“What is an earth standard?” She was all too happy to be focusing on anything else but the fact that she’d just been branded for excommunication. Or…

Wait. Had she? Certainly the Goddess herself wouldn’t intervene in person to punish one of her daughters. That, at least, was unheard of. Punishment was supposed to be recall to the school, followed by self-flagellation. Ignoring the call back would be death, but…

She’d never heard of the Goddess intervening in matters of sinners.

Vergil was talking and she had to strain to pay attention.

“—standard language used across the SPRAWLs,” he was saying. “Our unified language. This is what I spoke before coming here.”

“And it’s not your chip translating? Are you certain?”

“Absolutely. If it translates for me, it overlays Earth Standard over the original and I read that. It’s what happened with that book Tallah got from Ludwig.”

Sil let out a slow, nervous laugh and confirmed for herself that Vergil had the right of it. That was exactly the message cut into her skin. Didn’t seem like punishment and it served to give her a flicker of hope that the Goddess hadn’t forsaken her. A flood of endorphins triggered upon reading the words, nearly an apology for the stress she was enduring. It washed out the pain and the fright.

This new development from Vergil…

“Tallah’s going to wet herself the moment she learns what you can do.” The pulses were coming rarer now and no longer quite as powerful. She could think again. “This is the School of Healing’s own language. We’re taught it and then conditioned to never teach it ourselves. Two healers trying to mind touch one another to learn how this is done to us… well, it ends poorly for them.”

She gave him a shaking smile.

“You can teach Tallah all the secrets I can’t.” Admitting that would be grounds for banishment from the School, if not direct assassination, and she bit her tongue the moment the words were out. “You are an endless source of wonder.”

“I’m… sorry? I don’t mean to be, if that’s any consolation. What’s the message mean?”

“That I’ve annoyed lady Panacea in some way.” It was an odd, terrifying feeling to know the Goddess watched her personally. Would she really intervene in some way? Should she wait?

No. Spiders could track them before whatever was to happen would come to pass. They’d be dead and waiting, and part of her was frightened of what Erisa had meant by ‘I only need you’. It would probably not be anything good given what she suspected had happened.

Her feet could carry her fine now and she pushed away from the wall. Statues seemed to be judging her admissions of fear with long-dead eyes of long-dead mystical angels. She quite liked the term.

“Let’s go. I think I screamed enough to draw in all of Erisa’s pets.”

“She called them children. And the others didn’t seem to like her much.” Vergil still hovered right next to her, up until she shooed him away.

“I’m fine and I can walk on my own, thank you. You’re welcome to remain here and figure out what their relationship is. I’d rather be further from that slaughter and closer to Tallah.”

She set down the steps, good hand still touching the wall in case she had some other kind of fit. She tried to banish the Goddess’s message from her mind even as her forehead still throbbed. Tallah. Focus on Tallah. She’ll love the truth about Ludwig.

Tallah would protect her from the rest of this nightmare place. Sil doubted she could take any more surprises without her throwing a real, possibly terminal fit.

“What do you suppose Tallah’s going to do when we tell her about Erisa?” Vergil asked. He kept a step behind her, always glancing back.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Oh, I’m going to tell Tallah all about Ludwig’s little lies. And then I’m going to sit back and watch her flay him alive.”

“Not what I asked.”

“Same difference.”

“But you’re a healer!” Vergil protested, loud enough that his voice brought echoes back. “He should be allowed to defend himself. Do we believe the girl just as easily as we did him? How’d that work out?”

Sil laughed. She wasn’t sure she even believed Erisa, or whatever wore her face. If anything, she was certain they’d not yet learned the full extent of the entire sordid affair.

“Lying to us? That’s fine. Keeping things from us? That’s also fine. Tallah’s equipped to handle most anything thrown her way.” She could feel the cold spreading out through her as fear-repressed rage found its way back. Her fists squeezed shut. “Leaving a little girl to the attention of some animals, human or otherwise? I know what I’d do to him. Erisa seems way more capable than I in exacting her revenge. He should consider himself lucky if Tallah just fries him outright instead of handing him over. Bastards like him don’t deserve defending. They should be put down like the animals they are.”

Her smile turned feral when she turned and poked Vergil in the chest. “So what if I’m a healer? Should I suffer the inhuman to live? Didn’t you hear what Erisa said?” She grabbed the front of his shirt and forced his gaze to meets hers. “There are no gods watching in here, boy.”

He didn’t look away. “Your Goddess just announced she’s watching.”

“She would approve. We are encouraged to do what we believe to be moral.”

“…You’re bleeding again.”

Blood seeped down from the marking on her face. That one refused to scab over and bled hotly in sync with her mood. “So I am.” She ignored it, turned and stalked forward with renewed vigour. Seeing that old bastard burn would be satisfaction enough for what they’ve been made to endure, and the desire for it kept her going.

Whatever waited for them offered up strange scents on the dead air. Yes, flowers. She could swear they neared her parents’ old garden. There were familiar scents of cradle’s bloom and night-berry at the fore, sentry’s mint and ink-nettle following, their fragrance as distinct as if the bushes grew right next to her. It brought a pang of nostalgia for her old district in Drack, back when her parents still lived and tended to their herb garden.

The usual headache took over and erased it all from her mind.

“It smells like a hydroponic garden,” Vergil mused, drawing in loud sniffs. “Don’t plants need sunlight?”

“Ink-nettle prefers shade,” she said, absently, trying to recapture the moment. It had fled, like all memories tended to.

“Being underground counts?”

Not in the least.

Stairs ended and a long passage followed. Crystal veins shone a soothing shade of green as they traced the passage into bright light ahead. More floral scents filled the air in stark contrast to the rest of Grefe and its dust, webs, and mould.

“I hear water,” Vergil said. “An aqueduct?”

She heard it too and it was in the walls.

“Some irrigation of some sort?” She joined in the musing. “Maybe a garden’s survived this place’s downfall.”

A few more steps proved her theory right.

Emerging from the tunnel, they found themselves in the depths of a forest. Their first steps were onto grass and moss, as green as anything she’d ever seen on the surface.

Herbal scents bloomed in the air. Water spilled from two gaps in the wall and followed a deep trench in the soil, getting lost among the foliage.

Sunlight, as warm and bright as the real thing, shone from spots high above. Sil shaded her eyes as she regarded the place wide-eyed. Her jaw hung loose. She did not care.

How far would it stretch? How… just how? The thick canopy obstructed any view of the distance and created the unpleasant impression of an infinite stretch of thick vegetation.

She wanted to say something, to suggest they head back and up the stairs, try to find a vantage point and orient themselves.

“Sister.”

Sil jumped and squeak as Erisa’s rough voice descended on them.

Vergil turned and, in one quick motion, had his sword in hand.

A Leuki hung above their exit, bone-white against the grey of the rock. A half-grown Erisa regarded them off its back, flesh and bone melded to the strange substance of the spider. The same deep ice eyes regarded them with inhuman amusement.

The spider twitched and raised palps as if sensing the air. The half-Erisa smiled her ghastly grin at them.

“It was terribly unkind of you to run.”