Bel looked around expectantly, waiting for the maze to fall apart the after she had defeated her last opponent. Eventually, her leg began to hurt, and Bel found herself shifting her weight around in a vain search for a comfortable position. Her muscles had tightened after her endless walking and sudden exertion, so when she leaned to the side several of her joints popped loudly.
She made a noise of disgust and reached down to take the dhvaras woman’s spear before going back to retrieve her shirt and the pants stuffed full of magical Pillar metal. Then she awkwardly looked around the room, wondering if she was missing something.
Do I need to return to my starting room? She fervently hoped not.
Bel scowled. They aren’t going to try to lock me up in here, are they?
With a loud shudder, the floors around her fell away, and Bel sighed with relief. The magma slowly drained from the room, and the shifting walls cracked their rocky coating. The other platforms swung to the side as the walls closed in and the floors rose, leaving Bel alone on a small patch of rock. The walls closed in around her, folding up to form a small, rectangular room. A turning in her stomach let Bel know that she was descending. When the motion stopped, a large rectangle opened in the wall and Tracy – the tall, horned woman with the crisp uniform who had initiated the maze fight – strode into the room.
Tracy raised her hand in greeting. “I apologize for the delay, but whatever you were doing interfered with our observation. We had to restore it before I could verify that you had defeated your last objector.”
Bel snorted. “I’d like to lodge a complaint,” Bel she replied hotly. “This wasn’t about preventing fights or preserving any habitats. If you cared about that, then there wouldn’t have been a bunch of giants poaching on the fifth layer. I think you just like seeing other people suffer.”
Tracy’s silver eyebrow lifted in surprise. Her lips turned into a slight grimace as she shrugged helplessly. “I can’t say your accusation doesn’t have merit. Many of my co-workers have less than idealistic attitudes, which leads to a selective application of our regulations.”
She sighed at Bel’s scowl. “Basically, we have less control over things that we would like to admit, and I have less influence that you seem to think. Some of the asura and naga are certainly aware of what was going on, but they would prefer to ignore your tokens rather than attempt to honor them.”
“Huh?” Bel responded stupidly, thrown off by the lack of arguing.
“The truth is that the upper layers of the Pillar are not completely under the administration’s control,” Tracy explained. “It is an embarrassment, I agree, and it means that honoring the tokens is beyond our abilities. Rather than admit the problem and do something to fix it, many of my co-workers would rather find excuses to squirm out of our commitments.”
Bel blinked a few times as she processed that. Then she shook her head, dismissing the problems of the local administration. “So, on the topic of the tokens, am I going to get anything for wagering them? And will I actually be able to climb the Pillar?”
Tracy smiled, showing off a set of perfect, sharp teeth. “You will be ascending as a group on a quest, so you will not need them. However, you will have to fight whatever squatters are occupying the higher layers of the tower. Before that, I assume that you want your winnings?”
Bel frowned. “Are you really going to honor that bet? You aren’t going to try to wriggle out of it?”
Tracy shrugged. “You will have to judge for yourself if the rewards were worth the struggle.”
The giant woman gestured and a small cart was lifted into the room. A few bundles of deep blue cloth caught Bel’s eye, although the cart also had a large satchel and a small, dark wooden box with silver hinges sitting to the side.
Tracy pointed to the cloth. “New clothes. They are slightly magical, so cleaning them should be as simple as brushing them off. They’re tough, but I wouldn’t recommended transforming in them.”
Bel’s eyes lit up. Then she felt foolish for being excited over clothes.
Tracy patted the satchel. “Still, I got you a few sets. Just in case of destructive accidents.”
Bel’s eyes lit up again.
Tracy moved on to the wooden box, tipping back the polished lid to reveal the spines a several volumes of books. She lifted the first one out and patted a cover that was intricately decorated in golden and silver thread. The woman tilted the title so Bel could read it.
“The history of Technis, part one, his first three-hundred years.” Bel’s eyebrows shot up and she looked at Tracy with surprise. “Really? Those books are all about Technis?”
Tracy nodded. “Yes. Will you accept this as suitable compensation for your wager?”
She pointed to a small paper that Bel hadn’t noticed. “You’ll have to sign this to accept delivery.”
Bel squinted at the paper and looked back to the books. “Am I getting a good deal?”
“Well, the information on Technis may not be worth a lot to someone else, but this all comes from our archives: every ability that he’s been known to use, every patron, every fight…” Tracy patted the wooden box. “These were written out by out fastest scribes in my department, all in Mycenaean, just for you. Each volume has a summary of important points, transcripts of interviews, information on his associations, and detailed analysis of any of his fights that we have observed.”
She gestured behind her. “My co-workers may be scum, but they literally will not survive with any outstanding debts. This represents an honest attempt by a reprehensible scoundrel to pay back your wager in full.”
She smiled. “Of course, you can ask for something more.”
Bel thought about it. Clothes, a satchel with more clothes, books that had all of her main enemy’s weaknesses…
What else could I need?
“A could do with a bath, I think.”
Tracy grinned. “Have you ever bathed in the area between the inner and outer worlds? It is a unique experience. We also have a sauna where you can pull yourself up to your desired heat.”
“That sounds interesting, I guess.” It sounded complicated to Bel, which was maybe more than she wanted, but even a complicated bath was still a bath.
Then she reached down to her stomach. “I also want some food.”
She grinned as she had a good idea. “Enough for a celebration, for me and my companions.”
Tracy tilted her head and shrugged. “That should be fine.”
Bel pointed her finger at the taller woman. “There had better be a lot of food. One of my friends likes to eat.”
Bel shook her finger for emphasis. “She likes to eat a lot,” she repeated.
----------------------------------------
“You should relax more, Cress,” Orseis wheedled.
Crecerelle arched an eyebrow at the cuttle-girl, instantly discerning her real motive. “No, you can’t go back to that pool alone. There are dangerous things in these woods.”
“But I’m so hungry,” Orseis whined. “Look how sunken my cheeks are. I may not last much longer.”
Cress rolled her eyes. “You’re just using some body-manipulation to make yourself look emaciated. That is disrespectful to anyone who has actually experienced deprivation.”
Orseis waved her tentacles in disgust. “Oh, c’mon, who here–”
She stopped and looked around at the gorgons. Her gaze settled on Manipule. “Hey, have you ever been starving?”
Manipule tilted her head and pondered. “A little. Maybe… a week, I think?”
“A week? What, without eating?”
Manipule nodded. “Yes. A week. Not so bad.”
She pointed to the other flying gorgon and her friend. The pair of them were busy grinding some massive root into a bland, slightly gritty flour. “Oculaire and Crapaudine, they have lived worse.”
Orseis quietly reinflated her cheeks. “Okay, I guess that I’m not starving,” she told Orseis sheepishly. “I’m just hungry.”
“I have some nuts,” Manipule offered cheerfully, shaking a small sack.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“You don’t have to keep feeding her,” Cress huffed. “She says that she’s an adult.”
Manipule shook her head. “She is child! Look!”
Manipule pointed at Orseis’ face as if some truth were written on her forehead. Oresis wanted to insist that she was an adult, but she also really wanted the nuts.
“I’m a child,” she declared forcefully as one of her tentacles nabbed the snack from Manipule’s hand. “Thanks,” she said, before pouring the nuts into her open mouth.
Cress rubbed her face with her hand. “You’ve got a real problem, kid.”
Manipule smiled indulgently. “She is cute, I think.”
Orseis did her best to ignore the two, and to keep her skin an non-embarrassed shade.
“You should be working on the egg,” Cress said, switching back to her native language as she decided to ignore Orseis’ rudeness.
Manipule patted the large, clay vessel that never left her side. “Fortuit has been showing me many things, but this one only needs watching. The little gorgons inside don’t need any attention yet, not like our little tentacled friend here.”
Orseis noisily crunched the nuts as she watched Cress’ expression. I hope Bel gets back soon, she thought as she gulped down another mouthful. I think all of this helpless waiting is going to drive Cress mad.
“Hey, ladies,” a shrill voice intruded. “I need to – ack!”
Everyone spun to the intruder, who had stopped talking when Escarole placed the tip of her sword against his throat. He was a tall, brown-furred creature, with short limbs, sharp teeth and strange, dagger-like paws.
“Whoa, whoa, lady, back up, I’m here to take your orders for dinner, not to attack you!” The wind stirred around him as Escarole forced him back against a tree.
“Escarole,” Cress called out, “that seems like a strange thing to say if he’s planning an ambush. Let’s hear him out, okay?”
She turned to the weasel. “Where did you come from?”
“I’m from the Pillar! I’m just here because your friend said she wanted to throw a celebratory feast.”
“Our friend? Your mean Bel?”
“Yeah, yeah, the beloved child of Lempo. She’s all done with fighting her objectors, and now you’re having a feast.” His whiskers twitched indignantly. “You could be more excited about it.”
Cress gripped the handle of her maul. “This sounds suspicious. Where is Bel getting the food? And who was she fighting?”
The weasel groaned with irritation. “It’s because I messed up, okay? I gave her terrible odds, but she bet all of her tokens on herself and wound up coming out on top. How was I supposed to know that Lempo gave her some crazy abilities?”
Cress stared at him, uncomprehending. “What?”
“I’m a bookie, you idi–” His voice cracked as Escarole leaned forward with the point of her blade.
“Uh, I mean, I organize bets on interesting events of world changing importance. Your friend won big, so now I’m getting food for everyone! Yay!”
He rolled his eyes when Escarole’s sword didn’t waver. “Look, is meat okay with everyone? Lots of meat? No herbivores here?”
Manipule pointed at Orseis. “She likes seafood.”
“Sure, sea meat, land meat, sky meat, whatever.”
Manipule raised her hand. “Vegetables are important for proper digestion.”
“Great, yeah, I’ll find some vegetables. You’re mostly gorgons, so I know what you can eat. Come to the Pillar in, I dunno, an hour.” With that, the weasel’s body dissolved into the air and drifted away.
Escarole watched like a hunting bird as his ethereal form drifted away.
“Anyone feel like translating any of that?” Orseis asked.
Cress shrugged. “He said that Bel won some important fights, bet on herself, and won us all a feast.”
Orseis threw up her tentacles with delight. “A feast! What in the depths of the abyss are you all doing? Let’s go!”
----------------------------------------
Bel reclined on a long couch, enjoying the feeling of being clean for the first time in a long time. She munched contentedly on a bowl of tiny, round fruit as she watched the wind weasel and a couple of his helpers fill a long table with platters of food. Its was mostly meat, but James wasn’t around to complain about it.
She was happy at least – she was clean, her new clothes were warm and soft, and the promise of food tickled her nose. She closed her eyes with contentment and nodded off before she realized it.
The relative quiet was broken when Orseis burst into the room. “Bel!” she shouted with delight. “Food!” she added, with even more enthusiasm.
Bel snapped awake but her mind followed along sluggishly as she smiled blankly at Orseis.
The little cuttle-girl was dragging Cress forward as the gorgon tried to restrain her with a strong grip on one of her tentacles. When she abruptly let go, Orseis practically flew into Bel’s arms.
“I’ve missed you too, Orseis,” Bel said, fighting back a yaw.
Orseis inspected her friend with delight. Then she looked her new clothes up and down and frowned. “I don’t know about these, they make you look too formal. Where’s your armor?”
“What?” Bel looked down at her new clothes, a comfortable coat and pants made of a deep blue material with golden accents. She also had a flowing white cape, but she’d rolled it up to use a pillow. “I don’t think it’s formal, it’s just not falling apart?”
“What happened to your armor though?”
“Ah,” Bel said, looking away with a flush of embarrassment. “I broke it.”
Orseis withdrew quickly and hugged her divine spear to her chest. “You can break gifts from the gods? I’m not giving you this spear back.”
Bel was still laughing at Orseis’ expression when Cress and the rest of the gorgons gathered around her.
“You’ve gotten another snake!” Cress exclaimed, pointing at the tangled braid of serpents that spilled over Bel’s shoulder. The rest of the gorgons were equally enthusiastic, pointing and whooping with enthusiasm. Bel had gathered that, to the rest of the gorgons, growing new snakes was some kind religious thing. She hadn’t quite wrapped her mind around the significance of it though.
Cress clapped her on the shoulder and leaned in for the traditional gorgon hug. Bel still hadn’t grown comfortable with the ritual, but she had grown used to it. She quickly angled her body to keep her snakes away from Crecerelle before her snakes could get up to their regular mischief.
For once, her snakes were too busy holding back her newest serpent to get tangled in the other gorgons’ hair and she managed to return the hug without any awkwardness. She could feel the bright-green serpent desperately straining for the freedom to bite. Its thoughts were filled with dreams of pus-filled wounds and bloated corpses, but Bel pushed those away to smile at her travelling companion.
Then Cress stepped backward and another gorgon took her spot, to begin a round of awkward – for Bel at least – hugs. Each one clapped her on the back, presumably to congratulate her for the new snake and for surviving the nonsense in the Pillar. Manipule was the last, giving her a quick hug and then frowning as she looked Bel up and down. She kept a grip on Bel’s should as though she were afraid that Bel would run off somewhere.
“I thought you would be more cheerful,” Bel remarked.
Manipule’s eyebrows knit together and she poked Bel in the neck. “More scars,” the other gorgon said, prodding at a few of Bel’s exposed injuries. “Why are you not careful? Why these clothes instead of armor? Hm?”
Bel wilted under the accusations from the normally gentle gorgon. Maybe I shouldn’t have taught her any of my language, Bel thought with regret.
“Oh,” Manipule exclaimed suddenly, “your nails are different!”
Manipule grasped one of Bel’s hands and lifted it to her face, tilting it one way and then the other to improve her view. Each nail was now a brilliant silver than almost shimmered.
“That reminds me,” Bel said, gently tugging to get her hand back. “I got presents for everyone.”
She reached over to her pants-turned-bag and pulled out a few of the metal cubes she’d stashed inside.
Bel held them up for Manipule to inspect, but she found Escarole’s helmeted face instead, leaning over to examine Bel’s pillage.
“Is this from the Pillar?” the woman inquired. There was a hunger in her voice that broke through her usual apathy.
Bel leaned closer to whisper, “yes, but don’t say it too loud. I don’t know if it’s okay for me to take this stuff away.”
She spread her other hand widely, showing off her nails. “It’s super durable though, and I got enough for all of us.”
“Excellent,” Escarole said, expressing more emotion in the single word than she had in the entire time Bel spent with her. She grabbed ten of the small cubes, tilted her head back, and tossed them into a slot in her visor. Then, after a thankful nod to Bel, she returned to her regular looming near Fortuit’s shoulder.
“You take some too, Manipule,” Bel offered. “I’ll hand out the rest later. Hopefully everyone is as pleased as Escarole.”
She looked at the other gorgons and noticed Orseis messily stuffing something in her face. Manipule glanced over at Bel’s expression of dismay. The sight of Orseis making a mess on her new clothes elicited a noise of frustration from the gorgon’s mouth.
She turned back to Bel, thanked her for the cubes, and then shook her finger at Bel. “But be less hurt next time!” she scolded. Then she gave Bel a second, quick hug before storming to Orseis. She poked and prodded the cuttle-girl, chastising her in broken phrases until Orseis relented and agreed to rinse her tentacles in a nearby washbasin. Manipule grabbed a chair and some tableware and pointed to them with a stern expression.
Bel was impressed at Manipule’s power over the willful semi-human.
Fortuit chuckled at the sight. The honored gorgon looked Bel up and down and nodded before giving a slight bow.
“So,” Fortuit began, “have things gone well here? Is the group’s passage to the surface secured?”
Bel shrugged. “Well, no one will stop us. There are probably monsters infesting the upper areas of the Pillar, though.”
Fortuit nodded. “Some risks are unavoidable. As long as we can reach a place where gorgons aren’t stigmatized we will be satisfied.”
Bel glanced at the rest of the gorgons, who were busy marvelling over the feast. Unlike Orseis, they had the decency to rinse their hands and take seats in the long benches that lined the table before they began to eat. Their habits were, for the most part, more dignified than Orseis’ unrestrained eating.
“I can’t guarantee that everything will be perfect,” Bel explained with a sigh, “but the people of Satrap and the Golden Plains don’t have anything against gorgons. The humans are probably already at their limit dealing with the war, but the people in the Golden Plains were pretty accepting of me.”
Bel looked at her fellow gorgons, who were joking and laughing among themselves as they dug into the food. “I still think it’s crazy that people down here discriminate against gorgons so much.”
Fortuit’s mouth twisted wryly. “Being excluded by the gods is considered ill-luck. Even with your mother’s endorsement, I doubt things down here will change quickly. We hope that our people can begin anew with a group of strangers.”
Bel nodded. “James used to tell me that the people in his world still told stories about gorgons, and that some of the stories weren’t bad. Maybe humans and gorgons got along in the past.”
Fortuit smiled. “We can only hope. While you were gone, we also discussed exploring the empty places of the surface, or carving out a space in the higher layers of the world, but there is safety in numbers and diversity.”
Her expression turned sour. “Creatures such as your enemy, Technis, have certainly been willing to exploit gorgons in the past. We would much rather enter an existing society, even with some restrictions, if that meant protection from such predators.”
Bel examined Fortuit’s egg. “Maybe you could bargain with the people of the Golden Plains? They’re hoping that the humans will be a lifeline, but they may be interested in your method of making new gorgons, too. Do you think your, uh, whatever it is you’re doing in there could work on them?”
Fortuit shrugged. “You’ve mentioned their birth problems before, but I do not know enough about them to guess. To be honest, the secrets of this method are known only to Stheno and Euryale, the greatest of the old mothers. The things I know and what I’ve been teaching to Manipule are merely mimicry of their arts.”
Bel glanced at the named gorgon, who was busy showing Orseis how to wield a fork.”
Bel chuckled at the sight, and Fortuit grinned.
“She has good parental instincts,” Fortuit said with satisfaction, “picking her to carry that egg was a good choice. All of us may die, but if the next generation survives then we are not truly gone.”
Bel frowned at that. “That’s a little bleak, isn’t it?”
Fortuit shrugged and smiled ruefully. “That’s life, isn’t it?”