FINALLY! Can you guys believe this is the tenth fic in the Angel of Death AU? I never thought it would grow so far. I'm very proud of it.
i've been trying to post this fic for a while but things got complicated. I got writters block so i let it rest for a while, and then i got my exams which took a lot of my time.
But i'm finally free and here it is. Many people have questioned me about how Sasha is going to fight Anne on the same level. This fic contains the answer.
This fic is also a sequel to the second chapter of "An Angel's Voice From Beyond", so if you havent read it, i recommend that you do.
"[...] then a voice said "Come and see". Then another horse came out. It was fiery red, and to his rider was given the power to take peace on Earth and to make people slay each other. And a great sword was given to him."
—Revelation 6:3, "The Bible"
Sasha glanced at the mushroom landscape in front of her and nodded.
"This is the place," she declared, folding the map.
Grime came from behind her, with heavy steps, panting loudly. The backpack he was carrying was nearly as wide as he was.
He harrumphed. "Oh really? Do you think so? Let's take a look to be sure." He walked past Sasha and leaned over the wooden sign blocking the road into the woods. "Wanna guess what it says here?"
The sign had toad runes smeared over the surface. Sasha recognized a few but couldn't make up the message.
"I don't know. Probably something stupid like 'Witch ahead. Turn around unless you're dumb and want to die'."
Grime paused, "Pretty much." He scratched the surface of the sign, smearing the runes over. "This isn't ink, by the way."
Sasha ignored Grime's gory comment and followed the road. Tall, iridescent mushrooms stood tall at each side, shielding the road from the red moon's light. Grime followed Sasha at a slower pace.
"I still don't know what we're doing here," he grumbled.
Sasha reached inside her backpack for the grimoire; the magic book she had the luck to get her hands on.
"This is the forest Aldo said the witch lived in," she said. "Unless you want to travel 200 miles to the next toad witch's hut."
"That's not what I meant," Grime huffed. "I mean why we are following the lead of a senile toad to find a witch who might or might not have something to help you fight Anne!" He nearly fell back but gave a heavy stomp and kept walking. "You've read that forsaken book a dozen times and it has taught you nothing."
It was true. Sasha had re-read the book several times. It went on about a dozen or so creatures, monsters, and spooks and the best way to counteract them, but nothing matched Anne's description. Even the ghost section's main advice was to throw holy salt at the spirit or call an exorcist and Sasha felt neither would work on Anne. The book was hard to read —it was old and some bits were blurred out or written in runes, so Sasha had a dictionary and a magnifying glass by her side the whole time. That wouldn't have been a problem for Marcy. Marcy would've read it once and memorized the whole content. But Marcy wasn't here. She was with Anne.
Sasha quickened her pace. "The book also said 'if everything else fails, find yourself a teacher'." Sasha rubbed the bandages on her left hand absentmindedly. She'd tried everything and failed. "Aldo believes this woman might be our best lead," she added.
"Aldo also believes washing your hands weakens your sword swing," Grime retorted.
"It's that why you never shower?"
Grime grumbled a bunch of not-kid-friendly words. "Fine. As long as we get out of this forest soon. I'm not superstitious but I'm smart enough to not step over a cemetery at night."
Sasha froze. "How do you know this is a cemetery?"
"Look inside the mushrooms."
Sasha did so, peeking inside the semi-translucent mushroom bark. She held back a shriek. A toad skull, partially decomposed, stared wild-eyed at her from inside the mushroom.
Sasha resumed her walking, at a faster pace.
At the end of the road, the woods parted into a T, leading them into a small clearing, solely occupied by a hut. It was ridiculously small and weathered. And yet a faint light poured from inside.
"Must be a trick. Nobody could possibly live here," said Grime.
"Don't be so sure. It looks better than my dad's bachelor apartment," Sasha remarked.
The hut looked worse the closer they got. The door was so termite-ridden Sasha could've splintered it with a kick. Instead, she tried to knock. To her surprise, the door creaked open on its own; a faint light came from inside.
Sasha and Grime shared one look before Sasha pushed the hut door.
It was bigger on the inside. Way bigger —we're talking about how the whole school cafeteria could fit inside. It was clearly inhabited; the glowing mushrooms on the walls, filling everything with a sickening white light, were proof of it. So was the disaster that littered the place. Whoever lived here liked to have their stuff lying around. Several tables filled the space, but there were no chairs to sit on.
"This is way better than my dad's bachelor apartment," Sasha said to herself.
She was the first to venture inside. They had to maneuver their way around, dodging the tables brimming with books and vials with strange substances, and having special care to not slip off the scrolls littering the floor. The silence was only broken when they stepped on a loose wooden board. If that wasn't enough to get on their nerves, strange decorations held from the ceilings; knotted ropes from which hung tiny sculptures of deformed creatures. They had to crouch to avoid being hit by them. Everything was basked in that strange mushroom white light, so bright and abundant nothing cast a shadow. And despite the disaster, everything was insanely clean. It wasn't a dirty place, it was a busy place —like Marcy's room when she got her head into another project. There wasn't a mote of dust to complain about. It gave Sasha a sense of déjà-vu and it wasn't about her dad's bachelor apartment or Marcy's room.
They finally reached the far end of the hall. There was a large stand, like the one you see in a town market but far grimmer and gory, covered in vials and flasks with disgusting liquids inside. There were chairs and stools on their side. On the other, a massive bookcase covered the whole wall, except for one square-shaped hole which seemed to be an entry with no door.
Sasha looked back at where they came from. The exit looked like a tiny bright dot. How could they'd walk that much? If they had to escape, it would be a long run.
"Alright, this place's magical. I get it," she said, although she hadn't seen a single magical missile or fireball. "I don't think this place knows about the laws of physics."
"Do you know anything about the laws of physics?"
"Shut up and help me look for the witch."
"She's always around."
Both the girl and the toad froze. Neither of them had said that. They followed the source of the voice to… well, it was a jar. Not a vial or a flask or a bottle. A jar. Like a pickle jar, except instead of disgusting pickles, this one contained a deeply scarred, gruff-looking elderly toad. He was about three inches tall.
"But ya don't want to meet her. Trust me," the toad added.
Grime was the first to burst into laughter, followed by Sasha's poorly disguised giggling. The toad folded his arms.
"Go ahead. Laugh at the tiny toad," he grumbled. "Ya wouldn't be the first ones."
Sasha regained her composure. "Sorry, sorry. I… you must be the witch's…"
"Prisoner," the toad said. "And so will you if you don't leave."
Sasha couldn't take him seriously. He was smaller than the school's pet rat! "No offense but you don't know me. You don't know what I want."
"Yer right, and it doesn't matter. The witch won't give ya what you want. Not without a price. Look at me," he gestured to himself, sitting miserably in his jar. "Thirty years ago I made a deal with the witch. Power in exchange for my loyalty. She did her part, but forgot to mention that my 'loyalty' extended well beyond my death. She made me work for her even as a ghost. One day I snapped back at her and she shrunk me and sealed me inside this magical stinking pickle jar. She didn't even wash it before!"
This caught Sasha's attention. "You're a ghost? And she trapped you?"
"Aye. It was most-hey!"
Sasha picked up the jar and flipped it, inspecting it and shaking the toad inside. Effectively, there was a rune inscribed into the jar lid. It vaguely resembled a symbol from Sasha's book —a sigil against ghosts.
"This is it, Grime! This is totally the right place." Sasha put her face against the jar. "Tell us where the witch is."
The toad straightened up with difficulty since Sasha held the jar in an awkward position. "Do ya have too much wax in yer ears that ya didn't hear my sad tale or are you just daft? Anything that ya get from her will bring ya only suffering."
"I. Don't. Care. Tell us where the witch is or I'll shake you up, pickle boy."
The toad's transparent blue form seemed to diminish its light as it shook his head.
"Nobody ever listens." He sighed and then shouted. "Ya heard that, Uma? You've got yourself some customers."
"Uma sees them."
Captain and Lieutenant turned around, weapons drawn, but since Sasha held hers with her wounded hand she dropped hers. Not that it mattered. The owner of the voice was an old lady. Not old like a fine wine or old like a painting. Old like your grandma's chair, the one that is as old as your grandma, and it works fine when she uses it, only to fall into pieces the moment you put your butt on it.
Back to the lady: she wore a gray robe that once upon a while must've been white. She carried a cage full of restless grubhogs in one hand and a spear in the other. Sasha didn't miss the dagger on her right side.
The woman eyed Sasha up and down. If looks could kill, Sasha would already be in a morgue, with a mortician going tsk tsk tsk, she was so young.
"Please, put Dimtree down. He doesn't like to be up, and then it'll be Uma who will have to put off with his bad mood," she said, aloof and bored.
Sasha left the jar with Dimtree over the counter. The toad cracked his neck and back.
The woman ignored how Grime was armed and walked by his side. She moved like a grandma, dragging her feet and raising dust that wasn't there before. She used the blunt end of the spear like a walking cane. She walked heavily hunched and had long, disheveled white hair that nearly touched the ground.
But —and this is the part that gave Sasha the chills—, with hunch, white hair, walking cane and the whole grandma look, Uma's face had no wrinkles. Not a single one. It was a perfectly smooth, nearly beautiful, toad face. There was something very wrong with that. When she walked past Sasha, she caught a sniff of her.
Hospital. That's the déjà vu Sasha had before. Once, Sasha fell during cheering practice and broke her leg, so she had to spend a few days in a hospital. This hut reminded her of that experience; a sterile, neutral place, everything unnaturally clean, where people went, but nobody lived in.
Grime put his sword aside, reminding Sasha to fetch hers. Then he nudged her side. "Sasha, this couldn't be the woman we're looking for right? She looks young, but not too young. I don't know how to explain it."
And he didn't have to. She knew exactly what he meant. She told him to stay alert.
The woman went to the other side of the stand. She let the spear rest against a wall and put the cage full of squirming grubhogs over the table.
"Now, will you tell Uma who you are and why yer bothering her, Mister Toad and Miss… tadpole?" Uma made that snide remark at Sasha, but she didn't care.
She'd found the witch —she wasn't going to ruin it by being petty. She cleared her throat and bowed.
"Hail, ancient witch!" boomed Sasha, voice full of meaning. "Far and wide we've traveled, for we're seekers who follow the Moon, searchers of the old lore, and keepers of secrets. By the words of the elders we have heard of your Craft and we crave your knowledge and bow to your power. We'd brought something for you. Ehem. A gift. For you."
Grime came to his senses and dropped the heavy bag over the table, the cloth of it all red. He unfolded it, revealing the red-fresh organ inside.
"Behold! The fresh heart of a heron, swiftly harvested for you. Please, noble witch! Accept this humble gift and let us partake in your-"
Uma lifted a silencing hand. "Look, can Uma be blunt with you?"
Sasha blinked. "…sure?"
"Uma's not feeling it."
It was like being sucker punched with a baseball bat. Sasha rehearsed that speech at least a dozen times!
"Excuse me? What do you mean 'not feeling it'."
The old lady shrugged. "It's the truth. You come here all mighty, break into my house, drop some bird's heart onto my working table-
"The door was open!" said Sasha.
"Hey! I want to see you carry that heart around," shouted Grime.
"-and yet you failed the first step when talking to a witch," said Uma, ignoring the interruption.
The first step? Sasha read about that. Her heart skipped a beat.
"We didn't answer your questions," Sasha said embarrassed.
Uma smiled. "Precisely," she said. "Now. WHO are ye and WHAT do ye want from me?"
Sasha felt herself getting red. She studied the book, she should've known better. She was about to snap when Grime patted her back.
"Let me take care of this. She's a toad, I'm a toad. We'll get each other," he whispered.
Then Grime took the floor from Sasha and spoke with confidence. "Greetings, old one. I'm Captain Grime and this is my human lieutenant Sasha Waybright."
Sasha facepalmed as she was filled with violent thoughts against Grime. He'd just broken the second rule of dealing with witches. NEVER give them your true name!
"You see, we're on an important mission from the Toad Lords. In fact, we're nearly Lords ourselves." Grime proceeded, blissfully ignorant. "You might have heard of the Lord's invasion plans, and we're looking for magic to add a bit of a punch to our armies —and before you say no, let me tell you we are the ones who recovered Barrel's lost war hammer, as you have surely heard."
Uma heard all this boastful speech with a cold expression. "Alright, where is it?"
Grime lost all the momentum he'd accumulated. "Sorry, what?"
"The thing. The whatchamacallit of whats-his-name. Where is it?"
"At home," Grime answered quickly. "I couldn't carry it and the heron's heart!"
Uma's laughter sounded like the desert wind; sharp and dry. Even Dimtree was laughing. Sasha wanted to die.
"Uma had heard that one before," she said.
"Next thing yer gonna tell us is that one of the Toad Lords is your older brother," added Dimtree.
Grime hesitated. "Younger sister, actually."
Both Uma and Dimtree lost themselves to their laughter. Grime was stiff as a plank. Sasha hasn't felt this embarrassed since Anne forgot her lines at the school production of Peter Pan. It was up to her to fix this.
"Look ma'am, we traveled a whole lot to meet you here. The Toad Lord Aldo said you're the strongest witch who had ever lived. We followed the rules of the covenants. We greeted you, we brought you an offering-
"And what cares does Uma have for the rules of the toad Covenants, if the Covenants don't want anything to do with Uma?" Uma poked inside her ear with the tip of her long nail. "Go back to that old snail Aldo and tell him he'll have to fight the war without the craft. Leave."
With that Uma grabbed the cage of grubhogs and made a turn. She was halfway through the threshold when Sasha jumped, grasping Uma's wrist.
"Like Hell you are leaving!" Sasha shouted at the witch's face. Not smart, according to her book. But nothing in the book had helped her so far so screw it. "Listen, lady. We came all the way to visit your trash swamp. I said the right words; I brought you a stinky bird's heart that's been rooting for two days. Covenant witch or not, I did what I had to and you will help me. Now!"
The toad's face constricted, and wrinkles that weren't there before made themselves present, like folding an old map. Grime came by Sasha's hand, sword held. A battle was about to unfold, and so be it!
But then Uma's wrinkles smoothed. She gazed intensively into Sasha's eyes. Sasha, in turn, could see inside Uma's eyes. She had white irises.
"What are you looking at?" said Sasha.
A stupid question. She was looking at her but why? Uma seemed especially fixated in Sasha's eyes. The woman's white gaze was unsettling.
"Interesting. How very interesting." Uma blinked, like waking up from a dream. "Yer here on a quest, yes. Uma doesn't care about Covenant crap. But you have picked her interest." She smiled with the few teeth she had left. "Uma will help you."
"Really?" said the voices of Sasha, Grime, and Dimtree, all at once.
"For a price, of course, that we'll discuss later," said Uma, business-like. "Grab a seat."
She began to search her bookshelf for something in particular. Sasha and Grime picked two chairs, threw the parchments and books on them to the ground, and sat by the stand table. Uma rummaged a bit more before going Aha! The bottle looked as old as her; covered in cobwebs and filled with a vile liquid. Uma struggled with the cork but it eventually gave in. Let's not try to explain the smell that filled the room. Words can't do it justice.
Uma grabbed three glasses and poured the mud-like liquid inside each one. She picked one. The others were for Grime and Sasha. A strength potion? Perhaps an evil concoction that will give Sasha powers to use against Anne?
Uma drank her fill in one shot, as did Grime, after which he gave a long content sigh and a burp.
"That's the good stuff," said Grime, giggling.
Sasha sighed. 'The good stuff' meant, in toad slang, 'booze that not even the rats would drink'. Sasha threw her fill on the ground. Oh Frog, it made a hole in the wood. Luckily, Uma didn't notice.
"Finely aged," added Uma and burped too, equally loud as Grime. She filled the glasses again. "Now, tell Uma about your enemy."
"It's not too late to change your mind," Dimtree warned them.
He shouted when Uma slammed a fist over the jar, shaking it over. "Quiet Dimtree! Yer scaring the customers."
Oh yeah, the dread Sasha was feeling was definitely Dimtree's fault. The small toad said words no child or churchgoer should hear. But Sasha was neither of those so fuck it.
"You will fuck them over as you did with me ya old abomination."
Again, Uma slammed a fist over the jar, shaking the whole table. The woman might be old, but she was a toad after all. Dimtree sat down and gave his back to everyone. He was quiet after that.
Uma gasped tiredly. "Where were we? Ah yes. Your enemy."
She was talking to Sasha, but Grime broke in. "Well, we're on a mission against King Andrias-"
Uma shushed him, spitting saliva all over Grime's face. "Uma wasn't talking to you, gladiator." Both the lieutenant and the captain froze. How did she know Grime used to be a gladiator?
"Besides, Uma knows everything about you toads' plans against the Puppet King. The wind told her about it."
"The wind," Sasha said, more weirded out by the minute. "And did the wind say if we would win or…"
Uma scratched the side of her face. If she had a beard, she probably would be stroking it. "Hard to say, hard to say." Uma rambled. "Ye might win or ye might lose, but little does it matter in the end. The Puppet King will meet his demise, at yer hands or other's." She pointed a dagger finger at Sasha. "No. Uma wants to know about yer enemy, tadpole. The one that gave ye that scar."
Sasha tensed all over. Technically, the scar on her lip and her head was also Anne's fault, from when Toad Tower fell over their heads. But Uma was talking about the scar on her cheek. Sasha thought about it often. The others were an accident. This one was from a deliberate attack from her dear friend.
At that moment, Sasha decided she didn't like Uma. She knew too much. Sasha could stand not being the most intelligent person in the room, but being with someone most knowledgeable was never good.
"Anne's not my enemy. She's my friend. Kinda." Sasha spoke without conviction. "Look, it's those frogs who got all these crazy ideas in her head, but we're still friends. It's complicated."
Uma laughed. "Ah, so it's complicated."
Sasha turned red. "Yeah well… What's the deal with you and Toad Lord Aldo?"
Uma stopped laughing. "It's complicated."
Sasha smiled triumphantly. See, old witch? I know shit too! She thought.
Uma recomposed and shrugged. "Friends and enemies are the same thing. Love and hate are the same thing. Life and death, despair and desire, left and right" Uma made it clear she could keep naming things. "If you have plenty of one, you have a whole lot of the other. Why don't you tell Uma about this 'it's complicated' of yours."
With not many choices at hand, Sasha told Uma everything. From the moment they landed in Amphibia to the fight with Anne. She took special measure of mentioning Anne's new powers.
"It's like she's a ghost, but she's not a ghost," Sasha explained. "I have a grimoire about it but it says nothing of a creature like that. Well, it mentions the Ghost Fish but Anne obviously isn't one of those. What do you think?"
The glass in Uma's hand was so still that the vile inside didn't move, as Uma herself was hard as a table. She'd become increasingly tense the more Sasha told her tale and now she was so stiff you could put her horizontal and put plates over her.
"Oh bollocks," she answered anxiously.
Dimtree, who had heard the whole tale, was done with his tantrum and didn't look much better than Uma. He was sweating and shaking.
"Tell Uma somethin'," said Uma, leaning close to Sasha. "This friend of yours, ye said she can become incorporeal?"
"Yes?" said Sasha.
"And she can become like s'moke? And the shadows obey her? And she messes up with the weather?"
"Yes."
"And —this is just a hypothetical mind you— but when yer friend spoke to ye she had a voice LIKE THIS?"
Sasha hit her head with the back of the chair. Grime wasn't doing better, rubbing his temples.
"Damn. Don't ever talk like that," he whined. "Sounded like the screams of the gladiators at the arena."
It didn't sound like that. Not to Sasha. She heard a scream being snuffed out by the fire; a forest burning out of control. And the storm, thundering above. And the wind, howling wildly, out of control. It nearly turned Sasha into a small, powerless child.
"That's it," she forced herself to say, "that's the voice."
All the color, all the light that was on Uma snuffed out. Her face wrinkled heavily, and in a matter of seconds, she looked like the old lady she was. She drank her fill of the glass and stood up. She paced, from wall to wall, muttering nice stuff like 'no, no, it can't be, but it is' and 'what are ye doing here?' and 'a monster, an abomination.' But mostly she mumbled 'stay away'.
Grime whispered to Sasha about how the woman has finally snapped. Ironically, it was Dimtree who bought Uma out of her ramblings.
"Didn't see that coming, did ya witch?" Dimtree taunted.
Uma snarled, kneeling to be in Dimtree's line of sight. "I swear Dimtree, one of these days-"
"You'll what? Shrink me, put me inside a pickle jar, and make me into yer butler? That's already done, old woman."
Uma, being done with Dimtree, lifted the jar high up in the air and slammed it onto the stand. This quieted Dimtree for good —and maybe knocked him out. Unfortunately, it also knocked the bottle of booze to the ground. Uma knelt to pick it up but it was too late; it crashed hard. Uma gasped. When she lifted, her hand was bleeding. Uma seemed unbothered by her wound, inspecting the cut with curiosity. Then she opened the hog cage, grabbed a grubhog, and closed it again.
Then Sasha began to feel real fear. The old toad's eyes glowed red as the air turned hot and suffocating. The hog squealed and whined, shaking and trembling as he tried to escape the woman's iron grasp. Slowly, the hog began to shrink and desiccate, like it was becoming old very fast; its squealing weakened until it went quiet. The grubhog was now a desiccated gray sculpture. And Uma?
Her hand wasn't bleeding any more.
Done with the hog, Uma disposed of the body in a trashcan. The other grubhogs in the cage had seen it all and were squealing desperately.
It was Grime who broke the silence. "Merciful Ancestors," he prayed.
"Holy shit," said Sasha, not quite as delicate. She was shaking but she didn't know if from fear of joy. "That was Blood Magic, wasn't it? It totally was! You steal that thing's life force to heal yourself. The book said all about it."
Uma looked at Sasha. More specifically, at Sasha's bandaged hand. "It did, didn't it?"
Sasha hid her hand behind her back. "Yeah well. It didn't say how to make it work. But you can teach me, right? And then I will pay you."
Uma, who had calmed a considerable lot and had lost most of her wrinkles, spoke. "Ye tried to learn Blood Magic from a book? Bah! There 're more secrets on Uma's fingernails than what ye can learn from any book."
"Fine. Gimme a fingernail and I'll work with that."
Uma rolled her eyes and Sasha knew she just had a 'Marcy Wu not getting irony' moment. Uma gave her back to Sasha, lifting her gaze. Listening. A breeze of wind began to blow, and Uma began to ramble again.
"What to do? What to do? She's just a tadpole. Or is she? Her shadow's large from the fire in her eyes. What is she? It?" Uma chewed her nails to the bone. "Is it fate? Is it chance? Uma can never tell. If it's a chance it might kill her, but if it's fate… Hmmm."
The woman's rambling was interesting to hear, to say the least. Grime was increasingly anxious. He kept motioning for them to make a run for the one-mile-away exit door. Before Sasha could dispute his plan, Uma faced them. Somehow she looked like a different woman. Kinder. Sasha didn't like it.
"Blood magic won't help ye against His Lordship. But Uma has something that will." She said and headed to the backdoor. "Follow her."
She disappeared inside the house.
"Wait. Did she say 'His Lordship'?" Grime asked, a bit more scandalized than he should be.
Sasha bolted from the chair and jumped over the stand. "Who cares what she said? Come on. Don't get lost."
It was meant as a joke but they could easily get lost. The backside of the hut followed the same laws of logic as the front —none at all. They walked through a narrow hallway, with dozens of doors on each side. Lights and sounds came from every room, but Sasha tried to ignore them. She was set on not getting lost. Finally, she caught Uma, who had stopped in front of a massive wooden door. She took out a keychain, inserted a key, and opened the door.
"Behold!" she announced.
Sasha looked indeed, but she didn't know what she was supposed to be looking at.
"It's a basement," Sasha said, disappointed.
Uma noticed her mistake and closed the door. "Sorry. Too many keys. All look the same" She chose a different key and used it on the door.
This time, the door opened to a workshop. Not too different from the front, with tables full of strange magical items and shelves full of books, with the difference this room looked neater and more organized, proof that someone spent a lot of time there. Uma went in, going straight to the farthest table. At that moment, Grime caught up on them, short of breath. He still hasn't recovered from carrying that useless heron heart all those miles.
"What happened? Are we there yet?" he asked.
"I think so," said Sasha.
The room was even colder than the front, to the point Sasha could see her breath. There was a strange pillar covered with a blanket that caught Sasha's attention before she went to Uma. She peeped over the woman's shoulder. She was rummaging through bowls, each one full of stones. Precious stones, mind you. Sasha would know. There were also several chisels of different sizes laying on the table. Uma emptied a bowl over the table, looked at each stone individually, with one of those monocles jewelers use, then put the stone aside, picked another, and when she was done she returned all the stones to the bowl. She did this several times. Grime paid full attention to the process and had his hand smacked every time he tried to steal a stone.
Sasha was more interested in the pillar. She didn't trust Uma and she wouldn't risk any more surprises. She sneaked to the pillar and quietly threw the blanket down. Under it was what looked like a funeral urn, all black, and white. Pretty. It seemed to be tightly shut. Sasha reached for it.
"Don't touch that!"
Sasha reeled her hand back. Uma shot her an inquisitive glare. She put her hand over the urn.
"Uma will show ye."
She put her finger and her thumb over the urn's lid and pressed two hidden buttons. The ceramic that covered the vase slid away, showing a crystal vase hidden inside the urn.
Inside the vase was… something. The best way to describe it was as a piece of rag; like it had been ripped from someone's dress. However, it was white, in the purest sense of the word. A recently painted wall or a clean doctor's scrub wouldn't be this white. It was the kind of brilliant fake white you see in toothpaste commercials. Its whiteness was defied by one or two black spots here and there. The spots weren't stuck; they slowly danced around the surface of the… thing, like shooting stars in the sky.
"What the Hell is that?" Sasha asked and regretted it when the Thing sprung itself up, slamming against the lid. It didn't budge.
The thing floated down slowly, like a plastic bag swayed by the wind. But there was no force moving it. It was alive. And apparently, it understood what Sasha said. Or maybe it just heard her speak.
"What…" this time Sasha couldn't finish the sentence. By force of instinct, her hand went to her sword.
"There's no need for violence, tadpole. It's just a lil' somethin' somethin'." Uma pressed the buttons and the ceramic covered the crystal vase again. "Uma found it long ago, when she was young and beautiful."
Grime groaned. "Oh yeah? And did Uma speak in the third sentence back then too?"
Uma paused. "Yes. It's very funny, so can it." She cleared her throat. "Uma started as a midwife, as most witches do. She brought lil' tadpoles into the world, made balms for physical ailments and potions of… virility." She lifted both eyebrows several times. Sasha nearly threw up in her face. "But she was plagued by ghosts, she was. Ghost only she could see, only she could hear."
"Anne said something like that!" Sasha remembered. "She said it happened her whole life. I didn't believe her at first. No wonder she was always so weird."
Uma ignored the hidden insult. "Yes, well. I and yer Anne are of very different kinds." Uma put both hands on her head, where her ears should be. "But it was too much for poor, young Uma. The constant talking, stalking, and whining." She stretched her face, making wrinkles appear for a second before it smoothed up again. "So, Uma delved into the dark arts. And the first thin' you learn with the forbidden craft is to fight fire with fire."
Uma held the urn close to her chest. "Uma made a little trip to Death's World, where He —or is it She know?—rules over, and brought back this lil' thing."
Sasha's arm hair went hard at the tale of the woman. Uma shifted between looking old and young. Energetic and tired. She spoke of things Anne had spoken about. Perhaps they were similar in some ways but, as Uma said, she and Anne are different. Sasha simply knew it.
"And what is it? The lil' thing," Sasha asked.
Uma shrugged. "I dunno. They don't like visitors in Death's World so they kicked Uma out quickly, but not before she could grab it." She rocked the urn as if trying to decipher its nature by weight alone. "Could be a piece of furniture, could be a rag of cloth. Mayhap skin ripped from someone's face." She gave a perverse laugh. "Everythin' is made of the same in Death's World.
"I call it The Hallow because it comes from a holy place."
Sasha highly doubted it and nearly laughed. "Didn't look too holy to me."
Grime leaned in to whisper. "She didn't mean 'holy' as in 'miracles and rays of sunshine'. She meant 'holy' as 'divine and alien'. Kinda like you, sans the divine."
Sasha had no answer to that besides 'eat it, Grime'. Uma went back to inspecting the stones. After what felt like an eternity she went 'aha!'.
"There they are." She opened her palm showing three stones shining like the night. "Obsidian stones. Uma took a lot of care into chiseling them to look like diamonds."
For the second time in the night, Sasha truthfully laughed.
"Sorry, sorry but… I mean, come on. These look like anything but diamonds."
Grime added. "Yeah, the shapes are all wrong. This one looks like a bird."
"This one's barely a triangle."
"Excuse me," shouted Uma. "But those who have experienced chiseling stones please raise your hands."
Only Uma lifted her hand.
"There you go then. Less complainin', more walkin'."
Uma brought them back to the front with the urn and the stones. This time the trip felt shorter because they were following the witch closely. They resumed their seats and Uma put the urn over the counter. Immediately, Dimtree backed away until he hit the glass of his jar.
"Oh, ya better not." He threatened Uma, but his voice was quivering. "Y-ya can give that thing away, not to them! These two together couldn't make a brain if they tried."
Grime protested. "Hey! We have at least ONE brain… wait I mean-"
"I know what I'm doing, Dimtree," said Uma through clenched teeth.
"Ya know nothing! Yer mind's been gone for the last thirty years!"
Sasha thought another argument was coming, maybe more shaking of the jar. But Uma was calm. Worst. She was smiling.
"Ye know Dimtree? You were right. There's nothing else I can do to ye."
Uma put one hand on the urn's lid and the other on Dimtree's jar lid. Something in Sasha's stomach turned.
"Uma?" said Dimtree.
Uma began to open the lids.
"Uma what- wait, you can't. You won't. I served ye well. What are you doing?"
Uma stopped just before opening the lids.
"I'm relieving you from your duty."
She opened both lids at once. Dimtree flew fast towards the exit of his jar but Uma was faster and put the urn upside down over the jar. Dimtree was pushed down as the Hallow fell over him. The toad began to scream desperately as smoke began to manifest. Like the Hallow was burning him. Or digesting him. The Hallow grew in size as it covered Dimtree's legs, then his torso, and finally his head. Dimtree gave one final screech as his head disappeared inside the goo-like creature. For a few moments, everything was quiet. Then the Hallow began to expand like wet cotton until it filled the whole jar. Then it exploded, with something coming out of it.
White moths, by the dozen, came out of the Hallow. Sasha and Grime knelt as the army of moths made circles above them. One of them fell to the floor. It was completely petrified. Sasha reached for it but it turned into dust at the touch. One by one the moths fell, turning into dust that was swiftly absorbed by the floor. Soon there was no proof any of that happened. There were only Sasha and Grime, raising, full of fear; Uma, smiling like a child, and the Hallow, which Uma quickly guided to its original urn and closed the lid.
"Such a shame," said Uma, but her smile betrayed her words. "But he was never a good butler after all."
Grime dared to speak first. At some point, he'd pulled out his sword. Sasha had hers too. Her hands were shaking.
"You killed him? But he was-"
"Ghost? Yes. Uma had 'ated 'em ever since she was a midwife." She covered her head, smile demented and long. "The tadpoles were the worst. Lil' ones that didn't make it into our world. No words. Just screamin' and cryin'. Pure suffering. So Uma did the forbidden ritual and drank the poison. 'er soul went into His Lordship's domain, but it was still tethered to 'er body. She couldn't stay in the other world long, but she took the lil' thing with her."
With a swift motion, Uma opened the urn lid. Grime and Sasha readied their sword. Uma threw the three obsidian rocks inside, then quickly shut the lid. She pressed the secret buttons and the crystal urn was revealed. The Hallow was big and fat now, but when the stones fell, it tried to dodge them. But it couldn't and the stones began to absorb it like they were vacuum cleaners sucking up dirt. The Hallow released a long screech as it stretched more and more until it split apart into three pieces, each one being sponged into one stone. All three stones changed color into a sickening, hospital-like white.
Uma kept talking, mostly to herself. "Ever since I found the lil¡ thing, ghosts had bothered me no more." She opened the urn and picked up the stones, holding one against the light. It was so white it was almost transparent. "One touch is all they need and they are gone."
Sasha tried to swallow or wet her lips but her mouth was dry. She felt completely lost and could barely understand the witch's riddles. "You mean dead? Dead for real?" she ventured.
"Gone means gone. Here."
She threw one stone at Sasha. It was cold to the touch and felt slightly slippery. It was the triangular one.
Uma dropped the remaining two into the pockets of her coat. "I don't think you can kill His Lordship. But maybe you can hurt Him badly enough that he would lose his physical form."
Sasha's heart raced in her chest. "This can hurt Anne." She said more than asked. She'd found it. After hours of reading books, the trip to the hut, and the insanity of all she'd lived through today she finally had her edge.
Once again, it was Grime who was the voice of reason. "You said that. And you also said we'll have to pay for it."
The comment brought Sasha back to the living world. She felt once again like a lieutenant, instead of the little girl she'd been since she saw the Hallow.
"Right. You said we would talk business," said Sasha. "So let's talk. What do you want from this?"
Uma took a step closer, hands behind her back. "Oh nothin' important. Uma believes in exchanges, as all witches do. Uma gives ye her thing, ye give Uma yours." She showed her empty hands. "See? Simple."
Sasha looked at Grime. No, he also didn't have a clue what the witch meant. She also noted that the dagger was no longer on Uma's side.
"Uh, what thing, exactly?" Sasha asked cautiously.
The old woman frowned. "The thing. Shiny and fiery red. The light of a star inside a mortal." She hid her hands behind her back again. "Of course, the light of a thousand stars won't help you against His Lordship. Uma gave you the key. Her thing. Now you give Uma your thing."
An upsetting feeling settled in Sasha's stomach. Not nausea like she'd been feeling since she came in, but the sharpness that came before a battle. She didn't see this ending well.
"Look lady, I don't know what you're talking about. But if you don't like the heron's heart, we can work some money deal-"
Sasha was cut off, almost literally. Uma gripped Sasha's chest plate with one hand, holding a dagger to Sasha's neck with the other. The cold metal kissed the girl's skin.
"Don't try to trick me, Strength! Give me the Stone!"
Having been done with this nonsense, Sasha punched the witch's chest, sending her back and knocking against the bookshelf, making several books fell off.
"Are you alright?" Grime asked.
Before Sasha could answer, Uma's sharp laugh cut the air. The woman rubbed her chest, but she wasn't harmed at all. Slowly, she walked to their side of the stand, as Grime and Sasha backed away; the exit was the only thing on their minds.
"Didn't thin' you would be one to back away from a deal, Strength," said Uma, in that horrible 'I know it all' voice she had. She reminded Sasha of her school principal. Or her parents, after they'd fought each other over her custody. Or Grime, when she berated her for launching herself recklessly against an enemy.
Honestly? Sasha was fucking tired of that voice.
"Lady, for the last time. I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't care. We came all the way here, we listened to your ramblings, and I swear I had to swallow my vomit back five times today." Sasha lifted her sword. "So if it's a fight you want, then let's rumble."
She lunged forward, with no hesitation, and went straight for the heart. It was a direct hit, but it did nothing. The blade went right through Uma like she was mist. Frozen fear took over her. Not this again, please. Sasha tried again with a swipe but the effect was the same. Just like the battle with Anne. Except this time, Sasha knew how futile all her attempts would be.
"If you're done," Uma taunted, "it's Uma's turn, then."
She lifted the blade and Sasha jumped back. But the blade wasn't directed at her. Instead, Uma lifted her left hand and let the blade slide over her wrist. Blood began to flow but it didn't fall to the ground. Instead, it rose into the air, floating in fat drops, and gathering into the shape of a fist. Sasha saw what was coming and lifted her sword.
The blade barely shielded her from the impact. It was like being hit by a floating bowling ball, and it sent Sasha flying back several feet and hitting a table. Parchments and flasks fell all around her. Everything hurt but she considered herself lucky; a direct hit would've killed her.
On the other side of the room, the battle proceeded. Grime saw the attack and, in true toad fashion, charged forward with a thirst for vengeance. But Uma was ready. She summoned more blood in the shape of a blade and used it to parry Grime's attack. Now, Uma wasn't a great sword fighter; she only parried half of Grime's attacks, but those that made contact went right through the witch's ghostly body. Sasha guessed she planned to tire Grime down until he left an opening for a counteroffensive. Or perhaps she would wait until he was tired enough and absorb his life force as she did with the grubhog. Then she thought of something fundamental. Uma hasn't turned to look at Sasha in a while. Interesting. Uma must believe her attack either killed or knocked down Sasha. Sasha made her life purpose to stay immobile. Meanwhile, she planned.
If she attacked Uma now, she could get a direct hit —which would be useless since Uma was made of fog or something. She briefly considered dashing to the exit but quickly discarded the idea; she wasn't leaving Grime behind. She felt like in her fight with Anne, not too long ago. Weak, powerless. As if the World was spinning around without her. Like she never existed, or if she did, she was so unimportant nobody cared. She had to do something but Uma was like a ghost!
And when she thought that, it hit her. It was so obvious it made Sasha mad for not thinking about it before. She fished the Hallow from her pocket. As she held it, Sasha felt a thirst for blood like never before. She brought the Hallow close to the sword. How could this work? Before she could figure out the answer, the Hallow flew from her hand and attached itself to the sword's hilt. Bright red burned Sasha's vision. Her sword haloed with a red hue that made her angry. Good. Angry was a good feeling.
Wasting no time, Sasha jumped forward and dashed. Uma had one second to process what was about to happen before the sword plunged into her flesh, right on her side. The screech she let out was nothing a mortal thing could produce. Uma felt back, leaning against the stand. Grime saw what was happening but he didn't relax, sword up and close enough to retaliate if necessary.
There was silence, broken only by the heavy breathing of the fighters.
"Are you alright, Commander?" Sasha asked Grime.
The toad laughed. "I could use a nap and some bog-grog, but I think I'll live."
The one who didn't look too good was Uma. She looked as old as she was —and some more. her face was covered in heavy wrinkles and bags and her skin was cracked like ancient parchment. She had been pierced and was bleeding. This only emboldened Sasha, who took the sword out of the squirming toad and hold it against her neck.
"Ready for round three? Or are you scared of your own creation?" Sasha taunted and she felt an ecstasy she hadn't known before.
Uma's face contorted. Sasha had never seen so much hate on someone's face. Not on Grime when they were on bad terms, not on her parents when they fought. Not on Anne.
Uma lifted a hand and Sasha put the sword closer to her neck. Uma dropped her dagger.
"Sod you," she whined like an old lady. "Sod you, and sod your Puppet King, and his Eternal Master. And sod His Lordship, especially." She straightened as much as she could. "Do you want to play being a witch? Fine. Want to fight your enemies, blind to who they truly are? Do it! Take the Hallow and do whatever your heart desires with it. Just remember, when fate comes to put your feet back on the ground, when you are at the edge of the abyss, alone, just remember…"
With wind speed, Uma slid forward until she was face to face with Sasha. Her visage was that of a skeleton.
"NO RETURNS."
Then she shoved a hand on Sasha's chest. It felt like falling from Toad Tower again, just horizontally inclined this time. She flew until her back hit the door, then the cold ground. She was about to get up when Grime was thrown over her and damn, a healthy toad can't weigh this much.
"Grime! Take your whole self off me, man. You're like a truck full of… toads!"
Grime rolled off Sasha, who swiftly rose to her feet. She wasn't done with the witch yet.
As she opened the door, however, she was met with a one-room, dirty as Hell, bugs-infested hut. A roach passed Sasha's foot on its way out. Nobody had lived here in years.
"What. The. Fuck," said Sasha, then shouted. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? Why was that place so big and now it's small? And Dimtree? Oh man, that was messed up. Why did he turn into moths? And Uma? What was she? Was she even alive? Grime, why aren't you answering my questions?!"
Grime shouted from the ground. "Because I know exactly as much as you do about that whole whatever-the-Hell. No, scratch that." He lifted himself so he was sitting. "I do know one thing. I know we should count ourselves lucky we got out of there with our spines and our souls intact." He sighed. "Now, help me out here, I'm beaten."
They began the walk back, slowed down by Grime struggling to stay on foot, even with Sasha's help. The ghostly glow of the cannibal mushrooms alongside the road reminded Sasha of the witch's hovel.
"Not going to say anything?" said Sasha, trying to get something out of Grime.
He was pensive for a while. "I'll say this is why we toads don't do magic. The people that get into these things are loonier than a wild bee-wolf howling at the moon."
Sasha was quiet. It was hard to argue about that.
"It worked tho'," Sasha retorted. She pulled her sword off the hilt. Its red light immediately became a beacon, shining redder than Amphibia moon's light. "Or the jewel worked, anyway. Uma was like a ghost, just like Anne. And this… Hallow; I nearly got her with it."
Grime scoffed. "You understand she let us go right? If she'd wanted we would be dead by now.."
"Psst. Of course, I knew that," said Sasha, who didn't know that. "It's whatever. We got away with it and I finally have the right weapon to fight Anne." She stifled a laugh. "Never thought it would be with a freaking lightsaber but here we are."
With a bit of a struggle, Sasha separated the stone from the hilt. The sword's glow went off. It was a regular weapon again. Holding the Hallow made Sasha feel calmly joyful.
"Hope that's true. If Anne really is His Lordship-"
"Yeah, that's another thing. What was that? Uma kept mentioning this Lord guy. Who is he?"
Grime rolled his eyes. "Just a toad legend about gods. I can walk by myself now, thanks."
Sasha let him go, and although he swayed a little, he could stand on his two feet. They kept walking.
"I thought you toads prayed to your Ancestors. Your mother, great-grandfathers' uncle, stuff like that," said Sasha.
"Most toads do. Others believe there are more than our Ancestors. There are gods, spirits of whatever. Battle, victory, war, parties with wine and stinky cheeses —I swear some toads can't turn their heads without finding a god to pray to." Grime explained, upset with having to tell this tale.
"And 'His Lordship' is the god of…"
"Take a guess."
Sasha had an idea, but even she was freaking out by it. "Death?" Sasha inquired. Grime nodded. "Wait. Some people pray to Death?"
"Sure! Pray, leave offerings. There was an altar to Him in the barracks of the arena." He let out a chuckle as he fondly remembered. "Some thick-as-rocks gladiators would leave their weekly loaf of bread to Him. A desperate begging to survive to see another day."
Sasha could imagine them. Gruff men and women leaving everything they had, putting their faith into some awful deity, instead of trusting their own strength or cunning. Although, she did have to come and wrestle an awful witch for a weapon, but that was different. She paid for it by surviving all that madness.
"And did the offerings work?" Sasha asked.
"Not really. But maybe because some low-lifers kept stealing the bread offering."
Sasha paused. "By low-lifer, you mean you stole the offerings."
"What was His Lordship going to do with the bread? He's a skeleton!" Grime replied.
A skeleton, eh? It seems toads and humans are not that far away in how they think Death looks like.
"I still don't get what this has to do with Anne."
Grime hesitated, deep in some disturbing thoughts, trying to make up his mind.
"The same toads that believe in the gods also believe they sometimes took physical form to, I don't know, walk Amphibia among us mortals."
This train of thought hit Sasha like a train full of thoughts. She stopped walking and could feel herself get red as she became rabid.
"Grime, Anne is NOT the fucking Grim Reaper!"
The scream was loud enough to startle nearby birds and made some lone wolf-bee in the woods howl in response. Sasha was furious but Grime was serious. More than ever.
"How do you know?"
Sasha nearly laughed, but she was too mad to. "Because I know!" She pulled the photo. Her photo. The one with her girls. The one they took back on Earth —when the World made sense. "Look at her. Does this girl look like the God of Death? I have dozens of photos like these. We grew up together. We know each other's secrets, dreams, and favorite shampoo scents. Anne's cinnamon! Do you think Death bathes himself with cinnamon-scented shampoo?"
"If he (or she) took a human disguise, yes, she would. None of what you say discards the theory. Maybe Anne's playing the long con." Grime reasoned —a very odd thing for him to do. "Think about it: if you were Death in disguise, is that not what you have done? Damn it, Sasha, she pretty much confessed to you. She told you about her strange powers well before you could see them. If you have believed her…"
"Shut up." Sasha hid the photo inside her chest plate. Next to her heart, where it belonged. "We're done talking about this. Anne is not Death. She's just different. Maybe she's stronger now, but with this." She threw the Hallow and caught it in the air. "We're even."
"Good," said Grime, also tired of arguing. "Let's hope that when the time comes, you have what it takes to use it."
He said mysteriously and kept walking. Sasha shook her head. She hid the Hallow in her pocket and followed Grime out of the mushroom woods.
Toads, Sasha had found out, have two moods. Fighting and partying. Today was party day, and the sounds of the festivity and the smell of the stinky cheeses could be sensed everywhere in the fortress, even in the bathroom where Sasha was. She'd excused herself from the party, alleging a headache, and had barricaded herself in the tiny bathroom. The Hallow stone shined white over the sink, next to the knife.
After a few minutes of staring at her reflection, with the event of the day still sinking in her stomach, Sasha took out the bandage of her left hand. The scar was still fresh and red. She'd copied the sigil perfectly from the grimoire a few days ago. However, no Blood Magic had occurred.
Sasha took the knife in her shaking right hand. Uma had said Blood Magic won't help against Anne, but there were other enemies she would have to fight before getting to her friend, and Sasha planned to cover all her bases.
She let the knife rest against her left palm. This was stupid and dangerous, and Sasha didn't know what she was doing. But none of that had stopped her before. She applied pressure and let the knife kiss her palm. Now there was a horizontal cut, slashing the sigil in half. It stung like Hell. Blood began to pool on her palm but that's it. Nothing else.
She sighed. A waste of time. Like nearly everything she'd been doing.
What was she doing? Did she really want to lead a coup? Stay in Amphibia? Return to Earth? What did she even want? She shouldn't be in a stinky bathroom cutting herself, she should be with her girls; hanging around and laughing together like the World was theirs. And they would be if she'd been strong enough to defeat Anne.
Anne. Anne Anne Anne. She was in Sasha's every thought —she and Marcy, but mostly Anne because she was the one who was walking away from Sasha's grasp. She hated her for that, for rebelling, for forcing her to do this. But at the same time… she didn't.
Love is hate. Life is Death.
Uma's words rang in Sasha's head, and she drifted her thoughts to happier times. Hanging out after school. Killing it at Super Dance Fusion. Bicycling together on the dangerous L.A. streets. Doing each other's makeup. Soft touches. Soft looks. The whole World was sharp, full of putrid sharp people, but Anne and Marcy were soft and perfect. They were everything Sasha had. Everything she wanted.
She opened her eyes. A tiny red blob was suspended in the air, in front of her. The sigil in her hand was glowing. The blood was floating upwards. Sasha stared at herself through her tear-filled eyes and smiled triumphantly.
"Pardon the interruption my Lord, but this woman insisted on talking to you," said one of the newt guards.
King Andrias lifted his face from his '50 More Famous Flipwart Strategies' book. The guards were holding an old woman by the arms.
"Is that so?" King Andrias asked. "Well, she's already here, so release her at once. Be gentlemanly."
The guards let the woman go.
"So, what can I do for you, good woman?" asked King Andrias.
The woman, who was rather old, gave an earthly laugh. "More machine than man, the oldest of his kind." she coughed. "But not as a machine or as old as his Eternal Master."
King Andrias tensed. Voices in the back of his head warned him about this woman.
"Leave," he ordered and the guards made a bow and swiftly left the room. Only the king and the woman remained.
The voices begged him to destroy the woman, but King Andrias was curious. He abandoned his throne and lifted the woman. She barely weighed anything in his giant fist. Over his head, an eye opened on his crown. They, too, wanted to look at her.
"You have five seconds to give me a reason not to crush you like a grape." King Andrias warned her. And he meant it.
The woman laughed again. "Because I have gifts for you, Puppet King. Information, for one, and these…"
She lifted her fist and opened it. Something fell in King Andrias' palm. It was too small to see but it looked like white, deformed gemstones.
"What are these?"
Uma smiled; her skeletal face showing rows and rows of teeth.
"The key to destroy your enemy."
God, this fic... not gonna lie it was hard to write. Too many ideas to pour down but i didn't want this fic to be long beyond reading point. It is already long as it is and that's a problem. BUT if you got to this part it means you read it all and i thank you for it!
The tenth fic in this AU... and we still have a long way to go!
As usual you can find more stuff or ask me question at my tumblr (wolfinshipclothing) or my twitter.
AND dont forget to like and comment if you liked it. Seriously, your comments give me life ;)
