Little Swamp Village had changed just slightly since the last time Lu had seen it. The muddy ground was thicker and more stable, as though the growing plantlife had drunk down half the water over the past days. Said plants were larger, but that was only to be expected; they had been growing for a couple months, and the climate of the swamp was as verdant as the rest of the continent.
But by far the biggest change was something less noticeable, something Lu couldn’t discern with his eyes alone.
The ki is thinner. It was never as thick as on Salt proper, but it’s definitely even thinner now. Is it because all the people are..? The streets – if the muddy paths could be called that – were deserted.
“Ah, it’s been like this for a whole week?”
The figure to Lu’s side grumbled, their cowl muffling the sound not at all. “[If you mean everyone bunkering up, then yeah. If you mean the Sun, then that’s new. Just started a couple days ago, like I said.]”
Lu nodded distractedly, his eyes still scanning the buildings. “Right.” There are warriors inside. They seem fine, so that’s good, though I’m worried about the village’s temperament. “Any fighting?”
“[You keep asking the same questions. Shut up and walk.]”
Lu’s jaw clenched, but he obeyed. The pair continued in silence, walking deep into the artificial swamp. There are barricades, but they’re unmanned. I’ve seen these men walk about in boiling temperatures like they were pleasant spring mornings, so could it really just be..?
Eventually they reached the centre. Water pooled into a deep moat around a cluster of larger buildings, no bridges or other ways to cross visible. The man at Lu’s side didn’t hesitate at all, splashing in and paddling.
Lu, Water Walking already keeping mud off his shoes, merely stepped onto the placid surface and followed. Frightened fish darted away while more adventurous – or hungry – ones wriggled closer, but nothing attempted to stop them as they crossed the moat. In moments they were on the other side, one dry and the other sodden.
“Here, let me dry your-”
“[Piss off, don’t touch me.]” With a surly toss of his shoulders, the man continued, water streaming from his waterlogged form. Lu’s jaw clenched further, but again he decided to hold his tongue. It’s just like Lan said; he really is on a knife’s edge. On this side of the water the buildings were taller, their walls more decorated with paints and earthen additions.
They stopped in front of one dwelling, the wooden construction not standing out much from the others. “This is the place? She’s in there?”
Before his guide could answer the front door blew open, a large and long-limbed creature bursting forth.
“Cobo! And Lu!” The wooden door struck the side of the dwelling with a dull sound, greatly overpowered by the sound of groans and exclamations coming from inside. Stingy turned back, and the groans continued. “Hey guys, make space! Two more coming in!”
----------------------------------------
The inside of the structure smelled terrible, alien sweat and other body odours packing together into a miasma. It wasn’t helped by the earthy ki – which was as thick as it should be, to Lu’s mingled relief and distaste.
“So what’re you doing here? Oh, I should introduce you! That’s Fishy over there by the door, and Baddie and Grok and Flemmy playing cards, and-”
“[Stingy.]”
Cobo had lowered his hood, revealing his face. He had gotten a pair of thick tinted goggles from somewhere – not the Junk Dog-style goggles, but rather the kind a human would wear when forging – but otherwise his expression was uncovered. His brow was furrowed and his jaw worked slowly side-to-side, the sound of his teeth grinding against each other just barely audible.
“…Right, yeah. Not the time.” She smiled a crocodilian grin. “This is probably about the thing, right? Jinny?”
“This is about Jiendao, yes,” Lu answered. At his words the room’s energy changed, the ki moving in tandem with the pressed-together warriors as they leaned forward, their hostility plain. Ah, on that note… “Is there somewhere we can go with a little more privacy? I’m feeling a bit cramped.”
She thought for a moment. “Not inside. Outside?”
Black eyes, almost invisible in the gloom, radiated menace. For a moment Lu was back in the cramped tunnels of the Junk Pit, and the urge to throw down a fourth realm Fairy Light and dash away nearly overwhelmed him. “Yes, good. Let’s go.”
The Moving Waters clansmen had been giving them as wide a berth as possible, a certain level of respect keeping pace with the rising tension. But as Lu turned back to the door, one stepped in his path. He wasn’t particularly conspicuous, but he must have been a Warboss from the bejewelled translation treasure taking the form of a torc wrapped around the expanse between his chin and chest.
“Hey. You ain’t trying to pull anything, are ya? Maybe you don’t take Granny’s blood out’a the building… You get me?”
Encircled on all sides by men that outweighed the average spirit bear, Lu did his best to hold his ground. “Of course not, of course not. I understand things have been tense, but I’m certain that everything will shake out fine – I know that Stingy would never have harmed my sect sister deliberately, so obviously I’m on your side here, yes?”
The Warboss, his exact features obscured by the poor lighting, loomed two metres above his head. The tension in the ki ebbed, but did not disappear.
And then Cobo shouldered past, his body language equally as angry as it had been outside. “[Oh you can all piss off, too. Lu’s harmless. If you wanna keep an eye on him, come out yourself.]” He reached the door with his hood drawn up, threw it open almost as violently as Stingy had, and marched out.
Lu braced for violence, but it didn’t come. Instead of insult, the clansmen seemed to take Cobo’s provocation with good humour – Lu heard low laughter from the corners of the room as the tension slackened.
The Warboss was among those chuckling, his treasure turning grinding cacophony into a very human "Hah, hah, hah.” Almost reluctantly, Lu allowed his grip on his stomach’s ki to follow the room’s example and ease off. Good, good. No need to Rip myself out of the building, right?
A large, clawed hand nudged his shoulder. “Yeah, don’t worry. I know Lu.” She moved, and Lu followed at her heel. “He wouldn’t be able to do anything unless I let him, you know?”
…Well that’s just the slightest bit insulting. Maybe its true, but you don’t need to say it out loud, you know?
----------------------------------------
They didn’t hang around the doorway. Instead, Lu continued to follow behind Stingy as she went even further into the segregated area. This is where the clan’s military leaders lived, but it looks like even these defences are unmanned. This time, he didn’t question the reason; he could plainly see Stingy’s scales darkening under the sun’s light like wood turning to charcoal.
Wordlessly, he drew a bundle of waxy fabric from his purse and offered it.
“Hm? Oh, thanks.” She took the offered tent body and draped it around her shoulders, wearing it like a shawl. It covered her scintillating bejeweled necklace, and Lu thought that maybe that would do as much to protect her skin as the rest of the shade put together.
Their destination turned out to be something like a garden plot, though it didn’t resemble what a human farmer would make.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
It was more like a pond, spires of stone rising up from oddly clear water to stand taller than any of the surrounding buildings. Melon-like fruiting vines were twined all around the spires, and Lu could see they continued under the water – it was vaguely reminiscent of a rice paddy, though the amount of water was much greater, deeper than Lu was tall.
Cobo was already present, hunched over and gripping a railing of untreated wood.
“Okay, this should be good. We don’t want the guys underground to hear us, right?”
The guys under..? Ah, I suppose the village isn’t as undefended as it looks. “No, I’d prefer not. This place is private?”
“Should be. They won’t be able to breathe with the fertilizer in the water, I think. Right Cobo?”
“[…Right, Stingy.]”
The silence that followed felt meaningful, and Lu waited patiently for Stingy to open her mouth again. When she did, her voice was softer than usual. Almost bashful. “…You have a Comprehension, right Lu? I can feel it.”
Lu eyed the woman. She wasn’t looking at him, even as he drew up beside her, but rather over the pond-garden. As he approached the railing, Lu realized he had misjudged the scale of his surroundings. The stone spires were much thicker than he had imagined, and each of the round fruits sprouting from the vines must be as large as his head, rather than fist-sized as he had assumed.
“Yes. I think so, at least. I don’t really understand what a Comprehension is, not exactly, but something’s definitely giving me a helping hand where spacial ki is concerned.” I might be a genius at spell creation, but techniques aren’t similar except in the most superficial of ways. And yet I’ve invented as many techniques as I have spells, despite the need for them being much lesser now that I’m back on Earth.
“Yeah. So I thought…” Her teeth ground, and she started over. “That human woman, Jiendao. Her consumption’s of lightning, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“Okay, that’s good. I thought maybe…” Again she paused, rethinking her words. “I wanted to help her. When you’re young- well not you but when a warrior is young, their Comprehension is pretty soft. Malleable. You can screw it up real bad if you consume the wrong stuff.”
“[Like Sulphur,]” Cobo chimed in from the side.
“Yeah. Like that guy.”
Lu was starting to slot the pieces together, at the edges at least. “You saw Jiendao doing something wrong?”
Stingy turned her head. Her expression was too inhuman for him to discern, but her voice was regretful. “I thought so. Those other two swordsmen, they weren’t far enough along for me to feel anything, but her? She felt- I don’t know what words to use. She was mixing things that didn’t mix well.”
“She was volatile?”
"No, the opposite. Like if you put water in fuel it won’t burn. I don’t know why she won’t wake up, all I did was give her some advice on energy flow.”
Another pause, longer this time. Lu looked down into the crystal clear water and head-sized Salt melons bobbing gently on the vines. The sun isn’t killing them, even though they’re full of ki. So why is this a problem with the warriors specifically? If it’s a Heavenly mandate, how is it discerning things? This whole place is under so many anti-divination formations, it should be invisible.
“…This isn’t going to go away, is it?”
Lu’s eyes returned to her face, high up enough he had to crank his neck. “I’ll… I’ll speak to some people. I have a touch of goodwill stocked up with the Elders, so they won’t dismiss my words out of hand.” The sight of her blackened scales, curling to expose the flesh underneath, made him wince. “I’m not going to make any promises, but Elder Braveheart shouldn’t make trouble for you from now on.” He’ll be entirely too busy anyway, even if he doesn’t listen to me.
Another silence, followed by a voice even softer than before. “Yeah. That’s good.” Any exuberance in her movements had entirely fled. She gripped the railing hard enough to crush bark and splinter the hard wood beneath.
“Ah, I didn’t mean to make you distraught. I’ll…” I need to actually know what happened, in detail. But it isn’t just Cobo, she’s on edge as well. The entire damn population is ready to lash out at the drop of a pin. “I’ll come back tomorrow, okay? It would be really helpful if you remembered exactly what you told Jiendao, you understand?”
A nod, shallow, her eyes remaining averted.
…Well, alright then. He turned to go, but paused. “Cobo?”
“[I’m gonna stay here a while. You go.]”
----------------------------------------
The stembrun patch was quiet. Neither he nor Stingy spoke for a long time, letting the silence build up into a thick layer that was increasingly hard to puncture.
The plants look good. I didn’t think there’d be enough salt in the water around here, but they seem fine. Pale, but that was probably just the light.
Dad would have liked it here, with all the green stuff. The thought made something well up from inside, and Cobo’s teeth parted as his breathing got heavy. His power churned inside him, wanting to burst out but having nowhere to go.
“Cobo?”
His reply was quick, the product of instinct over thought. “I wanna go home. I don’t want to be here, and here doesn’t want us to stay.”
The stiff fabric Stingy was using as cover crinkled softly as she moved. “I don’t like here either. But it isn’t like we can leave.”
“We could. Lu could send us home.” Chaos rasped away at the underside of his skin. Scraping deeper and deeper, but never breaking through. “He’d do it if I asked. He’s a fucking pushover.” There wasn’t any bile climbing up the back of his throat, but it felt like there should be. Like he was too full, ready to pop at any moment as days passed with no release.
Stingy made a noise deep in her chest. “…Is it home, though? You’re Lonesome.”
“Junk Dog might not even exist anymore. Does it even fucking matter?” His voice rose. “I came here ‘cause I… I don’t even know! Because I wanted to live? Because I was curious? Because there wasn’t anything else?” He kicked out, and the shoddy soft Earth wood gave. The railing tilted, wobbled for a pregnant moment, then fell to splash down into the water below.
Immediately the nearest stembrun lashed their tendrils around the flesh of their otherworldly cousin, fighting over which would get to drag the nutrients down into their roots. “But there isn’t anything here, either! The Pit, the Tomb, the forest, fuck! I bet the Dragon Eater Clan wouldn’t have worked out either!” He panted, and multicoloured flames issued from his mouth. “Why? What are we doing wrong? What am I doing wrong? Ded was stronger ‘n me, Sulphur was stronger, Lu still is stronger! You had to drag my useless ass around the wastes because-!” Sparks of light drifted in his vision, bright against the dark glass. He could feel the Golden Sun wearing into his spirit where flailing motions had exposed flesh, but he was beyond caring.
“Why am I still so weak? I’ve eaten Warbosses. I’ve eaten dragons, so why is the shittiest Swamp clansman still more?” The wood was gone, dragged down into the muddy bottom. It was like it had never been there. It had never mattered; just plant food, and not even much of that.
Then something hit Cobo in the back. He lurched, trying and failing to correct his balance, but his foot went over the edge.
Space Ripper surged forth- but no, he was too heavy. Something was on his back, riding him down, and before he could account for whatever-it-was the water met him face-first.
It was heavy, oily, full of whatever the swampdwellers had put in it to grow food in this alien soil. It burned his tongue and nose, and he thanked whatever human had made his new goggles for saving his eyes as he sputtered. “Stingy, what the FUCK?”
She splashed him, and for a second the absurdity of the situation washed away his emotions.
Then a questing tendril brushed against his foot, snaking up to firmly grip his ankle.
----------------------------------------
It wasn’t a hard fight. The stembrun were domesticated, and backed off the moment he cut a few vines loose – but that didn’t make the ‘water’ any more pleasant to be in. Cobo pulled himself up onto shore and spat foul liquid, shaking himself in a vain attempt to get dry as Stingy landed beside him.
“When I was little, mother would tell me stories about the Great Ancestors.”
He spat again, with more insistence. “Fuck off! What was that about?!”
She ignored him. “Stingy-Eye didn’t win because she was stronger than the Earth Emperor. Oldest Bones died before he was born. Joe had to fight the Sun for a year and a day before Uriel showed up – and I guess he’s still fighting it. I don’t think they had it any easier than us, you know?”
My tongue is going to detach and crawl out of my mouth like a fucking slug. “Fuck off and get to the point. What was that for?” His cowl was slimy against his skin. Maybe it would wash off when he swam back across the moat?
“It took your mind off moping, didn’t it?” He threw a ball of chaos, and Stingy backhanded it as it transmuted into darkness. “Ah, cold! No, but really! You feel better, right?”
He grumbled, but his heart wasn’t in it.
“See? Being weak today doesn’t matter, it’s-”
“Being strong tomorrow, fuck you, I didn’t need to take a bath to quote common fucking sense.”
She sat. Infuriatingly, the slimy water slipped off her within seconds. “Yeah.” She had lost her covering at some point in the brief melee, and more of her fine scales were shrivelling up. The skin underneath was inflamed, but only a fraction as much as his would be, if he tried to go as naked as her. “But you didn’t really mean it, did you?”
“I’m not strong. Don’t try ‘n lie to me.”
“I’m not saying you’re strong.” Her voice was more normal now. “I’m strong. I was born strong. None of mother’s cultists could match me. But… I didn’t always win.” He coughed, and a green chunk landed in the mud, still weakly wriggling. “But it wasn’t really the strongest guys that beat me. Well, sometimes, but- anyway, it was the old ones, the ones with more tricks. They were harder.”
Cobo gave up on scraping the taste off his tongue and flopped down. “Yeah, I get it. I’ll get you back for this.”
She giggled.