“[And then he was suddenly right in front of us, cuttin’ little Wail-Blow clean in half!]” Sulphur mimed the swing in question, the bulky tank on his back clanging against its holster as he moved. “[Dead in one hit, almost couldn’t believe it! So a’ course me and Luos and the rest all blast him, but he just shrugs it off like nothing.]”
He paused to take a drink, and the rough camp they’d set up in the marsh was silent for a moment. The sun was setting, and as it went down it dragged the shadows up and out, until it seemed that the light of their soggy campfire illuminated a small bubble sealed off from the world. It was even partly true; four mundane-seeming coins marked the edges of the camp, the illusion array an additional layer of privacy atop the sheer remoteness.
Sulphur wiped his mouth with the back of a gloved hand. “[Yeah, that was really something. Never thought I’d be fighting a Clanboss face-to-face…]” There was a look on his face that Lu was having trouble discerning, a sort of bittersweet pleasure. “[Would have died for sure if the Ancestors hadn’t pulled their tricky-fooly crap. He was throwing Junk Dog around like a bag of feathers.]”
Cobo grunted. “Wasn’t as bad as that. You were hitting him, he would’a’ gone down eventually.”
“[Well, we only saw it through divinations after the fact,]” Lu cut in, “[I’m sure the battle was much more impressive in person.]” I can’t even imagine it, actually being there. Watching Steadfast Heart fight a step removed was terrifying enough; no human army could have stood against him. Were all cultivators who survived the war like that? Lu couldn’t picture Braveheart doing anything remotely similar, or even White Knuckle.
Sulphur pointed his way. “[Kid’s right, kid. Or I guess I should say man, seeing as you’re both hardened raiders, now…]” He took another swig of the not-quite-alcohol Cobo had brought out. Of the four of them, he was drinking the most. He beamed, a drop of fluid dripping down his chin. “[Cobo the Dragonslayer, huh? Wish I’d been there to see that.]”
“Just small ones. Stingy did most of it, anyway.”
“[Hah! Course she did, she’s Stinger-Tail’s daughter. But you were there too, so don’t pretend it wasn’t nothing!]”
Ded opened his mouth, speaking over Cobo’s stifled embarrassment and Sulphur’s cackles. “[So you’re not coming back, huh?]”
That sobered the mood. Cobo chewed on his answer for a minute before replying. “No. Not for a long time, at least.” Then he threw off the change in atmosphere, becoming cockier. “Gonna start my own thing. Lotta old clans cut up by all this, so there’s more’n enough free land for it.” He pointed a thumb to himself, his skin flush from drink. “So the next time you see me, I’ll be a Clanboss. Clanboss Cobo.”
After a moment of stillness, Ded nodded. “[That’ll be something to see. Sure I can’t convince you? After all this, it would be a shame to just go our separate ways.]”
“Naw, I’ll be coming for Junk Dog with a thousand sons at my back.” He said it with a smile, and after a moment Ded smiled as well.
“[Cocky bastard!]” Sulphur yelled. He slapped his knees, and would have spilled liquid all over himself if there was anything left in his bottle. “[Come at us whenever you like! But it better be soon, otherwise us old guys’ll be dust!]”
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The reminiscing went on, late into the night. In the bouts of silence Lu was struck by how everything had changed, and how it had stayed the same.
All four of them had grown. Cobo was no longer a near physical copy of the other two, his body having thickened and grown taller with age and consumption. His eyes flashed in a rainbow whirl of colours, and his muscles were sturdy but svelte, the build of a swordfighter. Sulphur, in contrast, seemed smaller and more hunched; while he lacked the wrinkles and greying hair that an elderly human would possess, it seemed that he was finally starting to show his age in the Junk Dog way. And carrying that huge barrel-thing on his back hasn’t done his posture any favours.
Ded hadn’t changed as much where his body was concerned, but he had a solidity to him that wasn’t nearly as prominent in Lu’s memories. Unlike Sulphur he seemed to still be bathed in the vitality of youth, and each of his motions carried with them a certain firmity. He had always been the ideologue amongst the four, but now he wore that conviction as an aura around his shoulders, his eyes blazing with inner light.
And even I, myself, have changed… Lu looked down at his hand, gripping the too-large ceramic bottle like it weighed nothing. The skin was just a little tan, in a way that the him of two years ago would have been self-conscious of. And not just in terms of cultivation, either.
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Things wound down as the drink ran out. Though Sulphur had put down at least three of the swampman-sized bottles, he remained awake and mostly coherent. Cobo had loosened up, just slightly, expressing himself with more bombast.
“The Unseen Sword Clan,” he declared with a flourish.
Sulphur made a gagging sound. “[Worst one yet! Come on, let me hear a good name!]”
Cobo snarled. “Screw you. How about this: the Twelve-Coloured Eyes Clan.”
“[Better,]” Ded grunted out. Unlike the other two, he seemed to be a withdrawn sort of drunk.
“[At least that one’s about you ‘nstead of Stinger-Tail. Come on, give me one with sauce on it.]”
A grumble. “[I think that’s a fine name, Cobo,]” Lu broke in. Much better than most of his names.
He tossed his head. “Fine, you want something better? I’ve been keeping this one in the back pocket:” he cleared his throat. “The Chaos Beast Clan, founded by Chaos Beast Cobo!]”
Uuugh, no, Cobo, warriors are supposed to mature quickly. That’s something like a five-year-old would say! “I’m vetoing that. No student of mine will pick up such an ungentlemanly title!”
Meanwhile, Sulphur just chuckled. “[Naw, that’s perfect. Perfect! You’ve gotta do that one, it’s the best!]”
Lu took a sip of what he was increasingly convinced was lamp oil cut with vinegar. He was the only one not to have finished their original bottle, and Sulphur eyed him jealously. “[Don’t listen to him, Cobo. He named his son Badmin, there’s nothing to learn from his naming sense.]”
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The stars twinkled overhead, about as clear as Lu had ever seen them. It had been a bit overcast during the day, but now there was nothing to obscure the heavens from view.
“[Hey, Lu.]”
He glanced over, straightening up from where he was lying against a fallen log. The fire had burned low, leaving only the light of the stars and moon above to see by.
“[I’ve got something in the back of my head I should probably ask.]” Unlike Cobo and Sulphur, who were asleep and filling the clearing with snores, Ded seemed wide awake. He looked up at the sky, the black mirrors of his eyes reflecting it perfectly.
“[Need me to send you home?]” The war might have ended, but hostile sentiment sure hasn’t. Would it be better to ask for a splinter straight out, or just smuggle him and Sulphur to Lake Heron? No way I’ll be able to get them in to use the one in the sect…
“[No, not that.]” He looked down, his eyes losing the illusion of cosmic depth. “[We can hike out on our own. No, it’s the Ancestors – Oldest Bones and a few others, I mean.]”
Lu finished sitting up, any restfulness gone. “[Oldest Bones? Elaborate.]”
“[He wants to talk to you.]”
Lu waited for the elaboration, but it didn’t come. “[…I’m going to need a bit more than that. Why? And how?]” And why am I hearing this from you? “[I’m not going to let him in my head, if that’s what you’re expecting.]”
“[No,]” Ded replied. “[I’ll… speak for him, I guess. I don’t really know how I know this – just some spiritual crap, I suppose.]”
“[Ah, the divine.]” Lu looked down at the still mostly-full bottle. No. Even if I feel the need to be a bit drunk for this, no. “[I’ve been trying to puzzle out divinations, you know. Haven’t been able to make heads of tails of even the simple ones.]”
Ded softly shook his head, before turning it back up towards the heavens. “[So?]”
In the little clearing of relatively dry ground, Lu studied the man that wasn’t quite his friend. He looked at Earth’s sky with a sort of grim wonder, an expression Lu had never seen, never had cause to name. “[Do you think I should?]” According to Stingy-Eye, he owns my soul.
“[I’d do it if I was in your place.]” He shrugged. “[But you’re not me.]”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Lu picked up the bottle, and took a small sip. His nose wrinkled. No less foul than I was expecting. Bleh. “[Fine, then.]” I suppose I should pay tribute to the being that owns a section of the afterlife. Bleh, bleh! That thought was even more foul than the liquor! “[Do I need to do anything?]”
He shook his head. “[No. Just give me a second.]”
He breathed, and his breath was fire. It welled up from within him, a curiously solid ki that caused the hairs on Lu’s neck to stand straight out. The fire became earth, and then something Lu couldn’t name, and then the wet scent of blood.
He continued to breath in and out, slowly, leaking ki in waves. The air of a green and vibrant forest, the edge of a blade, black soil nurturing roots.
Then the rot that made the soil, life feeding on death feeding on life. Reality became fuzzy at the edges, and Lu could feel his undergarments stirring as their formations activated.
Then the marsh clearing dropped away, just a little bit, an idle daydream rather than the depths of sleep.
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Lu was standing on a plain of black soil, moist and fertile. He moved his arms, took a step, and then felt inwards. I’m not here. Not the way I was the first time, or with Hidden Moon, or in the liminal space. Persimmon’s specialised formations were doing their job; he felt that with the slightest exertion, he could break through the dream, back into reality.
The plain was empty, stretching to every horizon, and Lu sighed. “Must I really dig you up again, Sir Bones?”
There was no answer, and so he got to work. The stone tool appeared almost before he could reach for it, and one by one he found and pulled ancient bones from the earth. The pile grew, until at last he topped it with a dirty, time-worn skull.
“I died in Knifefish Bog, you know,” said the bones in a voice of still air and cold earth. “Together with My mother, before I was born. It was not as it is now, but it was still a deadly place. She was made to move across desert sand, and the muck proved too wet for her. She struggled for hours, slowly sinking, cursing everything. And then she drowned, and Me with her.”
Lu stood, not knowing how to reply to that. Then he sighed, and took a moment to sit before he thought about opening his mouth. Is that any way to start a conversation? He settled down onto the black soil, and between one blink and the next, the hole was gone. The bones, the corpse, had shifted, becoming more whole, its empty eye sockets darker than pitch.
“What did you want to speak with me about? And further, why me?” The chisel-like stone was smooth in his hand, cool and comforting. “Is simply being the first human to stumble into Salt so momentous, that the very Gods should come down to speak?” His heart beat in his chest, the only living thing in existence.
“There was no higher reason. There never is. Only cause and effect, spiralling down to the grave.”
Lu sat in silence. Here, in front of Oldest Bones, each moment seemed to stretch into an age. His thoughts took eons to form, ten times as long for his lips to part, a hundred to wag his tongue.
“I suppose I can’t argue with that. You’ve won, after all.” Overwhelming silence, the sound of the stars winking out one after the other, of a corpse sitting in the dark, too dead to even rot. “What do you plan to do with the Earth’s souls? Why do all this? Your peers made their intent to tear my world apart clear enough, but seeing as we’re still here, I assume you think differently.”
The corpse moved. Its skull tilted, slightly, a movement that was so small it could have been imagined. Lu’s heart stopped.
Then, it beat again as time resumed. “Mine is the consumption of death. The consumption of rot. The consumption of time.
“One day, the last thing will die. The last microbe will starve, alone, with nothing left to mourn. My siblings will die as blood and violence fail, as the last fire goes out, as self-reflection loses meaning. There shall be only death, forever and ever.
“And then, even death shall fall.
“And then, I will wake up. I will finally be born, the only thing in existence. I will open my eyes, fill my lungs, and cry out for more.”
Lu and the corpse sat, observing each other. It did not move again.
Softly, Lu laughed, just once. “What a strange conversation. Though I suppose that’s normal, when one dreams.” He looked up to the swirling red clouds. There is beauty here, but I think I prefer Earth’s sky. “Ded said that a few others wanted to talk; shall I make my way to them, or do you have something else to say?”
“No need,” said a voice with neither texture nor flavour – nor direction. “I was just being polite, waiting for you to finish.”
Slowly, the soil became more moist. It turned to mud, then muddy water, and soon it was a dark lake, just murky enough that the bottom could have been one metre down, or a thousand. Lu and the corpse were the only things still dry, sitting on a little circle of land that had remained untransformed.
“Ah, Hidden Moon. You also wanted something of me?”
“Mostly to vent to someone who’s forced to listen, really.” Something moved in the water, coiling around the little island. “It’s so frustrating. I had this whole thing planned out, you know?”
Lu waited, anxiously watching bits of soil fall into the water, before realising that the Ancestor was waiting for him to say something. “Ah… What plan, Lady Moon?”
The thing moved, a dark shadow swimming lazily through darker water. “Oh, you’d have loved it. Or I guess you’d have hated it. The Sun is in Hell, you know?”
Lu opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “No. I did not know that.”
“Well, it is. Don’t worry, it isn’t doing anything dangerous – to you, at least.” Lu’s mouth felt dry, even being only vaguely tethered to his current reality. “I had it all set up. They were going to double-cross old Bones once he gave them the power – the angels, that is – and then I was going to use the thematic link to feed them to the Sun. I had a whole speech memorised.” Somehow, her voice suddenly became sinister without picking up any emotion at all. “’Tyrant Sun, I return to you the things my foolish descendants have stolen. Your compassion, your light, your foresight.’ See? Because your world’s divination magic is similar to what the stars could do, before we ate them all.”
Lu attempted to swallow, and failed. “I… see. And is there a reason you didn’t do that?”
Near the horizon, a fin breached the water. There was nothing to compare its size against, but Lu suddenly felt less secure, magic undergarments or no.
“Here’s a secret. It’s a pretty good one, so memorise it: to turn a lie into truth, it has to be a lie first. The moon in the sky is already real; the moon on the water’s surface becomes real with effort.”
Lu finally managed to wet his dry throat. “Very wise, senior. I’m sure it was a magnificent plan, dashed only by the vicissitudes of fate. Was there anything else? Do any of your peers wish to speak to me?”
“Oh, Stingy-Eye would probably want to berate that cast-off splinter for getting itself eaten. But she can do that some other time.”
Lu blinked, then looked down at the chisel. What..?
In response to his silence, Hidden Moon continued. “Seriously, who has ultimate power handed to them after millennia of oppression, and decides not to overstep? Boring. This reality really is suited to be run by a corpse. I almost regret lashing my wagon to the slowest horse, inevitable victory or not.”
Lu turned the crude stone tool over in his hand. Ah, I suppose it… makes sense? Cobo got his as a blessing, so…
He was jolted from his examination by a booming voice, this one plainly coming from above.
“Foolish little sister. There is no inevitable, not when the future is made with claws and teeth.”
Alright, that’s enough of that. As a great pupil-less eye began forming out of the clouds, Lu circulated additional qi into his protective garments.
“As for you, pale-”
He didn’t stick around for the rest. Sorry, we’ll have to catch up another time. In one or two thousand years, maybe? All at once, he was back in the small clearing.
Ded reeled, a small amount of black dust crusting his eyes. He sat, hard, and groaned.
“[I agree.]” Lu snatched up the bottle. “[Soul-owner or not, that didn’t seem to accomplish much.]”
The Junk Dog clansman wiped at his face with a sleeve. “[I’m sure it’ll come back at some point. Things like them don’t talk to things like us, without it meaning something.]”
Lu gulped down the horrible-tasting liquid. I really hope this can get humans drunk. I’ve got more than enough meaning just in my day-to-day life, thank you.
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In the morning, Lu awoke distressingly sober. Ah, I suppose it’s too much to ask that intoxicants cross the reality-and-or-species barrier unscathed. He thought he had felt something near the end of the bottle, but it must have been wishful thinking. Ded was already up – or perhaps he hadn’t slept at all – while Cobo and Sulphur snored in a tangle of limbs on the dew-kissed ground. There was the slightest chill in the air, despite the sun cresting the trees.
“[Morning, Lu.]”
“[Good morning.]” Actually… “[Or as I should say, happy Year’s End.]” Ded cocked his brow. “[A local holiday, celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next.]” There’s probably a horrible be-belled hat waiting for me when I get home. All the more reason to drag this out. “[Do your people have anything like that?]”
Ded’s head shook. “[No. Some people celebrate certain seasons – the Cloud-Touchers have something for bright, and a different one for windy – but as far as clan-wide things, there isn’t anything like that.]”
“[A shame. Maybe I can sneak you into the festivities? Give each of you a hood, and you look more-or-less human.]”
On the ground, one of the two sleeping figures began to stir. “[No. We should get going before anything happens. Okay Sulphur, time to get up.]” He kicked the dead-asleep man lightly in the side, and he was up in a flash.
“[I’m awake, boss!]” He blinked, frozen in a salute, before relaxing. “[Oh hey, not in the army anymore. Does that mean I can sleep in?]”
“[No.]”
Together, the three of them got the hungover Cobo to his feet. A healing art perked him up, and he demanded Lu teach him the spell – right up until he saw a sketch of the spellform, whereupon he instantly said it was too early in the morning to train.
They puttered around, making smalltalk for a while. Lu received an explanation of hover technology from Sulphur – which was mostly technical jargon, but Lu wrote down every word because he wasn’t a fool – and Cobo demonstrated his ability to make Dancing Sparks and walk on water.
“[Damn, kid.]” Sulphur scratched his head. “[You really are his son. Good for you.]”
“[Disciple,]” Lu corrected. “[Please just say we’re master and disciple, I’m not nearly ready for the burden of fatherhood.]”
But eventually, it was time to part ways.
“[Don’t get too emotional,]” Sulphur said with a grin. “[World’s a bigger place, now. Lots of adventures to go ‘round.]”
Lu shook his hand, which the old warrior turned into a hug. “[I’m sure we’ll meet again. The current tensions will ease, and things will calm down.]”
“[Doubt it, but nice sentiment.]” He held Lu at arm’s length. Up close, Lu could see the subtle mutations from his consumption, lines like wire running under his skin, thinner than hairs. “[If you die, die big, got it? That’s an order.]”
Lu’s smile was bittersweet. “[Don’t die, Sulphur Grip. Just live forever.]”
He cackled, and Lu switched places with Cobo. “[Ded. This is goodbye, at least for now.]” This time, the handshake did not turn into anything else.
“[For now. Might be we’re still enemies next time we meet, you understand that?]”
Ded, poor manners! You’re not supposed to say that out loud, where Hell’s Monkey can hear. “[Maybe. The future is the future.]” He blinked back wetness. “[For now, let’s pretend we were always friends. That’s a lie worth making real, isn’t it?]”
The two warriors rocketed away on their ground-speeder, and Lu and Cobo to watched them recede into the distance, becoming a speck before disappearing completely.
“Do you really think there won’t be more wars?”
Lu looked up. There were a few clouds, as there had been yesterday, but it was mostly clear. “Oh, I’m sure there will always be one more war on the horizon. Some disaster bubbling under the surface.” Like the Sun eating Hell. Or Hell eating the Sun, for that matter. “But its up to us, isn’t it? We both got away without being destroyed; maybe that can just keep happening, if we nudge things hard enough, often enough. It’s worth hoping for, at least.” Cobo shot him a skeptical look, and Lu clapped him on the shoulder. “Bah, enough of that! Let’s go home. Say, you’ve probably never had frozen mint, have you? It’s a seasonal treat, and there should be a booth set up – we’ll get some on the way in.”
They started their long trudge back though the marsh, as the sun quickly dispelled the thin winter mists.