Escarole had guessed correctly that Bel would be able to make use of the snail’s metal manipulation ability. After Bel carefully examined the snail’s core, she picked through the strokes of its abilities until she isolated the manipulation parts and incorporated them into her core. With that, she could liquify a metal and take control of it, awkwardly directing its shape.
Unfortunately, Escarole had failed to mention that the ability would be as clumsy as a baby’s flailing until she took another one of the snail’s abilities to perceive the metal. She was slightly annoyed by Escarole’s omission, but as Bel wrapped a layer of the gleaming Pillar material around her body and let it harden into an impervious layer of protection she decided that she didn’t mind.
“I guess that’s cool,” Orseis said, as she critically examined Bel’s new armor. “But I still think it was dumb to break Kjar’s gift.”
Bel sighed as she put her shirt back on. “I didn’t mean to break her armor.”
“You still haven’t apologized, though. Maybe she’s super mad? It would be bad if she smote us.”
“She’s not going to smite us,” Bel growled. “And I told you that I’ll apologize the next time we spill the blood of some people she doesn’t like. We haven’t been doing much blood-spilling, just walking up stairs.”
Bel gestured to their surroundings: another featureless landing in the stairs that wound around the Pillar. The only interesting thing about this one was that that passage ahead had been blocked off by ice. Their side of the obstruction was flooded with slowly melting water, but the ice was thick enough that the gorgons had been working on it for a while, cutting and carrying chunks out as they burrowed through the thick obstruction.
Bel guessed their troubles were caused by an open door into the icy layer of Olympos. Hopefully. The less-desirable explanation was that some person or creature had created the ice intentionally.
Orseis quickly ran out of patience with the gorgons’ progress.
“Can’t you just smash is with your magma snake? Please?”
Bel shook her head. “I’m keeping my energy ready in case of an emergency. We don’t know what’s waiting for us as we climb the Pillar. For all we know, Clark is waiting to ambush us again.”
Orseis flashed a frustrated pattern of pale white and purple across her skin. “Gods above, I wouldn’t even mind a call from James. Maybe he or Beth could tell us what’s happening on the surface.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen. James said that he couldn’t mask our location with the tricks he and Martinus came up with, so he was going to avoid calling.”
Orseis flattened like a puddle in display of immaturity.
Bel frowned down at her. “Why don’t you practice acting human? You know, since you want to make a good impression when my mom sends you to the Old World.”
Orseis languidly flicked a tentacle. “How would I do that?”
“I don’t know – start trying to hide your tentacles. Make a wig. Stop turning different colors.”
Orseis groaned at the thought. “The colors just kind of happen. Can’t I wear a big cloak and hood?”
Bel rolled her eyes. “Yes, because nothing is more attractive than someone who hides their face. I thought your new patron was all about deceit. Shouldn’t this kind of thing come naturally to you now?”
Orseis was saved the burden of a reply when the gorgons whooped with victory. Bel looked up to see that they had successfully pulled a last chunk of ice from the passageway, creating a small hole wide enough for two people to walk in together. Cress grinned triumphantly from the head of the group, clearly delighted that they were finally on their way to the surface.
Bel tapped Orseis on the shoulder. “Let’s go.”
The two of them rushed up the steps, behind everyone except for Fortuit and Escarole, since the overpowered gorgon warrior preferred to bring up the rear to keep Fortuit away from any surprises. Manipule lingered on the steps, waiting for Bel to arrive. She and Fortuit were carrying the gorgon’s clay eggs, so they stayed away from anything that looked dangerous, such as rushing through a newly opened passage into an unexplored room.
The eggs were soaked in the blood of the gorgons, and whenever a gorgon died her parts were thrown into the eggs and used to grow new, baby gorgons. Bel thought that it was a weird way to do things, but since they were her own people Bel decided that she had best get used to the idea.
Manipule’s egg was currently sealed and filled with parts from the gorgons that Clark had murdered, and Manipule was being increasingly cautious moving it around. Bel moved protectively in front of the other gorgon and checked to make sure she was ready to go before they began their climb through the narrow passage formed into the ice. The temperature immediately plunged as she entered the narrow space, and Bel’s magma snake curled around her neck for warmth. Bel used her stolen dhvaras spear to improve her footing on the frozen steps.
The cold light from the Pillar still shone through the thick layer of frozen water, but it was dimmed after passing through, giving the space an oppressive, threatening feeling. Bel instinctively touched the dagger at her waist, making sure it would draw smoothly if they got into a fight, and tightened her grip her spear. She listened intently, ready for the first sign of danger. The air was filled with the crunching of ice beneath feet, and nothing else, but Bel’s heartbeat quickened at the rising feeling of tension.
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The feeling seemed to be shared by everyone in the group, and no one spoke until they emerged into a large, open area – another one of the Pillar’s regular landings. The space was coated in ice and the stairs on the far side of the landing were blocked off. The ground was uneven, covered in irregularly shaped mounds of ice no taller than Bel’s height. Bel held up her hand, signalling for Manipule to hang back. Something felt off to her.
Then gorgons at the head of the group looked up and shouted a warning. Seeing the rest of the group diving to the side, Bel jumped backwards into the tunnel, forcing Manipule and Orseis farther into the cramped space a moment before a heavy weight fell from the ceiling and hit the ground. The force shook the ground and sent Bel stumbling backwards as her feet failed to find purchase on the slippery ice. Bel finally stabilized her staggering by jabbing her spear into the wall, and looked up to see a long, serpentine body with deep blue scales blocking the path forward.
“Finally,” Orseis said, “some excitement!” The cuttle-girl had quickly suctioned her tentacles on the walls and gleefully threw her spear at their opponent. The divine weapon easily pierced the creature’s scales, but the wound was so small that Bel doubted it had much effect.
Bel reached up to her magma snake, preparing her transformation, but stopped when she realized that a magma monster in the middle of a tunnel of ice could collapse the tunnel on top of her friends. Instead of doing that, Bel prepared to rush out of the tunnel instead.
Before she moved, there was a loud shriek and the large serpent was sent tumbling away by a powerful blow. That was Cress’ shrieking ability, Bel realized. The flying gorgon followed up her attack with a powerful swing of her hammer to the creature’s jaw. Its body curled in pain as the serpent reared back to hiss in anger.
As it lifted the front of its body, Bel realized that the serpent had a pair of short legs near its front. It slashed threateningly with its claws, forcing the nearest gorgons back. Then it opened its mouth and a blast of frigid ice emerged from it maw. A pair of gorgons stepped in front of Cress and redirected the ice to either side of her, preventing the serpent from encasing them in an icy prison. Cress seized the opening to fly forward and deliver another powerful downstroke of her hammer, smashing the serpent’s head into the icy floor.
The rest of the gorgons surged forward with a wordless cry of violence, stabbing their weapons into the creature and loosing a torrent of blood that quickly formed half-frozen puddles on the icy floor. Despite the creature’s large size, it couldn’t withstand the onslaught of so many gorgons at once. As its struggles slowed from the loss of blood, Bel relaxed and looked around the rest of the chamber, double-checking that there weren’t any other threats.
“That was lame,” Orseis complained at her side. Then she immediately brightened. “Do you think it tastes good?”
Bel chuckled as Orseis rushed over to the dead creature, waving her tentacles wildly as she demanded that the gorgons save some for her. Manipule joined in with her own laugh at Orseis’ behavior.
Bel watched for a moment, but then shook her head. “That didn’t seem like the kind of thing that could take over the Pillar from the Asura, did it?”
Manipule shook her head. “No. Too weak.” She picked up a small chunk of ice at her feet and formed it into a small statue of the frost serpent. “Just making a nest, I think, after this place was already empty.”
Bel tilted her head and remembered her descent into Olympos. “I think that we’ll pass through a forest layer next. The Dark Ravager had already cleared out the part that we went through, but there could be more dangerous things.”
Bel turned her attention to the icy mounds that littered the floor. The ice had formed with air on the inside, making them white and bubbly and impossible to see through. “Hey, Manipule, can you move the ice from these? I want to know what’s inside.”
Manipule smiled cheerfully and put her hand on the nearest mound. The ice crackled with protest as it peeled back like a flower, revealing the solidified corpse of a scratte.
“Oh,” Bel said, dismayed at the slightly putrefied body. She moved away from it, the thought of inhaling small bits of scratte as it thawed out too repulsive for her to stand near. Manipule sealed up the ice again, once again locking up the body behind a thick layer of ice.
“Check the rest?” Manipule asked.
Bel sighed and nodded regretfully. “May as well find out what we’re getting into, right?”
It took them a few minutes to open the rest of the icy tombs. The majority of them held scrattes, but there were also a few large birds from the forest layer. More concerning were seven Dhvaras, all wearing their typical armor and wielding long, wicked spears. Most concerning was the single garuda. Her snow-white wings bore several decorative silver clasps, but her hands held a very functional spear that had been warped by the cold. The talons on her feet her were tipped with sharpened metal claws, and she wore armor light leather armor that covered most of her body.
Bel thought back to the garuda who had threatened in the forest layer. He had been a constant nuisance until she had gotten rid of him by using him to distract Clark’s reanimated servant.
“I’d forgotten about these people,” Bel sighed. “They can’t all be as annoying as the last one I met, right?”
“You know her?” Manipule asked, her eyes wide and curious.
Bel shook her head. “No, but I’ve run into one of her kind before. They were a pain, but that doesn’t say much about the rest of them.”
Bel leaned away from the body and brushed some stray bits of ice from her clothing. “Anyway, they may not even be in the Pillar. Hanging out here isn’t any fun.”
Manipule nodded. “Yes, too many scrattes,” she joked, gesturing to all of the frozen bodies that filled the room.
The other gorgon chuckled at her humor, but Bel frowned. “Actually, I have some friends who are scrattes.”
Manipule’s eyesbrows went up in surprise and a couple of her snakes flicked their tongues with agitation. “Friends?”
Bel shrugged. “They were my mother’s followers, so yeah, I guess so. They didn’t try to eat us, at least.”
“Not a high bar,” Manipule responded, skeptically. “Scrattes, they reproduce by–”
“No, please don’t say it,” Bel interrupted. The memories of the little green people putting little green eggs into their victims made Bel’s stomach churn. “The scrattes we travelled with were friendly, but they were still gross.”
Cress happened to walk up to them at that moment. Whatever words she’d been meaning to say disappeared as she squinted at Bel. “Friends with scrattes? Really? We were taught that they were banished to the underworld for being dangerous and uncontrollable.”
Orseis trailed behind Cress, chewing with determination on a tough chunk of the slain serpent. “Bel gets into weird situations.”
“And dangerous ones,” Bel added grimly. “So let’s keep our guards up. We’re obviously past the area where the Asura bothered to control the Pillar, so we could encounter anything from here up.”
Cress shrugged and flicked her wings, stretching them out. “I agree. We’re going to cut up some of the serpent and take it down to a warmer area for a food break, and then we’ll push forward until we find somewhere defensible.”
“Food!” Orseis said, enthusiastically.
“Reading!” Bel added.