Chapter Thirty-One: The Northern Fires

The first underling to attack me was an imp. I hadn't tangled with these guys since the bloodbath at the Forbidden River, the day after I'd climbed the Knight's Ladder. The imp swiped at me with its claws, but I sidestepped the blow like a matador dodging a charging bull, taking off the imp's head with an almost lazy undercut.

Normally, my Bowie wouldn't have been enough to fully decapitate a creature, but it had gained extra length and weight when I'd alchemized it with a Roman gladius. It was quite capable of decapitation, in its enhanced state. The headless imp's body crumpled to the ground and dissolved into a mound of grist.

A second imp, maybe hoping to avenge the death of its departed friend, leaped over the grist mound, claws outstretched. I didn't sidestep this one. Instead, I simply pointed my Bowie forward towards the leaping imp. The smaller underling realized its mistake, but it was too late. Already flying through the air towards me, it had time only to let out a piercing screech before it landed right on my knife. I was then peppered by the hail of grist which its body transmuted into, still carried by the momentum of the dead imp's leap.

As I dealt with the onslaught of imps, I could see Scales fighting off his own attackers. He sliced through the underlings with his sword, knocked them down the hill with his Vis. At times, he would even score kills with his tail—breaking necks, or shattering skulls with well-placed lashes. I edged my way over to Scales until the two of us were fighting almost back to back, under the giant oak tree.

The ogres were a bit harder to deal with. I remember back on Day One, when I'd fought my way up to the top of my house-tower, only to have to kill two ogres before I could reach my first gate. They'd been like video game bosses, then, before I really knew how to use my Aspect. Hell, that was before I knew what my Aspect even was. I'd gotten completely wrecked by those ogres, and then tossed off the top of my house, plummeting over a hundred feet down to my yard below. A month ago, a group of this many ogres would have completely clobbered me…but this wasn't a month ago. I focused on my Aspect and flashed the ogre a wide grin as it bore down on me. I think the creature may have hesitated slightly, in that brief moment before its life ended. It wasn't used to its victims smiling at it. Then I clenched my hand into a fist, ignoring the sickening crunch as the ogre's neck snapped.

Three more ogres attacked me after that in quick succession. I used my Aspect on the first, crushing its windpipe before it even made it within five feet of me. The second swung its fists at me, aiming lower than its predecessor. I tried to duck like last time, but I wasn't able to get low enough, and one of the ogre's fists lightly clocked me over the top of my head.

I staggered, nearly falling over to the side. Getting hit by an ogre like that, even at partial strength, wasn't something anyone could just shrug off. I blinked stars out of my eyes as I tightened my grip on my Bowie and used its hilt to strike the ogre in the jaw with all my strength, sending blood and bits of teeth spraying through the air. The ogre roared in pain, but I snapped its neck before it could scream for too long.

Then I got bum-rushed by ogre number four. It charged up the hill and sprinted right into me as I was finishing off the third ogre, slamming me right into the trunk of the giant oak tree. I saw stars again and had the wind smashed out of me. I don't know if you've ever been body-slammed into a tree by an ogre, before, but in case you haven't… Well, it fucking hurts.

I plunged my oversized knife into the ogre's throat. It howled in agony, but I didn't give it the chance to scream a second time. I yanked the knife free and shoved it up into the ogre's chin, up through its brain. The ogre's body transmuted into grist, and I fell free from the tree trunk, gasping for breath.

I didn't really have time to take a break, though, because another handful of imps jumped me almost as soon as the last ogre died.

I was starting to get pissed, now, and I fought ten times better when I was angry. More ogres came up behind the imps, forcing Scales and I up against the tree, wildly beating off anything that swiped at us. I cut down one imp after the other, but eventually one of them got past my guard and raked its claws across my shoulder, shredding even more of my shirt and sending pain lancing through my chest.

That did it. That sent me over the edge. I was so not in the mood for this bullshit. I haven't come this far just to get taken down by a pack of fucking dumb-shit underlings. I dropped my Bowie, causing it to vanish back into my sylladex. Flames flared up around my fists. I could feel the heat, but my skin would not burn. Fueled by my anger, I exerted more control over the fire, generating more energy, exciting more particles…before I knew it, imps were sprinting at me and I was roasting the little shits alive. Ogres would swing at me, and I would burn through their heads or their chests. Sometimes if I hit them with a big enough fireball, they simply shattered into grist, dying instantly.

I lost track of time for a few minutes. Lots of neck-snapping, lots of fire, teeth…claws, the acrid smell of burning flesh… After what felt like an hour, but in reality was only around three or four minutes, the onslaught of underlings suddenly stopped. I wandered around for a few moments, looking for my next target…only to blink a few times and snap out of my daze. It was like my eyes had been closed the whole time, and I was just now opening them.

Normally there probably would have been a lot of dead bodies littering the ground around the oak tree, but all the underlings I killed turned into grist. The only ones whose bodies remained after death were the ones killed by Scales. The ground was covered with mounds of varying kinds of grist. After another few seconds, they all shimmered and vanished, getting stored in my grist cache. Yeah, I really don't know how that worked—it's just one of the many things about Sburb that I decided not to question.

Glimmering Scales wiped his blade clean on one of the ogre corpses. "Your control over fire needss more work…" the red-scaled consort said, but he then flared his neck hood in a shrug, and added, "But you will hear no complaintss from me, thiss time."

I looked around at all the burned grass and scorch marks on the ground. I'd really roasted these guys… I'd refrained from using fire so much when I'm in the middle of a fight, because I tended to get angry and lose control of myself…which is exactly what had happened here. I was just glad Scales hadn't been accidentally hurt. If I'd been fighting alongside more than one or two friends, someone would definitely have gotten hurt.

"By the Knight, who are you people?"

I had been looking at Scales when the voice spoke to us, so I knew the red-scaled cobra wasn't the one who'd spoken. Then it registered in my brain that the voice had come from above…and there was only one place someone could be speaking down to us from.

The consort had been lying still as a stone, and her brown scales allowed her to blend in with the branch which she was coiled around. I honestly would not have spotted her unless she started moving. I looked up, saw the dark brown-scaled consort slither down from her high branch. She had emerald green eyes like Scales, but they were larger and rounder. Her head was more angular, as well…the subtle physical differences between the three tribes, perhaps. She was obviously no Treefolk...but she wasn't a Sand Dweller, either. They had more slanted eyes and thicker neck hoods, as well as generally stouter bodies. No, she was something else... She also had a sheathed sword secured to her back, along with a small traveling satchel.

Scales had his sword unsheathed and leveled at the brown-scaled consort within a heartbeat. "Name yoursself, sstranger," he hissed threateningly.

"My name iss Aiyana of Clan Unagwe," the female consort dropped to the ground, unsheathing a sword of her own. "And I do not take kindly to threatss."

"Put the swords away, children, before someone gets a cut," I stepped between the two consorts.

"And what manner of creature are you?" the brown-scaled female, Aiyana, stared at me like I had five heads.

"Show ssome resspect," Scales snapped. "You're sspeaking to the Knight."

"You? The Knight?" Aiyana lowered her blade a tad, but the skepticism in her voice was painfully obvious.

"No," I flat-out said. I was gonna nip this skepticism in the bud. "Uh-uh. Nope. I'm not going through this proving myself bullshit again. I just helped fight off an entire swarm of fucking underlings. I have a Vis of my own—unless you're blind, you clearly saw me using it to absolutely wreck the aforementioned swarm of fucking underlings. I'm the Knight, believe me or get out of my way."

The female consort was silent for a few moments. "Eyess of red…He Who Walks Tall…" she murmured. Her gaze slid over to Scales. "The alien sspeakss the truth?" she asked.

"He doess."

Aiyana gave a quiet grunt, though it came out sounding more like a guttural hiss. "Well, I ssuppose I can trusst the word of even a Treefolk more than the word of an alien… Come, we musst leave thiss place. More underlingss will arrive ssoon."

We hurried off the top of the hill and away from the giant oak tree, putting some distance between ourselves and the site of that little bloodbath. I could faintly hear more animalistic howls in the distance, but we were moving at a good pace. We wouldn't run into any more trouble. For now, at least.

"So what the hell were you doing out here, all by yourself?" I asked the brown-scaled consort.

"I wass being purssued by the sswarm you two jusst killed," Aiyana replied. "Sswarmss that large usually don't roam the hillss until nightfall, and I confess I wass caught by ssurprisse. I ssupposse I owe you both a thank-you for handling that sswarm, though I wass quite well hidden and not in any real danger."

"Where are you taking uss?" Scales asked the next question.

"To my village," Aiyana answered without hesitation. "I live in the largesst of my clan'ss ssettlementss. I will bring you there and let the Faithful decide your fate."

"The who?" I arched an eyebrow. What, did this consort think I was supposed to magically know everything about her people? I wasn't a Hero of Light—spontaneous knowledge wasn't my bag. I just stuck with energy manipulation. Telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and other assorted goodies. Well, really only just those two…

"The Faithful," Aiyana repeated herself. "The foreigner who sservess as our leader. You will meet him ssoon enough."

I let the brown-scaled consort slither on ahead of us, leaning over to Glimmering Scales after she was out of earshot. "You have any idea what she's talking about?"

"I do not," Scales hissed in reply. "I know very little of the cusstomss of the Northern Fires."

So she was a Northerner. I figured as much.

After about two or three hours of steady hiking, Aiyana led us off to the side, ducking into a grove of trees. It was a small clearing, secluded from its surroundings. Not necessarily a fortress, obviously, but still a good place to rest up and catch a breather. Aiyana unshouldered her satchel—okay, maybe that's a poor choice of words seeing as how she's a cobra and doesn't have shoulders…but whatever—and rummaged around inside it for a minute or so. Finally, she produced a couple of squares of dark meat.

I briefly wondered why it took her so long just to take out a little snack, but she started speaking before I could give it much thought.

"Jerky," she held them out to Scales and me with her Vis. "Lifebeast jerky. We have a lot of disstance to cover and it will give you energy."

"Wake up."

What the…? What the fuck?

I opened my eyes to the sight of a wooden ceiling. I was lying on a makeshift bed of furs, and my body felt like it was made of seventy-five percent ache. I'd obviously been carried a good distance, then most likely dropped onto the ground, here, without much regard to my comfort.

I hadn't dreamed, though… I'd fallen asleep, somehow, but I hadn't dreamed…

I was disoriented, and my memory was hazy, jumbled. I couldn't remember… How had I gotten here?

Then I saw the green-eyed, brown-scaled consort leaning over me, and the memories surged back. Stopping in the clearing for a rest. The buffalo jerky. Heading back to the trail, then…drowsiness…and now, here I was.

"You drugged me," I said accusingly to the female consort.

"Good, you're awake," Aiyana moved back, no longer trying to rouse me. "Nothing perssonal, obvioussly…but should you ever fall to the Dark Oness, we cannot have you knowing the location of our chamberss. Were Hyperion'ss dogss ever to disscover uss…well, I shall not even sspeak of that. Welcome to the Underground."

Another consort—a thickset, violet-scaled brute—was busy shaking Scales awake. The red-scaled cobra went through a similar show of confusion, though his was slightly more violent than mine. He actually knocked the violet-scaled consort back across the room and sprang to his feet, baring his fangs and hissing threateningly.

The violet-scaled consort gave an angry growl and advanced on Scales, but Aiyana slipped in between the two males. "Easy, Inuyyak," she talked Violet Scales down.

"Little shit thinkss he can push me?" Inuyyak grunted, making for Scales once again. "I think little shit needss a lesson."

"He hass jusst awoken from a falsse-ssleep," Aiyana argued, standing her ground. "He iss dissoriented. Give him a ssecond."

Inuyyak gave an irritated huff, but he relented, slithering back towards the door. The dark brown-scaled female took a few moments to give Scales the same explanation she gave me, though Scales was by no means satisfied by it. Thankfully, he decided to keep his mouth shut, for once in his life.

"So, do we have your permission to leave this room?" I sighed, trying not to roll my eyes. There really wasn't anything holding me here; I could blast my way out if I wanted to…but that wouldn't exactly do wonders for my reputation. I needed the consorts on my side, and beating the crap out of them wouldn't really achieve that.

"Yess, the Faithful will ssee you, now," Aiyana opened the door. "My leaderss have gathered while you sslept."

"Great, time for some goddamn answers…" I muttered, too quietly for the Northerners to hear, but loud enough to be heard by Scales.

"Right thiss way, little shitss," Inuyyak used his Vis to give me a strong shove between my shoulder blades, making me stumble through the door.

Flames curled up around my fists. I took a deep breath and turned around to face the violet-scaled consort. "Look, I don't know you, and there's probably a good reason why you're acting like such an asshole…but for real. Shove me again, and I'll jam this fire down your throat."

The violet-scaled cobra snorted in amusement. "I'd like to ssee you try, little shit-"

"That'ss enough, Inuyyak!" Aiyana snapped, not bothering to turn around. The violet-scaled cobra hung back, muttering under his breath.

The dark brown-scaled female led us out of the room we'd been sleeping in and through a short earthen tunnel. No walls, no real ceiling…just a tunnel through the ground, eventually emerging into a large, subterranean cavern that looked like a giant cellar, to be honest. There were a few other tunnels that led to more rooms, but none were in use.

Off at one end of the cavern, there were two consorts gathered around a small fire—a whitish gray-scaled elder and a middle-aged consort with golden scales. And not only was he gold-scaled…he had more slanted eyes, and a thicker neck hood…all physical traits of another tribe. He clearly didn't belong here.

"You…you're a-" I started to point out, but the gold-scaled consort beat me to it.

"A Sand Dweller, yess," Gold Scales finished for me. So, it clearly wasn't a secret, or anything…though it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was from a different tribe. "My name iss Tlanextic of Clan Oaxaca. I am the Faithful of Clan Unagwe. Welcome to the Underground."

"Uh…hey, um… The Underground. Yeah," I cleared my throat awkwardly. The Underground...that was the second time I had heard that term. "So this is the, uh…the Underground, is it?"

"The Underground iss not a place, it iss a movement," the gray-scaled elder explained. "An underground movement among uss Northernerss, dedicated to the downfall of Hyperion and his night-carapaced dogss. I am K'eyush of Clan Unagwe, and I am the sachem of the village above…" Okay, so we were obviously underneath a village right now. "…and we are taking great rissk to meet with you here. Aiyana, here, hass told uss ssome very interessting thingss about you."

"Like how I'm the Knight, for example?" I spread my hands innocently.

"That doess sseem quite likely," K'eyush nodded. "Aiyana wass returning from a sscouting mission in the wesst. The Treefolk have mobilized, it sseemss…and our brotherss in the Sands are doing likewise."

Scales glared at Aiyana, his pupils narrowing to slits. "You were sspying on my people?"

"I wass obsserving your people," the dark brown-scaled female corrected my friend. "When the Treefolk clanss begin forssaking the ssafety of their foresstss, which they have not left ssince the time of Hyperion'ss conquesst…it ssparkss our interesst. When sstoriess circulate that ssomeone wass actually able to complete their foolish Trial of Legends…it ssparkss our interesst. When the Faithful receivess word from our brotherss in the Sands that they, too, are mobilizing for battle at the behesst of a figure of mythology…it-"

"No, no. Let me guess…" I held up a hand, glad to be the one doing the interrupting, this time. "It ssparkss your interesst?"

Okay, maybe when Theo said I had a tendency to be an asshole when it would behoove me to…well, not be an asshole… Okay, well maybe he was kind of right.

If Aiyana was annoyed, though, she hid it really well. "Yess, precissely," she responded, her forked tongue flitting out to taste the air being her only outward reaction to my assholery.

"Okay, so…what crazy thing do I need to do for you people to make you believe that I'm the Knight?" I decided to stop avoiding that particular topic of discussion and simply charge right at it head-on. "I climbed a ladder of swords for the Treefolk, I went back in time and helped spark the liberation of the quarries for the Desert Fires…what crazy outlandish thing do I have to do for you-"

"Peace, Knight," K'eyush, the gray-scaled elder, silenced me with his gaze. "Your being the Knight iss hard to believe…but at the ssame time, as I ssaid, very likely."

"Ultimately, it doess not matter to uss very much whether or not you truly are the Knight," Tlanextic explained. "What matterss iss that you have managed to rally the Western and the Desert Fires, and were we to add our sstrength to yourss…all three of our peopless would sstand united, which hass not happened ssince the time of the Old One. It would sserve as a unique opportunity to challenge Hyperion'ss sstrength…an opportunity we may never ssee again. Therefore, it iss an opportunity we musst take advantage of."

"You will have our ssupport," K'eyush finished for the gold-scaled Sand Dweller. "And for all our ssakess, not to mention your own ssake… I hope you truly are who you claim to be."

Wow. I mean…just… Okay, wow. This was almost too good to be true. Consorts accepting that I was the Knight without making me swing from one tree to another with my own intestines? Consorts who used common sense and logic to dictate their actions? What the fuck was going on, here?

The Northern Fires were certainly alright in my book!

"Okay, wonderful!" I gave a wide grin. "So, uh… You guys are actually gonna follow me? Just like that? I mean, I'm not complaining, or anything, it's just…the other tribes didn't fall in so easily. I actually almost got sacrificed when I arrived in Aztlán-"

"We will follow you, yess, but there iss more that needss to be done, firsst," Tlanextic cut me off again, before I could go off on too much of a tangent. "The Underground iss extensive. We are in every village, and word of your arrival musst be brought to them."

"Am I gonna have to spend another month traveling from village to village, because-"

"Peace, Knight!" Tlanextic had to interrupt me yet again…maybe I should just shut my fucking mouth. Maybe that would solve all my problems. The gold-scaled consort turned to the brown-scaled female. "Aiyana, there iss a good reason why I requessted your presence here along with our visitorss'. I would name you an Acolyte and have you convey the Wordss to the Faithful in the High Council Fire."

Aiyana blinked several times, her tongue flitting out momentarily in surprise. "Me? You would name me? But…surely there are otherss more ssuited to the tassk…"

"It wass naught but fortune that led you to be the one to encounter the Knight and his companion, to bring them to uss ssafely," the gray-scaled elder declared. "It iss surely a ssign from the Great Sky Flame. I believe it would be unwise to introduce any changess to ssomething the Great Sky Flame hass already demonsstrated itss favor for—therefore, you shall remain with the Knight. Come closser, sso the Faithful might give you the Wordss."

Aiyana slithered forward hesitantly, standing before the two older consorts. The gold-scaled Sand Dweller leaned forward and whispered something to Aiyana, too quietly for me and Scales, or even for K'eyush to hear. Aiyana blinked a couple times looking from Tlanextic to K'eyush, and then back to Tlanextic. "Do they mean anything?"

"Yess," Tlanextic replied. "It iss the Old One'ss name. The lasst thing she ssaid to the Witnesses before her death. It iss the code we Faithful agreed to use to ssignify the Knight'ss arrival. The Faithful at the High Council Fire will recognize it. As for you," the gold-scaled consort turned to me. "You will alsso go to the High Council Fire. Aiyana will give the Wordss to the Faithful there, and you will cement your claim as the Knight. Then you will prove yoursself to the resst of the Northern clanss."

And there it was, yet again, those two innocent little words that have been proving to be the fucking bane of my existence.

Prove yourself.

God damn it all, I knew everything was going way too easily to be true.

"And, uh…okay, prove myself to the Northern Fires. Got it. Awesome," I muttered. "What am I gonna have to do this time?"

"Oh, nothing too complicated," Tlanextic's neck hoods flared in the cobra equivalent of a shrug. "Before we march on the Denizen, we musst firsst deal with his dogss. You will help uss drive the Dark Oness from our villagess and from their fortss. Then we will help you drive them from the Old One's Garden, and our world shall finally be cleanssed."

"You will leave within the hour," K'eyush concluded, flashing us a faint smile. "The Denizen'ss creaturess are out in force, thiss sseasson, and the distance to the High Council Fire iss not ssmall. Take care on your travelss, lesst you meet a premature end as a meal to the underlingss."