Wander Moon / 20 / 1218 A.F.
I’m running. Well, running’s being a bit generous. It’s more of a pathetic crawl. I’m not sure how, but I’m moving. The mist just keeps on going. My legs feel like they’re got hot stakes shoved up my heels. My mind keeps getting cloudier. It keeps getting stuffed with more and more voices by the second. They mesh and swirl into a never-ending typhoon that makes my head feel like it’s going to pop and curse the earth with my grey matter. No matter how much I breathe, I’m still out of breath. My lungs compress and twitch for air, but are never satisfied. My stomach grumbles and starts to feed on my other organs. What little I can see of David looks pretty appetizing… he’s real tender after all this running… maybe just a bite or two wouldn’t hurt.
I don’t know if that was my voice, or the ones in my head. I’m grinding my teeth and picking at my nails, but I don’t know why… and I’m not sure I want to know. I’ve never done either of those. Why start now? The mist is growing thicker and thicker with every step. The blues in my mouth has since dissolved to nothing. No flavor. No texture. No effect. Nothing. I fall to my knees and grasp my stomach. Something’s in there. Something big. It’s crawling and festering in every nook and cranny it can find, violating me at its leisure. It slithers up around my around my heart and nibbles at my ribcage.
slosh slosh… plop
I’m going to burst. It’s coming out. My throat tightens, my body rejects everything, I lurch forward and stare down at the muddy ground. My throat ruptures and hot bile floods my mouth and nasal cavities. My body heaves over and over and over, expelling a viscous, silver fluid with each heave. Even after there’s nothing left in me, my body keeps heaving. Feels like my stomach’s shot up into my ribcage. My eyes are ready to bulge out and my lips are burning. I can see steam rise off my lips. Wipe my mouth with my left hand and look down at the puddle of steamy silver liquid. It looks akin to mercury, but with specks of black in it. Same consistency. Same sheen. Only difference is that the puddle’s writhing and pulsating. It’s pulse matches my heartbeat.
babum
babum
babum
I stare down at it and feel it stare back at me. It won’t let me draw my eyes away. My body feels no better after having rejected the puddle, and yet I’m already longing for it back. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Here. My eyes close. My hands dip into the puddle and bring the liquid to my lips. It’s hot, but sweet and feels cool coming down my throat…
gulp
gulp
“HEY! ASTRID!” David’s voice cuts through the mist. “Hurry up! You’re almost here! The Matriarch really wants to see you!”
My eyes open and my back straightens. I look down and see no puddle. My body still hurts as it did… but my stomach has relaxed… somewhat. Breathing’s still just as difficult… the mist is suffocating me. I look up and can clearly see David’s and the Matriarch’s figures in the Mist. They’re nearly fifteen paces away. I take a deep breath, feel an icy chill encase my lungs, hobble to my feet, and finally get to David…
When I get to them, the mist lightens up just enough for me to see David and the Matriarch clearly. David still looks like David… and the Matriarch looks just like the woman in my dreams. Same height. Same pale, flawless skin. Same hair. Same smile. Same warm, long smile. She’s clad in a flowing white robe similar to David’s, but looks more refined. It’s covered in intricate, ancient patterns completely alien to any designs I’ve seen anywhere else. My eyes hurt just looking at it. While getting lost in her robes, our eyes meet. I feel what little energy remains in my body evaporate when she looks me in the eye.
She’s cradling David in her arms and rubbing his back.
David’s resting his cheek against her shoulder. Looks the happiest I’ve ever seen him… can’t blame him.
“David, dear… is this the Astrid you were telling me about?”
“Hehe… yes indeed.” David looks down at me with a soft smile and yawns. “What do you think of her?”
“She did an excellent job of delivering you to me.” she looks down at me with those eyes. If I wasn’t in my current state, I’d tear that grin right off… “She looks strong, capable. She’d be an excellent priestess.”
“Shut up…” I look up at her. I’m seeing double vision and everything besides her and David looks wavy.
“May have to work on her language however…” the Matriarch shakes her head.
“Astrid! Please!” David begs. “I know you are tired, but this is the Matriarch you are talking too! Show some respect!”
“I don’t care who she is. The hell are you doing here and the hell do you want?”I clutch my thigh wound.
“I’ve found the way to Paradise.” Matriarch smiles down at me.
David’s face lights up and his eyes lock onto hers.
My head’s pounding… but I can hear the sounds of horses galloping in the distance. It could just be the sound of my brain trying to break out of my skull, but the horses sound like they’re getting closer...
“Really now?” I hang onto the shoulder strap of the trunk with my left hand and look around. “Where the hell is it?”
“It’s here.” the Matriarch runs her hands down David’s spine. “The Boundary is Paradise.”
David’s face cracks and his mouth slides open. His eyes turn hollow in an instant and he can’t move. “This… must be a joke? Right, Matriarch? The Church is trying to reduce the Boundary! Is that not why you ventured into it in the first place!?”
“Initially… yes.” Matriarch remains calm and begins walking circles around me. David’s legs begin to shake, but she keeps her grip firm on him. “But that was a long time ago…”
“N-no! No no no!” David protests. “That cannot be right! Why would this be Paradise!? This is hell!”
“That is what I believed at first.” Matriarch runs her lanky fingertips along my trunk as she walks behind me.
I’d try to elbow her, but that’s just asking to die.
“But… the more time I spent in the Boundary, the more peaceful it became. The noise of the world became mute as I wandered. No noise. No wars. No famine. No boundaries… All is one and all is peaceful… I can feel the heartbeat of each and every mirage lifeform within me. Millenniums of wisdom flow through their words… You hear it too…” her gaze envelopes my soul. “Don’t you?”
“David! Get away from her!” my throat nearly ruptures. “She’s not the Matriarch! She’s just some fancy mirage! No way would your Matriarch say that!”
David begins thrashing about and trying to free himself from her grip. He pummels her shoulder, pulls her arms, and kicks her side, but she remains stalwart and smooth. Matriarch just keeps circling me like nothing’s happening.
“Oh, no. I guarantee that I am your Matriarch.” she blinks and her eyes turn black in an instant. Red lines begin to flow over her skin. Sleek, magnificent horns erupt and grow out of her forehead. They’re the most impressive, powerful horns I’ve ever laid eyes on. They look tough enough to cleave an airship in half. Her nails grow long and purple and long incisors pierce her cheeks and grow down past her chin. I can see some bone exposed around her wrists and elbows. “By listening to the Boundary’s Wisdom… I have learned how to extend my life along with some… other abilities.” She whistles and silver fluid pools up from the ground and begins to form. With each breath she takes, more mist pours out of her mouth.
The silver fluid forms and solidifies into a horde of mirages of all shapes and sizes. Some yappers, some boar things, even some smaller versions of the knights we fought back in Serenissima… They huddle around her and act like common house pets.
“Aren’t they just the cutest?” Matriarch begins speaking in baby talk and toying with a yapper’s bloated cheeks. Sounds of mirages breathing, trotting, and barking fill the air. Despite all the noise, I think I can still hear galloping. It’s growing louder, but still sounds fairly distant.
“You’re the one who’s been making all these mirages!?” Something burns in my chest.
“Oh, no. Only these handsome little knights.” She runs her fingertips along one of the knight’s helmets. “Mirages and mist have been around longer than we have. Far longer.”
David can’t take his eyes off me. He’s pleading for help, but I can’t do anything.
“Matriarch! Please!” David starts to cry. “Please come back with us to the Monastery… everyone misses you. We will get you exorcised and clean out these horrible creatures…. Please come back to us.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“They look like monsters to you?”
“Matriarch… please… please… this is not right. This is not you. You are just poisoned.” David wipes his nose and holds her hands. “Let us help you.”
“No.” Matriarch runs her fingernails through David’s hair then slides one under his chin. All the while she maintains that disgusting smile. Her eyes are warm as a fireplace, but her lips look ready to slice me open. “It is my job to help others… I will engulf this world in mist so that we may all know peace. The world must become whole again.”
“You’re insane…” I somehow find the strength to scowl at her.
“And that stone you’re carrying is just what I need to spread mist across the continent.” she points her nail right at me. If she were to extend her arm, I’d be skewered in an instant.
My spine freezes. I want to move, but some invisible force is compressing my chest and binding my feet. I want to scream, but my throat is frozen solid. “H-how did you know…?” my eyes start to grow moist. I can hear a stampede approaching and yet I can’t move anything but my mouth.
“I can smell it.” Matriarch and her legion of Mirages approach me. “Now let me relieve you of your burden. I shall transform you into a herald worthy of the new world.”
No matter how much David pleads, squirms, or yells, he doesn’t make the Matriarch budge. It’s like he’s not even there. “NO!!! LUMINOUS!!!” A white, blinding light erupts from David’s body and fills the area in a ball of luminous aura. One by one the legion of mirages scatter. Some manage to escape, others disintegrate.
“GGGAAAAAAAAH!” The Matriarch trembles and starts thrashing about. She tosses David to the ground and prepares to stomp him in the throat. “STOP THAT!!!”
“LUMINOUS!!!!” David aims his arms up at her and a beam of light shoots out of his hands and shoots her back.
Matriarch falls to the ground and her shrieks pierce the air and shake the earth. My head feels like it’ll erupt every second she shrieks. She’s writhing, covering her eyes, and bashing the earth with wild abandon. Each time she strikes the earth, she leaves a little crater behind. More and more silver liquid emerges from the ground and begins to replace the fallen mirage legion.
David’s collapsed on the ground motionless. His arms are sizzling and he’s face-down in the mud.
I hobble towards David, pick him up over my shoulder, and begin limping away as fast as I can. The horses are getting closer. So close. So close. I’m going to be crushed any second. I-
NEEEEEEEIGH!!!
A pale horse cuts in front of my path. It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen. A white aura flows off its mane. It’s eyes look hollow. A five-foot long tongue is hanging out of its mouth. Eyeballs poke out at random places in its body and stare at me before closing and reappearing somewhere else on the body. It’s reigned in by this unique, heavy, painful-looking mechanism that I have never laid eyes on before. It looks like a high-chair fit for a newborn giant strapped to the back of a horse. My eyes flash to the side and see the mirage house pulling a wagon. The wagon looks horribly aged. Wood’s chipping off everywhere, the cover has large holes and is full of patches, but the wheels look brand new.
A man clad in a grey robe with strong-looking legs is reigning the horse in with minimal effort. He extends his arm towards me. It’s pale and has dark red lines flowing along his blood vessels. “I’m on your side! Come with me!”
People clad in leather armor riding atop other mirages soon catch up with him. Some are wielding polearms. Others have small cannons mounted atop their mount’s butt.
BWOOOOOOOOOOO
The same horrible roar from earlier shakes the earth and pierces the sky. I fall to my knees and yell until my lungs are empty and my eardrums feel ready to pop.
And yet the entourage in front of me looks unaffected.
“Ha… aaAGGH!” The Matriarch clears her throat. “RETURN TO ME, YOU INGRATE!!!”
“TAKE MY ARM, DAMNIT!” The man lowers his arm further.
“OKAY OKAY!!!” I look up and take his hand.
“GREAT!” he pulls me up and over his shoulder and chucks me into the wagon behind him with minimal effort. I land on my side and hear the trunk crack, but David’s safe and my leg wound is still closed… gotta take the silver linings where I can.
“HIYAAA!” The man whips the mirage into gear and we begin galloping away at tremendous speed. This mirage’s acceleration is incredible… Barely three seconds pass and we’re already speeding faster than war chariots. The inside of the wagon has a thick blanket covering the floor and all manner of items bouncing around. Machetes, axes, a halberd with some hunting charges on the end of it, some small cannons, and even some potatoes and vegetables wrapped up in smaller blankets along the perimeter.
“Who the hell are you?” I rest David on his back by the edge of the wagon.
“Aw, really? You don’t recognize me by my beautiful voice?” The man flips off his robe and looks back at me.
“MICHAEL!?”
“In the flesh.” he chuckles. “Where we heading?”
“EAST!”
“Whoops.” Michael steers the mirage a sharp right past some trees. The wagon rises onto its side wheels. We nearly tip over, but we finally resume our journey East.
BWOOOOOOOOO
The noise bellows through the Mediterranean again, causing me to crumple on the ground and clamp my ears shut. I grit my teeth and yell out until my head feels light. Eventually it stops…
“That still hurts you?” Michael asks steering past some boulders and ponds. “That’s good.”
BABOOM BABOOM BABOOM
“What now…?” I somehow manage to open my eyes and look out the back of the wagon. The earth behind us is covered in a growing lake of silver liquid. I can see knights, behemoths, and beasts of all scale and size start to chase after us. It hasn’t caught up to us yet… but I don’t know how long that’ll last. Along the edge of the liquid, thousands upon thousands of little hands begin materializing and crawling along the ground like a swarm of bugs. In the center of it all is one pissed off Matriarch. She has fetid, twitching tentacles arching out of her back that look strong enough to cleave through forests in one strike. Her eyes glow like two beacons in the Mist. No matter how sharply we turn or how fast we go, her eyes stay locked tight onto me.
“GOT ANY WAY TO DEAL WITH THAT!?”
“Oh. Yeah…” Michael sounds a little embarrassed. “So that’s what causes the flooding… We don’t need to worry about that liquid. It only hurts you if you’re not corrupted.”
“I’m still not corrupted and neither is the boy!”
“Wow, really? Good for you.” Michael laughs before he looks back behind me and shoots me a thumbs up. His smile quickly morphs into sheer terror. “DUCK!”
I do as he says and lie flat on my belly and cover my head.
BOOOOM
The wagon’s cover is whacked clean off. Wood goes flying everywhere. I feel something graze my trunk.
I look up and see a silver tentacle flicking wood off of itself.
“Well… guess the mirages don’t like me anymore…” Michael sighs.
“OH HELL NO!” I grab a halberd, get to my feet, and swipe at the tentacle. Even with all my remaining strength, I can barely dent the slippery thing. No matter.
click
BOOM
The tentacle explodes and hot silver liquid rains down upon the vicinity. Including me. Gets in my eyes, gets on my skin, gets in my wound. It burns… but less than before. Even starts to feel good after a while. “D-HACK-DAMNIT!”
“Good going! Keep it up!” Michael turns to his entourage riding beside us. “I want everyone to protect the wagon! I don’t care what it takes, no Mirages touch my friends here!”
“YES SIR!” a collection of voices reply and begins firing back at the growing sea of Mirages. Vollies of explosives, cannon fire, and crossbow bolts fly into the swarm and pick off anything that ventures too close to us. Avian mirages, reptilian mirages, chimera mirages, silver abominations of all shape and size. As good as it feels watching those monsters die, I know it’s not going to last forever… we only have so much ammo, and new mirages spawn from the liquid faster than we’re killing them…
“MICHAEL! HOW’RE WE GETTING OUT OF THIS!?”
“I’ve seen mirages like these before! Don’t worry!” he swerves a hard left and jumps over a chasm. We fly through the air for the longest fifteen seconds I’ve ever experienced before landing on some dry land and continuing our escape. “These things look real scary, but they can’t survive out of the Boundary! Trust me, I learned that the hard way!”
“What about the Matriarch!?”
“Is that the tentacle babe?”
“YES!!!” I load a cannon and begin firing at a three-headed ox charging at us. The cannonball blows right through its skull and turns its body into mush.
“I don’t know… but we’re gonna find out.” Michael steers us clean through a small river without slowing down. “HIYAH!!!”
Good news. The mist is starting to clear up. I can actually start to see the sun a little bit. It feels so warm. I’d stare at it if I wasn’t staring death in the face.
Bad news. The entourage has run out of ammo and is now just swinging at anything that approaches me with varying degrees of success. Some manage to stay on their mounts with no issue. Others wipe out after a few seconds, but get completely ignored by the mob of mirages. The mirages and liquid actually take time to run around the fallen entourage members. All the while, the Matriarch keeps staring me down with those big ol’ eyes. I’m tired of looking at them.
I don’t know if I’m staying alive out of instinct, luck, or spite at this point. I look the Matriarch in the eye, load up the last cannonball, and shoot it right at her. She catches it in her hand and crushes it as if it were an unpeeled orange.
“I can see the edge of the Boundary!” Michael cheers. “We’re gonna make it!”
I glance behind me and see the mist end. Looks to be about midday. There’s plains as far as the eye can see. Warm wind starts blowing through my hair and the stench of grass and dirt fills my nostrils once more. Almost makes me want to cry.
“Ggahsjebakll!” the Matriarch’s voice pierces my mind and nearly blows me off my feet.
I turn back around just in time to see something strike my forehead. I don’t know what it is, but it’s cold and wet. I’m knocked onto my back and try to rub it off, but find nothing on my hands. Forehead’s wet from sweat, but that’s about it. None of that silver liquid… no burning… but something definitely hit me. I look back at the Matriarch long enough to see her grin ear to ear and wave goodbye clutching something round and the size of my head in her hand..
“We made it!” Michael cheers.
The wagon becomes bathed in sunlight and we ride into mist-free plains that seem to go on forever. Not a cloud in the sky. No one for miles. Judging by the color of the grass and the few fauna I managed to glance at, I’d say we’re in the Western Plateau of the Lombard Empire… Just North of the U.P.s… we’re so close… I tilt my head up and watch the Boundary shrink over the horizon until I can no longer see it.
“Where exactly are we headed again?” Michael slows his steed.
“The Monastery…” I sling the trunk off my back and begin examining it. “If… you… don’t mind…”
“Got it!”
A big chunk of the top of the trunk is just gone. Sliced clean through. The smaller Mist deposit is nowhere to be seen. The big stone is still intact, so that’s nice… but… does she…
plop
My body finally gives out and falls back against the wagon floor. The ride is rough, my head’s bobbing up and down and vibrating with each trot the mirage makes, but that doesn’t matter. I’m spent. My eyelids slam shut and my body ceases to move. The last thing I feel before losing consciousness is the sun warming my beaten body.