Before the first set of fights was to begin, the emperor summoned myself and the other able bodied prisoners to the festive hall I briefly grasped in my mind: a slab of stone with sharp corners as a table, unrefined cuts of silver as chairs, with blood staining both from a variety of ages and bearers. I sat a while before the drones led a line of contestants through the entrance on the opposite side of my own. To my surprise, it wasn’t just unlucky merchants caught up in this prolonged death march - a few gave the appearance of once well paid mercenaries - bearing marks and ink of their victories upon their hands and necks, a custom for the lucrative and the boastful south of the Central Strip. Even with their black marks counting bounties and rescues, they spoke in the same hushed tones as the peddlers and fishermen. Before opening their thought cages, their fear was obvious and my inner voice wanted to tell them to stop their escape plans that were foolish at best and hopelessly naive at worst. They needed to figure how they were going to defend themselves so they could see the ones they thought to love so much. An apology remained unsaid, knowing there was no way for them to leave this place alive, whether by me or the crowd.
As the others muttered and resisted against the guard, my tethers reached through the door they came through. My mind could see through the reinforced glass that decorated all the halls of the structure. The left view was obscured by the tall walls of what I assumed was the arena, and to the right, the barren wastes of the Southern Reach went on for miles unabated. A black haze formed over the horizon, whipping and thrashing through the air with a sound unheard but fearfully known from here. A ferocity that could tear flesh from even myself but feel like a simple rainfall to colossi.
The guards grunted and yelled in monotone voices as they sat down the men and women that gave sob stories. Some were even true, but most were fabrications from bards they half-heartedly listened to at taverns. They always were the best tale turners anyways. The cold silver upon my rump made me curse myself thinking of how much my mother would scold me for daring to complain when I used to throw myself into snow after work every day. The humans were very loud and proud grouches however, which made me laugh for just long enough that my lip sealing didn’t alleviate the stares. Mercenary one and two seemed to be friends, Jarl and Aarel and they were discussing with themselves how to kill me effectively. It had become clear that I was at the forefront of everyone’s mind - as something to fear or kill. As I had guessed from their looks, Jarl and Aarel had been born south of the Strip, living towards the opposite end of where Fahren laid - a stretch of mire I would have to add to the map, though the name did sound like many of the places that Wardens called witch abodes - Carimaul.
Without a word, more drones filled the table with food - to the mixed relief of the ones expected to eat it. Thoughts of poison only held anchor in the cage for a moment before everyone started tearing at the beasts they did not know, the unknown fruit a few days from rot. A beast carcass sat before me exclusively, and as I ripped its arm from the body - the eyes of my opponent rested on me, thoughts of contempt, fear for a savage. Blood poured from the meeting of shoulder and arm, staining the table and spreading flecks of brown fluid as I bit into the creature’s hairy flesh. This beast existed meekly on the southern plains, chewing on the skulls of prey for a long time with shards falling from its lips after my tug, anything to keep itself nourished in some assuring way.
Killed by a crossbow, the bolt still laid in its back. The humans still stared at me aghast, Aarel’s fingers brushed against the butcher’s cleaver of rejected silver. Ignoring the tools even given to myself, I tore another limb and filled myself while they stared a little longer. Their own voracious displays were merely invisible compared to what they saw in me, and their thoughts were their own to keep. Only the mercenaries kept looking back towards me, willowy wayfarers keeping their minds on the food. Six on one side of the table, eight on the other - fourteen stepping stones to freedom.
The humbler folk whispered to one another.
Use a blunt weapon. Go easy, we’ll try to knock each other out. Said the fisherman to the merchant couple. Reaching over the table, the couple conversed with Jarl. We promise to give you our remaining wares if you help us get home. The one-eyed mercenary lied through his teeth that he would do his best to bring them across the sea. The lie was spread to the others, claiming they’d use their numbers and extra day away to plan their escape. Regrettably their thought cages didn’t hold anything that could add to my own besides the layout of the halls and cells they laid in. My own cell neighbors seemed to be reserved for the second day, and I wondered if they knew I was already out here and if they favored their own chances. Jarl and Aarel internally doubted they’d even spare the ones being knocked out, feed them to the beasts of their imagination.
The others layered optimism over their fears - relishing the idea of a bath. I admitted to wanting that as well if just to wash out the grains that made home on my skin. However, if my body spoke of days without a cleanse, theirs screamed out weeks. Silence was only given when their bellies could take no more food, with some of the quiet folk on the left side of the table threatening to wretch it back up when they overwhelmed themselves. Compared to the others, this gaggle of six wasn’t overwrought with emotion in either direction - they were surveyors, working for themselves and knowing the risks. Digging deeper would find where the resolve broke but it mattered no longer, what did was if they would preserve themselves still in their gloom they might falsely claim as contentment.
A bellowing came from the top of the room, a projection of a woman dressed in jade attire coming upon the skylight. Their eyes glowed green, attempts at vibrancy and glamor pushed through the filter of the guard’s monotone. Violet rays of the strange sun pierced through the human outline, shining off of the silverware and armored escort. “Contestants! Finish your meal and make your way to the black door wall! The guards will guide you to your platform!” The audible start of a mechanism came afterwards, dividing the blank wall and revealing six doors of dark, shining similarly to the jade around us.
Before we all followed suit, I saw that meeker man of the couple look under the table, hoping for some hiding spot. The others tried their best to hide their hopes of not having me first.
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It wasn’t a promising start after melting the cell wide open. Even with Morrigan’s map in my head, my confidence in the route took a gut spilling blow as I pushed myself around the repelling veins of green, meeting a drop against an outer wall. Dragging myself across the dashed and weathered infrastructure, my feet slip on the roof of a corridor. My fire-tipped fingers kept me steady as my bottom half contended with the loose sand chunks missing in my path. As I vaulted over the domes separating one hallway from another, I felt grains of black start to pepper my skin and push away the sandy dandruff ahead. A storm announced itself with no subtle warning, seeing the wind carry the dark sand over to the arena. Trying to act as the optimist, I complimented the haze for blurring my presence as I proceeded.
A wire connecting a watchtower on this outer ring provided my way to the arena proper. The coiling metal supported a gondola and thankfully the guard in charge was willing to give me control of the cart after I wrapped my arm around his neck from behind and seated his face into the nearby wall. His kindness only extended that far however, unable to tell me where my cloak and weaponry was. The armor upon his frame couldn’t fit me as well, bound to make as much noise as a rushed kitchen robbery. A club attached to his waist would prove sufficient enough, with the dull minded others still questioning the trip on the gondola as it came to their port. One guard without an effective restraint in his hand was no match for a hiding coward with a sleep stick.
Narrow diamond hotels in the wall gave me a view of the arena and the attendants in their horrifying scale. Seats that would kill man to create from meager child to frail age - the colossi sat in chairs made from shifted mountains, the color, shape and heights colliding and crashing over each other. The black sand peppered a ground made of a forged harmony of black and green - with divots and divisions cloaking some malevolent machinery. With no hard rules established by the emperor, my heart pumped cold at the idea of twists being thrown in. The number of guests, dressed in curtains that could hide castles, all but guaranteed the need for entertainment.
The rumbling tones of the Emperor’s company came to a sudden stop as chains and scratching stone dominated the air. With the pressure reestablished, I refreshed the map Morrigan gave to my thought cage. These halls are too empty to hold any help, so I made my way towards the Emperor’s seating and the large compounds within.
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They couldn’t just lower us down from an elevator and let us walk out the door, no. All this time in dispute and civil squabble made these people theatric. Their grand entertainment was still shambles at best when shuffling the drek to the slaughter - separated one by one into different rooms specifically made for human contestants, making me have to lower my head, and then shove myself into the cage they had set up. Black bars with transparent floors, forged to hold a seven foot man at most. Crouching to take five feet off my frame was no comfort when my body was still large enough in pose to have skin and muscle poke out from in between the bars. I pushed and pulled at the bars with my tethers, making the green eyed boors accompanying me hold their spears to my nose.
Our cages locked as the ground beneath banished itself, a metal floor far enough to rival the fall Alu took. As a wordless yell came through the skylight, the coiled chain above our cages loosened, dropping us all half the distance before splatter with the blackened ground. A scream nearly escaped my lips before the chain above snagged and let the cage swing. The purple sun above shone upon full noon, refracting and spreading across the metal floor while the audience and voice from above was cloaked in an impenetrable darkness. Grandiose welcomes for the lords and petty nobles that dotted the land disrupted the fog, giving glimpses to the large guests. Garish displays as common formality, I gave no credence to the children and accidental spawn of throne bearers. At least petty was an apt title for these guests, who paid no mind to what would be an insult elsewhere. Perhaps the shadow was a purposeful veil, letting one easily forget their neighbors.
None of our names were uttered by the announcer, a vague human shape in the fog looking far too enthusiastic to be under the eyes of these captors, uttering the mainland tongue and butchering the colossi phrases I was able to ruminate on. The petty nobles and royalty paid her no mind, and part of me suspected that she only spoke human tongue for contestant benefit.
The cages shook once more as another set of chain links laxed above, snapping the roof of black bars to a suspended rail and sending us all forward into the center of the arena. The metal cross in the air dipped and bowed upon our weight, letting our cells swing within arm’s reach of each other. Even up close, the shadow remained and all I could see for sure was the distant storm kicking up sand above them and a haze atop the corridors besides. One pile of sand laid upon the middle, cushioning the fall of the two cages chosen for the first fight. The merchant husband and Aarel dropped first before coming to a violent stop, bouncing off of the dune and having their cages break apart. Engravings nearby summoned racks of weapons, each cruder and more mismatched than the last - a collection from across the lands, or more accurately, an acquisition of all cultures that came near.
“If you do not participate,” Bellowed the human speaker. “You will be skewered by our guard.” To drive the point home, a bolt was sent into the metal floor, breaking the black veil to reveal the many watchers and their guardsmen above, sparking and sliding after impact. The bolt was thin but long enough to pierce through at least five of my opponents. I’m sorry, but it’s either you or me.
The merchant looked on in horror, comparing his own imagination to everything in front of him, the darkest thoughts possible impossible to compare. Aarel smiled upon seeing the more tortuous of implements, grabbing a flail that sent the tube of weapons back into the ground. His opponent questioned his choice, screaming even that this wasn’t part of what was agreed to - a trio of balls with curved spikes was in no way a blunt weapon. Aarel answered him by charging him with a roar. The wife yelled for her beloved to defend himself, but he simply backed away and dodged the mercenary’s desperate euphoria. The flail brushed across his nose on the seventh swing, bringing a spurt of blood that coated Aarel’s face, blinding his eyes for a moment.
Composure broken, the merchant grabbed a sword from the rack he was given and charged at Aarel with an overhead strike. Baring the chain above his head, the force of the blade made a sound but no cut. Opening his eyes once more, Aarel wrapped the chain around the sword from below and kicked at the merchant. Falling onto his back, a final plea was screamed as the curved spikes dug into his neck and Aarel mercilessly pulled through until flesh fell from the front of his throat and chin.
“I want more!” Aarel yelled into the crowd, and they agreed by throwing him blades and weapons they kept by their seats like roses and compliments to a bard’s show. The arena had more means of death than visible ground in some areas. Meanwhile the widow cried and screamed for an end, a way to make this killing stop. “I want her!” The crowd was silenced for a moment. “Grant her wish! She will not fight, and I will give you a show once more before I go!” Murmuring and grumbles came afterwards before the decision was already made, the widow’s cage falling to the sand before exploding.
“I will not! I can not!” The dark haired woman screamed over and over, under so much duress as to start pulling out hair and feeding the sand with tears. As she sat on the metal floor surely burning her skin, tendrils of black slithered from between the seams. Latching onto her back and neck, the Emperor spoke. “You can and you will. You are here for my show!”
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A solid plan was finally starting to form in my mind as I breached tower after tower of one guard resistances. Slumber was clearly still a need of the bound men, so I’m sure they didn’t mind if my club gave them the ultimate permission to catch up on it. Glancing at every document and drawing I could, the ballista stations would be the end of my easy streak. The black haze upon the crowds abruptly ended upon the roofing, so I melted my way to the interior and worked my way upwards - being easily in view of the ballista operators otherwise. Trying to project my progress to her proved difficult from this distance, feeling akin to a string being pulled on from both directions and fraying. Bits and pieces came through but I heard no reply.
I pushed my back to the wall as I ascended the stairs and gave sleeping blows wherever I could. Two men came upon me at once before the top floor but they wanted me to compete, not to bleed. Their hesitation gave me the chance to scare them with a burst of fire before slamming one to the other into the floor. Harsh sands blowing against a metal helm shielded my disarm of the ballista operator, dragging him back inside to his comrades. How tempting it would be to nudge the ballista to the right and strike the Colossi into at least a panic, but my presence here shall remain like an ant to a giant - perceptible but just barely.
One by one, I had felled the defenses I could reach and when four ballistas were left with their bolts unseated, I gazed to the arena below and saw enough blood to stain a boat. Two humans had fallen already to a savage of a man, a screaming lunatic that dropped a weapon quickly just to acquire a new one. A beggar laid with his throat gouged, a woman placed near his corpse with two spears jutting through her from belly to backside. On and on, he begged for more and it made me morbidly wonder what to do if he tried to tag along with the escape plan. I know Morrigan’s answer would be cutthroat, I just didn’t know to what literal extent.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Silence held for a few minutes, with the sound of shifting Colossi feet interrupting - the Emperor parted the haze to speak, with their speaker repeating. “Aromachs, Tetrimachs, I bring to you now the real piece of glory within our…esteemed Proving Whole.” Morrigan’s cage plunged into the dune below, failing to bounce off. The slightest give of the door prompted the giant to dash it open with enough force to explode the sand barrier. Stretching her limbs, she paid no mind to the blood crazed mercenary as he hurled insults and brandished his latest weapon - a butcher’s blade held from the side and eclipsing his own stature. Bored with the Emperor’s speech, the man loosely held one end of the blade before hurling it forwards at a speed Morrigan scoffed at before deflecting the weapon with her bare fist, sending her other hand forwards at the charging adversary and pummeling his chest. Before flying into the wall and splattering, tethers desperately clung to her arm and pulled her along to no avail. She weighed far too much for even magic to help him move, an immovable mass that pulled his shoulder out of its socket with the effort. Saved from the impact at the very least, Morrigan sent him reeling and convulsing with a breath of lightning, singing his skin and demanding blood be poured from every possible exit.
With her back to me, I imagined she would smile if she knew I was watching - a giddy assurance as well as a genuine enjoyment for the fight. From this distance however I could still see the shame I still shall not admit - a marking upon her back that I had given her. Scars of the siphoned spires marked her skin, from below the neck downwards, tiny thumb prints of strange designs that didn’t immediately give away their element - a crackled ice for lightning, a bright circle for the ice and water, a curling waterfall or strand of hair holding for wind I assume. Below all of that was a dark circle that bled into a purple flame - what it meant I could never know, but I saw it form the night after we were one. My own lack of knowing self was one thing, and what little I thought of myself besides destruction was another horror entirely.
The booming voice of the Emperor literally shook me out of my thoughts, nearly tumbling down the stairs beside me. The death of the longest running showman of this day so far gave nothing but cheers as the Emperor’s interpreter screamed that more was to come. After giving Morrigan the Giant an elaborate introduction after his first battle, they rattled on about how she was objectively…a giant. Half the crowd was silent, the remaining murmured in what I could guess was disapproval. If her tales to me are true, the Colossi never favored the Giants when it was found that they could move the stone around them, they were gifted with that ability, instead of the self proclaimed master of mountain and sand. Another contestant came down after this debate of nothing, a similar build to the mercenary and his momentary hesitation buried him alive in sand before being smeared against the wall, his blood streaking across the metal and removing the glisten under the violet rays.
“Is this all you have?!” Morrigan bellowed to the crowds, pockets of excitement proving contagious to the grumblers. “This meager offering is all you can gather?!” More cheering, she paused, summoning the discarded butcher’s blade and cutting what was left of the man even more. “Warriors, born of the mountain! Crafters of the sand!” The volume of their response increased, being loud enough to send me on my ass. “Your bastards can surpass the masters!” The ruckus stopped, I turned to see if she had gone mad. Was I to be witness and discoverer of sand sickness? “Bigger than legend, weaker than swine!” The negative bellows pinned me to the floor, threatening to send me off the roof with the vibrations. As pointless as it would be, I tried to send my thoughts to her: “What are you doing, you blasted, boastful dimwit?!”
My communication went unanswered for several minutes. Before I could yell at her anymore, more contestants were lowered from their cages, two at once. I hurried my pace downstairs, taking care not to trip over my work and find my way to the halls and quarters that laid below the colossi, carved through mountain stone and supplemented by meager woodwork and torch rests that barely held to their surface.
It was in times like these where I longed for the set of braids and vials she would craft for me. The vials would leak an awful smell if you didn’t screw the cork in a dozen times, no less, but they’re much more delightful to use than your fists and a hard surface to knock out an unfortunate enemy. Bits of loose rock from the warped walls provided me with plenty of distracting objects for the limited wit of the green eyed entourage as I entered the third tower and made my way into the area below the stands. For one hall, I simply melted the corner and found my own way through: some plumbing here, showers of dust and insect nests there, and eventually a few open pits I had to make my way around.
Snaking around each corner, another grand room came into view. Before I proceeded, I tried to transfer the image again to Morrigan, finally getting a response.
“Why hello Lulu, are you having as much fun as I am?” She was absent from my sight but somehow I imagined her uttering this sarcasm through a blood soaked smile.
“I’m underneath the stands, have a little bit left to go until I get to what a diagram suggested as one of two places for a trade port.”
“Good job, hun. Have to go though.” Before I could add anything, the sound of a metal door opening with a loud scratch somewhere made me return to a quick pace. If the pictures I’d gandered at were true and all paths truly exhausted, that left only one place for our escape vehicles: below the feasting hall and before the first cage drop. That had to mean something else had changed and I hurried to a wooden door at the end of the hallway, the end of the mountain and a return to the normal structure. My expected corridor was a wooden room, bereft of the mountain’s influence and fortified with sophisticated steelwork you’d only see in the Mainlands. The white bark was shrunk and stretched from years of what looked like water exposure, likely a ship at sea stolen between the Reach and home.
I knew not how deep the channel went, but folks in Fahren told stories. The tide would come in on some days much higher than it should, prompting the rumor that a Colossi walked in the oceans. Could they have come in the night? Leaving those villages ransacked by the waves? That strand of theory made more sense the more I looked around. The amount of power in the room was more than enough to sink the one ship carrying it, this had to be a long going robbery. Iron bolters, cannons and crossbows held the room from the top to bottom - the most concerning of all were the barrels of blasting powder in the center. Before I could look further, shouting erupted from all sides - the rumbling from the colossi above, human voices from behind and ahead. In the middle of the room, I was surrounded on both sides by guards unbruised. Spears at the ready, they approached with no reaction to my threats of incinerating us all if they didn’t retreat.
“Fuck.” I beckoned a flame on my pointer finger, the guards were unfazed. “This is gonna hurt.” With a deep breath, I adorned a cloak of fire and pulled tethers for protection I may still not know fully, its edges touching the frail wood shielding the grains.
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A thrill entered my mind, overwhelmed my rational self - a sweet smell entered when I knew it to be false, and the beating of my own heart was loud and clear in my ears. That sweet smell was everything, eviscerating the barriers in my face and becoming a cold release in my lungs. The others before me felt a different rush, a momentary truce and a directionless plan - coming at me with fervor, throwing themselves upon my arms, desperately trying to knock me down. Calling upon lightning, their grip loosened, their jaws widened, but the screams went interrupted with choking and gurgling. The bolts from that spire so long ago greeted and danced upon my skin like an intimate friend, swirling in my hands before I unleashed their coiled selves into the pair shuddering on the ground. Whatever contributions their lungs gave was drowned out by the cries of lust from the audience. My gaze turned towards their booming mouths, my tethers and Alu’s image painting a picture behind the fog with vicious clarity. The contestants before me were nothing but charred pieces of the scenery. Those remaining in the cages slumped, trying as they might to hide and hold on to their prisons.
Gears churned from the other side of the arena, below the seats of the colossi royalty. The metallic wall below the stands divided, displaying a cage that was taking itself apart as well. Upon the wreckage, an enormous scavenger stumbled onto the field, screeching and reeling its head back and forth before settling its red eyes on me. The small prey I ate at the table likely cursed me to die to its elder as I took into its bitter flesh. The skull was absent, but scarring and bruising discolored the black skin, with its right eye forced open by the traumatized tissue. Weapons still made their home in its back and legs, the beaten beast proved unbroken as it charged forwards.
“You wanted a fight? We bring out all the stops for our champions!” The loathsome announcer followed their statement with a little humming and gravelly singing. My sovereign thunderstrokes were tempted to snake their way up to his chest. The beast charged at me, its maw splitting in three ways, with curved teeth gracing every inch of its flesh. Bursting through the barriers I tried to summon, the maw was inches away from closing on my frame as I jumped to the side. Lying on my back, the sand carried me forward, under the belly of the monster. Calling the lightning back and pulling everything I could from my tethers, the sand from every corner was pushed underneath the creature’s feet, swelling into a mound beneath its form. Before I could suffocate under the pile, I beckoned thunder and pushed the sand to the sky, my opponent flying with it and leaving me on the ground with only the granular rain to accompany me as the airbound ravager disappeared over the eastern wall.
Silence was all the audience had to share, tempting my reach to finally wrap around their seats of comfort and end my captor’s hold for good. That won’t work. You know it won’t work. Oh pity my rational self, she shall allow me to try. Wait for Alu, this won’t work. That voice grew dim, the sensible half, but its barbs wrapped around my neck and pulled my arms down with anchors, dictating my form motionless. All that was left now was to stare at my audience and see if I’m given the chance for day two. They might find me too much trouble to keep around.
The veil dispelled completely, the Emperor and their golden horn stood above all, even when seated and holding the middle of the stands. When they rose fully, the sun would be eclipsed. It remained stoic and silent, hiding disapproval, glee and anything else obvious. Raising a hand, their forthcoming speech was interrupted by a rumbling. Left of the mountain seating, where the lazy arms of petty royalty laid, an explosion gored the guests from the knees below - pouring blackened blood that steamed in the sun. A blur soared through the sky before being pulled to the ground. A cry for help in my mind pushed me into a sprint.
“Alu!” I cried aloud, my hands finally moved and the elation from combat faded completely. Propelling myself to the sky, I caught my tarnished companion before he hit the ground. Where there should have been burns, torn flesh and sealed eyes, there was just a smirking man with flames hanging onto his hair, falling like teardrops. The boiling hot skin that would reduce a bath to steam also faded like wind.
Those sonorous voices could only be ignored for so long however, the Emperor screaming protests and gasping as Alu freed himself from my grasp and stood on his own two feet. When an explanation was demanded on how he still breathed while her constituents held onto their lost appendages, he simply replied with.
“I’m fireproof.” Sparked a flame between his fingers and sent it to the sky, exploding in a garish display of red and purple fledgelings. “You’re not.” I could see from the side that his face twitched at that reused comeback, made me want to laugh if not for the Emperor assaulting my ears with their atonal voices making a roar: a banshee cry and a guttural tone that shook the grains between our toes.
The two of us stepped back as it jumped off their seating and broke our attempts at standing up straight. Summoning my strands, I picked us both up immediately and started trekking backwards. A clunking noise entered my ears, a familiar one. Ballista! Alu summoned a wall of fire as the bolt flew through the air, dissolving instantly. As we retreated though, the Emperor grimaced through the pain and marched through the blaze.
“Now would be a good time to leave.” I looked to him to see him pointing his finger behind us. “Just need you to protect me while I burn into their trade depot.”
I nodded to him and wrapped all the sand and stone I could around the colossus’s legs. Blasted towers of flesh pushed right through, and I couldn’t risk ripping myself apart to match the force. Alu unleashed a blaze onto the wall behind us, while the remaining contestants yelled and panicked above our heads as the royal usurper approached even closer. The overpass with the hanging cages made them bend the knee to reach for us. That four fingered hand hovered over me, grazing my bare flesh as I dodged. A quick thunderstroke from between my teeth pushed away the limb for less than an ideal moment before it came right back, closing around me. We’re fucked. The pressure on my bones made me cry out and bite my lips. Flames danced around the closed fist but the grip didn’t loosen. I screamed defiance, saying this is not how I’ll die but the other side of me thought, knew, insisted that this was it. Alu screamed and never gave up though, stopping his own escape and breathing fire into the beast’s eyes and casting on the approaching free hand, forcing it to let me go and stop flesh from melting off with panicked swipes.
A flash of light, an even bigger explosion than before came to my ears. A ringing overwhelmed me, left me dizzy, but I knew the feeling of the ground. The warmth and calloused feeling of his hands greeted my arms. When my vision cleared, a curtain of dust pulled away to show a figure, pale like myself but short like Alu. Their head turned but their neck stayed in place, golden eyes poking through scarlet hair beamed into us. The rest of her body turned to face us: a mockery of a human. The seams that separated her joints let loose black lines that ensnared the Emperor as it rose again. Vibrating tethers of darkness squeezed onto the hide and dug through at the expense of the mockery’s porcelain flesh, chipping and concaving rapidly. The elbows and shoulders disassembled into dust as the colossus gave their last shaking roar. Masses of black strands returned to the hollow body, acting as its arms.
“Alu the Butcher, Morrigan Kasteros.” The tendrils moved the hair out of its face, revealing an ugly smile beneath those eyes that now sparked with a paralyzing intent. “You are hereby under arrest and due for questioning by High Chancellor Ergarok.”
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’ve been captured and subjected to this. I think a tussle in a tavern on neutral land isn’t worth this.” I spat. If she meant to cast lightning through those eyes, I’d be ready to throw it right back.
“The punishment for objection to interrogation will be death, compliance will alleviate this to a life of confinement.” The black tendrils converged on the frail body, and to my horror, started to rebuild the porcelain spine bit by bit.
“For what crimes?” I shouted, feeling Alu slink behind me, making his way to the open hole in the sandboat bay now.
“Alu has been convicted for dragon butchery, destruction of Warden property, and accessory to sabotage. You have been convicted for the murder of Captain Ergarok and sabotage. Together, you have been damned for the use of time travel.”
The breath caught in my throat before I could speak, and even Alu spoke his disbelief in my mind. Blood ran cold at the idea of being falsely accused for this and knowing our names would be known in every settlement soon enough. That damned mutt better not be responsible for this. There won’t be enough words to convey the pain I’ll bring to her.
Sensing our unwillingness to come, the figure’s swarm of strands came for me. Before they could reach, a column of lava erupted beneath her feet, with chunks and globs of the bright orange flinging themselves from the pillar and coating her arms. Yelling for me, he blasted open the other side of the port.
The sand skipper was little more than the skeleton of a standard river boat and a mechanical sail. Turning a crank and raising the duo set of improvised tarps, the coming storm gave us just enough push to zip across the desert. Casting a look to the arena, the roars and exits of the panicked Colossi shook the structure of the arena until it tore itself apart. The mushroom cloud that followed gave us another lurch. Black sand pelted and broke my skin before I set up a barrier with one hand and blasted further air into the sails with the other.
Out of the cloud and approaching fast, the mockery came again looking no worse for wear, mending the melted white and dashing across the plains with piercing tendrils as dark as the Vacuous and the void they came from.
What have we done?