I could hardly believe that this was reality as I pulled myself up over the edge of the lava pit and saw the face of my rescuer. I’d done it. I’d freed myself and reunited with my allies, come all the way from the surface to save me.
My friends hadn’t abandoned me - they had risked their lives to save me.
Now Echo was safe. Berenike was safe.
I was safe.
The fighting had stopped, and no-one else was going to get hurt to rescue me.
Surging, overwhelming relief was all that I could process as the Valkyrie embraced me in her powerful arms and soft wings. I couldn’t even tell how long it had been since anyone last held me, or even touched me without it ending in a stabbing. It must have been all the way back in Grand Chasm, when Berenike herself carried me through the night. Fitting then that it was she who had come for me now. The reassuring sensation of her hands against my back and her tail around my legs made the tears flow all the thicker, soaking her feathers and her downy chest, but she didn’t seem to care.
It would be just like this to hold Ael too, I thought, if I were fifty feet tall.
But as welcome as the humanoid contact was, we were still deep in the Underworld, beneath the magma table, in a cavern which seemed to have both a river and magma flowing through it.
Berenike shifted her head, and I felt something slick and wet on her shoulder that didn’t seem to be tears. Looking closer I realized it was a nasty cut, several of her feathers severed entirely to reveal the downy undercoat and her bare skin, blood slowly oozing out.
“You’re hurt!” I announced, stating the painfully obvious.
Now that I looked closer at her, the stunning flames of red and yellow plumage were themselves singed in many places, and there was far more blood than tears adhering to her muscular frame.
How foolish I was. The fighting might have stopped, but that didn’t mean that I could stand around sobbing and hugging people.
“You should have said something – I wasn’t thinking…. Let me help you, before you… bleed out, or get an infection or something!”
“I’m not so bad I can’t be glad to see you, ‘my lady’.”
She gave me a wink, her square features grinning down at me with a conspiratorial air as she used her wingtip to mop her own cheeks. As I recited the words of a spell I cracked a shaky smile of my own at the reminder of our first meeting at the Eyrie, and my insistence she take me with her to the battle. Amid the chaos of emotions I almost stumbled over the magic and flubbed the incantation.
Berenike sighed as healing waters poured from my hands, lowering her head to let the shower engulf her.
The waters, initially streaked red, soon turned clear as the water of life worked its magic, revitalizing the exhausted woman and speeding her natural healing. I couldn’t do any more than that – I didn’t know the first thing about setting bones or repairing nerves, but luckily the harpy wasn’t in need of anything so advanced.
When she straightened and shook her plumage she looked almost back to normal. The burnt or missing feathers would take time to regrow, but her wounds had closed into pink seams in her scales and skin and she had more energy.
Overhead, I saw a trio of harpies circling, each of the warrior women showing signs of their own battles. They alighted around us as Berenike was shaking out her wings, feathers ruffling to disperse the water.
“Captain, are you alright?” said one.
“I’m fine, Nefret,” Berenike said, with a smile. “And the fighting is done for the moment.”
A highborn Valkyrie from Grand Chasm, I recognized the speaker at once by her deep and rich purple feathers, their tips highlighted in metallic gold that glittered beautifully. The same auric filigree edged each of her violet scales, while the dark skin of her face had a satin sheen to match them. Adding her high cheeks, sender figure and elegant air, she could easily have passed for royalty if not for her intermediate scale – and the colossal greatshield and axe she wielded so improbably in those delicate hands.
Not that her princess wasn’t quite the warrior herself of course.
“Then we’ve won! You’re free, Lady Safkhet!” Nefret looked ready to dance with delight.
“Yes, thanks to you all!” I replied, with a vigorous nod.
I had almost forgotten how strange it felt to crane my head up at the noblewomen of the Eyrie, even lesser nobles like the twelve-foot Nefret.
“I’m so very glad to see you again, and to… finally repay you for your heroism at Grand Chasm! The town owes its very existence to you!”
Her smile played around her lips with the slightest tremble, speaking to the sincerity of her words.
“It’s an honor to be able to help the Savior of the Shards,” another chimed in happily.
As they sung my praises the Valkyries were bowing their heads in respect as if they were meeting the Stormqueen herself, despite my absurd appearance; tiny, nude and almost hairless, and smeared all over with filth and blood.
“I heard some calling you Safkhet Golembane!” proclaimed the third of the group, making me squirm at the unexpected, absurd epithet.
I was starting to wish another hole would open in the cave floor and swallow me.
“L-let’s not get carried away,” I said quickly.
“I’m glad I helped, but, well if the Shards were saved it wasn’t only thanks to me, there were a lot of people who fought to protect it, you included, miss Nefret. We also didn’t exactly… ‘win’ this time,” I added sheepishly, not wanting to disappoint them, “it’s not like the Pharyes are surrendering.”
“What’s the situation then?” asked Nefret, giving a wary glance over towards the Pharyes vehicle, and the gathering crowd of golems and knights.
“Far-yay?” spoke another. “That’s the name of the enemy?”
“The Pharyes, yes, but hopefully these ones aren’t our enemies anymore.”
Berenike spoke up again to clarify for the newcomers. “It seems Lady Safkhet has worked her magic on these ‘Pharyes’. They’ve called for a truce.”
Nefret raised an eyebrow, her tail curling behind her. “Could this be a trick? Could they plan to attack us again once we regroup?”
“I really don’t think so,” I said. “It’s… uh… a little complicated, but I think we can trust them, at least for now. Not all of the Pharyes want this war.”
“If they turn on us again we have Lady Safkhet to fight on our side this time,” Berenike added.
“Please, just call me Saf,” I said quickly, as I felt myself blushing at the formal address – especially coming from the decidedly informal Berenike.
It was also little embarrassing to see how the other warriors perked up at that suggestion. It was true however, that together we could take the Pharyes if we had to.
“They wouldn’t dare attack us now,” the youngest of the four said happily. “They’d be annihilated! Why they won’t even be able to breathe once Lady Safkhet Golembane unleashes her mana!”
“I really have to insist you just call me Saf or Safkhet-” I began to say.
Berenike cut in before I could further protest that rather unrealistic evaluation, or point out that golems didn’t breathe in the first place.
“Either way we need to regroup, but first you three look like you could use some ‘mana’ yourselves. Saf?”
None of the other harpies were as badly hurt as Berenike had been, but I was glad to oblige them with more of the healing flood I’d conjured, Nefret kneeling to allow the water to enclose her.
“So, we have a truce. But what terms did their leader want?” Berenike asked once the others had been treated.
“We’ll have to talk some more once things calm down, but he was talking about working together to end the war.”
Berenike gave a sharp whistle.
“He was serious about that?”
“He was willing to risk his life,” I replied.
I decided to leave out the part where Lord Uldmar had also risked Echo’s life, and held me at magical gunpoint.
My answer proved good enough for Berenike, and while I still had a million questions I was bursting to ask her, about Ael, the surface and the war, as well as herself and the people sent to save me, she had far too much to do to start filling me in right away. First came sending the other harpies to bring word to the rest of the rescue team, scattered as they were around the huge cave. Some were already filtering back, but it seemed that they had spread out over a great distance so as to lure away the Pharyes defenders and allow their Valkyries to free me.
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Among those returning were many more people in need of healing too, including some of the Pharyes, but it seemed that thanks to the rescue party’s tactics and the Pharyes’ reliance on machines to fight, none of the injuries were critical.
The worst off appeared to be the pilots of the four knight-suits which had been badly damaged or destroyed in the fighting, however the Pharyes were seeing to them already.
The two sides, although no longer at arms, were still on guard against each other.
The remaining Pharyes war machines had grouped up like a defensive line between us and their wounded, also screening their immobilized vehicle. It was a giant and segmented machine like a metal centipede, each compartment large enough that even Nefret could have ridden within – although she would have been restricted to the cargo holds, as I was in my cuboid prison.
Our own side had similarly gathered, around what must be a hijacked walker of their own, parked up on a rise within the forest. I had no idea where they got the vehicle, or how they figured out how to work it, but such questions were a surprisingly low priority given the circumstances.
It was as if the two sides were staring each other down, each not entirely certain how far this ceasefire would go.
I would have liked to extend a further olive branch and get things started with an offer of some healing help to the Pharyes, but the faceless war machines were hard to approach. They also seemed prone to flinching when I looked at them directly, so I decided not to push and risk starting more trouble.
I just thanked whatever twisted fate I was caught up in that no-one had died in the battle. That would have destroyed any chance at real cooperation.
Uldmar or Ivaldi would, presumably, arrive soon and help us figure out what to do next, but in the meantime I was still painfully aware of my own condition. Totally naked, with only a short stubble of hair atop my head, I was drawing a lot of attention from friends as well as former foes.
I was also bursting with more than just questions – I was absolutely desperate to pee.
I tried not to be too obvious about slipping away into the misty forest of strange, mineral trees laden with glittering fruits like jewelry, to find a spot to relieve myself. There were strange creatures were moving about in the undergrowth, through clinking reeds like florescent glass and huge mushrooms that were an unpleasant reminder of other areas of the Underworld, but I ignored them all in my haste.
My mind was elsewhere, even as my body was insisting on relief. Shaking as I walked, I couldn’t keep the grin from my face, or hold back the tears that kept welling up as I thought back to the moment I saw Berenike.
It wasn’t just her of course, although the friendly face was deeply welcome. It was the lifeline she’d brought, leading back to the surface world. I could already see the sunlight again in my mind.
Even if there was a lot still to do or overcome in the Underworld first, I was going home.
~~~
Fighting a hit and run battle against their mechanical foes, Gastores and the other grounded combatants had long lost themselves in the crystal forests and geyser fields of the valley floor, luring away the lesser golems.
As a result there was a general confusion when the enemies started falling back, without any sign of Berenike’s flare in the stone night sky.
“What’s happening?” Ripides asked no-one in particular. “Did we miss the signal?”
He was perched perilously close to one of the boiling geysers, atop a tripod sunken in the mud. It had taken four of them to disable it once it was trapped, and the thick, mana-rich steam which had blinded the foe and made the feat possible also reduced their own visibility.
“They’re all running!” Lap announced from a nearby tree. “All the golems! And there’s no fighting by the walker neither!”
Their returning to the site of the main battle was a triumphant one. Gastores had tried to warn them that it seemed unlikely that the enemy would totally surrender, but Plades and Lap and convinced themselves and many of the others. The latter was already leading the beastfolk in a rousing and jubilant howlsong of thanks to their many gods, primarily Teu Ates.
Given the cacophonic nature of the devotionals there in the mineral forest Gastores found himself glad that the ogres had no gods of their own. Let the harpies give their praises to Nemoi, and the beastfolk to Esus and the rest of that pantheon, and leave the ogres to get on with the work of mining and building and farming in peace, unmolested by the confusing, contradictory demands of absentee divinities.
All the same even he, with what other ogres called a pessimistic outlook, felt a stirring in his heart. The jubilation was infectious, as was the thrilling thought that they might have finally broken through the hardest barrier of their expedition.
The riotous calls and semi-harmony died down as they reached the clearing around the cave and saw the state of affairs.
If the enemy were beaten they certainly didn’t look it – their forces were still on guard around their stuck strider – yet there was no sign of actual hostilities.
Captain Berenike was standing in the shadow of their own walker, atop a ridge some distance away. As he approached Gastores saw that she was covered in burnt spots and appeared to have lost some feathers, however she and the other harpies all seemed to be present. So were most of the others, even if some of them were in need of healing.
Gastores caught her eyes with his.
“Captain? Did we… win?”
The uncertainly was clear in his voice, but Berenike just laughed.
“No, Gastores. No-one won, but no-one lost either.”
“How’s that then?” Ripides asked, cocking his head to one side with a suspicious glance around at their foes.
Gastores shared his discomfort – if the enemy chose to attack now the party would be sleeping simurgh, their udders ripe for puncturing.
“Blame Safkhet. She managed to talk to them, and convince them to stop fighting.”
“What?! How? Where is she now?!”
Berenike gave a chuckle. “Isn’t it ridiculous? Get used to that.”
“Then she’s safe and free, and helping us?” Gastores asked, his excitement returning.
As a warrior Berenike might not call the inconclusive outcome of the battle itself a victory, but to his mind liberating Safkhet without any losses was an unqualified triumph!
“She should be somewhere in there,” the captain said, gesturing with her wing at the forest behind them. “Think she snuck off for a pee, but she’s safe and free. I doubt anything around here can threaten her.”
“Then we did it!” Gastores exclaimed, gesturing wildly and almost clobbering the smaller Lap at his side.
“We won!” the beastfolk man chimed in, unperturbed. “We beat them!”
“Yes!” Ripides pumped all four fists in the air. “Let’s see her already! Bet the enemy’s pissed, having to give up!”
After the initial uncertainty the beastfolk looked ready to start up another round of howlsong. The multiple melodies of the semi-musical performance were starting to grow on Gastores, but Berenike managed to talk them down. The truce was, she feared, not so sturdy as to endure a sudden eruption of echoing barks, howls, meows and assorted cries from the rescue party.
There was also a great deal to do before they could celebrate, such as account for everyone, tend to those still injured, and meet with the other side to discuss what would come next.
It was, Gastores reflected, only a truce, and if Encheiro had taught him anything it was that ‘truce’ was the favorite word of a certain subset of drunken troublemakers looking for a chance to sucker-punch a naïve young guard in the face.
Besides which, until his former captain and the others abducted were returned, there could be no true peace.
“Gastoressss!”
The young ogre had just enough time to recognize his own name before something hit him from behind, a heavy yet spongy mass that entangled him instantly, curling around his limbs and chest.
“Sulis!” he exclaimed, twisting his head around as best he could to look at the enchanting, adorable naiad.
“I’m glad you’re safe! I was worried you’d do something stupid and heroic again!” she said, beaming down at him with her jagged, deadly jaws.
In her excitement her arms and legs had reverted to tentacles, and she was hugging him all over with a tight and wholly inescapable embrace. Gastores did his best to hug her back, patting her back with the one hand able to reach it. He didn’t miss the traces of tears in the corners of her eyes.
“It’s not like I jump in front of golems for just anyone you know.”
He enjoyed the music of her laughter as he teased her, and felt her tentacles squeeze affectionately.
“Good. I don’t want you dying for just anyone. Or for me actually. I want you alive.”
“I’m glad you’re safe too, Sulis,” he said, grinning and ignoring the blush that was rising on both of their cheeks at her words and their sudden intimacy. “I was worried about them blowing up your golem….”
“I told you not to.”
“I know, but I did anyway. You can’t help but worry about people you-”
“There she is!” Berenike said, interrupting their moment.
~~~
Refreshed and cleaned up with some conjured water I also felt more composed as I made my way back through the mist towards the others. Crying on Berenike’s shoulder had been wonderfully cathartic, but so was the simple thought that there were people waiting for me.
Before returning I had hoped to find some means to preserve what little modesty remained to me, but even with a mist-veiled rainforest of glowing flora all about me nothing seemed viable – some leaves shattered rather than bent, and others were giant and spongy like the mushrooms. Awkwardly holding mushroom caps over my boobs and crotch like a pair of trashcan lids seemed somehow infinitely more humiliating than just remaining nude.
Instead I returned to the edge of the clearing where the battle had taken place, covering my chest and crotch as casually and subtly as I could with my arms and hands. I had the feeling that I might need to grow accustomed to fighting nude anyway, given the gulf between the durability of my outfits and my flesh.
Berenike was visible in the distance, near the stolen Pharyes vehicle, talking to a mixed group of harpies, ogres and some people a few feet shorter than she, around my own size.
It was my first time getting a chance to meet what I guessed from the slight snouts or muzzles and general profusion of hair and tails were beastfolk, but before I could pay them much attention I saw one of the ogres jumped by some sort of… octopus. It looked like he was under attack, but it seemed the aquatic girl atop him was a friend.
That was when Berenike spotted me, and called out.
What came next was a flurry of introductions, thanks and congratulations.
“I’m so glad we were able to find you,” said the young ogre from within the coils of countless tentacles.
Up close I recognized him as one of the defenders from the Shards, who had fought alongside Nefret, although as in her case I didn’t recall getting his name. Blond and brown-skinned, he had a body on the lithe side of athletic, as I could see under the limbs of his friend and the leather and fabrics of his plain outfit, a uniform that made me think of a simple footsoldier. His features were handsome, especially for a species whose faces orbited around a huge central eye. His eyebrow bulged at the ends with nostril ridges, but they were on the small side for an ogre, and his lips wore an easy, comfortable smile that gave him a boyish charm now that we were meeting under happier circumstances.
“You probably don’t remember me, but I’m Gastores. You, uh, saved our lives at Chasm. We were all devastated when you fell.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” Nefret said, with a sorrowful shake of her head.
“I’m really sorry for worrying you – and for dragging you all the way down here to save me! I honestly couldn’t believe it when I felt you all outside… I thought everyone had given up on ever finding me… I never imagined Ael was sending out rescue parties for me!”
The silence which followed my heartfelt words stretched out just a little too long.
Berenike exchanged a look with Gastores which I would only describe as uncomfortable before she at last answered me.
“About that…,” she said slowly. “It’s not that we didn’t attack the Pharyes to help you, but… we weren’t sent by the Stormqueen… or to find you.”
“We came to rescue everyone captured at Chasm,” the octo-girl spoke simply, with a certain brutality that was most efficacious in puncturing my bubble. “We thought you were dead.”
The awkward sense of deflation and disappointment was totally unexpected after the high of my rescue, and for a moment I just stood there, feeling a silly, with no idea what to say.
“Almost everyone!” Berenike said quickly, breaking the silence and shooting the naiad an irritated look.
She must have seen how my face had fallen, as she quickly put a wing around me, as if worried I might start crying again.
“It’s not that anyone was giving up on you, we just had no idea where you’d gone or how to search for you. A lot of people feared the worst when there was no trace of you. All we found was a few scraps of fabric…. Stormqueen Aellope was terribly upset, or so I heard before we left….”
“But we always meant to save you if we could find some trace!” Gastores said brightly. “That’s part of why I joined the rescue party from Chasm…. Oh, uh… and you should meet Sulis! I know she seems a bit blunt, but she’s a naiad, they’re… magical… and very different to what we’re used to.”
“Hello,” the girl said simply, from atop his shoulders.
I found myself smiling again at the cheery ogre, as well as Berenike’s kindness, and I waved brightly to the aquamarine naiad.
She certainly had a mystical air about her, mana coalescing around her smooth, shiny skin in trails of water that flowed in the form of a dress and left thick wafts of mist around her even in the moisture-rich atmosphere of the cavern. She was also far from the more relatable humanoid figures of harpies or ogres; her face looked similar certainly – although there lurked teeth like a shark behind those thick and pretty lips – but her head was elongated, reminding me of certain aliens I’d seen in Earth’s science fiction, while her body was stranger still. Her head was like the core of a nest of tentacles, some small strands forming waving hair, while the thicker ones somehow conjoined into the form of a neck and an entire human torso below, only to split apart again at her hips and shoulders to create the snare of appendages which currently bound Gastores.
“Uh, hi Sulis. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for helping to save me.”
“That’s fine, you sounded useful. We have many people to rescue.”
Blunt indeed, but certainly not unfair, that was my impression. She spoke the words with a slight smile that diffused what could otherwise have seemed a very cold statement, and it certainly helped that she had also participated in saving my life, so I was willing to cut her plenty of slack.
“I’ll do my best to help with that,” I promised.
I was also far too eager to hear what news she and her friends could bring to dwell on much else.
“Can you… can anyone tell me what’s been happening on the surface? Since I fell, I mean.”
Not a lot proved to be the answer.
The team had been dispatched some time after the attack on Grand Chasm, but before any further developments were known about the war – at least to the general populace of Chasmites – so the best they could give me were the results of the battle itself. It was heartening at least to hear that they held the town, and that my actions had in some small way helped turn the tide of the fight. I might have lost the fight, but I’d tied up the Pharyes’ best forces for a while and destroyed their siege weapons.
Of Aellope however, there was only rumor. She had taken my disappearance badly, all agreed, but just what she had thought seemed unclear. Some had heard she was in mourning, while others were sure she had been enraged.
Try as I might to remain hopeful, I could easily imagine the latter, given how I’d acted.
While I was getting filled in to that limited extent more and more people were also returning. It had been a few minutes since the fighting stopped, but it seemed that there had been chaos on both sides, with forces spread far and wide throughout the cave.
Some were hurt, and I felt a pang of guilt each time I saw someone turn up nursing a gash or burn, or in a few cases what looked like a broken bone, but I wasn’t qualified to deal with complicated injuries like that. Luckily it seemed Sulis was an expert in using water to heal, and she left our huddle to take charge of the worst cases, Gastores going with her like something in between a mount and an assistant.
Many of those arriving wanted to greet me too, or just to see the strange human they had taken so great a risk for, and there were plenty of questions coming at me from them.
All the attention became too much for me when one of the beastfolk, a sharp-eyed woman named Patch, asked me if all humans bared their skin as I did.
“Uh, Berenike?” I asked, during a brief lull, “do you think you could help me?”
“What with?” she asked simply, giving me a blank look.
“Well… I know it’s not exactly a high priority, but… my clothes kind of got… incinerated earlier. And I was really hoping that someone might have some spares. Even just a shirt and pants would be amazing.”
Her jaw hung slack for a moment, as if she was processing what I’d said, and then she gave a laugh.
“Of course! I’m sorry Saf, I forgot your species wear clothing! You poor girl, you must have been naked all this time in the Underworld….”
Seeing my blush, she put a wing around me once more.
“Come with me, we’ll see if some of the beastfolk can lend you something before the Pharyes are ready to talk to us.”