Ch: 271 Heartache By The Numbers

Out among the trees of an overgrown, long abandoned orchard, The boys marched up a short canal that had silted up into a boggy meadow with a wide, slow moving creek meandering through. The rocky hills of the uplands glowered down in the distance, but these were green and rich lands, left empty and abandoned for so long that man’s touch was almost obliterated.

Down in the myriad dells, vales and small side valleys, plant and animal life flourished, running free in the half wild former settlement. There were still a few recognizable canal works and stone structures, but all overgrown beyond usefulness.

“It would be so nice, all this space and water. So close to the city, right off the main river channel… Instead it’s just…forgotten.” Gary mumbled, sounding tired. “It’s a shame. I like wildlands and forests as much as the next guy, but this place feels sad and empty.”

“This was once the hamlet of Greenwall.” Tallum rumbled. “No one remembers how long ago, but the people all died in one night, no one ever found out why. Since then, minor monsters pop up really often and it’s been pretty haunted, not enough to bring in clerics or cause trouble.” The giant shrugged.

“It’s just weird and creepy to most folks, like your haunted orchard, but way less spooky. The town just never came back.”

“Weird…” He mumbled softly. “I do feel… something. Hard to say what, lemme nose around and take a rest here, you guys find the bug.” He sat down on a foundation wall in the sun and sighed.

“Otho will keep me out of trouble.”

The boys headed into the orchards, while Otho curled up at his feet for a nap. Alone at last, he took a long slow breath, taking in the aroma of the place. Warm soil, the sun on leaves, rising sap, a fig tree’s faint latex scent and a riot of wildflowers crashed in on him; with the subtle pong of death hidden in the breeze.

“Come on out, I won’t try anything, Morrie.”

“How typical, to find you in a place of death and decay.” She cawed from a high branch.

“I could say the same… But this is a living place, just touched by death’s shadow. Tell me why you’re here. I assumed you would avoid me after last time.” He murmured. “Oh, you just realized what our connection means…” He smiled wanly at her raven form.

“Yeah, I can try and use your own gift on you at any time, wherever you are on this world. You could resist and would almost certainly win, but the fact that I could try…”

“Shut up, boy.” Crone’s voice snapped. “This is humiliating… Brigid is being a right bitch about it too, the insufferable twat.”

“Brigid is the ‘insufferable twat’? Seems like she’s played me square all along. You got what you wanted, then thought you could just clear the board without having to keep your bargains.” He smiled sadly up at her.

“I won’t forgive you for trying to make my kids orphans again… but I won’t take any reprisals. I kinda thought you were coming around, now I’m just disappointed.”

“God’s boy, you really are a dishrag, aren’t you?” She cackled. “I have a debt here, it must be paid or canceled. Make a request of me and we can be done… unless…” She cooed with uncharacteristic warmth. “Do you want me back in there? Snug in your breast?”

“You can fuck right off.” He answered with a sigh. “I plan on living in your head rent free for a while. You owe me and that debt is going to grind at you until you have to make it right. No forgiveness, no freebies.” He grinned up at her in an intolerably cheeky way.

“It’s totally gonna stick in your craw. I came out on top and you are indebted to me now, deal with that. Now fly on, birdy. I have work to do here, I’m still the only psychopomp around.”

She did fly away… but the aura of dissatisfaction and injured dignity she left behind took a while to clear away, like a fart in an elevator. He took a stroll around what remained of the small canalside hamlet while the air cleared. Otho followed along, providing much needed adult supervision, as he wandered the empty ruins.

Curious, he let his aura off the leash a little, allowing it to do its sneaky, creeping investigation of the living and unliving essences in the area.

The taste of old iron and the lingering touch of the spirits of Earth, Wind and Fire told him that one tumbled pile was a forge, while other hints told out a stable, an inn, several homes and a strange, empty void, barren of all living sparks, beyond the town, in the low hills above the reed filled millpond and the wreckage of a grain mill.

Slowly and carefully he felt all around the empty place, it wasn’t undead, nor an entity at all… simply a blank void in a place teeming with life and shades otherwise.

“Gary!” Liam’s voice rose over the little thicket of woods, growing from the corpse of a small town. “Gary. we need to move!” His three brothers came trotting back, Tallum carrying the Bug they sought over his shoulder with surprising ease. It was a biggun, at least eight feet long and must have weighed as much as Gary himself, yet the giant hurried along with no extra effort.

“That was fast…” He began cheerfully, as he and Otho joined up with the team.

“Stay with us, we’re moving back to the house now. Something else killed it.” Liam answered tersely.

“Oh.” He murmured nervously. “You say ‘something’ killed it…”

“Back at the house, Gary.” Tallum rumbled. “Less talkie, more walkie.”

#

Back home, Tallum laid his burden down on the patio… again with surprising ease. The monster landed with a soft chitinous rattle and hiss, since the shell was entirely empty.

“We found it like this, still clinging to a tree.” He said softly. “Look here.”

At the base of the creature’s empty head armor, a clean half inch hole marred the otherwise intact shell. “I think we have a giant assassin bug out there.” He mumbled, as the rest of the family gathered around.

“Oh, gross!” Becky groaned. “That’s even worse!”

“Assassin bug sounds troublesome…” Gary murmured. “I’m not at a hundo percent…”

“It’s just a monster bug… A dangerous one… Venomous, with a long, stabby needle nose, they are usually heavily armored and sneaky; but typically slow, fragile and dumb.” Liam said calmly. “We’ll hunt it tonight, when the sun goes down, they move even more slowly.”

“Those are all common misconceptions, human.” A creaky, clicky voice called from the woods nearby. “Your first error was in thinking me a simple monster.” From the woods, a wide, low form scuttled into the clearing.

The being was nearly all glossy black carapace, with splashes of screaming red here and there. Long, pointed spikes jutted from its armored shell and two of its front legs ended in spiked, grasping pincers. Those thorned and edged limbs twitched and flickered excitedly behind the long, partially coiled, needle pointed proboscis dominating its face.

It stopped at the edge of Gary’s domain, several yards from the garden wall, eyeing them with interest.

“If you’ve come to slay that, your task is done… It was delicious! If you’ve come to slay me, you’ve wasted your time, I shan’t be slain today…”

The four returning hunters lined up between the creature and the rest of the family, weapons appearing in their hands with a quiet rattle and clank. Shai joined the front line immediately, her armor and swords appearing around her as she stepped forward. “Bring the wee ones inside, Ivy. This will nae be fer their eyes.”

“Peace, humans… and other things. I am here for a purpose, not to hunt squishy, warmblooded beings. Mammals lack crunch and sweetness…” It paused, eyeing the front line with insectile amusement. It pitty patted its feet the way the dryads did, when laughing in bug form.

“I take it back, some of you do look crunchy! Mammals with exoskeletons of craft and artifice… how delightful! Gritsch did promise I would see strange new things here!”

“Outsider?” Gary asked the entity. “What are you doing here, outsider?”

“You have a strange accent, human. I do appreciate that you have learnt civilized speech.” It chittered happily.

“Gary, are you talking to a monster bug? That’s a little worrying.” Dannyl muttered softly, as his whip started getting frisky.

With a coarse, rattling, rasping sound, the creature spoke in the common language, for the others to understand as well.

“I come for a task… incomplete. I depart with no trouble… Cannot complete. Danger remains.” It croaked and rattled by stridulating its back legs and wing covers, creating a harsh humanoid voice.

“She knows a friend of mine…” Gary mumbled to his nervous family. “Let me talk to her.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Nope.” Liam answered sharply. “Shai, Becky, can you understand that creature?” Both women nodded silently, watching the insect creature with care.

“Dannyl, stay on the left flank, watch the woods. Tallum, stay with Gary and Shai. Becky, you’re with me on the right.” He spoke his commands calmly and quietly, but with a confidence that didn’t demand or expect obedience it simply was to be obeyed. They spread out to partially encircle the being, while keeping a good distance and their weapons ready.

“Mammals always fear us…” She chittered softly in her native language of clicks and gestures. “It’s an ongoing problem for those who travel the realms. I come in peace and only for a short hunt. Yourselves opened the door for me, do you not recall?” She murmured. “Mortal and living, I am a priestess of Gritsch the huntress. I come seeking an abomination, only to find I cannot deal with this one.” She sighed unhappily. “The bug was delicious, but whatever lurks here is outside my ken.”

“Gary… are ye letting strange insects troop through yer soul, lad?” Shai asked with some worry in her voice.

“Velvet is in charge of who comes and goes… if she passed his vibe check…” He shrugged weakly.

“Fear not, crunchy mammal woman, I came by my own powers and arts, he simply opened the door. I had to make my own way in. Are you two pairbonded?” She asked with delight, fluttering her wing cases in ways that made the stalking warriors on her flanks nervous.

Shai nodded tersely to the big bug, who tap danced in her insectile delight.

“How charming! My people eat our males afterwards… I have so many questions, we simply must talk.”

“Guys… everything’s cool… She’s cool.” Gary murmured tiredly, sinking into a sofa conjured behind himself at the edge of his domain.

“Oh, I see! You are casting shadow, Will and raw unfiltered voidstuff, shaped into the illusion of physical matter! How charmingly whimsical!” She tittered. “Terribly inefficient, it will vanish outside your domain, but delightful…”

“Yeah, go inside guys, Shai and I have this. She’s a big nerd.” Becky sighed. “We’ll be fine.”

“Please, I never get to observe mammalian species in their natural habitat… Can I come in?” She chittered. “I promise, I won’t eat anyone.”

“If you come inside, you will be in my power, to a certain extent… will you accept my hospitality for a time?” He asked carefully. “Every living thing in this house is under my protection.”

“Pish… I’ve feasted on my mates and laid my broods… if this strange world, in your strange domain is where I end… Well, glory to lady Gritsch, it’s been quite a time.” The chatty bug had a grandmotherly and matter of fact air about her, even as she scuttled over his boundary she kept chattering.

“That bug was delicious… are there more around?”

That was how Gary and the gang wound up having afternoon tea with an aged insect priestess of an alien goddess…

#

The five new high clerics of the empire’s six approved cults sat at the ornate conference table and glared at each other… It was largely ineffective, since they all hid their identities.

The conferees all wore fully concealing robes and veils, disguising their identities… That had proved necessary, after a series of high profile and embarrassingly public assassinations had decimated the upper levels of clerical society. The assassinations continued, but the players were more interchangeable…

Their shell, silver and gold inlaid table top was covered with scattered documents and reports, all in a mad jumble… While the high, central chair for the Pontiff Obscura sat empty, mocking their efforts.

“The Bureaucrat's and Scrivener's guilds refuse to comply, without the imperial seal on their invoices…” Craft muttered angrily. “My own clergy and lay people are getting agitated and suspicious. Do we have any clues?”

“Clues? Gods blind you, Rience! What clues… and who’s to follow them? We’ve no secret police, no inquisition! Daft fool.” War complained angrily. “I’ve ordered my troops home, burn me if I’ll keep my warriors idle while chaos roams the countryside! I’ve already lost a ship of the line, to some self styled ‘Amy, Pirate Princess of the Shallow Sea’... Madness, the villain took a corvette of the imperial navy and just sailed away.”

He waved a ‘document’ scrawled in colorful wax, bearing the imperial seal.

“I will hunt this pirate down and torture the location of my empress from her, before I feed her to the groundworms alive… What say you, Order?”

“Chaos and madness.” Order replied sourly. “My lord Order will say nothing, beyond demanding that I maintain the status quo…” He grumbled.

“I don’t even know what that is anymore. Half of my squires have cropped up with Contracts to forbidden cults and strange entities… Contracts we cannot sever or properly assay!”

“Healer refuses all Contract rituals, she rejects every one, while children come in from all around with Contracts and her gifts… I’m at a loss.” The gold robed figure complained. “Most of them are dirt scratching peasants, even Orphans…” They said with a shudder of revulsion, drawing an angry glare from War that pierced even the all concealing veils both clerics wore.

“My orphans too.” War snarled furiously. “It’s like a zoo, all familiars and animal companions…” He seemed as angry over the chaos in his orphanages as he was with Healer’s cleric.

“Lady Cowl finds some satisfaction in your discomfort, my lords…” Joy muttered softly from under his green veil. “She insists that I inform you of that fact.” He shook his head behind his veil and sighed. “She’s ‘absolutely delighted’... My lords.”

“Shut up Pontus… Your second rate cult is only included as a courtesy by tradition!” Craft snapped. “We should form a new triumvirate and get things back on track, empress or no empress!”

“No empress, no cult of War.” The red robed figure snapped. “We are hers to command. I’m off hunting pirates.” With that he stood and left, ending the meeting.

#

Tony stood on the closed city gate looking down on the chaos in the dock ward. A long sleek warship of imperial design had crushed the municipal pier with its bronze ram, sending a tangle of loose timber into the waterway.

Warriors in the black armor of imperial Whispers lined the rail, standing at attention and looking to the aft deck, where the captain was kneeling. He groveled, face down in front of a woman in her mid twenties, dressed in common clothing any woman might wear in Wheatford.

She turned away without a word and leapt from the aft deck to the shore, clearing a distance of twelve yards in a smooth vault over the railing, followed by an acrobatic, tumbling roll.

She sprang to her feet and dashed for the bridge, coming to a stop in the wide, fertile meadow that the inn had occupied. “Well crap.” Spider grumbled.

“Looking for the kids?” A tall skinny man in black clothing with a lank fringe of black hair asked calmly, as he reeled in his fishing gear. “They’re out of town. If you’re ‘Spider’, the person you’re looking for is a guest at the palace.”

“The gate’s closed…” She muttered sheepishly.

“What did you think would happen if a foreign warship loaded with armored warriors crushed the municipal pier?” He asked gently.

She grumbled something incoherent in reply and scowled at the city gate.

“Don’t get stroppy, keep your people on their ship. Wheatford is a peaceful town…” The man had lank, dark hair, thinning at the top, with a prominent, beaked nose over a pointed chin. With his black clothing he gave off a sinister aspect, despite his friendly smile. “Hertz, Adventure Specialist, bronze rank.” He introduced himself, smiling under his bushy black brows.

“Spider, of the guild of Whispers. Sorry about the pier; we have gotten better at sailing…” She replied, still deeply embarrassed by the nautical faux pas.

“Come along, let’s talk to the gate guards.” Hertz muttered happily. “This should fire up the gossip grannies and get them talking about… other things!” He muttered with deep satisfaction.

#

“Fiddlesticks!” Gabbie snapped at Jocomo. “I’ll be fine. Besides, you’ll be with me.”

She pranced down the street, twirling and making the strand of bells on her hips ring out. “I love this…!” She sighed breathily, as people smiled and waved at the beautiful girl dancing down the street. Her stalking companion received fewer greetings and pleasant smiles.

“I’m not even armed…” He grumbled.

“I should hope not! Gary said, ‘no weapons for you’ until he gets back.” She took a wide stance and waggled her finger from side to side, while affecting a lilting singsong cadence. “No pointy, pointy. No stabby stabby!” She crooned, mocking the mad witch’s odd lyric accent.

After a blessedly short stroll that passed without incident, they stood shoulder to shoulder on the city wall, with a fair portion of the town’s populace, looking down on the warship in the river channel.

The long, sleek corvette sat in the remnants of the rickety civic pier, looking for all the world like a shark, feasting on the skeleton of some unfortunate creature. Her whispers stood on deck awaiting orders with remarkable dignity, under the eyes of so many people.

Spider stood at the gate arguing with Tony, while Hertz looked on with a smile. “No, I’m not authorized to discuss any matter of damages… That is an issue for Craft and the Merchant’s League… My concerns are civic order.” The big knight said slowly and clearly. “I’m not opening the gate for a small army of anyone’s retainers…”

The armored giant shook his head sadly. “If the duke’s own mother showed up in a warship with…” He did a quick guesstimation of the throng covering the decks and rigging. “...two hundred warriors in the duke’s own colors, I’d turn her away too.” He grumbled.

“Spider! Spider!” Gabbie shouted from the battlements, jumping up and down, while waving at her first Whisper. “I’m up here! You did it! You found them! How did you all fit in there?!”

Rolf and his girls appeared at the gate, to supervise the nonsense that was about to unfold in the pleasant little town. A team of locals trooped out at Rolf’s call to haul the ship out of the ruined pier and pull it across the channel, to moor at Gary’s pier, in the deep backwater pool.

That alone took a fair portion of the afternoon, getting a small army safely encamped on the fields and meadows above the mooring, ate up more sunshine.

Tents and supplies came out of storage, sailcloth awnings and most of the necessities for a friendly siege camp appeared from the ship’s stores.

It was early evening before the whole crew was encamped, under strict orders to ‘behave and not cause any trouble’ from Gabbie.

“The ducal treasury will stand for your expenses while you and your retainers guest with us, Gabbie.” Rolf said quietly. “The merchants will be compensated for their pier and will be happy to supply you and yours. Tradition and the law allow no more than ten of any foreign warband be allowed in town at any time, please comply with that limit.”

Rolf smiled and waved, as he walked Gabbie, Spider, Jocomo and three more warriors in black armor back to the palace.

“I have no idea what I’m doing…” The blonde knight confided with a smile.

#

Gary came back into the garden proper from his outlying regions, as sundown started making polite noises to get the afternoon to clear off.

“Sheila is out fishing for a crawdaddie for dinner, she has special dietary needs.” Gary muttered tiredly as the sun went down. “I’ll snoop around that aberration in town tomorrow morning.”

“I dinnae wish tae be inhospitable…” Shai began, with an uncomfortable grimace.

“Yeah, she’s a lot, fortunately, we’re pretty distressing to her and this climate is perfect for her, she’s sleeping in the woods.” He grinned and shook his head with a wry giggle.

“She asked me to keep my armor on while we talked, cause it grossed her out, me not having a ‘proper carapace’.”

“Why be she here? I dinnae ken.” She whispered as they went inside, leaving the twilit garden.

“Remember that mantis demigoddess, Gritsch the Huntress? Well I guess Velvet let her in and her cult has been going on safari for a few days now…” He mumbled, once he was on the sofa by the fire.

“She came to put down whatever’s stinking up this place, sent here by her goddess on a short term tourist visa. See the sights, taste the local insects and shut down… the thing that’s weird here.”

“She truly be mortal?” Shai asked softly, still deeply creeped out.

“She’s just a person… a bug person who leaves her prey hollowed out and desiccated after slurping out their insides.” He grinned up at her and winked, while she bashed a pillow across his smirking face.

“Wretched, rude, inconsiderate… Man!” She sneered and giggled, while buffetting him around. “Yer friend be terrifying…” She sighed, once she’d gotten it out of her system.

“It feels a little better, knowing we gross her out too, right?” He asked with another wink and grin. “I’m off to bed early after dinner lover…” He yawned. “I’ll tuck the kids in and sack out.”

The kids had a fine time with ‘auntie Gritsch’s friend from out of town, but they were exhausted and ready for bed… so was their proud papa, who slipped away quietly and fell into his own bed, blacking out almost immediately.

His eyes cracked open just a few minutes later, with the first stirrings of dawn, surrounded by kids, buried under Shai and with no memory of any dreams… just a restful night’s sleep. He wriggled free of the Ward pile and slipped downstairs to start coffee and have a quiet, predawn thinkin’ sesh.

With a steaming cup and the earliest lights of false dawn rising in the east, he let his aura ramble freely, chasing whatever was going on in the abandoned town.

Slowly he spread over the local area, with his sly tendrils of sneaking, predatory hunger. Tasting this living animal, nudging that undead shade or lingering spirit fragment… everything seemed normal, for an empty and abandoned, haunted town, forgotten by everyone.

The empty circle of nothing was outside his extended perimeter, a half mile from the house and a bit inland, by the former millpond. He stretched his shadow out that way, creeping through the grass and trees to surround the location, completely encircling it with flickering tendrils of his shadow and Will.

There was nothing there. Plants, trees, and living things thrived, small animals moved in and out unharmed; but from outside the roughly one hundred yard diameter void, he sensed nothing.

“Barrier circle… not an enchantment or normal ritual…” He murmured softly. “It almost feels… like an upwelling of magical energy, pushing my senses away.”

Xyll wasn’t there to share his morning ruminations on the nature of magic… She was in her tree, back home… her home. That pinched his heart a little, a twinge of loss that made him uncomfortably upset… a twinge that echoed in the raw wound in his soul, tugging at him.

“Aww… man.” He mumbled sadly. “This blows.”

#