Ch: 229 History Is Made At Night
Damsen strummed her harp, sending sweet music fluttering through the clear afternoon sky. Her cursed mistress didn’t care a fig how she reached her destination, nor whether she enjoyed the journey… Results were all that mattered.
In any case, she was having the best time since she’d been enslaved to Uncieiellie of the jeweled sands. The open roads, bright sunshine, clear, starry nights and sweet music flowing from her fingers again after so long. It almost seemed that the floodgates of creativity had been flung open at last!
She had dozens of new songs, they almost poured into her every night, as she walked and played.
Strange songs that seemed to spring to her mind as though fondly remembered and well studied. Their forms, tones, tempos and arrangements varied wildly, across a musical landscape she felt was both deeply alien and as familiar as her own instrument.
It took a day to find any sign of human habitations and two more days to reach a small village on the fringe of the human world. Her crimson robes of the Bard’s Guild were unrecognized in the town… When she inquired, none knew how to contact the guild, nor had ever heard of it. That was going to be awkward and difficult. Everyone needs money when traveling, even the spirit projection of an enslaved soul trapped in a construct of gemstone sand, forced to do the will of a demon. She spent an afternoon, shrouded in her robes busking in the town square for small coins.
Instead she received food, local food barter tokens mostly, but some actual produce and a sandwich that looked delicious… She barely remembered eating, from when she was free. Only vaguely recalling that it was awesome. Being made of tiny sand crystals sucked the big one, it was going to be a slow journey on foot.
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The little family and Kelli had all splashed down in the private bath and were happily cavorting about, while Gary and the entity kept their discussion going.
“I have always wondered why none of them seemed to be offended by their orphanage indenture system… It seems abhorrently barbaric considering the general state of things otherwise.” The shadow murmured, her voice filled with discontent.
“As a non corporeal entity, the idea of having constraints placed on my movements is appalling. Yet Kelli accepted her indenture without a second thought and never considered objecting…” She shook her head in wonderment.
“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. Whoever set this game up… they really did a job of it! It’s like a house of… of… a carnival funhouse, where they have a maze of…?” He sank lower in the pool with a vague and confused look in his eyes.
“Journeyman Shai… your mate seems…” The shadow called to the tall redhead over with the children and Kelli.
“Fie…” She muttered. “Sweet Shai will nae get her naptime this day…” She surged through the pool, heading for her slowly submerging dark haired musician. “Dinnae ask him any questions more… shadow girl. His mind will be as wet sand, til I mend him wi rest and simple pleasures. He will be well anon.”
The giantess took her man in tow and hauled him away, while high priestess Becky moved in to converse with the shadow.
“My brother Gary, he gets confused sometimes… what was he saying before he lost the plot; do you mind? It’s a mystery we’ve been trying to unravel for a while.”
“I have no idea what he was referring to. ‘Fun house? Maze?’ It makes little sense to me.” She sighed sadly. “He seems fun, too bad he’s broken.”
“He’s a mess, but he’s our mess.” Becky said firmly. “The kids and Kelli say you’re ok, and Gary is cool with you so I’m going to let things be… but understand.” Becky squared up on the floating shadow, drifting on the surface of the pool; tethered on a long, thin tendril of shade from Kelli.
“If I find you are up to no good, I will banish you myself without a second thought.”
“Ahh, you are his apprentice… I see it now.” She cooed. “Your arts are different though… How strange, that your master would not teach you his own skills…”
“Can the demon of enticement act, you do it poorly. I know the price he paid for his ‘skills’ and would never pay it myself; nor would he want me to, they are his burden to bear.” Becky said coldly.
“You have far more wisdom than your youth would suggest. Tell me Becky, high priestess of Knowledge, whence come his strange abilities?” She asked with disarming sincerity.
“That won’t work either; I’ve met Kelli and felt her aura… I can’t be compelled to tell you the truth, as long as I don’t lie. Refusing to answer is my choice.” Becky smiled at the shadow being. “I respect the effort though.”
“I’m glad we got that out of the way early.” The shadow said happily. “I have already surmised that you are this ‘Ginger Donut’ Adventure band we have been getting incomplete and inconsistent reports on. We will be greatly rewarded for clarifying our records on your group. The guild hates inconsistent reporting.”
“Ginger… Donut?” Becky asked with a gleeful smile. “We are most assuredly not this ‘Ginger Donut’, but that does sound delicious.”
“How disappointing. We have been getting some startling reports on their activities. Pre indenture Adventurers, if you believe it. They must be mad, or more likely, they are in the thrall of some horrid taskmaster.” She mused. “I pity the poor dears. Whoever is driving them to endanger themselves so… is a shameful beast.”
“Oh certainly, anyone who would lead poor orphan waifs into a life of danger and suffering must be deeply deranged.” Becky agreed, winking at Tawny, who was slowly turning colors.
“Now Becky…” Tawny began, until the high priestess swept her up in a wet, squishy hug.
“I love how easy it is to fluster you, big sister.” The tiny cleric sighed happily.
The unnamed entity withdrew back into Kelli’s shadow, to enjoy the feelings and sensations coursing through her host… and to let the two women share a private moment alone. The intricacies of mortal relationships would need more time to unravel, but even a shadow being from beyond can read the room.
“…Ester the unicorn has a potty mouth, but she’s so pretty and kind… mostly…” Amy was saying, or something to that effect.
Despite her size, the tiny girl never seemed to run out of breath. ‘Interesting.’ Kelli’s shadow thought to herself.
“Do you practice some form of breath control art, Amy?” She asked, pitching her voice and timing her words to suggest that Kelli had spoken.
The child’s head swiveled instantly, keying in on the shadow. “Shai says you work for the Odds losers… and we shouldn’t tell you any secrets.” She said firmly. Behind her, two small boys nodded in solidarity.
“I understand from Gary, that master Oddsman Lester of Fort Pasture wronged you, somehow and has been ‘punished’ for it in some way…” She began gently.
“He hit Amy.” Wilf said with satisfaction. “He’s ‘piders now.”
“Sush Wilf!” Rio muttered.
“Justice must be dealt in the open.” Wilford said in his stentorian, old man voice. “That is the Law of Mankind, only tyrants deal Justice in Secret.”
“Fascinating!” She whispered eagerly.
“Wilf!” Becky scolded him gently a moment later. “No pronouncing the Law around Gary or the guests. You know the rules.”
“Not his fault, Becky.” Rio mumbled softly. “Kelli’s aura makes him want to tell the truth.”
“Well, I need you to be more careful with that kiddo... Gary can’t meet her yet, ‘cause he doesn’t believe she exists here.” The tiny cleric told her charges. “He needs to find her in his own way and his own time.” She hugged the beefy lad close in the bath and sighed. “I’m sorry Wilf, we have to keep some secrets, even from Gary.”
She turned a ferocious glare on the shadow being. “I need you to understand something.” She said softly. “The kids like you, Gary and Tawny like you, I like you… We all love Kelli… But I will banish you into the ether without hesitation, to protect my family.”
“I cannot help hearing what I am told.” She said lamely.
“I don’t want to separate Kelli from the kids… that would make them unhappy too.” The tiny priestess whispered to the shade from beyond reality. “If you promise to keep our secrets as best you can and not pry or snoop, I’ll take you at your word.”
“We have secrets we wish kept as well. Poor Kelli gets to socialize so rarely, I couldn’t bear to take her away from them. You have my word, Becky.”
“Keep it, if you wish to be a part of our circle of trust.” She whispered, while the children splashed and roughhoused with the smiling blissful woman.
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Shai hauled her befuddled man off to the grotto to soak and get his head together, a quiet, dark place was best. On a whim, she disrobed and joined him, relishing the swirl of the water and his warm, wet skin against hers.
“We’ll find whatever it be that unstoppers thy head an lets thy brains run dry, lad of mine…” Shai whispered fondly, as she tucked him into the grotto and wrapped herself around him in the hot fast flowing water.
She nestled him in among the water weeds and lilypads to rest. The poor thing had been run ragged in a few ways over the last weeks and things did not look to improve any time soon. He was still vacant eyed and slack lipped, but she kissed his fool mouth anyway, drool be damned. They faded off into an actual nap, despite her best laid plans.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
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“There’s a giant turtle in the cave…” Kelli whispered breathlessly to Ellie, her shadow friend. “She’s so pretty and smart…”
“Yes Kelli, I saw her, remember? We will go visit her when our hosts are not resting there. They are very tired and need some quiet.” Ellie whispered back. “Eat your soup, you know you like it.”
“I want to play with the turtle… Wilf said he’d introduce me!” She insisted. “I can be quiet.”
“I know you can, sweetie… but I think Gary and Shai are doing ‘grownup things’ in there.” She explained patiently.
“I won’t make any noise…” She put on her most sulky face and pouted for all she was worth.
“I don’t think Gary and Shai want you watching them.” She explained very gently and carefully.
“Kai’s watching them…” Kelli said with a smile.
“That’s different, sweetie. Kai is a divine spirit… She sees everything in the region regardless of where her body is.” Ellie did not like where this was going, not at all.
“Does that mean Kai watches me poop?” She demanded crossly.
“Yes, dear, she can’t really help it, just as I cannot avoid joining you on those… excursions.” Her shadow shuddered violently. “We need to find the privy now, don’t we, Kelli?”
The woman nodded sadly. “I wanna go home. Traveling is gross… except the bath… I like their bath.”
“Yes sweetie, Port Ellis was horrible, chamber pots are disgusting and we hope to never see another pit privy in our life.” She sighed. “Come along, dear.”
In the hallway, they were nearly trampled by Amy and Rio, chasing Wilf with a pair of underpants and some shorts. Kelli followed Wilf’s bare bottom and his pursuers down the hall, assuming the parade was headed for the jakes. She followed the fast hustling, chubby cheeks into a room filled with strange cubicles, a trough down one wall and basins for handwashing.
Elli nudged Kelli into opening a cubicle door and found a real, gods blessed toilet inside… with actual plumbing, a bidet and soft, luxuriously absorbent paper on a roll beside the stool.
“Sorry, this is the boys room.” Rio said from the door. “Girls go next door, Kelli. Wilf said you needed help finding the potty, but he has trouble remembering which one is which.”
Amy caught Kelli by the hand in the hall and pulled her through a similar door, into a similar room, save that there was no trough against the wall… odd, that. There were a few more stalls though.
The clean, simple and hygienic facilities were well within Kelli’s abilities, leaving Elli the luxury of a few minutes of contemplation, while her ward was awake. She mused on the nature of words and family, for a while.
It amused her that her host’s name was Ward, and these tots were not his children of the flesh but his wards, just as Kelli was hers… just as her host seemed to be adept in the art of magical structures and fields, or… wards. She giggled a little, giddy at the feeling of community in this strange house.
Little Amy was at the mirror cabinet, standing on a stool and preening her long, black, silky hair.
“Are you truly not frightened by a talking shadow, child?” Ellie asked the strange girl.
“Gary is a thousand times scarier than you when he’s in a happy mood. He hasn’t been in a happy mood for a little while now.” She said sadly.
“I promised not to snoop, Amy. Please don’t make it more difficult on me with bait like that…” Elli scolded the sweet child mildly.
“Gary says he killed the god of Secrets, he’ll tell you whatever you wanna know when he feels better.” She said with a smile, still brushing her hair. “We gotta close the mirror away when we’re done every time, ok? House rules.”
She hopped down from the stool, gently guided Kelli to wash her hands and helped straighten her colorful new clothes, before closing the mirror away behind a cabinet door.
Amy took them by the hand and led them out into the common room singing sweet and softly.
La-da-da-da-da,
I'm gonna bury you in the ground…
La-da-da-da-da,
I'm gonna bury you with my sound!
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“Aye, ye had a fair proper ‘naptime’ in thee after all, lad of mine.” Shai purred happily, nestled in beside him in the grotto pool. “An now ‘tis in me fer good an all.”
She took a gentle nibble of his shoulder, enjoying the warm and slightly battered feelings radiating from her tenders and middle.
“Mmm… you did promise me some good lovin’ this morning.” He murmured into her hair. “Maybe I should collect now…” He purred right back at her, and took a nibble at her throat for good measure.
“Lad, we just… ye dinnae remember…? Nae five minutes ago?” She asked in wonder, as things started stirring in the depths.
“Roleplay? I’ll bite… what’s the scene? Shipwrecked sailor and the lonely fisher lass? Pirate captain and the cabin girl with dark desires?” He grinned madly and started getting handsy, just the way she liked.
“The scene be, that yer nurse hae just had her wicked way with thy insensate form, all unknowing that thou wert unconscious…” She pitched her voice soft and plaintive, tugging at his heart cruelly.
“Technically I hae molested thee. Wilt thou press charges?” She fluttered her eyelashes and heaved her breasts beneath the water.
“I’ll think of a suitable punishment… your safeword is edelweiss.” He growled into her hair, while gently scratching from the back of her neck to her scalp in slow, steady movements.
#
The rain kept up for two more days, too heavy to really travel the roads in, too windy and tempestuous to sail safely. Gary’s island in Kai’s waterways would be home, until the weather improved.
Gary and Shai reveled in the idle time, working together in the shop, just like before the world got more complicated. They swayed and danced through a good portion of their backlogged projects, both individual and shared. It wasn’t til the evening of the second day that she asked him the question that was on her mind.
“Lad… ye hae made idle music, ‘noodling in the blues’... But ye hae not made a ‘big production number’ in some days.” She said softly. “Art thou truly well?”
“I’m kinda off kilter still. I can’t risk unmaking those… things until I’m back on an even keel.” He giggled tiredly. “I’m talking like a real boat guy.” He sagged against her shoulder a little, letting his worry show through at last.
“What be the trouble, lad?” She whispered in the crowded common room. “There be no problem in yer trews… that be certain.”
“I’m outta gas in my groove engine… Can’t find the good foot. I feel like I missed my soul train and I can’t get to Funkytown” He looked so lost and hopeless, despite saying such silly things. Her barely suppressed smile made him sag lower in his seat, wilting a little. “See? I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
“Nae lad, I dinnae understand, ye must speak plain.” She reached out and took his face gently in her hand, caressing his cheek with her calloused fingers. “We dinnae come frae the same land, ye must make me understand thee, an we would share all taegether.”
“Sexypirategirlsayswhat?” He mumbled with a sad smile.
“What, my love? I dinnae ken…” She said softly.
“Exactly.” He whispered sadly.
Shai stood up with a huff and circled to his side of the table. She slapped her bottom down on his bench and used her own tush to wedge herself in with him; cramming the boy into the corner. Once he was pressed in tight she pressed her attack, with her pale, creamy decolletage pressed close to his face. There was a lot of pressure going on in their booth.
“Ye will tell me fair, an true what ails thee, ere I release thee.”
“I have low bass pressure, my funk wont krunk… I try to get on up; but I can’t Get down.” He mumbled.
“So… ‘tis in yer pants?” She asked in confusion.
“No, it’s in my soul… I know the heart of rock n’ roll is still beating… in cleveland…” He sighed sadly. “I just can’t hear it right now.”
“So, ‘tis a music thing? Nay yer cock?” She asked, perhaps a bit too loudly.
“No! It’s not in my pants.” Gary said emphatically, too emphatically… the instruments on the wall sang his words softly, in harmony. “What would make you think my dick don’t work?” He demanded hotly, as the crowd fell quiet, just in time for ‘my dick don’t work…’ to echo around the silent taproom.
“I can’t believe this is my life now…” He muttered sourly into the rafters and the uncaring heavens above.
#
The bench outside Otho’s office had been polished by near numberless orphan buttcheeks over the three centuries and more of his tenure in office. Malus felt all those nervously clenching buttholes from the past, whispering to his subconscious mind. The nervous energy of centuries of bellyaches and stress diarrhea made him question himself and his course of action… What could the old coot do to help, after all?
It had been four long years of indenture since he’d met Otho of Joy, by chance while on patrol with the legion. He’d joined their patrol camp in the wilderness between Port Ellis and Port Fallon, transforming it into a musical paradise for a single night.
That night he had decided to retire to Wheatford after his indenture and grow figs, dates and olives in the stony hills. Now months after his discharge, he still wandered, paralyzed with indecision and stress.
He’d found himself drinking more than he ought, jumping at shadows and wondering where the next creature was going to leap from… He’d suffered from these feelings since the day he nearly met his end at the sting of a lurking tentapede.
Sitting on that hard, lonely bench his mind flashed back to that day.
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Ten days in the badlands on routine patrol with a double strength platoon was a tough duty… As the junior team, Malus’ crew got stuck with all the shit details, including shit detail.
Bran, his shield man, was off staking out the next privy trench, leaving Malus the lovely task of starting this one, while the rest of the team set camp. He looked around and with a devilish grin, shucked his breast and back plate and set his helmet aside.
Digging in armor, even light campaign gear, was a misery, regulations or no. Plus, he needed to christen this privy with its maiden turd before long. In short order, he had the trench dug and had begun stringing the curtains around the officer’s crap hole. He heard the jingle of tack before he had a chance to defile the officers’ shitpit with his common leavings, so he buckled his gear back in place loosely around his full term foodbaby and shuffled off to dig the common troopers’ bog among the thorn bushes.
Bran was probably off trying to seduce the cook with poetry and smooth talk, the oily devil. His ruminations and shovel work were cut short by a wrenching sensation behind his belt buckle. This thing needed to happen, now.
Malus took his trusty shovel and a roll of the sacred scroll, for after. He dipped into the bush with a quiet invocation. “Deuces are wild.”
The familiar hole digging ritual took no longer than expected, nor did it hold any surprises, until he went to drop his breeches.
A rustle sounded from the soil and leaf litter nearby, the moment his arse felt a cool autumn breeze. Only finely whetted instincts and long hours in the training yard got his shovel around in time to halt the stinger plunging for his middle.
Myriad chitinous legs grasped his body as the tentacled head of the thing came around to grapple for his face. Desperately, he wriggled inside his armor, squirming out just as the writhing mass of grasping tendrils on the front end of the thing lurched for his face.
With a wild and adrenaline fueled surge of fury, he brought his trenching shovel up and through the nasty beast’s creeping, obscene ‘head’. It squelched and splattered unpleasantly, while the beast’s unguided tail stinger gave the back plate of his empty armor a thorough stabbing. Again and again the bone spike on its tail end pierced his armor, spraying venom onto the inside of his breastplate in a deeply offensive display of exuberance. With disgust on his face, Malus used his shovel to end the thing’s thrashing for good. The young warrior didn’t need to shit anymore, he needed a bath, an armorer and a laundry… he was not going to find any of those for another four days on the road…
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Finally, the door opened and a young man in a red scarf came out and bowed to the doorway. “Thank you, Beloved Otho.” Before he scurried away.
“Come in, brother Malus.” The old man’s voice carried strongly even after so long.
Otho’s office was a tame jungle, moist and scented of the earth and green growing things. The man behind the desk seemed somehow far younger and more vibrantly and vigorously spry than even their first meeting, when he was just a promising new made Adventurer on patrol.
“Malus, I’ve been expecting you…” The old coot chirped happily. “We’ve had a lot going on, or I would have contacted you first…” He waved to a comfy looking chair and smiled warmly at the warrior. “Retirement and the quiet life elude you, my friend. You have what we call post traumatic stress disorder… it’s depressingly common and annoyingly hard to treat by magical means.”
Malus sat up straight and grumbled at the old man. “Never said I was sick… where is that coming from, Otho?”
“There is nothing wrong with you, the problem is in your training, conditioning and the dangerous life you’ve led… You have been trained to be an indentured Adventurer, a legionnaire of War…” He smiled warmly at the man’s scarred and battered face. “Now we must train you to be something else… As for what you will become? That is the tough decision you must make.”
“I came for help brother Otho, for advice.” He said softly. “I’m lost in the woods with no guide…”
“Yes you are. Jeng, Stilbend and Bran have each come to me with similar issues. They are having trouble leaving behind the regulated and perilous life of the legion, for the largely unregulated and quiet life of civilians.” He said gently.
“This is a problem we can solve together, my friend. When Ishmael and Whirrel come to see me in the next day or two I will serve them the same offer. Lord Argent Douche is forming an expedition to reclaim the lost county of Kinnis from the wilds. Not only will this task be profitable and well within your capabilities, it will allow you a more gradual introduction to a life less regimented.” He said smugly.
“You will also get first peek at the farmlands that will be up for lease and sale soon… A fine stretch of bottomland, a sunny orchard slope…”
“You are a wretched old goat, high priest Otho, Beloved of Joy.” The ugly warrior grumbled softly. “I’ll save you the bother. Ish and Whir came to see me last night, they want to get the warband back together. They’ll join.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair, eyeing the old man warily.
“Who’s to be the lord of Kinnis? Douche is not even a baronet.”
“Trelawny Belen is the patron of this expedition.” He said smugly.
“That doesn’t answer my question; Tawny will be joining Healer’s clergy, she can’t be countess in her own right.” He protested.
“All of that is true. Tawny is the estate’s executor, tasked with finding an heir to take on the duty. She has delegated authority to lord Douche while she is Adventuring.” The old priest said with a smile.
“There is a plot afoot in this…” The warrior grumbled happily. “I love a good plot.”
“You are in for a treat then, there are a few plots afoot and at hand, stuffed in my pockets, up my sleeves and under my hat. Pick one, or take a few.” He said with a smile.
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