Having relayed their message about the missing necromancer and venator, Emilia, King, unit twelve and her knights had entered the mysterious doorway that at least seemed to lead out of the disorienting realm. Pyria’s protection kept the corruption at bay, allowing them to freely push onwards without fear of succumbing to it.
What waited them on the other side was a blank stone room, ten meters in each dimension and with a single door forward. Though the stonework and light patterns all seemed fairly normal, something about the room didn’t feel right even to Emilia.
“This chamber doesn’t condone to the architectural design patterns; I doubt it’s real.” Unit twelve confirmed and squatted to inspect the floor.
“You doubt it’s real? Don’t you live here? I would hope you’d know your way around.” The priestess questioned the custodian’s choice of words.
“Suppose you know every street and path by heart aboveground too then?” Unit twelve gave a snarky answer. “This place consists of hundreds of floors, all spread across kilometers in every direction. We weren’t made here and don’t have an internal map like the knights or other first children that were here way before us. Not to mention that this place has been hibernating almost the entire time ever since we arrived, so there has been no reason to go and fuck about far from The Great One. In the thousands of years we’ve spent running around, The Wrath Core has uncovered maybe ten to twenty percent of this place, because we have a job to do and don’t have the time to be exploring places where we’re not wanted or needed – not that you’d understand anything about that.”
“Fine, fine. Point taken, no need to be cross.” Emilia sighed and started inspecting the room herself.
Not counting the entrance, the one responsible for creating the room had given them only one direction to follow. The door was sealed but operational, based on the lights covering it. Nothing around it gave any clues on what to expect on the other side, and if it wasn’t even a real part of the fort like unit twelve suggested, it could have been almost anything.
Just as Emilia was about to inquire answers from the fiend in her head, Pyria spoke out. “It is an illusion, weak, simple and downright pathetic. Like a baby bird on my palm, I could simply snuff the life out of it by closing my fist – but I won’t.”
Knowing there would be an explanation for the sudden change of plans regardless of what she said, Emilia remained silent and waited by the door.
“Gazing upon this final one, it is clear that our assumptions, both yours and mine alike, are flawed. We fought onwards thinking our progress was being hindered by an unseen foe, but that no longer appears true. There is no enemy here, in fact, if one was to stumble up on our play, we would seem like villains of the worst kind.” Pyria laughed, sounding utterly delighted by her realization. “Go forth my scion. You will understand my words soon enough.”
Still not trusting the fiend in the slightest, Emilia prepared her weapon and planted her hand on the stone plate in the middle of the door. Though she now possessed the clearance required to operate the doors in the fort, it was anyone’s guess if the illusion cared about such trivialities, but regardless, the stone door slowly slid open before her.
The scenery on the other side was the complete opposite of the dim and timeless hallways of stone and metal the adventurers had been wandering for days: a bright and sunny open field of grass. Dozens of wild animals peacefully minded their business as the birds chirped from the few trees sparsely growing in the area. The grass bloomed green and almost blinded the priestess with its bright color after the long, dull gray and perpetually blue-tinted trudge underground. The slightest of breezes washed over the field and brought with it the fresh scent of flora, which contrasted with the dust scented air just as starkly as the visuals did.
Following the priestess, King and eventually the rest of the fort’s inhabitants stepped out of the door. Unit twelve immediately began rubbing her eyes, sneezing and sniffling at the sight of so much plant life.
“Hay allergy? Really?” The priestess chuckled a bit derisively.
“Your ancestors weren’t a glint in the eye of whatever unwashed primordial mongrels birthed them when I last saw grass, so fuck off.” The custodian grunted between sneezes. “It’ll sort itself out in a bit.”
Emilia was prepared to offer unit twelve a vial of something from her seemingly bottomless belt of ointments and curatives to tide her over the ill reaction, but instead of its usual contents, she could feel the very distinct sliminess of viscera in the pouch she had reached into. She wiped her fingers on her stained cloak and cursed the fiend cackling insanely in her head.
Suddenly King pointed his spear towards something and gathered attention to himself with a stomp that scared off many of the animals around the group. In the distance, there was a long table with several chairs around it. From so far away, they could only tell that one of the seats was occupied by someone relatively small, but needed to approach them for further inspection.
With King and Emilia spearheading their advance, and the rest of the knights diligently following them and aiding their sniffling caretaker, the group got about twenty meters away from the table before stopping to take a better look.
The table was made from large sheets of glass that were being held together by what seemed to be gold decorations. The twelve chairs surrounding it were just as pointlessly opulent and out of place, as they were put together with gold, mahogany and ivory, and cushioned with red velvet. On the table were ample mountains of treats, pastries, cakes, pies, cookies and at least three pots of tea. Gold trimmed porcelain cups and plates with golden cutlery were placed in front of each seat, along with a red silk napkin.
Sitting on one of the chairs, not in either end of the table nor or even in either of the middle ones along the sides, but in one of the chairs next to the middle one on that side, was something vaguely human-like. Taller than Anastacia, but still not quite big enough to seem grown up. The being had clearly noticed the group and warily waived at them from its seat.
“Well it isn’t attacking us outright, so there’s that.” Emilia pondered and considered simply walking up to the table to see what was going on.
“Great. Let’s go stab it and leave.” Unit twelve commented and would have started walking over if King hadn’t stopped her with his spear.
“That would work.” Pyria admitted. “This one is no more dangerous than what it appears to be, I doubt they would be able to harm any of our troupe even by surprise. But I am curious to learn what exactly it is and what brought such a thing here. So perhaps grant me some time to study.” She explained, still leaving plenty of things untold.
And so, it was decided that they would walk over in a peaceful manner and try their best to avoid an immediate fight.
Seeing that it was it was receiving guests, the strange being shot up from its seat and quickly ran around the table to pull the chairs further away from the table, inviting the group to join it for tea. The being had a fairly average physique for someone between fifteen and sixteen years of age, but was entirely covered in bandages full of runes written in violet ink. Thinner, more delicate ones had been used for its joints and hands, both of which were missing the middle finger and pinkie, but not the tiniest piece of its body was visible from under them. Here and there, bent and broken feathers ranging from pitch-black to pure white poked from between the covers, at least seeming like they could have been growing on whatever was hidden below the bandages. On the left side of its head, several dark violet crystals jutted from the being’s skull, not all that unlike unit twelve’s horn, but looking far more like they had grown there instead of being decisively shaped like hers. The lower half of the being’s face was covered with a metal collar that had a few holes poked into it to allow for speaking but not much else. On its wrists, it wore a pair of metal shackles, both of which had chains attached to them, but instead of being tied to anything, they simply faded to nothingness a few links from their origin. For clothes, this being had nothing more than the tattered remains of a stained and torn white shirt, meant for someone much larger than itself.
Encouraged by Pyria, Emilia stepped forwards and addressed the being that had scurried behind its own seat to hide from the group despite welcoming them. “Good day, could it be that you’re Trauma?” She asked and stopped a couple of meters away from the table.
“That is we!” The being lifted its head from behind the backrest. “Have you come for tea?”
The priestess glanced at the group behind her. Outside of King, who rested his spear against his shoulder, the blood-coated knights and their custodian stood with their weapons ready, most definitely not appearing to be there for tea. She herself was constantly bleeding and spreading blood across the idyllic woodland scene. “…Yes?”
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“Good! We just made it, so have a seat.” Trauma said and fully came out from their hiding place.
“Can we kill it yet?!” Unit twelve anxiously yelled from behind the priestess.
Emilia hastily gestured for everyone to lower their weapons. “No! We’re having tea.”
The turn of events didn’t seem too popular with the rest of the intruders, that is, until King calmly walked over and sat down in the chair by the end of the table, setting aside his equipment. The other knights followed his example almost immediately, and finally, the reluctant custodian joined them but wouldn’t sheathe her dagger despite being the furthest one away from Trauma.
Hoisting up one of the moderately oversized teapots on the table, the host of the event slowly went around the table, clumsily filling cups while spilling just as much tea on the table because their hands kept shaking uncontrollably and the total of six fingers that remained didn’t provide the firmest of grips. Though the simulacra were obviously unable to drink anything, they were still served all the same. Even the grumpy custodian, who the priestess had to keep an eye on while Trauma was near her, got some. Visibly exhausted by the task, Trauma crashed into their seat and poured themselves one last cup.
Emilia figured that poison wasn’t really something she needed to worry about in her current state and took a sip. For anyone that had ever tasted properly prepared tea, it was immediately clear that Trauma had not. The water had been tepid at best when the drink was brewed and the only things it had extracted from the leaves were some bland bitterness and a light brown color.
“This is very nice, thank you.” She lied and smiled warmly.
“Really?!” Trauma asked excitedly and looked into their own cup. The bandage covering their eyes had some very small holes poked into it, which must have allowed for some very limited vision. The metal collar prevented them from drinking, as they were content with just sniffing the cup.
Emilia nodded and took another sip to covertly take a look at what the rest of the group was doing with their drinks.
King must have understood the point of the act they were going for, as he kept lifting up his cup and bringing it up to his face every now and then – with his pinky extended, as Anastacia had no doubt taught him for some reason. The rest of the knights copied his every move down to the extended finger, confirming the idea that King must have had some special position among them. Unit twelve, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly fine with the drink, if not a bit puzzled by it. She kept taking small sips and staring into her cup as if trying to figure out what exactly ‘tea’ was.
“Try some cake too!” Trauma suggested happily and pointed at one of the rather grandiose three-tiered cakes on the table.
Covered in cream and decorated with berries and flowers, the cake, along with everything else looked entirely irresistible – too irresistible. The sheer flawlessness of their appearance made it obvious that they, as well as the tea, were a part of the illusion, just like the scenery.
“I will.” The priestess smiled. “But first I have some questions.”
“Questions? That’s… odd. Only Eminence has questions.” The strange being muttered sounding somewhat concerned.
“So you do know this ‘Eminence’? Could you maybe tell us why you and Eminence are here?” Emilia asked politely, hoping that Trauma wasn’t interested in keeping secrets.
“Eminence made us, so of course we know him, why don’t you? He said we were here to find new friends and told us to wait here.” Suddenly trauma gasped. “Are you the new friends?!”
It was clear this being didn’t know what was going on outside of the illusion, and the reason they gave was obviously a blatant lie by Eminence. Nothing about Trauma seemed like they were being dishonest, so Emilia was starting to come to a conclusion Pyria gladly confirmed for her.
“They do not know. The illusions cast against us were not intentional, but a product of a fairly powerful being subconsciously shielding themselves from the reality, and accidentally doing so to others. A subconsciousness so tarnished by terror that it refuses the harshness of reality and casts a layer upon layer of peaceful falsehoods to cover them. My blessings allow you to jut through the lies to one another, but it is impossible to say if you are being seen as you by this being.” The fiend explained the rough gist of things. “Let us say that some maleficent force were to be in control of this being, it would be the perfect thing to hide the extent of damages caused by other actors…”
The revelation that Trauma might not have had any intentional part in what had happened in the fortress, but was being weaponized without their knowledge threw a major wrench into the plan of just killing whatever was causing the problem and moving on to find Anastacia. Even if unit twelve or Pyria would have been perfectly content with it, Emilia wasn’t going to let either of them kill a potentially innocent being for the sake of convenience.
“Sure… we’re the new friends.” She winced painedly and took one more sip of tea. “Is that all he said about why you’re here?”
Trauma pondered for a while. “He told us to wait here while he went to chat with someone. We don’t see any towns around here, so we don’t know who there is to meet. Now that we think about it, it has been a long time since he left. We wonder if he made a wrong turn somewhere?”
Emilia nodded. “And do you know why you were told to wait here?”
“We thought it was so we could look at the animals? He often talks about boring things so maybe he knew we would get bored if we went with him.” The bandage-covered being said and pointed at a nearby group of wombats.
For this entire time, unit twelve had been quickly burning through her stockpile of patience, and with the tea in her cup now gone, she ran out for good. “Is there a reason we’re wasting time and not just killing whatever that thing is?” She asked without bothering to whisper and pointed her dagger at Trauma.
Though Emilia’s heart skipped a beat from what she thought would immediately ruin the peaceful contact they had made, Trauma acted as if they hadn’t heard anything. They didn’t turn to look at the custodian or even stop for a moment when threatened. It took a moment for the priestess to realize, but a helpful little tip from the fiend in her head brought sense to the matter. Whatever powers Trauma had, that created the illusions, had just erased the custodian’s words from their ears.
“They’re just being used for this without their knowledge. We’re not going to kill them just for that.” Emilia said to test out her theory, and surely, Trauma didn’t seem to notice anything despite looking directly at her.
“Can you remind me where this became your war to dictate? You’re just here to help us for the time being. it’s an enemy invader, case closed, I really don’t care beyond that and it’s not really any of your business.” Unit twelve pointed out and got up from her seat. “It doesn’t really seem to mind either.”
Emilia sighed. “One word from me and the protection you were given against the corruption is gone.” She threatened her ally, mostly bluffing as she was not entirely convinced Pyria would stop someone from getting killed even if her scion asked. “Just give me a bit of time to come up with some kind of a plan.”
The two locked eyes to test each other for a moment, until unit twelve folded and grabbed one of the teapots for herself before returning to her seat and proceeding to pour herself more.
“You seem to like the tea a lot, but we could have poured you more so you didn’t have to get up.” Trauma said and smiled to the custodian under their wraps. “You should try the cake.”
“Fuck off, I’ll kill you the second I get the chance.” Unit twelve responded gruffly and resumed drowning her anger in poorly made tea.
“Thank you! we put strawberries on it because the books said they’re tasty.” Trauma explained after hearing something entirely different.
Out of curiosity and politeness, Emilia grabbed the golden knife placed next to one of the cakes and tried to cut herself a slice – a task that proved considerably more difficult when she realized that the entire thing was made from nothing but whipped cream. Trauma must have had at some point seen a cake or a drawing of one, but hadn’t actually ever had any. So just like the tea, the entire thing was their best guess at what a cake was.
Managing to dig out a glob of cream that somehow didn’t collapse the entire thing, the priestess reluctantly scooped a bit into her mouth. Unsweetened or flavored in any way, it was a rather bland and not necessarily pleasant-tasting.
“This is… interesting.” Emilia tried to compliment the ‘cake’ while looking for a way out of having to eat anything else. “Say, if it has been a while, should we maybe go looking for Eminence to see what’s taking so long?” She suggested, hoping to get moving in the direction they were going while buying a bit more time to think about what to do with Trauma.
Trauma slammed both of their hands on the glass table and gasped. “That’s genius!” They exclaimed and immediately hopped up from their seat to look around for something. “Maybe we can bring him a rabbit to show what we’ve seen here…”
The priestess sighed in relief and got up to follow them, maybe there was a chance Trauma could be convinced to just leave, or abandon Eminence altogether, but at least she now had time to come up with something – there was even a chance Trauma could lead them to wherever Anastacia and Leggy were.
“A consideration, if you will.” Pyria interrupted her pondering. “Perhaps, what our little artificial creature is offering is a kindness to this being?”
“Well now that you’ve implied so, I definitely don’t think it is.” Emilia whispered.
“As you had your refreshments, I studied, prodded and tested. I now know what this being is and how it came to be. What you may see is a cheery, innocent thing, surrounded by small animals and flowers, but that is not what I see. A powerful soul, plucked from the cycle for reasons nefarious. Tortured to a point where it denies reality could exist, broken to be blind to truth, made to suffer to a point where it no longer could not. The linens across its husk are filled with spells, hexes and seals to contain it, for if they were not, it would tear itself apart in hopes of ceasing to exist. To me, the one that once defined terror and gave meaning to evil, this is an abomination.” The fiend said with a rare, completely serious tone, one that made it very clear that the scion should take each and every one of her words to heart.
Emilia watched as Trauma picked up a docile little rabbit and caress it. While Pyria was definitely in a better position to know the truth behind this strange being that cast uncontrollable illusions to its surroundings, she had her doubts.
“So we’re just supposed to put them down like a suffering animal?” She asked, a bit louder than she had intended to.
“Forcing it to exist is cruelty even beyond mine, but I admit, I am not the one who should make the decision. Fortunately, our troupe has been blessed with someone created through… similar methods.” The ancient fiend admitted, slowly returning to her usual, derisive and joyous tone. “Tell the feisty little thing what you have learned and heed her opinions, for there is none that know life created from malice better than her kind.”
The scion stopped what she was doing and turned to unit twelve, who was now finishing the pot of tea and frowning with constantly growing anger towards the holdup.
“I hope that shitty little twerp of yours is getting her ass kicked while you’re fucking around here like none of us had jobs to do.” The custodian hissed when she noticed she was being looked at. “I hope she found one of the chambers we filled with spare ghosts.”