She started in surprise when she blinked and she was sitting on the same stone plinth that she had first arrived on. Around her were the dark confines of the freezing cold cave. She recognized the lack of her fur lined cloak first due to the sheer chill that washed over her followed by the other items she had collected.
Shifting in the darkness she slid off the dias and made her way across the cave to the darkened tunnel. She emerged out onto the ledge overlooking the camp which was only lit by the occasional torch held aloft by a patrolling guard. There was a low bonfire at the center of the camp.
If the cold in the cave was savage the wind blasting across the camp made her thankful she at least had a body covered in fur to provide some protection. She moved down the ledge in careful silence, keeping to shadows as much as she could manage. Clutching tight around her body she moved from tent to tent hiding. She stopped when needed and kept her profile low when a legionnaire passed. Finally, she ducked into the largest tent. Very little light filtered in but she could make out a makeshift table at the center and a cot that seemed to be alive with movement.
She inched closer and heard the sound of a man and woman making unmistakable sounds. After several uncomfortable moments she cleared her throat and said, “First Spear?”
-
Oser hurried around his camp gathering his things and quickly kicking dirt on his meager fire. He had gotten lost twice over the last three days as he struggled to get himself back to the Camp. He was lucky that the mountains and their elevation provided an easy, ‘on the left,’ guide to provide some help but he was no traveler of the wilds.
Water had not been a massive problem since he crossed the river that cut its way south out of the mountains. He had been lucky to find a bush full of green berries that had ONLY made him sick to his stomach. At this point he was a husk of what he once was. He hoped that his continued prayers would return him home, and it appeared that was the case.
He spotted smoke the afternoon before and broke down into tears with relief.
When he finally emerged from the wood line he was struck with a terrifying sight. The smoke he had spotted in the distance was not from the camp’s typical fires. Smoke rose from several tents and even from several hundred feet away he could see what appeared to be corpses strewn in the snow around the camp. The camp was otherwise unmoving and silent.
The acolyte pulled his purloined cloak tight around him and gripped the runestone as he trudged through the snow up the slope toward the camp. The first pair of bodies he reached were a legionnaire and one of the other acolytes, Leesa. The soldier had been reduced to a husk and his eyes had been burned out. The acolyte’s stomach had been run through with a sword.
He rasped, “Dominus? What has befallen us?”
He staggered to his feet after grabbing a knife out of the man’s belt and steadying himself. He trudged up through the snow and after passing two more soldier’s bodies emerged into the carnage of the camp. Nearly every tent had burned and bodies were strewn everywhere. Most of them were soldiers. He could see that the ledge that led up to the cave was the focus of the carnage.
Someone appeared to have set up a barricade on the ledge. Seeing no one he made his way upward. The barricade had been built out of an old crate and other pieces of furniture. It showed a significant amount of fire damage and a number of arrows jutted out from it. It was clear that someone had broken through the barricade. Ahead the body of another acolyte lay face down covered in a fine dusting of snow.
He noted that the corpse was not the Mysta and then continued on, climbing into the tunnel and providing some mercy from the constant wind and snow that cascaded across the still burning camp. Distantly he could hear the echoes of someone singing an unfamiliar song deeper into the cave. The voice was beautiful with the timbre and practice one could only expect from the choirs of the Grand Cathedral in Theria City.
As he grew closer the words became clearer and he could recognize the singer:
“And at once, I knew I was not magnificent
Strayed above the highway aisle
Jagged vacance, thick with ice
But I could see for miles, miles, miles…”
He inched his way closer until he could peer around the corner and to the dias. There sat the Angelus organizing items on the top of the plinth and half humming half singing the strange melancholic melody. Before her, sprawled on the floor inert and cold were the bodies of the Mysta and the First Spear.
Before he could try and duck away she called out, “Forgive the critique Oser but you are slow as fuck, my dude.”
Hopes of avoiding notice having been dashed, he stumbled forward and leveled a finger at her, “What heretical horrors have you unleashed? How did this happen?”
Her terrible bestial face split into a sad smile and she ignored his question, “You have the rock Oser?”
He stammered and shifted toward the exit lying terribly, “Of course… of course I don’t!”
Something pressed against his back and he stood still. A spear point. He heard the guttural chitter of the grath language and as he raised his hands he felt someone grab at his left and wrench the stone free.
The Angelus looked past him into the cave and shrugged, “I told you. Predictable and not too fucking bright.”
After a few long moments in which he could see no small amount of relief on the Angelus’ face she said, “Good news for you Oser. You get to survive. Congratulations.”
Oser blanched at the proclamation and stuttered, “What did you do? You were supposed to save us!”
One of the grath moved past him and up to the plinth. It was the Angelus’ shadow. She reached up and offered the stone to her and the traitor took it before saying, “In the words of one of my world’s greatest writers, ‘The Play's the Thing,’ Oser. The Three were pretty tough negotiators when it came to handing over this dumb rock.”
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She tossed it in her hand and studied it more closely, “They wouldn’t just give me the rock. They couldn’t trust my nature but then I realized. They absolutely could trust you and your people’s motives.”
The acolyte looked around at the grath warriors streaming into the room and the Angelus continued, “After I finished off The Pack they would throw me into the jails with you. We all agreed that you thinking they were little traitorous beasts would convince you. Then the escape.”
She gave a scathing glance to her shadow and said, “Medi shot me and then handed me the rock. I couldn’t bring it back because they didn’t trust me. They couldn’t bring it back because it would kill them.” She paused to give him a look as his stomach dropped, “But you could, and you absolutely would. You’re not a think outside of the box kinda guy Oser.”
She sighed and gave him an almost sad look, “And then I died, which sent me back here. You would be shocked how easy it was to convince an asshole with a group of hungry soldiers on his hands that his religious cohorts were out to betray them.”
She held up a finger and looked toward the ceiling as she recited in an unconvincing voice, “Oser killed me before I could get the stone and stole it for his own purposes.”
A second finger joined it, “He abandoned me on the first night only to return with the excuse that he was looking for some ruin,” she paused and shrugged, “with the independent report of a hunter who heard the very same story from me? It wasn’t so hard.”
She added a third finger and said, “Throw in just the right amount of random insults that you slung their way during our journey…”
He interrupted, “A lie!”
She nodded and shrugged again, “But it worked. The soldiers descended on the Mysta and her people, but not before I snuck away to warn them. It was an unfortunate slaughter.”
Finally she added, “After it all settled the soldiers won. All that was short lived though. The grath swept in hours after and wiped them out.”
Oser slumped to his knees and stammered, “How could you do this? We… we called you?” His entire body shook as he glared at her and screamed, “You serve the Dominus!”
Maria gave him a pained look and nodded, “This is going to come as a profound shock to you Oser, but the Dominus isn’t in charge anymore.” She slumped her shoulders and shook her head, “Hell, the original goddesses aren’t even in charge. What you have here is a group of people from my world who are yanking your chain.”
“I… I don’t understand!”
She gathered her things and jumped off the plinth with the stone, “Well, you have a long walk to figure it out.”
She left him there and exited the cave. The grath lingered for a short while longer but soon they were gone as well, leaving him in darkness.
-
Medi gave Maria a scathing glance as the latter performed a kind of strange dance on the way out of the cave. It involved a lot of hip movement and hand raising and looked absolutely ridiculous. She asked, “What is this foolishness?”
Maria stopped and cleared her throat, “Celebration dance!”
“It looked like you injured your back.”
Maria shouldered her returned pack and looked back toward the cave as they walked and asked, “Are you going to give him any supplies?”
The warrior grath shrugged and said, “He can take what we don’t gather from the camp. It is a long journey but surely his faith will see him through it.”
They stood looking over the burning camp and enduring the strong wind before Maria spoke up, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what would happen when I finished this dumb quest.”
Medi tensed for a moment and then shrugged, “Your home is your home.” She turned to look at her with a sad smile, “I do wish you could stay.”
After a moment of awkward silence the two slipped their arms around each other. Maria welcomed the heat and the feeling of the grath woman pressed against her.
Maria was surprised when she felt herself utter, “Me too.”
A few long moments passed where the two of them embraced over the grath searching the camp for supplies before Maria said, “I met the goddess of earth.”
Medi disengaged from her and gave an incredulous smile as she shook her head, “Of course you did.”
Maria gave her a hurried run down of exactly what had happened in her strange unconscious meetings with Alora. She finished with, “and she says I have to find all three of them to stop this usurper lady from my world and set her free.”
Medi’s face scrunched in confusion and she muttered, “Why would the goddess speak in such riddles?”
Maria shrugged and sighed, “She said she doesn’t make prophecy? Who knew? I thought that would be the kind of thing a goddess does.”
Medi considered the information in silence and the two sat together for a time.
Maria cleared her throat and whispered, “I still can’t wrap my head around how I got here or what happened to me but I just wanted to say that I…,” she was cut off as Medi turned her head and pushed her body against her again, entwining her arms around her waist. She felt her lips press against hers. The sound of her thundering heart in her ears and the warmth that spread through her dispelled the surrounding storm leaving her in a daze. She whispered softly, “They are going to come back. Please move your people west before they do.”
When they broke apart and her senses came back to her, Medi was already walking away. She called back over her shoulder, “You would have been a great mate.”
She took in a deep breath and watched the strange grath woman depart. She could very well spend another week with them before she had to be sent back but that would make all this just more difficult. It struck her that somewhere along the line she had gotten over the fact that these people weren’t human. Was it going to be hard to go back to the way things were? Even more important, was she going to get released? The temperament of the sprites made her doubt it.
She made her way down to the camp where the grath had emerged from hiding to gather up what they could from the camp and the bodies. Approaching Stag, the only of the three to join the raiding party, she pulled a scroll from her pouch and offered it to her with a nod, “If I understand this all correctly then if their people get ahold of this again then I can be summoned back.”
Stag took the scroll in hand and clutched it close, “We will hide it. May the outsider god never call on you again.”
Maria smiled at her and bowed her head. The grath gathered around. Several clasped their six fingered hands together in a prayer gesture and offered bows of respect. She nodded to them and turned. She didn’t see Medi among them. Turning she made her way to the small altar that had once held the stone. Holding it up, she carefully placed it back onto the dias.
Her vision blurred and shook and an honest to goodness floating prompt appeared with the words,
“Success!
End Mission?
Yes / No”
She turned to look over the gathered grath obscured by the intense snow and saw Medi standing next to Stag. The tears in her eyes nearly made her falter when reaching for the ‘Yes’ prompt but when the warrior nodded Maria offered her a smile and hit the button. The storm intensified around her and she tried to call out a warning to the grath until she realized that it wasn’t a blizzard but static overwhelming her vision and drowning her in a world of white noise.
