“Where in the Everdark Abyss did they come from?!!”
“Damned if I know. I just found him lying on the floor.”
“I might politely point out it could be a her. With you Mane it’s always hard to tell.”
“Rude!”
“But not incorrect.”
“Just back us up please, Tempest.”
Well that was a strange conversation if ever there was one. One moment I have the world’s worst congratulations achievement flashing before my eyes. Next I’m… Okay I’m not sure what is going on or where I am. I just open my eyes… actually that’s wrong. I can’t open something that deep down I don’t think I have. It’s more like opening my awareness. I’m lying face-down on a stone floor. Octogram patterns if my sore skin lying to me. This is the moment when you start coughing, pick yourself up and try to assess the situation. Except I’m not feeling any need to breath. Or blink. Which is strange. I do slowly get up. My body feels pretty sore. Aching all over. That’s new. I haven’t felt genuine pain in ages.
I’m in a long corridor. Standing over me is something wearing more metal than KISS. This guy is huge. I mean we’re talking Warcraft levels of metal armour, pauldrons and one nasty looking axe. Can’t see his face. Hidden within the darkness of a helmet. Just smouldering blue flames that could be eyes. Dunno.
I glance to the other person crouched beside me. Definitely a girl. Those curves aren’t lying. I’d kill for a body like that. All scarecrow and emaciated my life. Definite thread of jealously I’ll admit. This one is black leather with grey accents. Dual pistols. Well they could be. Kind of like a fancy almost steampunk analogue to a pistol. I’ll ask about them later. Funny thing. I can’t see her face either. Hidden in the hood of a half-cloak.
“Enemy incoming!” someone else shouts from farther down the corridor.
There is light in this corridor. Crystals on the walls illuminate the area in shades of a colour that makes my mind hurt. I look up to see a wave of water rushing down the corridor. Before I know it I’m tensing up to get flushed away. Except the water passes around me, yet doesn’t carry me along. That wave coalesces into a humanoid made of water, her hair literal puddles of water spilling down her back. Yes I said her again. More curves. Less pronounced. With pale flicker of light and clothes cover her liquid form. Fashionable robes and a depressed, slouched witches hat.
“On it,” the metal man says.
Hefting the axe in one hand, the man holds an arm forward and a shield just… appears. Okay so when did everyone get hammer space storage? I don’t have a chance to ask questions before the corridor erupts in madness and monsters. Things spill down from the darkness at the other end of the passage. Like a Mantis and Cronenberg got really frisky one night. The noises these things make are horrific. I don’t think there are words to describe them because they aren’t something anyone with a single throat could manage.
And metal guy just throws himself into the wall of death.
“Support!” he bellows
The cloaked girl mutters something I guess is a curse before rushing forward and leaping at one of the walls. Gravity switches directions for her and she’s running along the walls, her dual pistols flaring with green light, what I guess are bullets striking the mantis things and exploding. Each projectile that hits tears one of the monsters to pieces. Explodes and pulps the thing. Rarely is a second shot required.
Meanwhile the metal man is just… carving his way through. There is no natural way someone is so much heavy clothing could move that fast. But he does. And does it with style. Like he’s got eyes on the back of his head and seeing three seconds into the future. Scything claws and gnashing teeth do their best to tear him apart. But the guy just blocks EVERYTHING. Normally it’s his shield. Sometimes he bashes them away with it too. Sometimes it’s his axe cutting off a scythe, blood of some unnamed colour pouring from the wound. And the rest of the time he casually shoulder-checks his foe. That seems to be the worst. The impact alone sends the ‘beast bowling ball’ down a lane of its allies, knocking them down like hissing, angry pins. At which point they either get shot or the metal guy hacks his way through the fallen. It’s messy, bloody and the guy moves with the finesse of someone who clearly does this as a day job.
So what does the water woman do? She clicks her fingers and conjures up a staff made from coral. It looks beautiful and very appropriate.
“Just stay there and keep quiet,” she warns me. “I need to concentrate or this becomes really messy and we all might die.”
I look back at the scene of destruction the warrior and the wall-walking gun-fighter are creating. It takes me a moment to realise that even though these two are ripping our enemies a new one, the tide isn’t slowing. Actually it looks like it’s getting worse. More of these mantis things spill out. In their wake comes a horrific drone. A buzzing that has me reaching for my ears. That’s when I realise what my hands are. Well I have hands but they’re wrapped neatly in bandages. Each finger too. A bit like a mummy but you can’t see a hint of skin. And when I try to press my hands against my ears, I can’t feel any. Just more fabric. My head is wrapped in fabric. But no bumps where ears would be flattened against my skull.
Curiosity gets the better of me. I reach for my face. There’s a chin. But… after that it’s more of an impression. No mouth. No nose. No recess for my eyes. Just more bandages. When I press my fingers against my eyes, or from my perspective where I am seeing everything, I don’t feel anything. My vision doesn’t blur and it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Fuck.
Lots of fuck.
The droning gets louder. My irritation at that noise pushes the uncomfortable prickling sensation to the back of my mind. I want to know who the hell wrapped me in bandages after I clearly didn’t die and why the hell did they give me plastic surgery, taking away my face? I mean that’s the only logical answer, right?
Water starts pooling around where I sit. I wake back up to reality. The water witch lifts her coral staff imperiously, more water coalescing out of nowhere and building up like a giant tidal wave behind her, barely held in check. I swear I can hear the crashing of the surf on a beach as the body of water continues to swell.
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So what would she need that much water for?
I look back to my two protectors. It’s the droning. That noise finally reveals itself. I really wish it hadn’t. Like someone had mashed a wasp and a spider together in some body-horror fever dream. If I had a mouth I’d probably throw up. But I haven’t breathed in the last two minutes so I’m pretty confident that body part is somehow gone.
“Baodah: Aqua Kinetic Fusillade” the water woman intones.
I now understand why the water witch had been gather together so much water from… somewhere. If the cloaked woman wielded pistols, the witch commanded cannons. Steaks of water flew by me so fast I wonder if they approached the sound barrier. And unlike the pistol shots they didn’t stop after hitting a single target. The corridor was a kill zone. Each water lance struck one of the mantis or spider-wasps, tore a gaping hole through them, and kept going. Sir Issac Newton would be cheering at this demonstration of physics. What was most amazing was how the water witch directed the water with absolute precision. Even with her allies moving through the frenzy of monsters not once did they ever appear in danger. The water lances avoid, no they silhouette, the pair, ripping apart every last monster.
Then it was silent except for the sound of dripping water and dripping monster blood. The cloaked woman and the metal warrior dashed back to where I sit speechless. If I’d had a mouth it would have been wide open.
“Damn, Tempest, that was overkill,” the warrior exclaims.
“I deemed it necessary. It will take time to ready the Town Portal spell,” she replied calmly.
“What?” the cloaked woman hisses.
“We are not continuing our fight through the Nail with an Echo. We need to retreat and reassess.”
“Are you certain?” the warrior asks in a measured tone. “Using Town Portal will erase our Teleport marker.”
“I choose life, Honour. This one will die within the next five minutes if we do not make egress.”
Honour inclines their metal helm.
“I trust in your judgment.”
The cloaked woman jams those pseudo-pistols into holsters at her hips and drops down in front of me. I wished I could see her face so I could get a proper gauge of her. Then again she can’t see me either so we were both at a disadvantage.
“Got any idea’s how they ended up here?” she asked Tempest.
The water witch, blue bare liquid feet planted on the stone ground, slams the tip of her coral staff on the surface. A strange gong echoes in my ears. I had a feeling that noise did not come from the staff or the floor.
“I lack the time for a Discerning Eye spell. Hazarding a guess, I would say they have a Second Chance blessing.”
“So where’s the rest of their party?”
“They didn’t have the blessing.”
“A complete wipe then,” Honour surmised. “I know several groups had been sent out to seal the Nail. They’re probably from another group. They may have found the Heart of Sin and lost in battle. Ohrmazd is on your side today, friend.”
“I don’t think they’re anybody’s friend,” the cloaked woman disagreed. “They haven’t even said a word of thanks for the rescue.”
Honour lifts one of his huge hands in what was a surprisingly gentle gesture.
“Second Chance isn’t always a blessing. Imagine everyone you know and care about dying around you. Then dying yourself. Then your Fravashi has you waking up somewhere else dazed and confused. Let’s give them a moment to gather themselves.”
The cloaked woman sighs. Funny thing. I don’t see any ripple around their hood to indicate the sudden exhalation. Looking up at someone who’s face is hidden in darkness, when I had no face that I could feel, was beginning to raise a whole bunch of questions I knew I wouldn’t like the answers on.
“…”
“- I’m Honour,” the warrior interrupts my first attempt at speaking. “Sorry for Rose’s attitude. She’s just on edge. We all are. As you’ve probably guessed the Liquor with the coral staff is Tempest. Probably best we don’t interrupt her concentration. She needs to visualise our destination. Get it wrong and you’ll appear half phased into stone and I can tell you from experience that it isn’t very pleasant.”
Honour chuckles. A deep rumble like a kettle being rung several times.
“So, may I ask your name?”
“…”
[Caution: Attempt at communication detected. System cannot allow information of previous incarnation to be distributed. System is evaluating probability of dissemination of restricted knowledge.
Analysis: Dangerous memetic virus.
Outcome: Remove ability to verbally communicate. Place engrammatic limitations on all non-verbal communication.
Execution: Applying curse]
It felt like something reaching into my head. More like past my head and into something even deeper and more important than that. It hurt. I’ve been through all sorts of pain in my life. Hospital connoisseur. Built up a numbness to it all. None of it held a candle to this. Whatever this ‘System’ was, it was flaying apart the very ‘essence’ of me. I wish I had a mouth to scream. All I could do was collapse onto my back and twitch. It probably looked a bit like a seizure. Normally I would be frothing at the mouth. Instead my bandage wrapped self twitches violently.
“What the!” Honour exclaims.
All my senses are gooey. Like oil, water and honey had been stirred rapidly in a murky glass. Pain thrums through my body as though it were a heartbeat. When I’m finally sensate enough to notice my surroundings, both Honour and Rose are on their knees flanking me. Rose was even holding my hand.
“What in Truth’s name just happened?” Honour asks.
“A curse,” Rose whispers. “It’s one thing to be able to sense them. Another to actually witness one being applied to a person. Ahriman must really want them dead.”
Rose’s grip tightens.
“And whatever the Lord of Lies wants, I’ll deny until my very last drop of mana. Tempest, how long until you finish the Moon damned spell?”
The water woman’s aqueous eyes flick over to Rose.
“Having a God do something rather theatrical and shake up all the mana within several hundred feet would be a mild distraction for most. Fortunately, you are friends with a sorceress par excellence.”
More water begins to congeal around Tempest. This water she directs with a finger to pool at the feet of myself, Honour and Rose. The water then shapes and surrounds each of us in a bubble. Light twinkle inside the liquid. In my very dazed state all I could really do was stare at the pretty sparkles.
“Normally I would advise for nausea upon arrival. But for Manes that would be pointless.”
After what had happened, in theory, I should have been oblivious to what was happening around me. Instead I become painfully aware of the distant rumble. And the building up of that horrid droning. More of the monsters were approaching. Stranger still I could feel the water. Not just the pliable surface of the bubble that surrounded me. There was something else in the water. Or maybe it was the water itself. A sixth sensation that tingled in my mind. As the sound of approaching monsters built, a final bubble surrounds Tempest. The water woman, her somewhat deflated witches hat leaning almost jauntily to one side, holds out a single finger and lets it hover just before the bubble’s surface.
“Found it,” she declares. “I swear some of the smaller towns are very paranoid about teleportation magic.”
I don’t blink. I’d need eyes to blink. But a flicker makes me notice something. Normally if you were inside a bubble you’d see your own reflection. Right? A warped fisheye of yourself. But what I saw was not me. Instead it was a gently rippling, watery impression of a grotto covered in Sakura trees with flowers of cherry-pink crystal. The bubble shudders and all I could see was the impossible reflected image on its surface. Everything outside the bubble was obscured.
Another roar like the surf at a beach fills my ears. This time I pair it up with the tingling. I was feeling what Tempest was doing. Whatever she was doing.
“Baodah: Town Portal”
Tempest, with a single finger, pops her bubble.
And all our bubbles pop too.
The corridor was gone. The four of us stand, or in my case lay, on a large stone dais surrounded by Sakura.