Orseis waved her tentacles forward. “Sure thing, spirit lady. Lead us to the next layer. May it be filled with handsome humans.”

Bel huffed. “There won’t be any humans down here. Stop being silly. It’ll probably be filled with nothing but plants.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

Bel nodded in agreement, but stopped suddenly. “They’ll probably be carnivorous.”

“Oh, hagfish,” Orseis groaned. “You’re probably right.”

Bel dashed down the steps as fast as she could safely descend. They weren’t hanging over a yawning abyss – the wide stairs were flanked on either side by the sheer, perfectly smooth walls of the pillar. Bel stayed to the inside of the spiral to take the shortest path, idly trailing her fingers against the inner wall as they turned.

The entire stairway was devoid of markings, as least as far as she could tell in the near darkness.

“This thing must go on forever,” Orseis panted. “Won’t that angry guy catch up to us?”

Bel grimaced. “We haven’t heard him yelling for a little while.”

“So he gave up?”

“Maybe we should keep running.”

Orseis grabbed Bel’s shoulder. “Wait, wait. We’re probably just going to encounter more doors and more guards. Maybe we should make for one of those windows?”

Bel could see Orseis’ tentacle pointing in the dim light from a tiny opening coming from far above them.

“That has to be at least ten strides away from us,” she sighed. “And this wall seems to be impervious to anything we’ve got. I can’t even liquify it, not even a little bit.”

“Hah,” Orseis cackled, “then it’s lucky for us that I’ve got all of these suction cups.”

Bel glanced at her tentacle. “Can you climb without grabbing onto anything?”

“Sure,” the cuttlegirl replied confidently, “the smoother the better.”

“Really? How do you tentacles work?”

Bel poked at one of the girl’s tentacles, which quickly retreated.

“Hey. They’re sensitive.”

Bel rolled her eyes. “They are not. I’ve seen you rip crabs apart with them.”

“They’re both,” Orseis insisted petulantly. “Now let me work my magic.”

Bel watched at Orseis stretched her tentacles to their maximum lengths, worming their way up the wall with alternating undulations. She clapped when Orseis’ feet rose slowly from the ground.

“So…should I just grab on?”

“Um…” Orseis reply was muffled, her face pressed up against the wall. “I didn’t really think about that part. I guess. Just keep your snakes away from me.”

Bel circled her arms around Orseis’ waist and waited.

“Hey,” Orseis complained, “keep your snakes to yourself.”

Bel looked up and saw that a few of her snakes were waving around Orseis’ face.

“Sorry. If you were a bit taller then they wouldn’t be able to reach.”

“Are you calling me short?”

Bel decided not to respond to that – the cuttlegirl was the one doing the hard work of pulling them up the side of the wall.

“I can’t really control them,” she replied instead. “They have minds of their own, especially Sparky.”

“What a terrible name,” Orseis snorted. “Why not Maggie, you know, for the magma?”

“Maybe if I was my brother. He likes puns. But Sparky suits her personality.”

Orseis grunted as she lifted Bel from the ground and the gorgon’s full weight pulled on her shoulders.

“Hey, I hate to complain since I’m not doing anything, but aren’t we going really slowly?”

“Tentacles don’t work like arms,” Orseis groaned. “The shoulder joint is completely…look, just let them do their thing. They’re kind of self-controlling, just like your snakes.”

“Really? They do things on their own?”

“Yeah, sometimes.”

“Like what?”

“Um…” Orseis hesitated. “Sometimes they get grabby.”

“Like with food?”

“Um, sure, that too.”

Bel thought that Orseis sounded a bit embarrassed, but she couldn’t understand why. It’s not like I don’t already know how much she loves to eat.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Orseis cleared her throat. “So, we’re about halfway there I think. Do your other snakes have names?”

Bel’s eyebrows went up. “I hadn’t thought about it. Should I give the other ones names?”

“You haven’t? You seem like the person to do weird things like that.”

Bel snorted. “I started with seven of the normal ones, and I couldn’t tell them apart. Sparky is different.”

“Then what about the new one?”

Bel turned her head, trying to get a look at her new snake, but the little spirit of wood and flowers was hiding somewhere on the back of her head.

“She seems shy. I’ll have to get to know her better later.”

“Are they really girls?”

Are they? Bel’s mind churned on Orseis’ question. “I don’t think spirits work like that. I mean, Dutcha just dropped little bits of herself to make new spirits. Does that make her a mother and them her children?”

“Sounds more like a starfish than a mother to me,” Orseis grunted. “Ah, finally, I can feel it. We’re almost out.”

Actually squeezing through the extended tube that served as a window took an impressive number of curses and twice as long as climbing the wall, but eventually Bel and Orseis found themselves sitting on the edge of the opening, their legs danging out over a gut clenching drop.

“This layer looks really beautiful, doesn’t it?” Bel asked rhetorically.

The two of them looked over the dense forest below, its huge trees swaying gently in the occasional breeze. Birds flitted in and out of the canopy, the only sight of the forest floor coming from hollows created where some of the most massive trees had fallen.

“Yup,” Orseis nodded. “Very pretty. Now how the hell do we get down?”

Bel fluttered her hands like wings, but stopped when Orseis groaned with frustration.

“The parachute?” Bel suggested. “You’ve still got it, right?”

“It’s a bit ripped. Maybe a lot ripped. I don’t know if it’s safe with both of us.”

Orseis glanced back through the long window tunnel. “Should we go back and keep going down?”

Bel grimaced. “If that double-guy catches us he’ll probably throw us back out in the third layer. Or maybe he’ll throw us in jail or make us work off some kind of debt. We don’t have time to waste with that nonsense.”

She shrugged. “Let’s wait until James calls again and I’ll ask about the parachute. He designed them, so he should know. He’s been ringing my ear nearly nonstop since we entered the tower.”

“You’ve been ignoring him?”

“Uh, yeah. We’ve been busy.”

“Oh,” Orseis nodded, “and by busy you mean running for our lives, right? Honestly, Bel, I think you attract trouble.”

“Just a normal amount, I think.”

Bel nodded to herself. Well, I guess Lempo wants me to do some dangerous stuff. It’s too late for Orseis to turn back now though.

Her ear buzzed again, so she quickly reached up to pinch her earring.

“Hey, James. How are things?”

“Well, at least you sound alive. Beth is really ticked off.”

“Well… there’s not much I can do about that. But hey, we’re in the fourth layer now, maybe that will cheer her up.”

“Do you even remember why she’s angry?”

Bel sighed. “Look, James, Lempo is sending me messages through scrattes, and we just spent the last however long it was getting weird gunk smeared on us so they wouldn’t turn violent, and then we went into a tower where some double-person yelled at us nonstop–”

Orseis waved a tentacle. “Oh yeah, how did you understand him anyway?”

Bel ignored her and continued to rant. “–and then we had to run away down a stairway that went on forever, and now we’re dangling our legs over a several thousand stride drop wondering if we’ll impale ourselves on some trees if we try to use the parachute.”

She paused for a breath. “Anyway, I don’t really have time to worry about Beth.”

James was only silent for a moment. “You were travelling with scrattes? I thought you said that Lempo sent some plant people.”

“Yeah, they’re plant people apparently,” Bel huffed. “That wasn’t the important part. Look, Orseis still has her parachute, is it good enough for both of us?”

“Uh…” James hesitated. “I… maybe? I didn’t really know how to do any of the math, so there was a lot of trial and error. Each one of them was big enough for a hippo though, so unless the two of you have been gaining weight it should be okay.”

Bel looked at Orseis. The weary girl’s face had gone slightly gaunt and she still looked dehydrated.

I wonder what I look like? Bel glanced at her forearms, now speckled with small scars from her fight with the magma spirit. She shook her head. My looks are a problem for later.

“I don’t think we’re heavier than a hippo,” she finally replied.

“Just as stubborn as one,” James muttered under his breath.

“Hey! I heard that!”

“You must be hearing things, Bel. Our connection must be noisy.”

She snorted. “Honestly, I’m shocked that this still works.”

“Well, I’m just good at what I do,” James declared haughtily. Then he chuckled. “Actually, it was a nice pair of snake people who really did most of the work. I don’t know why you didn’t want to meet them.”

Bel grimaced as she remembered the first snake person she’d met getting caught in her hair.

“Hey, speaking of getting along with people, how are you and Daran doing?”

“Oh, we’re doing great!” James gushed.

Bel saw Orseis rolling her eyes and miming falling asleep. Bel didn’t mind listening to her brother going on about his new wife though; the bit of normalcy helped settle her nerves. She’d spent the last however-long running around a lava-filled hellscape with a bunch of scrattes. She could do with some down time. She let James’ voice drone on the background, giving him the occasional “uh-huh” or “yup” of encouragement.

I do feel bad for–wait, is she already asleep?

Orseis had closed her eyes, and her chest was rising and falling in a slow, rhythmic fashion. Bel was worried that she would tumble out, but then she saw that the girl’s tentacles were working on their own, suctioning onto the walls and anchoring her in place.

She decided to keep an eye on the younger girl, but she let her get her rest.

“Hey James,” she interrupted. Her brother was going on about some weird blood-mixing ritual anyway. She enjoyed hearing his voice, but there were some topics that would never get her interest.

“What’s up?”

“Am I a bad daughter?”

“Uh…”

Bel could imagine him scratching at his hair in confusion.

“Lempo seemed disappointed in me,” she explained. “Well, she said that Kjar told her to tell me that I was okay, for a mortal, but that I wasn’t talking to her enough and my progress is too slow. It made me feel like a bad person.”

“Uh… well, my mom would complain that I didn’t call her often enough. That’s just a normal, mother thing.”

“So–”

“But wait, hold on, you’re talking about a goddess. She literally made you. If there’s something she didn’t like she could have made you better.”

Bel traded a glance with one of her snakes. “I don’t know if that was possible. She’s the goddess of, uh, upheaval and stuff, and she made me with Dutcha and Kjar’s help. I don’t think the three of them could actually plan stuff.”

“The world is simpler with a flawless, omniscient god, isn’t it?”

“Ugh, what if that god was someone like Technis though?”

James laughed. “Sure, I guess having a bunch of flawed gods is better than just having an omniscient Technis.”

Bel frowned as she heard her brother’s voice fading. “Hey, my earring is running out of power. It was great to talk to you again though; I’ll try to be better about answering.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Things must be crazy…”

His voice faded into silence and Bel slowly released her earring.

“Yeah, crazy,” she muttered to herself.

She glanced at Orseis, who was still sleeping peacefully, and felt a wave of envy.

“That big guy probably can’t fit in here. What do you think, snakes? Is this a good time for a nap? Maybe I can shimmy backwards just a bit so I don’t fall out?”