Chapter -77: The Garden of Eternal Night
Midday, Aquamoria.
It is one of those days with barely much going on. Brine Aqua is just walking along the shoreline, looking saggy under the eyelids while a scruffy beard has anchored itself to his chin.
He's not alone though.
He holds a tiny hand by his side, which is attached to a little girl only just barely under two years old. She has a fish scale top and baggy, dark blue pants, hand-me-downs from her good ol' Auntie Lulu.
Her hair is short and a darker shade of blue than her dad's, with eyes that glistened like little bronze pearls.
She was all smiles as she stretched her feet out in long steps, wanting to press down and enjoy every grain of sand.
Brine smiled and helped keep her from tripping. They were on their way to the edge of Tanglefae.
They made one stop along the way, where the little girl stepped on a shell and crushed it. She picked up the pieces in her hands and looked sad.
Brine was able to convince her to hand them over, where he'd put them in his pocket and promise to piece it back together with a little fish wax.
Then the little girl hopped towards him and hooked her arms around his neck. He pretended to struggle to lift her up nice and slowly, putting his arms under her feet once standing.
He then gave her a quick shake and chuckled, "Ya wanna ride my shoulders for a while?"
"Mmm hmm!" She nodded feverishly.
"Then...here ya go!" He gave her a light toss and then bent down so she'd land on his shoulders.
"Ooof!" That hurt a little, but the sound of her clapping over his head made the pain bearable.
He then held her tiny feet in his hands and kept going towards their destination.
A small forest of palm trees had formed in the past few years, and some were still growing in. A few of the forest critters scurried out to enjoy the shade and hung around the trunks.
"Now Tina, remember what I told ya. Ya aren't to fiddle around with the wildlife, ok?"
He looked up to see the little girl cupping her hands into a sphere.
She stared back with eyes wide as a fish's and started nodding.
"...Tina," Brine said, keeping his voice soft and reasonable, "Open yer hands."
Tina shook her head.
"Tina," Brine got a little more firm, "C'mon now. Please open yer hands."
Tina shook her head.
"Tina." Brine said one more time.
"..." Tina curled her lips in a tiny pout and Brine stopped in place, raising a hand flat atop his head. She then reached out and parted her hands enough for a little glittering beetle to scurry out onto Brine's, where it launched off onto the nearby tree and scurried out of sight.
"Shiny." Tina said, clawing her stumpy fingers out at the tree.
"It is a beauty," Brine said. Then, his heart began to sank, "...But ain't nothing compared to-"
His daughter began to coo and Brine reeled his smile back in, declaring to her with an adventurous tone, "You'll be seeing plenty of shiny things on our way to visit yer Uncle Carmine."
"Yay!" Tina clapped her hands rapidly.
"Now hold on tight!" At his request, Tina covered his eyes with her hands. He smiled and chuckled quietly, "Not like that, dear."
She then held on to his hair and with a shrug Brine headed into the forest.
His daughter wouldn't stay quiet after that, as she gasped and clawed out towards all the unfiltered sights and sounds of the forest, going "Daddy! Daddy!" whenever something very neat caught her eye.
Brine had to stop for long pauses to get his bearings, "Still ain't used to navigating this place..."
A little fumbling around and saving some poor bugs from his daughter's grasp later, Brine found his good chum Carmine out on the main dirt path.
"Ay!" Brine shouted, turning his chum's attention away from the nearest tree.
"Well, this is a pleasant surprise." Carmine smiled and waited for them to approach. The difference in height put Carmine in position to look the little girl in the eyes.
She was blushing and tried to sink her head down into her dad's hair.
Brine patted her leg and whispered, "Go on, Tina, say 'ello to yer Uncle Carmine."
"H-h-ha...hi!" She said, no more loudly than a trout skipping along the water's surface.
Carmine charmed her with a soft-spoken chuckle and then focused his attention onto the father, "She looks very healthy."
"S-She does...?" Brine's eyes widened briefly and he raised his head to huff a sigh, "Oh thank the seas. I ain't have a clue how to tell..."
"Don't worry Brine, you're raising her well. However..." Carmine's gaze narrowed towards the sight of his friend's disheveled face and hair. He pursed his lips, letting out a "Mmm".
Brine blinked a few times and Carmine let the moment pass, giving Brine a chance to continue the conversation in his direction, "I'll tell ya, the first year was a bloody nightmare. Good thing I had Teach and mama to help out, specially with the feeding."
"And what about-" Carmine was about to say something again but this time, elected to be more open with his hesitation as he whispered, "...I'll save it for when the child's not around."
The vine on his shoulder then waved, causing Carmine to curtly face it and show a little shock of embarrassment, "Oh, Ividae says hello as well."
"Haa!" Tina gasped, waving her hand towards the vine, "Daddy, why's the squiggly thing moving?"
"That vine's the Titan of these lands, dear. Why don'tcha say 'Hello' back?"
"Hi, Eeveeday!" Tina said, enthusiastically waving her hand.
Carmine shed a blush on behalf of his companion.
Brine then remarked with a proud grin, "Eh she's been a quick learner, she'll get it someday."
"Has she made any friends yet?" Carmine wondered.
"I've been thinkin' about introducin' her to the local kids. Ain't too many around her age though."
"Well, maybe she could be friends with my daughter." Carmine suggested in a cavalier tone.
Brine perked up with a smile, "Aww, thanks for thinkin' ahead like that, chum. So, yer wantin' a daughter?"
"..." Carmine stared blankly like he had been turned into a flower on the spot. He then closed his eyes and murmured to himself, "...Did I use the wrong tense?"
Brine blinked a few times at him.
It then hit him like a shark ramming it's way through the water, "WHAT?!"
He nearly threw Tina off his shoulders in recoil, "A-A child. You?! When, what, huh...?!"
"They were born a few months ago," Carmine was quick to take on an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry I thought I brought this up the last time you were here."
"Does this look like a face that knew?!" Brine proclaimed with eye wide open.
Once the awkward period had passed, Brine let out a couple dry coughs on his way to asking, "Soooo. How did you and Ividae..."
Carmine suddenly grew the widest smile he'd ever gotten and to be frank, it shivered Brine's timbers, "You always make the funniest jokes, friend."
Brine dully sank his eyes and muttered, "I was joking?"
Carmine then reeled it in and gestured his hand up, revealing a ring made of bark and dew trapped in a thin layer of sap, "No, I have a wife back in the village."
Brine stared at the ring and couldn't argue that it was just made up on the spot. But he felt a little bitter, like this whole reveal stung of betrayal.
"Well...why didn'tcha tell me sooner?"
Carmine offered a sincere response of, "I didn't think it was a big deal."
"Ain't a big deal?" Brine spat up in surprise, "Ya got married, chum! I woulda brought ya a gift. We coulda celebrated!"
"...I-I'm sorry. Marriages are supposed to be private affairs in Tanglefae," Carmine said with a whisper, "But if I had known you'd care this much of course I would have invited you."
Brine clicked his tongue and muttered, "Aww thanks, chum."
"So what're their names?"
"My wife is Camilla. And we decided to name our daughter Acai."
"Heh, y'know, if I coulda guessed any name you'd pick for yer child, it would've been that."
"Ah-ah-Aki...!" Tina tried to say.
Carmine then gestured his hand up and with a light chuckle remarked, "Ah-ka-i. Ah-ka-i."
"Ah-ka-i..." Tina repeated.
"Now say it a little faster."
"Acai...!" Tina proclaimed, then excitedly repeated it, "Acai! Acai!"
"Good job!" Carmine raised his hand up and produced a small bundle of grapes for Tina to enjoy.
"Mmm!" She loved them.
"Heh." And Brine was happy too.
He then looked up at his friend and wondered, "So, what're ya doin' out 'ere anyways?"
"Right," Carmine brought his voice down for his and Brine's ears only, "There's been another incident close by."
"...Again?" Brine whispered back.
Carmine nodded and then gestured towards the gap between the trees. Brine could see that a fair chunk of the forest had been turned into black goo, with trees being knocked down as a domino effect.
"Ghhh, how much longer is this bas-Err, annoying guy gonna keep this up?"
"The closer I seemingly come to investigating him, the wider of an area he converts." Carmine noted.
"And ya still haven't figured out how he's makin' this gas?"
"No, but Ividae and I have deduced a few details with Sarajin's help," Carmine was about to trail off with exposition when he took one look at Tina innocently trying to snatch the bugs flying in the air, "...I shouldn't pull you away from your daughter though."
"Oh no no no. Lemme help ya figure it out. Call it a late wedding gift." Brine insisted.
"But what about-"
"We can drop her off with yer wife's place," Brine then wiggled Tina up and down a little and remarked, "Ya hear that dear, yer gonna have yer first play date!"
"I..." Carmine sputtered, then let out a long sigh, "I guess my wife won't mind..."
"Yaaay!" Tina cheered.
Thus before anything else, Carmine and Brine took Tina to the wife's place back in the village. After dropping her off and getting to see baby Acai, they left.
Carmine then began to lead Brine to the opposite side of the village while going over what he knew, "There's three clues the gas has given us. One...It has been dried out from a gelatinous secretion."
"How ya figure?"
"It sticks to all things."
"Oh no, it didn't get anyone did it?"
"It did, but it doesn't seem to have an effect on the skin," Carmine then raised a second finger, "The second clue...is that the scent of the black goo has a foul odor."
"Don't see how that's a good clue, course it's gonna smell bad."
"Some plants naturally give off a scent to attract bugs for pollination. It's very rare for them to repel. Which means, it's a plant that can survive without pollination."
"Ooooh, that makes sense. And the third clue?"
"It's not a plant that grows very often," Carmine stopped them in the middle of the village and faced his friend, "Think about it. If the Sage had the ability to produce as much of that gas as he wanted, then why hasn't more of the forest been contaminated?"
Brine rubbed his beard and then his eyes lit up, "Now that ya mention it..."
"Putting these facts together, we looked at every plant that could line up with one or more of these clues and came to a conclusion..." Carmine then closed his hand and announced, "It's not a plant produced in this half of the forest."
"This half? OH! Ya mean the Grove of Eternal Night?"
Carmine bobbed his head and Brine crossed his arms to think it over, "Isn't that a dangerous place to wander?"
"Yes. So I'm worried about the Sage making it their territory."
"Well we can't let this bastard keep having his way with yer home. Whaddya say we go in, find these plants, and keep 'em from ever cropping up again?"
"I know I can rely on you, Brine." Carmine smiled.
"Heh," Brine rubbed a finger under his nose, "I'm as reliable as they come, chum! Just lead the way and my nose'll know what we need to find."
"Then let's not waste another second."
And with that the two went towards the north edge of the village and left behind the protection of the sun's light.
Here, nocturnal colors dominated the trees and plants, making the border feel like a gateway between two entirely different worlds.
The only bugs that roamed around were fireflies with a pale glow. The air was stuffed with light pollen flakes, and the white bulbs dangling off the trees rang like tiny bells.
Ividae gave them a little comfort by providing his vine with iridescent blossoms.
Carmine then brought his voice down and advised his friend, "Don't breathe deeply. This pollen is a Fae's lure."
"How bad are the Fae again...?" Brine whispered.
Carmine stopped, gesturing his hand towards a nearby tree.
Except...this tree stood on two legs made of warped, dark-violet bark. It had two wrinkled branches with five tinier roots sticking out, dried out, spore covered fingernails dangling off the ends. And at the top, the wood twisted inward to create a deep hole within a spherical body.
The bark cracked stiffly and Brine heard faint breathing, with bits of vapor clinging to the bottom of the hole.
With a shiver crawling throughout his arms, he pulled away and stuck close to Carmine's back, "L-Lets move on."
Carmine turned his gaze away from the grave of wood and focused on the path ahead unflinchingly. Carefully weaving their way through this nocturnal forest, they kept their eyes and nose open for something smelly, that the pollen doesn't touch.
The plants here offered sights yet to be explored. They all seemed to be alive, crawling along the ground and trees by their roots. They breathed extra pollen into the air, to try and poison, paralyze or put their guests to sleep.
Ividae was constantly on guard for them, using broad leaves as shields to catch the pollen and shed it onto the ground.
And if it happened to make an error, Brine's water was able to wash the pollen off before it led to deadly results.
"Why'd Ividae make plants like these anyways?" Brine wondered.
"They didn't. This forest became twisted on it's own."
Brine shivered again, "W-Well that's a frightening thought."
Carmine brushed a finger up before his mouth, "Shhh..."
They hid quietly behind a nearby tree, watching as the mischievous sirens of the forest fluttered by on their tiny, glittery wings.
Once they were gone they kept pressing onward deeper into the forest. They started to keep an eye out for any signs of the Sage too.
"Lest I'm forgetting somethin', do we know what the Sage's Drive is?" Brine inquired.
"Auris didn't know." Carmine replied.
"Right, right! She said like, the Sage's Drive has some connection to plants."
"It makes sense that each Sage's Drive would be tied to the element they're looking over," Carmine narrowed his gaze and muttered coldly, "But I sense something more...sinister behind this one."
"So it ain't just me then." Brine muttered back.
"That reminds me though, about our earlier conversation."
"Oh, ya, what did ya want to say back then?" Brine perked up with interest.
"Will your daughter be ok when she gets older?" Carmine gestured his hand back and wondered, "I noticed her skin isn't tanning like yours."
"Mmrrrr..."
"Brine...someone is going to figure out that her mother isn't from your Tribe. And if they tie it back to the Aurians-"
"She'll be fine!" Brine swung his arm out defensively, "If they can't see her for the good little girl she'll become just because she's missing a wee little tan, then all of them can collectively bite my arse!"
Carmine stopped and turned around. He wasn't smiling, and so Brine clammed up and listened.
"If you're going to be a good father to her, you need to be prepared for her future."
Brine pressed his eyes down and brushed his hand out at him while turning away, "Whaddya know? Ya just became a father a few months ago."
He then crossed his arms and muttered, "Ya should see that little girl's eyes when I show her new things. She don't care that something's ugly, or different. She's all smiles and giggles...She's innocent, chum. So why ya gotta make it seem like I'm raisin' up a devil?"
"...That's not what I'm trying to do," Carmine said with some tense regret, "I just...hope you aren't doing something you'll regret later."
Brine swung back around and said to him in a confrontational tone of voice, "I love that little girl with all my heart. And I'm gonna make sure she knows it. It..."
He clenched his fists and hung his head, "It's the least I owe Torren..."
"..." Carmine closed his eyes gently and remarked, "I won't bring it up again. Sorry."
"...Yeah." Brine muttered back.
The next few minutes were kept in silence. They were scouring these woods trunk to canopy, finding more of those graves of wood in more twisted, uncomfortable positions.
The Fae delighted in using those graves as seats.
Who knows how long they have been here for. When time refuses to move, minutes could be days. One step forward could advance years.
It was all part of this place's twisted maze of which, so far anyways, Carmine and Brine were staying on the correct path of.
There was no time for rest breaks or food. Anything that would give the Fae a chance to wedge their little fangs in needed to be avoided.
"Feels like we've been wandering for a while now." Brine noted.
"No, these are different trees." Carmine remarked.
"How can ya tell they all look the same." Brine bluntly said back.
After a few more minutes of walking, Brine was about to raise another complaint when his nose took a whiff of something odorous coming from the left.
"Wait...!" Brine shouted, "I think I got something!"
Brine wandered towards a trio of towering trees twisting together past the canopy, the bark arranged in a way that it would let the only sunlight in this forest through. But, filtered through the leaves, it made the light a hazy shade of violet.
And this light was beaming down onto a small garden of violet plants with petals as thick as fingers, which weighed the stem down. But the petals helped keep the plant from breaking.
They were pushing out a small area of fumes every two seconds, complete with a hiss.
Nobody lived here. Nobody would want to.
But still, Carmine dared to approach this toxic garden and, at Ividae's request, bring the vine in closer to examine the plants.
"What do you think?" He whispered.
The vine peeled away and hid behind Carmine's neck, shivering. Carmine was left with goosebumps as he stood up.
"This it?" Brine inquired.
"Seems very likely," Carmine said, sharing a bit of his reluctance, "Purple, odorous, very few in number..."
Carmine twiddled his fingers around against his palm and muttered, "The only thing is..."
When he went silent for a bit it was Brine who prompted him to speak, "Yeah?"
"..." Carmine turned and knew his smile would arouse suspicion. In the most unlikely case he could see Brine calling him a fool for what he was about to say, "I...don't feel right exterminating these flowers."
Brine narrowed his gaze and muttered, "Whaddya mean?"
"What you said before...About not hating something even if it's ugly or different," Carmine gestured his hand towards the garden, "It's not the flowers' fault that someone misused them."
With Brine refusing to say anything in turn Carmine felt haste to further explain his case, "Take it from your perspective, Brine. Would you hate all fish just because someone cut you with their gills?"
Brine then cracked a wry grin and remarked, "Well for one, gills don't work like that."
He then waved his hand out and said with a sigh, "But I get ya point. Now listen to mine..."
Brine crossed his arms and remarked, "Weren't ya always sayin' that plants have a voice? Whether that hokey pokey stuff is true or not, think from their perspective. If you were a flower getting used and abused over and over again, wouldn't ya want to be free from causing others pain?"
"...They're quiet." Carmine said with a concerned look over his shoulder.
"Well no wonder. They're probably tired. Look at 'em, they can barely keep their heads held high." Brine said, putting a jovial spin on this dour scene.
"...You're probably right, Brine," Carmine said with a reluctant nod of his head, "I have to put an end to this. For the forest. And for my family."
So, with his resolve hardened, Carmine stretched his hand out towards the small garden and squeezed it tight. Plucking every single flower, roots and all, until they were all bundled into a single sphere.
He then kept squeezing down, even while Ividae shivered at his side, until he ensured they were dry of their secretion. Then he had Brine flood the dirt so any seeds couldn't grow from it.
When all was said and done the flower had been wiped out, without either of them knowing it's name.
The remnants of the flowers would have to be discarded elsewhere but for now, anyways, this problem was solved.
Yet victory left Carmine with a bitter taste on the tip of his tongue. He hummed and stared for a long time at the plants laying at his side.
"Ya gonna be ok?" Brine inquired.
"Hmm?" Carmine picked his head up but his eyelids were sagging, "I feel tired. It's hard to describe but it feels like I'm trying to repress myself."
"...We may've stopped the black goo but the Sage is still out there." Brine noted.
"I know. He'll find a new flower to tarnish the life of for his twisted ends. Flowers are beautiful because they're there, harmlessly bringing color and life to otherwise dull lands. I just...how could anyone be so vile and cruel as to use them to hurt others?"
"Beats me, mate," Brine said while rubbing the back of his head, "This Sage definitely feels like he's a few fish short of a school, y'know what I mean?"
"But we'll find 'em and stop 'em one of these days. The fact he's hiding must mean he's scared of us if ya ask me."
"I'm glad to have a friend like you, Brine," Carmine went on to say, tearing up a little inside, "Again...I'm sorry for what I said earlier."
"Aww, water under the bridge, chum. Frankly I wasn't too kind to ya myself."
The two then smiled, shook hands, and started to make their way out of this nocturnal maze.
Unbeknownst to them, the Sage Glade had been laying back beside the trees throughout most of their conversation, his prickly sickles hanging from the sleeves.
His poison-filled eyes glared through the purview with intense focus on Carmine in particular.
And as he did, his words formed an echo that connected the present to the past...
"You need to stop what you're doing, Glade. This isn't how you treat flowers." Spoke a man with a featureless face.
"This is disgusting. Stop. A proper Sage does not partake in these sorts of...hobbies." The man spoke again, his hollowed head carrying only the cold whispers of the void.
"Clean it UP!" The face shrieked as the limber body it attached to towered over a young Glade, scrambling to 'clean' the poison spilled at his feet.
"That's a good boy. You WILL learn to be a proper Sage one day. This phase will pass."The face returned to normal.
"You KILLED those creatures!"The face tore open, and Glade recalled searing pain as a wooden limb struck him across the face in the blink of an eye, bleeding his surroundings red and violet, "You're horrible! HORRIBLE! Why must you be like this? Be. A. Proper. SAGE!"
The faceless man's hands and fingers wrinkled at the slightest movement and his skin bulged, carrying a pocket of grotesque liquid up to the head.
"Khh...Khhh...!" Dark violet liquid began to seep out of the head as a face pushed itself through the void. It had hollow eyes and thickened veins with its features squirming as it vomited up more liquid.
The inside of a building pulled itself into this view and the figure collapsed onto their back, hitting their head against the table and splitting the skull open to reveal...that there had always been poison inside.
As the faceless figure lay gasping and bubbling up poison from its mouth, it continued to scream, "Cruel...cruel...ugly...wicked child...! I hate you...I hate you...!"
And so it joined nine other faceless figures in eternal rest, the poison spewed forming a blood-red lake that dragged the table down into oblivion...
Glade's eyes remained open throughout those lucid memories, and with a chilling calm he withdrew his sickles and began to speak, "Nature is beautiful...But we only embrace what's on the surface, not the toxicity that lies underneath. Why? Because our kind is afraid of acknowledging the ugliness of the inner self. But I see it all. True beauty...is the poison that lies beneath the surface."
His gaze darted towards Carmine slowly leaving his view, "You believe you're strong for repressing your poison? That you're a...good person for your judgment of others. No. You're a hypocrite, just like the majority of humanity. So you will live, until I extract that poison out into the open. Yes...the poison that lies in your heart, Carmine Rose. And that of your 'nurturing' Titan..."
Glade sank away into nocturne, the last thing to be pulled back being the faint glow of his poison-filled sclera...
Next Time: Child Gods