Chapter 23
Deep Beneath the Temple
“We’ve come to an end of the peace.
“Dacoit is dead. The treaty is broken. And we go back to what we’ve come here for.
“We have the majority of our company back and regaining strength. Our appetite is growing and their population is growing.
“We will start with the weaker points and move into the villages strategically.
“One by one they will disappear. We will grow and become unstoppable.”
There was a feeling of glee form around the table. Elated, relieved sighs that life would become better. It’s time to come out of hiding and fulfill our purpose.
“There is no rush as the fun is only beginning. Why try to make it faster when all the fun is in the chasing. Why stop them all when we can eat for another ten thousand years And when it is all but nearly finished, we control the last few, keep them alive as we rule over the land, farming our animals until one day, when we’ve had enough of our fun and games, decide it is time to go back home. When we’ve ridden the planet of the Xenos we report back to our master with our mission completed.”
There were more sighs, protests of hunger, of leaving the hunt and finishing it once and for all. All they lived for was a meal of Xeno flesh.
“Our numbers have decreased.”
There was another roar of disagreement.
“Hush hush. The culprit is known. When we find her, kill her, bring her to me. She burns.”
The cheering went on but Dakur quieted them quickly.
“There is a way to bring back our fallen brothers and sisters. If they could die, they can be born again. The means to do this, we have. We only need a piece of their body back and our machine can recreate them. Proof: Dyzo has been returned.”
Dyzo sat at the table, not floating in midair, though tranced with a dreamy look as if another world called him, or as if he was only here visiting this droll meeting while he should be attending to other matters, wherever that may be. He was the same, undamaged body of Dyzo, but he wasn’t the same.
“We shall feast tonight and drink the first blood and taste the first meat of our rise back to glory.”
Sounds of screaming came down from he hallway. Two mutilated Xenos were dragged in from the hallway in chains and thrown on to the table.
“Eat, and drink up. Drink for your health and feast for the years to come! Our journey begins tomorrow.”
———
I had woken up as soon as the sun peered in through my window.
It was tomorrow.
“It’s time to start your real training.” Clyde announced as soon as I stepped into the hangar. “You haven’t been too bad. But your form could use some work. Plus, having the basic skill and knowledge never hurts. Relying on instincts only could wind you up in some tight spots, if you don’t know how to avoid them entirely form the beginning.”
I was excited to see what he has for me.
“First thing you will do is sweep the floor, while I get the training rooms ready.”
“I thought the cleaning bot does that for us already.”
“He’s broken.” He said abruptly and threw a broom at me.
I started sweeping, solemnly, starting from one end of the very large hangar. Very soon I realized how big this place actually was. There were tool boxes, crates, benches and machines on every wall, but the actual floor space was still huge. After an hour I managed to get everything swept up and into a big pile in the middle.
Clyde came back. “The rooms are almost ready, just have to upload your fighting style which may take a few minutes, it’s not any standard technique, but simple enough.” He looked at the large pile of dust and debris in the room. “Did you sweep underneath the cabinets and toolboxes?” I shook my head. “Didn’t think so. Usually it’s a bigger pile than that.” He nearly looked disappointed. “Use your goggles. They’ll help you find spots you miss if you turn it on to mineral analysis mode while focusing on common dust particles or dirt.”
I did so, imagining how funny I must look wearing the goggles for such a simple task. But they did help with finding the dust and dirt. Even some oil spots showed up and I took the next hour or two finishing up the sweeping and starting to mop the floor.
Clyde was apparently just sitting and watching me from the corner. I took a moment to message him, as if I didn’t see him.
Are you nearly done with the room? You said it would be a few minutes. I’m going to lunch now.
It’s nearly ready, just updating some things and working out the bugs, mechanical faults, and what not. Have lunch then I’ll show you the training rooms and we can see about fixing them up together.
I hope I still get to train today. At least if I get to help fix it up I’ll be happy.
I had a bite to eat and just as I was about to go back there was a knock at the door.
“Huntress?” A voiced yelled through the hangar speakers. It was the unmistakeable voice of the Maiden of Truth.
I sighed and ran off to open the door and see what she wanted.
“Huntress, I’m glad you’re still here. What are you doing? Are you busy?” She asked as she let herself in and sat at the table. “I’m scared about what the King will do. He’s leaving today, again, to go to the city, or so I’m told. Maybe we can explore some places and see what he’s hiding.” She sounded somewhat excited at the end, but I wasn’t. My mind was still not decided on her. Was she trying to get rid of me as well?
“Let me check something.” I told her and stepped to the side, put on the goggles and pretended to look out the window while I sent a message to Clyde. Then I looked at her.
The caption showed up beside her head. “Maiden of Truth.” I know that. I was trying to look at her in the emotion reader mode.
Clyde messaged me back. Don’t get involved with her. She’s trouble.
I know. What do I say? She’s telling me that she wants to find what the king is hiding.
Keep the goggles on and ask her what she is doing here, maybe some other questions as needed. Your emotion reading software will help you.
I did what he said. “Maiden of Truth, what are you doing here?”
She looked at me funny, as she was then looking out to the rolling hills of the jungle down below, then saw that I was talking to her, but still had my goggles on.
She squinted for a moment. “I was trying to see if you would help me fix the village. The King is driving us all crazy. He’s not doing what a King should do.”
The caption next to her head said “Desperate.” I knew that too.
“Why are you coming to me for help? Isn’t there anyone in the village that can help, like a guard or police?”
“There are lots of guards, but they don’t have the right to arrest the King, nor go down into the hangar. Plus any guards that have gone to the hangar are too highly paid, personally from him. So that’s why I chose you, you’re pure, like me. But I can’t do anything about it. I’m desperate!”
The caption stayed the same. I’ll ask her one more question.
“What will happen to me if I help you?”
“I—I don’t know. We’ll have to make a plan, how to get down there, how to get through all the guards. I don’t know if they’ll allow you down there. But they also think you’re dead. That’s why I need help, I know you’re smart. The Huntresses are like that.”
I had no idea what to say. I told her to sit down at the table and went to the hangar to talk to Clyde, making sure my bedroom door was locked, I knew the other three were locked, I kept the keys safe.
“Clyde, I have no idea what’s happening. This thing isn’t telling me if she’s lying or not.”
He looked at me like I was stupid. Thought he didn’t really have any facial expressions, it was the suspense that told me if he was laughing at me or not. “What do you expect?” He said. “It’s saying that she is desperate. What else do you want?”
“Is she lying or not? If I follow her and help to uncover the King’s royal moonlight business what’s going to happen? Maybe she’s going to get me ambushed again, like last night. Whether it was her fault or not.”
“Good point.” Clyde replied. “But one thing you don’t know is if the guards are always there. Maybe they were, maybe you missed them, but you have barely gone down to the village. Less than ten times in the last year, I would say.”
“You still didn’t answer my question.”
“Your answer is that she is desperate. Very desperate. And when Felines, especially older females get desperate, they try things that might get them in trouble.”
“So you’re telling me I’m getting myself in trouble.”
“Possibly, but you’re not old, as I mentioned. Maybe you want to catch the King and take him off the throne. But who is going to replace him and the Queen. There’s isn’t anything in the prophecies that talk about another King and Queen. Nothing at all.”
“Fine.” I took a breath. “So I’ll tell her that I wouldn’t mind helping but I’m busy.”
“She’s not going to buy that. What if she tries something stupid or thinks that you have more important things than the village. Her sanity is going to go further out the window, as they say.”
“You’re right. I’ll have to tell her that I’m caught up between Saving Xenobia or just being selfish and saving my village. And then I can show her the Relic and how much progress I’m making.”
“That sounds better.” He matched the same tone of sarcasm I had and shook his hand at me telling me to get back up there before she gets suspicious of something.
“Maiden of Truth,” I addressed her as I walked back up the stairs and into the front room. I took off my goggles and looked at her, she stopped staring nervously out the window and looked up at me pleadingly. “I have consulted a few things and I aware of what is happening. It is not very comforting to know what the King is doing. I am currently under time restraint to head back outside of the village to stop another rampage of Ancients.”
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She sighed, “It’s all hopeless.”
“I’m not giving up on you. Look, there are things that you can do. You must keep watch and keep a note of suspicious activities that you see. What kind of crates, how much money, time of arrival and departure. There are many things that you can note down. I need you to keep an eye on any activities. Once a week you will leave your findings at my door and knock three times and leave. If there is an emergency, knock frantically. Just a few times, then stop. If I am here I will answer, if not I will make arrangements that I am notified and return as soon as I can.”
She sighed again and again but she didn’t have the despair of having given up yet. “Thank you Huntress.” She stood up and gave me a hug. “I know you’re very busy, Our village isn’t the only that needs saving. There is so much more beyond our jungle village, I forget you aren’t always here to catch us when we fall, but you’re the one who cuts the the head of the snake before he bites.”
“Remember, I will come when I am needed.” I remembered somethings and went back to my room and picked up the Relic of Good Fortune. “I opened it.” I told her.
She stared at it in awe. I realized she wouldn’t have known what it was. The golden Cat had turned into this exotic flower. I handed it to her and she nervous reached for it. The Relic was in its lotus form, she caressed each petal and smelled it as if it was a real flower. “It smells like the flower you always dream of, but never know what it smells like, as if it’s a dream,” she said.
I smiled and took it back. She looked at me at seemed to have memories from when I was a child, how she brought me here to this temple, introduced me to Celentine and tried to help me feel at home. She sized me up and down now, seeing my black concussion suit, my goggles that sat over my eyes, pockets that held unknown items, and the murmur seed necklace. “What is that?” She asked touching the necklace.
I hand’t noticed it recently but it had fully grown and braided itself into a detailed necklace. Six branches sprouted form the back of my neck and twisted into its pattern while the grain of the wood formed smooth ornate patterns inside of itself. “It was gift. I got it while I was in the east.” I told her uneasily. I’m not sure how much she will believe.
“Who gave it to you?” She asked, unknowingly nagging me to say things I didn’t want to tell her. How much of it will she believe?
“I had run into Grandfather Drus.” I started.
“Grandfather Drus,” She whispered. “The father of all Dryads and Hamadryads? The one from the fairytales?”
“I guess so. I haven’t read too many fairytales.”
“That’s fine. I have,” she said, now looking at me over her spectacles, “There’s something about you and fiction my dear. The unreal is very real to you, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know what that means.” I tried to put her attention back on the Relic of Good Fortune. “You remember what it used to look like? The cat with the grin. Paw in the air. When it opened, it turned into this flower.”
She wasn’t listening to me. Instead she was staring into my eyes, trying to penetrate my soul. “I must check the prophecies once more Huntress. There is something about you, maybe from another story I know. But even I can see that Ares favors you to all the rest.”
What is that supposed to mean? But before I could ask her what she meant by that, she was out the door and running back down the hill like her old frantic self, no more sobbing over… she was crying for a good reason, but I would have said sobbing over a mess of bones on the floor, after dinner; something that alluded to the bad things that come in life, when it will all come out all right.
———
I went back down to Clyde once more. He was glad that I had stopped her from crying. She probably won’t come back for a few days, or at least until she finds what I, somehow, very vaguely, remind her of something from a fairytale.
Clyde had seemed to have fixed up a few rooms and pieces of equipment, but I couldn’t always tell what he was or wasn’t working on. He could be sitting in the corner, staring off into space and yet be working out very difficult bugs in the programs or solving complex and unsolvable riddles that only someone like he could solve.
I stood in front of him and he didn’t move.
I put my goggles on and sent him a message.
Is there something I can help you with?
Yes. Stay there, I’ll come and tell you what to do.
He moved forwards and almost ran me over absentmindedly trying to do everything at once.
“Clyde. I’m right in front of you.” I laughed and he jumped back, his eye sockets finally lighting up, indicating that he was using them now.
“Sorry Huntress. Forgot where I was. Follow me.” He got his bearings and brought me to another room, which went even further into the mountain. “This is the training room were you will perfect your skills and fighting techniques. Notice the height and size of this room, it allows for a lot of movement, but you’re limited, just in case you want to run into the distance. Your goggles will relay the scene you will use for the simulation. Your suit will give you sensations, not pain, but will heat up if you are struck in the simulation. Everything else is in the room.”
I looked in through a window and saw a long and high room, all black, I couldn’t see the dimensions of it. I just knew it must have been about half the size of the hangar.
Clyde lead me on towards some more rooms. “This room is where I make the suits and fabricate other items you may need. It’s not cheap so don’t start wasting things, secondly, anything you break, try to bring back so I can use the materials to make another one.”
A large machine occupied this room. I could see that there was a sort of forge in the back for refining metals and some other appliances that might have been for fabric, but the big one in the middle of the room had eight arms that had various attachments and hands that would do what Clyde needed to make my accessories and his own tools or machines.
“This one was a replica of the one Dacoit had before it had been torn down by some Ancients. We had the parts made and I assembled it here.”
“Do other villages have one of these, or just us?”
“I think the Canines have one. The Murids probably do as well but keep it hidden. They have a hold on the underground markets and it’s hard to say what they actually produce or claim to. Otherwise I’m sure there are more of these in Xenobia, brought in by the humans, which they sell. But ours is the original. Quite old, but I keep it working.”
He brought me to some more rooms. “This is the storage area for raw materials, and the next door has the basic templates, or foundations for the suits and googles and weapons that I can make.”
“One thing Clyde. I had no idea how big my temple was. I thought it was just my room and a kitchen with three mysterious door and a fourth, forever locked.”
“Yeah, that’s just for the guests, the door to the hangar is strong, plus I have a secondary lock that covers the inside, just a two inch thick plate of steel embedded into the stone walls.”
I looked up and down the hallway and into the doors. “What is the actually size of this space?”
“About a hundred thousand square feet.” He said.
That didn’t really mean anything to me, but I guess the hangar, plus the training rooms, the fabricating rooms and storage spaces add up to quite a bit.
“There are more rooms you know. We’ve only come down to the first level below ground level.”
“Isn’t the hangar the first, and my room ground level?”
“Not for me. That’s upstairs.”
I couldn’t argue with that. He’s been living here longer than me.
“There’s more than just this you know.” He told me. “We only took the fist right since the elevator.”
“What else is there?”
“I could show you, but you’ll need a key.”
“Oh no, not another one. I thought I’ve opened all the doors I needed—”
“No,” he held out his hand, “these keys,” and dropped them into my hands. “They’re all labeled. Except for the ones that aren’t, it’s obvious what they are for.”
“Thanks. So I should go and have a look around now?”
“Good point, we came down here to do some training, I can take you there at the end of the night.”
I looked at him funny and we walked back to the very large training room and he opened the door for me, told me to put on my goggles and just follow the instructions for now.
The goggles synced up to the room and I was now looking at a digital world with boxes and lines in greyscale.
“Walk forward.” Clyde told me from in intercom.
I walked, but the floor moved slightly, I moved on the grey pathways until I reached an obstacle. He told me to jump over this one. Then had me go thought a few more trials that were pretty much the same thing, with me running jumping, turning around in circles and all that.
“This was just a calibration.” He told me. “You don’t have to do it every time, just to make sure that since the last time it was used it still works.”
“Which was how long ago?”
“One-hundred and eighty-three years.”
“Was Celentine that old?”
“No, she hand’t made it this far, only the second door. She was also very close to the King and Queen and that Maiden of Truth.”
“That’s why you don’t want me to talk to her?”
“Really Dawn, not many Huntresses are like you. Some only get through the third door a few years before they die and then at that age they can’t do this kind of training. It would kill them.”
“Am I the youngest to have made it to the hangar?”
“Yes.” He said, quite straightforwardly. I couldn’t see his face, but could only imagine it was the same that he always had. I just liked to see it as it made every sarcastic, funny, sad, imposing conversation, so much more imaginatively emotional. “Anyways, now that the calibration is done, I will start you on the first level.”
———
My goggles’ image blurred in and out, revealing a colorful scene with me in the forest, a path laid ahead. I walked forwards and started hearing a sound in front of me. It sounded like snake, a large, hissing snake. I turned the corner and it was there, moving slowly and sizing me up and down.
A few options ran through my head: test my speed and cut him before he struck me, or wait for an opening.
I entered the clearing, looking very lifelike. But the ground was too flat and smooth, and the clearing was in the shape of a square that was too square for anything natural. Oh well, it seems like a good simulation.
I backed up and let the snake make a move. He only slithered and came closer to me. He was now fully uncoiled and I had continued to back up. By the look of it the snakes body was as wide as me and four or five feet longer than I too.
I took a few steps to the left, a few to the right.
Like a machine the snake kept it’s head pointed straight at me. I didn’t have a choice to go back now. I lunged left and ran to the corner, testing his speed. He was fast but still lagged just behind me.
I tried it again, running circles around him, but only managed to get him coiled up again. His head pointed straight at me the whole time.
It seems like this is a test of bravery. Ill try my luck at my speed.
I backed myself up to a wall and jumped forward straight into the snake. I expected him to move but he didn’t. He opened his mouth, his fangs shot out as he lunged at me. It wasn’t what I expected, especially at our combined speed. I tired rolling midair to escape, but lost to the snake.
I saw the fang sink into my thigh and then a hot feeling in the same place. The simulation turned off and I lay in the large black training room again.
“Not too bad Dawn. You might have to do some research on snakes, but there’s some good hope for you.”
I was confused, my whole adventurous life, I’ve never been hit fatally. “Is this supposed to be the first level?”
“It is the first level. But, you should know by now, I have been tracking you every move and have found your techniques and skills to be on the better side and obviously, as I have personally calculated, found your skills working to precise ratios of dangerous situations to successful escapes, kills, etc.”
“So you made this hard for me to begin with.”
“That’s right. It’s designed to make you change your techniques to the enemy that’s in front of you, not based on experience or anything else. Training towards what you can do and doing it better, in every situation. New situations and encounters make you think. Fortunately, you are smart enough that this one shouldn’t take more than a few more tries.”
“Fine. Any hints.”
“I do have hints, but I won’t tell you. You need to figure it out.”
I started the simulation again, walked into the clearing and encountered the snake. I spent the same amount of time in the ring, testing it’s movements once more. There was nothing wrong with it’s movements. It’s head followed me precisely wherever I went, without falter.
I threw my arm and it moved back. I jumped forward slightly and it moved back a bit. I tired some more, jumping up, feigning an attack. Finally I found a opening.
I jumped forward, stopping myself early and the snake jumped at me, the same lunge it had before. I jumped in the same motion with it. We were parallel in the air. Until Ungu slashed out and carved down his belly.
The snake disappeared after falling lifelessly to the ground.
Success!
Another path opened up and I walked down into another clearing.
It was apparently the same snake.
“I have to do it again?” I asked Clyde.
“Yep, until your time is under ten seconds.”
I entered the clearing and engaged the snake. Quickly I snuck forward entering its danger zone. I could see my slight motions making the snake nervous. It was only a program, but I could see where I triggered it. Lifelike.
I did the same action, jumped, stopped short and lunged back, flying thought the air parallel with the snake and slicing through the midsection, leaving his head and the better part of his body spurting blood until it disappeared.
Clyde put me through a few more simulations before it got late into the night.
I was running out of breath after being chased around by a chicken with razor claws and a lethal beak. But I had felt I started to think with what I was capable of, not just what I have done. There was more to learn all the time, not just the same fight with different colored opponents.
By the time I had gotten out of the training room it was nearly midnight.
Luckily Clyde had a surprise for me and took me down the other side of the hallway.
“Here we have the shooting range for target practice. Conveniently the projectiles’ storage is this next door. Here you can practice shooting straight. In the training room you can practice shooting moving targets and whatnot. Please note that you do not bring any real weapons into the training room and only use them on the appropriate targets. There is a simulation gun that I will provide you with when we are up to that point in your training.”
“I may need that,” I told him.
“I know. You’ve only use a gun once and missed a vital shot. Which ended up with you falling out of an aircraft on the other side of the country.”
“I know,” I said resentfully. “It was a set-up.”
Clyde made a gesture that would have been the equivalent to rolling his eyes, but as I said before, his face is motionless and emotionless.
“Here we have more storage and at the end of this hall and a bit further down into the mountain is a nice spa for you.”
I did’t know what that meant, but I followed him and he opened the door for me and allowed me inside.
The room was very different from what the rest of this temple looked like. There weren’t any constructed walls but the walls were natural rock, like a naturally formed cave renovated into a space with flame lit lanterns hanging from the ceiling. A natural form pool with hot spring water bubbled on one end, while at the other, a built in sauna sat ready for a visit. Off to another side sat a counter with bottles and drinks behind it and very few glasses, meant for one and no visitors. And off in the back lay a bed with golden bedposts, and blankets and pillows to lay down in and float effortlessly into a dream.
I finished taking it all in and found Clyde behind the counter preparing a drink and a small meal for me.
“Eat up and rejuvenate. There will be more training tomorrow. And I think you know you had better be fast, the Ancients are coming.”