|
|
| (One intermediate revision by the same user not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | | + | Delete. |
| − | [ST] "Almost," she agrees readily enough, reaching forward to tousle Obligatory's hair. Her fingers stray over the bloody stump of his ear by accident(?) and he gives a pained grunt. "He kind of reminds me of a pet I had once. Though he's a lot more sweet-tempered. Iscal was a sniveling little worm at heart."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Obligatory looks supremely uncomfortable. He makes a show of stepping away. "I'll go find Adder," he says. "We... we should catch up with the others." In only a moment, Avir and Red are left alone.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I'd wondered what happened to Iscal, to make him the way he is."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You know him?" Her face alights with something between surprise and resignation. "I figured he sold out to the Haslanti. Last thing I remember was him blubbering, saying I forced him into it." She rolls her shoulders, and her spine gives a satisfying crack. She should be dead now, but she's held up remarkably well.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Sniveling little worm was about right, the way he clung to Soldas's heels like a lapdog. He might've been courting a knife one night, if he weren't such an artist with those knives of his. "Yes," Avir says slowly. "He's Once Dead. Third scale, same as me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Did you?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She looks at Avir, sizing him up. A sudden vitality seems to fill her at the mention of Iscal, and a vicious smile crosses her face. It seems to return her to her natural state. "Is he? So we'll be working together? Maybe I'll make him squeal again." She laughs shortly. "I knew I'd see him again one day. Just didn't think it'd be so soon."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She chuckles warmly at Avir's second question. "Did I force him? Well, at first, I provided a little... pressure, I suppose. Mainly, I found him funny, funny enough to keep alive. He could've said no to me, though. He could've died. Instead, he shared my bed, and my guilt." She fixes Avir with that penetrating gaze. "A lot of men swear they're better than they are, that they were forced...
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] but they find their character goes to dark places well enough."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "They make bargains, they lie to themselves, and they're lost. But I don't think I have to explain that to you, do I, Infernalist?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir lifts a swooping eyebrow. "Now that's a harsh word. I'd like to see you try to back it up."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Would I have to try very hard? Those things leave bloody evidence behind. There's always a trail. Maybe a whisper or two in the right place will uncover it. Do you disagree?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "There's no telling what twisted minds will construe as evidence," Avir sidles verbally. His lips flatten into a straight line. "Of course, if there were an Infernalist in Icehome, he or she might take steps- hard steps- to stay hidden."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I've seen such things a time or two as a Once Dead. I would hate it to see it happen to a comrade."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Perhaps hard steps aren't needed, just a bargain," She smiles at him. "We've made those before, you and I. Of course, your last one didn't go so well." She nods her head at his stump.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir shrugs. "A hand is only a hand. As it happens, I have another one. What bargain did you have in mind?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I won't look into your little secret, but I'll want..." she pats his elbow softly. "A favor."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Favor?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I was planning on deciding on it later," she says. "But now... well... I may ask for your help in "dealing" with Iscal."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] A thin smile touches Avir's lips. "Funny. I was going to advise you to leave him be. He's a comrade now, and your senior in the Once Dead." That was never a realistic hope, though, was it? "What could I do for you that you couldn't do yourself?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Well," she says, squeezing his elbow. "I hear you have interesting friends."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir tries to think of how much he would care if he saw blood apes juggling Iscal's head, or the Celebrant in Darkness gnawing thoughtfully on a thin thighbone.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] The distrubing answer seems to be, not all that much.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He tries not to think about other things that Ragged Red might have planned. He was sure she had a better imagination than he did. A perfect partner. He smiles at her. He'd take this viper, for now."Deal. But I won't risk exposure."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Of course you won't," she says. "That's why you're taking the deal."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Too true." He gestures towards Obligatory Sunshine and Little Adder ahead of him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Shall we catch up? The others might think we're plotting something." He laughs, because it's better than vomitting.
| |
| − | | |
| − | -----
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The going has been getting slower. The land has resolved itself now into a series of slight valleys and frozen streams. Perhaps, in warmer days, it would be pleasant herd country. Now, it is a barren and difficult land. Breath comes sharply and painfully as the Once Dead work their way onwards towards salvation or death.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Miruna heads up the column, Savage Bear-Daughter at his side. Slightly behind them, Rabbit and Laughing Jek struggle along through the snow. The others have fallen further behind, but should catch up eventually. Or not. It's hard to say. Little Adder in particular has been looking bad, and all the Once Dead are hollow-eyed and exhausted. Jek refuses to sleep, for fear it will be his last. No
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] one has been sharing their dreams.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Worst of all, the country seems empty, denuded of life and game alike. Aside from a scrawny rabbit Miruna caught two days ago, there's been almost no sign of another living creature.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Miruna's neck aches from being hunched down, to keep his mouth in the thick fur of his buff coat's collar. Better than the pain of the wind on his cheek, most of the time. Scarves could only do so much, and he had his helmet off for the time being. It restricted his sight too much for a pointman.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] besides, he'd had to give away some of his normal gear to avoid a mutiny, after the first camp. Soon someone would die, and the malingerers could comfort themselves by their fellow's leavings. Most like. He shook his head, reminding himself to avoid malingering himself. He had to pull some of them through.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Bear-Daughter raised an eyebrow, but tongueless couldn't ask more obnoxiously. Good company. Well, until she decided she needed to know something enough to use the crude sling she'd made from a length of cloth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] With his head lowered, Miruna might not have seen it except for the flash of sunlight off an antler ahead. He squints against the threat of snowblindness and makes out the massive shape of an elk lying on its side, only partially covered by snow. It is almost two hundred yards ahead, so he can make out little detail, but there seem to be several other elk forms piled around it. Blood stains the snow.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Food. And danger. But hunger was worse, and they were Once Dead.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He waved a halt, and pointed out the elk carcasses to the others with him. He signaled quickly that he would investigate and Bear-Daughter cover. It seemed crass, somehow, to yammer at her when she couldn't speak. And besides, he was as happy as not to avoid moving his lips, and pulling at his scar, tightened by cold.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Bear-Daughter nods, raising a fist and then making a quick, clear slash with her hand. She will be on guard.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods in answer, and beings to wade forward through the snow, hefting his club. Anything watching would have seen him as soon as he crested the last rise, so it was pointless to try to hide now. He had to watch his footing and the bodies both, so it took him a little while to make his way.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza moves up to squat next to Bear-Daughter, shading her eyes as she looks out at the carcasses. The other woman shoots her a brief look, but then, together, they watch Miruna pick his way over to the body.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He wondered what had killed the elk - an avalanche hopefully. A predator, and they wouldn't have been bunched like that. Unless it was a hoarder, and therefore protective. the food was well worth the risk.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Miruna realizes his mistake almost as soon as he arrives. He's not looking at a whole elk, but a severed head. The eyes have been gouged out. The elk has a bridle in its mouth, the leather reins trailing off into the snow. The lump nearby, only partially covered by snow, is the rest of the elk's carcass. It has been clumsily skinned and quickly butchered. Enough of its meat remains to be worth harvesting, but that's not what catches Miruna's eye next.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] There are other mounds as well, beyond this one, covering the top of the little hillock and descending the opposite slope. Some, from the size, must be elk. Others are smaller, completely shrouded by the snow. Swirls of blood cover the pristine surface all around him. Then he notices that there is a half shrouded log on the downward slope of the hill, previously hidden from vision. It's covered with five strange little knots, knots with hair, slack mouths, and dead, staring eyes. Men, women, a child. Falling snow has given them each a crown.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] A battle then. Possibly scouts from the army. If there were scouts ahead that was bad. They might not have heard of the `messengers' or might kill them for sport anyway. And he needed to reach the Haslanti before they did, and make sure the border was closed to saboteurs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He waves up again, hand signaling for more to come down, but for the archers to cover. Bear-Daughter should understand. They'd need to sort and harvest, find any weapons, and strip all the food they could. But let a tracker through it first, incase they could pick up more than he could.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The bodies can't have been here very long - hours at most, or they'd be so deep in the snow they wouldn't even be visible. Miruna can spot faint tracks leading off to the northwest. They are massive, something like a cross between a footprint and a dog's paw.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He walks past the bodies towards the tracks, careful to walk around the battle site, to avoid disturbing it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Bear-Daughter nods, and thrusts her hand forwards. Rabbit and Selza begin picking their way down to Miruna.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I'm about ready to strip the bark off the trees. If there were more of them," Avir complains to Obligatory Sunshine as the laggards come down the slope in a tired knot. Avir's hand is wrapped tight against his chest. Little Adder is wan and stumbling, trailing the others by a good twenty feet, and even Ragged Red has a pinched look on her face.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rabbit walks around the fallen body of the elk, kicking it experimentally. Something of her bad temperment is slowly starting to return. "What the fuck happened here?" she asks Miruna.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Leave off it" he half growls, half yells. "Lets leave it be till someone with a sharper eye takes a look over it, yeah?" Tempers were fraying for all of them. Not the best thing with a bunch of murderous soldiers. Especially when half of them had been trying to make the other half hate them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The elk's too old for you anyway, Rabbit," Jek calls out. Rabbit doesn't seem to hear him. At Miruna's command, she stands silently, working her hands into fists.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir stumbles towards the others. They'd been marching all day trying to catch up, with few rests, Avir's shoulders itching the whole way from the looks Ragged Red shot at him. . He stops when he sees the scattered corpses. "Beastmen," Avir says numbly, a good minute behind the rest of them. A pause, then, "Are those heads?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "They ARE heads." Clearly, the cold had not been doing anything for his brains. "Shit. We should bury them before night falls."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Sharp as usual," Ragged Red says sharply. She's still moving a little stiffly, but the cold doesn't seem to bother her. Obligatory Sunshine is actually trying to help her walk. She bears this with only the occasional poisonous glance.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rabbit kneels in the snow, pressing a finger against the frozen blood there. "Still bright," she says. "They haven't been gone long. We could catch 'em. Well," and she looks up to Little Adder, staggering along in a world of his own.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Some of us could."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Do you really think that's wise?" Red asks sarcastically. "Half of us are hurt, the other half are exhausted, and whoever did this just cut apart a band of your famed Haslanti Tribespeople without losing any of their own." She rolls her eyes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He thinks for a moment, then shakes his head. "We bury the people, and butcher the rest. See if we can find weapons, maybe some clothing that is worth drying out. Shouldn't pick any fights, though, yeah?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He glances sidelong at her. "We see if all the corpses are theirs when we dig em up. You curious, get to work."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The hell're we supposed to dig with?" Rabbit complains, even as she and Red move and begin dusting off the corpses. "This ground's hard-frozen."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "We should say a prayer," Obligatory Sunshine adds softly. "It is improper to leave them like this."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Naked as the day they were spit out on a filthy tent floor," Red says after dusting the snow from one of the headless corpses. "Raiders're a through bunch."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir's missing hand throbs. One hand meant he didn't have to help dig. That was reasonable. "Say a prayer," he agrees. "Maybe it will pacify them." He leans gingerly against a snow-covered boulder.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "What, are you some southerner, Rabbit? Build a cairn. With stones. Like those over there." He points awkwardly with his sling.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "We'll find something to dig with, like enough. break the ground with the antlers if nothing else." He starts hacking meat off the elk carcass with a sharp rock, laying chunks to the side on the snow. He'd wrap them in something later.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Wait," Selza calls out, digging through the snow. "I found something." She lifts up a broken spear, its haft shattered about two feet below the point.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Fantastic, blondie," Red shoots back. "Find the other half and only the majority of us will be unarmed and helpless."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rabbit shakes her head at Avir. "Sorry. I don't have a lot of experience with burying comrades in the snow. Unlike the two of you." She had been passing fond of Two-Bits, Avir recalls. Still, she moves to find stones readily enough, and plunges her hands into the snow with more ferocity than many others would. The cold never got to Rabbit.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir glances tiredly at Red. If Stomp were still alive, he'd be tempted to order him to materialize just to shut her up. He's murder her for a blood ape in a heartbeat, if he thought Miruna or the others wouldn't stop him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Good find, Selza."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Jus' keep looking, yeah? Don't need to hear about every little thing." He glances over all of them, hoping they would stop biting at eachother's frayed patience, and knowing they wouldn't. Complaining was time honored, even in good times.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] At least Little Adder is silent. He stands behind the others, staring blankly over the commotion. His mouth hangs open, venting great clouds of steam.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Thank you, Avir," Selza says. "Who did this? Some of Magdala's raiders? Were they sent ahead of us?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Those look like wolfmen prints to me. It seems likely."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Avir doesn't find anything of note until they are lining up the bodies - five of them, an old man, a young man, two women and a male child - to cover them with stones. As one of the women's bodies, missing a head and covered with horrible wounds, shifts, something falls from her tightly clenched fist as her fingers relax.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] It lies on the snow, a small oval pendant about the size of a date, strung on a leathern cord. It is a deep brown color, and several strange folds cover its surface.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir stoops down awkwardly to scoop up the pendant with his one hand. He looks at the pendant and rubs his thumb over the folds. "They missed the jewelry," he says quietly, turning the pendant over and looking for signs of thaumaturgical tinkering.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Obligatory Sunshine piles stones over the body as Rabbit starts at the other end. She curses under her breath.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods, face impassive. "Scouts'd loot carefully, less they were in a huge hurry. Whoever it was took the time to get meat off the elk before they left, and left the heads. A signal, or warning?" He grunts in frustration.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Rotten fuckers. I'll kill 'em all myself." Even she doesn't sound too convinced.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Or just damned nasty brutes." Avir glances at Ragged Red and puts the little pendant in his pocket.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Jek ambles over around the time the cairns are finally finished, his missing hand held in a crude sling. "Sorry about that," he says. "I was having a philosophical discussion with Bear-Daughter." He claps Avir on the back. "See, I feel that human nature is inherently evil, while she feels that-" He presses his lips together and makes a humming sound.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir shrugs. "Tough to please a woman with one hand, don't I know."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Keep talking like that, and I'll think you actually want to survive this," Jek says. "We'll get a matching set of hands, you and me. Gold and silver. You can have the silver." He laughs, but it turns into a rattling cough. He's not well, either.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Obligatory kneels before the cairns, his head bowed almost to his knees, saying a quiet, lilting prayer of some sort or another.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir watches him quietly a moment, then jerks his head at Miruna. "A word?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] At least the bastard was joking. Not that he would be if he'd actually said that in front of the woman. He nods to Avir, and steps away from the others.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He takes a few tired steps away from the others.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir regards him cooly a moment. "We're in no shape to take on those raiders," he observes. "They'll rape and rampage a while yet. Militia or tribespeople will deal with them when we get back....eventually."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods. "Need to make it to the nearest place that can send messengers faster than us. Catch an airship or an iceboat if we're lucky. When Icehome is warned, we can turn around and take care of the villages out here."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "A sent a message already, though it may not have been heeded. It will take time to mobilize....if Icehome even decides to scatter troops to protect a handful of villages. No. These people will be on your own, unless you choose to be...flexible."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Behind him, Red kicks Obligatory in the rump - but not, Avir notices, as hard as she might have - and drags him upright.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He grunts. He could imagine what his orders would be if they could get them to him. Well, they were resourceful enough to get to the army wherever it was forming the direct way, rather than running back to Icehome first. Those that were able could stay and fight the advance raiders for a bit, get some of their own back.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He glares at Avir "what messenger did you send - faster than us, so its something you shouldn't be meddling in, yeah? Sure it'll be recieved?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I'm sure." Avir scratches at his stump. He'd wrapped it in cloth after it had been seared, and the ragged edge of bone and charred flesh had been oozing pus. He didn't quite have the courage to unwrap it. There was every chance he'd lose the arm. "You know what I'm asking for. All I want is the chance to save these people." He glances back at the others, and a bitter smile lurks around his lips. "I've seen
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] the looks you're giving Adder. You think he's dead anyway. May as well spend his life to some good cause."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] His boot whips the man's feet out from under him, and he steps on his good arm before he can scramble up. "You're not feeding our comrades to your demons, yeah?" He wasn't yelling, but some spittle fell into the snow, melting little holes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Obligatory takes a step towards the altercation, but Red pulls him back. Rabbit and Jek pointedly don't look.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "We get word in, tell Icehome what they need to know, who's coming after them, how many. Then we can worry about the tribes out here, little villages worth nothing. Adder can make it, if we hit a town soon. If not he dies, and we put some rocks on him, the way its meant to be."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir grunts and grits his teeth against the pain shooting up from his stump; badly jarred by the fall. "Never gave it a thought," he bites out.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] There had been an uncertainty looming in his head, worry about the food supply. But Avir had decided him. Adder would be fed, given every chance, and watched till he died.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "And don't you, either," he mutters, glaring. He doesn't try to yank his arm out from Miruna's boot, but waits for the man to release him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He stares at the other man's eyes for a time, and then nods jerkily. "You learn the limits of what I'll let you do. Demons aren't right, and feeding friends to them will get me to kill you, yeah?" He steps off, and walks away before avir can get upright.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Still one of the more reliable soldiers with him, shamefully enough.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir crawls to his feet. He glances at the others, and isn't surprised to see Jek and Rabbit staying carefully out of the way. That was the way of the Once Dead: deferring to the man with the bigger fist. He looks thoughtfully at Miruna's back. Well, at least he'd driven the man to taking a position. He limps over to Little Adder. "I see some willows over there. Miruna'll give us a chance to boil some
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] willowbark tea for you, and then we'll take a look at you, aye?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Uk." Adder says. He seems to look through Avir.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] -----
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Nothing more is said of the tracks in the snow, as Miruna leads the Once Dead on a course straight north. It seems no one wants to voice the idea that they are not pursuing the raiders aloud, although the thought certainly crosses a few minds as they move north. Obligatory whispers a quiet prayer for those who will find themselves the targets of violence, and Ragged Red flushes slightly at
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] his side at the thought of what a glorious battle it would be. Those dogs would have to go a long way to match Red's Raiders. She'd show them exactly what fear was. Selza presses a palm against her belly, and tries not to think of the man she left behind, and her living but lost cousin.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] They could be next.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] After several hours, Miruna finds the remains of a road - it is old, and overgrown, almost certainly dating back to ancient times. It has been poorly maintained, and whatever faint sorcery remains in its stones is only enough to keep some of the snow off its surface.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Still, it makes for easier going. After perhaps half a mile of following the road, they come to a battered wooden post.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The top has been hacked away, but some carvings remain visible on its surface. There are words that Miruna can't read, and below them, a tree reaching its branches towards the sky.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] In the west, the sun glows a deep orange. It has almost touched the horizon, but there's perhaps an hour of daylight left.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Old greenfield here, blown away?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Make anything of it?" He asks the man behind him - Jek for now. Bear-Daughter was taking a turn in the lead, and beisdes, she couldn't tell him what it said even if she could read it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "-E-R-A-L-D," Jek reads slowly and tiredly. "10 miles. Sounds good enough for me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir makes his way painfully forward. Miruna hadn't been moving quite as fast, either to be easier on Adder or to keep an eye on Avir. "Push on past sundown?" His very bones ached.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Be nice to sleep in a real bed," Rabbit says, putting her hands in the small of her back. She stretches, and there's a soft crack.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods. "We follow the sign, as likely as anywhere else. Ten miles isn't much more. Keep a sharp eye - the place have other signposts up, we might run into those raiders."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "If we don't see anything an hour past sundown, we'll bed for the night."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He walks on, leaving the others to grumble and steal a few moments rest behind his back. They'd pay for it ahving to hurry up to catch him, but they'd do it anyway.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir squints at the sun. "We won't make ten miles in two hours," he comments icily, but he waits only a few moments before setting off after Miruna.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza looks at Avir for a moment, her gaze troubled. The last time she was at an Emerald, well- he remembers. After a moment, she follows Miruna, and the others trail after her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The road makes the going easier, and it moves through a sheltered valley, keeping the worst of the wind off the Once Dead. The sun sinks, and night falls, but there is plenty of light - Luna glows in the sky above, and the cobbles of the road give off faint traces of luminescence. Some wise men say that all the Emeralds were once Greenfields, which dried up, failed, and blew away in the years since.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] After a time, the Once Dead top a rise, looking down upon a winding road that leads to a rock wall and a narrow cave passage within. The wind dies down, then stops entirely, but not before one more deep chill cuts through their bodies.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir hates Miruna more with every step he takes, and envisions killing the man in a dozen ways. Most, alas, unpractical to say the least. He hadn't the time or the privacy to summon a demon, and no sword, axe, or rope at hand.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "We can't rest on the path," he suggests. "It's better shelter than we've had since...Icehome, really." For some of them at least.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Plus, I'm sure they have all sorts of stropping young field hands for Rabbit to ogle, eh?" Jek says, his voice worn. Rabbit doesn't even bother to answer him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza has taken a few steps ahead of the party. Savage Bear-Daughter gives a slight squawk as Selza elbows past her, but the woman doesn't even notice. She's walking towards the mouth of the tunnel slowly and steadily, as if possessed.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir glances at the others, then follows her. He had a bad feeling. Selza would notice something wrong before any of them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza stops for a moment, looking up at the rock wall above the tunnel, and suddenly falls to her knees, giving a stifled scream as she shoves her own knuckles in her mouth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He walks on after, mildly annoyed that the decision ahd been made without him. Not that it had been much of a decision, with signs of reachign a goal so close.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He rushes forwards, club out, ready to kill or threaten. "Where?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza's other hand extends, pointing. Words have been carved over the rock arch.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir's gaze follows her hand. " 'Little Cove.' What?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Her body begins to shake in sudden, pained sobs. Even during the attack in Tanstaad, even when she was being mutilated, she was never this terrified. There is something childish in it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Y-you," she sobs. "You don't understand. This is- I was only a child, but, b-but-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "This is where we lived before we fled to Tanstaad. This is..." She shakes again.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "This is the Forsaken Green."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir sucks in a breath. "Yes. I see. I remember." And with their luck, that careless slaughter would be replicated by the she-wolf and her pups.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He looks at the others. "I'm going to draw a circle against ghosts," he tells them bluntly. "We'll sleep inside it. Take turns at Watch to see it's not broached. Wander in at night and we'll be pulled into the Underworld, like as not."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The others stand at the head of the path, looking down in concern. None of them realize what is happening, yet.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He grunts. "Not staying the night here." Close to the mountains they were boiling out of now. He should have realized it was a possibility.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza shakes her head again. Another sob wracks her body. She reaches down and picks up something, holding it so Avir can see. It is a mouse, its back broken, its eyes gushing blood, asquirm with maggots. And it is still moving, still living.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Above them, Avir realizes, the moon is gone, the sky alight with strange green stars.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "We're already there," Selza moans. "W-we're already THERE."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He bats her hand, remembering just in time to use the arm not holding a weapon. "Leave it." he turns back to the others. "We have to go back a ways."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir grits his teeth. "We haven't any choice. We're already inside. We draw a circle, huddle inside it. Wait for daybreak when we can return to Creation."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] His back crawls. Trapped with the dead, with demons bad enough that the Tanstaaders were better off feeding children to the dogmen in their new home, and his only defense a demon lover himself. But thye did what had to be done. "Start on the wards."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A sudden hue and cry erupts among those still gathered atop the rise. They have turned to look at something coming up the path behind them. Miruna and Avir can't see it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir looks up. He had already been on his hands and knees, drawing a line in the dirt with his finger. "What is it?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Ragged Red begins to run, fairly dragging Obligatory Sunshine after her down the path. Rabbit and Jek are running two. Savage Bear-Daughter jogs backwards, flinging a sling at something unseen, while Adder merely looks up the path, motionless. A shrill cacophony of cries erupts from behind the rise.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He steps to the side, readying what weapons he has. He was the strongest of them, now if not before they were maimed. He would guard the rear.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "What is it?!" Avir demands again, scrambling to his feet. It would take an hour to make a ward, another to layer a physical ward on back on top of it. No point to scribblings otherwise.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The first thing that tops the rise may have walked Creation, once, or may be solely something of the underworld. It stumps forward on seven stubby legs - three on one side, four on the other. Bones show through tattered, eellike flesh. Two serpentine heads dart and snap, opening fanged maws adrip with poison.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The eyes are a featureless, milky white. Its back-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Dozens of tendrils extend upwards from its back, luminous and transparent like cilia. They move independently, and at the end of each of them is a ghostly head, still speaking, sobbing, or screaming.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Little Adder stands transfixed, helpless. The thing's heads dart forward, jaws snapping, and consume him. Not one second later, another transparent fiber sprouts from its back. The tip swells, taking the shape of Adder's head. It opens its mouth to scream, and only a hollow, choked sound emerges. Adder doesn't have a tongue, after all.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Fuck. Forward! Into the town!" It might be defensible, and they had to stay close to the Shadowland if they were to avoid becoming lost entirely. "Adder, RUN!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rabbit's famed cowardice kicks in. She gives a scream, springing forward with an intensity that no one knew she had left in her, legs pumping wildly as she races headlong into the tunnel, sobbing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza and Ragged Red aren't far behind. Obligatory and Jek take off running too, but they are too exhausted to move quickly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He moves as fast as the rest of them , or almost, but he stays in the back. He was the only one with armor, a shield. They had to make the tunnel mouth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir chases after them, fully aware of how dim there chances were. Only Miruna is behind him, and he is grateful for the man's dogged clinging to his duty.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The creature finishes what's left of Adder with gusto, gazing across to the fleeing troops. It hunches low, shoulders bunching up above its necks powerfully, and springs forward, churning up clods of earth as big as a man's torso.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Desperate, ragged, running with everything they have, the Once Dead bold into the tunnel ahead of the creature. Darkness descends around them almost immediately. Somewhere behind, there is the thunderous crash of flesh smashing against stone.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He keeps running when he makes the tunnel mouth. The thing may not fit, but it's snake-heads would. He runs another of the once Dead over, pushing him or her forward - he couldn't see who it was. Good for both of thhem. he wasn't dying that foolishly. At least, not this time.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Someone light a torch!" he yells at them. He didn't want to be in the dark here, and the thing was still blocking light from the tunnel entrance.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The dark is full of fumbling, cursing, and screaming. Somewhere ahead, a light springs to life and is quickly snuffed out. Whoever lit it is running too fast.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "No time," Avir snarls. Mriuna had near slammed him into a wall. He follows by the sound the of the others more than the sight.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Behind them, there is the sound of slithering as the serpentine heads wind their way through the tunnel after them. Legends say that ghosts can squeeze through keyholes if they want - the confines of the tunnel might not stop this thing at all.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] And then, the sound is fading, and weak light burns ahead, and the Once Dead burst out into the Emerald itself.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Of course, Emerald isn't the appropriate name for it any longer. The green grass has gone milk-white, and in most places it stretches waist high or higher. The mud-brick huts of the Emerald are shattered, broken ruins, the fields rotting and abandoned. Here or there, a black-barked tree bends under blood-red fruit.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Ghosts wait among the wreckage, weeping, their eyes hollow and haunted. As the Once Dead emerge, they turn to them, rising from places where they have not stirred for over a decade to move towards the newcomers.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Break up a hut and barricade this side of the tunnel, quick!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Please-" the ghosts cry. Their luminous forms look like melted wax. Many were burned. Others are horribly scarred. One woman's entrails slop over her thigh. She holds her severed head by its hair.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Help us-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Water- please, water-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "My childrennn..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He moves to the nearest half fallen fence, grabbing at the wooden beams and ignoring what had overgrown it. "We need to close off the tunnel mouth, ignore them."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir moves to help him, grabbing the other half. He glances at Selza as he struggles with it. "Did you lose any family here?" he asks her with quiet intensity.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Red immediately throws herself into it, shoving a cart with a shattered axle across the grass. The others seem less inclined to obey. Selza looks blankly across her childhood home, mouth open in shock. Obligatory has never seen such sacrilege. Even Rabbit and Jek are shocked.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A woman, her eyes weeping sockets of blood, her throat slit from ear to ear, points a finger at Jek. "YOU!" she screams. "YOU!" He staggers back.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I did," Selza says, swallowing. She does not look at Avir. "Everyone did."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The barrier in front of the tunnel begins to build up, as do the ghosts. A child ghost worms its way from under a house. Its limbs have been shorn off, and it writhes across the ground disturbingly. A little boy, once.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Where's my motherrrrr..." it hisses. "Want my motherrrrrr..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Would you recognize them? Would they recognize you?" An ancestor was a natural ally, poor as these ghosts were.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] 'Everyone better fucking MOVE, or I build them into the dam, yeah?" he yells at them, putting some confidence and volume into his voice. that many hands would help, even if they all moved slow and reluctant. They didn't have time to coddle cowards. Or people watching their dead families beg for life.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Like this would hold back that thing if it wanted to get in," Red complains. Nevertheless, she redoubles her efforts.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He avoids looking too closely at the ghosts. "Bide a moment," he tells Miruna, taking a string of twine from his pocket. He mutters over it for a minute or so, wraps it around two of the larger pieces of the barricade, then mutters some more.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I don't-" Selza gasps. Her voice is very close to breaking. "I don't remember. My grandmother, Rose, I think- I don't, I don't remember-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "That will hold it better," he says after a few seconds of staring at it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Pleaaaasee..." the ragged phantoms draw closer. Cold hands clutch at Miruna's legs, his back. Selza moans as a hand brushes her face.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Please."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He returns to Selza, abandoning the barricade to the physically able. He wraps an arm around her shoulder. "Close your eyes if you must, but I don't believe they'll harm you."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He raises his voice. "Is there a woman named Rose among you?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She does. Avir can feel her trembling against him. This must be harrowing for her in particular.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] There is no answer.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Please..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Help me, please... please..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "AVIR?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Behind him, the twine moves like a living thing, growing longer than could possibly have fit in his pocket. It wraps each piece of wood tight against the other, weaving them strong together.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir's head jerks around. "What?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He shakes them off, instinctively afraid to offer them real violence. Begging was better than most of the stories he'd heard of ghosts, and he didn't want it to change. The skin over his back crawled, strong enough to be painful. But he needed to feed the twine with more material, to make sure the opening was blocked fully.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "STOP!" a voice calls out. "Leave them! Leave them alone!" There is the sound of a scuffle, a sharp crack, and a whimpering. The ghosts that grapple the Once Dead begin to withdraw, howling. The one pointing at Jek is the last to go, only stirring itself when a sword suddenly sprouts from its abdomen, shearing it in half. It falls, fizzling into mist.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He stares around, half in panic. "What?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Where it stood, there is another figure, slightly luminous, glowing faintly green against the darkness. Its skin is pale, sickly. A feverish heat radiates from it. It is hideous, the left side of its face a mask of ancient burn scars, its teeth exposed, its eye a scabrous socket. The hair that falls around its shoulders is milk white, now. The once green eye is faded to a watery aqua.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Avir," Two-Bits says. "Miruna. I had not thought to see you again."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Two-Bits?!" Avir says incredulously, then laughs, then bites it off. He hoped like hell she hadn't connected the demon that ate her remains to him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He backs away slightly, before gathering himself. "I am sorry that your ghost walks. You are far from where you fell."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "B-bitsy-?" Jek says. She merely nods at him smiling slightly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The one I dispersed will reform eventually. She seemed angry at you, Jek. You must have slept with her."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] He doesn't respond, only takes a step backwards, his knees sagging. Rabbit only stares.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "What the hell are you doing here?" Avir asks, not in an unfriendly way.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Not that far, Miruna," she says. "Tanstaad is but a few days' journey to the north." She turns to Avir. "I did not rest. My grave... I think... I think something defiled it. My spirit was stirred. I wandered... looking for someone, something, anything."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I didn't meet anyone on the Outwall - it's empty in the Underworld, haunted. Eventually, I came here. The ghosts here are long gone. They don't remember anything."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir doesn't let the sudden sharp stab of guilt show on his face.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Just pain."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "They've forgotten who they are. What they are. All they remember is the hurt. I thought- I thought I might become like them, eventually. But not now." She smiles. It is hideous, and horribly needy. "Not now that you're here."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I remember now."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Well, it's damned good to see you, Two-Bits." He glances at the others, sees how unsettled they are. "Think you can help get us out of this? There's some kind of beast out there with three heads."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Remember that time Jek spiked your drink with limp tea?" She says. "Fetching Peach sure was surprised!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "C-can we release you." He tried to remember something, anything useful from the stories he had heard in his childhood, the few that hadn't been told to scare him, or teach him to run to the wisewomen for their services.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The others look uncertain. Selza looks as if she's about to be ill. Jek and Rabbit are white as a sheet. Only Red and Bear-Daughter seem unperturbed, and vaguely contemptuous.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Jek, remember that time you said I was half of a beautiful woman? Remember?" She moves over to him, reaching down to squeeze his shoulder. He flinches, but doesn't pull away. "Remember? I was pretty wasn't I? Half beautiful, hah." She doesn't respond to Miruna's question.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "S-sure, Bitsy," Jek manages after a moment.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I remember," Avir says slowly. "Two-Bits, Icehome is in danger. We need to get home. Fast. Or it'll all be eaten up."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Everything you remember- gone."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Everything?" Two-Bits looks at Avir in shock. "Who would destroy Icehome?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He shuts up, not knowing whether or how she would be provoked.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She seems to forget the question a moment later. "Miruna, remember that time you painted the fire on your armor? Hah, I wouldn't want to remember that."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Magdala. She's going to kill Icehome unless we stop her, Two-Bits. You don't want her to turn it all to dust, do you?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "No, of course not... no..." Two-Bits frowns. It is strange, ghastly. "Tell me how I can help you stop it." She pauses for a moment, lips working nervously. "Also, I'd like it if one of you kissed me. I liked to be kissed. I remember it. It was nice."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Can't imagine this one got kissed too often," Red mumbles.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Of course." He glances at Jek- but no help there. The man was pale and trembling. "You can help us by showing us a safe place to rest. Help us last until morning, so we can live to take the message home."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I have a home," Two-Bits says. "It isn't much, but it's safe. WHen it gets light, you can leave. Whatever chased you in here might be gone then. Might not. You can leave the other way. When did you lose your hand, Avir? I don't remember that."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You can't be serious," Obligatory says. "We can't spend the night with a... a... you know."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods mutely. Avir knew these things. He could let him handle it. His hand itched to clutch at his club, but she would remember violence well, and he didn't know how she wopuld react.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] His lips curl into a parody of a smile, and he shoots a venemous look at Obligatory that silences him. "Just last week." He moves slowly to her. He cups her burned cheek with his good hand- funny how they matched, now- tips her face up, and kisses her. He'd dreamed of kissing the demon dozens of times, when he slept at home- the wards were not proof against everything. This was easier than that. She tasted
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] like cool dust, not bile or maggots.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He draws his face back and looks at her with narrowed eyes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He turns away. The man was just not right.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Two-Bits flushes with pleasure, her ghostly corpus deepening slightly. "Oh, thank you, Avir. It's not so bad, being dead. It's better than not being. It's just - you remember things. You remember what it was like to be warm, and to be kissed, and the memory is better than anything you have, or ever will. So it's good," She smiles, taking Avir's remaining hand and squeezing it softly. "It's good to remember when I was alive."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza gags softly. Obligatory just stares. Rabbit has helped Jek to stand.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He holds her hand for a moment longer before releasing her. "I'm happy to help," he says, sounding sincere enough. "Will you take us to your house? We're all tired, and hungry. We have food to cook."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Yes. Follow me." She turns from Avir and begins walking away. the others can see a hole in one of her thighs, slowly leaking blood. It was there that the javelin pierced her, and there that she contracted the infection that ended her life.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Remember that time Fervent John caught the mackerel in the harbor and we ate it?" Two-Bits throws back.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir raises an eyebrow at the others, and follows.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "That was nice. That was good."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He trails after. She had been a good warrior. It was hard to remember that, watching her now.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Yes. I remember." The ghost was already irritating.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] But she had been a friend, so he says, "Jonah the Lad was shitting his pants for days after eating it."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Hah, Jonah was a funny guy. He always used to hit on me. Remember, Jek?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Jek calls back a tremulous assent. It is the most quiet he has been in a long time. Whether it is Two-Bits' ghost or the others that unsettle him is hard to say.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Two-Bits leads them down a confusing warren of meaningless streets. Selza holds her head down, desperately trying to see nothing. At length, Two-Bits stops in front of a listing wooden hovel that at least has four walls and a ceiling. "This is it."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Great." It was better shelter than they'd had. "Thanks, Two-Bits." He opens the door and walks through, glancing around to see how mcuh space they had.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The house seems to be divided in two, a large common room and a smaller back room. Two-Bits must bed down in the latter - if ghosts even sleep. The common room is full of broken furniture and scattered feathers. One corner is taken up by several pieces of brightly colored glass. A hearth rests in the one opposite, cold and dusty. A streak of blood a foot wide arcs over the far wall, black and ancient.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You have to be fucking kidding me," Red says, leaning against one of the walls. "How do we know that thing isn't going to drink our blood while we sleep?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I am not a thing," Two-Bits answers stiffly. "Avir, I don't remember this woman, but I don't like her."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "No one does. She's new." He clasps the ghost's shoulder. It is tangible in the shadowland, but leeched of color. "Two-Bits is one of us. A raven." He meets Red's eyes a moment. "We can trust her."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza seats herself without further comment in one of the corners, resting her chin on her knees. THis place is obviously still getting to her. Rabbit and Jek seem at a loss.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Jek is missing a hand, too," Two-Bits says.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Did the others no so little about ghosts? Two-Bits would huddle around them like they were a warm hearth. Kill them, and they'd be less pleasant for her. "Can we burn some of the broken furniture in the hearth?" he asks Two-Bits. "Magdala took his too, at the same time." He grins at her. He makes it look easily. "But you know, I don't think it'll be as much a hindrance to his social life as he'd have us
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] believe..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He makes the universal jerking gesture, then reminds her, "Can we light a fire?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Two-Bits laughs gently as Miruna settles himself in a corner. The others don't seem to even want to recognize she exists, so she focuses on Avir.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You can. I don't use the furniture. Light the fire. Remember that fire that burned up Pearl's? I was so scared I wet my pants."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She sits on a chair backwards, wrapping her transparent arms around the back, watching Avir. "You're breathing."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Yes," he says calmly enough. His pulse is a little fast, but the rest of him is thinking if Thunder Wisdom was this pathetic, this easy to manipulate. He turns his back to begin piling wood into the hearth. "I should go see her. Fetching Peach. I haven't seen her since the fire. Don't know if she's even still working..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I never asked," Two-Bits supplied. "Whatever happened in Tanstaad, anyway?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza studies the floor.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir glances at her. "There had been some problems with elementals. Dogs of the Broken Earth. We sealed them up, but not before they got Leopard."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Remember when Leopard cheated everyone with his trick deck? I thought Jek was going to kill him. Maybe I'll see Leopard again." She sighs. "But I don't think so."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir hesitates. "What do you think is keeping you here? Is it your ..remains?" He'd almost said corpse. He imagines, again, Stomp chewing casually on one of her legs. "Do we need to go back, set up a better tomb?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I don't know," she says. "I don't think it's... that. I think I just wasn't ready to be dead, yet." She shrugs as if it is no major concern, but a moment later her face seems to crumple inward. "But I am d-dead. I just don't w-want to be gone."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Red puts her head in her hands, giving a soft grunt of frustration. "Avir, are you going to cook that food any time soon, or do I have to listen to this on an empty stomach?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He reaches out to grip her shoulder. "I know. We all miss you." He hestiates. "But if you go, you'll live again. Wouldn't that be-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I wouldn't be me, Avir," Two-Bits says, as if it's the easiest thing in the world. "I'd be someone else. I want to be me." She turns to Red. "She doesn't like me. She hates me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She looks over at Selza, Jek, Rabbit. "They're afraid of me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He closes his eyes and silently prays for patience. He kicks a sack of meat from deer skin, raw and untanned, in her direction. "You cook."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Red obligingly takes the bag, not responding to Two-Bits' comment as she spits chunks of elk on the spear haft Selza found and stabs it into the fire.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "They are, a little. You're dead. That's a scary thing. But I'm not scared. Miruna's not. You just have to give them a little time to get used to it." They couldn't let her get angry. "Red's just a bitch."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Two-Bits closes her eyes, smiling a little. "Remember Snow Peacock? She didn't like me either. She hated me. She spat on me once. I think she wanted to hurt me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Oh, I miss that. I miss that as much as kissing. I miss when people cared."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir smiles sourly. "Wonder if she'll feel the same about me, now." He raises his stump. Snow Peacock was beautiful, and she was repulsed by people who weren't. He clambers clumsily to his feet. He had to keep her happy. "They still care, trust me." They wouldn't look ready to toss their breakfast if they didn't. "Why don't we go on a walk while the food cooks?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Okay," she says brightly. "Do the others want to come?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The others do not want to come.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Their faces are visibly relieved at the idea that the ghost will be leaving the room.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Two-Bits rises smoothly, linking her arm in Avir's with a slight laugh. "Shall we?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He opens the door with a smooth bow and gestures her out of it. He closes the door behind them, with admonition to save some cooked meat.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "It should be safe," Two-Bits says. Her voice tightens suddenly, and her free hand falls to the hilt of her blade. She still remembers how to fight. "I drove them off for the first week or so. The learned."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Good. Drove off who? Not those wailers."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "There are hungry ghosts here, too. And Lady Twilight's hunters. And other ghosts. They come from below. They are touched by the void." She shakes her head. "But they don't come often."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Why did you want to walk with me, Avir? Aren't you afraid?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Good," Avir repeats, his chest suddenly tightening. He didn't know much about ghosts, but he knew enough. He glances sidelong at her question. "You're a friend Two-Bits, even if you are dead. You're just not that scary. I've known worse. Much worse."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She laughs. "Maybe so. Jek said I was the scariest thing he'd ever seen, but that was when I was alive."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Jek doesn't know his mouth from his asshole, sometimes." And that had been before he'd seen Magdala, or the things on the Calibration Attack. He is silent a moment, then says suddenly, "Why did you join the Once Dead? I never asked."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I wouldn't have told you." Her shoulders sag slightly. "But I guess it doesn't matter now."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "The worst has happened," Avir agrees.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I killed someone," she says. "I killed several people."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I was working in a brothel in Icehome. Not the Dragon lady's. Not that nice. Someone burned my face. I-" She squeezes his elbow. "I found out where he lived. I killed him. And his wife tried to stop me, and I killed her, and his sister s-saw-and I-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I didn't mean to, I just couldn't think. I couldn't-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "After that, I didn't have much of a chance."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir nods."I thought it might have been something like that. He deserved it, anyway."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] That still left at least two murders, but who was he to judge?
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Why did you join, Avir? I think I asked you once... but I don't remember."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He smiles slightly. "My master had just died, and I ...wanted to serve the League. I was full of romantic notions." He had kept his promise though, hadn't he? He hadn't even really intended to sacrifice Little Adder. He's just been goading Miruna into trying to keep him alive. Hadn't he?
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I knew you before you joined the Once Dead, you know."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "We're all full of romantic notions, I guess," Two-Bits says. In the distance, screams rise from shattered homes. "They get us into trouble."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Yes."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You- you did?" She looks at him. This new information badly destabilizes her. "Wh-when I was working, then?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I never paid attention to the faces."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "No. Earlier. Schifinder's Gap. The village there. When we were children. I don't think you ever recognized me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "No. No. I didn't recognize you. I never knew..." She looks at him, her face full of wonder. "I wish I'd known when I was alive. Why didn't you tell me?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He looks away. "I was...embarassed, I suppose. Avinrt the beggar's boy." A bitter sting to the name, even now. He smiles, because he's supposed to be pacifying Two-Bits. "I had such a crush on you then. You wouldn't believe." He looks away. "After you died...I'd wished I'd said something."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Avinrt... yes..." She smiles slightly. "I do remember you, I do. I wish you'd said something too." She looks away from him, exposing her hideous side. Above them, strange constellations wheel across a foreign sky.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I guess it's too late now. You're all leaving tomorrow, and I have to stay."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "You don't have to, you know. You could go. Start over with a clean slate and..." He reaches up to touch her chin. "A new face."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Someday, maybe." She blushes as he touches her. "But I'm not ready to go yet. I don't know why. I wish the others weren't afraid of me. I'd like to talk with them one last time."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Maybe they'll feel more comfortable later." Not likely.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Only you," she says. Their slow walk has brought them back to her mean little house. She sits atop a splintered stone. "And you're probably humoring me. I know how I must seem. How... grasping. We're all that way... ghosts. Knowing about it doesn't make it easier."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I imagine not." He studies her a moment. "Perhaps you can give me some advice."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I will help you, if I can. You kissed me, and I liked it. And you were a good friend. You remember me like I was instead of fearing what I am."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "There is a ghost who is angry with me. A powerful one. He blames me for his death." Because he had killed him very slowly. "I believe he means to do me harm, if he can. How can I pacify him?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Two-Bits blinks, and studies him for a moment. "How do you pacify a man? A ghost is no different, simply... faded." She looks down at her lap. "Less. You must convince him as you would a man. Or else convince him to embrace Lethe."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir grimaces. "Alive, he was stubborn as a mule," he mutters.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Some are beyond convincing," she smiles. "I am not so stubborn. Except with Jek. Remember the time he insisted we all visit the fighting ring? A tooth got in my hair!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir sighs internally, but smiles at her. "I remember. One of Red Boar's fights, wasn't it?" He stands, dusting himself off. "Are there any words I can take from you to Peach, when I see her?" One burned prostitute to another.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Tell her she's pretty," Two-Bit says, suddenly vehement. "And give her a kiss."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir nods. "I will." He opens the door with a flourish, and ignoring the dismay on his companion's faces, invites Two-Bits to dinner.
| |
