Lars exited the meadanim into a cave, looking back to see that the meadanim was camouflaged into the cave wall. There was nobody around, but there were the embers of a fire, and tools that suggested this place was and will be inhabited again. The cave entrance was just thirty feet away, and the rushing of water could be plainly heard from just past it.
He opened his new bottle of wine, making up for not being able to drink much in the strange world. He went to the cave entrance, where the spray from a rushing river coated him. The river was several feet wide, and on the other side was a wet assortment of trees, moss, and river plants like reeds. There was another river just visible a ways away, but it was slow moving and shallow.
There was a two foot gap between the cave wall and the river, allowing for a walking space with fresh footprints in the mud. He followed them, having no other lead. As he followed the trail, with the river on his right, the left side transitioned to thick foliage, then opened up to reveal another river that then connected with the one on his right side several yards ahead. There was a metal bridge with crippling rust spanning the left river, and from somewhere across it there was the faint sound of voices.
They grew fainter, so Lars ran to catch up to them. He spotted the heads of a few Haverdash, then made it around the foliage to meet them. They were arguing with each other, and when they saw Lars one of them pointed to him and used him as an example in whatever argument he was making.
Lars tried speaking over them, "Excuse me! I need to get to Halac's court, which way is it from here?"
They stopped arguing for one to tell him, "None of us can get to Halac's court right now, we're cut off."
"Cut off by what? I have orders to go to Halac's court."
"Your orders have been delayed. There are some creatures in the water that are preventing us from crossing most rivers. There were sixteen Haverdash placed around the meadanim you got here by, we are the last three. I want to stay, but these two think we need to leave the rivers and get reinforcements."
"I'm your reinforcements now, we're going to stay, and I'm going to get to Halac."
"You seem extremely confident in yourself, can you see visions?"
"I have time and time again." Lars said proudly.
They looked at each other to verify that they were in agreement, "Excellent then, we'll back you up. They're not in this river," he pointed at the one Lars had just come across, "but we can go to one of them that we know they are in."
The Haverdash led Lars through muddy paths to where they'd been attacked before, occasionally scraping the mud off their shoes. It wasn't far, they'd been largely hemmed in, but Lars had time to ask about the interesting weapons they had.
One had a spear with a rock just behind the spearhead. The rock was apparently from Edezar, and therefore living. When he stabbed something the pressure put on the rock would make it send out a pulse that attacked the mind as a defense mechanism. It only went forward, as the rock had some kind of unseen orientation.
Another had a two-pronged rondel that hooked at the ends, then cords attached to the hooks continued out with more hooks attached. It was a particularly brutal tool better at hurting than killing. It was simply a tool Haverdash would use on themselves in rituals, but with larger hooks. The third had a simple mace in his right hand, but over his left he wore a strange glove. If he opened his hand it revealed a kind of carnivorous plant with barbs sewed in that would automatically shut if it felt pressure where his palm was. All he had to do was touch his palm to something to trap it in the jaws of his glove.
While the weapons seemed savage enough, the Haverdash lamented that their enemy was nigh impossible to hit. The creatures weren't made of water, but they were able to merge and separate from the water at will.
They came to an area with several winding streams separated by rocks, and past them there was a shallow river over 100 feet wide. The Haverdash stayed back from the water, "They're nearly impossible to spot. Do you have a plan?"
Lars stared out over the streams, "They're in the water, but not made of water, right?"
"They can become water, you have to catch them off guard to get a decent hit in. Then they can heal quickly."
Lars took a swig of wine. "Let's see if they're ready for the tides to go out."
The rivers seemed to him to be like an ocean. He saw them as one body of water, then the tide rolling out as a sudden wave. The waters from the streams flowed rapidly away and were sucked beyond the wall of foliage that had been on the far shore, leaving four watery women floundering on the dry ground.
The Haverdash simultaneously pounced on the nearest one, striking with furious blows that they'd been dying to deliver since their numbers had first started being picked off. The woman changed into water, but after being splashed in multiple directions she had toreform into an injured form.
The other three tried to run, though their feet were shaky. Lars locked eyes on one of them and saw her in her watery form, then saw her evaporate. The one being beaten to death shrieked before going limp, and the remaining two shrieked in response. They pulled the water back into the stream, and it started to flow again. The Haverdash hurried to get out of the water before they were caught, standing by Lars with tangible excitement.
"That's two! We've only got one since they first attacked, fantastic! What about the other two?"
Lars walked into a stream, "Tides always come back in, but rest assured, they go back out again."
The water flowed away again, leaving the women stranded again, and the Haverdash pounced. They finished off the other two, then looked for others. They searched the rivers on or adjacent to the path to civilization, and they found a couple more blocking their route that they quickly dealt with.
They came to an area in the road with two wide rivers on either side, being watchful to spot a discoloration that they'd started to notice where their enemies were hiding. As Lars's head turned from the right side to the left, a Haverdash shouted in alarm. Lars looked back quickly, but wasn't fast enough to react to a watery form leaping out of the river on his right, grabbing his head, and carrying him into the river on his left to slam his head against the rocky bottom.
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His head was slammed repeatedly, and the watery form fumed at him with words that he could only understand because his perception of time slowed, "You poison me and my waters with your foul drink and your unsightly blood you are despicable you vermin you dirty Shatem-mon with your presence and I will cleanse it of you!"
She slammed Lars's head against the rocks again, but he saw the impact with a shockwave that blew the water out of the stream and spewed the woman in every direction. The hostility from her, like a scent in the air, lingered. As the water rained back into place, the hostility fell with it, and Lars perceived a curse that she'd made as a dying thought, "Death and ghosts they cause in Shatem-mon, return and deliver to them their just rewards, cleanse the rivers and streams from the poison-walkers."
Lars pushed himself up and found his footing, but struggled to walk in the moving water. He stepped on top of it, and perceived it as a stable surface. He stumbled across the surface of the water back to the path, then sat down to rest. He found it to be extremely restful, and so his injuries were immediately healed.
The Haverdash were amazed by this, and one asked him, "Who are you? No ordinary Haverdash, visions or not, does the things that you do."
Lars rubbed the side of his head, where blood had filled his hair. "I'm Lars: remember that name. There's the glorious, then there's Lars." He stood, "Do any of you know what Shatem-mon is?"
“The Rivers is Shatem-mon, it’s what the natives call it.”
“Interesting,” he stood, “It seems the water creatures are lashing out because they’ve been poisoned. Wine in the water, I’d guess.” He scanned the other banks of the rivers. “We should get to an area where we’re less surrounded by water.”
“What for? You can handle any number of them by my reckoning!”
“I want to be ready for what I don’t understand. She mentioned ghosts. Come.” He waved for them to follow him with his pointer finger.
They did follow, but at least one was skeptical, “Ghosts? Nobody has ever been killed by ghosts, tales for children among those who cannot bear fear.”
Lars gave him a snide look, “How many people have been killed by women made of water? Just assume anything can happen.” A thought occurred to him, and he turned around to face them as he walked backward. “Would you say there is an objective reality?”
The one with the spear answered, “Well of course there is!”
The one with the latch claw needed clarification, “What’s ‘objective reality’?”
He leaned his spear against his shoulder, “It means that there is only one reality, and it doesn’t matter what you say or think, that’s the only thing that’s real!”
The one with the claw grew furious, “Then are you saying your hallucinations are better than anyone else’s?”
“I’m not doing that at all, they’re hallucinations. They aren’t real for me or anyone else.”
The one with the torture device had been silent, but he suddenly yelled, “You heathen dog!”
They would have attacked the other Haverdash, but Lars took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He imagined his surroundings as peaceful, and his hallucinations changed to fit. The Haverdash were suddenly calm. Lars asked, “Now is a good time to ask, do all of you know the way to Halac’s court?”
“Just I do,” The one with the spear answered, “I was sent from there, but these two have been here since before Halac was given control of the region.”
Lars turned back around to walk forward. They couldn’t kill the one with the spear until they reached Halac then, but he was one of the people Lars was supposed to kill.
Having turned forward again, he expected it to look the same as before he'd turned around. There was a new dimness though, not like the darkness of shadows but like the thickness of a fog, though there was no fog or even a spray from the rivers hanging in the air.
The Haverdash with the latch glove asked, "Does anyone else see that? Or is that one of my hallucinations? Everything is dimmer."
The one with the spear said, "I think we all see it, and the sun is still high in the sky, unless that's a hallucination of mine."
Lars drew his sword, "No, I see it that way too. Be ready, I have a feeling we're about to meet the ghosts."
They watched the rivers and opposite banks, and each of them took a fresh drink of wine to make their hallucinations strong. Lars was ready for shadowy figures to appear at any moment, and whether by them revealing themselves or by him hallucinating them, he spotted them. Silhouettes of short humans were running from the opposite banks over the rivers, each holding multiple short spears or clubs.
The Haverdash with the torture weapon exclaimed, “It’s the natives! They’re back!”
Lars shook his empty bottle, “That was barely any, someone give me more wine.”
They all recoiled at the thought, “We’re all low ourselves, you just drank a good amount, make do!”
“I’m more tolerant than you, I need more! Someone lend me more wine!” They stared defiantly back at him, so he turned to the two who didn’t know the way to Halac. “I don’t need you anyway.” He swung his sword at them, seeing it slice off their heads before it was even fully raised. The Haverdash with the spear was on edge, but didn’t try to stop Lars as he grabbed their bottles and drank all their remaining wine.
“Ahh, that hits the spot.” He spun to look at every approaching ghost as he said, “And it was fog after all!”
All the ghosts faded, and a fog grew out of where they’d been. The rivers evaporated to become fog as well, then even the foliage, rocks beneath the rivers, the opposite banks and the path beneath them evaporated into fog as well. The rivers up to a mile evaporated, and the mixture of all that was making up the fog created a brown cloud that hung over the area like a dome. The color shifted to black suddenly, then the fog cleared. The blackness remained, but the moon and stars above became visible.
They fell several feet down to where the new ground was, the Haverdash too in shock to catch himself. “What-!” His head whacked against the dirt, “What was that?”
Lars grabbed his bottle and drank its contents as well, “Ahh. I guess my aim was a bit off. It’s night now.”
“Hey! That’s the last of the wine!”
Lars yanked him to his feet, “Then you’d better get us to civilization quickly, before our sensations fade away to emptiness.”
The Haverdash ran with desperate speed. They traveled forty more minutes, with no further interruptions. They came to a town built into a rocky wall where they refilled their wine, then continued to a mountain made of one big rock.
“This is it?” Lars inquired.
“This is it, we’re not to the main entrance yet, but Halac’s court is fully contained by Halac’s Rock.”
“What about this door then? Is this not an entrance?”
The Haverdash kept walking, expecting Lars to follow, “That’s to Halac’s private chambers, we neither have the key nor the authority to enter by there.”
“Wait,” Lars drew his sword. “That will do.”
The Haverdash looked between Lars’s face and sword, “What’s this?”
“I’m here to kill Halac and everyone in his court, for thinking differently than the majority. Moxey’s orders. You seem to think differently yourself, so you too.”
The Haverdash was enraged, “You think you can just kill me and the over three thousand people in Halac’s court?”
“Over three thousand? I’d better pace myself then.” Lars sliced upward, through the spear and the Haverdash. The massless particles that composed him broke apart and stopped making paths, and he disappeared. They fell to the earth and merged, and a new pile of dirt formed on the ground.
Lars sheathed his sword, “One.”