Wyld Glass


Somehow the underground ways of Chiaroscuro had fared better than the structures above, whether by planning or luck, few in the age of Sorrows could say. And, while it was away from the sun, there were those that made their homes and lives down there, the Undermarket was just the most organised.

There were dangers beneath the city, however, and many of the ways were only travelled by those strong enough to survive what was down there, or those unfortunate enough to believe they were.

Three sets of rails, made of the same nearly indestructible glass as the rest of the city, ran through the domed subway tunnel. There were places where the shaft showed signs of past collapses, but not so extensive as to block those who would travel along its length.

Meep looked around, watching, wary, but only a little. The tunnel they were in was safe enough, close to the inhabited areas of the underground, valuable enough for someone to pay armed guards to patrol it every few days.

They passed other people down there, gave everyone a respectful enough distance. At one point they walked through an old station.

Up on the platform a small village had been built, under the still working lights, and there was a subway train there, next to the platform. Through grate covered windows in the subway cars, Meep caught sight of elegant furniture and well-dressed people.

Likely the leaders of the small settlement.

Men with spears stood on the platform, watching as they passed, but made no move to impede them.

Farther down the tunnel other things worked and lived. They passed a group of hobgoblins, painting upon the walls of the tube in the flickering light of torches and oil lamps and bobbing fey lights. The scaly hobs watched Meep and Mina pass but made no move to attack or interact.

Meep guessed the Fair Folk Nobel they served wished to keep good relations with the city, or at least this part of it.

"I think it is up there," Mina said, several minutes after they had left the painters behind.

Meep nodded, and reached out, taking Mina's hand for a moment, giving and receiving a reassuring squeeze.

Ahead they saw the dark mouth of an alcove or short corridor. Meep and Mina had passed many of them, most service entrances of some kind, but those had not been the one they were seeking.

"Turn around," Mina told Meep, and when she did so, Mina opened the small pack Meep wore, removing something before closing the pack up again.

Stepping forward she broke the seal on a glass flask, shaking it until the thaumaturgical contents glowed and illuminated the area around them, brighter than faded lights of the tunnel, but not too bright.

With that light, she looked at the old realm writing that marked the opening. "This is it," she said, freeing her serpent-sting staff, so it was ready. She held the light away from her body, looking into the shadows beyond, ready to shift back into the cover if necessary. "Empty," she said a moment later.

Meep moved forward, slipping off the pack and removing the poncho she wore. Underneath her black suit covered her like a bathing suit but was already creeping along bare flesh to fully clothe her, head to toes.

She kicked off her shoes as the suit flowed down her ankles. She looked into the corridor. Empty as Mina had said, but for a few pieces of detritus and a faint, old smell of stale urine. She knelt and grabbed up the pack, scooping shirt and shoes into it before sliding it back on.

The door at the end of the passage was locked. Meep looked the mechanism over, and with a small probe that her suit extruded she examined and then removed the broken end of an old lockpick from the lock. "Others have tried to get in here," Meep said, looking at the pick. Small bits of corrosion marked the material. "Been a while since anyone made an attempt."

Mina stood behind her but was facing the other way. She did not ask if Meep could open it, which Meep appreciated. Her sarcastic responses to such questions only got Meep in trouble later.

The material of her suit extruded all the tools she needed, and she worked the complicated lock, tickling the tumblers into place and triggering the tiny essence receptors that would have foiled less skilled thieves. With a torsion bar, she turned the mechanism, and then with her other hand grasped the door lever and pulled.

Three deadbolts slid smoothly back into their reinforced housings, and Meep pulled the door open just a little, but braced herself against it, in case anything tried to come out. "It's open."

Mina, who had been watching the way they had come, turned and reached out to grasp the handle. "Get behind me," she said.

Meep moved, slipping around Mina, taking up a position to watch Mina's back. She took a few steps forward so Mina would have the room she would need if there were a fight.

However, nothing waited beyond the door, save stairs leading down.

The door locked behind them with three clicks of the deadbolts engaging. They descended; Mina leading, Meep a few steps behind holding their light source.

There were twenty steps to a landing, and to their left another set of stairs. Twenty stairs and another landing, and another set of stairs to their left. Four such staircases and they had transcribed a square and were eighty steps lower than where they had begun. There were five more such flights before they finally reached the bottom.

The stairway had been empty, except for a few pieces of ancient garbage, and at one point an old, broken leg bone.

The doorway at the bottom of the well was not locked, in fact, was not completely closed, for a bit of twisted metal was between the door and the jam. Mina stopped and looked towards Meep. Meep slid around her and crouched by the door. From her hand, a tendril of black oozed from her suit, between the jam and the door. A portion of the suit flowed across her face and over her left eye, covering it like a patch.

Meep was able to see what was beyond the door, an image transferred from one part of the suit to another. There was a large, dimly-lit, space beyond, filled with conduits and various construction materials that must have once been used to repair and build the city's underpinnings.

It was no doubt worth a fortune, were there anyone who could find a way to move it.

She also saw movement. Something big, dashing between the cover offered by construction materials, moving closer to the door.

Meep drew back from the door, the black of her suit oozing away from her eye, the vision tendril absorbed back into the whole.

With a series of simple hand gestures, she indicated what she had seen to Mina. Mina nodded and readied her serpent-sting staff. Meep, knowing the decision made, only had to think it and her golden spiders crept down her arms and fastened themselves around her wrists with their rear legs, the forelegs stretching out to form razor sharp blades.

Mina stood by the door, listening Meep supposed, standing still, looking like a snake ready to strike. Then with a movement so fast Meep almost missed it she kicked the door open. It swung out and slammed into something that cried in pain. Then Mina flowed out the door, like water downhill, weapon lashing out.

Meep heard the sound of metal hitting flesh, another cry of pain.

Following Mina, she got a good look at their hunter. It was large, as she had noted before, nearly the size of a draft horse, and it had a feline body structure, long and limber; pointed muzzle, teeth jutting out from it like a snaggle-toothed saw. It lashed out with that muzzle, trying to cut at Mina. There was no hair on its body, skin the colour of old meat, covered in a tracery of scales.

A paw, tipped with claws the size of daggers lashed out at Mina, but she turned it with one of her staff's sections, then kicked the paw, in the place where small bones joined longer ones. It howled.

Meep ducked in close, careful to avoid the rear paws, slashing it deep across the upper legs, slicing deep into the muscle, spinning aside to avoid a lashing tail tipped in bone spikes.

Some kind of Wyld mutant she thought, darting in again, cutting deep, hamstringing the rear, left leg. Or maybe it was a constructed guard beast. As she ducked and rolled away, she was sure it was no natural beast that lived in Creation.

At its front Mina looped her staff around its already damaged front leg, then jumped up, rolling across its shoulders, yanking hard, pulling the leg up against its body, taking away its stable stance, and, a moment later, pulling it over.

The thing went with it, rolling over, trying to crush Mina with its weight. Meep jumped away from a kicking rear leg, feeling the air rush by her face from the claws.

Mina turned, feet shifting, maintaining a stable stance as she used the beast's own motions to wrap her staff around its neck.

It tried to fight, but one leg was already trapped, and both rear legs had been damaged, stealing its strength. It attempted to whip its tail about at Mina but came up a little too short. As breath was lost to it, the struggles became weaker and weaker until it finally went still.

With a twist of her staff, Mina snapped its neck.

They both stood there for a time, catching their breath, looking around, waiting to see if anything else would appear; if the noise of the creature's death would bring others, but it was quiet.

"Solitary hunter maybe," Mina said. "Or guard beast."

"If a hunter nothing's going to come into its range you think?"

Mina nodded and freed her staff from around the beast. "Not likely. If this can hold a range, we might not face anything too strong. Guard beast, might be others, or only this one."

Meep nodded as her spiders scuttled back up her arms into hiding.

Mina looked off into the shadowy distance and started forward.

Meep followed after, keeping an eye on their back trail.


The underground was no forest Mina thought. No small creatures to feed larger ones, not even plants. She was confident that that thing they had killed was a guard beast. While it was possible there might be more, she thought they would have already been attacked if they were numerous and close.

She was wary, watchful, but moved quickly through the tunnels, taking note of her surroundings; the equipment and materials. It meant little to her; she knew it was valuable but knew it would take a lot of manpower to move any of it.

Sometimes they would pause, and consult one of the crystal books, looking at the maps on it, then continue on. In such a manner did they thread a path through the underground passages.

They were closing on what the map showed as a vast, open area. Mina felt a faint breeze blowing towards them, carrying a scent of, to her surprise, water.
"Douse the light Meep," she said softly.

"Got ya," Meep said. Mina heard her working with the thaumaturgical device, and a moment later it went dark, leaving only the faint illumination of ancient light strips that ran along the ceiling.

The two of them stood there, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the new gloom, then Mina started forward again. Open space and water might mean some sort of ecosystem, which could mean large predators, including people. No need to walk in there with a light pinpointing their location.

Stepping from the corridor into the space beyond Mina did not see any signs of an ecosystem, just a huge room, better lit than the tunnels that preceded it, but still, most of it was lost in shadows.

Ahead of them was a body of water, still and black in the dim light, stretching into the shadows. They stood at the base of a small jetty, a gondola floating at the end of the walkway.

Meep took a step forward, but Mina put a hand out to stop her. "No," she said softly.

Meep halted, waiting.

Something moved in the gondola, shifting, standing, a person, possibly a woman Mina thought. The woman stepped from the gondola to the walkway. "Hellooo my dears, I believe you have something I want. If you would just give me what you took from the transit office, I will let you be on your way."

"Del Pret," Mina said.

"I knew she was following us." Meep took a few steps away from Mina's side.

"I must apologise for my actions, but I am certain I am more suited for continuing on, though I must congratulate you for making it this far."

Mina watched the woman as she got closer. Not enough light to be certain, but the skin looked more greyish green and was covered in strange devices, many of them looked as if they were part of the woman: pressed against her limbs, wrapped in fake skin, it might give the illusion of plumpness.

"What are you?" Mina asked, shifting her right foot back, taking her weight off the left, ready to move.

"Don't worry your little heads about that, just give me what I want, and I won't hurt you."

"No," Mina said.

"Well, I did offer."

Del's movement was fast, snapping from her hip, hurling a chakram that 'whirred' as it streaked towards Mina.

It probably would have hit her in the arm, Mina thought, snapping her hand out, deflecting it. Razor like blades spun around the circumference of the disk, like some kind of saw, but a the moment of contact Mina's skin was hardened by essence, and she was unharmed.

The chakram arched back into Del's waiting hand. "I suppose I should have supposed that you were more than talented mortals," she said. "I am sorry, it looks as if I will have to hurt you."

She came fast, another chakram in her left hand. Using them like knives she swept them out in long, spinning attacks, forcing Mina back. They moved so fast the air whistled in their wake.

Falling back, as if retreating towards the corridor behind her, Mina waited for her opening. When Del was overextended for just a moment, Mina shifted, like a snake, feet sliding over the ground as she sidestepped the next attack and lashed out with the end of her serpent-sting staff.

Del managed to bring one of her chakrams up to catch the attack, but the force of it knocked her back a step. A piston in her shoulder drove her arm forward, this time putting Mina off balance for a moment.

Coming forward Del snapped her hands out, the chakram's saw blade teeth spinning around the circumference, promising terrible wounds if they were to contact.

Golden essence flared around Mina's weapon as she caught both chakrams along one stave length, stopping them cold. Dropping one end of the staff, letting it snake around Del's lower right leg, Mina pulled on the weapon, yanking the woman's leg out from under her. As Del fell, Mina swung her leg up and brought her heel down, with not an insignificant amount of force, on Del's chest.

She was pretty sure she heard something crack, but it was not the familiar snap of bone.

So much for keeping her essence use down, Mina thought.

"Now I am cross," Del said, kicking onto her feet. Then she stopped. What she said next surprised Mina. "I surrender."

Mina, ready for an attack, did not lower her defence.

"I surrender," Del said again, letting her weapons drop to the ground.

"That's a good call," Meep said, appearing behind Del as if from nowhere, the blade of one of her black widow razor's pressed against the greenish flesh of the woman's neck.

"Oh," Del said. "I forgot about you. I surrender to you too."

"What the hell are you playing at?" Mina demanded.

"You are a Solar," Del said.

"What?"

"You're glittering Mina."

"Oh."

"I cannot hope to defeat a Solar, especially one of the Dawn Caste. Surrender is the best option. Please do not kill me."

"Who are you?" Mina asked.

"What're you?" Meep did not release her hold on the woman.

Del was careful in her movements, heedful of the razor at her throat. "I am The Delightful and Precise Mechanism of Truth, Del Pret is short for that."

"Very short," Meep said.

"Like you I am Exalted, but I am an Alchemical Exalt from Autochthon." She paused. "Alchemical Exalts serve the needs of the Great Maker."

"Where is Autochthon?"

"It is not a land of Creation. To keep things short, though some precision is sure to suffer, my country needs help. We have come to Creation seeking answers. I believe that the Solars may be our true hope. The Solars of old are gone, but many wonders they constructed remain, to a lesser or greater extent. I am in this city to learn what the Solars of old were capable of so that I might understand what you will become capable of."

Mina said nothing as she considered what the woman said, trying to make some sense of it.

"So why are you after us?" Meep remained close to the woman, weapon still at her throat.

"I thought you were simply talented scavengers who had come upon the trail of something that would be of interest to me. I wanted to see it. I had no idea you were Solars. You have hidden it very, very well." Her tone almost making it sound like a reprimand.

"What do we do with her?" Mina asked Meep.

"Take me with you," Del said. "Please. I wish to see what you seek."

"That's crazy."

"I am inclined to agree."

"I have no interest in these artefacts other than to see them. I make no claim. I just want to see what it is, please."

"And if we say no?"

Del looked thoughtful. "My dears, I cannot beat you, but that is not to say I cannot hurt you before you destroy me. It will inconvenience you, certainly. And, as I have noted, you have been very good at concealing your natures. Were you to fight me, I think you might, well, blaze forth?"

Mina looked the strange woman over. She shifted her gaze to Meep. "What do you think?"

"She's not lying."

"I am not, no. However, to be fair, I am not certain that you could tell if I was."

"She's not lying," Meep repeated.

"I suppose Solars might indeed know if I was lying. Still, it would take some testing to be certain."

"Shut up," Meep said, and to Mina, "I think I can cut her throat before she does anything."

Mina shook her head. "She can come with us. I am curious, and she knows how to fight."

Meep stepped away from Del. "Always one for the quick decisions Mistress." In spite of her words, she was smiling.

"Pick up your weapons. Do not make me regret this."

Del knelt and grasped her chakram, then, as she stood, secured them to her belt. "You won't, I can promise you that."

Mina looked about. "How familiar are you with this area?" She returned her attention to Del.

"This side of the water, I know reasonably well. Beyond that," she looked across the water, "I have not yet gone."

Mina walked to the gondola, looked down at it, put her foot on it and gave it a push. It seemed solid enough. Del had followed her, Meep behind her.

"No oars or pole," Meep said.

"It is automatic," Del said, moving forward, kneeling down. "You see the switch."

"Does it work?" Mina asked her.

"I have not yet tried it. I think it would. It was well built."

Mina helped Meep into the gondola (not that she needed it, but it gave her an excuse to touch the other woman). Del paused as if waiting for similar treatment but only for a moment. She climbed in. Mina stepped in, took a seat near the bow. "Well, let us see if this works."

The knife blade switch moved smoothly, clicking into place. The gondola started forward, moving slowly at first as if to avoid upsetting the occupants. It sped up a little, soon travelling at the speed of a fast walk.

"What'd you think all this water is for?" Meep asked.

"Emergency christen perhaps, in case of drought."

"Oh, I don't think so," Del said from the stern. "Likely it is a storage pool for cooling water. When this place was active it would have generated a lot of heat, you see."

Mina looked towards the strange Exalt, taking note of her excited tone.

As with most of her choices, Mina had not allowed Del to come with them without a great deal of thought; as quick as her decision might have appeared. It was useful to have an unknown close, where Mina could watch her. Even if she and Meep had managed to chase Del off without killing her, or getting themselves hurt, they would have had to worry about her being behind them.
It would also give Mina a chance to see what an Alchemical Exalt was capable of. Del's explanation suggested there might be more, and therefore they represented a possible threat to Creation.

And while Mina believed that Del was telling the truth, she was certain that it was not the complete truth. She was looking to see what the Solars of the First Age were capable of, but if she found something that could be of use to her land, this Autochthon, then she would fight to claim it.

So Mina would be wary and knew without saying anything that Meep would follow her lead.

"Might I ask you something?"

Mina looked towards Del. "What?"

"Well, as I said, the Exalts of Autochthon are created, but I understand with other Exalts you are chosen," she paused, "except for the Terrestrials, which is carried in the blood. I was wondering if you could tell me how you were chosen?"
Mina's hand on the side of the gondola tightened, knuckles going white.

"I was chosen for stealing panties," Meep piped up.

Mina relaxed slightly as Meep defended her, as she often did, and she smiled fondly at the other woman.

"Panties?" Del said. "Female undergarments?"

"Yes," Meep said happily.

Mina gently cuffed Meep across the back of her head. "You were not chosen for stealing panties. You were chosen for sneaking into the Imperial City and breaking into the Scarlett Empress' bedchambers."

"Which I did to steal her panties," Meep said. "I am sure the Unconquered Sun appreciated that. They were so wonderful, the pair I chose, red silk, a touch of lace, a bit of cotton, a hint of her scent on them." She shook her head. "I lost them in my escape. Exalting in the middle of the Imperial City is not for the faint of heart."

"You know," Mina leaned in, putting her hand on the back of Meep's neck, caressing it, letting her hand trace out where the collar would be, "I am not sure I like the way you talk of that woman's undergarments."

Meep had the grace to look a little embarrassed.

"I see," Del said, unaware, or at least seeming unaware, of the lovers' tiff taking place in front of her. "So you are chosen for accomplishing something great. Already heroes, given great powers, little wonder you accomplish great things." She nodded. "Probability is on our side of course, but we can never be certain." It sounded as if she was talking to herself.

Mina was considering asking her what she meant, and took her hand from Meep's neck, but stopped, lifting her head. "Something is coming this way," she said.

The three of them shifted in the gondola, the relaxed, mostly, postures changing, ready.

What came from the darkness ahead of them was another gondola, empty, moving towards them.

"One on each side," Del said, "exchanging places."

"That's stupid." Meep shook her head. "Take forever to move people around."

"That might be the point," Mina told her. "It is a good defence."

The other gondola passed them, continued the way they had come, vanished in the darkness.

"We are halfway across, more," Mina said.

"This place is huge." Meep stood and looked around. "I wonder how deep it is?"

"Deep," Del said. "The bottom is at least as far from us as the ceiling."

"Think anything lives in it?"

"Doubtful, it's cold and devoid of simple life."

Meep stood looking down into the black water, and then back at Mina, smiling.

Mina reached up, grasped the pack Meep wore and drew her back down, so she was sitting at her feet. "No," she told Meep.

"Later?"

"Maybe."

Del watched the two, then looked over the side of the gondola. "I suppose there could be something stored in the depths. Cold and dark," she said thoughtfully, "not a bad way to preserve and protect things."

"Do not encourage her," Mina said.

They rode in silence, Del lowered her hand into the water, a thoughtful look on her face.

Eventually, out of the darkness ahead, the quay appeared, the gondola slowed, and then stopped, well positioned for ease of egress.

Three dark alcoves were in front of them, leading from the room.

"The one on the right," Meep said.

"I'll take point," Mina told her, starting forward.

"After you," Mina heard Meep say to Del.

The corridors beyond the vast reservoir were to Mina's gaze, a little wilder. She heard and saw small animals, rodents. The lowest level of a food chain she thought. Or maybe the highest level. She was a little more attentive, knowing there could be dangerous creatures down there.

Sometimes they stopped to consult the maps, or for Meep to open doors. Once they came upon a large room that looked as if once people had lived there. A long time ago, Mina thought, a sheet of canvas-like material crumbling away at her touch.

Mina noticed the air growing warmer before she saw the light growing brighter. Then she caught the scent of growing things.

She looked back, more to Meep to make sure she was aware, but she saw that Del had noted the changes as well.

The corridors grew wider, and then light brighter. Mina stopped, in front of her, along the edges of the passage, was what looked like grass.

Del stepped forward, curious, kneeling down to look at it. "It is a crystalline structure," she said after a moment, "flexible but sharp. I suspect we are approaching an uncapped demense."

"Wyld freaks," Meep said.

Mina stepped by Del. "It is where we have to go."

There had been several underground manses that had provided the essence energy that had powered Chiaroscuro, few had survived. The destroyed manses left behind uncapped demenses, flooding the areas around them with raw essence, changing them.

There had been a manse there once, Mina thought, stepping through crystal grass that cut at her slippers, into an open space, now there was a forest.

Trees grew there, black trunks with crowns of pink, like cherry trees in spring bloom. The trees provided the light, each glowing brightly. The ground was covered with the grass that would reduce the feet of mortals to bloody shreds.

Mina did not know if her slippers would survive.

"It's pretty," Meep said, looking around. "Probably everything here wants to kill us."

"I think most of it does not want anything," Mina said.

"It could very well still kill us, well, not us of course. Mortals." Del had stepped forward to look around.

"Which direction?"

Meep looked about and then pointed off towards where the trees grew thicker. "That way."

Mina took point again, watching the strange forest for threats.

Dark fruits hung from the branches of the trees, and black flowers grew in patches, here and there. Little spotted small animals, squirrel-like tree rodents, small, bright red birds that seemed to make nests inside of some of the dark fruit, but nothing that appeared particularly threatening.

It was Meep who spotted the first of the fairies; foot tall, naked women with short, spiky black hair and near translucent wings that whirred as they flew. A few of the small things drifted close at first, giving Mina a good look at them. Perfectly formed, tiny women, identical for the most part.

They debated if they might be dangerous until a few of them buzzed close by. Mina felt something like a feather being run over her skin and looked down to see a cut in her dress, above her breast. Razor sharp wings had slashed the material but had not been able to cut her skin.

"Annoying."

Meep closely watched as one zipped by her. It was hard to tell if the wings cut her clothing, as any slice would close up as soon as it was made. "Think they are intelligent?"

"That would be difficult to judge," Del said. "We would require tests to decide that."

"Why?" Mina asked in response to Meep's question. Several fairies zipped by her, slicing her dress up some more. One came at her, tiny face twisting as its mouth opened to reveal huge (relatively) teeth. It tried to sink them into the bare skin between her skirt and stocking tops, but the teeth could not break the skin. She slapped it away.

"I want to see if they get the point." Meep turned, lashing out at one of the tiny fairies, one of her spiders on her wrist. The fairy darted away, but a scratch ran across its abdomen.

It looked cross.

Then its blood caught on fire, and it screamed, flaming all the way to the ground.

The other fairies sped away.

"Intelligent," Meep said.

"Oh, you can not base intelligence on that," Del said, sounding cross. "It might have been a scent it gave off when wounded."

"No matter, they are gone, for the moment." Mina fingered one of the rips in her cheongsam. "Bad for my clothing. Worse than moths."

"I'd like one in a little cage," Meep said.

"I think they would perish if you took them from this place," Dell told her.

"That's too bad. They remind of the dolls I always wanted when I was a little girl."

"I will make it a point to buy you some dolls," Mina told her, smiling, then continued further into the forest.

Some more of the fairies passed close by, but none of them coming closer than the reach of any of the women. Mina supposed they were watching; Scouts perhaps.

A loud screech sounded from ahead of them. There were words in it, but nothing that Mina recognised.

"I think that is Old Realm," Meep said.

"It is, it is," Del said. "Telling us to run so that it can savour our fear."

"I think we will show the screamer who should be afraid," Mina said, her serpent-sting staff ready.

Not long after they heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming towards them.

The three women spread out, Mina making sure to keep Del in sight. If the woman was going to work against them, an attack would be an excellent time to do so.

The screamer came into sight, a woman, probably twelve feet tall, a match in appearance for the fairies; though her black hair was long, trailing on the ground, she lacked wings, and her build was much more muscular.

Another scream of words that Mina did not understand. A cloud of fairies came in behind the giant.

Mina moved forward to meet her, swinging her staff around, speeding the tip of it so fast that it made a cracking sound just before it slammed into the giant's shoulder. It rocked her slightly, and broke the skin, but did not stop her, or break bones.

Her hair snaked out, moving on its own, strands of it wrapping around Mina's leg.

She had not expected prehensile hair.
It snapped her up into the air, spun her, and hurled her. She hit the ground, hard enough that the crystal grass was able to cut her skin, leaving thin lacerations all across her left side and shredding her dress which fell away from her.

Mina kicked up to her feet, a moment's concentration to close the bleeding wounds and then she was moving back towards the battle. Meep was moving in, using the trees to avoid the giant's attack and to climb above her. Del hurled both her chakram, the disks cutting deep wounds into the giant, arching around through the cloud of fairies, killing many, and then spinning back, cutting the giant again before returning to Del's hands.

The wounds did not slow the giant at all. It charged at Del.

Mina came in fast, her staff whipping out to catch the giant's ankle. She braced herself and pulled, tripping up the giant.

The giant, however, managed to kick the tangling staff from her leg and rolled to its feet. Its hair flared around its head and then speared towards Mina. Ready for it, Mina batted it aside, catching it around one of her weapon's staves and then giving it a hard pull, tearing out a lank of the silky, black hair. The giant screeched.

Meep dropped down from a tree branch, cutting two deep crescents in its back. Flames blossomed from the wounds, like wings of fire, as the giant's blood took flame. It screamed, twisting about to try to strike Meep, but Meep was like a shadow and avoided the attack with contemptuous ease.

Del was not quite so lucky, being close by, the giant managed to catch her around the neck in one of its hands. It shook the Alchemical Exalt like a terrier with a rat, and Mina fully expected to hear the snap of bone. She snapped her staff out, to wrap around the giant's arm, and pulled.

Proving more robust than Mina had feared, Del lifted one of her chakrams and slashed it down across the giant's wrist. While not taking the hand off, it did loosen the grip, which, with Mina's attack, allowed Del to drop free.

Hair lashed out from the giant, like whips of steel wire. A few strands slipped through Mina's guard, leaving shallow but telling cuts across her skin. More hit Del, driving the Alchemical back as she parried the hair with her chakram. Meep escaped unscathed, simply never where the hair sought.

It would be a bad idea to make this into a battle of attrition, Mina could see that. The giant was enduring and deadly. Best to end it fast.

Her staff snapped out behind her, trembling like a rattler's tail, and she swayed gracefully, the strands of hair passing her with little or no harm. Her skin took on a slight scaled look as the essence of the snake strengthened it. Golden light flared around her for a moment, like the hood of a cobra.

When she moved it was sudden, uncoiling, serpent-sting staff extending, wrapping around the giant as Mina followed it. She drove a foot into the back of the giant's knee. It stumbled. Grasping handfuls of black hair, ignoring the fine lacerations they left in her hands, she climbed the giant, the coils of her staff undulating up the body, like a constrictor snake seeking its hold.

Then, with her feet planted firmly in the small of the giant's back, and her staff wrapped around the giant's torso, trapping arms, she pulled. The staves, like the teeth of a snake, bit through the giant's flesh, its blood pouring down its body. The staff was crushing the life from the giant woman, even as it cut her deeply.

The fairies swarmed around Mina, slicing at her with their wings, trying to bite her. It was a vast cloud, and some of the attacks managed to break the skin, but she held on, pulling harder on her staff, holding tight as the giant threw itself back in an attempt to crush her.

Mina did not loosen her hold but shifted around to avoid having the giant's weight come down on her.

Meep was there suddenly, her black widow razors slashing the giant across its eyes, flames erupting as the spiders pumped their poison into the wounds. And Del, her chakram screaming as she drew them across the giant's throat.

Mina could feel the strength flowing from the body she held encased within the coil of her weapons, but she refused to loosen her hold, pulling even tighter to crush the ribs and grind them into lung.

The fairies were screeching, their attacks reaching a fever pitch, then, as Mina felt the great body die, the small forms fell from the air, hit the ground with soft 'thuds'.

Del moved in close and finished cutting the head from the giant, which Mina approved of; better to safe after all.

She rolled away from the body, then grabbed an end of her staff and pulled it free. Her clothing hung in tatters around her, and she was covered in blood from wounds that no longer bled.

"What a mess," she said.

"Here you go Mistress," Meep said, smiling. From her pack, she had taken out a silk shift, a bottle of water and a small towel.

"Thank you Meep," Mina said, taking the water and towel to clean most of the blood from herself.

Meep knelt down and picked up one of the fairies. "Don't think they are dead."

"As long as they aren't up for a while. I don't need to have more clothing shredded."

Meep put the fairy down and returned to Mina's side, taking the water and bloodstained towel from her as Mina pulled the shift on. The thin material offered little protection but being naked made her feel vulnerable.

"Over here," Del called. She had wandered off to look about.

Mina and Meep went to where the woman stood, indicating a path through the woods. "It goes in the direction we want."

"Could lead to a village of those things," Meep said, looking back as the giant.

"I do not think so," Mina told her. "The trail does not look like that many things have used it."

Mina walked point, as before, her caste mark shone on her forehead. She hoped the fight had not undone all the weeks of being careful to mask their true natures. The uncapped demense might be outside of the purview of fate just enough that their actions would go unheeded. She could hope.

After a time they came into a large clearing, that was very likely in the middle of the demense. In the centre of the clearing grew a huge tree, the glow from its pink canopy almost painful to look on. A simple shelter, sized for the dead giant had been built under the canopy, and there were other sights of habitation there. Several fairies flitted about the clearing, but they did not seem to be interested in the three women.

Curious, Mina crossed the clearing, looking at the shelter. Well made, a hammock was trussed up in the roof. No sight of fire pit or latrine. The thing had probably lived off the essence in the area, not needing to eat.

"We're not the first time come here," Meep said. She was standing near the huge tree.

Mina and Del went to where she stood. The tree sat within a bowl, amongst its visible roots were bones, mostly human, a vast number of them. There was the rusting steel of armour and weapons, as well as more lasting ones made of Chiaroscuro glass or jade alloys.

"Bad tree," Meep said.

Del slipped down into the bowl, grasping the hilt of a jade reaver daiklaive that she then pulled from the roots. "Quite the trove here," she said.

Mina nodded. "Maybe on the way back we'll loot it. Too much to carry. We'll spit it three ways."

Del looked the jade weapon over before putting it down on the crystal grass.

"Mistress," she said. "That's what Meep calls you."

Mina looked towards her. "What of it?"

"Doesn't that mean that Meep's share is ultimately yours?"

Mina frowned. "Do you really want to get into this now?" she demanded, some anger in her tone.

"What?" Del asked, seeming surprised. "No," she said a moment later, "I was not arguing the proposed split. It was said in simple admiration. Having another Exalted serve you is quite useful."

Mina was a little surprised by that. "It is not like that," she protested. "Meep is not my slave."

Meep was smiling, apparently amused.

"And Meep and I split things equally."

Del nodded, smiling slightly as if to say, 'sure you do.'

Mina shook her head. "We have spent too much time here. It is time to go."