that require attention. He is also under lady Trelawny’s care.” She answered, perhaps more sharply than she expected of herself. “My lord will be informed when he is fit for duty.”
The slim, smiling, dark girl showed a flash of steel in her eyes for just an instant. Steel… and something deeply ancient and wise, something not meant to stand in skirts the color of a forest fire, in a country inn.
An instant later, sweet, gracious Becky was back, promising to see to his lordship’s requests, as far as she was able.
That turned out to be pretty far. A huge man rolled a huge basin to the room, while a long flexible hose carried scalding water to fill the vessel at a prodigious rate. Food arrived, as did a bottle of rather good local wine. It was labeled ‘Ward Cellars, Pruno Noir.’
A smaller label on the neck of the bottle read: ‘Do not agitate, expose to sunlight, moonlight or consume on holy days.’
Odd labels aside, the wine was rich, fruity and still bore just a hint of sweet summer berries. It went very well with the boar roast and potatoes. The meal ended with a bowl of sliced berries and fruit with shortbread cookies and a beverage the maid called cocoa… that was startling and indescribable.
Leroy and his men were in a clean comfortable sickroom, checking on their comrades, while the baron was still whining about where he might shove his prick. Orlando had a few startlingly creative suggestions… that Leroy told him to keep to himself.
Annalie and Travis were still quiet and a little weak, her from blood loss; he, from having his severed spine reattached magically, while his bones were enspelled into their proper places again. Neither were going to be up and around for a bit.
The same giant rolled a table and carried in some chairs so the team could eat together while the injured remained in their beds.
“Thank you Tallum.” Their slender, dark hostess whispered, as she slipped into the room while he was headed out.
“Your hosts are indisposed tonight and ask your forgiveness for this slight, they ask that I might serve in their stead.” Becky spoke formally, but with genuine warmth.
“We are all kin here, be at ease. Master Khan followed you at a discreet distance, while it was Shai who arranged for your fortuitous hay wagon.” She said with a smile.
“Orlando, your friend Cricket is happy and well, she is eager to see you, she waits in the stables.”
That was the last they saw of him for a while.
#
“Why are we staying on the Adventure compound tonight?” Gary griped. “I have projects to work on in the morning…”
He stopped cold. “That Holloman turd is in my house… I feel him.”
“Aye, an twixt the kin we hae there, he will be nae troubles. Tawny does hae him under her golden thumb.”
He still looked sour and felt cold and stabby. Since dumping himself out of the bottle, his wild and carefree smile had become a brittle, waxen mask over something dark.
“I kinnae keep Luna an Becky waiting, we hae begun cultivating now, an tonight’s lesson need be we three alone. Ivy will be wi the kids, ye should meditate until I return.” She poked him gently in the tummy with her finger.
“Ye be hard edged an sharp now, I would hae ye sheathe that edge, nae blunt it.” She grinned warmly as he mumbled and grumbled. “I shall return ‘ere mid night, boy.” She kissed him and dashed away with a musical jingle.
Gray kept complaining softly to himself as he staked out his little fence of wooden stakes and decorated spider silk rope in a private corner. A small arbor over a patch of green lawn just happened to appear among the grape vines in Shai’s back garden.
‘She thought of everything…’ He kept the rest of his cranky bitching internal, as he settled into his favorite pose, a loose cross legged seated position on the grass, surrounded by his little fence.
Once he slipped his awareness into the circle of braided spider secretions and its many dangling and spinning ornaments of carved bone and shell, the world contracted to that tiny space. He could feel the outline and shape of his own Animus, as it was compacted by his magical tool.
The Circle Of Fifths, enchanted tool, spiritual, etheric enchantment. Rank, unranked. Quality, rare. Elemental affinities, none.
When properly installed, the area defined by the tool’s perimeter is considered a secure ritual space. All magical, esoteric, or subtle forces and intent will be blocked from exiting or entering the ritual zone.
Spiritual entities contained within the tool's boundary will be unable to exert any forces on the outside world.
External forces will be unable to penetrate the ritual zone, save by mundane or physical means.
Inside his ritual circle, Gary began again, gently reaching out with his will alone and slowly braiding the wandering threads of instinct and animal hunger; carefully knotting and twisting them back into the shape of a human aura.
The strange, reaching, grasping thing his Animus and aura were becoming, or trying to become, was no bueno.
He could still feel them, reaching out to touch the living things his mortal and occult senses could detect. Worms under the soil, bugs, crawlies and flying insects, he could sense them wriggling and moving about.
Still farther out, he could feel the humans in the local area, so filled with life, vital essence and rich deep pools of cold clear mana…
“So tasty…” He startled himself, by speaking aloud and because the voice was not his own. It was, but not any part or portion of himself he recognized. The voice that passed his lips felt cold, hungry, predatory.
#
Becky, Shai and Luna strolled out into the far backwoods of the adventure compound, among the tangled trees and forgotten, ruined foundations of the distant past.
Some fair sized structure once stood here, its stone foundation slowly being forced apart by trees and other growing things. For now it enclosed a level, flat space with a neatly mowed lawn of wild herbs and plants.
“Very nice Luna… I used to hide here when I was little…” Becky began, while her towering sister smirked and grinned. “Aww stuff it Shai… Maybe I’m not little, maybe you guys are all weirdly too big?”
“She makes a strong argument…” Wiry and graceful Luna muttered with amusement, since she was scant few inches taller than her diminutive pupil. The giantess towered over the pair, cheerfully grumbling about ‘wee folk’ under her breath while they prepared.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The three women stripped bare, tucking their clothing away in the younger womens’ storage gifts. Together they began stretching and warming up as the sun went down, focusing on flexibility.
The sun’s light faded quickly in the little clearing, leaving the twilit space eerily quiet and still. Slowly, they began to move, holding practice spears, while following Luna in an intricate and beautiful dance.
“Let your spear follow you for now, we will begin working on wielding the weapon next time… For now, just lead and let it follow.” She whispered in the still night air.
#
When he pulled up his stakes and wound the cords away, he felt more human, like really more human. The weird creeping hunger had been skulking in his aura for who knows how long felt less pronounced. The sly, hungry feeling left magically sensitive people either deeply interested in him, or super creeped out.
As Thirp and Ducky explained it: His frayed and unraveling soul reached out constantly, to grasp at the parts of himself that were constantly drifting away on the magical breeze centered on his body. Those reaching strands of mindless, animal instinct had started clinging and grasping at other living auras within his range.
A range that was steadily growing, bringing his aura in contact with far, far too many people and animals for comfort. That meant he needed to find a way to control something over which had no conscious control.
The bottle had been his first thought and had concentrated him into a swirling, tangled soup of himself, which had provided the insight and clues he needed. His magic circle was a safer and more manageable way to get the same effect, without the risk of a humiliating death.
He staggered inside, exhausted and stiff, but feeling like progress had been made. He went off to bathe, after checking in with Ivy, who was sitting by the fire, reading ‘Don Quixote’ avidly.
“The old man in this book…” She grinned at him, with her thumb jammed between the pages, holding her place near the last third of the tome. “I see some similarities…”
“I don’t know what you are talking about… where’s Dulcinea… Shai!? I meant Shai!” He burbled, in his familiar, foolish way.
“She’s not back, glad to see you are, though. That other Gary was creepy.” His small blonde sister said softly, giving him a wink.
The kids were asleep in Shai’s room, all piled in the big bed again. Gary slipped in among them and passed out with Wilford sprawled over his chest and Amy hugging his arm.
#
“Stretch your senses, feel the moonlight on your skin and embrace it… The sun works too, but sunburn sucks.” Luna chanted as the three women continued their complex dance of bare limbs and spears.
Only Shai’s bells made any sound, beyond the creak of skin on spear shafts and the whisper of their bare feet through the grass. They continued well onto the hours of darkness, finally sagging to the ground together.
“Otho has been teaching you children, hasn't he?” Luna asked, with a smile.
“Aye, the basics of cultivation hae been taught in Wheatford’s orphanage since time out of mind… surely tis so in many others…” Luna cut her off with a weary shake of her head.
“Traditionally, cultivation isn’t taught till the beginning of iron rank, I’d always suspected, but the cagey old rascal conceals the techniques in his more mundane training…”
She sighed happily, as the trio moon-bathed in the cool night air. “Wheatford consistently produces B, A, and even a few S rank orphans, like Liam… now I see why.”
“Otho an the dukes Belen hae long worked together… All the town does know frae whence Wheatford’s prosperity an security come…” Shai whispered angrily. “Immoral as it may be. Folk dinnae speak of it, for they know in their hearts the shame of flesh traders.”
“Shai… that was pretty Gary of you…” Becky whispered back.
“On that note, off to bed with you two. Rest and recovery are important, in a week, waterfall training, be ready.” Luna and her pupils toweled off and dressed, enjoying the moonlit walk to the roundhouse in the Adventure compound.
They dropped Shai off and walked together to the inn, to rejoin the others.
Gary woke when Shai slipped into the big bed, somehow managing to wriggle herself into the big spoon position.
“How’d it go love?” He whispered.
“Shush, ye’ll wake them.” Was all she would say, before she kissed him to sleep with white pollen on her lips.
#
Gary and Shai never showed up to dream in the other world that night, but the island felt full and warm. Flickering lights and soft music rang from the windows of Shai’s roundhouse all night long.
The terrible trio stood at the edge of the stream between the main island and Shai’s domain, trying to conjure bridges and boats without success.
“Children…” Thirp sang firmly. “...they need rest and time together alone, from time to time. They will be there in the mortal world in the morning. Come, time for vocal magic lessons, Amy.” She turned her eight gentle eyes in her two rascals.
“Boys, music theory with master Calloway. Amy will join you for art class… it’s fingerpaints today!”
Becky and Marduk were still struggling to decipher exactly how the poor, mad boy made such complex and robust enchantments and how he got them to last more than a few days.
“He is using the ‘gift’ from his Contract with Secret, Fractured Soul, along with others he has received from other entities… and whatever he brought with him through the void. It’s infuriating. How can he keep secrets from me?” Marduk complained bitterly. “Thirp has some insights, but even Brigid is more amused than enlightened, by what he does…”
“I’ll keep working on it. He tried to show me, but he does something with his animus that I can’t even see… I don’t think he even knows.” Becky yawned deeply and kissed her god goodnight. “I have a busy day tomorrow Ducks, night night.” She vanished onto her little island, kissing Maple’s scion or clone or actual… whatever, in passing.
“Being in multiple places, worlds and dimensions simultaneously must be really complicated…” She sang to her friend.
“I don’t know… I’ve never been in just one place before… It seems like it would be a little dull.” Maple sassed back. “Off to sleep, your body is having the most interesting dream about that young Levin boy…”
“Hey! No peeking, that’s private!” She complained with a smile.
“My sweet, your species has been having those dreams and doing those silly things beneath my boughs since your people first took shape. I’ve seen it all, let me know if you need any pointers.”
Maple’s boughs brushed against her face as she fell back into her bed. The tree spirit reached through the open window to caress her.
“Remind sweet Liam to come visit me here… we have things to discuss… he, Beast and I”
#
Gary was at the kitchen table when Shai got up. He sat, hunched over with a bronze stylus, tipped with a flake of diamond, inscribing a tiny black pearl, with miniscule characters in a cramped spiral. She stood behind him, watching for a while.
He made no sound, beyond the rhythmic scratching of his tool and the soft music he was whistling. His shadowy bat friend hung from a rafter above him, singing along in tones Shai felt, but could not hear.
The room felt ominous, as though something vast were moving in its sleep and might crush them in a careless moment.
“Gary…” She whispered softly. “What are ye doing at me kitchen table in the hours before dawn, wi me wee bairns asleep above?”
“Nothing dark or dangerous, but Beast is peeking over my shoulder right now… Xyll is singing his song.” He whispered back. An instant later the ominous presence was gone, like a bad smell when the windows get flung open to the breeze.
“My bat friend is just a little uncanny, that tinges Beast’s attention a little. Spooky huh?”
“What are ye making lad?” She asked, peering at the tiny jewel in his big calloused hands. It was a single black pearl, the size of a small pea.
The once smooth surface was carved into a convoluted and elaborate swirling spiral of symbols, too small to really see, but glinting too brightly to ignore. Each letter, figure and symbol seemed to distract from and attract the gaze of the viewer, while drawing her closer and closer.
His hand closed abruptly around the tiny, terrible, beautiful thing. “Careful, it’s cursed. Super cursed. Nobody deserves what this would do to them.”
“An why are ye making cursed jewelry that be so very very pretty?” She asked, still quiet, but now a little upset.
“This is just one component of a whole cursed item… this is the bait, to hide my barbed hook. The rest won’t be finished for a day or two.” He grinned wickedly. “This will be a terrible prank.”
#
“Is this some tasteless prank, Liam?” Tawny asked in disgust.
“It’s just a pint of my blood, you just draw it out and patch me up.” He insisted calmly. “It’s to feed that monster plant. Maple and Axio say it needs blood, but it’s best we don’t draw it on site.”
“Are you surprised that I find your arguments unconvincing Liam? You are beginning to sound a little like Gary.” Her raised eyebrows and golden suspicion struck him like a physical blow.
“Oh! Yes… Maple wants to offer me a Contract, in Gary’s other house. It has something to do with Beast and that plant as well, she says.” Liam replied, with an eager smile.
“Oh my…” She whispered to herself as he trotted off with his ceramic crock of blood ticked away in her favorite backside. “Things are getting weird, Solange.”
“Your boy will be fine… and I believe you will be very pleased with what results. He is forging his own soul on the anvil of the choices he makes, to a design of his own devising… I really must stop hanging about with ironmongers.” The soft spoken, chestnut haired beauty replied.
“He is going to be a thing of great beauty, and unique in this realm…” Her smile was sublime and radiant.
“Like yourself and so many others. The winds of change are blowing, sleepers are waking and something moves in the deeper dark that is seldom seen. Morrigan has flown these skies for the first time since… Well, who kept count? Not me.”
#
At second bell, baron Holloman rode his carriage up to the ducal palace in fine style, waving to the people and tossing small coins and wrapped candies to the children as they jingled along merrily.
“I do always enjoy my visits here…” He sighed.
Somehow, his troop had gotten their gear not just repaired, but cleaned and polished as well. He put on a fine show, despite being down two warriors for his entourage.
Rolf Belen met him at the gate, which was an acceptable outcome. The duke’s son was a prodigy in his own right, becoming a full priest of Order before even receiving a knighthood was almost unheard of.
Leading a team of his own indentured stock, when most boys were still trying to figure out why they were suddenly interested in girls, was another indication that he was exceptional.
“Welcome to Wheatford, baron Holloman, let me show you your quarters. I assume your team will bunk in the orphanage, as usual?” Rolf gave a sweeping bow, graceful, despite his armor of office.
“Naturally, sir Rolf. They can find their own accommodations if they wish better.” Leroy bowed to his master at the gate and waited for the baron and his guide to depart, chatting amicably.
“The baron has placed us at liberty, until second bell tomorrow. I will take the first shift at that time. Chad, you are in charge, when I am on shift.” They marched off to the inn by the waterside, quietly excited for a little rest.
#
The little family strolled together, accompanied by Otho, who hitched up his robes and jigged along to Gary’s joyous whistle and Shai’s sweet booty bells. They had their hands filled with children.
Gary had Rio on one shoulder and Amy on the other, mostly blocking his ears, so he might not have been entirely on key. The kids clasped hands behind his head and clung there while he walked, swaying in time to his steps.
Amy stifled his whistle, taking over herself, with that high trilling voice.
Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon,
You come and go, you come and go!
Loving would be easy, if your colors were like my dreams…
Red, gold, and green, red-gold-and greeen!
Shai had Wilford on her shoulders, and was having a dance. All through the town the little troupe of weirdos danced and spun, making a merry nuisance of themselves.
The kids ran off to the stables as soon as they passed the gate. Apparently, ‘too tired to walk’ was not the same as ‘too tired to play with the horsies’.
“All right… I need to get in the workshop and… why are you guys all geared up?” Gary faced his whole party, in their armor and toting practice weapons. “Guys?”
“We were instructed to ‘exercise’ you thoroughly. So Shai and Becky will be calling the tune, while you dance with each of us in turn.” Dannyl called happily. “Tawny is ready to put you back together when we’ve broken you.”
“Hey… ‘broken’ is a bit much…” He mumbled as he backpedaled for the shady side of his garden. Dannyl shook out the enchanted practice chain he’d made the awful boy. Those links of carefully enchanted olive wood could leave bruises and cause pain very effectively, without tearing strips from the victim’s hide.
Tallum had an enormous wooden maul, with a tightly rolled blanket sewn on. “You better get armored Gary… I’d hate to break anything else.”
Oh, but breaking my armor is ok?” He complained as his lobster plates began to flicker into existence. He kept backing up, through his orchard and into the edges. where things were more tangled and shaded.
He’d had time to work on it and finish the suit finally, improving the fit, protection, flexibility and most importantly, its durability.
The self repair enchantment was a simple, if power intensive working. Since he had no shortage of power and time operated in unusual ways in his Pockets! That worked out very well, a minute or two in his storage space would allow all but the worst damage to heal.
It seemed to find the resources and elements needed in his body, leaving him very hungry after any major repair.
Carapace Thrall, enchanted undead armor, etheric, spiritual enchantments. Rank, copper. Quality, unique. Elemental affinities: Earth, Water, Undeath, Spirit.
Effect: armor heals itself while stored near or worn by a source of etheric magic.
Effect: armor generates an independent, false Animus. False Animus remains retracted and defensive around wearer’s body when worn by or near a source of etheric magic.
Effect: armor distributes impacts, whether physical, magical, elemental or spiritual, over false Animus and armored carapace to a limited extent dispersing forces and resisting penetration.
With a mad giggle, Gary slipped into his tanglewoods and vanished. “He’s going to make this difficult…” Tallum complained mildly.
“Of course I am…” His voice drifted from the woods in a pretty spooky way. “I’m going to make you dance to my… Hey! No Fair!”
“I swiped all his instruments. Shai and Becky will be confounding his other tricks, let’s go hunt him down and whoop him silly.” Liam said softly, giving his padded sword a few test swings. “I took all his weapons too.”
They split into two pairs, while Becky and Shai started laying down a light and frisky dance number from Port Fallon. ‘The Fisherman’s Daughter’ was too catchy for the poor boy to resist, putting the girls in the driver’s seat.
Dannyl and Tallum separated from Ivy and Liam as they slipped into the woods, hunting a slippery fool.
#