26 The Saint of Magma and Metal
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Monicer Frevelin - The soul guides the body. That's why you can't have more than one soul in a single body. They will each guide a portion of the flesh, creating a horrific monster of tremendous vitality.
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My smile wilted as I said, “Ah, of course.”
Krakowah nodded before she said, “I came after the darkened one had killed Saint Petra. The room was covered in his disgusting filth. I heard from them that he killed an army of resources by his lonesome. I never imagined how he would do it.”
A grimace fell on her face as she said, “It was nasty work cleaning up that mess. He’d mutated so many of the students there. It was like he was making a giant, screaming heart out of them.”
She glanced at the floor as she said, “We took a few of them back here to see if we could help them...I haven't heard anything about them since.”
She tapped her head with her hand before saying, “Bah. We shouldn't speak of such things.” With a heavy, sullen grin, she looked up and said, “I did as Gaia would. I burned them. I burned them as they screamed their inhuman wails. Now they burn and scream in my nightmares.”
I hugged her against me as I said, “It’s alright. You burned more than their bodies. You tore their shackles from them. You released them.”
Joan placed a hand on Krakowah’s gargantuan shoulder as she said, “I think they’d thank you.”
Krakowah nodded, slowly at first until she nodded with the life and vigor of belief. She mumbled, “I’d want the same if I was in their skin...or their lack of it.”
As I let her go, I frowned and I said, “I killed a dragon and eight golems. Your duties sounded far harder and harrowing than my own.”
Krakowah raised an eyebrow as she said, “A dragon and eight golems? Quite a feat in my eyes, though you may have greased a few palms on the way up.”
I smirked as I said, “I'd like to think it's my charming smile and elegant wording.”
Krakowah hit my shoulder as she said, “Hah, as if a brute like you could charm with a smile.”
Cupping my chin in my right hand, I leaned towards her with a devilish and deviant grin as I said, “It's pretty profound, isn't it?”
Joan burst into a fit of giggling before she slicked her hair back, iron clapping against iron as she said, “You're the opposite of most geshians I know. They are always so small and shy. You hold your head high, full of pride and confidence.”
She leaned towards Joan as she said, “You wouldn't mind if I took him for a spin would you?”
Joan pursed her lips as she said, “You’re a geshian?”
Krakowah replied, “Ah, I suppose you wouldn't know being new here. See my pupils and greenish skin. That is how you can tell I’m a geshian.”
With her endless curiosity inflamed, Joan continued, “So the geshian guys are small? I thought they'd be enormous.”
Krakowah said, “Quite the opposite. We are a purely female society. We mate with other races until we return back to our homes and share our children as a family.”
I raised an eyebrow as I said, “How would a race like that get started?”
Krakow said, “After the Astral Cataclysm, two remnants of Gaia landed near our ancient capital. We took the pieces into our arms and embraced their loving light. We changed as Gaia saw fit.”
I frowned as I said, “There should still be at least a few males left in your society even if the capital’s citizens all changed.”
She shook her head as she said, “Nearly a thousand years ago, we performed the great cleansing and finished Gaia’s work.”
Joan paled as she said, “Gaia’s work?”
Krakowah opened her arms as she said, “We freed every male in the empire.”
I closed my eyes as I said, “Your ancestors...they killed them all?”
Krakowah’s eyes set like stone as she said, “No they did not. They freed those who were away from Gaia. I will not let you speak ill of my ancestors.”
I sighed before Joan placed a hand on Krakowah’s arm and said, “Sorry about that. It’s just a...cultural thing between us.”
Krakowah said, “Gah. You're right. I shouldn't ruin the mood like that. It's just, I love my family as much as a blacksmith loves iron, if that blacksmith sweat rust and bled steel.”
I ignored the sinking in my stomach as I said, “I urged your anger. It was my mistake in wording. I shouldn't judge your history, and besides, none of us live from our past. We live from our future.”
Joan stumbles before I gripped her waist as she said, “Blah, that’s some strong stuff. I can hardly walk anymore.”
Krakowah blinked before she said, “Hah, it’s hitting me harder than I thought it would as well. I mean...I’m starting to...”
Krakowah leaned over before puking a pile of vomit onto the floor before landing on the brick floor. Like a chemical reaction, Joan emptied her stomach as well before I spoke in my mind,
“Deluge, what was in that barrel?”
He responded, “A moonshine of 160 proof along with diprenorphine.”
I grimaced as I thought, “I know it’s bad when you speak a foreign language.”
“It won’t be a problem for their lives. It pooled at the top of the barrel. If you hadn’t drank first, they’d have died already. Fortunate.”
My teeth clamped as I dashed right for the bartender who polished a glass without any inkling of suspicion. Charging like a black brute, I reached him before lifting him by his collar and growling,
“Who sold you that barrel?”
The man glanced around before saying, “I...I got it from the usual supplier.”
I stabbed a glance hotter than coals and bitter as turpentine as I hissed, “Who might that be?”
Chairs lifted as a hand gripped my shoulder. I turned my glance as a gruff, bald man said, “This ain’t the place to be causing a ruckus. Thing’s ell get rowdy if you don’t put Lester dow-”
I roared with thunder in my throat, “Two saints were poisoned.”
He stumbled backward before I brought the bartender over the counter, his body hanging limp like a doll. As I set him down, he blinked before saying, “I got it from the Hardwater tribe. They’ve never done something like this before. I didn’t mean to poison either of yah. I swear it.”
I paced over towards Krakowah before tossing her over my shoulder and gripping Joan by a belt around her waist. My feet cracked the stone underneath me as I turned and said, “If anyone leaves here, I will find you and bring you justice before Gaia. A member of the palisade will be here shortly. Prepare yourselves for an interrogation at their hands.”
As I turned and left, the bald man fell onto his rear before gasping as he said, “That’s a death sentence. Please, have some mercy on us. We got families to feed.”
I turned my face towards them as I said, “God is merciful. I am not.”
With that badass one liner said, I trotted out before giggling at my idle threat. There were fine people in that bar, through they carried themselves with a threatening swagger. I felt familial warmth from those here. They jumped at the seven foot monster grabbing their bar leader without a second thought. That required resolve. It required courage.
Still, I could gain quite a sum of information from these people if I leveraged their terror. Therefore, a little scare was necessary, unpleasant as it was. As I trot through the city, I saw the setting sun, so I spoke in my mind, “Deluge.”
In his sardonic drawl, he replied, “What is it?”
“I trust you’ll handle this matter without bloodshed?”
Bellowing a delighted laugh, he replied, “As always. Not a drop of blood will be spilt.”
I sighed as I yawned, “Relying on you is like jumping off a cliff. It’s always a leap of faith.”
“You’re a saint aren’t you? Faith should be your specialty.”
“It’s as much my specialty as subtlety is yours.”
A shallow laugh escaped Deluge before he echoed in my mind, “We’ll get better in time, I’m sure.”
I pursed my lips as I reached the gate towards the palace. I thought, “Somethings are better left unlearned.”
Deluge replied, “Just as some things are better off burned and bloody.”
A guard at the gate ran up as he said, “What happened?”
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I shrugged as I said, “We were poisoned with diprenorphine.”
The man held his breath before blasting his words behind him, “Open the gates. It’s an emergency.”
The guard’s competence surprised me as the clanking of chains and creaking of wood filled the air around us. The door opened before I jogged up several flights of stairs and reached the circular garden surrounding the palace. I reached Solomon who swung his sword and shield with vitality and vigor, mimicking the first time we met.
He walked towards me before saying, “What happened? Did they pass out drunk?”
I shook my head before saying, “We were poisoned.”
He leaned towards me and said, “What do you mean we? You appear perfectly able bodied and able minded.”
I set Joan onto a patch of soft, green grass with a delicate movement before handing Krakowah to Solomon as I said, “Ask them whenever they wake. I drank most of the liquor before they so much as sipped it. IT doesn’t matter right now anyway.”
I opened my arms as I said, “You know who to get for their treatment and I trust you, so I came here. I’ll be hunting down my lead while it’s still fresh.”
Before Solomon could refuse, I turned towards the wall before bending my knees and smashing my toes into the brick road beneath me. Dancing through air never got old, so I relished the sudden lack of levity before landing on the gate. As I turned around, I said,
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
Solomon let his hands flop onto his sides as he said, “Alright. I’ll be beating some sense into you if you’re lying.”
I waved goodbye as I said, “Good luck beating sense into the senseless.”
Solomon shook his head as I leapt from the wall before acceleration tugged at my toes and slung my stomach. Gravity pulled until I crashed with colossal cracks ripping into the ground around me. Breaking the brick further, I dashed away before creeping into an alleyway as I thought toward Deluge,
“Alright. I’m going to sleep.”
Deluge replied, “As your eyes close shut, mine open wide.”
I rolled my eyes at his feigned melodrama before handing off the conscious. Of course, Deluge took over from here, so his rendition offers a vivid detail my own descriptions will lack. Isn’t that right?
On the contrary, I find myself leaning more towards concision. Regardless, I skulked through the alleyways and golem ridden roads before reaching out of Mareovosa. The tranquilizer laced alcohol would only last for several more hours since we consumed almost all the toxins within the burning brew. I needed to figure out the culprit quickly, otherwise Joan could perish. I’d rather her not die, so that purpose pushed my steps as I sprinted towards the fireshade tribe.
As I reached towards them, they let me in with simple smiles and painless pleasure. The lowlit light of yellow and orange glowed above as they stood around vats full of crushed flowers. The scent, sickly sweet with hints of honey and sugar, drew in these fireflies, and children laughed beside the parents who showed them how they would live one day.
Though I threatened them before, I gave them the formulas for several new dyes during my last visit. This spurred their pitiful economy, creating a sudden surge of prosperity. The beaten eyes of before beamed with a resonating hope that infected everyone near. I’d created so many smiling faces, and I wouldn’t leave my kindness unanswered.
So as I approached the elder, she bowed before her young guards did so as well. I raised a palm towards them as I said, “Formalities are unnecessary. Who and where are the Hardwater tribe?”
Concern leaked onto the face of the gray headed tribe leader as she said, “What happened?”
I gripped my open palm into a fist before letting the limb sling at my side as I said, “I’m not here for questions. I am here for answers.”
She bit her lip before saying, “Of course. The Hardwater tribe makes the firewater your kind drinks.”
I doubted the tribe would have any knowledge of opiates or how to cloak them, so I said, “Are there any tribes specializing in poisons?”
The leader grimaced before saying, “I’m sorry, Jericho. I do wish I could help you, but I am a leader. I can’t speak of such things with an outsider. Please understand.”
I grinned as I lifted an arm while leaning over her and saying, “If I shove my arm down your throat and into your organs, I could transform into an insider quite quickly. I can give my good graces or take everything away. The result hinges on your words. Decide, now.”
A guard jumped towards me, stabbing a spear towards my side. The flimsy wood and dull flint pricked my skin before the staff bent and broke. I turned towards him before the skin covering my ribcage split open as I said,
“So you want to see what’s inside then?”
The village leader reared back before a set of villagers screamed as my intestines snapped out of my body and wrapped around the guard’s outstretched arms. At first he struggled. He squirmed and shook and stabbed, but the tendrils of flesh pulled him towards me as the others gaped in horror.
Realizing his fate, the guardsman howled as tears fell from his eyes. My pink, mushy intestines fused with his skin as the broken bones of my rib cage vibrated with anticipation. In a visceral snap of movement, the jutting ribs snapping towards the man before the village leader fell to her knees weeping with despair.
The man’s face neared my torso as the dark crimson of blood squeezed between the varying shades of rosy red and light yellow. Like the darkest thoughts that pierce into the mind, my ribs snapped at the man’s face. The elder begged and pleaded and asked for forgiveness. I grinned in silence. A symphony of screams beamed around me before the guard pushed his arms against my hip and upper chest, his arms convulsing with horror and exertion.
He pushed with all manner of might as his muscles tensed. It never mattered. At the apex of the village’s horror, his head sunk into my chest. My squishy organs molded into his every orifice. My ribs ripped into his neck like teeth. He sunk deeper as his arms clamped on his sides, unable to move any longer. As his feet left the ground, I yanked him outward, laughing as I unraveled the slimy tentacles from his body.
Stripes oh his skin where missing. Pus and blood and mush melted his face as the man howled, his lips falling from his face. He grabbed for his eyes, but blood buried them under pools of red. Just as the guard bathed in acid, the fireshade tribe bathed in utter and complete terror as the guard melted from the outside, screaming in agony.
The guard’s howls silenced as life left his body. I consolidated his soul as my wound healed. After regenerating, I leaned towards the village elder, her pupils wide as if staring into a deep, dark abyss. Her hands held no strength. She carried the eyes of caught prey, pathetic and limp. With a smile sinister and knowing, I whispered, yet all listened and heard me as I said,
“Now tell me, leader of the fireshade. Will you swallow this darkness, or will I swallow you?”
She gave me every piece of information I needed for finding the would be poisoners. I understand revulsion at my method of interrogation, but understand my own position as well. I’d given these villagers valuable resources. In return, they attempted murdering me. The guard’s intent was clear, and both Jack and I held scars from leaving enemies alive. The way I understood the guard and my interaction was we both tried killing each other. The young guard just lacked the capacity for doing so effectively.
Of course his torment was unnecessary, but I needed the tribe’s information. They could have given their gentle benefactor what he wanted instead of stabbing him with a crude weapon. It was a rather ungrateful gesture in my eyes.
Besides all these trite and trivial excuses, I believed a simple truth.I will defend myself against those who attempt killing me. The moment he aimed at taking my life, he submitted his own.
With my interrogation of the Fireshades complete, I went towards the Blackiron tribe, finding them wide awake and working like slaves. They toiled at bars black ebony, strips of steel, and clumps of crystal. Every set of palms blackened with soot, as if the grime would never wash from their hands. The dirt sunk deep under their thick hardened nails. Large brandings wrapped around each of their bodies, especially the gray males.
They seemed similar to my own structure. Gray skin with black hair, though that could be from the perpetual dirt they wallow in. Their long, limber arms whipped as they swung tools, and their broad shoulders changed their center of balance from their hips to just below their sternum. Their muscles striated at their shoulders, and their hands held with stiff, strong fingers, more like moving stone then soft skin. If anything, they mimicked my own appearance.
They glanced with a painfully aware respect. Unlike the other villages, they reached out their towards my back rather than cringing with disgust. The other tribes and nobles of Nelastra must have thought I belonged this Blackiron tribe. Based on the humble shacks and makeshift wear these people wore, they existed as exiles. Seeds of thought sprouted in my mind as I trot up to a man wearing a chainmail.
The gray on his head meant he was the elder, and so far, no villages had more than one or two grayheads. A square brand burned over his cheek and lips, leaving him disfigured as he bowed and rasped,
“It’s good to see a Blackiron mercenary. Why have you come back home?”
I rolled my eyes before I said, “Alright, are you the tribe’s leader?”
The old Blackiron’s eyes opened wide as he said, “What? Have you been gone so long that you forgot your leader?”
I shrugged before tapping my temple as I said, “After few gory battles, my head’s a little less full. I ask for your patience.”
He nodded before saying, “Ah, of course. My head’s a little less full after so many years swinging this hammer too. The leader of the Blackiron tribe is the leader of the Blackiron mercenaries. Kade is past the pits loaded with milk of magma.”
As interested as I was about this milk of magma, I quelled that curiosity before saying, “Goodbye then.”
The elder clenched his hand into a fist as he said, “You as well. Keep our tribe in your heart and gold in your mind.”
As I paced through an arch of polished silver, the wooden shacks transformed into a fortress of steel. Draping from the thick canopy overhead, chains covered in the fangs and horns of beasts littered above me. Tubes of steel crawled in and out of every tree trunk like pulsing veins. The ground beneath turned to metal, and as I pushed further, a dry heat collapsed onto my skin from all sides.
Pits full of orange eyed moths with vibrant, glowing sacs of white behind them sucked on misshapen monsters without eyes. Corded wire sewed their lips shut as the moths drained red from their skin. As I glanced at a creature engulfed in a blanket composed of a white glow, a steel skinned man dawned in hydra skin walked into the pit before grabbing a moth.
He squeezed the white glow of its sack by pressing his thumb through the moth’s chest. With a trained efficiency, he grabbed each and every one of the dozens of moths, killing them as he squeezed their glowing goop into a bucket. After finishing of almost all of them, he walked out of the cage before pouring the white into pit back where the smiths hammered metals into shape.
I absorbed the soul of the creature before walking up a set of rough stairs where two tall, thinly clad women fawned over the broad chest of a man made of metal. Instead of gleaming, his skin blackened into a charcoal armor covered in countless scarred streaks of fresh, shining steel. Each of his wounds revealed the fresh alloy underneath, and the curving claws at his fingertips ended in sharpened spines. As I neared him, his eyes snapped open, twisting and contorting with the sharp popping of moving metal.
As his eyes met mine, he raised an eyebrow, his eyes glowing beneath slit eyes, like half hidden coals. Burning blue, his piercing gaze laid onto me before he said in an inhumanly deep and ringing voice,
“Who decided to intrude into my lair?”
I replied, “A monster in a man’s skin.”
The man laughed, his mouth covered in slab of black. After looking me over, he said, “I can feel your weight through the metal beneath me. What you say must be true, so tell me. What does this monster want?”
A grinning snarl took over my face as I said, “I want to know why your tribe wanted to poison two saints.”
The man’s shoulders shifted, the black bending like a moving, gritty shadow. The ladies at his side stood and left him as he released his hands from them before standing and popping his neck. After staring at me, he said, “Of course our tribe never did such a treachery, but say we happened to dump poison in a barrel, how, perchance, would someone like you know?”
I slit my eyes as I said, “I’ve sharp ears and a stomach like stone.”
Kade clapped his hands, the metallic ring shaking the air around him before he said, “So you swallowed it? Incredible. How would you have figured out that our tribe attempted the poisoning?”
Like a crescent moon waning, my smile dampened before I said, “I melted a man’s face and stole their soul.”
Kade nodded before stepping towards me and saying, “You’re like a young Blackiron, but I’ve never seen you?”
I raised an eyebrow as I said, “You are a curious creature, aren’t you?”
Like floating fires, he stared his eyes like weapons at me as he said, “Someone should remember you after you die.”
My grin returned at full force as I said, “Ah, excellent. I was itching for a piece of carnage.”
He spread his arms before he said, “You’ll find more than a piece, little one. You’ll find a living leviathan.”