“So, what’s wrong with me?” asked Helena, Percy’s hand on her shoulder. They were both carried to a healer once the talks were over. He was not happy with how it all ended, not at all. Basically, they were almost where they started.
They posted some guards at the door and left it at that, sending servants to fetch things for the 'guests'. There were some choice words flying between the pair as they moved toward the mage's wing to get treated. The paladin was supported by two squires, but Helena had to be carried the whole way.
She wanted to quarter everyone in the preprepared rooms, but he wouldn’t hear a word about letting demons free inside the palace walls. Even if watched by guards. And the group, in turn, refused to be separated.
They viewed one another as peers, a concept that for some reason refused to take root in Percy's mind. For him, it was simply impossible to be dealing with demons in any other way than by a weapon, so to him, any other alternative simply did not exist. He wouldn’t even admit the possibility.
Their treatment of her was his example, but just the same, it was hers as well. Which the man in front of them now confirmed.
"The treatment was done expertly. It isn't a lasting solution, but for a battlefield it's perfect. We'll have to sort it out soon, but I think we'll manage. There is a complication with a foreign object still lodged in your leg, though. We're gonna have to find some way to extract it and I fear we'll do more harm than good."
Percy grunted at the praise and scowled at the last sentence. “That’s good and everything, but what about the hands and feet.”
“There’s nothing we could identify as a cause. There’s no wound or injury and if those already present were used to do more harm, it wouldn’t explain the two ‘healthy’ limbs. It looks akin to some injury of the spine we’ve seen before, but we found none. It’s simply as if the connection between the hands and the head was severed or blocked. Probably using some kind of magic we do not know and or understand.”
"Is there nothing that could be done?" Helena asked.
"On our end? No, we know too little to attempt anything." The healer spoke adamantly. "We'd be doing more harm than good."
“How long will it last?” Asked Percy.
The healer opened his mouth to give another uncertain answer, but Helena was faster. “The snake seemed to be trying to convey that two weeks for sure, and maybe for up to several months.”
“And you’re trusting this… demon?” The questioned man asked.
“I’ve no indication to think it was deceiving me on this. It tried fairly hard to explain it to me without using words. Almost as if it was feeling guilty at having done this to me.”
“You do realize that you’re talking about a demon here, right? It can’t ever be trusted.” The paladin scoffed.
She had to pause because she was sure she'd yell at him if she did not. And she didn't want to be angry. Not at her husband, not over this. "Yes, I do. And she was the one who performed this expertly done treatment as the healer called it.”
“After they almost killed you.”
"We called them here and then ran in and started killing them. What do you expect should have happened? We attacked, they retaliated." They had this fight several times already and their arguments did not change. It was getting kind of tiring.
"Anyway, I want to be there when the linguist goes to them." She declared.
“Absolutely not. You can’t be there.” And this was the second time they fought over this.
“I am the only one with at least a little rapport with them. And maybe they’d be willing to help me.”
“And maybe they’ll just finish what they started. You’re not going.”
“And I am telling you, you can’t stop me.”
“I’ll just lock you up somewhere.” He declared, looking smug and too proud of himself for coming up with the solution.
“Won’t help you, I already sent word to Terry, and you know he’ll back me up on this.” She broke through his composure.
"When have you managed that? I was with you the whole time?" His eyes were nearly leaving their sockets as he stared daggers into her.
The healers had already left the room by this point, not willing to be dragged into the argument of two high-ranking members of the Order.
It would have been better if they just stopped and slept on it, but both were too deep and too invested to be the one to suggest backing down first. They carried on as Percy hobbled to bed with Helena following soon after, carried by servants. They'd have continued even then, if they weren't simply too tired to start speaking.
***
The following day Helena was proven right. High Priest Terrence intervened in her favor before the king as the group gave their report. Both men were quite displeased at the poor handling of the situation but admitted they’d most likely acted the same.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Sometime during the morning, a delivery was made to the ballroom and the servants found everyone, but a watchman, asleep. It was therefore decided, that any attempt at further communication would be left for the afternoon. Both sides needed the rest anyway.
After lunch, when the time to return to the site of the ritual came, she met with the man that would be accompanying her. And found Percy standing by him with a group of paladins.
“Oh no, you don’t” She exclaimed.
“King’s orders.” He said and not a word more passed between them.
The linguist was a man who helped them during the translation of the ritual’s tome. Versen, if she recalled correctly. Helena shook his hand and exchanged meaningless pleasantries on the way to their destination.
At the door, Percy spoke up once again. "Four are to enter, that will be Me, Stuart, Anden, and Jehen. The rest of you will stand outside. You hear anything wrong, you rush inside, you got that?"
A series of Yes, sir! and similar affirmatives came in reply. Helena wasn’t happy with that, he and Anden were too hotheaded for Helena to be sure they wouldn’t do something terrible. And both were in mourning for Pjotr right now.
But she couldn’t complain if she didn’t want to start another argument, which she did not. The two of them went through enough of them yesterday to cover some peoples’ entire marriage.
They entered without even knocking, which she found entirely undiplomatic. A group of servants set up a table and several chairs. Percy and the other three took up position several steps behind the pair they were to protect.
The people inside the room looked around, as if unsure as to what to do until the girl who spoke old Merenese and another man grabbed the snake demon and made their way to the table. All three sat down but only the serpent was armed. The lethal item strapped to its chest.
Her chest, it’s a her. Don’t forget that. It would probably be lost in translation, but Helena wanted to get herself into the right mindset sooner rather than later. Things like this mattered in the long run.
Introductions were first on the agenda. She pointed to each member of their party and introduced them as Helena of Insbenn, Versen of Ners, and the four knights by their names and simply as ‘of the Order’.
Names couldn’t be translated and it made little sense to burden their minds with unnecessary information so early. It might have been a negotiation of sorts, but it was Helena and Meren who wanted their help, not the other way around. At least initially.
The trio opposite them went by Sidysvalda Weaver, Ixalia Moore, and Lubosh Kozack.
A brief lull ensued as their group mulled that information over and it was Versen who voiced their collective question out loud.
“You are nobility? All of you?”
The brunette, who wore thicker clothing from some kind of gray wool with red stripes looked to the other two who had similar outfits. It almost looked like some kind of a uniform. In material and cut, if not in color.
She replied with a simple “No. And you?”
What an odd question. But Versen's might have been equally strange. Perhaps the presence of a surname means different things to us. Or maybe I am just overthinking things.
The linguist didn’t pay the oddity much heed and plowed straight on. “Who speaks for you, who is your leader?”
Again, the young woman conveyed the question and got an answer from both her companions. Helena was meanwhile translating old Merenese into modern for the benefit of their guards.
"No one. We speak for self, every one. Decide all." Sidysvalda replied.
Helena could almost hear the tick that must have been tugging at Percy’s eye after that. Another thing he’d have trouble wrapping his head around.
“Do you need anything that could be provided for you by his majesty, the king, at present?”
Perhaps they discussed this beforehand, but she didn't have to seek counsel on this question. She said several words but then drew blank. She had to think for a moment. Then the snake pulled out a used bandage that has been boiled to make it usable again. It definitely wasn't made to be used more than once and was already fraying.
The spokeswoman took it and presented it. “Injury help, heal-leaf, wound heal.”
So, medical supplies, that makes sense. She asked her own question before the linguist could.
“Can you help me?” she flapped a hand and showed an injury to demonstrate her meaning.
Sidysvalda turned to Ixalia and spoke shortly. The serpent bobbed its head from side to side as if unsure and opened her pack. She pulled out something and made it glow, the bright side obscured from Helena’s vision. She swiped her hand and poked it several times before placing her hand on the table and spoke to the brunette, who relayed it to them.
“Place hand.” She said.
Helena wasn't translating this bit for the paladins, Versen was. So she did as the snake asked quickly before he had time to inform Percy, who'd definitely try to prevent her from doing so.
The snake grabbed the hand and placed it palm down on the table, straightening the priest’s fingers. She then touched the middle of Helena’s forearms, closed her eyes, and concentrated on something.
After she opened them again, she shook her head. Sidysvalda translated. “Healing started already. Nothing need be done. Will do itself.”
“And the wounds?” She asked hopefully.
This conversation took longer. “Not enough, need more…” the woman trailed off.
“We could get more, we could trade for your help.” The linguist spoke once more.
“Not matter of thing. No word. Can not explain. Need more word.” Ah, so it’s a matter of communication, not of willingness. That might be a good sign. Helena thought.
Before they could have asked more, the girl was faster with her own questions. “Why we here? How we here?”
That sparked a discussion about the ritual itself. Versen explained how several centuries ago the portal opened up and with the help of the gods, old Meren made a pact with a different world. An agreement of recruitment. A room would be designated in the donor world and a similar one targeting it would be used to summon those present inside the first room.
It took some trial and error to explain everything in a way the other side understood and could transfer to the others. When it was done, an at first lively debate began and quickly turned heated. The three opposite them quickly calmed down, but it continued among the few others in the room.
They told one of their greater secrets, it was time to ask for another in return. "How have you come to being associated with… evil-kin." There wasn't a word for a demon in old Merenese, so they had to improvise. Versen had to describe it to the brunette several times in various wordings and even gesture to the snake woman before the meaning carried over.
This time, the translation managed to rile the snake demon up, even the other two seemed genuinely angry.
Was it the way we said it, or?
The answer as to why there was such animosity aimed at them for their question came soon.
"She child friend, always together. She man…" The girl trailed off for a bit, that sentence didn't sound right. She soon decided how she wanted to say her piece. "I man, you man, he man, she man." She pointed to everyone other than Ixalia present at the table.
"Oh, she means human." Said Versen pointlessly, Helena understood that from the girl's effort.
The brunette then pointed forcefully at the serpent demon. “She man! You did this.” She raised her bandaged arm. “You did this!” She gently touched Ixalia’s shriveled hand and arm. “You. Did. THIS!” She waved at the snake bits.
“YOU! DID! EVERYTHING!” Sidysvalda shouted and encompassed the whole room with her hands.