Then he felt the stinging pain in his back. The fat grath woman was driving what felt like a needle into his back. The pain continued across his flesh with the beast only pausing to wipe away blood from his skin. It was with dawning concern that he realized that she was subjecting him to some form of tattoo. He was being marked like some low born docks dweller in Harlock.
Determined to show the little monsters no fear or pain he endured as they seemed to be marking his entire back.
He started out of his focused attempt to ignore the tattoo as the flaps to the central tent flew open and a figure was thrown out onto the open ground. He was surprised to find that it was the Angelus who had been tossed from the tent and that it had been her little shadow who had done the honors. She tumbled to the ground amidst the surrounding grath. The Bird masked grath advanced out of the tent and hissed a chittering angered order.
The other grath who had dragged him to the camp with his damned vines raised a hand and summoned them to bind the Angelus. Her shadow hauled her up to her feet and growled something that sounded threatening.
Maria stumbled forward as she was pushed and struggled against the bindings, “I suppose trusting anyone in this damned world is a mistake.”
The glares of the grath around the area were hollow and filled with malice and fear. They led the Angelus to a small girl who held the same bowl they had used to remove his channeling runes and forced her to remove her own. With that done the shadow and another grath savage hauled the captured traitor up the wooden platform ringing the inside of the gigantic hollowed tree.
It took the monstrous little grath two more hours to finish what felt like a massive marking on his back. When she finished the little beast slapped his tender skin, causing him to recoil, and chittered what sounded like a laugh.
With that his guards hauled him up and dragged him back toward the curling platform and back up toward his cell.
He found the cell next to his now occupied. They had stripped Maria of most of her things and she now lay in a fetal position in the center of the cage.
Oser commented with cold mirth, “So now everyone knows you are a traitor. Shame you could not trick your new little heathen friends.”
Maria gave him a look from her place on the floor of the cell and sat up with a groan, “I am assuming that attempting to break through these bars has immediate magic consequences?”
He said, “Why don’t you try and find out,” as they tossed him into his cell and slammed the flimsy door closed.
“Eh, for the time being I will take the fact that you are not throwing yourself against them like a rabid dog means I shouldn’t either.”
She groaned and ran her hands through her hair. Fewer of the bright bugs were drifting around here at the apex of the hollow. There were several aged grath warriors on watch. Two of them were playing some kind of game that involved leaves and berries. The third was knelt near the cages eating some kind of fruit and watching them with interest.
Maria’s shoulders slumped and she gave him a smirking look as she whispered, “So, how have the last couple of days treated you?”
He sneered at her and made a gesture she assumed was rude, “Joke all you want traitor. You are in the same situation now.”
Maria shrugged and stretched her arms, “Looks like I have plenty of room though.”
He glanced at the guards and closed his eyes, seeking the solace of prayers, “I will not rise to your goading. The Dominus will see you punished, and I will be there to see it.”
Maria peered through the bars at him and said, “While I was getting chased around by fucking goop monsters in the rain and dark where the hell were you?”
Keeping his eyes closed he hissed, “That’s what you are asking about right now!?”
She gestured at the bars surrounding them and gave him a heavy lidded glare, “Where the hell do you need to be Oser? Something pressing keeping you from opening up?”
He harumphed and said, “The Mysta wanted me to investigate something in the forest, something it would be better that the Legion not be privy to.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, thoughts drifting back to the strange Vyre ruin she asked, “Didn’t find it I suppose?”
His lip curled as he turned to his head in her direction, “I got lost.”
She gave him a forced smile and muttered, “That is a shame.”
After a beat she stood, careful to avoid the top of the low cage, and said, “Well, time to start figuring this out. I am not getting Wicker Man’d by these villagers.”
Still snotty but now intrigued he commented, “What is Wicker Man’d?”
She waved a dismissive hand and looked around at the bars, “Burned alive in a giant wooden effigy while someone puts a helmet full of bees on your head.”
“Angelus you clearly come from a world of madness, and seemingly full of traitors.”
She shrugged, “You are not wrong Oser. You are not wrong.”
Maria gave up searching the confines of the strange small cage after an hour of meticulous investigation. Oser spoke very little and most of his remaining commentary was either insulting or snide in some way.
As the daylight was fading a familiar figure ascended the ramp and moved to the Angelus’ cage. It paused to speak with one of the guards. There was a brief exchange before the guard ambled away with a grumpy expression. The Angelus’ shadow had returned. She knelt down at the edge of her cage and said something in her beast language. Oser didn’t believe it was possible but the little beast looked remorseful.
Maria finally looked up into the grath’s eyes and said, “I understand that I put my life on the line and you betrayed me… I mean your people betrayed me.” She looked away to Oser and nodded to him, “Now all I have to look forward to is whatever his asshole god has in store for me.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Oser grinned with obvious malice and the little beast chittered again, this time in a whisper. Maria narrowed her eyes at her. Oser could swear he saw something being passed into the cage between the two in the growing darkness.
The little beast then rose and walked away heading down the ramp as their guard returned carrying a small bowl of fruit. Oser shifted toward the side of his cage only to recoil when a thorn thrust toward him. He whispered to her, “What was that?”
She sneered at him without looking, “Nothing.”
His tone took on a vein of acid as he said, “It would be a shame if our guards knew about it.”
Maria gave him a cold look and whispered, “Fine, wait until the signal.”
He blinked at her, “What signal?”
Her expression tightened exposing her pronounced bestial canines, “Stop fucking talking about it. Just wait.”
He studied her for several long breaths and then nodded.
An hour passed, and then two. He started to believe that the Angelus was mocking him and endeavoring to raise his hopes with some kind of farce. Then, just as two of their guards were chuckling and chittering in their bizarre tongue a scream rose from somewhere below them. The three guards started in surprise and without a second thought grabbed their weapons and rushed down the ramp and out of view. There was a great clamor of voices and action from below. Maria dug something small, a piece of broken stone, from somewhere and carefully reached out to touch the wooden door to her cage. There was a hum, a creaking of wood and then the door opened with a whine.
Without pause she moved to Oser’s cage and performed the same action. The door popped open and he rushed out and stretched to his full height. He glared down at her but thought better of his urge to murder the Angelus. By all accounts it would do no good as she would just be shunted back to life.
She hurried to the ramp and called over her shoulder, “She told me where our gear is. This distraction won’t last long. We need to hurry.”
Oser could hear the shouts of the surrounding village. As they ran down the ramp young or defenseless beasts recoiled and jumped back into their dwellings. Below them the guards were rushing out of the entrance and shouting in alarm. The Angelus led the charge down the ramp. One grath leaped out to intercept her but she barreled into the creature and sent it scrambling back into its dwelling.
At the base of the ramp there were few defenders remaining. Outside in the forest he could hear the hooting shouts of the defenders. The entrance to the tree was limned in fire and burning debris was scattered around the ground.
The Angelus grabbed him by the arm and wild-eyed she hissed at him, “Go, run! I will catch up!”
He scowled at her and said, “Why!?”
She gestured at the priestess’ tent, “I have to get the damned stone. Go!”
Oser turned and bolted out of the gate. He saw several guards rushing about the area. The night time forest was ablaze with fires in several locations. Alarms went up in their savage tongue but he ignored it and ran as fast as he could. A vine tried to grab at his leg but he slipped his foot out of it and tumbled over a log. The world fell out from under him and he started sliding down into a ravine.
He only had a moment to register the glinting water at the base of the ravine before hitting it. The water was shallow and he struggled to his feet before running along it. Behind him he could still hear the sound of the pursuing grath. An arrow punctuated the fact by slicing into the water beside him.
He ascended another slope on the other side of the ravine and stumbled into the dense woods. He ran for as long as he could manage, his lungs burning and still shooting with pain from having three days of little to no use.
When the chatter of the hunting grath became distant he slumped in the crook of a tree and tried to get his breath back. He scanned the woodland and tried to calm himself, only now realizing how freezing the temperature was outside the hollow tree camp.
The pursuit and chatter had all but vanished an indeterminate time later and Oser shifted himself free of his hiding spot only to jump in terror when a figure collapsed out of the brush he had run through.
The Angelus fell to her knees and coughed, spitting up blood that ran down her chin and covered the chest of her armor. That is when she leaned forward and saw the large wooden arrow protruding from her back. Her breathing was ragged and she thrust a hand toward him, “Stone. Take it back.”
In her hand, covered in blood, was the trapezoidal form of the ward stone with its familiar rune. She stuttered a thick and wet request, “Stone, take… back…,” before slumping to the ground barely breathing. Without so much as a second’s pause he snatched up the ward stone. He leaned down next to the prone woman and hissed in her ear, “Bear this pain, and perhaps your suffering will…”
He noted in the midst of his speech that her breathing had stopped. She was already dead. He casually spit on her bloody corpse before wrestling off her vogel fur cloak and throwing it around his shoulders. With a final glance back to the place of his captivity he set off through the trees back toward the Imperial Camp.
–
Maria stared into the dark void at the floating red letters, “You Died!,” with a vague feeling she had seen it somewhere else before.
She muttered to herself, “So, that is what it is like to die.”
She looked down and saw that she was back in her human form and wearing her tattered and ancient pajamas from when she first awoke. Continuing her conversation with herself she said, “Or maybe that is what its like for people like me to die? The Angelus Special?”
“Welcome to Death!,” a cheerful voice announced before deflating into cold disgust, “Oh, it's you.”
She looked up to see the bright viridescent sprite that had conducted her tutorial drifting over her head with a scowl on its Connie-Like face.
Maria pointed a finger at her, “If you are so disgusted to see me, are there Angelus you are happy to see?”
The sprite straightened and raised its nose in disdain, “Of course. Some of you have manners and show proper respect.”
She raised her hands to the sprite and said, “Ok, I apologize for insulting you. Is there any way I can make it up to you.”
The sprite drifted around aimlessly with no expression as it said, “We shall see.”
Without allowing Maria chance to speak it added, “You have fifty five more minutes of wait time before you are returned to life.”
She nodded and asked, “After I complete my task, how long do I have before I get sent back to the Waiting Room?”
The sprite studied her for several long moments before saying, “Most players opt to return immediately upon the completion of their quest but you may put aside your return for up to one hour.”
She nodded and waited in awkward silence for a few long minutes before asking the sprite, “So, have you been watching me?”
The sprite nodded to her without speaking.
“What do you think of my plan?”
“Devious. As I said, you do have some redeeming qualities.”
Maria watched the strange sprite float around the area. Somehow the look of disgust from earlier was still plastered on her face, as if she had glitched. She asked, “Do the new bosses keep track of how we do things down here?”
The sprite surveyed the ominously hanging ‘You Died’, sign as she said, “I would not advise you to seek the interest of your goddesses. If you complete some noteworthy task we shall inform them straight away.”
The sprite leered down at her, “Just as we will if you circumvent your purpose.”
Maria nodded but did not ask her to elaborate. Given what Alora had asked her to do the less interest she inspired the better. She considered whether the sprites or the false goddesses knew anything about her meetings with Alora. They couldn’t, could they? I mean, if she was the fake earth goddess and some Angelus started fucking around in her plans she would put a stop to it. She spent the next hour in silence waiting for her chance to return to life and rehearsing the next step of the plan.
When the time came, there was no transition. She simply blinked and she was there.
