They entered the portal and descended into Coveya Kurgann'is. It was lit by blue crystalline structures that dotted the stone of the walls. She walked up to them to have a closer look, and could see that the crystals were glassine structures, filled with water. The water was filled with tiny glowing jellyfish, moving in slow circles, their tentacles waving languidly. She could see that each of the "lights" was connected to each of the others, the little creatures free to move from place to place. The hallway itself was moist and smelled like thousands of years of mildew. Adahni was reminded of another submarine ruin, and tried hard to keep the fear from fluttering beneath her breastbone.
"These ruins are Imaskari in design," Safiya observed, more interested in the runes on the walls than the genius jellyfish light that Adahni was so fascinated with,
"Ever the amateur archaeologist," Gann sniped. He had been uncharacteristically quiet during their descent into the sunken city, Adahni imagined that he wasn't terribly comfortable the closer they drew to the place of his birth - and rejection.
They proceeded through the foyer and into what looked like it once had been a dining hall. It was more brightly lit, but there were puddles of water in the corners under chairs and tables that looked like they had not been cleaned or maintained since the days of the Imaskari. They were not alone, it appeared that they had other competitors for an audience with the Coven. Their companions appeared to be a hulking ogre mage, flanked by ogre guards. Standing next to him, thought, was a small human boy. He was pale as a frog's underbelly, as though he had never seen the sun.
"Hello, good newcomer!" the mage intoned, his voice like the noise that stones made being ground together, "You bring money, yes? Gawatha like money." His grammar was poor for such an evidently educated individual. Adahni figured he must be from another plane where the Common tongue was not so common.
"Well, at least he's upfront about the expectation of a bribe," Safiya said, "I can almost respect that."
"I wouldn't bribe him - but perhaps we could buy something from him. Like his ill-treated servant. It might be to everyone's benefit, poor thing," Gann said. Adahni heard the pity in his voice and looked more closely at the boy. He did look to be in bad shape, his elbows and knees bulging from skinny legs and arms, his hair missing in some patches. His skin had a bluish cast to it - Adahni couldn't tell if it was because he was sickly or because of the jellyfish lights. She wondered for a moment if this boy was actually a hagspawn on his way to exile from Coveya Kurg'annis.
"You replace Genasi in line, yes? You want trade Gawatha, like them?" Gawatha asked eagerly. Adahni looked at the ogre's slavering maw, and wondered how long the boy would last before the creature decided he needed a snack.
"What did you trade the Genasi?" Adahni asked, remembering the unfortunate group outside "A chamberpot?"
"Their leader, he thirsty from wait, so I trade him bucket of cheh'lukpoot. Gave him a good deal, too. Such waste!"
"Do I want to know what... cheh'lukpoot is?" Adahni wondered aloud. She had heard of the foul things people without access to proper alcohol would do to make liquor. She had heard tell of a desert people who would ferment cacti in great barrels - and then add a snake or a worm just for taste! Many nights at the Cuckoo's Nest involved the whores ribbing each other with the grossest tale they'd heard from sailors who'd been to exotic lands where such things were common.
The ogre mused, "I not know exactly how to translate it. Like juice of fermented... rodent. Ogrea love it much lots. Such waste, though, Genasi drank some bucket, then spilled most, fell down and go "Ugh, my tummick!" Genasi got weak bowel, like tree leaf. Cheh'lukpoot went down through, straight to butt."
"Oh Gods," Adahni groaned, feeling the bile rise in her throat. Well that would win, she thought, I supposed if I ever wind up selling my bits on the Luskan Docks I'll have story to beat any of the others.
"So, makes trade now?" the ogre asked, grinning, satisfied to see he had had an effect on the newcomer.
"Who's the child?" asked Adahni. The kid didn't look too bright. He had a glazed over look in his eyes and his nose was running. He made no move to wipe it.
"Him Kepob, dumb boy. Gawatha feed him, keep him living. Kepob slave us until we trade him, make profit. Gawatha trade him from archmage, who say he special child, worth much. We bring dumb Kepob to Coven to know how he special, and how Gawatha make profit. But line not moving since long time."
"Kepob has a less than flattering translation... let's say "dog that eats its own excrement" is the most polite translation. I imagine this boy is treated little better than his name." Gann said.
"You like Kepob? I trade him you. If you make it worth to Gawatha. I want 30000 gold."
"You want thirty thousand gold for a shit-eating dog?" Adahni asked, raising an eyebrow, "Surely you jest."
"You know Gawatha. Dumb Kepob so much bother that I may trade him for small profit. I discount you, so you want him for 20000 gold."
She sighed, but the boy did look like he was in bad shape. Whatever maternal instincts she had left were kicking in, and she parted with the money.
"Celebrate good trade! You not regret. Now Gawatha not need keep wait for Coven to tell how Kepob special. Thank for trade and profit. Enjoy you dumb, special boy. Gawatha make gone now." The ogre and his entourage turned and walked out the way they had come in.
Adahni crouched before the child. He didn't even register her presence, his pale blue eyes stared into the distance. She took a corner of her cloak and wiped his nose. He looked at her then, surprised at the contact. He cracked a smile. She saw that he had most of his adult teeth, meaning he must have been ten or twelve, though he was no bigger than a child of half that.
"Someone's done a number on him," she said, "This kid's never had a proper meal in his life. It's a wonder he's standing."
"He's hagspawn," Gann said, "He doesn't look like them, though." He pointed to the brutish-looking guards, "He looks like me. He'd be handsome if he weren't half starved." He stooped and produced a piece of the unleavened bread they could cook over the fire in Safiya's magical tent. He offered it to the boy, who snatched it out of his hand and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing quickly and swallowing so they could see the bulge move down his skinny throat. "Ey - yo kanai?" Gann crooned in what Adahni assumed was his mother tongue. Kepob blinked, and his grey eyes focused on him.
"Yuri," the kid said. His voice hadn't broken yet. Perhaps he was younger than Adahni had thought.
"Much better than Kepob," Gann said, satisfied.
Yuri stuck both arms straight out, like a much younger child, and Gann picked the boy up, not seeming to care that he had begun to drool.
"How precious," Safiya muttered, "Do you suppose it's toilet trained?"
"Stop," Adahni said, rising and touching her arm. "He won't live to grow up. Let him have what comfort he can."
"And when we're attacked again? And Gann has him on his back to slow him down? They'll both fall to enemy blades," the wizard countered.
"He can ride on mine," the bear god sighed heavily, "He will be but a feather to me. It's how our women carry our young, and they are yet fierce in battle." Gann walked over and put the kid down by the bear. Okku stooped and allowed the boy to clamber onto his back. That much he understood, evidently.
"What are we going to do with it - him - when we get out? Orphanages in Mulsantir are bursting at the seams, there's no way a mute, slow, hagspawn, would survive two minutes there," Safiya asked.
"Gods almighty, Safi, what is your problem?" Adahni demanded, "We'll see him out of this dark place and figure it out then? What, would you rather we cut his head off now and save Mulsantir the trouble?"
Safiya said nothing, but glowered silently as they proceeded through more dank, dimly-lit corridors. As they moved deeper and deeper down, she became aware of the sound of the lake water lapping not just at the floor, but the walls and ceiling too. Around and around they went, through corridors, until they found themselves face to face with another hagspawn guard, standing in an open doorway. Through it, Adahni could see multiple hags.
"They're not seeing anyone today," the guard said.
"Guard! I'll deal with them. Open the door and let them pass!" A wiry hag with white hair appeared behind him. She beckoned to them, and they followed. They proceeded to the next chamber, where she turned to face them, flanked by two of her sisters.
"Spirit-eater. The Coven has recoiled from your unnatural presence. You shall not enter here," she commanded.
Gann, who had been walking beside Okku, a hand on Yuri's back to make sure he didn't fall, bristled. "We came all this way, and you deny us entrance? Do you truly speak for the Coven, or for yourself?" Gann howled in outrage.
"Filthy halfbreed!" the hag intoned, her voice filling the chamber, "Speak to me in such a tone again, and there shall be bloodshed."
"Control yourself!" Safiya snarled to Gann through gritted teeth.
"I dare you to act on such words, Coven servant," Gann replied. His voice was soft, but intense, "Let us pass! We have w-"
"Petitioner, does this half-breed speak for you?" the hag asked, turning to Adahni.
"Yes," Adahni said, not liking the tone with which she said, "half-breed." She and Gann locked eyes for a moment, "He does. We did not make this journey out of choice, but necessity. We cannot turn back now."
"Revolting, that you would echo the words of a half-breed," the hag scoffed.
"I am also a half-breed," Adahni said, "Not that it truly matters, but was your own father not a human?"
"Not the time for a speech on racial harmony…" Safiya muttered.
"You're right Safi. My and my companions race aside, I wish to speak with the Coven. I mean them no harm," Adahni said.
"I believe you," the hag said, "However, one rarely controls ones own destiny. And those that carry the spirit-eater curse are particularly at the mercy of fate. Your conquest over the Bear King was the last vision the Coven showed me before they closed. They fear your hunger, and rightly so."
"She could have consumed me, and yet here I am," Okku said, "Did they show you that? The hunger remains at her mercy."
"If the curse grants you the power to make a Bear King bow to you, then you are too much of a threat. Your fate will be the same as others who proved dangerous, or nuisances to the Coven. You are to be exiled to the Skein."
"What of my mother?" Gann blurted out, "I want to know her fate, and why I was cast out!"
"Yes, I remember you now. How ironic that you should ask of your mother. Perhaps you will find the answers to your questions when you meet her. More likely she will silence your questions."
"When I what?" Gann asked, confused, but the hag put up her hand. Adahni felt a strong magic swell from her and then the world swirled around her. Adahni felt herself twisting, up off her feet, and falling back, for the the ground beneath her feet had melted away.
She had the sensation of falling through water, meeting her doom in a cold slow motion, but she could not look to see if her companions were beside her. She hit the ground on her ass with a "thump." She summoned the light of the Aasimar, which glowed blue now - she had never really understood what the colors meant - and showed her that her comrades were about where she had seen them last, picking themselves off the ground.
"It would be too optimistic to think they just sent us back, would it," she said.
"It would," Gann said, "I think we're in bad shape here."
"What does that mean?" Safiya asked, sorting out her robes.
"It's where the hags send things to go away forever and be forgotten. They call it the Skein," Gann said, "A pocket plane of sorts. A labyrinth. There should be a way out, but I've heard tell of prisoners here stuck for centuries, gradually going mad, their brains and bodies rotting as they still live."
"I suppose we should set about looking while we still have our wits about us, then," Adahni said.
She felt a cold and sticky hand take hers. She looked down to see Yuri had grabbed her by the hand, and was pointing excitedly to a tunnel before them, tugging on her arm with more strength than she thought he would have had.
"Huh!" She exclaimed, "Well he might know more than he let on before."
"We're going to follow that… slow child?" Safiya asked skeptically.
"Do you have any better ideas?"
"I suppose not," she said, "And Follow the Idiot was always my favorite game."
"I'm sure your pupils felt the same way," Adahni sniped back.
The two women chuckled, following the boy into the darkness ahead.