Ch: 169 I Scream, You Scream
“No Gary, I will say no more. The man will either return for judgment in Wheatford, or he will cease to be a concern. You can trust me on this, a friend of mine is already on the case.” Thirp wilted a little under his stare, until Shai swatted him on the shoulder.
“Dinnae bully me goddess, boy. Tis unseemly fer the both of thee.” She smiled at the spider goddess and asked sweetly: “Who be yer friend that be ‘on the case’ as ye say?”
“The goddess Maat, or Themis… Gary probably knows her best as lady Justice, though she is more than that. We had a nice visit while you were awake. She can’t approach Gary, he’s too chaotic.” Marduk sang happily. “She is currently in an arachnid form as well, though that is not a typical aspect for her.”
The smiling god winced, as Thirp shot him a dirty look.
“I’m not involved with secrets anymore, you’ve taken that over…Gary is my last link to that portfolio and he only holds dark secrets and occult lore.” He shrugged eloquently. “I’m in the uncovering secrets business now, so is Secret…”
Thirp turned on Gary, bobbing in amusement. “Hmm… That is interesting. I have been studying the cult of secrets from Gary’s homeworld, he has ‘read’ a surprising number of their illuminated sacred texts.” Eight twinkling eyes danced over his awkward and uncomfortable face. His rising blush sent the spider deity to scampering and bobbing up and down in unconcealed mirth.
“Oh? Whae be this? I hae nae seen any such texts…” Shai muttered, scootching closer in interest. “I would learn of this, an it touches on lady Thirp’s domain.”
Thirp’s delight and amusement climbed even higher as Gary kept turning colors. Becky and Angie wandered over, to stand in the garden among the others. “What’s going on?” Angie whispered softly to Becky.
“Gary has some mental quirks, his culture has some strange taboos, when we find one, it’s really fun to shatter his mind and will… just watch and nod along.” She whispered back, while the crowd moved in closer, as though they sensed easy prey.
“...I don’t know what you’re talking about…” He sweated the truth out over his denials, drenching his armpits and plastering his hair down. “There's nothing going on… I swear…”
Thirp was relentless, cruel and really enjoying herself. “In that case, there is nothing to fear if Shai learns her secret… or even if we all do…”
“Her” Shai just said it, no inflection, no context or thought behind the word. It chilled his spine and left his knees trembling.
“No, babe… it’s not anything like… There's no, umm…” He stammered, falling back under their relentless assault, until he was backed up against the house, under the swarming hive.
“Tell her then, boy…” Marduk giggled from behind Angie. “Tell her Victoria’s Secret!” A brown cardboard box filled with colorful, well thumbed catalogs came tumbling out from the crowd, scattering his shame over the lawn.
As shock, shame and embarrassment flooded him, he faded into troubled natural sleep. His restless mind was filled with dreams of Shai, chasing him with a rolled up catalog, wearing that lacy confection from the night before.
‘Like I needed another kink…’ His exhausted mind mused as he faded away.
#
Shai was awake when his eyes opened, awake and nibbling on his throat tenderly. “We were hard on thee last night, boy of mine. Now I’ll let thee be hard on me, fer a time…” Her grip on her favorite toy was firm and friendly, just how he liked the game played.
“Does this mean you’ll play dress up with me…” He asked hopefully, relaxing back in her embrace.
“I were clear, I’ll nae be yer dressup doll, save thee be also mine in turn… why else did ye make those red ‘shortieshorts’ fer swimming?” She whispered in his ear, tickling the lobe with her lips and breath.
“I did like those, ye’ve a dancers arse an legs now… An ye wear the kilt, ye mayhap be delighted by what ye do see… an what may arise.”
“Oh, babe…”
She silenced him with a kiss, a bite to hi shoulder and a few firm tugs elsewhere. “Shush now, I’ve summat more entertaining fer thy mouth tae do… an mine too.” Shai’s lithe and athletic body squirmed against him and suddenly everything in the world went away, save for the warm secrets gently enfolding his face, and whatever magical things were going on in his lower regions.
“Noice!” He muttered with his mouth very pleasantly full.
#
“I never would have thought that pie and a salad would make a good breakfast…” He mumbled with his mouth still pleasantly full.
“Yeah, it’s a springtime tradition… Shai said you liked cherry pie… a lot…” Ivy said with a saucy wink. The fool musician blushed bright red and stuck his face back in his plate, while Shai giggled at him.
The two heartless vixens kept up their comedy act until Becky and the kids came down, freeing him from their nonsense.
“I’m gonna be in the workshop with Cameron this morning… We are gonna need some privacy for this one, kids.” Gary’s voice held an uncommon firmness, a no joking, serious tone from him got Shai’s attention.
“Be there trouble?” She asked softly.
“No, but his condition is… sensitive and private, love. He and I have a lot in common I think.”
#
Gary spoke softly to the dark robed man; he kept his hood and veil in place, even in the dimly lit workshop. Only a few islands of light spilled out in the dimness, revealing workbenches and strange tools.
“I will need you to disrobe entirely, brother. I need to see the full extent of the problem.” The figure became even more rigid and uncomfortable, subtly shifting into a withdrawn and resistant posture, without so much as rustling his robe.
“This is a safe place, Cameron… I will keep any secret you hold, as long as you wish it. Even from the duchess, even from the gods if need be.”
“The duchess has seen…” He rasped, speaking slowly and halting frequently in a voice that sounded like he’d been swallowing rocksalt and gravel. “As have most of my comrades… My shame is no secret.”
Cameron shrugged out of his robe awkwardly and with great reluctance, despite his claim. The dim light and gathered shadows did little to soothe him as he stood exposed to the strange man’s eyes. The fellow circled around again and again taking in every detail of the warrior’s skin.
Countless small marks and scars covered him in an intricate and strange design. Weals of raised purple scars and long convoluted lines of dark, black inky marks crawled over every inch of his skin. The scars and marks spiraled and tangled out from circular ring scars, bearing the marks of savage chewing teeth and vicious hooks. They ran in curving patterns suggesting tentacles had been involved.
“Did you kill whatever did this to you?” The man asked quietly, sounding disturbed and upset by the sight.
“Inkwhip landsquid, but bigger and stranger than any I ever heard of…” He gasped, in growing discomfort. “It got away…”
“Oh, good… that will make this easier for everyone.” He said happily. The odd fellow began to whistle a merry tune, as he circled round and round with a notebook, writing and sketching the strange symbols marked in Cameron’s flesh.
“His name was Qislaz… at least that’s what it would sound like, if he could use anything we recognize as speech.” The man said with a smile. “All outsiders are difficult to communicate with and understand, this poor guy was at least friendly.”
“Friendly? It snatched me up in its coils and nearly ripped all my skin off…” Cameron gasped.
“Really… no one did anything unpleasant to it first? Because these marks are his attempts to communicate with you.” The madman smiled sadly at him. “These are letters and words, spelled out in ink. It’s a series of pleas for help and the poor guy begging for you and your comrades to stop attacking him.”
“What?” Cameron rasped hoarsely. “Are you mad?” His furious glare was intimidating, coming from that scarred face, pocked with nasty, circular marks and scrawling black lines.
“Yes, quite mad, I’m going to need a little of your blood… or tears, or semen I suppose...” He said firmly, before he continued his examination. Let’s stick with blood, just a few drops.”
Quick as a serpent, the boy lashed out with a miniscule bronze blade hidden in his palm, nicking a tiny wound in Cameron’s elbow, right on a thick, black ink line. He collected a tiny spot of blood from the pinprick on a small white cloth and smeared a dollop of pink stuff over the wound with a smile.
“See, no problem… just a few drops.” He continued on as though nothing had happened, leaving Cameron even more confused and wary.
“So as we move down your body, he stops begging you to stop and begins working a curse on you.” He murmured, staring at his subject’s lower abdomen.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“Well, it’s not really a curse, more of a geas. That’s a kind of magical command, you can refuse the command, but you have to pay the price in pain.”
“What ‘command’ does a squid monster have for me?” He growled furiously at the young fool.
“Only one… ‘comprehend’.” He said with finality. “Until you understand what he wrote on your skin, the pain will continue, forever. Fortunately for you, I read squid.”
#
After an interminable time of note taking and peering at the afflicted man’s body in jarringly intimate detail, Gary snapped his book closed and smiled. “You can put your robes back on now… we will be taking care of this in the bath.”
He led Cameron up the stairs and out to the private bath, pointing the man at the empty changing and bathing room.
“Go on, I will bring the others, once you are in the water. This is your first time, so it will feel strange and bubbly, but your pain should ease almost immediately.”
With that enigmatic statement, the madman turned and left without looking back. Cameron nervously shed his clothes again and bathed himself, before slowly and carefully sinking into the green water. It bubbled and tingled all over him, feeling oddly cold, hot and electric at once.
Slowly, the everpresent acidic burn in his flesh began to fade, so slowly it took a few minutes to notice and longer to become certain. Shortly, his duchess and comrades wandered in, following him into the bath. The others averted their gazes from his marked and scarred face, thankfully, the only part of him visible above the dark, swirling water.
Angie stared in shock, never having seen his face before… That was only fair, he stared in shock at her two, normal, natural and rather fetching legs. He’d assumed she had received a new prosthetic, another crude half functioning wooden leg to stumble along on…
“Angie…” He gasped in amazement. “How?”
With a grin, she popped her leg off and propped the beautiful wooden sculpture against a bench. The instant she pulled it away, it became an inert construct of wood. Beautiful, but inanimate as a stone. “You can trust him, Cameron…” She whispered happily, as the strange man came in and joined the bath.
Without preamble he started talking in a happy, conversational tone.
“Monsters are usually a minor problem, even the most dangerous are dumb, with less than even animal intelligence… Outsiders and ‘demons’ are a different matter.” He said with a mad grin.
“They can come here by accident, or by design… most often they are summoned into physical realities with ritual magic.” His smile hardened, becoming cold and hard.
“A forbidden cult, dedicated to an unknown god has been doing that a good bit, dragging entities into this world to cause chaos and destruction.”
“Someone summoned it? Why?” Duchess Sheng asked softly.
“In hopes of destroying a town or village nearby, or perhaps just to cause chaos. The cult in question is trying to foster fear and dread in humanity and the other sentient races and spirits of this world, by convincing you all that it is the end of the world.” He smiled again, madly chipper and oddly comforting.
“It’s not ending… not even close. A doomsday cult has to doomsday, even if it’s complete bullshit.”
“That’s a problem for later though, today we’re breaking a curse… or rather, unwinding one. What’s needed is for you to understand the entity's words and intent. Your troupe is here because you need their support and understanding too, in order to complete it. You are going to love this… we unbind this curse with storytime.” He giggled madly, hopped up on the curb of the pool and pulled his notebook out of nowhere.
#
Qislaz loved his cold, dark depths. The water swirled and washed through the corals and reef entities, bringing a rich bounty of life and energy through his swarm’s territory. The pale moons above pulled the tides to and fro in their threefold influence, shedding cool, pale light on the colorful fish and crustaceans all around.
His personal anemone garden was well planned and exquisite, blinking their bioluminescent bodies to draw small prey in. They swept his little cavern clean keeping sea midges and other vermin away, while providing a sweet scent and bright colors.
Qislaz knotted and preened his two dozen tentacles in preparation for a quiet evening of hunting for food in his familiar territories. No sooner had he cleaned his old mucous coating away, than he felt a sudden, grasping pinch in his ink sack, as though something was pulling at him from the inside… and he knew no more.
He awakened on a dry, dusty patch of sand, far from any taste or scent of his native waters. His mucous coating began to dry almost immediately, even as he struggled to clear his beak, vents and intake of an unfamiliar, clinging slime.
Confused, lost and desperate, he crawled in the direction of the nearest water, compelled by instincts older than his species’ sentience.
It was a sad, mucky, murky pool in a shallow stream of clean and pleasant water. That at least, was a good sign. He rested in his silty bog until the blazing sun fell and he could begin his journey to whatever sea this stream would eventually lead to.
Several nights of slow, painful travel followed, usually involving the poor creature having to drag itself out of the water to circumvent some obstruction, or crawling through the shallows, across pointy rocks to the next pool. He was harassed by the local wildlife several times, the local crayfish were highly aggressive and very stupid. They kept him both annoyed and fed on his long journey.
Finally, his shallow stream joined a lake, wide, deep and cold. Strange constructs floated on the surface here and there, a few trailing lines with baited hooks into the depths. So there was sentient life here! Flushing bright green and mottled red with relief, he shot to the surface to communicate with the airbreathers.
When his first tentacle reached over the side of the construct to tap the sleeping occupant awake, things started going poorly. The creature had a terrible paucity of limbs and appendages, the eye tentacle that touched the being was harmless and inoffensive, yet the creature panicked.
“It set to wailing an unholy noise that shriveled my membranes and drove me back to the depths in fear and horror.” The madman in the bath read aloud to his confused and horrified audience.
“He spent a few weeks trying to contact the villagers around the lake… I wont read you those parts, he goes on a bit.” The fool said with a wink, flipping a few pages forward.
“Ahh here we are.”
#
Finally, after days of attempting to communicate, I felt a magical presence gathering on the nearby shore. My joy at finding mages here was immense, so despite the pain and danger, I rose to converse… How great was my horror, when they attacked me with sharpened tools and flung objects of power? Very great indeed.
Indiginy and injuries drove me to snatch up one of my attackers and scribe my tale in his flesh, that someone might read my tale and come to my aid in this nightmare realm. Gods above and spirits of the depths, please, help me…
#
“Sorry Cameron… you guys attacked an innocent victim. Do you know if he’s still there?” Gary asked, as he tucked his notebook away.
“The creature has not been seen since, but the mountain lake it was in has few and very shallow outlets. I suppose it might still be there, hiding in the depths.” Cameron whispered sadly. “So this is my punishment? A lifetime of pain and disfigurement?”
“Nope. it’s done, if you could have read his work that day, it would have ended then. Once you heard his story, his ink began to dissolve away, as it was enspelled to. Relax in the bath for a while… you’ll come out a new man, brother.” The fool said happily, as he donned a robe and strolled out, leaving a confused group of warriors behind. “I’m gonna need directions to that lake bro.”
#
They enjoyed an early lunch when the duchess and her team led Cameron out of the baths. Bright pink skin showed where his ridged and purple welts had been, while the ink lines had vanished entirely. Dressed in common clothes, the tall, handsome young man looked around with a smile of almost giddy delight. I’d forgotten what it felt like, to be free of pain…” He whispered
“All he needed was to be understood… there’s a message in that for all of us, I think…” Gary said as he vanished through the doorway.
#
“Gary, we need to talk about something that happened a few days ago…” Liam began, when he finally found Gary, under a rose arbor in the garden, playing with some mud.
The young warrior spoke earnestly and calmly to his slightly mad friend and brother, as that fool continued sculpting the tiny figure of a man, in wet clay.
“During a garden party with the court ladies, earlier this week… you somehow reached in and took all my clothes, while I was wearing them…” He grimaced unpleasantly. “And the chair I was sitting in, while accompanying a number of noble and notable ladies.”
“Uhh, huh, sorry about that. It was a cultivation accident. I got distracted and too tired while trying to fit some big stuff in my Pockets! I’m really sorry about that bro.”
“I was angry at the time… I assumed it was some cruel prank on your part… so I’ve come to apologize to you, actually.” He said, looking embarrassed. “I never thought he would just go ahead and put it up… and that Otho helped was surprising…” He stopped talking and peered at what Gary was doing.
“Are you making a doll? Out of mud?”
“Uh huh… go on I’m listening, someone put something up?” He murmured, not sounding like he was listening at all.
“Gary this is important…” Liam complained.
“Ok, lemme… just…” He finished twiddling and kneading his figurine and carefully tied a small white cloth around its brow. The cloth was white, save for a tiny spot of what looked suspiciously like blood… Gary propped his manikin in the sun with a satisfied sigh.
“Ok, I‘m all yours…”
At that moment the whole family came tumbling into the garden, giggling and laughing, with the noble ladies following in a more dignified procession. “Oh there you boys are, Gary wash your hands we are going on a jaunt to the temple ward! There is a new shrine to Secret erected and we all would like to see what you have done!”
“Oh, gods… I’m sorry Gary.” Liam whispered as they trooped out in a happy, jingling mob.
“My troop has some things to work through… Fortunately, there is a doughty band of adventurers available to escort we ladies…” Duchess Sheng said soberly, as she marched along behind Wilford, Rio and Amy, in their full adventure regalia.
“Of course our first quest is an escort job…” Amy said happily. “Next, fetch quests!” Her two comrades nodded somberly.
“Treasure maps.” Wilford said with absolute conviction.
The happy gaggle of plain clothes nobles, local weirdos and cute costumed kiddos developed a bit of a following, as they strolled and shopped along the main thoroughfare.
Bored locals fell in with the group, tagging along with the merry sound of Shai’s bells… and the numerous other women and a few men who had taken up the fashion.
Never one to miss a good time, Gary began strumming his mandolin and whistling along with the birds in the trees.
She's… my… cherry pie!
Cool drink-of-water,
Such a sweet surprise!
Tastes so good,
Make a grown man cry…
Sweet! Cherry pie!
Oh yeah
“A song doesn’t have to be smart, clever or even very good, as long as it slaps… and feels a little naughty.” Gary mused to himself, when Shai spun into his arms at the end of the song. “That’s the secret of glam rock.”
A sharp glance from a conservative and devout granny hushed him up, as they entered the sacred precincts in a dignified and respectful gaggle. All was as it should be, the courts of Order and War had their usual light bustle of activity.
Healer always had people going in and out. The six shrines to the spirits, around the periphery were lightly peopled, with just a few adherents here and there.
In the humble little park where the other four temples met, a white obelisk stood; where the former shrine to Secret had been, before Gary removed it in the night. A small plaque read:
By common assent of the people of Wheatford, let this shrine to Secret remain, as a civic monument.
L. Belen, duke of Wheatford.
Each face of the four sides of the obelisk bore an image, depicting some aspect of Secret. First was the keeper of Secrets, a hooded and robed figure standing imobile and inviolate, one hand raised in a commanding gesture. It demanded silence with its impenetrable hooded gaze. All around the upper reaches of the bas relief, plump little cherubs fluttered around on bird, bat and insect wings. Each one was making a rude or hilarious face at the hooded figure… Each one was also entirely nude and depicted with comically round bottoms… the faces seemed familiar somehow.
The next face was Secret, the revealer of truths, holding a lantern and leading the way through a thorny bramble of white marble vines. His sandaled feet trod on a narrow and stony path, but his lamp showed a clear vista ahead, carved into the stone with loving detail. In the stone verdure behind him, primitive faces leered and jibbered from the shadows they seemed somehow familiar too, despite their monkeylike and obscene expressions and the cherubs, crowding the corners, waving their backsides..
Next came Secret the confidante, holding his robed arms open in an embrace… behind him a small legion of listening chubby angels with amusingly large ears leaned in with expressions of prurient delight, on their all too similar faces.
Finally was Secret, the ender of relationships; he too held out his arms, but big eared mice and rats poured from his sleeves, with more scuttling about underfoot. In the background folks scurried away from the swarm of vermin, each person seemed terrified and also… chubby chibi cherubs.
Gary turned on Liam with a strange look in his eye. “All these people, creatures and cherubs… they all kinda look like me… not really, but kinda.”
“Yeah…” Liam answered wistfully. “Something about you keeps even Dannyl from being able to draw you accurately… at least the face, anyway. It’s like there’s no real distinguishing feature…”
“Wait.. what?” He demanded, drawing looks from the nearby people… then second looks, then third, as they began to giggle.
“Yeah, you didn’t notice? All his paintings of the rest of us are almost alive, but yours are always those ‘cartoon’ things. Mikkel has the same trouble…” He patted a bare marble cherub ass fondly. “He really got the important parts though.”
“So these are all me… my bare ass…” He fell silent glaring at the obelisk and the gathered crowd of Bathers, nobles, bored townies and the ever widening circle of giggles spreading from their conversation.
“The duke, Otho, Mikkel and I, we were talking in the bath a few days ago… and smoking something…” Liam began lamely. “I didn’t think they would really…”
Gary shrugged and smiled wide. “I love it… don’t tell the duke, the poor guy needs a win right now…” He whispered, before putting on a great show of affronted dignity. He went stalking off with his trousers hitched high, taking exaggerated, wide legged strides.
“I’ll be filing a strongly worded complaint with the authorities!” He yelled petulantly, while shaking his fist at the crowd.
Shai dashed after her fool and found him around the corner, leaning on the temple of War and giggling madly. “I should have done that weeks ago…” He gasped. “Gods, I’m tired…”
#