"You are not tired?" Nyarlathotep asked as she and Bell crested a hill to see a shallow valley ahead of them. A river ran down its center, and around it were the blocky shapes of houses, and the glow of lights. There was even a roaring bonfire it looked like.
"No, I'm fine," Bell replied with a deep breath. Their pace had not been fast, but Lady Lath seemed to have infinite energy and never stopped, so Bell had kept pushing himself to keep up. After all, if a little walking tired him out, how could he even hope to be a real adventurer?
"I see. Then we should hurry. That village may give you the adventure you seek!" Nyarlathotep said with a grin. For the last few hours of traveling Bell had tried talking to her repeatedly. She spoke much, but actually said little about herself, and while trying to learn of her, Bell ended up telling more about himself it seemed.
"What do you mean?" Bell asked as he squinted down at the village to no end. He couldn't make out any details aside from the blazing fire. "They're having a festival or something, right?"
Nyarlathotep smiled as she began walking down the hill toward the village, speaking only when Bell caught and was walking beside her at her pace. "There is chaos in that village. Hate, anger, pain, suffering, loss, lust, enjoyment, madness. Unless they are having quite the gathering . . . . well, there are only so many reasons for such chaos."
"You mean the fire is an accident?" Bell asked, sounding worried and quickening his steps.
"No, I'm willing to bet that fire is very intentional," Nyarlathotep said with an unnerving grin. "After all, what better way to distract people!"
Hearing Lady Lath's words it finally clicked in Bells mind what she meant. He broke into a full sprint, nearly tripping as he ran down the hill to the village. He was too far away to get to the village in time to help. Some part of him knew that. The village was just too far away to get too quickly, and Bell could feel his legs and lungs burning. He had to try though, he had to be of help somehow!
As he ran toward the village, things became clear. The sound of distant screaming, the roar of violence and combat carried on the wind. The smells of fire, burning wood, hot stone and burning flesh tickled the nose and throat. The sight of a burning building, just across the river, people running around in a panic.
Bell ran faster and when he finally got into the village he found people lying around injured. Bodies clearly no longer living and the burnt husk of the one building crackling as the last of its wooden walls broke apart against its stone foundation. Wreckage was everywhere as windows were smashed, doors broken and the smell of blood omnipresent.
Bell was no stranger to seeing death. Living in an out of the way village there was always the danger of monsters, and simple injury could be deathly if not treated. He had seen people die from injuries, from sickness, but this, this was completely different.
"What, happened here?" Bell said out loud, some part of his mind hoping he was seeing things.
His words caught the attention of a nearby villager, who when she saw him, walked up to Bell with a grim expression on her face. "I'm sorry traveler, but the village is not safe. Best return from whence you came."
"But, what happened?" Bell pressed.
"Isn't it obvious?" the village woman, who looked quite old, said she wiped her blood stained hands her already filthy apron. "Bandits came and attacked in force."
"But. . . . Why?"
"It should be obvious, if you use your eyes and look around," Nyarlathotep said as she walked up behind Bell. Making the old woman do a double take at her appearance.
Bell looked around again. Looking at the wounded, the dead, one thing became clear. "Everyone is a man, or older," he muttered as slowly possibilities creeper into his mind.
"Exactly," Nyarlathotep said as she looked directly at the old woman. "The bandits came in, broke into every house and took any woman below a certain age, injuring or killing any who stood in their way. Correct?"
The old woman nodded, pain painting her face.
"They took them as hostages then?" Bell asked, hope tinting his tone.
"No. There's only one reason why bandits would take a whole villages worth of young women. For slaves," Nyarlathotep said simply
"But slavery is illegal, banned by the gods!" Bell exclaimed, booth horrified and angry.
"Just because something is against a set of laws, does not mean people will always obey them. Some mortals simply enjoy the feeling of breaking such rules after all, even at the cost of others freedoms," Nyarlathotep commented, as if it had nothing to do with her.
The old woman seemed furious as she glared at Nyarlathotep in worry and fear. "You, who are to talk like that?!"
"The Goddess Nyarlathotep," she said in an odd tone that Bell could barely place. Like she was upset about something she herself said.
The old woman, whose had been filled with anger and loss, was suddenly bright and hopeful. "You're a Goddess?! Then, you must be an Adventurer!" She declared as she looked at Bell.
"Ah, well, I'm n-" Bell tried to answer, to admit that he wasn't, at least not yet.
The old woman however seemingly had not heard him. "Please young adventurer! Please save them! My nieces, my daughter, all of our villages girls! Please save them!"
Bell was stuck silent by her earnest pleas, and looking around he could see others now staring in his direction, their face filled with sadness and hope in equal measure. Could he say he wasn't an adventured? Could he just, dash their hopes like that? Before he could open his mouth to say something though, Nyarlathotep placed a hand on his shoulder, making his body shiver on reflex.
"One does not request something without expecting recompense," she said smoothly. Too smoothly. "You must provide before such an act can be undertaken!"
"What!? You're going to make us pay you after our village was just ransacked!?" One villager yelled in anger. Right before getting a bloodied rag thrown in their face to silence them.
"That is enough!" The old woman roared, seeming to command great respect from those in the village. "Nothing in life is free, we all know that! Now then Lady Goddess, what is your price?"
"A pair of simple things. If the boy is to act he needs nourishment, and if he intends to fight he needs a weapon!" Nyarlathotep stated with a grin that made many villager take unconscious steps back.
"Food is, easy enough," The old woman said as she looked to a few people and motioned at them with her head, making them run off. "A weapon however will be, difficult. We are mainly a mining and hunting village, we have nothing like swords. Why does he not have his own though?"
"Lost in an accident unfortunately," Nyarlathotep said so quickly that Bell could again not speak up. "If you have no weapons suitable, then bring me a bone from the greatest thing that has been hunted here. A limb bone or large fang will work well enough!"
The villagers, and Bell, looked very confused, but when they looked at Nyarlathotep's self-assured expression they said nothing and a number of them ran off.
"May I ask why a bone?" The old woman asked as she took a step toward Nyarlathotep.
"It is simple really. If no weapon is available, I shall make one!" Nyarlathotep stated with a grin as one villager came back with a basket.
"Sir adventurer, here!" the village man said as he held the basket out to Bell, who found it full of bread, dried meat, carrots and a couple peppers.
"Um, thank you," Bell said nervously as he took the basket, his stomach suddenly telling him just how hungry he was.
"You plan to make a weapon, out of a bone?" the old woman finally managed to say, so surprised she had been momentarily shocked into silence.
"Yes. Before steel, mortals killed with stone and then used the bones of their foes as weapons to keep killing! A bone can be just as dangerous as a sharpened blade," Nyarlathotep explained as her expression turned psychopathic. "Especially if I form it from my power!"
"Wait, you intend to use your Arkanum?" one villager asked in surprise. "I thoughts god's couldn't use it out of heaven!"
"Perhaps, they are simply too weak to?" Nyarlathotep suggested with a smirk as a couple villagers came back. One was holding the leg bone of some animal, thin and slightly curved. The other looked to be the fang of a large beast of some kind, curved, naturally serrated and as long as the mans forearm. She picked up the fang and grinned instantly. "This has slain many a creature, it will work perfectly!"
"Do you need tools?" the man that had brought the fang asked, seeming eager to please.
"Just a small knife, nothing more," Nyarlathotep said as she knelt down and began dragging her nails in the dirt, shaping strange circles of symbols and unfamiliar runes. All of them were strange, nearly organic looking with how they twisted and bent. But as each shape was finished those that watched began feeling stranger and stranger. Then she suddenly began drawing one last symbol in the center of the circle. Unlike the others this one was angular and large, with strange details, curves, sudden branches and forks. Once she took her finger off of it, the circle of symbols and the one in the center began glowing in a color that had no name. One onlooker even suddenly fell unconscious, much to the surprise of those around him.
"What, what is this?" the old woman asked for those around, unable to pull her eyes away from the glowing symbols that made feel like her guts would spill out of her throat.
"The answer to your troubles," Nyarlathotep said as she held out a hand, open to the sky. "A knife."
A village fumbled a bit but too out a small skinning knife, placing it nervously in Nyarlathotep's awaiting hand. She took and looked it over before glancing behind her at Bell. "Have you finished eating?"
"Urm, yes," Bell said with some difficulty before swallowing the last bit of bread, handing the basket back to a villager with thanks.
"Good, kneel across from me!" Nyarlathotep commanded, making Bell do just as she said. Once he was seated he placed the fang in the middle of the glowing circle, and then looked up. "All of you would do well to avert your gazes. I will not be held responsible for what happens otherwise!"
The villagers all did that, either walking right off or turning around. No one wished to anger a god, especially one so strange.
"Now then, we shall begin," Nyarlathotep said as she took the knife, and to Bells surprise, sliced open her palm. In a second a strange liquid that looked as if it was the night sky along with all the stars began to flow out and dripped onto the fang. The Ichor seemed to stick to the fang and be absorbed, and as it did the circle began to glow even more vibrantly. Then the entire fang bent and twisted in ways that shouldn't be possible, and Bell felt the desire to look away gnaw at his mind. "Do not look away!" Nyarlathotep suddenly said as she held out the knife in front of her, as if handing it to Bell.
"But," Bell tried to say, finding it difficult as he watched the bone shift in a direction that had no meaning.
"If this blade is to be yours, you must watch it form," Nyarlathotep whispered so only Bell could hear her. "And if you want it to truly be yours, help it form and feed if your blood. Right, now."
Bell looked at the knife and realized what she meant. She wanted him to drip his blood onto the fang, even as it writhed and contorted in ways no solid thing should have been able to. He could feel his body going cold, as if telling him that this was wrong, to run away and forget about it. But if he had a weapon, could he save the village girls? Could he do it without a Falna? He didn't think it was possible, but felt a whisper like a breeze, like a birdsong just out of reach, calling to him, echoing into his very soul.
With only a bit of hesitation Bell made his choice, reaching out and pricking his finger on the tip of the knife. He winced a bit at the poke as a drop of blood seeped out of his finger, but simply held his finger there, as if unsure if he should really drop the blood on the contorting mass of bone.
Then Nyarlathotep tapped the back of his knuckle with the flat side of the blade, knocking the small drop of blood off the underside of his finger, right onto the contorting bone. As soon as his blood contacted it, the bone stopped contorting at random and seemed to gain a form, shifting, melding and splitting with angry hissing sounds as steam gushed out of its form.
When the steam finally dissipated Bell found a surprising, borderline unbelievable, sight before him. The glowing circle was no more, gone as if it had never been there, and where it had been sat a short dagger like blade. The whole things was a pristine white in color, from the shaped handle to the small guard, all the way to the blade that split into two separate sections that coiled and twisted around each. Their edges looked serrated and dangerously sharp, as if they could cut the very air around them. What grabbed his attention most however was the bright red ruby like gem inset in the handle in the middle of the guard. On first glance it looked like a blood red ruby, but on second glance it was perfectly smooth and had an almost eyelike design somehow inset in it. Then the jewels eye stared at Bell and blinked, making his breath hitch at the impossibility of it.
"There, it is done and ready!" Nyarlathotep declared as she picked up the Dagger and stood up.
It was at that moment, as Bell stood up as well, that the villagers all turned back around. Those that hadn't seemingly fallen unconscious that was.
One villager suddenly threw up from seeing the weapon in Nyarlathotep's hand, while two others fainted standing up, and a third fell over.
"What, is that!?" the old woman exclaimed in horror, finding the blade more than slightly disgusting. Just the idea that it was once a bone was mortifying.
"The weapon of a once great beast, aiming to be such again!" Nyarlathotep said in an almost prophetic tone as she stepped up beside Bell, handed him the Dagger and smiled. "So, which way did these slavers go?"
"That way!" one man yelled as he pointed toward the road that went out the other side of the village and snaked into the mountains. "That road leads out and toward Orario, so we can't even send notice to the city if they are camped along it!"
"Then we best get going, come along!" Nyarlathotep said as she began walking toward the road in question.
"Ah, but, this is, I'm not-" Bell tried to say as Nyarlathotep continued to walk away, forcing him to stop and run to catch up, leaving the on looking villagers behind. "Lady Lath, why did you tell them that?" he finally asked as he caught up to Nyarlathotep as they were leaving the edge of the village.
"Tell them what?"
"That I was an adventurer," Bell said, sounding like he was upset with himself.
"I told them nothing of the sort; I simply let them make assumptions."
"But, I'm not an adventurer, I don't have a Falna so how could I hope to save them!?" pleaded for an answer.
"How do hunters hunt for game," Nyarlathotep suddenly asked as she kept walking down the road, much to Bells confusion.
"With bows, but what does that have to-" Bell began to say, until Nyarlathotep suddenly stopped, knelt down, licked up a stone, and threw it at a tree ahead of them. It hit an owl on a branch squarely in the head, making it fall to the ground with a dull thump.
"No. Mortals hunt with their mind and senses. It matters not what they wield, the one with more intelligence and skill will prevail," Nyarlathotep said as she began walking down the road again. Ignoring the owl she had killed completely. "Tools simply provide advantages."
Bell caught up to Lady Lath with an uncertain look on his face. "But, to kidnap so many there has to be a lot of them, and they'll be armed and armored and-"
"Of course they will be armed," Nyarlathotep suddenly said with a smile. "There are likely many, likely have experience in fighting, and are likely to be physically stronger than you. Even still, you want to save that villages girls, do you not?"
"Well yes, but-"
"Then you have only two options before you," Nyarlathotep interrupted as she stopped and turned to Bell. "Ignore their situation completely, leaving them to their fates. Or, use that dagger I made for you and do your best to save them from their fate! Which will it be?"
Bell was silent as he stood before Lady Lath, realizing she had essentially given him an ultimatum. He had to make a choice that meant more than just what she had said. If he ignored then, he'd be haunted by it for a long time, maybe even forever, and would have essentially stolen food from the village they had just left. He would also be abandoning any hope of ever considering himself a hero, even if others eventually could.
He didn't even have to consider the dangers. He knew there was only one choice, even if it put him in danger; he had to try to save them!
"I'll try to save them!" Bell declared, his determination overcoming his fear and showing in his eyes.
Nyarlathotep's eyes suddenly flashed the color of blood for a bare second as she grinned wide, far wider than should have been possible. "Good, perfect even! You had my curiosity before but now, now you have my interest and attention! I will see how far your heroism gets you, and I suppose I shall give you some assistance to even the odds!"
Bells eyes went wide as his mouth fell open in surprise. "What, b-but how? A gods Arkanum is sealed down here on Gekai!"
"Gekai? Ah, I see. The lower world, in comparison to this places heaven," Nyarlathotep said to herself before holding up a hand, a brilliant mass of light and energy forming instantly. "That may be the normal case, but even with my powers sealed to the degree they are, I still have access to enough. Otherwise that blade would not have been able to be formed!"
Bell looked at the blade with more focus. The bone had been twisted in ways no bone could be. The edge was fine and looked wicked sharp while the handle was perfectly comfortable in his hand no matter how he held it. The eye in the center of the guard just above his hand looked directly at him as well, blinking as soon as he was not looking directly at it. "Um, what is this thing, really?"
"Oh? Is something wrong with it or your eyes perhaps?" Nyarlathotep said with a knowing smile. "It is a Dagger."
"I mean . . . . bone doesn't shape like this, and this edge is . . . .it has an eye on it!" Bell exclaimed, hoping his feeling about the blade were getting through. He expected Lady Lath to scowl or frown or something but instead, much to his surprise, she smiled at him.
"Yes, it does. That blade is a creation related to my earlier curiosity of you. A blade like no other that I hoped to see what you would do with it. Now that I'm more than curious however, perhaps I should consider a greater gift for you, if you survive this rescue!"
Bells mind instantly went to one thing, a Falna. Without one he couldn't become a successful adventurer, and would have no chance to aim for any of his dreams. He had figured he'd get to Orario, join a Familia and get a Falna and begin adventuring.
In truth he knew it would not be so easy, but had to try anyway. However, the chance of obtaining not just a powerful weapon, but also a Falna, before even arriving at Orario, it was unbelievable!
Lady Lath scared him truthfully. The way she seemed to act like mortals were nothing, the way her power seemed to warp what it touched, the way she spoke, acted, and even felt. It all scared Bell, and something about her made him nervous and a worried, like his instincts were telling him to flee, to run from her at all times. Yet despite his worries, she had crafted him a weapon out of consideration for his desire to help them, even as he hadn't decided. And now, she was alluding to more!
"I . . . , will survive it!" Bell stated seriously on reflex. "I will save those girls!"
Nyarlathotep smiled. "Good, then out us get moving and see just how much of a challenge these slavers shall be!"