Chapter Seventy: A Touch of Intimacy
The first thing Cass Galavis felt when she woke up was a gentle warmth that made her wish she could remain curled up for a year. She spent several minutes just lying there, content to let her mind wander the strange, blurred realm between sleeping and waking.
But then it was time for Cass to get up, or risk falling back asleep and regaining consciousness in the Silent Dungeon. Even an extra five minutes of comfort was not worth that.
Opening her eyes, Cass sat up and got her bearings. All at once, the memories of where she was came flowing back. She was in a simple, mostly-unadorned room. The walls were gray stone, and there was a single window in the wall over the bed. There was a brief spurt of panic when Cass looked up to the window and did not see any light, but it was quickly alleviated when the rational part of her mind reminded her that it was usually cloudy on her stormy world.
As if the powers that be were tuning into Cass's thoughts at that exact moment, there was a brief part in the storm clouds outside, allowing the skaialight to shine freely through the sky. It came through the window in a beam, bringing a brightness and life to the room that had not been there in the shade.
Cass found herself standing up and drifting over to the window, taking in a deep breath and looking outside. Currently, she was staying in Tyrene, which was a coastal city belonging to the dwarf-consorts of LOTAD. It was one of the largest cities on the planet - larger, even, than Goldmont. Busy, too - always dealing with trade and commerce from the various city-states located at different points along the same coast.
The window in Cass's room offered her a good view of Tyrene's Merchant Quarter, which was filled with bustling streets and squares, brilliantly colorful kiosks and canopies filled with different kinds of fabrics, spices, foods, and exotic wares. Sweet and savory aromas wafted up from the city below, teasing about Cass's nostrils, fueling the rumbling in her stomach.
Cass's stomach was not the only thing that was rumbling, however. Off in the near distance, out over the ocean, the clouds had grown dark and stormy once again. The little break in the clouds through which Skaia peeped moved on and closed, cutting off the beam of skaialight that had been shining over Tyrene. As Cass watched, the wind started to pick up, and lightning could be spotted over the water.
Still, business in the Merchant Quarter went on as usual. These dwarves were a resilient lot - not to be put off by a spot of bad weather. Thunderstorms were the norm on LOTAD. Cass shut the window when she started to feel raindrops on the wind.
Cass sat down on the cot and took a deep breath, content to remain quiet for a while longer. Quiet moments like these were growing fewer and farther between as the days went by. There were fewer and fewer online conversations with her friends, less contact with the others. Cass's simultaneous quest and imprisonment were consuming her, in ways both overt and subtle. Her emotions were sometimes in a state of flux, sometimes they were calm and still, but underneath it all was a weariness that Cass could always feel. A sort of empty feeling that no amount of rest could alleviate.
But there was one thing that made it somewhat bearable: company.
Cass had not slept in the cot. Instead, she had taken the blankets and slept on the floor, next to Adamsprite. She did this for two reasons - first, the heat given off by Adamsprite's body was incredibly comfortable; and second, she found she slept better when she was closer to him. Cass watched Adamsprite, now, wondered where the dreaming sprite boy's mind was wandering.
As they traveled to more cities, Cass continued to speak with Adamsprite about the state of his mind, which was continuing to heal from the trauma incurred by his forced resurrection. The Compulsion she'd felt in the beginning, the drive to get Adamsprite to open up, had dissipated. Now, Cass merely spoke with Adamsprite whenever he wished to have a conversation. She learned a little bit more each day about what her companion had gone through, what he was still going through.
Cass's work on LOTAD was helping the consorts a great deal - as more Wyrm nests were cleared out, the skies grew safer, and there were less attacks. But the swarms of winged underlings were concentrating in several key locations, sensing that their existence was now being challenged. And with rumors of dragon sightings being whispered throughout the land…
To be honest, Cass felt immense relief whenever Adamsprite wanted to talk to her. At least with him, she was able to help without feeling scared all the time. No sadistic Dersite Agents, no fire-breathing underlings, no threat of imminent death...just someone who needed to talk. She could help her companion with his fear, if not her own.
"Like what you see?"
Cass blinked several times as Adamsprite's voice registered in her brain. The sprite boy had woken up, and she had not realized that she'd been staring. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out. She was at a complete loss for words.
Adamsprite noticed the color blossoming in Cass's face and allowed himself a small chuckle. "It's okay, don't hurt yourself. Pretend I didn't say anything." When all he got in response was more silence, the sprite boy knew something was wrong. And he had a good idea of what it was. "More bad dreams?" he asked, sitting on the bed next to his companion.
"Yeah…" Cass murmured, her gaze downcast. She was rubbing the little finger on her right hand. "Uh…sorry. I'm just glad to be awake."
"Anything you want to talk about?"
The Draconian Dignitary's voice flashed through Cass's mind, followed immediately by a twinge of pain in her finger. The teenaged girl swallowed loudly, her heart skipping a beat. "No," she replied. "No, I just…"
"Cass, c'mon. I can tell when you want to talk. More bad dreams?"
"The Dersites threw my dream self into prison."
The words were already flowing before Cass could stop them. She had wanted to spare her companion the finer details of what she was going through on Derse. It was not his burden to bear, and he had already been through so much already...it just hadn't seemed right.
Cass no longer believed this. If she did not share her suffering with someone else, she felt like she was going to burst. Taking a deep breath, fighting the lump already rising in her throat, the tears beginning to sting her eyes, Cass continued to speak. "They...they threw me into prison a week ago, and...and they…" Cass paused for another breath. "They started interrogating. I lost a finger."
"WHAT?" Adamsprite's initial reaction was characteristically loud and explosive. His sprite body flared a bright vermilion, followed by a rush of almost blistering heat.
Cass winced. "Please...don't shout."
"But Cass, you… I… Sorry, I…" Adamsprite took a deep breath of his own, trying to calm down with limited success. "They cut your fucking finger off? I knew shit was hitting the fan on Derse, but I didn't know it was this bad! Why wouldn't you tell me?"
"I don't know, Adam, I've never been tortured in a fucking prison before!" Cass snapped, causing Adamsprite to actually flinch - he was not used to hearing her drop the f-bomb. Cass immediately regretted raising her voice, however, and she added, "It's hard for me to talk about. I'm sure you can understand that."
"Yeah."
There was a silence, lasting about twenty seconds. During those twenty seconds, Adamsprite's anger subsided, allowing the more rational parts of his mind to shine through once more. "Where are they holding you?"
"It's called the Silent Dungeon," Cass replied. "Oldest prison on Derse. It's a terrible place...dark, cold…"
"Okay." Without another moment's hesitation, Adamsprite closed his eyes. After a second or two of concentration, the sprite boy's body suddenly pulsed with pure, blinding white light, forcing Cass to look away.
When she opened her eyes again, the white light was gone and Adamsprite was catching his breath. "What was that?" she asked.
"I just called a few friends," Adamsprite answered. "They'll be here soon...we'll talk about your problems on Derse. Then we'll do something."
"No, Adam, don't worry about that," Cass said. "There are other Dersites. Dissenters. They're working on rescuing me and Theo."
That nearly caused Adamsprite's eyes to burst from their sockets. "Theo's getting tortured, too?"
"What…? No, no," Cass stumbled over her words, attempting to clarify. "No, they aren't hurting him… I'm the one they hurt. Theo, he...they made him watch, and...if he hadn't started talking, I would've lost more fingers."
"Well, then, fuck those dissenters," Adamsprite growled, starting to rise from the bed. "It's been a week and they still haven't gotten you out. If they can't do it, then I'll fucking do it myself."
"No, please!" Cass's hand shot out and grabbed Adamsprite by the arm, stopping him from going too far. "You'll never make it. Not even you can take on all of Derse by yourself…please, stay with me. I… I don't want you to go."
Adamsprite tried to shake off Cass's grip, but when he turned back to look at her… She was starting to cry. In a mere moment, the rest of the sprite boy's anger was sucked away, leaving little behind other than sorrow. "Oh, Cass…" The sprite boy sat back down next to her and hugged her, drawing her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, her own shoulders beginning to quake as the sobs came bubbling to the surface. "Shh… It's gonna be okay. You're not alone."
Tami Abramov could not get Hemera's music out of her head.
It was maddening, at first… A light, somewhat playful melody, dancing through the shadowy nether regions of her subconscious. Like a memory at the very threshold of one's awareness, but just out of reach. Tantalizing. Maddening.
It had been a week since Tami had ventured into her Denizen's Palace, meeting Hemera in the flesh. The last thing Tami remembered about the meeting was Hemera staring straight into her eyes, resting a hand on her forehead. An image of a Salamander-consort dressed in a fancy suit. And music…
As Tami traveled through her silent land, she found herself walking east. She did not know where she was going, but the music in her head grew clearer and clearer the further east she traveled. Bits and pieces of the strange, elusive melody started coming together. Patterns and motifs started making themselves apparent.
It was not enough for Tami to actually play it, but it was getting close.
Tami had reached her destination on the fifth day of traveling. She had crossed a different part of the pale desert - taking great care to avoid any Dersite mining operations - and navigated her way through another network of canyons and gorges, before finally arriving at the edge of a vast forest of shining omnicrystal trees on the fourth day.
The music was growing to fever pitch as Tami walked through the forest. It was almost as if the energy of the omnicrystal trees was driving it crazy. Maybe it was. Or maybe it was Tami's proximity to the temple located in the center of the omnicrystal forest.
On the fifth day, Tami reached this temple. It was a very simple structure. Small, too - no more than three stories tall. It was cone-shaped, with an altar at the very top. Engraved on the altar was an image of what appeared to be Skaia. Though she was not quite sure how, Tami instinctively knew that she had to play Hemera's melody here. And she had just the instrument to do it - the omnicrystal violin Hemera had given her.
There was only one problem: when Tami came within sight of the conical temple, the music went away. Vanished. Gone. Kaput. No matter how hard Tami concentrated, the music would not come. Time after time, she would sit on the altar with her violin and play the fragments of the melody which she could remember, but it was not helping.
The music would not come.
Tami sat on the altar and played through the night, and then straight through to the next day until Amadeusprite made her sleep. But the moment she woke up on the seventh day after meeting her Denizen, Tami got right back to work, attempting to unravel the melody.
The teenaged girl licked her lips with anticipation as she effortlessly glided through a series of chord progressions. It was the largest piece of the melody that she could remember, but no matter how many times she played it...it was beginning to stagnate. After reaching the last progression, Tami found herself once again stopping short, staring straight into a wall of blank.
"Tami?" Amadeusprite's voice brought Tami fully back to her senses. "Tami, I need to go."
"What?" Tami lowered her violin, placing it on the altar next to her. To be honest, she was grateful for the interruption - her inability to remember the melody was frustrating her to a certain degree that every artist can relate to. She needed a break.
"I need to go," the sprite mouse repeated himself, his body glowing with muted green tones. He was not happy - when he was in a cheerful mood, which was most of the time, Amadeusprite's body shined a brilliant emerald green. Now, he looked a little faded.
"What do you mean you need to go? Why?" Tami realized that she was starting to raise her voice and quickly regained control. She did not want to yell at her sprite. "What's going on?"
"Don't know," Amadeusprite replied glumly. His English had improved so much that the sprite mouse was now even using contractions. "It's the red sprite. He's very angry. Something serious."
"Adam's sprite?" Tami asked. "The one that went all psycho?"
"Yes. He's not crazy, though. Just angry. I need to go."
"Okay…will you be back?" Tami slipped in that last question before her sprite mouse could leave. She would never say it aloud, but she really did not want to be left all by herself in this land where there was rarely any sound. Having a sprite companion around just to talk to had been far more essential to her peace of mind than Tami had initially realized.
Amadeusprite nodded. "Yes. I'll come back."
"Okay, then." Tami got up from the altar and threw her arms around her sprite mouse, drawing him close into a tight embrace. She kissed Amadeusprite once on the snout and whiskers before letting him go. "Don't take too long, alright? I'll miss you."
"Miss you, Tami." Amadeusprite turned away and started to fly, but held back at the last second. He looked at Tami, blinked once, and said, "Try playing something you already know. Might make it easier to play something you don't know."
With that, the sprite flashed neon green and shot up into the sky, leaving the Land of Crystals and Silence far behind.
Tami watched her sprite go, unable to ignore the twinge of sadness in her stomach. She'd grown quite fond of the little guy. His language was getting better, and he had a mind like a playful child's. And he was very affectionate. Tami loved his hugs. She wished she could have more hugs.
After Amadeusprite passed from view, Tami returned to the altar. Before picking up her violin, however, she first stood up perfectly straight and pressed her palms together, holding them both at heart center. She then did a few sun salutations, keeping her breathing consistent and relaxed as she flowed through the different yoga positions.
Tami could feel the energy of this temple. It was a very subtle sort of vibration that almost made her body feel like it was full of static electricity. Humming. This feeling was only intensified after Tami finished her sun salutations, bringing her mind and body to a state of deeper relaxation.
Only then did Tami take up the violin, nestling her chin in the chin-rest, quickly re-tuning the instrument. The omnicrystal violin was truly a work of art - the quality of sound it produced would put even a stradivarius to shame. Each individual note resonated with a power of its own.
Then she began to play.
Taking Amadeusprite's advice, Tami played something very familiar to her. It had been one of her brother's favorites, one of the first pieces of music Tash had ever taught her. It was the second movement of Mozart's Violin Concerto Three - played in adagio, it was not a difficult piece. Slow, calm, patient music. Whenever Tami played this particular piece, she imagined she was lazily drifting through the moonlit waterways of Venice.
As Tami played, she minded her breathing and closed her eyes, losing herself to Mozart. Wherever tension made itself apparent in her body, she would simply take another deep breath and release it. Pretty soon, she felt as if she were floating. When she had first described this feeling to Tash, years ago, her brother had told her that the music was 'making her fly'.
The second movement was roughly eight to ten minutes long, but time lost its hold on Tami when she was in the zone. Before long, she eventually stopped hearing even Mozart behind the notes. The music continued to flow, transitioning from Mozart to something else. The bow moved faster and faster across the strings, speeding up the tempo.
The music seemed to almost take on a life of its own. For Tami's part, her mind had gone quite blank - she was playing, not thinking. It did not occur to her that she was playing something she had never played before. She did not notice all the cyan light that was beginning to shine from her body, nor did she feel the humming vibrations in the temple begin to increase in frequency.
But then, with a feeling like a surge of electricity jolting through her spine, Tami realized that it was indeed Hemera's melody that she was playing. She also realized that the reason her mind had been blank was because she had been unknowingly focusing all her concentration on a single image, the same one given to her by the Denizen. Tami stopped playing, her eyes snapping open.
The first thing Tami noticed was that she actually was floating - about six or so inches above the surface of the altar. A cocoon of strange, cyan light had completely enveloped the entire temple, and from that light Tami could hear things. Snippets of music, fragments of words and sentences, voices, laughter…
Then the cyan light vanished, simply dissolving away into the air. Tami sank back down to the altar, blinking and looking around in confusion. She had very little idea of what had just happened, but...wait…
"What the bloody hell…?" asked the salamander-consort who was now standing in front of the altar.
"What the fuck?" Tami stared uncomprehendingly at the consort. He was clearly male based on his voice, wearing an expensive-looking tuxedo. It was difficult, at first, to reconcile the image of a nearly five-foot-tall salamander-person wearing a tuxedo. "Who the fuck…? Where did you come from?"
"I…" The salamander-consort blinked, looking around to get his bearings. "Last thing I remember, I was… I was...wait a moment…" The consort took a hesitant step forward, as if he were unsure he remembered how to walk. But he succeeded, and took another tentative step. He examined the altar, his breath catching in his throat as he saw the Skaia symbol engraved in the marble. "I was...chosen to… The Disembodiment…"
When the Salamander started swaying, his breathing growing labored, Tami acted fast. She put an arm around the Salamander and gently helped him sit down on the altar. She accessed her sylladex and produced a bottle of Poland Spring water. "Here," Tami said, unscrewing the cap and holding the bottle up to the Salamander's mouth. "Drink this."
The consort took a tiny gulp of water. He must have been thirsty, though, because after that first tiny gulp, the consort proceeded to down the entire bottle in less than five seconds. After catching his breath, the consort blinked several times and looked up at Tami. "Thank you—glub!"
Tami jerked her head back as the Salamander suddenly produced a bubble of saliva from his mouth. The bubble almost instantly burst in Tami's face, spraying her with spittle, causing her to gag.
"Damnation…" the consort swore, fumbling around in an inner pocket of his tuxedo for a moment before producing a large blue handkerchief. He offered it to Tami. "I apologize for that… I have not glubbed on someone since I was a child! Oh, this is quite embarrassing…"
"Hey, don't sweat it." Tami took the handkerchief, wiped off her face and neck. "Um. Okay, so...why don't we start with your name? Who are you?"
"My name is Jurgen von Kessler… I…" The Salamander paused for a moment, calming himself down, before asking the question that had been on his mind since he'd come to his senses. "How long has it been?"
"What do you mean?" Tami asked.
"Since the Disembodiment, how long has it been?"
"The dis...you mean when all you guys winked out of existence?"
"Yes, yes, how long has it been?"
"Um…" Tami swallowed, taking a moment to clear her throat. She'd seen this sort of thing in movies all the time - someone gets unfrozen, they ask how long they were asleep, and then the person who unfroze them has to give them the hard answer. "Well, um…about ten thousand years. Give or take."
A long, slow breath escaped from Jurgen von Kessler's mouth. "Ten thousand years…" he murmured. "Feels like a dream… But if I'm here, now, then that means... Hemera's plan worked…" Suddenly, Jurgen's breath caught in his throat, and he looked at Tami through new eyes. "Gods above, girl...are you the Muse?"
A week ago, Tami might have hesitated to answer. But now she was more sure than she'd ever been before. "Yes," she replied. "I'm the Muse. Welcome home, Jurgen. Would you like an autograph?"
The Courtyard Droll took another sip of his grape juice. The short Dersite savored the flavor - grape juice was one of his utmost favorite drinks. Then he set the juice back down on the rock next to him, placing the little paper umbrella back in the glass.
The Droll stood up, stretching his little arms and his squat legs, taking a few moments to yawn. Before he sat back down and returned to his magazine, the Droll started humming a little tune, walked up to the edge of the rock ledge he had set up camp on, gazed out over the breathtaking view of the jungle below.
It was a vast sea of luminous green - the jungle below was filled with bioluminescent moss, causing it to have a constant, bluish-green glow. The gray mist that covered the entire planet was hanging particularly low in this region of the Land of Fog and Shadow, so the bioluminescence of the jungle was amplified by the thick, heavy, dense moisture. It was quite a sight to see, as the fog was constantly moving with the breeze, causing the jungle light to move in a perpetual cycle of divergence and coalescence.
Still, the Droll wished he could have been sent to a planet with better weather. The jungle light and mist was very beautiful, but the Droll sorely missed being able to look up at the sky and see Skaia. Why could the Black Queen not have sent him to the Land of Lights and Smoke, with all its fragrant subterranean smoke-vents...or the Land of Shores and Prisms, with all its tropical island paradises and rainbows…
It could have been worse, though. The Droll certainly did not envy the Draconian Dignitary, who had been sent to the Land of Rain and Rivers. A planet of endless rain...well, the Droll was glad he did not have to deal with that kind of weather. He would not like being damp all the time. Especially not in the suit he was wearing - it was his favorite suit.
The Courtyard Droll lacked the Hegemonic Brute's trademark brutality, the Dignitary's intelligence, and the Archagent's combat prowess. But one thing the Droll outstripped all others in was patience. He was, by far, the most patient of the infamous quartet of top-ranking Dersite Agents. Even more so than the Dignitary, who was renowned for it. He had been waiting very patiently on this rock ledge for nearly two weeks, using a highly-sophisticated camouflage canopy to avoid detection.
The camouflage was needed because this particular rock ledge was located just below the lower reaches of Whiterock Eyrie - one of the more powerful eyries of the ptero-consorts of this planet. It would not have done wonders for the Droll's lifespan were he to be discovered by the consorts of this land. If the first thing they had done with the Thane was to toss him off a cliff to see if he could fly, the Droll could only imagine what they would do to him.
Speaking of the Thane…
The Courtyard Droll turned his attention over to the TV monitor he had set up underneath the camouflage canopy, switching to Feed Three. The Droll had set up nearly a dozen cameras around Whiterock Eyrie - this had taken him several days to accomplish, and he'd nearly been found out on at least four separate occasions. But he had succeeded.
Feed Three was one of the cameras trained on the home where the Thane was currently living, which belonged to a member of the Hunter's Guild. And right now, it showed the Thane himself, still speaking to his sprite - a spritified man wearing what appeared to be an old-fashioned diving suit.
It was fortunate the Droll had chosen to check the monitor at that moment. As he was about to look away, the Droll saw the Thane pull his sprite into an embrace. It was at that moment that the Droll realized the Thane was saying goodbye to his spirit guide and friend - after embracing the Thane, the blue sprite soared up into the sky and flew away, vanishing into the misty sky. The Courtyard Droll's eyes teared up a little bit at the moment, and he had to grab a tissue to wipe his nose.
But then the Droll remembered his orders. He quickly downed the rest of his grape juice and stowed away the glass. Then he grabbed his walkie-talkie and turned it on, tuning in to the right frequency. "Hello? Jack? You there? Helloooo?"
There was a brief pause. Then static issued through the walkie-talkie, and the gravelly voice of the Archagent responded. "Spades here. Stop using my name over the goddamn radio."
"Oh, er...sorry," the Droll apologized, stumbling over his initial words before trying again. "This is Clubs reporting in. Er… The Thane of Breath's sprite just left, sir. Would you like me to proceed?"
Another pause. Then, "Did you just say his sprite left?"
"Yessir," the Droll replied. "Just like you said might happen."
"Then why are you still on this channel, Clubs? Kill the windy fuck. And report back in when you're finished."
"You got it, Spades."