Moriah brooded with a frowmirk on her face, the span of time known as three days having become synonymous with eternity. However, unlike true eternity, this minor version had finally almost passed and only another hour remained. She currently waited about a ten minute’s crawl from the meeting place and brooded about meeting the man named Klorachamol. She could not remember his face at all. Every time she tried, all she could picture was a dark void of shadow. On the other hand, she vaguely thought she might not have actually liked the dark man. But try as she might, she could not remember why, very little social memory coming into focus from that time. Weirdly, she thought she wanted to like the man though. Again, she was not sure why. And thus she brooded with a hesitant expression somewhere between a frown of discord and a smirk of anticipation, a frowmirk.
On top of those thoughts, she worried about her peers. Xian currently rested on her stomach, the Radar and Jonal each on squirreled up to her hips. While fairly small still, they were stupid heavy so she only ever allowed one on her stomach these days.
Laying on her back she sighed and absently stroked them. The more she thought about parting from them, the more disturbed both she and they became. During the last eternity called three days, she came to more fully realize that not only could she not separate from them, but she absolutely did not want to. That meant she could not really return to the mines, at least not the way she had been thinking.
Unable to quiet her troubled thoughts, she began to sing, the peers responding with glowing eyes which accepted the song while reflected her turmoil.
The seven miners approached the meeting place a bit before the set time. As they approached the smaller tunnel opening where Moriah would appear, the dwarves both stopped, raising a hand to stop the others. Several minutes passed as the two gnarly men stared at the opening still over twenty yards away.
Corko remained planted where he had stopped, keeping the others from advancing, but eventually Jenjen moved forward. He placed a hand on the rock below the small hole from which Moriah would appear. He stood still for a long moment, his senses spreading into the earth there.
“Come,” Jenjen eventually said, his hand and concentration still fully in place. Corko advanced, followed by the others.
“What’s up, huh?” Jenna asked, hands on hips. Both her ears and nose twitched in curiosity.
“Earth be excited, spirit of world trembles,” Jenjen replied, his voice gravely and distracted.
“Huh? What the heck does that even mean?” Jenna demanded. “If you’re going to answer a question, answer so I can understand, silly dwarf.”
“As declared - something excites ground, rock, dirt,” Jenjen rumbled. “The spirit of this world answers, though in minor only.”
Corko added, “Essence of being, to a power responds.” Then addressing his cousin, “Harmony with uniqueness of afore time. As then, so now, Ker.”
Jenjen nodded, his mouth tightening into a line. “It is so.” He shifted his head, looking at the rock under the hole again where his hand rested. “Excitement wanes.” He nodded his head once and then backed away from the hole several paces. “As then, so now, Ker. The earth eaters and child approach.”
The others glanced at each other, a bit perplexed with the dwarves. But before they could comment, Radar and Jonal filled the opening, their small snouts side by side. They glanced around, noting the seven awaiting their queen. They then swarmed down the wall to place themselves between them and where their queen would be. Moriah followed them a moment later, once more flipping out of the tunnel to land lightly on the ground. Xian appeared in the tunnel’s entrance, but rather than coming down as his brethren, he remained in the higher location for better vantage.
As soon as she appeared, both Jenna and Klorachamol knew her. “Klorachamol?” Jenna whispered, her voice trembling as she held onto his arm. She could feel the tension vibrating through him.
Moriah stood looking at them. Her head tilted to the side and she said, “Um, hello again?” She hesitated, her eyes taking in the two new additions to the group. They should be Klorachamol and Jenna. Still, even now she could not remember how they looked, though maybe the woman? The woman did seem a bit familiar. But even now, Klorachamol’s mahogany complexion made it hard to see details, especially since they were still keeping the lighting dim for her.
Klorachamol forced himself to relax. He said, “So, you did survive.”
Moriah smiled at him and nodded. “Yes sir, that’s the rumor I’m starting. Um, you’re Mr. Klorachamol, right?”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “I am.”
Moriah felt a strange emotion from him which she could not categorize, maybe affection or anger, possibly even fear. “I’m sorry that I don’t recognize you clearly.” She lowered her head for a moment and then continued, “I cannot remember much detail from back then.” But then she looked up and stepped forward between Radar and Jonal, firmly telling them to stay where they were, and declared boldly, “But I can now. I really want to get to know everyone and talk and learn about everything.” Her voice rose with her excitement. “I want to learn their language,” she pointed to the dwarves, “ and about kytosine and about you and Jenna.”
Reaching out to grasp Klorachamol’s hand, she gasped “oh!” and jerked her hand back, her eyes widening and smile faltering a bit in surprise. That brief touch had ended up piercing the man’s defenses, revealing way too much. Way more than she could unpack in the moment, and most of it dark and rather disturbing. But the most prominent thing had been the hag. A hag both the same and different to the one she had defeated in her dream so long ago lay clear and prominent within Klorachamol psyche, the creature’s tendrils of control permeating all.
Klorachamol also jerked away, not used to people being so open with him except Jenna. If one of the other miners had done it, he would have killed them, irrelevant of their intent. But this was Ker and he did not want to kill her. He simply did not know how to handle such a strange situation, so merely took a step back.
Jenna came to his rescue, stepping into the space he created. She smiled at the girl, a brilliant smile full of flowers and sunshine. “Well then, my dear Ker, if that’s the case we will have to help you. Never mind Klorachamol, he doesn’t do casual social interactions unless its business related.” She bent over and put her hands on her knees to look into Moriah’s eyes. “But we will be friends from now on, right?”
Moriah’s smile returned and she nodded. “I would like that very much, Ms. Jenna.”
Jenna blinked, her smile turning to a glare. “Do not call me Ms. It makes me feel old.”
“But Momma would get mad at me if I was rude,” Moriah objected.
Her voice hardening to convey her displeasure, Jenna snapped, “I reject being called Ms., Little Miss. Insisting on doing so is the very definition of being rude. Now, you will call me Jenna from now on, got it?”
Moriah hesitated but then said in an uncertain voice, “Okay, J, Jenna.”
“Much better,” Jenna declared, her smile blossoming again as she tweaked her hair in front of her shoulder so she could fiddle with it.
Moriah sighed and then smiled more naturally. Glancing around at everyone, she asked, “So did you guys figure out how I can return to the camp without causing too much trouble?”
Jenna eyes widened in shock, and then she burst into laughter. Jenjen let out a ho ho ho and the others also snorted or otherwise showed astonishment or amusement to one degree or another. Jenna answered, wheezing between more chortles as she slapped her knees, “Honey, there is absolutely no way for you not to cause an uproar if you come back into the Camp. Oh dear, oh dear.”
She held her stomach as she continued to laugh. “Can’t be avoided at all since you’re coming back to life after being dead for years.” She wiped tears from her eyes. “Sorry, sorry, that was funny.” She patted Moriah on her head. Moriah flinched away from the contact as yet another hag made an appearance to her senses.
Jenna continued, either ignoring or not noticing her flinch. “Anyway, we have in fact come up with a solution that should make your return manageable.” She told the girl about the plan to hypnotize her so she would not respond to outside stimulus, explaining that in the beginning one of them would have to trigger her into or out of the “dead eye” state. However, she asserted that with time and practice Moriah should be able to control it herself well enough.
Moriah listened without interrupting. When Jenna finished by telling her that either she or Klorachamol could do the initial hypnotism, she remained silent for a bit longer before replying. Taking a deep breath, she asked, “What about these guys?” She jerked her thumb towards the peers. “I cannot be separated from them for long.”
“Outside boundaries must remain,” Jenjen said, having moved closer to the crystal ferrets with an eye of curiosity. “Boundary starts beyond bend,” and he pointed in the direction they had come from the camp.
Moriah turned to the peers and crouched to put her hand on Radar and Jonal, the contact helping give the unwelcome instructions. She forbid them from ever coming to her in the camp. They were to hunt for crystal and rich ores (she firmly told them not to gorge themselves) and otherwise wait for her in the nest. They whined in high pitched distress, but submitted to her will. Moriah then stood to reach Xian and give him her firm instructions. After that, the three reluctantly departed down the small tunnel Moriah remained standing in front of the opening until they had disappeared from sight.
Once the light of their crystalline backs disappeared, Moriah spun around, a smile on her face and a tear in her eye. “Ready. If it’s alright, I would like Klorachamol to be the one to hypnotize me.” She really did want to be his friend, no matter what she had sensed with that initial touch, and she thought starting their relationship by trusting him would be the best way.
Klorachamol finished the process in mere moments and Moriah stood once more staring forward without sign of emotion or awareness. With that, the group headed back to the camp. In the darkness a few paces down the tunnel going away from the Camp, Klierallan stood undetected watching their lights fade. The shadows rippled and the elf vanished as if he never was.
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Klorachamol entered the depot, followed by a child and the kytosine scrambler. He always attracted a bit of attention, since being unaware of the killer was detrimental to one’s survival. But the miners rarely did more than take note of him so they could avoid getting in his way.
But then in a slow wave, silence descended over the cavern. This and that miner stood up or stiffened where they sat, their eyes riveted on the child. That blank, dead-eyed stare gazing without deviation ahead at nothing. They knew it, the ones with years of experience. Only one person, only one small girl had ever walked that way, had looked that way. The Ker. The ones who recognized her whispered the name. The epitaph.
The depot guard’s tactical computer noticed the silence long before the bored guard ever would have, raising a cautionary light to all the guards at the unusual behavior. The guard stationed at the depot readied his weapon wondering if this was some kind of stupid drill. He doubted the slaves, er, miners would ever do anything to cause any problems.
The tactical computer scanned the cavern, immediately identifying Klorachamol and Shaskie, but not Moriah. The guard also did not recognize the child the computer highlighted as unknown, though he did not care enough to remember individual slaves, er . . . slaves. He really was tired of correcting his thoughts. They were what they were, irrelevant of the stupid directives from on high.
The display on his visor warned him that many of the slaves in the main cavern were becoming excited and moving towards Klorachamol. The guard cursed under his breath, switching the rifle’s safety off. If the dark man went off, they might lose all the miners in an instant. That would delay quota and keep him in this cursed mine indefinitely. The guard held his gun leveled at the unknown child, but his eyes were on the killer. If the child was the cause of the unrest, he would just eliminate it first. Ten seconds passed as they walked across the floor before the computer made a positive identification, “Scrambler Ker - Deceased.” The date of her death flashed.
“Stad, don’t do anything stupid. I’m coming. Do NOT, I repeat, do not harm that girl.” The shift commander’s voice snapped through the guard’s comm, colored by unusual emotion. “I swear, if you hurt her, I’ll kill you myself.” The guard shifted his gun away from the girl and reactivated the safety. As he did, Commander Helston appeared, flanked by four other senior guards. They stopped and stared at Moriah for a moment, but then strode forward. “Klorachamol.”
Klorachamol glanced at the commander and inclined his head. “Well, if it isn’t the good Commander Helston. Fancy seeing your face here in the depot.” Not that the man was actually showing his face. Klorachamol snarkily wondered just what the commander’s expression might be behind the armor’s helm at that moment. “By the way, did you hear that Ker apparently did not die when you ordered that tunnel blown? Found her and brought her in to make a deposit.” The girl in question ignored the discussion, her eyes never wavering from whatever they saw.
Helston glared at Klorachamol and then pointed to a vacant counter. “Fine. Take her over there and make the deposit.” He pointed to one of the depot clerks. “You, intake her now.” The indicated clerk tripped over his own feet as he tried to hurry, fear at being the one pointed out by the commander numbing his mind.
Klorachamol steered Moriah to the indicated counter and told her to turn in her deposit. Moriah obeyed, emptying her pockets of ore. The clerk picked up the first chunk and placed it on the scanner. The scanner’s peripheral lighting darkened, safety circuits cutting out. Just then the current depot manager appeared at the inexperienced clerk’s side. He glanced at the mythic class ore resting on the scanner and said, “Commander, this is Adintin. May I take over in-processing?”
“Do so,” Commander Henson commanded. He tried scanning the ore with his own tactical computer, but it did not register at all.
“Boy, it’s okay. Go back to your counter,” the manager instructed, giving the distraught clerk a gentle push as he took his place.
“Yes sir,” the young clerk replied, moving as quick as he dared.
The manager removed the ore from the scanner and reset the safeties. Once he finished that task, he reset the scanner for the appropriate ore, so it would properly account for its unique, mystical qualities. Setting the chunk of ore on the scanner again, he waited for it to finish its analysis.
The scanner beeped, indicating the analysis complete. After checking the readout, the manager stepped back and said, “Commander?” while indicating the screen with a hand.
The commander stepped forward for a moment and then motioned for the manager to continue processing all of the ore the girl had set on the counter. As the man obeyed, the commander focused on the girl. Moriah ignored him.
A loud bang shattered the quiet that had descended over the depot. Helston flinched at the noise even with his armor muffling it, but Moriah did not react at all.
“Finished,” the manager announced and moved out of the way again before he got shoved.
The commander stepped up again and scanned the results before ordering, “Box that up.” He turned to Klorachamol. “Klorachamol, I leave her in your charge. Since she had enough banked to cover her absence, there won’t be any punishment for missing quota.” He glanced at the child again. “Get her new coveralls and another box. She should be able to bring in more with proper equipment.”
“She needs a light and a new lesion knife,” Klorachamol said.
“Get her fully outfitted. Whatever it takes. I want her reintegrated into the camp and out mining immediately. Where did you find her?”
“About two hours out, past sector forty-three.”
“Make sure nothing stupid happens to her again.” The commander spun around and strode out of the depot along with his companions, adrenaline stinging his fingers. The shift changer had returned. While not a large quantity, what the quality of what the girl had merely been carrying in her pockets had probably shortened his stay by almost a whole week. While the helmet he wore hid the grin on his face, it could not hide the strange swagger his armor displayed as he strode away.
After the guards left, Shaskie split off from the others to attend to her own duties. Moriah and Klorachamol returned to his personal cave. Entering the separate space, the assassin closed the curtain over the entrance and then turned to his woman.
“Oye, Jenna, that was too freaking loud,” Klorachamol griped.
Jenna threw herself into his arms and kissed him. “Did it work?”
He snorted as he wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah, suppose it did. She didn’t twitch and Helston happened to be looking right at her. He said I was in charge of her again.” He let out a sigh of resignation. “Just what I needed.”
“Indeed,” Jenna agreed affably. She kept her voice neutral but there was a visible twinkle in her eyes. Literally, a spark of light was dancing in her pupils. “The cave’s clear of sensors, by the bye.”
Klorachamol nodded and released Moriah from her trance.
The girl sank to squat, her eyes closed for several moments. “Ugh, that was super weird,” she complained once she had calmed her peers, who had not liked her hypnotized fog in the slightest. She did not enjoy it either, being a passenger in her own body. She resolved to master control of the process as fast as possible so she could limit how much she needed to be influenced by the state. “The peers did not like it at all either.”
“Well, it worked for now. Just be careful,” Jenna said and hugged her.
Moriah swallowed her nervousness, forcing back her awareness of Jenna’s hag-companion and returning the hug. “But is it safe for me to be like this while still in the camp?” she asked, wondering if she should remain in the fog whenever inside the camp’s boundaries. Well, she definitely did not want to, but she really wondered if it was safe to drop it here.
“Very few will come into this cave without announcing themselves,” Jenna reassured her. “I think it’s perfectly okay to drop the facade here. Besides, no one sneaks up on Klorachamol.”
And right as she said that, Klorachamol triggered Moriah’s hypnotized state. A moment later, Rocklite passed through the cave’s door-curtain.
“Klorachamol, Jenna,” the senior scrambler said, nodding to them. He gazed at Moriah for a long moment without smile or expression, and then focused on the two adults. “So. It is as I heard. Ker lives.” The gnarly gnome let out a loud breath and his expression eased. “This is good. In the end, that bastard Hank failed at the very thing that got him killed. Perhaps there is justice in this world after all.” Rocklite ran his hand through his ragamuffin hair and then dropped the hand to his side. “I understand Ker has been put under your supervision again.”
“That’s right,” Klorachamol said, his eyes narrowed.
Rocklite raised a hand, “I have no reason to contest that, Klorachamol. She’s already almost too large to be an effective scrambler and she’s a class by herself in any case. If it’s possible, I would like to coordinate our efforts though. Is it true that Shaskie had part in finding her?”
“Yes,” Klorachamol agreed cautiously.
“Do they get along?”
The dark man shrugged. “As much as Ker gets along or doesn’t get along with anyone. If you’re asking if Shaskie can tag along with Ker, I have no objections. Might keep the troublesome idiot from getting lost again.”
“We won’t contest any claims Ker finds . . . .”
“It will be nice to have verbal reports on what she finds,” Jenna said, laughing. “We’ll still need to send a data chip with her wherever those two go, but that’s unavoidable.”
Rocklite relaxed. He had feared Klorachamol and Jenna would oppose him because of Hank. “Good. Then I will assign Shaskie to Ker for the foreseeable future.” The gnarly gnome let out a breath of pent-up worry. “To tell the truth, I’m trying to head off guard-stupidity. Now that Ker has returned, they might interfere with her mining, fearing her disappearance again. That would decrease her effectiveness, which would make the guards angry. If that happened, they would definitely accuse me of hindering her.”
“That sounds like them. Cause the problem and blame us for it,” Jenna agreed with a chortle. She sidled up to the gnome, the small man coming to her waist, but otherwise having the proportions of a normal human. She ruffled his head and purred her next words, “Anyway, my dear Rocklite, is there anything else I might do for you, you hunk of a gnome?”
Batting the offending hand away, Rocklite muttered. “Stop that Jenna. It is unbecoming.”
“But Rocklite, I really like your hair,” Jenna declared with a cute pout.
The poor gnome reddened and ducked away from the woman’s teasing. “I will let Shaskie know. I will clear it with the depot guard.” The man then beat a hasty retreat through the cave’s curtain.
“Of course,” Jenna smirked at the retreating gnome, but as soon as he disappeared so did the smile and she grumped, “Okay, I was wrong.” She looked at the expressionless Moriah. “I guess you’ll have to stay ‘dead eye Ker’ while in the camp after all.”
“We should leave. If her - companions are distressed . . . .” Klorachamol shrugged, not completing the thought. “Since the commander wants her reprovisioned and out mining ‘immediately,’ no one will think it too strange.”
After getting her new mining supplies from the depot, Moriah left the camp with Klorachamol and Shaskie. Jenna had already left to meet the dwarves at the agreed upon location. A half an hour out of the camp, Klorachamol triggered Moriah’s release. Once again Moriah had to calm Radar, Jonal and Xian through their link. Once their agitation ebbed enough, Moriah glanced up at Klorachamol, now able to sense his ugly hag-companion even without touching him for some unfathomable reason. It was a mildly annoying tickle at the edges of her mind that she could not itch at all.
“I don’t know if this is going to work,” she said after a brief pause, grunting as she stood. “The boys are getting really upset. I understand I need to make deposits and all, but I won’t be able to stay in the camp at all.” She really wanted to stay with her new companions, to talk and have fun, but she knew the peers had been on the verge of disobeying her to come to her rescue this time.
“We will figure something out,” Klorachamol said.
And they did, shortly after convening with the others and explaining her concerns. “Simple be solution,” Corko declared, smiling huge at Ker. He spread his arms outwards to encompass all. “Caverns beyond boundary be for living. Child appearance to make, for to deposit as gnarly. To leave once again. To be beyond sight, beyond awareness, earth eaters may remain.”
Moriah eyes gleamed, excited by the suggestion. She hugged the large small man and smooched his cheek. “And you all will come and visit and live with me too? And we can talk and everything?” Corko harrumphed and crossed his arms, but an ever so slight smile touched his attempt to be surely.
“Everything? Matter of awe,” Jenjen bellowed, his voice and laughter echoing down the tunnels. Moriah blushed. Jenjen held out his hand and a rock flew up from the ground to smack into his palm. “Earth knows the Ker. This,” he raised the rock to eye level, “acknowledges thy being, as it does to gnarly, as too fae of earthen nature.”
Moriah stared at the rock and then Jenjen, not understanding.
“Ho ho ho,” Jenjen bellowed again at her perplexed expression. “Compliment, compliment.” Changing the subject abruptly, he said “stone.”
Moriah blinked, more confused than ever. “Um, what?”
“stone, naming of stone. Today lessons shall begin in the Gnarly,” he answered, his great smile of amusement widening further and further. Moriah stared, mouth open. “Speak the name of stone,” the powerful dwarf held the stone out to her.
Moriah stammered a sound having nothing to do with the gnarly word save intent. Shaskie squealed her delight, pronouncing the word without difficulty, joining the lesson uninvited. Moriah glared at her and then tried to say the Gnarly word again, continuing until she got it right.