Reading the Air
Khan clenched his lance where it lay by his left ankle. It quickly struck him how useless the weapon was at this range. But something was creeping into the corner of his mind…
He recognised the solid presence of Malathos. This was the spell of Devotion, which meant that Malathos was now connected with all his companions. The focus required rendered him slightly incapacitated, but any attacks against those he was connected to were transferred onto him. It was a very useful spell, and to Khan it was a great source of comfort.
Tensing the muscles in his right arm and gritting his teeth, he threw his fist into the swordsman's stomach. The boy doubled over, then twitched as a change rippled over him. Before another attack could be made, he leapt back. Very quickly.
"What are you?" Khan repeated. He wished his voice could be fiercer, but an uneasiness had come over him. There was something not right about that… change…
The boy gave him a calculating glare. He tilted his head lightly, as if considering whether or not to answer the question. There is definitely something different about him…The crusaders ran into formation, Marissa and Yashiro either side of Khan, and Malathos and Runa hanging back.
Silence.
"I, myself… I don't know, and I wish I didn't care," was the first answer, spoken in a cold, enormous growl. "They called this one Doppelganger," was the second; the growl hung in the deep pits of the words, but the voice sounded like thousands of people speaking at once, all whispering frantically like chaotic thoughts. Doppelganger drew a broadsword from his side.
Khan puzzled over the answer, beginning to wish he hadn't asked the question. Who are "they"? was just one mystery that sprung from the seemingly earnest answers. Then he puzzled over his own fear of the first voice – there was a lot more to the speaker than the terrible growl…
Marissa had sprinted forward. She swung her heavy hammer-like halberd in a full horizontal sweep. Doppelganger stepped beneath it with ease. The crusader brought her impressive weapon back around over her head, and, letting it follow gravity's call, smashed it down into the ground, causing a small explosion of rubble. Doppelganger strafed around the blade, but felt the shock of the hit and backed away again.
Yashiro dove in for his own assault. Marissa was chanting a lancer's spell of agility as he ran past, sword poised in his right hand. The strike should have cleaved his foe diagonally from the waist to the shoulder. The blade met empty air.
Runa gasped suddenly and hurried closer to Malathos. Khan understood why. He felt himself flinch as something in the air changed. He abruptly became aware that there were, in fact, a lot of monsters on Midgard, and they wanted nothing better than to kill him. There were a lot of shadows around. Assassins could go completely invisible in the shadows… he wouldn't see them at all… they'd move silently, then they'd be at his throat with their daggers. And then… slice! He'd be dead. Doppelganger… why can't I attack him?
He looks so human…
But he's so not…
I'm being ridiculous…
… What's going on?
Doppelganger attacked now. Angrily. He shrieked and threw all his weight into his shoulder. Yashiro tried to move, but the attack caught him below the chest plate of his armour. Surprised, he fell with a metallic thud onto his back. Doppelganger wasted no time in raising his sword.
"Attack…" Khan commanded himself. He didn't move.
A Holy Light spell from Runa exploded in front of the swordsman's face. He flinched; black blood poured quickly from the new wound on his forehead like dense ink. He didn't halt his attack.
The Holy Light had given Yashiro the time to enchant his shield. Doppelganger brought his sword down, and the sharpness met the dimly glowing air in front of the shield. It left a dank grey slit in the silver, which was quickly reflected onto his ghostly face like a mirror. The cut was clean. More black blood sped over his features.
The boy shrieked and threw both arms over his head, stumbling back. Though more in surprise than pain.
"Why is it that he fights with two minds?" Runa asked, renewing her grip on her sword.
Malathos turned and looked as if he was about to ask what she meant. But then his face fell.
Doppelganger wiped the strange black liquid from his eyes, and leapt at Yashiro again. But this time, his sword trailed behind him, and his free hand was outstretched and clawing…
Marissa's halberd pummelled into the ground again. The swordsman sidestepped, obviously surprised. He recovered in time to dodge a swift horizontal swipe from Runa's two-handed sword. He leapt dramatically over them and landed cleanly.
"He's very agile too," Runa noted sadly.
Marissa re-gathered her hold on her weapon and charged, and so did Khan this time. Doppelganger swerved under the halberd, and Khan caught him with a sweep-kick. The boy stumbled, and picked himself to avoid a lance thrust, and threw himself out of the way of a vicious vertical attack from Marissa.
"Iyo te tallis seignuris Dios de malé," Runa yelled fiercely. I am one who serves God. Doppelganger wheeled around, alarmed. He ran for her, but quickly received the handle of Marissa's halberd to the side of his throat.
"Iyo al kito iero per mae-a stillo né." I will not waver in my duty. The swordsman's knees collided with the ground, and his palms shot out to break his fall. He swung his sword around to parry a lance thrust.
"Domo so i keta per mae-a everiste te dia tari." Let justice rain upon the beings of shadow. Doppelganger was getting desperate. He pummelled his fist into Marissa's jaw, then he brought his sword down on Khan's lance. The weapon was swept aside. Before the paladin could even blink, the swordsman bashed him in the forehead with the hilt of the broadsword. His vision blackened and pain shot through his head. He caught a glance of Malathos, who groaned and held a wrist over his bleeding forehead.
"Iyo te tallis seignuris Dios de malé. Iyo lex ondora merhym ala kesa-kara ou Mayis Ta." I am one who serves God. I command the blessing of the Grand Cross. Doppelganger stood helplessly in front of Runa as she held her sword in a strong salute. "Eno va shi stai."
The ground erupted with white energy. The marks of the Grand Cross (the rips formed on the caster; the Grand Cross was famous not only for it's power but for the way it harmed its user. The rips only ever formed over certain places) became visible on her face through the wave of magic. They were two scarlet lines on each of her cheeks, and they bled. Khan did a quick headcount of the other places: upper-arms, chest, shoulder blades, hips and shins.
The boy shrieked through the white, and tried to brush off the spell he was stood in, as it were dust on his clothes. He writhed and clutched his arms as they burned. Runa stayed upright and impressive.
The spell flashed and gave one last dramatic explosion of holy power. Doppelganger screamed a scream thick with rage and agony, and toppled to his knees. He sobbed, as he had when they found him.
He hunched further over, and left his sword forgotten on the floor.
The place was still.
There was the change again. Death can be very painful, Khan realized. He'd rather not die. Where would he go? No one knew. The wisest of the wise, they didn't know. He should just turn and leave. Pain was bad, death was bad…
The crying boy took another abrupt change. It became the thing with the growl. The thing that didn't know what it was. The thing of malice.
Runa saw the change, and clenched her weapon possibly a lot harder than she meant to. Doppelganger went from kneeling to attacking in one swift unseen movement. The broadsword flew in a horizontal sweep, aimed loosely for her chest. It struck true and Runa fell back. The insane child swung his blade left and right with too much ferocity. Runa flinched and Malathos bled from the gaps in his armour.
Yashiro sprinted to Runa's aid with his shield enchanted. A giant cleave was quickly mirrored onto Doppelganger's torso. Yashiro took the moment's hesitation to backhand the boy with the flat of his shield. Runa was there in a split second. She made a horizontal and a vertical slash in quick succession, in the shape of a cross, which glowed white and burned in the swordsman's chest. Khan wheeled around to heal the wounds Malathos had sustained for the four of them as Marissa ran in for her own attack.
"Finally," Malathos said as amiably as he could through his focus. Khan grinned weakly, then began to focus himself. As soon as he did, he felt the change passing over their foe…
As the halberd blade entered his side, Doppelganger grabbed the handle of the weapon to stop it going any deeper. He skidded dramatically as it made its journey. He eyed the blade more than warily.
He used the handle as a launch point and threw himself off the blade by leaping back out of the way. As soon as he'd landed, he went for Marissa from the side with clumsy decisive attacks. She met the first few with her own weapon, but with his speed and proximity, she couldn't retreat to a less awkward range and she couldn't keep up with him. A carefully placed vertical strike found it's way through a gap in her armour and into her shoulder. She yelped and backed away. He swung his fists and the handle of his sword handle furiously across her face. Runa ran back to help Khan stem Malathos' injuries, which now included a deep cleave through the shoulder and a broken nose.
Khan patted Runa on the shoulder as he hurried to help Yashiro and Marissa in their renewed assault. Marissa stuck first, and missed. Khan followed with a well-executed horizontal swipe, which missed. He quickly brought his lance back for a thrust, aimed for the boy who stood static to the left of his previous attack. The next strike was also unsuccessful. Yashiro tried to catch the swordsman with a quick one-two strike with his sword and shield. Miss, miss. Vertical attack from the halberd. Miss. Swipe from the sword. Miss. A sweep kick. Miss.
Khan growled in frustration and brought his lance upwards in a diagonal sweep. Miss. Marissa pulled off another of her spectacular downwards strikes. Doppelganger stepped nimbly around it to her side. With a clumsy movement, he smashed his foot into the back of her knee. Khan went in for an uppercut with his lance. The swordsman leapt over the attack as it rose; he vaulted off the weapon's handle with his hands and was up in the air again. He "landed" on Khan's neck and with surprising strength drove both feet into the paladin's throat. The pain shocked him, the air stopped flowing to his lungs and he fell back. Doppelganger had thrown himself into an extravagant back flip, straight over the now kneeling Marissa. He turned in the air, and as he fell, his heel smashed weightily into Yashiro's elbow. Runa set about healing Malathos' newly broken arm.
With the advantage gained, Doppelganger chanted his own spells. The first was a swordsman's basic spell of agility. The second Khan didn't understand, but he did know that the incantation began with the words "I summon".
What the spell did was made very clear very soon. Rips were forming in the air like candle flames. Something red and black was on the other side. But that changed quickly.
Something dark and stormy sea-blue was crawling through. It trickled through the wound in the sky in thick, oozing droplets. As they touched the ruined streets, they sprang into flames that didn't cast any light. The fire then erupted into form – a pair of legs, a stout, strong body, another pair of legs that toppled to the ground with a dull thud of hooves…
The head of a horse with no trace of eyes wound itself onto the hollow gap of the "neck". Khan stared; there were seven now wheeling around to face their enemies.
These were creatures that prowled the Barren in the north. These were creatures of an unknown abyss. Humans called them the Nightmares.
One of the monsters galloped at Khan. As it neared, the horse's head disappeared to reveal a torso draped in a dark fiery cloak wielding a scythe. He readied his lance for a thrust.
Khan struck first, aiming for the horse's stomach. The lance went straight through as if the thing didn't exist – it really was comprised of nothing but that strange fire! No sooner did the thought cross his mind than he had to throw himself out of the way from a dangerous sweep from the scythe. The Nightmare passed him and turned to make another attack.
He quickly began to chant the blessing of the Holy Cross. The creature galloped again, but Khan was ready; he leapt forward with a vertical and horizontal attack, one after the other, forming a glowing white cross over the Nightmare. The dark blue became white, and exploded with a shriek of anguish from the creature.
Khan felt a very important presence leave him – Malathos was lifting the Devotion spell.
"You three go after Doppelganger," he yelled as he and Runa set about disposing of the Nightmare swarm. Khan was about to protest that he could be very seriously hurt, but then he realized how selfish that was. He immediately felt ashamed.
Runa executed a Holy Light spell, and then a Holy Cross attack immediately after. Malathos leapt forward, also using the Holy Cross attack. Trying hard not to think about the injuries he'd probably take, Khan turned to face Doppelganger.
Instantly, he had to raise a gauntleted arm to meet a swift strike from the swordsman. Khan expected him to follow through, but the boy leapt back again very quickly – a shield had flown out of nowhere and lodged itself into the crumbling wall on the other side of the street.
Khan blinked. So did Doppelganger.
Then Khan remembered that Yashiro could throw his shield like that. Doppelganger didn't.
Khan wasted no time in taking full advantage of his foe's confusion, and managed to stab him in the gut. Doppelganger shouted in surprise and retreated further. He was quickly met with a halberd swung heftily into the side of his head. He was thrown to the floor in a translucent mess of flesh and black.
Khan suddenly became aware of the fact that he really didn't want to die…
Doppelganger threw himself at Marissa. Yashiro tackled him to the ground before he could reach her. The broadsword was flung across the street. With a flurry of angry kicks and frantic scrabbling, Yashiro was rolling over, forming new bruises and gasping for air, and Doppelganger was stumbling to his feet. The swordsman recovered and hunched over into balance. He threw himself at Yashiro and hammered his fists into whatever part of the crusader there was. He completely ignored his weapon.
Malathos was forward within a second and smashed his shield into Doppelganger's temple. The boy was hurled onto his side, surprised. He somehow managed to struggle into a sitting position very quickly, and tried to back away from there. Malathos followed up by pounding the handle of his sword into the swordsman's head, throwing him onto his back. Doppelganger used the momentum of the attack to roll back over into a crouching position from where he leapt back. His front was a web of black blood.
The second he landed, Runa cast Holy Light, and Khan had run forward to follow through with a Holy Cross attack.
The change swept over the child's features as he fell, and he scrambled to the side to avoid Marissa's halberd. Both his fists collided with her face, throwing her off-balance. He ran to retrieve his sword.
The second his hand closed around the handle, he whirled around to meet an attack from Runa. She recovered quickly and swiped again, meeting nothing but air. He clasped his sword with both hands and drove it through the gap in her armour – below her rib cage.
There was a ripping sound of steel and flesh. Khan stared, not sure what to make of it. There was something so wrong and disgusting about the way she tensed as the blade was twisted and pulled out.
She toppled to her knees, where she swayed, but stayed upright.
Marissa gaped.
Malathos ran forward to heal her.
Yashiro tried to stand.
Khan forgot what was going on and that he was part of it.
Khan remembered and readied his lance for one of Doppelganger's lightning-fast attacks, and found nothing. The swordsman had fled. Khan saw him sprinting around a corner at the end of the road.
He was heading for Geffen Tower.
-X-X-
The ship was a pleasant environment with its jovial, weather beaten crew and biting cold ocean air. Summer waned sleepily over the Western Sea. The sunlight shattered like glass as it touched the icy waves.
Hawk was faced with an emotional dilemma; he was determined that he had nothing to offer Kyo, but he couldn't just ignore her entirely, especially in her present state. He could either take Oshi's advice and radically change his character, and approach her, or he could do the easy thing of not radically changing his character and remain silent and wilfully ignorant. Spending time with Kyo, however, both options increased in difficulty and he found he was beginning to find that the first option, despite being the harder of the two, was the one he wanted to take.
But what the Hel do lovers do anyway? the stubborn part of him spluttered indignantly. He didn't know why this was such a huge leap in his personal development, but it was.
With a crestfallen sigh at the acknowledgement of his own wishes, and his gaping lack of experience in dealing with people, he decided to retreat to his stubborn-not-radically-character-changing choice. This could mean that he ignored the dancer entirely.
There was something wrong with her, however, and part of him wouldn't allow himself to be that insensitive. She was very pale and always looked strained through her smiles. Also, he never saw her sleep at night – she only ever slept in daylight.
So, he was cordial with her. As nice as he could be without bordering on affectionate. If before she was likely to admit what was bothering her, then she wasn't now. She hugged him once, for her own support rather than his own he noted, and he returned it stiffly. It saddened her greatly, Alder informed him with what could only be interpreted as a sigh.
And so the week passed very slowly.
Taiken barely moved most of the time. Oshi, strangely enough, brought the bard meals every so often. Afterwards, the assassin would go and confer with Draco quietly. He would go and sit with Ruriko, who had become jumpy and nervous and wouldn't sleep unless she had someone to cling on to. Draco would invite Kyo to sit with Chisel and herself. They would keep Taiken company. Taiken would play his guitar, and Kyo accompany him on the oridecon flute Chisel had given him. Or she would sing. It alarmed Hawk that she was a good singer, but it wasn't because he didn't expect it. Her voice was clear and thin, like silver, and it was the closest thing to angelic he could possibly imagine.
Alder comforted the hunter from a distance. The bird swooped down to join his companion, telling him carefully that it's OK to feel the way he feels, being scared is a natural part of being in love, and there was no shame in waiting until he was ready. Hawk replied in the negative, especially about the being in love bit.
Alder however, radiating smugness, replied with something along the lines of, I think I probably know you better than you know yourself. Hawk nearly pouted.
x-x-x
A crisp, ocean afternoon saw the arrival of a letter, bearing the Royal seal, and carried by an osprey. The bird soared like a falling ribbon, and dispatched the letter into Ruriko's lap, and was gone as quickly as it came. Hawk informed the group that the osprey was not a hunter's bird; from what he gathered, it was here at the request of a ranger in the northern forests.
Ruriko handed the letter to Taiken to read out, who groaned from his sitting position and tore the seal away, frowning. He read aloud:
"To Ruriko, graduate of Yuno, Sage, Guild Mistress of the God's Cry.
Firstly, I offer my congratulations to your newest member, on her qualification from Comodo. I hear she is a survivor of Arie. I regret to inform you, however, that she is the only one who escaped. Deepest sympathy to her, also.
Secondly, I wish for you to make haste to deal with the Culvert situation. The Sentinel's Guild has been called out, but we still have no idea what we are dealing with. The fighters who went down there tell me it is a giant golden thief bug.
Lastly, and my main reason for writing, is that a similar problem arose in Gonryun. A sort of snake demon emerged from the old court (I believe your blacksmith knows where I mean). A unit of monks, along with three champions, Marius, Mariel and Kalis, and a professor, Akiro, met its attack, and were forced to flee.
Cardinal Orius informs me that there is no worry of danger now. Akiro cast a sealing on the mountain, which is quite unbreakable, so the thing is well contained. Do not be anxious, sage, for the young man's health. It is true that he is completely incapacitated and constantly exhausted, and I will also not deny that until the seal is removed, he is likely to remain so. He is to remain in Gonryun, where he will receive every possible attention. Marius promises me he will be very well looked after. This next detail means nothing to me, but… The spell was cast with this incantation…"
Below it were apparently a selection of runes, and Taiken handed the note to Ruriko. Her eyes widened as she scanned the page.
"Is it bad, little sister?" asked Draco; she didn't understand what had happened to Akiro, and she had a feeling he was about to give Ruriko a good stab through her unblemished little heart.
She blinked a few times, as if something had been made clear to her. Her first attempt at an answer came out as, "I… uh…" Her second made slightly more sense. "Sis, you remember Iero Profa? Well, what Akiro did is so much worse…"
Draco remembered. She suddenly felt so very numb. She didn't know why.
The sage handed the note back to Taiken stiffly, who received it as if it might explode. He continued reading in a careful monotone. But everything around Draco had shifted into something from a dream. The sway of the ship was miles beneath her. Taiken moved his lips and his voice travelled forever before she heard it.
The only thing that remained clear was Ruriko. The girl listened with static attention. She paced. She fidgeted. She sighed sharply. Then she paced again. Her hair swished like snakes. Her pouts and her twitches sped up, and time slowed down.
After what seemed like a bleary hour, Taiken finished reading and looked anxiously at Ruriko. Then she did something she hadn't done for a long time.
"Kesteta! Kesteta! O kono ki yarilla massu te thieplis fu-fu ler…"
A temper tantrum in the Language of the Making. The last time she'd done that, Taiken had been in Gonryun Sanctuary and on the brink of death.
Ruriko had always been odd, and one of the things that made her so was that she found the Language of the Making a lot easier than common-tongue. So any outbursts were in the Language of the Making, where she could more easily express the extent of her emotion.
It obviously wasn't working this time, as after a minute of the angry, melodious routine, she ceased and sought the comfort of Draco's arms.
-X-X-
Tristan had become lightly agitated again, and the immediate remedy was to visit Arne.
He entered the wizard's room to find him sat cross-legged on the balcony, with a plain notebook sat open in his lap. He walked over and sat down next to him. The night outside was still and clear, as crisp as fresh linen sheets, and even the harsh amber of the street lamps had quietened down. The sky looked like soft velvet with its beautiful violet hue. The stars looked so different…
It was a slightly strange scene. Tristan worked out why a second later, when Arne pushed a pair of large round glasses back up his nose. A lot of his iciness had melted away, and what was left of it disintegrated with the presence of thick black frames ringing the sharp blue eyes.
The prince had to stifle a laugh. But Arne caught the amusement in his face.
"They're only reading glasses," he said with affectionate huffiness.
There was a strange aura rippling through the air. It was like ghostly red ribbons crawling over the horizon. Tristan decided it was some strange spell his companion had activated.
"What are you doing?" the prince asked a little sceptically.
"Trying to read the stars," replied Arne, after a slight, hefty sigh.
"Not much success then?"
"Not especially, no."
"Is there any particular reason for this?"
"Does there need to be any other reason than the flawless conditions?"
"For someone who has never shown any partiality for astrology, yes."
Arne sighed again, and Tristan realized suddenly that this was actually a slightly more delicate matter than appeared.
"I was never any good at the whole star-reading bit. I can't actually remember how I got through that part in school. When I was promoted to High Wizard, Ivas immediately set about trying to teach me. I was arrogant and told him I just couldn't do it."
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I just… I just really miss everyone. Especially Ivas. He did so much for me, and I remained as conceited as I ever was. I thought that maybe… if I could do what he told me then now, it would be like… I'd made it up to him. I'd give… quite a lot to be able to see Ivas, just once, ask him what I should do… now, I mean… and to say that I'm sorry."
Tristan realized something, with a slightly nauseating jolt. "You haven't mourned anyone yet, have you?"
Arne looked at him in slight surprise, then quickly turned back to his notes. He looked quite mesmerized by them. He poised his pen purposefully, and sat completely still.
"I couldn't," he said at some length, voice carefully bland again. It stung Tristan; he felt like a stranger again.
"Is it really that bad?"
"Well…" Arne actually wrote something, but crossed it out again immediately. He marked a huge rune, which the prince couldn't read. He sighed, and raised his eyes to the stars again. "First, I had to lead everyone out. Secondly, we arrived here. Jiro is depressed, Pridith is mute, Elle is fussing… when is there time to mourn?"
"No one will think any less of you."
"It still feels like I can't. Not now, not now…"
The scene was far too strange. Tristan didn't know what to say, and he didn't like it. Arne sat so sullenly. It wasn't right to see him so subdued. With him feeling the way he was, Tristan was the one who had to be the strong one. Tristan wanted to be able to ask the wizard to explain why… why he felt the way he did. He didn't know what made him the way he was, and he didn't know if he had any strength at all.
Although, when the thought came to his head, he remembered his own situation. His own father, neither alive nor dead. What was he supposed to think about that?
The silence was as dark and as heavy as the night.
"Don't concern yourself with me," the wizard added. "It is not merely for this state of mind that I am out here."
"What is the other reason?"
Arne looked at him, in a slightly condescending manner. He pointed the tip of the pen directly upwards, and said, "That."
Tristan looked up, and saw the pale red light of the aura, rippling like a stormy sea of wine. The moon shone in its own crimson halo. The stars did look different… an alien web of constellations, no shapes to be made from the sharp white flecks of light. There were none of the formations he'd picked out as a child. This sky was wrong.
"That light is concerning me," Arne murmured with a heavy frown. Tristan felt himself jump.
"Didn't you do that?"
"No," was the flat reply.
He shook his head. "So… where are the constellations?"
"That's another point; a lot of them are deformed, almost. Nidhogg's pointing the other way; Verdandi, Urd and Skuld have separated; Hoddmimir's dimmed, a lot. And that star…" He pointed to a large, rosy speck, which looked as though it were a lot closer than the others. "I've seen it a few times. I've seen it glow red on some occasions, and it does it more and more often. Either way, it's not supposed to be here."
"This will probably be much talked of…"
"Well, I think I can give a nice, believable prediction," whispered Arne cynically. "The world is changing, which we all already know. The world is disintegrating, the stars tell us. This change affects all of Midgard." He paused. "But then, we all knew that."
-X-X-
Though nothing to the merciless heat of the south, the western desert was a thick, coarse land. It was cool and dry like cracked skin, with a sharp blue sky and soft sand.
And somewhere, Phreeoni lurked in a cold damp cave, unmoving, and… hungry, according to good authority. Although, apparently, it could take precedence over whatever crisis the prince was facing in Prontera.
The rocks pummelled back over the entrance of the labyrinth with a very solid thud. Hawk watched almost a little wistfully, but wasn't sure why. His hair dangled precariously around his forehead and still annoyed him; he wore a simple bandana, a welcome relief compared to the extravagant Solar God Helm.
"OK…" Taiken began, strumming an experimental chord on his guitar, "are we all ready? I hope we are, considering we just locked our front door."
Six noises of affirmation, varying in enthusiasm, rippled over the guild.
Taiken sighed. "Oh, come on!" he said exasperatedly. "Isn't there someone who's forgotten something?" He paused for an answer. "Anyone at all?" A bemused silence. "Don't be shy now." He gave everyone a calculating glare. "Ruriko?"
"Me?" spluttered the sage indignantly. "No, I'm very ready…"
"Don't be ridiculous, Ruriko, you've always forgotten something."
Ruriko frowned, genuinely confused, and turned to Draco. "Sis," she mumbled nervously, "I'm sure I have everything…"
Draco smiled. "Taiken, stop being silly. This is serious."
"Yeah!" piped up Ruriko with a pout. "You're trying to make me out as a big thicky, when we're supposed to be eliminating a big pink thing that given Oshi a right old beating…"
"Gave," said Draco. "We are all ready, Taiken."
The bard sighed again. "OK… Open the door, Ruriko; I forgot my dagger…"
There was a bewildered silence and a stiff dry breeze. Eventually, "Do it yourself!" snapped Ruriko huffily.
A few minutes later, the guild stood assembled and ready in the desert's cold grit. Draco had her favourite daggers sheathed at her waist and a pair of armguards was strapped into place. Chisel brandished an axe with one hand, and was casting a blacksmith's blessings for battle. Hawk slipped into focus, feeling his heart speed up and his mind clear, and invoked the advanced hunter's spell of "Windwalk", a supportive technique that sharpened his guild's senses. "Keya-ayis stai gyaifir," he whispered, which literally meant "improve concentration", and he saw his vision become brighter and refine to needle-like precision. He heard Taiken and Kyo do the same.
Taiken dubbed the affair "Operation Anti-Lick."
"I'd just like to have some professionalism about this," he said with a wave of his hand. "What's the element of the day, Ruriko?"
"…Huh?"
"Don't say "huh", sweetheart, it isn't polite. What spells are you going to be using?" said Draco.
"Oh…! Ice. That way I should be able to freeze it."
"OK," Taiken decided. He turned to Oshi. "Anything else we desperately need to know about it?"
"The other creatures will come to it's aid, and it can use Stone Curse. Also, watch out for it's saliva – it's acidic. Hurts a lot."
Taiken seemed to be on the verge of adding something to that, but thought better of it.
Hawk would've been happy to lag behind the group alone, but Ruriko, who was both far too friendly and not an excellent walker, was obligated to lag with him. He amused himself a short while with her walking routine. She would amble next to him, and being the short little thing that she was, she fell behind; after a short while, she would jog to catch up, then start falling behind again.
The entrance to Anthell looked more than quite like a mouth. The hole was circular in shape, and rimmed smoothly with what appeared to be ribs or claws – thus the illusion of a fanged mouth sprang to mind.
Oshi and Draco entered first, with their movements skilfully cloaked. Hawk, with the help of Alder and his magically enhanced senses, could still see them, so it was his job to enter the cave next, so that he could follow the assassins and everyone else could follow him. Chisel and Ruriko came next, and Taiken and Kyo stayed at the rear of the group.
The caves were darker than he remembered, despite the presence of more torches. Oshi's heavy katars were already drawn, and he strode with them nonchalantly at his sides. Draco's daggers remained in their sheaths, and she walked just as leisurely.
They followed the tunnel's thick, dry course for quite some time. It was stuffy, and the relief of breathing deeply wasn't brilliant. Ruriko groaned, and Hawk shot her a warning glare. She remained quiet. Not long afterwards, Draco stepped out of the shadows, Oshi followed, and they conferred quietly about some kind of way to track the creature.
"Another minute or so."
Kyo said it, and everyone turned to stare at her. She didn't seem particularly phased. She clasped both chakrams in front of her with a slightly unsettling calmness.
"Follow the way you were going," she continued. "You were on the right track."
Oshi nodded and slipped back into the shadows, continuing down the passage. Draco hesitated slightly before doing the same. Hawk also hesitated, staring incredulously at the dancer. He stopped when she stared back at him. He turned quickly to catch up with the assassins, ignoring the feeling of guilt brewing in the base of his stomach.
Surely enough, after no more than a minute's walk, came a rattling, throaty sound. It couldn't possibly be a living thing making that noise, could it…? Hawk looked up to see Oshi nodding at him, in the that's-it-we've-reached-it sort of way. Ahead, there was a wide clearing in the rocks, bathed in dust, and a sickening, musky smell wafted horribly from it.
Hawk made a gesture behind him to move to the walls. Chisel's boots and heavy walk moved to the right, as did Kyo's light half-skip, and they waited with Oshi. Hawk moved left; Taiken peered over his shoulder and Ruriko hid behind his arm.
Framed ominously in the amber light was Phreeoni, a sight a lot more impressive than Chisel's description allowed. True, it was a dull mauve colour, had almost no legs, and should've looked utterly ridiculous… but it's starved gasps, callously jagged teeth and mad, rolling eyes swiftly obliterated these thoughts.
"Hungry…" it panted; Taiken winced. It sounded as if the thing's throat had been shredded, and it's voice travelled up ripped, bloody strands beneath its tongue. "Always hungry…"
"What a G sharp harmonic minor voice!" exclaimed the bard quietly.
"It is, isn't it," replied Kyo, regarding the creature with a very strange look in her eye. She looked too afraid… she shouldn't be here…
As Phreeoni's tongue dragged across the floor, it trailed a thick, slow, slightly yellow liquid. It left deep channels in the sand, which steamed with a quiet, yet somehow far too harsh, "Hi-issss."
The acidic saliva.
"Wait, is that why it can't eat anything?" spluttered Taiken, voice shaking slightly.
"Are we actually going to move or do anything at all?" Kyo hissed. Hawk looked at her in surprise. Her face was white – that was clear, even in the terrible light. Her voice was rising erratically, in volume and pitch.
He was seriously considering taking her out of the cave, and asking her what was wrong. But… "What's the plan then?" whispered Draco, as Oshi sprinted out of hiding, tensing his arm to strike.
Phreeoni wheeled around, immensely surprised. Chisel yelped and followed Oshi. Draco groaned and followed Chisel.
The tongue came crashing down – it was a lot more muscular than it looked, apparently! Oshi leapt out of its way; Chisel sidestepped, and it slipped past him uncomfortably. Hawk notched his bow, and Alder took off for an attack. An assassin's throwing knives and the hunter's arrows were soon lodged messily into Phreeoni's head, and the falcon swooped down with ground-shaking speed.
The sound of Taiken's guitar and the steps of Kyo's dance made Hawk jump, and he quickly made sure to not look at them. A fast, vicious chant rang tunefully from the pair. The music burst into a shock of coloured light. It felt strangely solid… Hawk thought back to a conversation on the ship – they were doing this song so that Ruriko didn't have to use any catalysts for her spells.
The sage raised her diary with her right hand and nothing with her left hand, shouting out the chant for her spell.
"Eno va shi stai," she roared, bringing both arms down. Something blue and not really there was thrown from her left hand, and it exploded into a turbulent mist of deep azure, dampness and an icy gleam. An ice enchantment.
She wheeled around and began enchanting everyone's weapons with ice also. Hawk shivered as his bow flourished a new sheen of blue and white; it was freezing to touch. As the assassins and Chisel attacked, their blades flashed a watery, solid shine, and they left splinters of ice on Phreeoni.
Hawk stared down an arrow, poised and ready to fire, at the creature. Draco and Oshi became very difficult to see when in combat. They cloaked non-stop and moved too quickly. There was always the chance that he might accidentally shoot one of them – he'd done it before.
The creature threw itself forward, and collided with Draco. She was thrown to the ground, and quickly rearranged herself into a squatting position. Phreeoni's jaw gaped open, revealing a lot more teeth than Hawk would've thought possible. Draco leapt back out of the way, leaving a near-perfect copy of herself (appearance-wise; it was called the Second Self) knelt in front of the creature. Many sharp jagged teeth ploughed straight through the assassin's half-visible second self. The creature's insane eyes tumbled with confusion.
Hawk was about to fire when Oshi leapt out of hiding and slashed it across the side. It spun around and met Chisel's axe with an angry scream. The blacksmith, right next to the creature, yelped and threw his hands over his ears, forgetting his weapon. Hawk fired, and fired again, in a bit of a panic. He heard a spell shouted next to him, and turned to see Ruriko jump up and stamp both feet into the ground as she landed. In front of her, splinters of ice sprung out of the ground rocketed through the blue-white mists towards their target.
Phreeoni jerked backwards as the spell struck, and angrily shook away the newly formed icicles.
"That should've frozen it!" moaned the sage indignantly.
It shrieked. Oshi backed away, with his hands over his ears. Draco saw danger and ran forward. Stab, round kick, heel-drop, backhand slash, stab; she swerved out of the way and was concealed in the shadows very quickly. Oshi took her place and pounded their foe with his katars at lightning speed.
Phreeoni's hide must have been very thick. It was covered in dull, clean slits, but few bled. But it was angry. That much was clear from the way it shook, and the way it's eyes darted all over the place like fireworks. It threw all of it's power and all of it's fury into it's attacks.
Oshi was smashed to the side. He landed awkwardly, half-conscious, and there was a dull crackle like a twig snapping. Phreeoni roared triumphantly and it's many rows of teeth flashed into view, just as the assassin stumbled to awareness again. Chisel ran to his rescue. The creature met the axe with the teeth, and the tongue pummelled into the blacksmith from the left, throwing him madly to the other end of the cave. The dull hiss of a burn followed.
The shot was clear. Hawk notched his bow and fired as fast as he knew how. At Ruriko's command, another path of ice shards tore across the ground. Taiken strummed a new song on his guitar, and as the music flowed, the harsh, reddening burns mended. And Phreeoni staggered towards them… the ones who could barely defend themselves…
Fwoosh!
A large, heavy throwing knife soared from nowhere. It landed in the Phreeoni's vast back. It screamed as it fell forward, in it's high-pitched, rough shriek of torn red flesh. Thick black blood crept past the hilt. The handle pointed at Draco.
It screamed again. It darted across the mists as if on wheels. Draco swerved dangerously out of the way. She leapt over the tongue as it whipped around instantly in a broad circle. It threw itself at her again, and she sprinted nimbly to safety. Chisel's axe pounded into it's muscular weight. It skidded, and the tongue swept back to counter.
Oshi's katar was suddenly poised to slash the exposed organ; but the assassin struck empty air. He was swept heavily out of the way. His back collided with the wall, and his head followed too quickly. He remained sat down, head drooping, slumped, and unmoving.
Draco's foot collided with Phreeoni's outer-teeth with a satisfying crack! The instant she landed, the tongue smashed into her back; she fell forward.
A panicky chant in the Language of the Making… gigantic ice shards unfurled, steely sharp and a lot larger than they normally were, into the air. They darted at Phreeoni, exploding into tiny glittering splinters at impact.
An opening. Notch, pull back, release, as many times as possible. Fourteen arrowheads pummelled through. But then Draco was up; slash, and stab.
Phreeoni bit back a shriek and retched. It opened it's mouth, and an amber coloured gas erupted from between the many teeth. Draco yelped slightly, and her movements became sluggish for less than a second. Then there was a cracking sound like breaking rocks.
And then she was still.
Stone Curse.
Ruriko squealed shrilly. She ran to her sister, a red gemstone glowing from one of her bracelets.
Completely ignoring Phreeoni of course.
Hawk panicked, and shouted – he couldn't notch his bow quick enough. Phreeoni's teeth would plunge straight through the girl's neck. She would die instantly. And…
It stopped. With one of it's piercing, coarse shrieks of pain. It took the hunter a second of two to see why.
A bladed ring, a Chisel-original, aimed well and thrown hard, was lodged deeply into the creature's top jaw.
Hawk looked to his left, where the musicians were stood. Taiken stared wide-eyed at the spectacle, but continued his song of mending.
"Viastes stai," Kyo commanded her weapon, and the chakram flew cleanly back into her outstretched hand.
Phreeoni paused. It hesitated. It's insane eyes stopped, and fixed on the dancer. The whole place froze – even the mists of the ice enchantment slowed down.
A low rumble, like an earthquake rippled through the dank air. Hawk then realized that it was Phreeoni… growling. Angrily. With uncontrollable fury. It could kill quickly. Being killed wasn't nice. There was a lot of pain involved, and then nothing. There was nothing worse than pain and then nothing. Death…
"YOU!" it screamed with sickening ferocity. So loud, and as sharp as a blade. The cave had started again, no longer the back breaking still it was before. It was too fast now. Phreeoni's eyes spun madly. It lunged across the cave straight for Kyo.
"Me…" whispered Kyo with a sigh. She swallowed, and stiffened fearfully for the thing's merciless attack.