Gastores came to with a throbbing ache in his right shoulders and ribs. Otherworldly song murmured in his ear, but he was laid out on a coarse blanket over hard stone that served ample evidence that this was not the next life. Nor was it his home in Grand Chasm. Something cold was washing over his injury, but the sensation was soothing.
The expedition came to him: the journey into the Underworld in search of the missing victims of the attack on Chasm, the ill-fated exploration down a Dweomer road, his collapse after they reached safety.
Even half-awake as he was, it was an embarrassing recollection.
In his addled state he wondered if he was somehow lying in the river, but opening his bleary eye he saw a figure kneeling over him – the naiad he’s spoken with earlier.
He’d heard that the Naiads’ connections with the spirits granted mystical powers that even the Harpies couldn’t easily match, including the ability to heal. She had to be tending to his wounds with her spirit-song.
He felt his eyebrows dilating… what a humiliation; to be shot down, to prove useless in battle, then to pass out and be saved by the very person he’d tried to help.
For her part, the naiad seemed unconcerned. She was focused on her entrancing song, the supernatural melody alien yet soothing. Looking down at his side he was startled to see a fresh cut in his brown skin, into which an arc of water poured, rising up from the river nearby to penetrate his flesh.
Alarmed, he tried to sit up, only to find his body betrayed him – a convulsion of pain was all it could muster.
“Easy kid, Sulis is helping.” Ripides said, from somewhere behind him. For a moment Gastores burned with envy that it was Ripides who’d managed to get her name, but he quickly realized the absurdity of the thought.
“Know it looks gross, but she already did a few others like this, they’re loads better for it.”
Gastores looked up over his shoulder, the movement pulling painfully on his side. Ripides gave him a reassuring grin. “I thought you were done in for a minute there. Hold still, won’t be long before you’re on your feet again.”
Looking back to his injury, he realized the cut itself didn’t hurt at all. Nor did it seem to bleed, even with all that water entering his body. A second cut somewhere on his back seemed to be allowing the flow to exit, and with it he saw a few tiny splinters of what he hoped wasn’t bone.
The treatment lasted a few more minutes, and as promised Gastores really did feel dramatically better for the magical attention.
The worst part of the process had been the moment when she had set his broken ribs in place. Everything after that had been near painless, as the magic stimulated his natural healing, reconnecting bone and muscle tissue. Even the cuts Sulis had made sealed up as the water left them, leaving behind nothing but sore patches where his recovered body was tender.
While he tried to think of something appropriate to say to his savior the naiad left without another word, moving on to attend to another of the injured. Gastores was left totally immobilized, exhausted, drained of energy as well as liquid.
“Don’t fret, that’s just how it is when you get healed,” Ripides said sagely, seeing the look on his face. “I know, I got a whole finger cut off one time when I was a kid, playing in the mines. Healer managed to put it back on, but they told me, ‘Rip, you gotta rest after healing magic, uses your own energy it do.’ So you best just lie there a while.”
“Thanks… Ripides…. I’m sorry about earlier. For shouting, and for passing out….”
“Save it, kid, you was hurt worse than anyone thought. Can’t believe you made it far as you did. Now drink this soup and rest, you need it.”
Ripides wasn’t wrong about that. It was at least an hour before Gastores felt strong enough to sit up and move around again. Even that was a challenge, but he refused to lie there doing nothing.
The expedition had stopped on a rocky patch by the river, where they had burnt away the hostile ‘grass’ to clear space to rest and heal their wounded. With how numerous and severe those wounds were, it seemed Berenike and the other leaders were intent on staying there for a while. Several tents had been put up in the space, and fires lit to cook meals.
Gastores tried to help out, despite how shaky his hands still were, but Ripides shooed him away from the fire around which several other ogres were gathered, insisting that he’d done enough.
He couldn’t say he agreed there, but even Gastores had to admit that he wasn’t much use in his present state.
Wandering off despite Ripides protests that he should rest, he recalled Sulis. She’d saved him despite his clumsy attempts at conversation and combat.
With her distinctive blue and yellow skin she was easy to spot, sitting at the edge of the river a little way down from the main group, resting her legs in the flow. He found himself walking over to her.
As he approached he saw that she had her tentacles unfurled from the calves down, relaxing in the water that rose up to her knees. He knew from past experience that her whole body from the neck down was composed of the yellow-patterned blue limbs, but it still looked strange to see it coming apart like that.
He had no particular plan in mind for what to say, but he should at least express his gratitude.
“Afternoon,” he said, trying to make himself comfortable on an especially misshapen rock next to her.
She just nodded.
“Paddling huh? Looks nice. I know walking always makes my feet ache. Although… I guess you don’t really have feet, do you?”
The naiad woman gave him sidelong glance, then one of her tentacles whipped out with a splash.
Startled and shaky as he still was, Gastores almost fell of his rock, drops of water raining down on the river.
When he looked back at the naiad, there was a pale-scaled fish caught in one of her leg-tentacles.
Around the size of her head, the animal had a rounded body with thick, ridged scales that looked hard and sharp, but as he watched she raised the struggling catch to those pretty lips of hers.
They parted to reveal deadly jaws, lined with serrated teeth like arrowheads. With a crunch the head of the fish vanished into her maw, a spurt of blood dying her dress pink as she ate. A second bite let the ogre enjoy the sounds of her grinding fish bones and slurping blood from the carcass.
He could only stare, blinking with his giant eye as she held the still-twitching remains out towards him in her hand.
“Not hungry?” she asked, after a moment. Her light, melodic voice made a strange contrast coming from blood-soaked lips. “You need energy.”
“Oh! Uh, thank you.”
Gastores took the fish in his left pair of hands. It was still warm, scales slippery with water and worse. He hadn’t considered what to do next.
“Is it safe to eat without cooking?”
“Probably,” she said simply. “Fish taste better raw.”
Having already accepted the offer, there was little alternative but to take a bite. His teeth weren’t well suited to piercing thick scales, so he bit into the exposed flesh where Sulis had sliced through.
The raw meat was chewy, but the flavor was better than he’d imagined, bitter with a pleasing metallic aftertaste. The blood was less palatable however, too rich and sweet. After eating enough to be polite he passed the rest back.
Sulis took the fish in her tentacle-fingers, teeth cutting through it for another bite. The two of them chewed for a while after that, bones crunching in her mouth, a drop of blood wobbling as it grew down from her chin.
“Thank you for-”
“I’m sorry-”
Gastores blushed, realizing he’d cut her off. “Sorry, er, you go first.”
She smiled, and he felt a strange flutter despite the gory mess around her mouth. “After you, Gastores.”
“Right, I suppose Ripides told you my name. Anyway…. I wanted to apologize, for being a burden earlier I mean.” He could feel his nostrils flaring at the shame of it, but he pressed on. “I was useless against the golems, no more than a distraction. Getting myself injured was stupid too, I put people in danger.”
His shoulders slumped as he released a heavy sigh. “I wanted to make things right coming on this expedition… but I’m just letting people down all over again.”
“You didn’t let me down.”
He stared over at the exotic water-dweller, his eye wider than usual. She met his gaze, unflinching. Most members other species were uncomfortable staring directly into the giant eyes of ogres, but not Sulis, it seemed.
“I wanted to thank you for saving me. I don’t think you let me down at all. What you did was heroic. Thank you, Gastores. You didn’t have to hurt yourself for my sake though.”
The ogre was gaping, but Sulis seemed amused by the dumbfounded reaction. “You shouldn’t stare so much, Gastores. Your eye is so large; people might think it unsettling.”
He blinked, looking away hurriedly. His gaze fixed on another fish swimming a few yards out into the water. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
She giggled, tentacles wriggling under the water. “I’m teasing you. You have a nice eye.”
“Thanks…. I like your tentacles.”
She grinned her lethal grin at his words. Gastores could feel himself blushing deeper.
“Uh… so what were you saying?” he asked awkwardly.
“You didn’t have to save me. The eclogue I used protects as well as binds; it would have lessened the impact enough for me to survive. My body very durable.”
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“But you still would have been injured, right?”
“I would.”
“Then it’s good that I helped. Who would have healed you if you were injured worse than you expected? There aren’t many people with amazing magic like yours.”
It was her turn to blush.
“I’m just… sorry that I couldn’t do more. It was you and Captain Berenike who saved everyone else back there.”
“You’re not like most ogres, are you, Gastores?” she asked, tearing another bite from the shrinking fish carcass.
“What are most ogres like?”
She swallowed a mouthful before answering. “Most ogres are loud and belligerent, and most ogre guards are thoughtless puppets of the nobles.”
“Hey, no we aren’t!”
She met his eye.
“Well, not all of us. Captain Encheiro is different. She is pretty loud though. And a bit belligerent….”
They shared a grin.
“I’m sorry I was cool with you earlier, Gastores. I thought you were just another muscle-headed pawn of the Harpies.”
“You really don’t like the nobles, huh?” he asked.
“You wouldn’t either, if you were a naiad living in the lands around Grand Chasm.”
“Why not? I know things aren’t perfect, but life was alright there before the attack.”
“For guards like you, yes. The nobles value you – you help them keep order. But not everyone can be a guard. My species, the Naiads, are the guardians of the waters. We are supposed to live in harmony with the animals, plants and spirits of the water, protecting and guiding them, as they protect and guide us. We take only what we need from the water and it gives us everything we could want.”
The ogre wasn’t sure how that could be a problem, so he just nodded.
“Lady Feme wouldn’t accept anyone not ‘pulling their weight’. She insisted that naiads within her lands must be ‘productive’. It wasn’t good enough for us to support and nurture the waters; we had to make them ‘useful’ to her.”
The word was a curse to her lips, her furrowed brow framed with curling tendrils, their agitation reflecting her passion on the matter.
Seeing her pause Gastores hesitated, uncertain if it was wise to speak his mind, but Sulis saw the look on his face and waited.
“Speak, Gastores. I won’t be offended.”
He wrung his hands as he sat atop the uncomfortable rock. “Well… everyone else has to work too, don’t they?” he asked. “So, Lady Feme probably thought it wasn’t fair that you weren’t helping too.”
Defying his expectations, she smiled. “What do you normally eat, Gastores? Not fish?”
He blinked, bewildered. “No, uh, usually we eat erdroot. Fruits when we can get them. The usual stuff really.”
“And your erdroot crops, what do they need to grow?”
“They like cold, dark, damp places; caves mostly. Damper’s better, so you cut channels in the rock for uh, irrigation. My parents farm, so they’ve told me all about it.”
She nodded. “Where do you get the water to use in this irrigation?”
“Well, mom and dad get it from an underground stream. It empties into the Chasm further down. But what’s this got to do with what Lady Feme wants?”
“Lady Feme wanted us to take more from the rivers and lakes, more than was natural. We were straining the environment we were supposed to sustain. It is a precious balance that sustains all life in our mountains, from the lowliest water plant to the mighty Stormqueen – and your erdroot too. Our work is maintaining that balance.”
Sulis ran her hand over the river in which she paddled, digits peeling off, separating into tentacles to trail through the flow. As the appendage emerged it reformed.
“Queens and crops alike, they all need water. But a neglected or misused river grows unhealthy. The waters can turn foul, the flows can run dry or divert. The crops can fail, the animals can die and the people can starve. Floods can wash away homes and even people. That is how vital what we do is. That is what Lady Feme threatened.”
If anything it sounded like the naiads were doing a lot more than he did. Most of his shifts as a guard consisted of playing games in the barracks then walking the streets a few times.
“We went to the Shards, to explain that what was asked of us was wrong. One of Lady Feme’s advisors met with us. We told her that the water is not something to exploit and profit from; it is a shared gift from the gods, passed down through the generations. One we must carefully protect.”
“She must have listened, even I can see what you do is important.”
“She asked us why we were wasting her Lady’s time with ‘trivial complaints’ when we were behind on our mandated produce. All citizens of the empire were required to ‘contribute’, no exceptions. Her ogre guards escorted us out.”
“So she didn’t listen to anything you said?!”
“Not a word. We tried to go back, to protest again, to demand a meeting with Lady Feme herself, but the guards were waiting for us every day, to send us back to our inn. After a week they threatened the innkeeper to get us thrown out. They told her we were disloyal to the Empire, and that a beastfolk like her needed to watch her step, or she too would come under suspicion.”
Gastores sighed. “No wonder you don’t like nobles… or ogres….”
Sulis smiled. “Not all Ogres are bad.”
“Naiads are amazing,” he replied, enjoying the way her blue cheeks tinted darker at his words, highlighting the yellow swirls and rings. “But if they sent you home, how did you end up on this expedition?”
“The innkeeper was kind; she gave us until sunrise before she was going to kick us out.… That was the night of the attack. My brother is one of the missing.”
“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t even have had to be there to begin with.”
“What about you, Gastores? Who are you here to find?”
“Captain Encheiro, she was my boss in the guards. Is. She is my boss. She saved me that night, but I couldn’t help her. I let her down. But she’s not the only one I need to help. A lot of other people went missing too. There was even a human, Lady Safkhet from the Eyrie – she saved me as well, and I know she didn’t die in the battle….”
Sulis put a hand on one if his shoulders. “You’re hard on yourself, Gastores, but you have a good heart.”
Her soft skin felt wet to the touch, but left no moisture behind.
After that they talked a while longer, about Grand Chasm, and the rivers and lakes around it.
Gastores was fascinated by the world the naiad girl told him of, mere days walk from his home, yet so unlike anything he knew.
In turn she seemed genuinely interested in his experiences in the town, a place still new to her.
After that they moved on to other subjects, to the mystical language of the naiad eclogue with which she healed him, and the history of the ogres, the play Gastores had seen a few months back, the strange human supposedly courting the Stormqueen and how she’d fallen from the sky to save Gastores’ life.
By the time Captain Berenike called an end to the rest the two had entirely lost track of the time.
In the subsequent gathering all members of the expedition were present, save a few keeping watch up the slope, where the cave connected to the Dweomer road they had escaped.
They had to decide their next move.
Berenike suspected she already knew what would be said, but she wanted to give them a chance to talk the matter over for themselves. The rescue party expressed one opinion quickly; most of the group wanted to turn back. It was no surprise after the encounter earlier. They’d lost the trail of the enemy and they wouldn’t help their missing friends and family by getting themselves killed.
As the expedition leader Berenike had the final say on the matter, but as she was about to speak she noticed one of the ogres stepping forward from the group. She recognized the brown-skinned blond-haired man as Gas… something. Berenike had a head for geography, not names.
There were a lot of ogres in Grand Chasm, so unsurprisingly they made up about a third of the expeditionary force. This particular young guard had stood out however, with his bravery and determination. He’d saved Sulis, one of their best sorceresses, and then marched back to safety with multiple broken bones, supporting another injured ogre on his good shoulders the whole way.
“Before we give up, we should consider the trail we were following,” Gastores explained. “I know a little about mining from my parents and the captain. The grooves from moving machines as heavy as the ones they used at Chasm would be hard to fake over such long distances. You’d need a lot of time to spare.”
“Why would they be fake?” asked one of the harpies. “You saw the Dweomer golem repairing the ruins. It probably covered over their trail.”
Berenike shook her head. “He’s got a point. I thought the same as you, Heba, but then how’d the enemy get past the golems without a fight? They attacked us on sight.”
“So what are you suggesting?” Heba asked Gastores. “You just said they aren’t faking their trail.”
“I’m suggesting that maybe they’re better at tunneling than we think. Maybe they dug their way out of the Dweomer road and took a different route entirely, and that’s why there’s no sign of them fighting through the golems.”
The captain grimaced at the suggestion. It made sense, but it carried certain connotations she didn’t like. “You could be right… uh….”
“Gastores.”
“You could be right, Gastores. But if you are then we have to think about why they followed this tunnel as far as they did.”
“What do you mean, Captain?” Nefret asked. Gastores and the others looked equally bemused.
“If they can bore through that much solid rock then they had no reason to follow the road as far as they did, unless it was because they knew the golems at the nearby outpost would discover the damage and repair it if they dug there. A trap for anyone trying to follow their retreat. We walked right into it.” As she spoke, Berenike’s tail swished in annoyance at being caught out.
“New plan. We’re going back to where the tunnel was repaired, and searching for signs of a tunnel that’s been covered over.”
“Captain, are you sure it’s wise to go back there after what happened last time?” Heba asked. She looked pale, as did many of the group. Few of them were professional warriors.
“If Gastores here is right then the enemy would have dug somewhere far enough from the outpost to avoid the golems. We’ll keep our distance. If we don’t find anything we’ll turn back before we reach the place we triggered them last time.”
It wasn’t long after that the expedition set off once more.
The march back towards the scene of the battle was a nervous one.
There were no new monsters so soon after their last passing, but they were on the lookout for golems all the time, straining their eyes to watch for alcoves hidden in the walls, or signs of movement ahead.
The search itself was short. One of the naga with them could use several earth spells, one of which could detect fissures and openings in the rock.
She found the tunnel the enemy had dug, mere yards from the edge of the repaved surface.
Reopening the entrance they found a passage wide enough for even the huge siege weapons of the enemy to pass. It sloped downwards, carrying on past the range of Berenike’s vision.
Some in the group were quick to celebrate – the mission wasn’t a failure just yet!
Berenike was glad of that, but to the captain the discovery was ominous.
Yes, they would have another chance to rescue those they had lost, but based on what she knew of the structure of the Underworld, going deeper than the surface layers of the Dweomer ruins in this region would take one directly into Formorian territory.
There was no way the hostile Formorians would have allowed the attackers peaceful passage, so had the enemy fought their way through the hostile hive-based monsters to reach the surface?
If they had, they must have more military force than she’d ever imagined; enough to hold the Formorians at bay and still almost overwhelm the second largest settlement in the Cyclopean Bones.
Worse yet, if their excavation abilities were this advanced then the lack of existing roads and tunnels would mean little to them. They could strike anywhere, at any time. Even the Eyrie wasn’t safe.
~~~
The Great Basin was resplendent in the golden sunlight. The Thirteen Spires encircled a plateau awash with warmth and joy, flooded with cheering faces. At the centre rose the open-air court, its own ring of pillars echoing the grand spires in the distance.
There stood the Obsidian Throne, seat of the Empress. She was queen of the Harpies and sovereign of the Cyclopean Bones, ruling over the many peoples who called that land home. All of them were gathered as I took my place atop the cool glass.
But why was I sitting the throne, I wondered. What had possessed my friends to crown me, of all people? I was an outsider, not even a harpy, with no idea of the needs or daily lives of the many species I was to control. How could I decide what was best for people I didn’t even know?
In any case, the throne was far too large for me - seated between arms like walls I all but disappeared into the magnificent black cathedra of vitreous luster.
Even so the crowd cheered, familiar faces mixed in with the strangers.
To the left was Agytha, wearing a rare smile as she waved to me, her worries forgotten. Beside her Chione clapped enthusiastically, no hit of resentment on her grinning face.
Further back I saw Shukra, the slight witch looking uneasy between the batteries of applause fired off by the ogres I met in Grand Chasm, coordinated by Captain Berenike and Karlya.
On the right were more faces I recognized; the towering Priestess Thessaly was unmistakable in her divine purity, beaming as she gave a graceful bow. To her side was the refined figure of Ventora, showing no hint of resistance as she too applauded me, her courtly followers taking her lead.
What could I possibly have done, that even the nobles of the empire were united in celebrating my ascension to Empress?
But… if I was the Empress now… what had happened to Aellope and Arawn?!
High overhead the sun poured down heat in waves, baking the plateau and warning the cool glass of the throne under me. A shimmer dazzled me for a moment, then I saw her – Ael, striding through the crowd, handsome features beaming her familiar, superior grin! I felt a flutter in my chest as we locked eyes, but I didn’t miss the sight of her sister beside her.
The throne was growing uncomfortably hot in the intense light, but that wasn’t important. It had been so long since I saw Ael last, there was so much we needed to talk about, so much I had to tell her… to confess to her… but she was too far. Amid the cheering my words melted away.
When she reached the raised court platform Aellope spoke. The crowd fell silent as her smoky voice rang out clear. It was a soothing sound, one that promised all would be well.
“We are gathered here today to celebrate! At long last Safkhet has returned to us!”
Something strange beside her caught my eye; a trace of mana running up one of the pillars that ringed my throne. It glittered opalescent, an odd familiarity to the rectilinear path it traced out.
That shouldn’t be in the Eyrie.
Yet the lines spread, the pillar they moved over oddly square, not a rounded edge or curve to be seen.
Checking the others I saw they were the same, and in the far distance the spires too rose up in brutal rigid lines, angular obelisks against the dazzling sky, whose very clouds formed sharp angles and harsh edges.
Something was very wrong here.
I tried to move, to jump down from the throne, to go to Ael and warn her. As I tensed my muscles essence throbbed into the obsidian beneath me, iridescent energy entangling my body, pinning me in my seat as the glass glowed with heat!
She spoke on, unaware of the danger.
“Now our enemies have no hope. Our foes will never again hurt our people!”
A great cheer sounded from the crowd.
“All people of this world will be safe once Safkhet is dead!”
The exultant roar answering her was twice as loud.
I found my voice. “A-Ael?!” I called. “Aellope! What’s going on?! What are you talking about?!”
Beneath me the throne was gathering essence, the temperature painful even to my superhuman body.
“Surely that is obvious, Safkhet?” Ael asked. As she met my eye it was with a look I’d never known before; cold and disdainful. “You lied to us, to all of us. You befriended me under false pretense and used me, used all my people.”
“No, I-”
“Silence, apostle of an evil god!” Arawn bellowed. Her body was covered in wounds, black blood pouring from her eyes and mouth. She was… dead…. “Did you think you could fool us forever? The Priestess told us everything, you’re an agent of Myr, God of Darkness!”
“No, I’m not! I never served him, I swear!”
“You killed me!”
“I didn’t! I tried to help you! To help everyone!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ael sighed, shaking her head. Her magnificent wings drooped in sorrow as she refused to meet my eye. “You hid the truth from us, from me; you are accursed, a blight upon all around you. You have brought misfortune upon us all – your curse, your tainted soul has wrought ruin to the Empire and the people. My loved ones died because of you.”
My mind was blank as she spoke. Could it be true? Could this all be my fault? Had my curse brought disaster to those I loved?
“She killed the princess! Her lot killed my grandmother, and she still tried to pretend to be my friend! Execute her!” Chione howled.
Agytha was sobbing. “She killed my sister, my poor helpless sister… she brought the monsters who slaughtered her, yet she pretended she would be there for me! She told me she would protect me after murdering everyone I love! She’s a monster!”
Under me I heard the sound of flames, of essence crackling as it became fire, venting forth from slits all around.
I thought I’d been sitting on the Obsidian Throne, but turning my head I realized it had no back – behind me the incineration platform stretched out, a square pedestal on which lives would be brought to an end for the good of all society….
“She lied to us, she’s not what she seemed!” Karlya called.
“Burn her!” Shukra called.
“Burn her!” Ventora called.
“She is a fraud, a fake! Everything about her is a lie!” Thessaly shouted, her modest tone vanished, only rage and hate in her voice and on her beautiful features. “She’s evil, the enemy of the Goddess!”
Many voices rose at once. “She killed us all!”
The Eyrie around me had grown dark. The spires were great pillars of bones, death and decay slicking their sides and running down to sink the plateau beneath an ocean of death.
From the black oil arose rotting corpses, oozing vile ichor as they wailed and groped towards me.
Behind them were the charnel houses of the ruined Empire.
The fire billowed up in angular spirals, kissing my skin to wreak searing pain upon me.
“This is not punishment!” Aellope spoke, the sole figure left amid the unspeakable horror. “Look upon what you’ve wrought with your lies, with your evil. This is the proper treatment for a disease like you! You must be destroyed for the sake of us all!”
“No! Please!” I screamed as the fires burnt higher. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone! I didn’t mean to lie!”
Aellope shook her head, black tears rolling down her cheeks. “You cannot even see the truth. You tell yourself you’re a good person, but that cannot be so. If you were you could never have hid your curse from me. In your selfishness you have doomed us all!”
I fell silent. The pain of the fire was nothing to her words.
“None of it was real, was it, Saf? You lied about everything. You’re naught but a fake; a fraud and a curse. You broke my heart.”
The flames surged, and agony overwhelmed my mind once more as the darkness consumed me.
My world was falling away, but through the roaring blaze I heard Aellope’s final words. “You’re not even a real-”
My body jolted as my eyes snapped open.