After having her neck sliced clean through, Bel’s body collapsed beneath her. Luckily for her, her head followed as her liquid body struggled to rejoin the separated parts back together.
The fall was brief, but it was long enough for Bel to wonder why this attack felt so different from her previous experiences. The near-instant speed and complete lack of forewarning probably had something to do with it, she decided.
Her nerves reconnected just before she hit the ground and the jolt of pain and renewed control sent spasms through her body. She hit the ground with a thump and lay twitching, helplessly staring up at the weapon that had recently cut through her. Her mind latched onto the sword’s blade longer than necessary, and the ogled the delicate pattern of waves formed by repeated folds of metal during the blade’s forging. After far too long, the practical part of her mind told her to look at her assailant. Bel’s gaze shifted up to the handle and the person holding it: a bulky woman with two small horns and a body made of a white, powdery stone. The stone woman stared back with contempt.
The woman – probably some friend of the Asura, Bel thought – pushed Bel to the ground with the heel of her boot. As she lifted her sword, Bel used destabilize bonds on the footwear, relying on her armor to handle the blast that would remove the woman’s foot. Instead of an explosion though, the woman’s expression flickered and Bel felt her ability disperse.
Bel was already mixing spirits with Sparky though, so she just needed a moment–
With a tap of her foot the woman sent a neutralizing pulse through Bel’s body; like a wave clearing a sand castle, Bel’s power was washed away. When Bel’s snakes collapsed she stared at her assailant in shock, wide-eyed and helpless. The stone woman’s mouth opened in arrogant sneer that revealed her pointed fangs.
And then a large block of spiked metal slammed into her face, throwing her off of Bel as she staggered back several steps. The armored gorgon who had been guarding the silk-clothed woman followed just behind the reprisal, the spiked metal recoiling into her blocky shield as she leaped over Bel’s prone form. The warrior swung her saw blade down at the stone woman, but the attack was intercepted by a heavy bracer on the woman’s left wrist, although the force of the attack forced the stone woman back another step.
A ball of light formed around the woman’s right fist as she swung it at the armored gorgon, but the gorgon moved her shield and intercepted the attack with a casual shift of her stance. Light and metal met with the sound of a thunderclap as the stone woman’s attack was easily halted, but before she could withdraw her hand the shield warped into a wide mouth that snapped shut around the woman’s wrist.
The stone woman howled in pain, but the armored gorgon didn’t hesitate, immediately kicking the woman in the leg to knock her onto one knee. Then she drew her saw blade down, tearing through the metal bracer and into the woman’s stone body beneath it, sending out a spray of fine dust that filled the air with the smell of powdered stone.
Bel blinked the dust from her eyes and looked again – the armored gorgon wasn’t actually moving the saw, she was manipulating the metal so its teeth spun around the blade, continually cutting into her opponent one tooth after the other. The stone woman struggled, but with her right hand caught in the gorgon’s shield and her body pinned back against the ground she had nowhere to go. The gorgon pressed her blade forward until it went through the woman’s stony arm and continued into her body. After a few protracted screams from the woman and the high-pitched whine of stone yielding to metal, the woman was cleanly bisected. The gorgon shoved the two halves apart, unfazed by the gruesome scene, before catching an exploding arrow on her shield. Several more non-exploding missiles bounced harmlessly from her armor.
Bel pushed herself up with her still numb limbs and realized that an entire battle had broken out; she had simply been too absorbed with her imminent danger for it to register. A force of around twenty more people had shown up with the stone woman, but they were being held back by a self-organized group of gorgons. Two of the fancy woman’s guards had closed around her to protect her from any attacks, while the one with the sling was sending missiles at the attackers at an incredible rate. There was a crack with each fling of her sling, as if the air was protesting the abuse, and when the missiles struck a shield or limb they exploded with bursts of blue fire.
The other gorgons, who Bel had been thinking of as common laborers, had all drawn weapons of one form or another and stood their ground. The attackers were all either made of stone or wore the strange tinted stones over their eyes, but even without their signature powers the gorgons were able to force the attackers back with a constant stream of arrows and stones as some of them fetched shields. As an impromptu shield wall formed, more gorgons ran forward to slot their spears over the heads of their sisters in the front line, and in less than a minute they formed a cohesive defensive force.
The armored woman who had just saved Bel rushed forward and literally smashed another stone person into dust before leaping back to Bel. She flicked her hand and the metal of her shield unrolled. The metal turned into a loop that wrapped around Bel, and the woman pulled her back behind the front line. The armored warrior didn’t stick around to see if Bel was alright; she leaped right over the front line to take a spot at the lead before shouting directions at the other gorgons.
Bel tried to get her feet back under her, but her body was still having a bad reaction from her recent decapitation and she only managed to lean up slightly. Well, better this than dead, she consoled herself.
She inspected the state of the fight and was surprised to see that, other than Orseis, none of the non-gorgons had come to help. In fact, they had all moved farther down the pier as if they wanted nothing to do with whatever was happening. Orseis, though, was stealthing herself and peeking from behind the shield wall, looking for opportunities to throw her spear. Bel saw her put the weapon to good use, catching a hairy giant in plate mail in the knee, which brought him low enough for Cress to splatter his head with a swing from her maul.
Bel grunted in satisfaction at the sight.
She heard a calm, familiar voice coming from her blind side on her left, and Bel turned to see the silk-clothed woman from earlier. Two of her guards remained with her, but they didn’t spare Bel a second glance as they – and their snakes – scanned the area for threats. The woman, though, remained solely focused on Bel.
She reached down with a finger and rubbed Bel’s neck, and Bel was surprised to see her finger come back covered in blood. The gorgon licked it and pursed her lips, like a person deciding if a particular spirit was to their taste.
Gorgons don’t eat other gorgons, right? Bel tried to assure herself. It’s not like I’m dead!
Bel opened her mouth and explained as much. “I’m not dead you know,” she said defensively. “It’s just a small flesh wound. I’ll get better.”
The other gorgon tilted her head, clearly unable to understand Bel’s words. She straightened slightly and pointed to the egg-shaped container that she had rested on the ground next to them. She patted it proudly and swirled it suggestively at Bel.
“Is it a healing thing?” Bel wondered aloud. The woman’s eyebrows went up, but she didn’t say anything in response. Bel glanced back at the fighting; while the stalemate was still holding, there were now several gorgons with missing limbs, screaming in agony behind the shield wall where they’d been dragged. There were some stilled bodies as well, which Bel desperately hoped were people who had been knocked unconscious rather than killed. The woman followed Bel’s gaze, and her looked turned serious. She turned back, and Bel thought that she detected some urgency in her gaze.
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“Oh, crows,” Bel cursed. “Okay, sure, I’ll try the egg. I should be helping.”
The woman smiled at Bel’s awkward nod. She deftly twisted the top of her egg, revealing that the top of the container was a bowl that had been expertly fitted to the vessel. She flipped it around and held it to Bel’s neck and…
“Are you bleeding me out?” Bel asked, incredulously. The silken-clothed gorgon patted Bel on the head, but her gaze remained fixed on the bowl.
Bel glanced at the egg, wondering if she could intuit its function from simple observation. A mural was painted across its surface, and although Bel could only see one side of the container, she was blown away by the detail and artistry. It seemed to depict a many headed creature fighting an angry bearded man. The bearded man wielded swords of lightning and cut all the heads from the creature, but that didn’t kill it. Instead, the heads swam into the sea and grew new bodies with more heads. They swam out of the sea again, but that’s where her view of the story ended.
They’re probably going back to mess that lightning guy up though, Bel thought with satisfaction. She could sympathize with creatures: they were obviously up against some kind of god. Even though they were easily beaten, they had the audacity to go back for another round.
The other gorgon finally finished with her bowl. She lifted it carefully up to the top of the egg and gently tipped it over, spilling Bel’s blood into the vessel. Then she placed the bowl back on top, stood, and hurried over to the other wounded gorgons. Her two guards followed quickly, not sparing Bel a second glance.
“Hey,” Bel croaked, “was I just robbed?” Bel watched with shock as the fancy woman knelt next to one of the stilled gorgons, pulled out a knife, started to sway and chant, and began carving off her snakes.
By Technis’ shriveled manhood, what the hell is going on?
Bel watched the gory ritual with wide-eyed disbelief. Her mind felt like a piece of driftwood caught in a gyre, spinning in circles, never to escape. Then a small metal ball with legs crawled onto her chest.
“Oh, what now,” she growled aloud. She’d just been cursing Technis, so she spoke in the Satrapian language.
“Oh, you speak Mycenaean?” the ball asked in a friendly male voice that didn’t suit the current situation. “This should be fun! I hardly ever get to use this one.”
“What?” Bel sighed. “What’s happening now?”
“Oh,” the metal ball replied, “I’ll be your translator. The undersecretary of discipline is going to be speaking.”
“The under–” Bel started, but then she felt a force squeeze around her body. She tensed in response, but whatever had caught her was as thin as thread but as strong as Technis’ Barrier: Bel had been completely immobilized. She looked up in a panic and saw that the entire battle was frozen in place, with some people stuck in midair.
“It’s policy for us to translate everything we hear, and to allow anyone the chance to challenge the record of this event. The record will be stored in the city archives, which any citizen can access between the eighth and fourteenth rotations of the timing leg.”
The woman in silk was splattered with blood and was stuck with her hands half-submerged in her egg. After a metal ball climbed up to her shoulder, she began to complain loudly.
After a brief pause, the translation commenced. “The gorgon… hmm, there’s no good word in Mycenaean, do you know of one? Nevermind, you know who she is, so I’ll just call her the egg-woman. I’ll follow up with you later for an updated vocabulary.”
The voice cleared its throat – an odd thing to do for a metal ball, which made Bel realize that it was just a speaking device like her earring. “The gorgon asks that she be released to continue her sacred duty.”
A loud voice that emanated from everywhere around her responded. “You may proceed,” the ball translated. A moment later, the egg-woman was freed.
“Was she talking through the things that are binding us?” Bel asked. She was pleased when the ball answered.
“Yes, the undersecretary of discipline is a Jorōgumo of great skill and a master of her silk. You must not be from around here if you don’t know that. Maybe I should have guessed from you language.”
The undersecretary herself descended on a strand of silk, her eight thin, delicate legs of alternating black and yellow dancing over the nearly invisible wire. “Why has this conflict arisen on the Free City’s pier? You know that our citizens are protected within the lands we claim.”
One of the attackers, a person with a body of a milky, nearly slightly transparent stone, responded in an outraged voice. “Your city has violated its treaty and blocks the free travel of my patron’s people! That alone is an act of aggression that we demand you halt immediately!”
The undersecretary rolled her eight eyes. “Ah, yes, the god of tradition. I can understand why she would throw fit if anything changes. We haven’t blocked any travel though, we are simply increasing the amount of time that we give ourselves to verify–”
“Lies!” the stone man replied.
The undersecretary’s eyes narrowed and her legs twitched. The stone man fell into several neat slices of stone a few heartbeats later.
“Next,” she declared. “And no more interruptions. As all of you have invaded our territory, I shall be treating you as uncooperative combatants. Discipline will be dispensed accordingly.”
“Undersecretary Hattattatti–” a woman made of a dark blue stone began.
“Is that supposed to be my name?” the spider-woman interrupted.
The translator spoke quickly, providing a bit of commentary to Bel. “She totally botched it, by the way. To be fair, I don’t think it’s pronounceable without multiple strings.”
“Hattattada… Hatta… Madam Undersecretary,” the struggling woman forged onward, “we never attacked one of your citizens. We only bear ill-will towards one who is antithetical to our most cherished beliefs.”
“Oh?” the undersecretary said, a note of curiosity in her voice. “Then let me ask the gorgons, why are you fighting these people?”
The gorgon in the spiky armor responded with a deep, reverberating voice. “These people attacked a gorgon while the egg-woman was speaking with her. Violence near the egg-woman is unacceptable.”
The undersecretary nodded. “I see, I see.” She turned back to the blue woman. “Well? Everyone knows that the egg-woman is sacred to the gorgons. Why would you attack?”
“Pardon me, madam undersecretary, but the woman was not a gorgon, and the attack was clean and instant. The egg-woman was never in danger.”
“Then your target is dead? You have no reason to remain?” The undersecretary gestured with her legs. “And yet you are still here.”
The blue woman scowled. “Well, no, the person in question yet lives.”
“I sense that you are dissembling.” A sour note had entered the undersecretary’s vibrations. “A clean and instant attack that does not cleanly and instantly kill its target sounds like the beginning of a brawl to me.”
“But she is not a gorgon, madam,” the stone woman replied hastily, “the egg-woman had no reason to remain near her, and we waited until they had finished conversing.”
“And who is this not-gorgon?” the undersecretary asked, scanning the crowd.
Bel timidly raised her hand, attracting the undersecretary’s intense scrutiny.
“She appears to be a gorgon to me.”
“I hope you will not take offense, undersecretary, but her appearance is a deception designed by the goddess of change and upheaval. She is not a product of the same gods who birthed the gorgon race.”
The undersecretary tilted her head and Bel could feel the silk around her waist tighten by a fraction. “So this is the child of Lempo, then? Are you not a gorgon, child?”
“W–what else would I be?” Bel stammered back.
The spider-woman turned her gaze back to the woman of blue stone, who was surreptitiously casting hateful glances in Bel’s direction. “Are you saying that a goddess cannot creature a creature of whatever race she desires?”
“Well, no madam, but she is more spirit than gorgon.”
The blue woman twitched as the silk around her tightened. “So she is some gorgon then? Do the gorgons not claim all with their blood as sisters?”
The stone woman’s fingers trembled nervously as she stammered her response. “But she is the offspring of the goddess of change and upheaval. Magistrate Stion is a disciple of the god of stability, is he not? Surely he would not–”
The woman’s words ended in a strangled choke as the undersecretary pulled on her silk. “Change is not anathema to stability.”
She flicked a leg in the city’s direction. “Magistrate Stion himself often reminds us as such. Does the city not roam these plains in a cycle of continual change? Have we not spend our entire existence seeking to improve ourselves and our city?”
The undersecretary waved a hand dismissively. “No, change is required for stability, for stagnation is the rot that leads to collapse. Your arguments are rejected.”
She paused and tilted her head towards a small metal ball that rested upon her shoulder. Then she cut her hand through the air in a rapid chop. “Discipline has been approved by the magistrate. It is now complete.”
The attacking group was sliced into pieces before they could open their mouths to cry out. Stone people shattered into tiny shards while people of flesh and bone were reduced to thin slabs of meat. The ground ran thick with blood as the soil struggled to contain the sudden deluge.
A moment later, Bel felt the silken restraint around her go slack. All of the gorgons stepped back from the carnage, looks of both relief and disgust on their faces.
Some rushed to the injured, but the rest turned, one by one, to stare at Bel as she struggled back to her feet.
“Oh, um, h–hello,” she greeted them nervously.