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BACKALLEY

NEAR THE GATE OF THE SECOND RING

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Tharia held her breath. She was nearly submerged in a pile of snow with an observer walking past barely a step away. The thing let out skittering noises from inside its body. Right in front of her, it suddenly stopped. Its maw opened up to reveal a row of sharpened teeth while growling. Annabelle closed in with the Scythe readied for a vertical strike but Tharia slowly shook her head. She stared at the empty eyes of the Observer.

The maw snapped shut and it resumed walking. Tharia held still until the pallid creature turned the corner at the end of the alley. Her heart raced inside her chest. Nothing had happened between them and these things yet, but the memory of the smushed Whiskerhush was still fresh in her mind. Block their paths, be torn to pieces.

“We need to get out of the way”, Tharia said breathlessly to Annabelle, “They’re all heading for the Second Ring. It’s too crowded for us on that bridge leading to the gate.”

She stepped out of the snow and let Annabelle brush off the snow while her mind reached out. It felt like second nature by now to touch the many tiny flames in her mind. Each represented a living being. Five of the flames were coming their way and Tharia sighed.

“Another group is coming”, Tharia mused with a finger tapping against her nose, “No hiding in the houses, they’ve all been on lockdown so far. Fortified too. Hmm.”

Tharia examined her surroundings more closely. The houses didn’t look to well, more like what one expects of an unsavory part of the capital. Tattered remains of wanted posters covered the walls. Perhaps they had locked everything down because of thieves. But these doors looked unreasonably sturdy like they were made to withstand a battering ram. She suddenly stopped.

“Annie, have you seen any windows on the ground level lately?”

“Annie? Hello?”

The goddess snapped out of a daze and then looked back down the alley, before shaking her head. Tharia sighed. Great, that was proper helpful. Something was gnawing on her love. At least she had stopped glowing. No time for that now. If her hunch was correct, the massive doors and lack of windows weren’t just an architectural fancy.

“Can you lift me up? I need to check something”, Tharia said towards Annabelle and smiled in her direction. The doll-like beauty just stared directly through her.

“Annabelle, please”

“What? Oh, right”, Annabelle finally answered and then placed her hands on Tharia’s waist. With one hand against the wall for support, the frail girl was lifted up. Her new vantage point made her grin from ear to ear. Each of the roofs had a strange wooden construction on top of them. Her hunch had been correct. She signaled her love to put her back down again and then knelt down in the snow.

“Help me search for a small metal lever on the wall. Should be around chest height, I think”, Tharia said and dug into the snow. Her hands shoveled away layer after layer onto the dazed Annabelle.

“Come on”, Tharia groaned but her friend just didn’t snap out of it. It reminded her of when Annabelle had been tainted by the Dreamreaper but this felt different. More human, more natural, more problems. She shook off her thoughts and focussed her attention on finding the lever. Her fingers felt frozen by the time she got to it. With a strong pull, the house suddenly started rumbling. Mechanisms clicked into place. A moment later, an avalanche of snow came down on them. That, she had not accounted for.

Tharia sputtered and stepped aside. High above, a complex mechanism of wooden scaffolding had unfurled from atop the roof. She stretched as far as she could and held onto the lower end of a ladder. It clicked and then slid down to ground level.

“Can you imagine hating the rabble so much, that you build flood-streets, just so you can flush excess water down their roads every autumn and spring?” Tharia said with a grin and then pointed towards the ladder.

“Help me up, please. Annie? Oh, gods be cursed, what’s the matter with you? We don’t have time for you to zone out. Get us up there before those Observers come ‘round the corner. They’re pretty close by now.”

“I’m not zoning out”, Annabelle mumbled.

“Yeah okay, then you’re stroking Dream-Cats. Help us up”, Tharia had put anger into her voice. That anger really came from a place of concern. There was always a time to deal with personal issues. They were both wrecks. Yet that time wasn’t now, right here. Annabelle still wasn’t moving, so the frail girl moved behind her and started pushing her towards the ladder.

“Stop it”, the goddess grunted.

“Not happening. We stay down here, we die”, Tharia insisted. Once in front of the ladder, she put her hands against her waist and nodded up.

“Are you going to make me beg? Yeah, I’m a fucking cripple, can’t even climb a ladder...” Tharia started.

“I’m not...”, Annabelle began but Tharia cut her off again.

“Then. Help. Us. Up. The. Ladder”, she put emphasize on every word. That finally sunk in. Annabelle once more grabbed her and Tharia pulled herself up on Annie’s back. She hated being so dependent on others when it came to things like this. Sure, she could kick someone’s legs out but anything higher than that and her limited motion made it difficult. Climbing was out of the question.

Annabelle finally climbed the ladder and brought them up onto the wooden scaffolding. Once they were on top, Tharia slipped off and then sat down on the wet wood. It quickly soaked into her clothes and this really wasn’t the place but an intervention was necessary.

“First, I’m sorry for flipping out on you. I hate it when I’m a burden to others”, she said and then pointed to the ground next to her, “Sit down.”

“I..” Annabelle began but was cut off again. Not by words this time but by an angry glare from the frail girl on the ground. They spent several moments in silence while a large group of Observers passed them by below. It was an odd spectacle watching them. They were in a state of constant fighting when another of their kind got too close. Like humans, only more visceral. When the silence got awkward and her butt was starting to freeze off, Tharia let out a long sigh and locked her gaze with Annabelle.

“Spit it out. What’s the matter?” she asked with raised eyebrows.

“I don’t know”, Annabelle replied.

“Good, you admit there’s a problem. Next, do you really not know or don’t you know how to communicate it to me?” the young woman continued. She blinked as long strands of black hair clouded her vision. While she had always loved long hair, on men and women both, she had never missed how it always got in the way.

“Both”, was the answer she got. Tharia looked at the miserable little pile of divine. Her anger evaporated in an instant and she moved next to her, reached for the silver-hair and started brushing her fingers through it. Intervention it was. Two broken little dolls they were.

“That’s alright”, Tharia spoke towards her friend with a quiet voice, “These little quirks are also part of what I love about you. But this can’t go on. First, you ignore the sphere, then you use it in a bad situation, admittedly at my pushing and then you zone out in the midst of danger.”

Upon hearing her words, Annabelle pressed her lips together. Tharia recognized the gesture and leaned back for a moment. She would need to control her own emotions. That sentence earlier had been her anger flaring up again. There was nothing constructive about blame. At least she could feel anger again.

“I’m sorry. Let’s try this again. If you can’t speak about it, that’s alright. I’ll make guesses and you can just agree or disagree. Let’s go with this first. Is it that time of the month, are you having cramps?”

That outraged look told her the answer immediately. It was a resounding maybe, but Annabelle wouldn’t talk about it and Tharia dropped it immediately as a result. She also made a mental note to prepare a stomach-calming tea later from supplies they had pillaged from the apothecary. It amused her how the heroes in stories never had to deal with these things. Refocussing her attention on her perfect little beauty, she leaned forward until her black hair covered most of the face.

“Girl, hair just gets in the way”, she said and groaned.

“You looked fine with short hair too”, Annabelle suggested with a slight smile.

“I know, but here’s the funny thing. I tried cutting it and it came back like that. Amazing superpowers, I tell you”, Tharia added while smiling back. She hadn’t cut the new hair but it was a silly attempt at humor. That cracked the ice. Annabelle was finally letting down her guard a bit.

“So what’s the problem related to? Something from before?” Tharia inquired while taking special care to comb the silvery hair into beautiful and smooth lines.

“Yes but no”, Annabelle hesitatingly answered. Gods be cursed, her love really was bad with words but she loved the beautiful doll anyways. Warts and all.

“Not just past experiences but the future as well then”, Tharia mused.

“Yes, it’s about the future but also the past. I, so uh yes ahem”, the goddess started but Tharia placed a soft finger on her lips and shut her up that way.

“It’s alright. We’re getting there. Seeing how you were mostly functional when we reached the warcamp, it had to be something after”, Tharia rubbed her own nose. Of course, the hair-kraken had struck when she least expected it. Somehow, silvery strands had wrapped around Tharia’s neck and even intermingled with her own black hair. She was half convinced they could move on their own accord.

“From there I see three potential causes. First, what Shal-rin did”, Tharia said with a hand lifted up and a finger stretched out. Annabelle nodded faintly.

“You broke, it hurt me. But pushing all these people felt too good”, the goddess said and Tharia translated the words in her mind. It was true that she had broken down upon seeing her brother and Annabelle had really let loose as a result.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“You’re concerned that it made you do dark things and that you liked power too much”, Tharia guessed and Annabelle quickly nodded.

“But that’s not all is it, Annie? Thought so. Alright, moreover, you fought against Celestine and lost... that’s not it? Okay. I’m happy to hear that. The final part would be my brother and...”

Annabelle locked up upon hearing the word brother. So that was it. She started adding things up: Experiences made her afraid of the future, Annabelle was scared of letting loose the demons inside. The key point was her murder of her brother. There was only one conclusion left to Tharia.

“Your husband. The king. Spawn of it all. The last one we will kill. Are you afraid it’ll turn out like with my brother? No, I don’t think that’s it, you wouldn’t be scared to tell me about it, unless... oh” she made her guess known. Annie’s lips quivered and she suddenly sprang up while pushing Tharia aside.

“Let’s go”, Annabelle said.

“Annie”

“I said let’s go”

“No can do, Annie”, Tharia spoke with a soft tone, “You can’t run away from this. Whenever you run from problems, they get stronger.”

“I’m running towards them”, Annabelle exclaimed.

“You’re bloody not. You’re pushing on with stupid bravado. Come here, girl. Please”, Tharia said and stood up as well. She brushed the snow off her clothes and looked towards her love.

“We need to keep going”, Annabelle insisted.

“We also need to do this right. Smarter, not stronger. So, come here. There’s more to it, something you don’t want to talk to me about”, the frail woman tried again. She stood her ground while puffing out her flat chest to appear bigger. Step by step Annabelle finally came back.

“Thank you”, Tharia said, “Now listen closely. If I were to hazard a guess, you still feel for him. He is, after all, your husband still”

Annabelle froze, she closed her beautiful eyes with tears running down those pale cheeks. When the goddess finally spoke, it was a barely comprehensible mess of words.

“Not afraid to kill him, afraid I won’t kill him. Why do I feel this, I hate him, why how.”

Tharia listened and kept up a smile. On some level, it really hurt to know that there were still some feelings left. That is when looked at from the point of view of a human. Realization set in. The situation was so absurdly specific that Tharia couldn’t help but laugh suddenly. Seeing the hurt in Annabelle’s eyes, she quickly waved her hand.

“Sorry, it’s just... look. Okay. I’ve figured it out. Now you’ll listen to me good. We know that gods can’t feel emotions of their own, they steal them from others. Agreed?” Tharia began. Annabelle nodded meekly.

“Good, keep that in your mind. You, my love, you can feel emotions. Agreed?” the human girl continued. Another nod from her friend was the answer.

“I love you too”, Tharia said with a smile, “The truth of the matter is that you’re a dumbass. You don’t still love him, you never did. It’s a lifelong addiction making you feel that way. Besides, if he even looks at you funny, I’ll stab him out of jealousy.”

She wouldn’t kill him for jealous. While yes, she was a spring of envy, she wasn’t that petty. She was, however, petty enough to stab him dead for his attempt to kill Annabelle. Her friend still looked frozen, so Tharia suddenly opened up her own blouse. That at least got some reaction and when she softly pulled on Annabelle’s head, the goddess started whispering incomprehensible things. This wasn’t sexual though. The frail girl shivered when Annie’s cold ear touched her bare chest.

“This is actual love, not the aftermath of emotional addiction”, Tharia began while nuzzling Annabelle close to her bosom, “All our journey we’ve joked about love conquering all. This is one time where it will be true. Listen to my heart. It beats only for you.”

Her hands gently brushed through silky soft hair and the warmth from her love made sure it didn’t get too cold.

“This is actual love. Not infatuation, intoxication or stolen emotions from a horny power-hungry bastard. It’s what’s there in the wild moments, and the mild ones. When we argue – even when we swim through shit-valley creek. I’m the one that’ll bitch about a bath, but I’ll love you anyways.”

Tharia ran her hands through Annabelle’s hair and felt something wet touch her bare skin. Tears. She let Annabelle stay like that for a bit while suppressing her urge to shiver. It was bloody freezing. Stupid idea. Yet Annabelle needed it. Still stupid. When Annie finally lifted her head, Tharia quickly closed her blouse again and rubbed her chest for a bit.

“Well Annie, what, if anything, has he got on that? A big castle? Pffft, my family is loaded, I tell you. And I’ve got it on good authority that right now, I’m the sole heir. So don’t you worry your pretty head, I’ll take care of it. Everything. We will end this. What you feel for him is a lingering effect of your godhood, not something real. What you feel for me is the real deal.”

She held Annabelle close for a while longer. While those emotions had never been born from Annabelle, they still must have felt real for the goddess. Tharia had no idea about the whole emotion vampirism thing, but if it lingered on, no wonder the gods had always wanted more of everything. Annabelle had sabotaged herself to draw out the confrontation with her husband. What Tharia had done to her brother was the catalyst for all of this. It made it obvious to her love that she too would have to do something like that at the end of the road.

As the moment faded, Annabelle looked a lot better than before. Obviously, words wouldn’t fix it immediately, but this was a good start. Tharia brushed her hands over Annabelle’s head one more time and then pointed towards the scaffolding.

“Let’s get moving. We should reach a vantage point, plan our route of attack. Do you see that belfry over there? A tower like that could work”, Tharia said and pointed towards something a few houses away. From up here, it was obvious most of the houses had a second layer on their roofs that could unfold into scaffolding to make impromptu walkways when the streets were flooded.

“You’re the one that’s good at throwing, right? If you can throw one of the ropes around that black lever over there”, Tharia pointed towards the next roof over, “we can pull down the next walkway. Like this, we can pass the horde of idiots down below.”

She shot a glance down. A steady stream of Observers flooded the streets. All with a singular mission somewhere in the Second Ring. While Annabelle got to work, Tharia mused their situation. There were those that stood still. Like the people in Shal-rins army. Waiting for others to make the move for them. Then there were those that moved. Like her and her love. Even young boy Ravid was a mover. Even if he was a shy scaredy-cat with a crush.

With a loud rumble, the scaffolding unfolded into walkways. More avalanches poured down on the Observers and sent them in a frenzy against piles of snow. Needless to say, the Observers won. Tharia couldn’t help laughing at the sight.

The two girls walked along walkways high above the streets. Several more scaffoldings rumbled on their path but they were all in a surprisingly good state. When finally they reached the belfry, Tharia realized it was part of a school-house. When she was younger, she had always wanted to visit one. Yet, a Verholden was far too high a risk to be placed there. Social norms would dictate any kidnapping would have to be paid by her family. For Tharia, they just couldn’t spare the single cent she was worth to them.

She softly tapped Annabelle on the shoulder and pointed up the tower. The ascent was quick and without issue and once they were up, they had a splendid view over the capital. As far as the eye could see, thick layers of snow made it look peaceful. The serenity was only disturbed by a handful of problems. The fortification walls. They were ugly as sin. A false star above. Also ugly. And the golden fields. During a summer rain, those were lovely. During an apocalypse, walking plants meant they were... ugly.

“Annie, can you feel out the essences, maybe give us a rough direction where we’re headed?” Tharia said with a smile. The goddess closed her eyes and then started pointing out directions towards the inner rings. The first place she pointed out was a large dome with strange machines built on top of it.

“That looks like the direction of the observatory”, Tharia mused, “any of your detractors an astronomist or uh, astrologist? One of the two? What’s the difference anyway?”

“Viktor von Halsenstien”, Annabelle said, “Obsessed with the world beyond the clouds. He begged me to give him wings before all this started.”

“Maybe he got his wish”, Tharia remarked, shrugged her shoulders and looked to the second place, a wide collection of chimneys interspersed with large areas of nothing, “Artificer’s guild. Out of a hunch, Marja Alriaman?”

Annabelle nodded in reply, “Obsessed with artificial life. How do you know her?”

Tharia sighed and spread her fingers in a wing-like gesture, “Meet the Verholdens. Sorry. Those armored things at the manor had her sigil. It’s also where I learned about the barrier chains. She’s a crazy broad. Old acquaintance. Let’s hope her ascension took out her evil genius smarts.”

Annabelle nodded. Tharia let her eyes wander and found an oddity. A small forest of white trees had sprouted in the middle of the Second Ring. Tharia blinked, “Used to be the beggar’s enclave but there never was this much greenery.”

“Beggar? That day, they caught a woman sneaking around. Looked like a beggar, didn’t smell like one”, Annabelle said with long pauses between the words.

“Maybe the Concubine of the Dregs? What’s her name, Kristalia something? I honestly don’t know much about her, just that father always cursed her name. Seems like she ran most of the criminal syndicates in Valarn”, Tharia speculated and then scratched her chin.

“I’d bet money that’s where the Observers are headed”, Tharia added after a moment of contemplation “The final one is obvious”, the human girl spoke while nodding, “The palace of course. I suggest we take on the Observatory first. We might be able to loot some magnification eyes.”

“Binoculars”, Annabelle said.

“What?”

“Complete sentence please, Fairy”, the goddess added with a reprimanding tone – yet showed a grin.

“What are you talking about?” Tharia played along and smiled.

“It’s what we call magnification eyes.”

“What kind of nonsense name is that? Bino coolers? What’s a bino? Nevermind. Let’s go there. For that we need to cross into the second Ring”, Tharia mused and pointed towards one section of the large wall, “The bridge is swarmed with Observers. If you ask me, I’ve had enough of pasty white worm containers. That leaves Imnir’s Balustrade.”

Now it was Annabelle’s turn to raise her eyebrows in slight confusion, “What?”

“Complete sentence please?” Tharia echoed.

“Not happening”, the goddess said and stuck out her tongue. That, if anything, struck Tharia like thunder. She stood with an open mouth until Annabelle forced it shut with a finger.

“Right, uh... where was I?” Tharia resumed speaking. That gesture had been so cute and sweet that she almost got sugar poisoning. She shook her head and then pointed towards a part of the wall that had an odd outgrowth on the side.

“Part of the wall was damaged when Imnir had the aqueducts torn down. They put flowers on it and called it a day. It should still be open.”

A sudden flash of light drew Tharia’s attention. She whirled around and looked at Annabelle. The goddess was suddenly clad in full plate mail. Lines of energy ran through the golden metal and pulsed blue. Annabelle lifted her hands, they were still clad in the strange scale gloves she had gotten from the Dreamreaper. The boots were also part of the armor. If anything, this looked like the complete set, minus the helmet.

“Figured I should try the essence of Celestine. Odd it isn’t one of her soulweapons instead.”

Tharia watched the goddess clench her fists. She moved from side to side and despite how sturdy and functional this looked, the motions came with ease.

“They blend in with the gloves and boots. It’s like they melded. Their strength isn’t gone but rather distributed evenly.”

The human girl listened to an Annabelle that finished a couple of sentences without stumbling. Of course, when it came to weaponry instead of feelings, she could suddenly talk. That quirk made her smile. She really loved the ugly and impractical parts of her as well. That armor looked sleek and powerful. It was perfectly fitting Annabelle’s body with no artistic flourishes. Her friend suddenly held out an armored hand. The light vanished the armor and Annabelle then grabbed Tharia.

“What did I do?” Tharia inquired with raised eyebrows but the goddess just pulled Tharia’s hand on top of her own.

“What’s going on?” the young woman added and pushed her black strands of hair to the side to get a better look at Annabelle. The goddess then suddenly leaned down and bit into both their hands. Tharia jerked her hand back and glared at her.

“Damn it, what are you doing?” she said while waving her aching hand with teeth marks in it.

“It’s a vow between gods to vanquish our foes”, Annabelle declared ceremoniously. Already, the teeth marks disappeared entirely, yet the painful memory remained in Tharia’s mind.

“Annie? Your customs suck. This is how you do this properly”, the human girl said and turned around to glare at the large wall, “The mountains are proud and bow to neither god nor kings. Yet they will budge for the smallest of things. They...”

“No rhyming. It hurts, fairy”

Tharia sighed, all wind gone from her sails, she mumbled another attempt, “Well, fuck this then. We’re about to go over there, drag them out their houses, kick their arses and steal their stuff. They’ll never see it coming because they set their eyes on the stars, unable to see the two wicked girls coming out to play.”

“Maybe don’t hold speeches either”, Annabelle suggested.

“Oh, will you shut up!” Tharia snapped, only to heer a slightly irritating sound from Annabelle. Laughter. She glared at her but then couldn’t resist it any longer. Maybe just plain laughing was fine too. From here on out, it was all or nothing. Not that it had been different before, but this felt like the final stretch to Tharia. She kept her eyes on the observatory. That Viktor figure would be the first of the last.

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End: Those that move | Coming up: Imnir's Balustrade