I'm actually quite proud of this chapter. First, time I've been proud of something I wrote for at least a month. Anyway, this story is becoming more and more Psychological Horror, e.g. the central Nel soliloquy. Next chapter will have the return of Albel after a two chapter hiatus. Anyway please review or something might go down at sometime in someplace some how.
Chapter 3
The Preaching of the Stones
By Breaeden Swordwind
They had passed through the Kirlsa caverns easily enough. Admittedly she had been somewhat stressed keeping Fayt and Cliff from getting themselves killed but Black Bird had bailed everyone out more then once. He moved his scythe huge graceful sweeps, occasionally wielding the massive weapon in a single hand. Passively, almost without any seeming intent to do so, he would protect the engineers from monsters. He had said that it was his goal to see them safely to Aquaria. So Nel supposed she should not be surprised. Even if she still didn't trust his reasons.
She had taken it upon herself to make sure any wounds taken by Fayt, Cliff, or Black Bird were removed quickly. With Fayt and Cliff it was easy enough, they readily submitted to the healing process but Black Bird fought her every step saying he didn't need it. He wouldn't explain, dodging the point constantly. Finally, when his back was turned she cast a heal symbol on him. It just slipped right off. No effect. Nothing.
Black Bird didn't seem to notice and later when he brushed some blood from slight cut on his arm the blood revealled closed skin underneath. Her spell had not affected him so it could not have been her. Could he cast magic? That might explain why he said he didn't need help but why did her heal spell just skim off? It wasn't like normal magic shield that would either have reflected the effect back at her or merely dulled its effects. Whatever it was just caused the spell to go right through him like so many arrows through air.
The other two had been less of a bother. Fayt was getting better at fighting but, at times, he was still a liability. Fortunately, Cliff seemed to be watching out for him well enough and it wasn't to much of problem. Astonishingly, Fayt was rapidly picking up Runlogy, using the more basic attack spells. His blade was becoming a force to be reckoned with, though he often sank to high-risk showboating moves with little effective use that seemed to stem from training without an opponent. He claimed he was not used to fighting with something to loose and Nel took his excuse at face value.
Nel had not liked the ride on the hauler one bit. It wasn't scary or anything like that but it was…unnerving. Especially when they were taking jumps at high speed. She didn't let it show through, as the others seemed to be taking it better. Cliff was positively enjoying himself and Fayt seemed to like the thrill of busting through a wooden path block or narrowly avoiding the falling boulders that came from above. Black Bird leaned against the side of the cart and seemed indifferent to the whole annoying affair.
But finally the ride had come to a stop and Nel was once more on solid ground and making her way from the tunnels stagnant air into the light of day. Honestly, the conditions in those caverns could not be good for the humors. Going from the barely lit darkness of the cave to the blazing sun overhead required her eyes to adjust and the pain of it slowed her temporarily.
They proceeded through the rocky mountain without any noteworthy difficulty. The monsters that dwelled her were easy enough to handle, although they had made mining here difficult as could be seen from the rusting pieces of mining equipment that had been left to rot by fleeing miners. Nel would have liked to have been able to better secure the region and allow the Aquarian mining teams to return to work but as things stood it served as a buffer, absorbing some of the force from Glyphian raids. The monsters had developed a taste for southern blood just as much as their traditional taste for northern flesh.
Eventually, they came within sight of Arias. The stone walls had never seemed so soft, like the waiting pillows on a made bed after a day of backbreaking work. She was physically and mentally exhausted. Black Bird caused both; his words had kept her from getting proper sleep for the past few days. She would toss at night replaying both the incident at the cliff along to the tune of Black Bird's half-crazed words. Pulling the unwilling from beyond the brink of death back into the world of the living only to have the reanimated corpse kill her people with demonic ruthlessness.
Why did that claw beast desire the death so badly? Both his own and those of practically every other living creature. She had heard the stories. Who in the lands of Aquaria hadn't? Tales of blades and talons that rend flesh while screaming, "Come and kill me! Come and prove that you are worthy of life!" Whispers of the cruelty exhibited to even his own men when he detect the tremors of weakness with the word, "Do you want to be like me, maggot?"
Most people who had heard the latter rumor believed it was a sign of some great arrogance and for the most part she agreed but in the back of her mind she didn't. Her conscience still saw that pathetic creature that had walked into darkness of death for fear of the light. She knew that the phrase was a masked sign of self loathing. She fought with herself on whether what she did was right. As Black Bird had so disturbingly put it she was afraid she had done what was right and afraid that she had not.
What had happened in that black-and-white machinations life that had driven it to suicide? Was it simple human weakness, basic teenage angst grown fat, feeding like a leech upon an obviously disturbed consciousness? Was it a complicated series of events that had shatter a life and left the future seeming barren and lifeless, lonely and in want of another of human soul to give it the vague impression of vitality and potential? She had not studied philosophy much as her time had been diverted to more physical trainings, though she had never finished it. However, she had always been interested in psychology and the creature's psychosis was particularly fascinating, morbidly so. It was like watching ripe fields burn, or another human being pummeled into the ground by thieves. The mind screamed for action or retreat but the body was too fascinated by the spectacle. It tickled the perverted streak that dwell within all humans. A perverted streak that seemed to be all Black Bird was made of.
He had raped her, mentally speaking, and she felt a little less innocence. It was a laying bare of all the ideas that she had coyly flirted with. The tearing of her subconscious dilemma's into center stage where they could not help but reek. The almost gibbering way he had deliver took almost demonic pleasure in the twisting of her spirit around his little finger. An eternal fascinating like some good dissecting a tiny ant, smiling as he plucked out each organ and wound half-heartedly how it took part in the working of the creature as a whole.
Nel was sullied and dirty and full of doubt now. The human mind it seemed took easily too resting on institutions and she had not realized how much she leaned against the kingdom of Aquaria until now. She had always believed that she was supporting Aquaria but now it seemed that it was supporting her as well. Two columns that leaned against one another and kept each other erect. Now she realized she was leaning and had begun to pull back only relizing how much weight a single consciousness possessed. Aquaria had kept her aloft by keeping her from feeling a need to think, and now that she felt that need she didn't know what to make of it. Was it right to kill the sad suicidal beast? Was it ethical to kill something less then human like that? Could it not be made human? Was it so far gone, lost from the moment it had stepped off that cliff? Was it right to lean against a institution? Did that take away from her strength? What if a human leaned against nothing? What then? So many questions and the only thing that seemed confident in the answers would use them to drive her insane. Slowly, drive them into her like white-hot barbs.
She was afraid now. More then she had ever been. She was afraid of Aquaria. Afraid of herself. Afraid of her questions. What path would they take her down? Were they good questions? She was deathly terrified of Aquaria now and of Airyglyph and the soft, rocky, stone, pillow walls of Arias seemed to be seductive. She would continue with Aquaria, but she decided that she would use it less as a crutch and keep her mind more acute then it had been for years.
She began to walk down the path toward Arias, Fayt and Cliff followed. Black Bird stood and made no movement in the direction of the fort city. Nel looked back and yelled to him to get moving. She wanted this over with so that she could take a brief break and think things through some more. A lot was on her mind right now. Besides, she needed him inside Arias so that she and the rest of her forces could capture Black Bird and prevent future trouble.
Suddenly, Black Bird began to laugh. His laugh was course and grating, tearing and fiendish, deadly and mocking, arrogant and humble. "What do you think I am? Stupid? I would not enter Arias for all the battle in the universe. I will not let myself be captured, ma'am." His tone mocked her, "You and your beneficent kind will ambush me as soon as I'm through the gates."
He had her peg, Nel though with chagrin, she had only one choice, lie through her teeth. "We won't capture you and you will be well cared for under our custody."
Black Bird took a stone serious tone and spoke with mechanical precision, "I would not allow my freedom, my independence to come under threat." His right hand went to his head and held it as though he had a strong headache. "I do hope you are able to move these engineers through your own territory without getting them killed, my liege. I, however, have done all I need to."
"You'll only be capture by Airyglyph!" Nel shouted trying vainly to convince him to walk to his imprisonment.
"I doubt that. I have…a trump card for dealing with Airyglyph, connections, if you will. " He mused over his shoulder as he walked away his massive scythe leaning on his shoulder in his right hand.
Nel decided not to pursue him as it might lead to the death of her or the engineers. Though she did not like the idea of letting someone so dangerous run free. It was only half a personal vendetta.
