Ch: 182 Welcome To My Nightmare
“How the hell did you get your ass kicked in this town?” Anouk asked with a giggle, while she bound his cuts and slathered her herbal liniment on his bruises. “It looks like you were run over by a wagon.”
“Close enough I suppose. I was having a pleasant chat with the targets… they are clever and skilled, by the way…” He said with a grin that faded quickly. “Then some huge madman came flying up on a… something and launched himself at me.”
“A ‘something’, Jeremiah?” Sir Pangbourne asked with a smirk. “Some unfamiliar beast?”
“Yes, my lord, but it was a machine… or something. He pressed the charge like a mounted knight, the impact nearly took me down!” Jerry said nervously.
“He’s iron rank, and freshly minted at that, but he fights without a care for his own safety and has a strange weapon… It ate both my swords in less than a minute.”
“Ate them?” Pangbourne asked in genuine curiosity. “Is it some corrosive gift or spell?”
“No my lord, fighting that man is like fighting a smith’s grinding wheel. His weapon had… spinning blades? Whirling rings? I never got a good look, that is why I am able to report to you.” The shaken, battered warrior said quietly.
“He would have slain me, or forced me to slay him… somehow, if the young priestess had not been able to call him back in time.”
“Jeremiah, correct me if I’m wrong, but the kids I sent you to spy on are unranked, yes?” The lord asked quietly.
“Yes, my lord.” The warrior answered.
“The other one, the one who shattered your armor, ‘ate’ your weapons and sent you back battered and bleeding is freshly iron ranked yes?” The beleaguered man nodded grimly.
“Yet they all spotted my copper rank ‘elite scout’... and drove you away…” He asked, his voice dripping with acid. “I believe that our contract is complete… I shall have no further need for your services.”
“As you wish, sir Pangbourne. Anouk, look me up when you find yourself at loose ends.” He said to the pretty healer woman, with a saucy wink.
Jerry bowed to the lord stiffly, re-dressed in the tattered remnants of his clothing and left with his shattered armor in a duffel.
On the street outside Weyeth’s inn, Jerry looked a terrible mess, ragged and stained with blood. He turned toward the Adventure compound and started marching, wondering where life would lead next. First, a bath, a bed, then perhaps a tailor. What little clothing he had was in Pangbourne’s colors and he had little love remaining for the man or his ways.
At the gate, a pensioner checked his badge and welcomed him warmly. “Just in from the wilds, brother?”
“No, a piece of the wilds found me, right here in town. Some madman near dashed me to pieces in the market ward for snooping on a couple of kids.” He grumbled, as the old man opened the gate. “It was orders, from my former lord. I’m not a weirdo.”
“Ah, you met Gary. He’s on edge; some fool tried to snatch one of his kids a few nights ago, step carefully in town.” He waved the young warrior through the gate with a smile.
“Ask any of our kids in blue socks about getting yourself sewn back together.”
“Blue socks?” He muttered as the gate closed behind him. On the vast parade ground one expected in an Adventure compound, kids scurried everywhere.
They rolled on strange wheeled boards, wheeled shoes, one even rode a device like the madman’s but without the madly ringing thumb bell that freak had. Jerry expected to hear that awful sound in his dreams tonight.
‘Shing shing, shing shing’, with those colorful tassels on the handgrips waving gaily. He shuddered at the memory of that terrifying assault, accompanied by birdsong, the warbling of his weapon and that awful bell.
‘Shing shing, shing shing!’
He spotted a young girl in blue socks and waved her over. She looked him up and down and grunted. “You gotta talk to Colette, stranger. You should hit the baths first though… this is a civilized town.” She pointed to a tall column of steam, off in the near distance, behind a hillfolk roundhouse.
“Uh, who’s house is that?” He asked the girl, slipping her a copper bit.
“That’s Shai’s house, Colette is usually there, hanging out when she’s not busy. Bye!” The girl vanished in the gathering shadows, scooting off on her wheeled board with casual grace.
A grinning veteran behind a desk set him up with a billet, a private room on the fourth floor, overlooking the baths and garden… it even had a window!
“Says here free lancer… How long you staying in Wheatford?” The old coot asked, while checking him in.
“I don’t know, is the guild active?” He liked the look of the town… and those baths.
“For a solo free lancer, probably not. Maybe you can pick up some work here and there, but the duke forbids solo Adventuring under master rank, even then it’s discouraged. You can always sign on with the duke, he’s always looking for young talent.” The sour look that ran across the young stranger’s face said it all. “Bad breakup?”
Jerry nodded grimly.
“I’m not in recruitment, but if you can’t find a team, think about the duke. I retired from his service ten years ago, now I’m thinking about going back in.” He grinned and lighty swatted the younger man on the shoulder. “Go bathe and get some rest, you’re safe here.”
#
Jerry floated idly in the big pool, the kids were all gone, so it was him, a couple oldsters and a young group of greenies bobbing about.
The officer of the day had given him a standard War cult robe, since his clothes were rags, or soon to be. That solved his immediate problems, but his paltry savings were going to get devoured by this cash hungry town full of nobles and merchant lordlings.
He’d only been in town a day and he was unemployed, unarmed, unarmored and wearing a monk’s robe.
In the casual atmosphere of the bath, he floated a general question. “I’m new in town, are there any adventure bands active, maybe that are looking for a member?”
“There’s a few groups, most are out of town right now. The duke’s hiring a lot. The groups still in town are kinda close knit.” A tall brunette girl answered. “We’re the Red Ascots, but sorry, our group is full. You might check with Ginger Dreadnought, across the river, outside town, but they are kinda…” She trailed off, thoughtfully. “Is there a nice way to say weird?”
“Yeah,” A man’s voice answered coldly. “... you say ‘weird’, but with love. Watch out Colette, this guy was creeping on Becky and Dannyl earlier.”
A tall, muscular brown haired man was standing there, in common clothing. He looked young, felt like iron rank and sounded angry.
“Do I know you, boy?” Jerry asked archly. The apprentice badge on his sash and his iron rank, put this kid far down the power scale from a copper rank elite journeyman.
“Yeah, I kicked your ass two hours ago. Now I‘m up late cause you are soaking the ass I beat… in my bath. Are you enjoying this, spying for whoever sent you?” He snapped angrily, the coldness replaced by blazing heat.
“You’re that maniac lobster? Good show lad! Skulking sneaks deserve whatever they get, when caught.” He answered cheerily. “I’m surprised any of you detected me, you are clearly some guardian type and she is a mage for sure… impressive.”
“This isn’t a game. Don’t goof around with my family… and don’t come near my kids.” The boy barked, at his elder and superior.
“You walk a dangerous line, lad. I’ll leave ye be if you wish, but I took my lumps and remain civil. Try and accept a victory gracefully.” The man got out, dried off and left, in his simple War cultists robe.
“Ok… it kinda feels like I was the asshole there… Can I get a verdict from the pool?” He asked his floating kin.
“Guilty.” They all chimed softly.
“Awww… Dang.” He muttered.
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Gary got home, still feeling low. Shai was not going to take any of the night’s events well; especially him haring off and leaving her with the kids like that. It was dumb, sexist and unwise…
That was just his mental pre play of the chewing out he was in for, when he dragged his tired ass back home. That was why he was walking. The kids were in bed, Angie and Becky too, Dannyl was in the grotto, chatting with Cameron. Shai was up and pacing, her emotions in a mad jumble.
He slipped into the mostly sleeping house, soft as a kitten in llama wool mittens. Shai caught him immediately, of course.
“Boy of mine, what hae ye been up to?” She held one of the warrior’s ruined blades up, as though it were something rotten, rather than a battered and much abused piece of steel.
“My corrosive effect on steel and iron is pretty messed up. I can restrain it… if I want to.” He grumbled. “That guy was crazy strong, I had to blitz him and do my best to disarm or kill him fast.” Her boy snarled unhappily.
“Ye did that well. But tis a holy festival, Gary. Ye did break the peace nae he. An ye dinnae draw blood nor press the attack, ‘twould be fine…” Shai murmured.
“Am I in trouble? It does feel like I kinda went too far.” He murmured, when Shai folded him in a hug.
“Ye dinnae really hurt anyone… there may be a penance frae the cult of Healer. We shall see.” She set him down with a plate of pearlnut butter cookies, still warm from the oven and a cup of herbal tea.
“I hear ye did kick his arse…” She giggled happily.
“It was a total sucker punch. He would have thrashed me in a straight up fight.” Gary mumbled around a mouth full of warm moist cookie.
“I could feel him holding back, like you and the others do in training. By the time he figured out what I was doing to his swords, it was all but over. If I fight him again… I’ll need new tricks.”
“Or better yet, save yer fighting fer monsters an the unclean.” She grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a gentle shake. He let his head bobble loosely, just to annoy and amuse her. “Killing men is a shameful waste, best avoided.”
#
Rufus slipped through the night swiftly, running in the mile devouring lope of his long legged people. Carrying dispatches was good pay, above the expedition contract, but running through the wilds at night was not for the faint of heart or slow of foot.
None of the nocturnal predators was a threat to him, but an ambush hunter or trap layer might pounce before realizing. That would slow him down; instead he leapt the trapjaw ant hive, skittered around a fresh nest of giant molerats and ignored the raging wallowbear he left far behind.
The expedition camp came into sight after a grueling two night run, in a wide valley near the ruined city.
The guides had warned their human charges of the danger… and for a wonder, the humans listened, steering wide of the city proper and the up valley side, farthest from the camp, where the graveyard was. The place reeked of death and misery, just what haunts preferred.
Beni greeted him with a happy yipping bark, the humans wouldn’t play cards with him anymore, they were certain he was cheating. It wasn’t his fault human’s can’t read pheromones or detect changes in their rival’s heart rates.
“Ahh Rufus, it has been decided, we return to town in two day’s time. There are few threats above D rank and only the graveyard defies exploration.”
“Excellent!” Rufus yipped. “An early conclusion is the best kind of bonus! Let whatever poor sods the humans want to stick with this place, worry about that mess.”
“Humans and their dead…” Beni sighed. “They can sort that out for themselves.”
#
Gary and Shai surrendered the master suite to the bride and groom for the week, at Shai’s firm insistence.
On day two after the ceremony, he started getting stroppy about it. “I gotta admit Abed seems like he could be a cool dude, if he wasn’t such a colossal, rich, douche. I don’t even think he knows that he’s treating me like a servant…”
“Suck it up boy. Tis nae fer much longer… An ye ruin Jaspreets special time, I’ll whomp yer head onto dough, an have Tawny shape it intae a cube ere mending it!”
He didn’t have an answer for that one, so Shai won the day. “‘Coulda just shook your boobs at me…” He complained. “That usually works, without being mean.”
“Dinnae be sulky lad. Be good, an mayhap I’ll show thee some of Jennah’s latest workings tonight.” That perked him up, as their negotiations concluded on a positive note.
“They really are always like this?” Angie asked Becky. “I thought it was some jest, carried to an extreme…”
“No, that’s pretty much them. Almost all of their ‘arguments’ are just an excuse to make up.” Becky sighed long and slow, while watching her brother and sister work in the kitchen together.
“If you ever find a person that makes you smile like that, don’t let them get away.” She whispered happily.
#
“Don’t let them get away!” Mortis screamed into the breaking dawn, as the mortal flesh scooted over the valley rim, leaving his shambling crypt things behind. “Cursed wretches!” He howled at his minions, until his jaw fell off, splatting into the mire. “So hungry…” He gargled incoherently to himself.
Dawn’s light drove him back into the ossuary, sheltering among the marvelous bones. “The mortal flesh escaped, master; I cannot pursue it, in this form.”
“So you wish your shadow form released…” Master sighed through the demon skull he occupied, at the heart of the bone cathedral. “Follow them, do not reveal yourself. The enemy stirs, casting his filthy spores even this far from his fastness… see what has emboldened it so. To fail me, is to suffer brave new torments, shade. See that you succeed.”
Cold, sweet darkness flooded the specter, as the wretched corpse it inhabited crumbled into soil.
‘Ahh…’ The inaudible sigh of a shadow revenant, finally released from the prison of flesh and bone caused a few nearby corpse beetles to die immediately. Their paltry deaths were nothing to its hunger.
“This is my command:...” Master thundered into the formless shadow, vibrating its very essence.
“You shall not feed on the living without my express consent. You shall draw sustenance only from this fragment of the void, my child. Follow and observe, do not expose my existence here. Remain unobserved and report on what the mortal flesh does.”
A single, glimmering jewel of absolute darkness appeared in the empty air before the reliquary skull, hovering in place. The shade slowly approached and engulfed the artifact, taking it into the shadow’s ill defined shape.
“I shall obey.” It answered, as though it had any choice in the matter. Master’s command bound it more strictly than any mortal could know, there was no force that could allow it to disobey its master’s law, not even hunger...
#
“We warned you… why must you poke the hive with a short stick?” Beni scolded the expedition leader. “Your man was nearly carried off, for what? A bit of pottery and a stone tablet?”
“He’s an antiquarian… they can’t help themselves…” Chertoff answered lamely. “They’re like children, around old things.”
Beni and Rufus both yipped in annoyance at that. “Now our early success is a flight from a horrid nest of filth… It is defeat you have snatched from the jaws of victory, congratulations!” The red and brown scout barked in discontent.
“Easy Beni, those shamblers will not catch us and dawn comes even now.” Rufus yipped. “We carry on for half the day, then we sunbathe for an hour to cleanse our shadows of any sneaky peeks or spooks. We should reach Wheatford in three days.” The coyote shaman turned his eyes on Tybalt, still shaken and pale from his close call with a nasty end. “You are a fool. No one can even read that stone tablet.”
#
“I call them stone tablets…” Liam said softly. “...each one is a microdose of psilocybin, with hashish and duskmoon pollen, all rolled into tiny pills of Maple’s sap candy. One of these before bed and you should be able to enter the… Whatever it is as long as you are on the grounds.”
“It’s perfectly safe, if a little jarring.” Tawny murmured happily.
“She just likes the colorful ponies.” Liam grumbled just as happily to his little family. Gary and Shai were putting the kids to bed, while the group discussed ‘matters’ related to the immaterial world beyond their dreams.
“It’s absolutely infested with spiders…” Tallum confided to the group. “I’m sure it’s safe… but infested with spiders.”
“Those spiders are friends of mine.” Becky replied archly. “Well, the big one anyway; the little ones were all ghosts. They were just appearing as spiders, to mess with you.”
“Oh, that makes it much better…” The giant complained sourly.
“Ok ya big baby, I’ll go read all those books… you can try and keep up in meat space, with your meat brain.” Ivy grumbled at him. “I had a taste last time, now I wanna really get in there and root around.”
“Gross, Ivy.” Becky was still arching archly over the two idiots. “Also, there’s now a library that can access all of his memories without having to ‘root around’ in his brain, so there’s that.”
“Oh! Even better…” Ivy looked like a cute cherub with a dark side, her wicked grin made Tallum sit up and take notice.
“That good?” The big man asked his devious mate. She just chuckled darkly and nodded. “Ok, but there were a lot of spiders… did I mention ‘infested’?”
#
Dannyl, Liam and Luna were watching excerpts from every Jackie Chan flick Gary had ever seen, and working on those moves together. Dj Notgary was backing up and replaying the sequences for the gang with a grin on what little of his face could be seen, past the giant sunglasses and enormous headphones.
Most of the rest were in the library, magically formed inside the boll of a gigantic golden oak tree. The interior stretched on forever with rows of neatly arranged books, none of which had a title or any visible reference data at all.
“Just pull a book, it will be the one you are looking for, or will lead you to the right one.” Becky said quietly, which still drew a ‘Shhh!’ from the purple pony at the desk.
“So if i just think about the secrets of his weird enchantments, the answer will be in the first book?” Ivy whispered, drawing a sharp look from the pony librarian, but no scolding.
“Only if you are both in possession of that knowledge.” Becky said firmly, under a conjured dome of silence.
“You have to ‘go down the rabbit hole’ to find the answer in this place. Learning is a non linear process here. That is a reflection of the damaged state he is in and so, sadly unavoidable.” Becky told the group of students in her ward of silence.
“I am told it is traditional when you start researching here for the first time, to count how many books you go through before you learn about someone or something called a ‘hitler’... and no, you can’t just look that up. It’s the rules.”
“How odd.” Amicus muttered. “Very well, what do you suggest we begin with?”
“Thirp and Marduk both recommend a deep dive into his collected folklore and occult knowledge from his old world. I have found that to be sound advice. There are many clues to profound mysteries hidden among the allegory and myth.” Becky answered smoothly. This was her domain, and she was enjoying the power, for as long as the librarian let her.
“I personally suggest exploring ‘The Scientific Method’, they are a well respected cult from his world.” She said with a smile. “That will open your eyes to many secrets.”
“Oh, I’ll just dip into his gathered herb lore and snoop about there.” Naiomi murmured dismissively.
“Oh, no, she’s right.” A soft child’s voice whispered from behind the seated elders. “The scientific method is foundational… not to learning what we know, but for learning what you know.”
Ragy stood behind them, stock still and trembling with anger at the same time. He shimmered with a light heat haze that slowly faded as he took a seat at the table and cracked a book.
“This was my place, the only place I was ever safe and warm… the library, I mean. The library lady always laughed and said I haunted it like a hungry ghost… and she always crossed herself when she saw me…” He sighed while his face relaxed and he fell into his book.
“Don’t mind him. He’ll be like that for hours, maybe days. Nobody knows.” Becky said cheerily. “Let’s start the lesson, the socratic method will perhaps serve best…”
In the world of dreams, beyond mortal reality, time is highly subjective and quite malleable, for good or ill.
“Gods, that child is evil.” Naiomi muttered darkly, while Otho just floated in a red eyed stupor.
“Everything is cultivation, my dear.” Maple chittered from the edge of the pool. “Wandering that boy’s mind is a truly extraordinary experience, one that few sentients will ever have the chance to savor. We are seeing the world from a truly alien perspective.” Her girlish giggle took none of her gravitas away, as she joined them in the pool.
“It’s not that he is extraordinary in any way, rather it’s that we can truly see the universe from a new perspective, which opens new doorways in the mind.”
#
It slipped back along the ever lengthening thread binding it to master, passing through the doorway in its mind in an instant.
“I am haunting them master, the two beastkin began to suspect my presence, they are wily, the coyotes. I currently inhabit the shadow of a flightless bird, running it past them from time to time distracts them from my presence effectively.”
“Acceptable. Continue to follow my command.” Master dismissed the shadow with a flick of will.
#
The expedition marched across the formerly barren desert of baked clay and towering mesas, enjoying the lush growth and cool, shallow canals of clear water running over the land in a complex tracery of life and growing things.
Gilled salamanders and newts swam and crawled everywhere they looked, as did slugs, snails, creeping bugs and flying insects. Life was exploding out from the canals, filling the islands and raised plots of earth.
“I like this, still hot and dry, but filled with life now.” Rufus growled, as a skinny, long legged bird darted by, triggering his prey drive. “I swear that delicious morsel is following us…”
“Now now, Rufus, don’t go off chasing it, those blighters are stupid fast. My uncle died chasing one, it cut a corner and he ran right off a cliff. The look of disbelief on his face…” He shuddered. “I still hear its terrible cry at night sometimes, echoing in the darkness. ‘meep, meep!’... ”
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