As Nevvi led Elach through Lighthome, he felt a myriad of stares prickling at the edge of his Issi sense. One presence even began pushing their light into a technique that felt like an improvised explosive, dangerous and uncaring who was hurt in the backlash. They didn’t get halfway through their preparation before a large glob of sticky shadows fell from the ceiling and utterly consumed them.
Elach raised an eyebrow when a beetle stepped up to the screaming formless blob and began shaping it with extra hands projected out of dim brown light. The blob was quickly turned into a perfect sphere, shining and glistening as if it was still liquid while the beetle rolled it away and out of sight.
Nevvi made a noise that sounded like the clicking of a wooden instrument, and Elach turned to see that they’d stopped not a foot in front of him. Because he’d stopped to watch.
“Is the esteemed visitor interested in the peacekeepers of Lighthome?” Nevvi asked, their tone slightly nervous. “Nevvi can assure the esteemed visitor that the troublemaker will be properly dealt with, and that there is no reason to approach the polished guard.”
“Polished guard?” Elach wondered aloud, tapping his fingers against the lantern as he scanned the eyes that were equally on it and him. “They make sure nobody kills anyone in Lighthome?”
“No?” Nevvi said in confusion. “Why would the polished guard prevent deaths? The polished guard ensures the right deaths are dealt. And that no deaths are dealt without proper supervision.”
“Proper supervision.” Elach repeated. “Of course. Right.”
“We are not savages.” Nevvi huffed, walking much faster now that Elach had apparently said something to offend them. “Come, come. The walk to the lightwell is not long, but Nevvi cannot guarantee the wait for access will be short.”
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The lightwell was somehow exactly what Elach had pictured. And not his adjusted expectations for it to be some sort of bank, but the initial thought of a deep luminous hole. There was even a bucket attached to some sort of pulley system, but the ropes were thick chains instead of, well, ropes.
It was also larger than his house back in the village.
Bugs of all shapes, sizes, and luminous accents were gathered around the well as if it were the center of the community. They sat on the brickwork, not caring that if they fell back they would plummet to untold depths, chattering amongst themselves as light drained out of them and into the well below. Elach held his tongue as he watched Nevvi approach, take a deep breath of the air above the well, and turn to face him with a slightly drunk expression.
“Nevvi should have told the esteemed guest this earlier, but it slipped Nevvi’s mind.” Nevvi slurred, and Elach rolled his eyes. He had a guess as to how it had slipped Nevvi’s mind. “The esteemed guest’s little lights can be exchanged here for the market price, or taken into the free market and bartered. Lighthome sanctioned stores will not accept little lights in payment, so if the esteemed guest wishes to peruse those wares the esteemed guest will have to exchange.”
Elach nodded and stared deep into the lightwell, feeling something deep within calling to him. But it wasn’t telling him to come. It was a fearful warning telling him to stay away. Like a cornered merchant begging bandits to spare his life.
Almost as if the lightwell knew what he was here for. “What’s the exchange rate?” Elach asked, running a hand over the brickwork. He could sense a network of light running all over Lighthome, and indeed back to the tunnel he’d come in through. “Is it worth trying to barter, or is it just better to take the coins?”
Nevvi’s eyes were glued to Elach’s lantern, so he pulled it away from the lightwell and over to a nearby bench. Nevvi followed mindlessly, then shook their head and cleared their throat. “Nevvi apologizes; Nevvi was overwhelmed by the splendor of the lightwell. Could the esteemed guest repeat the question?”
Elach repeated himself, with Nevvi nodding along as they tapped a foot in thought.
“Nevvi wouldn’t recommend converting the little lights to currency until the esteemed guest has made sure there is nothing of value to be purchased from independent merchants. Especially with the brilliance of the specimens the esteemed guest has gathered.” Nevvi suggested, then stepped in closer to Elach and produced a high-pitched screeching sound from their back. “The conversion price has a maximum, and Nevvi is sure the esteemed guest’s little lights are far beyond that maximum.”
The lantern rattled as one of the wisplings pressed against a glass side, then meandered back the other way. Elach knew he had eighteen to spend and another eighteen in Shar’s lantern, so why not get something of value from Lighthome? Elach smiled and gestured for Nevvi to lead the way once more to the market.
He was going to take it all back anyway.
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“I’m telling you, I can’t give you half of one of these.” Elach sighed, hugging the lantern close to his chest. It was stained in shiny black lightblood from a spider that had attacked a few minutes ago, and it wasn’t evaporating for some reason. “Show me what else you’ve got so I can pay with one full wis… little light.”
Elach caught himself for the umpteenth time that hour, watching as the storekeeper ant disappeared into a back room with a nervous yet excited chittering. He turned to Nevvi and raised an eyebrow in question, and the bug he’d just recently learned was a she nodded reluctantly.
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She’d turned out to be a major help in haggling with all the shopkeepers, since she knew what the ‘brilliant little lights’ were truly worth. It was staggering how much more valuable they were than even a slightly duller wispling; he’d bought a mass of crystallized tree sap that was absolutely brimming with slaughter Issi that had been priced at fifteen wisplings for exactly one of his own. And even then Nevvi grumbled at how the merchant had gotten the better end of the deal.
Now he was haggling for a pair of rusted blades with some sort of Issi rot eating away at the metals he’d found in the bottom of a scrap barrel that had drawn him in like a blinding beacon. He didn’t know how it was possible, but the blades felt like Hollow. Sharp beyond sharp even when rusted to uselessness.
The shopkeeper ant returned with a grunt of effort, dropping a fist-sized chunk of metal that looked almost exactly like an apple to the countertop. “Maccle offers the metalfruit in addition to all other offerings in exchange for one brilliant little light.”
Elach didn’t really care about the mass of things the shopkeep had piled next to the rotting blades, including this bizarre fruit, but Nevvi insisted that he took the proper value for each and every one of his wisplings. Word apparently spread quickly in the market, and one bad deal always led to another. He shot another questioning look at Nevvi, and she nodded reluctantly.
“I accept your offer.” Elach said, reaching down to the lantern and coaxing one wispling out onto his finger. He held it out to the other ant who fumbled with their own lantern before accepting it with shaking hands, breathing quietly and quickly as they disappeared into the back room without so much as a goodbye.
“Metalfruit is good. But not as good as a brilliant little light.” Nevvi muttered.
Elach chose to ignore her; nothing was as valuable as one of his wisplings to her. Maybe he’d give her the last one before he left just to watch her implode with happiness. He grabbed the metalfruit in one hand and raised it to his mouth, biting down as Issi filled his teeth to rip a chunk out of the extremely hard flesh.
Nevvi stared in horror as Elach crunched on solid metal that tasted like it had been used as a stone to crush apples at one point. Well, not quite solid metal, as the insides of the fruit were more the texture of hard-packed sand and just as crunchy.
“Not very tasty.” He commented, swallowing the bite before pulling the rest of the fruit into his headspace with a whirl of chains. The rest of the stuff on the table went with it, including the rotting metal blades. “Two down, sixteen to go. Where do you recommend next?”
“The metalfruit is not for… the esteemed guest shouldn’t…” Nevvi struggled for words, her hands grasping at empty air while her light dimmed and intensified as if it was breathing. “Metalfruit is used in construction. The peel is removed, and the insides are melted down into a metallic sludge that solidifies into brilliantly colourful fillings.”
Elach shrugged while screaming internally. The insides of the metalfruit were doing a number on his own insides, and his Issi control was the only thing keeping those insides inside of him right now.
“Well, now I know.” He laughed, blazing hot breath leaving his mouth dry as the taste of rusted metal coated every taste bud. “Is there a bathroom or something I can throw up in?”
“Yes, yes, come come.” Nevvi said quickly, pulling Elach out of the indoor market and towards another portion of Lighthome that was absolutely covered in sticky shadows. She pushed him towards what seemed to be a door stuck shut with gooey black mess, but it opened without resistance and she shoved him in without warning.
“Care for the hole, and scrape off the water trough before use.” She insisted through the closed door, then went quiet.
Elach took in the dimly lit room he was standing in, and had to wonder why these bug-people had made their bathrooms so grandiose. There was even a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling, shadowy stalactites reaching down from each individual crystals like grasping tendrils. He shook his head with a grunt and leaned over the hole in the ground, then welled his Issi around his stomach and pushed.
The metalfruit came up as a slurry of droplets and stomach acid, falling into the pit below as Elach ensured his throat and mouth were free of anything that might have remained. It barely took fifteen seconds to completely remove all the metalfruit, but when Elach opened the door behind him it was as if he’d stepped into a different world.
What he first noticed was Nevvi’s corpse. She was splattered against the far wall in a burst of quickly evaporating colour. Fury rose in his throat as Elach swiveled to search for the perpetrators, but quickly found that none of them were left alive. A rainbow pool of death leaked out from countless bugs, most of which wore the markings of the polished guard. And there was a single bug left standing, a freakish looking thing that dripped with shadowy ooze without a single drop of colour adorning its form.
It stood next to Nevvi, tentatively reaching a hand towards the bug’s destroyed form with what looked like reluctance and disbelief. As if it was mourning.
“Did you do this?” Elach ground out, gesturing at the fifteen second carnage he found himself in.
“All but one.” The dripping form replied sadly, tenderly caressing Nevvi’s face before drawing symbols on her lightless eyes. “Lighthome must fall. The corruption is too deep, the cost of innocent lightblood rising.”
The bug turned to Elach, perfectly triangular eyes that seemed to be made out of etched obsidian locked on him with great sadness and exhaustion. “You seek the end of Lighthome, whether you know it or not. I will use your distraction to grasp the heart and bring the utter end.”
Only then did Elach recognize this bug. “You’re one of Ghravv’s spawn.”
The unnamed spawn froze, then seemed to relax all at once. “You know. Thank the luminous web, you know.” It whispered, sounding as if it was close to tears. “Hoalt offered sanctuary. A light in the dark, and a dark in the light. Harmony where none existed. But…”
The spawn choked back a sob, and Elach didn’t know what to say. “Are you…”
“I am fine. Better than fine.” The spawn sobbed, running a finger down Nevvi’s lightblood as veins of colour shot through the pitch-black thing. “The blessed end finally comes. Hoalt gave us everything, and the sickening took it all. We couldn’t fight it. I couldn’t fight it. And my people became as those under the eternals are.”
Elach froze. That was why everything had felt so… similar. Why everything was so violent with these bugs, and why nobody found anything wrong with it. “The sickening. What happened?”